the Fourth Week of Advent
Click here to learn more!
Bible Encyclopedias
Hungary
Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
or a kingdom in Eastern Europe, which has for several centuries been united with the empire of Austria. It has 82,839 square miles, and its population was, according to the census of 1857, 9,900,785. Connected with it, as dependencies of the crown of Hungary, are Transylvania (q.v.), Croatia, and Slavonia. This whole division, which is sometimes called the Trans Leithanian division of the empire, sometimes simply Hungary, has 124,000 square miles, and, according to the official census of 1857, 13,768,813 inhabitants. According to the official census of Dec. 31,1869, the total population of the countries subject to the Hungarian crown amounted to 15,429,238, of which Hungary proper had about 11,109,000; Transylvania, 2,109,000; Croatia and Slavonia, 1,015,000; the Military Frontier, 1,195,000.
I. History. — The Hungarians, a Scythian tribe, were, as it seems, akin to and allies of the Chazari, who in the first century of the Christian era had left their original seats, the plateaus of Central Asia, and had founded in the course of time a powerful empire on the Tauric peninsula. At the close of the 9th century the Hungarians (Magyars) were living on the northeastern frontier of this empire, which they defended under their own chiefs against the powerful neighboring nations. After the destruction of this empire, the Magyars, who were unable to resist singly the onset of other tribes, crossed the Dnieper, and settled (884) near the mouth of the Danube, between the Rivers Bugh and Szereth. The imperial throne of Constantinople was at that time occupied by Leo the Wise, who called the bravery of his new neighbors to his aid against Simeon, the chief of the Bulgarians. The call was cheerfully accepted by Arpad, the son of the Magyar duke Almos. Simeon was conquered, and his country laid waste. The renown of the Magyars soon induced king Arnold, of Germany, to ask them for aid against Szvatoplugk, the grand prince of Moravia. Again they accepted the invitation, entered Upper Pannonia, which then belonged to the Moravian empire, and obtained a complete victory; after that they returned to their homes. These, however, had in the meanwhile been invaded and terribly devastated by the Bulgarians, and the Magyars therefore concluded to settle permanently in Pannonia, from which they had just returned as victors. The occupation of the country began in 894; it was completed in 900. The country, distributed among seven tribes and 108 families, was converted into a military state. Their bravery and their renown caused many people of the districts, which they had traversed, and many soldiers of foreign countries, to join them. Thus strengthened, they were able to undertake expeditions as far as the North Sea, the South of France into Italy, and to the Black Sea. But repeated defeats by the kings and emperors of Germany put a stop to their conquests and gave a different direction to their energies. The frontiers of their new country were more definitely marked and fortified, and many more foreign colonists drawn into the country.
The large number of Christian slaves, the connection with the emperors of Constantinople, but in particular the efforts of duke Geysa (972-997), and of his Christian wife Sarolta (Caroline), gradually prepared the introduction of Christianity. Geysa made peace with all his neighbors, and at the diet which he assembled recommended a hospitable reception of foreign visitors and the introduction of Christianity. Geysa himself was baptized by bishop Pilgrin of Passau, who, even during the reign of Tacsony, the father of Geysa, had begun to show a warm interest in the conversion of Hungary. Besides him, the emperor Otto I and bishop Adalbert of Prague showed a great zeal for the Christianization of the Magyars. Thus the Roman Catholic Church obtained the ascendancy over the few missions which under former chiefs had been established by missionaries of the Greek Church. Adalbert, in 994, baptized, at Gran,Voik, the son of Geysa, who received the name of Stephen. Immediately after his accession to the throne, Stephen made it the first object of his rule to secure the complete victory of Christianity; nor did he hesitate for this end to employ force. He issued at once an order that all Magyars must receive baptism, and that all Christian slaves must be set free.
