In the year which followed the Confession, in the spring of 1531, Devay returned to Hungary. He felt himself impelled to publish in his native land the great facts and the great doctrines of redemption, proclaimed at Augsburg by the princes and the free towns of Germany. He had attentively followed all the scenes of this great Christian drama; he attached himself at the same time with sympathy to the teaching of Melanchthon, whose mildness, prudence, and knowledge, and whose anxieties even, filled him with affection and admiration. It was not till later that the illustrious friend of Luther showed his leaning to a spiritual interpretation to the Lord’s Supper; but the germ was already there. Devay and other Hungarians followed this tendency with hearty interest. Some reformers have perhaps been inconsistent; their doctrine has not been in all points in harmony with the principles which they professed. Devay and others went the whole length; they walked straight along the road. Devay was a complete divine. He made progress. He did not stop at a few beautiful figures in the picture, at a few grand portions of the building; he saw the whole and embraced it. He recognized with Melanchthon the spirituality of the Supper, and with Luther the sovereignty of grace. Or, it would perhaps be more historical and more logical to say that with Calvin he believed both; a complete man par excellence, at least as far as man can be so. Further, he was not a mere recluse, complete only on his own account; he was a teacher. With a strong desire to know the truth, he combined a steadfast, determined character. He feared nothing, he hoped nothing from men; his hope and his fear were in God. He thought, as Pascal afterwards did, that the fear of men was bad policy. There was no faltering in him, he did not waver as some did, but went on with an intrepid heart and a confident step. There are some divines who venture only to present the truth by degrees, and this the human understanding frequently requires. The very light of the sun goes on increasing from dawn to midday. But the Hungarian reformer proclaimed at the outset the whole evangelical truth, with a frank heart, completely and boldly. He demanded an entire transformation of the life, a complete reformation of the church; and he extolled the greatness and the certainty of the salvation of which he was the herald. Distinguished for his theological attainments, he was equally so for his decision of character and his courage.

Devay, highly appreciated and recommended, was settled in the capital of Hungary. As pastor at Buda, which is united by a bridge to Pesth, so that the two cities are virtually but one, he put forth all his energy in diffusing there the principles of the Reformation by his discourses, his writings, and his deeds. As the saints played an important part in the religion of the country, he showed in one of his works the nothingness of their invocation.[[557]] He composed fifty-two theses in which, after confuting his opponents, he set forth clearly the essence of a real Christian reformation, or, as he used to say, the rudiments of salvation.[[558]] Unfortunately he had not at this time a printing-press at his service, Hungary being much behindhand in this respect. He therefore made numerous copies of his writings, as used to be done before Gutenberg’s invention. At the same time he preached with power. He appeared wherever he saw that any conquest was to be made. At his word many turned to the Gospel, and among them some eminent men.

Devay was not alone in his endeavors to spread Christian life in the Hungarian Church. Anthony Transylvanus was preaching the Gospel at Kaschau and in the surrounding districts, Basil Radan at Debreczin, Andrew Fischer and Bartholomew Bogner at Zipsen, Michael Siklosy and Stephen Kopacsy in the comitat of Zemplin. Leonard Stoeckel and Lawrence Quendel, who had studied at Wittenberg at the same time as Devay, soon propagated the evangelical faith in other places. The Reformation was thus quite peacefully, without great struggles or great show, making the conquest of Hungary. The Gospel was not spreading there with the roar of torrents, as it did in the places where Luther, Farel, and Knox spoke; but its waters flowed smoothly. They did not fall rushing and foaming from the mountains, but they came forth imperceptibly from the ground. It was a conquest without clash of cymbals and trumpets, made by brave scouts. Reform often began with men of the lower ranks. Some humble evangelist would proclaim in a small town the words of eternal life, and many hearts joyfully received them.

There were exceptions, however, to the calm of which we speak, and the life of the greatest reformer of these lands presents to us tragical situations such as abound in the history of the Reformation.

Devay did not remain long at Buda. He was called to Cassovia (Kaschau) in Upper Hungary, then under the rule of Ferdinand, from which place he was able to bear the heavenly doctrine to the banks of the Hernath and the Tchenerl, into the whole comitat of Abaujvar, to Eperies on the north, and to Ujhely on the east. Everywhere he labored zealously. Ere long the inhabitants attached themselves with all their heart not only to him, but to the Word of God. The nobles of one of the market towns of the comitat of Zemplin, impressed by his powerful discourses, left the Romish Church and received with faith the divine promises. The inhabitants of several villages of the neighborhood were gained over by this example. These numerous conversions excited the wrath of the Roman clergy, and on all sides the priests called for the removal of a man so dangerous as Devay. Thomas Szalahazy, bishop of Eger (Erlau), denounced him to King Ferdinand. Agents of this prince made their way secretly to the places where the simple but powerful reformer might be found, and they seized and carried him off. A deed so daring could not be concealed. The report of it spread among the inhabitants of the town of Cassovia, and the people, who were warmly attached to the reformer, rose in revolt. But all was useless. The tools of the bishop dragged Devay into the mountains of the comitat of Liptau; but even there they did not think him safe enough. They feared the mountains, the forests, the defiles; they could not dispense with prisons, keepers, and thick walls. They conducted Devay, therefore, to Presburg, and thence to Vienna; and here he was very rigorously treated. Put in chains, supplied with scanty nourishment, subjected to all kinds of privations, he suffered cruelly in body, and his soul was often overwhelmed with sorrow. He wondered whether he was ever to escape from those gloomy walls. He sought after God from the depth of his soul, knowing that He is the only deliverer. At a later time he frequently used to speak of all the bodily and mental sufferings which he had undergone in the prison of Vienna.

