Dénes Dienes: History of the Reformed Church Collég in Sárospatak (Sárospatak, 2013)
SPIRIT AND MOOD - Famous Teachers
FROM THE ENLIGHTEMENT TO THE END OF THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE 114 Pál Sipos’ signature surpass Szentgyörgyi neither in achievement nor character. Rozgonyi became an orphan at an early age and was raised by his mother’s father, who was none other than János Csécsi, a renown professor in Patak. Given this background, at the age of eleven he was already fluent in Greek. Having financial support from his grandfather’s inheritance, he was able to travel abroad to pursue studies. Luck had it that he was unable to go beyond Vienna so he ended up studying Roman Catholic theology and he was even able to participate in a personal audition in the presence of the emperor, Joseph II. In managing to convince the emperor to let him travel further, he thus opened the door - according to his biographers - for Protestant students from the monarchy to go on peregrinations abroad. After taking classes in Utrecht, Oxford and Switzerland, he continued his studies at Göttingen, the best German university of the period. He was most intrigued by the philosophy developed by Kant but the professors in Göttingen strongly discouraged him in this. Thus upon his return to Hungary, he became the most significant member of the movement which actively opposed Kantian philosophy. During his time as principal of the secondary school in Losonc between 1791 and 1797 and then later, as professor in Patak in the first quarter of the 19th century, he consistently refuted not only Kant’s teachings but also the initiatives of the neology movement. It was this stance which made him the third member of the previously mentioned anti-Kazinczy trio in Patak. It must be more than mere coincidence that all the professors who were instructors of the natural sciences (mathematics and physics) were able to achieve most laudable results and all of them played a significant role not only in the life of the College but also in the world of academia. In this period it was < Márton Szilágyi, son of the Reformed Church bishop of the Tiszántúl district, Piskárkosi Szilágyi Sámuel, who first took responsibility for the duties of this department. Upon completion of his studies in Debrecen, Basel and Göttingen, he immediately moved to Patak in 1773 and remained there until his death in 1790. Within a very short time he became much liked not only because of his excellent lectures and his establishing the school’s natural history museum but also because it was due to his efforts that natural sciences were first introduced into the curriculum in Patak. He was keen on innovation. Leaning on what he had learned during his studies in Göttingen, he introduced the Hollmann-type phyisics textbook to his students and integrated Benjamin Franklin’s discoveries into the curriculum. From 1787 onwards, the teaching of German was also his responsibility. Due to his efforts in this latter department, German language textbooks were used for a while for the teaching of arithmetic and of the Old and New Testament stories. Once vacated, Szilágyi’s position as head of the natural sciences department was filled by Dávid Barczafalvi Szabó and then by Pál Sipos who had a spotless reputation and whose knowledge in this field was widely recognized. Sipos came from Transylvania, had studied at excellent schools (Nagyenyed, Odera-Frankurt, Göttingen and Vienna) and he is considered to be the first truly academically proficient mathematician in Hungary. Given that he was brimming with brilliant ideas and innovations as well as having Abraham Gotthelf Kästner, a renown professor in Göttingen, acknowledge Sipos as his disciple surely contributed to this belief. Sipos also earned a doctorate and his published thesis was awarded a gold medal by the Berlin Academy of Sciences.
