Hermányi Dienes József és az erdélyi unitáriusok
József Dienes Hermányi and the Unitarians of Transylvania

Summary/Abstract: József Dienes Hermányi (1699–1763) is known in literary history for his compilation of anecdotes, which exists today only in manuscript form. Margit S. Sárdi has published a critical edition of his prose works (1992), and has also published Vilmos Gyenis’s uncompleted dissertation (1991) about Hermányi. Hermányi was a Calvinist pastor in Transylvania and in his Nagyenyedi Demokritus he portrayed the absurdities of the different denominations. Sándor Szénási has also written a study (1980) about Hermányi and Calvinism, but did not mention Hermányi’s writings about the other denominations, leaving Hermányi’s oeuvre open for further study.This article collects Hermányi’s anecdotes related to the Transylvanian Unitarian Church and organizes them into seven categories: the nescience of priests, apostasy, alcoholism, fight against smoking, corruption, superstition and straying from dogma, and other ridiculous or memorable cases. Hermányi does not recall the voice of religious polemics, but he enjoys connecting the stories with the members of the Unitarian Church, and accepts their wisdom, as he does in his writings about the other denominations.

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