Two Protestants of Hungary by W. A. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Sep 30, 1909

Two Protestants of Hungary

By W. A. S.

IN Waldensian times many Protestants found refuge in Hungary. In the days of Luther whole villages in this land accepted the Reformation. Some went further than Luther himself; for one of the Reformer's letters (written about 1530) is to his Hungarian friend, Antonious Transylvanus, asking him “to use his influence with a preacher in Hermannstadt who had joined the Sabbatarians, and to try to bring him back.”

In those times one Matthew Devay was a close friend of Luther. Later he accepted Zwingli's views of the Lord's supper, and also wrote a book entitled “The Sleep of the Saints.” Many villages about the region of Caspar Dragfij accepted the faith through his preaching. The history says:—

Devay was accused before King John of being the cause of this commotion, and was thrown into prison in Ofen. It happened that in the same prison was a blacksmith, who, in the shoeing, had lamed the king's favorite horse, and the passionate John had sworn that he should die for it. The blacksmith heard Devay converse as never man spoke; the words were to him as the words of Paul to the jailer at Philippi, and the consequence was that when the blacksmith was shortly after to be set free, he declared he would share Devay's fate as a martyr, for he also partook of the same faith. The king, moved by this declaration, pardoned both, and set them free.—History of the Protestant Church in Hungary, by J. Craig.

Two hundred years later, in 1746, Romanists were still persecuting Protestants in Hungary. Matthew Bohil, a pastor, was in his home at Esperjes, when officers came in to arrest him. Moved by sudden impulse, he stepped into another room, and secreted on his person a short clothes-line. He was accused, not of heresy, but of treason, in order to secure the death sentence. He was entirely innocent, but his accusers made all manner of false charges, and his fate was sealed.

Two guards were placed over him, to watch day and night. He committed himself to God in prayer, and determined to attempt escape, whereupon a deep peace and joy filled his heart, as if in approving answer to his decision. Friends called that night, bringing an unusual supply of provisions, which he felt was in further confirmation of his purpose. The record says:—

In the presence of his guard he revealed to these friends in Latin his whole plan of escape. They took leave in tears, and Bohil laid himself quietly down to sleep. Two guards stood by him in the same room, and it was their duty to relieve each other alternately; but this night they seemed both inclined to sleep. Bohil prayed that their sleep might be as that of Saul and Abner when David passed unobserved through their camp.

It was midnight. Both guards were quite overcome with sleep. Bohil took his clothes and the line which he had brought with him from home, and, on reaching the door, he found the key still there. With little trouble he passed to the yard. The dogs, which were usually so fierce, were still to-night. Passing the monastery of the Minorites, he turned to the city wall. Making the cord fast, he pressed through a small aperture in the wall, and let himself down with so little caution that the flesh was torn from his hands by the small rope. The cord was too short, and being obliged to drop a considerable depth without its help, he received some wounds on the head. But he might now consider himself free. He praised God in the words of the one hundred twenty-fourth psalm:—

“Even as a bird Out of the fowler's snare Escapes away, So is our soul set free: Broke are their nets, And thus escaped we. Therefore our help Is in the Lord's great name, Who heaven and earth By his great power did frame.”

The second wall was easily passed. He wandered in the neighborhood for some days undiscovered. Though it was winter, he slept in the woods; often must he wade through the melted snow; yet at last he got safely away and reached Holland.—Id.

Later, his brave wife, though watched and threatened by the Jesuits, successfully made her way across the frontier with the children, and joined the husband.

W. A. S.