THE SLAVIC CATHARI.
When Innocent III. found himself confronted with the alarming progress
of the Catharan heresy, his vigilant activity did not confine itself to
Italy and Languedoc. The home of the belief lay to the east of the
Adriatic among the Slavic races. Thence came the missionaries who never
ceased to stimulate the zeal of their converts, and every motive of
piety and of policy led him to combat the error at its source. Thus the
field of battle stretched from the Balkans to the Pyrenees along a front
of over a thousand miles, and the result might have been doubtful but
for the concentration of moral and material forces resulting from the
centralized theocracy founded by Hildebrand.
The contest in the regions south of Hungary is instructive as an
illustration of the unconquerable persistence of Rome in conducting for
centuries an apparently resultless struggle, undeterred by defeat,
taking advantage of every opening for a renewal of the strife, and using
for its ends the ambition of monarchs and the self-sacrificing devotion
of zealots. A condensed review of the rapid vicissitudes of such a
contest is therefore not out of place, although the scene of action lay
too far from the centres of European life to have decisive influence
upon the development of European thought and belief, except as it served
as a refuge for the persecuted and a centre of orthodoxy to which
neophytes could be sent.
The vast regions east of the Adriatic scarce paid more than a nominal
spiritual allegiance to Rome. A savage and turbulent population,
conquered by Hungary towards the end of the eleventh century, and always
endeavoring to throw off the yoke, was Christian in little more than
name. Such Christianity as it boasted, moreover, was not Latin. The
national ritual was Slavic, in spite of its prohibition by Gregory VII.,
and the Roman observance was detested, from its foreign origin, as the
badge of subjugation. The few Latin prelates and priests and monks were
encamped amid a hostile population to whom they were strangers in
language and manners, and the dissoluteness of their lives gave them no
opportunity of acquiring a moral influence that might disarm national
and race antipathies. Under such circumstances there was nothing to
hinder the spread of Catharism, and when the devastating wars of the
Hungarians came to be dignified as crusades for the extermination of
heresy, heresy might well claim to be identified with patriotism. From
the Danube to Macedonia, and from the Adriatic to the Euxine, the
Catharan Church was well organized, divided into dioceses with their
bishops, and actively engaged in mission work. Its most flourishing
province was Bosnia, where, at the end of the twelfth century, it
counted some ten thousand devoted partisans. Culin, the Ban who held it
under the suzerainty of Hungary, was a Catharan, and so were his wife
and the rest of his family. Even Catholic prelates were suspected, not
without cause, of leaning secretly to the heretic belief.[324]
The earliest interference with heresy occurs at the end of the twelfth
century, when the Archbishop of Spalatro, doubtless under impulsion from
Innocent, drove out a number of Cathari from Trieste and Spalatro. They
found ready refuge in Bosnia, where Culin welcomed them. Vulcan, King of
Dalmatia, who had designs upon Bosnia, in 1199 represented to Innocent
the deplorable prevalence of heresy there, and suggested that Emeric,
King of Hungary, should be urged to expel the heretics. Innocent
thereupon wrote to Emeric, sending him the severe papal decretal against
the Patarins of Viterbo as a guide for his action, and ordering him to
cleanse his territories of heresy and to confiscate all heretical
property. Culin seems to have taken the initiative by attacking Hungary,
but at the same time he tried to make his peace with Rome by asserting
that the alleged heretics were good Catholics. He sent some of them,
with two of his prelates, to Innocent for examination, and asked for
legates to investigate the matter on the spot. In 1202 the pope
accordingly ordered his chaplain, Giovanni da Casemario, and the
Archbishop of Spalatro, to proceed to Bosnia, where, if they found any
heretics, including the Ban himself, they were to be prosecuted
according to the rigor of the canons. Giovanni successfully accomplished
this mission in 1203. He reported to Innocent a pledge given by the
Cathari to adopt the Latin faith, while, to insure the maintenance of
religion, he recommended the erection of three or four additional
bishoprics in the territory of the Ban, which were ten days' journey in
extent and which yet had but one see, of which the incumbent was dead.
