Good Lord--you read hundreds and hundreds of pages that were written like that? I never knew you were a masochist. I'll put below what I got out of that whole thing:
The unquestionable evidence of language attests the descent of the Bulgarians from the original stock of the Sclavonian, or more properly Slavonian, race; and the kindred bands of Servians, Bosnians, Rascians, Croatians, Walachians, followed either the standard or the example of the leading tribe. From the Euxine to the Adriatic, in the state of captives, or subjects, or allies, or enemies, of the Greek empire, they overspread the land; and the national appellation of the SLAVES has been degraded by chance or malice from the signification of glory to that of servitude.
Jordan subscribes to the well-known and probable derivation from ... a word of familiar use in the different dialects and parts of speech, and which forms the termination of the most illustrious names
This conversion ... into an appellative name appears to have arisen in the century, in the ..., where the princes and bishops were rich in Sclavonian captives, not of the Bohemian, (exclaims ...,) but of ... race. From thence the word was extended to the general use, to the modern languages, and even to the style of the last Byzantines, (see the Greek and Latin Glossaries and ....) The confusion of the ..., or Servians, with the Latin ..., was still more fortunate and familiar, ...

I am not fond of footnotes--both they and the numbers are distracting to me. I have no idea what &c means; I have no idea why laus and gloria were there; I have never heard of Ducange; and Constant. Porphyr. de Administrando, Imperio is completely meaningless to me, as are the names I deleted. viiith, I finally figured out, but that's more work than I want to go through when I'm reading. Why the heck didn't he put 8th. and make it easier? I don't want to have to stop and count i's.

Now--I very much admire your intellect, as well as your persistence--anyone's, for that matter, who could and would plow through this. That masochist remark was really for me--or would be, were I to even try. I would rather read 50 romance novels than one volume of this; or even be subjected to listening to jazz. [ducking] I love learning things, but not when it means I have to research every other word, to try and figure out what the writer's trying to tell me. If it were written more like, 'The Bulgarians' language attests to the fact that they are descended from the original stock of the Slavonian race; and the kindred bands of Servians, Bosnians, Rascians, Croatians, Walachians followed the pattern of the leading tribe. From the Euxine to the Adriatic they spread across the land, as captives, subjects, allies, or enemies, of the Greek empire; and the ethnic name of the SLAVES has been degraded by chance or malice from the signification of glory to that of servitude.', THEN I might read it. I realize that I am probably looking like a fool, gainsaying and oh horrors correcting a powerful icon. But something like that is pure torture, for me. I don't have to have all my explanations simple and basic, but I see no reason to go through something that is that complicated for me, either. If anyone can sit down and zip right through that, more power to you; but it wouldn't be chosen reading for me.