Dénes Dienes: History of the Reformed Church Collég in Sárospatak (Sárospatak, 2013)
János Ugrai: „THE PERIOD OF NATIONAL ADVANCEMENT” 1777-1849 - Organizational changes - adumbration of episcopal power
86 FROM THE ENLIGHTEMENT TO THE END OF THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE service which was designated to serve as the centre of the church district. This was the arrangement in force at the beginning of the period being discussed, wherein Ábrahám Szathmári Paksi served at Mezőkeresztes (1792-1799) and Gábor Őri Fülöp at Sajószentpéter (1799-1823). Hence, for a certain length of time these two settlements were the administrative centres of the district. This tradition came to an end in 1823 when József Szathmáry Paksi, pastor of a congregation in Miskolc, was elected to the office of bishop and then, following his death in 1848, Pál Apostol, another pastor from Miskolc, was chosen to occupy the seat of the bishop. An important milestone in the organizational evolution of the church district was the redrawing of the boundaries of the church counties in 1799. The enormous tracts of Abaúj, Borsod-Gömör-Kishont and Zemplén were reorganized into smaller territories and a total of seven deaneries or church counties (Abaúj, Lower-Borsod, Upper-Borsod, Lower-Zemplén, the amalgamated church county of Upper-Zemplén and Ung, Gömör, Torna) were established. Naturally, vigorous objection had preceded the realization of this measure, for example, by the deans of Borsod and Abaúj whose territorial spheres of influence were partitioned by the new arrangement, this meaning a significant limiting of the power of the deans and the increase in importance of the offices of superintendent and chief lay officer. The resulting reorganization provided a precise defining of the congregations of the Cistibiscan Reformed Church District: into the amalgamated Upper-Zemplén and Ung church counties, sixty-two mother (mater) parishes, two amalgamated congregations and twenty-six filial parishes were organized; into the Lower-Zemplén church county, fifty-four mother congregations, two amalgamated congregations and thirty-two filial parishes were assigned; into the little church county of Torna, which was organized at the cost of much debate, altogether sixteen mother parishes and twelve filial parishes were distributed; the dean of the Abaúj church county could henceforth exercise his rights over seventy-eight mother parishes and fifty-one filial parishes; into the church county of Gömör were placed forty-two mother parishes and forty-five filial parishes; the church county of Upper-Borsod was organized to consist of forty-four mother parishes and four small parishes; and Lower-Borsod would consist of forty-one mother congregations and 13 filial congregations. The Cistibiscan superintendency in 1799 thus consisted of total of three hundred thirty-seven mother (mater) congregations and one hundred seventy-eight filial congregations. In the church counties belonging to the church district, the proportion of residents of the Reformed faith was otherwise higher than the national average in the first half of the 19th century. While Calvinists had an average representation in Hungary of 15-16%, in Abaúj, Gömör and Zemplén counties it was 21-25% and in Borsod and Torna counties it was 44-48%. All of these counties characteristically had populations of not only adherents of the Reformed and Roman Catholic denominations, but also adherents of an additional two or three other denominations in relatively large numbers. To the denominational diversity here was added ethnic diversity, for, along with Hungarians, there lived here in northeastern Hungary people of Slovakian, German, Polish, Greek and Rusin extract in relatively large proportions. It is natural that this kind of multicul- turalism may have affected the influence of the Reformed Church bishop given
