Dénes Dienes: History of the Reformed Church Collég in Sárospatak (Sárospatak, 2013)
THE SCHOOL IN ITS “OLD NEST” AGAIN HISTORY OF THE COLLEGE BETWEEN1703 AND 1777 - Laying the foundations for growth
64 HISTORY OF THE COLLEGE BETWEEN 1703 AND 1777 wife of a teacher should dress, and her behavior was a constant topic of gossip in town. On the other hand, this very talented and well-educated young teacher was very sensitive, too. He was deeply offended that there was constant gossip about his wife; in return he refused to say anything positive about the people of Patak and, in front of his students, openly called them “farmers, cobblers and bullocks”. He was saddened that the middle class noble patrons of the county criticized his teaching methods and had a rather low opinion of his intellectual views. He rejected not only their views but their influence, also, on the grounds that - as he claimed - their cultural-intellectual level could not be compared to his. When expressing his views on this particular issue, he did not shy away from being deeply offensive and rude. János Csécsi was well-liked and popular among the students, thanks to his new and more informal teaching style. He also demonstrated a personal interest in the life of his students, for example, trying to procure scholarships for them in Western universities (in Basel) or inviting them often to his house for dinner. But perhaps he was well-liked mostly because of the criticism he voiced about the old school rules and traditions, something which impressed and captivated his students. He was pushing the old boundaries, which is exactly the same thing students do in every era. He argued for expanding the rights of students when he advanced the notion that the election of a new teacher should be a decision which students and teachers should make together. It is difficult to say how much broadening the already existing autonomy in the school would have helped the advancement of the College. In an existence framed by the different social classes, in many ways stripped of its rights and barely tolerated by the imperial state, the Reformed Church was forced to strongly depend on the support of the Calvinist middle-class nobles. In return, these denominationally Reformed nobles came forward as patrons and received power and influence in the sphere of church administration. This noble class was aware of Csécsi’s unvarnished criticism, yet supported him for a long time. The tension between the two teachers Csécsi and Füleki culminated in the context of a student disruption in 1715. Armed with weapons, Csécsi’s student supporters forced the students of the other side - who were in the minority - to agree to support dismissing András Füleki from the school. After lengthy investigations, the pastors and noble curators decided to expel a few problematic students from the College, but they also asked Füleki to leave the College. The only ones who spoke in defense of Füleki - Ferenc Aszalay, Sámuel Szentimerei - were those who held him in high esteem and had at one time laboured together with him to ensure the survival of the school. The school’s patrons opted to support Csécsi, which meant that pastor István Azari Nagy also had to leave the town, and even worse, was denied all employment in the Cistibiscan church district. The patrons required Csécsi to sign a declaration that there would be no retaliation against the students who either did not support him or testified against him; he was not to teach anything contradictory to Reformed Orthodoxy; he was to no longer belittle or mock the citizens of Patak; he was to no longer take liberties with students at the expense of teacher authority; he was to persuade his wife to dress in the manner befitting a pastor’s wife; he was to regularly participate in worship services. As an indication of this commitment
