§ 29. The Metropolitanate of Karlovci

The special sources for church law in the Metropolitanate of Karlovci may be divided into those issued before the year 1868, when the IX Hungarian statutory article was proclaimed, recognizing autonomy in the administration of church and school affairs,[1] and, further, those issued after that year. To the former belong:

The Privileges. This is the name given to the imperial letters issued in the last years of the seventeenth century, at the time of the resettlement of the Serbs into the lands of the Hungarian crown, which guarantee to the Orthodox Serbs those rights which they had enjoyed in the Patriarchate of Peć. There are five such imperial letters, or privileges, namely: the first of 6 April 1690, the second of 21 August 1690, the third of 11 December 1690, the fourth of 20 August 1691, and the fifth of 4 March 1695.[2] These privileges were all issued by the Emperor Leopold; and they were afterward confirmed by the Emperor Joseph I on 29 September 1706, by the Emperor Charles VI on 8 October 1713, and by the Empress Maria Theresa on 18 May 1743.[3]

The Rescriptum Declaratorium. To give firm and lasting basis to the legal relations in the Metropolitanate of Karlovci, a Regulamentum privilegiorum was drawn up on 27 September 1770, by which it was intended to order all the civil and church affairs of the Serbian people. As a result of the dissatisfaction expressed with this regulation on the part of the people, a second regulation was drawn up in 1777, which satisfied the people even less. At last the true wishes of the hierarchy and of the people were laid before the court, and according to those wishes a new regulation was drafted, which, since it clarified the relevant prescriptions, was called the Rescriptum declaratorium, and received the imperial confirmation on 16 July 1779.[4] In this rescript, or declaratorium, there is discussion of the independence of the administration in confessional matters, of the election of the metropolitan, of the metropolitan’s revenues, of the property of ecclesiastical persons, of the “inviolable fund,” of the assistants in the administration of church property, of the king’s right to appoint administrators of the metropolitanate and of the eparchies, of the election of bishops and of the other church dignitaries, of remuneration for church services, of the archpriests (protopresbyters), of entry into the clerical order and the filling of offices in the Church, that priests are free from state taxation, that the wedding is to take place in the parish of the bride, of burial, of confession, of monasteries and monks, of church penalties, of the congresses, of the calendar, of the building of churches and cemeteries, and so forth.

The Systema Consistoriale. In connection with the declaratorium, a special statute for the eparchial consistories was drawn up and issued on 5 April 1782. It was issued, like the declaratorium, in two languages, and in Latin is called “Systema Consistoriale,” in German “Consistorial-System.” This statute is divided into four sections: the first three concern the eparchial consistory proper, while the fourth speaks of the metropolitan appellatory court. The first section bears the title: on the consistories and the matters treated in them, and its first three paragraphs speak of the consistory as the first judicial instance, of the metropolitan appellatory court as the second instance, and of the royal throne as the third instance, while the following two paragraphs speak in detail of the matters subject to the jurisdiction of the consistory. The second section speaks of judicial procedure in the consistories. The third, of the organization of the consistory and of its members (assessors). The fourth section concerns the metropolitan appellatory court, which is composed, under the presidency of the metropolitan, of 2 neighboring bishops, 2 archimandrites, 2 hegumens, 2 archpriests, 2 presbyters, and a notary, and which appellatory court must convene at least once a year. Subject to this appellatory court, as second instance, are all those matters which were treated in the first instance in the eparchial consistories and concerning which an appeal was made; and, as first instance, it hears complaints against one or another bishop or against a consistory, though this is heard by a special committee composed of a fixed number of the appellatory assessors.[5]

The Monastic Rules. These rules were composed by the Metropolitan of Belgrade-Karlovci, Vićentije Jovanović, and issued on 1 November 1733 to all the subordinate monasteries.[6] There are 34 rules in all. It seems that these rules have today been replaced in the Metropolitanate of Karlovci by new rules, issued by the episcopal synod on 29 March 1899.

