“SCRIPTA MANENT...” AN INNER-CHURCH DEBATE ON INTRODUCTION OF PASSIVE ASSISTANCE IN TRANSYLVANIA IN 1840

Abstract

In May 1840 the conference of Hungarian Catholic bishops decided to introduce passive assistance when no written promise was provided regarding children’s catholic education originating from religious intermarriages performed between Catholics and Protestants. This decision came in response to the bill of Hungarian parliament which tried to solve the problem of mixed marriages on the basis of religious equality and mutuality, considered by bishops of Hungarian Kingdom a serious danger to catholic faith and religion. Hungarian hierarchs – especially the primate of the country and the archbishop of Kalocsa, the immediate superior of Transylvanian diocese – tried to convince the Transylvanian bishop, Miklós Kovács, to introduce the same measures in his bishopric. But the hierarch was worried, careful and visibly reluctant despite of his contrary declarations. The cause of his behaviour was the different Transylvanian juridical framework of intermarriages and the clear protestant majority of the Grand Duchy. The bishop convoked the consistory of his diocese to discuss the possibilities of bringing into practice of the Hungarian regulations. But the consistory wasn’t keen on the issue at all. A substantial part of influent ecclesiastical elite considered, that in case of mixed marriages domestic civil laws prevail to canon law. They warned the bishop, that beyond the hazard the Hungarian project carries in itself, moral value and also theological ground of it are doubtful. This study presents the debate on the issue of intermarriages that emerged between a part of priesthood and the bishop in the consistory of Transylvanian Diocese.