THE ROLE OF THE ORTHODOX CHURCH IN MONTENEGRO IN THE ESTABLISHMENT AND UNIFICATION

. Finally,

Finally, in Constantinople on December 1, 1911, Gavrilo Dožić was ordained Metropolitan of Raška and Prizren with its seat in Peć. The territory of his metropolitanate was then part of the Constantinople Patriarchate and the Ottoman state. However, with the liberation of Metohija and Peć in the First Balkan War at the end of 1912, these territories would become part of Montenegro, and without the canonical dismissal of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, the Metropolitanate of Peć headed by Dožić would be formed. This Metropolitanate would receive canonical dismissal only in the process of the unification of the Serbian Church. In 1918, Dožić would become a deputy at the Assembly in Podgorica, and also a participant in church unification.
After the final demarcation following the First Balkan War, the Montenegrin King Nikola Petrović sent Metropolitan Gavrilo Dožić to Peć offering a celebratory toast at a gala dinner in the court. This speech-toast of his, given on November 20, 1913, was officially published in The Voice of Montenegrin. In it, he expressed in another way the commitment of the Church in Montenegro to the ideas of the Patriarchate of Peć. Among other things, the post says: «Angels of heaven, holy kings and patriarchs, who rest in eternal sleep in the space of our God-protected diocese, will rejoice when the song of God, the song of the Serb's prayer for the health of the Serbian people and their happiness resounds under the vaults of their temples. Please, Holy Metropolitan, follow the examples of my glorious ancestors, the lords of this country, and be inspired towards the non-Orthodox brothers by their broad religious tolerance, which has always distinguished them. Let your first prayer there be a thank you to God for those happy days, for the repose of the souls of the killed Serbs, as well as those Serbs who contributed to the liberation of our people from the Turks with their work, effort, desire and prayers.
From the throne of famous Serbian patriarchs, which has been vacant for so long, you have to learn, my dear people, the virtue and the Orthodox faith. You have to establish in it a love for the homeland, because Peć was the hearth of the Serbian church and the power of the Serbian spirit. Peć was Serbian Moscow, and Moscow is the chaste mother not only of our Russian brothers, but also of ours, because it defended us in difficult times and illuminated with faith in God and in the victory of our righteous thought.
You have to keep the most beautiful temple of God in the Balkans, my Visoki Dečani monastery, in the splendor of magnificence as a sacred expression and a witness to Serbian piety and greatness» 15 .
In the meantime, at the end of August 1910, Montenegro was proclaimed Kingdom, and Nikola became King. At the extraordinary session of the Montenegrin National Assembly, the Prime Minister of Montenegro, Dr. Lazar Tomanović, in his solemn speech, among other things said: «Above all, the Metropolitanate of Cetinje is the only Saint Sava's Episcopal chair, which has been preserved without interruption to this day, and as such it was the legal see and heir of the Patriarchate of Peć» 16 .

Miscellanea / Смесь
The process of disintegration of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy was opened by the breakthrough of the Thessaloniki front and the advance of the Serbian army towards Serbia through Macedonia and Kosovo, and then towards other northwestern Yugoslav provinces. In the political sense, during the First World War, the idea of Serbian and Yugoslav unification took place in parallel, intertwined and denied each other. During the second phase of the First World War, a strong movement for unification with Serbia developed in Montenegro. It had two manifesting forms. The first was in a country that was under Austro-Hungarian occupation. A strong outlaw movement developed there. The other was abroad, in prison camps, where most Montenegrin officers, intellectuals and politicians were interned. Within it, certainly the most important aspect was the formation of the Montenegrin Committee for National Unification on March 27, 1917. In Paris, which soon afterwards transferred its headquarters to Geneva. The former Montenegrin Prime Minister Andrija Radović was its leader. He definitely parted ways with King Nicholas before that due to his ideas on unification. The king hesitated to declare unification, employed tactics and set various conditions. On the other hand, Radović's board worked closely with Nikola Pašić and the Serbian government. In general, after the end of the Balkan wars, the idea of the hopelessness of the Montenegrin state began to prevail in Montenegro, and such a feeling was helped in a subtle way by Russia. The young Montenegrin bourgeoisie and the intellectual class were at the forefront of this process. The reactionary and absolutist royal administrative apparatus with its own interests stood opposite to them.
