Dénes Dienes: History of the Reformed Church Collég in Sárospatak (Sárospatak, 2013)

SPIRIT AND MOOD - From College Teacher Training to State-directed Teacher Training in Sárospatak

mandatory colloquiums was eliminated. Though the solution was not popular among the leaders, the number of students doubled within a year. The following year, the number of students increased by another fifty percent - which the school’s leadership reported with obvious embarassment. It is true that the “mandatory colloquiums” were also rescinded thus leaving only those students to take tests who were really ambitious.

During World War I, the Academy of Law became almost deserted. In 1917, only 25 students were able to enroll and only on the condition that the school guaranteed an extra holiday of twelve weeks for them so that they could serve in the war. Some of the teachers were out serving on the battlegrounds as well, which meant that three departments were functioning without a head of department for years. The so-called Ferenczy case did not help either; for years it was unclear who would take Professor Árpád Ferenczy’s place. The decision at the post-war peace conference in Trianon put the final nail in the coffin of the Academy of Law in Patak. The decision was announced that the law faculties of four universities would be sufficient for such a small country, which is what Hungary became. The MNER indicated in 1921 that they would not provide financial support to other universities teaching law to fill teaching positions. At the academy in Patak, four positions were unfilled, so they combined two of these and used their own resources to hire an extra professor. This was then followed by the launching of a nationwide plea for support to ensure its survival. In cash alone, two hundred thirty-two thousand crowns were received in donations. What was more amazing was that Zemplén county and the town of Sárospatak both lined up behind the Academy and supported it with one million crowns each year, despite the fact that they both faced financial challenges of their own. The latter development projected something beyond its own significance: “A century- long of indifference and the ice of coldness is broken with this decision! For centuries, the interdependence of two factors was obvious: today, the town and the College found each other and they have declared that, from this day on, together they them will walk on a new path of understanding and support each other.”

But all this only helped to prolong the agony. There was little hope of saving the Academy of Law in Patak. As a last resort, the church district introduced a new culture-tax to save the College in the summer of 1923, but the fall brought so few students that the closing of the faculty was announced in mid-September. Although it was emphasized as being only temporary, in reality, it meant that the days of the one hundred thirty year-old Academy of Law were over. Three of the teachers were able to retire while József Trócsányi, a professor of religious law and a member of the Economic Board, was moved to the Theological Academy.

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The work of a student, 1900

FROM COLLEGE TEACHER TRAINING TO STATE- DIRECTED TEACHER TRAINING IN SÁROSPATAK

The Reformed Church colleges always maintained great awarenesss of the smaller schools in their proximity and within their sphere of influence. Based on the classical logic of the so-called particula-system functioning until the middle of the 19th century, dozens of students from the upper school-class levels