Summary
In 1716, the British ambassador Edward Wortley Montagu and his wife, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, traveled to Constantinople via Hungary and Turkey instead of the traditional Italian route. During the journey, Lady Mary kept detailed diaries and letters, which were later published postumt in 1763 as “The Turkish Embassy Letters”.
While traveling through Hungary, they were escorted by a military unit of Austrian-employed Serbs (then referred to as “Rascians”). In a letter dated January 16, 1717, Lady Mary described these soldiers as looking more like “plunderers,” “vagabond gypsies,” or “stout beggars” because they received no pay and had to provide their own weapons and horses.
In the same letter, she noted that the Serbian priests, with their uncut hair and long beards, reminded her of Indian Brahmins. She critically observed that these priests inherited all their followers’ money in exchange for ceremoniously granting them “signed and sealed passports to heaven.”
In her diary, the ambassador’s wife wrote:
“Those priests, letting their hair and beards grow, uncut and unshaven, look exactly like Indian Brahmins. They are heirs to all the money of their flock, and in exchange they give them, ceremoniously, signed and sealed passports to heaven.”
In 1716, the special British ambassador E. V. Montagu left for Constantinople with his wife, but he did not travel by the usual route through Italy. He traveled through Hungary and Turkey. On the way, Montagu’s wife Lady Mary kept a diary and wrote letters to friends, which were not printed until 1763.
They were escorted to the Turkish border by a larger military unit made up of Germans and “Rascians.” Of these Serbs in the service of the Austrian emperor, she says that
“They look more like robbers than soldiers.” Because: “They don’t have a salary and have to get weapons and horses themselves.” That’s why they look more like vagrant gypsies or strong beggars than regular troops.
Lady Montagu wrote an entire dissertation about the Serbs in Hungary, and she also touched on the Serbian priests: “Those priests, letting their hair and beards grow, uncut and unshaven, look exactly like Indian Brahmins. They are heirs to all the money of their flock, and in exchange they give them, ceremoniously, signed and sealed passports to heaven”.
Sources
https://anthologydev.lib.virginia.edu/work/LMWMontagu/montagu-turkish-embassy?section=letter&n=18
https://jacklynch.net/Texts/montagu-letters.html
