Lajos Zsarnay

Lajos Zsarnai von Zsarnó (hun. zsarnói Zsarnay Lajos)

Life

Lajos Zsarnay was born in 1802 in Zsarnó. He spent all his life in the region, first as a student and a teacher at Sárospatak College. Later, he was appointed as college rector, a minister of the Hungarian Diet, a professor of practical theology, a vice bishop, and eventually served as a ruling bishop.

He spent most of his life behind the walls of the Sárospatak College. A number of reasons seemed to play a role in leading him to this college, including his social background and his elementary school years. Sárospatak College had enjoyed a position of prominence for centuries, and the significance of its ‘particular school system’ had long attracted talented students. Furthermore, due to his aristocratic familial ties, his mother made the conscious decision to send him there. During his studies, especially at the academic level, he usually ranked first or second among his peers. As a private and public instructor, he tutored the younger students entrusted to him. He won the Jettin Foundation scholarship, which supported only orphaned students with excellent academic records. Besides his theological studies, he pursued legal studies as well. He made such  progress in both programs that first he was appointed as assistant teacher at the law school, and later was offered a possibility to study abroad with the hope that he would return as a professor to the vacant position at the Practical Theology Department. As he himself considered this important, he studied at Gottingen University between 1829 and 1831. Little is said about this period, since only a letter written to his bishop had some important details about how he had lived, who his teachers had been, and what specific courses he had taken. After his return, he taught as a college professor until 1861. During this time, he repeatedly filled in the rector's position as well.

In 1834, he married Ágnes Láczai Szabó, the daughter of former teacher and minister József Láczai Szabó. In 1849, he was elected as vice bishop of the Church District and then as bishop in 1860. During the last period of his life he was tormented by diseases. He lost his wife in 1859. Out of his six children, only two had a family before his death. He died in 1866 in Pest.

Activity

Lexicographical activity

Most of his works are related to the church, with the only exception of the first Greek-Hungarian Dictionary in 1857. The model for his work was Johann Georg Wilhelm Pape's Greek-German Dictionary, published in 1842. Thanks to his pioneering dictionary project he was elected a corresponding member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 1858.

Literary activities

Among his most well-known works are Paptan (Theory for Ministers), Keresztyén erkölcstudomány (Christian Ethics) and Apologetika (Apologetics). His works were meant to be textbooks for his students. Therefore, in almost all the prefaces he explained to whom and for what purpose he had written the book. These were valuable volumes, several of which had second and third editions.

His works and his sermons give us an insight into his theology. Those effects – Schleiermacher, rationalism, liberalism – which prevailed in the thinking of the time, are partly manifested and partly rejected in his works. Although Zsarnay considered himself to be a supporter of supranaturalism, his theology was rather eclectic. It was characterized by European modernity while he was looking for his own way.

Political activities

Zsarnay was both active as a minister of the Hungarian Diet and in the struggle against the Protestant edict. He served as a minister delegated by the Church District at the Diet of Pozsony starting in 1832. From his letters, we gain insight into the activities he considered as an honour. It was indeed an extraordinary thing that the Diet could meet at all, and that the Church Districts could delegate ministers who would lead worship services according to the denominations of the members. He witnessed the events directly, yet he shared the disappointment as well, since the efforts of the Protestants proved futile. The little success they had before 1848, failed in practice with the outbreak and the fall of the revolution. Moreover, the subsequent retaliation, as well as the regulations of the centralizing government made the lives of the Protestant churches difficult. The worst of these was the imperial open order issued on 1 September 1859, and the subsequent government directive. This regulation wanted to end the three-century-old constitution of the Protestants, and to make their existence fully dependent on the emperor. At this point, the Cistibiscan Church District also called an assembly where they decided to write a petition and send it to the emperor and a delegation to Vienna. The petition was formulated by Zsarnay as the vice bishop of the Church District, who also took steps to have it sent to the monarch as well. Chapter four provides a detailed description of the petition, from which it becomes evident that Zsarnay was an expert in law. He was also elected into the delegation that travelled to Vienna in January 1860 as a church representative to the emperor. The delegation did not succeed, because the emperor did not receive them. However, their effort finally bore some fruit; it led to the birth of the Orientation, which was very much needed among the ministers of the church, since the government wanted them to announce the edict getting round the Church District and the senior ministers (deans) of the sub-districts. Due to several other reasons on 15 May 1860, the emperor revoked the edict.

Episcopal activity

Zsarnay was inaugurated as bishop on 1 May 1860 and held that position until his death in 1866. Unfortunately, the archival sources from that period of his life are incomplete, thus only some events have been recorded. One such event is the role he played during the devastating drought in 1863. Several ministers, teachers and church members were starving. Since there was no one to turn to in the country, he sought help outside the borders. His hopes were not in vain, because the help of the foreign Protestant Churches arrived. The national church press did not report on this, but the press of the Dutch Protestant Church did.

Positions at the Sárospatak College

Traditionally, professors took turns to fill in the rector’s position in the college. Zsarnay repeatedly held this function. Significant events were linked to each of his turn: constructing the new college building, transforming the old cemetery into a school yard, the release of the Organisationsentwurf and the fight against it, and eventually issuing the imperial edict and the struggle against it. In addition to these, many other activities belonged to this function which Zsarnay conscientiously carried out with his best talents and knowledge. The life of the college became very difficult after the release of the Entwurf. This, otherwise progressive regulation was rejected by protestants. First, it violated their autonomy; on the other hand, its practical implementation was difficult, since they lived in a completely different system. The requirements set out in the Entwurf hindered the functioning of the college in several areas. They had neither a sufficient number of teachers nor the financial resources to cover that need and other requirements. Of course, if not initially, but starting in 1852, the leadership of the Church District as well as the faculty members made every effort to reorganize the institution according to the new requirements. However, all their efforts proved futile, because even after closing the Law Academy, reallocating funds, hiring new teachers, and filing accurate reports at the behest of the competent authorities on several occasions, the final answer was that the government was not convinced of the teachers’ political and moral integrity. This was again the point of reference when in 1853 the school was deprived of the right of publicity, which it could retain only after the withdrawal of the Protestant edict.

Source: Bátoriné Misák, Marianna: Egy elfelejtett élet a 19. század útvesztőjéből. Zsarnói Zsarnay Lajos élete és munkássága. Sárospatak 2017.

(proofread by Adam Kirchner, EMLex-student)