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Bogomil Heresy

Throughout the Middle Age the Christian East was troubled with heresies, which the Orthodox church fought bitterly and which the state, the ally of the church, attempted to suppress by force. The most important departure from the true faith which took root in the Balkan peninsula was the Bogumil heresy.It is difficult to ascertain whether the name was taken from the reputed founder of that sect, a certain pope Bogumil or Bogomil, or whether he assumed that name after it had been given to the whole sect. Owing to its wide distribution and remarkable persistence a brief account is not without value for the student of Balkan affairs.

Both origin and tenets of the Christian heretics called Bogomil (also Bogumils) are subject to dispute. The Bogomils were without doubt the connecting link between the so-called heretical sects of the East and those of the West. They were, moreover, the most active agents in disseminating loch teachings in Russia and among all the nations of Europe. Doubtless the heresy is lineally descended from one or another of the earlier heresies of the Mediterranean world, possibly from the sect of the Paulicians, who were at home in Asia Minor where they long defied the efforts of the watchdogs of orthodoxy to put them to rout. Some scholars hold that, in point of doctrine, the Bogumils were of the Manichaean or dualist type, that is, that they believed that God and Satan were coordinate powers, the authors respectively of good and evil, of the spirit and the flesh. Another view, warmly defended, is that they were primarily Adoptionists, that is, they held that Jesus was a man like other men to his thirtieth year, when be was adopted by God and was entered into by the Holy Spirit through the act of baptism performed by John.

It is difficult to come to definite conclusions about the teachings of the Bogumils, because information comes exclusively from their enemies. However, offensive as their heretical opinions were, it is likely that the fierce wrath visited upon them was due to other causes and, more particularly, to their opposition to the hierarchy with its wealth, power, and passion for theatrical display. This critical attitude toward the governing powers of the church made them in effect an ecclesiastico-political opposition party, sounding a puritanical note and drawing its strength chiefly from the downtrodden masses.

Not improbably something like a democratic protest against the ruling classes may be attributed to the Bogumil movement. However, not to squeeze the few documents which have come down for more than they will yield, it is best to think of the Bogumils as more concerned with religion than with politics, and to see them preeminently as haters of the too elaborate ceremonies and sacraments of the church and as single-minded preachers of a return to a more simple faith with an immediate appeal to God by the avenue of prayer. An extreme, minority group apparently advocated pacifism, socialism, vegetarianism, and free love, that is, they cultivated a dangerous and fanatic radicalism, but the rank and file, filled with a more compromising temper, may more properly be characterized as evangelical puritans seeking a return to the simpler worship of the Apostolic Age.

The Bogomiles were puritanic in their resistance to Mariolatry and to cross worship. 'Wherefore,' says one of them, ' shall we bow to that which dishonoured God ? If any man slew the son of a king with a bit of wood, how could this piece of wood be dear to the king ?' The Bogomiles, like the ancient Persians, believed in their Hormuzd and Ahriman, or the principles of Good and Evil.

The heresy first made its appearance in Balkania in the tenth century under the auspices of a Bulgar priest, Bogumil, from whom it derives its name. The Bogomiles suffered all the extremities of a state persecution at the hands of the Greek Emperor of Constantinople. His daughter, the famous historian, Anna Comnena, speaking of Basil, the chief apostle of the Bogomiles, says, ' He called the sacred churches -woe is me ! the sacred churches-fanes of demons !' The princess refuses to tell of the horrible details of Basil's unbelief, her pen is unequal to the repulsive task ; but she relates with gusto the pleasing sight of the old man being roasted alive, and describes the crackling of the fire, the quivering of the flesh, and the screams of agony.

Though persecuted, it was not suppressed and for generations dangerously divided the country. The overthrow of both the First and the Second Bulgaria was unquestionably facilitated by this religious schism, which created two irreconcilable factions in the land and dangerously weakened the government. From Bulgaria the heresy spread westward into Serbia, where it invited the denunciation of the hierarchy and was finally suppressed by the strictly orthodox sovereigns of the Nemania line. Next, it turned up in Bosnia where it won a signal and exceptional victory, for it became so strong that the attempt to suppress it, though often renewed, had to be given up. In the fifteenth century a king of Bosnia went so far as openly to avow himself a Bogumil, apparently because he wished to secure his throne by taking his stand with the majority of his people.

When, shortly after the middle of that same century, the Turks conquered Bosnia, the Bosnian Bogumils in large numbers and apparently without the need of much persuasion went over to Mohammedanism, the simple practices of which were more congenial to them than the elaborate ritual of the Orthodox church. As is well known, the Bosnian Moslems, erstwhile Bogumils and of Serb race and speech, became one of the chief supports of Turk rule in the peninsula. In this way Bogumilism has remained an element in Balkan affairs down to the present time.

Beyond Bosnia the student of Balkan history does not feel called on to follow the course of the Bogumil heresy. It may, however, be remarked that it is, in point of doctrine, more or less identical with the heresy which under the name of various sects, such as the Cathari, Patarenes, and Albigenses, during many centuries disquieted the Latin West. In sum, Bogumilism not only traveled beyond Balkania but became the most general of all medieval heresies and registered, wherever and under whatever name it raised its head, a protest, democratic and evangelical in character, against the ritualistic forms and aristocratic organization of the Christian Church.