The Montenegrin Question

I shall start with the very first, Danilo Scepcev Petrovic-Njegos (1697-1735). He was nominated by the Serb Patriarch Arsenije III Crnojevic (who was himself a Montenegrin) in 1697 and elected by the Montenegrin Council to be the next Montenegrin Metropolitan*. Patriarch Arsenije was leading a massive wave of the Serb populace in what was known as The Great Serb Migration from Kosovo and other territories of Old Serbia under Ottoman reign, after the Habsburgs tragically lost their chance to defeat the Ottomans and the reprisals for assisting them were abound, into Habsburg Hungay. Therefore, Danilo went in 1700 to Retschingen (which the Serbs knew as "Sečuj"), and was made into Prince-Bishop of the Skadar lands by the Patriarch. He is known as the initiator of the movements to liberate Montenegro from Ottoman rule and in general the beginnings of the Serbian national movement.



He was born ca. 1670 in the Njegusi village. In Orlov Krs (the Eagle's Karst) at Cetinje he founded the new Cetinje Monastery (the old one was destroyed during the Morrean war to the ground by the the Shkoder Sulayman-pasa Busatli, himself of ethnic Serb origins) in 1701 or 1704, dedicated to the Mother of Christ. He is infamous for the 1707 or 1709 incitment of the pogrom against domestic Muslims (however often overamplified, especially since the Turks wouldn't let him to travel in '09 to Pec to a council of the Serbian Church). In 1711 he responded to the Ottoman declaration of war against Russia with an offensive, allying with Russia and managing to secure incredible and wealthy financial support from the Russians (1714-1716), in 1712 he defeated the outnumbering Ottoman Turks deceisively with minimal losses at the Battle of Carev Laz in the Ljesanska Nahija and continuing fighting against the Turks for years, another major victory being the 1717 battle of Trnjine. In 1712 he lost Cetinje briefly to the Turks (Ahmed-pasa) who raided it, and in 1714 the Bosnian vizier Numan-pasa Cuprilic invaded Montenegro from three sides and completely devastated it, destroying the Monastery and most of Cetinje. After returning from Russia, he lived in 1716-1724 in the (Pod)Maine monastery near Budva, when he rebuilt the Cetinje. In 1713 he founded the Earlthly Court for Montenegro, passed by the General Montenegrin Council (composed by 12 most influential Chieftains). He united the Montenegrin clans and made an effort to eradicate the blood feud, was known for occasionally using cursed, and in 1718 got Venetian permission to officially spread his influence over the Orthodox Serbs living in the coastline. He died in the Podmaine coastal monastery.


this is the new Cetinje Monastery, founded by Danilo

The following is the oldest inscription of Danilo, from 1698, while acquiring a book:

"At the summer of 7207 on the month of July on 17th on the Sunday of Holy Fathers, so we had seen the book bought the Biography of Saint Abbas, the first Archepiscop and teacher Serbian, by the sinful and peaceful Danil, mentioned Prince-Bishop of Cettigne."

In 1702, Prince-Bishop Danilo was sanctifying a new church in an old Montenegrin village in the valley of Zeta. It is there that a band of Ottoman Turks tricked him and kidnapped him, subsequently horrendously torturing him (the case of his later unsathiated hatred towards the Turks and Islam in general). The village's name was (and still is to this very day), Serbian (or litterally, "Srpska")

In 1711 Russian Czar Peter the Great sent colonel Mihailo Miloradovic from Herzegovina and Ivan Lukarevic of Podgorica to bring his charters to the Montenegrin people and establish direct diplomatic links in an effort to move them against the Ottoman Empire. In a council in Cetinje in front of most local Montenegrins gathered, Danilo stated to them:

"But here today, cheering God, we see his emissaries and his Imperial charters into our hands; the envoys, I speak, not foreigners, but our brothers Serbs..."

In 1714 Danilo spoke on one session of the Montenegrin Council to the Chieftains. This is an excerpt from his speech:

"Gladly would I face my death had you all wanted to die honorably and in fame, as done by Prince Lazar himself and Milos Obilic who slew the Emperor in Kosovo, and then himself fell along with his master and seven thousand fighters - which brought us Montenegrins into these hills - leaving behind afterward glory and honor...As you all know, in your time, during the difficult Viennese War, how many brave Serbs, Greeks and Bulgarians, Hungarians and Germans fell..."

