Dénes Dienes: History of the Reformed Church Collég in Sárospatak (Sárospatak, 2013)
EPILOGUE
long-suffering decades, it was already an immense accomplishment to have succeeded in reorganizing and relaunching the College. Patak was granted ‘Articulate location’ status in 1714, this allowing Protestants to practice their faith freely. Within a very short time, quality education based on unmatched intellectual and teaching initiatives was re-established in the College through the work of István Simándi in experimental physics, for example, and János Csécsi Jr. in the humanities. The complete reorganization in the 1730s of the Cistibiscan church district, which played an integral part in the life of the College, must not be overlooked when enumerating the achievements of the era. The last part of the 18th century and the first part of the 19th century marked a most fruitful and positive period for the College. The “Reform Era of Patak” was born as a direct response to a complex challenge. Within a few years of Joseph II issuing the Edict of Tolerance, the number of self-financed schools without the support of patrons of significant means increased greatly and their situation became unsustainable. The College was able to overcome its own serious financial difficulties by pressing for changes (e.g. education in Elungarian, participation in renewing the Hungarian language, reforms in legal education, the introduction of natural sciences, etc.) which were once again not only of national significance but also appealed to the demands of the Protestant middle-category landowner class of nobles in the northeast of the country. Many of the foremost leaders of the political elite of the Reform Era (e.g. Lajos Kossuth, Bertalan Szemere, László Palóczy, László Teleki, and András Fáy) had been educated at the College but the loss of the armed struggle for independence once again endangered the continued existence of the College. During the years of neo-Absolutism, the College had to find the ways and means of offsetting the effects of Entwurf-inspired centralization, Ger- manization and Catholicism but, most of all, the risk of fading to greyness. These difficulties were resolved with the advent of József Árvay, who was instrumental in laying the foundations of the Teacher Training School, and of János Erdélyi, the nationally known philosopher and literary historian. The Academy of Law, which had lived its golden years in the Dualist period, was reorganized and restarted at this time, also. The Sárospatak Journal, a periodical considered to be one of the significant innovations of the time, was launched at the end of the 1850s. Despite the best efforts and sacrificial perseverance of amazing teachers (in addition to the ones mentioned above, there was, for example, Cyrill Horváth, József Orbán, Gerzson Sziny- nyei and Benő Zsoldos), Patak lost its competitive edge to Miskolc, a city giving evidence of exponential development in both the economic and social domains, a city which had emerged to become a regional centre in every respect. Given this situation, it was the local and regional newspapers which played an important role in preserving the concept of the ‘Patak way’ in the national conscience. The Sárospatak Journal, the Protestant Religious and School Paper, the Sárospatak Youth Bulletin, the Sárospatak Papers, the Reformed Papers of Sárospatak or the ‘Adalékok Zemplénvármegye Történetéhez’ (Supplements to the History of Zemplén County) all wrote of and described an animated intellectual life which was to be the envy even of cities with schools which were larger than that of Sárospatak. Whatever was true about the consequences of the Peace Treaty of Szatmár was equally true of the Treaty of Trianon. Being on the losing side of the world 225 The Great Library designed by Mihály Pollack. It was built between 1834 and 1836 )
