Canonical Autonomy and Political Sovereignty: Romanian Orthodoxy Between Ecclesiastical Law and Modern Public Law in the Nineteenth Century

Abstract

The article analyzes the process through which the Romanian Orthodox Church acquired autocephaly from both the perspective of canon law and that of modern public law, highlighting the convergence between the affirmation of state sovereignty and ecclesiastical reorganization in the nineteenth century. The study demonstrates that autocephaly functioned simultaneously as an ecclesiastical canonical institution and as a legal-political expression of the Romanian nation-state.