| Bosnian Church | |
|---|---|
| Crkva bosanska | |
 Ban Kulin's tablet | |
| Type | Independent church |
| Classification | Chalcedonian Christianity, deemed heretical by Catholic and Orthodox churches |
| Governance | Episcopal |
| Language | Proto-Serbo-Croatian |
| Headquarters | Mile |
| Territory | Banate andKingdom of Bosnia |
| Independence | 12th century |
| Defunct | c. late 15th century |
TheBosnian Church (Serbo-Croatian:Crkva bosanska,Црква босанска) was an autonomousChristian church inmedieval Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Historians traditionally connected the church with theBogomils, although this has been challenged and is now rejected by the majority of scholars.[1] Adherents of the church called themselves simplyKrstjani ("Christians") orDobri Bošnjani ("Good Bosnians"). The church's organization and beliefs are poorly understood, because few if any records were left by church members and the church is mostly known from the writings of outside sources — primarily Catholic ones.[2]
The monumental tombstones calledstećak that appeared in medieval Bosnia, as well asCroatia,Serbia, andMontenegro, are sometimes identified with the Bosnian Church.
Christian missions fromRome andConstantinople were sent into the Balkans in the 9th century,Christianizing theSouth Slavs, and establishing boundaries between theecclesiastical jurisdictions of theSee of Rome and theSee of Constantinople. TheEast–West Schism then led to the establishment ofCatholicism inCroatia and most ofDalmatia, whileEastern Orthodoxy came to prevail inSerbia.[3] Lying in-between, the mountainousBosnia was nominally under Rome,[3] but Catholicism never became firmly established due to a weak church organization[3] and poor communications.[4]Medieval Bosnia thus remained a "no-man's land between faiths" rather than a meeting ground between the two Churches,[4] leading to a uniquereligious history and the emergence of an "independent and somewhatheretical church".[3]
Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy predominated in different parts of what is todayBosnia and Herzegovina; the followers of the former formed a majority in the west, the north, and in the center of Bosnia, while those of the latter were a majority in most ofZachlumia (present-dayHerzegovina) and along Bosnia's eastern border. This changed in the mid-13th century, when the Bosnian Church began eclipsing the Roman.[5] While Bosnia remained nominally Catholic in theHigh Middle Ages, theBishop of Bosnia was a local cleric chosen by Bosnians and then sent to theArchbishop of Ragusa solely forordination. Although thePapacy already insisted on usingLatin as theliturgical language, Bosnian Catholics retained theChurch Slavonic language.[5]
In 1199 the ruler ofDuklja,Vukan Nemanjić, wrote toPope Innocent III that Bosnian rulerKulin and his family and 10,000 other Bosnians had become heretics. TheArchbishop of Spalato, vying for control over Bosnia, joined Vukan and accused the Archbishop of Ragusa of neglecting hissuffragan diocese in Bosnia.Emeric, King of Hungary, a supporter of Spalato, also seized this opportunity to try to extend his influence over Bosnia.[6] Further accusations against Kulin, such as harbouring heretics, ensued until 1202. In 1203, Kulin moved to defuse the threat of foreign intervention. Asynod was held at his instigation on 6 April. Following theabjuration of Bilino Polje, Kulin succeeded in keeping the Bosnian Diocese under the Ragusan Archdiocese, thus limiting Hungarian influence. The errorsabjured by the Bosnians inBilino Polje seem to have been errors of practice, stemming from ignorance, rather than heretical doctrines.[7]
The bid to consolidate Catholic rule in Bosnia in the 12th to 13th centuries proved difficult. TheBanate of Bosnia held strict trade relations with theRepublic of Ragusa, and Bosnia's bishop was under the jurisdiction of Ragusa. This was disputed by theHungarians, who tried to achieve their jurisdiction over Bosnia's bishops, but Bosnia's firstBan Kulin averted that. In order to conduct acrusade against him, the Hungarians turned to Rome, complaining toPope Innocent III that the Kingdom of Bosnia was a centre ofheresy, based on the refuge that someCathars (also known asBogomils orPatarenes) had found there. To avert the Hungarian attack,Ban Kulin held a public assembly on 8 April 1203 and affirmed his loyalty to Rome in the presence of an envoy of the Pope, while the faithful abjured their mistakes and committed to following the Catholic doctrine.[8] Yet, in practice this was ignored. After the death of Kulin in 1204, a mission was sent to convert Bosnia to Rome but failed.[9]
