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ELSEVIER Procedía - Social and Behavioral Sciences 149 (2014) 359 - 364
Social and Behavioral Sciences
LUMEN 2014
Confessional Pluralism in Habsburg Transylvania
Mihai Floroaiaa*
aPh. D., "Spiru Haret" Technological Highschool, Piatra-Neam}, Romania
Abstract
The metamorphoses of pluriconfessional space in 19th and 20th centuries of Transylvania's lead to the composition, definition, evolution and interrelationship of ethnic and religious confessions. These can be studied, analyzed and researched both historical and religious point of view as well as political, geographical, socio-cultural and psychological point of view. Topics such as the confessional pluralism and identity discourse, great personalities of the main religions in Transylvania, the development of religious education and inter-confessional cooperation of the intellectual elite are some of the issues related to religious identity in the studied period. These can be related to the interdependence of the ethnic identity in Transylvania around the 1848's Revolution and to the national status of minorities in Habsburg Transylvania.
The role of large collections and libraries in Habsburg Transylvania is an aspect insufficiently analyzed and the study of religious concepts which didn't belong to that religion accepted into the Habsburg Empire is a new topic which can be analyzed from psychological, social and cultural point of view.
Hungarian Kingdom was a Christian country governed by a Catholic sovereign. For this reason, De Propaganda Fide Congregation acted in Transylvania and Hungary, areas which had been under Turkish influence. The first mission of the Congregation began in October 1629, when the Italian Franciscan Vincenzo Pinieri da Montefiascone arrived in the County of Zemplén.
In 1632, the Congregation sent other Italian Franciscans in Upper Hungary. Their activity in these areas was very intense, thus the Franciscans have played an important role in their mission to convert the people to Catholicism.
After 1760, Maria Theresa forbade the Jesuits to hold intellectual monopoly and censorship of books, these being achieved by the state through an aulic committee named Studien-und Bücher-Zensur-Hofcommission. After 1773, when the Jesuit order was dissolved, the state could control also universities.
© 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.Org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/).
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the Organizing Committee of LUMEN 2014. Keywords: interreligious dialogue; confession; identity; diversity; Jesuits; mission;
* Corresponding author. Tel.: 004-0751212811. E-mail address: floroaiamihai@yahoo.com
1877-0428 © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.Org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/).
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the Organizing Committee of LUMEN 2014. doi: 10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.08.273
Introduction
The history of culture, religions, and psychology of the masses, together with the mentality of the era acts like a red thread in the research of metamorphoses of the multiethnic and multi-confessional area in Habsburg Transylvania. The ethnic, cultural, political, and religious diversity represents an asset for everyone and the dialogue among minorities and there dialogue with the majority is a prerequisite for progress in all respects. In the case of Transylvania, we cannot speak about confessional without considering the ethnic diversity and vice versa.
The Pluralism Concept
With a view to describing the multi-shaped and varied framework of the structure of Transylvanian society under the Habsburgs, I will use the term "pluralism", which, is also applied to a certain sector of the social life (religious pluralism, political pluralism, cultural pluralism, ethnic pluralism, confessional pluralism, etc.). Pluralism is not an exclusively occidental term and it is not a completely new phenomenon, but nowadays it is presented and is construed with some typically new connotations and it has become an international phenomenon implying all peoples, cultures, and religions.
In terms of confessional pluralism, we cannot overlook the role of religious traditions. The symbol, the myth, and the rite, as universal expressions of many sacred religious traditions have characterised religious pluralism in Transylvania.
Contemporary society defines pluralism as "a fundamental structure that cannot be suppressed by the common democratic — liberal essence of our present time (...). It was born from the impossibility to find in society an ethnic — religious normative unity, with shared parameters. Pluralism is not a fix phenomenon, but it corresponds to the interests of society, the evolution of public opinion and social changes. Consequently, its direction of development cannot be planned. It cannot be reduced to a religious, confessional — ecclesiastic pluralism, but it regards the multitude of forces, e.g., spiritual, economic, related to projects and to forms of life. Confessional-religious pluralism is only a vector of a much wider process which encompasses all areas of existence." (Lehmann, 1997, p. 65).
