BOGOMILS
OF
BULGARIA AND
BOSNIA;
_____________
The
Early Protestants of the East.
AN ATTEMPT TO RESTORE SOME
LOST LEAVES OF
PROTESTANT HISTORY.
BY
L. P. BROCKETT, M. D.,
Author
of
"The Cross And The Crescent," " History
Of Religious
Denominations," etc.
_________________
PHILADELPHIA:
AMERICAN BAPTIST PUBLICATION
SOCIETY,
1420 CHESTNUT STREET.
Entered to Act of Congress, in the year 1879, by the
AMERICAN BAPTIST PUBLICATION
SOCIETY,
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at
Washington.
CONTENTS.
_______
SECTION I.
PAGE
Introduction.—The Armenian and other Oriental churches. 13
SECTION II.
Dualism and
the phantastic theory of our Lord's advent
in the Oriental churches.—The doctrines
they rejected.—
They held to baptism…………………………………..… 18
SECTION III.
Gradual decline of
the dualistic doctrine.—The holy and exemplary lives of
the Paulicians…………………….….... 22
SECTION IV.
The
cruelty and bloodthirstiness of the Empress Theo-
dora.—The free state and city of Tephrice……………..… 25
SECTION V.
The
Sclavonic development of the Catharist
or Paulician churches.—Bulgaria, Bosnia,
and Servia its
principal
seats.—Euchites,
Massalians, and Bogomils.....………….. 27
SECTION VI.
The
Bulgarian Empire and its Bogomil czars…………… 30
CONTENTS.
SECTION VII.
A
Bogomil congregation and its worship.—Mostar, on the
Narenta
………………………………………………….... 32
SECTION VIII.
The
Bogomilian doctrines and practices.—The Credentes
and Perfecti.—Were the Credentes baptized?..….…..……
37
SECTION IX.
The orthodoxy of the Greek and Roman churches rather theological than practical.—Fall
of the Bulgarian Empire.. 43
SECTION X.
The Emperor
Alexius Comnenus and the Bogomil Elder
Basil.—The
Alexiad of the Princess Anna Comnena…… 46
SECTION XI.
The
martyrdom of Basil.—The Bogomil churches rein-
forced
by the Armenian Paulicians
under the Emperor
John Zimisces……………………………………………. 50
SECTION XII.
The
purity of life of the Bogomils.—Their doctrines
and practices.—Their
asceticism………….…………………. 54
SECTION XIII.
The missionary spirit and labors of
the elders and Per-
fecti.—The entire absence of any
hierarchy……………… 58
CONTENTS.
SECTION XIV.
Page
The
Bogomil churches in Bosnia and the Herzegovina.—
Their doctrines
more thoroughly scriptural
than those
of
the Bulgarian churches.—Bosnia as a banate and
kingdom………………………………………………..….. 60
SECTION XV.
Bosnian
history continued.—The good Ban Culin……..….
63
SECTION XVI.
The
growth of the Bogomil churches under Culin.—Their
missionary
zeal and success………………………………. 66
SECTION XVII.
The authorities from whose testimony this
narrative is
drawn.—Its
thorough corroboration by
a cloud of
witnesses………………………………………………….. 68
SECTION XVIII.
The era of persecution.—The crusades against the Bogomils.—Archbishop of Colocz…………..…………… 72
SECTION XIX.
Further crusades.—The hostility of Pope Innocent
IV.—
More lenient, but not more effective, measures
…………... 76
SECTION XX.
The establishment of the Inquisition in
Bosnia.—Letter
of
Pope John XXII.—Previous testimony of
enemies to
the purity of the lives of
the Bogomils……………….…… 78
CONTENTS.
SECTION XXI.
PAGE
Further
persecution.—A lull in its fury during the over-
lordship
of the Serbian Czar Stephen Dushan.—The
reign
of
the Tvart‑ko dynasty...……………………………….…. 81
SECTION XXII.
The Reformation in
Bohemia and Hungary a
Bogomil movement.—Renewal of persecution under Kings Stephen Thomas and Stephen
Tomasevic.—The Pobratimtso…… 85
SECTION XXIII.
Overtures to the sultan.—The surrender of Bosnia to
Mahomet
II. under stipulations.—His base
treachery and faithlessness.—The cruel
destruction and enslavement
of
the Bogomils of Bosnia and, twenty years
later, of those
of the Duchy of Herzegovina………………………..…… 89
SECTION XXIV.
