Publicatie cu continut integral - Asociatia Tinerilor Istorici din Moldova

Summary
The importance of the political programme supported by the Bishop Inochentie Micu-Klein and the reasons
of his exile
The Bishop Inochentie Micu-Klein is the initiatiator of the programmatic political struggle of the Romanians
from Transylvania.
Remarkable personality of our national history, the erudite theologian of the Greek-Catholic Church United
with Rome, was in the XVII-th century an important militant for the political and social emancipation of the Transylvanian
Rumanians, from under the anachronic Austro-Hungarian supremacy.
He was established as Greek-Catholic Bishop of Alba-Iulia and Făgăraş, on 5 th of November 1730 and Carol
the VI-th granted him in 1732 a place in the Transylvanian Diet.
In his time, since 1688, Transylvania has been dominated by Austria.
The segregationist legislation of the Principality was still in force: Werboczi’s Tripartite (1514), Approbatae
Constitutiones (1653) and Compillatae Constitutiones (1699), although in 1762 the Romanians represented 66%
from the Principality’s population, Hungarians and secklers 21%, Saxons 11%, other nationalities around 2,2%.
Due to these discriminating laws, Romanians became “tolerated” on their own ancient land. Because of these
conditions and because Romanians were catholic, the only solution for the Transylvanian Romanians was to get
closer to Rome or to the Court of Wien.
According to the Bishop Inochentie’s opinion, the United Romanian Church was the only institution of that
period, which could help the Romanians to avoid the Calvinism and denationalization.
Being treated with arrogance by the members of the Transylvanian Diet, Inochentie will strongly protect his
points of view concerning the roman origin of Romanian people as well as the Latin origin of Romanian language
and the continuity of roman colonists on Dacia’s territory.
Tenaciously, he puts forward to the Emperor Carol the 6-th, 24 memoirs, asking for:
a) The content of the two Leopoldian diplomas (the one from 1699 and the one from 1701) to be respected by
the Diet.
b) The Romanian people to be treated the same as the other people from the empire, because they are the oldest
and the most numerous in Transylvania.
c) The bishop and the united priests to benefit by the same rights as the roman-catholic priests.
d) The income of the Romanian bishop to be increased, so that he can help other priests and poorer churches.
e) Romanian aristocrats to be named according to their qualification and their abilities in the official jobs in
the state.
f) In the counties with Romanian majority, the prefects should be Romanian.
g) Elementary schools should be built for the Romanian people in all villages.
h) The young Romanians should be permitted to attend school.
i) Upper education should be founded for the Romanians in Alba-Iulia, Fagaraş, Haţeg
j) For the young Romanian gifted people, the schools from abroad should be opened.
Through his generous ideas, the united bishop settled that spiritual renaissance trend, called Şcoala Ardeleană.
He is not only a forerunner of Şcoala Ardeleană, but also an ideologue of the ideas of French Revolution in 1789:
liberty, equality, fraternity. For his daring applies, he was investigated by the Imperial Court and labeled by Maria
Teresa as a rebelious.
The exile in Rome was imposed to him, and he left there in 1751. He suffered the torture of the exile for 24
years, and in 1751 he abdicated the bishopric. Yet, he kept on sending memoirs to the authorities and numerous
letters from the exile.
He died in Rome, on the 22nd of September 1768. The relics of the famous bishop were brought in the country
in 1997, and laid in the Metropolitan Cathedral in Blaj,the cathedral being founded by him.
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