The Transylvanian Orthodox Confessional Education During the Austrian-Hungarian Dualism ______
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Dobrei: THE TRANSYLVANIAN ORTHODOX CONFESSIONAL EDUCATION DURING THE AUSTRIAN-HUNGARIAN DUALISM ___________________________________________________________________________________________________ Lecturer Ph.D. Florin Dobrei 1 “Eftimie Murgu” University from Reşiţa Original scientific paper Romania UDC: 238.2 (159.9.01.12) ========================================================================= THE TRANSYLVANIAN ORTHODOX CONFESSIONAL EDUCATION DURING THE AUSTRIAN-HUNGARIAN DUALISM Preamble: In Transylvania, during the modern historical period, education and school have constituted the subject of thorough research and analysis, starting from the premise that education has been a key factor in the development of human society (Istoria învăţământului din România. Compendiu , 1971). In the following pages, we will focus on the Romanian confessional education during the Austrian-Hungarian dualism (1867-1918) 2. The Romanian school – targeted by the authorities As soon as the 1867 circumstantial dualist union had been signed, the Hungarian Government began to openly meddle into the affairs concerning the Romanian education. Thus, the next year the heatedly debated “Act XXXVIII” (known as the “Eötvös Act”) was promulgated, which reiterated the right of each Church to set up and maintain their own educational institutions; the conditions for this included the State’s continuing control, compulsory education for children aged between 6 and 12, compulsory attendance of repetition classes until the age of 15 for those who had failed to pass the class, compulsory completion of specialized courses by teachers, etc. The Act also specified the conditions to be met by school buildings, and outlined the subject matters and set the length of the school year (Istoria românilor VII/1, 2003). Thus, in addition to 1 [email protected] <[email protected]> 2 The situation of the Orthodox confessional education in Transylvania during Austrian-Hungarian dualism was the subject of several studies; see: Onisifor Ghibu, Şcoala românească din Ungaria în anul 1911 , Sibiu, 1912, p. 32; Idem, Viaţa şi organizaţia bisericească şi şcolară în Transilvania şi Ungaria , Bucureşti, 1915, p. 206; Enea Hodoş, Cercetări cu privire la trecutul şcoalelor confesionale ortodoxe româneşti din Ardeal , Sibiu, 1944, 212 p.; Vasile Popeangă, Şcoala românească din Transilvania în perioada 1867-1918 şi lupta sa pentru unire , Bucureşti, 1974, p. 221; Traian Valentin Poncea, Lupta românilor din Transilvania împotriva legislaţiei învăţământului în timpul dualismului austro-ungar , in rev. „Marisia”, Târgu Mureş, XI-XII, 1981-1982, p. 279-287; Vasile Pop, Contribuţie documentară privind istoria şcolilor româneşti din Transilvania , in rev. „Marisia”, Târgu Mureş, XIII-XIV, 1984, pp. 185-205; Stelian Mândruţ, Învăţământul comunal elementar din Transilvania între anii 1867-1918 , in rev. „Crisia”, Oradea, XIX, 1989, p. 265-287; Liviu Maior, Politica şcolară a guvernelor maghiare faţă de români (1900- 1914) , în „Anuarul Institutului de Istorie şi Arheologie”, Cluj-Napoca, XXX, 1990-1991, pp. 123-138; Ioan Lupaş, Istoria bisericească a românilor ardeleni , Cluj-Napoca, 1995, p. 277; Valeria Soroştineanu, Şcoala confesională ortodoxă în viziunea mitropolitului Ioan Menţianu , în vol. Mitropolitul Ioan Meţianu (1828- 1916) , Zărneşti, 2004, pp. 14-45. 99 Dobrei: THE TRANSYLVANIAN ORTHODOX CONFESSIONAL EDUCATION DURING THE AUSTRIAN-HUNGARIAN DUALISM ___________________________________________________________________________________________________ confessional schools, the Act also provided for another two categories of educational institutions, namely state schools and communal schools, where the teaching language was to be Hungarian. The communal schools, which also depended on the State, were to be entirely supported by village communities; if the functioning requirements (much too restrictive though) were not fulfilled within six years from the promulgation of the Act, the Government could have them closed down; such a summons, issued by Agoston Trefort, the Minister of Cults and Public Education on 23 February 1873, requested higher “standards” in confessional schools without, however, any financial support from the State (Lazăr, 2002). Other laws followed. Thus, on 3 May 1875, Emperor Francis Joseph I sanctioned “Act XXXII concerning the retirement of teachers and kindergarten teachers” by which the parishioners and their teachers were obliged to contribute to the pension fund. On 10 June 1876, another education law (“Act XXVIII”) was promulgated by which the King’s inspectors from the county capitals would have the task of checking the curricula, the textbooks and the teaching material