After the proclamation of the IX Hungarian statutory article of 1868, the special source of church law in the Metropolitanate of Karlovci that holds first place is the so-called

Supreme Royal Rescript, confirmed and issued on 10 August 1868. It is divided into six sections: 1) on the reduction and endowment of the parish clergy, on the personnel status of the monastic clergy, and on the endowment of the episcopate; 2) on the organization of the local church communities, namely, after the general provisions: a) on local church assemblies, b) on local church committees, c) on the election of the established parish assistants and parish priests, d) on the election of deacons, and e) on the election of district archpriests; 3) on the Serbian schools, namely a) on elementary schools, b) on secondary institutions, and c) on the Karlovci theological seminary;[7] 4) on the organization of the consistories and of the metropolitan church-and-school council, namely, a) on the eparchial consistory, its composition and competence, and b) on the metropolitan church-and-school council, divided into the metropolitan appellatory court and the administrative church-and-school authority; 5) on the administration of monastic estates and of the Serbian national funds; and 6) on the competitive examination required to obtain a parish post.[8]

The (provisional) Organization of the Eparchies, confirmed by royal decision of 29 May 1871. According to this organization, every eparchy within the Metropolitanate of Karlovci has its own eparchial representation and its own eparchial church-and-school administration. Having established this (in article I), the organization then gives prescriptions: 1) on the eparchial assembly, as the eparchial representation, and further, on the church administration, namely 2) on the eparchial consistory, 3) on the eparchial administrative committee, and 4) on the eparchial school committee.[9]

The Organization of the Metropolitan Church and National-School Council, confirmed by the same decision of 29 May 1871. This organization is likewise provisional, until the national congress finally regulates the central spiritual-judicial and church-school authorities within the Metropolitanate of Karlovci. That organization speaks first of the metropolitan church council (appellatory court), and states who constitutes it, what its competence is, and when and where it meets; it then speaks of the national-school council, of its members and its competence.[10]

The Congress Statute, confirmed by the king on 14 May 1875, and promulgated on 19 May of the same year. This congress statute states, first, what the “Greek-Eastern Serbian national-church congress” is, who its members are, how long the deputy’s mandate lasts, when the congress convenes, who convenes it, and what its competence is; it then speaks of the congress committee, and of who constitutes it, what the competence of that congress committee is, when and where it meets, and how it functions. This congress statute contains, further, several transitional provisions, which for the most part concern the congress committee.[11]

Instruction for the Eparchial Epitropoi. This instruction is mentioned in § 22 of section V of the rescript of 10 August 1868. This instruction was issued on 26 October 1852, and prescribes the duties of the two epitropoi who must exist at the side of every eparchial bishop, for the purpose of caring for the property belonging to the bishopric.[12]

Disciplinary Rules for the Clergy, issued by the episcopal synod on 29 March 1899, and confirmed by royal decision on 5 March 1900.

Footnotes

[1] This legislative article prescribes that “with the preservation of His Majesty’s right of supreme supervision, which he exercises constitutionally, the faithful of the metropolitanate of Karlovac are authorized to decide and regulate independently, within the limits of the state laws, their ecclesiastical, school, and related endowment affairs at their congresses, which at the appointed times and after previous notification thereof to His Majesty the respective metropolitans shall convene, and that they may administer and manage these affairs independently, in accordance with the rules established at those congresses and approved by His Majesty, by means of their own organs” (§ 3); and, further, to the members of the Orthodox Church in the metropolitanate of Karlovac there are acknowledged “all those rights which they have until now, in the independent conduct of their ecclesiastical-communal and school affairs, enjoyed in the free use of their church language, and likewise in the administration of their ecclesiastical-communal property and their endowments” (§ 9). See Archiv für Kirchenrecht. Bd. 44. S 270—Dr. I. Vučetić, Collection of the Regulations. N. Sad, 1897, p. 197.—Dr. Ž. Miladinović, Commentary on the Privileges, etc. N. Sad, 1897, p. 95.

