10: A Peculiar, Peculiar Little Country
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It was only as recently as 1517 that Martin Luther nailed his theses to
the door of the Wittenberg Cathedral. In the Transylvania of this time the
yearning for a breath of fresh air in religion was not without precedent. The
spirit of Hussism had reached northern Hungary directly, and hence Transylvania
indirectly. Later some Anabaptists visited and then settled. Their descendants
today are referred to as Habans on the basis of some of their pottery that has
come down to us.
The Lutherian teachings found their optimal entry point simultaneously in
northern Hungary and in Transylvania among the urban Saxon population driving
for independence and for individual recognition. This trend was promoted by the
fact that most of the early pathbreakers of the Reformation were Germans.
Lutheran conversions among the Hungarians followed very shortly.
The first public religious debate was held in the Transylvanian
Segesvár in 1538 between a Franciscan and a "Reformed" minister. It was
not only condoned, but actually organized by János Szapolyai. (The
outcome was a cautious "tie"). The Transylvanian Diet in Torda in 1548 wished
to limit missionary ardor, but at the same time recognized Lutheranism. This
ordinance was classically two-faced and doomed to failure, yet it was
undoubtedly elegant. The spread of the Calvinist form of Protestantism was also
very rapid in our region. A 1557 edict of the Transylvanian Diet in Torda
declared without any reservations that "Every one shall live in any religion
of their choosing," while the remaining Catholics became persecuted minorities
in some areas and were forced to move. They now had to be protected by laws.
We hasten to emphasize that this was not yet the end of the Catholic --
Lutheran (Evangelical) -- Calvinist (Reformed) chain. On this eastern edge of
the Latin Christian world, the denial of the trinity, Antitrinitarianism also
originating from the west, was deeply embedded and assumed the form of
Unitarianism which evolved into a formal, national Church still very much alive
today. Its evolution and flowering can be assigned to the era of John
Sigismund, who at the end of his life was one of its followers. It is thus that
in 1563, the Transylvanians -- again at a Torda Diet -- declared the freedom of
the four "accepted" religions. These were : Roman Catholic, Evangelical,
Reformed and Unitarian. The Eastern Orthodox creed, practiced by the Romanians
was not among the "accepted" religions, but the increase of both its wooden and
stone churches and the functioning of its monasteries proves that religious
tolerance extended to them. Their omission from the Torda decree was not due to
religious causes but was a function of their societal --"national"-- status.
The boldness and elegance in religious thought and religious life was relative
and not entirely consistent. There were imprisonments and in some extreme cases
even deaths connected to, or based on enthusiasm in the propagation of various
faiths. Yet the inquisitorial rage which, in the case of Servet, a noted
Anti-Trinitarian, affected even Calvin himself, was entirely absent in
Transylvania.
In Transylvania, the chain was not at an end even now. Dogmatically,
Protestantism evolved primarily from a return to the text of the Scriptures.
The Unitarians, even more radically, rejected everything that was post-Christ.
One group in Transylvania based its entire reliance on the Old Testament alone.
The Sabbatarians were getting close to Judaism, not only in the observance of
the weekly holiday but in other religious questions as well. (Taking a giant
leap in history, we must add that the Sabbatarians faced a dreadful end and
that its members were caught up in the murder machine of the Holocaust of 1944.
Their few survivors were welcomed in the new State of Israel).
In the middle of the above century, the increased religious freedom and the
more liberal thinking that has led to it, the doubts and the ability to select
ones path in life, also allowed the entire intellectual environment to flower
and become much more colorful. The religious debates, occasionally bloody and
rich in obscenities, led to significantly increased reading, translating,
printing and publishing. The free exchange of ideas allowed many more young men
from various classes in Transylvania to attend universities. Those returning
from the universities introduced more up-to-date knowledge and teaching methods
throughout the land. In this, the Protestants played a dominant role. Initially
their endeavors were characterized by bringing religious and other novel ideas
from abroad and by their dissemination at home . Later there was a vigorous
exchange of religious and other ideas locally and by interpersonal contacts.
