Hungarian Consequences of the Toleration Missions to Bohemia and Moravia around 1800

János Ugrai

doi:10.32725/oph.2021.004

Abstract

The help provided by Hungarian fellow believers played a crucial role in the revival of Protestantism in Bohemia and Moravia after the Edict of Toleration ofÂ 1781. Two thirds of the approximately 70 reorganized Reformed congregations had Hungarian pastors from Hungary. Most of them had been sent by the Reformed Church District of TiszĂĄninnen, which convinced almost 40 young preachers to participate in the „Bohemian mission.“ Whereas the missionary work of the pastors in Bohemia and Moravia has been amply researched, the impact of their missions on Hungary has been largely neglected. Their mission was, however, a relationship with two ends. In this article I seek to close this gap on the basis of recently collected data on students from the Bohemian lands at the Reformed College of SĂĄrospatak and the documents on the repatriation of the Toleration Preachers and their widows who returned back to Hungary.

Highlights

It is a well known fact to Hungarian and Czech historians that after Joseph II’s Edict of Toleration of 1781 the Protestants in Hungary and in the Bohemian lands established a fruitful reciprocal collaboration
The results suggest that the pastors repatriating from Bohemia and Moravia were never given a position in a prestigious congregation, and only a few were employed in a congregation at a lower level: István Breznai immediately found a suitable environment in Gálszécs in Zemplén County and Imre Csider in Zádorfalva in Gömör where they could be satisfied after their „mission“ abroad
Help provided by fellow believers from Hungary played a crucial role in the revival of Protestantism in Bohemia and Moravia after the Edict of Toleration

Summary

Introduction

It is a well known fact to Hungarian and Czech historians that after Joseph II’s Edict of Toleration of 1781 the Protestants in Hungary and in the Bohemian lands established a fruitful reciprocal collaboration. The deans (seniors) were proverbially as „powerful as bishops“ in their own dioceses.[8] Organized upon order by the Habsburg administration, the superintendence remained rather weak for decades to come and the deans continued trying to preserve their former influence.[9] The superintendent Sámuel Szalay was only able to considerably change this decentralized power structure (one that often displayed anarchic characteristics, too) with the help of the „Bohemian mission.“ With the freedom granted by the Edict of Toleration and the end of the Counter-Reformation, this was the first task that Szalay took on as the leader He organized a campaign that could prove the legitimacy of church district administrations.

Bohemian and Moravian Students at Sárospatak

The results within the context of Sárospatak

Various forms of returning from Bohemia

István Szeremlei Sámuel Szűcs

Findings

Summary