The disintegration of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, due to which the Austro-Hungarian troops left Montenegro in October 1918, and the entry of allied troops led by the Serbian army, brought the process of unification into the final phase. Therefore, the process of establishing a single Serbian Church, and the participation of the Church of Montenegro in it, should be first viewed from a broader political aspect. Undoubtedly, the liberation and unification of all Serbs, through a common Yugoslav state, created the basis for the church unification that is the establishment of a unique Serbian Church that was extinguished by the will of the Ottomans in 1766. In operational terms, the unification of Montenegro with Serbia and other Yugoslav provinces was carried out through the decisions of the Grand National Assembly of the Serbian people in Podgorica (Podgorica Assembly). This Assembly was held from November 24 to 29, 1918, according to the new calendar.
The clergy of the Church in Montenegro almost unanimously supported the unification and the ideas of the Podgorica Assembly. In general, there was no difference between the supporters of unconditional unification with Serbia and the supporters of the King Nikola. The supporters of the King Nikola were the royalist movement of the Petrović-Njegoš dynasty and the king himself, who represented his interests as national. During the session of the Podgorica Assembly, the head of the Church, Archbishop of Cetinje and Metropolitan of Montenegro Mitrofan Ban, sent a telegram to the Assembly on November 25, 1918. It reads, «The great world events made it possible for each nation to determine the direction of their future state life. This goal of the manifestation is all the more significant on which depends the honor and future of the nation, whose representatives you are, bearing that in mind, and as a clergyman I pray to God to give you strength and a future, to carry out the work of your task in the spirit of those lofty ideals for which our glorious ancestors lived and died, and that is the liberation Петербургские славянские и балканские исследования Studia Slavica et Balcanica Petropolitana and unification of the Serbian people, that is, the great Yugoslavia. In that name, I invoke God's blessing on the Great National Assembly and its holy work» 17 .
Two days later, the Bishop of Zahumlje-Raška, Kiril Mitrović, sent a telegram of support to the Assembly from Nikšić. He claimed that: «He most cordially welcomes and blesses the hard-working work of the Great National Assembly for the unification of the Serbian people and the realization of a common homeland with Yugoslavia» 18 .
When the decisions of the Assembly in Podgorica were announced, Metropolitan Mitrofan Ban gave a speech on the occasion of unification: «Pious Christians! The terrible current world war has caused not only an internal but also an external coup d'état among the most of European people. Certain great world rulers deprived of their great thrones, as responsible for the terrible world bloodshed. The same fate did not pass the Montenegrin ruling house.
The Great Montenegrin National Assembly, declaring the unification of Montenegro with Serbia under the Karadjordjević dynasty, dethroned His Majesty the King Nikola I, and with him, the Petrović-Njegoš dynasty. The days we are surviving are a great epoch in the history of Montenegro.
Montenegrins waged a heroic struggle for full five centuries, all with the aim of liberating and unifying the Serbian people, and this noble and lofty idea, in the name of God, is partially realized today.
Our knightly past has given us the right to unite with brotherly Serbia and Greater Yugoslavia with dignity and pride. For the realization of the new Yugoslav state, our Serbian army, crowned with tireless glory, showed such an example of heroism, which can rarely be found in the history of mankind.
The terrible and bloody fight is already over, and the fortunes of war have remained on our fair side. The enemy curses, no matter how strong and powerful he was, he fell into the deep abyss of his eternal ruin under the blow of the knightly Serbian weapon of our powerful allies, from the height of his great pride. On its ruins, resurrected new Yugoslav state composed of our three-named people: Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. The new state is happy to have a large number of highly educated sons, who will cover all the authorities in the country with dignity and benefit, both on land and at sea. In addition, Yugoslavia is rich in many fortified cities, large towns, vast seas, fertile fields, every branch of educational institutes and various industrial institutions; in a word, in the new state are the best conditions, which will be the source of all happiness in all branches of people's life.
