ABSTRACT
The initial patent of 1692, reinforced by the political and military presence of the Habsburg regime, was followed by substantial enticements: in 1697, Uniates were explicitly identified as eligible for schooling “sine discrimine” and for “omnis generis officia.”1 In February of the same year, a “Great Synod” was held in Alba Iulia, whereby those Orthodox clergy who became Uniates were officially delivered from the domination of the Calvinist “Superintendent” of Transylvania. At the synod Teofil, the Orthodox metropolitan who had been won over by the Jesuits, treated his listeners to an account of the persecutions suffered by the Orthodox Church under the control of the Calvinists, and then related the benefits union with Rome would bring.2 Paulus Ladislaus Báranyi, a Hungarian Jesuit who had been appointed the head of the Romanian Uniate Church, followed with an explicit assurance that the Greek Rite would be preserved unchanged.3 History records no objections or questions raised by the attending Orthodox clergy, or by their flocks. The Union of the Churches was announced on 10 June 1697, signed by Teofil and a dozen protopopes or archpriests.4 In the view of Ştefan Pascu, the synod of Orthodox clergy held in Alba Iulia in 1697 in fact accepted the Union, subject to the granting of “accepted nation” status for the Romanian population.5 If so, these hopes were to be bitterly disappointed. By the end of year Teofil was dead, poisoned, some said, by Calvinists fearing his defection to Rome and their loss of control over him.6
