Fraternity-Testvériség, 1961 (39. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

1961-04-01 / 4. szám

4

FRATERNITY

HISTORY

OF THE

HUNGARIAN REFORMED CHURCH

By

IMRE REVESZ, Th.D.

Translated by

GEORGE A. F. KNIGHT

IV

THE PERIOD OF REFORM

1789—1848

(Continuation)

Education

In the realm of education during this period the two colleges of Debrecen (with, in 1806, 2195 pupils) and Sárospatak (with 1260 pupils) had been of very great importance in the life of the Reformed Church. But now many more schools were opened in other areas of Hungary as well. Great stress was laid in these schools on the classics, Latin being the all-important subject. It is interesting for us to discover that towards the end of the 18th century, in the middle school department of the Debrecen College the following were the subjects taught in hours per month: religious instruction, 22; Latin, 80; philosophy, 12; history, 9; geography, 12; Greek. 4; Hungarian composition, 4; knowledge of the Hungarian constitution, 2; arithmetic, 12; singing, 4. But when physics was introduced as a subject, the teacher was left to “fit it in as best he could”! All those subjects, with the exception of history, philosophy and theolog}’, were taught in the Hungarian language.