ABSTRACT
After the collapse of the medieval Hungarian kingdom, the Ottomans and Habsburgs battled to establish their supremacy over Transylvania. This chapter focuses on the role which the town of Cluj played in Transylvanian religious life, and in the development of anti-Trinitarianism within the principality during the second half of the sixteenth century. Despite the dramatic political changes to afflict Transylvania during the sixteenth century, Cluj maintained its status as a royal free town throughout the period. From the late middle ages Cluj, unlike most other major towns in Transylvania, had a linguistically mixed population, divided between German- and Hungarian-speaking residents. The involvement of the magistrates of Cluj in selecting and providing financial support for the town's plebanus and in taking responsibility for the employment of parish preachers took on a new significance when Reformation ideas began to make an impact in Cluj from the 1540s.
