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In Habsburg Hungary, the religious liberty of all estates came into force by the Act of 1608. This article was enacted in the years of crisis of the Habsburg rule, and had been valid, with a little modification, until the end of the 17th century. It has been proposed that this article, accordant with the system of “Neo-Serfdom,” gave the religious liberty only to the feudal lords and free royal towns, not to the serfs. In the struggle between the foreign dynasty and domestic feudal lords, the former gave up to intervene in the affairs of serfs. On the other hand, feudal lords reinforced the power on their serfs not only in the physical, but in the spiritual sphere too. For feudal lords, their privilege on religious affairs was self-evident on the premise that they assigned to themselves the power of exercising the right of church-patron. This paper aims at questioning this established account and pointing out two central problems. First, this account regards the act as a part of the regulation of serfdom. Investigating the process of enactment, however, it appeared that the main issue was not on serfs but on the people who lived on those lands belonging to the crown. The second point of debate is about an understanding of the word “villa” [village]. This was interpreted as an expression of the right of non-Catholic church patron to keep their serfs on their side. However, concerning the understanding of the word “villa,” we must take into consideration the discretionary power of congregation, which had been developed through late medieval times. As the role of congregation was diverged in each part of the state, there were frequent signs of clashes of opinions among Hungarian feudal lords on the question of the religious liberty of villages.
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