Page:A history of Hungarian literature.djvu/69

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THE REFORMATION
55

established a seminary which is called after him the Pázmáneum to this day. The Jesuits firmly believed that the future of a party depended upon its schools, so Pázmány built a large number of grammar schools, all of them at his own expense, and he founded a University at Nagyszombat. Out of that foundation grew the Univer­sity of Budapest, which is now one of the largest in Europe.

The Protestants founded several schools. The two most important high schools were those at Gyulafe­hérvár, in Transylvania, and at Sárospatak. The school at Gyulafehérvár owed its origin to an eminent ruler of Transylvania, a man not unlike the great Matthias; he was self-willed and violent , but he possessed an original mind, and was an ardent lover of knowledge and the arts.

This Prince was Gabriel Bethlen, the brother-in-law of Gustavus Adolphus, and the ally of England. In the latter capacity he took part in the Thirty Years War, and had he lived longer, probably the war, and consequently the fate of Europe, would have taken a different turn. In the high school which he founded there lectured the first Hungarian philosopher, the attractive but unfortunate JOHN APÁCAI CSERI ( I625-­166o), son of a poor serf. He had studied in Holland, where he became aequainted with the works of Descartes. The founder of modern philosophy fired the soul of the poor Transylvanian student. Cseri began to write his chief work, the Hungarian Encyclopædia, at Utrecht, at first in Latin, and afterwards in his native tongue. ln this book he treats of all the branches of knowledge, dealing with philosophy in accordance with the system of Descartes, within five years of that philosopher's