Dénes Dienes: History of the Reformed Church Collég in Sárospatak (Sárospatak, 2013)
SPIRIT AND MOOD - Student Governments
Austrian system of education, this resulting in a demotion for Majoros. Thus, the professor with many years of experience became a regular teacher once again and completed his carrier much as he had started it: as a regular teacher. STUDENT GOVERNMENTS Student governments played a very significant role in the internal management and operations of the College. The system in force was that dictated by the traditional Protestant organizational structure: the coetus remained at the core of the organization, to which students of the academic program “subscribed”, that is, it was the students who took the oath to adhere to the regulations of the College who belonged to the coetus. Members of the coetus could be elected to become either student-teachers (praeceptors) or one of the twelve members of the student board. The school board (primaria sedes) was comprised of twelve ‘first class’ students (primarius) who convened monthly at first, then, from 1813 on, convened weekly together with the professors and a senior chairman to make decisions in administrative, disciplinary and reward matters at the primary level. Decisions of the second degree level were made by this body also except that it was chaired by the rector-professor. If this proved insufficient, the matter was taken to the third degree level, that is, to the general assembly of the church district. Special attention was accorded to the thirty ‘first class’ (so called gregarius) students as well; they, however, did not have the same rights within the student government as the twelve primarius members. The senior was the highest ranking student, whose position for a long time was idealized, but who also came under ever-increasing scrutiny. As president of the school board, he was to ensure that the regulations were followed and to provide a monthly accounting of the food consumption and general school costs; he monitored the school’s pub and all movable and immovable assets. From 1806 to 1846, the senior managed the funds designated for undertakings requiring major construction. Since the breadth of his authority continuously increased from the 17th century until 1820, he retained extensive freedom - albeit under the supervision of the chief and secondary administrator of the estate - in making decisions pertaining to the extensive day-to-day management issues (land affairs, foundations and archives) of the College. Beginning in 1797, the one-year mandate was granted according to the results of general elections involving all the students (only academy students could vote before 1797). Candidates for the position of senior could only be selected from the group consisting of the most outstanding students (primaus). Those who served in this position included István Porkoláb in 1798 (he became a professor), Benjámin Mokri in 1803 (he became a teacher in Pápa), István Somosi in 1809 (he became a teacher in Patak) and Pál Apostol in 1803 (he served as an excellent bishop). The senior received fitting compensation for his highly demanding job, this including free food and lodging and a salary close to half of that of a professor. He also received a commission for collecting outstanding interest and a donation of a specified amount of harvested grains. The church district also provided some funding for his peregrination abroad. The senior’s deputy, and often his successor, was the contrascriba who asColonei Lajos Kazinczy (1820-1849), martyr of the Hungarian Revolution and War of Independence of 1848-49, studied in Sárospatak
