Dénes Dienes: History of the Reformed Church Collég in Sárospatak (Sárospatak, 2013)
FLOURISHING AND SCATTERING THE REFORMED COLLEGE IN THE 17TH CENTURY - Tension and disruptions in the school - student unrest
Jesuits settle in Patak in 1663 and a year later they decided to no longer support the school. The nobles of the Reformed Church denomination in the Upper-Hun- garian region, along with their congregations, tried to make up for the shortfall of funds but were only able provide a very limited portion of the teacher’s salaries in cash. Wine was thus given to them as payment in-kind and they were granted the option and the right of selling the wine for cash. When the College’s chief lay officers, along with István Bocskay (Zemplén county’s chief administrator), decided to allow the teachers to sell their wine in the pub of the coetus, the students’ protest escalated to the point where guns were brandished. The students feared - perhaps rightly so - that if they were to capitulate in this matter then their other rights might be infringed upon or curtailed. They felt their fears to be justified when the school’s leadership decided to simply lock out the unsubmissive primarius students, that is, the students of whom the student body’s leadership was comprised, in order to resolve the problem. The plan of the lay officers was to appoint new praeceptors and continue the education of those in the lower classes and of the students of noble families, thus effectively blocking out the alumnus students, that is, those with scholarships, those who were the most implicated in the matter. But when the school’s leadership and teachers tried to execute the council’s decision, they found themselves up against a solidly unified body of students, who were utterly committed and resistant to the end. In this the students had not rebelled against their teachers; the uniqueness of the situation was that they just wanted to protect their prerogatives, something, which in this case, conflicted with the interests of the teachers. The defense of democratic traditions manifested itself in a strong ‘esprit de corps’, as can be seen in this case, and this quickly matured to become the so-called Patak self-consciousness. Later, during the persecution unleashed by the counter-Refor- mation, this spirit had very serious and positive consequences - it became the core of cohesive force during the exile. During the 17th century in Hungary and Transylvania, the structure of the clerical order was very well established; the continuity of clerical privilege was secured within the framework of the Church and not through individuals. For this reason, the majority of contemporary people reacted very sensitively to the initiatives whose purpose was to change this structure (abolition of presbyteries, bishops and deans). Within this framework, the possessions of the church were considered as patrimonium - a special privilege that could be awarded by and within the church. The organization and management structure of the church more or less resembled the secular order of nobility and administrative organizational models; a certain analogy can be seen between the two. The same could be said about the relationship between the coetus (body of students) and the pastors of the church community. There are many visible signs of this in Patak. Students started to refer to their student body as noble coetus; they began to no longer dress the way the church had prescribed and started wearing clothes similar to those of middle class nobles and wealthier pastors. Older students wore silk belts, marten fur hats or jackets bound with silver clasps. They made efforts to extend the jurisdiction of their student government, something which Pál Tarcali, dean of Zemplén church county, connected to Puritanism and illustrated with great dramatics: “They recognize neither ‘politicus’ nor ‘ecclesiasticus’ magistrates [secular and clerical leaders], but aim instead for repugnant independence, 47 A Reformed Church school student in the 17th century (2)
