Fodor György - Török József - Tusor Péter (szerk.): Felekezetek az Igazság szolgálatában: történelem, teológia, önazonosság (1500-2000) - Studia Theologica Budapestinensia 34. (2009)

I. Catholic-Orthodox symbiosis in Transylvania (Katolikus-ortodox együttélés Erdélyben) - Ioan Chirila: Tolerance and intolerance in t he Transylvanian legislative corpora (the 16th-19th centuries)

c) The article of law regarding the organization of the towns is also created with the purpose of excluding the Romanians from the public life, relying on the stipulations of the electoral law: the Romanians are not represented in the diet, therefore, they may not be represented, according to their number and their importance, in the congregations of the counties and of the districts, also. The Romanians are, in this way, excluded not only from the public life of their country, but also from the local one, the Hungarian system of government aiming at the cultivation of the idea of a Hungarian state and at the exclusion of the other nationalities from the exercise of the rights of representation.15

d) The imposing of the Hungarian language in Church and in school after 1868 had as a consequence the fact that, from places of culture, the confessional schools turned into centers for the propagation of the Hungarian language. In 1891 came the promulgation of the law concerning the asylums for children, a law which was voted against all the protests of the non-Hungarian nationalities within the Hungarian territory3'1. Moreover, the Hungarian authorities intended to turn the popular school into communal schools, in 35 36

cultural aspirations of the Romanians, are compelled to withdraw from the public lile of their country”.

35 Ibidem, p. 320-321 : “The article of law regarding the organization of the towns is also created with the purpose of excluding the Romanians from the public lile. Its ground is the unjust stipulations of the electoral law. l'or the reasons according to which the Romanians are not represented in the diet, they may not be represented, according to their number and importance, in the congregations of the counties and of the districts, also. By the electoral law, by the artificial distribution of the electoral circles and by the corruption and the electoral assaults, the Romanians have been forces to withdraw from the town life also, the Hungarian system of government aiming only at the cultivation of the idea of a Hungarian state and at the exclusion of the other nationalities from the exercise of the rights of representation”.

36 Ibidem, p. 322: “Thus, the confessional schools ceased to be centers of culture and became centers for propagating the Hungarian language. The result of this compulsion could not satisfy the authors of this law, because it was impossible that the children from the village should learn a foreign language in the popular school, which they hear nowhere else but in the school. Therefore, after fruitless efforts, in 1891 was promulgated the law regarding the asylums for children, a law which compelled the children, starting with the age of 3, to learn the Hungarian language. This law was ratified despite the protests of the other nationalities (except the Hungarian one) within the Hungarian territory”.

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