Ok, here it is. What I would call a "final draft, but not a final copy by any means." Should any graduate school ever be interested, I would probably polish up the footnotes, and develop a more poetic ending. It's a little blunt right now. But I'm also a little frustrated because I keep finding new sources that are telling me things that I would have LOVED to know BEFORE getting waist deep into this project. Sigh. Well, enjoy.
In the mid 14th century, an area of land from the Carpathian Mountains to the West and towards the Prut River to the East came to be seen as a territory in its own right. Early references call this land a “duchy” , or a “country” , and it was named Ungrovlachia and Moldovlahiei ., ruled by a “voivoide” , or a “duke” . Initially under Hungarian rule, this Eastern Carpathian region, later known as Moldavia, struggled for more than century to define itself, arguably crystallizing in the reign of Voivoide Stefan III Musat (known as Stefan cel Mare, “the great”) in the late 15th century. The purpose of this paper is to explore this time period before Stefan and consider various previous explorations into these hazy, muddled, and mistreated decades before the 15th century. The focus will be on religion, an important trait differentiating the Romanians from Catholic Hungarian or Polish overlords or pagan Mongol or Tartar invaders . Documentation is extremely scarce, so Christianity in the new state will analyzed through an examination of Sf. Hreime (Holy Triniy) church in Siret, Moldavia. This church is the earliest example of a triconch, or trefoil, apse in Moldavian church architecture, an architectural structure that flourishes in 15th and 16th century Moldavian ecclesiastical architecture .
Under Stefan cel Mare (1457-1504 C.E), Moldova achieved a period of artistic and cultural development, resulting in the foundation of dozens of Orthodox churches built in a short amount of time. Their architectural type is a distinctly Moldavian structure, epitomized by Voronet or Putna (image, floorplans), with an elongated longitudinal axis and a triconch apse. In a search for their earliest prototypes, I came across the church in Siret with the first tri-conch apse in Moldavia. The tri-conch plan, and its enduring, repeated presence in Moldavian Orthodox architecture, separates Moldavian architecture from Byzantine architecture in any other country. In this paper, I evaluate the various sources of Moldavia’s founding, particularly in relation to its contact with the Eastern or Western Church. I will consider the state of Moldavian Christianity at the end of the 14th century and early 15th century. To learn more of the establishment of the church, I hope to answer questions that may have influenced the structure of the church. What political and social circumstances were surrounding the foundation of the church? Was there anything significant about the church that resulted in it being incorporated in the design of nearly every Moldavian church that succeeded it? By emulating or rejecting neighboring architectural examples, what intentions were its founders indicating? Sf. Treime Church was built at a time when Moldavia made its first official declaration of Eastern Orthodoxy. It was founded during the reign of Petru Musat, who initiated Moldavia’s process of recognition by the Eastern Orthodox Church. Petru Musat enjoyed the longest, quietest, and most prosperous reign of the 14th century and he was the first great benefactor of medieval Moldavia. His reign foreshadows the greatness of that of his descendent, Stefan III Musat, known as Stefan cel Mare. In this paper, I attempt to answer the preceding questions and posit that the Sf. Treime church is commemorated in Moldavian architecture because of its connection to the recognition of the Metropolitan of Moldavia.
The church of Sf. Treime is a late 14th century church built in Siret, Moldavia. The church is made up of a rectangular narthex four meters in length; a nave, eight meters in length, flanked by two semi-circular apses; and a semi-circular altar. It is one of the oldest stone churches in Moldavia and the oldest surviving example of a triconch apse in Moldavia. Archaeological investigations in Moldavia have revealed possible predecessors of the triconch apse in the ruins of wooden churches, and ruins of Orthodox churches built in the late 14th and early 15th century also include the trefoil plan in their design. The trefoil plan has predecessors in Wallachia, Serbia, Bulgaria, and Macedonia beginning in the 11th century ; however, only in Moldavia does the plan achieve continual incorporation in the national style of ecclesiastical architecture.
Ecclesiastical structures are influenced by both spiritual and mundane concerns. Sf. Treime’s small size and simple structural design reflect mundane monetary and technological constraints of the period. Moldavia was an agricultural zone, and there was a lack of a political structure to facilitate economic development, meaning even nobility would not have had vast resources to endow churches. The thick brick walls, each a meter thick in a structure only 15 meters long and not as tall, also suggest a lack of sophisticated architectural technique. While there is a system of arches and vaulting and a dome in the nave, suggesting a basic building expertise, the windows are nothing more than narrow slits, like the outlooks of a castle wall. The triconch apse is a structure that appears in Balkan churches beginning in the 11th century, and appears occasionally throughout the Byzantine lands, including Mount Athos, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Serbia, and Wallachia into the fourteenth century.