On 2 December 1714 the Metropolitan wrote letter of Metropolitan Danilo to the consul of Russian Emperor Peter the Great in Vienna Gavril Golovkin. The following is an excerpt from that letter:

"And now they have stopped me here...I do not know what will be of my life in a foreign Empire, because I would first disgrace myself, and then our Serb tribes, when I would ask for help from other states, and others would mock us..."

And finally, in 1732, Metropolitan Danilo wrote the following on a pergament in a Gospel, for the first time using the attractive to him "Duke to the Serb land" title (some think he indeed was a Duke and others, that he just named himself to present the reign over the Serbs):

"Danil, Prince-Bishop Cettigne's, Nyegosh, Duke to the Serb land, bought this holy gospel by the price of 5 Gold in Ivan Kaludjerovic of Rissan, brought from the Moldavian land with his buyer. And we from our effort managed the silver - the cheek of Christ and 4 Gospelists and from the other side the 5 silver - all in total 10 and placed it I in the Patriarchate of Pec in the Temple of Christ's Resurrection."



Prince Danil restored heraldry in Montenegro since the demise of the Medieval Principality in the wake of Ottoman might. He renewed the traditions of continuinity with the medieval Crnojevic dynasty, as well as in that manner the Serbian Nemanyiden dynasty, and in 1715 presented this paper with the Montenegrin Coat of Arms drawn on it. It was inspired by the Crnojevic Coat of Arms found in the ruins of the old Cetinje Monastery and influence by various liturgic and other ecclesiastical book records which had similar ensignia.



* In 1516 the last heir to the Montenegrin throne Djuradj Crnojevic had passed on to the Serbian Orthodox Church in Montenegro the successorship from his exile in Venice, due to the fact that the Ottomans came to rule his lands, and since then onwards the "Prince-Bishops" as they became, led the local peoples.


Edited by Yugoslav - 28-Sep-2008 at 13:53

May be those fellows would be happy to exchange them to some new Serbian-Montenegran dictionaries.

The next is Sava Petrovic-Njegos (born 1702, though unsure, read the text to find out why), Prince-Bishop from 1735 to 1781 and Danil's nephew. He was hand-picked by his cousin Danilo to be his successor to the Metropolitan throne in 1719, with the permission of the Serb Patriarch in Pec Moses Putnik Curla (who also that year made him one).



He is known as being incredibly weak and of no political influence save for religious caretaking, sick almost always. In local politics he tied himself to the Venetian Republic. In 1742-1744 he travelled to the Russian Empire to secure financial aid to sustain the Church and Montenegro itself. In 1736 Sava expanded his Podmaine Monastery residence, and in 1747 he restored the Stanjevici Monastery dedicated to the Holy Trinity. His cousin Archymandrite Vasilije [Basil] was replacing him, and he soon kicked him out of political life, disliking his opposition to any use of violence and general inaction. Under venetian influence he attempted to kick Basil out, but failed and eventually conceded to make him also Prince-Bishop in 1750, mostly leaving him to travel to Russia. With no result he made a Russian archymandrite to be Bishop of Zeta (1756) and sent his nephew (1762) like his co-ruler to secure a Russian protectorate. He managed to put the coastal town of Herceg-Novi under his religious dependence, as well as tried to influence the Dalmatian Orthodoxes. He tried to restore the abolished (1766) Serbian Orthodox Church with no result.

