Reformation in Transylvania

Michaelskirche in Klausenburg , until 1716 church of the Unitarian congregation

In the middle of the 16th century, the Reformation reached the region of Transylvania in what is now central Romania . Reformation ideas were first introduced here by German-speaking scholars who were in close contact with the Reformers in the Holy Roman Empire . The rapidly spreading body of thought led to the formation and culture of denominations as early as the 1570s, which essentially followed the ethnic and linguistic boundaries within the country. Due to the resolutions of the Transylvanian state parliaments, the autonomous principality developed into a "pioneering region of early modern religious freedom". As a result, five denominations lived relatively peacefully with one another in Transylvania, which were spread over three language areas: In addition to the Evangelical Lutheran German-speaking Transylvanian Saxons , these were Catholic , Reformed and Unitarian Hungarians as well as Orthodox Romanians . In the neighboring Hungarian kingdom under Habsburg rule, however, the conditions of the Augsburg imperial and religious peace applied uniformly .

The pragmatic coexistence of the Christian denominations based on mutual tolerance distinguishes the history of the post-Reformation Transylvania from the development in Western Europe. In contrast to this, in Transylvania during the early modern period, denominational identities could develop without direct state control; In this region it was more the ethnicity that determined the denomination. The Protestant church historian Volker Leppin (2005) describes the development of the denominational culture in Transylvania as a “special case of church history” within the more statistically shaped denominational processes in the heartlands of the Reformation.

Transylvania before the Reformation

Ethnic and linguistic diversity

The population of Transylvania consists of various ethnic groups that were politically organized as estates or nations (universitates) : the Saxon University of Nations , the Hungarian nobility on the county floor and the Magyar Szekler , as well as - until around 1366 - the Universitas Valachorum of the Romanians. Each nation had its own rights, customs and privileges. Under the influence of the peasant uprising of Bobâlna in 1437 and the Ottoman invasion of Transylvania in 1438 under Sultan Murad II , the Saxon and the two Hungarian estates organized themselves in the Unio Trium Nationum , which essentially guaranteed political equality and cooperation.

The peaceful coexistence was made easier by the fact that the nations in each case made up the majority of the population in different parts of the country. In particular, the settlement areas of the Saxons and Szekler were geographically well delimited. In the religious field, their relationship was characterized by delimitation and coexistence. Since King Andreas II's golden charter of 1224, which among other things guaranteed the right of parishes to choose their priests themselves, the Church of the Saxons in particular gained increasing independence from outside influence. The royal privileges were extended to the area of the two chairs in 1318 and to Burzenland in 1422 . Ethnic diversity did not always go hand in hand with local demarcation: tax registers from the 16th century indicate multilingualism, especially in rural villages and smaller towns, but in the 16th century Hungary was not allowed to settle in larger towns with a Saxon population. The situation turned out to be more difficult for the Romanian part of the population, who remained excluded from the Union of the Three Nations and thus from political equality, and whose orthodox belief was viewed as schismatic and opposed at times.

Political situation at the beginning of the 16th century

Sultan Suleyman I receives Isabella Jagiellonica and her son Johann Sigismund Zápolya

After the defeat against the Ottoman Empire in the Battle of Mohács (1526) , the Kingdom of Hungary was divided into three parts. In addition to a residual empire ruled by the Habsburgs in the north and west, an Ottoman province with its seat in Ofen was established in the center . In 1541, Isabella Jagiellonica had been assigned Transylvania by Sultan Suleyman I in the southeast, as well as the eastern Hungarian territories of the " Partes " as rulership. Together with the Bishop of Großwardein , Cardinal Georg Martinuzzi , she took over as governor for the underage Johann Sigismund Zápolya (1540-1571). After Martinuzzi's murder in 1551, Isabella and Johann were initially expelled and were only able to regain their rule in 1556. Under these political circumstances, the country's internal autonomy could only be preserved if the regents recognized Ottoman suzerainty. At the time of the Reformation, Transylvania was politically a buffer zone between the Holy Roman and Ottoman Empire. Repeated Ottoman raids and no less devastating counterattacks by the Habsburgs decimated the population of Transylvania and weakened the country's economic performance.