[6] They were reprinted in the journal “Beseda” for the year 1870 (nos. 2—6) with the following title: “Rules, whereby all those dwelling in monasteries are bound and obliged, from the archimandrite or hegumen even to the very last monk, to order their life and the salvation of their soul; and likewise to perform the ecclesiastical and monastic services, both inward and outward.” In the Serbian translation, in Miladinović, Commentary, pp. 445—455. The Consistorial System understands these rules under “Regulae monasticae” in § 10 of Section II. See on these rules Csaplovics O. c. II, 178—179. P. J. Šafarik, Geschichte der serbischen Literatur. II Abtheil. Prag, 1865. S. 301.—In the year 1776 new monastic rules were compiled by a certain Uniate (Athanasius Szekeres) and incorporated into the Regulament of the year 1777 (see above, p. 150). They were printed in the Latin and Church-Slavonic languages and distributed to all the monasteries; but no one was willing to receive them. These rules also bear the title “Regulae Monasticae”; they are divided into partes, sectiones, capita, and then each caput into a multitude of numbered points, and in their manner of exposition they resemble the “regulae” of the various Western orders. See on them Csaplovics. O. c. II, 170. Šafarik. Ib. S. 302.

[12] Miladinović, Commentary. pp. 87–94.—Archiv. 43, 109–113. At the metropolitan of Karlovci, the Serbian patriarch, the duty of the epitropos is discharged today by the central administration itself, whereas formerly, until the issuance of the rescript of 1868, it was discharged by the so-called assistants. In § 9 of the declaratoriya it was ordered that three assistants be attached to the metropolitan, one on the part of the clergy, another from the military order, and a third from the civil order (archiepiscopo et metropolitae tres assistentes adjungantur, quorum unus ex parte cleri non unitus episcopus, alter ex parte militari stabalis aut superior officialis ejusdem ritus, tertius tandem ex parte provinciali de honoratioribus civibus Carlovizcii, Neoplantae aut in alio loco vicino degentibus n u ritui addictus), for the exercise of supervision and co-administration of the national-ecclesiastical endowments and the metropolitan estates, these latter with a view to this, that the fundus instructus (the movable and immovable equipment, the ornaments and the ecclesiastical valuables, etc.) should not be dissipated, diminished in value, etc. Since the Serbian national assembly at that time was composed of three estates: the ecclesiastical, the military and the civil, it is clear that the composition of the assistantship corresponded to the composition of the assembly. The assistants had their precise instructions (instructiones) by which they governed themselves in their business, and they had to gather periodically at the metropolitan’s and to inspect the items of the fundus instructus, so that if any of them should in the meantime disappear or become damaged, they had to call upon the metropolitan to procure another in its place, and if the metropolitan did not respond to this, they had to make a report to the government. Upon the death of the metropolitan they were to take part in drawing up the inventory and to strive that from the estate there be separated out that which does not belong to the estate but pertains to the fundus instructus. For that reason the assistants had to keep by themselves the inventories of the fundus instructus. Besides this, they had, together with the metropolitan, to lend out at interest the ready money of the Serbian national endowments with the prescribed security, and they guaranteed with their own property against every loss that might be inflicted through their negligence or carelessness upon the goods of the metropolitanate and the national endowments. The institution of the assistantship passed also into the assembly ordinance of the year 1864–65, which was confirmed on 10 August 1868 and is found in brief in the royal rescript. In the relevant provisions of the rescript (V, § 15–24) there is discussion of the administration of the ecclesiastical-national endowments and goods, for the assistants became members of that administration, whose sphere of competence was now extended further to the administration and supervision of the monastic estates. Meanwhile, by the assembly constitution, confirmed by royal decision of May 14, 1875, this administration was abolished (§ 30), and its agenda was taken over by the assembly committee, which the assembly elects and which has an even wider sphere of competence. The former assistantship of the metropolitan is thus today the assembly committee in respect of the supervision of the metropolitan estates, and in that relation there exists the very same instruction (Instruction) that existed for the assistants and that was issued together with the declaratoriya, until the new instruction that was adopted by the assembly in the year 1879 is approved.—Under the same date as those two ordinances concerning the eparchies and the metropolitan-ecclesiastical and national school council, there was issued the “Electoral Order for the Serbian National Church Assembly”, and it was promulgated at the 125th session of the Serbian national church assembly on July 13 in the year 1871. Vučetić, Collection. pp. 147–168.—Miladinović, Commentary. pp. 262–291.—Archiv für Kirchenrecht 43, 288–293.

§ 29. The Metropolitanate of Karlovci

§ 29. Карловачка митрополија