[43] There are several versions of the legend. In some the prince is called Negru Voda, in others Negoije Voda, and in others again Radu Negru. The poem has been translated by Hon. H. Stanley, Roumanian Anthology, p. 215 (Hertford: Stephen Austin), an expensive and beautifully illuminated drawing-room book, containing some Roumanian poems in the vernacular, and others translated into English.
[44] The date on the tablet is 7209. This is Anno Mundi, according to the chronology of at least a section of the Byzantine Church, Christ having been born, after that reckoning, 5509 years after the creation of the world. (See Brown's Vulgar Errors and Smith's Dictionary of the Bible.) Engel says Neagu reigned from 1511 to 1520. Vaillant says he died in 1518.
[45] 7035 (A.M.) is the date on the tablet.
[46] Vineyard?
[47] As reference has been made from time to time to Roumanian ecclesiastics, the following brief particulars may not be uninteresting. Christianity was introduced into the provinces bordering on the Danube at a very early date. According to A. de Gerando (Siebenbürgen und seine Einwohner, p. 211, Lorck, Leipzig, 1845), a MS. was found in Hungary, bearing a cross and the date 274 a.d.; and in 325 a.d. a Bishop Theophilus was spoken of amongst the Goths. In 370 a.d. Athanaric, the Gothic king, persecuted and put many Christians to death. In 527 a.d. the Christian churches of Roumania (as then constituted) were taken in charge by the metropolitan of the Greek Church. But it was not until 865 a.d. that the Bulgarians and the native population associated with them were actually converted to Christianity (Lauriani, p. 29). About that time intrigues existed between the heads of the Eastern and Western Churches for the possession of the headship in these countries, but the influence of the former predominated. About 860 a.d. a Slavonian liturgy was introduced into the churches, and, notwithstanding the denunciations and embassies of the Roman Pontiff, a separation occurred about 880 A.D., and the Roumanians joined the Orthodox Greek Church. Of the negotiations between Innocent III. and Johannitz, King of the Second Wallacho-Bulgarian monarchy, we shall speak hereafter, and although after that time the Papal power was in the ascendant in Wallachia and Moldavia amongst the princes and nobles, the people always leaned to the Greek rite, and at length, in 1440, the metropolitan of Moldavia succeeded (Romish writers say by a religious coup d'état) in making the Greek Church dominant. In the middle of the seventeenth century the most important Roman Catholic bishopries were suppressed, and down to the present time the Greek Church has been the state religion, and it is professed by nearly the whole nation; even the King, who was formerly a Roman Catholic, now conforms to the faith. Of the secularisation of the monasteries and other religious movements we shall speak in Part II, and it is only necessary to add that at present there are two metropolitans or archbishops, six bishops with dioceses and several without; in 1876 there were 9,800 secular priests, 1,700 monks and 2,270 nuns, 6,550 churches and 173 monasteries and nunneries. The priests or 'popes' marry and follow secular occupations in the country; in the towns they are 'non-productive' so far as labour is concerned. The services of the Greek Church are not impressive; but although much has been written concerning their superstition, the Roumanians do not differ greatly from the people of other Catholic countries in that respect. There is great indifference to religion, if not absolute atheism, amongst the higher classes, which no doubt results from the great ignorance of the priesthood. The thing most to be regretted, however, is that whilst there are thousands of 'religieuses,' as they are called, in the country, all the nurses in its excellent hospitals should be paid servants, and the Church does nothing whatever towards maintaining the efficiency of those institutions.
[48] Consular Reports, Roumania, 1878, pp. 965-966. This statement applies, we believe, to what was formerly Moldavia rather than to Wallachia. When we were in Bucarest we saw stalls in the street at which English note-paper and writing materials (if they were genuine) were sold; and one day having occasion to buy a pair of scissors we entered a shop for the purpose, and some very dear ones were shown to us. On complaining of the price we were told they were English, but that we could obtain cheap ones of Austrian manufacture at another shop close by. This we did, and although the scissors were doubtless inferior, it shows that English goods are liked and command higher prices.
[49] See Consular Report, Roumania, 1878, pp. 966, 968, where these statements are practically confirmed.
[50] Purchased by the State whilst these remarks were being written.
[51] Several authors, copying one another as usual without enquiry, have estimated the population at 90,000, Aurelian having fixed it at 90,236 in 1866; but when in 1877 our Vice-Consul Bonham enquired of the Mayor of Jassy, he was told that, although no satisfactory data exist, 70,000 was nearer the mark. In like manner the population of Galatz has been set down until lately at 80,000, although an English gentleman residing there maintained that it should be about 50,000. That gentleman told us that according to a recent census there turned out to be only 40,000, but he questioned that result also, inasmuch as the people do not know the object of such a proceeding and fear to make returns, and moreover the census was taken at a time when many labourers and others had left the city for a season.
[52] Vice-Consul Bonham's report, 1877, p. 720.