Churches and sovereigns

The early German settlement areas in the south of Transylvania were under the Archdiocese of Gran (ung. Esztergom ), at the beginning of the 11th century the Catholic diocese was founded with its seat in Weißenburg . The Wallachians and Slavs followed the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Constantinople until the 15th century , after which they followed their own changing regional hierarchies. The political influence of the Catholic Church was less than in other countries: the right of the congregations to freely choose their pastors, which was documented in the Andreanum and only had to be confirmed by the church hierarchy, strengthened the role of the individual congregation in relation to the church hierarchy. According to Fala (2015), the spread of the Reformation was also facilitated by the fact that the Catholic clergy was not represented as a separate organization in the state parliaments.

According to the historian Ludwig Binder, the Reformation in Transylvania did not require a radical break with the traditions of late medieval piety: at least among the Saxon believers, intensive reading of the Bible was widespread. After the Reformation, liturgical forms and paraliturgical customs were retained and made the transition easier with a strongly visual understanding of religion. In addition, Binder sees the Reformation in Transylvania as prepared by the humanistic attitude, which was widespread at least among intellectuals , which represented a conciliatory solution to the conflicts caused by the religious fragmentation of Europe and thus promoted religious tolerance.

Fala (2015) justifies the fact that the Catholic rulers of the Principality of Transylvania did not oppose the Reformation more vigorously with the endangered peripheral location of the region, which did not allow further internal tensions. The spread of the Reformation was also facilitated by the fact that after the death of the Bishop of Weissenburg in 1542 - with the exception of the Habsburg rule from 1551–1556 - until 1716, the country had no Catholic bishop. The estates took advantage of the dispute between Emperor Ferdinand II and Pope Gregory XIII. about the investiture of a new bishop of Weißenburg to their advantage. From around 1542 onwards, the secularization of church property had begun under Isabella, which intensified in 1551 after Martinuzzi's death and was largely completed in 1556. Ownership and claims to benefices passed to the treasury, local landowners and communities.

Isabella's son Johann Sigismund Zápolya played a special role in the history of the Reformation in Transylvania, who, as a Catholic, nevertheless promoted the religious freedom of the Protestant denominations. The influence of Catholicism was limited in the late 1560s to the Szeklers and individual prominent families such as the Báthorys. In 1571, after his election , the Catholic Prince Stephan Báthory took an oath to uphold the four “received religions”, to which the Romanian Orthodox denomination was assigned as a tolerated denomination. His successors had to repeat this oath when they were elected. As a Catholic, Báthory supported the Catholic Church by trying three times to establish the Jesuit order in the country. This was driven out again after a short time by resolutions of the state parliament. Only in Csík County has Catholicism survived to this day.

Religious situation until 1571

As early as the 1520s, Reformation writings from Wittenberg were spreading in the Saxon cities of Kronstadt, Hermannstadt, Bistritz, Mediasch and Schäßburg as well as in Cluj with its mixed Hungarian-Saxon population. The humanistically oriented works of Philipp Melanchthon were particularly influential . In accordance with the Edict of Worms of 1521, which prohibited the reading and distribution of Reformation writings, the Hungarian King Ludwig II suppressed the first reformatory steps in Hungary and Transylvania in 1523. After the death of Ludwig II at Mohács, the peace of Großwardein in February 1538 resolved the Hungarian question of succession. Already in March of the same year Johann Szápolya invited to a religious talk in Schäßburg . The Protestant position represented István Szantai, the rector of the University of Kosice , on the Catholic side was George Martinuzzi. The assessors of the disputation were the humanists Adrian Wolfhard and Márton Kálmáncsehi Sánta. The theme was the doctrine of the sacrifice of the Mass and the sequence of the Lord's Supper in both forms. The meeting ended after a few days with Szantai's flight.

After the defeat of the Habsburgs, Kronstadt in 1542 and Sibiu in 1543 introduced the Reformation. In several steps in quick succession, the professional parliament, the university of nations, decided to introduce the new ecclesiastical order in accordance with the principle of territoriality in the entire legal area. From the middle of the 16th century, the ideas of the Helvetian reformers spread among the Hungarian nobles and citizens, especially in the cities of Cluj-Napoca and Debrecen. From 1557 the Transylvanian state parliament established the "unique system in early modern Europe" of the four legally recognized ("received") religions and thus secured the country's internal peace.

