Baráth Béla Levente: „Földbegyökerezés és égbe fogózás...” A Tiszántúli Református Egyházkerület története Baltazár Dezső püspöki tevékenységének tükrében (1911-1920) - Nemzet, egyház, művelődés 10. (Sárospatak, 2014)

Summary

The most far reaching impact of his activity carried out before 1920, was the reorganisation of the educational institutions in the church district. He paid special attention to improve the educational standard in the primary schools of the Reformed» Church and also the livelihood of the teachers. In the secondary schools, which were in a much more favourable situation, beside the improvement of the infrastructure; new training courses were introduced; for instance a secondary school for girls, so that girls could also have access to higher education. Students welfare organisations were set up, also a boarding school for orphans of pastors in Hajdúböszörmény, called ,Fiú-Kálvineum’. Baltazár also played a decisive role in establishing of the University of Debrecen, since it was established through re-.structuring the academic Faculties of Debrecen Reformed College. After lengthy negotiations, the church district and the state agreed to establish a faculty for Reformed llieology at the University, founded in 1912, which began to function two years later in 1914. The church district also decided to build a dormitory. In order to maintain the religious character of education a Training Institution for Ministers and, as of 1925, a Training Institution for Teachers were also set up. All these activities required an ongoing liaison with the political leadership of state administration. The main objective of his programme as a bishop was to reach the consistent implementation of continuous financial support of the churches according to Law of 1848: Act XX, declaring the ,equality and the reciprocity’ of denominations. This, together with the increased influence of political Catholicism’ challenging the role of Protestantism, made him take part in politics. His main goal was to establish an efficient coalition of political interest representation through overcoming the disintegrating tendencies in the Protestantism in Hungary. However, the steps he had taken, like the ties with István Tisza and the Munkapárt, were opposed by several people in the Reformed Church and did a lot of harm to his popularity.

Baltazár was consistently liberal-minded regarding the ties between the state and the denominations, and this fact determined who his allies and adverseries could have become. While his ties with the leadership of the Lutheran Church and the Jewish denomination were quite close, he had several conflicts with the representatives of the Catholic Church. It is also suggested that controversies in domestic politics had also contributed to the intensification of denominational conflicts.

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