In the 1760s Russian Prince Dolgoruki and the exiled Serbian Patriarch Vasilije Brkic (who was elected under Sava's influence in the first place) and Brkic became the dominant person in Montenegro due to popular support of the common Patriarch of all Serbs until they left in 1769. From 1767 to 1773 Sava played allong the imposter who pretended that he is Russian Czar Peter and had him become the absolute secular ruler of the country (so-called "False Tsar Stephen the Little") until he was lynched, introducing yet another person of power in the anarchy. In 1770 he gave the Radonjic family successorship rights for Goverency* in Montenegro. He chose a successof in 1768, Arsenije Plamenac, which was made into by Patriarch Brkic during his exile in Montenegro, an act found outrageous by many for braking the dynastic Petrovic cannon. After 1773, he didn't move from his home dealing in ecclesiastic affairs together with his successor Arsenije. He died in 1781, leaving a popular "running" myth that he died in 100th year.


this is a photo of the Podmaine monastery


this is a photo of the Stanjevici monastery

* In 1742 Prince-Bishop Sava Petrovic-Njegos wrote a common letter with the Governer Vukadin Vukotic of All Montenegro, Duke Ilija Radonjic, Governor Nikola Lazarevic of All Grbalj & Coastline and Duke Niko Stijepov of Cetinje to the Russian Czarina Elizabeth Petrova: "We, who reside in the Serb land in the Macedonian regions, and The Skadar, Montenegro and the Seaside.."

* In 1743 Montenegrin Prince-Bishop Sava wrote a letter to the Russian Empress Elizabeth, retelling how Czar Peter the Great sent in 1711 colonel Michael Miloradovic and captain Ivan Lukarcevic to Montenegrin Metropolitan Danil, the Montenegrin Chiefs and "the entire one-faithed Montenegrin people, which is of the one and only SlavoSerbian kin and language"

In 1746 Prince-Bishop Sava Petrovic bought a parchment of land (in Ottoman soil) from some neighboring landowners and the charters of it he gave to be "in our, Serbian, written by priest Mitar Raskovic, and in Turkish written by Chaplan aya Omercehic".

In 1750 Prince-Bishop Sava wrote to the Dalmatian Roman Catholic inquisition in Venetian-Italian, ending the letter with "translated from the Slavo-Serbian language" (Traduzione dall' Idioma Illirico-Serviano).

On 25 May 1752 in Cetinje in the "Residence of Cetinje's Metropolitans" Prince-Bishop Sava and Serbian exiled Patriarch Atanasije (he was exiled from Pec and hid in Montenegro, which did not recognize the new pro-Constantinople pro-Turkish Serbian Orthodox Phanariot leadership in Pec) wrote a letter to the Russia. It was brought to Russia by his cousin archymandrite Basil Petrovic Njegos, in it also recommending the "Metropolitan heir and Exarch of the Serb Throne Basil" to her, noting also about the rest of the "SlavoSerbian lordship"):

"Especially is of every condolence worthy a Serb land which is not only of every right stripped, but also permanently lies under the feet of the opponent, and her passions and whelps are hard to describe...

The only free principality Montenegrin which is ready to show its faith and courage, as too before, to the entire our SlavoSerbian people."

On 3 January 1757 Prince-Bishop Sava wrote a common letter with his co-ruler Vasilije and all Montenegrin Chieftains to the Venetian Princeps signing with: "...from our famous Serbian Empire."

On 15 June 1767 he wrote a letter directed to the Republic of Dubrovnik, the following are its contents:

"And it is glad to us your holding, that you keep the speech of our Serbian language."

In 1775, Prince-Bishop Sava wrote to the Senate of the Republic of Dubrovnik:

"Your famous Republic knows that all of our lordship and glory Serbian fell and nothing remained...you are a single flower to the isolated world with which the Serbian land can brag."

The following is a letter to the Russian Empress Catherine the Great from 1776:

"In all of Europe it is heard and to ears comes your clearness and caring of holy churches and Orthodoxy, so it comes glad to heart. It is therefore that I dare disturb your holiness and inform you about the general SlavoSerbian people which lives under a terrifying and unbearable grip of Turkish slavery with God's permission for our sins. Not a single bishopric has its own natural bishop a Serb, and all were expelled from their thrones and removed by the injustice of Constantinople's Patriarch and his Synods, and in their places Greeks brought in. For all the rules of holy apostles and saints have no rights because they are deprived by the Patriarch of Constantinople, of what the Serbian nation had since its first saint Sava the enlightener Serbian as can be found with the kait, that is the Sultan's secretary. Rise up the throne of the fallen Serbian Archbishopric which is deprived of all beauty by the Greeks with the unjust decision of Constantinople's Patriarch and his Synods of Orthodoxy. Oh great ruler Ekaterina, who judges rightfully, express some mercy for us unhappy Serb bishops, we have you as God's envoy. Protect us from the Porte, so that the Greeks to not mettle into the Serbian nation for which we shall be in your eternal debt.