The design of a church is a result of mundane and spiritual concerns. Technology, resources, neighboring influences, political or social expression may be reflected in a church’s design. However, the most important factor of church architecture are religious concerns. However, the state of Christianity in Moldavia in the late 14th century is a fascinating, if obscure, consideration, which has a more important significance for the shape of the structure. Moldavia’s geographical setting and late political and ecclesiastical organization makes it difficult to imagine that Christianity could have been practiced in this area in any truly dogmatic, uniform fashion. Moldavian Orthodoxy had many influences and no leadership for a millennium, so the religious milieu in which Sf. Treime was designed and erected undoubtedly accounts at least partially for Sf. Treime’s individualistic form. Linguistics offer the first example of the varied influences on Romanian religious practices. Much of the church related vocabulary of the Romanian language is Latin-based, like the Romanian language. Christianity was introduced by Roman legions in the second century, and the enduring use of these words is extremely curious given that the Old Church Slavonic was introduced by the Bulgarians in the 10th century, or perhaps earlier. It is fascinating to consider that the East Carpathian Christians hung onto these Latin influences for centuries after the Romans had left, and continue to use them into modern times. The Slavonic was used in liturgy and writing for the next centuries, though Greek was also used as an official religious and political language into the 16th century.
After being introduced by the Romans, the native Romanians, or Vlachs, as they are referred to in writings of other countries, continued practicing Christianity. Various archaeological digs have yielded Christian artifacts, mostly crosses from breastplates, from numerous sites in the Eastern Carpathian area. Burial sites also indicate burials in a Christian fashion, different from those burial sites of the pagan invading tribes uncovered in the area as well . Their influences were mainly from the Bulgarian church, as the Bulgarian autocephalous bishop was granted sovereignty over the “Vlachs and all of Bulgaria” in 1020. Hence, Old Church Slavonic was adopted in liturgical practices. The Bulgarian influence could have had a significant influence on the beliefs of the Moldavians in that the Bogomil heresy that was practiced there infiltrated Moldavian lands . Bogimilism is a Manachaen heresy which teaches the duality of the physical and spiritual, concluding that the evil physical world is the creation of a devil, while the spiritual world is the domain of the God to worship. At least one Bogomil text survives that was found in Eastern Carpathian lands, however, the widespread monasticism practiced in Moldavia suggests that the Bogomil beliefs could not have been fully embraced, as the heresy did not believe in monastic orders. The Bulgarians exerted the earliest influences on the Vlachs, but by the 12th century, Russian Orthodox metropolitans were created to the north of the Eastern Carpathians, introducing yet another sphere of influence for the Romanians. The Galician bishopric of Kiev was significant in Moldavian history for centuries to follow, and it is likely that bishops would have tried to exert their influence on the unorganized, unstructured body of worshippers in the Eastern Carpathians.
Catholicism infiltrated the Eastern Carpathians significantly beginning in the 11th or 12th century and played a significant role, at least politically, in the development of Moldavia. The Papal See established a bishopric of Cumania in the Transylvanian and Eastern Carpathian lands. This was an unorganized and impoverished bishopric, and it collapsed in the 1240’s with the Mongol invasions. Later, in the 1350s it was re-established as the bishopric of Milcovia, attempting to proselytize to the Golden Horde along the Black Sea, though no documentation proves that any appointed bishops arrived at their posts or were successful in their endeavors. Hungary’s political and religious concerns infiltrated a Catholic presence in Moldavian areas . Genovese traders had a significant economic presence in the Black Sea trading sphere, and Poland military and economic interests resulted in continued Catholic presence in Moldavian areas before and during statehood. Franciscan orders were established and endured in Moldavia through the founding of the state, their presence allowing Moldavian princes to marry Catholic princesses in the fourteenth century.
