Ferenc Dávid (Kolozsvár, Kingdom of Hungary

Kingdom of Hungary in the Middle Ages

The Kingdom of Hungary was formed from the previous Principality of Hungarywith the coronation of Stephen I in AD 1000. This was a result of the conversion of Géza of Hungary to the Western Church in the 970s....

, c. 1510 – Déva, Principality of Transylvania, 15 November 1579) was a Transylvania

Transylvania

Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...

n Nontrinitarian

Nontrinitarianism

Nontrinitarianism includes all Christian belief systems that disagree with the doctrine of the Trinity, namely, the teaching that God is three distinct hypostases and yet co-eternal, co-equal, and indivisibly united in one essence or ousia...

 and Unitarian

Unitarianism

Unitarianism is a Christian theological movement, named for its understanding of God as one person, in direct contrast to Trinitarianism which defines God as three persons coexisting consubstantially as one in being....

 preacher, the founder of the Unitarian Church of Transylvania

Unitarian Church of Transylvania

The Unitarian Church of Transylvania is a church of the Unitarian denomination, based in the city of Cluj in the Principality of Transylvania, present day in Romania...

.

Life

Born in Kolozsvár (present-day Cluj-Napoca

Cluj-Napoca

Cluj-Napoca , commonly known as Cluj, is the fourth most populous city in Romania and the seat of Cluj County in the northwestern part of the country. Geographically, it is roughly equidistant from Bucharest , Budapest and Belgrade...

) to a Hungarian family, he studied in Wittenberg

Wittenberg

Wittenberg, officially Lutherstadt Wittenberg, is a city in Germany in the Bundesland Saxony-Anhalt, on the river Elbe. It has a population of about 50,000....

 and Frankfurt

Frankfurt

Frankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010...

. Elected Calvinist

Calvinism

Calvinism is a Protestant theological system and an approach to the Christian life...

 bishop of the Hungarian churches in Transylvania

Reformed Church in Romania

The Reformed Church in Romania is the organization of the Calvinist church in Romania. The majority of its followers are of Hungarian ethnicity and Hungarian is the main church language...

, he was appointed court preacher to John Sigismund

John II Sigismund Zápolya

John II Sigismund Zápolya was King of Hungary from 1540 to 1570 and Prince of Transylvania from 1570–1571.-Family:The son of King John I and Isabella Jagiełło, he succeeded his father as an infant...

, Prince of Transylvania. Dávid's discussion of the Trinity

Trinity

The Christian doctrine of the Trinity defines God as three divine persons : the Father, the Son , and the Holy Spirit. The three persons are distinct yet coexist in unity, and are co-equal, co-eternal and consubstantial . Put another way, the three persons of the Trinity are of one being...

 began in 1565, with doubts of the personality of the Holy Ghost, because he could find no scriptural basis for the doctrine of the Trinity.

His antagonist in public disputations was the Calvinist leader, Péter Melius Juhász

Péter Melius Juhász

Péter Melius Juhász was a bishop of the Calvinist Reformed Church in Transylvania. He famously debated with Ferenc David in a series of synods resulting in the Brief Confession of Pastors at Debreczen , the Confession of Kassa , and the Váraddisputation - held at "Várad", modern Nagyvárad , not...

; his supporter was Giorgio Blandrata. John Sigismund, adopting his court-preacher's views, issued (1568) an edict of religious liberty at the Torda Diet, which allowed Dávid (retaining his existing title) to transfer his episcopate from the Calvinists to the Nontrinitarians, Kolozsvár being evacuated by all but his followers.

In 1571, John Sigismund was succeeded by Stephen Báthory

Stefan Batory

Stephen Báthory was a Hungarian noble Prince of Transylvania , then King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania . He was a member of the Somlyó branch of the noble Hungarian Báthory family...

, a Roman Catholic, and the policy shifted toward persecution of the new religious institutions. When, under the influence of Johannes Sommer, rector of the Kolozsvár gymnasium

Gymnasium (school)

A gymnasium is a type of school providing secondary education in some parts of Europe, comparable to English grammar schools or sixth form colleges and U.S. college preparatory high schools. The word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, meaning a locality for both physical and intellectual...

