Civilizational decline

The fact that we are celebrating a thousand years of our statehood should mean that we have behind us a millennium of continuity of regulated relations. That we are the owners of ten centuries of experience in establishing order among people. To inherit an entire era with recognized institutions that guarantee some kind of earthly justice in the area that includes the borders of Montenegro. We do not have, nor can we have, the continuity of the state name (which changed from Duklja to Zeta, from Zeta to Montenegro); nor do we have one and the same social order from Vojislavljević, through Petrović, to the Bolsheviks. However, the continuous presence of civilization on our native breast is, to this day, something indisputable. Civilization - that is the superstructure of the natural, elemental. This is what distinguishes the enlightened people from the members of the human race in some jungle. The state as a social contract (agreement); division and distinction of power (possibility to appeal to justice, to facts - against lies and subterfuge, even when they come from those who rule); respect for the right to property, to property... These are all the foundations of civilization, recognized in humanity, millennia before our aforementioned millennium!

We have them too! During the founding of Cetinje, including the Cetinje Monastery, the civilized and far-sighted Zeta lord Ivan Crnojević, although a despot and a feudal lord, distinguished state property from church property. He emphasized: "The one whom God appoints to command this land after me, or my son, or grandson or, by God's permission, whoever from another tribe or nation, I most heartily beseech and swear that what I have attached, legislated and confirmed will remain forever intact to this holy temple of the Most Glorious Mother of our God, just as I did not take anything from the holy churches, but as much as I could, I contributed and confirmed!” Look at how much he cares for the state in future times, after his life! how much feeling for the existence of a "higher power" than his, even though he is an absolute autocrat in his country! what a need to give up the ownership of some property, and hand it over to the Church - for the sake of the future property in Heaven!

And in the further text of the founding charter, this enlightened and literate ruler, this founder of our capital, this parent of the bringer of the first printing press, this rarely pious soul of our history - curses, curses!!! who? Well, whoever would think of challenging the church's ownership of church property! Back then, more than 500 years ago, we had a civilization that distinguished what belonged to whom. And its foundations were so strong and unshakable, that Prince Nikola (documented in several of his edicts) clearly and unequivocally distinguished state property from church property. Here is one such document of Nikola's, in which he specifically refers to Ivan's legacy:

NICHOLAS THE FIRST, by the grace of God, prince and master of MONTENEGRO Our illustrious predecessor, Master of Zeta Ivan Crnojević, founded a monastery in Cetinje as the seat of the Metropolitans of Zeta, and endowed it with various goods, including a large part of the Cetinje field. Through the evil times that passed over the Serbian people, destroying even the traces of state life, this endowment of Ivan Crnojević, the last independent Serbian ruler, so richly endowed, was able to preserve in continuity the state thought, which in that storm that wise the Serbian ruler sheltered under the Orlov karst; and besides, to preserve until our days the only episcopal chair of those, which is St. Sava raised in the Serbian state.Since in recent times, a town was founded on the Cetinje field, and that on the property of the monastery, which is developing more and more; to preserve this endowment of the pious Ruler and to ensure the survival of this monastery, we have decided and order:

1. That all the rent, which the houses of the town of Cetinje are obliged to pay, be collected in a separate monastery treasury with all other income from the monastery lands in the Cetinje field;

2. That the monastery invests its annual income every year in the purchase of immovable property in our country, so that it can multiply its current assets and continue to be able to act beneficially in the area of ​​the Holy Orthodox Church and the Serbian people in the future.

We hereby most solemnly confirm to the monastery the right of ownership of the land on which the town of Cetinje, Our Capital, is built, and let everyone know that this land remains for all future times the exclusive property of the Cetinje Monastery, sacred and inviolable. The Holy Metropolis of Cetinje will watch over this monastic right, given by Master Ivan Crnojević and confirmed by this Our Decree.

In our capital Cetinje on the twenty-fifth birthday of Our Heir Prince Danilo, 1895 NIKOLAJ"

Published in "Glas Crnogorca", on Saturday, June 24, 1895. For the above reasons, I perceive the recently published Draft Law on Freedom of Religion, which was adopted and published by the Government of Montenegro, as a civilizational decline compared to the previous centuries of Montenegrin statehood!

Namely, our ancestors knew and understood that the cultural and spiritual treasure of an area is not created by a state (as it is wrongly stated in the recent DPS party announcement) - but by artists and spiritual/cultural institutions. And then, therefore, the state cannot and should not be the owner of what is not its own, in addition to the living and existing owners and creators of the said treasure. The state must be the guarantor of the inalienability of one's property, and the protector of cultural treasures located on its territory. But he cannot protect it by appropriating it! On the contrary - by snatching it from the hands of the owner, the cultural treasure runs the risk of finding itself in an environment that does not understand it; who does not know how to use it; and who, finally, does not know what to do with him. Imagine an official of the state administration with a chronology and a censer in his hands!

When Michelangelo painted the Sistine Chapel, did he do it for the needs of the Republic of Italy (which did not even exist at the time) or the Vatican State (then also non-existent), or for the needs of the clergy in Rome? Did hieromonk Makarije print Octoichus for the religious needs of the monks of the Cetinje monastery, or for the touristic curiosity of someone who does not care about the fact of God's existence? Here, civilized people clearly know how to distinguish the ownership of an object from the issue of its availability for public viewing!!!

Someone will say that these are complex questions, almost philosophical - but that's exactly what it's all about. In ancient and ancient times, long before the local government, people faced these issues and solved them by surgically identifying what belonged to whom. In particular, during the thousand-year duration of our authentic statehood, no one apparently thought of assigning the property of the Church to the state. More precisely - to no one, before Tito's associates. (And they are already something else. They demolished the Orthodox chapel on Lovcen, which is protected by law, for example!)

Others will say that Ivan Crnojević and Prince Nikola were simply bewildered believers, not as advanced in their understanding of the world and nature as the aforementioned chapel destroyers - and that, therefore, their respect for church property was more a matter of the spirit of the times and their personal convictions, which they do not oblige us "modern people". Well, gentlemen, the Prime Minister of Ireland does not have to be a musician and know how to play the harp to know that he appreciates the importance of that instrument, painted on the coat of arms of that country! Nor is it necessary for the President of Spain to be a matador taming bulls in a bullfight to understand and respect the value of such a skill in his country's tradition. No one asks the ministers in the Government of the Arab Republic of Egypt to believe in those deities worshiped by the ancient pharaoh, yet they must protect the monumental remains of that idolatry as their own shrine.

It's just that the mummies from the pyramids haven't had their idol worshipers for a long time, so the state has no one to attribute ownership of Cheops' tomb to - except itself! But in Montenegro today, Ivan Bey's like-minded people are very alive and very numerous, who perceive the biblical Mary of Nazareth as the "Mother of our God". Such people gather in an institution that is more trusted than the state itself! The fact that our president sees himself as an atheist is his personal and intimate right, but he must not forget that he sits on the chair (not to mention the numerous metropolitans who preceded him on that very chair) of those secular rulers who believed and knew that the state of Montenegro, created, preserved and improved by the Lord God. Who knew that the Church is a Sanctuary, and not an enemy of the state.

Those pious rulers of ours had a prophetic premonition of what might occur to one of their successors, so they knew how to threaten.

And what can Ivan Crnojević's curse mean to atheists? Well, it could be a reminder of the fact that our ancestors would rather starve than pick an apple from the church orchard. They knew that such a bite either goes down the throat or pops up the nose...

The author is the rector Cetinje seminaries