Tradiţionalism şi modernism în organizarea bisericii ortodoxe române la jumătatea secolului al XIX-lea
Traditionalism and Modernism in the Organization of the Orthodox Romanian Church in the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century

Summary/Abstract: The article presents the debates and the dissensions from the autumn of the year 1857, caused by the Ad hoc Assembly of Moldavia, where the clergy deputies presented certain bills regarding the reorganization of the Orthodox Romanian Church: a bill related to religious freedom and to the status of the Orthodox religion within the Romanian State; a bill related to the necessity of establishing a central synodic authority for the spiritual problems of the Romanian Church; finally, a bill related to the proclamation of the Orthodox Romanian Church autocephaly as against the Constantinople Patriarchy. The climax of the debates regarding the need to rejuvenate the most conservative institution of the Romanian State, was reached on December, 20, 1857, when a twelve articles document, analyzed and well-reasoned by Melchisedec Ştefănescu and Mihail Kogălniceanu - the craftsmen of the rejuvenation of the United Principalities Church under Al. I. Cuza’s reign- was introduced for debate. The resolutions adopted by the Ad hoc Assembly represented the quintessence of the Orthodox Romanian Church reform, implemented between 1859-1865 and perceived by most of the Romanian clergy as an attempt at laicization, since it sanctioned the state control over this prieviously autonomous institution. The controversies this reform generated at the time, understandable for the clergy, vanish as the archives and the historiography define the period between 1856-1859 as a new beginning for the Modern Romania. Under the circumstances, the changes produced in the Church can be seen, sine ira et studio, as an integral part of the long reforming process that characterized the Romanian State during the second half of the 19th century and not as an attempt to destroy a century-old institution.

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