, Dávid denied the necessity of invoking Jesus Christ in prayer (about 1572), the attempted mediation of Faustus Socinus, upon Blandrata's request, was unsuccessful. Tried as an innovator, Dávid died in prison at Déva (present-day Deva

Deva, Romania

Deva is a city in Romania, in the historical region of Transylvania, on the left bank of the Mureș River. It is the capital of Hunedoara County.-Name:...

) in 1579. The ruins of the prison site in the city now hold a memorial for Dávid.

Christology

Scholars still have to address fully Ferenc David's Hungarian works for a satisfactory assessment of his beliefs.

The invocation controversy

In his early years as a Nontrinitarian, Dávid supported prayer to Christ as can be seen in his answer to Peter Melius, the Refutatio scripti Petri Melii (‘Refutation of the writings of Péter Méliusz’, Alba Iulia, 1567) In his later years David adopted the radical view of Jacob Palaeologus

Jacob Palaeologus

Jacob Palaeologus, born Giacomo Massilara was a former Dominican monk who became an anti-Trinitarian.He was born in Chios, Greece...

 that Christ should not be invoked in prayer, but that prayer should be directed only to God the Father.

The virgin birth

After leaving Calvinism David adopted the view of Laelio Sozzini that the existence of Christ began when he was conceived by the Virgin Mary through the operation of the Holy Spirit. By 1578, it would appear that David had come to adopt the view that Jesus was the literal son of Joseph. However some historians dispute this and argue that he believed in the virgin birth until the day of his death, Certainly these skeptical views were not held by the Unitarian Church of Transylvania in his lifetime, nor included in the later Hungarian Unitarian statement of faith

Summa Universae Theologiae Christianae secundum Unitarios

Summa Universae Theologiae Christianae secundum Unitarios is a statement of faith of the Unitarian Church of Transylvania officially recognised by Joseph II in 1782....

 of David's successor Mihály Lombard de Szentábrahám

Mihály Lombard de Szentábrahám

Mihály Lombard de Szentábrahám was a Hungarian Unitarian bishop. He re-laid the foundations of the Unitarian Church in Transylvania during a period of harassment until the accession of Joseph II and the return of an era of tolerance.During the period 1718-1720 the settlements were struck by famine...

. Such views were, however, held by sympathizers of the Belorussian Symon Budny

Symon Budny

Symon Budny was a Belarusian and Polish humanist, educator, hebraist, Bible translator, Church reformator, philosopher, sociologist and historian.-Christology:...

.

Influence in Hungary and Transylvania

After his death David came to be counted as, and honoured as, the first in the line of Hungarian Unitarian bishops based in Cluj-Napoca. His writings continued to be published, and other recollections written down and collected, up to the time of Mihály Lombard de Szentábrahám

Mihály Lombard de Szentábrahám

Mihály Lombard de Szentábrahám was a Hungarian Unitarian bishop. He re-laid the foundations of the Unitarian Church in Transylvania during a period of harassment until the accession of Joseph II and the return of an era of tolerance.During the period 1718-1720 the settlements were struck by famine...

.

Influence of David in England and America

English-speaking Unitarianism was largely unaware of David. Most of the Unitarian writings which came via Amsterdam to England were of authors of the Polish Brethren

Polish Brethren

The Polish Brethren were members of the Minor Reformed Church of Poland, a Nontrinitarian Protestant church that existed in Poland from 1565 to 1658...

, not Hungarians, as in the Bibliotheca Fratrum Polonorum quos Unitarios vocant (or "Library of the Polish Brethren called Unitarians") of which Locke, Voltaire and Newton owned copies. The works of David and György Enyedi

György Enyedi (Unitarian)

György Enyedi, in Latin Georgius Eniedinus was a Hungarian Unitarian bishop, moderator of the John Sigismund Unitarian Academy in Kolozsvár and writer known as the "Unitarian Plato"....

