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The Impact of Péter Bod’s Translation of a Text about Galley Slaves
131-172Views:65Within 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). -
De Hongaarse galeislaaf-predikanten en Nederland
57-90Views:65The 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’. -
Die neueren Quellen von Persecutio Hungaricae
33-56Views:61The study focuses on the history and historiography of the Hungarian Galley Slaves. The
publication of their story by the Western European press made a huge impact on international Calvinism. In Hungary it went the opposite way, mainly for historical reasons. A
manuscript and its large amount of copies built a great legacy, thanks to the historical
research for the original documents (mentioned in texts by Bálint Kocsi Csergő and Ferenc
Otrokocsi Fóris) between the 17th and 20th century. Thus, the attitude of the Galley Slaves
indeed became a decisive image of Hungarian, reformed identity. -
Gedenktafeln für die Galeerensklaven des Reformierten Kollegiums Sárospatak
173-197Views:59Sárospatak is a prominent academic town in eastern Hungary, where three memorial
plaques were unveiled between 1936 and 1939 in memory of the galley slaves. The college
itself is a place of remembrance, representing 500 years of Protestant culture. There are
memorial plaques here to the school’s patrons, former teachers, scholars, and the many
traumas of the 20th century (World War I and II, Trianon, the Gulag camps). It is therefore
surprising that, among the eight other memorial plaques located at the entrance, three
plaques commemorate the galley slaves. The study explores the context of their creation,
the idea, the application, and the unveiling, and interprets the phenomenon. The history of
galley slavery contains not only religious but also national elements of memory, and was
suitable for depicting the world of great cataclysms and tragedies in every age, as well as
for analogically showing the ways of escaping from them.