Elemér Illyés : National Minorities in Romania

2. The Uniates, or Greek Catholics, had officially broken away from the Orthodox Church by a Union with the Roman Catholic Church, formalized by a Charter issued on February 16, 1699, by the Austrian emperor Leopold I. Valuable information on the Uniate Church can be found in J. Crisian, Beitrag zur Geschichte der kirchlichen Union der Romänen in Siebenbürgen unter Leopold I, (Hermannstadt: 1882), and in Biserica Romana Unita. Doua sute cincizeci de ani de istorie, [The Romanian Uniate Church. Two Hundred and Fifty Years of History], (Madrid: 1952). See further S. Fischer-Galati, L'église unie de Roumanie. Dix ans de persécution 1948-1958, (Paris: 1959); Silviu Dragomir, "Rominii din Transilvania si unirea cu biserica Romei" [The Transylvanian Romanians and the Union with the Roman Church], in Studii si materiale de istorie medie, no. 3, 1959, pp. 323-337.

3. Keith Hitchins, "Samuel Clain and the Rumanian Enlightenment in Transylvania", in Slavic Review, XXIII, no. 4, December 1964, pp. 660-675.

4. For a detailed discussion, see Friedrich Teutsch, Geschichte der evangelischen Kirche in Siebenbürgen, vol. 1: 1150-1699, vol. 2: 1700-1917 (Hermannstadt: 1921 and 1922).

5. For a detailed discussion, see Erdélyi Magyar Évkönyv 1918-1929, [Transylvanian Hungarian Yearbook, 1918-1929], volume I, eds., István Sulyok and László Fritz, (Cluj: 1930), pp. 38-39, 62.

6. The Moslem community had four muftis and 307 ecclesiastics, all in the area of Dobrugea. The number of adherents was approximately 180,000. The Baptist Church also lacked a central organization. It had approximately 105 congregations with 3,113 chapels. The number of adherents was approximately 50,000 throughout Romania. The small community of Seventh-Day Adventists had seven congregations with 520 meeting-houses and about 15,000 members. The congregations of the Lipovan Church (Old Believers) were concentrated in Bucovina, Bessarabia, and Dobrugea and had approximately 50,000 members. The superintendency of the Presbyterian Church possessed three church-districts, 25 parishes, and 32,648 adherents. The Armeno-Gregorian Church had one bishopric (Bucharest) and 50,000 adherents. A valuable source of information on the distribution of denominations in Romania can be found in Recensamantul populatiei din 29 decemvrie 1930 [The Census of Romania on December 29, 1930], pp. 70-73; the data relating to Transylvania include the Banat, Crisana and Maramures. See further Stephen Fischer-Galati, ed., "Religion," in Romania, (New York: 1956), pp. 132, 135-137; also R.L. Wolff, The Balkans in our Time, (Cambridge, Mass.: 1956), pp. 559-561.

7. Erdélyi Magyar Évkönyv 1918-1929, op. cit., p. 72.

8. Die Nationalitäten in den Staaten Europas, ed., E. Ammende, (Vienna: 1931), [Nachtrag, 1932], p. 416.

9. Roumania Ten Years After, issued by the American Committee on the Rights of Religious Minorities, (Boston: 1928), p. 100.

10. The representative of the Transylvanian Roman Catholic Church at the local level and, later, the manager of its wealth was the "Status Catholicus Transylvaniae," founded in 1698; a large part of its property was expropriated by the Romanian state between the two world wars; in 1948 it was nationalized and its name was changed to "Status Romano-Catholicus Romaniae."

11. For more detail, see Alexandre Cretzianu, Captive Rumania, (New York: 1956), p. 176.

12. Protest note of the Apostolic Nuncio to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the RPR, October 2, 1948.

13. Decree No. 358.

14. Law No. 177/1948. Monitorul Oficial [Official Gazette], Part I, August 4, 1948.

15. Cf., Ernst Chr. Suttner, "Kirchen und Staat," in Rumänien, ed. Klaus-Detlev, Grothusen, Südosteuropa Handbuch, vol. II, (Göttingen: 1977), p. 462.