The Serbian people are very happy that, after five centuries of torment and trouble, they experienced those historical days of glorious and fraternal community.
With these great successes, I am indescribably happy, I pray to God, to bless the new state of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes under the mighty scepter of His Majesty, the Christ-loving King Peter I Karadjordjević. Let the holy right hand of God protect, strengthen and strengthen it, so that it, in the concert of other European countries, may forever play the beneficial role of happiness and peace, not only of its citizens, but also of all mankind.
Long live His Majesty King Peter I Karadjordjević! Long live the Serbian people! Long live the great Yugoslavia! Long live our powerful allies!» 20 Svetozar Tomić was one of the leaders of the unification movement in 1918. He was also an anthropogeographer, and a member and student of the anthropogeographic school of Jovan Erdeljanović and Jovan Cvijić. As such, he was one of the creators of the Assembly in Podgorica. In his memoirs, published on the occasion of the decade since the unification, he wrote that on November 2, 1918, he had met with a group of people in Cetinje, and talked to them with Metropolitan Mitrofan. Then the metropolitan told him: «God forbid that I am against the unification of the Serbian people, and I am an admirer of the King Nikola. He made me from an ordinary monk to the Metropolitan of Montenegro, and I am grateful and obliged to him for that, but this my obligation must never destroy the unity and happiness of the people» 21 .
The Assembly in Podgorica was not only multi-confessional, but also multi-political. In it, around the fundamental idea of the unification of Montenegro and Serbia, various political elements gathered, from the pro-radical Karađorđević, to the people who were supporters of the King Nikola. In that political conglomerate, which is especially interesting, there are also those who can identify with atheists and left socialists. It was obvious that the ideas of the Bolshevik revolution in Russia had reached Montenegro. Three members of the Assembly, Milan Terić, Miloš Jovanović and Miljko Bulajić, submitted an interpellation to the Assembly for consideration.
In point eleven it is said that all goods owned by the King Nikola «as well as all monastic and church goods pass into the hands of the People's Committee». A certain number of students of medicine, agronomy and technology were to be educated from this income. Hospitals and agricultural schools had to be built on the estates, and connected by road to larger places. Then they moved on to even more radical demands: «Further: all valuables in churches and monasteries are to be considered as people's property under the supervision of the people's committee». This board was supposed to hand over all church and monastery property to the Government of Serbia at the same cost.
The point thirteen of that interpellation said: «Let this Great National Assembly reduce all churches and monasteries to the rank of chapels. Further, to order the bury all human corpses in the ground, which still stand in monasteries today, under the name of miracle workers, so that burial is performed on these remains once and to free the people's consciousness from the pressure of centuries-old religious delusions. Persons, on the other hand, who have lived to this day performing a church, religious ceremony, should be employed in the civil service if they are capable of it» 22 .

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All three deputies later became communists. Two of them, Jovanović and Bulajić, were at the founding congress of the Socialist Workers' Party of Yugoslavia (Communists) in Belgrade in April 1919. The Assembly only acknowledged this interpellation, but did not comment on it.In this document; however, it is important to look at the genesis of atheism and communism in Montenegro. A significant part of this interpellation was realized after the victory of the communists in the Second World War and the revolution in Yugoslavia and Montenegro. Certainly, it cannot be considered autochthonous, due to its programmatic and ideological basis. It corresponded, as already indicated, to the connotation of the Bolshevik revolution in Russia. In a broader sense, it was based on the philosophical and ideological characteristics of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.
