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The history of Christianity in Hungary began in the Roman province of Pannonia where the presence of Christian communities is first attested in the 3rd century. Although the territory was under the successive control of the Huns, Germanic peoples, and Avars from the 5th century, Christian communities may have survived in the region of Lake Balaton up until the 9th century. Accordingly, Christianity had existed in the present-day territory of Hungary before the Hungarians settled there around 900 AD, but the question of continuity is unresolved. Initially the Byzantine Christianity had a significant influence on the Hungarians, but the decisive steps towards the adoption of the new faith were taken by Géza, the head of the Hungarian tribal federation (''c.'' 972–997) who supported Western missionaries. The reception of Christianity was enforced by legislation in the reign of Géza's son, Stephen I (997–1038). Although some tenents of pagan belief were incorporated into the Christian vocabulary of the Hungarian language, nearly all the basic words of its religious terminology are of Slavic origin.〔Engel 2001, pp. 44., 47.〕 The earliest religious texts written in vernacular survived from the end of the 12th century, while the first Hungarian translation of the Bible was prepared in the 1430s by Hussite preachers. The multiethnic Kingdom of Hungary emerged on the frontier of the Roman Catholic, Orthodox, and pagan worlds. Thus Hungarian monarchs frequently assisted the Papacy in its efforts to expand the borders of Catholicism by waging wars against their country's pagan, "schismatic", or "heretical" neighbors. The importance of the Catholic Church in the medieval state was comparable to its position in other parts of contemporary Europe: the Church administered schools and hospitals, its prelates participated in both legislation and public administration and fulfilled judicial functions, and financed these activities via its own sources of income, such as tithes. Protestant ideas, namely Lutheranism, started to spread in the German-speaking towns in the 1520s. Despite Lutheranism's initial success, the majority of the kingdom's population adhered to the more radical theology of Calvinism by the second half of the century. The idea of freedom of religion was also first enacted in this period by the "Decree of Torda" of 1568. Although the Catholic Church regained its preeminent position, mainly due to the support it received from the Habsburg monarchs, in the 17th–18th centuries, significant Protestant groups survived the Counter-Reformation. The equal status of the "received" denominations – the Roman Catholic, Greek Catholic, Reformed ("Calvinist"), Evangelical ("Lutheran"), Orthodox, and Unitarian Churches – was first declared in 1848. Although in 1947 all discrimination against other denominations was abolished, Church activities soon became subject to state supervision due to the introduction of the Communist regime. Following the regime's fall, state interference in Church affairs ceased by the passage of a new law concerning religion in 1990. == Before the Hungarians == Transdanubia, the territory of modern Hungary west of the river Danube, became part of the Roman province of Pannonia in 8 AD.〔Engel 2001, p. 1.〕〔Mócsy 1974, p. 39.〕 Similarly to other parts of the Roman Empire, most altars in the province were dedicated to Jupiter, who in this respect was followed by Silvanus.〔Mócsy 1974, p. 250.〕 Aquincum (Budapest) became an important center of the cult of Mithras in the region.〔Mócsy 1974, pp. 255-256.〕 Local Christian communities were first attested in 303 when Bishop Quirinus of Sescia (Sisak, Croatia) was executed in Savaria (Szombathely, Hungary) under the Diocletianic Persecution.〔Mócsy 1974, p. 326.〕 The new faith struck firm roots after its position had been consolidated throughout the Roman Empire in 313.〔Kontler 1999, p. 28.〕 The large Christian necropolises in Sopianae (Pécs, Hungary) and Savaria are dated to this period.〔〔Mócsy 1974, p. 332.