Sabbatarianism in Transylvania XVI

Promoters of the sabbatarian ideas in the sixteenth century transylvania and the impact of their ideas in the social, political and religious transylvanian environment


Abstract


In this study regarding the promoters of the sabbatarian ideas in the sixteenth century of Transylvania, we will present the persons who are associated with the historical beginnings of the sabbatarian ideas and who have led to the apparition of the sabbatarian movement in Transylvania, taking over the antitrinitarian movement ideas and concepts of Miguel Servet and Fausto Sozzini. Therefore, we mention Johann Sommer, Jacob Paleologus, Adam Neuser, Matthias Glirius and others which introduced their ideas in Transylvania, where it were taken by various local people, such as: the unitarian bishop Francisc Dávid, the aristocrat landowner Andreas Eőssi, the chancellor Simon Péchi, who have consolidated and developed these sabbatarian ideas, reaching that in a relatively short period of time, around 50-60 years (1570-1628), the number of the sabbatarian belivers from Transylvania to reach approximately 25000 persons. 

Keywords: sabbatarians, sabbatarian concepts and ideas, reforming concepts, european, social-political and religious transylvanian environment.


Introduction


This present study[1] desires to show how certain ideas that preoccupied the minds of the European thinkers, ideas regarding the necessity of the seventh-day Sabbath sanctification, respectively Saturday, entered in the social, political and religious environment of the sixteenth Transylvania century, constituting ultimately a religious group, with a significant number of believers, which has integrated into the Transylvanian religious landscape.

From the moment when Christianity and Judaism were separated, the concept of “judaization” became an accepted term in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, and also in the contemporary literature. A typical supporter of this concept, full of emotion, interpreted in a variety of ways, was Matthias Vehe-Glirius, which referring to “Judaization” was referring specifically to the acceptance of the doctrine concerning the seventh-day Sabbath as weekly day of rest, also by the Christians.

The persons who are associated with the historical beginnings of the sabbatarian ideas and who have led to the apparition of the movement and then of the sabbatarian religious group in Transylvania, taking over the anti-trinitarian movement ideas and concepts of the time, especially of Miguel Servet and Fausto Sozzini in this part of Eastern Europe, were: Johann Sommer, Jacob Paleologus, Adam Neuser, Matthias Glirius, Francisc Dávid, Andreas Eőssi, Simon Péchi and others alongside with them. [1] They introduced their ideas in Transylvania, where it were taken by various local people who have consolidated and developed the assumpted sabbatarian ideas, reaching that in a relatively very short period of time, of 50-60 years, the number of the sabbatarian belivers in Transylvania to reach approximately 25000 persons. The sixteenth century Europe exponents of the sabbatarian ideas, who have strrugled to spread these ideas also in Transylvania, have contacted certain educated people from the religious, social or political environment, wrote some books in which they presented their new sabbatarian views and concepts, or presented some conferences on specific topics, in the Transylvanian academic environment. They entered into discussions with simple people regarding religious matters.


The Promoters of Sabbatarian ideas in Transylvania


The persons who have facilitated permeation of the Sabbatarian ideas in the sixteenth Transylvania century were scholars Johann Sommer, Jacob Paleologus, Adam Neuser, Matthias Vehe-Glirius.

Johann Sommer (1542-1574) born in Germany [2], educated and formed in a humanistic spirit, influenced by Erasmus and Castellion thinking, [3] was one of the great predecessors of the theological thinking of Francis Dávid bishop from Transylvania. Johann Sommer enters into the service of John Jacob Despot-Voda Eraclid [4], a moldavian of greek origin, ruler of Moldavia (1561-1563), who facilitated the spreading of Protestantism in Moldavia, founding in 1563 an European school, the School from Cotnari (Schola Latina) [5], under the leadership of the magistrate Johann Sommer. Through this school the ruler proposes to initiate a period of protestant education in Moldova, intending to expand the ideas of protestantism across entire Moldova, eventually making Moldova a protestant state. This intention of the ruler however created a state of hostility, both from the Church side and also from the country’s political representatives side. After the tragic death of the moldavian ruler, victim of a plot, Sommer runs in Transylvania, looking for shelter, first in Brasov and then in Cluj. Excellent teacher of classical languages, he ​​was employed in Cluj in 1565, and soon after in Bistrita in 1567, and finally again in Cluj in 1570. Since he wasn’t a fanatically lutheran, he approached the antitrinitarian ideas and helped Francis Dávid bishop to develop his antitrinitarian doctrinal concepts, and then the unitarian ones. [6] Very active and very sharp in the public conferences, Sommer vehemently attacked catholicism regarding the doctrine of immortality of the soul and even protestantism regarding the trinitarian doctrine. Johann Sommer wrote about how the population was willing to accept some changes in the religious field. Thus, regarding romanians, he wrote about them as being “a nation exceedingly desirous of changing and transformations…” [7], observing in them the possibility of accepting the renewing ideas of the protestant reform. Johann Sommer’s principal work was “Methodical doubt“, book that only existed in a single copy. In his book entitled “Refutatio scripti Petri Caroli” he gathered a large number of historical and philological arguments to reject the Trinity doctrine affirmations, introduced within the christian faith, he said, by some converted pagans. [8] He failed to take his ideas forward as he fell victim to the plague and died in 1574, but his work, in which he presented its ideas, lasted on, influencing the minds of many scholars.

Jacob Paleologus (1515-1585) native of Chios Island from Greece, dominican monk in Italy, being several times imprisoned by the Inquisition because of his heretical views, had an essential contribution to the penetration of some protestant ideas in Transylvania. In 1559 he succeeded to run to Transylvania, where he received an invitation from the unitarian bishop Francis Dávid to express his opinion about the denial of Jesus Christ’s divinity. Certainly, through him the doctrine of Jesus non-adherence entered into Transylvania. [9] Prolific in writings, Jacob Paleologus published several literary works attacking the fundamental dogmas of traditional Christianity. His book entitled De discrimine Veteris et Novi Testamenti develops the idea that there is no difference between the hebrews and christians. In his work De tribus gentibus he preached that there is a possibility of salvation for other people than jews and christians, but his most voluminous book was Catechesis Christiana dies XII, which was completed in Cluj in the year 1574 and which intended to entrust the antitrinitarianism the mission to complete the Reform also in Transylvania. In the work De Christo cognomine he noted that the term that refers to the name of “Christ” designates any individual installed in his dignity through anointment. Jacob Paleologus had the intention to publish another critical translation of the Bible in favour of the Unitarians in order to apply the rational criticism of the Bible. Politically conservative, Paleologus was faithful to the principle of Church and State separation and follower of the doctrine of bellum justum, jus gladii and of the sibian Magistrate. Good friend of G. Biandra, J. Sommer and the noble family Gerendi, who lived near Sibiu, Jacob Paleologus defended the ideology of bishop Francis Dávid. After publishing his apology and the apology of Francis Dávid bishop, at Bale in 1581, he was arrested in Moravia, and then he died as a martyr of Unitarianism, burned on stake on March 22, 1585 in Rome. [10]

Adam Neuser (1530-1576) was a German reformed preacher who had to run from Heidelberg because of his ideas, considered to be heretical. This reformer was a supporter of M. Servet and Faustus Sozzini’s radical concepts, gathered in their works which circulated clandestinely among the students of the University of Heidelberg. Neuser was captivated by the islamic doctrine and confered great importance to the teaching of the Old Testament. To force the convertion to the antitrinitarian movement, Neuser wrote to the Sultan, asking him to conquer Germany, assuring him of the antitrinitarian support in Europe. He was, however, revealed by the authorities and the Koran Latin translation he made was held as evidence against him. He was imprisoned but managed to escape towards the free Eastern Europe, running to Poland and then to Transylvania, reaching Cluj in 1572. He was arrested during a trip in Turkey, saving his life only by converting to Islam. He died in Turkey in 1576. [11] Some researchers, such as A. Pirnát, L.M. Pákozdy and Robért Dán assumed that the ideas of Adam Neuser and Matthias Vehe-Glirius stayed at the origin of the theological concepts development that led to the Sabbatarian movement in Transylvania. [12]

Matthias Vehe-Glirius (1545-1590). Matthias Vehe (called – Glirius or the Jewish Doctor from Köln, Nathanaele Eliano, Maathias Elia, or Dietrichus Dorschius, etc.) was presented by professor Robert Dan as the author of the Sabbatarian religion doctrine in Transylvania. In his latest work, Robert Dan presents Vehe-Glirius’ book, Mattaniah, published by Glirius, somewhere in Germany (probably in Kőln) around 1580. This book of Matthias Vehe-Glirius contains his main arguments regarding the validity of the Old Testament’s teaching and keeping the biblical Sabbath of the seventh day of the week for Christians. Professor Robert Dan’s conclusion is that sabbatarian religion was created and started in Transylvania as a result of Glirius’ book and that it would represent another form of the reforming activities of the sixteenth century. Glirius’ book was so disputated in the past that all its originals and copies were destroyed by the official churches, united against radical forms of innovation (the Catholic Church and the official Protestant Churches) so that it disappeared from libraries long ago. [13] However, remained undamaged the copies offered to particular persons.

