Dénes Dienes: History of the Reformed Church Collég in Sárospatak (Sárospatak, 2013)
THE STRUGGLE AGAINST MARGINALIZATION- BEFORE AND AFTER WORLD WAR II. - Zemplén cut into two, the Church District in three parts and a College with one governing body
187 Czechoslovakia and Hungary. The church district suffered equally great losses. Parishes in Abaúj, Gömör, Torna, Ung and Zemplén fell under the jurisdiction of a foreign country. The Cistibiscan Reformed Church District had three hundred fifty-six mother church congregations preceding World War I; after the loss of the northern territories, the figure was reduced to two hundred seventeen. The congregations remaining under Hungarian jurisdiction were then realigned into five church counties, these being Abaúj, Alsóborsod, Felsőborsod, Alsózemplén and Gömör-Torna. The church congregations now belonging to Czechoslovakia came under the jurisdiction of the Cistibiscan Church District in Szlovenszkó. The strict border-crossing regulations and hostile relations between the two countries seriously hindered not only the cultivation of fraternal relationships but made the maintenance of official church ties virtually impossible. The terms mandated by the post-war peace treaties had not only quantitative but also serious qualitative consequences for the counties still finding themselves in Hungary. With the town of Kassa (now Kosice) having fallen on the Czechoslovakian side of the border, the county of Abaúj lost its centre and all the trade benefits it had derived from the Miskolc-Kassa line. The settlements in Gömör suffered a similar fate: with the towns of Rimaszombat and Rozsnyó falling beyond the new border, Gömör found itself on the periphery of the reduced country. However, the local mining, metallurgy, and the chemical industry, once restarted, soon rejoined the region and became reintegrated within the national network. Those living in the Zemplén villages were not quite as fortunate, for there was very little which could ensure them of any prosperity in possible local economic developments. The villages in the Bodrogköz were not able to overcome their existing disadvantages and now, in the new situation, faced an even bleaker outlook. Only Miskolc and its surrounding areas were able to benefit from these developments. Being located in the centre of Borsod county, its industrial development and urbanization began to advance again, it became the site of the relocated law school from Eperjes and thus became a modest educational centre. The remaining regions and villages of Abaúj, Gömör, Torna and Zemplén are added onto Borsod county and Miskolc is designated to be the new county seat. By the very end of the period in question, an artificially induced influx of workers and their families began to swell the town’s population to soon make Miskolc the country’s second largest city. Finding itself facing extremely unfavourable conditions in this new order, the Reformed Church College in Sárospatak was forced to mount a defense in order to stave off marginalization in the strictest literal sense of the word. Interestingly enough, despite the loss of the Academy of Law, the idea of moving the school to Miskolc was raised by very few people in the inter-war period. During the time when Hungarian culture was enjoying general prosperity, the spectre of the school being downgraded hovered constantly over the heads of the leadership in Patak, but once Miskolc was elevated to the status of increased significance between the two World Wars, at least this difficulty did not have to be dealt with. All this is well-reflected in this era by the existence of a solidified organizational and management structure. In theory, the school structure of the College in Sárospatak (the secondary school, the theological academy and the teacher training school) was a completely autonomous institution. However, this