In the name of Bishop Kiril Mitrović, a member of the Nikšić Consistory, Milan Mihailović, addressed the clergy of the Diocese of Zahumlje-Raška from Nikšić on December 7, 1918, to mention the name of King Peter I and Crown Prince Alexander during the service. This was in connection with the decisions of the Assembly in Podgorica on unification. The clergy were advised to advise parishioners to live in harmony and love, because after great suffering and devastation, it is time to start working and be loyal to the new authorities. Priests who caused disorder by their actions would be severely punished 23 . This break can be interpreted in two ways. That was the time immediately after the end of the almost threeyear Austro-Hungarian occupation. A strong outlaw movement developed in it, with which powerlessness and robberies appeared as an accompanying phenomenon. It is evident that even during the elections for the Assembly in Podgorica, there was a great political polarization in Montenegro, between the unifiers and supporters of the King Nikola.That polarization did not end with the decisions of the Assembly in Podgorica. Moreover, it is only deepened. Supporters of the King Nikola began preparations for the uprising, which took place around Christmas 1918/19. This event is known as the Christmas Uprising.
It cannot be disputed that the Church in Montenegro followed the context of wider events, which means it followed the general political decisions in Montenegro and abroad with the end of the Austro-Hungarian occupation and the First World War. Therefore, the participation of the Church in Montenegro in the establishment of a single Serbian Church was a sequence of political events. On the other hand, the desire and will of the majority of Montenegrins for unification with Serbia and other Yugoslav provinces cannot be disputed. This cannot be disputed in the narrower ecclesiastical sense in Montenegro. The awareness of belonging to the Serbian Saint Sava Church, and its Patriarchate of Peć, forcibly and uncanonically extinguished by the Ottomans, was very much alive in Montenegro. Moreover, it was constantly insisted on. It also supported Montenegrin state and dynastic interests in the fight for the championship in the Serbian people.
The church leadership of the state of Montenegro very quickly followed the sequence of political events caused by the disintegration of Austria-Hungary, both in Montenegro and abroad. Therefore, on December 16, 1918, he made the decision to unite with the Church in the Kingdom of Serbia, and through that act with other dioceses, aware of the fact that this was a logical and historically long-awaited act. On the other hand, it would be wrong to interpret the political basis of this event, as well as itself, as the result of the inevitable church unification. The Church in Montenegro was an unavoidable factor in the establishment of a single Serbian Church. Moreover, it had a long tradition, and behind it the fact that it was the Church of one of the two independent Serbian states. Therefore, it was the state Church, as well as the one in Serbia, and not one of a number of dioceses from the former Austro-Hungarian or Ottoman state.
An After the failed of the Christmas Uprising of 1918/19, the King Nikola's supporters did not accept the failure. As the Montenegrin government in exile existed in Neu near Paris, it coordinated its activities with the guerrillas (comites) in Montenegro. Although this was an issue in the domain of political-state conflicts, and had nothing to do with the process of establishment and unification of the Serbian Church, a number of Montenegrin priests who openly supported the unification and criticized former the King Nikola came under attack from his supporters.
On the night of August between 4/5, 1919, the supporters of the King Nikola killed on fraud the parish priest of Koman near Podgorica, the priest Krsto Radulović. He was a member of the Assembly in Podgorica, too. On November 10, 1919, the supporters of King Nikola also killed the parish priest of Bogetić near Nikšić, the priest Ilija Mijušković. On October 2, 1919, the parish priest of Čevsko-ubaljski near Cetinje, Luka Nikolić, addressed the Consistory of Cetinje with a request for help. He stated that in the days of unification, he put his life, family life and property at the disposal of this idea. Because of that, the supporters of King Nikola attacked him. On August 16, the supporters of the King Nikola (komiti) set fire to his house and twenty beehives. During the service in the church in the village of Lipa in the parish of Trnjin near Cetinje, the supporters of the King Nikola attacked him. They asked him not to mention the name of the former King of Serbia, the Yugoslav King Peter I, during the service, only the name ofthe Montenegrin King Nikola, regardless of the fact that the unification was carried out. He refused it. Because of that, they mistreated him and made him shout: «Long live King Nikola», which he also refused.
