Battling bishops : religion and politics in Transylvania on the eve of the Ausgleich

Abstract

The thesis reexamines the political struggle in Transylvania from the decline of absolutism in 1860 to the eve of the Austro-Hungarian Compromise (Ausgleich) of 1867 in the light of the heavy political involvement of the bishops and clergy of the Roman Catholic, Greek Catholic and Orthodox Churches in these events. The administrative and social structure of Transylvania and the role which Austrian policy-makers assigned to that province led to considerable clerical involvement in politics.

Two chapters use government archives to present the course of secular politics. One chapter examines the three administrative regions of Transylvania and their social structure, while another treats the relationship of religion and popular culture. These chapters rely chiefly on social historical and ethnographic studies. Chapters five through nine consider both the secular political and the ecclesiastic activity of the bishops, clergy and laity of selected regions on the basis of church archives and personal papers. Because of its constitutional, dynastic and international position the Roman Catholic Church and its bishop in Transylvania, Lajos Haynald, are at the center of chapters five through nine. The activity and relationship with Haynald of Greek Catholic Metropolitan Alexandru Sterca-Sulutiu and Orthodox Bishop Andrei Saguna receive separate treatment.

The religious communities were key players in provincial politics by virtue of their territorial organization and distinctive social composition. Ecclesiastic connections also assured the relevance of events outside of Transylvania for the course of provincial politics. The bishops, clergy and laymen of the three churches studied here represented ethnic (Hungarian and Romanian) but also social interests, both on the secular stage and in the conflict over the churches' administrative independence and lay participation that reflected ideological tensions in the rest of society.