The Republic meanwhile applied to the King of Naples for arms and troops, expecting a Turkish attack, raised a loan for defensive purposes at Genoa,[490] and negotiated with the Emperor Leopold. Kara Mustafa, on being informed of this action, vowed vengeance, determined to capture the city, and only delayed the operation until he should return from the siege of Vienna. But fortunately his armies were defeated by John Sobieski, King of Poland, and this Christian victory saved Europe, shaking the Ottoman power to its very foundations. The ferocious vizir was disgraced and beheaded in consequence, and the projects against Ragusa abandoned. Caboga, Bucchia, and Gozze were then liberated and allowed to return home. “As he (Caboga) approached the city every knoll, villa, and house-top was covered with an admiring, almost adoring, people; every bell in Ragusa rang a merry peal, and the Rector and Senate, in full robes, went out of the city to give a cordial welcome to the wonderful Marino Caboga.”[491] He had indeed deserved well of his country, for never had the Republic been in more imminent danger, from which she was saved by this respite.
In March 1684 a new Holy League was formed between the Emperor Leopold I., the King of Poland, the Pope, and the Venetians, in which Ragusa was forced to join. But the danger from such a proceeding was now less great, for the Turkish power was now broken. As the Austrians had reconquered a large part of Hungary, Ragusa was considered to be under the protection of the Emperor as ruler of that country, and on August 20, 1684, a treaty to that effect was signed at Vienna by Baron von Strattmann, representing Austria, and Raphael Gozze, the Ragusan envoy, under the auspices of the Marquis of Borgamenero, the Spanish ambassador, for Spain still had certain rights over the Republic. The agreement was ratified by the Senate on December 1. It declared that this protection was merely a renewal of the old Hungarian protectorate over Ragusa, “hactenus per vim Turcicam aliquantisper interpolata,” which the citizens requested that they “quasi postliminio gaudere et fieri possint.” The Emperor promised to protect and defend Ragusa, to confirm all the privileges and commercial immunities which the kings of Hungary, his predecessors, had granted her, in exchange for which she was to pay him a sum of 5000 ducats per annum. This payment, however, was only to be made if and when the Austrian armies conquered the Herzegovina. The Empire was successful in the war, and the Turks were steadily driven back out of Hungary, where they now only held a few isolated posts. Venice too displayed an energy and achieved a success remarkable for a decaying State. She conquered the greater part of the Morea, captured Athens and a number of islands, and occupied Castelnuovo and the whole of the shores of the Bocche di Cattaro, as well as several positions in the Herzegovina. The Morlachs in the Venetian service made raids into Turkish territory, and did not spare that of Ragusa. Venetian privateers threatened to destroy what remained of the Republic’s sea-borne trade, while the closing of the land routes practically stopped all intercourse with Turkey. The citizens applied now to their new protector, the Emperor of Austria, who at once sent Herberstein to Ragusa as Imperial Commissary, and he induced the Venetians to desist from their molestations.
As, however, the Austrian armies did not conquer the Herzegovina, Ragusa never paid the tribute to the Emperor, and as soon as there was a prospect of peace on lines contemplating the maintenance of the status quo as regards the hinterland, the Republic hastened to come to an agreement with the Porte, and sent an ambassador to Constantinople with the arrears of tribute since 1684. After some years’ fighting the Tsar Peter’s capture of Azov, the Austrian victory of Zenta, and the Venetian successes in the Adriatic induced the Sultan to sue for peace, and in October 1698 the delegates of the Powers, including England and Holland, met at Carlovitz in southern Hungary. On June 26, 1699, the treaty was signed. The Porte ceded all Hungary save the Banat of Temesvar, Transsilvania, Slavonia, and Croatia as far as the Una, to the Emperor; Poland obtained Podolia, the Ukraine, and Kameniek; to Venice were assigned the Morea, some islands, and several fortresses in Dalmatia. An important article from the Ragusan point of view, which was obtained by bribing the Turkish negotiators, was that two strips of Turkish territory should intervene between the dominions of the Republic of St. Blaize and those of the Republic of St. Mark, viz. the enclaves of Klek, near the Narenta’s mouth, and of Sutorina in the Bocche di Cattaro.[492] Ragusa thus became tributary to the Porte once more, and deliberately preferred to be surrounded by the Turkish dominions rather than by those of the Venetians. This result brought about a partial revival of the land trade.
