ances of Protestant worship induced Charles YI (as king of Hungary, Charles III) to appoint a royal com- mission, on the recommendation of which it was decreed that tlie evangelical preachers sliould be superintended by Catholic archdeacons ; that the ministerial functions of the preachers of the two Protestant Confessions must be limited to those churches (at most two in each comi- tat) in which a resolution of the Diet of Oedenburg, held in 1G81, expressly authorized the Protestants to hold divine service ; that the Protestants, when elected to office, must take their oaths with an invocation of the blessed Virgin and all the saints ; and that all Protes- tants must take part in the celebration of the Catholic festivals and in the public processions. The establish- ment of a royal chancellory and stadtholdership, which in the name of the sovereign had to promulgate and execute the imperial laws, was unfavorable to the Prot- estants, as a majority of the councillors were taken from the ranks of the bishops, magnates, and noblemen. Thus the Protestants were annoyed by this board in every possible way. Conversions from Catholicism to Protestantism were strictly forbidden; Catholics were forbidtlcn to attend a Protestant school, and the Protes- tant youth to study at foreign schools; members of one Protestant denomination were not allowed to visit tlie divine service of the other ; Protestant books were sub- mitted 10 Protestant censors, their trials of divorce to Catholic judges. Maria Theresa expressed personal sympathy with the oppressed condition of Protestants, but pretended to be unable to do any thing for them on account of her coronation oath and the laws of the country. An essential amelioration in the condition of Protestants was effected under Josei)h II, who, in 1781 , by the edict of toleration, granted to all the Protestants of his dominions freedom of conscience and of religion, and the right of public worship. Now a new aara in the history of Protestantism began. A large number of new churches and schools were established, hundreds of clergymen were called. Protestants became eligible to every office ; the religious oath was abolished ; the Prot- estant superintendents were allowed to visit the church- es, and persons living in mixed marriages to bring up their children in the evangelical faith, as well as to se- lect for them any school they chose ; the press was to be free and unfettered. Leopold II also showed a tirm dis- position to be just toward the Protestants. The Diet of 1791 was petitioned by the Protestants to sanction the royal decree wliich had granted them religious freedom. Notwithstanding a violent opposition on the part of the bisliops, the diet granted the request, chietly moved by the eloiiuciit plia (■!' the Catholic count Aloysius Batthy- Ani. At( niili]i-l\ , I he 2Gth article of religion of 1791 pro- vides thai the Protestants of both Confessions shall enjoy the free exercise of their religion; that tliey shall not be forced to attend processions, masses, or other ceremonies; that in ecclesiastical affairs they shall be subordinate only to their own ecclesiastical superiors; that they may build churches and schools, elect preachers and teachers ; that they shall not have to contribute to the building of Catholic churches and schools. The Prot- estants at once. hastened to perfect their ecclesiastical constitution. In the same year (1791), a synod of both the Protestant churches was held at Ofen and Pesth, at which long-pending controversies between the clergy and prominent laymen were settled, and the establish- ment of a general Consistorj' proposed. The protest of a few evangelical clergj'men, as well as that of the Catholic clergy and the early death of the sovereign, prevented the resolutions of this diet from receiving the royal sanction. During the reign of Francis I the rights of the Protestants were often encroached upon, especially in the case of mixed marriages. The Diet of 1813 to 181rl interfered, however, in favor of the Prot- estants, and enlarged, in its provisions concerning mix- ed marriages and the right of joining the Protestant Church, the law of 1791. The fulness of equal rights was finally secured to Protestants by a law of 1848. In
consequence of the failure of the Hungarian "War of In- dependence in 1848 and 1849, these rights w('re, luiw- ever, for a time suspended. The imperial ( onimand- cr, baron Haynau, himself a Protestant, abolislied the ofKces of general inspector and the district inspectors for the Church of the Augsburg Confession, and that of curators for the Church of the Helvetic Confession. The holding of conventions was forbidden, and only after a time the holding of " senioral conventions" al- lowed when attended by an imperial commissioner. After repeated petitions and representations, the minis- ter of public worship and instruction, on August 21, 185G, laid the draft of a law on the reorganization of the Constitution of the Protestant churches before the su- perintendents. The latter declined this draft, and unan- imously asked for the convocation of the General Synod. On September 1, 1859, an imperial patent was published, wliicli undertook, on tlie ground of the law of 1791, to give to the Protestant churches a new Constitution. Nearly the entire evangelical Church of both Confes- sions protested against the legality of this imperial patent, claiming for the Church the right to make her- self the necessary changes in her Constitution on the legal basis of the law of 1791. Only a few congrega- tions of the Lutheran Slovacks, numbering together about 54 congregations, accepted the patent. All the efforts to break the opposition of the Protestants failed ; and when, in 18G7, the Austrian government concluded to make peace with Hungary, the ])atent of 1859, and all the decrees accompanying it, were repealed. The two Protestant churches were assured that they would be at liberty to rearrange their Church matters in a con- stitutional way. At the General Convention of the Confession of Augsburg, which was held in Pesth in Sep- tember, the reunion of the Lutlieran Slovacks who had accepted the patent with the remainder of the Church was consummated. In December, 18G7, a General Con- vention of the two Protestant churches was held under the presidency of baron Nicholas Vay, in order to ac- quaint the Hungarian Diet with the wishes and opinion of the churches concerning religious and school ques- tions. The Convention resolved, 1, that the affairs of the Protestants be regulated by general laws, and not by special laws for each of the two denominations; 2, that no privileges be granted to any on account of re- ligion ; 3, tliat the equality pronounced in the 20th ar- ticle of the law of 1848 extend to all denominations; 4, that the Church with regard to the state be autonomous, and that to the state belong only the right of supreme inspection and of protection. Other liberal resolutions were adopted by this and by a later Convention respect- ing a cliange of religion, mixed marriages, divorces, schools, and endowment. The majority of the Diet showed itself just toward the Protestants, and their chief demands were fulfilled. The reconciliation which took place in 18G7 between the peoi>le of Hungary and the emperor of Austria gave to Hungary a greater in- dependence than it had ever enjoyed before. A sjiecial ministry was appointed for the coimtries of the Hunga- rian cro\m, which also had their own diet, and retained only a few points of administration in common with the remainder of the monarchy. One of tlie most impor- tant reforms, introduced into Hungarj' in consequence of the new Constitution, was the declaration of the au- tonomy of all the religions recognized in Hungary, and the transfer of the extensive rights in ecclesiastical af- fairs, which had formerly been connected with the Him- garian crown, to elective assemblies representing the several religious denominations. The first assemblies of those churches, which had thus far been witliout them, were convoked by the government ; they fixed the mode of election for the sulisequent assemblies. Thus, with the other denominations, the Koman Catholic Church received an autonomy congress, the only elective assem- bly of this kind in tlie Church, and regarded with great distrust by the ultramontane party. It consists of all the bishops, and of chosen delegates of the lower clergy