Policies Regarding Religion and Education

Enlightened absolutism brought rather more progress in the Church and school affairs of Transylvania. Wishing bring the Catholic Church under closer supervision, the central government moved to curtail the secular activity and status of the clergy. Thus, in Transylvania, the Catholic bishop was barred from acting as chairman of the Gubernium. That did not stop the first councillor, Bishop Bajtay, from frequently standing in for the chairman, especially {2-701.} when the latter was also the military commander. Bajtay was succeeded as bishop by the elderly superior of a religious order, the Spanish-born Pius Manzador. Since the latter had little knowledge of Transylvanian law, it seemed logical that he should not have the right to chair the Gubernium. Bishop Manzador soon passed away, and his successor, the Hungarian aristocrat László Kollonits, did not retrieve the right to chairmanship.

Closer state supervision of the Catholic Church was inaugurated with the formation of the Commissio Catholica, later renamed the Commissio Ecclesiastica (or Commissio in Publico-Ecclesiasticis). In its initial configuration, the commission was chaired by the governor and included the bishop, the treasurer, and an additional councillor from the Gubernium. When Samuel Bruckenthal, a Lutheran, became chairman of the Gubernium and, later, governor, the chairmanship of the commission passed to the Catholic treasurer, Miklós Bethlen, and then to Bishop Kollonits; however, the governor and the Gubernium continued to supervise the commission's work.

The commission's terms of reference encompassed the creation of new Catholic parishes, the construction or takeover of church buildings, the finances of the monastic orders, issues of reconversion to Catholicism, and similar matters pertaining to the Uniate Church. It supervised the Catholic and Uniate school systems and foundations, the Theresianum orphanage at Szeben, and the ecclesiastical foundation created with the assets of the dissolved Jesuit order. Thus the state became deeply involved in matters that had previously been the exclusive preserve of the Catholic Church hierarchy, imposing its supervision over organization and finances and, for all practical purposes, over the whole sphere of education. The state also gained control over the vast resources left behind the Jesuits; at the time of the order's dissolution, in 1773, its assets in Transylvania were valued at 1,057,361 forints 13.5 kreuzers.

{2-702.} In fact, the dissolution of the Jesuit order put educational reform on the agenda throughout the Habsburg empire. In Transylvania, as in Hungary and the rest of the empire, the Jesuits had played a dominant role in the Catholic educational system. Their curriculum may have become outdated, but at least they had one, and it was applied in uniform and rigid fashion. The institutions that took over the Jesuits' assets could not preserve their curriculum. A new, comprehensive system of education had to be devised. In Hungary, the Ratio Educationis of 1776 created a single educational system, encompassing three types of elementary schools (which benefited from the most intensive program of teacher-training) as well as three levels of secondary education (grammar school, gymnasium, and a course on philosophy), and, at the apex, a university. The new curriculum placed greater emphasis on subjects that had practical utility. Both content and pedagogy were updated; Latin was given less weight than before, the teaching of history was focused on Hungary, and physical education was added to the curriculum.

To be sure, the Ratio Educationis did not automatically apply to Transylvania, where there was protracted debate on its merits versus those of the Austrian model. In the end, it was decided to adopt the Ratio, with some modifications to take into account Transylvanian circumstances. A commission was charged with the task of implementation. József Mártonffi, a future Catholic bishop of Transylvania, did the lion's share of the work; the other members of the commission were Catholic experts in educational affairs. The drafting of this first, general system of education for Transylvania occurred before the death of Maria Theresa, although the formal regulations, known as the Norma Regia, were issued in May 1781, in the reign of Joseph II.

The Norma Regia put the Gubernium and its newly-established educational committee (Commissio Litteraria) in charge of Transylvanian education. Although non-Catholics retained their {2-703.} religious rights and privileges, schools of all denominations had to adapt to the new system. Schooling was made compulsory from the age of six, but admission to secondary schools was restricted to those who had the financial means as well as the intellectual ability. The Norma Regia provided for fewer divisions than its Hungarian model: a single type of public school, and only the two lower stages of secondary school, leaving out the philosophy course. Nor were regulations issued concerning theology, law, or the barely emerging medical studies. Pedagogy was based on the principles enunciated in the Ratio Educationis. The intellect had to be developed, and students had learn the observation of inherent relationships; the principal author of Norma, the natural scientist József Mártonffi, would have preferred to make geometry the fundamental discipline, but he recognized that this was unrealistic. The basic purpose of education was to nurture useful citizens. With regard to languages, the Norma reduced the emphasis on Latin and Greek and introduced German as an option. It adopted the Ratio's modern approach to pedagogy in the several subjects, but with regard to physical education, it merely proscribed certain manifestations of 'unruliness'. It devoted particular attention to the selection and assignment of teachers, which, for schools of all denominations, would be supervised by the Commissio Litteraria.

The educational commission was multi-denominational, though with a preponderance of Catholic members. The systematic pursuit of the Counter-Reformation had produced the same result in the composition of the Gubernium. In Transylvania, the greatest accomplishment of enlightened absolutism in its first ten years was the new, unified system of education; yet that very unity was the Achilles heel of the system. Although Protestant, and particularly Unitarian, education had suffered some restrictions, its essential features survived untouched over the period from 1711 to 1780, and the reform imposed in the Norma Regia was bound to arouse the opposition of Transylvanian Protestants.

{2-704.} To conclude, enlightened absolutism brought mixed results in Transylvania over its first ten years. The economic policies were ill-conceived, and soon abandoned; useful proposals for the modernization of agriculture and a better exploitation of Transylvania's natural resources failed to be implemented; and there was no tangible progress in solving the problem of socage. More concrete steps were taken in relation to the Churches and to education, although the reform of the latter was not free of contradictions. This balance sheet gave a foretaste of the issues that would have to be addressed over the next ten years.