used in all types of schools. They would also have the task of “confiscating any books and teaching means that were banned by the regime”; in 1877 alone 47 school textbooks and atlases were banned (Lazăr, 2002). Thus, the fate of the Romanian confessional education was left at the mercy of the authorities since, as Archpriest Ioan Papiu of Deva complained in 1878, the King’s inspector Réthi Lajos “has never seen a darker spot on the school map of this county, Hunedoara, than the Romanian Grammar School in Brad and the Frontier Guards’ Capital School in Dobra” (Hodoş, 1944). Since the concept of a Hungarian unitary state, sanctioned through the dualist transaction, could not be put into practice without the Magyarization of the cohabiting ethnic groups, the decisions adopted through the 1879 “Bill XVIII” constituted the beginning a long series of denationalizing legislative dispositions. For a start, the law mentioned above set the teaching of the Hungarian language as a compulsory subject matter in all the pedagogical and people’s schools where the teaching language was not Hungarian; all the teachers who did not know Hungarian were obliged to learn it in the course of four years and then sit a qualification examination. Despite the protests, the bill was passed. Moreover, in 1883, another denationalizing law was passed which introduced the compulsory study of Hungarian in the Church-supervised schools as well, stipulating that the teachers had to know Hungarian; any subsidies from Romania were suspended. Starting from 1891, in the same arbitrary manner, Hungarian was introduced as the conversational language (Mândruţ, 1989). The abuses were countless. In 1893, under Act XXVI, the State tried regulating teachers’ salaries; at the time, in compliance with a circular issued by the Archdiocesan Consistory of Sibiu in 1884, the salaries were set according to the number of families in the “ecclesiastical communes”. The principle was simple: where there were at least 90 families, the teacher’s salary was set to 300 florins. However, the Government was laying another trap: in case the village community could not afford to pay the teacher the legal salary, he had to appeal to the State for help and thus the State could interfere in the affairs of the schools in administrative and teaching matters. 100 Dobrei: THE TRANSYLVANIAN ORTHODOX CONFESSIONAL EDUCATION DURING THE AUSTRIAN-HUNGARIAN DUALISM ___________________________________________________________________________________________________ Other attempts at “reformation” which were, in fact, aimed at dissolving the Romanian schools are linked to the name of Count Albert Apponyi, Minister of Cults and Public Education. Thus, in 1907 it was decided that the minimum salary of a teacher, regardless of the type of education where he taught, would be of up to 1,000 crowns, with the possibility of additional seniority raise every five years. However good as it may seem, the law was nothing but an even tougher policy of denationalization since just a few Romanian elementary schools were able to finance themselves from their own resources; that is why most of them had been replaced by communal or state schools. The most difficult task, however, imposed on Romanian teachers was to instill in students a sense of attachment to the Hungarian homeland and to develop in them the awareness of belonging to the Hungarian nation (Mândruţ, 1989). The oath that the teachers had to take as “public officers” read as follows: “I, … [full name, author’s note ], ordinary teacher, do swear on the living God that I will be unwaveringly faithful to His Majesty, my apostolic king, to my Hungarian country and to its Constitution, that I will safeguard that country’s laws, the legal customs and the legal regulations issued by the authorities. In addition, in what concerns the duties entailed by my teaching office, I will always fulfill them conscientiously, faithfully and accurately, and I will educate the youth entrusted in my care in the spirit of love for their Hungarian country. So help me God” (Triteanu, 1919). Under the circumstances, on 27 September 1907, metropolitan bishop Ioan Meţianu sent a circular to all the Orthodox Protopresbyterial Offices in Transylvania which said that “although by the coming into effect of the article of law from Act XXVII of the current year 1907 concerning the teachers’ salaries, the situation of our ecclesiastical communes in their capacity as supporters of confessional people’s schools has become very difficult, especially with regard to the raising of the teachers’ salaries, if we understand that School is integral part of the Church, that for us School and Church are the most valuable treasures which preserved and sustained us in the past and will preserve and sustain us in the future, if we ourselves are willing to maintain