This decree filled those Magyars who were opponents of. Christianity with the utmost indignation against the young king and against the Germans who surrounded him. Kuppa, a relative of Stephen and duke of the Sumegians, put himself at the head of the malcontents, but at Veszprim he was totally defeated and killed; and henceforth all serious opposition to the Christianization of Hungary ceased. Stephen himself traversed the country in every direction, encouraging the people to become Christians, and threatening with severe punishments all who would refuse to obey this order. He established schools in his residence, called many monks as teachers, established ten richly-endowed bishoprics, introduced the tithe, and made the prelates the first estate of the empire. For these labors Stephen received from pope Sylvester II a crown, which has since then constituted the upper part of the sacra regni Hungariae corona, while its lower part consists of a crown which the Greek emperor Manuel Dukas gave to Geysa. With this crown Stephen received from the pope a patriarchal cross and the title of apostolic king. Thus Hungary became a kingdom, the chief supports of which, according to the Constitution given by Stephen, were to be the clergy and the nobility. The following kings enlarged the privileges of the clergy, who thus, in the course of time, became richer than in any other European country. After the death of Stephen several more efforts were made by the native pagan party to displace both Christianity and the German party at the court, which was regarded as the chief support of Christianity. But all these attempts utterly failed, and paganism soon became extinct. The frontiers of the empire were enlarged by the conquest of Croatia and Slavonia in 1089, and that of Dalmatia in 1102; at home the clergy extorted from the weak Andrew I (1202-35) a favorable Concordat. In 1437 Hungary fell for the first time to the house of Hapsburg. In 1526 the line of independent kings of Hungary became extinct by the death of king Louis II. A large portion of Hungary was subjugated by the Turks, and remained a Turkish province for more than a century; the remainder was long rent by civil wars, which ended in connecting the country permanently with the crown of Hapsburg.
When the first knowledge of the Reformation reached Hungary, the Diet of 1528 issued a cruel decree that the Lutherans and all favorers of Lutheranism should be captured and burned. But amidst the disorder which followed the death of Louis II the Reformation spread, and gained a firm footing in spite of the cruel prohibitory laws. Probably the first to preach in favor of the Reformation was Thomas Preussner, of Kaesmark, who is said to have publicly announced his concurrence in the views of Luther. A great impression was made by the Augsburg Confession, as the grandees who accompanied king Ferdinand to the Diet of Augsburg brought back a favorable account of the Lutheran Reformation. Several scholars went to Wittenberg to study under Luther, among whom were Devay, Quendel, Stockel, Andrew Fischer, Leutscher, Bogner, Transylvanus, Radan, Siklosy, and Kopaczy. The further progress of the Reformation was very quiet, only a few bishops and magnates trying to employ force. Prince Zapolya, who contested with king Ferdinand the possession of Hungary, issued a severe edict against the Protestants, and the parish priest of Libethen was in 1527 burned as a favorer of the Reformation; but as the majority of the towns, nearly the whole nobility, and many of the most powerful magnates were favorable to the Reformation, the persecution of Protestantism soon ceased. Many of the priests then joined the Reformation with their entire congregations; in other instances the congregations waited until the death of the Catholic pastor, and then called an evangelical successor.
The evangelical pastors continued for a long time to pay tribute to the bishops, and were protected by the latter in their rights and privileges, provided they would remain faithful to the Augsburg Confession, and not join the detested Sacramentarians (Calvinists). In i549 the royal free cities of Upper Hungary had their Confession. of Faith drawn up by Leonhard Stockel in the sense of the Augsburg Confession, and presented it to king Ferdinand. This Confession was approved and confirmed not only by the king, but also by the primate Nicholas Olah and the bishop Verantius, with several Catholic prelates, as bishop Kechdry of Veszprim, bishop Thurzo of Neutra, and bishop Dudich, who had attended the Council of Trent as representatives of Ferdinand. King Ferdinand himself appeared to be favorable to the Protestants, for he permitted the election of the foremost patron of the Reformation, Thomas Nadasdy, as palatine of Hungary. Still more auspicious was the reign of the mild Maximilian, who tried to gain the Protestants by wise concessions. Thus they found time to develop their Church Constitution, to hold synods, and to regulate their Church and school affairs under the protection of the evangelical magnates. A large majority of the inhabitants belonged to the evangelical faith; only three magnates continued to be Roman Catholic, and probably Protestantism would have forever established its ascendancy had not the Protestants themselves been split into Lutherans and Calvinists, who seemed to hate each other more than other religious denominations.
