Page:A history of Hungarian literature.djvu/72

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58
HUNGARIAN LITERATURE

perfect in metre. Molnár was remarkably industriaus and wrote, amongst other thing, a Hungarian grammar.

We have seen that the Reformation gave an impetus to serious study, and also led to the creation of different sects. The most interesting was the Unitarian com­ munity. There was a time when the greater part of the population of Transylvania belonged to that body. Just as the champion of the Episcopal church in Transylvania was a foreigner, Basire, so too the Unitarian doctrine was first propagated in Transyivania by the foreigner John George Blandrata, a physician, who had been banished írom several countries. In Transylvania Blandrata became Court physician to the ruler, John II. That prince was converted to Unitarianism, and his chaplain, Bishop Francis David, became the most ardent apostle of the new faith. This was the most prosperous period of Transyl­vanian Unitarianism, but soon after the death of John II., Francis David was cast into prison, where he died. Though he perished, his cause lived on, and still has a large number of adherents in Hungary. Some of them split off from the main body and forn1ed the Szombatos sect, whose members keep Saturday instead of Sunday as the Sabbath day. The founder of this long persecuted sect was Simon Pécsi, the Chancellor of Gabriel Bethlen.