Annales Universitatis Apulensis. Series Historica 23, I (2019): 151-162. THE GOVERNING OF PATRIARCH MIRON CRISTEA AND HIS POLICY TOWARD JEWS: THE ATTITUDE OF GREAT BRITAIN ∗ SORIN ARHIRE ∗∗ The royal dictatorship established on 10 February 1938 by King Carol II, after the short existence of the National-Christian government, presided by Octavian Goga, ended Romania’s democratic experience. However, it also prevented the Legionary Movement from taking power, as the two years of royal authoritarianism were a period of relative peace. The new government, with Miron Cristea presiding over the Council of Ministers, 1 included seven former heads of government, two of whom were also party leaders. 2 Moreover, all the ministers had been members of at least one of the previous governments. This was a governmental formula with an eclectic structure made up of people with centre-right political views who had responded to the king’s appeal out of ∗ This article was first published in Romanian. See Sorin Arhire, “Guvernarea patriarhului Miron Cristea și politica lui față de evrei. Atitudinea Marii Britanii,” Apulum XLVIII (2011): 133–146. ∗∗ 1 Decembrie 1918 University of Alba Iulia, Romania; e-mail: sorin.arhire@uab.ro. 1 He studied theology at Sibiu and philosophy at the University of Budapest where he received his PhD. From the late nineteenth century until the start of the First World War, he played an important role supporting the religious and social life of the Romanians from Transylvania. After the 1918 union he was unanimously elected Patriarch of Greater Romania. In 1927, since King Mihai I was still under-aged, he was appointed a member of the regency together with Prince Nicholas and the President of the High Court of Cassation, Gheorghe Buzdugan (then Constantin Sărățeanu, following the death of Buzdugan). The heterogeneous composition attracted some stinging remarks from his contemporaries who characterised the regency as ‘the crawfish, the frog and the pike,’ an allusion to the poem written by Alexandru Donici. Shadowed by Gh. Buzdugan, the patriarch had little political influence during those times. Later on, he dedicated himself exclusively to ecclesiastical matters, gaining considerable authority and great prestige among the clerics. Nevertheless, due to the caesaropapist nature of orthodoxy, Miron Cristea was always subordinated to the government to a certain extent. Report on the Romanian personalities sent to the Foreign Office on 1 January 1937 by Sir Reginald Hoare, British Plenipotentiary Minister to Bucharest, FO 371 Romania, vol. 21189, fol. 155, The National Archives, Richmond, Kew, UK (hereafter cited as TNA). 2 In the government led by the Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church, Constantin Angelescu, Gheorghe Tătărescu, Arthur Văitoianu, Gh. Gh. Mironescu, Alexandru Vaida Voevod, Alexandru Averescu, and Nicolae Iorga were prime ministers. The last two were also leaders of the People’s Party and the Nationalist Democrat Party, respectively. Ioan Scurtu and Gheorghe Buzatu, Istoria românilor în secolul XX [History of Romanians in the Twentieth Century] (Bucharest: Paidea, 1999), 343. As former prime ministers, Octavian Goga and Iuliu Maniu refused the king’s offer to join the government, and Barbu Știrbey was never asked, because he was abroad after 1930 to escape the persecutions to which he would have been subjected by Carol II. Henri Prost, Destinul României (1918–1954) [Destiny of Romania], trans. Valer Moga (Bucharest: Compania, 2006), 169.