Ferenc Dávid (also rendered as Francis David or Francis Davidis; born as Franz David Hertel, – 15 November 1579) was a preacher and theologian from Transylvania, the founder of the Unitarian Church of Transylvania, and the leading figure of the Nontrinitarian Christian movements during the Protestant Reformation. He disputed the mainstream Christian doctrine of the Trinity, believing God to be one and indivisible.
Studying Catholic theology in Wittenberg and in Frankfurt an der Oder, he was first ordained as a Roman Catholic priest, later he became a Lutheran minister and then a Calvinist bishop in the Principality of Transylvania. Throughout his career as a Christian theologian and professor, Dávid learnt the teachings and practices of the Roman Catholic and Magisterial Protestant churches, but later rejected several of them and came to embrace Unitarianism.
Life
Early life Ferenc Dávid was born in Kolozsvár, Hungary (present-day Cluj-Napoca, Romania), to a Transylvanian Saxon father (David Hertel, who worked as a tanner) and to a Hungarian mother. The Hertel/Herthel family was an old Transylvanian Saxon aristocratic family of Kolozsvár.Francisc Palt - Frámin-íárile soc-iale ?i religioase din Cluj in jurul anului 1570. Anuarul Inst. de Istorie Cluj, (1962), 28. In Latin and Hungarian he used his name as Francis Davidis or Dávid Ferenc after his father's forename David. He had at least three brothers: Gregor, Peter and Nikolaus. Peter and Gregor inherited the job of their father in the guild.Elek Jakab - Kolozsvár története II.(Budapest, 1888), 294 Gáspár Heltai, the father of Peter's wife Borbála, was a Protestant Reformer, Lutheran and later Unitarian minister, translator, outstanding author of the Hungarian late Renaissance era. He owned the paper mill and the press of Kolozsvár where several religious and scientific books were made in Hungarian and German.1579. Diary of the judge and townsman
Ferenc Dávid was raised Catholic. After finishing his studies in the High School of Kolozsvár (today Cluj Napoca, Romania) he went to the Holy Roman Empire to study Catholic theology first at the University of Wittenberg and then later at the Alma Mater Viadrina (University of Frankfurt an der Oder) where he became a Catholic parson.
Lutheranism In 1542 the Lutheran reformator, Johannes Honterus introduced the Lutheran doctrines to the citizens of Kolozsvár.:de:Unitarische Kirche Siebenbürgen#cite ref-1 After arriving back in Transylvania Ferenc Dávid joined the Lutheran wing of the Reformation where he became a minister and then a Lutheran bishop. He worked as headmaster of the Gymnasium of Beszterce (today Bistrița, Romania), then as Lutheran pastor in Petres (today Cetate, Romania), later headmaster of the Gymnasium of Kolozsvár and from 1555 chief pastor of Kolozsvár (today Cluj Napoca, Romania).
On 1 June 1557 the Diet of Torda (National Assembly) stated that 'everybody should live in a belief that he or she wants if it is done without the distrust of another' which meant for the population of the Principality of Transylvania that it became allowed to practise not just the Roman Catholic, but the Lutheran religion.
Calvinism In 1559 he entered the Reformed Church where he was elected bishop of the Hungarian churches in Transylvania and he was also the appointed court preacher to János Zsigmond Zápolya, Prince of Transylvania. The prince allowed him to research in the royal library and to work in the royal court on his theological theses.
Unitarianism After the Battle of Mohács the political instability, the waning of Roman Catholic influence (continuous expansion of the Ottoman Empire, heretic movements in Transylvania especially of Arianism, Bogumilism etc.) prepared the way for the new ideas of the Reformation.:hu:Unitárius vallás A well known Italian antitrinitarian, Giorgio Biandrata moved to Transylvania in 1563 into the royal court of John II Sigismund Zápolya and became his own doctor. Biandrata co-operated with Ferenc Dávid on theological works.
Dávid's discussion of the Holy Trinity began in 1565, with doubts of the personality of the Holy Spirit, because he thought he couldn't find any convincing scriptural basis for the doctrine of the Trinity. One of his main points against the existence of the Holy Trinity was that which the Arians during the early ages of Christianity liked to refer to – it does not seem to be explicitly clarified in the Bible. He was influenced by the antitrinitarian and humanist views of Michael Servetus and Giovanni Valentino Gentile.
Together with Giorgio Biandrata he published polemical writings against Trinitarian belief, particularly De falsa et vera unius Dei Patris, Filii et Spiritus Sancti cognitione which is largely a summarized version of Servetus's Christianismi Restitutio. But in 1578 the collaboration broke up as Biandrata was charged with immorality. An important difference between the views of the two theologians was that Ferenc Dávid became a nonadorant which meant that he renounced the necessity of invoking Christ in prayers.
Working in the royal court, he convinced the prince about his point of view on religion, so that John II Sigismund Zápolya accepted his theses and became the first Unitarian ruler. In 1567 John II Sigismund Zápolya allowed him to use his press in Gyulafehérvár (today Alba Iulia, Romania) to propagate the religion.
Edict of Torda (1568) The aim of his life as Ferenc Dávid wrote was 'the restoration of the pure Christianity of Jesus' which meant for him the search for the truth in the whole freedom of thought. So he sought to persuade the prince, John II Sigismund Zápolya and several people in important positions to reach an agreement between the opposite sides of the religious debate. His attempts were successful.
