DREPTUL LA LIBERTATEA DE RELIGIE. DE LA PREVEDERILE DIN „PRAVILELE ÎMPĂRĂTEȘTI” LA CELE DIN PRAVILELE ȚĂRILOR ROMÂNE
THE RIGHT TO FREEDOM OF RELIGION. FROM THE PROVISIONS OF THE „IMPERIAL LAWS” TO THOSE OF THE LAWS OF THE ROMANIAN PRINCIPALITIES

Summary/Abstract: The right to freedom of religion. From the provisions of the „Imperial Laws” to those of the Laws of the Romanian Principalities. The examination of the texts of some “Imperial Rules”, i.e. collections of Byzantine legal rules, and of some Rules of the Romanian Lands, printed in Romanian in the 17th century – based on the documentary material provided by Byzantine nomocanonical legislation – gave us the opportunity to present in our study, with interdisciplinary content (legal-canonical, historical, and theological), how – over time – the right to religion was respected in the Romanian area. From the Edict of the Roman emperors at the end of the 4th century – which was the subject of examination and evaluation in the pages of our study – it was found that of this fundamental right of man it could enjoy only those who shared the Christian faith professed by the respective emperors, i.e., the Christian -Orthodox ecumenical faith. Both the text of the Imperial Rules and that of the Rules of the Romanian Lands reveal the intransigence of political and ecclesiastical rule towards any change in the dogmas of the Church, hence the need to know state and church legislation in order to better understand the evolutionary process of understanding the natural right of every human being to have and profess the religious faith of their choice.

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