Dénes Dienes: History of the Reformed Church Collég in Sárospatak (Sárospatak, 2013)
FLOURISHING AND SCATTERING THE REFORMED COLLEGE IN THE 17TH CENTURY - School life
For I see that being in school is nothing but poverty for us, for students who do not ft in their coetus groups; I am in such great hunger, having had barely anything to eat in the last three days. I have no clothes, my coat is tom, and so is my jacket. [...] It is well known that we have only three worthless vineyards, all we do is work in these and learn nothing. For I would like to live in the school if I could afford it but I can see that, in Hungary, poor student servants are those who are not fed. the records attesting to professor Dávid Valerius, a Spanish medical doctor and theologian who was born Jewish but converted to Christianity, having just finished his analysis on one of Lucas Trelcatius’s (a reformed teacher from Leiden) book in 1538 and about launching into the next book, Robert Bellarmin’s Disputationes de controversiis christianae fidei. Students were either scholarship recipients (alumnus) or relied on their personal resources to finance their studies. A small number of them were called mendicans (poor, beggar, servant, etc.) who had to work during their studies to cover their school fees and living expenses. On the basis of István Dobolyi’s desperate lines, some came to the conclusion that the College in Patak was in chaos, however, he only writes that one cannot study without finances, which is obviously significant. Students without financial resources could earn money by working in the school’s vineyard or clean classrooms but they could also serve some of their wealthier fellow students. Dobolyi is complaining that none of the above options were available for him. The students on scholarship lived in the College and ate there regularly. On the basis of the school regulations, it can be concluded that it was these students who constituted - though not exclusively - the coetus community. One could join if one had the rector’s permission, read and signed the contract and was extended a confirming handshake. From the regulations, it can also be seen that student life was not overly pleasant. The wakeup call came very early, at three in the morning and from then onwards students had to follow a strict schedule until the curfew at nine at night. Their days were framed by the daily personal prayer times, by the reading of a few chapters from the Bible and the Heidelberg Catechism and its explications every morning and evening. Lectures began at six in the morning and continued until noon, there being a longer break in between at around nine. After lunch, students had to reflect upon and memorize what they had learned that day and complete their homework, this consisting, for instance, of assignments in stylistic writing and the composing of missives in Greek and Latin. They could also use some of the early hours for memorizing texts. Every evening there were devotions and Bible readings and often the rector or conrector came to explain these passages to the student community. There were regular devotions in the church as well, every morning and evening, but it was not required that everyone participate. Every day three students were selected to represent the student body at the morning devotion and three others for the evening devotion. Attendance at Sunday worship services was mandatory for everyone. Given that the worship services were in Hungarian, foreign students, mostly from Slovakia, were not required to attend. Nonetheless, the regulations stipulated that one was not to sleep during this time but to read the Bible and other Helvetian authors and meditate about what had been read. Funerals were special occasions, there being occasions when the entire coetus had 29 /C.L. /flu te“ /'JM: Siderius’ Catechism was also used as a textbook in Sárospatak
