Religious movements in medieval Europe are both deeply investigated and well documented, yet the existence of the medieval Church of Bosnia and its sudden disappearance is proving to be an insolvable puzzle. The unique Bosnian medieval gravestones, long associated with the Bosnian Church, are, in fact, a specificity of the Bosnian state. The Bosnian Church members, keen to distinguish themselves from both Catholicism and Orthodoxy, resisted many attempts of conversion while enduring long-lasting political and military pressures. Despite comparisons with contemporary ‘heretical’ movements there is no evidence that the Bosnian Church professed and worshiped anything else but one, omnipotent God.
Bosnian Medieval Tombstones
For a long time the unusual monuments found across Bosnia and Hercegovina, referred to as the Bogomil Tombstones, have been thought to be a unique feature of the medieval Bosnian Church. The theories thus have spread, which linked the Bosnian Church to the Bogomilism - a Manichean, dualist theology. The evidence, however, shows that these enormous gravestones, known in local language as stecci, are not a specificity of any religious denomination.
These stones, often beautifully decorated with mysterious symbols and poetic inscriptions, were erected by Catholics, Orthodox as well as Bosnian Church members throughout Bosnia, so they can only be seen as a cultural phenomenon of the medieval Bosnian state - not a specific feature of the Bosnian Church. This, and the lack of evidence that the Bosnian Church members ever referred to themselves as Bogomils, made the identifications with dualist beliefs, primarily Bogomilism and sometimes Catharism, much less plausible.
Bogomils and Bosnia
While it is certainly true that, in the medieval period, Bogomils were relatively numerous within Bosnia proper, their settlement there was largely due to persecutions and expulsions from both the western and, especially, the eastern side of Christendom. By the time they settled in Bosnia in any significant number there was already an indigenous form of Christianity not only distinguishable from the Catholicism and Orthodoxy but also enjoying protection of rulers and noblemen powerful enough to offer a kind of safe heaven to those deemed heretical by the Papacy.
What’s more, both the rulers and their subjects appeared tolerant in regard to religious matters – an unusual and rarely matched occurrence in the medieval Europe. Not surprisingly, such Bosnia was often exposed to the criticism of the Holy See which, above all, preferred religious purity.
Bosnian Church Hierarchy
Despite the fact that, according to much of the local evidence, it had retained the basic Catholic theology throughout its existence, the Bosnian Church appears to have been unique in many aspects - most notably perhaps, in the titles given to the clergy and the way they were organized. Differing from both Western Catholic and Eastern Orthodox traditions, its leaders were not called bishops or metropolitans- instead their titles were in Slav language as was the liturgy of the Bosnian Church - thus deliberately avoiding even nominal allegiance to either Rome or Constantinople.
The overall head of the Bosnian Church carried the title of djed (lit. grandfather) and had a council of twelve dignitaries called strojnici (stewards). The council was comprised of his immediate subordinates gosti (sing. gost, meaning host)- who were the heads of small monastic units or hiže (lit. house)- and those next in rank called starci (elders). The remaining and non-ranked clergy of the Church of Bosnia were ordinary monks called simply Krstjani (Christians).
Bosnian Churches
The Bosnian Church probably never built many buildings designated solely for religious services - the religious gatherings, it is suggested, were often performed under the open sky or in the homes of the more prominent followers. Consequently, very few sites have been identified as the original Bosnian churches.
The churches themselves were very modest buildings though probably perfectly functional. Deprived of any architectural grandiosity they were in accordance with the theories that the Bosnian Church was very non-materialistically orientated; devotees are believed to have led deeply ascetic lives depriving themselves of many ‘earthly pleasures’ including meat-eating. The latest claim though, may well be derived from the assumptions, now believed to be false, that the Bosnian Church was heavily influenced by the Bogomilism.
As for it non-materialistic teachings, it is often pointed out that gost Radin, one of its legendary dignitaries, left in his will a considerable fortune that included vineyards, and six hundred golden ducats- a significant wealth, especially for a supposedly modest monk. The document, however, which survived to this day, also reveals him as a charitable good-doer; he ordered that all of his possession be distributed to the poor.
Similarly, his protector and friend, Stefan Vukcic Kosaca, the Duke of Hum (today’s Herzegovina), assigned some of his fortune for a new Bosnian church to be built. Though an Orthodox himself, Herzeg (Duke) Vukcic, was a life-long supporter of the Church of Bosnia, continuing the tradition of his noble family dating back to the earliest days of the Church.
'Heresy' and the Crusade Against Bosnia
In the course of its existence, the accusations of heresy against the Bosnian Church and the efforts to suppress it were almost constant. In 1235 these efforts culminated in an open crusade against ‘heretical’ Bosnians; instigated by the Pope Gregory IX and conducted by the Hungarian army, the crusade lasted more than five years at the end of which the Hungarians left without achieving any success. In fact, immediately after repelling the Pope’s army, Bosnians asserted their independence of both the Hungarian crown and the Papal influence.
