The relations and situations were not always and everywhere such that the local
government acted to the benefit of people and that the central government was against
them, because it was often that local rulers were even worse than those "superior" and far-off. In certain cases even the rebellion of people in the local and "regional" communities
against the violence of the local powerful persons was supported by the central
government (after all, it was the case in Serbia by the end of the 18th and at the beginning
of the 19th centuries at the times of the reforms of Selim III and at the beginning of the
rebellion against the Turkish governors). Again, in certain cases, it turned out that some
local governments (communal, state or parish) or the population itself took the "law" in
their hands and gave a short shrift to those who would do or were supposed to have done
anything against the religion, that is, the church or the local customs, beliefs and values.2
In such cases, the accused would sometimes be rescued if came under the jurisdiction of
the royal or state's prosecutor or court.