John Faber, bishop of the diocese, a learned man and of superior abilities, had at first taken much interest in Luther’s writings; but he found the diet a little too strong for the weak stomachs of the people. In 1521, being over head and ears in debt, and having nothing to pay, he betook himself to Rome to escape from his creditors and to claim help of the pope; and in order to make himself agreeable he composed a work against the great reformer. Rome transformed Faber, and, on his return to Germany, he began to contend against the Reformation, without, however, being entirely proof against the Christian words of Luther. In 1528 he tried to gain over Melanchthon, offering him as the price of apostasy a situation under King Ferdinand.[[559]] The same year he contributed to the erection of the stake at which Hubmeyer was burnt. Faber had been provost of Buda, and in 1530 he was named bishop of Vienna. He cited Devay to appear before him. The bishop was surrounded by many ecclesiastics, and a secretary or notary seated before a table took down every thing in writing. The Hungarian reformer did not allow himself to be intimidated by his judges, nor weakened by a wish to put an end to his sufferings. He spoke not only as a cultivated and learned man, but still more as a Christian full of decision and courage. He set forth unreservedly evangelical truth. ‘You are accused,’ said Faber, ‘of asserting that after the words have been uttered—This is my body, this is my blood—the substance of the bread and the wine still exists.’ ‘I have explained in the clearest way,’ replied Devay, ‘the real nature of the sacraments, their character and their use. They are signs of grace and of the good-will of God towards us; thus they console us in our trials; they confirm, establish, and make certain our faith in God’s promise. The office of the Word of God and of the sacraments is one and the same. The latter are not mere empty and barren signs; they truly and really procure the grace which they signify, but, nevertheless, are beneficial only to those who receive them in faith, spiritually and sacramentally.’[[560]] It is clear that the spiritual element predominated in the theology of Devay, and that he was already almost of the same opinion as the theologians of reformed Switzerland. He set forth his whole belief with piety so manifest that the court did not feel authorized to condemn him. He was therefore set at liberty.[[561]]

Devay At Buda.

Devay now went to Buda, where he had first exercised his ministry, and which was now subject to John Zapolya, the rival of Ferdinand of Austria. Zapolya, a capricious and despotic prince, was at this time in a very ill humor.[[562]] He had a favorite horse, which the smith from unskilfulness had pricked to the quick while shoeing it. The king, in a fit of rage, had ordered the smith to be cast into prison, and had sworn that if the animal died of the injury, the man who had pricked it should die too. Hearing that the preacher who was branded by the priests as a great heretic had arrived in his capital, his splenetic humor immediately vented itself on him. Theologian or shoeing-smith, it was all one to him, when once he was displeased. Devay was seized and confined in the same prison with the artisan. Thus the reformer escaped from a gulf only to be dashed against a rock; he fell from Charybdis upon Scylla. He was in expectation of death, but he had a good conscience; and, his zeal increasing in the prospect of eternity, he ardently desired to win some souls to God before appearing in His presence. He therefore entered into conversation with his unfortunate companion in captivity; and finding him melancholy and alarmed, he did what Paul had done in the prison at Philippi for the jailer trembling at the earthquake—he besought him to receive Jesus Christ as his Saviour, assuring him that this alone sufficed to give him eternal life. The smith believed, and great peace took the place of the distress which overwhelmed him. This was a great joy for the faithful evangelist. The horse got well, and the king, appeased, gave orders for the release of his smith from prison. When the jailer came to bring this news to the man, the latter, to the great surprise of his keeper, refused the favor which was offered him. ‘I am a partaker,’ said he, ‘in the faith for which my companion is to die. I will die with him.’ This noble speech was reported to Zapolya, who, although capricious, was still a feeling man: and he was so much affected that he commanded both the prisoners to be set at liberty. This second imprisonment of Devay lasted till 1534.

Devay went out of the prison weakened and broken down, but ever pious and anxious to consecrate his days to the service of Him who is the truth and the life. A Hungarian magnate, the Count Nadasdy, a rich and learned man, who openly and actively protected the Reformation, and who had at great expense founded a school with a view to promote the cultivation of literature,[[563]] one of the Maecenases of the sixteenth century, thought that the reformer, after his trials and his two harsh imprisonments, stood in need of repose and quiet occupation rather than a hand-to-hand fight with his adversaries. In his castle of Sarvar, Nadasdy had a very fine library. He invited Devay to take up his abode there, and to turn to account the studies in which he might engage for the propagation of evangelical knowledge. The reformer accepted this noble hospitality; and Sarvar became for him what the house of Du Tillet at Angoulême had been to Calvin, after his escape from the criminal lieutenant of Paris, and what the Wartburg had been to Luther. There was, however, this difference, that Devay had already endured several years of rigorous confinement, which was not the case with either Luther or Calvin. He set to work immediately, and studied and composed several polemical pieces. He had escaped from soldiers and jailers only to contend with adversaries of another kind.

The whole life of an evangelist is one continual struggle; and what more glorious conflict is there than that of truth with error? A champion worthy of Rome appeared to reply to Devay. Gregory Szegedy, doctor of the Sorbonne, and provincial of the Franciscan order in Hungary, having become acquainted with the first manuscript works of Devay, had declared that he undertook to refute them. He kept his word, and published at Vienna a treatise in which he controverted the theses on the rudiments of salvation.[[564]] This was the first work published by a Hungarian against the Reformation. Devay applied himself to the task of answering it, and his work was finished in the course of 1536.