The
Bogomils not utterly extinguished.—Their influence on society, literature, and
progress in the Middle Ages.—Dante,
Milton, etc.—The Puritans.—Conclusion……………….. 92
APPENDIX: I.
A liturgy of the Toulouse Publicans in (probably)
the
Sixteenth
Century…….………………………………..… 103
APPENDIX II.
Were the Paulician and Bogomil churches Baptist Churches? 107
NOTES……………………………………….…..………. 119
PREFACE.
THE belief that there had existed through all the ages since
the Christian era churches which adhered strictly to scriptural doctrines and
practice—churches which were the true successors in faith and ordinances of
those founded by the apostles, and had never paid homage to Greek patriarch or
Roman pope— was firmly impressed upon the minds of the Baptist church‑historians
of the first fifty years of the present century. They believed also that these
churches were essentially Baptist in their character, and some of them made extensive researches among the works of
secular and ecclesiastical historians of the early centuries to find tangible proofs to sustain their conviction. They were partially, but only partially, successful, for the historians of those periods
were ecclesiastics of either the Greek or Roman churches, who added, in most cases, the bitterness
of personal spite,
PREFACE
from their discomfiture by the elders
of these churches, to their horror at any departure from papal or patriarchal
decrees.
For
the last twenty‑five or thirty years the ranks of the Baptist ministry
have been so largely recruited from Paedobaptist churches—all of which had
their origin, confessedly, either at the Reformation or since—that many of our writers have been disposed to
hold in abeyance their claims to an earlier origin, and to say that it was a
matter of no consequence, but there was no evidence attainable of the existence
of Baptist churches between the fourth and the eleventh or twelfth centuries.
To
the writer it has seemed to be a matter
of great consequence to be able to demonstrate that there were churches of
faithful witnesses for Christ who had never paid their homage or given in their
allegiance to the anti‑Christian churches of Constantinople or Rome. Even
in idolatrous Israel, in the reign of its worst king, Ahab, the despairing
prophet was told by Jehovah, "Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel,
all the knees
which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him " Was it possible that
PREFACE
among these
many millions of misguided souls who had given themselves over to the delusions
of the Greek and Roman churches, there was not at least as large a proportion,
who had not been partakers in the sins or these anti‑Christian churches,
but had washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb?
It was true
that both the Greek and Roman churches had put the brand of heresy on every
sect which had dared to deny their dogmas; but might it not be that beneath
that brand could be discerned the lineaments of the Bride of Christ?
My attention was
first called to the possibility of discovering more than had hitherto been
known in regard to these early Protestants of the Eastern lands some two years
since, While engaged in some studies for a work on the Eastern Question. In the
Christian churches of Armenia, Bulgaria, and Bosnia I believed were to be found
the churches which from the fifth to the fifteenth century were the true successors of the churches founded
by the
apostles' in all matters of faith and practice. The "Historical Review of Bosnia,"
PREFACE
contained
in the second edition of Mr. Arthur J. Evans' work on Bosnia in 1876, first
opened my eyes to the wealth of the new historical discoveries thus brought to light in
Bosnia and Bulgaria. Mr. Evans is a member of the Church of England, an eminent
scholar, thoroughly devoted to archaeological investigations, and had made very
patient and successful researches on this very subject. While he had explored
the libraries of Mostar and Serajevo, as well as of the Greek and Roman
Catholic convents throughout Bosnia and the Herzegovina, I found that a
considerable portion of his facts were gleaned from two recent historical
works—Herr Jirecek's Geschichte der Bulgaren
(Berlin, 1876), and M. Hilferding's Serben
used Bulgaren, originally published in the Sclavonic language, but
translated into in 1874. Jirecek is a Bohemian, and, I believe, a
Roman Catholic, but a man of
great fairness. Hilferding is‑ a Russian, and attached to the Greek
Church. Both treat largely (as they are under the necessity of doing) of the
Bogomils, as these early Christians were called, since their history is very largely the history of the
two nations for five
PREFACE
or six centuries. Both give very minute
descriptions of the faith and life of these people, and most of the historical
facts given in the following pages are derived from them. But wherever Mr.
Evans could find anything in the early secular or ecclesiastical writers of the
Dark Ages or medieval times bearing on this subject he has carefully gleaned
it, even though it were but A single sentence. This has been done, on his part,
solely from a love of archaeological research, for he has evidently no special
sympathy with the people about whom he writes; but he is entitled to the praise
of manifesting a judicial fairness as between them and their persecutors.
