Bogomilism

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Bogomilism (

dualist sect founded in the First Bulgarian Empire by the priest Bogomil during the reign of Tsar Peter I in the 10th century.[1][2][3] It most probably arose in the region of Kutmichevitsa, today part of the region of Macedonia.[4][5]

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 oneself through fasting
or dancing.

The Bogomils rejected the

Cathars
).

Etymology

The term Bogomil in

Messalians in Greek and Slavonic documents from the 12th-14th centuries.[6][7]

The members are referred to as Babuni in

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.[8][9]

Sources

Much of their literature has been

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.[7]

History

Paulicians

One of the earliest Christian dualist sects,

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.[13]

However, it is not certain that the Paulicians were 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".[14]

In 970, the Byzantine emperor

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 Cioplea [ro] near Bucharest also followed the example of their brethren across the Danube.[7]

Origins

The

Paulicians who had been driven out of Armenia.[15]

Spread of Bogomilism in the Balkans

Council against Bogomilism, organized by Stefan Nemanja. Fresco from 1290
Bogomil cemetery in Chalkidona (near Thessaloniki), Greece[16]

Slav peasantry in parts of Bulgaria were very likely the first to come into in 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 began to flourish while the Theophylact of Constantinople warned Peter I against this new heresy.[17] The Bogomils spread westwards and settled in

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).[7]

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.[18] 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, a close relative of Stefan Nemanja, in 1203.[19] 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.[20]

In 1203,

Catholic Bishop of Bosnia was removed by Pope Gregory IX for allowing heretical practices.[21] In addition, Gregory called on the Hungarian king to crusade against the heretics.[22] However, Bosnian nobles were able to expel the Hungarians.[23]

In 1252, Pope

dualism can be found in the original documents of the Bosnian Christians.[25]

It was not until Pope Nicholas' Bull "Prae cunctis" in 1291 that the Dominican-led inquisition was imposed on Bosnia.[26] The Inquisition reported of 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.

Bogomilism was eradicated in Bulgaria,

Hum (present day Herzegovina) and Bosnia by embracing eastern tradition of the Bosnian church[27] until the Ottoman Empire gained control of the region in 1463. Some scholars, who sought certain ideological backgrounds and justifications for their political narratives, argue that both Catholics and Orthodox persecuted the Bogomils as heretics and according to them, the pressures drew Bosnia to Bogomilism. It has purportedly been said that, with the introduction of Ottoman rule, Bosnians were often more likely to convert to Islam since some of them were not adherents of either the Roman Catholic or Serb Orthodox churches.[citation needed] However, these claims have been rejected by some as an anachronism from the Austro-Hungarian era.[28][29]

From Bosnia, their influence extended into Italy (

Cathar ritual published by Cunitz, 1853.[30][31]

There are still over ten thousand Banat Bulgarians in

Ivanovo and Belo Blato, near Pančevo
.

Social factors

The gradual Christianization of the Bulgarian population, the fact that the service was initially practiced in Greek, which only the elite knew, resulted in a low level of understanding of the religion among the peasantry. Due to the constant wars during the time of Tsar Simeon I, the lands near the Byzantine border (Thrace) were devastated, and the people living there were left without occupation. The constant change of authority over these lands, and the higher taxes during the time of Tsar Peter I, gave birth to a great social discontent at the beginning of the 10th century. Moreover, the corruption of the church as an institution led to grave disappointment among its recently converted flock.[citation needed]

Religious factors

The existence of older Christian heresies in the Bulgarian lands (

dualistic, influenced the Bogomil movement. Manichaeism's origin is related to Zoroastrianism
; that is why Bogomilism is sometimes indirectly connected to Zoroastrianism in the sense of its duality.

