Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 7.djvu/607

 HUNGARY

547

HUNGARY

what similar to the various Presbyterian denomina- tions in this country. AUhough actually less nu- merous than the Catholic Hungarians, they have more churches here. There are forty in all, consisting of thirty-nine Reformed churches and one Hungarian Lutheran congregation. One division of the Re- formed Church is aided by the Reformed Board of Missions in Hungary, having under its control 19 churches and 20 ministers, while eight churches of the other division are controlled and supported by the Board of Home Missions of the Reformed Church in America, and twelve by the Presbyterian Church of America. The Lutheran congregation is located at Cleveland, Ohio. Too short a time has elap.sed since the estal>lishment of Hungarian Catholic churches in America to speak of the distinguished participants therein, except as they have been incidentally men- tioned above, since nearly every one of those inter- ested in spreading and keeping the Faith among the Hungarian immigrants is still alive and engaged in active work. There is also a slowly growing settle- ment of Hungarian colonists in three provinces of British Canada, .'Vlberta, Saskatchewan, and Mani- toba, with head-quarters at Winnipeg. Two of these farming centres have been named Esterhaz and Kaposvar, after towns in south-western Hungary. Rev. M. Erdujhelyi undertook in 1908 to found churches in the country places for them, but was unsuccessful because of the great distances between their respective settlements. The spiritual welfare of the Magyar farmers and settlers has l)een chiefly taken in charge by three Canadian born priests, Rev. Agapite Page, Rev. Joseph Pirot, and Rev. Francis Woodcutter, who undertook to acquire the Himgarian language and thus put themselves in close communication with the immigrant settlers.

Chelard, Emigration hongroifte in La Science Sociale, XXXIV (Piiris, Nov., 1902); LfcvAY, Hungarian Emigration Law in North American Review, CLXXXII (New York. .Ian., 1906): Steiner, Hungarian Immigrant in Ouilook, LXXIV {New York, Aug., 190H); EsTERHAZT, Hungarian Colony of Eslerhfiz (Ot- tawa. 1902): ("lONNARD. L' Emigration hongroise in Questions fiiplomatiques. XXIII (Paris. Jan., 1907): Szabadsdg Naptdra (Cleveland, 19ll.'i-l'.t09) : M agyarorszdgi Szt. Erzsebet Hirndke (Cleveland. 190;i-l'.t(14): Magyarok Vasdrnapja (Cleveland, 1907-1909): Reports of the Commissioner of Immigration, 1905- 1909.

Andrew J. Shipman.

Hungary. — Geography and Material Con- ditions. — The Kingdom of Hungary, or "Realm of the Crown of St. Stephen", situated between 14° 25' and 26° 25' E. longitude, and between 44° 10' and 49° 35' N. latitude, includes, besides Hungary Proper and Transylvania, the Kingdom of Croatia- Slavonia and a territory known as the Military Frontier. The total area is 125,430 square miles, of which 16,423 belong to the Kingdom of Croatia- Slavonia. Of a population of 19,254,559 (census of 1900) 51.5 per cent were Catholics. The population of the capital, Budapest, situated on both sides of the Danube, is about 800,000.

The southern boundary of the kingdom is the River Save, which separates it from Bosnia and Servia as far east as the Rumanian frontier, from which point the artificial boundary of Rumania continues along the south, turning north-east, and then north. On the north lies Galicia; on the north-west, Moravia; on the west Lower Austria, Styria, and Carniola. Some 43,000 square miles are occupied liy the Great and the Little Hungarian Alfold, two gre.^t plains enclosed by the Alps and the Carpathians. The country is drained by the Danube and its tributaries the Save and Drave, on the right bank, and, on the left, the Theiss, which in its turn receives the waters of the Maros. The chief industry is agriculture (including forestry), which supports nearly 13,000,000 persons. The chief crops are wheat and maize. Manufacturing industries employ 12.8 per cent of the wage-earning population. Mining (lignite, pig iron, coal, and gold

being the chief items) in 1906 employed 72,290 per- sons and produced a revenue of 116,000,000 Kronen (.$23,200,000). Grazing also contributes largely to the national wealth.

History. — (1) From Early Times to the Battle of Mohdcs (15S6). — Even in the earliest ages the terri- tory of the present Kingdom of Hungary was the abode of various races of men. The remains from prehistoric times show that the country was inhabited when the present Hungarian lowlands were covered by the ocean. Half a century before Christ the Thracians occupied Hungary east of the Danube, while Hungary west of the Danube was the home of Celtic and Illyrian tribes. At the opening of the Christian Era the sway of the Romans extended as far as the Danube; Pannonia formed part of the Roman Empire for 400 years, and Dacia for about 150 years. After Rome fell, Hungary, like the other provinces, was affected by the migrations. First came the Huns who built up under King Attila, called "the Scourge of God", the powerful Hunnish Empire. After the empire of the Huns went to pieces German tribes ruled in Hungary for about 100 years, and they were followed by the Avars. During the supremacy of the Avars, a period of over two hundred years, be- gan the migration of the Slavonic tribes. Moravians, Bulgars, Croato-Serbians, and Poles all sought to overthrow the Avars, but their power was not broken until Charlemagne appeared. The decline of the kingdom of the East Franks, after the death of Charle- magne, was fa\'ourable to the tlevelopment of a great Slavonic power, and Swatopluk, ruler of Great Mora- via, thought to establish a permanent Moravian king- dom, but the appearance of the Magyars put an end to these schemes.

There are two opposing theories as to the origin of the Magyars, or native Hungarians. Arminius V.4m- b6ry and his supporters hold to a Turkish origin of the Magyars, while Pal Hunfalvy and his followers place them in the Finno-LTgrian division of languages of a Ural-Altaic stem and look for the original home of the race in the region of the Ural mountains, or the district between the rivers Obi, Irtysh, Kama, and Volga. The presence of Turkish words in the lan- guage is explained by the theory that, after leaving their former home, the Hungarians dwelt for some time near Turkish tribes, who were undoubtedly on a higher level of civilization, and from whom these words were borrowed. Aliout the middle of the ninth century, when the Byzantine writers first speak of the Hungarians, calling them "Turci", the Hungarians were in Lebedia, in the territory on the right bank of the Don. From this point they carried on their marauding excursions into the district of the Lower Danube and on these expeditions they sometimes advanced into Germany. Being exposed to attack by the Bisseni, the Hungarians left Leliedia, some returning to the district on the further side of the Volga, while others went towards the west and settled near the Danube, between the Dniester, Serclh Pruth, and Bug Rivers. The Byzantine writers called this region .-Melkuzu (Hungarian, Etelkoz). While in this neighbourhood the Hungarians undertook an expedition under ArpAd in 893 or 894 against Simeon, ruler of the Bulgars. The expedition was successful, but Simeon formed an alliance with the Bisseni, and a fierce attack was made on the Hungarians in which their land was devastated. The Hungarians, there- fore, withdrew from this region, went westward, and reached the country where they now live. The date of their entry into Himgary is not certain, apparently it was 895 or 890; neither is the point from which they came positively ascertained. It is not improbable that they entered Hungary from three directions and arrived at different periods. The chronicle of the "anonymous notary of King Bela" {Annnijmux Bela> regis notarius) has preserved the history of the first