RUMOHR
228
RX7M0HR
mania developed in the thirteenth and fourteenth
centuries in consequence of the immigration of the
Hungarians and Poles, and various Catholic dioceses
were founded in the Middle Ages. However, the
mass of the population was never won over to reunion
v\-ith Rome, and the dioceses soon vanished. In 1211
Iving Andreas II presented to the Teutonic Order the
land about Kronstadt in Transylvania, but he with-
drew his donation in 1225 and entered into personal
possession of the territory'. Numerous Hungarians
and Germans had meanwhile settled in the plain of
the DanulDC, then occupied mostly by the pagan
Cumans, and the majority of the latter were won for
Christianity. For these converted Cumans the Arch-
bishop of Gran erected the "Diocese of the Cumans",
which included not only the modern Rumania, but
also Bessarabia and a portion of Transylvania.
Theodorich, a Dominican, was the first occupant of
the see, and fixed his seat at Milcov. In 1241, how-
ever, the diocese was ravaged by the Tatars; the title
alone was retained, being given to Hungarian vicars-
general (even to ordinary' parish priests) until 1523.
To replace this see a Catholic bishopric was established
in 1246 at Severin, a tovm on the Danube near the
Hungarian frontier which had been taken from the
Bulgar-Rumanian Empire of the Asens by King
Andreas II in 1230 and presented to the Knights of
Malta in 1247. The first bishops, Gregory (about
1246) and another Gregory (about 1382), were actual
bishops, but the remaining ten occupants of the see
(mentioned until 1502) were merely titular bishops,
who hved mostly in Hungarj'. A third Catholic
diocese was founded at Sereth. \\Tien the Eastern
emperor, John Pala?ologus the Elder, made his sub-
mission to Rome in 1369, Latzco, the Rumanian
Prince of Molda\-ia, followed his example, and asked
Pope Urban V to erect a diocese at Sereth (1370).
The first bishop was the Conventual, Nicholas Andrea
Wassilo; he became Administrator of Halicz in 1373,
and Bishop of Wihia in 1388. As the next two bishops
were also coadjutors of Cracow, this see was reduced
to the rank of a titular see. In consequence of the
efforts for reunion of Urban V, who wished to restore
the old Diocese of Milcov, another Catholic diocese
was founded at Arges in 1381, and the Dominican
Nicholas Antonii appointed its first incumbent. Of
his sixteen successors, known until 1664, all lived out-
side the diocese, the title of which they added to their
other titles. A fifth diocese was founded at Baja,
the oldest town in Moldav-ia. The names of seven
bishops who lived before 1523 are known; in the six-
teenth centurj' the population almost imanimously
embraced Protestantism. The foundation of the
Diocese of Bacau (1607), whose occupants resided
in Poland, did as little to strenghten the Catholic
Church.
As the bishops of these dioceses resided almost exclu.sively outside their sees, the ministration to the Cathohcs, whose number was never very great, was undertaken by the religious orders — especially the Franciscans and Dominicans, who founded many monasteries in the territory of the present Rumania. During the time of the Reformation most of the Catholics joined either the Greek schismatics or the Protestancs. The spiritual care of the few who re- mained faithful was undertaken by the Conventuals from C<jnstantinoplc; to these friars is due the main- t<^;nance of the Catholic faith in Rumania, and the erection of a church in Bukarest (1633). When, at the beginning of the sriventecnth century, an episcopal fiCii was rtstablished at Sofia, its first occupant, Petrus a Solis (1610;, was named Administrator Apostolic of Wallachia — an office alwj fulfilled by his successf^rs. The most famous of these a^lministrators was Petrus Deodatus Baksifh (1641-74; from 1642 archbishop), whose report f)f his canonical visitation is preserved in the .(Xjchives of the Propaganda. As most of the
bishops of Sofia were chosen from the Franciscan
Observants, these friars gradually replaced the Con-