My own labor
on the subject has not been confined to the
verification of Mr. Evans' quotations and references, but has extended in
certain directions which he had left untouched, such as a careful study
of all those affiliated sects whose
connection with the Bogomils he had demonstrated, and the tracing up, so far
as possible, all hints in regard to their special tenets. Among these I have found, often in unexpected quarters,
the. most conclusive evidence that
these sects were all,
PREFACE
during their earlier history, Baptists,
not only in their views on the subjects of baptism and the Lord's Supper, but
in their opposition to Paedobaptism, to a church hierarchy, and to any worship
of the Virgin Mary or the saints, and in their adherence to church independency
and freedom of conscience in religious worship. In short, the conclusion has
forced itself upon me that in these " Christians " of Bosnia,
Bulgaria, and Armenia we have an apostolic succession of Christian churches, New Testament churches, and Baptist churches, and that as early as
the twelfth century these churches numbered a converted, believing membership as
large as that of the Baptists throughout the world to‑day. I have chosen
in the narrative to present only the facts ascertained, without making any
deductions from them. They are so plain that the wayfaring man can comprehend
their significance. In the Appendix (II.) I have endeavored to summarize these
facts and to show their significance to Baptists. I now offer the whole as a
humble contribution to Baptist church history.
L. P. B.
Brooklyn N. Y., February 1,1879.
THE BOGOMILS
OF
BULGARIA AND
BOSNIA.
SECTION I.
THE ARMENIAN AND OTHER ORIENTAL CHURCHES.
THE
wars which from time immemorial are devastated the fair lands of Eastern Europe
and Western Asia have had in most cases a religious basis. At first, in pagan
times, the worshippers of the gods of the hills attacked the adherents of the
gods of the valleys or of the plains; later, the devotees of Bel or Baal made
war upon the worshippers of the one living and true God. When Christianity
became the religion of the state, its emperors and generals turned their arms
against the pagan Avars and Bulgarians, or, full as oft, upon those Christian
sects which from their purer worship were
denominated heretics by the orthodox.
This condition of warfare on religious grounds
has continued through-
EARLY PROTESTANTS OF THE EAST
out all the centuries of the Christian era, even down to our own time, sometimes assuming the form of a fierce and bloody persecution against the protesting churches who refused obedience to the Roman or the Greek Church, and sometimes. raging in terrible conflict against the Turk. Even in the war recently in progress, the cross of the Greek Church was arrayed against the Mohammedan crescent.
It is,
however, only one division of this series of religious conflicts which
specially concerns us—that which relates to the power claimed by the self‑styled
orthodox Greek and Roman churches to put down, by force and bloodshed, every
form of faith which they were pleased to denounce as heresy.
No sooner was the Christian church, by the conversion of Constantine, relieved from the pressure of persecution, than its bishops and leaders began to magnify what it had previously regarded as trifling errors into heretical dogmas which threatened not only the peace, but the very existence, of Christianity. The Bishop of Rome, the Bishop of Alexandria, the Bishop of Carthage, and the Bishop of Nicomedia were ranged against each other in
EARLY PROTESTANTS OF THE EAST
hostile array; council succeeded council; the emperor sided now with Arius and now with Athanasius—first with the iconoclasts and next with the makers and worshipppers of images; and in a few years the followers of the Prince of peace were wielding the weapons of a carnal warfare against each other. These hostilities and conflicts continued through the following centuries, until they culminated in the separation of the two bodies in the East and in the West, since known as the orthodox Greek and the Roman Catholic churches.
But
there two churches, differ as they might, had yet many points in common. Their
greatest differences were that the Greek Church adhered somewhat more strictly
to the early forms of the primitive and apostolic church in its ordinances and
ritual, and that it did not recognize the primacy of the Bishop of Rome. Both paid
divine honors to the Virgin Mary; both addressed their prayers and homage to
saints and angels; both used pictures, icons, statues, and crucifixes in their
worship. and both denounced as heretics all who differed from them in belief.
By both, also, the churches of the remote East were
regarded as
EARLY PROTESTANTS OF THE EAST
fountains of heresy. The Roman Church
considered them as guilty of all the seven mortal sins, and the Greek Church
proclaimed, that for those who
continued in these heretical doctrines there was no forgiveness in this world
nor in the world to come.
And
what were these fearful heresies? The positive doctrines of their belief are
hard to trace, since they are only recorded in the accusations of their
bitterest enemies. They probably differed considerably in different periods.
