Dr. Péter Balázs: Guide to the archives of Hungary (Budapest, 1976)

(Archives of the Reformed /Calvinist/ Church) - A Magyarországi Református Egyház Zsinati Levéltára (Synodal Archives of the Reformed Church of Hungary)

The maintainer of the Archives is the Synod of the Reformed Church in Hungary, the rights of the maintainer are exercised by the Synodal Council of the Reformed Church in Hungary. Professional control is exercised by the Archival Board of the Ministry of Culture. The archival material totals 700 running metres. The most ancient record dates from 1791. The material of the Archives consists of the preserved journals of the synodal (from 1791) and the ever more frequent convent sittings (from the middle of the eighteenth century), being the basic material of the "Convent Archives", and the records of the administration of the Convent Bureau. To them was added the collected material of the national ecclesiastical organizations and institutions established by the Synod, of the foundations entrusted to the care of the General Convent, the associations supervised by it, finally the papers of national movements and organizations of Reformed character, and the deposited personal papers. Two archival groups, the papers of István TISZA and István BURJÁN, fall outside the purpose and collecting interest of the Archives, they have, however, a significant source value for the history of World War I and the interior and foreign policy in Hungary during this period. Among the records preserved in the Synodal Archives the archival groups of the Reformed General Synod, the Reformed General Convent, the Old-Age Pension Fund and the Widows and Orphans Protecting Institute of the Reformed Pastors and the National Reformed Common Fund did not suffer considerable damage, in spite of the vicissicitudes of the ages and of archival history. A notable source value for economic and social history is attached to the archival subgroup of "Tax-fund Commission Papers" of the archival group of the Reformed General Convent. A considerable part of the later collected national organisations, institutions and corporations is only fragmentary. Neither the arrangement, nor the description of the archival material is adequate. Arrangement at medium level and the elaboration of finding aids is in progress. Archival groups and subgroups derived from a registry have register books and alphabetical indices. There are no publications or published finding aids of the Archives. A -survey on it was given by Lajos IVANYOS in Református Egyház