Carlovitz considered himself dependent from it, and at first he described himself as "Exarch of the throne of Ipek." When there was no longer a throne of Ipek to be Exarch of, he became quite independent. There are now six Servian dioceses under Carlovitz scattered through Hungary and Slavonia,[1] with twenty-seven monasteries, and just over a million of the faithful. A last example will show the invariable tolerance and good-nature of the Government of the Habsburgs. Hitherto, the common official name for all the Orthodox in the Dual Monarchy was Greek-Oriental (griechisch-morgenländisch); so the Church of Carlovitz was officially known as the Servian national Greek-Oriental Church. But they did not like this name. They feel very strongly that they are not Greeks; the Greek Patriarch of Constantinople had destroyed their old national Church of Ipek, and, although they are in communion with him, they cannot abide him and his ways. So they protested. The courteous statesmen at Vienna and Pesth have nothing to do with the everlasting internal quarrels of the Orthodox, but they are always studiously anxious to make every one happy. So they said that, of course, they would be delighted to do anything they could for the Serbs: What would the gentlemen like to be called? They were told; and now the official name is the Servian national Orthodox-Slav (Pravoslav) Oriental Church. This body is, of course, in communion with the Œcumenical Patriarch and with all the other Orthodox Churches, but it has no Head but Christ, and, as they sit in peace under the Habsburg double crown, this does not mean the Procurator of a Holy Directing Synod.[2]
8. The Church of Czernagora (1765).
This Church represents the other fragment of the old Patriarchate of Ipek. The people of Czernagora (Mons Niger,
- ↑ Carlovitz, Bács, Buda, Karlstadt, Pakrácz, Temesvár, Versecz. The Hungarian Government pays the Metropolitan of Carlovitz 80,000 fl. a year, and the others 10,500 fl. They have an ecclesiastical Congress to arrange their own affairs, which is entirely independent of the State, and all sit in the Hungarian House of Lords.
- ↑ For all this, see the E. d'Or. ii, p. 156, seq., v. p. 164, seq., vii. p. 358, seq.
