Századok – 2011

TANULMÁNYOK - Tamási Zsolt: A római katolikus egyház az 1848/49-es forradalomban és szabadságharcban III/525

A RÓMAI KATOLIKUS EGYHÁZ ERDÉLYBEN, 1848/49-BEN 559 of internal reforms in the radically transformed situation. The bishop, Miklós Kovács of Csíktusnád, was even open to the radical propositions of the lower clergy, and in order to have a clear view of the situation was willing to have them discussed at a synod, a step that the contemporary Hungarian bishops refused to take. Although the scholarly literature has hitherto negated the synodal character of the diocesan discussions, the fulfilment of all canonical requirements makes it evident that it was a regular diocesan synod which then took place in Transylvania. Despite the lack of legal uniformity between Hungary and Transylvania, the bishop, who fully collaborated with the revolutionary government, urged his priests to support the lawful changes, and the latter in their turn reacted to the dethronement of the Habsburgs by becoming ardent supporters of the freedom fight without express orders from their bishop, who became increasingly separated from his own diocese. At the same time, in the hope of consequent episcopal approval, they introduced radical reforms in the territory of church discipline. Although the bishop did not sanction all these measures later, he did try to defend his priests in the time of post-revolutionary retaliation. During the revolution, the diocese was isolated not only from its own episcopal government, but also from the attention of the primate's seat in terms of specifically ecclesiastical matters. It was, in fact, the efforts of the Greek Catholics in Transylvania which raised most attention because of its nationalist implications. Thus, whereas the internal problems of the Roman and Armenian Catholics of Transylvania were received with indifference on the part of the Hungarian revolutionary government, the aim of the Greek Catholics to establish an archbishopric of their own became one of its priorities. The revolutionary government was not sensitive to the internal problems of the Roman Catholic diocese, its ownly goal being to secure support for the changes and bolster up enthusiasm through the pulpit, even by getting round the official hierarchy. Consequently, the diocesan bishop experienced more difficulty in sheltering his clergy from Austrian retaliation, for initially he had to gather information on the period of his isolation, and was thus late in applying the rhetoric proposed by the archbishop of Esztergom.