The Bosnian Church (crkva bosanska, ecclesia bosniensis) is historically thought to be an indigenous branch of the Bogomils that existed in Bosnia during the Middle Ages. Adherents of the church called themselves simply Krstjani ("Christians"). The church no longer exists, having disappeared completely under the period of Ottoman rule in connection to Islamic converts, being the ancestors of the modern Bosniaks. The church's organization and beliefs are poorly understood, because few if any records were left by church members, and the church is mostly known from the writings of outside sources, primarily Roman Catholic ones. Bogomils was the name of a defunct Gnostic social-religious movement and doctrine which originated in Macedonia in X century at the time of Peter I of Bulgaria (927-969) as a reaction of the state and clerical oppression. ... Motto none Anthem Intermeco Bosnia and Herzegovina() on the European continent()  —  [] Capital (and largest city) Sarajevo Official languages Bosnian Croatian Serbian Government Parliamentary democracy  -  Presidency members NebojÅ¡a Radmanović1 Haris Silajdžić2 Željko KomÅ¡ić3  -  Chairman of the Council of Ministers Nikola Å pirić  -  High Representative 4 Independence... The Middle Ages formed the middle period in a traditional schematic division of European history into three ages: the classical civilization of Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and modern times, beginning with the Renaissance. ... Motto: دولت ابد مدت Devlet-i Ebed-müddet (The Eternal State) Anthem: Ottoman imperial anthem Borders in 1680, see: list of territories Capital Söğüt (1299-1326) Bursa (1326-1365) Edirne (1365-1453) Constantinople (Istanbul) (1453-1922) Language(s) Ottoman Turkish Government Monarchy Sultans  - 1281–1326 Osman I  - 1918–1922 Mehmed VI... This article does not cite its references or sources. ...

History

Bosnia was on the boundary between the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. The Croats to the West and Hungarians to the North embraced Roman Catholicism, while the lands to the east and small southeastern parts of Herzegovina embraced Eastern Orthodoxy. Both the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches considered the Bosnian Church, mainly composed of Bošnjani, heretical. The religious centre of the Bosnian Church was placed in Moštre, near Visoko, where the house of krstjani was founded^[1]. The Roman Catholic Church, most often spoken of simply as the Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with over one billion members. ... Eastern Orthodoxy (also called Greek Orthodoxy and Russian Orthodoxy) is a Christian tradition which represents the majority of Eastern Christianity. ... Croats (Croatian: Hrvati) are a South Slavic people mostly living in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and nearby countries. ... BoÅ¡njani (sing. ... Look up Heresy in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Visoko is a small but famous and noteworthy city in central Bosnia and Herzegovina. ...

During the later Middle Ages most of Bosnia was nominally Roman Catholic as well, but no accurate figures exist as to the numbers of adherents of the two churches. The Bosnian Church coexisted uneasily with Roman Catholicism for much of the later Middle Ages. Part of the resistance of the Bosnian Church was political; during the 14th century, the Roman Church placed Bosnia under a Hungarian bishop, and the schism may have been motivated by a desire for independence from Hungarian domination. Several Bosnian rulers were Krstjani, but some of them embraced Roman Catholicism for political reasons. This 14th-century statue from south India depicts the gods Shiva (on the left) and Uma (on the right). ... The word schism (IPA: or ), from the Greek σχίσμα, skhísma (from σχίζω, skhízō, to tear, to split), means a division or a split, usually in an organization or a movement. ...

Outsiders accused the Bosnian Church of links to the Patarene heresy, and to the Bogomils, a Manichean sect centered in Bulgaria. The Inquisition reported about a dualist sect in Bosnia in the late 15th century and called them "Bosnian heretics", but this sect was according to some historians most likely not the same as the Bosnian Church. The historian Franjo Rački wrote about this in 1869 based on Latin sources. A Patarine or Patarene (Italian: Patarino, plural Patarini) was a member of an 11th century group of Milanese tradesmen. ... Bogomils was the name of a defunct Gnostic social-religious movement and doctrine which originated in Macedonia in X century at the time of Peter I of Bulgaria (927-969) as a reaction of the state and clerical oppression. ... Manichaeism was one of the major ancient religions. ... Inquisition (capitalized I) is broadly used, to refer to things related to judgment of heresy by the Roman Catholic Church. ... The term dualism is the state of being dual, or having a twofold division. ... Look up Heresy in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... 1869 (MDCCCLXIX) is a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar) of the Gregorian calendar or a common year starting on Sunday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar. ...

