Stratificarea intelectualităţii laice din Transilvania în secolele XVI-XVII în contextul raporturilor culturale Occident-Răsărit
The stratification of the laic intellectuality in Transylvania in the 16th-17th centuries in the context of the west-east relationships

Summary/Abstract: The life and organization of the intellectuality in Transylvania met important mutations in the 16th-17th centuries. In the context of the diversified West-East cultural relations, new laic elements appeared, while the laicization of the intellectual society was developing in Transylvania, even if it became more religious. With the apparition of new categories of intellectuals, this social layer grew in number, especially in the case of the laic and semi-laic intellectuals (jurists, clerks, physicians, chemists, teachers and school masters etc.). As a result of the political and religious transformations, the Transylvanian intellectuality became more divided from the religious viewpoint, but more homogenized from the viewpoint of origin and material situation. In fact, the great majority of this intellectuality derived from the unprivileged social classes and layers (townsmen, boroughs men, free peasants, serfs), and only higher positions were occupied by the learned members of aristocracy. The material conditions of the different categories of intellectuals did not reflect major inequalities. Nevertheless, the priests and mostly their “aristocracy” enjoyed better material conditions than other intellectual categories, though even the most favoured representatives could not become feudal landlords. The development of the intellectual layer in the 16th-17th centuries contributed to the cultural evolution in Transylvania.

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