The Romanian Orthodox Church of Moldavia and Wallachia in the Time of Organic Regulations (1831-1832), between Religious Traditionalism and Political Modernization
Journal Title: Codrul Cosminului - Year 2014, Vol 20, Issue 1
Abstract
In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, in the Romanian Orthodox Church had occurred a separation between the followers of the "tradition" orthodox and those attracted to the Western European type of the socio-political modernization. The clerics of the first category remained attached to the idea of "Orthodox Nation" (natio as a privileged socio-national group, in the medieval sense), seeking restoration of the Byzantine Empire. The second category consisted of clergy attached to the Western European model (at the political-social level, not at the religious one), advocating for the establishment of several Balkan states, based on the democratic ideals and on the respect for citizens' rights, yet absents in that part of Europe. These clerics realized that acquiring of the national freedom of Moldavia and Wallachia is possible only through the gradual adoption of the Western political and social culture, accompanied by an armed struggle of the peoples enslaved to the Ottoman power. The followers of the Western European socio-political model had prevailed, along with the introduction, under the Russian influence, of the first modern Constitutions – the Organic Regulations – in Wallachia (July 1831) and Moldavia (January 1832). The article analyzes the institutional modernization of the Orthodox Church in Moldavia and Wallachia, under the influence of the Organic Regulations: the control of the state authority over the Church, the stipulation, by law, of the clergy’s civil and religious duties, the measures for protection of the religious buildings, the remuneration of certain categories of clergy, the establishment of the military chaplain institution. From a religious perspective, the Organic Regulations preserved the dogmas and the religious traditions of the Romanian Orthodox Church, emphasizing the subordination of the Church to the State, according to the existing model in Russia.
Authors and Affiliations
Radu Gabriel Ichim
Keywords
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