When he served in the village of Trnjine the next day, a group of outlaws of about thirty armed supporters of the King Nikola appeared. They again asked him to mention the name of the King Nikola during the service, which he refused. Therefore, they took him out of the altar and plucked his beard and hair, and at the end they beat him. Beaten like that, they left him lying at the church for four hours, and they went to the village. He took advantage of that and ran away. He soon received threats that they would kill him if they met him again 32 .

Петербургские славянские и балканские исследования Studia Slavica et Balcanica Petropolitana
Mitrofan Ban addressed the Central Council of Bishops (CCB) on May 10, 1920, stating that he had been in poor health for six months, and that he was resigning from the position of President of the Parliament, but remained as a member until he was dismissed 33 . The Deputy Minister of Religion and Minister of Education of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, by an act of June 5, 1920, informed the Parliament, in connection with the act of May 12, that Metropolitan Mitrofan resigned from the position of CCB president due to illness.The vice president, Bishop Dositej of Niš, did the same. Archbishop of Belgrade and Metropolitan of Serbia Dimitrije was elected to replace Mitrofan. The Bishop of Timisoara, Dr. Georgije Letić, was elected as a Vice President. The Ministry of Religion said it could not take these changes into account. This is because of the Article 3 of the Decree on the Organization of the Central Council of Bishops stipulates that the Council of Bishops consists of five members, elected by the Conference of Bishops. Therefore, it was requested that a conference of bishops be called, and that the matter be resolved in this way. It was emphasized that this issue should be resolved as soon as possible, due to the final negotiations «WITH THE GREAT MOTHER CHURCH in Constantinople» 34 .
In the name of Peter I, King of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, Alexander, as the heir to the throne and regent, declared on June 27, 1920, the Provisional National Representation of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, and he required from the competent authority to declare the Law on the Establishment of the Serbian Orthodox Patriarchate. Article 1 established the Patriarchate as the only autocephalous church of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. Article 2 stipulates that a Serbian patriarch should head the patriarchy. There should have been a synod with him, as the largest ecclesiastical judicial ecclesiastical authority. The patriarch was supposed to be the president of the assembly of all archbishops. Article 3 stipulates that the seat of the patriarchate would be in Belgrade. Article 4 provided for the enactment of a statute on the election of a patriarch. Article 5 provided that the law would enter into force when the king signed it, and when it was published in the Official Gazette 35 .
On October 23, 1920, a decree was issued to convene the Assembly in the Cathedral Church in Belgrade, in order to elect a patriarch. The Serbian patriarch had a seat in Belgrade, and a temporary seat in Sremski Karlovci. The enthronement ceremony took place the next day in the cathedral in Belgrade 36 .
In the name of the King Peter I, the heir to the throne, Regent Alexander, issued a decree on the dethronement of administrative and judicial power in the Serbian Patriarchate in November 1920. Article 4 stipulates that the diocesan bishops of the Metropolitanate of Karlovci and Dalmatian dioceses, and the diocesan episcopate of Montenegro, as well as the metropolitans of Bosnia and Herzegovina, stand in the same canonical attitude towards the patriarch, the Council and the Synod, and the other diocesan bishops of the Orthodox Church in Montenegro 37 . At the session of the Parliament on November 16, 1920, the act about the termination of the work of the Parliament from the Minister of Religion was adopted 38 .
The Government of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes has started negotiations with the Ecumenical Patriarchate for the annexation of its parts on the territory of the state of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes to the Serbian Church. In connection with that, an agreement was signed on March 18, 1920, as well as a special decision the next day. In that context, the establishment of a united Serbian Church was recognized. Due to the fact that the patriarchal throne of the Ecumenical Patriarchate was vacant because of the resignation of Patriarch Herman V, Metropolitan Dositej of Brus, who was the deputy of the patriarchal throne, as well as ten members of the Synod, including the secretary, signed the synodic decision. The As already indicated, the election of the first patriarch was made at the session of the Council of Bishops held on September 28, 1920. in Belgrade. Metropolitan Dimitrije Pavlović was elected to that position, and the Minister of Religion was asked to submit this decision to the Council of Ministers and required a royal decree. According to that, the chair of the archbishop of Belgrade and the metropolitan of Serbia should have been elevated to the rank of patriarchy. This essentially led to a dual patriarchal characteristic that means there is a patriarch of Serbia and a patriarch of the Serbian Church.