There had come down to most of these churches from the old Aryan inhabitants of
Persia some of the dogmas which had distinguished them, surrounded as they were
by idolaters, in their maintenance for more than three thousand years of a
purely theistic worship. These Aryans, like their descendants, the Parsees of
the present day, held to two principles which governed this world and all
worlds—the good principle, called also Ormuzd, and the evil principle or spirit, which they named Ahriman. Both they
believed to be subordinate to the Great First Cause, who dwelt in the light
unapproachable and had
delegated nearly equal
EARLY PROTESTANTS OF THE EAST
power to these two spirits. There is room for admiration that these thoughtful sages, without the light of revelation, should have approached so close to the truth as they did, and yet the great problem of the entrance of sin into the world, and the self‑evident fact of its continued existence and its terrible effects, might well, in the absence of purer light, have led them to this belief in dual divinities.
When the
religion of Jesus Christ was revealed to these orientals by the preaching of
the apostles and their followers and the diffusion of a few manuscript copies
of the Gospels, and, later, of the other books of the New Testament, it is not
surprising that they should have recognized in Jesus the Ormuzd of their old
faith, and in Satan their evil spirit, Ahriman, and, for want of better
instruction, should have attributed to them the qualities, powers, and
functions which their reformers and prophets had assigned to the two
principles; nor that some of the other fictions of their older faith, so dear
to Oriental minds, should have clung to their new doctrines, through the slow‑moving
centuries' till they were displaced by the clearer light of Revelation.
EARLY PROTESTANTS OF THE EAST
SECTION II.
DUALISM AND
THE PHANTASTIC THEORY OF OUR LORD’S
ADVENT IN THE ORIENTAL CHURCHES.—THE DOCTRINES THEY REJECTED.—THEY HELD TO
BAPTISM.
As a matter of
history, we find that most of the Oriental churches, and indeed some of those
of Asia Minor which had been founded by the apostles, were permeated with these
dualistic doctrines, though in different degrees. It would not be far from the
truth were we to say that there have been traces of it among the most
evangelical churches of all the ages since, even down to our own time. As to
the doctrines which they did not believe, the evidence is more satisfactory.
They honored the Virgin Mary as the mother of our Lord according to the
flesh—though there were different opinions
even on this point but they refused any worship to her as a divine or
superhuman being. True to their old Aryan training, they repudiated alike
picture and icon, statue and image, crucifix
and crosier. They recognized no bishop
or high priest; their elders served them in their simple
ritual, and
EARLY PROTESTANTS OF THE EAST
expounded to them the word of God. The initiatory rite of their faith has been to some extent a matter of dispute; with nearly all there is ample evidence that it was as in the Greek Church, an immersion in water, though probably not a trine immersion, and without the anointing, and other ceremonies.
But many of
their enemies, overlooking the fact that all their members received baptism on
their admission into the church, because it was not attended with the
ceremonials and adjuncts of the Greek Church, have spoken of their ceremony of
ordaining and setting apart their elders and "perfect ones " as a
spiritual baptism, called by them consolamentum
and administered by the simple
imposition of hands.1 The denial of their practice of water‑baptism
is due solely to this misapprehension. The strictness and ascetic character of
their doctrines led them to prohibit all architectural display. Their churches
were simple, plain, barn‑like buildings, without tower, steeple, or bell. They knew nothing of nave, transept, chancel, or
altar. The bare walls of the room had no ornaments; rude seats accommodated the
worshippers; a table covered with a
white
EARLY PROTESTANTS OF THE EAST
cloth, on which lay a copy of the New
Testament, or, if they were unable to obtain this, the Gospel of St. John,
sufficed instead of pulpit for their aiders.2
At first, with
but limited instruction, and with only a small portion of the New Testament in
their hands, there is no reason to doubt that their doctrinal views, whether
measured by the standard of the Christianity of those times or of our own, were
in some respects heretical. The leaders of the Paulicians in the fifth and
sixth centuries are reputed to have held these opinions: that God had two sons;
that the elder, whom they called Satanael, had been at first endowed with all
the attributes of deity and was chief among the hosts of heaven; that by him,
through the power bestowed upon him by the Father, the material bodies of the
universe—suns, moons, and stars—were created, but, in consequence of his
ambition and rebellion, he was driven from
heaven, and took with him the third part of the heavenly host. Then, they said,
God bestowed the power on his younger son, Jesus, whom he made the heir
of all worlds, and gave him
EARLY PROTESTANTS OF THE EAST
the power over all spiritual
intelligences. Satanael had created our earth, but Jesus breathed into man the
breath of life, and he became a living soul. Thenceforth there was a constant
conflict between Satanael and Jesus. The former compassed the death of the
latter after his assumption of the human form and nature, but by this very act
Satanael secured his own defeat, for Jesus rose from the dead, the conqueror
over his great enemy and all his foes, and was received into heaven in triumph,
having redeemed by. his death all who should trust in him.3 We see
in this system of doctrine—which it is only right to say comes to us through
their enemies—many traces of the old dualistic theory of the good and the evil
spirits, but the whole is illumined by a brighter and better hope—that of the
speedy triumph of the right and the good— than ever cheered the heart of
Zartusht or gleamed from the pages of the Zendavesta.
