The Reformed Theological Academy of Sárospatak was founded as a town school in the first wave of the Hungarian Reformation. During its first years it followed the spirit of the Lutheran Reformation. Later it accepted the Calvinist movement. The school had its first golden period in the 17th century. Amos Jan Comenius, the famous Czech educator, worked in Sárospatak between 1650 and 1654. Due to his teaching reforms, a multilevel school system of a high standard developed. Ministers, teachers and lawyers were trained at the academic level. English Puritanism had a great influence on the theological training. During the Counter-Reformation, the Habsburgs closed the school for several decades (1671-1703).
When the so-called Edict of Tolerance was issued, several young ministers went to the Czech-Moravian mission field. In the course of the mission, they took part in the reorganization and rebuilding of Protestant churches there. There were several outstanding personalities of the reform period of the 19th century who studied at the College of Sárospatak. One of them was Lajos Kossuth, the leader of the 1848-49 War of Independence.
After World War I the department of law was transferred to Kecskemét. The teacher-training department became an independent institution later called the Comenius Teachers’ Training College in Sárospatak. The theological academy functioned further on as a part of the centres of renewal movements occurring within the Reformed Church. After World War II it committed itself to domestic and foreign mission activities.
After the communist take-over, in 1951, the theological academy was forbidden to continue functioning. Only the Great Library could operate as scholarly collections under church control.
After a 40-year break, in the autumn of 1991, the theological academy could resume its educating work. Today it again resides in the historic building of the college. Most parts of the building, the Great Library and the exhibitions of educational and ecclesiatical art are open to visitors.