Fraternity-Testvériség, 1960 (38. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

1960-05-01 / 5. szám

FRATERNITY

9

HISTORY

OF THE

HUNGARIAN REFORMED CHURCH

By

IMRE REVESZ, Th. D.

Translated by

GEORGE A. F. KNIGHT

III

THE PERIOD OF REPRESSION

1715—1789

(Continuation)

Again, the discussions concerned themselves with the question of the right of the overlord not only over the property of his peasantry, but over their souls as well. Agreement was reached in not one single point, and so all the king could do was to prorogue the committee. The only result of its meeting was a further outbreak of confiscations of churches and the repression of all free expression of opinion.

The committee was called together again in 1722, but again without result, and so the following year each side presented its own statement to the king, along with such complete documentation, that, we are told, nine large wagons had to be used to transport the documents to the royal palace in Vienna. But the king delayed his judgment on the plea of other important state business that he had to transact.

Then suddenly that same year there was laid before the national assembly the so-called ’‘Pragmatic Sanction”, and though this enactment was primarily a political move, the Reformed Church suffered still more in consequence of its publication. In the year 1725 the king’s governing council in Hungary actually forbade, as a result of it, the making of any complaints by