Magyar Egyház, 1982 (61. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1982-05-01 / 5-6. szám
MAGYAR £GYl7AZ 10. oldal before the catastrophe at Mohács in 1526. Nowhere was the Reformation more welcomed than in Hungary. The teachings of Luther, Zwingli, and Calvin were embraced with enthusiasm. The purpose of the Reformation was to reestablish the Christian Religion in accord with the Faith and Teachings of Jesus as recorded in the Gospels. The word ‘reformation’ comes from the Latin ‘reformo’ and it means ‘removal of faults and abuses or to restore to a former good state. ’ During the Reformation, many young Hungarian students were studying at universities in Krakow, Wittenberg, and Zurich, and they learned the teachings of Luther, Zwingli, and Calvin first hand. These students, including Mátyás Dévai Biró, János Erdősi Sylveszter, István Kis Szegedi, Péter Juhász Meliusz, Mihály Sztáray, István Kopácsi, András Batizi, Gáspár Heltay, Márton Sánta Kálmáncsehi, preached the reformed faith in Hungary. Before the Reformation, religious services were held only in Latin, which the common people did not understand. — Jesus spoke Aramaic because that was the language of the common people. — The preachers of the Reformation followed Jesus’ example, and this was the first time that the common people heard the Word of God in their native tongue. First the New Testament and the Psalms were translated to Hungarian. Then the whole Bible was published in Hungarian in 1590 by Gáspár Károlyi. The 150 psalms were written for singing by Albert Molnár Szenczi. At the end of the 16th century only three aristocratic families remained in the Roman Catholic Church in Hungary. The rest of the people professed the Protestant Faith. After the fatal defeat of the Hungarian army at Mohács in 1526 and the Turkish occupation of central Hungary, the Aristocratic Party elected Ferdinand I, the Archduke of the Habsburgs, and the national nobility elected John Zapolya as King of Hungary. — Eventually, Hungary was divided between the two kings. Ferdinand I reigned over the western part and Zapolya consolidated the eastern part—Transylvania —as his kingdom. Central Hungary was under Turkish occupation. — The Aristocratic Party hoped that Ferdinand I would help the Hungarians drive the Turks out of Hungary. The national nobility never trusted such hope, and history proved that they were right. The Habsburg kings became the worst oppressors and enemies of the Magyar people. Each Habsburg king was educated by Roman Catholic clergymen. — Instead of undertaking the task of driving the Turks out of Hungary, Ferdinand I concentrated on exterminating Protestanism in Hungary. As soon as he consolidated his regime, Ferdinand I offered large estates to the nobility if they converted back to the Roman Catholic Church. Many noble families accepted the offer. The successors of Ferdinand I continued such soul-tradings. — The ruling Roman Catholic Junta declared that “Cuius regio, eius religio,” which meant that the peasants were to follow the creed of their landowners. At the end of the 17th century, Western Hungary returned to Catholicism, but Transylvania remained Protestant and there the Lutheran, Calvinist, and Unitarian churches took root beside the Catholic Church. From 1222 Hungary was a constitutional monarchy. — The lands and dominions of the Habsburg originated as feudal inheritances. The ambition of each Habsburg king was to reduce Hungary to be his own inherent province and to rule as an absolute monarch according to his whims. Freedom of religion is an inherent fundamental right of all human beings. However, it is not a law even today in many Christian nations. Under the sway of our Magyar Reformed Church, in the District of Transylvania, in the town of Torda, the Assembly of the Diéta enacted the Law of Religious Freedom, proclaiming religious equality to everyone living in Hungary in 1557. — This law was the first proclamation of freedom of religion in the Christian World. In the midst of Counter Reformation—the 30 Years War—the Hungarian people repeatedly defended and upheld religious freedom by defeating oppressive armies. Under the leadership of Stephen Bocskay, Gábor Bethlen, and George Rákóczy I, the Treaties of Religious Freedom were signed in Vienna (1606), Nikolsburg (1621), and Linz (1645), respectively, which assured freedom of religion for all people in Hungary. In the middle of the 17th century the Roman Catholic King of Hungary abolished religious freedom in Hungary and severe persecution of the Protestant Churches began. — Hair-raising, gruesome, ghastly, horrible, and unbelievable sufferings descended upon the members of our church. Our ministers and teachers were summoned before an Ad Hoc Roman Catholic Clergy Court with full power of life and death. This Court offered them the choice of reconversion to the Roman Catholic Church or imprisonment and death. Of the more than 700, only three signed for reconversion. The others were imprisoned and tortured; finally, 62 of them were sentenced to be sold as galley slaves. 42 of these were driven, in the wintry inclement weather, to Naples. Only 30 arrived and they were sold; a Court collected 50 gold pieces for each from the Neopolitan galley owners. — These galley slaves sang their comforting hymn, “Lift thy head, O Zion, weeping... ” for eleven months. The hearts of the European Protestant people were touched. On February 11, 1676, Michael Ruyher, an admiral of the Dutch Navy, purchased freedom for the 26 galley slaves who were still alive. They remained in Zurich until 1681 when the Hungarian National Assembly gave them amnesty and most of them returned to their homeland. We are peaceloving people. — In 1914 the only man opposed to the declaration of World War I was a member of our Magyar Reformed Church, Count István Tisza, Prime Minister of Hungary, who became a martyr in 1918. There was never any discrimination in our church. Our religion is offered to all people. GOD IS OUR FATHER Jesus taught us to pray, “Our Father!...” A father is a Person, who loves his children.
