THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
PAZMANY, PETER : Hungarian Roman Catholic prelate; b. at Grosswardein (Hungarian, Nagyvarad, 137 m. e.s.e. of Budapest) Oct. 4, 1570; d. at Pressburg Mar. 19, 1637. His parents, noble landlords of the Reformed creed, sent the moderatelytalented son to the school of Jesuits at Kolosvar, who during four years of instruction converted him and sent him for higher studies to Rome. In 1597 he became professor of philosophy and theology at the University of Gratz. Singled out for a missionary by his superior he soon returned to his fatherland, where the archbishop of Esztergom, Francis Forgacs, took him under his patronage, because the young missionary in three weeks converted the archbishop's brother. The first Hungarian war for religious freedom (1604-06) fought under Bocskay ended with victory. The public mind in the diet of the kingdom (1608) urged the banishment of the Jesuits who excited the war. Pazmany boldly defended them by voice and pen, thus advancing the cause of the Roman Catholics. Only the right of possessing landed property was prohibited to the Jesuits, but in a more favorable epoch this law was frustrated by duplicity.
Literary activity, printing, and books had been mostly in the hands of Protestants. Pazmany gave a new impulse to the Roman Catholic cause by his books written in a powerful style. After 1603 he made a vigorous attack upon both the persons and tenets of Luther and Calvin by means of two pamphlets followed by two polemics: " The worship of Saints " and " Calvin's Credo." Upon Peter Alvinczy, Reformed preacher at Kaschau, he turned with his " Five Handsome Letters " (Pozsony, 1609). His most powerful book, which called forth many attempts at refutation, was the " Guide to Divine Truth " (Pozsony, 1613), the first apology for Roman Catholicism in Hungary, given in animated and picturesque form, which compelled the Protestants to defend their views. In the following three years sixteen publications appeared on both sides. Passion and hatred reached their climax during the period of the first centennial jubilee of the Reformation. Alvinczi issued his " Mirror " (1614) and Itinerarium Catholicum (Debreczin, 1616), showing that the new doctrine was based on the Bible. Pazmany's answer, " The Calvinist Mirror," was full of biting scorn. The Lutheran pastor of Zsepreg, E. Zvonarics, translated M. Hafenreffer's Vom den biblischen Glauben (1614) as a defense against Pazmany. The second edition of the " Guide " stirred up agitation anew among the Protestants. The widow of the Palatine George Thurzo sent the " Guide " in a Latin version to Wittenberg University, asking the professors to refute it; the demand was met by Balduinus in his Phosphorus verus Catholicismi (Wittenberg, 1626) in which he refuted the Jesuitic sophisms. Pazmany's last book, " Sermons " (Pozsony, 1636), exhibits in 105 sermons his oratorical power. His " Prayer Book " (1606; 17th ed., 1869) proved exceedingly popular. He was the author of thirty-seven works, of which twenty-two enrich Hungarian learning and earned for him the epithet " the Hungarian Cicero " as well as " the terrible scourge of Protestantism." He was the
founder of Roman Catholic scientific literature in Hungary.
After Forgacs' death Matthias, king and emperor, satisfying the ardent wish of the Roman Catholic party, raised (1616) Pazmany to the archbishopric and primacy. Here begins his career as politician. His chief aim was to strengthen the power of the Hapsburg dynasty and by this way to lead Roman Catholicism to victory and to destroy Protestantism. Being according to the state constitution, after the king, the second in rank, he filled the Protestant party with fear. The king having no direct descendant, the Jesuits decided to raise to the throne Ferdinand, duke of Styria, a pupil of the Jesuits, who had extirpated Protestantism in his domain. Pazmany, upheld by about fifty aristocratic families, most of whom he had won to Roman Catholicism, secured, after heated debate in the diet, the king's election. The Protestant party required the oath from the king that he secure them the free use of their churches against the patriarchal right of the Roman Catholic landlords who usually drove away the Protestants from their estates. Pazmany's sentiment was revealed by his declaration, " that they might rather leave his country desolate than take the churches for themselves against the rights of his rural patron." Through the influence of Pazmany, the Roman Catholic party omitted from the text the important phrase una cum templis. The highest state-offices went into the hands of Roman Catholics, who thus had the balance of power.
The war of thirty years broke out in Bohemia; Gabriel Bethlen, the Hungarian Reformed prince of Transylvania, seized this favorable opportunity to save his brethren in the faith and in 1619 invaded the territory of Ferdinand so successfully that Pazmany had to flee to Vienna, while the king was forsaken by his subjects in Hungary. The Bohemians having been suppressed, Bethlen and Ferdinand made peace (1622). Transylvania obtained seven counties, and religious freedom was guaranteed as in the time of Bocskay. The throne of the Hapsburgs was saved, and Pazmany, regaining his dignities, maintained his supremacy and continued his policy. Count Nicolaus Eszterhazy, styled " the second Pazmany," was chosen palatine 1625, while Pope Urban VIII. congratulated the Roman Catholic dignitaries upon the acclamation of Ferdinand III. as king, and the king of Spain rewarded Pazmany with a pension of 3,000 ducats. After the death of Bethlen in 1629, Pazmany obtained a freer hand. The prince's widow, Catherine of Brandenburg, embraced the Roman Catholic faith, although by doing so she lost the throne. In 1629 Pazmany was made cardinal. Gustavus Adolphus put in hazard the results of the Hapsburg policy. Ferdinand II. sent Pazmany as his ambassador to Rome (1632) where he presented a proposition in the name of the king to unite the Roman Catholic powers of Europe for the extirpation of heretics and Turks, the territory to be divided among these powers. But the papal policy was rather in favor of the French interests.
The Roman Catholic Church had almost perished when Pazmany appeared. A third part of Hungary lay under Turkish domination; bishoprics, abbeys,