In detail, the following steps are traceable:

1542: The estates give each other free choice of faith.
1544: A renewal ban restricts the valid denominations to Catholic and Evangelical-Lutheran
In 1550, a state parliament resolution once again made the choice of belief free.
In 1552 it was decided that the decision should not cause any disadvantage to either denomination. The state parliament recognizes the Confessio Augustana .
In 1556 the German and Hungarian Lutherans split. The former made German the church language, the latter elected their own bishop.
In 1557 the equality of both denominations is established.
In 1564 the Helvetic creed was recognized as having equal rights.
1568 Adoption of the Edict of Torda , establishment of the Unitarian Church
In 1571 the anti-Trinitarian Unitarians were equally recognized .
In 1572 further religious renewals are forbidden.

The resolutions of the Transylvanian state parliaments formed the basis for individual and corporate freedom of religion in this region until 1848 and granted a constant level of security for adherents of a wide range of different denominations, which was unusual especially in the 16th and 17th centuries. At the end of the 16th century, the proportion of Catholics in the population of Transylvania was only about 10%.

Humanistic city reformation in Kronstadt

Johannes Honterus; Woodcut around 1550

The printer and humanist Johannes Honterus (around 1498–1549) from Kronstadt is a key figure in the Transylvanian Reformation. During a stay in Basel, he perfected his humanistic education and, with the Basel Reformation under Johannes Oekolampad , got to know a form of the Reformed faith. Around 1533 Honterus returned to Kronstadt and worked there as a printer. As a hundred man, he also held an influential position on the city council. Together with Valentin Wagner , he initially represented a middle position between the extreme positions of the Catholic Church and the Reformation movement. Their reforms were aimed at philology, ethics and pedagogy. In October 1542, the Protestant mass rite was introduced in Kronstadt. In 1543, based on his writing Reformatio ecclesiae Coronensis ac totius Barcensis provinciae, the Reformation was introduced in Kronstadt and the surrounding Burzenland . From there, the Reformation , based on the teachings of Martin Luther , spread among the Transylvanian Saxons. On April 22, 1544, Honterus was elected parish priest of Kronstadt.

In 1547, the church ordinance of all Germans in Sybembürgen , based on Honterus' Reformation pamphlet, was available in printed form, which introduced the Reformation for all German residents of Transylvania. In 1557, a synod in the Consensus doctrinae de Sacramentos Christi pastorum et ministrorum ecclesiarum in inferiori Pannonia et nationis utriusque in tota Transylvaniae laid down binding orientation towards the Wittenberg Doctrine of the Last Supper. Temporarily (1557 to 1560/61) there were two linguistically and ethnically distinct superintendencies, a Saxon in Sibiu and a Hungarian in Cluj. In 1561 the two Lutheran superintendencies were reunited. The Brevis confessio de sacra coena Domini ecclesiarum Saxonicarum et coniunctarum in Transylvaniae of 1561 lays down the official doctrine of the Transylvanian Reformation movement. After the death of Sibiu superintendent Mathias Hebler in 1571, Lucas Unglerus was elected Protestant bishop; the bishopric was moved to Biertan . In June 1572, a general synod gathered in the Margarethenkirche in Mediasch established the Augsburg Confession as a binding basis for church design.

The humanistic character of the Reformation is expressed in the appreciation of education: in 1543 Honterus founded the Studium Coronense in Kronstadt , which still exists today as a German-speaking Honterus grammar school . In 1563 a synod in Medias stipulated that candidates for a parish office should be "of sufficient education" (mediocriter eruditi) ; the criteria for this were only vaguely defined. The duration and content of the course were not specified. In 1622 Prince Gabriel Bethlen founded the Reformed Academy in Weißenburg, which has existed in Großenyed (Strasbourg am Mieresch, today Aiud ) since 1662 and teaches in Hungarian.

Iconoclasm

Shrine of the Ursula altar in the church of Meerburg / Bela, today in the Schäßburger Bergkirche . Recesses in the decor of the back wall show the outlines of the statues removed in the iconoclasm.

The transition from medieval Catholicism to the religious ideas and forms of piety of the Reformation becomes clear through the role of religious works of art in the church: Using the example of the church of Biertan / Biertan , Crăciun (2014) showed that the theological statement was decisive for removing or preserving them: pictures The oldest known document on the removal of pictures and sculptures from the churches comes from the Bistritz council clerk Christian Pomarius from the year 1543. In the spring of 1544, the side altars and images of saints were added , "which expressed the beliefs of the medieval church that had been rejected by Lutheranism." removed from the Black Church of Kronstadt. This suggests the introduction of the Reformation focus on the main altar and the rejection of the veneration of saints at this time.

