Erasmus and István Magyari on the Justification of War
Copyright (c) 2020 AARMS – Academic and Applied Research in Military Science
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
The copyright to this article is transferred to the University of Public Service Budapest, Hungary (for U.S. government employees: to the extent transferable) effective if and when the article is accepted for publication. The copyright transfer covers the exclusive right to reproduce and distribute the article, including reprints, translations, photographic reproductions, microform, electronic form (offline, online) or any other reproductions of similar nature.
The author warrants that this contribution is original and that he/she has full power to make this grant. The author signs for and accepts responsibility for releasing this material on behalf of any and all co-authors.
An author may make an article published by University of Public Service available on a personal home page provided the source of the published article is cited and University of Public Service is mentioned as copyright holder
Abstract
Warfare ideologies in Europe basically changed in the Early Modern period. This period is the age of Reformation, of which Desiderius Erasmus was one of the earliest prominent thinkers. Concerning warfare, Erasmus can be understood as a representative of pacifism, but at the same time, it can be argued that he was the first reformer with a specific theory of justification of war. In this respect, Erasmus had several followers from every part of Europe, including Hungary. This Hungarian “apprentice” was István Magyari, who was also the first representative of Hungarian military science. This paper uncovers and examines the common points of Erasmus and Magyari in their theory of justification of war, and Magyari’s divergence from Erasmus’ thinking.