The story of Hungary 8

The story of Hungary 8

They were strengthened in the wisdom of this course by Duke Geyza, who

succeeded his father in 972, and reigned until 997. Baptized during

the life of his father at Constantinople, and having married Sarolta,

the mild-tempered daughter of Duke Gyula, of Transylvania, he became

very early awake to the necessity of refining the rude manners of his

people. His disposition became much more apparent when, after the death

of his first wife, he married the sister of Miecislas, the prince of

Poland, a lady famous for her beauty, and also conspicuous for her

energy and masculine qualities, for she vied in riding, drinking, and

the chase with her chivalrous husband, upon whom she really exercised

an extraordinary influence. Extremely severe in his rule, it was Geyza

who began to transform the manners and habits of the Magyars. They

began to show greater toleration towards foreign religions, and were

really on the eve of changing their Asiatic manners and habits into

those of Europe. More than a hundred years had passed since their

migration from the ancestral steppes. Historical events, difference of

climate, and, above all, the separation from their Asiatic brethren

had carried into oblivion very many features of that political and

social life which, originating in Asia, could not be well continued

in the immediate neighborhood of, and in the continual contact with,

the Western world. The great crisis in the national career appears to

have arrived at its culmination during the reign of Duke Geyza, and to

have found its ultimate solution in the conversion of the Magyars to

Christianity, a most important act in the national life of the people,

which deserves consideration in a separate chapter.

 

[Illustration]

 

[Illustration]

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER V.

 

THE CONVERSION TO CHRISTIANITY.

 

 

The Hungarians, when entering their present homes, were heathens, and

professed what is called _Shamanism_, the faith common to all the

branches of the vast Uralo-Altaic race, and which has survived to this

day amongst the populations of Southern Siberia and Western Mongolia.

The doctrines and principles of Shamanism being generally but little

known, it is proper to sketch here its outlines, in order to make clear

the character of the Hungarian religious rites and customs.

 

The believers in Shamanism adored one Supreme Being called _Isten_,

a word borrowed from the Persians, who attach to it to this day the

meaning of God. Besides the supreme being, they adored sundry spirits

or protecting deities, such as the gods of the mountains, woods,

springs, rivers, fire, thunder, etc. These divinities were adored

either by prayers or through sacrifices offered to them in the recesses

of woods, or near springs. What these prayers of the Hungarians were

we do not know; we can form, however, some idea of their character on

reading the prayers of the present Shaman worshippers, a specimen of

which is here subjoined:

 

“O, thou God living above, Abiash!

Who hast clad the earth with grass,

Who hast given leaves to the tree,

Who hast provided the calves with flesh,

Who didst bring forth hair on the head,

Who didst create all the creatures,

Who prepares every thing present!

Thou hast created the stars, O God!

O, Alton Pi, who hast exalted the father,

O, Ulgen Pi, who hast exalted the mother,

Thou creator of all created things,

Thou preparer of all that is prepared,

O God, thou creator of the stars,

O give us cattle, O God!

Give food, O God!

Give us a chief, O God!

Thou preparer of all things prepared,

Thou creator of all things created!

I prayed to my Father

To bestow on me his blessing,

To give me help,

To me, in my house,

And to my cattle, in the herd!

Before thee I bow down.

Give thy blessing, O Kudai,

Thou Creator of all things created,

Thou preparer of all things prepared!”

 

The sacrifices consisted in the offering up of cattle and particularly,

on solemn occasions, of white horses. Their priests, called _Táltos_,

occupied a pre-eminent place, not only in the political but also in the

social life of the Magyars. They were a kind of augurs and soothsayers,

whose prophecies were based either upon certain natural phenomena, or

upon the inspection of certain portions of slaughtered animals, such

as the intestines, the heart, and shoulder-blade, which latter was put

into the fire, good and bad auspices being prognosticated from the

different positions of the cracks produced.

 

Religious faith being always open to outside or foreign influence,

it was but natural that the Hungarians, in that long march from

the interior of Asia into Europe, should have borrowed many novel

features from the religious life of the countries through which they

passed. Thus, in the earlier faith of the Magyars, we meet with many

distinctive traits of the Parsee religion, of that of the Khazars, and

of the religions of many Ugrian races, for, like other families of the

Uralo-Altaic race, the Magyars were conspicuous for their spirit of

toleration towards other believers.

