The hungarian Parliament [antikvár]

In the City Park of Budapest, on a small island, there can be found a blackened bronzé figure, keeping silence in the depths of his sorrow, amidst the greenery of trees and bushes and the colourful pomp of spring flowers. His right hand, holding a pen, has been worn bright by the hands of children who have clambered up to see his hooded face. Who then was this chronicler, which this fine statue by Miklós Ligeti, has memorialized for more than 90 years? The question cannot be answered. Although many generations have learned the romantic story of the Hungárián Conquest and, with it, the history of the first national assembly and of the traditions of Hungárián constitutionalism, he has kept the secret of his name, for eight centuries. He is known simply as Anonymus, but he is not completely unknown. Modern historical research suggests that he is the chronicler of "the late King Béla of glory and fame", the third Hungárián king of this name. The age in which he lived has been reconstructed after the description of P Magister, as he reflected it to the Conquest by his imagination and skill as a story teller. It is alsó easy to recognize the ideology he served, consciously or not; so too is it easy to identify the institutions from his romantic descriptions and accounts of the structure of the early Hungárián state organisation. Thus Anonymus, in writing about the past, is speaking of his own age, adding to the problems of contemporary historians. But it is an old truth that the deeper we go into the history of Hungárián parliamentarism, the more mirrors are to be found; the beginning, the origin of our national assemblies can hardly be seen in their refraction. "Among the national assemblies held in the new homeland, the most important was the one which was gathered near to Körtvély Laké (at Szer or Pusztaszer) before completing the Conquest under the leadership of Árpád" says Gedeon Ladányi, in his 19th century work on constitutional history. "From the few words of the notary Anonymus, we may reliably conclude that the basic outlines of the state structure of the new homeland were decided upon during this meeting. But, we must remember that we are investigating how it was seen a hundred years ago, based on an account written seven hundred years ago, which purpoted to describe how Hungárián constitutionalism developed two hundred years before Anonymus. Today it has been established that, though the walls of the monastery from the Árpád Age, built on the lands of the Bár-Kalán clan, have outlasted various memorials built for the millennial festivities, an assem.