hitvallás

Calvin wished to change the structure o f his first catechism (1537/1538), which explained the Ten Commandments before the Apostles’ Cred. Having recognised that his first catechism was too difficult for children, Calvin rewrote his text. He arranged the Geneva Catechism (1542) in questions and answers in an effort to simplify doctrinal complexities. His second Catechism displaced all other Reformed catechisms until 1563, the year when the Heidelberg Catechism appeared. In 1563 the bishop o f Debrecen, Péter Méliusz, translated the Confession o f Geneva into Hungarian.

The Arminianist doctrine concerning predestination as well as Cocceius' theology of the covenant, which intended to dilute the inflexibility of the Dordrecht decisions, kept the Dutch theology of the seventeenth century in fever, causing serious problems even during the first half of the eighteenth. The Hungarian adepts of these doctrines were Sámuel Nádudvari, József Makfalvi, András Huszti, Ferenc Csepregi Turkovics and György Verestói, who, after their return home, began to disseminate the teaching, which differred from the confessions of the Transylvanian Reformed Church.

The aim of our study is to examine the designation “Calvinist” in the works of Hungarian Reformed theologians of the early modern age. Theologians mostly formulated their views on this subject within disputes with Roman Catholics. The Roman Catholics accused the Protestants of following the teachings of the reformers rather than those of Christ. The Calvinists consistently brought their church in connection with Christ. They rejected to call the church Calvinist mainly because of dogmatic considerations, claiming the primary place to Christ’s role in the redemption.