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The essentials of Bogomil teaching in
Macedonia
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I
doubt if we shall ever fully discover the essentials of Bogomil teaching,
particularly in the original form given to it by Father Bogomil, whose preaching
was directly responsible for the action taken by his followers towards settling
the conflicts within society. Nor do I think we will ever come any closer
to knowing about the initial action taken by the Bogomils, and their first
clashes with the official Bulgarian authorities in Macedonia. The supporters
of the feudal establishment n not only Bulgarian reactionaries, but others
as well -- alarmed by the the strength of this revolutionary movement which
had damned the feudal social order as "the work of Satan", turned
on the Bogomil preachers with fire and sword, persecuted them and burnt
their books to prevent them, as Kosta Ratsin says, from rousing the people
and inflaming their spirit, and also to ensure that future generations should
have no knowledge of the Bogomil revolutionary teaching.4 As a result, all
that has been left to us by the feudal reactionaries are a few anti-Bogo-
mil books, which we are forced to use today in our efforts to trace back
the origins of the Bogomil movement and to discover the essence of this
teaching as revealed in the cosmogony m the theory of the origins of the
heavens and of man, and the eschatology which tells of the fate of the world
and of mankind.
Like all theological teachings concerning the creation and fall of man and
the world, the Bogomilist cosmogony and eschatology, conceived by Father
Bogomil and further developed by his followers,65 was in fact a general
theory of the world. It was, as Marx would have said, the world's encyclopaedic
compendium, its logic in popular form, such as the religious masses of the
distant Middle Ages might understand and so join in the active movement
for the settlement of the social conflicts that followed in the wake of
the feudal order imposed by the new rulers in Macedonia. The Bogomil theological
and philosophical system was in fact, like all other forms of religious
teaching, merely a fantastic mental image of the external forces that govern
man's everyday life, an image in which earthly powers took on a supernatural
form. Thus all this fantastic dualist teaching about good and evil gods,
which lay at the very base of the Bogomilist theological and philosophical
conception of the world and mankind, was simply a highly inaginative reflection
and expression of the revolutionary forces that were then in a state of
ferment in Macedonia, for, in spite of feudalism, the Macedonian Slavs put
up fierce resistance to the armed might and oppression of Tsar Simeon and
Tsar Petar. This resistance sprang from the strength of their clans, in
which they were ethnically united against the foreigner who was bent on
destroying their ancient patriarchal way of life. Thus when Bogomilism appeared
in Macedonia, despite its religious form, it was not a straight battle over
a mere religious dogma; it was a battle being waged for quite different
reasons, rooted in the existential interests of society, in the people's
desire for a free life. The fact that this battle had to be fought under
the guise of religion does not change anything at all, for if one recalls
that the church had succeeded in gaining the monopoly over spiritual matters
it will be dear that every form of thought, even revolutionary, was forced
to take on a theological character. And if one considers, furthermore, that
throughout the Middle Ages the spirit of the common people was nourished
on nothing but religion, it is self-evident that in those times theological
argument was the most powerful instrument available for rousing the masses
to action against exploitation and the feudal order, all the more so since
these arguments were devised and propounded not by secular ideologists but
by members of the clergy, such as the founder of the Bogomil movement, Father
Bogomil himself.
The development of such a system of concepts, attitudes, and views of the
world as formulated in the theories of Father Bogomil was inevitably conditioned
by the seething discontent at the very core of Macedonian society, among
the Macedonian Slavs. This took the form of a fierce struggle to safeguard
the ancient Slav way of life from the incursions of the Turano-Bulgars,
who were subjecting them to the new and foreign norms of feudal life and,
hence, to exploitation. The philosophy of Bogomilism is, in fact, a true
reflection of the socio-political needs of the oppressed Slav masses in
Macedonia, who, having been taught by the Bogomils that they should be the
guardians of "pure" Christianity, launched a savage attack against
the degradation, oppression, and exploitation inflicted upon them by the
foreign invader. In their fantastical conception of the origin of the heavens
and mankind, and of the fate of the world and man, the Bogomils personified
the conflict of forces actually taking place within Macedonian society.
