Transylvanian School

The Transylvanian School (Școala Ardeleană in Romanian) was a cultural movement which was founded after part of the Romanian Orthodox Church in Habsburg-ruled Transylvania accepted the leadership of the Pope and became the Greek-Catholic Church (ca.1700). The links with Rome brought to the Romanian Tranylvanians the ideas of the Age of Enlightenment. The Transylvanian School's major centres were in the cities of Blaj, Oradea, Lugoj and Beiuş.

Its members contemplated the origin of Romanians from a scientific point of view, bringing historical and philological arguments in favour of the thesis that the Transylvanian Romanians were the direct descendants of the Roman colonists brought in Dacia after its conquest in early 2nd century AD.

The Transylvanian School had a notable impact in the Romanian culture of both Transylvania, but also of the Romanians living across the Carpathians, in Wallachia and Moldavia, leading to the National awakening of Romania.

Samuil Micu-Klein, Gheorghe Şincai, Petru Maior and Ion Budai-Deleanu, who were members of the Trasylvanian School during the era of Romanian national awakening, emphasised the ancient purely Latin origin of Romanians to enhance the political and cultural prestige of Romanians in Western Europe. In 1791, they contributed in the memorandum : "Supplex Libellus Valachorum Transylvaniae". In this memorandum they demanded similar rights for the Transylvanian Romanians, which the Hungarian nobles the enfranchised Saxon bourgeois and Székelys enjoyed by the Union of the Three Nations. This document was presented to Emperor Leopold II by the Transylvanian School.

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