Until the end of World War I the Ref church in Slovakia, as well as in the Carpatho-Ukraine (cf. Ukraine), was part of the Reformed Church in Hungary. The Reformation movement reached the region in the early 1520s. The soil had been prepared by the Hussite movement a century before. In the beginning, Luther’s influence was dominant; later, Calvinist thinking prevailed. In 1564 four presbyteries were formed in eastern Slovakia in which Slovaks and Hungarians lived side by side. After the Synod in Debrecen, where the Reformed Church of Hungary adopted the Second Helvetic Confession, the Ref faith also spread to central and western Slovakia. During the period of the Counter-Reformation in the 17th century the Ref churches were protected by the princes of Transylvania, who extended their supremacy to parts of Slovakia. Literature (catechism, hymnbook, liturgy) in Slovak was printed in Debrecen. The church was revitalized after the Edict of Toleration (1781). The Synod of Buda (1791) opened the way for the presbyterian-synodal constitution. The Synod of Debrecen (1881) gave a unified structure to the Reformed Church of Hungary. Within this framework the Reformed Church of Slovakia was exposed to nationalist Hungarian tendencies. By 1918 the indigenous Slovak culture was almost extinct. The Reformed Church of Slovakia was established in its present form after World War I. At that time it had a membership of 216,000 in Slovakia and 20,000 in Carpatho-Ukraine. In 1923 a General Synod was convened in Levice to adopt the constitution. The relationship between Slovaks and the Hungarian minority proved to be difficult. Some Hungarians did not recognize the results of the Trianon Treaty and refused to accept the new constitution. In 1925 a Hungarian- speaking theological seminary was founded in Lucenec. During the time of the puppet Slovak state established by the Nazis (1939-1945), the majority of the congr again became part of the Reformed Church of Hungary. World War II brought new changes. The Carpatho-Ukrainian region became part of the Ukraine (USSR). In 1951 the Reformed Church of Slovakia adopted a new constitution. The supreme organ was the Synod, with a Synodal Council as its executive arm. Seven presbyteries were created. After the separation in 1993 a Theological Institute was opened in Komarno (1995); catechetical schools began to function in Komarno and Kosice.
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