As early as the 1550s, however, the view prevailed that pictorial representations of religious subjects can be considered works of art and therefore need not be removed. In 1557 the Synod of Sibiu declared that images with biblical or church history should be preserved. In 1565 the Synod of Sibiu declared that "in your altar you will need an image of the Savior on the cross, through which he represents his Passion".

From the pre-Reformation period, the main altars of the churches in Transylvania, often large winged altars , such as the Medias or Biertan altars , have been preserved . The existing panel paintings were mostly redesigned in line with the Reformed faith. In contrast, figurative representations, especially from the central shrines of the altars, have been removed throughout. Wall paintings and frescoes were whitewashed in the Protestant churches of Transylvania and only rediscovered and exposed during restoration work in the 1970s. Only in the areas that were not on the royal soil , which was endowed with traditional autonomy rights and where the population was therefore not allowed to freely decide on their denomination, the wall paintings have remained intact to this day, for example in the fortified church of Malmkrog .

Denominational differentiation: Calvinists, Unitarians

Franz Davidis (1510–1579)

The theological differences of the Second Supper dispute also had an impact in Transylvania. While the Saxon Church continued to follow Melanchthon's position , the Reformation theology, based on Zwingli and Bullinger and carried out in the Consensus Tigurinus (1549) , spread from Debrecen in Hungary . The parish of Cluj-Napoca followed this denomination, the most important representatives of which in Transylvania were Caspar Helth (around 1520–1574) and Franz Davidis (1510–1579). After no agreement could be reached in the religious talks in Strasbourg am Mieresch, the state parliament officially recognized the Calvinist denomination in 1564.

Davidis had studied at the Wittenberg University and was originally a Lutheran, had turned to Calvinism from 1559 and had been superintendent since 1564 . Under the influence of Giorgio Biandrata (around 1515 – around 1590), who gathered a circle of Unitarian-minded people from Weißenburg, Davidis, who wrote mainly in Hungarian from Cluj, established Transylvania alongside Poland as the most important center of Unitarianism in the early days Modern times.

Equal rights of the "received religions"

Davidis in front of the Thorenburg state parliament

In order to strengthen the politically and economically weak principality in its endangered position between two great powers as much as possible, it was necessary to maintain internal cohesion. The only way to counteract the disintegration along ethnic and confessional borders was to grant all denominations equal rights. The Transylvanian nations organized in the assemblies of the estates had been guaranteed these rights in domestic politics since the 13th century. In 1537 Isabella recognized the Lutheran denomination and granted religious freedom to the estates, the Calvinists were recognized in 1564, and finally the Unitarians with the Edict of Torda in 1568 . For the first time in European history, religious freedom was theologically legitimized and recognized by the state.

To protect and expand religious freedom, Johann Sigismund Zápolya and his advisers cited humanistic and biblical-eschatological reasons: Based on Sebastian Franck's Chronica of Roman Heretics and Sebastian Castellios De haereticis an sint persequendi (1554), Biandrata and Fausto Sozzini argued with the scriptures from Council of Gamaliel (Acts 5, 38f. LUT ) as well as the parable of the tares under the wheat (Mt 13, 24–30 LUT ): According to this, it is Christ alone to judge dogmatic errors. The Landtag of Thorenburg adopted this position in its edict on religious freedom in 1568. In 1563 the Transylvanian state parliament decided that the churches should be used equally by all denominations. The codification of state law in 1653 in the Approbatae constitutiones regni Transylvaniae et partium Hungariae eidem annexarum (Approbaten) regulated the case that only one church building was available in one place: a committee of representatives of all four denominations should church, rectory and school of the denomination left, which had the most members locally. After that the population had to build churches and schools for the other denominations.

The situation in Transylvania in the early modern period differed fundamentally from the legal situation in the Holy Roman Empire: In the Peace of Augsburg and Religious Affairs (1555), the decision about religion was determined on a territorial level (" cuius regio, eius religio "); Individual religious freedom was only possible in individual cities. In Transylvania, on the other hand, the decision on religious affiliation was completely withdrawn from the state and was at most influenced by ethnic-social identity, but not by the authorities. The freedom of the four “received religions” was valid for all Transylvanian princes from 1571 and had to be confirmed as part of the conditiones principum before the election. Finally formulated in the Approbates in 1653 , this regulation retained legal status until 1848.