Since the feudal concept of life had received the blessing and support of
the official Church, which declared that the new order was- like all feudal
institutions m the work of God, the Bogomils answered that it was not the
work of God but of Satanail, who was responsible for the creation of the
feudal order and hierarchy, right from the Tsar and the gentry to the Church
and high clerics, and who had also created the material world. Unlike the
theological monism of official Christianity, in which one person, God, figures
as creator of the world and of mankind, Bogomilism believed in two forces
of creation, the good God and the evil God. It was Satanail, the evil God,
who represented the material world and darkness.
This theological dualism, which became part of the Bogomil cosmogony and
eschatology, was not uniquely attributable to Bogomilism or to Father Bogomil.
On the contrary, as we have seen, similar dualist views were held by the
Manichaeans, the Paulicians, and the Massalians, who also exerted a considerable
influence on Bogomilism. In spite of these influences, however, Bogomilism
was not a pure copy of these teachings, for it was a philosophy with a new
dualist concept. As opposed to the idea of a world with two principles of
creation, two motive forces, such as these other movements held, Bogomilism
stressed the idea of the prime power of a single God the Creator, with a
second god -- Satanail -- appearing later as creator of the material world.
It was to him that the feudal order belonged, and he would eventually be
overcome and defeated by the good God. While the good God was creating the
seven heavens together with the sun, the moon, the spirit of life and the
four elements: water, earth, air and fire, which in nebulous form hovered
in the first of the seven heavens, Satanail was bringing order to these
nebulous elements and creating his own empire.
This "devil's world" ruled by Satan's force came into being in
the following way." Satanail, after wandering ceaselessly through the
seven heavens, wished to make himself equal with the Father and become the
creator of a new world. For material he used the nebulous elements from
the infinite space of the first heaven, where a watery mass in the form
of heavy black clouds enshrouded the hard earth, inside which a fiery mass
was heaving. In his desire to create a new world he took some of the angels
with him, and when he reached the clouds he stopped and said:
"All that lies there below is mine. If you will aid me to raise my
throne above the clouds I shall become all-powerful, and once I have lifted
up some of the harder matter and set it above the very waters, which I shall
contain in great seas, there will no longer be any water on the surface
of all the earth and then I shall rule with you for evermore.TM When God,
the Father, learnt of the intentions of his dissatisfied son, Satanail,
his wrath was so great that he immediately deprived him of the light with
which he had been surrounded and drove him from heaven together with the
fallen angels, hurling him down to the hard earth in the infinite pit below
the seven heavens.
Satanail, however, did not let things rest at this. Since he still possessed
the power of creation he did not intend to
relinquish his intention of becoming the creator of a world, and so he resolved-
as indeed he had earlier intended- to put order into the chaotic material
on which he now rested. However, since this could not be done without God's
agreement, he turned to his father and begged him for permission to create
an empire over which he might rule for only seven ages, during which time
he would work with all his energy to create generations of people to take
the place of the fallen angels, and in this way pay for his evil intentions
in wishing to make himself equal to his father, the Lord and Creator of
the Seven Heavens and the Light. After receiving permission from his father,
Satanall set about the creation of his empire, beginning by raising the
land above the water and then turning the water into great seas and into
clouds. Thereafter Satanail created all things that live in the water, that
fly, and move upon land and sea; and he covered the earth with vegetation.