.jpg)
On 15 May 1225,Pope Honorius III spurred the Hungarians to undertake theBosnian Crusade. That expedition, like the previous ones, turned into a defeat, and the Hungarians had to retreat when theMongols invaded their territories. In 1234, theCatholic Bishop of Bosnia was removed byPope Gregory IX for allowing supposedly heretical practices.[9] In addition, Gregory called on the Hungarian king to crusade against the heretics in Bosnia.[10] However, Bosnian nobles were able to expel the Hungarians once again.[11]
In 1252,Pope Innocent IV decided to put Bosnia's Bishop under the HungarianKalocsa jurisdiction. This decision provoked the schism of the Bosnian Christians, who refused to submit to the Hungarians and broke off their relations with Rome.[12] In that way, an autonomous Bosnian Church came into being, in which many scholars later saw a Bogomil or Cathar church, whilst more recent scholars such as Noel Malcolm and John Fine maintain that no trace ofBogomilism,Catharism, or otherdualism can be found in the original documents of the Bosnian Christians.[13]
It was not until Pope Nicholas' BullPrae Cunctis in 1291 that theFranciscan-ledInquisition was imposed on Bosnia.[14] Bogomilism was eradicated in Bulgaria and theByzantine Empire in the 13th century, but survived in Bosnia and Herzegovina until theOttoman Empire gained control of the region in 1463.
The Bosnian Church coexisted with the Catholic Church (and with the few Bogomil groups) for most of theLate Middle Ages, but no accurate figures exist as to the numbers of adherents of the two churches. Several Bosnian rulers wereKrstjani, while others adhered to Catholicism.Stjepan Kotromanić shortly reconciled Bosnia with Rome, while ensuring at the same time the survival of the Bosnian Church. Notwithstanding the incoming Franciscan missionaries, the Bosnian Church survived, although weaker and weaker, until it disappeared after the Ottoman conquest.[15]
Outsiders accused the Bosnian Church of links to the Bogomils, a stridentlydualist sect ofGnostic Christians heavily influenced by theManichaeanPaulician movement. The Bogomil heretics were at one point mainly centered in Bulgaria and are now known by historians as the direct progenitors of the Cathars. TheInquisition reported the existence of a dualist sect in Bosnia in the late 15th century and called them "Bosnian heretics", but this sect was according to some historians most likely not the same as the Bosnian Church. The historian Franjo Rački wrote about this in 1869 based on Latin sources, but the Croatian scholar Dragutin Kniewald in 1949 established the credibility of the Latin documents in which the Bosnian Church is described as heretical.[16] It is thought today that the Bosnian Church's adherents, who werepersecuted both by the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches,predominantly converted to Islam upon the arrival of the Ottomans, thus adding to the ethnogenesis of the modern-dayBosniaks.[15] According to Bašić, the Bosnian Church was dualist in character, and so was neither a schismatic Catholic nor Orthodox Church.[17]
The religious centre of the Bosnian Church was located inMoštre, nearVisoko, where the House of Krstjani was founded.[18] Some historians contend that the Bosnian Church had largely disappeared before the Ottoman conquest in 1463.[citation needed]
The Bosnian Church usedSlavic language inliturgy.[19]
The church was headed by a bishop, calleddjed ("grandfather"), and had a council of twelve men calledstrojnici. The monk missionaries were known askrstjani orkršćani ('adherents of theCross' or 'Christians').[19] Some of the adherents resided in small monasteries, known ashiže (hiža, 'house'), while others were wanderers, known asgosti (gost, "guest").[19] It is difficult to ascertain how the theology differed from that of the Orthodox and Catholic.[19] The practices were, however, unacceptable to both.[19]
The Church was mainly composed of monks in scattered monastic houses. It had no territorial organization and it did not deal with any secular matters other than attending people's burials. It did not involve itself in state issues very much.[citation needed] Notable exceptions were when KingStephen Ostoja of Bosnia, a member of the Bosnian Church himself, had adjed as an advisor at the royal court between 1403 and 1405, and an occasional occurrence of akrstjan elder being a mediator or diplomat.[citation needed]
There are several conclusions made by scholars regarding the origin and formation of the Bosnian Church.
