A vallásos különút lehetőségei a 16. században: Dudith András és a konfesszionalizáció
The Prospects of Religious Heterodoxy in the Sixteenth Century: An-dreas Dudith and Confessionalization

Summary/Abstract: Focusing on the correspondence with Theodore Beza, the paper analyzes the heterodox re-ligious ideas of the late sixteenth-century apostate bishop of Hungary, Andreas Dudith. Dudith’s plea for individual religious freedom and his growing skepticism were deeply rooted in his education, his Erasmian attitude and were also profoundly linked to his in-tertwining scientific and theological thinking. His case seems to confirm the assertion that late sixteenth-century ideas about religious tolerance were largely influenced by the growth of skeptical thinking. Nevertheless, Dudith’s skepticism continued to have strategic uses throughout his life. As a prestigious humanist, he could not afford being stigmatized as an Arian, and he also liked to be seen as an impartial judge who can easily overcome dogmatic squabbles. Furthermore, Dudith demanded more than the right of individual religious thinking: he apparently also wished to worship in an individual way. It was the strategy of radical skepticism and of refuting Nicodemism or any compromise in ecclesiastical ques-tions that enabled him to follow a personal path to salvation and refrain from joining any religious establishment. Yet his demand for individual religious thinking and practice was made from a privileged position and had an elitist coloring, typical of a Polish Reformation dominated by the noble estate.

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