At the same time King Emeric wrote that Giovanni had brought to him the
leaders of the heretics, and he had found them converted to orthodoxy.
Culin's son had likewise presented himself, and had entered into bonds
of one thousand marks, to be forfeited in case he should hereafter
protect heretics within his dominions. The triumph of the Church seemed
assured, especially when, in the same year, Calo Johannes, the Emperor
of the Bulgarians, applied to Innocent to have cardinals sent to crown
him, and professed himself in all things obedient to the Holy See.[325]
All such hopes proved fallacious. With the development of the
Albigensian troubles the attention of Innocent was directed from the
Slavs. The conversions made under pressure were but temporary. The
metropolitan of the province, Arringer, Archbishop of Ragusa, filled the
vacant see of Bosnia with a Catharan, and, dying himself soon after, his
episcopal city became a nest of heretics. The few Catholic priests
scattered through the region abandoned their posts, and Catholicism grew
virtually almost extinct. In 1221 it is said that in the whole of Bosnia
there was not a single orthodox preacher to be heard. Equally
disheartening was the course of affairs among the Bulgarians. After Calo
Johannes had been crowned by a legate from Rome, his quarrels with the
Latin Emperors of Constantinople led to a breach, and in the wide
territories under his dominion the Cathari had full liberty of
conscience.[326]
At length the papal attention was again directed to this deplorable
state of affairs. In 1221 Honorius III. sent his chaplain, Master
Aconcio, as legate to Hungary, with orders to arouse the king and the
prelates to a sense of their obligation to exterminate the heretics who
were thus openly defiant. On his way the legate paused at Ragusa to
superintend the election of an orthodox archbishop, after which he
ordered all Dalmatia and Croatia to join in a crusade, but no one
followed him, and he went alone to Bosnia, where he died the same year.
Better results were promised by the ambition of Ugolin, Archbishop of
Kalocsa, who desired to extend his province; he proposed to Andreas II.
of Hungary that he would lead a crusade at his own cost, and king and
pope promised him all the territories which he should clear of heretics,
but Ugolin overrated his powers, and adopted the expedient of
subsidizing with two hundred silver marks the ruler of Syrmia, Prince
John, son of Margaret, widow of the Emperor Isaac Angelus. John took the
money without performing his promise, though reminded of it by Honorius
in 1227. Relieved from apprehension, the Bosnians deposed their Ban
Stephen and replaced him with a Catharan, Ninoslav, one of the most
notable personages in Bosnian history, who maintained himself from 1232
to 1250.[327]
The scale at length seemed to turn with the advent on the scene of the
Mendicant Orders, full of the irrepressible enthusiasm, the disregard of
toil and hardship, and the thirst for martyrdom of which we have already
seen so many examples. Behind them now, moreover, was Gregory IX., the
implacable and indefatigable persecutor of heresy, who urged them
forward unceasingly. The Dominicans were first upon the ground. As early
as 1221 the Order formed establishments in Hungary, developing its
proselyting energy from that centre, and thus taking the heretics in
flank. The Dominican legend relates that the Inquisition was founded in
Hungary by Friar Jackzo (St. Hyacinth), an early member of the Order,
who died in 1257, and that it could soon boast of two martyred
inquisitors, Friar Nicholas, who was flayed alive, and Friar John, who
was lapidated by the heretics. In 1233 we hear of the massacre of ninety
Dominican missionaries among the Cumans, and it was perhaps somewhat
earlier than this that thirty-two were drowned by the Bosnian heretics,
whom they were seeking to convert; but Dominican ardor was only inflamed
by such incidents. Preparations were made for systematic work. In 1232
Gregory ordered his legate in Hungary, Giacopo, Bishop of Palestrina, to
convert the Bosnians. King Andreas gave the Banate to his son Coloman,
Duke of Croatia and Dalmatia, and ordered him to assist. Results soon
followed. The Catholic Bishop of Bosnia was himself infected with