Thekrstjani, based on their writings, believed in "one All-Mighty God", understood in theTrinity of father, son and holy spirit – "one Lord Jesus Christ", son of the "HolyBogorodica" (Theotokos), the Creator "of all that exists", "without whom nothing existed that existed" and in "one holy and undividable Trinity".[23] This is opposed to dualistic teachings.[20]
The Bosnian Church counted the Old TestamentPatriarchs andProphets among "God's People", while the medieval dualistic sects viewed those as the "servants of the Devil".[22] Thekrstjani adopted the mystical dualism from the Eastern Church regarding the Devil.[20]
As the hermit monks, thekrstjani prayed in the open.[23] They buried their dead and put upgravestones, and prayed for them.[23] Their books were illustrated with crosses, Jesus Christ, Virgin Mary, Old Testament prophets, apostles and saints.[23]
The titledjed (literally "grandfather") was used of the head of the indigenous Bosnian Church from the late 13th century into the 15th. The first twelve names on the list below are found in a single column inBatalo's Gospel, a manuscript made for the Bosnian noblemanBatalo in 1393 and often calledRed gospodina Rastudija (transl. Order of Bishop Rastudije). They are listed in reverse order, with the name of the incumbent djedRastudije first followed by his predecessors back to Ratko in the late 13th century. The list does not have dates for their reigns, but a few of them are known from other acts. If the list was complete at the time it was written down, then Ratko was either the first to use the title djed or represents a break in the history of the Bosnian church.[29]
Another list, containing 16 names, appears in a column to the left of the list of djed in Batalo's Gospel. This has sometimes been taken for a list of Ratko's predecessors, but it does not line up with known data and how it should be read in relation to the other column is not clear. Three of the names—Dragič, Ljubin andDražeta—are known from theabjuration of Bilino Polje in 1203, so the list is perhaps a list of revered Bosnian monks (not bishops).[29]
The Bosnian Church has attracted scholars' attention for centuries, with Croatian historianFranjo Rački publishing the firstmonograph on the subject,Bogomili i Patareni (1870), in which it is argued that the Bosnian Church was essentiallyGnostic and Manichaean in nature. This interpretation was supported and elaborated upon by a host of historians, most prominentlyDominik Mandić,Sima Ćirković,Vladimir Ćorović,Miroslav Brandt, andFranjo Šanjek.[citation needed] However, a number of other historians (Leo Petrović,Jaroslav Šidak,Dragoljub Dragojlović,Dubravko Lovrenović, andNoel Malcolm) argued that the theology of Bosnian Christian writings was impeccably orthodox, and claimed the phenomenon can be sufficiently explained by the relative isolation of Bosnian Christians, which retained many archaic traits predating theEast-West Schism in 1054.[citation needed]
Conversely, American historian of the Balkans,John Fine Jr., does not believe in the dualism of the Bosnian Church at all.[30] Though he represents his theory as a "new interpretation of the Bosnian Church", his view is very close to the theories of J. Šidak and several other scholars before him.[31] He believes that while there could have been heretical groups alongside the Bosnian Church, the group was inspired by Papal overreach.[citation needed]
The Bosnian Church has been described by some authors as aforerunner of Protestantism.[32][33][34]
But within a short time both Rome and Constantinople had excommunicated the Bosnian Church , which claimed to represent the true form of Christianity . ... The Bosnian faith was , in a way , the forerunner of the great Reformation
The Bosnian Church has, however, been described primarily as a heretic Catholic sect. It has furthermore been seen as a forerunner to the Protestants
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
