History.— 'Slanicncixyo belonged in the ^liddle Ages to the great Servian kingdom, but after the dismember- ment of the latter, and its coniiuest by the Turks at the battle of Kossovo (1389), the IMontenegrins, under their prince, who was of the royal blood of Servia. maintained I their independence, though compelled to relinquish the ! level tracts about Scutari, witli their chief fortress of Zabliak.and contiue themselves to the mountains (148,")). ' In lolG their last secular prince resigned his oflice, and transferred the government to tlie vladika. The Porte continued to assert its claim to ^Mniitencgro, and in- cluded it in the pachalic of Scutari: but the country was not concpiered till 1719, and on the withdrawal of the Turks soon afterwards, it resumed its independence. In 1710 Montenegro sought and obtained the protection j of Kussia, the czar agreeing to grant an annual sub- j sidy on condition of harassing the Turks by inroads, and j this compact has, down to the present time, been faith-
MONTENEGRO
fully observed by both parties. Another part of the agreement was that the vladika be consecrated by the czar, and this continues to be done even now, though this officer is at present only an ecclesiastical ruler. In 179(3 the prince-bishop, Pietro I, defeated the pacha of Scutari, who had invaded Montenegro, with the loss of 30,000 men ; and for the next quarter of a century we hear no more of Turkish invasions. The Montenegrins rendered important aid to Russia in 1803 against the French in Dalmatia, and took a prominent part in the attack on Ragusa, the capture of Curzola, and other achievements. Pietro II, who ruled from 1830 to 1851, made great efforts to civilize his people and improve their condition. He established the senate, introduced schools, and endeavored, though unsuccessfully, to put an end to internal feuds and predatory expeditions into the neighboring provinces. Some Turkish dis- tricts having joined Montenegro, the Turks attacked the latter in 1832, but were repulsed. A dispute with Aus- tria regarding the boundary resulted in a war, which was terminated by treaty in 1840. In 1851 the last prince-bishop died, and his successor, Danilo I, sepa- rated the religious from the secular supremacy, retain- ing the latter under the title of gospodar. This step caused the czar Nicholas to withdraw his subsidy (which was renewed, and the arrears paid, by the czar Alexan- der II), and the imposition of taxes thus rendered nec- essary caused great confusion. This was taken advan- tage of by the Turks, who, under Omer Pasha, invaded the country ; but the intervention of the great powers compelled a treaty, Feb. 15, 1853. Danilo, however, in vain eiHJleavored to obtain the recognition of Montene- gro as an independent power, though he repaired to the Paris Conference in 1857 for this purpose. He, more- over, greatly improved the laws and condition of the country. In 1860 the Montenegrins excited an insur- rection against the Turkish rule in the Herzegovina, which was soon suppressed, and in return thej' them- selves were so hard pressed bj' the Turks that they were glad to agree to a treaty (Sept. 13, 18G2) by which the sovereignty of the Sublime Porte over Montenegro was recognised, though the >vord itself consigning such au- thority is not stated in the compact. The present ruler of tlie country is Nikita, a man of good education, se- cured in Paris and Berlin, and an excellent politician, who has been actively engaged in seeking support from Austria, Russia, and (iermany to establish the complete independence of his realm. Since the commencement of the Pan-Slavic movement he has enjoj^ed many fa- vors from Russia, and received from its emperor in 18G9, while on a visit to St. Petersburg, a historical sword, with the Servian inscription " God save the king."' In 1874 new complications arose with Turkey on ac- count of murders committed on the Albanian borders, and Montenegro declared war in January, 1875 ; but a compromise was effected towards the end of the month. Since 1871 a political weekly has been published at Cettigne, and there are now telegraphic connections in the jMoutenegrin possessions. There is also a post- office department, which was established with the aid of the Austrian government in 1872. The most recent improvements are of a character indicating a very rapid progress in culture.
Reliffion. — The Montenegrins are members of the Non-united Greek Church, excepting onlj' a few Ro- man Catholics and Jews. The czar of Russia is recog- nised as the highest authority, for to him belongs the ordination of the Vlndika,t\ie spiritual head of the Mon- tenegrin Church. As we have seen above, the vladika was formerly both temporal and spiritual ruler. He is now prince-bishop, and next to him in authority stands the archimandrite of the convent of Ostrok. Priests, of whom there are about 200, are ordained by the vla- dika, and are charged thirty dollars for admission to holy orders, the money going to the state. They join in war and in the other occupations of the people. The priests must also be married before they can come up for con-
)37
MONTESPAN
Pontifical Costume of the Montenegrins.
secration, but the vladika is not allowed to marry ; and as the office must be kept within the family to which it has descended since 1516, the succession always falls to a nephew, or some other male relative. The vladika has an annual revenue of $10,000. The Montenegrin Greek Christians, who number, according to the Statis- tical Year-hook of the Russian Empire (vol. ii, 1871), 125,000, hate the pope equally as the Turks. They re- ject images, crucifixes, and pictures, and will not admit a Romanist without rebaptizing him. Monasticism ex- ists to a small extent. Their principal convents are those of Tzetinie, Ostrok, and St. Stefano. See Wilkin- son, Dalmatia and Montenegro, vol. i, ch. vi ; Krasinski, Montenegro and the Slavonians in, Turkey (Lond. 1855) ; and the same author in the Brit, and Fo?\ Qii. Rev. July, 1840; Vaclik, La Souverainte du Montenegro (Leipsic, 1858); Ubicini, Les Serbes du Turquie (Paris, 1865) ; Noe, Montenegro (Leipsic, 1870) ; Nightingale, Reliqious Ceremonies, p. 99-112; Daniels, Geographie, ii. 61 sq.