Central Europe Yearbook

The Unwanted yet Unavoidable Implementation of Religious Tolerance in Early Modern Transylvania

Koloman Marschik

Trinity College Dublin

Keywords: Transylvania, religious tolerance, toleration

Abstract

While most of early modern Europe was plunged into confessional strife, the central European principality of Transylvania managed to survive the period with no inter-confessional warfare. Rather, the state recognized multiple confessions and allegedly advocated tolerance between them. Drawing from differing theories on the rise of toleration and on the context of early modern Transylvanian history, this article argues that this regime of tolerance arose not due to any enlightened thinking about toleration but out of immediate political necessity. More precisely, the motivation of the Transylvanian elite lay in protecting their nascent state’s existence in a dangerous international environment.