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The history of Christianity in Romania began within the Roman province of Lower Moesia, where many Christians were martyred at the end of the 3rd century. Evidence of Christian communities has been found in the territory of modern Romania at over a hundred archaeological sites from the 3rd and 4th centuries. However, sources from the 7th and 10th centuries are so scarce that Christianity seems to have diminuished during this period. The vast majority of Romanians are adherent to the Orthodox Church, while most other populations that speak Romance languages follow the Catholic Church. The basic Christian terminology in Romanian is of Latin origin, though the Romanians, referred to as Vlachs in medieval sources, borrowed numerous South Slavic terms due to the adoption of the liturgy officiated in Old Church Slavonic. The earliest Romanian translations of religious texts appeared in the 15th century, and the first complete translation of the Bible was published in 1688. The oldest proof that an Orthodox church hierarchy existed among the Romanians north of the river Danube is a papal bull of 1234. In the territories east and south of the Carpathian Mountains, two metropolitan sees subordinate to the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople were set up after the foundation of two principalities, Wallachia and Moldavia in the 14th century. The growth of monasticism in Moldavia provided a historical link between the 14th-century Hesychast revival and the modern development of the monastic tradition in Eastern Europe. Orthodoxy was for centuries only tolerated in the regions west of the Carpathians where Roman Catholic dioceses were established within the Kingdom of Hungary in the 11th century. In these territories, transformed into the Principality of Transylvania in the 16th century, four "received religions" – Calvinism, Catholicism, Lutheranism, and Unitarianism – were granted a privileged status. After the principality was annexed by the Habsburg Empire, a part of the local Orthodox clergy declared the union with Rome in 1698. The autocephaly of the Romanian Orthodox Church was canonically recognized in 1885, years after the union of Wallachia and Moldavia into Romania. The Orthodox Church and the Romanian Church United with Rome were declared national churches in 1923. The Communist authorities abolished the latter, and the former was subordinated to the government in 1948. The Uniate Church was reestablished when the Communist regime collapsed in 1989. Now the Constitution of Romania emphasizes churches' autonomy from the state. == Pre-Christian religions == The religion of the Getae, an Indo-European people inhabiting the Lower Danube region in antiquity, was characterized by a belief in the immortality of the soul.〔Treptow ''et al.'' 1997, p. 20.〕〔Treptow, Popa 1996, p. 98.〕 Another major feature of this religion was the cult of Zalmoxis; followers of Zalmoxis communicated with him by human sacrifice.〔 Modern Dobruja - the territory between the river Danube and the Black Sea – was annexed to the Roman province of Moesia in 46 AD.〔Treptow ''et al.'' 1997, p. 28.〕〔Treptow, Popa 1996, p. 88.〕 Cults of Greek gods remained prevalent in this area, even after the conquest.〔MacKendrick 1975, pp. 23., 192.〕 Modern Banat, Oltenia, and Transylvania were transformed into the Roman province of "Dacia Traiana" in 106.〔Treptow, Popa 1996, p. 84-85., 201.〕 Due to massive colonization, cults originating in the empire's other provinces entered Dacia.〔Treptow, Popa 1996, p. 85.〕〔Pop ''et al.'' 2005, pp. 173-175.〕 Around 73% of all epigraphic monuments at this time were dedicated to Graeco-Roman gods.〔Pop ''et al.'' 2006, p. 94.〕 The province of "Dacia Traiana" was dissolved in the 270s.〔 Modern Dobruja became a separate province under the name of Scythia Minor in 297.〔〔Pacurariu 2007, p. 187〕〔Pop ''et al.'' 2006, p. 103.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「History of Christianity in Romania」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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