"...in order to educate our youth to become godly, moral and useful citizens" : A study of to what extent Hungarian church archives records may be utilised as sources for religious education

The subject of this dissertation is to examine whether parallels of the notations of the Swedish parish records regarding popular education could be tracked down in Hungarian church records, as well as to examine to what extent such records may be utilised as sources for the study of the churches’ role in this education. As it is shown in the study, there are remarks in the Hungarian church record about the levels of knowledge of parishioners. On that basis the dissertation also includes an analysis of these remarks and a comparison with the results of the Swedish notations of similar kind. The structure of popular education in Sweden and Hungary from the Reformation to the beginning of the 19th century is reviewed. The research is centred around a selection of church archives documents: registries of souls and protocols of bishops’ inspections. In the village of Kóka, which is the main object of analysis, the registry of souls analysed is dated 1794. The aim of the analysis is to point out the educational role of the Catholic clergy. Regarding the adult population the proportion of those who have been confirmed can be stated, and the proportion of men and women among them. As the sacraments are consecutive and based upon each other, there are obvious parallels with the data included in the contemporary Swedish Lutheran parish examination records. A particular Hungarian book dating back to the first half of the 19th century has also been found in Kóka. It resembles in its structure the registry of souls, while its contents yields notes to reading and writing skills. As the church registry record comprises the complete adult population of the village, the level of knowledge of elementary skills according to age groups is analysed and also the differences in levels of knowledge between men and women. A comparison is made with the research findings based on the Swedish parish examination records. The documents of the Hungarian church archives provide relatively many-folded but not – as the Swedish ones – continuous information. The study proves that the rich information of the Swedish parish examination records is unique, but also that the Hungarian records shed new light on the role of the clergy in popular education, providing a basis for international comparison