Between 6 and 13 January 1568 on the Diet of Torda the assembled representatives of the Hungarian nobility, the Szeklers, the Transylvanian Saxons and the royal court of the Principality of Transylvania proclaimed the Edict of Torda which included – as first in Europe – the practising and propagation of the recepta religios (allowed religions) which were the Roman Catholic, the Lutheran, the Calvinist and the Unitarian. This order can be seen as the first law for the 'freedom of religion'. In the three lawful nations of Transylvania, the four lawfully allowed religions could have an ecclesiastical, political and public law system under the Constitution of the Principality of Transylvania. From that moment on, the constitution enacted the equal rights of the three nations and the four religions.
Prison and death
In 1571, John II Sigismund Zápolya was succeeded by István Báthory, a Roman Catholic, and the policy shifted toward persecution of the new religious institutions. In the same year the new ruler took the press of Gyulafehérvár back from the Unitarians. On the Diet of 1572 in Marosvásárhely (today Târgu Mureș, Romania) the religious laws were strengthened, but it declared the prohibition of the changing of religion. When, under the influence of Johannes Sommer, rector of the Gymnasium of Kolozsvár, Dávid denied the necessity of invoking Jesus Christ in prayer (about 1572), the attempted mediation of Faustus Socinus, upon Blandrata's request, was unsuccessful. Ferenc Dávid was sentenced to life imprisonment in Déva, Principality of Transylvania (today Deva, Romania), and died there in 1579. The ruins of the prison site in the city now hold a memorial for him.
Lukas Trauzner After the death of Ferenc David, Lukas Trauzner, his son-in-law, wrote together with Miklós Bogáti Fazekas, Bernard Jacobinus (father of János Jacobinus) and the sons of Ferenc Dávid the Defensio Francisci Davidis in negotio de non invocando Jesu Christo in precibus (Basel, 1581) and were part of the inner opposition of the moderate Unitarianism movement of Demeter Hunyadi. Lukas Trauzner was sentenced to jail in 1579 because of his Sabbatarian-Unitarian beliefs.[Kanyaró Ferenc - Bogáthi zsoltárai az árulók és üldözők ellen. (Ker. Magvető, 1902)] But after 1582 the political pressure eased. Lukas Trauzner and Gabriel Haller went to Vienna in 1598 in legation. The imperial commissioners described Trauzner as Sabbatarian and Haller as Arianist.[Jakab E. Kolozsvár története II, 302] Later he was active in the political negotiations between Transylvania and Austria.[ 1601 maius 19: „Consul igitur cum quibusdam aliis, inter quos erat Lucas Trausnerus, vitae suae consulere volent negato ipsis salvo conductu iter ingredicentur domum versus; remansit tunc Bornemisza Boldisar, donex impetrato pro se et omnibus mercatoribus salvo conductu et ipse cum universis mercibus prins arrestatis est liber dimissus". v.ö. Quellen etc. V. 304.] In 1603 he was a dedicated follower of the prince, Mózes Székely. He as a Unitarian undertook in the name of the prince to get the citizens of Beszterce into submission.[ Jakab Elek - Kolozsvár története, II. 384: N. Iorga - Documente privind istoria románilor culese de Endexin de Hurmuzaki Buc. 1913. XV/2, 803: Ehrenfeste, wohlweise Herrn Richter, Geschwaeren des Rats, sampt der Altschaft und der ausserwelter Gemein ... Datum ex castris, die 20 iuni 1603. Euer ehrvest-dienstwilliger und treuer Freindt Lucas Trauzner] After the defeat of Mózes Székely started the reign of Giorgio Basta in Kolozsvár who captured the royal judge, Mihály Tótházi and without a sentence beheaded him. Lukas Trauzner had to go to jail for two months, but by leaving the Unitarian Church and by apostasy he could get free. He lived from then on as a Catholic and but stayed as an active member of the mostly Unitarian Transylvanian Saxon community in Kolozsvár until his death.[Jakab Elek, Kolozsvár története. II. 388.]
Beliefs
Christology Scholars still have to address fully Ferenc Dávid's Hungarian works for a satisfactory assessment of his beliefs.Mihály Balázs Early Transylvanian antitrinitarianism (1566-1571): from Servet to Palaeologus 1996 Page 27
Invocation controversy In his early years as a Nontrinitarian, Dávid supported prayer to Christ, as can be seen in his answer to Péter Melius Juhász, the Refutatio scripti Petri Melii ('Refutation of the writings of Péter Méliusz', Alba Iulia, 1567).Andrews, James Ferenc Dávid and the search for Bible truth in Transylvania 2010 Lulu In his later years Dávid adopted the radical, nonadorant view of Jacob Palaeologus, that Christ should not be invoked in prayer, but that prayer should be directed only to God the Father."Dávid, however, having an inquisitive mind, was much more inclined to pioneer in fresh fields than to rest content in those already won, and he was open to the stimulating influence of able and independent scholars teaching in the school at Kolozsvár.... Before coming to Kolozsvár [Jacobus Palaeologus] had been one of the leaders in the non-adorantist movement in Poland; and according to Socinus he had been the first of all to teach in Poland 'the very wicked and detestable view that Christ should not be adored or invoked.' It will be remembered that just before this time this question had been very hotly discussed among the Polish Brethren, and that the majority in Little Poland, following the leadership of Paulus and Czechowicz, had adopted the conservative view, rejecting that of Budny and Palaeologus. Knowledge of this controversy will of course have reached Biandrata, who kept in touch with the brethren in Poland; while at Kolozsvár Palaeologus no doubt found a sympathetic ear in Dávid as he laid before him the view that he had unsuccessfully advocated in Poland." E. M. Wilbur, A History of Unitarianism (Cambridge, 1952), p. 64. According to Ferenc David, Jesus is understood as a human being.
Virgin birth