G.E. Lessing, in his work regarding the history of Heidelberg, records the presence of Matthias Vehe-Glirius at Heidelberg in 1570 and draws attention on his activity as a radical thinker. Antal Pirnat and L.M. Pakozdy comments him, Jan Tazbir identifies him in Poland. Róbert Dán has the honour to discover in 1975 the book Mattaniah by Matthias Vehe-Glirius during some researches he made at the University Library from Utrecht, Holland. The work Mattaniah is found there under quota T.oct. 117/-6 (it is considered that another copy would exist at Kőln University library). [14]

About the man Matthias Vehe-Glirius, the most that is known about him, comes especially from his contemporary critics and disparagers. Matthias Vehe-Glirius is presented by them as an enigmatic figure, as the Hebrew Doctor, having exteremely radical views, but in the same time as being a profound connoiseur of the Bible, written in the original languages, as an honest man, devoted to the cause of christianity or as a pious man. Particularly, his main book Mattaniah gives his enemies the reasons to label him such epithets as „kike”, „sabbatārian”, „dangerous heretic”, „antichrist”, „detestable man”. Matthias Vehe-Glirius was born in the middle of 1550s, at Ballenberg, South Germany, in a humble family (his father was a miller), is baptized Roman Catholic, attends primary and secondary school in Konighafen, at calvinists (meanwhile, the Land Pfalz converted to Calvinism together with the Prince). In August 29th, 1561, enters at the Calvinist University in Heidelberg and attends, as an itinerant student, other universities from Germany (Rostock, Tubingen, and later on in Wittenberg and Kőln). [15]

During that time, appears in Land, at the University and in the Church, the dispute regarding the discipline: the Dispute between disciplinarians and antidisciplinarians, between the conservative religious party of disciplinarians (following the pattern of the similar one in Geneve) which claimed that the Church Council is superior to the Prince Council, and the religious moderate opposition party (antidisciplinarians’ party), which was looking for protecting the political rights of the Prince and the City Council. The first one (the conservative party) was led by clerks headed by Zuleger, the second one was led by laity, headed by Erastus, Christophorus Probus (chancellor of the Land) and favoured by the Bishop Johann Sylvanus. After graduating university, Matthias Vehe-Glirius is appointed, in January 28th, 1567, as Sylavanus’ deacon, meanwhile being disciplinary moved to Laudenburg, near Kaiserslautern. Meantime, the radical antidisciplinarian ideas (launched in particular by M. Servet’s works, De restitutione… and other works from Poland, Lithuania and Transylvania, spread in the University of Heidelberg by foreign students), get results. After studying these works, a number of calvinist pastors (Johann Sylvanus, Adam Neuser, Jacob Suter) are suspected of adopting the radical concepts of M. Servet. [16]

Events precipitated during the Imperial Diet session, held in Speyer in 1570. A conspiracy, made up of Sylvanus, Neuser and Suter, to which adhers the young deacon Matthias Vehe-Glirius, [17] plans the emigration in Transylvania, which was under the Ottoman suzeranity. At that moment, Transylvania was ruled by an unitarian Prince, principality in which only the accepted religions were enjoying the most religious freedom. Under the pretext of a trip to Speyer, to see an elephant brought with great sacrifices from the East to entretain the audience, the group made up by Sylvanus-Neuser-Vehe leaves to Speyer in the 9th of July 1570 at dawn, to secretly deliver a letter (signed by Sylvanus) from the German unitarian sympathizers to Giorgio Biandrata (the doctor of Prince Ioan Sigismund Zápolya and promoter, together with Bishop Francisc Dávid, of the Unitarianism) through Gáspar Bekes, the emissary of Transylvania to Speyer. In that letter Dr. Biandrata was asked to intercede with the Transylvanian authorities to allow their staying in Transylvania; in exchange for the right to reside freely in the principality of Transylvania, Sylvanus and his people offered to contribute in preaching unitarianism among the Germans living in areas under Turkish suzeranity. In the letter, Sylvanus says, among other things, that “I recently wrote a book in our language (i.e. German, not Latin s.n.) about the only God and Mediator… we hope that this teaching to be spread by us in many areas inhabitated by Germans. (He refers to the Saxon population in Transylvania s.n.) …Other brothers with solid studies in Hebrew and Greek are joining me (he refers to others, not only to Neuserand Vehe) and are ready to go wherever you send them… I gave them to read the Unitarian book of Jacob Suter, entitled “De Trinitate”, (published 1568, in Transylvania) printed by you in Alba Iulia, a book they fully agree with…” In the letter he also reminds Vehe: “I also gave Matthias Vehe to read the book…and I wrote him… to come with Neuser, in Transylvania…”. After he reviews the Unitarian theology, Johann Sylvanus commits also the imprudence to further write that through their future activity in Transylvania “the teaching will be wonderfully seeded and will praise and honour the Prince, and will favour our Germans (Transylvanian Saxons) and our Italians (Biandrata was Italian!) even his Highness the Turkish Emperor will be hailed by the Germans…” [18]

Arrived in Speyer, the three manage to hand the letter to Gáspar Bekes, the delegate of the Prince of Transylvania, but the people of the Pfalz Church (Calvinist) find out about it and they demand the emissary of Transylvania to hand them the compromising document. Under these circumstances, Gáspar Bekes gives them the letter that reaches to Emperor Maximilian who sends it to the Prince of Pfalz Land to proceed accordingly. The Prince of Pfalz wanted to condone the letter and not act accordingly, but the Church Council overrides the authority of the Prince, ordering the house searching of Sylvanus and Neuser (in Neuser’s house the church people find, among the compromising documents, also his manuscript with the Latin translation of the Koran) and are pleased that they can demonstare now how dangerous the antidisciplinarians are: they not only promote unknown ideas of calvinism, but they are also traitors of the motherland! After a series of arrests, imprisonments (in the famous tower “Seltenlar”) and trials (1572), Sylvanus is sentenced to death by decapitation (the sentence being executed on December 23rd, 1572), Adam Neuser is helped to escape and runs away in Transylvania, at Cluj, in the circle of Bishop Francisc Dávid. From here he goes to the Turkish occupied territories where he adopts the Islamic creed and dies at Istanbul, in 1576. Jacob Suter and Matthias Vehe-Glirius are released in August 1572, with the condition to renounce proselytism and to accept the final expulsion from Pfalz. Matthias Vehe-Glirius and Jacob Suter will go in 1573 at Wittenberg where they will enroll the Faculty of Theology on March 18th, 1573. Both will disregard the conditions of release (the convertion to proselytism) and thus they will be considered guilty and put on prosecution for arrest and trial by the authorities of Pfalz. They will live hence as fugitives, hiding under different names, and they will continue their activity as free thinkers, promoters of the Radical Reformation. Matthias Vehe-Glirius stays in Köln between 1573 and 1577 when is expelled. [19]

At the University of Köln, Matthias Vehe-Glirius attends Johannes Isaak’s (Jew converted to Christianity) university courses of Hebrew Linguistics. Through Isaak he will get in touch with the Hebrew exegesis pșat and draș type, developed in the works of medieval hebrew commentators Joseph Albus and Dávid Kimhi. In Kőln, Matthias Vehe-Glirius enters in contact with the Jewish community from around the town and does some services to Jews (attendants in town), participating together with them to their religious celebrations (of which the Pesah particularly impresses him and finds out that the Afikomen is the Bread of the Messiah). After the Hebrew language studies he familiarizes with the Hebrew literature and initiates himself in the Mosaic biblical exegesis. Matthias Vehe-Glirius gives private lessons, as to maintain himself and does some small business for the same reason, getting to have at his disposal a printing house. Here, under an assumed name, Matthias Vehe-Glirius prints most of his books, very likely also his monumental work Mattaniah in 1581 (without indicating the year and place, perhaps for reasons of personal security). In 1577 he is expelled from Köln, but he continues to live clandestinely among the jews outside the city, (as, for example, in the house of Rabbi Jochan Treves from Königswinter). In order to survive, Matthias Vehe-Glirius will become an illegal publisher, will publish his own works but other’s books too, will travel and spread his Sabbatarian ideas in Transylvania. From here he runs in Poland, Lithuania, where he works along with the great Lithuanian humanist, biblical translator, philosopher, sociologist, historian, educator and reformer, partisan of the Radical Reformation, Simon Budny, afterwards he will work in the Lublin area, in the Palatinate of Rava, and remains at the Court of Stanislaw Gostompski until 1589. He will return to Germany, but in 1589, in Marburg, he and his followers are prosecuted. He is caught and imprisoned in Holland and left to die in the prison tower of Gretzyl, (Greete) on December 21, 1590. [20]

A day after his death, the Court chronicler, Elsenius, will note in his diary: „Matthias Vehe, a servetian and arian villan, who was a great scholar in Latin, Greek and Hebrew languages and knew many things from the rabbis died in the tower of Greete… He didn’t eat pork, he was much alike the Jews in many things. Finally, thanks God, he died in Greete and was burried in a place of shame (“în loco inhonesto begraven”). The day afterwards, the same chronicler notes in his diary that “the Church Council (calvin) from Gretzyl, burnt all Vehe’s books and manuscripts” (probably all books but one from Utrecht, or others scattered who knows where s.n.). [21] This brief notice of the court chronicler about him, sketches in a few words the essential aspects of his religious education, culture and practice, but also the fact that he was considered so dangerous that all his books were burnt. Precisely his monumental book Mattaniah made a religious revolution in Transylvania.


