The Implementation of the Public Education Act of 1868 in Connection with Ecclesiastic Schools in Baranya County

Abstract

During the second half of the 19th century the modernization of education played a highlighted role in Hungarian and Austrian efforts, however many debates evolved about its character, so – although significant accomplishments were achieved – mostly it divided the public opinion, generating wide ecclesiastical and social movements. In my paper I introduced the civil conversion of the 19th century, in which the modernization of public education proposed, from the aspect of the churches, comparing the Austrian and Hungarian regulation. I examined on one side the churches’ contest against laicization and the efforts to protect their impact, and on the other side the opinion of the social and governmental factors, using the primary sources of the Baranya County Archives of the Hungarian National Archives.