THE WHIRLPOOL OF THE BALKANS 



187 



the fertility of its estates, but in its rare 

 library of manuscripts of the early 

 fathers of the church, few of which have 

 yet been opened to the scrutiny of 

 scholars and in which there doubtless is 

 to be found a mine of information touch- 

 ing both faith and doctrine as they were 

 delivered to the saints. 



MONASTERIES HAVE PLAYED AN IMPOR- 

 TANT ROLE IN NEAR EAST HISTORY 



The orthodox monasteries of the Near 

 East have played a most important part 

 in the history of that region. Their 

 origins, naturally, are for the most part 

 shrouded in mystery, but their place in 

 the affections of the people is clear — 

 and justly so. 



It was within these cloistered walls 

 that the Christian faith was kept alive 

 through the long night of Turkish rule 

 in the Balkans. Here, too, was main- 

 tained the tongue of whatever race the 

 pious brothers claimed and today Greek, 

 Bulgar. and Serb, whatever else they may 

 differ upon — and their quarrels have been 

 many and desperate — unite in a venera- 

 tion and love for the church as an institu- 

 tion which I have never seen equaled 

 elsewhere. 



About the Balkan monasteries cluster 

 many of the finest traditions of the Near 

 East. For example, the beautiful clois- 

 ters of the Metropolitan Monastery at 

 Cetinje are a venerated sanctuary of faith 

 and freedom in the Black Mountain dat- 

 ing back for a full half millennium. It 

 stands upon the spot where Ivan the 

 Black established his seat of government 

 when he fled from the Turk and where 

 he set up the first Slavonic printing press 

 in the world. Often besieged, it once 

 capitulated to the Turk, but it was soon 

 retaken by the sturdy warriors who de- 

 scended in force from the heights of the 

 Lovcen, whither the Moslem had been 

 unable to follow them. 



Once the monastery was blown up by 

 the monks themselves, who perished 

 with their precious books and documents 

 rather than see their sacred walls de- 

 graded by the Mohammedan foe. 



In its present form the structure dates 

 only from the eighteenth century, but its 

 quaint clock tower and its shaded clois- 

 ters give it an aspect of much greater age. 



Here rest many of the valiant Yladi- 



kas, or prince-bishops, who so long ruled 

 the land with a combination of church 

 and state, and here are to be found the 

 cannon captured from the Turk on many 

 an historic field. Here, too, is preserved 

 a page from the first Gospel issued from 

 the famous press (whose type were af- 

 terward melted down to make bullets) ; 

 and it is little wonder that the Montene- 

 grin peasant making his way to market 

 at Cetinje pauses as he glimpses the 

 shrine from afar and crosses himself de- 

 voutly as he whispers a prayer for his 

 country. 



Above it rises the Tower of the Skulls, 

 the old-time citadel of the monkish de- 

 fenders, which takes its name from the 

 fact that up to a short time ago it 

 bore a gristly fringe of Turkish heads 

 impaled upon its ramparts. These grim 

 reminders of a gory past were dear to 

 Montenegrin veterans ; and many were 

 the murmurs of disapproval when the 

 Gospodar concluded to remove them. 



The monasteries of Greece have had 

 a varied fortune. Some of them, wax- 

 ing fat in lands and income, have been 

 taken over by the government and their 

 acres distributed, the enclosures of the 

 American and British schools of archae- 

 ology at Athens standing on ground 

 which had been sequestered from the 

 brothers of a monastery nearby. But 

 others, like the famous shrine at Kalav- 

 rita, set high in the hills and overlooking 

 the smiling waters of the Gulf of Corinth, 

 are held in continued favor. 



KALAVRITA, BIRTHPLACE OP GREEK 

 INDEPENDENCE 



It was at Kalavrita that the beginnings 

 of the Greek War for Independence were 

 made, and the tattered banner which the 

 Archbishop Germanus took with him 

 from his cell when he sallied forth to 

 begin the contest is still kept as the 

 sacred war banner of Hellenism and was 

 brought out in much state at the begin- 

 ning of the late war with Turkey. 



Another well-known shrine in Greece, 

 and one which is most frequently visited 

 bv tourists, is that at Meteora, where the 

 giant needles of rock are capped with 

 extensive buildings to which the ven- 

 turesome may ascend either by rickety 

 ladders set in the interior crevices or by 



