Transylvania - The Roots of Ethnic Conflict

Notes

A Chronology of Transylvanian History

1. The designation Transylvania means "the land beyond the forest" in Latin. It is a name that became popular during the Middle Ages to designate the easternmost province of the Hungarian Kingdom. The name also received international recognition by the treaties of Nikolsburg (1621) and Linz (1645) which recognized Transylvanian independence. The Hungarian name for Transylvania is Erdély (wooded land); the Rumanians call it Ardeal; the Saxon-Germans always refer to it as Siebenbürgen. This Transylvanian chronology is based on András Bodor and Elek Csetri (eds.) Történeti Kronológia [Historical Chronology] (Bucharest: Kriterion, 1976) vols. I-II; Constantin C. Giurescu, Horia C. Matei, Marcel D. Popa, et al. (eds.), Chronological History of Romania (Bucharest: Editura Enciclopedica Româna, 1972); Peter Gunst, László Benczédi, et al. (eds.), Magyar Történelmi Kronológia [Hungarian Historical Chronology] (Budapest: Tankönyvkiadó, 1970).

Part One

1. Jenõ Szûcs, Nemzet és történelem: tanulmányok [Nation and History: Studies] (Budapest, 1974), pp. 28--29.

2. The division into four "nations" at Vienna occurred already with the first foundation under Archduke Rudolf IV in 1365. The reorganization of the university by Albert in 1389 resulted in the division described above. See Hastings Rashdall, The Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages, ed. F. M. Powicke and A. B. Emden, vol. 2 (London: Oxford University Press, 1958), pp. 241--42; Rudolf Kink, Geschichte der kaiserlichen Universität zu Wien, vol. 2 (Vienna, 1854), p. 51.

3. Károly Schrauf, A bécsi egyetem magyar nemzetének anyakönyve, 1453--1630 [The Records of the Hungarian Nation at the University of Vienna, 1453--1630] (Budapest, 1902), p. 68.

4. The subsequent career of Altenberg is interesting, since he represents a new trend in fifteenth-century society. After completion of his studies at Vienna, where he received a bachelor's degree in 1454 and was magister artium in 1456, he returned to Transylvania and subsequently became mayor of Szeben, Schrauf, op. cit., pp. 39--68; Sándor Tonk, Erdélyiek egyetemjárása a középkorban [The University Attendance of Transylvanians in the Middle Ages] (Bucharest, 1979), pp. 335--36, no. 2310. In 1481 he prepared a law book of considerable importance. Gábor Balás, Erdély jókora jogtörténete 1540-ig [Transylvanian Legal History to 1540] (Budapest, 1977), p. 65.

5. Erik Molnár, A magyar társadalom története az Árpádkortól Mohácsig [Hungarian Society from the Period of the Árpáds to Mohács] (Budapest, 1949), p. 255.

6. István Szabó, "Magyarország népessége a 1330-as és az 1526-os évek között" [The Population of Hungary between 1330 and 1526], in Magyarország történeti demográfiája: Magyarország népessége a honfoglalástól 1949-ig [Historical Demography of Hungary: Hungary's Population from the Conquest to 1949], ed. József Kovacsics (Budapest, 1963), pp. 91--92.

7. György Acsádi, "Történeti statisztikai táblázatok" [Tables of Historical Statistics], A történeti statisztika forrásai [The Sources of Historical Statistics], ed. József Kovacsics (Budapest, 1957), p. 370.

8. First published at Pozsony (Pressburg, Bratislava) in 1735. Critical edition prepared by Kálmán Eperjessy and László Juhász, Nicolaus Olahus: Hungaria-Athila [Bibliotheca scriptorum medii recentisque aevorum] (Budapest, 1938), pp. 1--34.

9. "Totius huius Hungariae regnum continet in se nostro hoc tempore diversas nationes, Hungaros, Alemanos, Bohemos, Sclavos, Croatos, Saxones, Siculos, Valahos, Rascianos, Cumanos, Iaziges, Ruthenos et iam postremo Turcas...." Ibid., pp. 33--34.