The study of ideological conceptions on ethnic group, nation, kinship, religious confession needs new approaches from the perspective of the current issues of the great European family so that it provides solutions to the contemporary society. We cannot overlook the fact that the dissolution of feudal relationships in Transylvania after 1850 represented, besides the development of new legal and socioeconomic relationships, the beginning of other inter-confessional approaches. Ever since the second half of the nineteenth century, along with the secularisation of the Transylvanian society and the modernisation of the state, the competence of the church has been limited to the detriment of the other government bodies reaching its peak by the laws introduced by the Hungarian state in 18941895. The analysis of the changes undergone by the systems of values in Habsburg Transylvania will explain some long-term consequences of ethnic groups living together.
Confessional Pluralism in the Habsburg Transylvania
In the research proposed we aimed at finding the genesis, the inner functioning and the metamorphoses undergone by the ethnic groups (i.e., Romanian, Hungarian, German, Jewish, Slovak, Szeckler, Saxon, Serbian, Croat, Roma, etc.) and the confessions (e.g., Orthodox, Roman-catholic, Greek-catholic, Lutheran, Calvin, Unitarian, Judaism, etc.) in Transylvanian under the Habsburgs, as well as the long-term consequences on the Romanian as majority Orthodox. Although the year 1660 marks the integration of Transylvania to the Habsburg Empire, for quite a long period (until 1867 and 1918, respectively), we chose the period between 1815 and 1918, aiming at analysing the main historical events: the 1848 Revolution, the status of minorities in Transylvanian society after the 1849 Imperial Constitution, the union of the principalities, the year 1853 when the Metropolitan Greek Orthodox church was founded, the liberalism, the year 1867 when Transylvania went under the Hungarian dualism, etc.
In Habsburg Transylvania, church and religion played a very important role in public life as compared to the western society which was undergoing secularisation. (Carp, 2011, p. 85-86).
We should not overlook the fact that within the historical project of the Habsburgs (who ruled over a conglomerate of territories with different legislation, organisation, and administrator), the two great spiritual events that transformed the entire modern Europe, the Reform and the Counter Reform, practically generated the Habsburg Monarchy.
In their relationships with the Church, the Habsburgs aimed at pace down the actions of the Church and its political claims limiting its involvement in the government of the state. They did this simply because the great project of state consolidation regarded the Church, at least in the sixteenth and the seventeenth centuries, as a real obstacle. On the other hand, the House of Hapsburg, aware of its importance it had for its image in defending faith, engaged firmly in defending the Catholic Church from Lutheranism. In response to this call to defend the unity and orthodoxy of faith which the Habsburgs strongly asserted, but mostly as a response to confessional challenges, the attitudes of the sovereigns ranged from firmness and sustained action against heretics to compromise, according to the historical circumstances.
After the fall of Buda in 1541, the crown of Transylvania was disputed in turn by the successor of John Zapolya, John Sigismund, under the guardianship of his mother Queen Isabella, daughter of the Polish King Sigismund I August and the ambitious monarch Ferdinand de Habsburg, since 1556 heir to Charles V's crown. The presence of Queen Mary, sister of King Ferdinand I and widow of the late King Ladislau of Hungary, within the mostly barren landscape of the Reform would herald that beyond the solutions offered by various main actors of the religious scene, the conciliatory spirit, the humanist moderation and the openness to dialogue would show the way toward a new confessional horizon.
Whereas in terms of political attitude, the state reason always prevailed, in terms of theological beliefs, the Habsburgs did not always follow the line of the Church dogmas and both the Lutheran and Humanistic influence many people had upon them made them adopt a moderate attitude toward their theology. As to the Church, the Habsburgs felt responsible, mainly the Reform they had insisted on and for which they did so many compromises with the Protestants, assuming the role of a referee between the two parties involved in confessional conflicts - a situation felt in Transylvania as well.