EARLY PROTESTANTS OF THE EAST
SECTION III.
GRADUAL DECLINE OF THE DUALISTIC DOCTRINE.—THE HOLY AND EXEMPLARY LIVES OF
THE PAULICIANS
As the years
gathered into decades and the decades into centuries, and the number of copies
of the Scriptures was multiplied and
carefully studied by these diligent and simpleminded inquirers after truth,
their views of the divine revelation became clearer, their doctrines more
scriptural, while their lives were as pure as ever. Well might they assume the
title of Cathari—“the pure”—from that
beatitude of our Lord which they had from the first made their motto and their
rule of life: "Blessed are the pure in heart; for they shall see God."
Even their bitterest enemies and persecutors could not deny their exemplary
character, however strongly they might denounce their want of reverence for
images and icons, and their abhorrence of
Mariolatry. More than once their foes, even in the act of persecution, were,
like St. Paul, converted to their faith and became their leaders and martyrs.
But their pure and
EARLY PROTESTANTS OF THE EAST
blameless lives did not in the least degree protect them from cruel persecutions. They had become very numerous among the Armenians and the inhabitants of the Caucasus region, and as early as the beginning of the sixth century a considerable number of their leading men had sealed their testimony at the stake, victims of weak or dissolute emperors goaded to persecution by the persuasions or threats of ambitious and unscrupulous bishops.
Occasionally, when the emperor happened to be himself an iconoclast, or destroyer of the statues, images, icons, sculptures, and bas‑reliefs which abounded in all the churches which had sanctioned the Eastern or Greek ritual, there would be a temporary lull in the persecution, as was the case when Constantine. ("Copronymos," as the monks derisively called him) ascended the throne in 741, and signalized his acceptance by a general onslaught upon the statues and pictures of the Greek churches; but even he so far sympathized with the general hostility to the " Paulicians "—the name which their enemies then gave them—that he transplanted a large colony
EARLY PROTESTANTS OF THE EAST
of them to
Thrace that they might vex and annoy his heathen subjects, the Bulgarians, a
mixed race, part Tartar and part Sclavonian.
But
this movement, if it was intended as a punishment, failed of effect. The
Armenian Paulicians won their way to the hearts of their heathen neighbors and
converted great numbers of them to their own faith, and such was the influence
of their pure and exemplary lives upon the emperor, that in the later years of
his ion,, reign he too was considered a Paulician.4 But on the
accession of his son, Leo IV. (775‑78O), and still more under the regency
and rule of the ambitious but infamously cruel Irene, his widow, the images and
pictures were restored to the churches and the relentless persecution of the
Paulicians was renewed. Irene was dethroned and banished in 802, but the
persecuting disposition continued amid the frequent changes of rulers till 815,
when Leo V. for five years renewed the rule of the image‑breakers, and
the Paulicians had a brief period of rest. For the next twenty‑two years
foreign wars attracted the attention of the emperors—Michael II. and
Theophilus—from very active persecution.
EARLY PROTESTANTS OF THE EAST
SECTION IV.
THE CRUELTY AND BLOODTHIRSTINESS OF THE EMPRESS
THEODORA.—THE FREE STATE AND CITY OF TEPHRICE.
On the death
of Theophilus his empress, Theodora, became regent (her son, Michael III.,
being but five years of age), and for fifteen years ruled with a rod of iron.
It is a remarkable fact that the empresses and empress‑regents of these
Byzantine dynasties were always more cruel, destructive, and persecuting in
their dispositions than the emperors. Theodora was no exception to this rule.