The state government, however, did not accept this solution. In the agreement with the Parliament, two decrees were passed. The first Provisional Decree on the Serbian Patriarchate prescribed that the Serbian Patriarch was at the forefront of the Church as the head of the entire Serbian Orthodox Church, and that the Parliament have legislative ecclesiastical authority. The Assembly elected four archbishops, who together with the patriarch formed the Synod, as the highest administrative and supervisory authority. This Decree entered into force simultaneously with the Decree on the Election of the First Patriarch of the Established Patriarchate. According to this order, a threefold candidacy is foreseen, which the Parliament proposes to the special Electoral Assembly. The Electoral Assembly consisted of representatives of the peace and monastic clergy, as well as secular persons of the Orthodox faith with important state functions (the highest judicial and political authorities and the army, university rectors and representatives of the Academy of Sciences, as well as mayors of Belgrade, Sremski Karlovci, Skopje and Peć) 42 .
After the Assembly in Podgorica, and the proclamation of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes in Belgrade on December 1, 1918, the Montenegrin government in exile continued to work in Ney near Paris, and then transferred its headquarters to Rome, Italy. The King Nikola Petrović was still alive. This government was still recognized by the great powers, until the end of 1920, when, after the elections for the Constituent Assembly of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes at the end of November 1920, they began to sever diplomatic relations with it. The Montenegrin government in exile did not in any diplomatic way try to stop or challenge the process of establishing a single Serbian Church.
On the news of the end of the re-establishment procedure, in its official newspaper Glas Crnogorca from September 24, 1920, with the title «Patriarchate», he responded with a text that read: «These days, the Serbs have declared the Karlovci Patriarchate all-Serbian, giving it power, which the Serbian patriarch once had during the reign of the strong Emperor Dušan.
The Montenegrin people, who with their centuries-old efforts founded the Serbian state thought and enabled their selfless and heroic deeds to free the Serbian tribe from Turkish and Austrian slavery, liberated Peć, the seat of the Serbian patriarch. The real patriarchal rights of the Metropolitan of Peć came to life with the liberation of Peć. Montenegro wanted to appoint a patriarch in Peć, but as a large part of our people who were under Austrian slavery had not been released yet, that act was postponed. As soon as Montenegro is established, the Metropolitan of Peć will be declared the patriarch of the entire Serbian Orthodox Church with all historical rights. The real Montenegro will never be able to give up of that. Otherwise, it would have sinned against its people, who never allowed the sermon of the captured altar of Serbia to be heard from their pulpit» 43 .
Although some details in this text are incorrect, such as the fact that the Karlovci Metropolitanate received the status of a patriarchate, the identity of the church plans of the state of Montenegro with those realized in the new state of the Kingdom of SCS, can be seen.
At The establishment of the Serbian Church, that means the Patriarchate of Peć, should be studied from another aspect -the canonical one. Although the process of unification of Serbian dioceses was inevitably carried out, which until 1918 were part of several states, including autocephalous churches, it essentially meant only the establishment that means the renewal of a church creation that already existed and had autocephaly. Deacon Ivo Kaluđerović the priest of the Orthodox Church in Montenegro, the secretary of the Holy Synod, and the participant in the historical session at which the decision on unification was made correctly noticed this. In the already quoted speech on the occasion of the establishment of the Patriarchate of Peć, he said, among other things, this: «Today, only the old Patriarchate of Peć is being renewed, which the Greeks illegally abolished in 1766. However, the Serbian Patriarchate did not finally end then. The accession of this to the Church of Constantinople was not valid, because it was carried out by force, against the will of the competent factors, in an illegal and an uncanonical way. That violent act was considered by the Serbian Church as a coup d'état. And the Serbian clergy fought against that coup for a long time and desperately ...But a difficult time came, the Patriarchate of Peć in its greatest extent, but never as a whole actually fell under the Greek Patriarchate» 47 .
