Recunoaşterea internaţională a secularizării averilor mănăstireşti – chestiunea despăgubirilor
THE INTERNATIONAL RECOGNITION OF THE SECULARIZATION OF THE MONASTIC ESTATES – THE ISSUE OF COMPENSATIONS

Summary/Abstract: The question of the dedicated convents was approached in different manners, there are perspectives and hypotheses that complete themselves or are opposed, but, concerning the issue of compensations very few opinions have been expressed, this problem remaining a marginal topic in the works of the historians. This is because the indemnity, officially settled in 1866, was never paid by the Romanian state. However, during 1864 and 1865, the settling of a suitable amount was crucial in the negotiations held in Constantinople, for the recognition of the secularization. This study analyses the main stages in the evolution of the diplomatic negotiations for the recognition of the secularization of the monastic estates, through the perspective of the compensations that the Romanian state had to pay to the Holy Places. This is an aspect that, in our opinion, is revealing for the better understanding of how this very complicated problem was solved. Although the secularization of the monastic estates was officially recognised by the representatives of the guarantor Powers on May 28th, in the protocol of a session of the Conference of Ambassadors, the problem was not considered solved until they reached an agreement on the amount of compensation for the Holy Places. It was clear that, after the Ambassador of Great Britain, Sir Henry Bulwer, agreed with the idea of a compensation for the Holy Places, even proposing a suitable sum, the activity of the Conference was channelled to that solution. In this time, the representatives of the Holy Places adopted a rigid attitude, denying the right of the Romanian state to decide over the estates that they considered their own, rejecting the idea of compensation.

• Details
• Contents