She restored the images and pictures, convened a council of bishops at Nicaea,
which she compelled to register her edict for the maintenance of these
idolatrous pictures in the churches, and then turned her whole energies to the
destruction of the Armenian Paulicians. She issued her decree that all her
subjects should conform to the Greek Church, and when the Armenians refused she sent her armies into their land, put to death,
either by the sword or the stake, over one hundred thousand Paulicians (some accounts say two hundred
EARLY PROTESTANTS OF THE EAST
thousand), and drove the remainder into
exile.5
Satisfied at last that this cruel queen (whose private life was as infamous as her rule was imperious and despotic) meant nothing less than their utter extermination, the Armenians rose in rebellion, having as their leader a brave Paulician named Carseas, asserted their independence, and after driving Michael III. and the usurper Bardas out of Armenia and threatening Constantinople, established the free state of Tephrice with absolute freedom of opinion for all its inhabitants.6 From the capital of this free state, itself called Tephrice,7 went forth a host of missionaries to convert the Sclavonic tribes of Bulgaria, Bosnia, and Serbia to the Paulician faith. Great was their success—so great that a large proportion of the inhabitants of the free state migrated to what were then independent states beyond the emperor's control. The free state of Tephrice declined for some years, and finally became extinct by the emigration of most of its inhabitants and the surrender of the remainder to the Saracens. The times were not propitious to its permanence—for a higher
EARLY PROTESTANTS OF THE EAST
intelligence than then existed among the masses is essential to the existence of a free state—but it had lasted sufficiently long to demonstrate that the religious basis is the best on which to found a state, and that it was possible for a nation to exist while maintaining perfect religious freedom. More than seven hundred years later these problems were wrought out with a grand success on the coasts of a land in the far West, of whose existence no man then dreamed, the motives which prompted the establishment of a free state being the same in the latter as in the former case, and the doctrines professed by these exiles for their faith differing very slightly.
SECTION
V.
THE SCLAVONIC DEVELOPMENT OF THE CATHARIST, OR PAULICIAN, CHURCHES.—BULGARIA, BOSNIA, AND SERBIA ITS PRINCIPAL SEATS.—EUCHITES, MASSALIANS, AND BOGOMILS.
We have now
reached a stage in the history of
these Cathari, or Paulicians, when
EARLY PROTESTANTS OF THE EAST
their movement takes a new departure. Hitherto it has been mainly of Armenian origin; henceforward it becomes Sclavonic. Bulgaria has become an independent state—an empire, indeed—taking in both banks of the Danube and extending northward into what is now Southern Russia, and southward almost to the gates of Constantinople. More than once its czars, as its rulers were called, had knocked so loudly at those gates that the feeble successors of Constantine started back with affright and were ready to buy a peace by the payment of great sums of money. Two thousand pounds of gold, or nearly four hundred and fifty thousand dollars of our money (a vast sum in those days), was the tribute annually paid by one of these emperors to the Bulgarian czar. On the west and north‑west three other independent states were rising into prominence—Bosnia, Serbia, and Croatia. Their inhabitants were Sclavonians, and their government, at first patriarchal, had gradually taken on monarchical forms, till, though usually in accord, each state was practically independent; and for the most part all acted in concert with the semi‑Sclavonic empire of
EARLY PROTESTANTS OF THE EAST
Bulgaria in resisting the inroads of
the Greek emperors. Later they
united, now under a Serbian, now under a Bosnian, and anon under a Hungarian,
leader in fighting the Turk.
Already,
in the beginning of the tenth century, these independent states, and especially
Bosnia, had been considerabIy leavened with the Paulician doctrine, to which
its enemies, though never weary of denouncing them as Manichaeans, about this
time began to apply a new name, that of Bogomils or Bogomiles, while the
Bulgarian writers called them also Massalians alla Euchites. There are various
explanations of the origin of these names, the most plausible being that they
are substantially the same name translated into the Syriac, Greek, and
Sclavonic languages. The term Massalians
is said to be derived from a Syriac word signifying " those who
pray," and the Greek Euchites has
a similar meaning; while Bogomil is thought to be derived from the Bulgarian Bog z'milui, signifying "God have
mercy." Prayer being the most characteristic act of the Bogomilian
worship, as well
as of the sects
with which it was allied, this
derivation has the merit
of probability
EARLY PROTESTANTS OF THE EAST
as well as of tradition.8
Another tradition mentions a Bulgarian elder or pope (the Sclavonic term for priest) named Bogomil. This is a
possible Bulgarian name, and answers to the German Gottlieb or the Greek Theophilus,
each signifying "beloved of God."