And over all this he set the heavens and the stars, and between the stars
he placed the sun and the moon, which he had stolen together with the life
spirit from his father. Once he had created all this, Satanall formed the
body of Adam, the first man, out oi the clay of the earth. But a difficulty
arose when he had to fill him with God's spirit and make him live. Satanail
tried to force the stolen spirit through Adam's mouth. But the spirit, forced
in through the mouth, issued forth from the other end of the body. Satanail
repeated the operation several times but on each occasion the spirit escaped
either through the rear of the body or through the front end, if he tried
to block the rear with his hand. Since he could not manage to contain the
spirit in the material body, Satanail left off trying and paused to consider
in what other way it might be done. It took him a full three hundred years
of contemplation to realise that he might succeed if he were to use unclean
matter to block Adam's mouth. And so he began to devour animals -- snakes,
insects, dogs, cats, frogs, mice, foxes, wolves, and other creatures --
after he had crammed his mouth with unclean matter he took Adam's lifeless
body, blocked the rear end with his hand, and forced the spirit in through
his mouth. At the moment when he breathed the spirit into Adam he spewed
out all the filth, flesh and bones, into Adam's mouth, thus sealing in the
spirit and polluting the body. So it was that the first man, Adam, was given
life with an unclean spirit. Then Satanail created the first woman, Eve,
after his own image; and he placed her together with Adam in the paradise
he himself had created.67 However, in order to ensure that he had posterity,
Satanail turned himself into a serpent and by deceiving Eve gave life to
his descendents, amongst whom was the evil Cain that killed his brother
Abel. After creating many impure men in this way, Satanail, together with
the fallen angels, began to rule and tyrannise over his empire. But when
God saw what an infamous world his son had created, he not only deprived
him of the power of creation but also sent his other son, Christ, to combat
against Satanall and bring the people back to the spirit of holiness. Christ
m whose birth by the Blessed Virgin was simply an illusion came to earth,
was captured by Satanall, and through his machinations, crucified on the
cross. His death on the cross was yet another illusion, and on the third
day he rose again to heaven. Satanail was caught, cast into chains, and
hurled with his devils into the fiery pit. At the same time the last two
letters of his name- "il"-- were dropped off, so that instead
of Satanall he was now called Satan.
However, no sooner had Christ returned to heaven and been reunited with
his Father and the Holy Spirit,68 than Satan managed to escape from hell
with the devils and return to earth, where he continued with his evil deeds.
He chose as his headquarters the temple of Jerusalem, and dispatched his
demons to the many churches throughout the land. Thus he continued to rule,
together with the emperors and powerful men who are his servants. However,
the empire of Satanail, as preached by the Bogomils was not to last long,
for the hour was approaching for Christ's second coming of which John speaks
in his Revelations. Then the earth was to quake and crumble into the seas,
the mountains were to crack and turn into dust to be scattered by the winds
of heaven, and the dead were to rise and mingle with the living. Then the
skies were to open and God the Father, together with Christ his son, surrounded
by angels, would pass judgement on sinful mankind. Those who had lived righteous
lives would be taken with him to heaven while the sinners would be hurled
together with Satanail and his satanic legion into the burning pit to roast
forever in the fires of hell. In this way, God would not only free himself
of Satanail and his devils but would also establish his eternal kingdom
on earth, the kingdom of God's Light, of justice and good. Now, since the
day of Christ's second coming was to fall in the year that ended in three
noughts, Satanail, who was living among men, would not have long to continue
his domination and persecution of mankind. On his second coming, Jesus our
Lord would finally overpower Satanail and cleanse the world by ridding it
of tyrants like the Tsar, the nobles, and the higher clergy.
As is evident from the above description, this battle between the two principles
of the world u a battle which had been passed on to man, who was part divine
spirit and part evil matter n was incorporated by the Bogomils in their
explanation of society and their attempts to settle the conflict between
the rulers and the common people. But by so doing the Bogomils in fact helped
to inflame the class struggle in Macedonia, a struggle which was at the
same time a national movement of liberation, for in opposition to the Bulgarian
invaders, who had set themselves up as the ruling class, there stood the
great mass of Macedonian Slavs, oppressed, exploited and discriminated against
in their own land.
In order to undermine the authority of the Church, which defended and condoned
the feudal order imposed upon them by the foreign invaders, the Bogomils
rose up against all the outer manifestations and symbols of religion. They
rejected not only the Old Testament- saying "We obey David; not the
prophets, but the Gospels; and we live according not to the law of Moses
but to that of the apostles''69 u but also the Cross, which they refused
to recognise as a symbol of faith,7° and the sanctity of the Virgin
Mary, whom they scorned and mocked.1 They also despised the icons, the Liturgy,
the Holy Communion, baptism with water and other rites, and became, as Kozma
says, worse than the deaf and blind idols. "For the idols," says
Kozma, "are made of stone or wood and cannot see or hear. But the Heretics,
who are supposed to have the power of reason, have of their own accord turned
themselves into stone and will not recognise the true teaching. With what
evil spirits shall I compare them? They are worse than any. Evil spirits
fear the Cross of Christ, but the Heretics cut down the crosses and turn
them into arms. Evil spirits fear the face of the Lord carved on the wood,
but the Heretics do not even bow down before the icons, which they call
idols. Evil spirits fear the relics of the holy men and do not dare approach
the caskets containing those miraculous remains which have been left to
Christians to spare them from all kinds of misery. Yet the Bogomils make
fun of them and mock us when they see us doing obeisance to them or seeking
their aid". The Bogomils also flouted the holy rites, saying that "it
was not the apostles who established the Liturgy and the Holy Communion,
but John the Golden-tongued", a Byzantine theologian. The Bogomils
claimed that the Holy Communion was not being performed in accordance with
God's command, and that the host was not the body of Christ but ordinary
food like any other; they also declared that baptising with water was not
part of God's law and so they rejected the need for the priest's presence
in the church ritual, in the Liturgy, baptism, confession and other rites.
