Owing to the impartiality of the Mussulmans, the Gospel was propagated from the banks of the Theiss as far as Transylvania and Wallachia, a fact testified by a letter addressed to Melanchthon.[[575]] Shortly before the Mussulman invasion, Sylvestre had published at Uj-Sziget his translation of the New Testament, intended for all the people of Hungary. When the first storm was past, this precious book began to circulate amongst the people. Ere long pious Christians endeavored to evangelize the country. Many Hungarians, partly on account of the persecution, partly for the sake of repose from their rude labors, and to console themselves for their sufferings, went to refresh and strengthen themselves at Wittenberg and afterwards returned to fresh conflicts. Wittenberg with Luther and so many other Christians full of lively faith was for these visitors an oasis in the desert. Amongst those who went to take shelter under these cool shades and beside these clear fountains were Stephen Kopaczy, Caspar Heltus, Emeric Ozoraes, Gregory Wisalmann, Benedict Abadius, and Martin de Kalmance (the last four afterwards adhered to the doctrines of Calvin). These were followed by many others. There was a continual going and coming. In proportion as the Mussulman ravages abated and fell off, the Christians took heart again and increased their efforts to rebuild the house of God. Hungary was like an ant-hill, where every one was astir and at work. God had there created sons for Himself, who actuated by His Spirit set themselves with unflagging earnestness to do the work of the Lord.[[576]]
Even in those districts which, from their nearness to Austria, were more subject to clerical authority, the Gospel was also making progress. For some time the struggle between the two doctrines was very sharp at Raab. The evangelicals in this town were without pastors, and a military prefect well-disposed towards the Reformation gave them one. At Stuhlweissenburg the Roman Catholics beset the justice of the town with their entreaties. ‘Prohibit,’ they said, ‘the preaching of the Gospel and the distribution of the Supper in both kinds, and put in prison the ministers and the communicants.’ The justice, a righteous and God-fearing man, firmly replied—‘In this matter I will obey God rather than men; in all things else I will fulfil my function.’ This man was a soldier who knew the commander whom he must before all obey.[[577]]
It was, however, chiefly in Upper Hungary and Transylvania that ruin was impending over the Roman Church. The influence of the conference of Schässburg was still very powerful there. Many of the inhabitants of these countries, hitherto heedless of the work of reformation, and even full of prejudices respecting it, began seriously to reflect on this great spiritual movement which was shaking the nations, and applied themselves to the reading of the ancient Scriptures of God, in which they recognized the active principles of the transformation of which they were witnesses. Whole parishes, carried away by the power of the truth and by the noble example of brave men who sacrificed every thing for the cause of God, declared openly for the Reformation. At Bartfeld, Michael Radaschin had preached the Gospel with so much power that all the force of Rome seemed to be destroyed there. In Transylvania many towns followed the example of Hermanstadt. The greater number of the inhabitants of Mediasch and Kronstadt, at the eastern extremity of the country, and of many other cities, declared that they were determined to believe nothing but |John Honter.| what is taught in the Word of God. The principal instrument of God in these districts was John Honter. After studying at Cracow and at Basel, he had returned into his native land, rich in knowledge, strengthened by faith, and inflamed with zeal. He had established there a printing-house, which was the first in Transylvania, as that of Uj-Sziget was the first in Hungary, and had published a multitude of school-books and evangelical books. It was not long before the whole of southern Transylvania, the country of the Saxons, was gained over to the Reformation. Honter himself at a later time published a narrative of these conquests.[[578]] The work, however, appears to have been less solidly done in these districts than in others. Transylvania was one of the few countries of the Reformation into which Socinianism penetrated as early as the sixteenth century.
