After the death of Maksim, in 1673, the new patriarch visited the Serbs in the coastlands who at the time were subjects to the Republic of Venice.
Arsenije III always spoke strongly in favor of the expulsion of the Turks from the Balkans and it was chiefly through his influence that the support of the Serbian people was given to George Branković (1645-1711), the leader of the 1683 Serbian uprising against the Ottoman Empire.