OVERCOMING DISSENT: COERCIVE AND PERSUASIVE STRATEGIES THAT WON THE GREEK ORTHODOX BACK TO CHURCH UNION IN TRANSYLVANIA AROUND 1750
OVERCOMING DISSENT: COERCIVE AND PERSUASIVE STRATEGIES THAT WON THE GREEK ORTHODOX BACK TO CHURCH UNION IN TRANSYLVANIA AROUND 1750

Summary/Abstract: The Greek Catholic (Uniate) Church was a late addition to the confessional landscape in Transylvania. It was established at the end of the seventeenth century, as the principality came under the rule of the Habsburgs, in a quest for a wide Catholic majority that would enable the dynasty to claim political dominance. A generation later, calls for a return to the earlier religious tradition became overwhelming among the Greek-rite faithful. Starting with 1744, the opposition to Catholicism took radical and often violent forms. For the next five or six years, the situation seemed out of control, particularly in the regions of southern Transylvania. And yet, by the end of 1750, calm was reinstated almost universally. My article inquires into the causes of this surprising transformation, which historians have usually ascribed to either the repression of dissent by state authorities or to a blatant misinformation in the reports by the church leadership. I argue that the return to an irenic atmosphere was indeed real, albeit temporary, and never entirely attributable to the crackdown on the opposition. The sources speak time and again about the hardships endured by those who refused to acknowledge Catholicism, but their voice gives access to just one side of the story. The strategy was more complex, and it involved repeated missionary journeys to the communities which had ousted their priests before any significant appeasement could be achieved. Often alluded to, the actual unfolding of such visits was seldom recorded. The testimony concerning the failed reconversion to church union of the monks and priests in Sâmbăta de Sus (Felsőszombatfalva/Ober-Mühlendorf) provides one of the rare insights into how this happened. Elsewhere, the success can be measured in the countless declarations by village elders who proclaimed their return to the Greek Catholic Church together with those whom they represented. These long-neglected archival materials provide the essential context for understanding the religious upheavals of the subsequent decade.

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