1608 · 1622 · 1640 Reformation, and a prince who burned the townReformácia a knieža, ktoré mesto vypálilo

The Reformation took hold here early, and by 1608 the Calvinists had taken over the parish church; most of the townspeople had become Calvinist. It did not protect them. In 1622 the army of Gabriel Bethlen, the Protestant prince of Transylvania then in revolt against the Habsburg emperor, burned Lučenec — and burned its charters with it, which is why the town later had to ask for its rights all over again. Bethlen is also said to have kept the Holy Crown of Hungary here that year. In 1640 the townspeople put a wall around the church, the only thing they could realistically defend.Reformácia sa tu ujala skoro a roku 1608 prevzali farský kostol kalvíni; väčšina mešťanov už vtedy bola kalvínska. Neochránilo ich to. Roku 1622 vojsko Gabriela Betlena, protestantského sedmohradského kniežaťa vo vzbure proti habsburskému cisárovi, Lučenec vypálilo — a s ním aj mestské listiny, preto muselo mesto neskôr žiadať o svoje práva odznova. O Betlenovi sa okrem toho hovorí, že v tom roku tu prechovával uhorskú kráľovskú korunu. Roku 1640 obohnali mešťania múrom aspoň kostol — jediné, čo sa dalo reálne brániť.