Egy evangélikus püspök kora magyar társadalmáról és állami vezetőiről : Raffay Sándor önéletrajzi írásaiból

Absztrakt

This essay makes accessible a part of the so far unpublished autobiographical notes by Alexander Raffay, Lutheran bishop for the ecclesiastical history of Hungary and the interested ones in the history of the first part of the XXth century. The author of notes Alexander Raffay lived between 1866 and 1947. He was the bishop of Diocese Montana between 1918 and 1945. During this period he was one of the most outstanding personages and played important part in the public life of the country. Alexander Raffay, a bishop of conservative views supported with all his might the government of the Horthy period, which called itself Christian and national. Together with other leaders of his church he thought his most important task to mobilize the Lutheran believers for the service of Christian-national targets. Raffay's autobiographical notes were found in the Central Archives of the Lutheran Church in Hungary among the unprocessed documents in 2002. The text was typed by somebody on the ground of the bishop's handwriting that was not handed down to us, after the author's death. It consists of three parts. Two of them contain memories, the rest some letters of Raffay. In this essay the text on pp. 28-34 is published from the part entided „Notes" of memories. In the part quoted Raffay first gives a dark shaded picture of the contempory Hungarian society. After this he writes about the government officials he knew in person. Besides the governor, Nicolas Horthy; Stephen Bethlen, Julius Gömbös, Paul Teleki and other prime ministers and several ministers and under-secretaries of state play part in the notes. The bishop in his characterization of the persons mentioned by him mainly deals with their relation towards the Lutheran church and in addition to this depicts their individual features. It is no accident that he writes most about Julius Gömbös, who was the only Lutheran Premier of the Horthy period. Raffay's memory makes an interesting reading, which adds many useful data to our knowledge of the period in question. Therefore the text published may justiy deserve attention of posterity.