"The habitation of thy house, Lord, I have loved well..." [antikvár]

The progress of history in 16th century Hungary had been decided by two courses of events, namely Reformation and Turkish occupation. The former one brought radical change in church life, the latter one determined the fate of the land for a time of fifteen-hundred years. These events can be bound up with dates, and so we count the beginning of the reformation from 1517, and Turkish occupation from 1526, i.e. the Mohács Disaster.Having surveyed the progress of history in 16 th and 17th centuries, the Reformation simultaneously with the Turkish occupation seems to exercise a greater blow than the threat of the Mohács Disaster. The middle and higher nobles of the Parliament at Rákosmező in 1524, and at Hatvan in 1525, were never summoned to close their rank against the Turk, dealt only with minor cases, hardly in any connection with the fate of the land, and proclaimed: "All the Lutherans should be exterminated from the country, found anywhere, be caught by ecclesiastical or lay persons, also be burnt." To be true, this resolution became banned by the Parliament at Rákosmező (1525), however, incorporated in Corpus Juris Hungáriáé (Body of Hungarian Law) printed in Nagyszombat (Tyrnavia) in 1584.It also appears in history of the 17th century, that the Roman Catholic Church, helped by Hapsburg Emperor, made greater efforts to extinguish Reformation than to oust Turk. When it became clear, that the Turkish Empire is unable of further expansion, this case taken for granted, and the Roman Catholic Church, with her regained power, turned to liquidate not Turkish occupation, but the Reformed Church in Hungary. So, for a time Turkish expansion was over, after Peace Treaty belween the Hapsburg Emperor and the Sultan, yet the Reformed Church under Ottoman rule still created a threat to Roman Catholic Church.The decades following the Mohács Disaster became optimal in every respect for dissemination of Reformation. The impoverished Church, other-vise, lost respect, because of the death of seven high clergymen, and because the two pretenders, Ferdinand I. and John of Szapolya could replace them only by clerics of considerably lower education, and also because of vacating some of bishops' and archepiscopal seats in order to increase the diminished income of the treasury with church estates. It was in the interests or the aristocrats to protect the case of Reformation and so to acquire more of Church possession. The renewal of Church was desired wholeheartedly by lower nobility, cit-" izens of vigorous spirituality, craftsmen, and peasantry. Their wish was no new religion or so far unknown denomination to introduce. They only strived for having the church founded on the Bible, and so, Reformation first was preached not by Reformed ministers, but by monks. This movement dispersed all over Europe, was declared a heresy by Roman Catholicism headed by the Pope, its leading personality, Luther, anathematized, which in comsequence caused a breach and gave rise to the Lutheran (or Evangelical) Church.Reformation has never been conceived, and should not be now, as a state, but always as a course. Progress of renewal of faith became realized radically in the trend represented by Calvin. All were discarded by the Helvetic or Calvinistic branch of the Reformation, which were taken as allowable by Lutheran Church in liturgy, and use of pictures, and everything in church life became measured by Biblical norms and canons. Pictures and statues were thrown out of temples, the Lord's Supper, in both kind (bread and wine), was administered to all. Also the adoration of saints, or their relics, of Virgin Mary, hierarchy, vestments all became discarded, and church life was thoroughly reformed according to the Apostolic Church, giving an important role to lay people, later to church council and body of elders.As is was stated above, Reformation is a progress, and in it a definite event happened in the Debrecen Synod (1567) to accept the Second Helvetic Confession, and later the Heidelberg Catechism. As far as the role of the presbyters or Elders' Body, it was not a simple course but a bitter fight. In most places, such Debrecen, the Elders' Body was nearly the same as the Town Council, and so the minister became an employee of the town or village, and they widely applied a custom of detaining of parsons, i.e. it was the authority of a Lay Church Council to decide how long a preacher may retain his station. Patrons, i.e. low and high nobles, claimed privilege to decide in church affairs. Against abuses of lay power, by the middle of the 17 th century, a Puritan and Presbyterian movement emerged, English in origin, and aimed at democratic renewal of faith and institution, and wanted to constitute a consistory of faithful and morally clean laymen, who represent peasants and craftsmen. In addition this movement, under English influence, wanted simple, plain and practical piety, prayer and Bible reading, through which members of the Church with exemplary conduct of life serve to the glory of God and to the benefit of their Church. In the5