The fame of the Transylvanian freedoms spread abroad. Protestants fleeing from
persecution came in groups. Protestants in other parts of Europe welcomed the
emancipated young men from Transylvania, celebrated for its religious
innovations.
In the final analysis, much good and bad can be said about the Transylvania of
John Sigismund. We must add that most of the bad things come from
Székely tradition. For them the only thing by which they judged the man,
who was the last national king and the first Prince of Transylvania, was that
he drowned in blood their large scale and clearly justified rebellion,
triggered by their increasing subjugation. They also bitterly resented that he
had two new fortresses erected in 1562, primarily to control Székely
activities. The one in Udvarhelyszék was called
Székelytámadt (attacked by the Székelys), and the one in
Háromszék was called Székelybánja (the
Székelys regret it).
His successor had a totally different fate, way of life, perspective and
historic reputation. Since John Sigismund died without issue, according to
their agreement, Transylvania should have gone over to the Habsburg Maximilian.
The nobles, fearing Stambul, and worried about their independence -- a paradox,
yet reality -- preferred to elect István Báthory (1571-1586) as
voivode. Following this challenging invitation, he secretly swore allegiance to
Maximilian, while publicly accepting the endorsement of his election by the
Sultan. His former gesture was in vain, he had to pursue Maximilian's adherents
with armed forces. He reached the peak of his career four years later, in 1575,
when in Cracow he was elected king of Poland. It appeared to the Polish
electors that this little voivode from Transylvania may be more malleable in
their hands than some of the other eligible candidates. If this was what they
thought, they were wrong. Yet, they never had any reason to regret their
decision.
This change of István Báthory's role was endorsed by the Turks
as well, even though Báthory hoped that with this change he could gather
enough strength to make a resistance to Stambul possible, or, at least, to be
regarded as an equal partner by the Sultan. Just like Mathias Hunyadi, who
first tried to protect his back and was recruiting a force, but never had an
opportunity to attack in the south, István Báthory got into a
bitter war with the Russian Tsar Ivan IV (The Terrible), and had all his future
plans negated by his premature death at the zenith of his powers, at the age of
fifty-three. He had no issue and his successor had no issue either.
According to Polish tradition, the decade of Báthory's reign is
considered to be one of the glorious periods of their history. They are right.
It was. At the same time, Transylvania was governed by Kristóf
Báthory, the Cracovian king's honorable, but less outstanding elder
brother as voivode. The fact that his activities were subject to a
Transylvanian chancellery in Cracow can not be faulted, but his dynastic
endeavors on behalf of his minor son are open to serious criticism.
Transylvania was kept in order and prospered under the long distance
management of István Báthory. Under the rule of his nephew, the
unfortunate Zsigmond Báthory (1588-1599), the not inconsiderable
political, moral and economic strength of the country was rapidly wasted. He
was insecure, fled from responsibility, had a notoriously unhappy marriage, and
intermittently resigned from and returned to the princely throne. Transylvanian
memory recalls the last years of the old century and the first years of the new
one as having been worse than the time of John Sigismund -- no mean
accomplishment.
The Habsburg mercenary troops, under the notoriously cruel Albanian general
Basta, committed dreadful depredations in both men and goods, in spite of the
fact that Zigmond Báthory, leaving the throne for the last time, offered
Transylvania to the very strange Emperor Rudolph (1572-1608). We are going to
give only one example of the many bad things that happened in this poor land,
beset from so many sides. Transylvania became used to the idea that with the
Turks on the other side of the fence, the Romanian voivodate of the
Havasalfõld, providing frontier troops for the Sultan, would make
inroads from time to time. This, in itself, was not amazing. Such inroads were
also made in the opposite direction. At this time, however, when the Turks were
much less active in this region, Mihai, the Romanian voivode of the
Havasalfõld -- the celebrated Mihai Viteazul, or Mihai the Hero who was
born in 1557 and ruled from 1593 to 1601 -- attacked Transylvania under
Habsburg colors. For a short period he even became the ruling prince. It could
not even come as a surprise that a number of Székelys, oppressed and
rebellious under Sigismund Báthory, were fighting in Mihai's army.