〕 However, due to barbarian invasions, refugees from Pannonia started to arrive in other parts of the Roman Empire from the early 5th century.〔Mócsy 1974, p. 347.〕 Among these displaced peoples were the inhabitants of Scarbantia (Sopron, Hungary) who fled to Italy taking Saint Quirinus's relics with them.〔Mócsy 1974, p. 348.〕 Martin of Tours, the patron saint of France, was also born in Pannonia.〔〔Mócsy 1974, pp. 348., 353〕 The towns of the province were ruined around 430 by the Huns, but the Hun Empire itself was destroyed in the 450s by the revolt of Germanic peoples.〔Engel 2001, p. 2.〕〔Kontler 1999, pp. 30-31.〕 Thereafter parts of the former province were controlled by the Ostrogoths, while the Gepids established themselves east of the river Tisza.〔〔Schäeferdiek 2007, p. 56.〕 A tablet of lead from this period discovered at Hács bore the Gothic text of parts of the ''Gospel of John''.〔 Similarly to the Goths, the Gepidic nobility also adopted Arianism, an heretical strain of Christianity.〔〔Christie 1998, p. 57.〕 The "''Reihengräber'' cemeteries" found in the territory under Gepidic control, for instance at Szentes, are characterized by inhumation graves laid out in rows with an east–west orientation.〔Curta 2007, pp. 191-192.〕〔Heather 2010, p. 253.〕 Transdanubia was occupied in the early 6th century by the Lombards whose original cremation rite was replaced with a new habit of burying unburnt bodies in this period.〔〔〔Heather 2010, p. 225.〕 In 567 the Avars subdued the Gepids, and in the next year forced the Lombards to flee to Italy.〔Christie 1998, p. 59.〕〔Curta 2007, p. 204.〕〔Kontler 1999, p. 31.〕〔Heather 2010, p. 401.〕 According to Paul the Deacon, the last remnants of the local Christian population also left Pannonia around that time.〔Vida 2008, p. 37.〕 However a number of assemblages from the "Early Avar period" (568–650s) point to such a considerable Roman or early Bzyantine influence that they are grouped into the specific "Keszthely culture".〔〔Vida 2008, p. 31.〕 They have been found in the southwestern regions of Transdanubia.〔 For example, a disc brooch decorated with an archangel's portrait was found at Nagyharsány, and three other specimens with the image of Christ were unearthed at Keszthely and Pécs.〔Curta 2005, p. 184.〕 In a fort at Fenékpuszta near the Lake Balaton, even a three-aisled basilica was erected in the second half of the 6th century.〔Curta 2005, p. 183.〕 Although it was destroyed around 630, "Keszthely cemeteries" continued well into the early 9th century at the lake's westernmost end.〔〔Vida 2008, p. 38.〕 One of the Avar leaders, the ''tudun'' received baptism in Aachen in 796.〔Bowlus 1995, p. 55.〕 In the same summer a synod of the Frankish clergy ordered that Christians living in territories occupied from the Avars should be re-baptized.〔Bowlus 1995, p. 56.〕 Finally, the last remnants of the Avars were subjugated to the Carolingian Empire around 800.〔Kontler 1999, pp. 31-32.〕〔Engel 2001, p. 3.〕〔Bowlus 1995, p. 57.〕 In 839 Pribina, a Slavic prince received estates near Lake Balaton from Louis the German, king of East Francia.〔Bowlus 1995, p. 104.〕 Upon his request, Archbishop Liudepram of Salzburg consecrated a number of churches, for example at Quinque Basilicas (Pécs, Hungary).〔Kirschbaum 2005, p. 26.〕〔Bowlus 1995, pp. 56., 72., 104.〕 Pribina's son, Koceľ even persuaded Pope Hadrian II to appoint Methodius, one of the two "Apostles to the Slavs" to the ancient metropolitan see of Pannonia, Sirmium (Sremska Mitrovica, Serbia) in 870.〔Kirschbaum 2005, pp. 29-31.〕〔Bowlus 1995, pp. 104., 162-163., 205.〕〔Engel 2001, p. 5.〕 However, Methodius was arrested by Frankish soldiers, thus the archbishopric of Salzburg could retain its ecclesiastic authority over Transdanubia.〔Kirschbaum 2005, pp. 31-32.〕 Around 900 the territory was occupied by the Hungarians who destroyed many churches during their invasion.〔Berend ''et al.'' 2007, p. 326.〕〔Engel 2001, pp. 12-13.〕〔Kontler 1999, p. 44.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「History of Christianity in Hungary」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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