In addition to all this, the Bogomils also claimed that Christ did not cure
the blind, or heal the halt, or raise the dead, and that these were simply
tales and legends, like the story of the feeding of the five thousand. The
Bogomils, Kozma continues, will not give honour to the saints and they scorn
the miracles of God performed through the relics by the power of the Holy
Ghost. These miracles, they say, are not performed according to the will
of God but are the work of the devil, designed to deceive the people. However,
as concerns the prayers observed by the Bogomils, there were - according
to Kozma- a great number. They worshipped four times a day and four times
during the night, locking themselves into their rooms but keeping open the
five doors (the senses), although it had been commanded that they should
be shut during prayer. When they pray they say "Our Father, who art
in Heaven". For this, too, they should be condemned since in their
words they call him the Creator of Earth and Heaven, and yet consider these
same works to be the creation of the devil. And when they pray they do not
make the sign of the Cross before their faces.
The Bogomils' scorn was directed not only against church rites but against
the hierarchy as well. They were particularly critical of the bishops, who,
they said, lived a self-indulgent and dissolute life at the expense of the
people. If you are holy, as you say you are- the Bogomils asked why do you
not live as you have been instructed, in the manner described by Paul in
his letter to Timothy: "A bishop should be free of vice, a married
man, sober, upright, honest, intelligent, considerate, and helpful; he should
not be a drunkard; he should be meek, not malicious, grasping, or mercenary;
and he should be a good master in his home. Deacons, therefore, should be
honest, unhypocritical, not given to drinking too much wine, and well-known
by the people. And before they are chosen they should be examined to ensure
that they are such; then they should be allowed to serve, provided they
are not sinful". But we (the Bogomils) do not find you such. The priests
do as they like: they get drunk, they steal, and do other sinful things
in secret and there is nobody to prevent them. Paul's advice should be followed:
"First uncover those who have sinned, that the others may take heed".
But even in this attack, as can be seen from Kozma's account, the Bogomils
did not try to make out that they themselves were quite the opposite of
the corrupt clergy, although in fact they were.
Unlike the dissolute clergy, so detested by the people, the Bogomils were
distinguished by their almost exaggerated meekhess, calmness, reticence,
and lack of ostentation. They avoided all kinds of rowdiness, but their
reticence did not mean that they lacked the revolutionary spirit. On the
contrary, they were, as Kozma writes, "like sheep in their demeanour:
meek, gentle, and quiet. In appearance, they are pale from hypocritical
fasting, they do not utter a word, they show no curiosity, and they avert
their gaze from the eyes of others. Their outward appearance is such that
one cannot distinguish them from true Christians, but inside they are wolves
and brutes". Why does Kozma call them wolves and brutes? Because they
were certainly not merely passive believers inspired only by their faith;
in spite of their outward meekness they were actively engaged in fighting
against the social order of their times and undermining the regime.
"The heretics", declared one of of the inquisitors, "may
already be recognized by their habits and the language they use, for they
are modest people and simple in their ways. They do not wear luxurious garments,
and the clothes they have are neither expensive nor unclean. They do not
enter into business dealings but live by the work of their own hands, thus
keeping themselves dear of all manner of lies, false oaths, and deceits.
