The Hungarian Articles of 1608 before the Roman Inquisition:
the excommunication of Mathias II
The essay tries to find an explanation of how it was possible that Catholicism, which was totally pushed into the background at the Diet of 1608 due to the Protestant Bocskai uprising, could regain a number of its positions in Hungary by the time of the Diet of 1609.
One of the most important events of the intervening year, in this respect, was the Roman censorship of the articles passed at the 1608 Diet, published in print, upon the request of Hungarian prelates. Despite the repeated urges of Cardinal Ferenc Forgách, Archbishop of Esztergom wishing firm intervention, Rome before and under the 1608 Diet assumed an expectant attitude against the religious politics of the new Hungarian king, Mathias II (1608-1619), who had deposed Rudolph II (1576-1608) and come into power with support from the Protestant Estates. More favourable than those of Forgách, the reports of Bishop Placido de Mara of Melf, a nuncio accredited to the king played a crucial part in this.
The behaviour of the Holy See changed only after seeing a printed copy of the articles, which made Catholicism in Hungary impossible, confirmed by the sovereign's initials, sent by the Hungarian bishop to Rome, and after receiving the news of the freedom of religion granted to the Austrian Protestants in 1609. At this point, Pope Paul V (1605-1621) informed Mathias II that due to these concessions the king had come under the ruling of the provisions contined in the bull In Coena Domini, and that had himself excommunicated from the Church along with his councillors.
The Roman Inquisition acting in the case, namely the Holy Office (Sanctum Officium) took the laws under close scrutiny and then invalidated not only certain articles but the whole text, declaring that Catholics - both secular and clerical - could not be put under obligation to observe it. The Cardinals of the Inquisition with the Pope at their head, following repeated negotiations and wearisome postponements, instead of having the laws repealed, as had been long claimed, eventually made strict conditions concerning the earliest possible absolution from the automatic interdictum due to the proclamation of the laws, to Mathias II and his ministers, who had been obliged to repent repeatedly. The king had to contact Rome directly, because the Holy Office claimed the privilege of settling the matter, and had withdrawn all earlier spiritual faculties in time on the basis of which local churches could also have administered the firmly urged absolution.
The case did not come to the notice of the wider public, but the diplomats of Emperor Rudolph II and Venice, accreditedto Rome, could provide reliable information about the proceedings of the negotiations not always free from tension. The events taking place in Rome, Vienna, and Pozsony, in which one of the key figures was Bishop Melchior Klesl of Vienna, are reconstructed in detail by the author mainly with the help of the sources available at the recently opened Archives of the Inquisition.
The intervention of the Holy Office considerably contributed to the fact that the Hapsburg sovereign and his environment, putting considerations of political realism to the fore, promoted the unfolding of the Hungarian counter-reformation more effectively in the following decade, within the scope of which the opportunity of implementing the reform resolutions of the Council of Trento presented itself. Hungarian Catholics, led by Cardinal Ferenc Forgách eventually managed to counterbalance the superiority of Protestantism in home affairs in 1609 with the help of foreign support, which, in their case, was extended by potetas indirecta, as applied by the Holy See.
