The Extreme Unction Forced upon Reformed Women

Confessional Rites of Dying in the Ego-Documents of the Eighteenth-Century Transylvanian Countess Kata Bethlen

Abstract

During the three centuries of the “Long Reformation,” differences in religious rites were manifested not only on the occasion of funerals and in the commemoration of the dead; numerous examples from various regions of Europe also show that the deathbed itself became a site of religious strife. Significant tension arose if the rite employed during the process of dying diverged from the religious traditions of the dying person or those bidding them farewell. This is particularly true of the Extreme Unction, insofar as this Catholic sacrament was administered to dying Protestants. In the present study, I examine this religious tension, primarily by analyzing the Ego-documents of the eighteenth-century Transylvanian countess, Kata Bethlen (1700–1759). I argue that the growing significance attached to the rituals of dying can also be interpreted in the context of power politics and ecclesiastical policy, and that the increasing prominence of denominational elements may in part be understood in light of this development.