ABSTRACT
HITHERTO the history of the Balkan peninsula during the nineteenth century had been occupied with the forlnation and development of Servian, Greek, and Roumanian states out of the Ottoman enlpire, and with the struggles of the Montenegrins to maintain their freedom. Now, ho,vever, under the influence of Russia, a long-forgotten, silent nationality, destined to play an important part in the events of the last third of the century, sprang into independent ecclesiastical existence-the prelude of its resurrection, after the lapse of nearly five centuries, as a Balkan state.
