Dénes Dienes: History of the Reformed Church Collég in Sárospatak (Sárospatak, 2013)
SECONDARY SCHOOL AND COLLEGE-THE COLLEGE AND THE DEVELOPING, MODERN EDUCATION SYSTEM - The modernization of financial management
135 ceremony always took place wherever the general assembly held its current meeting. Radácsi further pointed out that the newspapers in Miskolc would not have a problem if the inauguration were to take place in Újhely, and because they are unwilling to accept Patak as the site, it is more than evident that they have an issue with Patak and not with the process. He went on to say that even though restaurant owners in Miskolc are upset and even though the church district keeps its savings as well as the College’s savings in Miskolc and even though it is abundantly clear that the church district’s administration is tied to Miskolc with a thousand threads, the Reformed Church receives barely anything from Miskolc. And if you were in search of a location for an episcopal centre, it would be much more fitting for it to be in Patak than Miskolc, since “it is neither the size of the land nor the number of railways that create a centre for moral bodies, but the spiritual furnaces, intellectual halls and most importantly, the religious ones!” Not to mention that István Fejes spent his entire childhood in Patak, he was ordained to be a minister here and he is connected to the College with a thousand threads, even as an adult - as György Radácsi concluded. All of these conflicts went well beyond occasional disagreements. The old and the new church centre were competing in a veritable race and it had very serious consequences for the College. The notion of moving the entire College from Sárospatak to Miskolc surfaced more and more often at the turn of the century. THE MODERNIZATION OF FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT It is true for the region and for the College that the former pillars of the economic system had shown serious fissures by the middle of the 19th century. The requirements of the era made the traditional system of changing the personnel within the management structure on an annual basis (which was based on the duality of a senior and a contrascriba) impossible to continue. Student leaders were being changed on an annual basis. They competed against each other for various positions and quite often they knew very little about economics. As previously mentioned, the authority and responsibilities of the student leaders had been eroded by decades of criticism, their influence at the financial-economical level had been weakened by the introduction of adult officers. Furthermore, the College’s complex and highly agricultural-oriented management system, which closely resembled those of the classical manors, had become outdated. The declining level of vineyard cultivation and the lack of investments posed more burdens and unresolved problems for the leadership. Similarly, various other manufacturing and commercial components (e.g. mill quarry, local pub) placed a drag on successful daily operations. After the end of the war of independence and during the Habsburg neo-absolutism period, these struggling elements peaked to a crisis and prompted the church district leaders to act immediately, the senior having filed for bankruptcy on the first day of 1850. A few months later, the College established the Economic Board. Student officers were not included, the selected members being trained experts who were hired professionally. The exception to this was the inclusion of the rector of the school who chaired the meetings. In addition to the rector, two outsiders,
