Greek authors in Péter Pázmány’s works

Báthory, Orsolya (2024) Greek authors in Péter Pázmány’s works. CAMOENAE HUNGARICAE, 9 (1). pp. 6-17. ISSN 1786-5484

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Abstract

We sometimes tend to overlook the fact that humanism did not only rediscover clas- sical Greco-Roman antiquity in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, it also found the Christian authors of the late antiquity and the works of the Greek and Latin church fathers again. The authors most frequently published in Latin translation in Western Europe between 1450 and 1600 include John Chrysostom, Basil the Great, Eusebius of Caesarea, and Gregory of Nazianzus. Contrary to Protestant practice, the Catholic argumentative literature of the period was not char- acterized by quoting Greek texts in the original, even sporadically, and Latin played a central role both in the Church as well as the theological and religious literature. This trend, primarily generated by the Jesuits, can also be observed in the oeuvre of Péter Pázmány (1570–1637), the most important figure of the Catholic Reformation (Counter-Reformation) of the Kingdom of Hungary. The practice of citing Greek sources in Latin to support his arguments is also prevalent in his works: Greek texts are rare in Pázmány’s works, and the ones that are there are only a few words long and usually part of an etymological explanation. Plutarch is the most frequently cited pagan Greek author in Pázmány’s works, while the so-called “three hierarchs” of the Church Fathers are the most often referenced in Latin (John Chrysostom, Basil the Great and Gregory of Nazianzus). The frequency with which these authors appear in Pázmány’s works correlates with their popularity in Europe, since their works were the most frequently printed in Latin translation in the European presses (Basel, Antwerp, Paris) that are of importance for humanist philology. Although Pázmány often consulted collections of quotations (flores, florilegium, polyanthea) to find authoritative arguments he could use in his argumentation, he also may have known the Lat- in translations of the Greek authors in the form of volumes. Initially, Latin translations were made by writers who were sympathetic to the Reformation, such as Erasmus, Wolfgang Musculus, or Oecolampadius. These translations were included in the Index prohibitorum librorum, along with their oeuvres. By Pázmány’s time, purged versions of the Latin translations were available, which Pázmány was free to use.

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