Abjuration of the Bosnian-Hum Christians in the Context of Heterodox Movements in the Christian West of the 12th and 13th Centuries Cover Image

Abjuraciaj bosansko-humskih krstjana u kontekstu heterodoksnih pokreta na kršćanskom Zapadu u 12./13. stoljeću
Abjuration of the Bosnian-Hum Christians in the Context of Heterodox Movements in the Christian West of the 12th and 13th Centuries

Author(s): Franjo Šanjek
Subject(s): History
Published by: Institut za istoriju
Keywords: Christianity; heretics; dualism; Kathar heresy; Heresy

Summary/Abstract: In the 12th century, along the Eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea, the heretics started emerging of dualistic worldview, organized in the Dalmatian (Ecclesia Dalmatiae, 1167), and Slavonian churches (Ecclesia Sclavoniae, 1200), that question, by way of their pessimism, not only the institutions of the church but also the established social system. The Synod of Split in 1185 repeats the condemnation of Cathars, Patharens, Humiliates, the Poor of Lyon and other heretics who have been banned in 1184 by the Assembly held in Verona, while Pope Urban III recommends to the Croatian episcopate “not to let the formation of secular groups that call themselves brotherhoods (fraternitaes)”. According to the Treatise on heretics by the Dominican priest Anselmo of Alexandria (1260/1270); the roots of medieval dualism derive from the Persian Mani (216-277). In Bosnia this teaching appears by the end of the 12th century. Pope Innocent III, in October 1200 wrote to the Hungaro-Croatian King Emerich, that his vassal, the Bosnian Kulin Ban “provided a safe heaven and protection to a small number of Patharens who were expelled from Split and Trogir by the Archbishop of Split”. Two years later, the same Pope writes “in the lands of Kulin Ban, there are a lot of certain men who have been seriously suspected and very much notorious for their condemned Kathar heresy”. It seems that the dispute was solved on 8th and 30th of April, 1203, by the Bilino Polje abjuration, but in the 1230s there were again the accusations against the krstjani known as ‘haeretici in Bosnia’, ‘hostes crucifixi’, ‘haeretici in Sclavoniae partibus’, for whose suppression the church and civilian authorities used the services of crusaders and Inquisition. By mid-13th century the catholic Bosnian bishop moves his residence to Đakovo (Slavonia), leaving the Bosnian territory to the krstjani who would organize, in the area of the Catholic Bosnian dioceses a powerful heterodox Bosnian Church (13th to 15th centuries).

  • Issue Year: 2003
  • Issue No: 32
  • Page Range: 11-16
  • Page Count: 6
  • Language: Croatian