Page:Nicolae Iorga - My American lectures.djvu/50

 called kings, was snatched from the ever-growing influence of Byzantium and won over to the Latin Church. The former voevode who, in accordance with the Slavonic custom, bore the name of Vajk or Vlk (the wolf), was now an apostolic monarch, was baptised Stephen and was destined to become a saint of the Catholic church. His crown had one meaning only, viz: that of accrediting him with the mission previously confided to the Carolingians — now in decay — of bringing all pagans and schismatics under the sway of St. Peter's sceptre.

But on the shores of the Adriatic the same Holy See of Rome created a kingdom of catholic Slavs. A catholic kingdom of Croats, a mere fragment of the larger Moravian congregation, also enjoyed the protection of the Pope. Both crowns were sacrificed however to the crafty barbarian who appeared willing — sword in hand — to win a saintly halo. Croatia was reunited, thanks to family relationships, with Hungary, and in the white city of the Adria, Beograd, the Dalmatian crown was set on the head of King Coloman. Serbs, Bulgarians and Roumanians now stood alone before this vast congregation of provinces under the holy right of domination.

But Byzantium was there to defend these peoples, whom it considered as living within its own territories and therefore belonging to it. When Manuel Comnene was master of Adriatic Serbia, and he went so far as to set up in Hungary the kings who pleased him and appeared willing to serve him, the progress of the Hungarians was bound to be arrested, while the catholic state of St. Stephen seemed to be in danger of degenerating into a mere fief of the Eastern Empire. To these vassals of the Holy See therefore was sent a Greek « crown » which has been preserved down to the present day. Only after the crimes of Andronicus had brought ruin upon this