The Republic of Ragusa: An Episode of the Turkish Conquest - Luigi Villari

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growth of Ragusa is its ecclesiastical history. Native historians have attempted to prove that the city was an archiepiscopal see from the earliest times, and that it succeeded to Salona, whence some of its first settlers had come, as the metropolis of all Dalmatia. This latter contention proving quite untenable (the Archbishop of Salona, together with the majority of the surviving inhabitants, took refuge at Spalato, which became an archiepiscopal see in consequence), they declare that the Ragusan archbishops had succeeded to those of Doclea. That city, they assert, had been destroyed by the Bulgarian Tsar Samuel, and its archbishop fled to Ragusa, which became ipso facto an archiepiscopal see. A more accurate account is that contained in the Illyricum Sacrum of Farlati. Doclea was destroyed, not by Samuel, who became Tsar of the Bulgarians in 976, but by Simeon. In fact Porphyrogenitus, who wrote in 949, mentions the event as having occurred during his own lifetime. According to the Illyricum Sacrum the exact date was 926. John (the archbishop) actually did take refuge at Ragusa, where, on the death of the local bishop, he succeeded to the see, retaining his superior title by courtesy. His successors wished to continue in the dignity, and even began to assume metropolitan authority, refusing to obey the archbishop of Spalato. The dispute lasted many years, and the bishops of the newly-created see of Antivari85 claimed that they were the true successors to the archbishops of Doclea. Pope Gregory VII. apparently refers to these contentions in his Epistle to Michael, King of the Slaves.86 The Roman Pontiff hereby summons “Peter, bishop of Antivari, the bishop of Ragusa, and other suitable witnesses, by means of whom the contention between the archbishop of Spalato and Ragusa87 may be judicially examined and canonically defined,” to repair to the Holy See. What Gregory’s decision was we are not informed, but in the end the see of Ragusa was separated from that of Spalato and erected into an archbishopric with metropolitan authority. The same thing was done in the case of Antivari. Thus by the thirteenth century we find that Dalmatia was divided into three ecclesiastical provinces. The reasons why the Ragusans were so anxious to have an archbishopric of their own were political not less than religious. We have seen how important a personage the Ragusan bishop was in the constitution, and if he were to owe obedience to a prelate in a foreign and possibly hostile State, he might be induced to act in a manner prejudicial to the interests of the Republic. The existence of a separate province, which lasted down to our own times, also constituted a further assertion of Ragusan independence.

      The importance of the Ragusan Church was further enhanced by the conversion of the neighbouring Slaves, to whom Ragusa was the nearest religious centre. Ragusan missionaries went among them to preach the Gospel, and ecclesiastics from Constantinople made the city their headquarters and starting-point. The part which Ragusa played in these conversions explains the gifts which the Servian princes and nobles made to its churches.88 In later times religious controversies arose between the citizens and their neighbours, in consequence of the heretical and schismatic sects which were spreading throughout the Balkan lands. Ragusa was nothing if not orthodox, and used all her influence to second the Papacy in trying to suppress these movements, which were often countenanced by the kings and princes of Servia and Bosnia. Bernard, archbishop of Ragusa at the end of the twelfth century, wished to bring the bishops of Bosnia under his authority, and the Banus Čulin, who at that time professed himself a Catholic, consented. But while Bernard was in Rome, Čulin abjured Catholicism for Bogomilism,89 and set up Bogomil bishops in opposition to those consecrated by Bernard. Vulkan, Grand Župan of Chelmo (Zachulmia), did likewise, and convoked a synod at Antivari.90

      

      In 1023 the Benedictine Order came to Ragusa from the Tremiti Islands under one Peter, and established itself on the island of Lacroma. Various Serb princes and Ragusan citizens made gifts of land to the monastery.