The impact of the theological concepts of Matthias Vehe-Glirius’ Mattanyah in the religious environment of the time


The book of the theorist and theologian Matthias Vehe-Glirius, entitled Mattanyah, published in 1578, has embraced his theological ideas, ideas that were different from all previous protestan doctrines. Matthias Vehe-Glirius started in his study from the results of the rabbinic exegesis studies of some redoubtable hebrew scholars, results which he mixed with the concepts of the New Testament about Messiah, [22] showing that redemption is not just for the hebrew people, but also for anyone who fulfills the will of God. He showed that in God’s plan is the intention of human redemption, whether it’s hebrew or not. The jewish religion was not supposed to be a national one, but one of all people, a universal religion.

In his philosophical-religious study of the jewish medieval religion, he concluded that no new pledge that would take the place of the Old Testament was not made between man and God. The mosaic law remained valid even after the apperance on the stage of history of Jesus the Messiah and also after the death of the apostles. Matthias Vehe-Glirius claims that the Nazarene was chosen by God, however he was not a priest but a martyr. His contemporaries did not recognized the Messiah in Him, that is why he could not fulfill his mission. The faith in Him during his lifetime brought slavation, but His martyrdom did not lead to the salvation of mankind. This would happen only if God would send him to earth again and his reign of thousand of years would begin. Until then he has no influence on the course of humanity, waiting passively, the next mission to be entrusted.

According to Matthias Vehe-Glirius, Jesus gave himself the assignment of making stronger the mosaic law. Consequently, the law contains the set out principles, which best express the intention, or the actual and explicit will of God. The evangelists and the apostles, he said, could not write an inspired work and their books are, for this reason, only of historical value, with the exception of the Book of Revelation which is a truly prophetic book about the second coming of Jesus. Other books of the apostles contain the beauty on this earth and the beauty of future life.

This theological theory, somewhere on the border between Christianity and Judaism, found a number of disciples (followers) in various parts of Europe in the late sixteenth century, but essentially, it remained an amusement for the small circles of intellectuals. In Transylvania, however, the situation was completely different. Following the activity of Matthias Vehe-Glirius from Transylvania between 1578-1579, there appeared a movement known as the sabbatarian movement, which had a profound effect on the history of literature and culture. The ethnic conditions from Transylvania, its uncertain political future and the presence of various antitrinitarian ideological doctrines, combined to create favorable conditions for this theological concept, entyrely new, to develop into a spiritual guide regarding the issues of the world and their improvement.


The activity of Matthias Vehe-Glirius in Cluj in Transylvania


In Cluj, in Transylvania, Matthias Vehe-Glirius arrives in the second half of October, of the year 1578, coming from Poland, after a rich theological and missionary activity and stays in Cluj, in the capital of Transylvania until he is expelled from there because of the new ideas, sabbatarian ideas that he tried to introduce in the academic background of Cluj. [23] Regarding the arrival in Cluj of this great theologian, there are two hypotheses regarding Matthias Vehe-Glirius’ route from Germany to Transylvania. The first hypothese says, according to the colophony from Mattaniah, that in the year past since his expulsion from Köln, 1577, till his arrival in Transylvania, Matthias Vehe-Glirius would have been printed his work Mattaniah in Köln, Germany, then he would have taken it to Dansenberg (near Kaiserslautern, Pfalz) [24] and afterwards, would have gone in northern Gremany, at Rostock, from where he would have sailed to Poland, and from Poland he would have arrived in Transylvania, in Cluj. [25] The other hypothesis claims that his main work, Mattaniah, was finished in Germany, at Dansenberg and sent to his friends from Kőln, and his journey to Poland would have been done on land not by sea, as the first hypothesis claimed. Anyway, regardless of the path he would have followed, once arrived in Transylvania, Matthias Vehe-Glirius had at least one copy of his work Mattaniah with him, copy that after his expulsion from Transylvania, he left in Cluj. At Cluj, as special guest of bishop Francisc Dávid, Matthias Vehe-Glirius helds an intense missionary public activity. [26] About the presence of Matthias Vehe-Glirius in Cluj, Faustus Socinus also reminds in a later made story. [27] Faustus Socinus, [28] a leading ideologue of Unitarianism [29], was also invited in Transylvania, in Cluj by the royal court physician, Dr. Giorgio Biandrata [30], to mediate in the theological conflict between the old unitarians (adorantists, with their representant Giorgio Biandrata) and the radical unitarians (non-adorantists, headed by Bishop Francisc Dávid). At the theological disputes which took place in the Bishop Francisc Dávid house in Cluj, the ideolog Matthias Vehe-Glirius was introduced as a devout propagator of the non-adorantism ideas and concepts, as well as J. Palaeologus and Johann Sommer. Faustus Socinus affirms that Matthias Vehe-Glirius was reserved in the theological disputes and never answered directly the questions. [31]

The Jesuit monk Antonio Possevino, in his report, made after researches in the case of Bishop Francisc Dávid, mentions Matthias Vehe-Glirius, writing about him: „the wagging of Jews by Glirius”, “…un Mathia Glirio tutto dato al Giudaismo…”, who „filled Dávidis head with gravely errors (di perniciosissimi errori”). [32] The same monk Antonio Possevino presents us the theoretician Glirius working as a teacher at the College of Cluj. Another opponent of Glirius, the Polish Wilkowski writes about him in 1583 that his ideas had a strong impact both in Poland and also in Transylvania, having even more knowledge in regard of the Sabbatarian ideas than the unitarian bishop Francisc David. Thereby Wilkowski relates the fact that: “It is known how many people have been dishonored and infected by Matthias Vehe-Glirius in Poland and Transylvania, who was able to degrade himself and his disciple Ferenc Dávid till Judaization”. [33]

Due to his knowledge, in Transylvanai, in Cluj, the Town Council offered Matthias Vehe-Glirius the chair of the Unitarian college. According to the tradition of that time, Matthias Vehe-Glirius held an inaugural lesson called Declamantiucula contra Praedestinationem Neotericorum, in Latin language, in front of a large audience, such as students, teachers and also the representatives of the city, with the theme: Against predestination, inaugural and demostrative lesson in the same time, through which he proved the perfect mastery of theological argumentation based on the knowledge of hebrew biblical exegesis. In this theological inaugural presentation, Matthias Vehe-Glirius, on account of the much disputed theological and philosophical issue of predestination, dogma that was denied by the anti-trinitarians, but with a fine theological sharpness, on behalf of “the first theologians and the the ancient sages”, highlights a thesis from Talmud. In fact, the theoretician Matthias Vehe-Glirius was reffering to his entire theological concept in this regard. In the interpretation of biblical texts, Matthias Vehe-Glirius brings in the theological foreground the priority of accepting the teachings from the Old Testament, along with the conception that the New Testament is related in an organic way to the Old Testament, and basically reaches all those theological questions that stired the political and religious Transylvanian background, around the year 1578. Even outside the academic society, the theoretician Matthias Vehe-Glirius made himself very easily listened by people, speaking to them into their houses, on the streets and squares. As a result of the deterioration of the stability of Bishop Francisc Dávid position, at the sinod from February 14, 1579, the Town Council from Cluj dismisses Matthias Vehe-Glirius. On his departure, before going to Germany, where he will activate other 11 years, Matthias Vehe-Glirius leaves a copy of his book Mattaniah, in Cluj, book that will continue to influence the Transylvanian theological background. [34]

The first two stages of the Transylvanian Sabbaraianism development were related to the activity of some local erudits belonging, mostly, to the Hungarian nation and culture from Transylvania. In the first stage are noteworthy: András Eössi (Unitarian nobleman) András Erdödi (excommunicated Unitarian preacher), János Gerendi (nobleman, politician) [35], Farkas Kornis (nobleman, military commander), Miklos Bogati Fazakas (poet, Unitarian theologian, author of theological writings) [36], Benedek Óvári (Unitarian minister), and in the second stage of the Sabbatarianism development, particularly, the multilingual scholar Simon Péchi, fromer chancellor of Transylvania. All of them were called by Lukács Trausner as Glirius Transylvanian brothers (“…fratrum Transylvanorum”). [37] From this statement emerges the fact that all of them were inspired by the ideas and works of Matthias Vehe-Glirius, whose work was continued, after his expulsion from Transylvania, by a group of Transylvanian scholars. All of them, in a total or partial approach, founded their Sabbatarian concepts on the innovative ideas brought into Transylvania particularly by Matthias Vehe-Glirius.

