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This article discusses the administrative structure of the Society of Jesus and the role that Jesuit's played within it in eighteenth century Transylvania, Romania. Contrary to the commonly accepted understanding of their role the article argues that Jesuit brothers actually took on many roles beyond that of priest. Some members of the order also performed many practical duties, which added to the community in ways which went beyond religious life. These included cultural activities, music, and having a trade.

An unedited document located in the Eötvös Loránd University Library in Budapest contains an account of the Jesuit mission to Cluj, Transylvania (now Romania) for the years 1659 to 1662. This Fragmentum, which was apparently not intended for publication, reveals many details of the Jesuits' own understanding of their mission: conversions, encounters with the supernatural, and interventions in legal processes are complemented with commentary on contemporary political and ecclesiastical developments. The picture that emerges is of an isolated band of men working in difficult and often dangerous circumstances. They are capable of keen observation, but their understanding of the world, and in particular of causality is entirely Baroque and pre-modern. The Fragmentum is therefore a valuable point of departure for understanding the activities of Jesuits throughout Transylvania and Royal Hungary in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For 80 years the Society of Jesus operated a complex of institutions in the Transylvanian town of Cluj, including an academy, a school for aristocratic boys, a residence, and an architecturally distinguished church. The Jesuits endeavored to convert the local population, which included Orthodox Romanians, Jews, Roma (Gypsies), Armenians, Lutherans, and Unitarians, to Catholicism and to introduce the program of studies outlined in their curricular guide, the Ratio Studiorum. While their conversion efforts met with only modest success, the Jesuits had a major impact on the culture of the region, training the local elites, introducing the Baroque aesthetic in the visual arts, operating a printing press and pharmacy, and employing outstanding scientists as teachers. The reasons for the failure of the Jesuits to make more progress in their missionary efforts may be found in both local circumstances and in the institutional culture of the Society itself Political forces beyond the control of the Society sealed its fate, and it was suppressed by order of the pope in 1773. The vestiges of the Jesuit era in Cluj, however, are still visible today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]