printing press, some twenty years after Caxton had set up his in
Westminster, and though it was afterwards burnt by the Turks, still
the remembrance of it remains right glorious in Montenegrin memory.

The last Crnoiević relinquished his home for Venice. He had married a
Venetian wife, who, among the bleak mountains of the Katunska, was
pining for the sun and warmth of her native city. But before leaving
he laid down the lines for a powerful régime. A Prince-Bishop, or
Vladika, was placed at the head of affairs, but, to help him in his
difficult task, there was created a second office, that of Civil
Governor, who was to hold a subordinate position. This office was
abolished in 1832 by Peter II., on the treachery of the Civil Governor
Radonić, who was found to have intrigued with the Austrians.

From 1616 to 1696 the Vladikas were elective, and under their
quarrelsome rule Cetinje was twice burnt and phœnix-like rose again
from its ashes. The Turkish armies, though partially victorious,
usually met with disaster and ruin before reaching their own territory
again; and we read of one notable occasion when Soliman Pasha, with an
army of 80,000 men, had sacked Cetinje. On his way home he was
surprised by the two tribes of Kuć and Klementi, and annihilated. But
as time went on it became necessary from political reasons to change
the system of government from election to heredity, and the choice
fell on the Lord of Njeguši Danilo Petrović, whose reign (1696-1735)
is chiefly memorable for the Montenegrin vespers of the Turks and
Turkish renegades, who had rendered so much assistance to Kiuprili
Pasha in one of his terrible invasions. But a crushing defeat of the
Turks in 1706 gave the land peace for thirty years.

In 1767 an adventurer named Stefan Mali sprang himself upon the land.