Given all of these various influences, political, economic, and religious, what can truly be deduced about the state of Christianity in Moldavia in the year that Siret was established? It is undoubted that the native population of the Eastern Carpathians was an Orthodox population. The Papal See of Avignon declared a crusade against the pagans and “schismatics” in the Eastern Carpathians in 1343. Other Hungarian documents from the 13th and 14th century differentiate between Hungarians and the “schismatics” or those of the “Greek” rite. Maintaining the Eastern rite became a matter of pride or at least a means of ethnic differentiation for the Vlachs themselves . While they may have been able to reject the Catholic rite, Spinei’s assertion that it is completely unlikely that the Moldavians ever practiced a bi-ritualistic form of Christianity seems rather optimistic. The more recent publication by Maleon provides proof of a much more realistic religious situation in Moldavia. Peasant populations mixing dogma with superstitious practices, pre-Christian beliefs lingering, and priests teaching a Bogomilistic battle of good versus evil are documented as late as the 16th century. It would only be reasonable to suppose that the less organized earlier period would have been the same or worse. The religious milieu indicates that in seeking religious influence, early Moldavians would have looked southward, towards the Balkans.
The economics
The politics of religion in early Moldavia were extremely complicated, but may reveal the most interesting motives for building a church like Siret and then incorporating this design in the national design of Moldavian church architecture. The first nobles of the Eastern Carpathian realm were granted their power by Hungary, a powerful aggressor in Moldavia history. Hungary accepted the Eastern Carpathian realm as its own and carried out a centuries long battle to convert the inhabitants to Catholicism. Moldavia became a realm in its own right when a nobleman from neighboring Maramures, a Hungarian realm, “dismounted” in Moldavia, creating a new state, subject to Hungary in 1359. Following Dragos, two or three successors came who continued practices loyal to Hungary. Only with the rebellious Maramures nobleman, Bogdan’s, ascension to the ruling position, did Moldavia develop its own independent foreign policy. The strategies of the first independent rulers up to 1401: Bogdan, Latcu, Petru Musat, Roman Musat, Alexandru “cel Bun” (the good), involved appealing to various international entities, seeking international recognition for the state of Moldavia.
These earliest rulers held court in Siret, the earliest capital of the Moldavian state. In 1367, Latcu succeeded Bogdan and pledged vassalage to Poland in an effort to ally Moldavia against the greater threat of Hungarian influence. Latcu then appealed to the Catholic Church to establish a bishop’s seat in Siret, gaining international recognition as a “country” in 1370 and strengthening itself from influences by the neighboring Milcovian or Halician dioceses. . Having a Catholic seat in Siret protected Moldavia from political infiltrations disguised as Catholic missionary work. Hungary managed to annul the autonomy of the bishopric, however, in a 1375 victory in Polish lands. When Petru Musat appealed to the Partriarchy in the 1386, the Patriarch sent a representative to inspect the state of Orthodoxy in Moldavia. The Patriarch also intended to place this representative as the bishop for Moldavia, which the Moldavian church refused to accept. The debate that ensued, with Moldavia suggesting two native bishops and the Patriarchy counter-offering bishops, ended with an anathema on Moldavia and Patriarch Anthony IV refusing to grant a Metropolitan to Moldavia.
Petru Musat is credited with building Sf. Treime church in Siret, and he may have built it as a concession to the Patriarch’s representative from Tarnovo. Records indicate that some church leadership existed, with two native bishops, Iosif and Meletie situated at the head of the organization . Metropolitan Teodosie, the Patriarch’s Bulgarian representative from the seat of Tarnovo, sent a negative assessment to Constantinople. An example of an earlier triconch apse exists in a church in Tarnovo. Could Petru Musat have designed Siret in order to appeal to the Patriarch’s representative? The only other surviving predecessor in stone in Moldavia is the Radauti church built by Bogdan. Radauti is a stone version of the wooden churches of Maramures, and it is largely Gothic in its appearance. Given Moldavia’s recent appeals to the Catholic Church, perhaps the Patriarch or his emissary demanded a substantial symbolic break from further relations with the Catholic Church. A Gothic church would hardly do as the main structure for the Moldavian Orthodox church. The presence of a Balkan Orthodox church did not immediately convince the Patriarchy to recognize the Moldavian seat. However, Petru Musat founded the Mirauti Church, the cathedral which the Patriarchy eventually recognized as the Metropolitanate of Suceava. The triconch apse flourishes in Moldavian architecture. With predecessors throughout Byzantium, nowhere is this distinctive architectural structure reproduced on such a large scale. Its proliferation in Moldavian architecture is engineered by Stefan III “cel Mare,” Petru Musat’s descendant. Stefan’s selection of the triconch structure commemorates his great predecessor.
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