Századok – 1995

Tanulmányok - Knapp Éva: Vallásos társulatok; rekatolizáció és társadalmi átalakulás Kassán a 17–18.században IV/791

814 KNAPP ÉVA The religious societies at Kassa and the congregations in particular faithfully reflect the stages of the transformation and at the same time they played an active role in it themselves. They contributed to the spread of Catholicism by establishing contacts with the population of the neighbouring villages and the various layers of urban society. Their members also served as missionaries in their own lay environment, so the reformist endeavours of the Church reached social strata inaccessible by traditional means. Besides creating cohesion in society, the lay religious organizations contributed to social change. By creating new power relations and a new social and Church elite, ihey contributed to the creation of a Catholic majority in the town. The differenciádon of the societies and their great variety does not merely reflect the structural changes in urban society, but also contributed to them by organizing the formerly peasant settlers coming from the neighbouring villages and the various layers of the urban population, promoting the natural integration of the former and their achievement of middle-class status. The crisis of the congregations in the second half of the 18th century indicates the orientation of Catholic society towards shaking off the limitations of religion and towards being secularized.