OUR ITALIAN GREEK CATHOLICS in 



last to independence. They maintained their independence 

 against the Bulgarian Slavs, against the Greek Empire of East- 

 ern Rome, and for a long time against the Turk. As they had 

 gained their independence against Constantinople before the 

 schism, or before it had made any progress among them, they, 

 while Greek in rite, remained steadfast to the unity of the 

 Church. Their independence of Constantinople accentuated 

 their steadfastness to the Holy See.^ 



The Turks and Saracens had threatened all Europe during 

 the Middle Ages. By 1400 they had occupied all the richest 

 and most flourishing provinces of the Eastern Roman Empire, 

 and were threatening Constantinople itself. They invaded Al- 

 bania and subjected it to their rule. They took away the son 

 of the hereditary prince, the little George Castriot, as a hos- 

 tage and kept him at the Ottoman Court, where he was brought 

 up under Mussulman surveillance as an officer in the Turkish 

 military service. There he received the name of Alexander 

 Bey (called by the Albanians Skanderbeg) and distinguished 

 himself under the Sultan Amurath II. In 1443, while on an 

 expedition against the Huns, he heard that his father had died 

 and that he was prince of Albania. About the same time John 

 Hunyadi defeated the Turkish army which Scanderbeg had 

 left. Scanderbeg then boldly proclaimed himself a Christian 

 prince and fought for the liberty of Albania. His countrymen 

 rallied around him and for twenty years a fierce but unsuc- 

 cessful war was waged for liberty and faith. 



After the battle of Croia, in 1443, he sent to Pope Eugene IV 

 for a refuge in Christian lands, where his people might rest 

 secure from Turkish power, and the first emigration of the 

 Albanians began. Gradually the Turkish forces captured the 

 cities of Albania, utterly destroying them, and in 1448 a new 

 emigration of the Albanians under Demetrio Reres and his two 

 sons, George and Basil, took place. They and several thousand 

 of their countrymen helped the King of Naples to put down a 

 rebellion in his kingdom. For this King Alfonso of Naples 

 granted them lands in Calabria, where they settled in the vi- 

 cinity of the Greek religious houses and monasteries. As Scan- 

 derbeg was again and again defeated, larger emigrations of the 



i"GH Albanesi venuti in Sicilia non 1736, p. 71- Amico, Lexicon Typo- 



aderivanno alio scisma, ma professa- graphicum, vol. II, p. 86. Rodota, 



vanno invece il rito greco unito, come Sforia del Rito Greco, vol. Ill, P- i?°- 



affermano Giovanni di Giovanni, De Schiro, Gh Albanesi a Leone XIII, 



Diinnis Siculorum OfKciis, Panormi, p. 9." 



