Magyar Egyház, 1956 (35. évfolyam, 1-11. szám)
1956-08-01 / 8-9. szám
16 MAGYAR EGYHÁZ PETER MÉUUSZ-JUHÁSZ, THE HUNGARIAN CALVIN . . . by ALEXANDER UNGHVÁRY The 16th Century’s Reformation in Hungary demanded that everybody show his colors. In this century of obligatory confession no human being was without some spiritual activity. All were conscious that in the Reformation the Hungarians reached their full maturity of mind and faith. King Stephen had planted the Cross on Hungary’s soil but Protestantism planted it in the hearts and the intellects of the people. In this deeper experience, human dignity, the individual quality of the nation brought from the East, was to culminate. Up to the middle of the 16th century Luther was the only religious educator of Hungary, about the middle of the century this earlier Lutheranism inclined toward the Helvetic tendency. It was a consequence of the inner dynamism of the Protestant religion which found its integration in the Helvetic forms. This new religious Reformation of the Hungarian people developed, roughly speaking, around two centers of energy, the city of Debrecen, and the province of Transylvania, the “Eastern Switzerland”. Like Geneva, Debrecen, “the Calvinistic Rome”, lay on a great trade route and as such was a transshipment center for the commerce of the Continent. This fact conditioned its citizens early for independence, mobility and social development. The Helvetic religion provided also a penetreting social outlook and accordingly it was the burgher class that came to adhere to the system of Calvin. Whenever these elements were lacking to the East of Central Europe, for example, among the Slavs, Calvinism was unable to conquer. It was not able to cross the Carpathian toward the East. When Peter Meliusz-Juhasz became pastor of Debrecen, his office was very soon transformed into that of a superintendent-bishop. Meliusz-Juhasz the “Hungarian Calvin”, a man of the Helvetic tendecy, formulated their doctrines even where they concerned the central problems of theology, in an individual way. This single outstanding personality was in himself strong enough to establish the Hungarian system in that region. The range of his activity and his immense capacity commends our admiration even today. Remember only that he had formulated from one day to the next the religious and ecclesiastical “science” of the new tendency. Though Debrecen had very early adoped the Lutheran tendency it never had entirely broken with Catholicism. A man was needed as in Geneva, who would cope with the tired souls bogged down in materialism. This man was Meliusz. In 1560 he set up a letter-press which produced work after work. Between 1561-1571, from the pen of Meliusz came no less than 31 printed works, among them some fundamental ones. Most of his works are original writings. With a few translations from the Bible. We find a translation of the Old Testament, a hymn book, a book of doctrine and the theological handbook of the Hungarian Helvetic religion. Meliusz never tired of stressing that the new Church should be built not on outward church organization but “upon the personal study of the Word, sole true type of Reformed Christianity.” Not only does he place the Bible in the hands of the community but he also entrusts it with the work of bearing witness to the faith and with teaching. In the thirtieth year of his life he entrusted to the community the three responsibilities of religious community life: ecclesiastical doctrine, the Word of God and teaching. It was he who gave the Helvetic religion its prophetic character in Hungary, and in the tumult of men in search of God, characteristic of the age, he sent his flock to the silent recesses of their souls. The organizing ability of Peter Meliusz-Juhasz played the decisive part in t h e organization of the Hungarian churches. He was called by no less a name than “Pope Peter” because of his strong calvinistic conviction which forced him to act with force to save his church against its sectarian trends. The Prince of Transylvania himself warned him “not to act like a Pope in Rome, not to remove pastors nor burn their books, and not to force anybody to abandon his religion . . . for we wish that in our kingdom everybody should be free to follow the voice of his conscience.” Meliusz writes: “In every house there is a pious Christian congregation”, but he adds that “the preachers are bound to tell the truths, even if the gates of hell were against them.” At the first signs of Unitarianism, Meliusz-Juhasz hurried to Transylvania, got from the Prince permission for setting up a public disputation where he succeeded in pressing Francis David and his circle into declaring that, they wished only to eliminate a few non-Biblical philosophical terms. Instructed by this move Meliusz called a synod of the whole country at Debrecen and induced it to adopt the Second Helvetic Confession. He published his doctrine on Trinitarianism in Latin and Hungarian and dedicated it “to the Hungarian people”, Thus he did not appeal to kings and aristocrats but to the judgment of the people. The measures of the "Pope of Debrecen” was very timely, because the different trend of protestantism needed a strong hand which saved the church from a sectarian atomisation. The entire previous discussion shows that the events which took place in 16th century’s Hungary represent a spiritual revolution expressing itself in ecclesiastical forms in the language of religion. Without the strength of the recognized and accepted Word the Church Nation would have disappeared from the earth. The factors which saved that Calvinistic church are many, in human allusion Meliusz-Juhasz is the most dominant personality who deserves our deep regards and adoration. The “Pope of Debrecen” established the only really democratic church in South Eastern Europe, which is the second largest one in the world even today among the Reformed Churches holding the Presbyterian System of government.
