Denominations in the making of modern Croation and Serbian national idea in the 19th century Dalmatia

Recenzowana publ. konferencyjna. Strona wydawcy: https://www.wuj.pl

Habsburg monarchy’s southernmost province, Dalmatia offers a good example to study the complex process of modem Croatian and Serbian national idea forming in the 19th century, a process in which the denominational factor would play an important part. Four hundred years of Venetian rule in Dalmatia had not only severed its links with Croatia but had also undermined a sense of belonging to the Croatian nation in its Croatian inhabitants, who made up more than three quarters of its population. By contrast, the Orthodox group had preserved its Serbian awareness in its early form, i.e., based on religion. While denomination did not directly differentiate between Croats and Serbs, it did nevertheless affect the making of the Croatian and Serbian national identity among their elites. The Catholic church, with its universalistic organization, did not directly contribute to the building of Croatian national awareness; instead it helped shape the cultural values of Croatian Catholic elites by introducing tenets from Western Christendom. Unlike it, the Orthodox congregation was seen as a national church. Cultivating traditions from the Serbian state and its holy rulers, it helped promote Serbian identity. Early in their modern national awareness forming, Croatian national elites did not make a link between denomination and nationality and did not treat it as a quality distinguishing them from Serbs. Dalmatian revival was actively supported by clergy, Catholic and Orthodox alike. A leading activist and ideologue of the movement was the Croatian priest Mihovil PavlinoviC, who persisted in trying to give it a Slavic, or Yugoslavian, character, as he emphasized the need to hold common front with the Serbs. Treating Catholicism and Orthodoxy on a par as Christ’s teaching, he accorded what he held were two major institutions among the Southern Slavs a special role in “perfecting” the “Yugoslav” nation. In implementing this vision of both churches’ mission he toured southern Slavic lands with the Orthodox priest J. Sundeiic in 1864. Soon, however, contention arose leading to conflict between Serbs and Croats in Dalmatia, one reason for which being manifestations of the Serbian national idea. They were the work of a conservative circle of Dalmatian Serbs composed mainly of clergy. Accusations were launched against PavlinoviC and other Croatian activists as trying to "Croatize" and "Catholicize" Serbs. In response, Pavlinovid reoriented the movement’s ideology giving it a Croatian and clerical character. The essence of his program, announced in 1869 and titled "Hrvatska misao," he summed up in the words: Croat and Catholic.” In 1877, internal political conflict within the National Party was reduced by one of its leaders, the Serb S. LjubiJa, to nationalist and denominational strife, aggravating Serbo-Croatian relations in Dalmatia.