10. Elemér Mályusz, "A Magyarság és a nemzetiségek Mohács elõtt" [The Magyars and the nationalities before the Battle of Mohács] Magyar mûvelõdéstörténet: Magyar Renaissance [The Cultural History of Hungary: Hungarian Renaissance], ed. Sándor Domanovszky, vol. 2 (Budapest, 1940), p. 107.

11. The records cover only forty-three counties, with some lacunae. The areas of Transylvania and Croatia-Slavonia were not covered by the records, which have been edited by Johann Christian von Engel, Geschichte dei ungarischen Reichs und seiner Nebenländer, vol. 1 (Halle, 1797), pp. 17--181. Original at National Széchenyi Library, Budapest, Cod. Lat. medii aevi no. 411.

12. Mályusz, op. cit.

13. The most detailed description of settlements in the fifteenth century are found in the work of Dezsõ Csánki, Magyarország történelmi földrajza a Hunyadiak korában [The Historical Geography of Hungary in the Age of the Hunyadis] (Budapest, 1890--1913), Szatmár and Szabolcs counties at the mouth of the Szamos, 1:463--502, 503--44; Bács, Baranya, and Bodrog counties, 2:131--83, 184--227, 451--566; Tolna county, 3:397--481.

14. Antal Fekete Nagy, "A település képe" [A View of the Settlements], Magyar mûvelõdéstörténet, vol. 2, pp. 129--31; also Ferenc Maksay, A magyar falu középkori településrendje [The Settlement Patterns of the Medieval Hungarian Village] (Budapest, 1971), pp. 23--24, 37--48.

15. Mályusz, op. cit., p. 118.

16. Ibid., p. 116.

17. A történeti statisztika forrásai, Table 8a, p. 389.

18. Mályusz, op. cit., p. 123; see also Benedek Jancsó, Erdély története [The History of Transylvania] (Kolozsvár, 1931), p. 177. According to the humanist Archbishop of Esztergom Antal Verancsics (1504--73), the population of Transylvania in the sixteenth century was one-fourth Rumanian. See Verancsics Antal összes munkái [The Complete Works of Antal Verancsics], ed. László Szalay and Gusztáv Wenzel, vol. 6 (Budapest, 1873), p. 109.

19. Erik Fügedi, A 15. századi magyar arisztokrácia mobilitása [The Social Mobility of Hungarian Aristocracy in the 15th Century] (Budapest, 1970), pp. 111--12, 134--35, 167.

20. The best summary of the whole question of the origins of the Hunyadi family is provided by Lajos Elekes, Hunyadi (Budapest, 1952), pp. 71--75. A charming but unsubstantiated tale, circulated since the sixteenth century, is that Hunyadi was the illegitimate son of King Sigismund of Luxembourg and thus not of Rumanian origin. See Gáspár Heltai, Chronica az Magyarocnac dolgairol [Chronicle Concerning the Deeds of the Hungarians] (Kolozsvár, 1575; facsimile ed., Budapest, 1973), pp. 80--82.

21. László Makkai, "Erdély népei a középkorban" [The Peoples of Transylvania in the Middle Ages], Magyarok és Románok [Hungarians and Rumanians], ed. József Déer and László Gáldi (Budapest, 1943), 1:407--10.

22. Péter Ratkos, "A szlovák nemzetiség fejlõdése a 16. század végéig" [The Development of Slovak Nationality to the 16th Century], Nemzetiség a feudalizmus korában [Nationality in the Age of Feudalism] (Budapest, 1972), pp. 108--9.

23. See L. S. Domonkos, "János Vitéz: The Father of Hungarian Humanism (1408--72)" The New Hungarian Quarterly, 20 (1979): 142.

24. Jenõ Szûcs, "Das Städtewesen in Ungarn im 15--17. Jahrhundert" La renaissance et la reformation en Pologne et en Hongrie [Studia Historica, 53], (Budapest, 1963), pp. 97--101.

25. Corpus Juris Hungarici (Budapest, 1899) Decretum VII, Articulus 3, p. 708.

26. Vera Bácskai, Magyar mezõvárosok a XV. században, [Hungarian Market Towns in the Fifteenth Century] (Budapest, 1965), p. 14.

