ABSTRACT
The Protestant emphasis on the religion of the word has naturally suggested to historians the importance of linguistic and ethnic boundaries for the spread of the Reformation. It has been easy to see the adoption of the Lutheran faith by the Saxon nation of Transylvania as an expression of linguistic solidarity, and of the commercial and cultural links with German areas.1 In the same vein, the later adoption of Calvinism by the Magyars in Transylvania has been attributed to ethnic antagonism as they sought to distance themselves from Lutheranism, which was seen as quintessentially German.2 However, despite the fact that the Calvinist and Lutheran confessions of Cluj and Sibiu can be described as Hungarian and German respectively, the importance of ethnic antagonism and ethnic identity in determining confessional alle-
glance in Transylvania is not as clear as these arguments suggest.3 In this chapter I explore the connection between ethnic identity and religious adherence in the Reformation in Transylvania. In doing so, I suggest that the different religious cultures of ethnic groups before the Reformation may provide a more satisfactory explanation of their subsequent religious histories than ideas of ethnic tension.
