Simion BÃÂrnuÃÂiu (; 21 July 1808 â 28 May 1864) was a Romanian historian, academic, philosopher, jurist, and liberal politician. A leader of the 1848 revolutionary movement of Transylvanian Romanians, he represented its Eastern Rite Catholic wing. BÃÂrnuÃÂiu lived for a large part of his life in Moldavia, and was for long a professor of philosophy at Academia MihÃÂileanàand at the University of IaÃÂi.
He was born in BocÃÂa (), Szilágy County, Transylvania (now in SÃÂlaj County, Romania). He became a teacher of history at the secondary school in Blaj, which was at the time, like the rest of Transylvania, part of the Austrian Empire. BÃÂrnuÃÂiu was influenced early-on by the philosophy of Immanuel Kant (Kantianism), in which he saw the means to reform society in opposition to traditional theological views.
He was an active contributor to Foaie pentru minte, inimÃÂ ÃÂi literaturÃÂ, the literary supplement of George BariÃÂ's journal Gazeta de Transilvania, he became noted after 1842 for virulently opposing the decision of the Magyar-dominated Transylvanian Diet to give Hungarian a status of a semi-official language in local administration of Transylvania(see History of Transylvania).
In 1843, following widespread support of reform within Transylvanian christian communities regarding clerical representation of its members, BÃÂrnuÃÂiu advocates for the abolition of unilateral administrative power in the church, on the side of a democratic structure electing its leaders, able of directly participating in the social conditions of Romanians.
On 24 March 1848, BÃÂrnuÃÂiu issued one in a series of appeals by various authors, calling for self-determination of Romanians inside Transylvania, viewing it as a necessary step in matching Magyar success in obtaining rights from Emperor Ferdinand I, and professing that Romanians should reject the projected union of the region with the Kingdom of Hungary until ensured proportional representation and the official condemnation of serfdom. Concerning his ideals of national identity cited in 1872 by the Transylvanian faction of the Austrian, student composed, România JunàSociety, in opposition to prominent Romanian authors Ioan Slavici and Mihai Eminescu, BÃÂrnuÃÂiu writes on the importance of moderation in favor of the liberation of Romanians in Transylvania, commends national identity as the most relevant social factor, calls for church legislative intervention for Romanians in Transylvania, and avows the Romanian national identity as directly succeeding that of the Roman Empire.
The Blaj Assembly convened in April on the basis of such proclamations gathered together intellectuals, clergy, and commoners.
BÃÂrnuÃÂiu gave several speeches in front of the Assembly, calling for patience and moderation while continuing to campaign against all unilateral change in Transylvania's government and disagreeing with more skeptical political leaders, such as BariÃÂ and Andrei ÃÂaguna, and finally being persuaded to include an oath of allegiance to the Emperor in his political strategy. Just before the Second Assembly in May, he agreed to moderate his tone further, taking in view the points made by BariÃÂ in regard to the fragile situation facing Romanians in the region, and partly reformulated his program on self-determination. On 17 May, he was elected vicepresident of the Permanent Committee formed by Blaj delegates as a supervising body (one presided by ÃÂaguna), later the basis of the National Romanian Committee.
The rapid succession of events after the proclamation of Transylvania's union with the Hungarian Kingdom (11 July) and of Hungary's independence (27 September), with an Austrian military debacle in Transylvania, saw a rapprochement between the loyalist Austrian Anton Freiherr von Puchner, nominal governor of the region, and BÃÂrnuÃÂiu's Committee. From the committee's perspective, this was an Austrian recognition of Transylvania's self-government as a Romanian region, which was to be advanced to the new emperor Franz Josef.
After Imperial Russian intervention in Transylvania, he decided to go into exile, and settled in IaÃÂi, Moldavia's capital. He wrote several treaties on law and philosophy (including a passionate defense of Roman law), and, before and after the union of the Danubian Principalities under Domnitor Alexandru Ioan Cuza advocated radical reforms which were a direct inspiration to the Moldavian liberal dissidents grouped as FracÃÂiunea liberÃÂ ÃÂi independentÃÂ. In the 1850s, BÃÂrnuÃÂiu wrote against the popular project of electing a foreign prince as ruler of the Principalities, an opposition which FracÃÂiunea carried into the Constituent Assembly following the toppling of Cuza two years after BÃÂrnuÃÂiu's death. Junimea, a conservative literary society created during that period, criticized him along with other Transylvanian intellectuals (such as Timotei Cipariu, Gheorghe ÃÂincai, and August Treboniu Laurian) for having supported a Romanian grammar and alphabet based on Latin etymologies instead of one reflecting the spoken language (at the time, "Latinist" influences following Transylvanian guidelines had come to be favoured by the Romanian Academy).
After having fallen gravely ill, Simion BÃÂrnuÃÂiu asked to be allowed to return to his native village. He died on the way there, in Hida.