Regarding the impact of the Sabbatarian ideas brought in Transylvania there are multiple sources of information. But most of the information concerning the begginings of the Transylvanian Sabbatarianism are given by the Italian Jesuit monk Antonio Possevino [38], who the prince Gabriel Bathori calls during the year 1583-1584 to make a religious enquiry regarding the radical unitarians activity, [39] followers of the unitarian bishop Francisc Dávid and who were denounced by doctor Giorgio Biandrata that broke the new Transylvanian Law against the religious innovations (1572). This law did not allow anyone the right to subsequently bring any dogmatic religious improvement, so there were to remain valid and recognized only four religious denominations in Transylvania, namely: the roman-catholic religion, the lutheran religion, the calvinist religion and the unitarian religion. Dr. Giorgio Biandrata has put on the account of Bishop Francisc Dávid [40] a number of innovative religious ideas, which in fact were not his but of Matthias Vehe-Glirius and which after Bishop Francisc Dávid’s death [41] and after Glirius expulsion from Cluj became major ideas in the establishment of the dogmatic creed of the ultraradical group called sabbatism (Sabatarianism). This fact is discovered and presented in a  scientific study by professor Róbert Dán who proves with convincing arguments that the 16 charges or dogmatic degree of imputation against Francisc Dávid spread by Dr. Giorgio Biandrata, to compromise the Bishop, were falsely attributed to bishop Francisc Dávid, the ideas belonging actually to the theoretician Matthias Vehe-Glirius. [42]

Zsilinszky Mihály says that the followers of the bishop Dávid Francisc Sabbatarian ideas were called „jews”, namely „sabbatarians”. [43]         

From the report of monk Antonio Possevino we discover that the innovator ideas propagated by Matthias Vehe-Glirius, the Sabbatarian ideas, were well known not only in the erudit circles but also in the entire urban society of the time, even in villages. In 1580, the poet and theologian Miklos Bogati Fazakas, Matthias Vehe-Glirius’ succesor at the Unitarian college of Cluj, writes the first local theological sabbatarian work entitled De Lege thesis XX, work in which the theological issue approached is the one included in Matthias Vehe-Glirius’ Mattaniah, and in which Bogati argues why we can not speak of „freedom towards the law”, why all the commandments of the Old Testament, that are not commented or are not dealt with implicitly or explictly in the New Testament, must be regarded by all christians as being actual or compulsory (the moral law, health laws, keeping the Sabbath, interdiction to eat beef from strangled cattle, interdiction to eat pork, etc.). For proper understanding and compliance of the Holy Scriptures and of the commandments it is necessary, he says, that the rabbinic experience to be taken as a model in the christian living. [44]

Miklos Bogati Fazakas’ theological view was taken over, in the early 1580s, by the scholar Gerendi János [45], a Transylvanian noble, the leader of the Transylvanian political opposition, follower of the ideas of Jacob Paleologus and protector of all those with ideological sabbatarian views, for which the Jesuits declared him the founder of Sabbatarianism (“…quo Sabbatariorum secta coepit…”), his followers calling themselves Gherendists (“sectatores ejus dicti sunt Gerendistae”). A few years later information appear about the one who became the Sabbatarian group strategist, namely the noble landowner Eössi András (Andreas Eössi). About the noble Eössi András, documents of the time say: „… around 1588 lived a noble man at Szent Erzsebét named András Eössi, who was said he had read the Bible so much that he extracted from it the Sabbatarian religion and drove everyone out of their minds with it, showing even to the most common ones the appropriate texts of the Sacred Scripture (“locus”) and explaining them how the Bible was tampered by people. Regarding the Second Coming of Jesus, Eössi preaches (inspired, of course, by Glirius) that Christ is also awaiting in Heaven, at the right hand of the Father, to come for the second time and reign in Jerusalem.” [46]

The fact that the ideas of the theoretician Matthias Vehe-Glirius had such impact in the Transylvanian religious environment, so that he was followed after his disappearance by an important group of the intellectual elite of Transylvania, and they created a state of religious effervescence that produced a religious movement, which in the end turned into a new religion in the Transylvanian religious scene. The noble Eössi András, the Sabbatarian community ideologist, in a writing declares that the Sabbatarian ideology was extended in Transylvania after Johannes Sommer’s death, in 1574, by Matthias Vehe-Glirius and his religion was followed by those, who have been called „Sabbatarians”, and this religion places the Old Testament before the New Testament, and salvation by faith is limited to the Apostolic period. Eössi András predicts an earthly reign of Jesus Christ, exactly as it was presented in the book of Matthias Vehe-Glirius Mattaniah and in the theses composed by Faustus Socinus. [47] Bogáti Fazakas Miklós, after his assignment in the place of Matthias Vehe-Glirius, at the College of Cluj in 1580, has won the noble Gerendi János with his ideas. They in turn will gain other scholars of the time, such as András Eössi, András Erdödi, Farkas Kórnis, Óvári Benedek with their Sabbatarian ideas. Eössi András develops Matthias Vehe-Glirius theology, in a literary form: through sermons, prayers and sung poems. Matthias Vehe-Glirius, who arrived in Transylvania from Germany, can be worthily considered to have been the Apostole of the Sabbatarian ideas in Transylvania. [48] His ideas can be found in the Sabbatarian religion dogma in Transylvania.


Causes that facilitated the Sabbatarian ideas permeation in Transylvania


The first promoters of the Sabbatarian movement in Transylvania have already declared through the years 1580-1590, that they have proposed to fully adopt the principles and social ideals they found in the Scriptures of the Old Testament. They didn’t sow any difference between the validity of the Jewish concept about God, the mandatory material world of the ritual prescriptions and of the legal concept, of the ethnic rules or calendar rules, established by the books of Moses. The ideological system developed and as a result, it soon found its way to the szeklers, a Hungarian ethnic group whose social and moral concepts were based on the equality and freedom of the individual, and whose community conserved elements of the ancestral tribal organisation of the free sheperds. The new ideology spread by the sabbatarians supported the aspirations and the rights claimed by szeklers for many centuries, through analogies towards revelation and divine laws. This being one of the reasons for which the Sabbatarian movement became so popular among them. At the same time, these typical ideological analogies have not created impediments to other possibilities. Obviously, not all of the szeklers became followers of the new religious movement.

                  Another important condition in the spreading of the sabbatarianism was the fact that the anti-trinitarian group had a stable and well organised church in the principality of Transylvania.

                  The inhabitants of the villages and towns have got acquainted with the literary polemics between the different streams of the Reform. The religious polemics between trinitarians and anti-trinitarians continued freely in front of the congregations belivers of their church. Moreover, in contrast to other European countries, there were no jewish communities in Transylvania and therefore the sabbatarianism basic dogma, with the observing of the things shown in the Scriptures of the Old Testament, leaded to a certain state of novelty, interest and beatitude of the new. [49]


The beginnings of the Sabbatarian religious movement in Transylvania and its recording by the chroniclers of the time


About the existence of the “sabbatharian” or “sabbatarian” christians on the Romanian regions, especially in Transylvania, wrote also Mihail Kogălniceanu, speaking about the “sabbatharian” christians who “belive in the jewish law”. He said: ”The Hungarians do not all follow a single law, but they are coulped in four or five laws, some are called Calvinists, others Lutherans, others Calangio which are named in their own language… the right law… others are called sambatasi who follow the Jewish law.” [50]

The chronicler Grigore Ureche offers himself the same information when he speaks about “sabbatharians” who follow the Jewish law”. [51] Both quotes reffer to the same Sabbatarians. According to Grigore Ureche (1590-1647) and Mihail Kogălniceanu (1817-1891) we found them in the northern parts of Moldavia, where they took refuge during the persecutions and were reported as a „strange religion” in the view of the Romanian people.

In Kohn Samuel’s opinion, [52] the expert on the Transylvanian Sabbatarianism of the 19th century, the waiting of the Second Coming of Christ and the establishment of the Millenium on Earth, along with the Sabbath guarding, is one of the fundamental dogma of the Sabbatarians. Matthias Vehe-Glirius was also one of those who were wainting for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. In his publications, the unitarian preacher Óváry Benedek [53] explains further the teaching consequence of the waiting for the second coming.  People should live a pure and holy life, moulded on the Ten Commandments, waiting in this way, the advent of a better, divine world.

