The progress of the Turkish arms proved fatal to the welfare of Servia. In 1389 Lazarus I was defeated at Kos- sovopolje, and his son and successor, Stephen, became a vassal of Turkey. In 1459 IMohammed II incorporated Servia with Turkey, excepting Belgrade, wliich was held by the Hungarians until 1521. By the treaty of Passarowitz (1718) aconsidcraijle portion of the country was made over to Austria, but in 1739 it reverted to Tur- key. During all this time the Turkish government had allowed the patriarchate to continue. Even when, in 1690, patriarch Arsenius HI, after the failure of the Ser- vian insurrection which the Austrians had instigated against Turkish rule, had emigrated with 37,000 Servi- an families to Austrian territory, the patriarchate of Ipek was not interfered with, but the appointment was always conferred upon a (Jreek, who purchased the po- sition from the divan of Constantino])lc. In 17G5 (ac- cording to another statement in 17G9) this patriarchate IX.— P p
was abolished and united with that of Constantinople. The last patriarch (Basil) fled to Russia, where he died, in St. Petersburg. Four metropolitans, generally Greeks, were now ap|iointcd for Servia, the sees of whom were Belgrade, Nish, Uzhitza, and Novi-Bazar, aiwl none of whom had a suffragan. After sixty years of oppression, the people, under George Czern\-, rebelled, and, with the assistance of Russia, triumphed, and Czerny was elected by the people prince of Servia. Deserted by Russia and France, the Turks again became masters of the country (1813). But two years after, under Milosh Obrenovitch, the ])eople won back their liberties. Milosh was chosen prince of Servia (1817), and subsequently recognised by the sultan. After the election of Czerny, the metropol- itan of Carlovitz, in Austria, had been recognised as the head of the Servian Church; but in 1830 Milosh again appointed a metropolitan for Servia. In 1834 Turkey restored six Servian districts which she had retained since 1813, and in the spring of 1872 relinquished a few additional localities, though not all that Servia claimed as her own. The seat of the legislature, which had al- ways been at Kraguyevatz, was removed to Belgrade in October, 1875.
HI. Iieiif/ioii, etc. — The inhabitants nearly all belong to the Greek Church, but are independent of the patri- arch of Constantino|)le.
The hierarchy of the Church of Servia consists at present (1879) of a metropolitan and five bishops. The metropolitan is elected by the prince and the Servian bishops. He resides at Belgrade, and, according to the regulations of 1839, is assisted in the government of the Chnrch by a titular bishop and several protopresbyters and presbyters. The titular bishop and the other di- ocesan bishops constitute, at the same time, the Synod of the Metropolitan, to which are referred all marriage af- fairs, as well as all complaints of the administration and government of the Church by the metropolitan. The metropolitan receives fees for the ordination of presbj-- ters, the consecration of churches, etc., and a fixed an- nual income of 6000 florins (about ^2400). He also possesses some real estate, especially vineyards near Se- mendria. The bishops are elected by the peo|)le, imder the superintendence and guidance of the minister of justice, and ordained by the metropolitan. Thej'have an unlimited jurisdiction in all matters purely ecclesias- tical. All churches and ecclesiastical institutions are under the superintendence of the minister of justice, who makes the necessary arrangements conjointly with the elders of the Church. Servia has now five diocesan bishops, namely, the bishop of Shabatz, the bishop of Uzhitza (who resides at Karanovatz), the bishop of Ne- gotin,and in the districts annexed in 1878 to Servia the bishojis of Nish and Vranya. Each of them has a fixed income of 4000 florins (about $1600). He also receives fees for ordinations, consecration, and other ecclesiasti- cal functions. In regard to fees for burials, the bishop has to come to an understanding with the familv of the deceased. All other fees were abolished in 1822, al- tliough vohuitary gifts are still frequently made and ac- cepted. The bishops have to pay from their income their archdeacons and secretaries. The secular clergy number about nine hundred members. The clergymen in the town receive fixed salaries, while tliose in the rural districts only receive fees. Every parisli jiriest is obliged to keep accurate lists of births, marriages, and deaths.
Servia has many convents, most of which, however, have only a small number of inmates. Many of the convents have been wholly abandoned; others are her- mitages, near which lodging-houses are erected at (he time of ])ilgrimages. The convent Sweti Krai {holy kinr/) at Studenitza contains the bones of king Stephen Nemanja, by whom it was founded, and wlio in 1200 <lied as monk of one of the convents on Mount Athos. His son Rastka, better known in Servian hist()r^• as St. Sabbas, the first archliisliop of Uzhitza, transferred the bones of his father in 1203 to the Convent of
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Stndenitza, which after the cloister name of king Stephen is sometimes called the Laura of St. Simon.
A Roman Catholic bishopric was established by pope Innocent X in 1()44 at Belgrade. In 1728 the see was transferred from Belgrade to Semendria, and the name of the diocese is now Belgrade and Semendria. The bishop is a suffragan of the archbishop of Antivari, in Albania. The number of Roman Catholics is small. In 18G1 some accounts claimed a population of 30,000, but the Roman statistician Petri {Prospetlo della Ge- rarchia Episcopale [Rome, 1850]) saj's nothing of the Roman Catholic population of the diocese. The official statistical bureau of Belgrade gave the number of Ro- man Catholics in 1874 as 4161. In 1852, the papal ituncio of Vienna, Viale Prela, visited Belgrade in order to reorganize the diocese, but no account of the results of his mission has ever been published. The Protes- tants numbered in 1874, according to the official statis- tical report of tlic government, 403, the Jews 2049, and the Mohammedans 030G. In the districts annexed in 1878 there are estimated to be 75,000 Mohammedans. .Secession from the State Church is rigorously forbidden, but otherwise all the other religious denominations en- joy entire religious liberty.