The laws that came into effect in 1894 and 1895 ushered in a new era in the history of Hungary’s churches. “The role of the state changed, with the state taking upon itself those functions that earlier had belonged primarily to the churches,” emphasized Csaba Máté Sarnyai. As a result of the Wekerle legislative bundle, the citizen became primarily the state’s citizen, and secondly the member of a denomination.
In theory Hungarian law rejected a dominant religion, but in practice it was nonetheless a defined concept, as could be seen by the privileged status of the Catholic Church when compared to the other established religions. For the Protestants, post-1895, there remained a larger conceptual grievance: that officially the state and the government recognized and practiced but one religious creed, Roman Catholicism. If we refer to the established religious denominations, then we are talking about those religions that enjoyed constitutional protection for their beliefs and operation and were named in the nation’s laws. Characteristics included established beliefs, a substantially large congregation and an ingrained standing in society. They had the legal right to self-council, that is to say, autonomy and institutional continuity sustained via public funds and authoritative assistance.
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In Hungary, post-1848, we may refer to five established religions: (Roman and Greek Byzantine) Catholicism, Evangelicalism, Protestantism, the Greek Orthodox Church and Unitarianism. In 1895, three denominations of Judaism were legally accepted (Neolog, Orthodox and the status quo persuasion), of which the two larger (in terms of number of members) received “főrendi” (“highest order”) membership. The 1894-95 legislation created the concept of “recognized religious denomination” in order to support the rise of the Neo-Protestant minor denominations. Although they were not eligible to receive public funding and authoritative assistance, their official recognition allowed them to organize their religious teachings and operation via their own resources. After 1895, in line with the principle of freedom of conscience, any and all religious beliefs could be practiced as long as public order and public morality were not disobeyed. Those religions that failed to garner legal recognition could continue their operations as an “association”, the oversight of which belonged to the Minister of the Interior and the subordinate agents of. In Hungary at the turn of the century we could list several Neo-Protestant denominations among these, including the Nazarenes, Adventists, Methodists and Pentecostals.
Dr. Kálmán Árpád Kovács highlighted the point that the leadership of the Catholic Church felt that as a result of the new laws Hungary had ceased being a Christian state, and indifference towards religion would come in its wake. This proved to be true in the big cities, while Hungarians living in the countryside preserved their religious beliefs, until 1950. The religious laws were primarily being pushed by the Protestants and Evangelicals, mainly because of the interdenominational scandals. They believed that the law could finally end these abuses. Later, the Protestant denominations themselves admitted that these laws also loosened those public ties that their own members made use of to bond with their own denominations, so these had to be substituted for in some other form (for example, intense spiritual caring).
When it comes to the religious laws, we cannot say that there were any outright winners or losers. It engendered a new situation to which everyone in his own way had to adjust. Pressure immediately lessened on the neo-protestant minor denominations, and for the pro-assimilation (in terms of language and lifestyle) Neologist Jews, it offered another opportunity for them to connect with the broader society. According to the 1910 census figures, among those who considered themselves ethnically Hungarian, 58.7% were Catholic, 25.8% Protestant and 7% Jewish. Among the ethnic Germans, the breakdown was 66.6% Catholic, 21.6% Evangelical and 10.4% Jewish. Ethnic Slovaks were 71.8% Catholic and 23.2% Evangelical; among ethnic Romanians 38.5% were Greek Catholic and 61% Greek Orthodox; the Croatians were 98% Roman Catholic, while the ethnic Serbs were 98.5% Greek Orthodox. Looked at another way, 98.4% of Protestants and 98.6% of Unitarians claimed Hungarian as their native language, so it was these two denominations that we can refer to as “Hungarian religions”.
It is interesting to note that pre-1894 there were no political parties affiliated with any religious denominations. On Ottokár Prohászka’s initiative, the Catholic People’s Party was founded by Count Nándor Zichy and Count Miklós Esterházy, apropos of the legal reforms of the 1890’s that led to the separation of state and religion. And one of the main drivers was the introduction of the institution of civil marriage. Unfortunately the episcopacy, although agreeing in principle with the goals of the party, nonetheless made the decision not to stand unreservedly behind it, because then the bishops would not be loyal to the state. Thus it was that only a small proportion of Hungarian Catholics voted for the Catholic People’s Party.
The conclusion we may come away with from the debate is that the multi-religious society that was Hungary came up with its own model, one that quite effectively handled the problems posed by the Wekerle religious laws.