Limits to Religious Freedom

With Gabriel Bethlen’s ban on innovation in 1572, religious freedom found its limits: The christological standpoint of nonadorantism (not worshiping Christ), which was widespread among some of the Transylvanian Unitarians, and the rejection of the New Testament associated with the rise of the Sabbatars were not recognized; Franz Davidis died in custody. The Romanian Orthodox community was tolerated but not recognized. The Catholic Jesuit order was expelled from the country three times between 1581 and 1604. The commitment of the Saxon University of Nations to the Augsburg Confession prevented a denominational division of the Saxons.

Habsburg rule

The Long Turkish War (1593–1609) depopulated and ruined Transylvania; after the peace of Zsitvatorok in 1609 the country was able to recover under a number of reformed princes. Gabriel Bethlen (ruled 1613–1629) granted Jews and the Upper Hungarian Hutterites the right to settle in Transylvania. In 1660, an Ottoman army invaded the country for the last time in connection with the disputes over Prince George II Rákóczi . After devastating clashes, Transylvania came under Ottoman rule again, but retained its internal autonomy and - due to the religious tolerance or indifference of the Ottomans - also its religious freedom. In the Treaty of Karlowitz (1699), the Ottoman Empire officially had to renounce its claims in Transylvania. With the Peace of Sathmar in 1711 Austrian control was finally established. Transylvania was administered by governors . In 1765 the Grand Duchy of Transylvania was proclaimed and transformed into an Austrian crown land. Through a certificate from Empress Maria Theresa dated November 2, 1775, Transylvania was largely autonomous and ruled by its own princes according to its own laws.

Between 1733 and 1776 the ethnic group of the Transylvanian Landler as well as the crypto-Protestants from the Salzkammergut , Upper Austria (the "Landl"), Styria and Carinthia were forcibly settled in the so-called " transmigration " in southern Transylvania. The " exiles " were allowed to settle in the Unterwald, depopulated by the Turkish wars, and in the Sibiu area . Only in the three villages of Neppendorf , Großau and Großpold were they able to maintain themselves as a separate group in the long term. The tolerance patents of Emperor Joseph II ended the Counter Reformation in the Habsburg hereditary lands from 1781 .

literature

Ludwig Binder: Johannes Honterus and the Reformation in the south of Transylvania with special consideration of the Swiss and Wittenberg influences . In: Zwingliana . 2010, ISSN 0254-4407 , p. 645–687 ( zwingliana.ch [accessed on August 2, 2017]).
Volker Leppin , Ulrich A. Wien (ed.): Confession formation and confessional culture in Transylvania in the early modern period. Sources and studies on the history of Eastern Europe . Frank Steiner, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 3-515-08617-X .
Howard Louthan, Graeme Murdock (Ed.): A companion to the Reformation in Central Europe . Brill, Leiden 2015, ISBN 978-90-04-25527-2 ( limited preview in Google book search).
Karin Maag (Ed.): The Reformation in Eastern and Central Europe . Routledge, London, New York 2016, ISBN 978-1-85928-358-5 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).
István Keul: Early Modern Religious Communities in East-Central Europe: Ethnic Diversity, Denominational Plurality, and Corporative Politics in the Principality of Transylvania (1526–1691) . Brill, Leiden 2009, ISBN 978-90-04-17652-2 .
Gerald Volkmer: Transylvania between the Habsburg Monarchy and the Ottoman Empire - International Legal Position and International Legal Practice of an East Central European Principality 1541–1699 . DeGruyter Oldenbourg, 2015, ISBN 978-3-11-034399-1 .
Ulrich A. Wien: Farewell to Trinity Theology? On the complexity of disputes and religious discussions in Transylvania . In: Irene Dingel, Volker Leppin, Kathrin Paasch (eds.): Between theological dissent and political tolerance. Religious Discussions of the Early Modern Age . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2018, ISBN 978-3-525-57087-6 , pp. 77-112 .
Ulrich A. Vienna, Krista Zach (ed.): Humanism in Hungary and Transylvania. Politics, religion and art in the 16th century (Transylvanian Archive / Archive of the Association for Transylvanian Cultural Studies) . Böhlau, Cologne 2004, ISBN 3-412-10504-X .
Christa Zach: Confessional plurality, estates and nation. Selected treatises on the history of religion and society in Southeastern Europe . LIT Verlag, Münster 2004, ISBN 978-3-8258-7040-9 .

