Fraternity-Testvériség, 1960 (38. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1960-05-01 / 5. szám
12 FRATERNITY The Caroline Resolution The Reformed Church could now only wait patiently till Charles III showed his hand again. It was on March 25, 1731, to be precise, that the king promulgated what is known as the Caroline Resolution, by means of which he sought to finalise the vexed question of the position of the Protestant Church in his kingdom by interpreting once and for all the 1681 and 1687 religious laws. The Resolution decreed that the latter were to be understood in terms of the Explanatio Leopoldina. That is to say, in a few short words the fate of Hungary’s two Protestant Churches was now determined finally and incontestably. They were, therefore, put in the position of having to make up their minds whether they should just remain bemoaning their present state and bewailing their bitter past, or whether the time had not come when they should look inwards, so to speak, and, within the narrow limits of activity granted them by the State, seek to deepen their own religious life and strengthen the things that remained. And although the struggle with the State did not entirely cease, from now on and for several decades the Protestants wisely took the second course that remained to them. One opportunity for the Protestant Churches to present a new petition, however, did arise just ten years after the Caroline Resolution, when Maria Terézia came to the throne. But after a whole year’s delay, on December 24, 1742, she gave them the Christmas present of announcing that her intention was to abide firmly by her father’s Resolution. So the Protestants had just grimly to accept her unwelcome gift and carry on as best they could. (To be continued)
