Dénes Dienes: History of the Reformed Church Collég in Sárospatak (Sárospatak, 2013)
SECONDARY SCHOOL AND COLLEGE-THE COLLEGE AND THE DEVELOPING, MODERN EDUCATION SYSTEM - Environmental conditions - The evolution of state-governed education policy and the development of the education system
128 feudal autonomy of the Kingdom of Hungary prior to 1848. Vienna’s unceasing intention of stepping up Germanization from year to year was also seen as an unwelcome intrusion. Protestants feared that their religious autonomy, which was guaranteed under decree number 1791/26, was at risk, falling victim to the SECONDARY SCHOOL AND COLLEGE 10 years of danger - The Entwurf era in Patak According to local belief the College played a key role in the organization of Protestant and, later, national resistance in the face of the existing neo-absolutism. There was no doubt that the leadership of the College openly refused to implement Vienna’s efforts for centralization and only cooperated in theory. It was announced, for example, with some breast-beating, that the library acquired the textbooks required by the ‘Entwurf and then, on the sly, they published their own textbooks, thus bypassing censorship. Even the local county and governmental commissioners, who were generally sympathetic towards the College, were horrified by how openly the College leadership disregarded their German language teaching obligations. In looking back, József Árvay noted that the leadership, “risked the school’s very existence, while trying not to harm the nation’s interests. ” Indeed, by 1856 most Protestant colleges (Debrecen, Nagykőrös, Kecskemét, Máramarossziget and Marosvásárhely) conformed to the strictest regulations and were thus granted the right to publicize, but Sárospatak continued to gamble. The school’s hard-headedness in political-theoretical matters carried the risk of losing the right to publicize and thus having to deal with an unpopulated College. For this stance every respect is their due because the notion of an unpopulated College was not an unknown reality for the teachers. After the suppression of the armed struggle for independence, only one hundred fifty students dared to venture back to the school which had had ten times as many pupils before, and even those one hundred fifty were terrified of being drafted for compulsory military service and so they quickly dispersed. Consequently, proper teaching could only begin a few months later. There thus existed the possibility of the teachers having to experience financial destitution, yet they stood by their decision to resist. The gambling paid off for their example ofresistance and its emulation spread throughout the nation by the second half of the 1850s. Resistance was elevated to that of a national issue. Under the organizational leadership of the well-known writer and teacher, János Erdélyi, the College celebrated its 300th anniversary within the context of a large-scale event. The preparations had began years previously. One key element in this was an event in 1859 when four thousand guests attended the centenary celebrations of the birth of Ferenc Kazinczy in Széphalom. But this was only a warm-up for the two-day celebration in Patak which took place six months later. Based on contemporary estimates, approximately twenty-five to twenty-six thousand people visited Patak to demonstrate and lend their support to their denominational faith and the notion of national independence. The original goal of the College - to celebrate another century of existence - was rounded out with a demonstration for the continuous existence of the College. As a bonus, the emperor had reinstated their rights to autonomy just weeks prior, this adding another reason for the joyous and hope-filled celebrations. efforts focusing on centralization and unification, processes which favoured the Catholic interests of the Habsburgs. But not all the aspects of ‘Entwurf were implemented. The Hungarian aristocratic elite, in adopting a stance of passive resistance, certainly did not clamour for the full implementation of the educational decree either, especially because during the 1850s, the government demanded ever-increas- ingly harsh measures. During these few years, life constantly became more difficult for Protestant institutions. Examples of this include the increasingly stricter rules which prevented Catholic students from being enrolled in Protestant schools, which hindered Protestant schools from interacting with foreign schools and church organizations and which prevented Protestant students from studying abroad. More and more regulations dealt with the choice and content of school books and any mention of the War of Independence of 1848 or the autonomy of Hungary was prohibited in
