(Selected Examples of Problematic Adoption of Regulations of Hungarian Catholic Synods in the 16th and 17th Centuries in Religious Practice)

Abstract: In the 16th century, there were many confessional and social changes, due to which the position of the Catholic Church seemed to have been shaken and lost many believers and priests. Being faced with the pressure of the spreading Protestant Reformation, Roman Catholicism was itself forced to agree to deeper reforms in its own ranks. This pressure led to attempts at reforming its structures, approach and direction so as to be able to adapt to the early modern conditions and to remain competitive with the new churches. The same regulations constantly reappearing over several decades, numerous cases and disputes, as well as the frequent admonitions from the archbishops and the Holy See, all of these testified to a more difficult and slower application of regulations and their adoption by believers and priets in practice. The Catholic Church had to rethink a number of questions concerning the faith, religious doctrine, teaching the believers and priests, sacraments, ceremonies, church services and especially the life and discipline of the clerics who had to be an example and moral support for secular representatives. Altough the changes were put into practice slowly, synods with their regulations were one of the most important methods or mechanisms of the early modern Catholic reform in Hungary.

Authors: Jablonský, Dávid

DOI: 10.17846/CL.2017.10.1.222-232

Publication order reference: Mgr. Dávid Jablonský; Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra, Faculty of Arts, Department of History, Hodžova 1, 949 01 Nitra, Slovakia; email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Source: Konštatínove listy, 2017, vol.: 10, issue: 1, pages: 222-232 (PDF file)

Key words: HUNGARY, EARLY MODERN PERIOD, CATHOLICISM, SYNOD, REFORM, CHURCH

Language: SLOVAK