Péter Pázmány

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Péter Pázmány (October 4, 1570 – March 19, 1637) was a Hungarian philosopher, theologian, cardinal, pulpit orator and statesman. He was an important figure in the Counter-Reformation in the Kingdom of Hungary, especially in present-day Slovakia.

[edit] Biography

Péter Pázmány was born in Nagyvárad (Oradea) and was educated there and in Kolozsvár (Cluj-Napoca). At the latter town he converted from Calvinism to Roman Catholicism in 1583. In 1587 he entered the Jesuit Order. Pázmány went through his probation at Kraków, took his degree at Vienna, studied theology at Rome, and finally completed his academic course at the Jesuit college at Graz. In 1601 he was sent to the Order's establishment at Sellye, where his eloquence and dialectic won back hundreds to Catholicism, including many of the noblest families. Prince Miklós Esterházy and Paul Rákóczy were among his converts.

In 1607 he was assigned to the archbishop of Esztergom, and in the following year attracted attention in the Diet by his denunciation of the eighth point of the Peace of Vienna, which prohibited the Jesuits from acquiring landed property in Hungary. At about the same time Pope Paul V, on the petition of Emperor Matthias, released Pázmány from his monkish vows. On the April 25, 1616 he was made dean of Turócz (Turiec), and on September 28 he became primate of Hungary. He received the red hat from Pope Urban VIII in 1629. Pázmány was the soul of the Catholic Counter-Reformation in Hungary.

Particularly remarkable is his Igazságra vezető Kalauz (Guide to Truth), which appeared in 1613. This manual united all the advantages of scientific depth, methodical arrangement and popular style. As the chief pastor of the Hungarian church, Pázmány used every means in his power, short of absolute contravention of the laws, to obstruct and weaken Protestantism, which had risen during the 16th century. In 1619 he founded a seminary for theological candidates at Nagyszombat (Trnava), and in 1623 laid the foundations of a similar institution at Vienna, the still famous Pazmanaeum, at a cost of 200,000 florins. In 1635 he contributed 100,000 florins towards the foundation of a Hungarian university. He also built Jesuit colleges and schools at Pozsony (Bratislava), and Franciscan monasteries at Érsekújvár (Nové Zámky) and Körmöcbánya (Kremnica).

In politics he played a considerable part. It was chiefly due to him that the diet of 1618 elected Archduke Ferdinand to succeed the childless Matthias. He also repeatedly thwarted the martial ambitions of Gábor Bethlen, and prevented György Rákóczi I, over whom he had a great influence, from allying with the Ottoman Empire and the Protestants.

Pázmány's chief works include: The Four Books of Thomas à Kempis on the imitation of Christ (Hungarian, 1603), of which there are many editions; Diatribe theologica de visible Christi in terris ecclesia (Graz, 1615); Vindiciae ecclesiasticae (Vienna, 1620); Sermons for every Sunday in the Year (Hung., Pressburg, 1636); The Triumph of Truth (Hungarian, Pozsony, 1614).

Pázmány died in Pozsony in 1637. His most important legacy was his creation of the Hungarian literary language. As an orator he was dubbed "the Hungarian Cicero in the purple".

[edit] References

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
• Vilmos Fraknói, Péter Pázmány and his Times (Hung. Pest, 1868–1872); Correspondence of Pázmány (Hung. and Latin), published by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (Pest, 1873). (R. N. B.)