Bogomilism or Bogumilism (; ; ) was a Christian neo-Gnostic or pseudo-Gnostic dualist sect founded in the First Bulgarian Empire by the priest Bogomil during the reign of Tsar Peter I in the 10th century. It most likely arose in the region of Kutmichevitsa, today part of the region of Macedonia.
The Bogomils were dualists or Gnostics in that they believed in a world within the body and a world outside the body. They did not use the Christian cross, nor build churches, as they revered their gifted form and considered their body to be the temple. This gave rise to many forms of practice to cleanse the body through fasting or dancing.
The Bogomils rejected the ecclesiastical hierarchy. Their primary political tendencies were resistance to the state and church authorities. This helped the movement spread quickly in the Balkans, gradually expanding throughout the Byzantine Empire and later reaching Kievan Rus', Dalmatia, Serbia, Bosnia, Italy, and France (Cathars).
Etymology The term Bogomil in free translation means "dear to God", and is a compound of the Slavic words for "god" (Common Slavic: *bogъ) and "dear" (Common Slavic: *milъ). It may be also a translation of the Greek name Theophilos, literally "dear to God; loved by the gods," from theos "god" + philos "loved, beloved". It is difficult to ascertain whether the name was taken from the reputed founder of that movement, the priest Bogomil, or whether he assumed that name after it had been given to the sect itself. The Bogomils are identified with the Messalians in Greek and Slavonic documents from the 12th–14th centuries.
The members are referred to as Babuni in Church Slavonic documents, which originally meant "superstition; superstitious person" (Common Slavic: *babonъ, *babunъ *babona). Toponyms which retain the name include the river Babuna, the mountain Babuna, the Bogomila Waterfall and village Bogomila, all in the region of Azot, today in central North Macedonia, suggesting that the movement was very active in the region.
Sources
Much of their literature has been lost or destroyed by the contemporary Christian Churches. The earliest description of the Bogomils is in a letter from Patriarch Theophylact of Bulgaria to Peter I of Bulgaria. The main source of doctrinal information is the work of Euthymius Zigabenus, who says that they believe that God created man's soul but matter was the invention of Satan, God's older son, who in seducing Eve lost his creative power."Bogomils" at St. Pachomius Library Concerning the Bogomils, something can be gathered from the polemic Against the Newly-Appeared Heresy of the Bogomils written in Slavonic by Cosmas the Priest, a 10th-century Bulgarian official. The old Slavonic lists of forbidden books of the 15th and 16th century also give us a clue to the discovery of this heretical literature and of the means the Bogomils employed to carry on their teachings. Much may also be learned from the doctrines of the numerous variations of Bogomilism which spread in Medieval Kievan Rus' after the 11th century.
History Paulicians
One of the earliest Christian dualist sects, Marcionism, originated in Armenia (in the eastern part of present Turkey).Ehrman, Bart D. Lost Christianities: The battles for scripture and the faiths we never knew. Oxford University Press, 2005. The church Marcion himself established appeared to die out around the 5th century, although similarities between Marcionism and Paulicianism, a sect in the same geographical area, indicate that Marcionist elements may have survived. Paulicianism began in the mid-7th century, when Constantine of Mananalis, basing his message solely on his personal interpretation of the New Testament, began to teach that there were two gods: a good god who had made men's souls, and an evil god who had created the entire physical universe including the human body. His followers, who became known as Paulicians, were not marked by extreme deviance in lifestyle compared to contemporaries, despite their belief that the world was evil, and were renowned as good fighting men.
However, it is not certain whether Paulicianism was dualistic, as in the Key of Truth it is said that: "The Paulicians are not dualists in any other sense than the New Testament is itself dualistic. Satan is simply the adversary of man and God".
In 970, the Byzantine emperor John I Tzimiskes transplanted 200,000 Armenian Paulicians to Europe and settled them in the neighbourhood of Philippopolis (today's Plovdiv, Bulgaria). Under Byzantine and then later Ottoman rule, the Armenian Paulicians lived in relative safety in their ancient stronghold near Philippopolis, and further northward. Linguistically, they were assimilated into the Bulgarians, by whom they were called pavlikiani (the Byzantine Greek word for Paulician). In 1650, the Roman Catholic Church gathered them into its fold. Fourteen villages near Nicopolis, in Moesia, embraced Catholicism, as well as the villages around Philippopolis. A colony of Paulicians in the Wallachian village of near Bucharest also followed the example of their brethren across the Danube.
Origins This Gnostic social-religious movement and doctrine originated in the time of Peter I of Bulgaria (927–969), seen in the modern day as a reaction against state and clerical oppression by the Byzantine church. In spite of all measures of repression, it remained strong and popular until the fall of the Second Bulgarian Empire in the end of the 14th century. Bogomilism was an outcome of many factors that had arisen in the beginning of the 10th century, most probably in the region of Macedonia. It was also strongly influenced by the Paulicians who had been driven out of Armenia.