      The Ragusans were essentially a commercial people, and trade, both inland and sea-borne, formed the chief source of their wealth. In the Byzantine period, however, we only find the germs of their future commercial development. We have already alluded to the part played by Ragusan shipping, first in the Greek expedition to Apulia in 848, and then at the battle of Durazzo. But the vessels were small, and the sea-borne trade of a very limited character. Navigation was of three kinds—coastwise traffic, navigation intra Culfum, and navigation extra Culfum.91 Coastwise traffic was comprised between the peninsula of Molonta (a little to the north-west of the Bay of Cattaro) and the Canale di Stagno, a distance of about 70 kilometres in all, with ten harbours. Navigation intra Culfum, which extended from the Capo Cumano to Apulia and Durazzo, was of considerable importance even during the Byzantine epoch. Fine Milan cloths, skins, tan, and canvas for sails were brought on Ragusan ships from the ports of the Marche and Apulia, and forwarded to all parts of the Eastern Empire and the Slavonic lands. All trade to places situated beyond these limits came under the heading of navigation extra Culfum, but we shall defer a detailed account of its conditions to a later chapter, as it did not grow to important proportions until the thirteenth century. There was, however, apparently a Ragusan colony at Constantinople.

      The Quay and Harbour Gate

      The earliest recorded commercial treaty made by the Republic is the one of 1169 with Pisa. In 1168 the Republic of Pisa sent three envoys to Constantinople to settle a contention with Manuel Comnenus. On the way they stopped at Ragusa, and on May 13, 1169, signed a commercial treaty with the city, guaranteeing mutual immunities and other privileges. The Pisan envoys then proceeded on their journey, accompanied by the newly appointed chief of the Ragusan colony in the Imperial capital.92 There were political as well as commercial reasons for this agreement, in the hostility of both Republics to Venetian supremacy in the Adriatic. About this time the Ragusans obtained the right of citizenship at Constantinople, granted to them by Manuel, and confirmed by his son, Alexius II. The original documents have not been preserved, but the privilege is frequently alluded to by later writers.

      Many treaties with the other towns of Dalmatia, Istria, and Italy are published in the Monumenta spectantia Historiam Slavorum Meridionalium. Thus in 1188 a perpetual peace was concluded with Rovigno;93 in 1190 an agreement with the Cazichi or Narentans94 (also called Dalmisiani, from the town of Almissa); in 1191 a treaty with Fano, and others to which we have already alluded. These agreements were all similar in character, and their object being to insure mutual and commercial privileges. Some contained special clauses exempting the citizens of the contracting cities from certain taxes and customs dues.

      Traffic with the Slavonic states also began early, but the great trade highways from the coast to the interior were not fully developed until the next century.

      Artistic and intellectual development, in which Byzantine influence is conspicuous, was still in its infancy, and of the few buildings of this period with any architectural pretensions only the smallest traces remain. The town was built chiefly of wood, save for the walls and a couple of small churches. The oldest edifice of which anything remains is the Church of San Stefano, mentioned by Constantine Porphyrogenitus as the most important in the town. Four ruined walls in a court near the diocesan seminary are believed to have belonged to this very ancient building. The tradition is that it was erected by Stephen, Banus of Bosnia, or by his widow. Gelcich suggestively describes what the building must have been like: “In the church of St. Stephen at Ragusa we must picture to ourselves not a work of art, but a chapel capable of containing few beyond the ministers at the altar; low-vaulted, decorated internally, and perhaps externally, with frescoes; an apse just large enough for the altar, lit by such few rays of sunlight as could penetrate by an irregular number of holes piercing the stone slab which closed the single-arched window placed over the altar.”95 On the outside wall there is a fragment of bas-relief of two arches, each containing a cross on a design of foliage. Close by is the area of a larger church, also in ruins, of a later date, to which Santo Stefano afterwards served as a sacristy.

      Another church of the Byzantine period is that of San Giacomo in Peline,96 on the slopes of the Monte Sergio, mentioned by documents of the thirteenth century as already very ancient. Seen from outside, there is nothing to tell one that it is a church at all, but internally it is in good repair, and it is still occasionally used for services. It is quite plain, and has round arches and vaultings. It consists of a nave, three bays, and an apse. The single window, which is a later addition, is to the left of

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