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

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equipped workshop struggling with a shortage of experts and producing a deficit year in and year out. It was only after several attempts at stabilization enduring nearly two decades that it could be confided to the care of a suitable renter. From then on, however, it contributed in an extensive way to the College fulfilling its role as a regional cultural centre. The school textbooks, prayer books, hymnals, academic papers, periodicals and almanacs published here not only increased the efficacy of education but, in a broader sense, also ensured the continuous increase of readership in the region.

The initiative ofjózsef Vay which proved to be of a considerably greater order than the relaunching of the printing press was the encouraging of and launching of the “big construction” project. The result of this prodigious undertaking, whose implementation endured for close to the entirety of the first half of the 19th century, was the completion of a large part of the College building complex which stands even today. Vay did not live long enough to see the completing of the work begun on the basis of the plans prepared in 1806, the construction work having been interrupted for years because of major financial difficulties and thus only able to be completed in 1847.

Proof of the loyalty and dedication ofjózsef Vay was that, together with his wife, Erzsébet Mocsáry, he donated a total of twenty-nine thousand forints to the school, to six different foundations. This amount represented more than one tenth of the entirety of his assets at the time of his death. The founders of the renown Vay-Mocsáry fund had originally ordained that the sum was to remain untouched for one hundred years and that it was only after this time that it was to be used for construction and development which were in accord with the aims of the College. Circumstances soon made it necessary to rethink the original intentions as the value of money rapidly depreciated in the slump of the 1810s and the church district was consequently forced to re-capitalize the fund.

Historical literature credits Vay and his merits for the great academic reform. Given, however, that this reform was realized the same year that he assumed office, it would indicate that certain necessary prerequisites (the expectations of others, certain intellectual capital) had already accumulated somewhat earlier. An animated leader such as József Vay, in this situation, had only to push to conclusion the already existing arrangements. This scenario is supported by the fact that the invitation extended to Sándor Kövy, which was in itself equivalent to a shifting of eras as well as to the reforming of the study curriculum in law, had already been despatched and changes were in motion before the arrival of Vay. Thus, even if the famous later memoirs of Kazinczy are not exactly exaggeration, he undoubtedly befogs the significance of Vay’s peers. Nonetheless, all of this illustrates in excellent fashion that the endeavours for reform in Sárospatak were very much needed in this era: “If one is acquainted with the flourishing Patak of today, one would not believe the decayed state it was in until recreated by József Vay. ... A blessed custom kept the next to the worst students in line: so that they’d be known as ones belonging to the school, on Sundays they visited the four professors, one after the other, to have a sacred spark or two land on their souls.”