Hungarian Historical Review 2, no. 1 (2013): 3–34 3 http://www.hunghist.org Zoltán Csepregi The Evolution of the Language of the Reformation in Hungary (1522–1526) The spatial framework of this study is the strip of towns lying in the region that used to be known as Upper Hungary (today Slovakia), communities that in the sixteenth century had German speaking minorities. At the time in question, there were numerous events and historical texts in which one can discern the use of a new ecclesiastical language. These sources are given voice with the help of philological methods, for instance intertextual analysis. A letter written by Bartholomeus Francfordinus Pannonius in 1522 constitutes the first example of church language reform in Hungary, though his words exemplify more the linguistic tendencies of Humanism than of the Reformation. A letter written by Mary of Habsburg in 1523 demonstrates the queen’s interest in and understanding of religious reformation, but also her desire to maintain her distance as sovereign. According to the views revealed during the inquest against alleged heretics in Sopron in 1524, traditional Franciscan criticism of the Church had intermingled with ideas deriving from Lutheran thought. At the time of the mining town revolt (1525), miners used (for instance) Saint Paul’s apostolic greeting (Romans 1:7) as a sign of difference and usually included them in the introductory section of letters to their comrades. As the sources make evident, the apostolic greeting served as a form of identification within the Evangelical Movement. These textual analyses illustrate the significant impact of the Reformation in Hungary in the period before the Battle of Mohács (1526). 1 keywords: urbanization, evangelical movement, language event 1 I use the following abbreviations for archival sources: MNL OL DF = Magyar Nemzeti Levéltár Országos Levéltára, Fényképgyűjtemény, Diplomatikai Fényképgyűjtemény (The National Archives of Hungary, Photo Collection, Photo Collection of Medieval Charters); StAN BL = Staatsarchiv Nürnberg, Brandenburger Literalien. I use the following abbreviations for publications of source materials: BSLK = Bekenntnisschriften der evangelisch-lutherischen Kirche (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck, 1998); DHSA = Deutschsprachige Handschriften in slowakischen Archiven: Vom Mittelalter bis zur Frühen Neuzeit. Westslowakei – Mittelslowakei – Ostslowakei, ed. Jörg Meier, Ilpo Tapani Piirainen, and Klaus-Peter Wegera, vols 3 (Berlin–New York: de Gruyter, 2009); ETE = Egyháztörténelmi emlékek a magyarországi hitújítás korából [Monumenta ecclesiastica tempora innovatae in Hungaria religionis illustrantia], ed. Vince Bunyitay et al., vols 5 (Budapest: Szent István Társulat, 1902–1912); Házi, Oklevelek [Charters] = Jenŋ Házi, Sopron szabad királyi város története, I/7: Oklevelek, levelek és iratok 1521-től 1531-ig [The History of the Free Royal City of Sopron, I/7: Charters, Correspondence, and Documents from 1521 to 1531], (Sopron: Székely, 1929); Házi, Számadások [Accounts] = Jenŋ Házi, Sopron szabad királyi város története, vol. II/5: Különféle számadások és adójegyzékek 1489-től 1530-ig HHR_2013_1.indb 3 HHR_2013_1.indb 3 2013.06.16. 16:02:58 2013.06.16. 16:02:58