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The Impact of Péter Bod’s Translation of a Text about Galley Slaves
131-172Views:64Within his work on Protestant church history, Péter Bod’s translation of the galley slaves’
history was one of those 18th century Protestant historiographical approaches, which
bound the image of the struggling Church to personal sacrifice for the true faith. In 1738,
he translated Bálint Kocsi Csergő’s Narratio brevis, i.e. the history of the galley slaves’
suffering, into Hungarian, entitled Siege of a House Built on a Rock. Although it was a
manuscript, it became a bestseller copied and read all over the Carpathian Basin. Later,
the image of the Protestant martyr was identified with what he delineated in his works
God’s heroic Holy Mother Church and St. Heortocrat, namely, a martyr is an individual
who, in the midst of persecutions and fleeing, does not grow weary in being of use for the
benefit of his nation, his Church, the common good. In his works on church history, many
inventories of suffering from the 16th and 17th centuries demonstrate his utilitarian view of
martyrdom. The secularized view of martyrdom identifies the notion of suffering for
religion with the struggle that he himself fought against the Habsburg censorship. The 17th
and18th century Protestant history of suffering turned into an intellectual commitment that
is unfolding in the midst of difficulties and preserves our nationhood, and can be formed
along the jus and bonum publicum (public good, and public law). -
“My dearest dreams are of the Netherlands”: Pál Pántzél’s manuscript autobiography and his university years in Leiden from 1782 to 17851
139-159Views:129Pál Pántzél (1755-1831) was a Hungarian Calvinist pastor and scholar in Transylvania. Following his years in the Reformed College of Kolozsvár (Cluj, present-day Romania), Pántzél was a student of the Staten College at the University of Leiden between 1782 and 1785. He kept a manuscript autobiography, and wrote down his life story in Hungarian. This autobiography is interesting from various perspectives, including regional history, the social and church history of Transylvania, the history of education and so forth. Pántzél wrote extensively about his Leiden university years, which he considers the most beautiful memories of his life, but also includes details of the conditions in which he travelled, as well as the organisation of the trip and the details of the outward journey. In the present study I primarily interpret Pántzél’s notes on his years at the University of Leiden, in the context of early modern travel literature and the history of studying in the Netherlands.
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Die Erinnerungsgeschichte der Verfolgung ungarischer Galeerensklaven protestantischen Bekenntnisses im Deutschland des 18. Jahrhunderts
91-113Views:57In the long 18th century described as the period of “peaceful Re-Catholicization” or
“Catholic Restoration” in the writings about the ecclesiastical history of different
congregations, the Roman Catholic Church used every means to push Protestants into
the background and to render their lives impossible. As a result of intensified ReCatholicization, diverse means were employed to confront the communities and
individuals, from the occupation of churches or schools and collective punishments,
through the public humiliation and terrorization of individuals, to bloody torture and the
annihilation of their livelihood. The partly violent spreading of Catholicism resulted in
many controversial cases in the Carpathian Basin, which were reported on many
publications in Western Europe. The examination of the early printed books in the
Lutheran collection of books in Halle (Franckesche Stiftung) has brought numerous
relevant texts from a Hungarian perspective to the surface, which allow studying the
danger-fraught life circumstances of Protestants in the Carpathian Basin in the 18th
century through the eyes of an external observer. -
Het Nederlandbeeld van de tot de galeien veroordeelde Hongaarse predikanten*
89-120Views:181From already published letters of Hungarian Protestant ministers damned to the Neapolitan galleys by a special law court at Pozsony (Bratislava) in 1675 to prominent Dutch persons, from almost the galleys turns out that they called them, consequently the Netherlands as defenders of the truth belief (fides orthodoxa) who felt solidarity with fellow-Protestants (especially the Reformed ones) abroad, were ready to support them in their struggle to preserve their religious freedom and to assist to build the Church of God everywhere. The article also analyses unpublished works of the Protestant ministers and their supporter at Venice during their slavery and after their liberation by admiral Michiel de Ruyter in 1676. In these documents the same image of the Netherlands can be found but also two more epitatheta ornantia can be observed: they called the members of the States General, respectively the country as the nourishers of the Church and the greatest defenders of the truth of the Gospel.
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De Hongaarse galeislaaf-predikanten en Nederland
57-90Views:64The Hungarian protestant ministers who had been baselessly charged in 1673 and 1674 by
a special court at Pressburg with rebellion, treason and defamation of the Catholic Church
were sentenced to death. Those who converted to Catholicism or promised to leave the
country could escape. Those who persisted were sold at Naples to Spanish galleys as
slaves. The ministers asked help, among others, from the Netherlands. As a result of efforts
of many persons the States General instructed in November 1675 admiral Michiel de
Ruyter to liberate the galley slaves. After their liberation in February 1676, they were in
exile in Zürich. Eight of them visited the Netherlands in the autumn of that year to try to
get diplomatic and financial support so that they could return to Hungary in order to
continue their ministry. The Netherlands helped them a lot in both areas. Lots of books
dealt with their story in the 17th and 18th centuries in the Netherlands. Later they became
more and more part of the memory place ‘Michiel de Ruyter’.