It is thought today that the Krstjani, who were persecuted by both the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches, accounted for the major part of Bosnia's converts to Islam. Some historians now believe that the Bosnian Church had largely disappeared before the Turkish conquest in 1463. Islam (Arabic:  ) is a monotheistic religion based upon the teachings of Muhammad, a 7th century Arab religious and political figure. ... Events January 5 - Poet Francois Villon is banned from Paris Births January 17 - Frederick III, Elector of Saxony (died 1525) February 24 - Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, Italian philosopher (died 1494) October 20 - Alessandro Achillini, Italian philosopher (died 1512) Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de Medici, Italian patron of the arts (died 1503...

Characteristics

The Church had its own bishop and used the Slavic language in liturgy. In respect to its theology, the Church had some traits that were strongly divided from Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Christianity, the two most important of these being the denial of trinity and the Christian cross as a religious symbol; something significative for the "heretical" Bogomil beliefs. This article is about a title or office in religious bodies. ... The Slavic languages (also called Slavonic languages) comprise the languages of the Slavic peoples. ... The word leitourgia is derived from the two Greek words, leos and ergon. Leos, meaning the people of God and Ergon meaning the work. ... For other uses, see Trinity (disambiguation). ... The traditional form of the Western Christian cross, known as the Latin cross. ...

The bishop was called djed (lit. "grandfather"), and had a council of twelve men called strojnici. the monasteries were called hiža (lit. "house"), and the heads of monasteries were often called gost (lit. "guest") and served as strojnici.

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. It did not involve itself in state issues very much. Notable exceptions were when king Ostoja 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. Events July 21 - Battle of Shrewsbury. ... Events May 29 - Ralph Neville, Earl of Westmoreland, meets Archbishop Richard Scrope of York and Earl of Norfolk Thomas Mowbray in Shipton Moor, tricks them to send their rebellious army home and then imprisons them June 8 - Archbishop Richard Scrope of York and Thomas Mowbray, Earl of Norfolk, executed in...

The monumental tombstones called stećci (plural) / stećak (singular) that appeared in medieval Bosnia and Herzegovina are identified with the Bosnian Church, however some few evidence point to the fact that they were erected by members of all three churches alike.

Bosnian Church scholarship

The phenomenon of Bosnian medieval Christians has been attracting scholars's attention for centuries, but it was not until the latter half of the 19th century that the most important monograph on the subject, "Bogomili i Patareni" (Bogomils and Patarens), 1870, by eminent Croatian historian Franjo Rački, had been published. Rački argued in favour of the gnostic and manichaean nature of the Bosnian Church. This interpretation has been accepted, expanded and elaborated upon by a host of later historians, most prominent among them being Dominik Mandić, Sima Ćirković, Vladimir Ćorović, Miroslav Brandt and Franjo Šanjek. However, a number of other historians (Leon Petrović, Jaroslav Šidak, Dragoljub Dragojlović and Dubravko Lovrenović) stressed theologically impeccably orthodox character of Bosnian Christian writings and claimed that for the explanation of this phenomenon suffices the relative isolation of Bosnian Christianity, which retained many archaic traits predating the East-West split in the 1079. However it should be noted that the exact nature of the church is a sensitive subject to many Croat and Serb officials, who tend to deny a separate origin as they regard it as a possibility for the Bosniaks to claim influence in Bosnia; therefore colliding with Serb and Croat interests. Bogomils was the name of a defunct Gnostic social-religious movement and doctrine which originated in Macedonia in X century at the time of Peter I of Bulgaria (927-969) as a reaction of the state and clerical oppression. ... Dominik Mandić ( December 2, 1889 - August 23, 1973) was a Bosnian Croat historian and politician, a member of the Franciscan Order. ... Vladimir Ćorović Vladimir Ćorović (Владимир Ћоровић) (1885-1941) is the most significant Serbian historian of great syntheses, with the Viennese Ph. ... Miroslav Brandt (1914 - 2002) was a Croatian historian, writer, publicist and polymath. ...

References

See also

• Islam in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Pedestrians walk by the Tsars Mosque built in the Ottoman era, the oldest mosque in Sarajevo, the capital and largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina. ...

External links

• The Bogomils of Bulgaria and Bosnia
• Religion and culture in medieval Bosnia
• Comprehensive survey of literature on the Bosnian Church