Matthias Devai

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Matthias Devai (glass window in the castle church in Wittenberg)

Matthias Devai Biro (* ~ 1500 in Diemrich ( Hungarian Déva ), Transylvania ; † 1545 in Debrezin , Kingdom of Hungary ) was a Hungarian reformer.

Surname

Matthias Devai (Hungarian: Dévai Bíró Mátyás ), whose real name is actually 'Bíró', adopted the pseudonym 'Devai' after his native Deva, a town in Transylvania.

Life

Almost nothing is known about his ancestors, his childhood and youth. At the age of 23 Devai began his studies at the University of Cracow (1523-1525). Subsequently, as a conscientious Catholic priest, he became court chaplain to István Tomori at Bodokö Castle. The beginnings of the Reformation in Hungary led him to move to Wittenberg , where he tried to study theology again. Here he matriculated on December 3, 1529, became a student of Philipp Melanchthon and a household and table companion of Martin Luther .

In 1531 he returned to the Kingdom of Hungary and settled in Ofen to work there for the Reformation. Here he wrote a treatise on the insignificance of the veneration of saints and 52 theses on the basic ideas of the Reformation. He came into the environment of Johann Sapolyai , whom he accompanied on his travels for a while.

In the fall of 1531 Devai at the instigation of the local city council became the preacher in Kosice appointed. Here he introduced the celebration of the Lord's Supper in both forms, preached according to Protestant doctrine in the national language and pushed for the reform of the church. His activity in Košice lasted only a few months, as Emperor Ferdinand I had him arrested at the instigation of the Bishop of Erlau , Tamás Szalaházy. At first he was imprisoned at Likava Castle in Liptov County . He was then brought to Vienna via Pressburg , where he successfully defended himself during an interrogation by Bishop Johann Faber . Therefore, he had to be released from prison in July 1533.

After his release he returned to Ofen, but was shortly arrested again as a " heretic " and imprisoned for three years. After his release from prison (1535) he sought protection from Count Thomas Nádasdy in Sárvár . During this time he wrote a polemic against the Franciscans - Provincial Gregor Szegedy, who had criticized his theses.

In 1536 he went to Wittenberg again to report to his teachers Martin Luther and Philipp Melanchthon about the state of the Reformation in the Kingdom of Hungary.

The next year (1537) Devai returned to Hungary. He carried a letter from Philipp Melanchthon dated October 7, 1537, which was supposed to convince Nádasdy to give his support to Devai and his fellow believer Johannes Sylvester .

In the years 1538–39 he stayed in Sárvár. Together with his fellow believer Johannes Sylvester, he set up a printing house there with the support of Thomas Nádasdy. Both agreed that the Reformation could best be advanced through literature and further education. During this time Devai wrote a Hungarian elementary grammar that received a lot of attention ( Orthographia Vngarica [Ungarica]). From 1540 he worked for a year and a half as the headmaster of a newly founded Protestant school in Sixau (Hungarian Szíkszó ) in the north Hungarian region of Semplin . Through this work he aroused the anger of the Bishop of Erlau Ferenc Frangepán , who obtained an arrest warrant from the emperor against Devai. To make matters worse, the Turks occupied large parts of Hungary during this time and in 1541 advanced to the Eipel , which made travel almost impossible. Devai fled again to Germany at the end of 1541 and arrived in Wittenberg on December 28, 1541, completely exhausted.

From Wittenberg he moved on to Basel and turned to the Swiss Reformation. He returned to his fatherland a year and a half later and worked first as a preacher in Mischkolcz and later as a senior in Debrezin , where he died in 1545. The Wittenberg reformers were informed about his death in a letter from Leonhard Stöckel to Philipp Melanchthon dated June 15, 1545.

reception

Matthias Devai is one of the great reformers of the Kingdom of Hungary , along with Leonhard Stöckel , Gáspár Károlyi (* 1529, † 1592) and Johannes Sylvester. His descendants gave Devai the honorary title "Martin Luther of Hungary". In Wittenberg, the cradle of the Reformation, he is still remembered today, as evidenced by a church window dedicated to him , which is located in the castle church in Wittenberg .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The place was also mentioned under the German names Schlossberg and Denburg .
  2. ↑ István Tomori (*?, † ~ 1532), offspring of a noble family, vice-voivod of Transylvania , henchman of Johann Sapolya and castle captain of Fogarasch . He came from the same family as the Archbishop of Kalocsa Pál Tomori , who died in the Battle of Mohács in 1526 .
  3. ^ German: Kotenburg or Rotenturm an der Raab .
  4. ↑ Johannes Sylvester, Hungarian Sylvester János (* ~ 1504 in Szinérváralja [German Leuchtenburg ], † May 6, 1552), was a student of Martin Luther and Philipp Melanchthon in Wittenberg. After his return to Hungary he translated the Bible into Hungarian with the help of Count Thomas Nádasdy .
  5. ↑ Published in Cracow in 1549; Reprint: OCLC 561990910 .
  6. ↑ Thomas Kaufmann : Reformatoren (= small series V & R. Vol. 4004). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1998, ISBN 3-525-34004-4 ( preview in the Google book search).
  7. ↑ After 1918 this historical county was dissolved when the historical Kingdom of Hungary was broken up and Czecho-Slovakia was founded . The parts of it that remained with Hungary were incorporated into Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén County .
personal data
SURNAME Devai, Matthias
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bíró, Matthias (maiden name); Devai, Matthias Biro
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Hungarian reformer
DATE OF BIRTH around 1500
PLACE OF BIRTH Diemrich , Transylvania
DATE OF DEATH 1545
Place of death Debrezin , Kingdom of Hungary