Arsenije IV Jovanović Šakabenta

Arsenije IV Jovanović Šakabenta (, ; 1698 – 18 January 1748) was the Patriarch of the Serbian Patriarchate of Peć from 1724 to 1737 and head of the Serbian Church in Habsburg Monarchy from 1737 to his death in 1748.

He opened the first official Academy of Painting on the territory of the Metropolitanate of Karlovci after the artistic and cultural reforms were commenced under the auspices and blessing of Vikentije Jovanović, his predecessor. He commissioned the Slavic heraldic bearings called Stemmatographia. He was succeeded by patriarch Joannicius III.

Life

In 1724, the ailing Serbian patriarch Mojsije I (d. 1730) decided to step down from the patriarchal throne, and was succeeded by Arsenije, the metropolitan of Raška, who became the new Serbian patriarch as Arsenije IV, with seat in Peć.

In 1737, during the Habsburg-Ottoman War patriarch Arsenije IV moved from Peć to Belgrade, and remained there until 1739. With the Treaty of Belgrade (1739) which ended the war, the Habsburg-held Kingdom of Serbia ceased to exist. The Ottoman sultan deposed the pro-Habsburg patriarch Arsenije IV and in his place appointed Joanikije III, who was a Greek.

Patriarch Arsenije IV thus remained in the Habsburg monarchy along with many Serbs, who accompanied him during the Second Serbian Migration. Arsenije IV became Metropolitan of Karlovci, maintaining however deep connections with the Serbs who remained in the Ottoman Empire, now under the jurisdiction of Joannicius III, who remained Patriarch of Peć until 1746, when, burdened with debts due to his high-living, he was forced to sell the title to pay his creditors.

Šakabenta’s 1737 Memorandum, drafted during negotiations in Vienna with Habsburg authorities, set out a political program aimed at securing broad rights for the Serbian nation within the Habsburg Monarchy in return for continued military support against the Ottomans. Invoking earlier privileges granted by Leopold I and Joseph I, Arsenije demanded confirmation of Serbian religious freedom and full autonomy of the Serbian Orthodox Church, with his spiritual jurisdiction extending over Serbia and other Balkan provinces. He proposed autonomous governance for Serbian territories claimed during the war, rejecting their treatment as newly conquered lands, and called for a separate Supreme Royal Tribunal composed exclusively of Serbs, alongside a Serbian chamber in Vienna. The Memorandum outlined autonomy in taxation, to be administered by Serbian officials, and in military affairs, including the creation of Serbian regiments under Serbian officers. While allowing the presence of German garrisons, it insisted they not interfere in Serbian civil affairs.

In 1743, responding to the petition of patriarch Arsenije IV and his bishops in the Habsburg monarchy, queen Maria Theresa confirmed and continued to uphold old privileges granted to her Serbian subjects by previous Habsburg monarchs, emperors Leopold I, Joseph I and Charles VI.

Title Arsenije signed himself "Arsenije, By the Grace of God, Archbishop of Peć and Patriarch of all Serbs and Bulgarians and all of Illyria". Another style was "Archbishop of All Serbs, Bulgarians, Western Pomorje, Dalmatia, Bosnia, both halves of Danube and all of Illyria".