Fraternity-Testvériség, 1960 (38. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

1960-05-01 / 5. szám

10

FRATERNITY

Protestants, in that they “offended the noble ears of the king and caused him great disquiet.”

So the struggle continued, with each year seeing some endeavour made by the Reformed Church to secure some degree of justice. In 1730, for example, a quiet characteristic move took place. In that year the Austrian ministers in Vienna received instructions to prepare an order regulating the church situation in Hungary. This order they then based on the 1681 and 1687 laws, and upon the ’’Explanation of Leopolod”. But the committee that drew up the order, we must remember, was composed entirely of Austrians and every member of it was a Roman Catholic. It is natural then that the order exhibited what we would call the absolutist views of the monarch whom its authors served; the latter paid no attention whatsoever either to the legal enactments of the past in the matter of religious toleration, nor to the traditions of the Hungarian people in the matter of national aspirations. The order that this committee issued revealed that its members were unanimous on the following points:

A difference had to be made between the public and the private expression of religion. In the towns specified by the earlier agreements ministers were not to be allowed to leave the bounds of their parish, but the people of the daughter parishes outside the town might come and visit the minister. These people could only practice their religion privately; ecclesiastically speaking, they were under the jurisdiction of the priest.

Protestants might be allowed their superintendents, but the number of these the king was to define and their persons he was to approve. Their sphere of influence was to be over the ministers of their area only.

In matters to do with marriage, only the Roman Catholic consistory could make decisions, though it was only fair that judgment be passed in the case of Protestant parties according to the principles of the latter’s religion. Only Roman