DESPRE UNIREA CU BISERICA ROMEI, DEZBINARE ŞI APROPIERE CONFESIONALÃ. UN TEXT DE LA ÎNCEPUTUL SECOLULUI XIX
ABOUT THE UNION WITH THE CHURCH OF ROME, CONFESSIONAL DIVISION AND SIMILARITIES. A TEXT FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE XIXTH CENTURY

Summary/Abstract: About the union with the Church of Rome, confessional division and similarities. A text from the beginning of the XIXth century. In the edition from 1813 of Cuvântãri (Speeches) dedicated to the Greek-Catholic bishop, Ioan Bob, canon Dimitrie Vaida expressed his conviction concerning the possibility of confessional peace instauration between the Uniate and non-Uniate Romanians. He formulated this idea in a historical note referring to the division of Romanians in the days of Sofronie from Cioara. He exposes doctrinal differences between the two confessions (the four Florentine points, with reference to Floarea adevãrului (The flower of truth)) but focuses on fighting accusations brought to the union: altering faith by not abstaining from certain foods and forced enlistment of the Uniates. Otherwise their falseness was perceived in the epoch, because non-Uniates became ever more aware of the identity of their belief with that of the Uniates. Result of peaceful cohabitation of believers, this climate contoured also as consequence of the tolerance policy promoted by emperor Joseph II. As such, the advice addressed by the author to the non-Uniates, to embrace union, is not an appeal to conversion; they were advised to listen to the scholars to may find happiness and enjoy the privileges assured by law for the Uniates. Insisting on common elements, Vaida arguments the existence of a national community of the Romanians from Transylvania, superior to confessional differences. Dimitrie Varga addresses then to Romanians from Wallachia, especially to monks from there, advising them to learn Latin, to may consider themselves reliable descendants of the Romans. This could serve also to a better knowledge of the Transylvanian Uniates and to the elimination of the confusion between Uniates and „Latins” (Roman-Catholics). Furthermore, Romanian culture could thus develop on the whole, by spread of information from rhetoric, philosophy, theology and other sciences cultivated by the civilized nations of Europe. The presented text is a contribution to more profound knowledge of the cleric and illuminist scholar’s activity Dimitrie Vaida, but also to the relations between confession and culture in Transylvania during Enlightenment.

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