sought to stem the tide by inviting the Transylvanian ministers to a joint debate at Debreczen in Hungary, where everything was strongly orthodox; but as this was out of the jurisdiction of King John, so that they could not enjoy the protection of his tolerant laws, and as a few weeks before an antitrinitarian minister had been seized in that vicinity and imprisoned without trial, Biandrata suspected a plot, and would not let the invitation be accepted. Instead, the king, wishing to see the debated questions settled, and to quiet the disturbances that were arising out of them, summoned a general synod of the ministers of both Hungary and Transylvania to meet in his own palace at Gyulafehervar, to hear a formal debate on the subject. Five debaters, led by Biandrata and David, represented the Unitarian side, while on the side of the Calvinists were six speakers, headed by their bishop, Melius. It was the greatest debate in the whole history of Unitarianism. It took place at Gyualafehervar in the great hall of the palace before the king, the whole court, and a great throng of ministers and nobles, who occasionally enlivened the proceedings by their questions or comments. The debate began on March 8, 1568, at five o'clock in the morning, with solemn prayers on each side; it was conducted in Latin, and lasted ten full days. Melius appealed to the authority of the Bible, the creeds, the Fathers, and the orthodox theologians; David, to the Bible alone. The discussion began with some heat, which did not much cool off as it went on. On the ninth day the Calvinists asked to be excused from listening further. The king intimated that this would be confessing defeat, and they remained; but as nothing was being accomplished to bring the parties to agree (how could it ever have been really expected?) the king ended the debate the

next day, recommending that the ministers give themselves to prayer, seek harmony, and refrain from mutual abuse as unbecoming in them.

The debate was generally regarded as a complete victory for the Unitarians, whose side the king evidently favored; but the Calvinist historian's comment is that it ended without any profit to the Church of Christ, which was perhaps his way of stating the same thing. In the course of the debate Biandrata showed himself a poor debater, and he did not enter public discussion again; but David, who opened and closed the debate, and was ready with a convincing answer to every question or objection, covered himself with glory. He now returned home to Kolozsvar. The news of his triumph had preceded him. The streets were crowded to receive him. Without waiting for him to get to the church, the people made him mount a large boulder at a street corner (it is still preserved by the Unitarians of Kolozsvar as a sacred relic) and speak to them of his victorious new doctrine. They received his word with the greatest enthusiasm, and after a time they took him on their shoulders and carried him to the great church in the square, where he went on with his sermon. His eloquence was so persuasive that on that day, so the tradition runs, the whole population of Kolozsvar accepted the Unitarian faith.1 Not quite the whole, however; for the Lutheran Saxons of Kolozsvar were so disgusted with this proceeding that they left the city forthwith, and had it removed from the number of their seven fortified towns which had for centuries enjoyed special privileges granted to the Saxons.2 From now on for many years Kolozsvar was practically a

1 By a confusion of dates between the two debates at Gyulafehervar (see page 223), this event is often wrongly placed in 1566 instead

of 1568.

2 See page 212 n.

Unitarian city, all its churches and schools were Unitarian, and all the members of the city Council and the higher officials were Unitarians. In this year, 1568, David for the third time became bishop, this time of the Unitarian churches.

Being thus defeated in Transylvania, the Calvinists now appealed to the judgment of the professors in the German universities, who were considered the highest authorities in Protestant Europe on questions of theology. Of course the replies were in their favor, for all Germany was orthodox; and several of the professors wrote books against David and Biandrata, and tried to stir up feeling against them. They also began somewhat to rally their forces in Transylvania; while in Hungary, all through the year 1568, they kept holding synods in different districts, confirming the orthodox doctrine and condemning the Antitrinitarians. Disregarding the king's decree of tolerance, they persecuted and drove out ministers holding Unitarian views, if they would not deny their faith, and forbade them to speak in their own defense, lest they thus make more converts to their views.

Many, however, wished that a discussion might be held in the Hungarian language, which they could all understand. David therefore determined to carry the war into the enemy's country, and with the king's sanction called another synod to meet at Nagyvarad (Grosswardein) October 10, 1569. The orthodox clergy denied his right to summon them to a synod, having in Melius a bishop of their own, and at first were unwilling to attend, though at length they yielded. The conditions of the debate were carefully drawn, and officers appointed as usual. David presented a statement of his faith and of the propositions he stood ready to defend. His opponents offered counter-arguments, and presented

propositions of their own, signed by sixty ministers. Gaspar Bekes presided, the most powerful magnate in the kingdom, and the king's most intimate councillor. The king and his court were present with many generals and magnates, and the leading clergy from both Transylvania and Hungary; and he himself frequently took part in the discussion. The attendance was larger than even at Gyulafehervar. There were nine disputants on each side, though the debate was mainly between David and Melius, and was carried on with the greatest intensity. On one occasion Melius attacked David with such violence that the king himself rebuked him, and suggested that if the orthodox ministers did not believe in freedom of conscience they had better remove to some other country. "We wish that in our dominions," said he, "there be freedom of conscience; for we know that faith is the gift of God, and that one's conscience can not be forced." David pleaded eloquently for religious liberty. After six days the king saw that nothing further could be gained, and having charged the orthodox with evading the real issue he closed the debate. He, Bekes, the court, and the majority of the company were won to David's views, and henceforth the king clearly accepted the Unitarian faith. The orthodox minority contented themselves with drawing up and signing a confession of faith of their own, condemning David and his views. This was the decisive debate in the controversy over the Trinity, and it clinched the victory won at Gyulafehervar two years before.

CHAPTER XXIII

UNITARIANISM IN TRANSYLVANIA UNTIL THE DEATH OF FRANCIS DAVID, 1569-1579

The churches accepting David's views had now definitely separated from those of the orthodox faith, although it does not appear precisely when or precisely how the division was finally effected. They had thus far no distinctive name of their own. For a time the ministers signed themselves "ministers of the Evangelical profession"; in laws of 1576 they are mentioned as "those holding the religion of Francis David"; and as late as 1577 a vote of the Diet of Torda refers to them merely as "of the other religion"; while since the center of their power was at Kolozsvar, the churches and their bishop were also long spoken of as "of the Kolozsvar Confession." There is some reason to think that in the debate between David and Melius the name Unitarian was already applied to the party of David, though it is not found in records until 1600, and it did not become the authorized designation of the Church until 1638. The guess of a Calvinist historian writing in the middle of the eighteenth century, that the name was derived from a union between the four religions of Transylvania in 1568, though it has often been quoted as authentic, must be dismissed as incorrect. The name is undoubtedly derived from Unitarians' belief in the unity of God, as the name Trinitarian was supposed to be derived from belief in the Trinity. Catholic writers of the period, however, commonly called