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 Scholarly Poet - János Erdélyi
SECONDARY SCHOOL AND COLLEGE 144 János Erdélyi it is no exaggeration to say that Erdélyi played a major role in the mainstream of cultural life in Hungary. During these years, despite being away often, the daily life and the future of the school still occupied much of his time. He published three bitter articles in a paper called Társalkodó (Discussions) about the school in Patak and about Protestant school matters in general. He criticized harshly and openly those educational institutions which were only interested in educating theologians and lawyers. He missed seeing the planned advancement of a civil society and its values and the teaching of all school subjects in Hungarian; he lamented over why philosophical reflection was generally pushed to the background at the expense of theological thinking. These articles, appearing under a pseudonym, provoked a huge outcry on the banks of the Bodrog River. On the basis of his past and in remembering him as somewhat of an outspoken young man, many suspected him to be the author, although no one was one hundred percent sure of this. In any case, under the leadership of Lajos Zsarnay, great emphasis was placed on mounting a defense and issuing a counter-attack from Patak. Ten years later, after the loss of the War of Independence, Erdélyi reestablished close contact with Patak again. The defeat of the armed struggle forced him to retreat and his livelihood as a newspaper writer and writer came to an end. The silence of the first full month of his retreat was broken by an invitation from his former school. At the end of 1851, he accepted the position of head of department for liberal arts. He gave lectures in philosophy, history of literature, aesthetics and pedagogical studies. In parallel to this, he compiled and published a collection of proverbs, folk tales and folk songs from Hungary. He wrote academic books for the history of literature courses and added a smaller selection of his own works of prose as well. His post-war silence proved to be temporary; in Sárospatak he was once again in his element and mentally refreshed. He enjoyed taking part in the organizational tasks of the College. He organized the Kazinczy-centenary in 1859, and was head of the committee that was responsible for commemorating the College’s 300th anniversary celebrations. The national and political significance of this celebration was mentioned earlier. Furthermore, he attended almost all the meetings by the church district where he was highly respected despite his raw style. His contribution to issues was often decisive in disputes and encouraged many to work together. A good example of this is perhaps his most important undertaking in Patak. He launched a periodical called Sárospatak Papers in 1857, which was famous for being proudly Protestant and provided an independent forum for creative thinking. The original objective was to publish writings on the church, education, the humanities and literature. At first, a strong international orientation characterized the periodical, international case studies and book reviews predominated. Lengthy studies could be found on Scottish Protestantism, on Prussian schooling, on Pestalozzi’s work, on John Wycliffe’s influence, on the French traditions of church history or on the founding of the Reformed Church in Zurich. At this time, the only inland articles which were published were the ones which touched upon the history of education, the organization of schooling and the Constitution of the church. The periodical elicited vociferous and positive feedback and was welcomed throughout the nation.
