Ignác Martinovics (b. Pest, 1755 - d. Budapest, 20 May 1795) was a philosopher, political adventurer, and a leader of the Hungarian Jacobin movement. He was condemned to death for high treason and beheaded on 20 May 1795, along with Count Jacok Sigray, Ferenc Szentmarajay, Jöszeph Hajnoczy, and others.
Martinovics belonged to a Serbian family who had fled from Serbia in the 17th century. His mother was a German Catholic who sent him to a Franciscan school. He was a teacher in natural sciences at the University of Lemberg.
Martinovics worked as a secret agent for the Austrian Emperor Leopold II until 1792. In his Oratio pro Leopoldo II he is explicit that only the authority that follows from a social contract should be recognized; he saw the aristocracy as the enemy of mankind, because they prevented people from becoming educated. In another of his works, Catechism of People and Citizens, he argued that citizens tend to oppose any repression and that sovereignty resides with the people. He became a Freemason. He was in favour of a federal republic for Hungary. A member of the Hungarian Jacobins, he was considered an idealistic forerunner of revolutionary thought by some, and an unscrupulous adventurer by others. He was in charge of stirring up a revolt against the nobility among the Hungarian serfs. Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor dismissed Martinovics and his boss Gotthardi, the former chief of the secret police, for these subversive acts. He was executed, together with 40 other prominent Jacobins, in May 1795.
The masonic lodge of Budapest is named after him.[1]
Sources : 'Paul Lendvai Die Ungarn. Ein Jahrtausend Sieger in Niederlagen. Bertelsmann Verlag, München 1999.