27. Jenõ Szûcs, Városok és kézmûvesség a XV. századi Magyarországon [Cities and Craftmanship in 15th Century Hungary] (Budapest, 1955), p. 98.

28. Bácskai, op. cit., p. 61.

29. István Szabó, A falurendszer kialakulása Magyarországon, X--XV. század [The Development of the Village System in Hungary, 1Oth--15th Centuries] (Budapest, 1966), pp. 148--83.

30. András Kubinyi, "A fõváros története a magyar és német elem egyenjogusításától a németek kiûzéséig" [The History of the Capital from the Time of Legal Equality Between Magyars and Germans to the Expulsion of the Germans], Budapest Története [The History of Budapest], vol. 2 (Budapest, 1973), p. 149.

31. Béla Iványi, "Das Deutschtum der Stadt Eperies im Mittelalter" Südost-Forschungen (1941), pp. 378--79.

32. András Kubinyi, "Buda és testvérvárosai az 1439-es tanácsválasztási reformig" [Buda and its Sister Cities until the Council Election Reform of 1439], Budapest Története, 2:71--72.

33. See Karl Mollay, Das Ofner Stadtrecht. Eine deutschsprächige Rechtssammlung des 15. Jahrhundrets aus Ungarn [Monumenta Historica Budapestinensia, I] (Budapest, 1959).

34. The Székelys were obligated by law to provide the king with roasted oxen at the time of coronation as a gift and not as a form of taxation. See Georgius Fejér, Codex diplomaticus Hungariae ecclesiasticus et civilis, vol. 10, part 2 (Buda, 1834), p. 510.

35. Károly Szabó, A régi székelység [The Ancient Székelys] (Budapest, 1890), pp. 131--32; Balás, op. cit., pp. 37--39.

36. Károly Szabó and Lajos Szadeczky, eds., Székely oklevéltár [Székely Chartulary], vol. I (Kolozsvár, 1872), p. 220.

37. For the text of the charter of privileges see Franz Zimmerman and Karl Werner, eds., Urkundenbuch zur Geschichte der Deutschen in Siebenbürgen, vol. I (Hermannstadt, 1892), pp. 32--34.

38. Balás, op. cit., p. 61.

39. Zimmerman and Werner, op. cit., vol. 4, p. 493.

40. This was called census St. Martini. See Ákos Timón, Magyar alkotmány és jogtörtenet [Hungarian Constitutional and Legal History] (Budapest, 1906), p. 701.

41. Eudoxiu Hurmuzaki, ed., Documente privitoare la istoria românilor [Documents for the History of the Rumanians], vol. 2, part 2 (Bucharest, 1890), p. 154.

42. See G. Müller, Die Graven des Siebenbürger Sachenlandes (Hermannstadt, 1931), pp. 13--27.

43. This expression was increasingly used from the middle of the fifteenth century. See Timón, op. cit., p. 694, and n. 3.

44. Fejer, op. cit., vol. 5, part 1, p. 132.

45. Iványi, op. cit., pp. 365--66.

46. Béla Iványi, Bártfa szabad királyi város levéltára, 1319--1526 [The Archives of the Free Royal City of Bártfa 1319--1526] (Budapest, 1910, no. 2397. See also Elemér Mályusz, "Geschichte des Bürgertums in Ungarn," Vierteljahrschrift für Sozial und Wirtschaftsgeschichte, 20 (1928): 384--85.

47. Branislav Varsik, "Sozial und Nationalitätenkampfe in den Städten der Slowakei im Mittelalter" Zbornik filozofickej fakulty university Komenskeho [Annals of the Philosophy Faculty of the Comnenian University] (Bratislava, 1965), p. 141; Ratkos, op. cit., pp. 109--11.

48. For fifteenth century letters and charters from the city Sopron see Jenõ Házi, Sopron szabad királyi város története; oklevelek és levelek [The History of the Royal Free City of Sopron: Charters and Letters], vols. 2--6 (Sopron, 1923--28).