 

The numerous Christian prisoners they had brought with them from

various parts of Europe were not only left in the undisturbed practice

of their creeds, but were even permitted to influence to a very

considerable degree the faith of their conquerors and masters. Under

these circumstances it was by no means a hazardous undertaking, on the

part of Duke Geyza, to give permission to missionaries and priests

to come into the country and preach the gospel. A Suabian monk named

Wolfgang was the first who tried to spread Christianity in Hungary in

917. A greater success was achieved by Pilgrin, the bishop of Passau,

who, taking the matter of conversion into his hands, was able to

report to the Pope in 974 that nearly five thousand Hungarians had

been baptized, and that “under the benign influence of the miraculous

grace of God those heathens even who have remained in their erring

ways forbid no one the baptism, nor do they interfere with the priests,

allowing them to go where they please. Christians and heathens dwell

together in such harmony that here the prophecy of Isaiah seems to be

fulfilled: ‘The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion

shall eat straw like the ox.’”

 

Considering the difficulty of turning inveterate Asiatics to western

views of life, and, particularly to the totally different doctrines

of the Christian religion, we may easily realize that the total

conversion of the Magyars was a work attended with many struggles

and difficulties. After Pilgrin we find Bruno engaged in the pious

undertaking; but by far the most successful of all of the missionaries

was St. Adalbert, the bishop of Prague, who came to the country in 993,

and, remaining there for a considerable period of time, had the good

fortune to baptize several members of the reigning family, amongst

whom was the son of Duke Geyza, called Vayik, to whom was given the

Christian name of Stephen. This conversion being regarded as one of

the most momentous events in the history of the Hungarians, it will

be worth while explaining the accompanying illustration, representing

this act. In the baptistry, we perceive, as the principal personage,

Stephen, in his baptismal robes. Next to him is seen St. Adalbert,

robed and adorned in keeping with his episcopal dignity and the

apostolic office of conversion. To the left in the foreground, as

witnesses to the baptism, are standing the Emperor of Germany, Otto

III., who was brought there by his friendship for Geyza and his

interest in the baptism of Stephen, and Count Teodato, of San Severino,

a knight who had emigrated from Apulia, and to whom Geyza had entrusted

the education of his son. Behind the latter stands Duke Henry of

Bavaria, who, attending the emperor, is present as a guest. Farther

in the background we perceive Duke Geyza and his consort, sunk in

pious revery. We see Stephen after the act of confessing his faith and

knowledge of Christianity. Already he had turned his face toward the

west, had renounced Satan and devoted himself to the eternal war of the

children of God, and then, turning to the east, had vowed, with exalted

enthusiasm, obedience and devotion to the Law of God as revealed

through Christ. Now we see him, according to the custom of the Church

at that time, in the act of descending into the baptismal font in order

to receive from the hands of the holy bishop the sign of the Cross, the

sacrament of spiritual regeneration.

 

[Illustration: BAPTISM OF ST. STEPHEN.

 

(From a painting by P. N. Geiger).]

 

Pious emotion is reflected in the countenances of the attendant

Magyars, although there may be discernible here and there the

__EXPRESSION__ of a hidden spirit of antagonism. And the supposition

of such an __EXPRESSION__ can, in no way, be called a groundless one.

The worship of God on the banks of rivers, in woods and groves, the

offering of sacrifices, and sundry superstitions connected with the

soothsaying of the Shaman priests, certainly impressed more forcibly

the minds of the free and independent dwellers of the steppes than

the mass pronounced in Latin, and the rites of the Catholic Church,

introduced by the monks and priests of the West. Conversion to

Christianity had to be unconditionally followed up not only by

the relinquishment of the old national religion, but also by the

renunciation of the ancient habits and manners, to which the Hungarians

clung in spite of the generations that had passed since their coming

to the banks of the Danube and Theiss. The reluctance, shown here and

there, must be also ascribed to the overbearing attitude assumed by

the foreign missionaries towards the ruling race of the Magyars, upon

whom these Bavarians, Suabians, Czechs, Italians, etc., looked down

as contemptible barbarians, a title they by no means deserved, for it

was only the difference in culture and not the want of culture which

separated the two elements. Suffice it to say that traces of this

discontent became visible very early, and that the slumbering spark