Individual evidence

^ Ulrich A. Wien, Krista Zach: Foreword . In: Ulrich A. Wien, Krista Zach (ed.): Humanism in Hungary and Transylvania. Politics, religion and art in the 16th century (Transylvanian Archive / Archive of the Association for Transylvanian Cultural Studies) . Böhlau, Cologne 2004, ISBN 978-3-412-10504-4 , pp. VIII .
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d Volker Leppin: Transylvania: A special case of church history of general importance . In: Volker Leppin, Ulrich A. Wien (ed.): Confession formation and confessional culture in Transylvania in the early modern period. Sources and studies on the history of Eastern Europe . Frank Steiner, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 978-3-515-08617-2 , pp. 13 .
↑ Christine Peters: Mural paintings, ethnicity, and religious identity in Transylvania: The context for Reformation . In: Karin Maag (Ed.): The Reformation in Eastern and Central Europe . Routledge, London, New York 2016, ISBN 978-1-85928-358-5 , pp. 92-117, here: pp. 92-95 .
↑ Gerald Volkmer: Transylvania between the Habsburg Monarchy and the Ottoman Empire - International Legal Position and International Legal Practice of an East Central European Principality 1541–1699 . DeGruyter Oldenbourg, 2015, ISBN 978-3-11-034399-1 .
^ German Cultural Forum for Eastern Europe (ed.): Reformation in Eastern Europe - Transylvania . Potsdam 2017, p. 4 .
^ ^A ^b ^c Márta Fala: The kingdom of Hungary and the principality of Transylvania . In: Howard Louthan, Graeme Murdock (Ed.): A companion to the Reformation in Central Europe . Brill, Leiden 2015, ISBN 978-90-04-25527-2 , pp. 92-120, here pp. 112-116 .
^ ^A ^b Ludwig Binder: Basics and forms of tolerance in Transylvania up to the middle of the 17th century . Böhlau, Cologne and Vienna 1976, ISBN 978-3-412-20275-0 . , quoted from Peters, in Maag (2016), see literature
^ German Cultural Forum for Eastern Europe (ed.): Reformation in Eastern Europe - Transylvania . Potsdam 2017, p. 13 .
^ Karl Fabritius: The religious talk at Schässburg in 1538 and the Weißenburg provost, later Archbishop of Gran Anton Verantius, letters to Transylvanian Saxony . In: Archives of the Association for Transylvanian Cultural Studies . 1863, p. 245-249 .
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Ulrich Andreas Vienna: Siebenbürgen - pioneering region of religious freedom: Luther, Honterus and the effects of the Reformation . Schiller Verlag, Hermannstadt / Bonn 2017, ISBN 978-3-946954-05-7 , pp. 9-16 .
↑ Ludwig Binder: Johannes Honterus and the Reformation in the south of Transylvania with special consideration of the Swiss and Wittenberg influences . In: Zwingliana . 2010, ISSN 0254-4407 , p. 651-653 .
^ Ulrich Andreas Vienna: Transylvania - pioneering region of religious freedom: Luther, Honterus and the effects of the Reformation . Schiller Verlag, Hermannstadt / Bonn 2017, ISBN 978-3-946954-05-7 , pp. 41 .
^ Zoltán Csepregi: The conception of the Reformation by Honterus and his contemporaries . In: Ulrich A. Wien, Krista Zach (ed.): Humanism in Hungary and Transylvania. Politics, religion and art in the 16th century (Transylvanian Archive / Archive of the Association for Transylvanian Cultural Studies) . Böhlau, Cologne 2004, ISBN 978-3-412-10504-4 , pp. 1-18 .
^ ^A ^b Maria Crăciun: Iconoclasm and Theology in Reformation Transylvania: The Iconography of the Polyptych of the Church at Biertan . In: Archive for the history of the Reformation (95) . 2004, ISSN 2198-0489 , p. 93-96 .
^ Karl Reinert: The foundation of the Protestant churches in Transylvania . In: Studia Transilvanica (5) . Böhlau, Cologne / Weimar 1979, p. 136 .
^ Heinrich Zeidner: Chronicles and diaries, sources on the history of the city of Kronstadt . tape 4 . Kronstadt 1903, p. 504-505 . Quoted from Emese Sarkadi: Produced for Transylvania - Local Workshops and Foreign Connections. Studies of Late Medieval Altarpieces in Transylvania. PhD dissertation in Medieval Studies . Central European University , Budapest 2008 ( ceu.hu [PDF; accessed October 29, 2017]).
↑ Evelin Wetter: The pre-Reformation legacy in the furnishings of Transylvanian-Saxon churches . In: Ulrich A. Wien, Krista Zach (ed.): Humanism in Hungary and Transylvania. Politics, Religion and Art in the 16th Century . Böhlau, Cologne, Weimar, Vienna 2004, ISBN 978-3-412-10504-4 , pp. 28 .
^ Georg Daniel Teutsch: Document book of the Protestant regional church in Transylvania II. Sibiu, 1883, p. 105.
↑ Vasile Drǎguţ: Picturile mural de la Medias. O importantâ recuperare pentru istoria artei transilvânene. In: Revista muzeelor şi monumentelor. Monumente istorice si de artâ 45 (1976), No. 2, pp. 11-22.
↑ Dana Jenei: Picturi mural din jurul anului 1500 la Medias (Murals from around the year 1500 in Medias) . In: Ars Transilvaniae XXI . 2012, p. 49-62 .
^ Victor Roth: The frescoes in the choir of the church at Malmkrog. In: Correspondence sheet of the Association for Transylvanian Cultural Studies. Vol. 26, 1903, ZDB -ID 520410-0 , pp. 49-53, 91-96, 109-119, 125-131, 141-144.
↑ Gustav Adolf Benrath: The teaching of humanism and anti-trinitarianism . In: Carl Andresen, Adolf Martin Ritter (Hrsg.): Handbuch der Dogmen- und Theologiegeschichte . tape 3 . Göttingen 1998, ISBN 978-3-8252-8162-5 , p. 61-66 .
↑ Christa Zach: Confessional plurality, estates and nation. Selected treatises on the history of religion and society in Southeastern Europe . LIT Verlag, Münster 2004, ISBN 978-3-8258-7040-9 , pp. 71 ff .
↑ Ludwig Albrecht Gebhardi : History of the Grand Duchy of Transylvania and the Kingdoms of Gallicia, Lodomeria and Rothreussen . Pest 1808, p. 3.

