up their hopes, and the following anecdote, quoted by Sir Gardner Wilkinson, is illustrative of the sanguine view which they were accustomed to take of the ways of Providence.  ’Many of the Patarenes had taken refuge, during the various persecutions, in the mountains of Bosnia; and on the eve of St. Catherine (November 24) in 1367, a fire was seen raging over the whole of the country they occupied, destroying everything there, and leaving the mountains entirely denuded of wood.  The Roman Catholics considered this event to be a manifest judgement of heaven against the wicked heretics; but the Patarenes looked on it as a proof of divine favour, the land being thereby cleared for them and adapted for cultivation.’  In 1392 the sect flourished under Tuartko (then King of Bosnia), and, further, made great progress during the first half of the following century.  Their cause was openly espoused by Cosaccia, Duke of Santo Saba, or Herzegovina, and by John Paulovich Voivode of Montenegro.  So far all went well; but Stephen, King of Bosnia, having in 1459 ordered all Patarenes to leave his kingdom or abjure their doctrines, their cause received a severe shock, and 40,000 were obliged to take refuge in the Herzegovina, where they were welcomed by Stephen Cosaccia.  From that time no farther direct trace remains of this important and widely-spreading sect; though Krasinski speaks of the existence of a sect in Russia called ‘Dookhoboitzi,’ or combatants in spirit, whose doctrines have great affinity to those professed by the Patarenes, and whom he believes to have been transplanted from Bosnia to Russia, their present country.

But this triumph of Papal oppression was not destined to be of long duration.  Already was the tide of Mussulman conquest threatening to overrun Germany; and Bosnia, after suffering severely from the wars between Hungary and the Turks, was conquered, and annexed by the latter in 1465.  The religious constancy of the Bosnian nobles was now sorely tried, for they found themselves compelled to choose between their religion and poverty, or recantation and wealth.  Their decision was soon made, and the greater portion renounced Christianity and embraced Islamism, rather than relinquish those feudal privileges, for the attainment of which they had originally deserted their national creed.  Their example was ere long followed by many of the inhabitants of the towns, and thus an impassable gulf was placed between them and the great body of the people, who remained faithful to Christianity, and regarded the renegades with mistrust and abhorrence.  These for the moment were benefited greatly by their apostasy, receiving permission to retain not only their own estates, but also to hold in fief those belonging to such as had refused to deny Christ.  With the bitterness characteristic of renegades, they now became the most inveterate enemies of those whose faith they had abjured, oppressing them by every means within their power.  The savage tyranny which they exercised would doubtless have driven very many to emigration, had a place of refuge presented itself; but in the existing condition of the surrounding countries such a course would have in no way profited them, but would rather have aggravated their misery.  A few, indeed, succeeded in escaping into Hungary, but the mass submitted to their fate, and were reduced to poverty and insignificance.