Thus weakened by internal dissensions, the Protestants suffered greatly from the persecutions which began against them under the reign of Rudolphus. The Jesuits, who had come for a short time to Hungary in 1561, at the invitation of the primas Nicholas Olah, but had been unable to do any thing under the tolerant reign of Maximilian, returned, and began to display a great activity for the restoration of the old Church. Jacob Barbian of Belgioso took from the Protestants a number of churches, and the complaints of the people against these acts of violence remained without effect. Rudolphus, instead of redressing the grievances, made to the laws passed by the Hungarian Diet al addition, which declared the grievances of the Protestants to be unfounded and their conduct scandalous, and which confirmed all the former laws against them. Boczkai, the prince of Transylvania, rose against this law, and was joined everywhere by malcontents. Soon he was master of all Transylvania and of Northern Hungary. Basta, the imperial general, was defeated, and Rudolphus compelled to conclude, in 1606, the peace of Vienna, which assured the Protestants throughout the empire of religious liberty, and promised that the emperor would never allow any violation of this provision. To the provision was, however, added this clausula, "without any injury to the Catholic religion." When the articles of the Vienna treaty of peace were, in 1608, read to the Diet at Pressburg, the bishop of Veszprim protested in the name of the clergy against the religious liberty granted to the Protestants; but the firmness of archduke Matthias overcame the opposition of all the Catholics, and the treaty of peace was unanimously ratified by all save cardinal Forgaez. Nevertheless, Rudolphus declared the resolutions of the Diet invalid. This breach of faith cost him the throne; his brother Matthias was crowned king of Hungary on November 8, 1608, two days after the evangelical count Illeshazy had been elected palatine by a large majority.
Through the liberality of Illeshazy, who was in possession of immense riches, the Protestants received a large number of churches and schools. Illeshazy died the next year (May 6,1609); but his successor, count George Thurzo, was an equally zealous Protestant. Under his presidency, a synod was held in March, 1610, at Sillein, in the comitat of Trentshin, at which the Protestant churches were organized into three superintendentships, the duties of superintendents, seniors, and inspectors defined, and many rules adopted for the regulation of Church government and Church discipline. The resolutions of the synod, which were printed by order of the palatine, and circulated among all the Protestant congregations of the country, aroused the Catholic clergy to extraordinary efforts against the further spreading of Protestantism. Unfortunately, palatine Thurzo died soon, and the Catholics found a leader of rare ability in the Jesuit Pazmany, who succeeded in causing within a short time more than fifty of the first noble families to return to the Catholic Church. They, in turn, compelled hundreds of thousands of their subjects to leave the Protestant churches. At the diets the Roman Catholics again obtained the ascendency; the resolutions of 1608 were, it is true, several times confirmed, but the government did not respect the decrees of the diets, and the persecutions of Protestants continued. For a time the Reformed prince Bethlen, of Transylvania, extorted by his victories from king Ferdinand II promises of redress, but none of these promises were kept. At the Diet of 1637, the Protestants, under the name of the Evangelical Estates (Status et Ordines Evangelici), presented their grievances in writing; but the Diet contented itself with a new confirmation of former laws, and gave to the Jesuits the first landed property in the kingdom. The discontent of the Protestants was supported by Racoczy, prince of Transylvania, who invaded Hungary at the head of 10,000 men, and finally compelled Ferdinand III to conclude the peace of Linz, 1645, in which the Protestants again obtained the free exercise of their religion, the use of bells, and the permission to build towers and' to keep their own cemeteries. But the Catholic clergy refused to recognize the provisions of this treaty, and soon the reign of Leopold I brought on the sorest trials for Protestantism. The complaints of the Protestants regarding the constant violations of their rights were not listened to; they were ordered not to bring their grievances before the Diet, but before the courts. Several Protestant noblemen entered, therefore, into a conspiracy for the separation of Hungary from Austria, but the plot was discovered, and all who had taken part in it sentenced to death.
