Bogomilism

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).

[6][7] The members are referred to as Babuni in Church Slavonic documents, which originally meant "superstition; superstitious person" (Common Slavic: *babonъ, *babunъ *babona).

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.

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.

[14] 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).

[7] The Gnostic social-religious movement and doctrine originated in the time of Peter I of Bulgaria (927–969), alleged in the modern day to be a reaction against state and clerical oppression of the Byzantine church.

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.

[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, whose sister was married to Miroslav of Hum, in 1203.

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, 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.

Bogomilism was eradicated in Bulgaria, Rascia (a Serbian medieval state) and Byzantium in the 13th century, but some smaller elements survived in Hum (present day Herzegovina) and Bosnia[27] until the Ottoman Empire gained control of the region in 1463.

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.

[citation needed] The existence of older Christian heresies in the Bulgarian lands (Manichaeism and Paulicianism), which were considered very dualistic, influenced the Bogomil movement.

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.

[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.

[46] Karp Strigolnik, who in the 14th century preached the doctrine in 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.

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).

Groups such as the Cathars, Patarenes, Waldenses, Anabaptists, and the Russian Strigolniki, and 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.

Furthering this confusion is that many medieval sources themselves, such as the 13th century Papal Inquisition in France, would often simply assume that all dualistic groups were directly connected to previous movements, regardless of location.

Inquistors often described 13th century Cathars as a direct outgrowth of surviving Manichean dualists from previous centuries—though by the same logic, Inquisitors who encountered pagan religions on the edges of the Christian world (Such as those encountered in the Baltic Crusades or the 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.

A remarkable number of necropolises are found in this part of Europe, conveying an exceptional testimony to medieval European artistic and archaeological heritage.

[51] 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.

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".

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.