Absztrakt

The study examines the life stories of 106 pastors and teachers based on autobiographies by individuals working in the Felsőbaranya Protestant Diocese (Baranya County) for various lengths of time. Focusing on the career-shaping breaking points and the individuals’ responses to these, the analysis reveals that most of these people wished to graduate as clergymen; the teaching degree integrated into their training was a primary goal only for the offspring of peasant parents.While families of clergymen aimed to safeguard their social status, for teachers and urbanites it was an opportunity for advancement in life. Since in many cases this goal was not attained, it is justifiable to suggest that the relationship between clergymen and teachers was not without tension, which was further aggravated by the increasing burdens associated with teaching. In the period under scrutiny here, both pastors and teachers served far away from their birthplaces, which made both their integration into local communities and their influence on their spiritual life very difficult. At the same time, this change explains why moral teachings and their long-suffering earthly representatives had such little effect on deep-rooted and complex problems of local societies.