Angst vor der Säkularisierung unter den Reformierten der Batschka und des Banats zwischen 1781 und 1791

Hegyi, Ádám Alex (2025) Angst vor der Säkularisierung unter den Reformierten der Batschka und des Banats zwischen 1781 und 1791. Yearbook of the Society for 18th Century Studies on South Eastern Europe, 8. pp. 106-118. ISSN 2707-6091

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Abstract

Habsburg Emperor Joseph II's Patent of Toleration and the Act of 26 June 1791 put an end to the oppression of Protestants in the Kingdom of Hungary. As a result, the Calvinist and Lutheran churches began to develop: the organisation of new parishes and the building of churches received a great impetus. From 1781, censorship did not prohibit the printing of Protestant books, so Calvinists and Lutherans became very optimistic about the future. However, the unbridled golden age was overshadowed by the Enlightenment's criticism of religion and the centralising measures of the absolutist state. The Enlightenment was highly critical of traditional religiosity, while the state restricted the autonomy of church administration in many ways. It was only after 1781 that the regions of Bacska and Banat, in the south of the Kingdom of Hungary, became missionary destinations for the Calvinist Church, as it became possible to organise parishes in these areas. This was done by recruiting Hungarian and German-speaking settlers at a time when the Calvinist Church was experiencing one of its greatest crises: a double episcopal election took place in 1791, with a struggle between secular and ecclesiastical powers in the background. The Calvinists living in Banat and Bacska were also involved in this dispute, which is not recorded in church history. This article examines how the Enlightenment's critique of religion influenced the life of Calvinist congregations, and what the interference of secular power in church life meant in practice. In other words, this article seeks to identify the processes of secularisation that took place in Bacska and Banat between 1781 and 1791.

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