364 Scrinium VΙI–VIII.2 (2011–2012). Ars Christiana NEW ROMANIAN PUBLICATIONS ON THE CHURCH HISTORY OF CENTRAL EUROPE AND BYZANTIUM The Romanian Academy has recently published two important edited volumes dedicated to the mediaeval history of Central Europe and Byzantium. Both of them contain articles which deal directly with Church history. 1. Christian Gastgeber, Ioan-Aurel Pop, Oliver Jens Schmitt, Alexandru Simon (eds.), Worlds in Change: Church Union and Crusading in the Fourteenth and Fi eenth Centuries (Cluj-Napoca: Romanian Academy. Center for Transylvanian Studies; IDC Press, 2009) (Transylvanian Review, vol. XVIII, supplement No. 2, 2009; Mélanges d’Histoire Générale, Nouvelle Série, IV/1) 444 p. ISSN 2067-1016, no ISBN. The following articles are directly related to Church history: Marie-Hélène Blanchet, Georges-Gennadios Scholarios et les Turcs. Une vision nuancée des conquérants (p. 101–116). The author traces the evolution in Scholarios’ thinking that brought him to a relatively favourable a itude toward the Turks. Michel Balivet, Un Fou en Christ au Concile de Florence : quelques remarques sur les ΜΟΝΟΧΙΤΩΝΕΣ chrétiens et musulmans au XVe siècle (p. 203–209). An episode relating to the Georgian bishop at the Council of Florence, who became a fool-in-Christ for three months, is considered within the frame of Byzantine and O oman sources on the impoverished dervishes in both Byzantium and Georgia. Iulian Mihai Damian, L’osservanza francescana e la ba aglia di Bel- grado (p. 211–237). The author examines the sources (both published and unpublished) representing Franciscan a itudes toward the po- litical and ecclesiastical realities in the epoch of the Ba le of Belgrad (1456), when Giovanni da Capestano, O.F.M., proclaimed a crusade against the Turks. Johannes Preiser Kapeller, “Konfessionswechsel” als Drohung. Beo- bachtungen zum Aufstieg des Kyprianos zum Metropoliten von Kiev und Litauen (1375) im Kontext der Politik des Patriarchats von Kon- stantinopel und Kontaktzonen zur Westkirche im 13. und 14. Jahrhun- dert (p. 253–277). The author presents the role of Metropolitan Cyprian (Russian Kiprian) as it was seen from the See of Constantinople. Downloaded from Brill.com09/29/2021 08:42:56AM via free access New Romanian Publications on the Church History 365 Christian Gastgeber, Ein Bericht zur Eroberung Konstantinopels und Trapezunts. Das Schreiben des Patriarchen Sophronios I. Syro- pulos von Konstantinopel von August 1464 auf dem Weg nach Buda (p. 317–338). A new edition with a detailed study, with photographs, of the manuscript. Dan Ioan Mureşan, Croisade, Union des Églises et humanisme dans le royaume de Hongrie pendant la première moitié du règne de Mat- thias Corvin (p. 339–365). The study focuses on the Greek Rite Church in Hungary in the 1460s and on the activity of its bishop, Makarios of Halić. 2. Ana Dumitran, Loránd Mádly, Alexandru Simon (eds.), Extincta est lucerna orbis: John Hunyadi and his Time. In Memoriam Zsigmond Jakó (Cluj-Napoca: Romanian Academy. Center for Transylvanian Studies; IDC Press, 2009) (Mélanges d’Histoire Générale, Nouvelle Série, I/2) 563 p. + XXII p. (34 co- lour plates). ISBN 978-973-7784-38-4. This huge volume covers almost every aspect of the life and activ- ity of John Hunyadi (ca 1407–1456), a brilliant general, the voivode of Transylvania, the Regent-Governor of the Kingdom of Hungary (1446– 1453), and, ultimately, a Roman Catholic saint. One section (II. Church and Symbols) is dedicated exclusively to ma ers relevant to Church history. It contains the following papers: Mária Makó Lupescu, Miles Christi — patronus observantiae. Johannes Hunyadi und die observanten Bestrebungen des Dominikanerordens in Ungarn (p. 99–114); Dan Ioan Mureşan, Notes critiques sur l’histoire de l’Église de Mol- dovalachie au XVe siècle (p. 115–142); Iulian Mihai Damian, The Greek Rite Transylvanian Church in the 1450s: Archbishop John of Caff a and the Crusade in East-Central Eu- rope (p. 143–153); József Marton, Die Religiosität des Johannes Hunyadi (p. 157–161); Ştefan Damian, Ipotesi sulla scomparsa del corpo di Giovanni da Capestano (1386–1456) da Ilok (p. 163–168); Péter Szabó, Heilige Haltungen und ri erliche Merkmale im Kultus des Johannes Hunyadi (p. 169–174). Also of interest in the same respect: Florin-Dumitru Soporan, Ethnic A itudes in the Kingdom of Hun- gary and the Defense of Christendom in the Mid 1400’s (p. 275–292); Downloaded from Brill.com09/29/2021 08:42:56AM via free access 366 Scrinium VΙI–VIII.2 (2011–2012). Ars Christiana Ioan-Vasile Leb, A Byzantine Humanist between Catholicism and Islamism: Georgius Ghemistos Plethon (ca. 1360–1452) (p. 313–322); Iulian Mihai Damian, Giovanni da Capestano, i valacchi e la ba aglia di Belgrado: Fonti e ideologia della crociata dei minori (p. 447–462); Dan Ioan Mureşan, Le Royaume de Hongrie et la prise de Constan- tinople. Croisade et union ecclésiastique en 1453 (p. 465–490). The two articles by Dan Ioan Mureşan are of special interest for the history of Eastern Christianity. The paper “Notes critiques...” is a detailed analysis of the historiographical errors and hidden agendas resulting in the creation, in 1949, of the myth that the autocephaly of the Church of Romania dated back to the fi eenth century; Mureşan places it in the context of the 1948 Moscow inter-Orthodox conference, which was convened to disprove the status of the Patriarchate of Con- stantinople. The paper “Le Royaume de Hongrie...” is interesting for its review of the ecclesiastical aff airs in the Uniate Orthodox Church (that is, the Church that was subordinated to the patriarch of Constan- tinople) in what he calls “Hongrovalachia.” Furthermore, Mureşan demonstrates that, in the early 1450s, the Hungarians, led by John Hu- nyadi, were considered by the Greeks and even by some Turks as the “blond people” who, with their messianic king, would overtake the kingdom of the O omans. It was only much later, in the sixteenth cen- tury, that this “blond people” would be identifi ed with the Russians. B. L. Downloaded from Brill.com09/29/2021 08:42:56AM via free access.