The Jesuits used this as a pretext for the most violent measures against Protestants. Archbishop Szelepczenyi summoned the evangelical ministers of the mountain towns before his court at Pressburg, where they were charged with being accomplices of the Turks, with seditious sermons, revolutionary sympathies, abuse of the Catholic host, opening of the prisons, sale of Catholic priests to the Turks. The preachers were all sentenced to death; but the emperor pardoned them on the condition that they should renounce their titles of preachers and pastors, not discharge the duties connected with such a title, keep no schools, not preach either secretly or publicly, and sign a declaration acknowledging their guilt. Whosoever should refuse to sign this declaration must leave Hungary within thirty days. In the next year all the evangelical preachers, even those who lived under Turkish dominion, were summoned to Pressburg. The latter did not come; but those living under the scepter of Leopold made their appearance, 250 of the Confession of Augsburg and 57 of the Helvetic Confession. The majority signed the demanded declaration; those who refused were imprisoned; the most obstinate, about 29 in number, were sent to the galleys. The Swedish government, the dukes of Saxony, Brandenburg, and Luneburg, remonstrated with the emperor in favor of the prisoners, but not until about a year later did they recover their liberty. A great massacre of Protestants was soon after (1657) committed at Eperies by the imperial general Caraffa, who pretended to have discovered a wide-spread conspiracy, and caused the execution of a large number of prominent men, among whom were many of the leaders of the Protestants. The peace of Carlovics, in 1699, restored to Hungary all the districts, with the only exception of that of Temesvar, which for more than a hundred years had been under the rule of the Turks. At home, the continued discontent of the people led to a new insurrection headed by Francis Racoczv, which was suppressed in 1711 by the peace of Szathmar. This peace again reaffirmed the rights, which had been granted to Protestants. New complaints of disturbances of Protestant worship induced Charles VI (as king of Hungary, Charles III) to appoint a royal commission, on the recommendation of which it was decreed that the evangelical preachers should be superintended by Catholic archdeacons; that the ministerial functions of the preachers of the two Protestant Confessions must be limited to those churches (at most two in each comitat) in which a resolution of the Diet of Oedenburg, held in 1681, expressly authorized the Protestants to hold divine service; that the Protestants, when elected to office, must take their oaths with an invocation of the blessed Virgin and all the saints; and that all Protestants must take part in the celebration of the Catholic festivals and in the public processions. The establishment of a royal chancellery and stadtholdership, which in the name of the sovereign had to promulgate and execute the imperial laws, was unfavorable to the Protestants. as a majority of the councilors were taken from the ranks of the bishops, magnates, and noblemen. Thus the Protestants were annoyed by this board in every possible way. Conversions from Catholicism to Protestantism were strictly forbidden; Catholics were forbidden to attend a Protestant school, and the Protestant youth to study at foreign schools; members of one Protestant denomination were not allowed to visit the divine service of the other; Protestant books were submitted to Protestant censors, their trials of divorce to Catholic judges. Maria Theresa expressed personal sympathy with the oppressed condition of Protestants but pretended to be unable to do any thing for them on account of her coronation oath and the laws of the country. An essential amelioration in the condition of Protestants was effected under Joseph II, who, in 1781, by the edict of toleration, granted to all the Protestants of his dominions freedom of conscience and of religion, and the right of public worship. Now a new era in the history of Protestantism began. A large number of new churches and schools were established, hundreds of clergymen were called. Protestants became eligible to every office; the religious oath was abolished; the Protestant superintendents were allowed to visit the churches, and persons living in mixed marriages to bring up their children in the evangelical faith, as well as to select for them any school they chose; the press was to be free and unfettered. Leopold II also showed a firm disposition to be just toward the Protestants.
