The Bosnian Church (, ) was an autonomous Christian church in 13th–15th century Bosnia. There were several campaigns, crusades and inquisitions against heresy in Bosnia by the Pope and King of Hungary. Historians traditionally connected the church with the Bogomils, although this connection has been challenged and is now rejected by the majority of scholars. Adherents of the church called themselves simply ("Christians") or ("Good Bosnians"). The church's organisation and beliefs are poorly understood, because few if any records were left by church members; the church is mostly known from Catholic anti-heretical writings.
The monumental tombstones called that appeared in medieval Bosnia, as well as Croatia, Serbia, and Montenegro, are sometimes identified with the Bosnian Church.
Background Christianization and East–West Schism
Christian missions from Rome and Constantinople were sent into the Balkans in the 9th century, Christianizing the South Slavs, and establishing boundaries between the ecclesiastical jurisdictions of the See of Rome and the See of Constantinople. The East–West Schism then led to the establishment of Catholicism in Croatia proper and most of Dalmatia, while Eastern Orthodoxy came to prevail in Serbia. Lying in-between, the mountainous Bosnia proper was nominally under Rome, but Catholicism never became firmly established due to a weak church organization and poor communications. Medieval Bosnia thus remained a "no-man's land between faiths" rather than a meeting ground between the two Churches, leading to a unique religious history and the emergence of an "independent and somewhat heretical church". Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy predominated in different parts of what is today Bosnia 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 of Zachlumia (present-day Herzegovina) and along Bosnia's eastern border.
The bishopric of Bosnia () was mentioned in the 11th century, and was likely subordinated the Archdiocese of Split, until the 12th century when it was subordinated the Archdiocese of Ragusa. During the jurisdiction dispute between Ragusa and the Archdiocese of Antivari (elevated through Vukan Nemanjić), Ragusa stressed the rights over Zahumlje (also known as Hum) and "Serbia which is Bosna" (). This identification of Bosna stems from the fact that it had been a province of Serbia; following 1018, with the establishment of the Archbishopric of Ohrid, the territory west of the bishoprics of Syrmia, Ras and Prizren stayed under the jurisdiction of the maritime church centers which disputed over land in the hinterland. The bishopric of Bosnia was among those which used Slavic in liturgy, and naturally used Eastern liturgical books with models characteristic of the Eastern rite. It remains unknown how much that bishopric was rooted and even its seat is unknown.
Heresy and initial Papal measures
Dualistic heretics started expanding in Bosnia at the end of the 12th century and became rooted in the 13th century. The first news of Dualistic heresy in Bosnia stems from the reign of Ban Kulin ( 1180–1204). In 1199, Kulin was accused to have given refuge to heretics from the Dalmatian cities fleeing persecution. As the Serbian Grand Prince Stefan Nemanja ( 1166–1196) persecuted the "Bogomils", it is possible that a heretical group had also arrived from there. Vukan Nemanjić of Zeta, a newly made Catholic and Hungarian ally, wished to elevate the Archdiocese of Antivari (over Ragusa) and wrote to Pope Innocent III that Kulin and his family and 10,000 people had become heretics, without giving any description. Following this, the Archdiocese of Split (that was supported by Hungary) joined in on the accusations. The Papal Curia, already dealing with Western heretics, asked Hungarian king Emeric to deal with Bosnia, as it was a Hungarian vassal. Kulin averted this through the Bilino Polje abjuration council with the Archdiocese of Ragusa in April 1203, where according to Fine (1987) faulty teachings seem to have been errors of practice, stemming from ignorance, rather than heretical doctrines. The Bosnian monks () at the council renounced schism and recognized the Roman supremacy and promised to follow the rituals and way of life. The next year, the Papal legate Casamari described his mission as "against Patarenes in Bosnia" (), however, the study of the mission shows that rather than the conversion of rooted Dualistic heretics, these monks were simply Eastern monks that were not updated on the church reforms. The abjuration failed to change the situation in Bosnia, as the heretics were rooted and also kept arriving from neighbouring lands, which the bishopric in Bosnia was incapable of countering.
In the 1220s, heresy was present in Bosnia, Hum, Neretvanska krajina, Omiš, and somewhat also in Croatia. In a 1225 letter of Pope Honorius III, archbishop Ugrin Csák is encouraged to continue "eradicating heretics in Bosnia, Soli and Usora". In 1232, the bishop of Bosnia was accused of being uneducated, not even knowing the way of crossing, and his own brother was a leading heretic whom he protected, and lived together with heretics in the same village. Papal legate Jacobus Pecorari removed the Bosnian bishop in 1233, and the bishopric was then also removed from the hands of the Archdiocese of Ragusa due to inactivity against heresy and put directly under the Papal See. A "Latin", the Dominican friar Johannes Wildeshausen, was appointed the new bishop. The Papal mission against heresy was supported by the Hungarian king, prince, and Ban of Bosnia Matej Ninoslav. In 1234, Pope Gregory IX began the Bosnian Crusade to strengthen Catholicism in Bosnia, and that year Coloman of Galicia became the leader in the mission; while Coloman fought with the sword, bishop Wildeshausen fought with the book. Coloman was successful, and received the administration of Bosnia by August 1235, thereby becoming a feudal sovereign under his father Andrew II. Bishop John was exhausted and decided to leave, while Coloman likely led a war in 1236–1237, reportedly finished with "eradicating" heresy in a letter dated 26 April 1238. Ninoslav then accepted the new holdings of the Catholic church in Bosnia and gave away considerable rights to Hungary and the Catholic church, such as taxes and lands. In 1247, the Catholic bishop of Bosnia transferred to Slavonia and the seat became Đakovo, gifted by Coloman, and the diocese was subordinated the Hungarian Archdiocese of Kalocsa.
