s are
not--as previous Serbian and other historians have written--descended
from Albanians who flowed into the country because of its evacuation
by the Patriarch Arsenius and his flock. When the Austrian armies
penetrated to this region in the winter of 1689-1690, the Imperialists
were on good terms both with the Serbian Orthodox people whom they
found there and with the Albanian Catholics; but after the death of
Piccolomini on the 8th of December (which was followed by that of the
Catholic Archbishop), his successor, the Duke of Holstein, alienated
the people, and when they would not obey his commands he set fire to
their villages, this alienating them completely. The fortune of war
then turned against the Austrians, who were compelled to retreat, and
the Serbian Patriarch, with his treasury and a number of priests and
monks, fled with them. They hoped that this exodus was to be of a
temporary character, but in 1690 the Imperialists had to continue
their retreat, taking with them across the Save and the Danube not
only the Serbs who had, like Arsenius, sought refuge in Serbia, but a
far more numerous body whose domicile had always been Serbia itself.
What tells against the theory of the 30,000 families from Pe['c] and
Old Serbia is the fact that the Turkish troops followed so closely on
the heels of the Austrians that the Patriarch and his clergy had great
trouble in escaping themselves, and in addition to the Turk there was
the difficulty of those mountain roads in the middle of winter. Thus
it seems likely that most of the Serbian population of what is called
Old Serbia remained there. The previous historians, who say that such
a vast number followed the Patriarch and his priests, have based
themselves, it appears, on the notes and chronicles of those priests.
And the people, deprived of the guidance of their priests--who were
then the spiritual and lay and military leaders--found it difficult to
stand out against conversion. Half a century before this a great many
Catholic and Orthodox Serbs of those parts had embraced Islam, in
order to escape the financial and military burdens which were laid on
Christian men; the women and girls would continue to profess
Christianity. This phenomenon is described by many travellers, such as
Gregory Massarechi, a Catholic missionary for Prizren and the
neighbourhood, who says in his report of 1651 that in the village of
Suha Reka on the left bank of the White Drin there used to be