The monks were unfeignedly astonished at our appearance, and would hardly believe that we had arrived on foot and without escort. They said that to travel in Bosnia at present without Turkish guards was sheer madness; that the state of the country was becoming more critical every moment; and that the insurrection in the Herzegovina had roused Mahometan fanaticism to such a pitch that all the Christians of the neighbourhood were seriously dreading a massacre. The monks themselves certainly seemed to share in the prevailing panic; for the day before, when the Latins of the district were assembled at the monastery to celebrate the feast of the Assumption, the brothers had sent off to the Mutasarìf, the Turkish governor of Travnik, for protection. The Mutasarìf, recognising, apparently, the legitimacy of their fears, had sent them a guard of soldiers, and the Christian congregation had performed their devotions under the tutelage of Turkish bayonets.
It may at first sight seem strange that people in fear of Turkish violence should have had recourse to Turkish protection, and perhaps stranger still that such protection should have been accorded them. The explanation, in fact, lies at the root of much that is least intelligible to the outsider in the present state of Bosnia.
It has been the policy of the Mahometan conqueror to favour the Roman Church in the province, as a ready counterpoise to the orthodox Serbians, who in numbers far outweigh the Mussulmans,[196] and who, in contradistinction to the Latins, are imbued with national aspirations. On the other hand, the Roman ecclesiastics as a rule entertain a far more wholesome abhorrence of their fellow-Christians than of the infidel, and so the alliance is compacted by mutual benefits. The Turks, from the year 1463, when Sultan Mahomet granted the Franciscan monks their great Charter of Liberties, the ‘Atname,’[197] have been politicly liberal to them, exempting their monasteries and lands from taxation, and freeing the brothers from the capitation tax which weighs on the rayah. In return, the monks have exerted their influence in rendering the Latins submissive to their rulers, and have backed up the Mahometans in their oppression of the Serbs, as the members of the Greek Church are significantly called. When the Latins have been ill used, it has been principally owing to the weakness of the Osmanlì element and the bigotry of the Sclavonic renegades of Bosnia, of whose almost independent rule mention has already been made. When, in 1850, Omer Pashà dealt the death-blow to Mahometan feudalism here, and practically recovered Bosnia for the Sultan, he received support from many of the Latins. At the present moment the danger which the monks were in such dread of, was not from the Turkish authorities, but from the Sclavonic Mussulmans, the representatives of the old provincial Janissarism, the descendants of the Capetans and Begs, who eye the myrmidons of the Stamboul Government with almost as much hostility as they do the rayah, and, true to their conservative bigotry, draw far less subtle distinctions between one Giaour and another.
We were naturally inclined to suppose the fears of the monks exaggerated, and could not help thinking that if their situation were as desperate as they would fain make it out, it would have been better if, instead of praying, they had taken arms and instructed their flock how to defy the Moslem in their mountain fastnesses. As for their lamentations, they smacked of Gildas in their querulousness! The brothers were especially apprehensive of a bloody anti-Christian outbreak in Serajevo, the capital of Bosnia, where they doubted whether the Pashà—himself, in their opinion, a tolerant man enough—could restrain the fanaticism of the Mussulman population, which exceeds that of all other Bosnian Mahometans, as much as the bigotry of Bosnian Mahometans in general exceeds that of all the other followers of the Prophet in Turkey-in-Europe. Of the revolt in the Herzegovina the monks knew but little, except that Mostar had not fallen.
These alarmist outpourings were relieved by a hospitable diversion. The brothers conducted us to the refectory—a spacious chamber, the size of an average college hall—where we met with most sumptuous entertainment—as we thought it at the time—consisting of some lumps of mutton, good brown bread, eggs poached in cheesy milk, vermicelli, and a sweet melon—a sign that we were advancing south.
Seated once more in the guest-room, we exchanged ideas with the monks on a variety of interesting topics, and were much struck with the amount of culture which many of them possessed. They comprised among them a respectable acquaintance with modern languages—one knowing German, another French, another Italian, and most possessed of at least a smattering of Latin—so that we were able to hold a most polyglot conversation. The German-speaking monks told us that they had received their education at the monastery of Diakovar, in Slavonia. This was founded in 1857 by the well-known Bishop Strossmayer, and endowed by the present Emperor of Austria. It was intended as a theological seminary for the brothers of the Bosnian order of Minorites, to whom it was handed over. There is a certain fitness about its locality, as after the Turkish conquest of Bosnia it was at Diakovar that her titular bishops fixed their residence; and it was from there that, for a while, they exercised a nominal control over their diocese, under Cæsarean influence. The sheep among wolves, however, very naturally turned away from absentee shepherds, and sought spiritual, guidance from the Minorites, who lived in their midst and shared their vicissitudes. The establishment of this seminary is therefore a very good move if it was sought to revive the Imperial influence, for the Franciscan organisation in Bosnia, on which the whole Latin population depend for their ghostly needs,[198] is thus placed to a great extent under the tutorship of Austria; and if the monks gain in culture, his Apostolic Majesty gains in goodwill. Add to this that the Roman Church in Bosnia is in one way or another indebted to the Imperial Government for pecuniary contributions, and that the establishment of the Austrian Consulate-General at Serajevo in 1850 has made it possible for Austria to play the part of patroness[199] of the Catholics in Bosnia, and to carry into effect in the most emphatic way in this part of the Sultan’s dominions the right of protecting the Roman Catholic Church in Turkey, which she secured by the Peace of Carlovitz. No one, after this, will be surprised to learn that the Roman Catholic influence in Bosnia is a lever in the hands of Austria; and, to quote the words of an attaché of the Austrian Consulate-General in Serajevo, ‘The Emperor of Austria is, in the eyes of Bosnian Roman Catholics, the Emperor and supreme prince of the Catholic Church, just as in the eyes of the Oriental Greek population the Russian Emperor is the head of the Greek Church.’[200]
So we were not long in discovering the Austrian leanings of the monks while discussing the possible eventualities of Bosnia. They were extremely interested in the attitude of England—complained bitterly of the way in which we had supported the Turk against the rayah, but at the same time professed themselves extremely hostile to Russia. But they betrayed a lively repugnance to the Great Serbian idea in any shape, seeing in Serbian unity the triumph of their Greek rivals, who form the large majority of the population of Bosnia, and who would at once become the ruling caste,[201] if Bosnia were united to Free Serbia, Montenegro, and the other fragments of the old Serbian Empire. As far as we could gather their aspirations, they were willing to see the old kingship of Bosnia restored under the suzerainty of Catholic Austria, thinking that the Latins would thus recover their old dominant position in the country, and the Catholic rulers obtain the same support of Austrian cannon as their forefathers had of Hungarian battleaxes. Failing the erection of a Roman Catholic principality under the wing of the double-eagle, they were willing to see the whole country occupied by Austria, and actually annexed. But rather than see Bosnia in any form a Serbian state, they would accept the continuance of Turkish rule.
These sentiments must not however be looked on as universal among the Roman Catholics of Bosnia. In many parts they are yielding to a generous sympathy with Greek fellow-Christians. Notably in Herzegovina, Roman priests have appeared among the leaders of the insurrection; and Bishop Strossmayer, whose influence among the Roman Catholics is very great, is himself a warm champion of union with free Serbia.[202]