The Orthodox God's Archbishop Plato, if God is in the heart of Her Majesty, shall free us of the Greeks the throne of the Serbian Archbishopric of Pec. If it would be merciful to Her Highness and the the OverHoly Synod to sign for eternity under the OverHolly Righteous Synod of All Russia onforth that no Serb Archbishop can be placed without the permission of Her Majesty and the all-holy synod of All Russian. If need be, then a Russian bishop can come as Archbishop of Pec to the throne by same-languageness and same-bloodness.

From that could Russia have a strong military firmness of the Serbian nation, as Austrian Emperors had in every war with the Porte. This will be cheered by all Serb Bishops and the entire Serbian nation and they shall sign it with joy. To me in hands given from all SlavoSerbian bishops as the eldest and to no authority subjected with my Montenegrin people. Russia will in time be strengthened with the blood of the Serb nation, that is its most hopeful Montenegro.

In the Cathedral our Metropolitanate,
Cetinje, 26 February 1776
Metropolitan of the Skadar, Montenegro and the Coastline
Sava Petrovic"


the Church of the Podmaine monastery raised by Sava

Development of Montenegrin heraldry proceeds with Sava. His Bicephalous Eagle seemed to not to be a double-headed eagle, but actually two eagles merged into one. A new thing is that there is no more a crown over each head, but a common one above both heads, signifying centralization and unification of the reign, the crown being a remniscence of the Serbian Empire. Another new thing is the heraldic snake in the eagle(s)'s paws. The following is found on the 1747 stone fence of the Podmaine (or also called Podostrog) monastery's well.



With Metropolitan Sava, the practice of sigillography enter Montenegro. Below is the first seal, from a letter of the Montenegrin Chieftains to the Venetian governor of Kotor from 23 April 1749. The change was in replacing the Crown with a Christian Cross, a symbol of the political and historical reality in the land of Montenegro presented through the struggle against the occupying Islam, and the determining role of the Metropolitanate in the Montenegrin struggle. The bicephalous eagle's wings are not down, but are wide spread, another meaning of the time to shine and rush in the fight. The paws hold bowls, which was a sort of renewal of old heraldic heritage from the Crnojevic Medieval era. Another new thing is the addition of the biblical lion, representer of Saint John Mark the Evangelist (or better said of David himself, as the paradygm of Christ's arrisal and his realm as well as Solomon's symbol of future). In the beginning of the 18th century the already mentioned Patriarch Arsenije III Carnojevic introduced this symbol into usage, which soon quickly spread across the Church of Serbia into all Bishops. It says "The Mohur of All Montenegro".



The following are Prince-Bishop Sava Petrovic's own two preserved seals, the left from 1777 and the right from 1779:



*Goverency was introduced in the early 18th century by his predecessor, Danilo, as a means to commune with the Venetian Republic, however they turned out to be merely the Venetian administrators of Montenegro, in the wake of lackness of a secular authority


Edited by Yugoslav - 28-Sep-2008 at 19:40

Originally posted by Carpathian Wolf Ok sorry Yugoslav we're spamming your thread with sillyness :x.

Np. This is what forums are for.

Originally posted by Menumorut Is any connection between the name Montenegro and the Black Vlachs (Maurovlachs, Morlachs)?

Actually, not really. The Slavonic toponym is of geographic appearence origins.

Originally posted by Menumorut Originally posted by Yugoslav Actually, not really. The Slavonic toponym is of geographic appearence origins. Well, in the link I gived is said: "The adjective "black" is used here with the meaning of "northern", this metaphor probably deriving from the Turkic practice of naming cardinal directions after colours. Reports from the mid-11th century tell how the Morlachs lived in the mountainous regions of Montenegro, Bosnia (Stara Vlaška), Herzegovina and on the Dalmatian coast. "

Uhm, yes, so?