Conquests more solid and more complete were in preparation. Devay, as we said, had gone into Switzerland. He had seen there the best men of the Helvetic Reformation, and had attached himself to the principles which they professed, towards which he had previously been attracted by his intercourse with Melanchthon, by his own study of Holy Scripture, and by his meditations in the prisons of Vienna. It was no longer the rather superficial theory of Zwinglius, but the more spiritual and profound doctrine of Calvin, that he had chiefly been in contact with. When he learnt that the disorders of the Mussulman invasion had come to an end and that it was once more possible to labor in Hungary to win souls to the Gospel, he returned home. He did not make his appearance there in any sectarian spirit. Christ crucified, the wisdom of God and the power of God, and a new birth by the operation of the Holy Spirit, always formed the basis of his teaching. But aiming at a close union with Christ he said—Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, ye have no life in you; adding however as the Saviour did—It is the Spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing. At Eperies and other towns in the mountains, there were some Hungarian ministers, disciples of Luther, who were astonished to hear that the man, who like them had for his master the Wittenberg reformer, spoke like Calvin. To these men it gave great pain to see that their fellow-countryman disagreed with the great doctor whom they had so long held in honor. They might, however, have rejoiced at the fact that Devay declared that the flesh of Christ is meat indeed and His blood is drink indeed. The real doctrine of Luther and the real doctrine of Calvin respecting the Lord’s Supper approximate to each other sufficiently for Lutherans to respect that of the Reformed Church, and for the Reformed Church to respect the Confession of Augsburg. Both sides ought to have done this, even had their difference on this point been greater than it really was, since both said—Christ is all in all. But it was the misfortune of that age that many fastened upon a few differences of detail rather than upon the great truths on which they were agreed.
These Hungarian pastors wrote to Luther in the spring of 1544; expressing their surprise that Devay, who had lately been at Wittenberg, professed a doctrine on the Supper different from that which was taught there. Luther’s astonishment on receiving this letter exceeded that of the Hungarians; and his grief was still greater than his surprise. He could not believe what they wrote to him. ‘What!‘[[579]] said he, ‘the man who had such a good name amongst us!... No, it is too hard to believe what they have written to me. One thing is certain, and that is that he did not receive from us the doctrine of the sacramentarians.[[580]]... We have constantly opposed it both in public and in private. There is not with us the slightest appearance of such an abomination.... I have not the faintest suspicion of Master Philip nor of any of the others.’ Henceforth the great and pious Luther, unfortunately somewhat irritable, frequently inveighed against the Devay whom he had so much loved, and loudly complained that he was teaching and practising rites very different from his own.[[581]] Luther then forgot the beautiful concord of Wittenberg to which he had been a party.
Devay At Debrecsin.
Devay, on his return from Switzerland, went to Debreczin, not far from the frontier of Transylvania, probably in consequence of a suggestion of Count Nadasdy. This town was a fief of Count Valentine Toeroek de Enying, one of the heroes of Hungary and a great protector of the Reformation. He was a near relation of Count Nadasdy. This magnate settled Devay at Debreczin not only as pastor but also as dean. The noble herald of the Gospel endeavored without delay to fertilize spiritually the waste and barren lands in the midst of which the town was situated. He gave instruction by his preaching, by his writings, many of which however were not printed, and also by his hymns. One of these began with the line—
Fit that every man should know—[[582]]
and it set forth in succession the great and vital doctrines of the Gospel. This hymn was long sung in all parts of Hungary. A powerful minister of the Word who had been a fellow-student with him at Cracow was at first his colleague and afterwards his successor. This was Martin de Kalmance. He was distinguished by two characteristics. One of these was that doctrine of grace which is especially set forth by Paul and by Calvin, and which had taken possession of his heart, joined with that spiritual communion with Christ of which the outward communion is the sign, the pledge, and the seal. The other was an animated and captivating eloquence which deeply stirred and carried away the souls of men. While his burning words extolled the eternal compassion of God who saves the sinner by Jesus Christ, it seemed as if all who heard him must fall at the Saviour’s feet to receive from Him the gift of life. Probably not one of the Hungarian reformers had warmer partisans or more implacable enemies. These last were so completely mastered by their hatred that they left traces of it everywhere. Like a hero of the mob, who sticks even upon the walls insulting names, a papist, who happened to be at Cracow, wrote in the matriculation-book of the university, beneath the name of Devay’s colleague, the following words—‘This Kalmance, infected with the spirit of error, has infected with the heresy of the sacramentarians a great part of Hungary.’[[583]] He was perpetually pursued by fanaticism. One day, when he was preaching at Beregszasz, a Roman priest, impelled by deadly hate, crept into the church, concealing under his dress a weapon with which he had provided himself, and shot him dead.[[584]] This humble minister was thus to meet the tragical end of the illustrious William of Nassau and other great supporters of evangelical doctrine. But this did not take place till some years later, in 1557. This faithful servant of God and his companions in arms had first to suffer many other assaults.
Persecution Instigated.