The „Ius patronatus” and the realization of the proselytizer landlord counter-reformation. Denominational conflict in Varannó and Ungvár in the 17th century

Abstract

The period between the 1608. law of religious freedom and the Wesselényi conspiracy (1664-1671) was characterized by the conception of the „proselytizer landlord counter-reformation”, which shaped the balance of power between the growing Catholic confession and Protestant churches. In this period the landlords tried to convert their serfs to their own confession by peaceful (or less peaceful) means, wherein the „jus patronatus” helped them.  In my study, I analyze the religious life of two settlements (oppidum) in Northeast Hungary and the factors which influenced them. As a result of the microhistorical analysis of the issue, it was pointid it out the great inportance of the calvinistic patron system, which developed a very strong social structure. This structure lived on afterwards that the landlords converted to the catholic church. In this situation there were a several confessional conflict between the catholics and the protestans preacher. The rewards and privilegs of the Protestant preachers protected the noble county, wherein the most dominant power was the alliance of the protestant gentries. This aliance was successful in the political will-building processes in the hungarian Diets too, and resulted the formation of the confessional order as a special type of corporatism.