also kept in each household. The artillery was composed in 1910 of
18 siege, 25 field and 38 mountain guns, with 4 howitzers, 15 mortars
and 18 machine-guns (6 Gatling and 12 Maxim-Nordenfeldt); the
principal arsenal is at Spuzh, where the heavier guns are kept, the
others are distributed among 8 of the 11 local brigades. The
perianiki, whose numbers were increased by Prince Danilo, were
disbanded in 1898, when steps were taken to form a bodyguard
of 3000 picked men under Prince Mirko, King Nicholas’s second
son, but the project was abandoned in view of the jealousies to
which the selection gave rise. Owing to the lack of open country
there is no cavalry. In 1894 the sultan presented Prince Nicholas
with equipment for a small mounted body-guard (32 men), and
offered the services of three instructors. This corps, however,
ceased to exist in 1898. About 20,000 men can concentrate at a
given spot within 48 hours. The signal for mobilization is mainly
given by telegraph; bonfires, trumpet-calls and volley-firing are
also employed. The warriors were formerly summoned by stentorian
couriers, who shouted from the tops of the mountains. An
ambulance corps has been formed. Transport is deficient, all
draught animals, however, in the country have been registered
and a few carts have been provided. The wives and daughters of
the troops provide the commissariat, and carry the ammunition.
Religion.—The Montenegrin Church is an autocephalous branch of the Eastern Orthodox communion. In 1894 it formally vindicated its independence against the claims of the Russian synod. The vladikas, or prince-bishops, formerly depended on the patriarchate of Ipek. The theocratic system of government which existed from 1516 to 1851 tended to unite the patriotic and the religious instincts of the people. Since the separation of the spiritual and temporal powers in 1851, the see of Cettigne, in which the diocese of Ostrog is included, has been occupied by a metropolitan (metropolit), who possesses a nominal jurisdiction over Scutari and the Primore. In judgments relative to divorce his verdicts may be reversed by the king. Otherwise he is supreme in matters spiritual. There are 159 parishes of the Orthodox Church, 10 Roman Catholic parishes under the archbishop of Antivari and 10 Mahommedan parishes under a mufti. The churches are small unpretending structures, almost all exactly alike; a handsome cathedral, however, has been erected at Nikshitch. The principal monasteries, in addition to the convent at Cettigne, are those of St Nicholas, on the Moratcha, and of St Basil at Ostrog. The monastic order is almost extinct; the parochial clergy, who numbered about 400 in 1900, are only distinguishable from the laity by their beards; they wear the national costume, carry weapons, take part in warfare, and follow the ordinary avocations of the peasantry. Even the old vladikas discarded the episcopal robe, except when engaged in sacerdotal duties. The clergy are still for the most part extremely ignorant.
Education.—The Bogoslovia, a seminary for the instruction of the young priests and schoolmasters, was established at Cettigne in 1869. It is maintained by a subvention from the emperor of Russia, while the empress supports the Zhenski Tzrnogorski Institut, an excellently managed school for girls (98 pupils in 1907). Government lecturers go on circuit to instruct the older men. They may be seen on Sundays, not only distributing general information, but teaching the shepherds how to safeguard their flocks from disease, and the lowland cultivators how to tend their vines and tobacco crops. An agricultural college at Podgoritza supplements their work. Primary education is compulsory. In the rural districts it is free; in the towns a small fee is charged. In 1906 there were 112 primary schools in the principality with 150 teachers and 9756 pupils; and two secondary schools (at Cettigne and Podgoritza) with 21 professors and about 1000 pupils; the Moslems and Roman Catholics have separate schools. There are also gymnasia, or high schools, at Cettigne and Podgoritza, with about 700 pupils. Students desirous of higher education proceed abroad, for the most part to the university in Belgrade. The progress of education under Prince Nicholas was very remarkable. In the time of his predecessor, Danilo II., who taught the sons of his chieftains in the palace, there were only three schools in the principality. In 1876, at the beginning of the war, there were 52 schools, with 62 teachers and 3159 pupils. The schools were closed during the war, and at its conclusion only 22 could be reopened, owing to want of funds. Elementary education was reorganized in 1878.
