TE17 Mysterious Montenegro

Milovan Radojević

ship seemed to come alive. Suddenly a dark-skinned slave fell from his bench. Dominik released the beam we were clinging to and crawled through the swaying space, to the wretch’s aid. He was already dead, however, because the oar, which the raging storm wrested from his grasp, had struck him on the temple. Although the man was not a Christian, Dominik crossed himself while kneeling above himand commended the Moor’s soul to the Lord. The Almighty heard our prayers, the gale died down, and we found ourselves before the island of Vis, whither the violent northeaster had blown us. From there we sailed easily to Spalata, on a calmer sea. Arnir, the Archbishop of Spalata, accorded us a friendlywelcome, and Master Gualterius, canon of Spalata and papal legate, was pleasant and attentive. After Maraldus delivered the letter from Archbishop Gregory and conveyed his greetings and those of the beloved brothers in Christ of the Dioclean Church, Dominik held an address, in which he reiterated the grounds for the efforts of the ecclesiastical province of Bar, in union with the Spalatan cathedra and with the support of the Holy See, to offer resistance to the incursion of the schismatic rite and every heresy, and he also criticized the ambitious endeavors of certain presbyters from Ragusa 9 to usurp the vested rights of the Archbishopric of Dioclea-Bar, after they had misled the Pope about that intention a decade earlier.

After he had respectfully heard out his “dear guests,” as he put it,

9 . Dubrovnik

16