's were not reprinted in the 17th century. It was the visit of Sándor Bölöni Farkas

Sándor Bölöni Farkas

Sándor Bölöni Farkas or Alexander Farkas was a writer who is perhaps best known for his journals he made while traveling the United States in 1831. He described the United States as a wonderland, and praised American democracy very highly...

 to Britain and America 1830-1832, which made English speaking Unitarians aware of the continued existence of Hungarian Unitarians - and following that, of the legacy of David.

The Unitarian Universalist

Unitarian Universalism

Unitarian Universalism is a religion characterized by support for a "free and responsible search for truth and meaning". Unitarian Universalists do not share a creed; rather, they are unified by their shared search for spiritual growth and by the understanding that an individual's theology is a...

author John A. Buehrens (1989) attributes to Ferenc David the statement, "We need not think alike to love alike" but the source for this is not given. The term is given in no source prior to Buehren's book.

Works

Works of David, and of the Unitarian Church.

• 1550 Elegia, Scripta ad Eximium D. Franciscum, I. V. Doctorem, ac Vicarium Ecclesiae Albensis in Transsylvania… Maecenatem suum semper colendum.
• 1555 Dialysis Scripti Stancari Contra Primum Articulum Synodi Szekiensis, qui de doctrina controvertitur, conscripta. Cluj-Napoca, 1555.
• 1556 Responsum ministrorum Ecclesiae Colosvariensis ad scripta varia Martini a Calmancha in Causa Coena Domini edita Colosvarini. Anno 1556. die 25. Julii.
• 1557 Consensus Doctrinae De Sacramentis Christi Claudiopoli, 1557.
• 1558 Acta Synodi Pastorum Ecclesiae Nationis Hungaricae in Transylvania… Anno 1558. in oppido Thorda celebratae. U. ott, 1558.
• 1559 Az Vrnac Vaczoraiarol Valo közenséges keresztyéni vallas. Colosvarot, 1559.
• 1559 Defensio Orthodoxae Sententiae de Coena Domini (Kolozsvár), 1559.
• 1556 Scriptum Francisci Davidis anno Domini 1566.Lampe, Hist. Eccl. Hungar. 152–154. l.
• Ejudem Francisci Davidis Responsio ad Argumenta, quibus Hypostasin Spiritus Sancti Petrus Caroli stabilivit. (Lampe, Hist. Eccl. Hungar. 154–158. l.)
• 1566 Propositiones in Disputatione Albensi coram Regia Maiestate a D. Georgio Blandrata et Francisco Davidis propositae Limitationi Ministrorum, qui ex Ecclesiis Hungaricis Disputationi interfuerunt. Kolozsvár, 1566.
• 1566 Catechismus Ecclesiarum Dei in natione Hungarica per Transilvaniam. Claudiopoli, 1566.
• 1566 Disputatio prima Albana seu Albensis, habita 1566. 24. Febr. U. ott, 1566.
• 1567 De Falsa et Vera Vnius Dei Patris, Filii, et Spiritvs Sancti Cognitione Libri Dvo. Albae Juliae, 1567.
• 1567 Rövid Magyarazat mikeppen az Antichristvs, az igaz Istenről valo tudomant meg homalositotta… Albae Juliae, 1567.
• Rövid Utmutatás az Istennec igeienec igaz ertelmere, mostani szent Haromsagrol tamadot vetélkedesnec meg feytesere es itelesere hasznos es szükseges, Albae Juliae, 1567
• Refvtatio Scripti Petri Melii, quo nomine Synodi Debrecinae docet Johoualitatem, et trinitarium Deum Patriarchis, Prophetis, et Apostolis incognitum. Albae Juliae, 1567.
• Demonstratio Falsitatis Doctrinae Petri Melii, et reliquorum Sophistarum per Antitheses una cum refutatione Antitheseon veri et Turcici Christi, nunc primum Debrecini impressarum… Albae Juliae (1568.)
