Despre geneza şi semnificaţiile unei cărţi „netrebnice”, atribuite lui Samuil Micu: Theologhia dogmatică şi moralicească despre Taine
About the genesis and meanings of a “worthless” book assigned to Samuil Micu: Teologia dogmatică şi morală despre Taine (Dogmatic theology and ethics

Summary/Abstract: The treatise entitled Theologhia dogmatică şi moralicească (the volume Despre Taine preste tot and other seven volumes, each of them being dedicated to the sacraments) (Blaj, 1801-1802) represents a remaking in the Romanian language conformingly with Honoré Tournély’s lectures (1658-1729). He was a French theologian, theoretician of Gallicanism, and antijansenist. The present paper takes an approach to analysing the first volume of the Romanian treatise and the volumes dedicated to sacraments such as the baptism, extreme unction and priesthood, and aims to render their meanings. The method implied is that of comparison: the translation is compared to the original with a view to emphasizing the original elements of the Romanian version. It mainly consists of elements taken from Orthodox books printed in Walachia: Învăţătură despre şapte Taine, edited by bishop Damaschin of Râmnic in 1724, and Mystirio sau sacrament, published by metropolitan bishop Stephen in 1651. There were also made inquiries about the author of the translation. It is more than likely that Samuil Micu was the one who translated the volumes under analysis. The references drawn out of his books, Scurtă cunoştinţă a istoriei românilor and Teologia morală are evidences in this respect. On the whole, the treatise is the result of a collective endeavour of a team co-ordinated by the Greek Catholic bishop Ioan Bob. He was in charge with placing an accessible handbook written in their own language at young clerks’ disposal. The conclusions of our investigation tries to state the reason for the call for a writing that might join the ‘conservative’ theological literature of the baroque Catholicism, and especially the post-tridentine one that was conceived in a scholastic manner and submitted to the virulent criticism coming from the representatives of the new moral theology of Jansenism or Enlightenment.

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