In 1714 war between Venice and the Turks broke out once more, the Sultan desiring above all to reconquer the Morea; he succeeded in his purpose very quickly, for the Venetians, relying on the peace of Carlovitz, which was to last twenty-five years (the Turks never concluded treaties of perpetual peace), had made no adequate preparations for defence. They allied themselves with the Emperor (April 13, 1716), and Prince Eugene led an army into southern Hungary. The Imperialists defeated the Turks first at Peterwardein, and then at Belgrad, which they captured. In 1718 the representatives of the various Powers met at Passarovitz (Požarovac) in Servia, and on 18th July signed a treaty of peace, by which the Emperor retained all his conquests, but the capture of the Morea by the Turks was confirmed, the Venetians thus losing their last possessions in the Levant save the Ionian Islands. With regard to Ragusa the arrangements of the peace of Carlovitz were reconfirmed, Venice giving up the posts of Popovo, Zarina, and Subzi on the Ragusan border.
COURTYARD OF THE RECTOR’S PALACE
For the next few years the Republic was undisturbed by wars and rumours of wars, but its general conditions showed little improvement. The tribute to the Sultan was 12,500 ducats a year, and with gifts and bribes amounted to 16,000; but since the earthquake it had been paid every three years instead of annually. The Ragusans also paid blackmail to the Barbary States, and a tribute at irregular intervals to Austria. Every year a present was sent to the Pope, and twelve astori (falcons) to the King of Naples.[493] The population was now no more than 20,000, and the value of property had so decreased that the incomes of the archbishops and clergy were utterly inadequate. Education was in the hands of the Jesuits, who had established a college. But in the rest of the territory there were no means of instruction or religion. Archbishop Galliani, in a report to the Propaganda Fide,[494] complains that the upper classes were beginning to read French books and talk mockingly about fasting, flagellation, and other practices of the Church. When he remonstrated with them he was told that the Index had not been proclaimed at Ragusa, and had therefore no authority. He afterwards had it proclaimed from the pulpits, but the only effect was that the Senate in a fit of zeal ordered the burning of the Jewish Thalmud, a work which can hardly have had many readers, nor shaken the piety of the people. But in spite of their scepticism the Ragusans were as intolerant as ever towards the members of the Orthodox Church. In 1724 a rich Servian, named Sava Vladislavić, who had a house and garden at Ragusa and many friends among the aristocracy, asked permission to build a Greek chapel in his own grounds. But even this modest request, although backed by a letter from the Tsar Peter the Great, was refused.[495] The incident is not without significance; the Catholic Slaves have always been particularly bitter against the Orthodox Christians, while the letter from the Tsar is an early symptom of the interest taken by Russia in the welfare of Orthodox communities outside her own territory, an interest, then as now, essentially political rather than religious. In 1743 Pope Benedict XIV. wrote to the Senate encouraging them in their religious refusal to permit the building of Greek churches and to admit Greek priests into the town.
But another revival in the city’s prosperity seemed to be at hand. Trade, which had been apparently in a hopeless condition, began to show signs of improving. In 1727 Ragusan ships once more extended their voyages beyond the limits of the Adriatic; in that year a vessel went to Smyrna for the first time for many years. The wars between England, France, and Spain in 1739-1750, and in 1755-1763, proved advantageous to Ragusan shipping, and much of the commerce of the Mediterranean passed into their hands as neutrals.
Ragusa had her last dispute with Venice in 1754, when she complained to the Porte that the Venetians had illegally cut down forests on Ragusan territory, and levied exorbitant tolls on Ragusan vessels. The Pasha of Bosnia acted as mediator, and Venice agreed to renounce the dues, but Ragusa was to pay homage to the Most Serene Republic by presenting a silver ewer and twenty sequins every third year to the Capitano in Golfo, or Admiral of the Adriatic, as compensation for the rights of transit paid to Venice by Ragusa “da tempi immemorabili fino al presente anno.”
During the Seven Years’ War Ragusa had a diplomatic incident with Great Britain. The Republic was suspected by the British Government of allowing French ships to be fitted out in her own harbours. The Jesuit scientist Ruggiero Bosković was sent to England as Ragusan agent to convince the authorities of the groundlessness of the accusation; he succeeded in his mission, and was well received.