Canonically speaking, the continuity of the Patriarchate of Peć was violently interrupted, by a decision of a non-Christian state -the Ottoman Empire. The rule 18 of the sixth Ecumenical Council of Tula, held from September 1, 691 to August 31, 692, in the time of Emperor Justinian II, says about this: «We order that the clergy, who have left their places because of barbaric invasion, or some other reasons, after that, they have to return to their churches and not leave them for a long time without reason. And if there is someone contrary to this rule, let him be overthrown, until he returns to his church» 48 .
Rule 37 of the same parliament is in a similar context. It reads: «Since there were barbarian invasions at different times, and because of that many cities were subjugated by lawless people, it was so impossible for the head of one of such cities, since he was appointed, to take his throne and establish his high priestly survival, and in accordance with the established custom of ordaining and doing everything else that belongs to the bishop, we, striving to honor and respect the clergy, and endeavoring that in no way pagan notice harms ecclesiastical rights, Српске патријаршије // Српска православна црква 1920-1970, Споменица о 50-годишњици васпоставе Српске патријаршије. Београд, 1971. С. 13-35; Гардашевић Б establish that those bishops who have already been appointed they were unable to occupy their thrones because of the mentioned reason, they are not subject to any damage, and let them ordain various clergy according to the rules, and let them enjoy the right of seat according to their place, and let every act of their priesthood be firm and lawful. Because the need for time, which prevents the accurate preservation of rights, must not narrow the boundaries of the administration» 49 .
Finally, it is necessary to look chronologically at the situation in the Orthodox Church of the Kingdom of Montenegro in the period of the establishment and unification of the Serbian Church. At the time of its establishment and renewal, the Orthodox Church in the Kingdom of Montenegro had three dioceses: the Montenegrin one with its seat in Cetinje, Zahumskoraška with its seat in Nikšić, and Budimska with its seat in Peć. Taking

Conclusion
Finding the formal reason for the indebtedness of the Patriarchate of Peć (Serbian Church) to a Greek moneylender and interpreter at Porta (Ottoman government) who was accused of treason and hanged, the Patriarchate of Constantinople appeared as the payer of the debts of the Patriarchate of Peć to the Ottoman state. It was obviously a matter of coordinating the Patriarchate of Constantinople and the Ottoman state in the process of violent and noncanonical abolition of the Patriarchate of Peć Monastery. The Patriarchate of Peć and its patriarchs appeared during the 17 th and 18 th centuries as the initiator of the resistance of the Serbian people to the Ottoman rule. It did this in cooperation with Austria, the Venetian Republic and Russia. The Ottoman state therefore wanted to shut down that institution. On the contrary, the Patriarchate of Constantinople showed a great degree of collaboration and pacifism towards the Ottoman state. It had its own interests, so that it would carry out the Hellenization of Serbian territories through its church clergy, by closing down the Patriarchate of Peć and taking over its territories. Since the end of the existence of the Patriarchate of Peć, it has mostly had no success in that, although it has mostly appointed Greeks as bishops in Serbia. Thus, each of the dioceses of the Patriarchate of Peć was left to manage as it knows and can in its internal organization, and the attitude towards the state authorities of the state in which it was. Essentially, those dioceses of the former Patriarchate of Peć, which were part of the Ottoman government, became part of the Patriarchate of Constantinople. Those dioceses that were part of the Venetian Republic until the end of the 18 th century until it collapsed, as well as Austria, formed a special church organization, which, apart from wider canonical unity, did not recognize the competencies of the Patriarchate of Constantinople.
