Calvin Synod Herald, 1996 (96. évfolyam, 1-6. szám)
1996-07-01 / 4. szám
CALVIN SYNOD HERALD AMERIKAI MAGYAR REFORMÁTUSOK LAPJA "Holy tradition is the living faith of the dead; traditionalism is the dead faith of the living.“ In the Footsteps of the Geneva Reformation Glimpses into the old Hungarian Reformed Church Government The years of the foundation of the timehonored colleges of the Hungarian Reformation are 1531 (Sárospatak and Pápa) and 1538 (Debrecen). These were the Reformed schools of higher learning which differentiated themselves from their Lutheran counterparts. Thus in 1531, while John Calvin himself was yet a student at the University of Paris, the Reformed Colleges of Sárospatak and Pápa were already founded. These facts seem to indicate that the Hungarian Reformation movement was born and developed from a concrete political and historical situation. This allowed the Reformed Church in Hungary to find solutions often not characteristic of others tended by fellow Reformed Churches in Europe. A way of church government solutions became knov/n as "a la Hongroise" )i.e. the "Hungarian Way"). In the case of the Hungarian Reformation, we can only speak of "adopted Calvinism." The Reformation of Geneva, and the structure of the church government, which emerged in the Hungarian Reformation was uniquely the product of the historical political situation in Hungary, that is, in all three political divisions of the Hungarian Kingdom of the sixteenth century. These political divisions were a Northern Hungary, which was under the Hapsburg rule, Turkish-occupied central Hungary and the independently ruled Transylvania. The venerable Peter Bod (1712-1769), who as one of the early historians of the Reformed Church in Hungary, has already noted the fact that the entire leadership of the Reformed Church of Hungary was educated at the University of Wittenberg. Naturally, the university at Wittenberg boasted an almost direct link with Martin Luther. Yet, in spite of this Wittenberg connection, there emerged in Hungary, a distinctive Reformed not Lutheran theology and consequently a Reformed solution to the questions of church government and administration. István Szegedi Kiss (1505-1572), emerged as one of the leaders of the Reformation Movement in the Turkish occupied territory. Yet, academically he also obtained his credentials from the Lutheran University of Wittenberg. His Reformed dogmatics were published in the very Reformed heartland of Basel. Similarly, the translator of the Bible into Hungarian, Gáspár Károli (1530- 1591), living within the Hapsburg-ruled section of Hungary, was also an alumnus of the University of Wittenberg. The Bishop of Debrecen, Peter Melius Juhász (1530- 1591), held the rank of fifth senior of the then Hungarian Coetus at the University of Wittenberg. He proved to be the undisputed leader of the Reformed Church of Hungary, ruling in the political no man's land of eastern Hungary. Thus the entire leadership of the Reformed Church in Hungary all drew their formal education from the hallowed Lutheran halls of Wittenberg. This was the accepted practice until 1580, when as a group, Hungarians were expelled from Wittenberg as heretics, Lutheran heretics, that is. The structure of the church government which developed during the initial and formative years of the Hungarian Reformation, can be best described as an Episcopal-Senior modality. That is, in any region, the church boundaries were almost consistently the very same as the political ones. Thus, the ancient Hungarian counties now formed the boundaries of the Reformed Church government. This unit became known as a seniorate. This seniorate can best be equated to our present-day classis or presbytery. Only the members of the clergy were permitted to join this organization; laymen were excluded. The functioning authority or head of the seniorate was called Senior or Dean. His election was secured by his colleagues through an election. In the next level of hierarchy, several seniorates formed a synod or diocese. The head of this larger grouping was the Bishop. Both the functions of the Seniors, Deans, or the Bishops were strictly prescribed by the canons of the Reformed Church. These canons detail responsibilities and the limitations of the respective offices. Although in the 16th century, there was no lay representation from the various local churches, yet the Prince of Transylvania exercised a power not defined by the canon law. Two noteworthy general assemblies of the larger Reformed Church lack any lay representatives. Only the clergy attended both the national synods of Debrecen (1567) and Szatmárnémeti in 1646. In 1563, a Reformed Church synod adopted the Confessions of Theodore Beze of Geneva. It was understood that while religiously and theologically declaring unity with Geneva, the Reformed Church in Hungary avoided adopting the sections on church government contained in these documents. This unique solution toward church government is evidenced by the adoption in 1567 by the General Synod of Debrecen of the Second Helvetic Confession and the Heidelberg Catechism. Both of these confessional statements are silent on a prescribed form of church government. For two centuries, the Reformed Church in Hungary lived according to the solutions of this unique Episcopal-Senior structure. John T. McNeil describes this well by stating: "In this instance Calvinism adopted a constitutional episcopates, the episcopates eminence being one of jurisdiction, not of order". Yet, Mr. McNeil misunderstood the very genius of the Hungarian Reformed solution. The reverse is actually the truth of what he observes, the Hungarian church which became organized as Episcopal after the Reformation maintained its Calvinism in its theology. This allowed a truly new form to develop which embraced the realities of the Hungarian experience. I