16. Monitorul Oficial, September 18, 1948.

17. The Verbal Protest of Mgr. Gerard Patrick O'Hara, Apostolic Nuncio in Bucharest to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, No. 2130/1948 (October 2, 1948).

18. Decree No. 358.

19. Decree-Law No. 37, Monitorul Oficial, February 5, 1949.

20. Cf., R. Janin, "L'Église Catholique en Roumanie," in La Documentation Catholique, no. 1092, April, 1951.

21. On the names and fates of the various bishops, see Radio Free Europe Situation Report, Romania, December 10, 1965.

22. Decree No. 810/1949, issued by the Council of Ministers on August 1, 1949.

23. For more detail, see Kirchen im Sozialismus. Kirche und Staat in den osteuropäischen sozialistischen Republiken, edited and revised by Giovanni Barberini, Martin Stöhr, and Erich Weingartner, (Frankfurt am Main: 1977).

24. For more detail, see E.C. Suttner, "50 Jahre rumänisches Patriarchat. Seine Geschichte und die Entwicklung seines Kirchenrechts," Ostkirchliche Studien, no. 24, 1975; no. 25, 1976.

25. Decree No. 334/1970. Cf. E.C. Suttner, "Kirchen und Staat," in Rumänien, Südosteuropa-Handbuch, vol. II, p. 471.

26. Cf., The Hungarian Nationality in Romania, The Institute of Political Science and the Study of the Nationality Question, (Bucharest: 1976), p. 23.

27. Quoted by Alfred Bohmann, Menschen und Grenzen, vol. 2, Bevölkerung und Nationalitäten in Südosteuropa, Rumänien, pp. 101-218, (Cologne: 1969), p. 198.

28. Cf., The Hungarian Nationality in Romania, p.23.

29. Between the two world wars, two Catholic weeklies, a monthly and five other journals were published.

30. The Reformed Church communities along the Hungarian-Romanian border, which did not belong to the Transylvanian bishopric, organized themselves into a separate bishopric, with its seat in Arad, after the First World War (December 14, 1920). The newly formed bishopric was only recognized by the Romanian state in a law issued on November 22, 1939.

31. For data relating to the Churches and clergy, see The Hungarian Nationality in Romania, p. 23.

32. Brasov/Brassó, Alba Iulia/Gyulafehérvár, Cluj/Kolozsvár, Dej/Dés, Tirgu Mures/Marosvásárhely, Tirnaveni/Dicsöszentmárton, Odorhei/Székely-udvarhely, and Sfintu Gheorghe/Sepsiszentgyörgy.

33. Carei/Nagykároly, Baia Mare/Nagybánya, Zalau/Zilah, Oradea/Nagyvárad and Timisoara/Temesvár.

34. Between the two world wars, the Reformed Church had three well edited monthly publications and the regularly published Református Naptár (Reformed Church Calendar).

35. Bistritz, Hermannstadt, Kronstadt, Mediasch, Mühlbach, and Schässburg. A source of information on the Lutheran Church is E. Wagner, Quellen zur Geschichte der Siebenbürger Sachsen 1191-1975, (Cologne-Vienna: 1976), pp. 425-426.

36. A. Bohmann, Menschen und Grenzen, p. 198.

37. The Hungarian Nationality in Romania, p. 23.

38. Between the two world wars Unitárius Közlöny [Unitarian Gazette] was an important journal, published in an edition of 8,000-10,000 copies, while Keresztény Magvetö appeared in an edition of 5,000-6,000 copies.

39. The Hungarian Nationality in Romania, p. 23.

40. Richard F. Staar, Die Kommunistischen Regierungssysteme in Osteuropa, (Stuttgart: 1977), pp. 218-219.

41. Monitorul Oficial, July 12, 1949.

42. Cf., Kirchen im Sozialismus, op. cit., p. 33.

Elemér Illyés : National Minorities in Romania