Gabsburgskaâ imperiâ v političeskih ideâh bolgar-katolikov v XVII veke .......... 129

THE HABSBURG MONARCHY IN POLITICAL IDEAS OF THE 17TH-CENTURY BULGARIAN CATHOLICS

The submitted article presents, on the basis of documents kept in Vatican archives, an aspiration of the Bulgarian Catholic minority to peacefully occupy a dominant position (economic, administrative and cultural) among Christian population in-habiting Bulgarian lands in the 17th century. The author sketches also the efforts to create necessary church structures, which at the right time and as a result of the expected (and desirable) military and political intervention of the Holy League (Lega Santa), and – partly – of the Habsburg Empire, would be a ruling factor in the revived „Bulgarian Tsardom, occupied by infidels”.