Az egyházlátogatás vagy canonica visitatio fogalma, kialakulása, rendeltetése, fajtái és gyakorlata
The Concept, Development, Purpose, Types and Practice of Church Visitation (Canonica Visitatio)

Summary/Abstract: This article explores the history, development and types of canonica visitatio (canonical visitations), from antiquity to the 18th century. The institution of canonical visitation, i. e. the visit of an ecclesiastical superior to a church prescribed by the laws of the Church, is a form of the Catholic Church’s control that dates back to the 5th century, and has its roots in the apostolic age. The apostles were sent out to visit newly founded Christian churches in difficulty, primarily to check their religious and moral purity. This is the biblically-based precedent on which later councils built the church visitation system. By the 5th century, the priestly hierarchy was established, with the bishop at the top of the hierarchy exercising visitation and control over the churches under his jurisdiction, including their priests and the faithful. The article summarizes the development of the legal framework of visitation (from the 6th century onwards), describes the visitation provisions of the Council of Trent (1545– 1563) and their implementation in Hungary, discusses Catholic visitations in parts of Europe that came under Turkish rule, and then turns to the types of visitations that initially applied to Protestants (see Explanatio Leopoldinum, 1691; I. Carolina Resolutio, 1731; II. Carolina Resolutio, 1734). After a discussion of Protestant visitations, the article describes the visitation customs of the Lutheran and Calvinist churches, and then turns to the visitations of the Hungarian Reformed and Lutheran churches.

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