The one who brought the sabbatarian ideas in Transylavania, is considered by specialists to be Matthias Vehe-Glirius from Germany. Róbert Dán, one of the few specialists of the Sabbatarian phenomenon, describes him and summarizes as follows: ”Through the publications of Eössi and Óváry the teachings of Vehe got to be known in the shortest time to the most remote corners of Transylvania, mainly but not exclusively among the hungarians. In the late 1580s, the Sabbatism included all the followers of Bogáti and Gerendi’s religion. At the middle of the next decade, he makes members in Cluj, in other Transylvanian cities, in all social classes. Many of the city clergy, unsatisfied nobles become members of the sect. In the second half on the 1580, it is reported to the Prince the intense propaganda and the extending of the „Jewish” sect (the Bogáti – Gerendi grouping) and of the „Sabbatists” sect (the Eössi grouping). In the Diet (The Nation Assembly) from April 16th, 1595 are only mentioned the Sabbatists, Bogáti had died meanwhile and Gerendi had gone into exile. When Michael the Brave occupied Transylavania in 1600, he established a new order by which the punishment of the Sabbatists and the seizure of their property was provided. At his command, in 1600 occured the burning of the entire literature inspired by Vehe-Glirius and developed by Eössi and his hungarian colleagues. The measures taken by Michael the Brave could not stop the dashing development of this extemely popular sect, the spreading of Vehe-Glirius ideas continuing until the late ´20s of the new century, as the main form of theological opposition in Ardeal. In 1625, Simon Péchi, Eössi’s adopted son, former Chancellor of Transylavania under Prince Gabriel Bethlen, remoulds the Sabbatist movement guiding it to the rabbinical resources, complementing it with new sabbatist liturgical elements and expanding its philosophical foundation. This „reformed” Sabbatism survives for 350 years in the mountainous regions of Transylvania[2], [54] despite the persecution waves that descended upon it. In the summer of 1944, the last representants of the sect were taken forcibly by the nazists in concetration camps where most of them received the martyrdom…”. [55] „The former deacon from Kaiserslautern (Matthias Vehe-Glirius, s.n.) could never imagine that the principles set forth by him during his few months of staying in Cluj will survive for centuries. He arrived in Transylvania as fugitive, to meet Francisc Dávidis, the author of those books through which he was converted from calvinism to unitarianism. Vehe was able to collect the unitarian writings threatened to perish and to publish them (some of them in Basel) in the last years of his life. Glirius received the unitarianism from the Transylanians, while the Transylanians them have learned the Sabbatianism from Glirius.” [56]

After the death of Francisc Dávid, there was a scission among the unitarians from Transylvania. András Eössi († 1599), a szekler noble, extremely rich, from Szent Erzsebet (Odorhei land), deeply studying the Sacred Scripture, reached to the personal belief that the weekly day of worship or rest ordained by God is Saturday, not Sunday, as other Christians celebrated. Following his discovery, regarding the day of worship on Saturdays, he and those who have shared his views and dogmatic belief, on the day of weekly worship, parted from the unitarians and founded an independent religious group, called at that time the ”Sabbatarian Group”. At first, this new religious group included the nobleman András Eössi, his friends and the unitarians who joined his ideas and were willing to separate from the unitarians. Later, however, the Sabbatarian Group, will include among them believers from other religions, both free men and serfs.

Documents of the time confirm this and say about Eössi András that: ”… around 1588 lived in Szent Erzsebét a noble named András Eössi, who was said he had read the Bible so much that he extracted from it the Sabbatarian religion with which he drove many out of their minds, showing even to the most common ones the appropriate texts of the Sacred Scripture (“locus”) and explaining them how the Bible was tampered by people. Regarding the second coming of Jesus, Eössi teaches (inspired, of course, by Glirius) that Christ is also awaiting in Heaven, at the right hand of the Father, to come for the second time  and to reign in Jerusalem.” [57]

From all the information we have and taking into account the above mentioned, we can say that the pioneers of the sabbatarian movement in Transylvania were first Bogáti Fazakas Miklos, Gerendi János, András Eössi, Óvári Benedek, Farkas Kornis and András Erdödi. The Sabbatarian ideas and concepts will be carried on in particular by András Eössi and Bogáti Fazakas Miklos, later on Simon Péchi become the ideologist and organizer of the Sabbatarians. What is interesting and noteworthy is the fact that the sabbatarian religious group, without receiving an established creed, brought from elsewhere, even if there were some ideas that had entered in Transylvania through Matthias Vehe-Glirius, however, the sabbatarianism developed here on transylvanian land, where they organised, where the doctrine was established and where they created a noteworthy literature for that time.

About all these mentors of the transylvanians Sabbatarianism, namely: Bogáti Fazakas Miklos (poet, unitarian theologian, author of theological writings), Gerendi János (noble, politician), András Eössi (unitarian noble), András Erdödi (excommunicated unitarian preacher), Farkas Kornis (noble, military commander), Óvári Benedek (unitarian preacher), and also about Simon Péchi, later on former chancellor of Transylvania, Lukacs Trausner calls them the transylvanian brothers of Matthias Vehe-Glirius. [58] Thereby, it is recognized that the Sabbatarian ideas were brought into Transylvania by Matthias Vehe-Glirius. [59]

About Matthias Vehe-Glirius and his influence on Francisc Dávid and on other famous men of the Transylvanian spirituality, the Catholic monk Antonio Possevino also wrote: „… long time ago, in Transylvania, a certain Mathia Glirio lived, fully indulged in Judaism, who coming from Poland… had crammed the mind of Francisc David with the most dangerous errors, these passing equally on others, he returned to stir them more.” [60]

After we were familiarized with the premises of Sabbtarianism, [61] namely with all those factors which have explained its formation and will make its later history easily to be understood, we note that the actual history of sabbatarianism goes through three stages. We are clearly making the difference between the development, the flowering and the decline of this religious group. According to this differentiation methods, the sabbatrianism history divides into three unequal periods of time. The first period which presents the sabbatarianism on a clearly religious position, period extending between 1580-1621, namely from the establishment of the new religion until the political failure of the main chancellor Péchi Simon. [62] The second period, in which sabbatarianism holds a position more and more inclined to judaism, expands between 1621-1638, that is from the political failure of Péchi Simon until the so called „Complanatio from Dej”, [63] namely the Sabbatarians’ Lawsuit from Dej. The third period, in which the sabbatarians really encouraged the jewish religion, includes a period of time longer than two centuries, between 1638-1869, that is from the „Complanatio from Dej” until the public passing over of the sabbatarians to the Jewish faith. In the first two, summing up only 58 years, sabbatarianism is full of life, expands and produces an extensive literary activity, and in the third period, although long, over two centuries, contrary to the other two periods, the sabbatarians go through a maintenance period, and then through a decline and extinction one. [64]

Conclusion


The radical theological ideas of Miguel Servet and Fausto Sozzini also reached Eastern Europe, in Transylvania, through several erudits of the time, important representatives of the Radical Reformation of the sixteenth century Europe, namely by: Johann Sommer, Jacob Paleologus, Adam Neuser, Matthias Glirius. Their ideas were taken over by the local personalities of Transylvania, like: bishop Francisc Dávid, nobleman Unitarian landowner Andreas Eőssi, chancellor Simon Péchi, the excommunicated Unitarian preacher András Erdödi, nobleman and politician János Gerendi, nobleman and military commander Farkas Kornis, poet and Unitarian theologian Miklos Bogati Fazakas, Benedek Óvári, and others who developed the Sabbatarian ideas, reaching out to form in less than 50 years a religious movement that gathered 25000 belivers. The Sabbatarianism, as a religious movement, lasted in Transylvania for 400 years (1580-1980), and then disappeared from the Transylvanian religious scene.

REFERENCES


[1] Dán Róbert, Humanizmus, reformáció, antitrinitarizmus és a héber nyelv Magyarországon, Budapest, Akadémiai Kiadó, 1973, pp.214-228; Rezi Elek, Szervét Mihály és az erdélyi unitarizmus, in KM, 2003, 109, nr. 3-4, pp.167-175; Caccamo Domenico, Eretici italiani in Moravia, Polonia, Transilvania. Studi e documenti, Firenze-Chicago, 1970,  pp. 156-158.

[2] A. Pirnát, Die Ideologie der Siebenbürger Antitrinitarier in den 1570-er Jahren, in der „Űbersetzung von Edith Roth“, Verlag der ungarischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Budapest, Akadémiai Kiadó, 1961, p. 175; Wallace, Robert. Antitrinitarian biography; or, Sketches of the lives and writings of distinguished antitrinitarians; exhibiting a view of the state of the Unitarian doctrine and worship in the principal nations of Europe, from the reformation to the close of the seventeenth century: to which is prefixed a history of Unitarianism in England during the same period, London, E. T. Whitfield, 1850, vol. 1, pp. 390-392; Antal Pirnát, Arisztoteliánusok és antitrinitáriusok, Budapest, Helikon, 1971, pp.  363-392.

