236 A THE RACES OF THE DANUBE. [xi. 



resistance to papal supremacy which in the West re- 

 peatedly succumbed to the overwhelming power of 

 the Inquisition. The sudden change which followed 

 on the invasion of the Turks is instructive as showing 

 the political danger attendant upon excessive perse- 

 cution. As the armies of Muhamad II. were making 

 their way toward Bosnia, King Stephen of Hungary 

 began cutting the throats of his Bogomile subjects, 

 some forty thousand of whom are said to have fled 

 into the Herzegovina, while others were sent in chains 

 to be burned at Rome. Bosnia was again threatened 

 with an orthodox crusade, but the people, preferring 

 to take their chances of religious immunity with the 

 Turk, threw themselves on him for protection, and 

 surrendered their inexpugnable country to Mu- 

 hamad without striking a blow. The surrender, 

 indeed, went further than this ; for though 'the Serbs 

 of Bosnia have several times asserted their political 

 independence, more than a third of the population 

 have become followers of the Prophet, and furnish 

 to-day the sole example of a native European race of 

 Mussulmans. 



December 1876. 