Instrumental in the resistance to papal forces were Bosnian noblemen who, by large, protected their subjects, suggesting thus an early link between medieval Bosnian state and the indigenous form of religion against which the attacks were supposedly directed. This link was apparent long before 1235 and became even stronger afterwards. Historically, a pattern of accusations about the heresy seems to coincide with the pattern of Bosnian noblemen’s periodic refusals to succumb to demands of papal agents designated to oversee the economic affairs in the area and therefore suggest political rather than purely theological reasons for the reprisals.
Though the Bosnian Church was never declared the State’s Church, and its officials were not directly involved in the running of state, it had many stern supporters amongst Bosnian nobility including the rulers of the Bosnian state. Some, in fact, had Church members on their courts as advisers or diplomats but this, as far as it is known, was a regular occurrence only in the later period of both the Bosnian Church and the Bosnian medieval state.
The Establishment of the Bosnian Church
Though the exact time of the establishment of the Bosnian Church cannot be pinpointed with any certainty, it appears to have acquired a more formal authority soon after Bosnians rebuffed the papal crusade and the consequent attempts to place it under Hungarian diocesan authority, having previously been the nominal responsibility of the Ragusan clergy (today’s town of Dubrovnik). “In 1252, instead of accepting the pope’s appointment of a Hungarian bishop to supervise them, Bosnia’s clerics broke with Rome and established their own Church of Bosnia” (Frucht, ed., Eastern Europe).
Following this schismatic move, Bosnian rulers, protecting Bosnian independence, immediately banned the Catholic clergy from entering Bosnia and there were no official Catholic missions in Bosnia proper for the next ninety years until, in 1342, “the Bosnian Ban (ruler’s title) Kotromanic designated the monastic Franciscan order as the state’s sole Catholic institution” (Frucht). The Franciscans remained the sole Catholic officials for the next five hundred years, until Bosnia came under the rule of the Habsburgs.
The Fall of Bosnian Kingdom and Disappearance of Bosnian Church
Although it is often thought that the Bosnian Church disappeared as the result of Ottoman Conquest, there is evidence that it was significantly weakened even before that. In 1459, King Stefan Tomaš of Bosnia asked Pope Pius II for his support against the imminent Ottoman invasion. The Pope conditioned his aid upon conversion of Bosnian Church clergy to the Catholicism. The King complied, summoned the entire clergy and gave them ultimatum; conversion or exile. According to the Papal sources, two thousands converted and only forty refused (Fine, Bosnian Church). The Bosnian king himself thus broke the spine of the Bosnian Church - to no great avail however, as the Papal aid never materialised.
A repeated appeal for support was made in the late 1461 by Tomaš’ s son and successor on the throne, King Stefan Tomaševic. The Pope responded with an act of utmost cynicism - he sent him a royal crown and his blessings. Less than two years later, Stefan Tomaševic, the last King of Bosnia, surrendered himself to the Ottoman invaders on the promise of truce. He was immediately beheaded and the medieval Bosnian State officially ceased to exist. The remaining members of the Church of Bosnia soon dissolved in conversions to Islam, Catholicism and Orthodoxy.
World’s First Protestant Church
Throughout its existence the Bosnian Church remained intricately linked to the medieval Bosnian State. Existing in a region where two main Christian traditions of the time, Orthodox and Catholic, competed for the ‘souls’, the Bosnian Church appears to have been influenced by both - yet none could claim monopoly over its theology or customs. Despite its undoubtedly ecclesiastical character, it never aligned itself with the Eastern Orthodoxy nor did it follow Rome to any degree deemed satisfactory by the Papacy. Just like the Bosnian state itself, the only ‘earthly’ entity to which it was loyal, the Bosnian Church functioned more or less independently throughout the medieval period.
Although its theological position remains poorly understood there are strong indications that the Church of Bosnia, if only unwittingly, was the organic precursor to Protestantism - in existence long before Martin Luther instigated Reformation and a little longer before Henry VIII established the Church of England.
References:
Noel, M., Bosnia- A Short History, Macmillan, London , (1994, 1996).
Donia, R. J., Fine, J. V.A. , Bosnia and Hercegovina-A Tradition Betrayed, Hurst, London (1994, 1997).
Fine, J.V.A., The Early Medieval Balkans-A critical Survey from the Sixth to the Late Twelfth Century, University of Michigan Press, (1991).
Frucht, R.C., Eastern Europe, (19. January 2011)
Bekir Sabic - Bekir Sabic writes both fiction and non-fiction. His literary interests include history, religion and art. He lives in Essex, ...
Join the Conversation