Dénes Dienes: History of the Reformed Church Collég in Sárospatak (Sárospatak, 2013)
SPIRIT AND MOOD - The Strong Pillar of the College - Education in Theology and in the Liberal Arts
157 discipline surfaced once again in the midst of the theology students. According to certain reports, the general indifference of the theology students towards academic endeavour coupled with their neglect of appearing at colloquiums was more flagrant than that of the law students, and anyone familiar with the legends of the College pertaining to the comportment of law students understood the gravity of the matter. It was not a frivolous accusation for the disorderliness of students from other schools to be compared to the rampancy of the law students. Highly exaggerated stories were circulated for decades to discourage students from such behaviour. A much larger and enduring problem was that the state-required regulations pertaining to the developing of the Academy of Law created an imbalance within the College’s internal structure. Of the twelve teachers on the academic staff, between six and eight gave instruction in law. This meant that the Faculty of Humanities and theology struggled with a shortage of teachers. Different approaches were tried to somewhat reduce the problem. One approach was to have some teachers split their working hours between the two faculties, something which created a system of cross-teaching lecturers. At the end of the 19th century, when trying to raise the money needed to establish a fifth chair at the theological faculty, the College traded away its future rights of supplication for two thousand forints. The stringent financial management and limited development opportunities unavoidably strengthened the teachers’ inclinations to go elsewhere. In 1895, for example, the legal and theological academy each lost an important professional when both Béla Bartha and Gyula Mitrovics left for Debrecen. Sándor Makkai, who later became a renown academic, was lured away by the University of Kolozsvár in 1918. In order to maintain the elevated quality of work manifested by the Faculty of Humanities, it was essential to enduringly ensure - after many decades of trying - the teaching of modern foreign languages and the related systematic teaching of their literature. This need, which became acute from the second part of the 18th century, could only be partially remedied - with significant gaps lasting for decades - by sometimes having students teach, sometimes adult employees who stayed in Patak for a longer period or teachers of other disciplines who occasionally taught German, also. In the long run, none of these proved to be the true remedy for the need. The political developments of the time certainly did not help in the resolution of this assuredly important matter, something which was indispensable to the evolution of middle class society. Harbouring the fear of losing their autonomy, the professors in Patak ruled out giving priority to the German language during both the Reform Era and the years of neo-absolutism, thus they continued to ask secondary school teachers to teach German. Such were Gerzson Szinyei and István Kérészy in the 1860s. With the arrival in 1867 of Pál Kun, the school gained a teacher of French and English, too. A few years later, the newly-arrived Oszkár Kesselbauer was appointed to head the temporary Department of German and French. However, no further requirements as regulated by the MNER were implemented. The church district was not willing to support the changes in the curriculum which would have helped with the teaching of spoken German. The reasoning of the church district was that the focus should be on teaching students how to understand German and to be able to do translations back and forth; every-day German and spoken German, they
