It might have been expected that the Servian nation, like many of their kindred tribes, would, by degrees, adopt the Western system of the Church. Gregory addressed the Prince already alluded to, not only as “ King,” but as “ Son.”
The former title, indeed, would hardly have been thought of without the latter. And which of Gregory’s successors has not, at one time or other, indulged the hope that the Servians might gradually be won over ? It may be doubted whether political considerations alone induced the Servian princes to evince a leaning towards Pome, or whether they really cherished these opinions ; but thus much is clear, the time was past for the profession of a new faith.
The Servians had been taught Christianity by Greek teachers from Constantinople, at the very time when the schisms of the Latin and Greek Churches first broke forth. From the first, they had imbibed the aversion entertained by the Anatolians towards the formuhe of the Western Church — an aversion which, where it has once taken root, has never been conquered. Xemanja was disposed for a union with the German Empire; but this did not prevent him from strengthening the Greek profession of faith, by the erection of numerous churches and cloisters.
His views were not directed towards the Vatican, but to the centre point of the orthodox faith -— the forest-cloisters of Mount Athos, venerated by all the eastern tribes. He founded Chilandar, and is renowned as one of the renovators of Yatopaxli, where he died as a Greek Kaloier.
But the Latin Church presented not only differences in doctrine, but also another system of life and of government, which depended chiefly on the distinction between the Church and the State. A council which Innocent III. caused to be held, at Dioclea, in 1199, founded one of its decrees expressly on the presumption of a fundamental opposition between the two powers.
In Servia a totally different state of things arose. From his favourite residence, the hermitage of Chilandar, St. Sawa, the son of Xemanja, promoted the work of his father; and in a truly patriotic spirit.
The patriarch of Constantinople granted the Servians the privilege of always electing their archbishop from their own national priesthood. St. Sawa himself was the first archbishop. lie took up his residence at Uschize, the Servian Mecca, and by his spiritual authority, caused the princely power to be revered in the eyes of the nation, in a manner which the Homan Hope would probably never have been able to accomplish, lie raised his brother to the throne, and, so far as can be ascertained, with the consent of the Eastern Emperor; and crowned him in the midst of a vast assemblage of clergy and laity, who, upon that occasion, followed his example in repeating the Creed in its oriental form.
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