Connections to the royal court

Most probably, as

Samuil of Bulgaria revolted against the Byzantine Empire, he relied on the popular support of the movement. There are no sources of Bogomil persecution during his reign (976–1014).[8]

Doctrine

оучѧтъ же своꙗ си не повиновати сѧ властелемъ своимъ; хоулѧще богатꙑѩ, царь ненавидѧтъ, рѫгаѭтъ сѧ старѣишинамъ, оукарꙗѭтъ болꙗрꙑ, мрьзькꙑ богоу мьнѧтъ работаѭщѧѩ цѣсарю, и вьсꙗкомоу рабоу не велѧтъ работати господиноу своѥмоу.

They teach their followers not to obey their masters; they scorn the rich, they hate the Tsars, they ridicule their superiors, they reproach the boyars, they believe that God looks in horror on those who labour for the Tsar, and advise every serf not to work for his master.[32]

From the imperfect and conflicting data that is available, one positive result can be gathered that the Bogomils may have been

dualists.[7]

Their dualism was initially moderate (or "monarchian"): according to their teachings, God created and rules the spiritual part of the world, and Satan the material, but Satan is ultimately inferior to God and his side by virtue of being God's son.

Their adoptionist teaching apparently came from

docetic teaching of some of the other gnostic sects.[7] They also opposed established forms of government and church, alike to later Christian anarchist
beliefs.

In the Bogomil and Cathar text The Secret Supper Jesus calls God his father and it says that Mary received Jesus through the Holy Spirit.[34]

Bogomils have been accused of believing that John the Baptist comes from Satan in the Book of Boril.[35]

Supporters of the Baptist successionism theory argue that allegations of Bogomil doctrines are largely false, due to most sources being hostile.[36]

Source texts

Possible source texts for Bogomil doctrine include:

Bogomils accepted the four Gospels, fourteen

Cosmology

In their original Monarchian dualist story, Bogomils taught that God had two sons, the elder

Satanail and the younger Michael.[7] Satanail rebelled against the father and became an evil spirit. He created the lower heavens and the Earth and tried in vain to create man, though in the end he had to appeal to God for the Spirit. After creation, Adam
was allowed to till the ground on condition that he sold himself and his posterity to the owner of the Earth, Satanail.

In order to free Adam and his offspring, Michael was sent in the form of a man, becoming identified with

Jesus Christ, and was "elected" by God after the baptism in the Jordan. When the Holy Ghost appeared in the shape of the dove, Jesus received power to break the covenant in the form of a clay tablet (hierographon) held by Satanail from Adam. He had now become the angel Michael in a human form, and as such he vanquished Satanail, and deprived him of the suffix il (meaning God), in which his power resided. Satanail was thus transformed into Satan. However, through Satan's machinations the crucifixion took place, and Satan was the originator of the whole Orthodox community with its churches, vestments, ceremonies, sacraments and fasts, with its monks and priests. This world being the work of Satan, the perfect must eschew any and every excess of its pleasure, though not so far as asceticism.[7]

They held the "Lord's Prayer" in high respect as the most potent weapon against Satan, and had a number of conjurations against "evil spirits". Each community had its own twelve "apostles", and women could be raised to the rank of "elect". The Bogomils wore garments like those of mendicant friars and were known as enthusiastic missionaries, travelling far and wide to propagate their doctrines. Healing the sick and exorcising evil spirits, they traversed different countries and spread their apocryphal literature along with some of the books of the Old Testament, deeply influencing the religious spirit of the nations and preparing them for the Reformation.[7]

Christology and the Trinity

For Bogomils, "the Logos was not the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, the Eternal Word incarnate, but merely the spoken word of God, shown in the oral teaching of Christ".[42] Although Bogomils regarded themselves as "Trinitarian",[43] anathemas against Bogomils (circa 1027) charge Bogomils with rejection of the Trinity.[44] In the Bogomil and Cathar text "The Secret Supper" the book starts with: "In the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen."[45]

Opposition to institutions and materialism

The Catholic Church considered Bogomilism a heresy due to the duality in the Bogomil cosmogony, wherein the earthly sinful corporeal life is a creation of Satan, an angel that was sent to Earth.[46]

