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Plots carried on against the autonomy of our Churches.

Half of the Roumanian people of Transylvania and Hungary belong to the orthodox oriental faith.

The Roumanian church of this faith, after many struggles and secular sufferings, only became autonomous in 1868.

Our fellow students name the law which ought to guarantee this autonomy « the most remarkable law » and wish it to be thought the work of Magyar liberalism.

On the contrary, as nearly all our national institutions were, so our ecclesiastical autonomy was decreed under the Austrian absolutism,[1] and the Magyar legislation of 1868, which was then in a manner under the influence of the great Magyar patriot Baron Joseph Eötvös, who was at the same time the sole defender of the nationalities, did but transform into a law the imperial decree.

Our autonomy is the work of the bishop we had then, Baron André de Saguna, and of Eötvös. We willingly acknowledge that this autonomy was received by the Roumanians with extreme joy, but the Magyars had hardly become familiar with the idea that they could dispose of all the strength of our common state, than they began to dispose their batteries against this autonomy.

Here are some of the injustices perpetrated under this head.

I. Election of the Archbishop.

To further the Magyar polities, it was necessary that the Archbishop, consequently the head of the church, should be a man who could serve as an instrument for the ruin of the edifice of our ecclessiastical autonomy, which autonomy gives a national character to the Roumanian church.

The electoral congress, assembled the 27^th October 1876 had elected as Archbishop, bishop Caransebes, Jean Popasu.

But the Magyar government had a candidate, in consequence it proposed to His Majesty not to confirm the newly-made Archbishop in his office. This proposition was complied with.[2]

The congress proceeded to make a new election, in which the majority of the clergy and people protested against the candidate imposed on them, by the Magyar government, by putting blanks into the urn.

It was only at the third balloting that the government succeeded in obtaining a majority for its candidate, the present Archbishop, Miron Romanul.

II. Obstacles put to the meeting of the national ecclesiastical Congress.

The fundamental law of the Roumanian orthodox oriental church, recognized as valid[3] by the Magyar government and by the Crown, declares that the Congress, a supreme body representing the church, shall assemble every three years.

And until the elevation of Miron Romanul, the law was always respected on this point.

But the Magyar government, through its archbishop Miron Romanul prevented the assembly of the Congress 6 times[4] so that for five years consecutively, no Congress was held, and the provision of the law was thus openly violated.

III. Violation of the right of jurisdiction in the question of ecclesiastical and scholastic discipline.

The law of 1868, as well by the terms of the sanction, as by the articles VI and X of its general dispositions, in guaranteeing the autonomy of our church, reserves to it, in precise terms, an independent jurisdiction in all litigious questions, either ecclesiastical or scholastic.

According to the provisions oi this fundamental law,[5] the supreme legal authority in our church is the metropolitan consistory, and the tribunals which decide all the questions concerning the discipline of our professors are the diocesan consistories, subject however to the final decisions of the metropolitan consistory.

In spite of all these clear and distinct decisions of the fundamental law, the Magyar minister of Religion and Instruction, by a flagrant contradiction with the law, and violating the autonomous right of our church, ordains[6] « that all disciplinary law-suits of professors of divers religions, which end in dismissal, shall first be subject to the revision of the minister», which means that the minister assumes the right of control.

IV. Subsidy given to the clergy out of the budget of the State.

Yielding to the reiterated solicitations of bishop André Saguna, His Majesty placed at the disposal[7] of the consistory of Sibiiu, out of the budget of the State, the annual sum of 24.000 florins, to be divided, in concert with its bishop, amongst the clergy of the diocese.

This was observed until 1875.

But it was necessary for the Magyar constitutional government to have part of our clergy under its dependence: and for that reason the Magyar minister informed the Archbishop Miron Romanul. that the royal decree issued at his request (that is at that of the Magyar minister) had been modified, insomuch as, that the distribution of this money would for the future be entrusted to the Magyar minister, who lost no time[8] in sending to the archbishop a statute concerning the distribution of this money.

Conformably to these laws with which we are endowed, the petitions of the clergy must be sent direct to the Magyar ministry, and the assistance given will he paid to the favoured ones direct from the coffers of the State.

The archidiocesan council sent to the minister a remonstrance in which, exposing the violation of the autonomy and dignity of the Church, by the putting in force of these laws, he demands the re-establisment of the provisions of 1861.

The minister replies that he cannot take into consideration[9] the remonstrances of the council.

The 21^st of February 1885, the consistory sent a deputation of 5 members to His Majesty begging him to re-establish the former regulation as to the distribution of these funds.

