Fraternity-Testvériség, 1958 (36. évfolyam, 1-11. szám)
1958-11-01 / 11. szám
FRATERNITY 13 mixed population and purely Hungarian elements in the centre, and finally to the Sekler area in the southeast area of the region. Both the leading figures in the spread of the Reformation in this part of the world, Gaspar Heltai and Francis David by name, were men of Saxon origin; but because of their close connection with Hungarians it happened that both of them spent most of their time evangelizing particularly amongst the Hungarian population. In 1538 the two bishops of the region sought to oppose the influence of these two reformers with the sword, but John, king of Transylvania, intervened. Stephen Szántai, again, a schoolmaster from Kassa in the north of Hungary, had been influenced by Reformation tenets, and because of his outspokenness in matters of the faith, had been dragged before the court in irons. But the king had encouraged him even in the court to engage in public debate with the representatives of the Church. This debate had interesting results. The court doctor openly sided with the reformer. The two judges of the debate also secretly gave their verdict for the reformer, and the king actually aided and abetted in his escape. One of the two judges, Martin Sánta Kalmancsehi by name, a canon and teacher in a cathedral school, became himself thereafter a devoted leader in the Reformation, bringing with him four other canons, two of whom carried the rank of bishop. Thereupon George Frater, one of the two Transylvanian bishops mentioned above, sought to stem the advance of the Reformation this time by legislation. But by 1550 the majority of the members of parliament adhered to the Reformed faith, so that in that year they were forced to agree to tolerate the propagation of the Reformed faith in their midst. Four years later the Saxons and the Hungarians together possessed a fully organized Church, the bishop of the Hungarian section of which was a man named Thomas, who had formerly been a Roman monk. Finally, when in 1556 the Habsburg king withdrew his forces from Transylvania, the estates and monasteries
