Original scientific paper
Predavci – A Contribution to Our Knowledge on the Origin of the Population on the Military Frontier
Hrvoje Petrić
orcid.org/0000-0001-6814-0913
; Department of History, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagrebof Sciences, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
The 17th-century repopulation of these areas, and the ones that followed, would create ethnic, language, socio-economic and cultural structures and relations that would later form the foundations of today’s spatial organization of these regions and the structures of population. Beside the Orthodox Vlach and Roman Catholic (Slovenci/Slavonci) populations, one of the numerous population groups of the Slavonian Military Frontier consisted of Predavci too, most likely speaking a Štokavian dialect. However, at this level of research and available sources, we have to rely on Zagreb bishop’s reports, unfortunately most often prejudiced and biased. For example, according to a bishop’s report from 1640, Predavci (the sources are not clear whether this refers to all members of this ethnic group or not) are mentioned as Roman Catholics. However, we should point out that the bishop’s reports could vouch for an ethnic or religious affiliation in the previous periods, as clearly there had been changes of religion, or faith, from Orthodoxy to Roman Catholicism.
Interestingly, when it comes to Predavci, an ethnic group (the late 16th and early 17th century period) residing on the estates and manors owned by the Zagreb bishop, some of the new settlers were recorded as an Orthodox Vlach population. What is intriguing is that soon enough they disappear from the records and sources, or rather, Roman Catholics are recorded instead. Following this clue we could assume that some Predavci groups might have been the very same Orthodox Vlachs that had first settled in the late 16th and early 17th century on the estates of the Zagreb bishop and later converted to Catholicism. However, I have found no supporting evidence to back this up.
Zagreb bishop’s reports, originating from the 1604-1662 period, support the hypothesis that Predavci were Roman Catholics. However, this still does not mean that they originated as Catholics when they moved in here. The 17th-century records of the Varaždin Generalate and Križevci County indicate that the change of faith or religion, in all directions, was rather common. Zagreb bishops’ reports are, for the time being, the only known source that speaks of the origins and ancestry of Predavci. Yet, these reports cannot shed much light on the early 17th century.
According to 1635 reports, Predavci are Bosnian Croats from Turkey (Ottoman Empire); 1640, 1641 and 1651 reports speak of them as Bosnian Catholics; a 1661 report indicates they are ʻCatholics of Slavonian or Croatian ethnicity, who had previously lived in Turkey (Ottoman Empire).ʼ This atypical selection of names for a single group in the 17th-century Varaždin Generalate (Predavci) continued until such references became meaningless. Another interesting point is that Predavci, as a separate population group of the Varaždin Generalate, were last mentioned during the service of bishop Petar Petretić (1648-1667).
What is left to explain is the most common confusion with Slavonci and Predavci – two ethnicities mentioned at the same place and at the same time. It seems that Predavci, in comparison and opposed to Slavonci, could not be Bosnian Catholics. The reference to Bosnian Croats under Ottoman rule does not resolve this issue, as it is unclear why these ethnic groups would not be simply referred to as Croats. Historical sources do not refer to the Bosnian name as Catholics exclusively, but in reference to people of different denominations. When it comes to the previously mentioned difference between Slavonci and Predavci in the 17th-century Varaždin Generalate, this opposition could be functional; yet it is impossible to judge without historical sources to back this up. Those sources that have been preserved and are known do not provide sufficient data to allow unquestionable generalisations.
Keywords
migration; historical demography; Military Frontier; northwestern Croatia; Early Modern Age
Hrčak ID:
135406
URI
Publication date:
29.12.2014.
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