Maximilianus Hell (1720-1792) - Munin

The Transylvanian polity consisted of three groups, known as Siculi (or Shékely, Secui,
speaking a language closely related to Hungarian), Magyar (ethnic Hungarians) and Saxones
(or Sachsen, a German-speaking, largely Protestant group). In other parts of the Habsburg
lands, the rights of protestants were severely restricted and protestantism as a competing
cultural factor was effectively kept at bay by the pro-Jesuit policies of Vienna. 51 Not so in
Transylvania, where religious freedom was observed and where Protestant groups were even
represented in the Diet. In this situation, the Jesuits were collaborating closely with the
Viennese court in their effort to integrate Transylvania in the Catholic and Vienna-oriented
culture that flourished in the rest of the realm.
The population of Claudiopolis itself numbered about eight thousand, and of this total a large
minority – if not the majority – were ethnic Romanians. Traditionally, nearly all Romanians
in Transylvania were Eastern orthodox, but they enjoyed no political representation in the
Principality. Since the re-arrival of the Jesuits in 1693, a double strategy had been launched:
either to win the population over to the Roman Catholic faith, represented by the Jesuits, or at
least to have them converted to the Uniate Church, or so-called Eastern Catholic faith. Despite
his nominal independence from Rome, the bishop of the Uniate Church was soon to be
supervised by a theologus “of Latin rite” who was to be consulted in all cases of importance.
However, Romanians with their traditional affiliation to the orthodox faith were not the only
challenge to the Habsburg Jesuits in Transylvania. There was also a marked presence of Jews
and Roma (“gypsies”) as well as Muslim Turks, Armenians and other ‘remnants’ of the
Ottoman era in this region. The situation was complicated even more by the flourishing of
both Calvinism and a special branch of Protestantism known as Unitarianism among the
Hungarian- and German-speaking inhabitants in Claudiopolis and its surroundings.
The Society of Jesus is known for its use of science and education for missionary purposes,
the Beijing court being perhaps the best known example. Astronomy was here the chief ‘ticket
of entry’ to the inner circles at court. In Transylvania, a set of Jesuit gymnasia were founded
to compete with the Lutheran schools. And perhaps most important, not long after the Society
officially re-entered the region, an old Jesuit Collegium that had flourished in Claudiopolis
51 It is estimated that Protestants made up almost one third of the population in the Kingdom of Hungary around
the mid-eighteenth century (Balács 1997, p. 41; cf. however Király 1969, Appendix C, where the percentage of
Protestants in the 1788 census is just short of 25%). In Austria itself, Protestantism was forbidden, but proved
difficult to root out. Forced migration of Protestant farmers to Transylvania was among the tools used in efforts
to combat ‘crypto-Protestantism’ during the reigns of both Emperor Charles VI and Empress Maria Theresa (see
for example Pörtner 2005, pp. 392-394). See also Király 1969, pp. 117-122.
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