Thanks to the political independence of Montenegro, and the fact that from the beginning of the 18 th century, elements of state organization were formed in it within the theocracy, the Metropolitanate of Cetinje continued its independent church life. It did not recognize the decisions of the Ottoman authorities and the Patriarchate of Constantinople, because they simply did not have the possibility of actual influence on it. Therefore, in the decades until the end of the 18 th century, and throughout the 19 th century, the autochthonous church life of the Cetinje Metropolitanate took place. It simply did not recognize the Patriarchate of Constantinople, simply because its metropolitans were not ordained in Constantinople, but in Sremski Karlovci and Petrograd. Montenegro wanted to show its state independence, which was only formally formalized at the Berlin Congress in 1878. At the beginning of the 20 th century, Montenegro, with its internal legal-secular and legal-ecclesiastical acts, declared the Church autocephalous in it. It did so by adopting the Constitution of the Holy Synod and the Constitution of the Consistory in early 1904, and the Constitution of the Principality of Montenegro in 1905. However, in the canonical procedure, the Church did not ask for when, nor did it receive a certificate of autocephaly. According to the canons, it did not have even three bishops, which was the basis for autocephaly.
In 1912, in the First Balkan War, the Montenegrin army liberated Peć, the former seat of the Patriarchate, as well as the nearby monastery of Visoke Dečani, a large center of Serbian ecclesiology, and the endowment of Tsar Dušan Nemnanjić and his father the King Stefan, too. From the abolition of the Patriarchate of Peć Monastery in 1766. until the First World War, the awareness of belonging to the Serbian Church and the Patriarchate of Peć never died in Montenegro. Moreover, the Church in Montenegro has often referred to the fact that it is the legal heir and follower of the Patriarchate of Peć.
From the beginning of the 20 th century, the movement for unification with Serbia began to strengthen in Montenegro. The rule of the prince, and from 1910 the King Nikola Petrović, was anachronistic and undemocratic, which did not suit the young Montenegrin bourgeoisie. During the First World War, the unification movement reached its peak, and sublimated with the general Yugoslav unification. The Montenegrin government, led by King Nikola, left the country in January 1916, shortly before Austro-Hungarian troops entered. It continued its operations in Neuilly near Paris during the war, enjoying partial French support. Shortly after the end of the First World War, the question of the unification of Montenegro with Serbia and other Yugoslav provinces was raised. For that reason, at the end of November 1918, the Assembly was held in Podgorica, which proclaimed the unification and dethronement of the King Nikola and the Petrović-Njegoš dynasty.
The clergy of the Church in Montenegro largely supported unification as a political act. King Nikola had a considerable number of supporters in Montenegro who were not opposed to unification as a global act, but his and his dynastic interests were their priority. When the unification created the conditions for the establishment of the forcibly and uncanonically abolished Patriarchate of Peć, the unification of all Serbian dioceses began in its establishment. The Church in Montenegro unreservedly entered in that process. Montenegrin Metropolitan Mitrofan Ban was the president of the Central Council of Bishops, who worked operatively on the establishment and unification.
In terms of church unification, there was no schism in Montenegro, unlike the political and dynastic issue. The Montenegrin government in exile in Neu near Paris, and the supporters of King Nikola in Montenegro did not enact any legal act, public opposition, etc. in connection with ecclesiastical unification. Unification as a political act was supported by a large part of the clergy of the Orthodox Church in Montenegro, and all bishops. A number of priests and one metropolitan were direct participants in the Assembly in Podgorica. Therefore, the later attacks of the protégés of King Nikola (komita) on a number of priests can by no means be understood as an act of motives for opposing the establishment and unification of the Serbian Church. These were actions primarily with political motivation. Several priests were loyal to King Nicholas. However, after the unification and the revival of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, they peacefully became involved in the clergy of the Serbian Orthodox Church. One of the participants in the unification, either as a political or as a church rank, Metropolitan of Peć Dr. Gavrilo Dožić, later became the Serbian patriarch.