The Interconfessional Polemic Between the Orthodox Serbs and the Catholic Church in Dalmatia Between 17th and 19th Century. The Age of Gerasim Zelić

Abstract

The interconfessional polemic which, between the 17th and 19th centuries, engulfed the Serbian Orthodox community living in the Dalmatian area close to the Triplex Confinium (the triple border point between the Venetian Republic, the Ottoman Empire and the Habsburg Empire), has already attracted the attention of many historians. However, previous scholarship is characterized by considerable differences in approach and results.
The present paper is to be seen as the first part of a broader study of the personal and public fate of Gerasim Zelić (1758-1828), a Serbian archimandrite and writer, whose activity as Vicar General of the Serbs of Dalmatia (1796-1810) and Vicar General of Cattaro (1810-1811) interacted with the interconfessional polemic in his native Dalmatia. Firstly, the paper provides state-of-the-art historiography on the confessional question in Dalmatia. Secondly, it summarizes the main events which opposed the Catholic Church and the Orthodox population of the area, from the time of the Venetian domination to Zelić’s day. Lastly, it provides a brief description of a corpus of manuscripts connected to the figure of Zelić, which will be studied from a historical and culturological perspective in order to help reconstruct the events related to the confessional question in Dalmatia.