GREEK CATHOLICS IN AMERICA 205 



and later on, when Constantinople fell into schism, the Ru- 

 manian Church went with it. Frequently, however, during 

 the centuries that followed, partially successful attempts were 

 made towards reunion. At the time of the so-called Refor- 

 mation in Western Europe the Calvinists endeavored to per- 

 suade a portion of the Rumanian clergy and their flocks to 

 embrace the new doctrines. This naturally led to an examina- 

 tion of matters wherein the Roman Church differed from 

 the Calvinists, and also to the points wherein it was in har- 

 mony with the Greek Church, and later to a desire for union 

 with it. The union of the Rumanian Greek Church in Hun- 

 gary (for the other Rumanians were subjects of Turkey) 

 with the Holy See dates from 1700. The preliminaries for 

 union had been in progress for several years before, and 

 once or twice had been on the eve of success. In the year 

 just mentioned the Metropolitan Athanasius held a general 

 synod of the clergy of Transylvania at Alba Julia (Gyulya- 

 fehervar), which declared, on 5 September, 1700, that "freely 

 and spontaneously moved thereto by the impulse of Divine 

 Grace, we have entered upon a union with the Roman Catholic 

 Church." This decree was signed by the metropolitan, 54 

 arch-priests, and 1563 priests. The act of union was con- 

 firmed at Rome in the following year, and the Greek Catho- 

 lic hierarchy was for a long time the only Greek hierarchy 

 in Transylvania. Towards the middle of the last century the 

 Greek Orthodox Rumanian hierarchy was also established. 

 The Rumanian Greek Catholics are very proud of their union 

 with Rome, and church documents are often dated not only 

 by the year of Our Lord (pre anul Domnului), but also by 

 the year of the union (pre anul de la santa unire). 



The Rumanian immigrant does not seem to have begun to 

 come to the LTnited States until about the beginning of the 

 present century. In the year 1900 Rumanian immigration 

 from Transylvania and Northern Hungary began to flow 

 towards the United States, and lately has been followed by 

 immigration from Rumania itself. It has steadily increased 

 until now ( 1909) there are between 60,000 and 70,000 Ru- 

 manians in the United States. Nearly all of these have come 

 from Hungary ; only a small minority are from the Kingdom 

 of Rumania. Those from Hungary are from the southern 

 and western counties of Transylvania, chiefly the counties of 



