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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 July 2009
The left-wingers of the Protestant Reformation, harassed and persecuted by Catholics and Protestants alike, sought shelter where best they could. While the constantly threatening shadow of the Turkish campaigns made the kingdom of Hungary a most uninviting place of refuge, nevertheless large numbers of the persecuted, particularly Anabaptists, pressed their way into Hungary and attempted to establish colonies of their own. The unsettled state of religious affairs offered some hope of existence, perhaps of ultimate triumph of their views. However, the persecuting arms of the law of 1548 reached out to suppress them along with the sacramentarians: “they must be driven far away from everybody's estates … and they or any others must no longer be permitted within the boundaries of the kingdom.”
2 Beck, Joseph, Die Geschichtebücher der Wiedertäufer in, Oesterreich-Ungarn (Wien, 3883)Google Scholar. An excellent summary in Zoványi, , A reformáció Magyarországon 1565-ig (Budapest, 1921).Google Scholar
3 Franknói, , Magyar országyülési emlékek; (Budapest, 1901), 219.Google Scholar
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7 Quoted in Jakab, , Dávid Ferencs emléke (Budapest, 1879), 21.Google Scholar
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12 Wilbur, , Our Unitarian Heritage (Boston, 1925), 216Google Scholar, calls him “the first prophet of Unitarianism in Hungary” and claims that he wrote a “clear and bold book denying the Trinity.” I have found no evidence to support this latter assertion.
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15 Révész, , Debreczen lelki válsága (Századok, 1936).Google Scholar
16 Protestáns Egyházi és Iskolai Figyelmezö (1873), 49ff.Google Scholar
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21 Ibid., 73–285; Latin, title, Confessio catholica ae praecipuis fidei articulis exhibita (1562).Google Scholar
22 Refutatio confessionis de coena demoni Matthiae Hehler, Dioysii Alesii et his conjunctorum (Debreczen, 1564).Google Scholar
23 Balogh, , Mélius Péter hatása (Debreezen, 1866)Google Scholar; the same in German, , Der evang. Sonntagsbote (Wien, 1867)Google Scholar; Zoványi, , M.P. ifjukora és M P. mint exegeta (Sárospatak, 1887).Google Scholar
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25 Jakab, , Dávid Ferencz emléke, 36Google Scholar
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27 Date set from evidence in Basilius, , Egy nehány kérdések a keresztyéni igaz hitről (Kolozsvár, 1568).Google Scholar
28 The documents of this first disputation are lost, but are mentioned in Dávid, , Refutatio scripti P. Melii (1567).Google Scholar
29 Révész, , Magyar Református Egyháztörténet, 157.Google Scholar
30 And not “simply to restore the doctrine of the New Testament” as in Wilbur, , Our Unitarian Heritage, 223.Google Scholar
31 Was it really because, in drawing comparisons with the doctrines of the recently executed Gentile, Dávid found himself in virtual agreement with the latter? This hypothesis is advanced in Borbély, , A magyar unitárius egyház hitelvei a xvi században, 13.Google Scholar
32 “Capita Consensu doctrinaé de vera Trinitate,” Lampe, , Historia Ecclesiae Reformatas in Hungaria et Transylvania, 347–148Google Scholar; Hungarian text, Kiss, , Magyar Református Zsinatok, 449–450.Google Scholar
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34 Ibid, 139ff.
35 Révész, , Magyar Református Egyhaztörténet, 158Google Scholar; cf. Trechsel, , Die Protestantischen Antitrinitairien vor Faustus Socin (Heidelberg, 1839), I, 36ff.Google Scholar
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39 Révész, , “Mélius és Kalvin,” in Kálvin, és a Kálvinizmus (Debreczen, 1936), 313, 319, 321.Google Scholar
40 Révész, , Magyar Református Egyháztörténet, 110Google Scholar; cf. Soós, , “Méliusz Péter szentháromságtana,” Theologiai Szemle (1930)Google Scholar, for similarities of thought.
41 Révész, , Magyar Református Egyháztörténet, 156.Google Scholar
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43 Ibid., 465–560.
44 Ibid, 561–613
45 Wilbur, , Our Unitarian Heritage, 223Google Scholar; Jakab, , Dávid Ferencz emléke, 93–94Google Scholar
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47 Not religious liberty in the modern sense of the term, this act was “the most advanced step in toleration yet taken in Europe.” Wilbur, , Our Unitarian Heritage, 224Google Scholar. Says Teutsche, , Kirchengeschichte aer ev. Kirche in Siebenburgen (Hermannstadt, 1921), I, 285Google Scholar; “Gerade das Schicksal der unitarischen Kirche beweist, wie die Beschlüsse des siebenburgisehen Landtages, die nacheinander die drei neuen Konfessionen anerkannten, weit entfernt davon waren, ein Ausdruck moderner Gleichberechtigung zu sein Die evang Kirche errang zuerst die Anerkennung, weil damals nahezu das ganze Land evangelisch war, die reformierte und unitarisehe, weil deren Vertreter, der ung. Adel und bald der Fürst, sich diesen zuneigte und der Adel als Landstand soviel Macht besass, die Kirche anerkennen zu lassen, zu der die Mehrzahl oder (wie zur unit. Kirche) eine gewichtige Zahl seiner Mitglieder sieh bekannte.” This view is shared by the Roman Catholic historian Julius Szekfü, in Katholikus Szemle (1934), 662Google Scholar, and Révész, , “A Protestantizmus és a vallásszabadság,” Protestáns Szemle (1934), 478.Google Scholar
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49 Lampe, , Historia Ecclesiae Reformatae in Hungaria et Transylvania, 262.Google Scholar
50 Kiss, , Magyar Református Zsinatok, 629–633Google Scholar
51 es Simén, Nagy, A nagyváradi disputatio (Kolozsvár, 1870)Google Scholar, is a reprint of the original report, A váradi disputationak. (Kolozsvár, 1569).Google Scholar
52 Wilbur, , Our Unitarian Heritage, 234.Google Scholar
53 Letter of Francis Tóth to John Tormási, National Museum of Budapest.
54 The title of the Latin text is “Articuli consensus Christianarum Ecclesiarum, quibus Universitas Fratrum subscripsit, Hertzegszollosini in Barovia,” Lampe, , Historia Ecclesiae Reformatae in, Hungaria, et Transylvana, 282–292Google Scholar; Hungarian text, Kiss, , Magyar Református Zsinatok, 676–686.Google Scholar
55 Zsillinszky, , A magyarhoni protestáns egyház története (Budapest, 1907), 121.Google Scholar
