Reformátusok Lapja, 1969 (69. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

1969-04-01 / 4. szám

12

REFORMÁTUSOK LAPJA

Debrecen - The Calvinist Rome

An English tourist, Robert Townson, when visiting Debrecen in 1793, noted in his diary: “I don’t know what circumstances helped to bring this town Debrecen into existence. It is inexplicable what may have induced

30,000 people to choose such a region for their residence

Reformed College in Debrecen

where there is no well, no river, no fuel and no building material!”

Even today when Debrecen has 130,000 population many “strangers” share the impression of this English traveller as they visit this third largest provincial town of Hungary. But historians tell us that the site of Debrecen was inhabited fairly continuously as far back as the Stone, Bronze and Copper Ages. Situated at the meeting point of three entirely different regions and of three different types of weather conditions, the site was evidently most suitable for a town. After the Scythians, Celts and Dacians, the Goths, Huns, Avars and other peoples settled on the site of the present town. It was towards the end of the 9th century that the Hungarians, searching for a country, were attracted by the well- watered pastures of the steppes. From there on the history of Debrecen most authentically reflects the history of the Hungarian nation!

During the period of the first Hungarian kings, the dynasty of the Árpáds, the Trans-Tisza regions belonged to the “younger King” who was the heir to the crown and often engaged in oppositions! Thus Debrecen—the economic and political centre of these eastern parts—became traditionally the exponent of opposition. It represented the voice of freedom and independence against the mighty and powerful! ... When the Árpád dynasty died out in 1301, Dósa—the squire of Debrecen at that time—gave armed support to the first Anjou ruler of Hungary, Károly Róbert whose son sanctioned the decree whereby Debrecen became a city in 1361. At that time the city was already the economic and trading centre of the eastern part of the Great Hungarian Plain .. . the famous fairs of Debrecen were visited even by foreign merchants. (Debrecenije kéne menni...”)... From 1555 to 1699 Debrecen also came under Turkish rule, but differed from other occupied parts of the country inasmuch as it was regarded as an estate of the Sultan and not handed over to tire despotism of the local potentates, the beys. Being kept essentially as a free city, Debrecen was responsible for its own defense against both the Turkish freebooters and the Imperial Austrian mercenary troops charging down from the Northern hills; and at the same time sympathizing most with Transylvania which was also Hungarian, independent and a bulwark of religious freedom... In fact, the character of the Debrecen locality and its historical development owed much to István Bocskay, Prince of Transylvania who, in 1604, settled down the marauding herdsmen known as the “Hajdúk” near the city and made them a powerful ally in the wars of political independence and religious freedom. During these wars, which lasted for several generations, Debrecen was the largest and strongest fortress of Hungarian Protestantism and the inhabitants liked to speak of the town as the “Hungarian Geneva” or the “Calvinist Rome” as they stood firmly on the side of the Transylvanian princes... At the time of the War of Independence in 1848-49, Debrecen gave staunch support to the revolutionary forces in their struggle against the Habsburg oppressors and the allied Russian forces. As a matter of fact, the town became the temporary capital of the country during this period, and it was here that the Parliament dethroned the Habsburg dynasty on April 14, 1849. .. When the Habsburg authorities tried to abolish the autonomy of the Protestant churches in 1860, six hundred delegates of the Reformed Church met here to register their solemn protest. The government representative forbade the meeting: “In the name of the Emperor I do now prohibit this meeting,” he said, to which Péter Balogh, the deputy bishop who was in the chair replied: “In the name of God I do now constitute this meeting...” And the government was forced to withdraw its unconstitutional decree... In October, 1944 the Russian Communist forces occupied the badly damaged city, set up a Provisional National Assembly and Debrecen became the provisional capital of the country again. Since then life in Debrecen lost its qualities which had formerly characterized it.

If the history of Debrecen reflects the spirit of the Hungarian nation, the Calvinist College represents its heart! During the 15th and 16th centuries a priory of the Dominican friars stood on the site of the present college, literally in the heart of the city. During the Reformation the priory was converted into a school and there are documents proving that the school was in regular use as early as 1538. Taking into account the existence of the early Dominican school, one can claim that this is the oldest educational institution in Hungary! At any event, numbers of famous Hungarian