Dénes Dienes: History of the Reformed Church Collég in Sárospatak (Sárospatak, 2013)
SECONDARY SCHOOL AND COLLEGE-THE COLLEGE AND THE DEVELOPING, MODERN EDUCATION SYSTEM - Revolutionary figures. The outstanding duo of a bishop and a secular chief lay officer- Baron Miklós Vay and Bertalan Kun
REVOLUTIONARY FIGURES THE OUTSTANDING DUO OF A BISHOP AND A CHIEF LAY OFFICER- BARON MIKLÓS VAY AND BERTALAN KUN 141 The faithful of the Reformed Church of the Cistibiscan church district were able to experience a few fortunate decades in that their institutions were directed by two outstanding individuals who were able to work together in complete cooperation for a very lengthy period. One of them was a progeny, once again, of the Vay family, just as József Vay happened to be at the turn of the 18th and 19th century: Baron Miklós Vay (1802-1894), practically single-handedly, was the guarantee for most of the progressive change of the age in question. Vay was very active in public life in Hungary, holding countless positions and offices, and it is almost impossible to trace the long path which he tread. He was born in Alsózsolca into a well-established family. His father, Baron Miklós Vay, was a general and his mother was Baroness Johanna Adelsheim. His godparents were the Prince of Baden and the Queen of Bavaria. His home-tutor was one of the given period’s renown teachers, János Váradi Szabó, who espoused the principles of Pestalozzi. He completed studies in law in Budapest. Already in 1825, he regularly kept abreast of what was said during the annual meetings of the National Parliament; in the 1830s, he attended the Reform Era’s upper board meetings as Zemplén’s ambassador. As a young officer he served first in Zemplén, then, in the 1830s, in Borsod county as a senior civil servant (clerk, head clerk, deputy lieutenant, lord lieutenant governor). During the cholera epidemic in 1831, he was the royal commissioner of the counties in northern Hungary and, in 1845, he was appointed to be first counsellor of the National Council. In 1848, the Batthyány government promoted him to be the government’s Secretary of Transylvania. During the war of independence, his name was mentioned as a possible candidate for minister. From the other side, the emperor offered him the position of prime minister, but he declined both offers. He was a believer of a calm, peaceful development, which was clearly defined by his patriotism and loyalty to religion and, as such, he sat on the bench with the Conservatives instead of the Liberal opposition. However, he was not an unconditional advocate of the Royal Court. In 1848, he came to the defense of his homeland, although he avoided turning to any revolutionary solution. As a consequence, in the wake of the radical development of events in 1849, he retired in the spring and resigned from all his positions. The Emperor Franz Joseph misinterpreted his actions and, upon the close of the war of independence, he wanted to appoint him as Governor of Hungary. For patriotic reasons, Vay declined the offer and for this he was charged with treachery, having to endure a trial of three years in duration. The verdict issued was death by hanging and his land and estates were confiscated. Later, the verdict was reduced to four years of prison, of which he served three. Initially, he retired to his estate in Golop. But the ever-increasing openly anti-Protestant policy of the 1850s moved him to take public action. In November 1859, during a church district meeting in Miskolc, the tactics of how to best resist the Royal Court were formulated under his direction. As a result, he was elected to the position of chief lay officer of the church district the following May. After the issuing of the October Diploma decree, the Royal Court appointed him as the
