Biserica De Rit Grec A Românilor Din Transilvania La Sfârşitul Veacului Al Xvlea: Abordări Moderne – Perspective Medievale

Abstract Ever since the days of Pope Pius II (1458-1464), Transylvania was another of “God’s Playgrounds”. This peculiar “status”, that may have well predated the Union of Florence (1439), left its mark on education and on scholarship, especially after the Reformation(s) set in, ultimately leading also to the Union of Alba Iulia (1697) between the local Romanian hierarchs and Rome. Through the latter union, (part of) the Romanians of Transylvania entered union with Rome. The nationalist 19 th century was consequently confronted with an additional dilemma: “one nation, but at least two churches”. This was true both in the case of the Hungarians and in that of the Romanians. This dilemma survived two World Wars and the Fall of Communism. The present paper is therefore both a survey of much-debated issue (the medieval ecclesiastical hierarchy of the Romanians of Transylvania, of the Wallachians, according to the name used for them in medieval and early-modern sources) and a case-study (of the archbishopric seated in Feleac), based both on the extant medieval sources and on modern views that have often turned scientific questions into highly political matters, prior and after both World Wars.