Dénes Dienes: History of the Reformed Church Collég in Sárospatak (Sárospatak, 2013)
János Ugrai: „THE PERIOD OF NATIONAL ADVANCEMENT” 1777-1849 - Revolutionary personalities - The pioneer chief lay officer - Earl József Vay
94 FROM THE ENLIGHTEMENT TO THE END OF THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE Chief lay officer József Vay was the leading spirit for significant reforms THE PIONEER CHIEF LAY OFFICER - EARL JÓZSEF VAY The Cistibiscan Reformed Church District elected a stately chief lay officer indeed at the very end of the 18th century in the person of József Vay (1752-1821). He was the progeny of an ancient Szabolcs county family. His ancestors were said to have appeared in the Carpathian Basin already in the era reaching back to the founding of the state. But recorded sources also give account of an eminent past. From the end of the 13th century, the family figured to be a significant element in the public life of the region and primarily in that of Szabolcs county. The very first chief lay officer elected to the superintendency of the newly-organized Cistibiscan church district in 1735 came from the ranks of the Vay family. Ábrahám Vay (1697-1762), the father of József Vay, was chosen to fill this office. Evidence of the family’s influence is the fact that two of Ábrahám’s three sons, in their turn, were elected to this same position. István Vay held the office between 1776 and 1788 and József was elected in 1796. (József Báji Patay served as chief lay officer of the superintendency between the terms of the two Vay brothers.) The Vays maintained their direct role in the ecclesiastical and cultural lifeblood of the region in the 19th century, also. Aligning well with this is a comment commemorating József Vay in a brief entry in the Sárospatak Notebooks which says that if the College in Patak was the school of the Perényis in the 16th century, and the Lorántffys and Rákóczis in the 17th century, then, in the 18th and 19th century, the foremost guardians of the institution are the Vays. József Vay was born in 1750. His studies in Sárospatak were supplemented by studying Italian, French and German in Pest and then law in Buda. He was only thirty-four years old when the congregation of Miskolc elected him to the position of chief lay officer. By 1786 he was already the lieutenant-governor of Szabolcs County and, in 1789, he was promoted to be regent counsellor and assessor of the seven-membered board. He not only participated in the parliamentary sessions at the turn of the century (1790-1791, 1802, 1805, 1807, 1811) but became a fugleman and a leading rebellious personality of the county’s nobility. He achieved far-reaching authority among the ranks of the nobility, at first, as the representative of Borsod county, then of Szabolcs county. He was a dedicated freemason. In the Miskolc lodge, Vay was second in rank after the grand master Earl József Török. It was not an accident that Leopold II, in a distinct written reminder, drew to the attention of Alexander Leopold the talented Vay, who, because of his very talents, posed special danger to the interests of the court. His anxiety must have been justified, as the parliamentary representatives regularly held informal patrician meetings (mini parliamentary sessions) at his home preceding the full sessions of parliament. According to unverifiable accounts, Joseph II himself was beholden with wonder to Vay’s knowledge, brave self-assurance and consistent comportment. The redrawing of church county boundaries leading to the introduction of a system of church administration which was more readily enforceable was initiated by Vay as chief lay officer. He was also the one who successfully initiated measures in the interests of restoring to operation the College press which had functioned in the 17th century. It is true that, in the beginning, the printing press was the source of much frustration for the leadership, the poorly REVOLUTIONARY PERSONALITIES