Spread of Bogomilism in the Balkans
Slav peasantry in parts of Bulgaria were very likely the first to come into closer contact with Bogomilism and the young Bulgarian church was aware of the danger. Pope Nicholas I warns Boris I of the danger of false teachings but he was not specific about heresy as such. Bogomilism was a native Slavic sect from the middle of the 10th century that began to flourish while the Theophylact of Constantinople warned Peter I against this new heresy.Alexis P. Vlasto; (1970) The Entry of the Slavs into Christendom: An Introduction to the Medieval History of the Slavs pp. 228–229; Cambridge University,
The Bogomils spread westwards and settled in Serbia, where they were to be known as Babuns (Babuni). At the end of the 12th century, Serbian Grand Prince Stefan Nemanja and the Serbian council deemed Bogomilism a heresy, and expelled them from the country. Large numbers, the majority of whom were of Vlach origin, took refuge in Bosnia and Dalmatia where they were known under the name of Patarenes (Patareni). A remarkable number of necropolises are found in this part of the Balkans, conveying an exceptional testimony to medieval European artistic and archaeological heritage. The majority of these necropolises with decorated tombstones belonged to Bogomil Vlachs.Esad Kurtović, Vlachs and Stećak Tombstones, „Reflections on Life and Society in the Western Balkans. Studies in the History of Bosnia and Herzegovina", Journal of the Faculty of Philosophy (History, History of Art, Archeology), Volume 7, Number 2, Special issue, Sarajevo 2020, 59–71.Octavian Ciobanu, "The Role of the Vlachs in the Bogomils' Expansion in the Balkans", Journal of Balkan and Black Sea Studies Year 4, Issue 7, December 2021, pp. 11–32.
In the time of Samuel, Bogomilism spread into Serbia and Bosnia. The most active area became west Bosnia, centred on the valley of the River Bosna. In the province of Hum (modern Herzegovina) the Bogomils were also strong, in the cities of Split and Trogir Bogomils were numerous but later they took refuge in Bosnia.Alexis P. Vlasto; (1970) The Entry of the Slavs into Christendom: An Introduction to the Medieval History of the Slavs p. 231; Cambridge University, Providing refuge to those labeled heretics, including Bogomils, was a recurrent pretext for Hungarian rulers to declare crusades against Bosnia and extend their influence in the region. A first Hungarian complaint to the Pope was averted by the public abjuration of the Bosnian ruler Ban Kulin, whose sister was married to Miroslav of Hum, in 1203.Thierry Mudry, Histoire de la Bosnie-Herzégovine faits et controverses, Éditions Ellipses, 1999 (chapitre 2: La Bosnie médiévale p. 25 à 42 et chapitre 7 : La querelle historiographique p. 255 à 265). Dennis P. Hupchick et Harold E. Cox, Les Balkans Atlas Historique, Éditions Economica, Paris, 2008, p. 34 A second Hungarian crusade against Bosnia on the pretext of Bogomil heresy was launched in 1225, but failed. In 1254, rebelling against the Papal order to accept a Hungarian bishop, the Bosnian Church chose the schism. In the following centuries, the Bosnian Church and the heretic sect of the Bogomils came to be identified with each other, due to the scarcity of documents after the Ottoman conquest.The issue of the false Bogomil hypothesis is accurately dealt with by Noel Malcolm (Bosnia. A Short History) as well as by John V.A. Fine (in Mark Pinson, The Bosnian Muslims)
In 1203, Pope Innocent III, with the aid of the King of Hungary, forced an agreement of Kulin to acknowledge Papal authority and religion, but in practice this was ignored. On the death of Kulin in 1216, a mission was sent to convert Bosnia to Rome, but it failed. In 1234, the Catholic Bishop of Bosnia was removed by Pope Gregory IX for allowing heretical practices.Malcolm Lambert, Medieval Heresy:Popular Movements from Bogomil to Hus, (Edward Arnold Ltd, 1977), 143. In addition, Gregory called on the Hungarian king to crusade against the heretics.Christian Dualist Heresies in the Byzantine World, c. 650–c. 1450, ed. Janet Hamilton, Bernard Hamilton, Yuri Stoyanov, (Manchester University Press, 1998), 48–49. In November 1234, Pope Gregory IX asked Prince Coloman, Lord of Slavonia (brother of the Hungarian king Bela IV), to destroy the heretics.Smiciklas: Codex Diplomaticus Croatiae Dalmatiae et Hanoniae. and Karácsonyi, János: Magyarország egyháztörténete főbb vonásaiban 970-től 1900-ig (Nagyvárad, 1915) [History of the Hungarian Church 970-1900] He led a crusade into Bosnia. However, Bosnian nobles were able to expel the Hungarians.Malcolm Lambert, Medieval Heresy:Popular Movements from Bogomil to Hus, 143.
In 1252, Pope Innocent IV decided to put Bosnia's bishop under the Hungarian Kalocsa Archbishopry's jurisdiction. Such decision provoked the schism of the Bosnian Christians, who refused to submit to the Hungarians and broke off their relations with Rome.Mudry 1999; Hupchick and Cox 2008 In that way, an autonomous Bosnian Church came into being, in which some later saw a Bogomil or Cathar Church, while in reality no trace of Bogomilism, Catharism or dualism can be found in the original documents of the Bosnian Krstjani, as they called themselves.The issue of the false Bogomil hypothesis is accurately dealt with by Noel Malcolm (Bosnia. A Short History) as well as by John V.A. Fine (in Mark Pinson, The Bosnian Muslims)
It was not until Pope Nicholas' Bull "Prae cunctis" in 1291 that the Dominican-led inquisition was imposed on Bosnia.Biller, Peter, Caterina Bruschi, and Shelagh Sneddon, eds. Inquisitors and heretics in thirteenth-century Languedoc: edition and translation of Toulouse inquisition depositions, 1273–1282. Brill, 2010. 43. The Inquisition reported the existence of a dualist sect in Bosnia in the late 15th century and called them "Bosnian heretics", but this sect was most likely not the same as the Bosnian Church.