Search

Péter Pázmány (1570–1636) was one of the most significant personalities in early modern Hungarian history. Born a Protestant, Pázmány converted to Catholicism while a student and then became a Jesuit. Despite the Society's requirement of vows from its members that excluded the possibility of holding high ecclesiastical office, Pázmány became provost of Turóc (a small church benefice in northern Hungary) and shortly thereafter archbishop of Esztergom and primate of Hungary. His tenure was marked by ecclesiastical reform and multiple educational projects of which the most notable was the founding of a university in Nagyszombat (Trnava). He was also the author of influential devotional and polemical works in the Hungarian vernacular. Pázmány's legacy as a preserver and promoter of a "civilization" and a creed both Christian and European and of a culture distinctly Hungarian endures, as does his reputation as a master and shaper of Hungarian prose. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The former Jesuits Adam František Kollár and György Pray each devoted much of their careers to work in libraries; thereby contributing to the literary and scholarly culture of the eastern Habsburg lands during the second half of the eighteenth century. Kollár, who left the Jesuits early in his career, authored works defending the rights of the Hungarian crown, and chronicled the history of the Rusyn people, ultimately achieved an international reputation as a scholar, coining the term ethnologia. Pray is remembered for his discovery of the oldest written example of the Hungarian language, his extensive historical publications, and for his role, following the papal suppression of 1773, as "Historiographus Hungariae" (Hungary's hagiographer). The impact of these scholarly efforts by these former Jesuits was a rich and enduring foundation upon which later Hungarian historiography and library science would be based. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two Hungarian Jesuits active in the early seventeenth century, Stephanus Arator and Peter Pázmány, wrote polemical pieces drawing on the Qur'an. Arator's work, Confutatio alcorani (1610) relies on the 1543 Bibliander edition of the translation made by Robert of Ketton and on Juan Andrés' Confusión o confutación de la secta Mahomética y del Alcorán. Pázmány, in his Az mostan tamat uy tvdomaniok hamissaganak (1605) also draws on Bibliander, while presenting his own translations of, and commentaries on, Bibliander into Hungarian, the language of Pázmány's work. Both Arator and Pázmány were influenced more by the political and confessional dynamics surrounding them than by any apparent desire to grasp the meaning of the Qur'an. The crisis that both Catholicism and, more broadly, European Christianity, faced in the early seventeenth century overshadows these Jesuits' efforts to explore the Qur'an. Pázmány, in particular, uses the Qur'an to make a case against Protestant sects and Unitarians, whose influence and numbers had greatly increased in Hungary. However further study of the Jesuit Austrian Province, in which both men worked, is needed to understand more fully the factors shaping these two examples of anti-Qur'anic literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the baroque era, both Jesuit priest and Calvinist divine created historical narratives in which continuity with the past bolstered their current positions and aided in the retelling of their respective institutional histories. They also put forward constructions of masculinity that directed their own self-perceptions while defining the Other against these self-perceptions. At the time, these men could not see the similarities between each of their institutional and masculine ideals. Today the parallels and intersections are striking. These constructions of identity continue to have meaning today, and provide tools to advance our own understanding of spirituality, whatever forms it takes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the administrative structure of the Society of Jesus and the role that Jesuit's played within it in eighteenth century Transylvania, Romania. Contrary to the commonly accepted understanding of their role the article argues that Jesuit brothers actually took on many roles beyond that of priest. Some members of the order also performed many practical duties, which added to the community in ways which went beyond religious life. These included cultural activities, music, and having a trade.

For 80 years the Society of Jesus operated a complex of institutions in the Transylvanian town of Cluj, including an academy, a school for aristocratic boys, a residence, and an architecturally distinguished church. The Jesuits endeavored to convert the local population, which included Orthodox Romanians, Jews, Roma (Gypsies), Armenians, Lutherans, and Unitarians, to Catholicism and to introduce the program of studies outlined in their curricular guide, the Ratio Studiorum. While their conversion efforts met with only modest success, the Jesuits had a major impact on the culture of the region, training the local elites, introducing the Baroque aesthetic in the visual arts, operating a printing press and pharmacy, and employing outstanding scientists as teachers. The reasons for the failure of the Jesuits to make more progress in their missionary efforts may be found in both local circumstances and in the institutional culture of the Society itself Political forces beyond the control of the Society sealed its fate, and it was suppressed by order of the pope in 1773. The vestiges of the Jesuit era in Cluj, however, are still visible today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]