• Refutatio Propositionum Petri Melii non inquirendae Veritatis ergo sed ad contendendum propositarum, ad indictam Synodum Varadinam 22. Augusti Anno 1568.
• Theses Thordae Disputandae ad XIII Diem Nouembris, et in Synodo Varadina die 22. Augusti publicatae. U. ott. (Névtelenűl.)
• Literae convocatoriae ad Seniores Ecclesiarum Svperioris et Inferioris Pannoniae ad indictam Synodum Thordanam ad tertium Marty diem, additis Thesibus ibidem disputandis. U. ott, 1568.
• Aequipollentes ex Scriptura Phrases de Christo Filio Dei ex Maria Nato Figuratae… U. ott, 1568.
• Antithesis Pseudochristi cum vero illo ex Maria Nato. U. ott, 1568.
• Az Szent Irasnac Fvndamentamabol vött Magyarazat az Jesus Cristusrol es az ő igaz istensegeről. U. ott, 1568.
• De Mediatoris Jesv Christi hominis Divinitate, Aequalitateque libellus. U. ott, 1568.
• Brevis Enarratio Dispvtationis Albanae de Deo Trino, et Christo Dvplici coram Serenissimo Principe, et tota Ecclesia decem diebus habita. U. ott, 1568.
• De Regno Christi Liber primus. De Regno Antichristi Liber secundus. Accessit Tractatus de Paedobaptismo, et Circumcisione. U. ott, 1569.
• Propositiones Francisci Davidis ex Ungarico Sermone in Latinum conversae et in eadem Synodo Varadiensi (Ao 1569.) exhibitae.
• Az Váradi Disputacionac avagy vetelkedesnec, az egy Attya Istenről es annac Fiaról, az Jesus Cristusról és a szent Lélekről igazán valo elő számlalássa. Kolozsvár, 1569.
• Első Resze az szent irasnac külön külön reszeiből vöt predicaciocnac az atya istenről, ennek kedig az ő fiaról az Ihesvs Christvsrol, es az mi öröcseguncnec peczetiről az szent lelekről. Gyula-Fehérvár, 1569.
• Refutatio Scripti Georgii Maioris, in quo Devm trinvm in personis, et vnvm in Essentia: Vnicvm deinde eius Filium in persona, et duplicem in naturis, ex lacunis Antichristi probate conatus est. (Kolozsvár), 1569.
• Könyvetske Az igaz Kerestyéni Keresztségről, es a Pápa Antichristusnac Maymozássaról… Kolozsvár, 1570.
• Responsio Pastorum ac Ministrorum Ecclesiarum in Transsylvania, quae vnvm Deum Patrem Christi Jesum Christum filium Dei crucifixum vnvmqu. amborum spiritum confitentur. U. ott, 1570.
• Az Egy ő magatol való Felséges Istenről, es az ő igaz Fiarol, a Nazareti Jesusrol, az igaz Messiasrol, A szent irásból vöt vallástéttel. U. ott, 1571.
• Az egy Attya Istennec, es az ő aldot szent fianac, az Jesus Christusnac Istenségekről igaz vallastéttel… U. ott, 1571.
• Literae Convocatoriae, una cum Propositionibus in Synodo Vasarhellyina disputandis ad diem XX. Mensis Septembris, hujus Anni 1571. U. ott.
• Libellus Parvus, XXX Thesibus Blandratae oppositus, in quo disseritur Jesum Christum vocari nunc non posse Deum, cum non sit verus Deus… U. ott, 1578.
• Confessio Francisci Davidis de Jesu Christo quam ex carcere exhibuit. Regnicolis, paulo ante mortem Thordae, in Transylvania, in conuentu regni 17. April. Anno 1570.
• Isteni dicsiretek, imádságos és vigasztaló énekek. (1575)

External links

• Major dates from the History of the Transylvanian Unitarian Church
• Principles for Survival of Unitarianism in György Enyedi’s Sermons.
• Unitarian Universalist Origins: Our Historic Faith by Mark W. Harris
• A Brief History of Unitarian Christianity
• "The Transylvania Journey" by Rev. Michael McGee (25 July 2004)