HUNGARY
557
HUNGARY
nyo (Rosenau), Kassa (Kaschau), and Szatmdr as
suffragans. In 1802 the Benedictine, C!istercian, and
Premonstratensian Orders were re-established. In
order to elevate religious life and ecclesiastical discip-
line, the Prince Primate Alexander Rudnay held a
great national synod in 1822, at which ordinances in
regard to the improvement of the schools were passed.
It was not until the Diet of 1832-36 that the affairs of the Church were again brought up. The occasion was the question of mixed marriages and of changes to the Protestant religion. In regard to the latter. Art. XXVI of 1791, Sec. 13, decreed that the change to Protestantism could only take place with royal permission and after six weeks' instruction. The Protestants made strenuous efforts to have this article of the law annulled, but for a long time they were not successful. It was not until the Diet of 1844 that the Protestants secured a settlement of the matter in accordance with their wishes; Art. Ill of 1844 re- pealed the requirements of the royal consent and the six weeks' instruction, and decreed instead that the change of faith must be twice notified to the parish priest within four weeks in the presence of two wit- nesses. If the parish priest refused to grant a certif- icate of this fact, the witnesses could draw it up.
The second question that arose in this period, that of mi.xed marriages, had been last regulated by the Diet of 1790-91. The law contained enactments, as mentioned above, concerning the religion of chil- dren of mLxed marriages, but the cases increased in which the parents made a formal declaration promis- ing to bring the children up as Catholics. In 1793 there was a Protestant agitation against this declara- tion, and when, in the years 1830-40, the question of mixed marriages was discussed in Ciermany the con- troversy in that country influenced conditions in Hungary. In mixed marriages the Catholic clergy continued to demand the signing of a formal declara- tion. The Bishop of Nagy-Vdrad (Grosswardein) was the first bishop to order (1839) that only those mixed marriages could have the blessing of the Church in which the religion of the children was settled by a declaration in favour of the Catholic Faith. The Protestants demanded again from the Diet of 1839- 40 the suppression of the declaration. The pastoral letter of 2 July, 1840, of the Hungarian bishops bound the clergy to passive assistance in mixed marriages in which Catholic interests were not guarded — that is, where the formal declaration was not made. This ordinance aroused much feeling, and several ecclesias- tics were fined on accoimt of passive assistance. The bishops now turned to Rome, and the Holy See con- firmed the pastoral letter, with the addition that mixed marriages were indeed forbidden, but that such marriages were valid, even when not entered on before a priest, if two witnesses were present. The Diet of 1843-44 allowed mixed marriages to be entered upon before Protestant clergy; the Catholic mother, however, received the right, with the permission of the father, to bring up all of the children in the Catho- lic Faith.
The agitation of 1848 and the Hungarian Revolu- tion of 1848-49, besides changing political and social conditions, also affected the interests of the Church. The Diet of 1848 decreed the equality and reciprocity of all recognized confessions. In 1849 the minis- ter of education and public worship, Horvdth, de- sired to grant Catholic autonomy, but after the sup- pression of the Hungarian Revolution it came to nothing. Large numbers of the Catholic clergy took part in the Hungarian Revolution, a fact which in the following years of absolutism led to their persecution by the Government. During the period of autocratic rule the ordinances of the Austrian Concordat of 1855 were made authoritative for Hungary also, and in accordance with its enactments provincial synods for settling various ecclesiastical affairs were held in
1858 and 1863. Although the Concordat granted
greater freedom to the Hungarian Church, yet the
administration of the fund for religion and education
remained in the hands of the Government. In 1853
political reasons led to the elevation of the Diocese of
Zagrab (Agram) to an archdiocese having as suffra-
gans the Sees of Diakovar, Zengg-Modrus, and Koros,
and later to the founding of the Archdiocese of Fo-
garas. The erection of this archdiocese violated the
rights of the Primate of Himgary ; this led to repeated,
but ineffectual, protests.
The period of absolutism in Himgary came to an end with the coronation of Francis Joseph I as King of Hungary (8 June, 1867), and the laws of 1848 were once more in force. The responsible parliamentary Government and Parliament exercised much influence on the affairs of the Church. The first laws touching ecclesiastical questions undoubtedly worked much injury to the Church, as the Common School Law of 1868 (Art. XXXVIII), which left to the inhabitants of a community the decision as to whether the com- mon school was to be denominational or commimal;
Cathedral, Waitzkn ^\'alv.), liiM-iAUY
also Art. XLVIII which, in regard to divorce in mixed marriages, enacted that such cases might be brought by the respective parties Ijefore the compe- tent spiritual authorities recognized by each, and that each must be lioimd by the decision of his, or her, own spiritual authority. This enactment led many to change to the Protestant religion. Art. LIII of 1868 enacted, in regard to the children of mixed marriages, that the children should follow the creed of the parent of the same sex, and that this must be enforced even after the death of the parent, as, for example, after the death of the Protestant father, the Catholic mother could not bring up in the Catholic Faith the minor chil- dren belonging to the Protestant confession. It was also decreed that, when one of the parents changed his religion, the child could not follow this change unless under seven years of age. These enactments led later to a bitter ecclesiastico-political struggle.
Various efforts were made in Parliament, between 1869-72, to injure the Church, as in the bills intro- ducing civil marriage, civil registration, complete religious liberty, etc. However, of these measures, those regarding civil marriages, the keeping of the registers by civil officials, etc., were not enforced until a much later date. Serious complications arose upon the promulgation of the dogma of Infallibility by the Vatican Council in 1870. The Government, sup- ported by the jus placeti, forbade its publication; a royal reproof was sent in 1871 to the Bishop of Sz'^kes-Feh^rvar (Stuhlweissenburg), Jekelfalussy, who officially published the dogma. The Kultur- kampf in Germany (1872-75) produced in Hungary a movement hostile to the Church. Agitation was also