Originally posted by Menumorut So I think is quite possible that the name of Montenegro and the one the Black Vlachs to be related, as long as Montenegro was the land where they were mainly living. The Vlachs have been the majoritary inhabitans of large areas of Balkans and the main group was the one in Macedonia and Thessaly, while the Vlachs in Montengro were called Black Vlachs because they were the Northern Vlachs. So, the Vlachs gived the name of this region.

Well it is like I said, the native "Crna Gora" naming is not uncommon at all, there were countles "Crna Gora"s in the Medieval Serbian realm, Skopska Crna Gora, Presevska Crna Gora, Uzicka Crna Gora, in Rashka there are "Crne Gore" in plural, there is a Banatska Crna Gora in Banat, there is a 'Crna Gora' mountain in western Bulgaria, and another mountain in western Serbia, there is a 'Mala Crna Gora' in the Zabljak Montenegrin municipality, Crna Goras can even be found in Poland. It is a Slavic toponym for excessively mountainous areas riched with mirkwood life. I can't see how the most southern Black Vlachs could've been the Northern ones?


Edited by Yugoslav - 28-Sep-2008 at 14:48

The name for Montenegro, the Serbian Crna Gora come from the Italian Montenegro:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Montenegro#Etymology

As for the other Crna Goras in Serbia, am I wrong or most of them are in the area around Montenegro?

The Banatska Crna Gora could too be related with the Morlachs, while the one in Poland could too be related with the Vlachs, as long as the mountainous region of Poland was colonized with Balkan Vlachs:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorals

I found that in Italian Black Mountain is Monte Nero. Montenegro is not in Italian but in Vlach language:


http://www.wikinfo.org/index.php/List_of_country_name_etymologies

Only if Macedonia, southeastern and northwestern parts of Serbia, central-western Bulgaria and Polish southcentral regions Wink are near Montenegro. However I am sure there are a lot more Crna Goras in Slavic lands...For the Banatska Crna Gora, it is in precise a group of settlements raised by Serbs, rather than Vlachs. Also it could not be Morlachs, as the Morlo-Vlachs had lived in the Dalmatian areas an local hinterland, and not so deep as the Pannonian plain inland.

The name Maurovlachs preceds with 2-3 centuries the name Crnagora/Montenegro in documents. And as I said, it has a good explanation, they were the Northern Vlachs (Moldavia was also called in Middle Age Maurowallachia or Black Wallachia because it was the Northern Wallachia in relation with the other Wallachia).

According to Buschan "Die Volker Europas'', c. 1910, the Maurovlachen (Maurovlachians) were black Vlachians; they were nomadic shepherds, like the Aromunen and Turkish shepherds; their name was mentioned in the 10th century in the Byzantine empire; in the 11th century in Bulgaria and in later times in the western part of the Balkan peninsula.

http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/fyr-morl.html

Also see the above quote from the Morlachs article in Wikipedia.




Edited by Menumorut - 28-Sep-2008 at 20:04

Originally posted by Menumorut According to Buschan "Die Volker Europas'', c. 1910, the Maurovlachen (Maurovlachians) were black Vlachians; they were nomadic shepherds, like the Aromunen and Turkish shepherds; their name was mentioned in the 10th century in the Byzantine empire; in the 11th century in Bulgaria and in later times in the western part of the Balkan peninsula. http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/fyr-morl.html Also see the above quote from the Morlachs article in Wikipedia.

Actually, that's not about the Black Vlachs. It is about Vlachs in general. That very oldest mention of Vlachs in general from the 10th century is from 976 in precise, from Byzantine chronicler George Cedrenus. Boyar Sisman and his four sons raised an uprising against the Bulgarian Czar Peter. Sisman's son David died near a location known as "Pretty Oaks", fighting "Vlach wanderers".

The first mention of the Black Vlachs themselves, under the term "Nigri Latini", is from the Chronicle of the Priest of Doclea, which is still being located as written between the 12th and 15th centuries, and remains a mistery regarding who wrote it precisely, and where at all.