Petrőczi Éva: "Nagyságodnak alázatos lelki szolgája” Tanulmányok Medgyesi Pálról - Nemzet, egyház, művelődés 4. (Budapest - Debrecen, 2007)

An English and a Hungarian Anti-Episcopal Dialogue from the i6th-i7th centuries

An English and a Hungarian Anti-Episcopal Dialogue from the l6,h-l7th centuries

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attacking, his humour is of a milder and more tolerant sort, with just a few, often withdrawn and regretted „Marprelatistic” interludes. Medgyesi’s Dialogue reflects his being extremely well-read as far as the most remarkable English Puritan theologians are concerned; his translation of Lewis Bayly’s The Practice of Piety was the greatest religious bestseller, almost a Volksbuch in 17th-century Hungary. At the same time - naturally - we can be sure that Throckmorton could not have any information about Hungary. He was not a diplomat, a great traveller (like Sidney) and not even a clairvoyant; therefore he could not foretell that the first significant years of an Eng- lish-Hungarian politico-ecclesiastical dialogue came only in the 17th century. Anyhow, we can be contented with the few coincidental parallelisms of the two Dialogues which strengthen our positive feelings of becoming a small part of the world’s literary treasury not only from the 19th century, but from a much earlier period as well.

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