ABSTRACT
With Antitrinitarians preaching, as at least one Jesuit thought, that women had no souls, or, at best, that their souls were the same as those of dogs, there was scope for even more than the habitual optimism of members of the Society of Jesus about the spiritual fruits that could be harvested in God’s Transylvanian vineyard.1 Arriving in Cluj (Klausenburg, Kolozsvár) in the frozen winter of 1579-1580 in two groups from Vienna and Poland respectively, it is however doubtful that these first arrivals knew much about the misogyny of souls, but they did recognise Antitrinitarianism as unquestionably a dire pestilence. Moreover, those from Poland knew first-hand how difficult it was to help such infected souls. In these circumstances their optimism drew strength in pragmatic terms from three aspects: the support of the prince, István Báthory; the welcome from Catholics who had been bereft of systematic sacerdotal care since the expulsions of 1556; and the assumption that German-speaking Saxon Lutherans would be soft targets for conversion.
