Our Transylvania Roots

THE STORY OF FRANCIS DAVID

The Rev. Dr. Morris W. Hudgins

Northwest UU Church

November 14, 2010

            Good morning, my name is Francis David.   I lived in Transylvania in the 16th century.  Have you heard of Transylvania?  What can you tell me about my country?  Unfortunately, the thing most people know about my country has to do with a legend—the legend of Count Dracula.  The story of Dracula was first written by an Irish novelist by the name of Bram Stoker just over 100 years ago.  We all know about the story of the vampire Country Dracula, don’t we?

Does this robe remind you of Count Dracula?  It does me too.  If I may step out of my character for a moment, I should tell you this robe was given to me as a present by a Unitarian Church in Transylvania.  A group of women worked many hours to make this robe.  They were saying “thank you” to me and the churches I have served for the many gifts we gave them.  The material for this robe cost them a lot of money.  These people are very poor and they had to save many months to pay for the material.  I will always love them for this gift.  Now I want to return to my story.

I was the leader of the Unitarian Church until my death.  I was raised a Catholic and educated at a Franciscan school in Kolozsvar, the capital of Transylvania.  I then went to the University of Wittenberg where Martin Luther helped to start the Reformation by posting his 95 arguments on the door of the church in Wittenberg.  The Catholic Church disagreed with Luther’s arguments and excommunicated him.  He became the leader of the Lutheran church which spread all over the world.

People who disagreed with the Catholic Church during this period were called Protestants because they protested many of the traditions of the church.  I would become a Protestant leader.  But first I went to Padua, Italy to further my education.  In 1551 I would return to my homeland and become a parish priest and rector of a Catholic school.

I became more and more unhappy with the Catholic Church.  So I became a Lutheran and was elected Superintendent of the Lutheran Church in Transylvania.  For several years I would debate with the Calvinists in Transylvania, until I became convinced by their arguments, and I then became a Calvinist.  We were followers of the reformer, John Calvin from Switzerland.  I then became the Bishop of the Calvinist Reformed Church in Transylvania.

You might think I was confused.  No, I just had an open mind and I read and listed to all the arguments and became convinced by them.  I didn’t want to stop with the Lutheran arguments.  Later I didn’t want to stop with the Calvinist arguments.  I wanted to continue the Reformation.

While I was bishop of the Reformed Church I was made the Court Preacher.  One of the important individuals in the court was a doctor by the name of Biandrata from Italy.  He was a very learned man. He convinced me that the doctrine of the Trinity was not in the Bible.  It was developed by the early church fathers.  Anyone who did not believe in the Trinity was called a “heretic” which means to choose.

In 1566 I began preaching the Unitarian message in my pulpits.  Many people in Transylvania were convinced of my arguments and more and more of them called themselves “Unitarian.”  This was the beginning of the Unitarian Church.  The church grew widely in Transylvania and Poland.  It was the Minor Reformed Church in Polant with similar ideas.  These ideas would spread to Holland and England, then to your country.

Something very important happened in 1568.  Our King, John Sigismund, the only Unitarian king in history, called together a large group of priests and reformers.  For ten days we debated the important issues of the day.  We could not convince each other of our beliefs.  People wanted to hold on to their respective beliefs.  The Catholics wanted to stay Catholic.  The Lutherans wanted to stay Lutherans.  The Calvinists wanted to stay Calvinists and the Unitarians wanted to be Unitarians.

In all the other countries of Europe they would not allow this to happen.  The Kings and Nobles would tell the people they had to be one religion or another.  So if you didn’t agree with that religion you might be banished from the country.  So people would move from Italy to France to Sweden, Germany, Poland or Transylvania so they could worship like they desired.

This didn’t make sense to me.  So I convinced the King to legalize the four religious movements.  He sent out a decree throughout the land which said:

Preachers shall be allow to preach the Gospel everywhere, each according to his own understanding of it.  If the community wish to accept such preaching, well and good; if not, they shall not be compelled, but shall be allowed to keep the preachers they prefer.

And this is my favorite part of the decree:

No one shall be made to suffer on account of his religion, since faith is the gift of God.

This may seem obvious to you, but it was radical in 1568.  Some historians have called this the “Magna Carta” of liberal religion.  The Magna Carta guaranteed political and civil liberties to the people of England in the 13th century.  The Edict of Toleration guaranteed the people of Transylvania religious freedom in the 16th century.

I am told that a Present of the United States, Thomas Jefferson, of Virginia, was impressed by this decree and worked hard to make sure Americans would have this same religious freedom.  This is an important development.  Lutherans, Catholics, Calvinists and Unitarians can exist side by side.

The Edict of Toleration was made binding on all future kings.  This was also important because King John would died in a very tragic carriage accident ten years after he became king.  The Edict would protect the Unitarians as well as others from being punished for their belief.

There was one error in the decree.  What about other religious beliefs outside of these four?  What about the Eastern Orthodox Church?  The Edict did not allow for them.  It also did not allow for any new religious propositions or statements that would come along.  These would be viewed as breaking the law.  They called them “innovations!”

Remember, I believed in continuing the Reformation.  I had now ideas.  For one, I didn’t believe we should worship Jesus.  He was a man, not a god.  Some Unitarians agreed with me and others did not.  Then in my older years I was charged with innovation.  The new rulers learned that I spoke out against the worship of Jesus.  I believe we should pray to God, not to Jesus.  This upset a lot of people.  I held this belief for six years, and then finally preached it from the pulpit.  It was judged to be innovation and I was thrown in prison.

One of my greatest disappointments was my friend Dr. Biandrata.  He disagreed with me and did not come to my defense.  I was thrown to the wolves, sacrificed for my beliefs.  For six months I was in prison, and finally I died there.  The Unitarians in Transylvania consider me a hero.  I sacrificed my life for the right to preach your beliefs and stand by your faith.

While I was in prison, I became very sick.  I was 69 years old and very frail.  I would not relent to their pressure to change my beliefs.  On the wall of the prison I wrote these words:

Nor lightening, nor cross, nor sword of the Pope, nor death’s visible face,

No power whatever, can stay the progress of Truth.

What I have felt, I have written;

With faithful heart, I have spoken.

After my death, the dogmas of Untruth shall fall.

The Unitarians of Transylvania make pilgrimages to the Deva prison where I died and was buried.  They also visit the city of Torda where the Edict of Toleration was proclaimed.  Unitarianism lives in Transylvania.  We say “Edy Az Isten”—God is one.

Thank you for hearing my story.