Dénes Dienes: History of the Reformed Church Collég in Sárospatak (Sárospatak, 2013)
FLOURISHING AND SCATTERING THE REFORMED COLLEGE IN THE 17TH CENTURY - School life
SCHOOL LIFE 25 Students and teachers lived within the walls of the College according to clearly formulated rules. The rules of the school were re-examined and newly formulated in 1620. It is evident from the text that the institution had functioned according to codified regulations even in previous times. Already in the 16th century can the use of the term coetus be encountered, it referring to a community of elder students. The first mention of the senior being the leader of this group occurs in 1586, in this case identified as János Illiricus, whose house in Felsőhóstát was cleared of all serfdom liens by Ferenc Dobó in 1590 because he held both professors and students in special esteem. At this point in time, it was not yet the later system which functioned whereby the senior was elected every year. Here it was still the old system which was in force, for, even in 1608, it was still Illiricus who was the senior. The first senior who was elected for one year, according to the later system, was István Geleji Katona in 1613. The term coetus, referring to a student organization, had its roots in the Middle Ages. In the case of Hungarian students at the universities of Krakow and Vienna, such an association represented the interests of the students for purposes of advocacy and self-organized educational programs (nation, bursa). Hungarians at the University of Wittenberg established a coetus with an elected senior in 1555. It is quite reasonable to assume that the University of Wittenberg had a huge impact on the everyday life of Hungarian Protestant schools. Sárospatak was directly influenced in this way through its teachers but the school in Bártfa could have played an intermediary role as well. It is certain that the school regulations formulated before 1621 - at some point in the 16th century - show similarities to the regulations Melanchthon issued in 1523, to those of the University of Wittenberg issued in 1545 and also to those in Bártfa as edited by Lénárd Stöckel. When the reformulated and finalized Sárospatak regulations appeared in 1620, there could be no mistaking the sweeping influence that the University of Heidelberg’s regulations as source had had. Many of the regulations were word-byword iterations. As circumstances and the school’s structure changed, it became necessary, form time to time, to rewrite the rules. Furthermore, the transpiration of certain events directed attention to the fact that the rules did not always cover all the aspects of everyday life in the College. One such tragic event occurred immediately before Pentecost in 1618. Inviolable tradition had it that in the period immediately preceding the three important Christian holydays (Christmas, Easter and Pentecost), wine made by citizens was not to be sold until the landlord’s wine had all been sold. This “regulation”, however, did not extend to the College, the College having been granted the right, by the patron, to sell wine, as we mentioned earlier. The town authorities wished to speed up the process of selling the landlord’s wine in order to allow the town and townsfolk to sell their own wine, so they began to hinder those who wished to visit the College’s pub. Armed guards were stationed in close proximity to the pub, would-be purchasers were J: The Regulations of the College
