Dénes Dienes: History of the Reformed Church Collég in Sárospatak (Sárospatak, 2013)
EPILOGUE
224 EPILOGUE i The school-yard What was the explanation to this? Obviously, we are not the first to pose this enigmatic question. With the understanding that we shall only be able to revisit this question and not resolve it, surely we shall not be the last to search for the explanation of the unique ‘Patak way’. The enigma is stimulating in that it urges us to seek answers, even if we know that our attempted mental synthesis may never be complete or perfect. Thus, after configuring an outline of the problem, we can try to step forth with one particular answer. It could be observed that, from time to time, outstanding efforts and intellectual achievements were born and decisive individuals rose to prominence in the history of the College in Patak, which resulted in the town rising well above its normally accorded station. These turning points were also veritable life-changing events for the town and its institution(s), since they always appeared as a direct response and successful solution to some great cataclysm; they always provided a way out from a difficult situation and gave rise to results to which successive generations proudly allude. The first major challenges in the life of the College appeared in the 1640s and 1650s and these had to be met in an unprecedented manner, the effects of which are visible even today. Events in the domain of international military and diplomatic affairs, as well as on the domestic political scene, evolved in a manner proving to be most detrimental to those belonging to the Reformed denomination. The end of the Thirty Years War provided an opportunity for the Habsburgs to extend their baroque Absolutism and counter-reformation policies. The consequent centralization in several areas of the empire led to the Protestants having to suffer serious atrocities. At the same time, the position of education as propagated by the Jesuits rapidly solidified in our country. With reason, the Protestants in the northeastern parts of the country felt their very existence to be threatened and, as the events of the later decades (e.g. galley slavery and the flight of the College) would prove, this feeling was not unfounded and it soon became a merciless reality. In such dire circumstances, it was two developments which paved the way to respite, the first being the inviting of Comenius to come to teach in Patak and the putting into practice of his concept of education, and the second being the tireless and faithful work of János Tolnai Dali. In the initial decades of the 1700s, another major event marked the lives of those inhabiting the region, this also being closely related to the developments in international politics. The Peace Treaty of Szatmár strengthened the Habsburgs’ position in Hungary, this being ample reason for Hungarian Protestants finding themselves in a difficult situation once again. The most significant events pertaining to the Rákóczi-led armed struggle for independence had taken place in the northeastern reaches of Hungary and, as a consequence, attention focused once again on the region surrounding Sárospatak, especially when the counter-Reformation and organized resettlement concepts of the empire were unveiled and then implemented. Within such circumstances and the throes of