49. Fejér, op. cit., vol. 4, part 2, p. 132. See also A. Huscava, Najstarsie vysady mesta Trnavy [The Oldest Statutes of the City of Nagyszombat] (Trnava, 1933), p. 43.

50. Fritz Valjavec, Geschichte der deutschen Kulturbeziehungen zu Südosteuropa: Mittelalter [Südosteuropäische Arbeiten, 41] (München, 1953), pp. 246--47.

51. Grete Lang, "Die Nationalitätenkämpfe in Klausenburg im ausgehenden Mittelalter" (Diss., München, 1941).

52. See the study of Vera Zimányi, A Rohonc-Szalonaki uradalom és jobbágysága a XVI-XVII. században [The Estate of Rohonc-Szalonak (Güssing) and its Serfs in the 16th and 17th Centuries] (Budapest, 1968), pp. 53--59. See also Mályusz, "Magyarség és a nemzetiségek," pp. 110--12.

53. Documenta historiam Valachorum in Hungaria illustrantia, ed. Imre Lukinich, László Gáldi, Antal Fekete Nagy and László Makkai (Budapest, 1941), pp. 20, 22.

54. István Kniezsa, "Keletmagyarorszpag helynevei" [The Place Names of Eastern Hungary], Magyarok és Románok, pp. 116--65, gives a detailed analysis of this problem.

55. Documenta historiam Valachorum, pp. 38--41.

56. László Makkai, "Az erdélyi románok a középkori magyar oklevelekben" [Transylvanian Rumanians in Medieval Hungarian Charters], Erdélyi Múzeum (Kolozsvár, 1943), p. 36. Of the nine settlements where Rumanians are found only three were inhabited by them exclusively. In the other six they lived alongside Hungarians.

57. Kniezsa, op. cit., table, p. 158. Recent efforts to show the presence of Vlachs in Szatmár County as early as the eleventh century are unconvincing: Francisc Pall, "Românii din partile Satmarene (Tinutul Medias) in lumina unor ducumente din 1377" [Rumanians in the region of Megyes (County of Szatmár) in the Light of some Documents from 1377], Anuarul Institutului de Istorie din Cluj [Yearbook of the Institute for History at Cluj], vol. 12 (Cluj, 1969), pp. 34--35.

58. For the institution of the kenéz see Ion Bogdan, "Despre cnejii Românii [Concerning the Rumanian kenéz], Analele Academia Romîne, Memoriile Sect. Istorie, ser. 2, vol. 26 (Bucharest, 1903), p. 47. See also the study of Maria Holban, "Marturii asupra rolului cnezilor de pe marile domenii din Banat in doua jumatate in secolului al XIV-lea" [Some Charters Touching on the Role of Knez in the Economy of Great Estates in the Banat During the Second Half of the 15th Century], Studii si materiale de istorie medie, ed. Barbu T. Cimpina, vol. 2 (Bucharest, 1957), pp. 407--20.

59. György Székely, "Az erdélyi románok feudalizálódása" [The Feudalization of the Rumanians in Transylvania], Tanulmányok a parasztság történetéhez Magyarországon a 14. században [Studies Concerning the History of Peasantry in Hungary during the 14th Century] (Budapest, 1953), pp. 246--47.

60. Concerning the events of 1437 see the valuable article of Joseph Held, "The Peasant Revolt of Bábolna, 1437--1438," Slavic Review 36 (1977): 25--38.

61. See Stefan Lupsa, Catolicismul si românii din Ardeal si Ungaria pîna la anul 1556 [Catholicism and the Rumanians in Transylvania and Hungary until 1556] (Bucharest, 1929). See also István Juhász, "A középkori nyugati misszió és a románság" [Medieval Westward Mission and the Rumanians], Az Erdélyi Tudományos Intézet Évkönyve [Yearbook of the Transylvanian Institute of Scholarship] (Kolozsvár, 1943), pp. 182--86.