History
The transfer of the diocese to Đakovo ended this attempt at destroying the "heretics" in Bosnia, that were supported by local power. The local Bosnian bishopric was traditionally Slavic in liturgy and had local clergy, which made it easy for heretics to influence. Rome did not systematically try to erase the local Bosnian church after this, as this was isolated heresy in a small and remote land. The anti-heretical measures depended on the relation between Hungary and the Pope, and if Bosnia was deemed obedient enough for the Hungarian kings. The "crusades" against heresy in Bosnia in the late 14th- and the 15th centuries were more of political nature than related to church affairs, and were headed by the Franciscans.
Reinerius Saccho called the heresy on the Eastern Adriatic as one "Slavonic church" (). According to Croatian historian L. Špoljarić (2019), the Bosnian Church sprung from the Catholic bishopric of Bosnia that renounced Catholic allegiance in the first half of the 13th century, when the Hungarian-appointed bishop moved to Đakovo and the bishop was instead elected by the Bosnian ban and nobility, and the "Bosnian Church" gradually developed its own structure, functioning as a monastic order.
In 1280, heresy in Bosnia was still present, as per Hungarian king Ladislaus IV. It was not until Pope Nicholas' Bull Prae Cunctis in 1291 that the Franciscan-led Inquisition was imposed on Bosnia.Mitja Velikonja, Religious Separation and Political Intolerance in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Texas A&M University Press, 2003, p. 35
In 1459, facing increasing Ottoman pressure and seeking support from the Papacy, King Thomas of Bosnia shifted to persecute the Krstjani (called "Manicheans" in Papal documents) and forcibly converted 12,000 people. While forty of the church dignitaries were banished, three of the leading individuals of the Krstjani were deported to abjure in Rome, disproving "50 errors of Manichean heretics" in a public ceremony in front of the Pope on 14 May 1461. The Bosnian Church was thereby formally dismantled. In the spring of 1463, Bosnia fell after some weeks to the Ottoman Empire. The Bosnian Church had existed for two centuries.
Organization and characteristics The Bosnian Church used Slavic language in liturgy.
The church was headed by a bishop, called djed ("grandfather"), and had a council of twelve men called strojnici. The monks were known as krstjani or kršćani ('adherents of the Cross' or 'Christians'). Some of the adherents resided in small monasteries, known as hiže ( hiža, "house"), while others were wanderers, known as gosti ( gost, "guest"). It is difficult to ascertain how the theology differed from that of the Orthodox and Catholic. The practices were, however, unacceptable to both.
The church's organisation and beliefs are poorly understood, because few if any records were left by church members; the church is mostly known from anti-heretical Catholic writings.
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, nor involve itself in state issues very much. Notable exceptions were when King Stephen Ostoja of Bosnia, a member of the Bosnian Church himself, had a djed as an advisor at the royal court between 1403 and 1405, and an occasional occurrence of a krstjan elder being a mediator or diplomat.
Origin There are several conclusions made by scholars regarding the origin and formation of the Bosnian Church.
According to Dragojlović (1987), the organization, teachings and rituals could only be understood in the frame of theological mysticism in the Eastern Church, which the believers adopted from domestic monks and not from dualistic heretics whose organization and teachings are unknown in krstjani sources. The organization, teachings and rituals of the Bosnian Church show that it sprung from the older unreformed hermitic monasticism that developed outside the Byzantine sphere, rather than being an affiliation of the Eastern Bogomilism or Western Catharism. The older hermitic monasticism in the other South Slavic lands were put under Orthodox Church control in the late 12th- and beginning of 13th century through erecting churches and introducing monastic rules, adapting into Cenobitic monasticism. The hierarchy, internal organization and teachings prove its origin in this type of monasticism. Catholic sources called the krstjani heretics "monks" (regulantes and monachos), while native sources used the terms redovi, redovnici, sveti ljudi, božiji ljudi, terms used in the Eastern Church for hermit monks. The hierarchy ranks of "elder" (starac, djed) and gost originated in Eastern monasticism. The krstjani held monasticism as the highest sacrament, edited from Eastern monasticism.