ventuals as missionaries. In similar fashion the
bishops of the Diocese of Marcianopolis (erected in
1643) were appointed administrators Apostolic for
the Catholics of Molda^^a, and the bishops of Nicop-
olis (1648) for the Catholics of Dobrudja. When,
subsequently to 1715, the See of Sofia was left vacant,
the administration of Wallachia was transferred to
the Bishop of Nicopolis. During the plague of
1792-3 Bishop Paulus Dovanlia of Nicopolis (1777-
1804) transferred the seat of his diocese to the Fran-
ciscan monaster} in Bukarest ; since then the bishops
of Nicopolis have resided in Bukarest. or at Ciople in
the neighbourhood. Dovanlia's successors have been
chosen mostly from the Passionists, who came to
Bukarest in 1781. The first was Francis Ferrari,
who died of the plague in 1813. His successor, For-
tunatus Ercolani (1815), became involved in a quarrel
with his flock in consequence of his attitude towards
the Franciscans, who had won the affection of the
people, and was transferred to Civita Castellana in
1822. The next bishops were Josephus Molajoni
(1822-47) and Angelo Parsi (1852-63); the latter
built a new church and episcopal residence at Bukar-
est and introduced the Brothers of the Christian
Schools and religious orders of women into the coun-
try. Parsi's successor, Joseph Pluym, became Patri-
archal Vicar of Constantinople in 1869: The number
of Catholics so greatly increased in the nineteenth
century, owing mainly to immigration from Austria
and Hungary, that a reorganization of the Catholic
Church in Rumania became necessary. This was done
in 1883: the territory of Rumania was separated
ecclesiastically from the Diocese of Nicopolis, Bishop
Ignatius Paoh (1870-85) was named Archbishop of
Bukarest in 1883, and the exempt Diocese of Jassy
simultaneously re-erected. (Concerning the further
history and ecclesiastical statistics, see Bukarest and
Jassy.)
Abt, Die katholische Kirche in Rumanien (Wiirzburg, 1879); Samuelson, Rumania, past and present (London, 1882) ; Rudow, Gesch. des rum&n. Schrifttums (Wernigerode, 1892^; de Mar- tonne, La Roumanie (Paris, 1900) ; Benger, tr. Keane, Rumania in 1900 (London, 1901); Netzhammer, Aus Rumdnien (Ein- siedeln, 1909) ; Sturdza, La terre el la race Roumaines depuis leurs origines jusgu'A nos jours (Paris, 1904); Onciul, Din Istoria Romanici (Bukarest, 1900); Bellessort, La Roumanie con- temporaine (Paris, 1907); Xenopol, Les Roumnins (Paris, 1909); FoBGA, Istoria biscricii RomAnesti (2 vols., Bukarest, 1905-09); Creanga, Grundbesetz verteilung u. Bauernfrage in RumUnien (3 vols., Leipzig, 1907-09); Le Pointe, La Roumaine moderne (Paris, 1910) ; Fischer, Die Kulturarbeit des Deutschtums in Rumanien (Hermannstadt, 1911).
Joseph Lins. Rumohr, Karl Friedrich, art historian, b. at Dresden, 1785; d. there, 1S43. He Ijecame a Catho- lic in 1804. He was blessed not only with worldly possessions, but also with a practically unquenchable thirst for knowledge, and especially with a keen sense of form and beauty, which fitted him for the critical treatment of art and social relations. Italy was frequently visited by him, and he was fond of varying life in the large cities with the stillness and loneliness of the country. Exercising a magnificent hospitality, he himself was in many places, despite his very irri- table temperament, a welcome guest — even with King William IV of Prussia and Cliristian VIII of Den- mark. In his "Italienische Forschungen" (3 vols., 1826-31), he treated in masterly fashion the Um- brian-Tuscan School of painting, and prepanid th(' way for a critical conception of art history in Italy. His residence in Italy also gav(! rise to interesting works on the rural condition of Central and Upper Italy. His "Drei Reisen nach Italic^n" appeared .as a special work. Ah the result of searching study he wrote "Hans Holbein der Jiingere in seinem Verhiiltnis zuni deutschen Formschnittwesen", "Zur Geschichtc^ und Theorie der Formschneidekunst", and "Ge- Bchichtc der koniglichcn Kupferstichsammlung zu
