Fraternity-Testvériség, 1961 (39. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1961-09-01 / 9. szám
FRATERNITY 5 HISTORY OF THE HUNGARIAN REFORMED CHURCH By IMRE REVESZ, Th. D. Translated by GEORGE A. F. KNIGHT V FROM THE REVOLUTION TO THE FIRST WORLD AVAR 1819—1914 (Continuation) For eleven years the Reformed Church continued to struggle against this bullying on the part of Rome; then in 1879 it managed to persuade the government to pass a law forbidding tbis activity of the Roman priests on pain of two months’ imprisonment. The result was that it was now the turn of Roman priests to be hailed before the courts. People now excitedly asked whether the government would really have the courage to take steps against priests of the Roman Catholic Church. In actuality some of the lesser courts did pass sentence upon the lawbreaking priests, but what happened was that the latter appealed to the High Court in Budapest, and the High Court simply annulled the sentences and freed the priests. Its judgment ran: “The baptism of a child in actuality is not baptism into any one denomination, but into the Church Universal.” But despite this judgment babies thus forcibly baptized were still entered in the parish priest’s register as of the Roman Catholic faith! A ministerial order of 1884, which required the priest to inform the minister that he had registered a Protestant