Magyar Egyház, 1977 (56. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1977-01-01 / 1. szám
10 MAGYAR EGYHÁZ entire country, so also Transylvania, though in the close vicinity of the Eastern Orthodox church establishment beyond the Carpathian border, became Roman Catholic, in fact the eastern most outpost of Western Christianity. During the 150 years long Turkish occupation of the center region of Hungary, which left Transylvania an independent Hungarian principality, history bestowed upon Transylvania the all important national role of becoming the guardian of Hungarian culture. In view of the Habsburg domination of northwestern Hungary (never occupied by the overextended Turkish military forces, but too small and truncated to stand up against Austria), it was also Transylvania which defended the Hungarian constitution and political continuity of the country from Austrian encroachments, in military actions under leadership of the Transylvanian head of states Bocskai, Bethlen and others (16th and 17th centuries). Rákóczi, the great Hungarian freedom war hero is himself Transylvanian. His base of operation in his military campaigns against the Habsburgs was also Transylvania. Transylvania early embraced the spirit of the Reformation, and soon became a stronghold of Hungarian Protestantism and the Eastern bulwark of European Protestantism. Neither the Roman Catholic nor the Protestant faith ever spread east beyond Transylvania. Educational institutions in Transylvania have always been among the most excellent in all Hungary. Kolozsvár (Cluj), the capital of Transylvania, was second only to Budapest in Hungary in total number of Hungarian teachers and students but a strong first in proportion to its population. The two Bolyai’s, world reknowned mathematicians, Sándor de Körösi Csorna, the famous explorer of Tibet and author of the first English —Tibetan dictionary, are just the token of many Transylvanian-Hungarian cultural achievements just as the first Hungarian printing press and the first Hungarian theater originated in Transylvania. For the rest, Germans (Saxons) resettled in Transylvania by the Hungarian kings between 1160 and 1220 contributed to the Western cultural orientation of Transylvania. But Rumanian cultural and national awareness avoke only centuries later. Tolerance toward eachother used to be the main ingredient of the outlook of the peoples of this land, the so called Transylvanian Spirit. This spirit was unfolding its fledgling wings as early as the 16th century when at the National Assembly at Torda, Transylvania proclaimed religious freedom (in 1568), first in Europe. This was 70 years before the European Religious War and 310 years before it was forced on Rumania by the Treaty of Berlin in 1878. The Transylvanian Spirit has been replaced now by a vehemently intolerant Rumanian nationalist psyche reinforced with Communist totalitarian power. So the question should not be what national culture was dominating Transylvania throughout the centuries but rather how long the deep rooted thousand year old Hungarian culture will be able to survive in the suffocating environment of Rumanian cultural coercion and the gradual dismantling of the Transylvanian Hungarian cultural establishment which already today is agonizing in a silent life and death struggle against the twofold pressure of Rumanian communism and chauvinism. 4. If Mr. Ceausescu thinks that Transylvania is “a Rumanian land” just because some 60% of its present population is Rumanian, he conveniently ignores the inherited right of the 40% minority in the land (the population includes an estimated 2 and million Hungarians and V6 million Germans). Taking another look at the demographic picture, it is evident that the Rumanian majority in Transylvania represents a later development. We noted that the first written document of Rumanian presence is from 1222. Shortly after the 1241-42 Tartar invasion of Hungary, Rumanian mountaineers and shepherds coming from the northern Balkans were allowed to enter Transylvania in order to compensate the tremendous manpower losses due to the Tartar devastation of the country. Most settled in the Bihar Mountains and the Marmaros region or the Hunyad and Fogaras areas. During the 17th and 18th centuries new waves of Rumanian settlers moved into Transylvania. By reason of this and the constant infiltration of Transylvania by Rumanians fleeing the Turkish occupation of their homeland beyond the Carpathians in the 15th, 16th and 17 th centuries, the Rumanian population overtook and outnumbered the Hungarians of Transylvania by about the middle of the 18th century. Because both of the largest nationalities of Transylvania — the Hungarians and Rumanians have co-inhabited the land for hundreds of years, Transylvania is truly the home of both the Transylvanian- Rumanians and Hungarians. Consequently, Ceausescu’s utterance that Transylvania is “Rumanian lan” must be seen as arbitrary and untrue statement merely from the point of view of demographic composition. (However, in view of the pending legislation making all the land state property, including the lots upon which private homes stand, Transylvania will soon be neither Rumanian nor Hungarian land but only “the Rumanian Communist Party’s land” (as Mr. Ceausescu might put it).) 5. Since Transylvania together with additional Hungarian territories was detached from Hungary and awarded to Rumania jn two peace-treaties, Trianon (Versailles) in 1920, and Paris in 1947 and in between was partially returned to Hungary by the Vienna decision in 1940, the fact, of course, is that Transylvania has now been again part of Rumania; first for 20 years from 1920 to 1940, second time for some 30 years since 1947. That the said peace-treaties deprived Transylvanian-Hungarians from their national right to self-determination, among other aspects of the peacemaking which have met much expert criticism, is not the subject of this inquiry. * * » In summary we find that Transylvania is a “Hungarian land” on geographical, geopolitical, histotorical and cultural grounds: “partly Hungarian and partly Rumanian” on demography; but “Rumanian” only by virtue of Big Power decisions. These findings also indicate that the last word has not yet been said about Transylvania. There is no reason to believe that Hungarians