Living at the crossroads of peoples, cultures, religions and civilisations, the natives of Transylvania have always lived with other nationalities, in different historical, political and cultural contexts. This explains the current multicultural society on this territory, as the relationships between the majority and the minorities can generate social tensions as well. The tendency of the majority manifested consciously or unconsciously is to homogenize, to assimilate minorities and even to impose some of their own cultural patterns. In this process, there are new ideologies, various kinds of interests, e.g., political, strategic, religious, economic, etc., that become actors in this game along with may other factors that make the circumstances more complex such as the relationships between a majority that feels it rules and is self-confident and minorities trying to defend their identity and their own interests.
The status of the Romanians in Transylvania under the dualist regime was outlined by the hundreds of professional and cultural bodies operating at the regional and local level, which aimed at reforming the Romanian consciousness. This effervescence of associations put to the service of asserting the Romanian nations truly represented a "the Romanian civil society" adapted to the political cultural and economic circumstances at the time. (Maior, 2006, p. 8.).
In Transylvania under Habsburgs there were communities of ethnic and religious minorities that did not manage their insertion in the secular society, most often conflicting with it, with the Christian community and with certain cultural behaviour adopted by the majority population. Thus, we can conclude that "pluralism, just like all cultural historical products is ambivalent as, on one hand, it know how to value differences, freedom, but, on the other hand, it risks to determine disintegration, indifference, and relativism, especially with respect to ethics. Consequently, we should regard pluralism neither as a demon nor as a myth. Hence, a society that would go back to more homogenous although less free societies is not to be desired, nor is it desirable an exaltation of each type of freedom that would end to nothing." (***Consiliul Conferin^elor Episcopale din Europa (CCEE) - Al IX-lea Simpozion al Episcopilor europeni, in Giordano, Aldo (ed.), 1997, p. 11).
The various associations and organisations in the civil society were autonomous from the state and constituted the centres of a non-nationalised system of power. (Tama§, 1993, p. 258).
Analysing the situation in Transylvania, we can assert that we are engaged in the coexistence of many faiths, Churches, confessions, various ideologies, religious traditions and political parties, cultures, philosophies, and social institutions. In a more profound way, we could assert that this is about "various conceptions on the world"; so, we all belong to a pluralist society. In fact, it is about tolerance to any kind of conception on the world and life and, as a conflict-solving method, it is expressed by means of compromise, debate, and analysis. The participants thereof are only people able to enter conflict and the least informed are excluded. The West professes no religious creed, and, consequently, from a theoretical point of view, it is neither for nor against a certain religion, as it wants to respect the freedom of consciousness, of expression, of education, as it wants to provide equal opportunities of expression to each group, culture, ideology.
The research focused on several directions that have been very little explored by historians, theologians, and sociologists: the spiritual, cultural, and identity-related background of the believers, the socio-cultural development, the inter-confessional relationships, collective mentalities, confessional religious literature (dogmatic, canonical, catechetic, homiletic, historical, ritualistic writing), the position occupied by confessional churches in Transylvania in defining the identity-related specificity. We also analysed the aspects referring to the mass-education of Christians and those contributing to the creation of intelligentsia. Drawing parallels between the educational (confessional) system in 17th - 18th-century Transylvania and the current (confessional) education system in the language of minorities as well provided a picture of the development of ethnic education and culture in different historical periods.
Highlighting the role played by the state policy in the internal life of minorities, of socio-professional and religious groups, setting certain relationships among various ethnic groups and confessions, the fact that some ethnic groups belong to certain confessions, etc., may lead to defining the ethnic and confessional identity within the European context of Habsburg rule.
There have been also periods when nationalist ideas were substituted by confessional ones. (Bolovan, Lapadatu, 2011, p. 32).
The territory where Orthodox, Roman Catholics, Greek Catholics, and Lutherans met was the one of conversion, be it individual or collective, of the clerics and the lay people, our of conviction or interest. For example, the Orthodox priest loan Herman replied to the archpriest, on 26 November 1886, on the circumstances of the conversions to the Greek Catholic Church in his parish: "those who wished to convert came in groups, they witnessed one for the other and some even did not express their wish to convert but, being amongst the others, they considered themselves converted." (***Arhiva Mitropoliei Transilvaniei, Sibiu (AMT), Fond Consistoriul arhidecezan, dos. III-312/1885).
