Nikodim Milaš
Beyond his work in canonical and ecclesiastical law, he made significant contributions to historical sciences, aided by his proficiency in several major languages.This enabled him to work directly with primary sources and fueled his dedication to countering Catholic proselytism and state efforts to downplay the Serbian Orthodox heritage.[5] Upon his return home, he was appointed Professor of canon law at Zadar's Theological Orthodox Institute, where he taught from 1890 to 1910, serving as dean following the death of Bishop Stefan Knežević.[5] After the publication of his (hornbook), "Principles of Jurisdiction in the Eastern Orthodox Church," in which he again leveled criticism on the Austro-Hungarian authorities, he was forced to take refuge in Belgrade in late 1885.[5] He was appointed Professor of Canon law and Church History at the Belgrade's Grande école (Velika škola) and Bogoslovija, the Theological Seminary.[citation needed] Because of his fluency in German, French, Italian, Russian, as well as Greek and Latin, he was able to read primary sources and contribute to the field of history.[2][3] On 23 July 1914, the day Austria-Hungary declared war against Serbia, the police searched his apartment and took possession of his private correspondences along with a copy of his last book The Church and the State in the Austro-Hungarian Empire.[6] He translated The Constitution (Syntagma) of the Divine and Sacred Canons by Rallis and Potlis, and placed his commentaries in the context of previous Biblical hermeneutic works.[11][3][12][13] According to Croatian historian Stjepan Antoljak (2004), it is "tendentiously" written, and "the goal of this book was clear and full of unverified claims and fabrications, which even today are not fully noticed and not pointed out, and not completely refuted",[10] while the Serbian historian Tibor Živković (2004), concluded that "his work for the time period is very poor in valid scientific apparatus and burdened with the writer's stated goal contained in the very title of his work" and that the "assessment of Milaš's book Orthodox Dalmatia was given in 1903 by Jovan Radonić, so its place in historiography has long been established and there is no need to recall all the shortcomings of that work".