The Diet of 1791 was petitioned by the Protestants to sanction the royal decree which had granted them religious freedom, Notwithstanding a violent opposition on the part of the bishops, the diet granted the request, chiefly moved by the eloquent plea of the Catholic count Aloysius Battlyani. Accordingly, the 26th article of religion of 1791 provides that the Protestants of both Confessions shall enjoy the free exercise of their religion; that they shall not be forced to attend processions, masses, or other ceremonies; that in ecclesiastical affairs they shall be subordinate only to their own ecclesiastical superiors; that they may build churches and schools, elect preachers and teachers; that they shall not have to contribute to the building of Catholic churches and schools. The Protestants at once hastened to perfect their ecclesiastical constitution. In the same year (1791), a synod of both the Protestant churches was held at Ofen and Pesth, at which long-pending controversies between the clergy and prominent laymen were settled, and the establishment of a general Consistory proposed. The protest of a few evangelical clergymen, as well as that of the Catholic clergy and the early death of the sovereign, prevented the resolutions of this diet from receiving the royal sanction. During the reign of Francis I the rights of the Protestants were often encroached upon, especially in the case of mixed marriages. The Diet of 1843 to 1844 interfered, however, in favor of the Protestants, and enlarged, in its provisions concerning mixed marriages and the right of joining the Protestant Church, the law of 1791.
The fullness of equal rights was finally secured to Protestants by a law of 1848. In consequence of the failure of the Hungarian War of Independence in 1848 and 1849, these rights were, however, for a time suspended. The imperial commander, baron Haynau, himself a Protestant, abolished the offices of general inspector and the district inspectors for the Church of the Augsburg Confession, and that of curators for the Church of the Helvetic Confession The holding of conventions was forbidden, and only after a time the holding of "several conventions' allowed when attended by an imperial commissioner. After repeated petitions and representations, the minister of public worship and instruction, on August 21, 1856, laid the draft of a law on the reorganization of the Constitution of the Protestant churches before the superintendents. The latter declined this draft, and unanimously asked for the convocation of the General Synod. On September 1, 1859, an imperial patent was published, which undertook, on the ground of the law of 1791, to give to the Protestant churches a new Constitution. Nearly the entire evangelical Church of both Confessions protested against the legality of this imperial patent, claiming for the Church the right to make herself the necessary changes in her Constitution on the legal basis of the law of 1791. Only a few congregations of the Lutheran Slovaks, numbering together about 54 congregations, accepted the patent. All the efforts to break the opposition of the Protestants failed; and when, in 1867, the Austrian government concluded to make peace with Hungary, the patent of 1859, and all the decrees accompanying it, were repealed. The two Protestant churches were assured that they would be at liberty to rearrange their Church matters in a constitutional way. At the General Convention of the Confession of Augsburg, which was held in Pesth in September, the reunion of the Lutheran Slovaks who had accepted the patent with the remainder of the Church was consummated. In December, 1867; a General Convention of the ‘ two Protestant churches was held under the presidency of baron Nicholas Vay, in order to acquaint the Hungarian Diet with the wishes and opinion of the churches concerning religious and school questions. The Convention resolved, 1, that the affairs of the Protestants be regulated by general laws, and not by special laws for each of the two denominations;
2, that no privileges be granted to any on account of religion;
3. that the equality pronounced in the 20th article of the law of 1848 extend to all denominations;
4, that the Church with regard to the state be autonomous, and that to the state belong only the right of supreme inspection and of protection. Other liberal resolutions were adopted by this and by a later Convention respecting a change of religion, mixed marriages, divorces, schools, and endowment. The majority of the Diet showed itself just toward the Protestants, and their chief demands were fulfilled. The reconciliation which took place in 1867 between the people of Hungary and the emperor of Austria gave to Hungary a greater independence than it had ever enjoyed before. A special ministry was appointed for the countries of the Hungarian crown, which also had their own diet, and retained only a few points of administration in common with the remainder of the monarchy. One of the most important reforms, introduced into Hungary in consequence of the new Constitution, was the declaration of the autonomy of all the religions recognized in Hungary, and the transfer of the extensive rights in ecclesiastical affairs, which had formerly been connected with the Hungarian crown, to elective assemblies representing the several religious denominations. The first assemblies of those churches, which had thus far been without them, were convoked by the government; they fixed the mode of election for the subsequent assemblies. Thus, with the other denominations, the Roman Catholic Church received an autonomy congress, the only elective assembly of this kind in the Church, and regarded with great distrust by the ultramontane party. It consists of all the bishops, and of chosen delegates of the lower clergy and the laity. The preliminary congress was held on June 24,1869, and consisted of 157 members.
