Fraternity-Testvériség, 1958 (36. évfolyam, 1-11. szám)

1958-11-01 / 11. szám

12

FRATERNITY

HISTORY

OF THE

HUNGARIAN REFORMED CHURCH

By

IMRE REVESZ, Th. D.

Translated by

GEORGE A. F. KNIGHT I

THE CENTURY OF THE REFORMATION 1520—1608

(Continuation)

Amongst the Hungarian Landowners

As early as the thirties and forties of the century, however, the Reformation had found fertile soil in Hungarian-speaking areas as well. Seldom, however, could the Reformed faith make much advance without the active aid of the landlord, who alone could give permission to a wandering preacher to evangelize in his area. In Hungary, the German idea of “cuius regio, illius religio” (“a region takes the religion of its prince”) actually worked out for the good of the Reformation. This was because the land-owning class on the whole sided with the new ideas. Yet, paradoxically enough, the Reformation spread most quickly in those areas where there were no land- owners at all to lend their aid to the wandering preachers, viz., in that zone of Hungary which was occupied by the alien Turks! And so we may generalize about the Hungarian Reformation and say that the Hungarian people were brought into the Reformation from an inner conviction of the truth of the doctrines taught and because of their need of comfort and hope in the days of the Turkish bondage.

The Reformation in Transylvania

In Transylvania the Reformation spread first to the Saxon German-speaking areas, next to the