Novgorod, explained that St. Paul had taught that simpleminded men should instruct one another; therefore they elected their "teachers" from among themselves to be their spiritual guides, and had no special priests. There is a tradition that the Bogomils taught that prayers were to be said in private houses, not in separate buildings such as churches. Ordination was conferred by the congregation and not by any specially appointed minister. The congregation were the "elect", and each member could obtain the perfection of Christ and become a Christ or "Chlist". Marriage was not a sacrament. Bogomils refused to fast on Mondays and Fridays, and they rejected monasticism. They declared Christ to be the Son of God only through grace like other prophets, and that the bread and wine of the eucharist were not physically transformed into flesh and blood; that the last judgement would be executed by God and not by Jesus; that the images and the cross were idols and the veneration of saints and relics idolatry.[7]

These doctrines have survived in the great Russian sects, and can be traced back to the teachings and practice of the Bogomils. But in addition to these doctrines of an adoptionist origin, they held the Manichaean dualistic conception of the origin of the world. This has been partly preserved in some of their literary remains, and has taken deep root in the beliefs and traditions of Balkan nations with substantial Bogomil followings. The chief literature of all the heretical sects throughout the ages has been that of apocryphal Biblical narratives, and the popes Jeremiah or Bogumil are directly mentioned as authors of such forbidden books "which no orthodox dare read". Though these writings are mostly of the same origin as those from the older lists of apocryphal books, they underwent a modification at the hands of their Bogomil editors, so as to be useful for the propagation of their own specific doctrines.[7]

In its most simple and attractive form—invested with the authority of the reputed holy author—their account of the creation of the world and of man, the origin of sin and redemption, the history of the Cross, and the disputes between body and soul, right and wrong, heaven and hell, were embodied either in "Historiated Bibles" (Paleya) or in special dialogues held between Christ and his disciples, or between renowned Fathers of the Church who expounded these views in a simple manner adapted to the understanding of the people (Lucidaria).[7]

Legacy

Link with later religious movements

The Bogomils were the connecting link between both Eastern and Western sects considered heretical. They were also the most active in disseminating “heretical” teachings in the Kievan Rus' and other

Spiritual Christians, have all, at different times, been either identified with the Bogomils or closely linked with them, despite several being unrelated and/or non-dualistic.[7]

Considerable scholarly debate[

missionary efforts in Ireland) would directly accuse non-Christians of worshiping "Apollo and Mercury
", simply applying previous terms and rhetoric to new contexts in which they didn't accurately apply. Thus medieval scholarship is divided over whether the "Cathars" actually were an offshoot of the "Bogomils", or if the 13th century Inquisition itself simply mistook or conflated "Cathars" for "Bogomils", due to their known tendency for conflation and confusion. A remarkable number of necropolises are found in this part of Europe, conveying an exceptional testimony to medieval European artistic and archaeological heritage. Majority of these necropolises with decorated tombstones were held by Bogomil Vlachs.[47] [48]

In modern and popular culture

In Foucault's Pendulum, a novel by the Italian philosopher and writer Umberto Eco, the plot concerning a widespread secret and mystic conspiracy has its ground in the disappearance of the Bogomils after the fall of the Second Bulgarian Empire under the rule of the Ottoman Empire.

The Secret Book is a Macedonian feature film combining the detective, thriller and conspiracy fiction genres, based on a fictional story of the quest for the original Slavic language "Secret Book", written by the Bogomils in Macedonia and carried to Western Europe during the Middle Ages.

A French (and, consequently, an English) word emerged based on twisted perceptions of the Bogomils by the Catholic Church. The words "bouguer" and "

buggery" emerged, by way of the word "bougre" in French, from the Latin Bulgarus (Bulgarian). "Buggery" first appears in English in 1330 with the sense "abominable heresy", though "bugger" in a sexual sense is not recorded until 1555.[49] The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology quotes a similar form—"bowgard" (and "bouguer"), but claims that the Bulgarians were heretics "as belonging to the Greek Church, sp. Albigensian". Webster's Third New International Dictionary gives the only meaning of the word "bugger" as sodomite, "from the adherence of the Bulgarians to the Eastern Church considered heretical".[50]

Bogomil Cove on Rugged Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica, is named after Priest Bogomil.

