Dénes Dienes: History of the Reformed Church Collég in Sárospatak (Sárospatak, 2013)
THE SCHOOL IN ITS “OLD NEST” AGAIN HISTORY OF THE COLLEGE BETWEEN1703 AND 1777 - János Csécsi Jr. - a unique period in the history of the College
63 subsequent debate, his colleagues were scandalized. (Human understanding is the basis and measure of the believable, so that nothing is to be believed which seems absurd and impossible to the human mind.) From the sources available, it is clear that Csécsi was not much concerned about the consequences of his actions. Subsequent events and Pál Ráday’s calm and collected response to this above-mentioned philosophical debate indicate that it was not along the lines of academic scholarship that major divisions appeared in the school. There were other issues. Csécsi’s relationship with István Azari Nagy, the pastor of Patak, soon turned sour, also. The young teacher declared that he did not recognize the pastor’s authority as being superior to his as a teacher, regardless of the old church and school regulations emphasizing it to be so. He linked the teacher’s independence closely to the inviolable nature of the academic freedom of beliefs. Ostentatiously he hardly attended worship services, and there were times when he did not cross the threshold of the house of the Lord for an entire year. When he was asked for an explanation, he made no apologies and instead said that “my calling is not for godliness but for wisdom ” He hardly tried to refute it when he was accused of saying: “why should we pray? ...Cod is obliged to give us everything without our praying for it." Obviously, it would be unfair to derive farfetched conclusions about his belief based on his often rude remarks and declarations. His manuscripts are a testament to very profound and personal prayers. His theology, however, is a foreshadowing of rationalism and natural theology (theologia naturalis). To his mind and teaching, knowing God is an aptitude with which one is born and, as such, it proves that one’s knowledge is infinite. In studying God’s word, it is recognition which is important, being able to differentiate between good and evil. In his personal life, Csécsi believed in and pursued personal freedom and rejected the idea of old canons formulated in the 16th century being relevant to the lifestyle of a teacher or a pastor of the Church. It was an old tradition that the Monday following a Sunday communion be dedicated to giving thanks and, as such, no profane celebrations were to be held on such days. Csécsi completely ignored this tradition, holding his wedding on such a day, with “dancing all night long". His wife shared his views, completely ignoring the regulations on how the When we are studying hard, people say we are not doing anything and that students just wander about. If we discover certain truths of which these lazy bullocks have never heard, they call us innovators; if by any chance we prove a thesis of which, in their torpidness or at the end of an oxtail, they have never heard, they call us heretics. These stupid people comment on everything. On academic grounds they attack outstanding men who used to be their teachers when they were younger; they do not respect them and, as soon as they shake off the dust of the school, with imperious pride they expect teachers to doff their hats to them. They make judgements with great confidence about either this or that field of knowledge even if they never heard the name ofthat particular discipline before; they condemn and trash good writers whose books they have never even seen, let alone read... They are like a jumping donkey or an aggressive ox. And behold, these people want to be giving us orders in this college, they want to lord it over us when they hardly have anything to eat at home; they want to make judgements in the most difficult questions of academic endeavour, they, who barely crossed the threshold of knowledge. Our own former students humiliate us, those who, without the school, would be nothing but a peasant.
