Dénes Dienes: History of the Reformed Church Collég in Sárospatak (Sárospatak, 2013)

János Ugrai: „THE PERIOD OF NATIONAL ADVANCEMENT” 1777-1849 - An erring neologist? - Dávid Barczafalvi Szabó

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AN ERRING NEOLOGIST? - DÁVID BARCZAFALVI SZABÓ

FROM THE ENLIGHTEMENT

TO THE END OF THE WAR

OF INDEPENDENCE

Dávid Barczafalvi Szabás signature

Dávid Barczafalvi Szabó 4s lot in life was an inordinately eventful, yet not an expressly fortunate one. Already as an elected professor, the former student of the College in Patak was given the opportunity to pursue further studies in Göttingen to consciously better train himself in the sciences of physics and mathematics. Upon his return home in 1792, he assumed the position of the famous and well-liked Márton Szilágyi, his predecessor in the professorship. From hereon began his singularly peculiar teaching career which, in its different reverberations, induced mixed feelings.

Were the measure of his work to be calibrated, it would by all means fall at the positive end of the field, given that he laboured a great deal in developing the choir of the school in Patak. He emerged to conduct a choir which had been more or less directed by members of the alumni (praeses). In this he established strict regulations pertaining to organization and introduced consonant singing. In putting these innovations into practice, the school’s choir evolved into a major player in the cultural life of the town. Barczafalvi Szabó’s name is further associated with the introduction of the Hungarian language in the teaching of physics. In complying with student requests, he began to teach his subject matter in the mother tongue in 1794, in this way preceding by two years the official decision of the College that Hungarian be the language of instruction.

In 1794, he was also the rector-professor of the institution, hence he surely must bear at least partial blame for the origins of the conflict leading to the previously mentioned student disruptions and, at the same time, he was perhaps the one most negatively affected by the scandal. Miscalculating in his assessment of the students’ strength and reacting inflexibly to the unfolding events, he became the principal target of the restless students. In a pasquinade he was lampooned as “Parasztfalvi” (= resident of a peasant village) and, one night, a shower of stones was directed onto his house. A further event in 1805 lead to even more serious consequences, his responsibility once again being established. At the beginning of the year, when the senior’s report was to be delivered by Mihály Miskolczi, who had a stellar reputation of being upright, it turned out that Miskolczi was unable to account for more than seven hundred forints. So, before the monitoring deputation was able to complete its investigation, Miskolczi lacerated his neck with a razor and then threw himself beneath the ice of the Bodrog River. The investigation into the shocking suicide revealed that the victim had not been the principal one at fault in the matter, for it had been two professors, Barczafalvi Szabó and Mihály Tóthpápay, who had forced him to make an unauthorized loan. They then deceived the unfortunate fellow by not repaying their debt. This scandal was formally brought to closure by the“mora! ordeal" and resignation of both professors. Barczafalvi Szabó thus left Patak at a relatively young age, being hardly fifty years old, with his authority in tatters and his credibility entirely spent. He spent the remaining slightly more than two decades of his life in seclusion, without any particular position of employment, passing away in 1828.

This, however, did not mean that he had not made a name for himself. During and through his activity in Patak, he proved that he was a dedicated believer in the cultivation of the Hungarian language. Prior to that, in the 1780s, he had been