Religion and Education.—The established religion is that of the Greek Church, to which about 97 per cent of the population belongs. At the head of the clergy are the metropolitan archbishops of Moldavia and Wallachia, the latter of whom is primate of Rumania. Each bishop is assisted by a council of clergy and has a seminary for priests. In 1863 the national finances were so low that the government was compelled to appropriate the estates of the monasteries; whose revenues amounted to about a third of that of the state, allowing in return a sum of about f700,000 for the support of the religious communities. It was determined that the balance should be devoted to the support of schools, hospitals, the relief of the poor, etc. Rumania possesses 5,000 elementary schools, 57 high schools, 8 normal schools and 2 univer sities, besides other special schools. Education is compulsory, but is still very backward.
History.— Rumania formed an important part of the Dacian territory which was con quered by Trajan and formed into a Roman province in 106 A.D. It became the battle-field of the Goths, Huns, Bulgarians, Magyars and Poles, who in succession held possession of the country for a more or less lengthy period. All these races left some traces among the Romanized Dacian inhabitants, thus helping to form that mixed people who in the 11th cen tury were converted to the Christianity of the Greek Church. About that epoch the Kumans, a Turkish tribe, established in Moldavia an in dependent kingdom. Two centuries later it fell into the hands of the Nogai Tatars, who so desolated the country that only in the moun tains and forests was left any trace of the native population. Toward the end of the 13th century Radu Negru of Fogarash, a petty Tran sylvanian chief, took possession of part of Wallachia, divided it among his boyards, founded a Senate of 12 members and an elective monarchy, and in the course of time conquered the whole province. About the middle of the following century Bogdan, a Hungarian chief.
made a anedessfal attempt repeople Mol davia. Struggles for the ruling power, civil and foreign wars occurred. In 1418 Wallachia was conquered by Mahomet I, son of Bajazet. Likewise in 1529 Bogdan, son of Prince Etienne, submitted Moldavia to the Porte. After the conquest of Central Hungary • by the Turks, Transylvania became a principality under native Magyar princes, owning the al legiance of the Hungarian Crown, but paying tribute to the sultan as their suzerain. Thus the Rumanians in the beginning of. the 16th cen tury were induced •to place themselves under the protection of the' Sublime Porte, and the boyards were gradually deprived of their power to elect their own ruler, whose office was bought and sold at Constantinople. Voyvodes or dukes of various nationalities were now successively appointed, but their rule proved inefficient in establishing peace and subjection to the sultan, as the boyards never lost an op portunity of snaking known their dissatisfac tion. Out of the most• distinguished foteigners was Basil Lupulo, a Greek of Epirus, who prro» moted civilization and learning, but was de posed in the middle of the 17th century. For
a brief period at the close of the 16th century the Wallach, or Ruman, nationality was brought under •the sway of a single monarch, Michael ihe Brave of Wallachia, who brought Mol davia and Transylvania under his sceptre. From, 1732 to 1822 the country was again gov erned, or rather misgoverned, by. Fanariot (the name comes from the section of Constan tinople occupied by Greeks) princes, who merely farmed out the revenues enriching themselves, and impOverishing the land. A considerable, number of the boyards, through intermarriage with the Fanariots, were more than half Greek by descent; the court language was Greek, the religious and political sympathies of the country lay in the same direction. In 1802' Russia succeeded in establishing a sort of .pro tectorate over the principalities, and in 1821 a desperate struggle to throw di entirely the Turkish authority almost desolated the land. In 18z2 the sultan was compelled by Russia to select the princes of the provinces from natives, and seven years later to allow them to retain their office for life. In 1853 Russia took mili tary possession of the provinces, but was com pelled in a short time to retire, Turkey having received the assistance of France and England. Meanwhile, in 1848, the Hungarian Diet dis posed of Transylvania by voting its formal an nexation to Hungary. In the Treaty of Paris at the 'close of the Crimean War in 1856 it was agreed, among other things, that the principali ties of Moldavia and Wallachia should continue to enjoy, under the suzerainty of the Porte and under the guarantee of the contracting powers, the privileges and immunities of which they were in possession; and that no exclusive pro tection• should be exercised over them by any of the guaranteeing powers. Porte gaged to preserve to the principalities an inde pendent hnd national administration. In 1858 the principalities were united under one ruler, Colonel Cciuta, who took the title of Prince Alexander John I. In 1861 Moldavia and Wal lachia 'were' formally brought 'under one admin; istration. A revolution which broke out at' Bucharest in February 1866 forced Prince Alexander to abdicate, after which the repre sentatives of the people elected as ruler Charles, son of the late Prince Charles of Hohenzollern Sigmaringen. In the Russo-Turkish 'War of 1877-78 the principality sided wth Russia, but in spite of the important services which it rendered in that war, it was compelled at the Close to retrocede the portion of Bessarabia which it had acquired at the conclusion of the Crimean War, and to receive in exchange the Dobrudja. ' Early in the war the principality proclaimed its independence of Turkey, and its independence was recognized in the Treaty of Berlin, July 1878. As already stated, it became a kingdom in 1881, Prince Charles becoming king as Charles I. His wife was well known as a 'writer tinder the pseudonym Carmen Sylva. His nephew and heir, Prince Ferdinand, was married in 1893 to Princess Marie, daughter of the late Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.