SEMPRE FORTI ALLA SANTA FEDE – CONFESSIONAL DISCOURSE ON RELIGIOUS CONFORMITY IN THE CATHOLIC SOURCES CONCERNING OTTOMAN BALKANS (17th AND 18th C.)
Rafael Dorian Chelaru
“Alexandru Ioan Cuza” Police Academy, Bucharest
Abstract: The present article explores some of the main features of the confessional discourse present in the ecclesiastic sources dealing with Catholicism in Early Modern Ottoman Balkans (particularly Bosnia and Albania) with a special stress on the issue of religious conformity. Our conclusion is that the Catholic clergy, although aware of the various local conditions and demonstrating often a solid knowledge of their subjects’ minds, operated with a confessional mindset embedded with the Tridentine norms.
Keywords: Catholicism, Islam, Confessional Discourse, Religious Conformity, Syncretism