From Bodrogkeresztúr to the Princely Court - Pál Bíró Keresztúri

From the second half of the 1500s Bodrogkeresztúr was a Calvinist settlement. Pál Bíró Keresztúri, one of the most important teachers of the first half of the 1600s was born and raised here. He taught as the rector of Bodrogkeresztúr from 1622 until he was called to study abroad. In 1634 he was the tutor of György Rákóczi I's sons in the court school (schola aulica) established by the prince, where the Rákóczi boys studied together with the Transylvanian nobility of the same age. Later, under the principality of György Rákóczi II, he also taught Miklós Bethlen, among others, as a teacher at the court school in Gyulafehérvár. Bethlen, in his autobiography, described Pál Bíró Keresztúri's pedagogical methods as generally characterized by gentleness, avoiding corporal punishment as much as possible and using positive motivation. In his teaching practice, fun, humour and play were cherished, which were absent or only a small part of education at that time, and he was particularly keen to promote experiential learning. As a theologian, he was an advocate of Puritanism.