III.

HISTORY OF THE REFORMED CHURCH OF
HUNGARY.*

BY FRANCIS BALOGH,

PROFESSOR OF CHURCH HISTORY IN THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY AT
DEBRECZEN, HUNGARY. CONDENSED TRANSLATION BY THE

REV. LOUIS NANASSY.

II.

V. SCHOOLS.

824. Foundation of the Reformed Colleges.

1. The College of Sárospatak.-Its first foundation was laid by Lord Perényi in the sixteenth century. Later Susannah Lorántfy and her husband, Prince George Rákóczy I., became its patrons and had raised it to the height of its prosperity. After the death of Lorántfy (1660) the college was confiscated by the Roman Catholic Sofie Báthory. She drove out the professors and students, who took refuge in the college of Debreczen and later in Transylvania. So the celebrated Rákóczy-college during her time remained quiescent.

2. The College of Pápa.-It was established by the aid of the city by Lord Török in 1531. In 1660 the soldiers of the Roman Catholic Count Eszterházi captured it, and it remained in their possession for a long time.

3. The College of Debreczen.-This college was founded by the son of a lord named Peter in 1312 and was under the care of the Franciscan monks. Under the Töröks it became Protestant. Helped by the funds of many princes and spared *The first part of this article appeared in the REFORMED CHURCH REVIEW, July, 1906.

し

from external disturbances, it grew continually. the college of Nagyvárad was annexed to it.

In 1660

4. The College of Gyulafehérvár-Nagyenyed. In the cloister of Gyulafehérvár, left by the monks, Prince Sigismund John organized a Protestant school in 1560. In 1622 Bethlen, the great Reformed prince, raised it to a flourishing state. He called in from abroad professors whose fame had spread over Europe-such as Opitz, Kopisch, Alsted, Piscator, Bisterfeld, Crispinus, Basir. In his will he remembered the school with rich donations, by which the success of the college was secured forever. In 1658 the school was burned by the Turks, and by the ordinance of Prince Apafi the college was transferred to Nagyenyed, the center of his estates. Since 1662 the Bethlen-college has continued here its glorious career.

VI. LITERATURE.

$ 25. Printing Houses.

The min

The first printing was done by the reformers. isters, lords and cities rivaled each other in establishing printers. There were twenty-five establishments in Hungary in the sixteenth century. By the help of printing the Protestant authors created such a literature that even the history of secular literature calls the sixteenth century a period."

$26. Bible Translations.

Protestant

It was a merit of the Reformation that the Bible was made a common book of the people. Of the reformers Erdösi was the first who edited the New Testament in 1541. Heltai with his three comrades intended to translate the whole Bible in five volumes, but could edit only four volumes; the fifth did not appear. Bishop Melius translated the New Testament (1567) and some parts of the Old Testament.

The first complete Hungarian translation was published through the efforts of Dean Károlyi in 1590, with the aid of Lords S. Báthori and S. Rákóczy. The tomb of Károlyi,

which was in the church, where he served, was disturbed by the Jesuits in 1695.*

Albrecht Molnár, who was errand boy for Károlyi and the printers, was predestined to continue the work of Károlyi. By the aid of Maurice of Hesse, in 1608, he printed the Bible in a smaller and more convenient form. It was accepted with great joy, and after four years had to be reprinted in Oppenheim, where Molnár lived at that time. He edited in addition to the Bible the psalms, the Catechism of Heidelberg and a few prayers.

In 1638 Prince Rákóczy I. called upon the experts to revise the translation of Károlyi, and the reprinting of the same in ten thousand copies was planned. The plan was carried out by the aid of the prince, lords and congregations. After the fall of the Rákoczy-dynasty the Bible was printed abroad. Before 1660 the whole Bible was published eight times, and the New Testament seven times in Hungary.

$27. Hymnals.

The first hymns were translations of the Latin songs, together with original pieces written by reformers and lords, and some even by Prince Bethlen. The first hymnal was edited by Reformer Gálszécsi in 1538. The second was printed by Reformer Huszár in 1560.

