The reconstruction of South-Eastern Europe

SOUTH-EASTERN EUROPE

monk Makarius, as its Patriarch with his seat at Ipek (Pec). This Church, looking upon itself as the direct heir of the Serbian kings, tsars and despots took the entire Serbian population under its spiritual guidance in the Balkans as well as to the north of the Save and the Danube; whereas all other Orthodox Churches in Greece, Bulgaria and Roumania came under the jurisdiction of the Patriarchate at Constantinople.

No wonder that when Hungary was exhausted in the internecine struggles raging for the possession of the Crown, the defence of the realm fell mainly upon the Serbs and Croats. And when the Turks in 1552 succeeded in conquering the Banat and Slavonia, a Serbian insurrection broke out already at the end of the sixteenth century. In order to achieve lasting results the Serbs looked for an alliance with the Magyars and appealed to Sigismund Batory, Duke of Transylvania, for assistance, offering him the title of Serbian despot, King of Rascia—as the medieval authors called Serbia—on condition that he sent them help.

The Magyars delayed with their assistance, and the rising tide of the Turks not only overcame the Serbian resistance, but conquered almost the whole of Hungary and occupied Budapest.

The Peace of Warsaw, concluded in 1664 between Austria and Turkey, was of short duration. A new storm was at hand, and indeed we see

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