Dénes Dienes: History of the Reformed Church Collég in Sárospatak (Sárospatak, 2013)
János Ugrai: „THE PERIOD OF NATIONAL ADVANCEMENT” 1777-1849 - Environmental conditions - The spirit of the age: from the enlightenment to the fall of the war of independence
„THE PERIOD OF NATIONAL ADVANCEMENT” 1777 - 1849 ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS THE SPIRIT OF THE AGE: FROM THE ENLIGHTENMENT TO THE END OF THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE I n the final third of the 18th century, intellectual life suddenly started to effervesce in Hungary. The previous decades of preparation and gradual gathering of strength were now supplanted by a significantly more exciting period replete with developments. This is partly due to the influx of ideas inspired by the Enlightenment into the cultural centres of the Carpathian Basin. Traditionally, the starting point of the Hungarian Enlightenment is connected to the publication of the work entitled the Tragedy of Ágis (1772) by György Bessenyei, a former student of Patak. Bessenyei was living in Vienna at the time and, as a consequence of things experienced and things read while there, he became a purveyor of French culture. But further decades and powerful central stimulation were required until Western science, culture and literature- promoting endeavours attained a state of consolidation. Thus, the 1770s were not only of critical and watershed-like importance because of the slow infiltration of the Enlightenment but also because of the rapid appearance of enlightened absolutism and its comprehensive agenda. From the perspective of the history of the College in Sárospatak, two domains within enlightened absolutism count as being exceptional. One of them is religious and church politics. On the one hand, the sovereign wished to validate his/her will in an increasing number of areas which formerly had been - at least in part - under the authority of the Catholic Church. In terms of what concerned education, culture (e.g. censorship and science), healthcare, rural-village administration and justice, the sovereigns were claiming more and more rights of oversight. Mary Theresa had already realized a political agenda of methodical secularization which was reinforced by Joseph II’s zealous provisions. Although the determination of the state (the sovereign) and the intensity of the process varied during the subsequent decades, the advance of secularization spanned the entire era. As a consequence of the influence of the Enlightenment, the ground-gaining progression of polity and state oversight and
