The reconstruction of South-Eastern Europe

SOUTH-EASTERN EUROPE

under the Turks he was recognised as chief of the whole Serbian people. No wonder that both Patriarch and Bishops wished to see the rights of the Serbian Church better defined and secured before committing themselves to a new policy. Therefore in a national assembly they formulated their conditions and instructed the Bishop of the Banat to demand the Emperor’s recognition of Serbian Church autonomy and the jurisdiction of the Patriarch in all matters in which it had been hitherto recognised by the Turks, before they would emigrate with their people to Austria.

The Emperor Leopold I promptly agreed to all the Serbian demands, put forward by them as a free nation negotiating with the Austrian Emperor and the King of Hungary. In proceeding thus the Emperor Leopold I, was following the procedure of the former Hungarian kings, as when Bela IV granted to Yasigues and Koumans not only privileges, but also a special strip of territory in Hungary with an administrative autonomy and a national leader. The Saxons in Hungary likewise had their own territory with an autonomous administration.

Of course the extended privileges granted to the Serbian Church and nation were not much to the taste of the Roman Catholie Church dignitaries and the Hungarian aristocracy who tried to limit and frustrate them. After some delay and bargaining in the negotiations, the famous privileges forming the legal basis of the Serbian

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