%0 Journal Article %T On the Road toward Autocracy. The Policy toward Religious Denominations as Pursued in Hungary of the Horthy’s Ara %A Herger, Eszter Cs. %J Cracow Studies of Constitutional and Legal History %V Volume 10 (2017) %R 10.4467/20844131KS.17.005.6795 %N Volume 10, Issue 1 %P 69-95 %K State and Church, matrimonial law, Church autonomy, autocracy %@ 2084-4115 %D 2017 %U https://ejournals.eu/en/journal/kshpp/article/auf-dem-weg-zur-autokratie-kirchenpolitik-in-der-horthy-ara-in-ungarn %X The laws of 1890s that pertained to the matters connected with the functioning of Churches considerably contributed to the forming of the modern Hungarian state within the Austro-Hungarian monarchy (1867–1918). Some elements of the policy toward the Churches that were detectable in the Horthy’s era (1919–1944) seemed to have been the reverse side of the above-mentioned process, thereby having their share in laying the foundations for the road of central power toward autocracy. The modification of the secular matrimonial law in 1941, the total removal – through decrees – of the already earlier limited equality of religious beliefs, as well as the absence of full autonomy of denominational associations, show that the assessment of the Horthy’s era, from the perspective of legal history, remains a significant task to be carried out.