Bod, Peter

BOD, bed, PETER: Hungarian theologian and ecclesiastical historian; b. at Felsö-Csernáton (a village of Transylvania) Feb. 12, 1712; d. at Magyar-Igen (40 m. s.w. of Klausenburg) Mar. 3, 1769. He was educated at the Reformed college of Nagy-Enyed and the University of Leyden, and in 1743 became pastor at Héviz, whence he was called, six years later, to Magyar-Igen. He was the author of fifty-six works, of which twenty-three were printed, but by a decree of Maria Theresa restricting the liberty of the press certain of his books of a patriotic and Protestant tendency were confiscated. Among his works in Hungarian special mention may be made of the following, the titles being translated into English: "History of the Holy Bible" (Hermannstadt, 1748); "History of the Church of God" (Basel, 1760); "History of the Reformed Bishops of Transylvania" (Enyed, 1766); "The Magyar Athens" (Hermannstadt, 1767); biographies of 485 Hungarian authors, and "The Hungarian Phenix" (Enyed, 1767); biography of the printer Kiss; while his Latin works include: Historia Unitariorum in Transylvania (Leyden, 1776), a vivid description of the struggles of the Socinians in Hungary; Historia Hungarorum ecclesiastica (ed. Rauwenhoff and Prins, 3 vols., 1888–1890, from a manuscript recently discovered in the library of the university); and two treatises on the promoters and defenders of the Hungarian Reformation (in Gerdes, Scrinium Antiquarium, ii, Groningen, 1763).

F. Balogh.

Bibliography: G. D. Teutsch, Korrespondenzblatt des Vereins für siebenb. Landeskunde, no. xi, 1888, nos. v, vi, 1891; Presbyterian and Reformed Review, vols. i-ii, 1891–92.