The Bogomils make a significant part in the Thomas Pynchon novel Against the Day, when Cyprian Lakewood becomes a postulant and gives up his life of sodomitic servitude as a spy.

In Olga Tokarczuk's novel The Books of Jacob, the character Antoni Kossakowski (Moliwda) lives in a Bogomil aligned community.

See also

Citations

  1. .
  2. .
  3. .
  4. .
  5. .
  6. .
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n  One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domainGaster, Moses (1911). "Bogomils". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 4 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 119. This provides as bibliography:
    • Euthymius Zigabenus
      , Narratio de Bogomilis, ed. Gieseler (Göttingen, 1842)
    • J. C. Wolf, Historia Bogomilorum (Wittenberg, 1712)
    • "Slovo svyatago Kozmyi na eretiki", in Kukuljević Sakcinski, Arkiv zapovyestnicu jugoslavensku, vol. iv. pp. 69-97 (Agram, 1859)
    • C. J. Jireček
      , Geschichte d. Bulgaren, pp. 155, 174-175 (Prague, 1876)
    • Korolev, "Dogmatichesko-to uchenie na Bogomil-tie", in Periodichesko spisanie, vols. vii.-viii. pp. 75-106 (Braila, 1873)
    • A. Lombard, Pauliciens, Bulgares et Bons-hommes (Geneva, 1879)
    • Episcopul Melchisedek, Lipovenismul, pp. 265 sqq. (Bucharest, 1871)
    • B. P. Hasdeu, Cuvente den bǎtrǎni, vol. ii. pp. 247 sqq. (Bucharest, 1879)
    • F. C. Conybeare, The Key of Truth, pp. 73 sqq. and specially pp. 138 sqq. (Oxford, 1898)
    • M. Gaster, Greco-Slavonic Literature, pp. 17 sqq. (London, 1887)
    • O. Dähnhardt, Natursagen, vol. 1. pp. 38 sqq. (Leipzig and Berlin, 1907).
  8. ^ .
  9. ^ Loos, Milan (1974). Dualist heresy in the Middle Ages. Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences.
  10. ^ "Bogomils" at St. Pachomius Library
  11. ^ Ehrman, Bart D. Lost Christianities: The battles for scripture and the faiths we never knew. Oxford University Press, 2005.
  12. .
  13. ^ "Hamilton, Janet and Bernard, Christian dualist heresies in the Byzantine world, c.650-c.1450". Archived from the original on 2011-05-27. Retrieved 2018-12-28.
  14. ^ Conybeare, Frederick. The Key of Truth. A Manual of the Paulician Church of Armenia.
  15. ^ "Bogomils of Bulgaria and Bosnia". The Reformed Reader.
  16. ^ Nikolaos Economidis, "Bogomil Remains Near Thessaloniki", Christian Archaeological Society, Eighth Symposium on Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Archeology and Art, Athens, 1988, pp. 73–74
  17. ^ 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
  18. ^ 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)
  19. ^ Malcolm Lambert, Medieval Heresy:Popular Movements from Bogomil to Hus, (Edward Arnold Ltd, 1977), 143.
  20. ^ Christian Dualist Heresies in the Byzantine World, C. 650-c. 1450, ed. Janet Hamilton, Bernard Hamilton, Yuri Stoyanov, (Manchester University Press, 1998), 48-49.
  21. ^ Malcolm Lambert, Medieval Heresy:Popular Movements from Bogomil to Hus, 143.
  22. ^ Mudry 1999; Hupchick and Cox 2008
  23. ^ 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)
  24. ^ 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.
  25. ^ Noel Malcolm, Bosnia:Short history, John A. Fine "Late medieval Balkan...." H
  26. ^ John A. Fine – The Late Medieval Balkans
  27. ^ Noel Malcolm – Bosnia: A Short History
  28. ^ Franjo Rački, "Bogomili i Paternai" in Rad, vols. vii., viii. and x. (Zagreb, 1870)
  29. ^ Dollinger, Beiträge zur Ketzergeschichte des Mittelalters, 2 vols. (Munich, 1890).