Two years and one year. This was all the time the next two rulers had. Yet, in
the little time allotted to him, the very able military commander,
István Bocskai (1605-1606) accomplished much. He could do this because
he managed to train a good army from among the previously chastised but now
pacified Székelys and from the wild Heyduck. The latter, while not
regular troops, could be disciplined fighting forces and they played an
important and questionable role in the times to come. They became the cutting
blades of a number of employers, which cut well, but could not rest. Condemned
to inactivity -- without pay or loot -- they seemed to provoke new
confrontations.
In the winter of 1604-1605, Bocskai became successively the Prince of
Transylvania and of Hungary, with the latter standing on the verge of having a
national king. Located between "two great imperial powers", this astute soldier
shied away from the kingdom. Being aware of his own military strength, he made
a favorable peace with Rudolph, and he was the intermediary for a
Turkish-Habsburg peace treaty. Death stopped him from enjoying the fruits of
these endeavors.
While the several ambitious and mutually suspicious aspirants to the throne
arranged a brilliant funeral for Bocskai in Gyulafehérvár,
Zsigmond Rákoczi (1607-1608), having previously amassed an enormous
fortune, had himself hastily and slyly elected as prince. Barely a year later
he was dead. He was thus just an interlude, postponing the decision. His
accomplishment was to bring another brilliant Hungarian magnate family to the
fore. It will very soon have an enormous influence on the life and on the
political power structure of Transylvania.
What a gallery! On the throne, the first one after Rákóczi was
Gábor Báthori (1608-1613), the third member of this large family
to hold this position. He was an eminent soldier, but an unbridled, avid
lecher, and an insanely ambitious ruler. He attacked everybody and managed to
antagonize everybody. The unfortunate result of this was that his behavior
causes another shift in the Transylvanian political axis and that his former
adherent and associate, Gábor Bethlen, was forced to seek increased
Turkish contacts. The Sultan was also enraged and used his Turkish and Tatar
troops to chase Gábor Báthori from his throne. This was not very
proper, but was clearly indicated. Seeing that he had lost his political power,
Báthori's heyducks murdered him.
Let us interpose here something, that really should have been discussed
earlier, namely the actual form of government in Hungary and Transylvania. The
House of Árpád, endowed with the crown under Stephen I,
established an essentially unlimited royal government, where the succession was
vested in inheritance and the legitimate king owed responsibility only to God.
In actual reality and after much tug of war, there were increasing limitations
placed on the personal power of the king and on the regulation of the
succession. We must think only of the Golden Bull (the Hungarian Magna Carta),
which instituted a form of social contract between the ruler and the ruled and
which wrested concessions and promises from the ruler. After the reign of the
House of Árpád, but particularly with the election of Mathias
Corvinus and János Szapolyai, and contrary to the characteristics of
absolute monarchy, Hungary and Transylvania functioned more like a republic of
the nobles. The members of this "republic" naturally did not represent the
entire population, but was largely limited to the higher and middle nobility.
Gradually others were endowed with quasi noble attributes and were able to
participate, directly, or through their representatives in gatherings which
were now known as Diets.
This type of the republic of the nobility can be demonstrated in several
Middle European countries. Here, a considerably larger percentage of the entire
population is given noble or quasi-noble privileges than in the countries to
the west of us where the classic feudal society limited the rule to a much
smaller elite. To the east of us, the prevalent form of government was the
absolute royal power, and the even more absolute despotism that prevailed for
very many years to come. Even though there were geopolitical pressures, the
decision to dethrone Gabor Báthori was made -- with Turkish assistance
-- by the nobility. It was also their decision that made Gábor Bethlen
(16131629) Báthori's successor. This was the beginning of Transylvania's
Golden Age.
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