Београдска и Карловачка митрополија. Процес уједињења (1722-1731)
The Belgrade and Karlovac Metropolitans: The Process of Unification (1722-1731)

Summary/Abstract: In the war against Turkey (1716-1718), the Habsburg Monarchy conquered Serbia and Banat. There were four dioceses in the region, and it was expected that, following the war, they would be joined to the existing Orthodox Karlovac Metropolitan-Archdiocese. However, because of the political considerations, the Emperor Charles VI established the new Belgrade Metropolitan- Archdiocese for the newly conquered lands. In 1718, the Belgrade Bishop Mojsije Petrović was confirmed as the Archbishop and Metropolitan in the Kingdom of Serbia, and in 1720, in the Timisoara Banat. In 1721, the Peć Patriarch, Mojsije Radović, canonically recognized the second archdiocese in the Habsburg Monarchy. By the establishment of the second autonomous archdiocese, the Serb Church in the Monarchy was divided in two wholes. The first step towards unification was made in 1722, when the People- Church Gathering choose co-adjutor for the sick Karlovac Metropolitan Vićentije Popović. According to the Serb understanding, the co-adjutor was both the assistant and the heir to the archbishop. Serb popular leaders intended to choose the Belgrade Metropolitan Mojsije Petrović, and thus initiate the process of unification of the Karlovac and Belgrade Metropolitans. This action was carefully planned. On 8 (19) September 1722, the Gathering of the Karlovac Metropolitan decided that the Belgrade Metropolitan, Mojsije, be co-adjutor to the Karlovac Metropolitan, Vićentije, and that he should inherit him after death. As the Emperor knew Serb intentions, he forbade emissaries from the Belgrade Metropolitan to attend the Gathering. That is why, on 10 (21) September 1722, hitherto unknown Gathering of the Belgrade Metropolitan was held, which made the identical decision.The problem of two archdioceses was not opened after the death of Metropolitan Vićentije Jovanović in 1737. In the same year, the Peć Patriarch, Arsenije IV Jovanović, crossed to the territory of the Habsburg Monarchy. People and clergy accepted him as the Church leader, and the Emperor did notquestion that for political reasons, for that was the time of war against Turkey (1737-1739). With the Belgrade Peace of 1739, Austro-Hungary lost Serbia, the border with Turkey was settled on Sava and Danube, and the larger part of the Belgrade Metropolitan’s territory ceded back under Turkish rule, and was returned under the jurisdiction of the Serb Patriarchy in Peć. In 1741, the Patriarch Arsenije IV was confirmed as the archbishop of the Karlovac Metropolitan.

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