Orthodoxy and Occultism?

Nonconformist Works in the Libraries of István Miskolci Csulyak and Mihály Tofeus

Abstract

The booklists (consisting of 381 and of 351 items) of István Miskolci Csulyak (1575–1645, the dean of Zemplén) and Mihály Tofeus (1624–1684, bishop of Transylvania) contain some striking exceptions, beside a large number of ’orthodox’ Calvinist theological works. The ministers were considered as strict anti-puritan (Csulyak), or anti-cocceian and anti-cartesian (Tofeus) figures of the Hungarian ecclesiastical history, but in their libraries one can find far diverse works from the accepted Reformed confessions and dogmas.

Among Miskolci Csulyak’s volumes, who studied in Görlitz and Heidelberg, we can find a rosacrucian pamphlet from Robert Fludd, the collected writings of Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim, some works from the scope of the ’magia naturalis’, and two more from the demonology.

In the legacy of Tofeus, who studied in the Netherlands, there are millenarist prophecies (from Mikulaš Drabik, Krystyna Poniatowska, Christoph Kotter), a kabbalist work (Liber Jezirah), and books containing alchemist or magic texts (from Cornelius Agrippa, Girolamo Cardano, Giambattista Della Porta and Girolamo Ruscelli) and the literature of demonology and witchcraft.

Hungarian students learning abroad could easily meet with the nonconformist ideas. The open-mindedness and the enquiry for the curiosities and rarities was a typical trait for the intellectuals in the 16–17th century. The presence of the mentioned works in the ministers’ collection can be justified by that, the possessors probably were not the followers any of these nonconformist trends.