Az Erdélyi Református Egyházkerület álláspontja az 1850-es évek Pátens-harca idején

Abstract

Contributions to the History of the Forced State Church in the 1850s. Through a decree issued in 1849 and subsequently in the early 1850s, Haynau prohibited ecclesiastical assemblies throughout the territory of Hungary, thereby rendering church administration – founded on collegial governance – and the internal structure of the Protestant churches unworkable. With these decrees, he clearly anticipated a form of coerced state church system, which had been the deliberate direction of counter-revolutionary absolutism’s anti-Protestant ecclesiastical policy from the outset. Minister Leo Thun sought to establish an imperial church organization encompassing all Protestant churches within the empire (including the Unitarian Church), with a common imperial synod at its centre.

In the spring of 1850, a movement arose in the Lutheran Church in Pest and Debrecen in opposition to Haynau’s decree. Dissatisfaction continued to mount, leading to the collection of signatures. The resistance took Thun by surprise, as he had anticipated potential difficulties with the introduction of the newly imposed ecclesiastical constitution primarily in the German provinces. He had not expected resistance from Hungary, which at the time was under martial law.

This study presents the resistance efforts organized by the Hungarian Protestant churches, centred in Debrecen. Although no large-scale demonstrations took place in Transylvania, the moral support of the church leadership there was nonetheless evident.