Through the proposed research we wish to
make up a more complete picture of the problem of illegal relationships,
illegitimate births and divorces caused by sexual deviations at the Hungarian population
of Transylvania. We tried to select original
sources which give us the possibility of conducting the same analysis at all
three religious communities, sources that complement one another thus providing
the possibility of controlling data. We are proposing the analysis of the registers
of civil status, the visitation protocols and the protocols established by the
forums with the right to treat matrimonial cases.
We are going to resort to quantifying,
processing the sources breaking down to years and decades the information
referring to:
– the number of illegitimate births and
that of births in general,
– the number of illegal relationships
attested by the visitations, categorizing these deviations on the criterion of
the existence of an illegitimate child, respectively the duration of these
relationships, and whether it is cohabitation or adultery
– the number of divorces caused by
sexual deviations (by category: adultery, adultery attested by the existance of
an illegitimate child, concubinage) and the overall number of divorces.
The goal of these investigations is
knowing the tendencies that manifested on the long term about illegitimacy and
marital non-conformity. Great importance falls also on the nominal, the qualitative
analysis (cohort studies) that will allow correction of the statistical data, knowledge
of the underside of the investigated phenomena, tracking down the fate of those
involved in illegitimate relationships, that is entering the deepest intimacies
of the individual’s life, and monitoring the changes in the set of values and
in the morality of the population subject to study.
According to the categories of the
enlisted sources I have structured the research into three phases:
1. The
researched topic: Illegitimate births as part of overall
birth rate
Archival sources: Registers of civil
status.We are proposing for research the registers of the Roman Catholics, the Reformed
and the Unitarians from Odorhei and Cristur. We have chosen three larger
localities from different areas: Corund (Roman Catholic population), Eliseni (Reformed
population) and Dârjiu (Unitarian population).
Investigated Problems:
– the number of illegitimate births and
their development
– the status of women giving birth to
illegitimate children
– women with more than one illegitimate
child
– factors (economic, social, etc.) that might
have influenced the evolution of illegitimacy
– differences and
similarities between the studied Roman Catholic, Reformed and Unitarian communities
(covering all the issues listed above)
– differences and
similarities between the urban and rural areas (covering all the issues listed
above)
2. The
researched topic: Illegal relationships, community and
church response
Archival sources: Canonical
visitations
Investigated problems:
– the number of illegitimate relations
noticed in the canonical visitations and their type: fornication before
marriage, adultery, concubinage
– trends that have occurred over the
centuries in the sexual deviations
– types of the noticed illegitimate
relations, sexual deviations before marriage and deflections of married people
– recidivist cases
– assessment of these relationships by
the society, the functioning of the self regulation
mechanisms of the society
– church response, methods of
influencing collective morality
– differences and
similarities between the urban and rural areas (covering all the issues
listed above)
– differences and similarities
between the studied Roman Catholic, Reformed and Unitarian
communities (covering all the issues listed
above)
3. The
researched topic: The dissolution of the family group
Concubinage, an alternative to marriage
Archival sources: Protocols of the
matrimonial courts at the Unitarians and Reformed, respectively the matrimonial
documents at the Roman Catholics
Investigated problems:
– events preceding divorce and the
stages of family breakup
– evolution of divorce, „periods of
crisis”, causes of oscillations
– duration of marriages broken by
divorce
– age structure of the divorced
– causes of divorce
– proportion of divorces initiated
because of illegitimate relationships and their evolution
– adultery and concubinage
– factors that have influenced the evolution
of marital non-conformity
– adultery, a specific sin of women?
– illegitimate children
– reaction of the society (based on
testimonies) and its evolution, differences in reaction of the
society to the sins of women,
respectively to the deviations of men, changes in the collective
mentality
– church reaction
– remarriage of the divorced
– divorce after divorce, percentage of
the recidivists
– differences and
similarities between the urban and rural areas (covering all the issues
listed above)
– differences and
similarities between the studied Roman Catholic, Reformed and Unitarian
communities (covering all the issues listed
above)
