Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 1998. Vol. 2. Eger Journal of English Studies.(Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 26)

Studies - Lajos Szőke: Anglica vetera in the Archdiocesian Library of Eger

has the Polyglot Bible (Biblia polyglotta, London, 1657. Zz - I - 38-43), which had served for centuries as a basis for the later translations into English. Together with the "English" Bible, the Book of Common Prayer had a prominent role in the Anglican Church. From 1549 it had undergone several modifications. It comprised not only prescriptions for the celebration of holidays in the ecclesiastical year and rules for the church services, but there were also regulations concerning casuistry. As the final version of the Book of Common Prayer was only completed in 1662, the copies held by the Library contain both the earlier and the new versions (1606, 1642, 1712). Beyond the biblical texts and liturgical books the Library has a rich collection of Anglican theological and dogmatic treatises as well. The English collection in this way completes the whole spectrum of Protestant theology represented mostly by German and Latin works. The only English advocates of a Catholic view from this period are the works of Thomas More: Opera Omnia . Praecedit de Vita et Morte e/ui.(Francofurti, 1689) Paradise and the Peri, and a more complete collection of Stapleton's works. These books, philisophical as well as literary do not stand separated from the social and historical events of the time. How important was the understanding of this crucial period in the history of England and the Church of England for Catholic theologists can even be seen by the incomplete list of books in the Library referring to this time: Historie du divorce de Henry VIII. et de Catherine d' Aragon (Paris, 1688), Rerum Anglicarum. Henrico VIII. ... (1616). In considering the Anglican Church of the XVI-XVIIth c. a distinction must be drawn between the tenets of the official Church itself and the various sectarian movements such as the puritanism, presbyterianism and independentism. Some of these tendencies were so hostile to anglicanism that they were forced out of Britain. Hungarian Protestant students of theology studying in Holland and England came, undoubtedly, under the influence of these doctrines, although the strict Calvinism of Transylvania cannot be directly connected with them (Zoványi 1911. 24, Pálffy 1984. 172). As Catholic theologians in Hungary did not have personal contacts with the representatives of these movements, but understood well enough the importance of the ideas for the development of Hungarian protestantism, they collected all the major works in this field. The Archdiocesan Library in Eger did not obtain the Hungarian translation of the most influental works /János Kecskeméti\Catholicus Református [Perkins], Pál Medgyesi: Praxis Pietatis, ...[Bayly, L.:Practice of Piety]/, but it has the Latin and English editions of the originals. English Puritanism is represented by the work of the most outstanding theologian of the early XVIth century, William 141