Die reformatorischen Bekenntnisse in Ungarn und Siebenbürgen (1545–1572)

Abstract Originally, the local confessions served to account for the religious and secular authorities in matters of religion. They also formed a written basis for the legal unification of the affected communities, later they ensured the unity of the pastors in teaching, and finally they offered the community the legal basis for demanding new rights (the primacy or solitude of the denomination) based on old privileges. Over time, other functions were added to the original function of the confessions, so that a complex process of reception emerged. There was a general conception of ‘Catholicity’ that was claimed by the creeds insofar as they referred to the tradition of the Christian church. The interdependence with the theological development in Germany is evident not least from the fact that literary models such as the Confessio Augustana were used to write these texts.