Fraternity-Testvériség, 1961 (39. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

1961-05-01 / 5. szám

2

FRATERNITY

HISTORY

OF THE

HUNGARIAN REFORMED CHURCH

By

IMRE REVESZ, Th. D.

Translated by

GEORGE A. F. KNIGHT

V

Í ROM THE REVOLUTION TO THE FIRST WORLD WAR

18D—1911 (Continuation)

With the failure of the Revolution there was an immediate effect upon the Church. Reformed people, we have seen, were most suspect of all Hungarians hv the authorities. All ministers and teachers who had actively sided with the Revolution were charged with sedition. Some were shot while many others were imprisoned. The result was that in many parishes there were no leaders left. Then on September 18, 1849, an order was issued forbidding all church courts to sit; then not long after another order came out forbidding Reformed ministers to wear the traditional Hungarian moustache, beard and cap. Next, there was an order that all church records made during the Revolution were to be destroyed. Next year, again, another order wiped out all lay offices in the Church, and decreed that church courts might henceforth meet only on receipt of a permit and with a gonvernment representative {»resent at its sittings. The same year the Austrian school system was substituted for the Hungarian, and this one took from the Church its right to appoint its own teachers or to decide on the language of