decree filled those Magyars who were opponents of Christianity with the utmost indignation against the young king and against the Germans who surrounded him. Kuppa, a relative of Stephen and duke of the Sumegians, put himself at the head of the malcontents, but at Veszprim he was totally defeated and killed; and henceforth all serious opposition to the Christiani- zation of Hungary ceased. Stephen himself traversed the country in every direction, encouraging tlie iieojilc to become Christians, and threatening with severe i)uu- ishments all who would refuse to obey this order. He established schools in his residence, called many monks as teachers, established ten richly-endowed bishoprics, introduced the tithe, and made the prelates tlie first es- tate of the empire. For these labors Stephen received from pope Sylvester II a crown, which has since then constituted tlie upper part of the sacra rer/ni Hunr/nrup. corona, wliile its lower part consists of a crown wliich the Greek emperor Manuel Dukas gave to Geysa. M'itli this crown Stephen received from the pope a patriarch- al cross and the title of apostolic king. Thus Hun- gary became a kingdom, the chief supports of which, according to the Constitution given by Stcjjhon, were to be the clergy and the nobility. The following kings enlarged the privileges of the clergy, who thus, in the course of time, became richer than in any other Eu- ropean country. After the death of Stephen several more efforts were made by the native pagan party to displace both Christianity and the German party at the court, which was regarded as the chief support of Chris- tianity. But all these attempts utterly failed, and ]ia- ganism soon became extinct. The frontiers of the em- pire were eidarged by the conquest of Croatia and Sla- vonia in 1089, and that of Dalmatia in 1102; at home the clergy extorted from the weak Andrew II (1202- 35) a favorable Concordat. In 1437 Hungary fell for the first time to the house of Ilapsburg. In 1526 the line of independent kings of Hungary became extinct by the death of king Louis II. A large portion of Hun- gary was subjugated by the Turks, and remained a Turlc- ish province for more than a century; the remainder was long rent by civil wars, which ended in connecting the country permanently with the crown of Hapsburg.
Wnen the first knowledge of the Reformation reached Hungary, the Diet of 1528 issued a cruel decree tliat the Lutherans and all favorers of Lutheranism should be captured and burned. But amidst the disorder wliich followed the death of Louis II the Reformation spread, and gained a firm footing in spite of the cruel prohib- itory laws. Probably the first to preach in favor of the Reformation was Thomas Preussner, of Kaesmark, who is said to have publicly announced his concurrence in the views of Luther, A great impression was made by the Augsburg Confession, as the grandees who accom- panied king Ferdinand totlie Diet of Augsburg brought back a favorable account of the Lutheran Reformation. Several scholars went to AA'ittenberg to study under Luther, among whom were Devay, (^uendel, StiJckel, Andrew Fischer, Leutscher, Bogner, Transylvanus, Ra- dan, Siklosy, and Kojiaczy. The furtlier progress of the Reformation was very quiet, only a few bishops anit magnates trying to employ force. Prince Zapolya, Avho contested with king Ferdinand the possession of Hungary, issued a severe edict against the Protestants, and the parish priest of Libethen was in 1527 burned as a favorer o'f the Refonnation; but as the majority of the towns, nearly the whole nobility, and many of the most ])owerful magnates were favorable to llie L'cfor- mation, the persecution of Protestantism soon ceased. Many of the priests then joined the Reformation with their entire congregations ; in other instances the con- gregations waited luitil the death of the Catholic pastor, and then called an evangelical successor. The evan- gelical pastors continued for a long time to pay tribute to the bishops, and were protected by the latter in their . rights and privileges, provided they woidd remain faith- ful to the Augsburg Confession, and not join the detest-
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ed Sacramentarians (Calvinists). In 1549 the royal free cities of Upper Hungary had their Confession of Faith chawn up by Leonhard Stockel in the sense of the Augsburg Confession, and presented it to king Ferdi- nand. This Confession Mas approved and confirmed not only by the king, but also by the primate Nicholas Olah and the bishop Yerantius, with several Catholic prel- ates, as bishop Kechery of Yeszprim, bishop Thurzo of Neutra, and bisliop Dudich, who had attended the Coun- cil of Trent as representatives of Ferdinand. Kuig Fer- dinand himself appeared to be favorable to the Protes- tants, for he permitted the election of the foremost pa- tron of the Reformation, Thomas Nadasdy, as palatine of Hungarj-. StiU more auspicious was the reign of the mild Maximilian, who tried to gain the Protestants by wise concessions. Thus they fomid time to develop their Church Constitution, to hold synods, and to regu- late their Church and school affairs under the protection of the evangelical magnates. A large majority of the inhabitants belonged to the evangelical faith ; only three magnates continued to be Koman Catholic, and probably Protestantism would have forever established its ascendenc}' had not the Protestants themselves been split mto Lutherans and Calvinists, who seemed to hate each other more than other religious denominations. Thus weakened by internal dissensions, the Protestants suffered greatly from the persecutions which began against them under the reign of Rudolphus. The Jes- uits, who had come for a short time to Hungarj' in 1561, at the invitation of the primas Nicholas Olah, but had been unable to do any thing under the tolerant reign of Maximilian, returned, and began to display a great activity for the restoration of the old Church. Jacob Barbian of Belgioso took from the Protestants a num- ber of churches, and the complaints of the people against these acts of violence remained without effect. I!u- dolphus, instead of redressing the grievances, made to the laws passed by the Hungarian Diet an addition, which declared the grievances of the Protestants to be mifoimded and their conduct scandalous, and which con- finned all the former laws against them. Boczkai, the jirince of Transylvania, rose against this law, and was joined everj-^ where bj' malcontents. Soon he was mas- ter of aU Transylvania and of Northern Hungarj'. Basta, the imperial general, was defeated, and Eudol- phu-s compelled to conclude, in 1G06, the peace of Vien- na, which assured the Protestants throughout the em- pire of religious liberty, and promised that the emperor W'ould never allow any violation of this provision. To the provision was, however, added this clausula, " with- out any injury to the Catholic religion." When the articles of the Vienna treaty of peace were, in 1608, read to the Diet at Pressburg, the bishop of Veszprim protested in the name of the clergy against the religious liberty granted to the Protestants; but the firmness of archduke IMatthias overcame the opposition of all the Catholics, and the treaty of peace was unanimously rat- ified by all save cardinal Forgacz. Nevertheless, Eu- dolphus declared the resolutions of the Diet invalid. This breach of faith cost him the throne ; his brother Matthias was crowned king of Hungary on Novem- ! ber 8, 1608, two days after the evangelical count Illes- ' hazy had been elected palatine by a large majority. Through the liberality of lUeshazy, who was in posses- sion of immense riches, the Protestants received a large number of churches and schools. Illeshazy died the next year (May 6, 1609) ; but his successor, count George Thurzo, was an equally zealous Protestant. Under his presidency, a synod was held in INIarch, 1610, at Sillein, in the comitat of Trentshin, at which the Protestant churches were organized into three superintendentships, the duties of superintendents, seniors, and inspectors de- fined, and many rules adopted for the regulation of Church government and Church discipline. The reso- lutions of the sjniod, which were printed by order of the palatine, and circulated among all the Prf)tcstant con- gregations of the coimtry, aroused the Catholic clergy