John von Küküllo wrote the Life of Lewis the First, 1342—1382, and John De Turocz publish- ed a Chronicle of the Kingdom of Hungary down to the year 1473, in which he has introduced, word for word, the writings of his above-men- tioned predecessors, as well as the Chronicon Budense of an anonymous author printed at Buda in 1473.[1]
The battle of Mohács (1526) is the "Dies
irae" of the Hungarians, and its story of defeat
and humiliation is more melancholy from its so
immediately following a period of hope and of
brightness. Hungary had been enlightened by the
efforts of her own sons, and by the influx of illus-
trious strangers, as if merely to contrast with the
darkness of Turkish oppression. The Reformation
which soon after this period broke in upon the
land, did much for the language. The spirit of
Lutheranism was essentially popular. Its instru-
ment, the vernacular tongue, especially repre-
sented in that mighty machine of knowledge and
of power, the Press, whose efforts have changed
and continue to change the character of nations,
and which acts as a security against their perma-
nent decline and fall, began to exert its beneficial
influences.
- ↑ Eichorn, Geschichte der Litteratur, II. 319.
