„Anuarul Institutului de Istorie «George Bariţiu» din Cluj -Napoca”, LII, Supliment, 2013, p. 115-138. THE RECRUITMENT OF AN ECCLESIASTICAL ELITE: THE CANONS OF THE CATHEDRAL CHAPTERS IN ORADEA AND BLAJ * Mirela Popa-Andrei Diana Covaci ** Abstract: This study proposes a comparative approach to an institution and to the persons that were the heart of the ecclesiastical administration of the Romanian Church United in the XIX-th century: the canons of the Chapters of Cathedral Churches. The study is one of the first results of the direction of analysis assumed within a larger research project dedicated to the staff involved in the ecclesiastical administration of the Romanian Church United, whether canons, foraneous vicars or teachers. This paper has three parts: the first two were devoted to the analysis of the Chapter of Canons in the dioceses of Oradea and Făgăraş in the second half of the 19 th and early 20 th century, so as we should ultimately make a comparative analysis of the two institutions, the element of originality of which lies precisely in the absence of such approaches in the literature. Keywords: Cathedral Chapter, Canons, Ecclesiastical Elite, Formation, Transylvania. „The institution of Cathedral Chapters, the members of which are called canons, has entered very little the Romanian public consciousness" 1 . This remark of Nicolae Brînzeu, a canon of the diocese of Lugoj, served in 1942 as the introduction of a comprehensive study dedicated to Cathedral Chapters and canons of the Romanian Greek-Catholic Church. Through the years, the quote does not lose anything of its power, by so much the more as it opens another study the aim of which is to make known the important contribution of a relatively small group of the Romanian united ecclesiastical elite: the canons. * This work was supported by a grant of the Romanian National Authority for Scientific Research, CNCS – UEFISCDI, project number PN-II-RU-TE-2011-3-0286 „Mechanisms of selection and promotion of elites in Transylvania in the second half of nineteenth century. The case-study Greek Catholic elite” [Mecanisme de selecţie şi promovare a elitelor transilvane în a doua jumătate a secolului al XIX-lea. Studiu de caz –elita greco-catolică]; director de proiect: Mirela Popa-Andrei. ** cercetător ştiinţific III dr., Institutul de Istorie „George Bariţiu” din Cluj-Napoca al Academiei Române; e-mail: mirela_andrei@yahoo.com; cercetător ştiinţific III în cadrul proiectului de cercetare CNCS – TE-2011-3-0286, Institutul de Istorie „George Bariţiu”; e-mail: dianacovaci@yahoo.com 1 Nicolae Brânzeu, Capitlurile catedrale – Notiţe despre drepturile şi datoriile canonicilor, „Cultura Creştină”, 1942, no. 10-12, p. 539.