They do not store up riches but are content to have only what they most
need. They are moderate in their eating and drinking, and are not frequenters
of taverns, dancehails, and suchlike places. They restrain themselves from
anger, they learn and teach, but pray very little. One may recognize them
by their modesty and by their careful speech, for they eschew vulgarity,
swearing, and empty talk".72 The claim that all "Perfect"
Bogomils were without exception literate and educated is confirmed both
by the Macedonian Bogomils, who laid the foundations of this revolutionary
teaching, (all of whom passed through the famous Ohrid Glagolitic School
of Clement), and also by the Langobardian and French heretics, amongst whom
the level of education was so high that most of them completed their studies
at the renowned universities of the time, where they acquired the theological
knowledge in their battle against the orthodox Christian clergy.
The Bogomils, naturally, did not use their learning only for these ends.
On the contrary, they used their sound education to spread the knowledge
they had acquired among the people, unlike the official church priests,
who maintained a monopoly over their learning. This meant that the Bogomils
were well in advance of all mediaeval scholars in proclaiming that "knowledge
is light". By relying on gnosticism, the Bogomils aimed at gaining
a profounder knowledge of the cosmic questions, so that through "gnosis,
the most elevated form of spiritual knowledge", they might come to
the heavenly truths. They endeavoured to explain the origin of the material
world to discover the eternal truth, and to find out how man, who is caught
in the net of the devil, may be released and brought back to God. They aspired
to penetrate through the power of reason into the secrets of faith, but
their aspirations led them unconsciously to quite different results. Thus
this form of theological rationalism developed by the Bogomils was already
suspect at a time when the Church kept a close watch on all forms of progressive
thinking, and condemned any deviation from the Holy Scriptures as vile heresy.
Through gnosticism the Bogomils liberated reason from its theological fetters,
and
thus made a considerable contribution to the advancement of thought and
mediaeval philosophy. Furthermore, through their teaching, their gnostic
philosophical views, and their rejection of church dogma and authority,
the Bogomils helped to further the development of theological rationalism.
Although still only a tentative step, this was the first daring move towards
the literary and philosophical renaissance of the early Middle Ages that
emerged from the old culture.
In their teaching, the Bogomils made use not only of the spoken word but
also of the written word as found in folk literature. Whenever they were
able, they opened schools and used the language of the region to spread
their teaching. Although there is no extant material concerning the Bogomils'
educational work in the Balkans, we may judge from the example of the West
that the situation was as described above. Thus when Otto IV (1198--1215)
travelled to Rome in 1209 to be crowned by the Pope, the priests who accompanied
him were greatly embittered at seeing many schools on the way in which gnostic
Manichean teaching was being spread2a By spreading learning not only among
their own "Perfect" adherents, but also among the common people,
as Clement of Ohrid had done earlier in Macedonia, the Bogomils undermined
the foundations of the feudal system of exploitation based on the physical
and intellectual brutalisation of the labour force. "Wherever they
saw a simple, uneducated man," says Kozma, "they would implant
in him the weeds of their teaching".74 It was from just these simple
people that the Bogomils attracted their followers, who were on the one
hand subjected to the cruelty of feudal exploitation and on the other hand
caught up by the revolutionary movement that aimed to destroy feudal rule.
It should be mentioned at this stage that the Bogomil movement included
not only the common people but also the high-born. As proof of this we have
the example from Macedonia of Jovan Vladimir and Kossara, Samuil's daughter,
and also- according to certain questionable accounts- Gavrilo's son.75 There
were also members of the aristocracy in Bosnia and Southern France, for,
as N. Ossokin says, "the main protectors of the heretics were the Count
of Toulouse, the viscounts of B6ziers and Germany, the barons of Tarragon,
even the King of Navarre, and others".76 These nobles supported the
heretics, though it must be admitted that in the fight with power-hungry
Rome their main hope was to take over the church and monastery lands. This
was not, however, always the reason why support was given to the heretics
by certain people of high birth. Indeed, it may be said that frequently
the most talented and progressive members of the ruling class joined the
side of the revolutionaries. This was the case when certain nobles took
part in the bourgeois revolutions or when, together with some of the bourgeoisie,
they engaged in the proletarian revolutions; this was also the case with
the nobles in the Middle Ages who, as We have mentioned above, sided with
the heretics. Here too the class struggle created the conditions of mobility
which enabled people to change from one class to another, especially those
people who did not believe in the strength of their class and its power
to succeed…….
Dragan Tashkovski
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