62. The studies of György Gyõrffy throw some light upon the name and location of Slavic settlements from the tenth to the fourteenth century. Gyõrffy found indications of Slavic inhabitants almost everywhere. See Az Árpád-kori Magyarország történeti földrajza [Historical Geography of Hungary in the Age of the Arpad Dynasty], vol. I (Budapest, 1963), pp. 45, 165, 193, 208, 249--50, 423, 494, 527, 553, 571, 589, 606, 736, 835--36, 885.

63. A good example of this development can be seen in the county of Hont through which the river Ipoly flows. See István Bakács, Hont vármegye Mohács elõtt [The County of Hont Before Mohács] (Budapest, 1971), pp. 31--34.

64. Branislav Varsik, "K socialnym a narodnostym bojom v mestach no Slavensku v stredoveku|" [Concerning the Social and Nationality Conflict in the Middle Ages], Slovaci a ich narodyn vyvin [Slovaks and their National Development] (Bratislava, 1966), pp. 64--66.

65. Mályusz, "Magyarság és nemzetiségek," p. 117.

66. On the early society of Máramaros see Vilmos Bélay, Máramaros vármegye társadalma és nemzetiségei [The Social Structure and Nationalities of Máramaros County] (Budapest, 1943), p. 120ff.

67. Makkai, "Erdély népei a középkorban," pp. 394--98; Mályusz, "Középkori magyar nemzetiségi politika," p. 421.

68. Miklós Kring, "Kun és jász társadalomelemek a középkorban" [Cuman and Jazig Social Elements in the Middle Ages], Századok [Centuries] 66 (1932), p. 39ff.

Reformation Literature and the National Consciousness of Transylvanian Hungarians, Saxons, and Rumanians

1. Though definitions of the Reformation in Hungary vary, the author uses the term to mean only the period 1519--71, to the time the Roman Catholic István Báthori became the ruler of Transylvania.

2. G.D. Teutsch, Geschichte der Siebenbürger Sachsen für das sächsische Volk [History of the Transylvanian Saxons for the Saxon People], ed. Friedrich Teutsch, vol. 1 Von den ältesten Zeiten bis 1699 [From the Origins to 1699] (Hermannstadt: W. Krafft, 1925), p. 246.

3. For a further discussion of this question, see Louis J. Elteto, "The Reformation in Transylvania," Itt-Ott, 9, no. 2 (1977): 22--27.

4. Ibid.

5. János Horváth, A reformáció jegyében [Under the Sign of the Reformation], 2nd ed. (Budapest: Gondolat, 1957), gives an excellent overview of Hungarian publishing in this early period.

6. Horváth, op. cit.

7. Teutsch, p. 253. All translations by author.

8. Quoted by Teutsch, p. 255.

9. Teutsch, p. 325.

10. See for example the resolution of the 1554 Diet of Marosvásárhely (Tirgu-Mures, Neumarkt), according to which a Christian serf could be condemned only on testimony of seven witnesses, whereas for a Rumanian three witnesses were enough. Cited in István Juhász, A reformáció az erdélyi románok között [The Reformation Among Transylvanian Rumanians] (Kolozsvár: Református Theologia, 1940), p. 24, from Monumenta comitalia regni Transylvaniae [County Documents of the Kingdom of Transylvania], vol. 1, 520, and Eudoxiu Hurmuzaki, Documenta privitoare la istoria Românilor [Documents Pertaining to the History of the Rumanians], vol. 2, part 5, p. 206, document no. 90, ed. Ovidiu Denusianu (Bucharest: 1897). Juhász also refers (p. 80) to a letter of "Bishop György," placed in charge of the Rumanian mission by the Diet of 1566, in which the phrase "ide fele sok keresztyén oláh pap vagyon" (hereabouts there are many Christian Vlach priests) is used to contrast clergy under his jurisdiction, who were preaching in Rumanian, with the Orthodox priests who were not. Cited from Hurmuzaki, vol. 15, part 1, 627, document No. 1170, ed. Nicolae Iorga (Bucharest: 1902).

11. Juhász, p. 77.

12. Ibid., p. 75. For the history of Rumanian publishing in general during the time of the Reformation, see Juhász, chaps. 1--4.

Transylvania - The Roots of Ethnic Conflict