Mátyás Dévai Bíró (around 1500 - Debrecen, 1545)

Mátyás Dévai Bíró, called the 'Hungarian Luther', was one of the first Hungarian reformers. He worked in the same humanist-Erasmist atmosphere as János Sylvester. He created the first systematic Hungarian system of spelling (Orthographia hungarica, Krakow, 1538). In contrast with his Erasmist friends, he subordinated his language reform programme to the interests of the Reformation. He was even imprisoned for his beliefs, but he defended his views in writing against the Franciscan monk, Gergely Szegedi (†1550).

ÁP-SzJú