BOGOMILS, the name of an ancient religious community which had its origin in Bulgaria. It is a complicated task to deter mine the true character and the tenets of ancient sects of this kind, considering that almost all the information that has reached us has come from their opponents. Concerning the Bogomils something can be gathered from the information collected by Euthymius Zygadenus in the 12th century, and from the polemic Against the Heretics written in Slavonic by St. Kozma during the zoth century. The old Slavonic lists of forbidden books of the 15th and i6th centuries also give us a clue to the discovery of this heretical literature and of the means the Bogomils employed to carry on their propaganda. Taking as our starting-point the teach ing of the heretical sects in Russia, notably those of the i4th century, which are a direct continuation of the doctrines held by the Bogomils, we find that they denied the divine birth of Christ, the personal co-existence of the Son with the Father and Holy Ghost, and the validity of sacraments and ceremonies. The mira cles performed by Jesus were interpreted in a spiritual sense, not as real material occurrences; the Church was the interior spiritual church in which all held equal share. Baptism was only to be practised on grown men and women. The Bogomils repudiated infant baptism, and considered the baptismal rite to be of a spiritual character neither by water nor by oil but by self-abne gation, prayers and chanting of hymns. Carp Strigolnik, who in the i4th century preached this doctrine in Novgorod, explained that St. Paul had taught that simple-minded men should instruct one another; therefore they elected their "teachers" from among themselves to be their spiritual guides, and had no special priests. Prayers were to be said in private houses, not in separate buildings such as churches. Ordination was conferred by the congregation and not by any specially appointed minister. The congregation were the "elect," and each member could obtain the perfection of Christ and become a Christ.
These doctrines have survived in the great Russian sects, and can be traced back to the teachings and practice of the Bogomils. But in addition they held the Manichaean dualistic conception of the origin of the world.
They taught that God had two sons, the elder Satanail and the younger Michael. The elder son rebelled against the father and became the evil spirit. After his fall he created the lower heavens and the earth and tried in vain to create man; in the end be had to appeal to God to make man a living being. After creation Adam was allowed to till the ground on condition that he sold himself and his posterity to the owner of the earth. Then Michael was sent in the form of a man ; he became identified with Jesus, and was "elected" by God after the baptism in the Jordan. When the Holy Ghost (Michael) appeared in the shape of the dove, Jesus became Christ and received power to break the covenant in the form of a clay tablet (hierographon) held by Satanail from Adam. In this way he vanquished Satanail, and deprived him of the termination -il=God, in which his power resided. Satanail was thus transformed into Satan. Through his machinations the crucifixion took place, and Satan was the originator of the whole Orthodox community with its churches, vestments, ceremonies, sacraments and fasts with its monks and priests.
According to Slavonic documents the founder of this sect was a certain priest Bogumil, who "imbibed the Manichaean teaching and flourished at the time of the Bulgarian emperor Peter" (927— 968) . According to another source the founder was called Jere miah (or there was another priest associated with him by the name of Jeremiah). The Slavonic sources are unanimous on the point that his teaching was Manichaean. Zealous missionaries, clad like mendicant friars, carried his doctrines far and wide. In 1004, scarcely 15 years after the introduction of Christianity into Russia, we hear of a priest Adrian teaching the same doctrines as the Bogomils. In 1125 the Church in the south of Russia had to combat another heresiarch named Dmitri. The Church in Bul garia also tried to extirpate Bogomilism but it survived for several centuries. The popes in Rome whilst leading the crusade against the Albigenses did not forget their counterpart in the Balkans and recommended the annihilation of the heretics.
The Bogomils first spread westwards, and settled in Serbia; but at the end of the 12th century Stephen Namanya, king of Serbia, persecuted them and expelled them from the country. Large numbers took refuge in Bosnia, where they were known under the name of Patarenes (q.v.). From Bosnia their influence extended into Italy (Piedmont). The Hungarians undertook many crusades against the heretics in Bosnia, but towards the close of the 15th century the conquest of that country by the Turks put an end to their persecution.
See the article "Bogomils" in Hastings' Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics; F. C. Conybeare, The Key of Truth (1898). The principal source of information on the doctrine of the Bogomils is the account given by Euthymius Zygadenus, in his work on 24 heresies (Migne, Patrologia Graeca vol. cxxx. ; Narratio de Bogomilis, edit. by Gieseler) .