The Magyar ministry informed[10] the archbishop in course of time, that His Majesty had not thought fit to accede to the petition of the consistory, and had authorized the Magyar minister to reply in the negative; but that the authority of the archbishop should not be completely ruined, he had augmented the sum of 24.000 florins to 28.000; the additional 4000 florins to be at the disposal of the archbishop to be distributed by him, amongst the poor clergy of the diocese.

It may be seen that the help granted to us by an absolutory system, has been employed by Magyar constitutionalism to recompense, it need be, the agents of the politic of Magyarization!

It is easily understood that this being the state of things, our ecclesiastical authorities have found themselves obliged to renounce this pretended sift and, to preserve our clergy from such a demoralizing pressure, they have forbidden them for the future, to ask or to receive any such help from the ministry.

V. The funds for the pensions of the professors.

A statute[11] decrees the creation of a fund to give assistance and pensions to the professors.

This fund was maintained by annual subscriptions, paid regularly by the professors or by the corporations who supported the school.

The law in question exempts[12] from contribution to the fund of the State Annuities all professors and all corporations who have their own fund, in conformity with the exigences of the law.

The last paragraph of this special article, clearly and distinctly exempts from contribution to this fund all the scholastic authorities, who, in the 4 months which follow the sanction of the law, shall have declared that they wish to profit by this privilege of the law. The ministry had fixed the 30^th day of January 1876 as the last date at which such declarations would be accepted.[13]

All our diocesan consistories and particularly that of Arad the 24^th, that of Baransebes the 29^th, and that of Sibiu the 30^th of August 1875, had sent in the declarations required by the law, demanding to be allowed to benefit by the privileges granted by this law.

Nevertheless the Magyar ministry did not permit[14] the consistories to possess their own fund for annuities, and obliged all the professors of our autonomous schools to contribute to the fund of State Annuities, so that the magyarizing State, might hold them at its discretion.

VI. Military schools of the ex-confines of the Banat.

Queen Maria Theresa commanded[15] the government of the Banat to see that in each ecclesiastical and diocesan commune, a school be founded and a professor appointed.

The followers of the Roumanian Greek-Oriental Church therefore founded religious schools in 100 communes of the Banat.

Although the administration of these schools, which have always been called schools of the Non-united Greek faith, has been in the hands of members of the public administration, they have never lost their religious character, which can be proved by numerous authentic acts. [16]

From these acts it clearly results[17] that the military authorities have not administered these ecclesiastic-scholastic affairs under their own authority, but merely in the capacity of agents of the church.

In all these schools no other professors have been appointed but those of the Greek-Oriental Church, and always in concert with the ecclesiastical authorities.

In the communes where the inhabitants belonged to several different religions as many schools viere established as there were religions.

In 1868 a law was promulgated[18] which regulated public instruction and made the distinction between religious and parish schools.

On the eve of transforming into provinces the military confines, the Magyar minister declared[19] to the ecclesiastical authorities that as to those schools that the members of the different religious sects wished to continue to support, he had no intention of transforming them into parish schools.

The instructions contained in the ministerial order[20] addressed to the governor of Timisoara, as royal commissioner, confirmed these views of the minister.

Therein it is declared that by the words « religious character,» is tobe understood the « former character » of the popular schools.

And yet by another ministerial order[21] addressed to the school inspector of the military confines, all the schools of these confines are declared to be parish schools (that is to say Magyar schools.)

It is thus that without even consulting the ecclesiastical authorities, nearly 100 schools have been taken from us, by a simple ministerial order!

This is how the Magyar constitutionalism respects our autonomy guaranteed nevertheless by a fundamental law of the State!

Our Magyar fellow-students boast when they say that the Magyar government grants to our non-united Church 100.000 florins a year.

__________

We must declare that of this sum, half only is given to our Roumanian church, the other half being given to the Serbian church of the same creed.

But we ask, do 50.000 florins suffice for a religion which counts a million and a half of souls, when its followers contribute to the expenses of the State, in the same proportion as the Magyar citizens?.

Is that a just distribution of the money of the State, when this religion must, out of its own resources support 2000 churches and about 1500 schools.

And that one may clearly see how much this Magyar justice calls down vengeance from Heaven, let us recall to mind that the finances of the common State, to which all the non-Magyar nations must contribute, pay each year for the maintenance of the Magyar theatres alone, the sum of 300.000 florins!

And the propagators of this pan-magyarism who take advantage of us with so little shame, have yet the audacity to strike their breasts and exclaim, in alluding to these paltry 50.000 florins given to one religious sect: See how generous the Magyar nation is towards you!

These 50.000 florins are but an insignificant portion of the money which we' ought to receive, considering the millions of florins that Magyarism wrings from our oppressed people.