postillas

The Reformation put preaching at the centre of church services. Detailed analysis of religious and moral issues was included in the sermon. At the beginning however, these were improvised speeches, and in order to satisfy the increasing demand for reading, they were written down and printed. sermons written down in books started to differ more and more from live speeches and became more similar to theological essays. The first Hungarian-language, printed volume of sermons originates from Gál Huszár (sermons about the Holy Supper of the Lord Jesus Christ. Magyaróvár, 1558). Preaching was also referred to as postillas (post illa in Latin means: following that) which indicates the fact that these disquisition followed the read out sections from the Bible. The title of the book of sermons by Gáspár Decsi a preacher in Tolna speaks for itself: Preaching about reigning sins of the final days, that is, firstly about sin, secondly about drunkenness, thirdly about fornication, and last about dance (Debrecen, 1582). Postillas contain plenty of - mainly unexploited - linguistic, ethnographic and culture historical data - most of them which are unexploited.

ÁP-SzJú