II. Statistics. — According to the last official census of 1857, the religious statistics of the countries belonging to the Hungarian crown were as follows:
According to an official calculation, the Hungarian countries had, in 1880, 7,558,558 Latin Catholics, 1.559,628 Greek Catholics, 5133 Armenian Catholics, 2,589,319 Oriental or Non-United Greeks, 3,144,759 Evangelicals, 54,922 Unitarians, 553,641 Israelites, 3603 belonging to other sects.
The Roman Catholic Church has four archbishops, those of Gran (who is primate of all Hungary), Kalocza, Erlau, and Agram. The archbishopric of Gran, which was founded by St. Stephen, had in 1870 ten suffragan sees, namely, the Latin bishoprics of Veszprim, Neusohl, Waitzen, Neutra, Stahlweissenburg, Fiinfkirchen, Steinamanger, Raab, and the United Greek sees of Muncacz and Eperies. The archdiocese of Colocza (and Bacz) has the Latin suffragan sees of Czanad, Gran Wardein, and Transylvania. The suffragans of the archbishop of Erlau are the bishops of Zips, Rosenan, Kaschau, and Szathmar. Agram, which had formerly been a suffragan of Gran, and was constituted an archbishopric on Dec. 20,1852, embraces Croatia and Slavonia, and has as suffragans the Latin bishoprics of Zengg- Modruss and Diacovar (Bosnia-Syrmium), and the Greek bishop of Creutz.
The Greek Catholic (United Greek) Church has, besides the bishops of Muncacz, Eperies, and Creutz, who have already been mentioned, an archbishop (since 1853) at Fogaras, who has as suffragans the bishops of Lugos, Gran Wardein, and Szamos-Ujvar.
The Oriental, or Non-United Greek Church, has for the Servian nationality a patriarch at Carlovicz, and suffragan sees at Alt-Ofen. Arad, Temesvar, Neusatz, Pakratz, and Carlstadt; for the Romanian nationality, a metropolitan of Transylvania.
The Church of the Augsburg Confession (evangelical Lutherans) has four superintendencies (Cis-Danubian Trans-Danubian, Montan District, and Theiss District); the superintendencies are subdivided into seniorats, the latter into congregations. The Church of the Helvetic Confession has likewise four superintendencies, which are also subdivided into seniorats and congregations. Transylvania has one Lutheran and one Reformed superintendent. Each congregation of the two Protestant churches chooses its own pastors and a presbytery, which is presided over in the Church of the Augsburg Confession by a local inspector, and in the Church of the Helvetic Confession by a curator, in common with the pastor. The congregations belonging to one seniorat choose a senior and a senioral inspector (Lutheran), or subcurator (Reformed). In the Reformed seniorats, the senior presides in the senioral conventions; in the Lutheran Church, the inspector. The superintendents and the superintendential inspectors (Lutheran) or curators (Reformed) are chosen for lifetime by all the congregations. The superintendential conventions, which are held annually, and composed of all the seniors, and of one clerical and one lay deputy from each seniorat, are presided over by the superintendent in common with the superintendential inspector or curator. The Protestants of the Helvetic Confession are all Magyars, with the exception of eight German congregations; to the Church of the Augsburg Confession belong about 200,000 Germans, 200,000 Magyars, and 400,000 Slavs.
The Unitarians in Transylvania have a superintendent (bishop) and Supreme Consistory at Clausenburg, 104 parishes, and 120 ministers.
Hungary has a national university at Pesth, 48 Catholic and 39 Protestant gymnasia. The number of elementary schools amounted (1864) in Hungary to 11,452, in Transylvania to 1793, in Croatia and Slavonia to 490, in the Military Frontier to 907. A large number of communities were in 1869
still without a school There are also five normal schools at Pesth, Sgezedin, Neuhaiusel, Miskolcz, and Grosskanizsa. — Herzog, Real- Encyklop. 16, 636 Mather, Kirchl. Chronik, 1867 and 1869; Neher, Kirchl. Geogr. u. Statistik, i, 216 sq.; Wiggers, Kirchl. Statistic, 2, 123. (A.J.S.)
These files are public domain.
McClintock, John. Strong, James. Entry for 'Hungary'. Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature. https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/tce/h/hungary.html. Harper & Brothers. New York. 1870.
