The Organisation of the Reformed Church of Transylvania in the 16th Century (IV.)

During the inspection visits in local congregations, the committee used a series of questions addressing both the local pastor and the congregation. Such sets of enquiring questions survived only from the end of the 17. century in the Hungarian Reformed Church. Nevertheless, we cannot exclude that the church inspection committee used such questions even during earlier periods, as the Western-European church model had been implemented in the Hungarian Reformed church since the beginning of the Reformation. According to Zepper, when the day for inspection arrived, the entire congregation was supposed to have been gathered in the church building before the inspection committee. This was the place where the local minister had to be enquired not only about his preaching, but about his entire pastoral activity. Furthermore, the congregation was enquired about the local minister’s services and behaviour, whether the church members were able to follow the sermons delivered by the minister, whether the sermons adhere to the Bible and the confessions, whether catechetical work was regularly carried out among the youth, etc. Such enquiries aimed to smoothen communication between the minister and his congregation.