  30. ^ Cosmas Presbyter: Homily Against the Bogumils
  31. ^ .
  32. ^ "Cathar Texts: Interrogatio Johannis (The Book of John the Evangelist)". gnosis.org. Retrieved 2021-07-19.
  33. ^ Book of Boril.
  34. ^ Hisel, Berlin. Baptist History Notebook. Their historians claimed for them the greatest antiquity. Dr. L. P. Brockett, who wrote a history of them says: 'Among these (historians of the Bulgarians) I have found, often in unexpected quarters, the most conclusive evidence that these sects were all, during their early history, Baptists
  35. OCLC 34755069
    . Retrieved 16 October 2022 – via ProQuest Dissertations Publishing. ...texts ascribed to him: 'The Story of the Cross-tree' and 'The Prayer Against Fever,' two genuine Bogomil texts providing a clear understanding of the basic tenets of the Bogomil heretical movement of the tenth-eleventh centuries.
  36. ^ a b Quispel, Gilles (2008), Oort, Johannes (ed.), Gnostica, Judaica, Catholica: collected essays, p. 11, Die Interrogatio Johannis, eine der wenigen authentischen Quellen über die Katharer, die also nicht von den Inquisitoren der römischen Kirche stammt, besitzt dieselbe Form und denselben Inhalt wie das Apokryphon des Johannes.
  37. ^ Thomsett, Michael C (2010), The Inquisition: A History, p. 48, Early Bogomil texts included The Secret Supper (or, The Book of St. John) and The Vision of Isaiah. These both appeared around 1170, originally in Greek and later translated into Latin. In The Secret Supper, the Bogomil theology is laid...
  38. ^ Tyerman, Christopher (2006), God's war: a new history of the Crusades, p. 573, This distinct 'Latin' dualist community probably provided western converts with Latin translations of the Greek Bogomil texts including the consolamentum ritual and the New Testament, collated with the Vulgate.
  39. ^ "The "Other" Lost Scriptures". Aleteia — Catholic Spirituality, Lifestyle, World News, and Culture. 2015-11-03. Retrieved 2021-11-13.
  40. ^ The Bogomils: A Study in Balkan Neo-Manichaeism Page 211 Dimitri Obolensky, 2004 "The Logos was for them not the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, the Eternal Word incarnate, but merely the spoken word of God, manifested in the oral teaching of Christ.* Hence the Bogomils taught that Christ was ..."
  41. ^ Contra Patarenos Page 39 Hugh Eteriano, Janet Hamilton, Sarah Hamilton, 2004 "He was aware that the Bogomils regarded themselves as Trinitarians: 'Do not be astonished, my brothers', he writes,'… when you hear them say that they believe in Father, Son and Holy Spirit, that they keep the apostles and saints…"
  42. ^ Heresy in medieval France: dualism in Aquitaine and the Agenais, Page 64 Claire Taylor, Royal Historical Society (Great Britain), 2005: "Anathemas against Bogomils were in use in the early decades of the eleventh century, contained in versions of the Synodikon of orthodoxy and included in a euchologion produced in 1027. They attest to Bogomil rejection of the Trinity"
  43. ^ "Cathar Texts: Interrogatio Johannis (The Book of John the Evangelist)". gnosis.org. Retrieved 2021-07-19.
  44. ^ Weber, Nicholas Aloysius (1907). "Bogomili" . In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 2. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
  45. ^ 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.
  46. ^ 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.
  47. ^ Oxford English Dictionary.
  48. ^ Bogomilism Study. Archived from the original on 2015-08-10.

General and cited sources

Further reading

External links