Kövy Zsolt - Szabó György - S. dr. Lackovits Emőke: A Pápai Református Gyűjtemény (Pápa, 1987)
Zsolt Kövy: The Calvinist Collection of Pápa
Archives of the Church District (No 17. Teleki Blanka Street) The archives was founded in 1765. The documents of the Transdanubian church district used to be kept at the episcopal sees (mainly in Komárom and Pápa), but it can be found in Pápa since 1935 and it has been collecting again since 1952. The archives contains the whole material of the church district’s administrative units, the dioceses (there used to be nine now there are six of them). The register of the 450 running-meter „long” collection was printed in 1976. Some of the more detailed catalogues have been made since then and others are being made now. The first charter of the archives is a deed of gift of János Zápolya from 1510 about granting his house in Pápa together with a land in villein tenure to the church. The protocols, correspondences, testaments, foundations from the 16'" to 18th centuries are the most valuable documents of the archives. The collection of canon of Imre Gál (who was a Calvinist bishop in Veszprém from 1649 to 1655) contains the text of law codified on different synods of Calvinist Church in Debrecen, Hercegszőlős, Komját, Sopron from 1567 to 1625. The correspondence of János Kanizsai Pálfi a Calvinist bishop of Transdanubia from 1611 to 1638 (a former priest of Pápa) was given to the archives by Bishop Ferenc Tóth (1827—44). In the register of birth of Kiskomárom (beginning with year of 1624) we can find notes of Bishop István Patai (1612—28). From the year of 1781 when the Edict of Tolerance was created by Emperor József II. all the reports, accounts of church communities and schools are gathered. The documents of the Calvinist College of Pápa (1577— 1952), Calvinist Grammar School of Csurgó (1790—1943) and Calvinist College Press in Pápa (founded in 1837) can be mentioned as significant ones. A literary and debating society has worked at the college. Its material and some private correspondences — as Gábor Pap (1874—95) and Géza Antal dr. (1924—34) former bishops’ from the period of 1884—1934. The letters of Jenő Balogh dr. superintendent of the church district (1921—53) and József Pongrácz dr. the professor of theology and librarian have not been treated yet. About 100 researchers come to work to the archives every year. The, main fields of research are: history, ecclesiastical history, local 136