They were superseded by the collection of Reformer Szegedi. By 1590 it reached seven editions. Bishop Kovács of Debreczen edited another collection in 1590, which in one hundred and ten years reached thirty editions.

The most memorable hymnal was composed by A. Molnár. Using the German translation of Lobwasser, he translated the psalms with such a spirit and religious feeling that it is yet the most precious spiritual bread of the Hungarian Reformed people. With the aid of Frederick V., elector of Pfalz, and

At the third centennial commemoration of the printing of Károlyi's Bible the Hungarian Protestants, with great ceremony, unveiled a monument to his memory at Göncz, the place of his ministry.

Maurice, elector of Hesse, he edited it in Hernborn in 1607. Maurice, being fascinated with the Hungarian language, Molnár wrote for him a Hungarian grammar in 1610. Molnár also translated into Hungarian the Institutes of Calvin. psalms reached by 1708 thirty-five editions.

His

The most illuminated and the largest hymnal, the "Old Gradual," was edited by Prince Rákóczy in 1636. It was the composition of Bishops Dayka and Geleji.

The splendid period of the Hungarian Reformed Church was closed by the Bible printed in 1660 and by the "Old Gradual." Not long afterward the victims of the mourning decade sang in tears the psalms of Molnár.

§ 28. Historical, Dogmatic and Polemic Literature. Church History, which needs a quiet investigation, found only a few patrons in the feverish period of the Reformation. Rev. Skaricza in 1585 wrote the life of the Reformer Szegedi under the title of "Vita Stephani Szegedini." Professor Szilágyi related the history of the council of Szatmarnémeti and the Tolnai-dispute on the form of Church government. His Series et Dispositio" did not appear in printed form. The first dogmatic work was written by Reformer Biró of Déva on "A Short Explanation of the Ten Commandments, the Creed, the Lord's Prayer and the Seals of the Creed" (1538). Its facsimile was edited by the Hungarian Academy of Science in 1897.

Bishop Melius enriched the dogmatic literature with fourteen works. His principal book is "The Foundation of the Christian Doctrine " modelled after the work of Calvin.

Félegyházi also composed a dogmatic work: "Teaching of the True Christian Religion." Bishop Gelei's principal work is "The Secret of Sectrets," against the Unitarians. We find also many catechisms written for children.

The leading author of polemic literature against the Roman Catholics was Rev. Alvinczi of Kassa. His principal work "Itinerarium Catholicum" could not be refuted by Archbishop Pázmány.

PART SECOND.

I. THE RELATION BETWEEN STATE AND CHURCH.

$29. The Causes Which Led to the Extinction of the Reformation in Hungary.

Till the middle of the seventeenth century Hungarian Protestantism was a political power, saving the liberty of the country, and it was thought that, under the shelter of treaties and constitutional laws gained at a cost of much blood, a period of peace and prosperity would set in. But the very contrary happened. Protestantism became the victim of a most horrible despotism, and it is a wonder that the country also did not perish with it.

One of the causes which were instrumental in making the period unfavorable for Protestantism was that the principality of Transylvania, which was the confederate and principal guard of Protestantism, lost its decisive power. George Rákóczy II. died in 1660 and his wife, converted to Romanism, became a foe of the Protestants.

The other cause can be found in Leopold's accession to the throne. Till his seventeenth year he had been educated by the Jesuits to be a priest, and acknowledged the right of existence to Roman Catholicism only. So the clergy, which took courage, and the Jesuits, who held the whole of Europe as in an iron net, and the lords, who were directed by them, caused the Reformation to plunge into mourning.

When the diet of Pozsony in 1662 was summoned the Protestants, taking the opportunity, published their complaints to the country. King Leopold answered that on account of political cases, the private cases (i. e., the religious injuries) were to be omitted. When their sixth petition was also refused they left the diet in a body. Thus the dove of peace flew away.