We can deduce from studying various documents, such as the registers recording payments in kind due by the population, that the gradual spreading of Austrian jurisdiction entailed an extensive episcopal authority. (§tefanescu, 2009, p. 336).
Having analysed inter-confessional relationships, we can conclude that they did not picture themselves in quite favourable colours. Without implying that this was a territory of ongoing clashes and conflicts, the relationships between the existing confessions in Transylvania under the Habsburg reveal a reality that varied in time with ups and downs that marked the kinship consciousness and the sense of belonging to a cult for a long time.
The Roman Catholic tendencies to standardize and the Greek Catholic ones to gain autonomy clashed with various social and moral issues such as the dissolution of marriages in case of adultery, heresy, betrayal, abortion, leaving the marital home, validating marriage after being ordained as a deacon or priest, the celibacy of priests, etc. (Suciu, 2009, p. 475-476).
The Habsburg represented the Catholic ruling House, and the army "a traditional bastion of Roman Catholicism." (Deak, 2009, p. 204). Thus, in the 16th and 17th centuries, the dynasty waged numerous wars against the Ottoman Empire and against the Protestants whether they were German or local princes (Deak, 2009, p. 204). As to the Jews, the monarchy manifested some level of tolerance leading thus the way to the "emancipation".
If the revolutionary movements as well as those for national unification in the mid-nineteenth century did not reach the expected outcome, and the 1848 Dieta in Cluj resolved to incorporate Transylvania in the kingdom of Hungary, later to create the dualist Austrian - Hungarian state (1867), when Transylvania lost its autonomy, which meant a greater consolidation of the Hungarian power, the Romanian cultural forces founded, in 1861, the "Asociafiunea transilvana pentru literatura romana cultura poporului roman" (ASTRA - The Transylvanian
Association for the Romanian Literature and the Romanian People's Culture), and in 1890 "Liga pentru unitatea culturalâ a tuturor românilor" (The Cultural League), which would militate for the social, cultural, and spiritual independence of the Romanians. ASTRA implemented objectives for villages urging primary school teachers and priests to consider the cultural and spiritual life of the citizens, to fight against "illiteracy", set up libraries, published books, brochures, etc., in other words "the greatest cultural and educational work, apolitical and non-governmental, throughout the history of the people." (Ardelean, 2009, p. 164).
Between 1671 and 1681, religious persecutions were conducted against the Protestants; numerous preachers were expelled or condemned as slaves. Even if the kings of Hungary adopted the title of reges apostolici in 1690, this title was recognized by Pope Clement XIII only in 1758, upon the insistence of Maria Theresa.
The 1681 Diet acknowledged again the freedom of Protestantism but much diminished. This freedom did not include the serfs, the Protestant no longer had the right to express themselves in postulated Diets that contravened the Catholic Church, they could build churches only in certain cities, etc. notwithstanding, the Counter-Reform only ceased in 1781, by the Patent of tolerance passed by Joseph II.
An aspect that should not be overlooked is the visit of Joseph II, the Emperor, to Transylvania in 1773. (Densu^ianu, 1884, p. 97). Taking into account the preoccupation of the Court in Vienna with diminishing the position of the privileged states in Transylvania and to improve the situation of the serfs, many Romanian historiographers construed the visits and measures taken by Joseph II as being motivated by the Emperor's appreciation of Romanians. (Bozac, Pavel, 2007, p. 16).
Conclusions
The ascension of religious pluralism deepens the social role of religion especially owing to the fact that beyond belonging to different political groups, national cohesion cannot be affected by internal religious antagonism. It is difficult for civilian government to enforce a religious unity at the global social level. If, by the end of the 19th century, religious and confessional pluralism become real, despite the fact that decisions are opposed to religious demands, the political leaders present them in such a way that they leave channels of communication open.
Irrespective of the nature of the theological endeavour, as a rule, religions admit the existence if not o politics as a process and conception, but at least of the state as an actual fact. They tend toward projecting a global vision of the world and they seem to tolerate the competition of some political ideology.
Acknowledgements
Postdoctoral Research Project: POSDRU/89/1.5/S/60189, titled Postdoctoral programs for sustainable development in a knowledge society „Babeç-Bolyai" University of Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
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