[1] Ulrich A. Wien, Krista Zach: Foreword . In: Ulrich A. Wien, Krista Zach (ed.): Humanism in Hungary and Transylvania. Politics, religion and art in the 16th century (Transylvanian Archive / Archive of the Association for Transylvanian Cultural Studies) . Böhlau, Cologne 2004, ISBN 978-3-412-10504-4 , pp. VIII .

[Leppin_2005-2] Volker Leppin: Transylvania: A special case of church history of general importance . In: Volker Leppin, Ulrich A. Wien (ed.): Confession formation and confessional culture in Transylvania in the early modern period. Sources and studies on the history of Eastern Europe . Frank Steiner, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 978-3-515-08617-2 , pp. 13 .

[3] Christine Peters: Mural paintings, ethnicity, and religious identity in Transylvania: The context for Reformation . In: Karin Maag (Ed.): The Reformation in Eastern and Central Europe . Routledge, London, New York 2016, ISBN 978-1-85928-358-5 , pp. 92-117, here: pp. 92-95 .

[4] Gerald Volkmer: Transylvania between the Habsburg Monarchy and the Ottoman Empire - International Legal Position and International Legal Practice of an East Central European Principality 1541–1699 . DeGruyter Oldenbourg, 2015, ISBN 978-3-11-034399-1 .

[5] German Cultural Forum for Eastern Europe (ed.): Reformation in Eastern Europe - Transylvania . Potsdam 2017, p. 4 .

[Fala_2015-6] A ^b ^c Márta Fala: The kingdom of Hungary and the principality of Transylvania . In: Howard Louthan, Graeme Murdock (Ed.): A companion to the Reformation in Central Europe . Brill, Leiden 2015, ISBN 978-90-04-25527-2 , pp. 92-120, here pp. 112-116 .

[Binder_nach_Peters_2016-7] A ^b Ludwig Binder: Basics and forms of tolerance in Transylvania up to the middle of the 17th century . Böhlau, Cologne and Vienna 1976, ISBN 978-3-412-20275-0 . , quoted from Peters, in Maag (2016), see literature

[8] German Cultural Forum for Eastern Europe (ed.): Reformation in Eastern Europe - Transylvania . Potsdam 2017, p. 13 .

