Fraternity-Testvériség, 1960 (38. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1960-02-01 / 2. szám
8 FRATERNITY seems, could serve on the Presbytery. The task of these ministers was to aid the bishop in the case of the Synod and the moderator in the case of that lesser court over which the moderator presided and which came to be called the “Church County”, and they did so in matters of church law, of marriage law, and of church and state affairs. This new court performed, in other words, what in other districts was left to “ecclesiastical assessors” to attend to. In a large Presbytery a deputy-moderator was usually appointed, especially in the case where part of its territory came under the rule of the Turks; this official’s function was to oversee the parishes in that Turkish area. He was expected to visit all the parishes under his care, and to that end both the bishop and the moderator could appoint “presbyters” to help him. Only, by that word we are not to understand the modern connotation of the term. Yet we can well believe that the work of these presbyters was a most important one in those turbulent days. Finally, in the remaining areas of Hungary, Kirk Sessions were instituted only several decades later. The Office of the Bishop Now, whatever the bishop’s office had by this time historically developed into, in essence it was still incompatible with strict Reformation principles; and many 17th century churchmen realized that such was, indeed, the case. Yet the office was held onto and incorporated in the church canons, because it was felt to be essential under the circumstances pertaining at the time. In Transylvania neither the State nor the Roman Catholic Church acknowledged the Reformed bishops to be bishops, and in fact forbade the use of the title. On the other hand, after the Habsburg restoration in Hungary proper, the Empire did acknowledge the office of the Reformed Church bishop. Yet, apart from what the State thought of the office, the Reformed Church itself soon