The
believers in these doctrines, it should be observed, never called‑
themselves by any of these names, and had even dropped that of Cathari, which at an earlier period they
had assumed. They called themselves simply "Christians,"9
and it must be confessed that they did more honor to the name than any of their
persecutors.
SECTION VI.
THE BULGARIAN EMPIRE
AND ITS BOGOMIL CZARS.
THE doctrine
had during the tenth century taken deep root in Bulgaria and Servia. The czar
Samuel, the most illustrious ruler of the Bulgarian Empire, was himself a
convert to the faith, while of one of
the early Serbian princes, St. Vladimir, it is recorded that he was the zealous enemy of the
Bogomils,
EARLY PROTESTANTS OF THE EAST
though his son
Gabriel and his wife were members of that sect. From its first introduction
into these countries the professors of the
Bogomilian faith, under whatever names they were known, had been active
propagandists and missionaries, and their success was the more remarkable from
the extreme simplicity of their ritual and their absolute avoidance of all
appeals to the sensuous element in human nature. Though Bulgaria and Servia
were at this time independent states, at least so far as the Byzantine empire was
concerned, the state churches were in accord with the Church of Constantinople,
and acknowledged their allegiance to
the Greek Patriarch. Whatever we may think now of Byzantine architecture, the
gorgeous ornamentation of the churches
within and without, their chimes of bells, their pillars, porticoes, naves,
transepts, and chancels of the most costly marbles and syenites, their altars
resplendent with jewels, the sacred paintings and sculptures glowing with color which adorned the walls, the air heavy with the odor of precious incense, and
the richlyrobed priests and bishops who chanted and
EARLY PROTESTANTS OF THE EAST
intoned the service,—were all it would have seemed, so attractive to the Oriental taste, with its love of beauty and of sensuous delights, that no simpler and ruder service would have commanded their attention for a moment.
SECTION VII.
A BOGOMIL CONGREGATION AND ITS WORSHIP.—MOSTAR, ON THE N NARENTA.
BUT let us
picture to ourselves (and we have ample authority for the picture) a Bogomilian
assembly at the close of the tenth century. We will choose for our location the
ancient town of Mostar, in the Herzegovina, which was one of the principal
seats of the new doctrine. Along its streets on
the Lord's Day a company of plainly‑dressed Bosniacs wend their way
toward one of the narrow side streets of the town. They are met at every turn
by gayly‑dressed men and women, who are on their way either to the Greek church or to the theatre, and who are
laughing, shouting, and apparently in the highest spirits; yet they move forward
deliberately but determinedly
EARLY PROTESTANTS OF THE EAST
across
Trajan's beautiful bridge, which spans with a single arch of stone the swift
and rocky channel of the Narenta, toward a plain, barnlike structure, whose
rude stone walls and thatched roof give no indication that it is a temple for
the worship of the Most High. They all enter, and the spacious room, with its
bare walls and its rude benches, is soon filled. No pillars sustain the
comparatively low ceiling; no pictures, bas‑reliefs, or sculptures adorn
the walls or attract the attention of the worshippers There is no altar radiant
with gold and color, no screen for the choir, no pulpit even for the
officiating minister; but at the rear of the room a plain table covered with a
white linen cloth, and having upon it a manuscript copy of the New Testament,
and a roll on which are inscribed some of the grand and inspiring hymns of the
apostolic church, furnish the only. indications of the place of the leader of the
congregation. By the side of the table sits an old man whose white locks fall
upon his shoulders. His plain dress—that of the Bosniac farmer of that time—does not differ from that of the other men in
the congregation. His fine intellectual
face is hidden by his hand,
EARLY PROTESTANTS OF THE EAST
and his attitude and manner indicate
that he is engaged in silent prayer. Presently he rises from his seat, kneels
reverently—his example being followed by all the congregation—and utters with
evident sincerity and fervor a brief prayer full of feeling and evincing a
spirit of devotion which shows that he at least is worthy of the name of Bogomil—"the man who prays."
