Живојиновић Мирјана,
«Светогорци и стонски доходак», Зборник Радова Византолошког Института 22 (1983), с. 165-206.
Београд 1983
Summary
The Hagiorites and the tribute of Ston
The tribute of Ston (tributum Stagni) was one of the tributes which the Republic of Dubrovnik paid to its more powerful neighbors for land which it received or for trading rights. It consisted of an annual payment of five hundred Venetian hyperpyroi which King Dušan required Dubrovnik to pay upon ceding it on January 22, 1333, the coast from Ston to Dubrovnik and the island of Posrednica in the Neretva River. Seventeen years later, in a charter dated March 8, 1350, published in Melnik, Tsar Dušan ceded the tribute to the Serbian monastery of St. Michael in Jerusalem. In this way there came to be recorded data concerning the missions of the Jerusalem monks to Dubrovnik through the end of the fourteenth century. During the fifteenth century St. Michael's monastery fell into decline and its monks began to leave for Mt. Athos, joining there the brotherhoods of the Serbian monasteries of Chilandar and St. Paul. Data from the Dubrovnik archives of the fifteenth century speak of the missions of the Jerusalemites from Mt. Athos to collect the tribute owed St. Michael's monastery. In all probability the Jerusalimites ceded the tri,butum Stagni to the monks of Chilandar and St. Paul's when they were living among them; thus, with the passage of time, the conviction developed among the Mt. Athos monks that they were the fully-entitled beneficiaries of this tribute.
The documents concerning the payments of the Ston tribute, first to the monastery of St. Michael and later to Chilandar and St. Paul's, consist above all of decisions by the Senate of the Republic of Dubrovnik whose powers included the authorization of the Rector and the Minor Council to deal with the monks who came to Dubrovnik to collect the tribute. In order for the Senate to authorize the payment, the monks were required to show papers from the competent authorities proving that they were indeed the members of the brotherhood of St. Michael's (that is, Jerusalemites), and afterwards monks from Mt. Athos, to whom it had been entrusted to collect the tribute. Upon receiving the money, the monks were required to issue an acknowledgement which was to prevent the same tribute from being claimed again, that is, to avoid any form of deception. All of these documents represent a very precious source since they make possible by means of their reports the construction of at least a partial picture of the Ston tribute and its beneficiaries - the monks of St. Michael's of Jerusalem and afterwards of Chilandar and St. Paul's - which are the subjects to which our research has been restricted.
Throughout the existence of the medieval Serbian state the monks who came to Dubrovnik were required to bear letters of accreditation from the Serbian leaders as proof of the genuineness of their demands. For Dubrovnik, which postponed and avoided paying the tribute whenever possible, the fall of the Serbian despotate on June 20, 1459, provided a convenient occasion for ceasing to make the payments. The payment of the tributum Stagni was resumed only after the intervention of Sultan Mehme-d II in May of 1465. It was the daughter of George Brankovic (Serbian despot 1427-1456), and widow of Murat II, the Tsaritsa Mara, who took upon herself overseeing the payments. After her death in 1487 she was followed in this task by her sister, Catherine Kantakouzene. At that time the documents of the Serbian leaders ,were replaced by other forms of evidence among which the ducat and seals borne by the monks were of the first importance.
Not only were the monks lacking a protectress after the death of Kantakouzene (after June, 1490, and before 1492), it seems that the last Bosnian Queen Helen, daughter of Despot Lazar of Serbia (1456-1458), who was staying in Turkey at that time, was making difficulties for them in the capital. It is possible that she interceded so that the tributum Stagni should be paid to the monks of St. Michael's. However, during the last years of the fifteenth century this monastery was almost completely abandoned. Since it had ceased to exist as a legal entity (somewhat later when it was renewed it became a metochion of the Lavra of St. Sava the Sanctified), St. Michael's Monastery had lost some of its rights. The monks from Mt. Athos had to take advantage of this opportunity; therefore, at the same that they were seeking a powerful personality to intervene with Dubrovnik again on their behalf to continue paying the tributum Stagni, they were also attempting to have their right to it made official since they had been enjoying it for a long time already. To this end the monks of Chilandar and of St. Paul's forged two charters during the last years of the fifteenth century, one allegedly by Tsar Uros dated June 2, 1358, and the other by Tsaritsa Mara, dated April 15, 1479. Then, with the help of Ahmed Pasha Hercegovic, they became the fully entitled recipients of the tributum Stagni and were recognized as such by Dubrovnik from 1501 on. From that time the documents of the Chilandar and St. Paul brotherhoods, sealed with the seals of their monasteries, become the chief form of evidence concerning the decisions of Dubrovnik on the payment of the tribute (called sveca from the sixteenth century on).
The emissaries who came for the tribute, first the monks of St. Michael's and then those of Chilandar and St. Paul's, were always very eminent members of the brotherhood, nearly always hieromonachoi: gerontes, pneumatikoi, proegoumenoi, and very often the hegoumenoi themselves. Only exceptionally were they ordinary monks. It is to be noted that the same individuals made the trip two, three, and eyen four times, as well as that provision was made that one of the emissaries should have already made the trip to Dubrovnik earlier. All of this shows to what extent the collection of the tributum Stagni was considered an important task and a great responsibility and how significant this tribute was for its beneficiaries.
Just as the tributum Stagni was paid fairly regularly in the first years after its cession to St. Michael's monastery (1350) and less and less so afterwards, such was also the case with the payment of the sveca to Chilandar and to St. Paul's. Only during the first half of the sixteenth century was the sveca paid every other year. Later it occurred very frequently that the monks were denied permission to make the trip for various reasons, above all on account of the roads being closed due to wars, bandits, fear of the plague, and other obstacles. Becoming in this way less and less regular, the payment of the sveca lost the character of a tax and began to be viewed as alms given to the Serbian monks on Mt. Athos. It was no longer considered to be an obligation founded upon the agreement of January 22, 1333, between King Dušan and the Republic of Dubrovnik. The tendency to look upon the tributum Stagni as alms first appeared during the second half of the fifteenth century when it was paid to the monastery of St. Michael. During the sixteenth century a tradition was created in Dubrovnik whose roots must be sought in the events which followed immediately upon the occupation of Ston and Rat by the Republic of Dubrovnik - the forcible conversion to Catholicism of the Orthodox population of this area and the expulsion of the Orthodox monks i. e. the monks of St. Basil. The essence of the tradition which arose was that the Rector and the Senate of Dubrovnik made an agreement with the Basilite monks promising them the payment of damages every other year in compensation for their lost residence. Thanks to the Dubrovnik historians, this tradition was long accepted as historical truth; however, inasmuch as the course of events deviated from the historical sources, it must be rejected.
That the tax in question was of a customary and constant nature can be seen from the manner in which it is mentioned in the letters of accreditation. In addition, regardless of the time which had elapsed since the preceding payment, the sveca was always paid for two years only and the sum remained unchanged - five hundred Venetian hyperpyroi per year, or two hundred twenty-two ducats and twenty-eight dinars for two years, as was set by King Dusa.n - for as long as the tributum Stagni was paid, that is, until the fall of the Republic of Dubrovnik in 1808.
