Calvin Synod Herald, 1976 (76. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1976-09-01 / 9-10. szám
4 CALVIN SYNOD HERALD liberabo captivos meos. (The Lord said: I shall free my captives.) Meanwhile, as the story of the cruelty in Hungary spread over Europe, the authorities themselves became concerned. The Jesuit Kellio published a book under an assumed name claiming that it was not for reasons of faith but for rebellion that the men had been condemned. Leopold, after repeated inquiries from the Elector of Saxony, ordered, on January 22, 1676, that the case of the galley slaves be reopened. Two days later he decreed that the sentence be reversed and that they be set free, a word which did not reach Naples for months. Fearful of possible consequences, Leopold’s clergy added the clause that the captives should not seek revenge, compensation, or return to their own land. After living for a time in Holland and Switzerland, through the intervention of the Dutch government in Vienna, they were allowed to return to their homeland. There one of them, Bálint Kocsi Csergő, wrote the tale of their sufferings and release after he had returned to his birth village and had seen his old, sick father. Csergő had been the salt of the earth, a lamp, a star, as his teachers had taught him a Calvinist minister in Hungary should be. Q$P MONTREAL - 1976 Gold Silver Bronze Total S Soviet Union 47 43 35 125 | East Germany 40 24 24 88 U. S. A. 34 35 25 94 West Germany 10 12 18 40 Japan 9 6 9 24 Poland 8 6 11 25 Bulgaria 7 8 9 24 Cuba 6 4 3 13 Rumania 4 9 14 27 Hungary 4 5 12 21 Finland 4 2-6 Sweden 4 1-5 Great Britain 3 5 5 13 Italy 2 7 4 13 Yugoslavia 2 3 3 8 Czechoslovakia 2 2 4 8 New Zealand 2 1 1 4 France 1 2 5 8 Switzerland 1 1 2 4 Religious Education in the Hungarian Reformed Churches in the U.S. A. A. Background in Hungary Religious education since the beginning of the Reformation was of utmost importance in the Hungarian Reformed churches. Actually, the teachings of the Reformation were brought home to Hungary through the “post graduate” students from western universities. Since the beginning of the Reformation in Hungary, religious education was put foremost. Early in 1531, two schools were organized; one in western Hungary in the city of Pápa, the other in northeastern Hungary in the city of Sárospatak, where the prime purpose was to teach religion. Both schools survived the hardships under the Hapsburg oppression and remained in operation until 1948, when the communist government took over. This happened in spite of an agreement to the contrary, where all schools were confiscated including the parochial, secondary, teacher and law schools, and many others along with the Pápa and Sárospatak Seminaries. At the very start of the Reformation, in the villages, churches and schools were established; the schools being used for religious education. The village parochial schools endeavored to teach not only religion, but all secular courses as well. The schools established by the larger congregations in the towns became secondary schools, and some of them that came under the patronage of a landlord or Protestant community became academies (in Europe, a branch of the university). The schools in Sárospatak, Debrecen, Pápa and Nagyenyed actually had three sections: theology, philosophy and law. This school system, unique for centuries, until the communist disaster, endeavored to give a solid graded religious education on three levels and raised many outstanding church leaders, statesmen, writers and scientists. B. Background in the United States In the last decade of the past century, many Hungarians came to the United States. They were village people, of religiously educated stock, who did not own land or who wanted to acquire more, came to this country to work for a few years and then planned to return to their respective villages to purchase the desired land. Around 1880, there were already Hungarian Reformed workers in the larger eastern cities and in the mines. Their number grew quickly through mass immigration. In 1890, an attempt was made in Pittsburgh to organize a church along with some Slovak people, but it was short lived. In the spring of 1891, another attempt was made, but then they did not have a minister. In that same year, a minister, Gustav Jurá