Language and Literature.—The Montenegrin language is practically identical with the Serbo-Croatian: it exhibits certain dialectical variations, and has borrowed to some extent from the Turkish and Italian. Existing manuscripts and printed books, chiefly psalters and gospels, bear witness to a period of literary culture among the clergy contemporaneous with the activity of the printing-press at Obod. This was established in 1493, a few years after Caxton set up his first press in Westminster. It was destroyed by the Turks in 1566, after sending out copies of the gospel into all Slavonic countries. The folk-songs, however, of which the first collection was made in the reign of Peter II., constitute the bulk of the national literature. The poems of that ruler are accounted among the classics of the Servian language, especially his Gorski Vienatz, or “Mountain Wreath,” a drama describing the massacre of the Montenegrin Moslems by their Christian kinsmen in 1702. The reigning family has produced a succession of poets; the songs of Mirko Petrovitch, the father of Prince Nicholas, and the lyrics and dramas of Prince Nicholas himself enjoy great celebrity. The Grlitze, or “Turtledoves,” a kind of almanac published at Cettigne by Milakovitch between 1835 and 1839, contained poems, tales, statistics and an abridgment of the Montenegrin annals down to 1830; it was succeeded in the time of Danilo II. by the Orlitch, or “Eaglet.” The first Montenegrin newspaper, the Tzrnogoratz, or “Montenegrin,” founded in 1870, was prohibited on the Austrian frontier, and soon disappeared; it was replaced by the Glas Tzrnogortza, or “Voice of the Montenegrin,” a semi-official publication. There were in 1910 three other journals in the kingdom.
Antiquities.—In Montenegro, as in Albania, the monuments of early civilization bear witness to Roman rather than to Greek influence. Roman remains occur in many parts of the country east of the Zeta, and early Latin churches exist at Dulcigno (Ulcinium) and other places. “The organization and forms of the churches, the architecture and ornamentation, point to the West and not to the East.” It is evident that Latin civilization was firmly planted in Illyria before the barbarian incursions of the 6th century. Latin sepulchral inscriptions and some finely cut marble blocks have been found at Berane, a little beyond the eastern frontier, and at Budimlye in its neighbourhood. Especially interesting and important are the extensive ruins of Doclea, now known as Duklé, the birthplace of the Emperor Diocletian. The city, which received the franchise under the Flavian emperors, occupied a remarkable site at the junction of the rivers Zeta and Moratcha. The outer walls are standing in many places, and excavations carried out in 1893 by M. Rovinski and Messrs J. A. R. Munro, Milne and Anderson revealed considerable portion of the ground-plan, including several streets and a forum. Among the buildings are a fine civil basilica, with a great inscription on the architrave, two small temples, an early Christian basilica, and a later church; several inscriptions, columns, richly worked capitals and tracery, and mosaic pavements have been brought to light. At Medun there are remnants of polygonal masonry. Illyrian forts are found in many parts of the country. The ravages of the Turks obliterated almost every trace of medieval culture. The fortress of Obod, the site of the famous printing-press, is a heap of ruins; a fragment of one of the first missals printed here is shown at Cettigne; it bears the date 1494. Other editions are preserved at the monastery of Tzaïnitza, on the Bosnian side of the frontier, and at Moscow. The precious books and relics stored in the monastery of Ivan the Black at Cettigne perished with the destruction of the monastery in 1687. The building, the home of the reigning vladikas, had been previously sacked by the Turks in 1623, and was again destroyed by them in 1714. In the fortress-monastery of St Nicholas (founded in 1252), which overlooks the headwaters of the Moratcha, are some interesting and well-preserved frescoes which date from the 13th century. The monastery of Ostrog, about twelve miles from Nikshitch, is a comparatively recent foundation, dating from the 18th century. It has been styled “the Lourdes of the Balkans,” owing to its reputation for miraculous cures, and is visited annually by thousands of Orthodox pilgrims, and even by Roman Catholics and Moslems. The upper portion, situated in the cleft of a precipitous rock, was in 1768 and again in 1862 successfully defended by a handful of men against the Turks.
History.—The history of Montenegro as an independent state begins with the battle of Kossovo (1389), but the country had enjoyed periods of independence or semi-independence at various epochs before that event. It formed a portion of the district of Praevalitana in the Roman province of Illyria, and, lying on the borderland of the empires of the West and East, it alternately shared the fortunes of either till the close of the 5th century. It was then conquered by the Ostrogoths (A.D. 493), but half a century later definitely passed under Byzantine rule, having already acknowledged the ecclesiastical authority of Constantinople, a circumstance which determined the course of its subsequent history. Illyria and Dalmatia succumbed to the great Serbo-Croat invasion of the 6th and 7th centuries; the Serb race by which Montenegro is now inhabited occupied the country about the middle of the 7th century. A Confederacy of Serb states was formed under zhupans, or feudal princes, dependent on the grand zhupan, who was nominally the vassal of the Greek emperor. The Serb principality of the Zeta, or Zenta, originally included the Herzegovina, Cattaro and Scutari, as well as the Montenegro of to-day, and was ruled by a zhupan resident at Doclea. The principality, though retaining its zhupans, was practically united with the Servian kingdom between 1159 and 1356 under the Nemanya dynasty, which sprang from Doclea. After the death of the great Servian tsar Dushan in 1356 the feudatory princes of his empire became more or less independent, and the powerful family of Balsha established a dynasty in the Zeta, eventually transferring its capital from Doclea to Scutari.