[3] Johann Seivert, Nachrichten von Siebenbürgischen Gelehrten, Pressburg (Bratislava), Weber und Korabinstischen Verlage, 1785, p. 404; Cziráki Zsuzsanna, Az erdélyi szászok története. Erdélyi szász irodalomtörténet, Kozármisleny, Imedias Kiadó, 2006; Joseph Trausch, Schriftsteller Lexikon der Siebenbürgischen Deutschen, III, Kronstadt Gött, 1871, pp. 219-324; Dr. Gál Kelemen, A kolozsvári Unitárius Kollegium tortenete (1568-1900), Cluj, 1935; Hermann Schuller, Reges Hungarici, in Johannes Sommer, Leben und Werken eines südost deutschen Humanisten,  in „Vierteljahrschrift”, t. 64 1941, pp. 38-61, 126-135, 205-234; St. Bîrsănescu, Schola Latina de la Cotnari, Bucureşti, 1957, pp. 91-112; A. Oţetea, Der Antitrinitarische Humanist Johann Sommer und seine Tätigkeit in Klausenburg, in „Renaissance und Humanismus in Mittel und Osteuropa, Berlin, 1962, t. 2, p. 4960; Bern. Capesius, Sie förderten den Lauf der Dinge, Deutsche Humanisten auf dem Boden Siebenbürgens, Bucureşti, Editura pentru literatură, 1967, pp. 283-325;

[4] Adina Berciu-Drăghicescu, O domnie umanistă în Moldova. Despot-vodă, București, Ed. Albatros, 1980; Johann Sommer, Vita Jacobi Despotae Moldavorum Reguli descripta a Johanne Sommero Pirnense edita sumptibus Illustris et Generosi Domini Emerici Forgach Baronis a Gymes, Equitis aurati, comitis in Trinchin etc. Adiectae sunt eiusdem auctoris De Clade Moldavica Elegiae XV quibus etiam Historia Despotica continetur. Una cum explicatione quorundam locorum in hoc Sommeri scripto, et commentatiuncula brevi De Walachia et rebus Walachicis Petri Albini Nivemontii Historiog. Saxo. et Profess. in Acad. Witebr. (Witebergae), Per Haeredes Johannis Cratonis, pp. 15-87, in Călători străini despre Ţările Române, vol. II, Bucureşti, Ed. Ştiinţifică, 1970, pp. 257-268.

[5] S. Bârsănescu, Şcoala Latină de la Cotnari, Iaşi, 1957, pp. 91-112; Valentin Talpalaru, Academia de la Suceava şi Schola latina de la Cotnari – un proiect cultural European, Iaşi, Editura „Opera magna”, 2010; Johann Sommer, Vita Jacobi despotae Moldavorum, Wittenberg, 1587; Pirnát Antal, Tanulmányával, Budapest, 1987; Bitskey István, Irodalomtörténeti Közlemények, Budapest, 1989, nr. 5-6, pp. 717-720.

[6] J. Kénosi Tózsér; Uzoni Fosztó, Unitrio – Ecclesiastica Historia Transylvanica, vol. IV/2, Budapest, Balassi Kiadó, 2002, p. 615; J. F. G. Goeters, „Arianismus”, in Pfälzisches Kirchenlexikon, Göttingen, 1962, vol. I, pp. 107-109.

[7] Călători străini despre Ţările Române, vol. II, Bucureşti, Ed. Ştiinţifică, 1970, p. 259; Daniel Barbu, coord., Firea Românilor, Bucureşti, Ed. Nemira, 2000, p. 16.

[8] L. M. Pákozdy, Der siebenbűrgische Sabbatismus, Franz Delitzsch-Vorlesungen 1969, Stutgart, Berlin, Kőln, Mainz, Verlag W. Kohlhammer, 1973, pp. 17-18; Dán Róbert, Matthias Vehe-Glirius: Life and Work of a Radical Antitrinitarian with his Collected Writings, Budapest-Leiden, 1982, pp. 239-398; Balázs Mihály, A Kolozsvári Unitárius Kollégium, 1135. Számú kéziratáról, in “Irodalomtörténeti Közlemények”, 2002.  nr. 5-6, pp. 568-579.

[9] J. Kénosi Tózsér; Uzoni Fosztó, Unitrio – Ecclesiastica Historia Transylvanica…, p. 616: Keserű Bálint, Vallási ellenzéki törekvések a magyar késő-reneszánszban, kézirat, Szeged, 1973, pp. 205, 324; Dán Róbert, Péchi Simon Világképének elemei és forrásai, in „Magyar Tudományos Akadémia”, 1973, nr. 22, p. 89;

[10] Dán Róbert, Matthias Vehe-Glirius: Life and Work of a Radical Antitrinitarian with his Collected Writings, Budapest, Akadémiai Kiadó, 1982, pp. 128-129; L. Szczucki, Két XV, Századi eretnek gondolkodó (Jacobus Paleologus és Christian Franken), Budapest, Akadémiai Kiadó, 1980; Wallace Robert, Antitrinitarian biography; or, Sketches of the lives and writings of distinguished antitrinitarians; exhibiting a view of the state of the Unitarian doctrine and worship in the principal nations of Europe, from the reformation to the close of the seventeenth century: to which is prefixed a history of Unitarianism in England during the same period, Vol. 3., London, E. T. Whitfield, 1850; Sand Christoph, Bibliotheca antitrinitariorum, 1684, Reprint, Instytut Filozofii i Socjologii Polskiej Akademii Nauk, Biblioteka pisarzy reforma cyjnych, Varsoviae, Panstwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe, 1967, vol. XVI, p. 316; L.M. Pákozdy, Der siebenbűrgische Sabbatismus…, pp. 18-20. A. Pirnát, Die Ideologie der Siebenburger Antitrinitarier in den 1570-er Jahren…, p. 116; see also Lech Szczucki, edit., W kregu myslicieli heretickich, Wroclaw, Warsawa, Krakow, Gdansk, 1972, pp. 229-244.

[11] Burchill Christopher J., The Heidelberg Antitrinitarians, în Séguenny, André (ed.), “Bibliotheca Bibliographica Aureliana CXX. Bibliotheca Dissidentium. Repertoire des non-conformistes religieux”, tom. XI, Baden-Baden & Bouxwiller, Editions Valentin Koerner, 1989, pp. 85-118; Otto Thelemann, Neuser and die Antitrinitarier in der Kurpfalz, in „Evangelisch reformierte Kirchenzeitung“, nr. 20, 1870, pp. 34-46, 238-255; Valentin Ernst Lőscher, Historie Neuseri and Sylvani Abfalls vom Christlichen Glauben, in „Unschuldige Nachrichten von alten and neuen theologischen Sachen… auff das Jahr 1702”, Leipzig, 1705, pp. 571-575.

[12] A. Pirnát, Die Ideologie der Siebenburger Antitrinitarier in den 1570-er Jahren…, p. 117.

[13] Dán Róbert, Matthias Vehe-Glirius: life and work of a radical antitrinitarian, with his collected writings, Budapest, Akadémiai Kiadó, 1982, pp. 10-38, 264-268; Dán Róbert, “Matthias Vehe-Glirius és Dávid”, in Keresztény Magvető, 2001, 107, nr. 1-2, pp. 3-25; Faustus Socinus, De Jesu Christo invocatione Disputatio, Rakoviae, 1616, pp. 801–803; G.G., Zeltner, Historia Crypto-Socianizmi, Lipsiae, 1729, p. 353; Rescius S., De Atheismis et Phalarismis, Neapoli, 1596, pp. 353, 396; Dán Róbert, Az erdélyi szombatosok és Péchi Simon, Budapest, Akadémiai Kiadó, 1987, p. 22; Burchill Christopher J., The Heidelberg Antitrinitarians, in Séguenny, André, edit., “Bibliotheca Bibliographica Aureliana CXX. Bibliotheca Dissidentium. Repertoire des non-conformistes religieux”, tom. XI, Baden-Baden & Bouxwiller, Editions Valentin Koerner, 1989, pp. 125-152 ; Dan Róbert, The works of Vehe-Glirius and early sabbatarian ideology in Transylvania, Budapest, Akadémiai Kiadó, 1975, pp. 87-94.

[14] Dán Róbert, Matthias Vehe-Glirius: life and work of a radical antitrinitarian, with his collected writings…, pp. 35-47; Idem, „Matthias Vehe-Glirius és Dávid”, in Keresztény Magvető, 2001, 107, nr. 1-2, pp. 3-25.

[15] Antal Pirnat, Die Ideologie der Seibenburger Antitrinitarier in den 70-ger Jahren…, p. 172; Christopher J. Burchill, The Heidelberg Antitrinitarians. Bibliotheca Dissidentium 11, ed. André Séguenny,  Baden-Baden, Editions Valentin Koerner, 1989, p. 127; Dán Róbert, Matthias Vehe-Glirius: life and work of a radical antitrinitarian, with his collected writings…, pp. 32-48;  Idem, Az erdélyi szombatosok és Péchi Simon…, p. 22.

[17] Werner Seeling, „Johannes Sylvan, Matthias Vehe and Justinus Beinhardt als Pfarrer in Kaiserslautern (1566-1570)“, in Blätter für pfälzische Kirchengeschichte, nr. 34, 1965, pp. 133-145.

[18] Mircea Valeriu Diaconescu, „Păzirea Sabatului în Ardeal. Contribuţii la studiul istoriei bisericeşti moderne”, în Sabatarienii transilvăneni, nr. 1, Bucureşti, 1999, p. 28.

[19] Ibidem, pp. 28-29.