[9] Karl Fabritius: The religious talk at Schässburg in 1538 and the Weißenburg provost, later Archbishop of Gran Anton Verantius, letters to Transylvanian Saxony . In: Archives of the Association for Transylvanian Cultural Studies . 1863, p. 245-249 .

[Wien_2017_S9_16-10] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Ulrich Andreas Vienna: Siebenbürgen - pioneering region of religious freedom: Luther, Honterus and the effects of the Reformation . Schiller Verlag, Hermannstadt / Bonn 2017, ISBN 978-3-946954-05-7 , pp. 9-16 .

[11] Ludwig Binder: Johannes Honterus and the Reformation in the south of Transylvania with special consideration of the Swiss and Wittenberg influences . In: Zwingliana . 2010, ISSN 0254-4407 , p. 651-653 .

[12] Ulrich Andreas Vienna: Transylvania - pioneering region of religious freedom: Luther, Honterus and the effects of the Reformation . Schiller Verlag, Hermannstadt / Bonn 2017, ISBN 978-3-946954-05-7 , pp. 41 .

[13] Zoltán Csepregi: The conception of the Reformation by Honterus and his contemporaries . In: Ulrich A. Wien, Krista Zach (ed.): Humanism in Hungary and Transylvania. Politics, religion and art in the 16th century (Transylvanian Archive / Archive of the Association for Transylvanian Cultural Studies) . Böhlau, Cologne 2004, ISBN 978-3-412-10504-4 , pp. 1-18 .

[Craciun"-14] A ^b Maria Crăciun: Iconoclasm and Theology in Reformation Transylvania: The Iconography of the Polyptych of the Church at Biertan . In: Archive for the history of the Reformation (95) . 2004, ISSN 2198-0489 , p. 93-96 .

[15] Karl Reinert: The foundation of the Protestant churches in Transylvania . In: Studia Transilvanica (5) . Böhlau, Cologne / Weimar 1979, p. 136 .

[16] Heinrich Zeidner: Chronicles and diaries, sources on the history of the city of Kronstadt . tape 4 . Kronstadt 1903, p. 504-505 . Quoted from Emese Sarkadi: Produced for Transylvania - Local Workshops and Foreign Connections. Studies of Late Medieval Altarpieces in Transylvania. PhD dissertation in Medieval Studies . Central European University , Budapest 2008 ( ceu.hu [PDF; accessed October 29, 2017]).

[17] Evelin Wetter: The pre-Reformation legacy in the furnishings of Transylvanian-Saxon churches . In: Ulrich A. Wien, Krista Zach (ed.): Humanism in Hungary and Transylvania. Politics, Religion and Art in the 16th Century . Böhlau, Cologne, Weimar, Vienna 2004, ISBN 978-3-412-10504-4 , pp. 28 .

[18] Georg Daniel Teutsch: Document book of the Protestant regional church in Transylvania II. Sibiu, 1883, p. 105.

[19] Vasile Drǎguţ: Picturile mural de la Medias. O importantâ recuperare pentru istoria artei transilvânene. In: Revista muzeelor şi monumentelor. Monumente istorice si de artâ 45 (1976), No. 2, pp. 11-22.

[Jenei-20] Dana Jenei: Picturi mural din jurul anului 1500 la Medias (Murals from around the year 1500 in Medias) . In: Ars Transilvaniae XXI . 2012, p. 49-62 .

[21] Victor Roth: The frescoes in the choir of the church at Malmkrog. In: Correspondence sheet of the Association for Transylvanian Cultural Studies. Vol. 26, 1903, ZDB -ID 520410-0 , pp. 49-53, 91-96, 109-119, 125-131, 141-144.

[22] Gustav Adolf Benrath: The teaching of humanism and anti-trinitarianism . In: Carl Andresen, Adolf Martin Ritter (Hrsg.): Handbuch der Dogmen- und Theologiegeschichte . tape 3 . Göttingen 1998, ISBN 978-3-8252-8162-5 , p. 61-66 .

[23] Christa Zach: Confessional plurality, estates and nation. Selected treatises on the history of religion and society in Southeastern Europe . LIT Verlag, Münster 2004, ISBN 978-3-8258-7040-9 , pp. 71 ff .

[24] Ludwig Albrecht Gebhardi : History of the Grand Duchy of Transylvania and the Kingdoms of Gallicia, Lodomeria and Rothreussen . Pest 1808, p. 3.