Auswirkungen der josephinischen Toleranzpolitik auf die interkonfessionelle Kommunikation im Zwischenraum des nordöstlichen Ungarns
Consequences of tolerance policy of Joseph II. for the interconfessional communication in border region in the northeast part of the Hungarian Kingdom

Summary/Abstract: The enforcement, reception and of course the consequences of the tolerance policy of Joseph II. in confessional and ethnically mixed area in the northeast part of Hungary Kingdom were impressed by the existence of historical, demographic and cultural differences. In recent years of reign of Maria Theresa in this peripheral area the interconfessional relationships are even characterized by accentuated influence of local norms and power configurations. Despite the intensification of measures to control and discipline of religious norms the State has not been able to limit wide space, in which are the applied standards and norms different from those advocated by the State. The tolerance patent did not mean such distinctive breakthrough in interconfessional communications as in other areas. In this paper we analyze some of the processes and phenomena, which confirm this claim. Norms governing the religious upbringing of children in mixed marriages are also in the period before the tolerance in many local communities characterized by plurality of solutions. This tendency has strengthened after issuing of patent. By deciding on about the confessional affiliation of children in matrimonia mixtae religionis are decisive factors the social status of spouses, distance from the Catholic and Protestant parishes, pastoral activities and social prestige of the clergy, the engagement of local landlords. The Project of regulation parishes in the researched area had to pay more attention to strong position and concurrence of protestant confessions, which had a dense and consolidated network of parishes. The existence of two Catholic Churches (Latin and Byzantine-Slavic rite) was from the perspective of State seen Ecclesia ruthenica as alternative missing or too-distant Roman Catholic spiritual administration. The policy of positive discrimination of Joseph II. has led to complement of legal emancipation of the Greek Catholic Clergy and through the subsidy of religious fond also to their economical and social status. The greatest conflict potential for the interconfessional communication showed the state interventions into the liturgical practice and different forms and expressions of folk religiosity. The Enlightened State tried by the regulations and prohibitions to remove those religious practices that were inconsistent with the requirements of “true piety”. In various regions of Habsburg Monarchy dispose the State of with different effective means of power instruments and several numerous groups of multipliers of his ecclesiastical policy. Especially in mixed local communities influenced the interfering of Josephinism into the religious practice the confessional identity of Roman Catholic community. Prohibition of baroque forms of piety caused on the Catholic side the uncertainty and fear. The requirement of “practical piety” was often seen as favouring of Protestantism.

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