[20] Dán Róbert, Matthias Vehe-Glirius: life and work of a radical antitrinitarian, with his collected writings…, pp. 1-11; Mircea Valeriu Diaconescu, Păzirea Sabatului în Ardeal. Contribuţii la studiul istoriei bisericeşti moderne, în „Sabatarienii transilvăneni”…, p. 29; Dán Róbert, Az erdélyi szombatosok és Péchi Simon…, pp.22-25; Christopher J. Burchill, The Heidelberg Antitrinitarians. Bibliotheca Dissidentium 11, ed. André Séguenny, Baden-Baden, Editions Valentin Koerner, 1989, pp. 130-131.

[21] Mircea Valeriu Diaconescu, Păzirea Sabatului în Ardeal. Contribuţii la studiul istoriei bisericeşti moderne, în „Sabatarienii transilvăneni”…, p. 29;

[22] Dán Róbert, Az erdélyi szombatosok és Péchi Simon…, p. 26.

[23] Christopher J. Burchill, The Heidelberg Antitrinitarians. Bibliotheca Dissidentium 11…, p. 160.

[24] Daniel Ludwig Wundt, Grundriß der pfälzischen Kirchengeschichte, Heidelberg, 1796, pp. 55-57; Carl Büttinghausen, Pfälzische Historische Nachrichten, 1783, vol. I,  p. 23; Stephan Alexander Würdtwein, Bibliotheca Moguntina, Augsburg, 1787, p. 201; Daniel Ludwig Wundt, „Versuch einer Geschichte des pfälzischen Arianismus“, in: Magazin für die Kirchengeschichte des Kurfürstenthums Pfalz , Heidelberg, vol. I., 1789, pp. 88-154.

[25] J. Knox-Zeman, The Anabaptists and the Czech Brethren in Moravia, Den Hag, 1968, p. 419.

[26] Dán Róbert, The works of Vehe-Glirius and early sabbatarian ideology in Transylvania, Budapest, Akademia Kiado, 1975, pp. 87-94.

[27] Wilbur Earl Morse, A Bibliography of the Pioneers of the Socinian-Unitarian Movement in Modern Christianity, in Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Holland. Sussidi eruditi, vol. 1. Rome, Edizioni di storia e letteratura, 1950, pp. 1-80; Przipcovius, Samuelis, Vita Fausti Socini Senensis, Bibliotheca Fratrum Polonorum, Eleuthropoli, 1692, Vol. 9, pp. 417-425.

[28] Earle E. Cairns, Creştinismul de-a lungul secolelor. O istorie a Bisericii Creştine, Dallas, Tx., BEE International, 1992, pp. 300-301; Andrei Oţetea şi colab., Istoria României, vol. II., Bucureşti, Ed. Academiei, 1962, pp. 1034-1035; Przipcovius Samuelis, Vita Fausti Socini Senensis, Bibliotheca Fratrum Polonorum, Eleuthropoli, 1692, Vol. 9, pp. 417-425; Hillar Marian, From the Polish Socinians to the American Constitution, in “A Journal from The Radical Reformation. A Testimony to Biblical Unitarianism”, Vol. 3, No. 2, 1994. pp. 22-57; Stanislas Kot, Socinianism in Poland. The Social and Political Ideas of the Polish Antitrinitarians, translated by Earl Morse Wilbur, Boston, 1957, p. XXII; Otto Fock, Der Socinianismus nach seiner Stellung in der Gesamtentwicklung des christlichen Geistes, Kiel, 1847, pp. 200-239.

[29] Friedrich Samuel Bock, Historia antitrinitariorum maxime Socianismi et Socinianorum, ex fontibus recensetur, Königsberg, 1774, I, pp. 970-973; Wilbur Earl Morse, A History of Unitarianism. Volume 1: Socinianism and Its Antecedents. Volume 2: In Transylvania, England, and America, Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1945-52; Otto Fock, Der Socinianismus nach seiner Stellung in der Gesamtentwicklung des christlichen Geistes…, pp. 28-239.

[30] Antonio Rotondo,  Studi e Ricerche di Storia Ereticale Italiana del Cinquecento, I, Torino, Edizioni Giappichelli, 1974, pp. 10-584; Malacarne, Commentario delle Opere e delle Vicende di G. Biandrata, Padova, 1814; The Italian Reformation of the Sixteenth Century and the Diffusion of Renaissance Culture: a Bibliography of the Secondary Literature (Ca. 1750-1997), compiled by John Tedeschi in association with James M. Lattis; with an historiographical introduction by Massimo Firpo, Modena, Panini, 2000 (Strumenti / Istituto di studi rinascimentali, Ferrara); LXIII, 1000-1047; M. Rosa, Per la storia religiosa e della chiesa in Italia trail ‘500 e il ‘600: studi recenti e questioni di metodo, in “Quaderni storici”, 5, 1970, n. 15, pp. 673-758; M. Rosa, Religione e società nel Mezzogiorno tra Cinque e Seicento, Bari, De Donato, pp. 150-197.

[31] Béla Varga, Dávid Ferenc és az unitárius vallás, Budapest, Magy. Unit. Egyh., 1979, p.164; John C. Godbey, Early Transilvanian Antitrinitarianism, 1566-1571: From Servet to Palaeologus, by Mihaly Balazs, translated by György Novák, Bibliotheca Dissidentium scripta et studia 7, Baden-Baden, Editions Valentin Koerner, 1996, pp. 8-38; Dán Róbert, „A Pécsi Disputa”, in Irodalomtőrténeti Kőzlemények, an LXXX, (1976), nr. 1, pp. 1-14; Faustus Socinus, Die Jesu Christo invocatione. Disputatio, Rakow, 1595, praef. 5; Abraham Calov, Socinismus Profligatus, h.e. errorum Socinianorum luculenta Confutation, Wittenberg, 1652, pp. 8,23; Keserű Bálint, Vallási ellenzéki törekvések a magyar késő-reneszánszban, kézirat, Szeged, 1973, pp. 205,324;  Dán Róbert, Matthias Vehe-Glirius. Life and Work of a Radical Antitrinitarian with his Collected Writings…, p. 134. 

[32] Antonio Possevino, Transilvania, 1584, Budapest, A. Veress (ed.), 1913, pp. 30-46, 104, 136, 139; Idem, Atheismi, Lutheri, Melanchtonis, Calvini… arianorum et ministrarum Transsylvanorum cum thesibus Francisci Davidis… refutati, Vilnae, 1586. fol. 62b–63a; Ch., Sand, Bibliotheca Antitrinitariorum, 2nd., Ed. Lch Szczuczki, Varsoviae,  1966, p. 57; Idem, Keresztény Magvető, XLIX, 1912,  pp. 209–211;

[33] Dán Róbert, Matthias Vehe-Glirius. Life and Work of a Radical Antitrinitarian with his Collected Writings…, pp. 135-140;

[34] A Transylvanian pilgrimage, December 5, 1999, A Sermon by Dr. Judit Gellérd, at Norwell, MA; Géza Szávai, Székely Jeruzsálem, Budapest, PONT Kiadó, 2000, pp. 15-75; John C. Godbey, Early Transilvanian Antitrinitarianism, 1566-1571: From Servet to Palaeologus…, p. 8; Antonio Possevino, Transsilvania, 1584…, pp. 136-145; Mircea Valeriu Diaconescu, „Păzirea Sabatului în Ardeal. Contribuţii la studiul istoriei bisericeşti moderne”, în Sabatarienii transilvăneni…, p. 30; Dán Robert, Az erdélyi szombatosok…, p.59.

[35] Antal Pirnát, Arisztoteliánusok és antitrinitáriusok: Gerendi János és a kolozsvári iskola, Helikon, 1971, pp. 363-392.

[36] Dán, Róbert, Bogáti Fazekas Miklós, Keresztény Magvető, 1976; Zoványi Jenő, A két Bogáti Fazekas Miklós, EPhK, 1935. pp.  82–86; Schiller István, Bogáti Fazekas Miklós élete és vallásos tárgyú költészete, Budapest, 1915; Dézsi Lajos, Bogáti Fazekas Miklós élete és költői munkássága, Budapest, 1895; Borbély István, Bogáti Fazekas Miklós zsoltárfordítása, EPhK 1914. pp. 1–16; Schulek Tibor, Az első magyar bibliográfiáról, ItK, 1957, pp. 372–375.

[37] L. M. Pakozdy, Der Siebenburgische Sabbatismus…, pp. 15-97.

[38] Antonio Possevino, De sectorum nostri temporis atheismis liber, Cologne, 1586, p. 54 a; Idem, Bibliotheca selecta… de ratione studiorum, Rome, 1593, vol. I, p. 366.

[39] Imre Gellérd, “Truth liberates You”. The message of Transylvania’s first unitarian bishop Francis David, transl. Gellérd Judit, Chicago, Ca., Center for Free Religion, 1990, pp. 95-104.

[40] Gyallay Domokos, Dávid Ferenc búcsúzása. Történelmi színjáték 1 felvonásban, Kolozsvár, 1929, Minerva, 1929, pp. 2-16.

