Page:Nicolae Iorga - My American lectures.djvu/158

 no class-distinction between the bishops and their congregations. The former Wallachia was partially transformed under the influence of the neighbouring Moldavian chivarlychivalry [sic]. The first principle of the free village in the autonomous valley remained, however, not only within the archaic bounds of the state, but above all in the very hearts of the people.

Today, Roumania's greatest problem is to mould all these tradition together: Moldavian aristocracy, organised Wallachian peasantry and the Transylvanian free yeomen. Second in importance is the problem of bringing the minority population: Hungarians, Saxons (both of ancient descent), Russians and Germans (newly settled), into the great movement of a new economic and cultural era. But this latter problem can never be solved until the first becomes reality.