Dénes Dienes: History of the Reformed Church Collég in Sárospatak (Sárospatak, 2013)
FLOURISHING AND SCATTERING THE REFORMED COLLEGE IN THE 17TH CENTURY - Home of Reformed Theological Education between 1600 and 1637
THE REFORMED CHURCH COLLEGE IN THE 17TH CENTURY 22 HOME OF REFORMED THEOLOGICAL EDUCATION BETWEEN 1600 AND 1637 It became a tradition in the final decades of the 16th century for the school to select its new teachers from among its former students. Imre Újfalvi Katona was such a student who later became rector in 1598. He studied in Wittenberg and Heidelberg - the latter leaving a strong imprint on his intellectual thinking. With his well-honed debating skills, he represented strict Calvinist doctrines and education. He was not intimidated by his own superior, the dean of Zemplén; he György Rákóczi I and Zsuzsanna Lorántffy Mihály Lorántffy (+1614) inherited the castle and estates of Sárospatak in 1608. He was a Protestant, just like his future son-in-law, György Rákóczi I. who married Zsuzsanna Lorántffy in 1616. Rákóczi subsequently became Prince of Transylvania and brought his family’s strong commitment to aristocratic patronage with him. His father, Zsigmond Rákóczi rose from middle-class nobility to be a baron and then Prince of Transylvania and was the principal patron of the first complete translation of the Bible into Hungarian (Vizsoly Bible, 1590). Both Zsuzsanna Lorántffy and György Rákóczi benefited from a strong Calvinist background and upbringing; both were well educated and deeply religious and became known as a couple which collects books. They viewed the school in Patak as their own throughout their life and treated it as a priority in their cultural policy. The course of the Rákóczi family history directly influenced the evolution of the College. When the widow of György Rákóczi II., Zsófia Báthory and her son, Ferenc Rákóczi I. converted to Catholicism, the Protestant school in Patak lost a generous patron and its position became vulnerable. The town, in the meantime, grew quickly; in 1631, five hundred eights households were registered. This translates into approximately three thousand inhabitants. One fifth of the population lived within the city walls. Sárospatak received further commercial concessions from the emperor in 1636. Rákóczi invited Moravian Anabaptists in 1645, while a few Catholic families lived in Kispa- tak as well, who were relocated here by the Perényi family from their southern lands - they were cared for spiritually by the members of the new local Pauline Order. However, it was only the Protestants who had an institutional presence until the Jesuits settled here in 1663.