[41] Ferencz József, Józan Miklós, In memoriam Francisci Davidi. Founderand first bishop of the unitarian church of Hungary. 1510-1910. A leaflet to the fourcentenary celebration at Déva,  Budapest, 1910,  pp. 2-14.

[42] Dán Róbert, Matthias Vehe-Glirius…, pp. 24-35; Antal Pirnat, Die Ideologie der Seibenburger Antitrinitarier in den 70-ger Jahren…, pp. 172,178. Defensio Francisci Davidis. Basileae, 1581, pp. 251-273; Studia nad Arianiznem, Warszawa, 1959, pp. 491-526; Documenta Romana Historiae Societatis Jesu in regnis olim corona Hungariae unitis, II. Romae, 1965, pp. 353-357; Válaszuti György, Péchi Disputa, 1588, Ms. Quart. Hung. 313. fol. 42, p. 143;  Dán Róbert, A „Péchi Disputa” Itk, LXXX, 1976, pp. 1-14; Balázs Mihály, A szekér és az ökör: Adalék a baranyai antitrinitarizmus történetéhez = Pécs a török korban, Pécs, 1999, p. 267; Dávid Ferenc, Az egy Attya Istennec és az Ő áldot Szent Fianac, az Iesvs Christvsnac Istenségérol igaz vallástétel, a Prophetac és Apostoloknac irásinac igaz follyása szerént irattatott, 1621, (M.D.LXX.I), pp. 5-6; Dán Róbert, The Works of Matthias Vehe-Glirius and Early Sabbatarian Ideology in Transsilvania…,  pp. 24-35.

[43] Zsilinszky Mihály, A magyarhoni protestáns Egyház története…, p. 120.

[44] Nagy Szabó Ferenc, Krónikája. Erdélyi Történelmi Adatok. I. kiad. Kolozsvár, 1855, p. 29; A köznép körében is érdeklődést keltő teológiai kérdésekről és vitákról Esze Tamás: A debreceni disputa,  in  „Studia et Acta”, Budapest, 1969. pp. 451-460.

[45] Pirnát Antal, Gerendi János és Eössi András, in „Irodalomtörténeti Közlemények”, 1970, p. 683.

[46] Mircea Valeriu Diaconescu, Păzirea Sabatului în Ardeal. Contribuţii la studiul istoriei bisericeşti moderne, în „Sabatarienii transilvăneni”…, pp. 29-30.

[47] Dán Róbert, The Works of Matthias Vehe-Glirius and Early Sabbatarian Ideology in Transsilvania, Akadémiai Kiadó, 1975,  pp. 87-94; Zbigniew Ogonowski, Socynianizm a Oswiecenie…, pp. 341-342; Balázs Mihály, A szekér és az ökör: Adalék a baranyai antitrinitarizmus történetéhez = Pécs a török korban, Pécs, 1999, p. 267; Otto Fock, Der Socinianismus nach seiner Stellung in der Gesamtentwicklung des christlichen Geistes…, pp. 238-239; Dán Róbert, Az Erdélyi Szombatosok és Péchi Simon…, pp. 11-26.

 [48] Earl Morse Wilbur, A Bibliography of the Pioneers of the Socinian-Unitarian Movement in Modern Christianity, in Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Holland. Sussidi eruditi, vol. 1. Rome, Edizioni di storia e letteratura, 1950, pp. 5-78; Sand Christoph, Bibliotheca antitrinitariorum, 1684, Reprint, Instytut Filozofii i Socjologii Polskiej Akademii Nauk, Biblioteka pisarzy reforma cyjnych, Varsoviae, Panstwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe, 1967. vol. XVI, p. 316.; Robert Wallace, Antitrinitarian biography; or, Sketches of the lives and writings of distinguished antitrinitarians; exhibiting a view of the state of the Unitarian doctrine and worship in the principal nations of Europe, from the reformation to the close of the seventeenth century: to which is prefixed a history of Unitarianism in England during the same period, Vol. 3., London, E. T. Whitfield, 1850; George Huntston Williams, The Radical Reformation. 3d ed. Sixteenth Century Essays and Studies, vol. 15. Kirksville, Mo., Sixteenth Century Journal Publishers, 1992, pp. 1313-1382; A Transylvanian pilgrimage, December 5, 1999, A Sermon by Dr. Judit Gellérd, at Norwell, MA;  Earl Morse Wilbur, A History of Unitarianism. Volume 1: Socinianism and Its Antecedents. Volume 2: In Transylvania, England, and America. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1945-52; Dan Róbert, The works of Vehe-Glirius and early sabbatarian ideology in Transylvania. Budapest, Akadémiai Kiadó, 1975, pp. 88-94; Géza Szávai, Székely Jeruzsálem…, pp. 15-75;  Balázs Mihály, A szekér és az ökör: Adalék a baranyai antitrinitarizmus történetéhez = Pécs a török korban…, p. 267;

[49] „The Transylvanian Sabbatarians and Simon Péchi”, in  Dán Róbert, Az erdélyi szombatosok és Péchi Simon, Budapest, Akadémiai Kiadó, 1987, pp. 317-320; Dán Róbert, Az erdélyi szombatosok és Péchi Simon…, pp. 32-34.

[50] M. Kogălniceanu, Cronicele României sau Letopisețele Moldovei și Valahiei, I-III, București, 1872-1874, p. 412; http://cercetatiscripturile.intercer.net/article.php?id=7095, 05.02.2014,12,45.

[51] Grigore Ureche, Letopiseţul Ţării Moldovei…, p. 124. http://cercetatiscripturile.intercer.net/article.php?id=7095, 05.02.2014,12,45.ftp://ftp.logos.md/Biblioteca/_Colectie_RO/4grigore_ureche-letopisetul_tarii_moldovei.pdf., 05.02.2014, 12, 45.

[52] Kohn Sámuel, A szombatosok. Tortenetetuk, dogmatikajuk es irodalmuk, Budapest, Athenaeum Kiadó, 1889, pp. 2-36.

[53] L. M. Pakozdy, Der siebenbűrgische Sabbatismus, Franz Delitzsch-Vorlesungen 1969, Stutgart, Berlin, Kőln, Mainz, Verlag W. Kohlhammer, 1973, pp. 50-65.

[54] I. Szacsvay, S. Kicsi, Eine schone, lebendige Tradition – Siebenburgen…, pp. 75-80.

[55] Dán Róbert, Matthias Vehe-Glirius. Life and Work of a Radical Antitrinitarian with his Collected Writings…,  pp. 10-39.

[56] Ibidem, pp. 140-145.

[57] Mircea Valeriu Diaconescu, op. cit., p. 29; Kovács András, Az erdélyi szombatosság nyomában, Pallas-Akadémia Kőnyvkiadó, 1999, p. 58.

[58] L. M. Pakozdy, Der Siebenburgische Sabbatismus…, pp. 15-97.

[59] Géza Szávai, Székely Jeruzsálem, Budapest, PONT Kiadó, 2000, pp. 15-75;  A Transylvanian pilgrimage, December 5, 1999, A Sermon by Dr. Judit Gellérd, at Norwell, MA.

[60] Antonio Possevino, Transilvania, Cartea a IV-a, cap. 8 întitulat: Alte greşeli şi erezii ale celor din Transilvania cu privire la slujbe şi la taine, cf. Călători străini despre Ţările Române, Maria Holban (red. resp.), vol. II, Bucureşti, Ed. Enciclopedică, pp. 573-574.

[61] Dán Róbert, Az Erdélyi Szombatosok és Péchi Simon…, pp. 27-47. See: Zomboriné Pánczél, Anikó, Szombatos dallamok a népi emlékezetben, in Dankó, Imre; Küllős, Imola (eds.), „Módszerek és történeti adatok”,  in Vallási néprajz, III., ELTE Folklore Tanszék, Budapest, 1987, pp. 382-441.

[62] Béla Varjas, Régi magyar koltok tára, XVIII század. 5., Szombatas énekek, Budapest, Ákademiai kiadá, 1970, p. 6; Szávai Géza, Ierusalimul Secuiesc, Budapest, PONT Kiadó, 2008, p. 231; C. Scott Dixon, Dagmar Freist, Mark Greengrass (edit.), Living with Religious Diversity in Early-Modern Europe, Farnham, Ashgate Publishing Limited, 2009, pp. 81-108.

[63] Szilágyi Sándor, A dési complanatio es a szombatosok kiirtása 1638-ban, Magyar Polgár, 1884, p. 171.

[64] I.-G. Rotaru, D. I. Opriş and B. Roşca Năstăsescu, O istorie a adventismului de ziua a şaptea din România: premise de la căderea în păcat la prima vestire a întreitei solii, Bucureşti, Casa de Editură „Viaţă şi Sănătate”, 2009, pp. 184-193.

[1] The material presented in a sparing form within The 2nd International Virtual Conference on Advanced Research in Scientific Areas (ARSA 2013) Slovakia, December 2-6, 2013.

[2] Near Sovata. The village with the Hungarian name Bözödújfalu, or Bözöd Újfalu, namely Bezidul Nou.

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