The University and the Parish. The Medieval Books from Cisnădie/Heltau

The present paper focuses on the interconnected relationship between higher education, ecclesiastical career and local learning in the area inhabited by the Transylvanian Saxons during the “long 15th century”. This discussion revolves around the phenomenon of book accumulation that can be linked to the priests and the parish church of Cisnădie/Heltau, a small settlement with urban aspirations in southern Transylvania. The clergy of Cisnădie’s Saint Walpurgis parish church took advantage of the availability of university education in Central European institutions founded in the second half of the 14th century (Prague, Vienna and Cracow), and brought back from their academic sojourns the texts needed for the daily functioning of the parish: sermon collections, canonical treatises, manuals on pastoral ministry. By producing in turn local writings, the literate clergymen used such books as vehicles of both instruction and transfer of knowledge, as well as for an improved pastoral care.

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