• Enyedi George


    Enyedi George

      

    Enyedi George (sometimes called Enniedius, EnyeDinus or Enjedinus,) was a Transylvanian, of the town of Enyed or Engedin, situated on the river Maros, or Maerisch. He was Superintendent of the Unitarian Churches in Transylvania, and Moderator of the Gymnasium of Clausenburg. In the former of these offices he succeeded Demetrius Hunyadi, (vide Art. 108,) and he filled both from the year 1592 till the period of his death, which took place in 1597, when he was in the very flower of his age. 

    Near the middle of the last century, while a sexton was digging a grave at Clausenburg, he found a brazen coffinplate, bearing the following inscription in letters of gold. "Hie sepultum jacet corpus eruditione, ingenii subtilitate et pietate CI. Viri D. Georgii Enyedini, Superintendentis Ecclesiarum Unum Deum Patrem et Mediatorem Jesum profitentium, qui scholam per sexennium, ecclesias pariter sex annis, fideliter magno cum fructu administravit. Tandem colica passione correptus, anno aetatis suae 42, extinctus est, A. D. 1597, die 24 Nov. hora 4."

    Enyedi was the author of a work, entitled, "Explications Locorum Veteris et Novi Testamenti, ex quibus Trinitatis Dogma stabiliri solet," published after his death, but without date. It went through two editions. The greater part of the first edition was publicly burnt in Transylvania ; and it was interdicted through the whole of the German Empire. The second edition, as well as the first, is without date, or printer's name ; but according to John Fabricius, it was printed at Groningen, A. D. 1670. It abounds in typographical errors, particularly in the Greek quotations. In this work, the author understands the phrase , John i. 1, to mean "at the commencement of John's office," or, "when Jesus began to teach, and work miracles;" and the following is the interpretation, which he gives of our Lord's words,  , John viii. 58. "At this very time, since I am your Messiah, I am before Abraham, and therefore prior to him: for as long as Abraham is not the father of many nations, so long he is not Abraham. But he has at length become the father of many nations through the Messiah, and therefore is posterior to him." This work of Enyedi was translated into the Hungarian language by Matthew Torotszskai, and printed at Clausenburg, in 1619 ; and again in 1620. 

    Ruarus and Smalcius thought but little of Enyedi, as an interpreter of Scripture; and Samuel Crellius says, that, "among later Unitarians he is held in no great estimation." Bock has enumerated no fewer than six separate replies to his "Explicationes" by different writers ; but he has overlooked a seventh, entitled, "Speculum Trinitatis," and described by Lampe as "a learned book, opposed to the blasphemies of George Enyedinus, and printed in 1622, at Debreczin," a town in Upper Hungary. 

    Scherzer has attributed to Enyedi a work, "On the Divinity of Christ;" and Zeltner quotes from a treatise of his, "On the Providence of God." Enyedi is also said to have written, "An Explication of some Passages in the Racovian Catechism." But he was dead before the Racovian Catechism was published. Some earlier Catechism, therefore, must be intended;—possibly that of George Cratzer. He is said also to have written a Preface to the Racovian Version of the New Testament. But Sandius thinks that no such version ever existed. That writer professes his entire ignorance of any Racovian Version of the New Testament, except the Polish one of Smalcius, and the German one of Crellius and Stegmann, both of which were published after the death of Enyedi ; the former having been printed at Racow in 2mo., in 1606 and 1620, and the latter at the same place in 8vo., 1630. But Sandius must have forgotten the previous version of the New Testament into the Polish, with Annotations, by Martin Czechovicius, which was printed in 4to., by Alexius Rodecki, at Racow, in 1577. Of this he had himself previously given an account, (B. A. p. 51,) merely remarking, that the fact of its being printed at Racow was not stated in the title-page. But he speaks of Enyedi as having first come into notice in 1587, which was ten years after the publication of Czechovicius's version.

    In the correspondence of Faust Socin, there is a letter dated Sept. 16th, 1596, and written from Cracow, in which Socin salutes Enyedi as a Christian Brother, and endeavours to solve certain doubts, which he had suggested, respecting the Invocation of Christ. It plainly appears, from the letter referred to, that this question had not been set at rest, by the controversy between Francis David and Faust Socin: and it is a remarkable fact, that, after an interval of seventeen years, we should find the Superintendent of the Unitarians in Transylvania doubting, as Enyedi does, whether Socin's opinion upon this subject is tenable ; and Socin, on the other hand, admitting, that the practice of invoking Christ is in itself indifferent, and therefore unnecessary, inasmuch as it is neither commanded, nor forbidden in Scripture.

     

    (Vidend. Sandii B. A. pp. 93, 94, et 1. c. Moreri, Diet. Hist Art. Enjedin. Bock, Hist. Ant. T. I. pp. 324—331; T. II. p. 763. Bibl. Fratr. Polon. T. I. p. 483—486. Zeltneri Hist. Crypto-Soc. Altorf. pp. 99, 100. 208, 209. Cloppenb. Opera Theol. T. II. pp. 331, 332. Mon. Rep. Vol. XV. (1820) p. 194. Vogt, Catal. Libr. Rar. p. 258. Lampe, Hist. Eccles. Ref. in Hungaria et Transylvania, Anno 1620, p. 356.)

     


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