Szenci Molnár Albert és az Antikrisztusnak béresi
Albert Szenci Molnár and the "Antikrisztusnak béresi" ("Vassals os Anrichrist")

Summary/Abstract: My paper intends to perform a detailed investigation of the confessional quality appearing in Albert Szenci Molnár’s works. The investigation is divided into two parts. Firstly, I claim that the phrase „Antikrisztusnak béresi” [„Vassals of Antichrist”], as seen in Szenci Molnár’s preface to the translation of the Institutio, is an allusion to Pázmány Péter, and I also highlight that Szenci’s work is engaging in a debate with Pázmány’s Az nagy Calvinus Jánosnak Hiszek egy Istene, which Szenci had possibly known from a 1613 edition of the Kalauz. Context for this investigation is provided by a thorough analysis of the polemical parts of Szenci Molnár’s works, yielding further interesting results, like the possible infl uence of Abraham Scultetus in the question of the Eucharist, or the signifi cance of the way Szenci questions the Patrona Hungariae cult. Almost every polemical work by Szenci Molnár Albert is contextualised – at least indirectly – by some work of Pázmány. Thus, polemic with the Kalauz could be considered as polemic with the oeuvre of Pázmány. Secondly, I am exploring the subjection of that confessional quality to a particular idea in the preface of the Lexicon’s 1621 edition. The ambivalent historical position resulting from this is illustrated by Szenci’s portrait of King Mathias, which is not conforming to the Matthias-myth of the 15th century. This happens in a fashion similar to the 1616 textbook Idea Christianum…, where a piece of the protestant tradition is subjected to the idea of concordia.

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