The Patarenc Sect

The Servians themselves invited the Osmanlis into their fortresses, that they might not see their strongholds given over to a cardinal of the Romish Church. The King of Bosnia, whose intention it was to marry a Servian princess, and to unite both countries under the protection of the Pope, also made a declaration of fealty; and with   the same result.

The Patarenc sect, which prevailed throughout Bosnia, and had been for centuries attached to Borne, against which a crusade had been repeatedly preached, was also in favour of Turkish rather than of Roman domination. * At the next attack of the Turks, that sect no longer offered any defence : within eight days, seventy Bosnian fortresses opened their gates to the Turks, and the king himself fell into the enemy’s power.

It is possible that such events might have been prevented, if these countries had, at an earlier period, adopted the system of the Western states: but affairs must have been very differently conducted. Hungary, which from the first belonged to the Western empire, was soon after conquered by the Turks.

But the Servians and Bosnians, who preferred submitting to the Turks, had no presentiment of what they were doing, nor of the fate that awaited them under the new rule.

On the pretext that there was no necessity for keeping faith with an infidel, the last prince of the Bosnians, whose life had been guaranteed to him, was, notwithstanding, murdered by the hand of the fanatical Sheik by whom this doctrine was promulgated.

The chief nobles of the country, whom the Turks began to annihilate as they had already annihilated the royal house, soon perceived that their only safety lay in embracing Mahometanism. The last Princess had fled to Rome, and at her death had by will made over to the Pope her right to the country. The Pontiff, touching the sword and shoe which were delivered to him, as tokens of the bequest accepted it, on the ground that her children, a son and a daughter, having embraced Islamism, had thereby become incapable of succeeding her.

Urged by the example of the Princess — by the danger of refusal on one hand, and by the prospect on the other of a share in public affairs, if they complied, the most illustrious families were by degrees induced to turn Mahometans. Thus they retained an hereditary right in their castles; and, so long as they remained united, enjoyed much influence in the province.

Sometimes a native Vizier was allowed them. By this means, however, they separated themselves from their people, who, in defiance of every inducement, remained true to their old faith; and, being excluded from holding any office in the state, and from carrying arms, they, in common with all the Christian subjects of the Turkish empire, became