At
the conclusion of the prayer the whole congregation join him in reciting the
Lord's Prayer, closing with an audible "Amen." He next commences
chanting, in a voice of wonderful melody, some one of those hymns of the early
church with which Bunsen, in his Hippolytus,
has made us so familiar—hymns doubtless sung by the apostles, and believers
of their time. He then reads a portion of the New Testament history. Laying
down the precious manuscript, he proceeds to unfold to his eager hearers the
character and life of the incarnate Jesus. He tells of his poverty, his
sufferings, his rejection by men, his crucifixion, his reappearance in a more
glorious beauty and with a more manifest power; of his six weeks'
stay upon earth
EARLY PROTESTANTS OF THE EAST
in this semi‑glorified
condition, and of his return to heaven amid a throng of attendant angels and saints; and as he portrays him as the
Redeemer, the Abolisher of death, and the Conqueror over the Spirit of evil,
his eye grows brighter, his tall and commanding form is raised to its full
height, and, gazing upward as if, like Stephen, he saw the heavens opened, he
breaks forth in that sublime chant of the twenty‑fourth Psalm: "Lift
up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors, and the
King of glory shall come in." The congregation, deeply moved, chant in the
same tones the response, "Who is this King of glory?" and the elder,
again taking up the strain, replies, "The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord
mighty in battle. Lift up your leads, O ye gates, even lift them up, ye
everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in;" and as the
congregation again respond, "Who is this King of glory?" he answers,
in sweet but powerful tones, "The Lord of hosts, he is the King of
glory." Returning, after this episode,
to his discourse, the elder describes in such glowing terms the bliss and glory
of the heavenly state, the joys of the
redeemed, the
worthlessness
EARLY PROTESTANTS OF THE EAST
of all earthly honors or comforts, and
the insignificance of the trials and persecutions of the present life in
comparison with the glory that shall follow, that his hearers are quite lifted
above all earthly cares or disquietudes. In all this there is no appeal to the
sensuous element; the heaven he describes is not Mohammed's paradise—not even
the glowing and radiant "city of our God" which Chrysostom so
eloquently portrayed—but a heaven so spiritual, so pure, and so holy that none
but the pure in heart can ever hope to attain unto it. With another fervent
repetition of the Lord's Prayer, in which all the congregation join, adding
their earnest "Amens," the people disperse. In the after‑part
of the day, as the sun declines to the West, they again assemble for worship
and prayer, many of the congregation, and among them some of the older women,
participating in the prayers. The reverent repetition of the Lord's Prayer (the
presbyter Cosmas says five times on each Lord's Day) constituted an important
feature of their services.10
EARLY PROTESTANTS OF THE EAST
SECTION Vlll.
THE BOGOMILIAN Doctrines AND PRACTICES.—THE CREDENTES AND PERFECTI.—WERE THE CREDENTES BAPTIZED?
WHAT was the
daily life of these people, and what their relations to each other and to the
communities in which they lived? The question can only be answered by the
testimony of their adversaries—testimony which we may be certain will not be
too favorable to them.
They
had taken upon them the name of Christians—followers of Christ.11
Did they honor that name more than the so‑called orthodox members of the
Greek and Latin churches? Let us scan the evidence.
It is agreed by all the writers who speak of them that their
membership was divided into two classes, the Perfecti, or pure ones, and the Credentes,
or believers. The Perfecti were never very numerous. In 1240, when the
Bogomilian doctrines had spread over all Europe and the number of believers, or
Credentes, could not have been less than two millions and a half, and may have exceeded three
EARLY PROTESTANTS OF THE EAST
millions,
Reinero Sacconi, or, as Hallam and other English writers call him, Regnier, the
inquisitor, the best informed of their enemies, who had himself been at one
time a member of the sect, estimates the number of the Perfecti as not exceeding four thousand.12 These were
their leaders, or elders, and their devout women. They went forth to teach by
twos, like the seventy sent out by Christ. They were required to remain in a
state of celibacy and could not hold any property, these requirements being
probably intended to make their journeyings and itinerant labors less trying
and to secure their undivided consecration to their work. The presence that
they regarded marriage and the possession of property as mortal sins is a
fiction of their enemies, as their whole
history proves. This relinquishment of property on the part of the Perfecti they regarded as the fulfilment
of Christ's injunction to the young ruler (Matt. xix. 21): "If thou wilt
be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt
have treasure in heaven; and come and follow me." They were also to lead
ascetic lives, to eat only vegetables and
fish, and to fast
rigidly at certain
EARLY PROTESTANTS OF THE EAST
seasons of the year. They had peculiar signals for recognizing each other, and their support was contributed by the Credentes, or believers. They received the title of elders, and, in addition to their duties as preachers and pastors of the congregations, and missionaries to other lands, they alone had power to administer the consolamentum, or rite of initiation into the