The chief internal event of the i6th century was the triumph, after a severe struggle, of the Reformation. The Saxons were converted to the Lutheran Church, the majority of the Magyars to the Calvinist, and another party, including most of the Szeklers, to the Unitarian. A certain party, usually identified with the Hapsburg cause, remained Catholic. The diet, by a series of reso lutions (1557, 1568, 1571, Compilation of 1669), declared the Calvinist, Catholic, Lutheran, and Unitarian religions to be alone "received" and entitled to free exercise and equal rights for all time. By this means it bound another shackle on the Rumanian peasantry, who were Greek Orthodox and controlled by a pa triarch in Wallachia. The backbone of the national movement was formed by the various Protestant creeds, and the efforts of the Catholic Bathorys, assisted by the Jesuits, to carry through the Counter-Reformation were a main cause of the confused wars which filled the last years of the century, in the course of which a fourth party in the person of Michael, voivode of Wallachia (1593-1601), unexpectedly intervened and for a year (1600) actually united Moldavia, Wallachia, and Transylvania in a national Rumanian state, for which, however, he did homage to the emperor. He was murdered in 1601 by order of General Basta, and in 1604 the emperor Rudolph secured Transylvania ; but the persecutions indulged in by the imperial troops under General Basta, and the proselytizing fury of the Jesuits, provoked a speedy rebellion. On April 5, 16o5, the diet elected as prince Stephen Bocskai (q.v.), who, by the Peace of Vienna (June 23, 1606), forced the emperor to recognize him as prince of an enlarged Transylvania and secured the confirmation of all traditional liberties; while by the Truce of Zsitvatorok (Nov. 1606) he ne
gotiated a 20 years' truce between the emperor and the sultan. Unfortunately, Bocskai died on Dec 29, 1606. Gabriel Báthory (1608-13) was the most tyrannical ruler Transylvania ever had; but the reign of Gabriel Bethlen (1613-29) restored the princi pality's former glories and is generally regarded as its golden age.
Under Bethlen and George Rakoczy I. (1631-48) Transylvania was again a power of international importance and the chief bul wark of Protestantism in Eastern Europe. The emperor, dis tracted by the Thirty Years' War, was obliged to treat with the princes of Transylvania as equals, while the Turkish empire, for the time, was unable to interfere with its nominal vassal. Only when George Rakoczy II. (1648-57) was defeated in an unlucky campaign against Poland did the reviving Porte again intervene, depose Rakoczy, and, after six princes had died violent deaths within three years, appoint a Szekler, Michael Apafi 0660, who ruled as a mere vassal of the Turks; and Transylvania sank again into extreme misery.
When the Turks were defeated before Vienna (1683), and their power again declined, the Estates opened secret negotiations with the emperor Leopold I., whose suzerainty they recognized under the Treaties of Vienna (1686) and Blasendorf (Blaj) (1687). Apafi died in 1690, being succeeded by his son, Apafi II. On Dec.
4, 1691, the emperor Leopold, after long negotiations, issued the diploma which regulated relations between him and his subjects. Period of Hapsburg Rule.—By this most important docu ment the emperor swore to uphold the constitution of Transyl vania, which was again considered de jure a part of Hungary, confirmed the privileges and liberties of the three "nations" and four "received religions," and agreed that the diet should meet annually ; but also imposed a tribute on Transylvania, stationed a garrison in it, and put it under a "gubernium," directed after 1694 from the Siebenbfirgische Hofkanzlei in Vienna. In 1697 Apafi was induced to abdicate. The Porte recognized the situa tion under the Peace of Karlovitz (1699). In Transylvania it self the resistance to the imperial troops and the Jesuits ceased only after the Peace of Szatmar (i7I ). In 1721 the Transyl vanian diet accepted the Pragmatic Sanction.