heresy, and excused himself on the ground that he had ignorantly
supposed the Cathari to be orthodox. The Archbishop of Ragusa was
cognizant of this, and had paid no attention to it, so Giacopo
transferred Bosnia to Kalocsa--a transfer, however, which was for the
present inoperative. More important was the conversion of Ninoslav, who
abandoned the religion of his fathers in order to avert the attacks of
Coloman, which were rapidly dismembering his territories. He was
effusively welcomed by Gregory; he gave money to the Dominicans for the
building of a cathedral; many of his magnates followed his example, and
his kinsman, Uban Prijesda, handed his son to the Dominicans as a
hostage for the sincerity of his conversion. Gregory was overjoyed at
this apparent success. In 1233 he ordered the boy restored to his
father; he took Bosnia under the special protection of the Holy See, and
ordered Coloman to defend Ninoslav from the attacks of disaffected
heretics; he deposed the heretic bishop, and instructed his legate to
divide the territory into two or three sees, appointing proper
incumbents. The latter measure was not carried out, however, and a
German Dominican, John of Wildeshausen, was consecrated Bishop of all
Bosnia.[328]
The Legate Giacopo returned to Hungary satisfied that the land was
converted, but success proved fleeting. Either Ninoslav's conversion was
feigned or he was unable to control his heretic subjects, for in the
next year, 1234, we find Gregory complaining that heresy was increasing
and rendering Bosnia a desert of the faith, a nest of dragons and a home
of ostriches. In conjunction with Andreas he ordered a crusade, and
Coloman was instructed to attack the heretics. The Carthusian Prior of
St. Bartholomew was sent thither to preach it with Holy Land
indulgences, and by the end of 1234 Coloman laid Bosnia waste with fire
and sword. Ninoslav threw himself heart and soul with the Cathari, and
the struggle was bloody and prolonged. The Legate Giacopo induced Bela
IV. to take an oath to extirpate all heretics from every land under his
jurisdiction, and the Franciscans hastened to take a hand in the good
work. They commenced with the city of Zara, but the Archbishop of Zara,
instead of seconding their labors, impeded them, which earned for him
the emphatic rebuke of Gregory. Indeed, from the account which Yvo of
Narbonne gives about this time of the Cathari of the maritime districts,
they could not have been much disturbed by these proceedings.[329]
In 1235 the crusaders were unlucky. Bishop John lost all hope of
recovering his see and asked Gregory to relieve him of it, as the labors
of war were too severe for him; but Gregory reproved his
faintheartedness, telling him that if he disliked war the love of God
should urge him on.[330] In 1236 the aspect of affairs improved,
probably because Bela IV. had replaced Andreas on the throne of Hungary,
and because the crusaders were energetically aided by Sebislav, Duke of
Usora, the son of the former Ban Stephen, who hoped to recover the
succession. He was rewarded by Gregory calling him a lily among thorns
and the sole representative of orthodoxy among the Bosnian chiefs, who
were all heretics. At last, in 1237, Coloman triumphed, but heresy was
not eradicated, in spite of his efforts through the following years. In
fulfilment of his request, Gregory ordered the consecration of the
Dominican Ponsa as Bishop of Bosnia, and soon afterwards appointed Ponsa
as legate for three years in order that he might exterminate the remnant
of heresy. It must have been a tolerably large remnant, for in the same
breath he promised the protection of the Holy See to all who would take
the cross to extirpate it. In 1239 the Provincial Prior of Hungary was
ordered to send to the heretic districts a number of friars, powerful in
speech and action, to consummate the work. Ponsa, though bishop and
legate, had no revenues and no resources, so Gregory ordered paid over
to him the moneys collected from crusaders in redemption of vows, and
the sum which Ninoslav, during his interval of orthodoxy, had given to
found a cathedral. By the end of 1239 heresy seemed to be exterminated,
but scarce had Coloman and his crusaders left the land when his work was
undone and heresy was as vigorous as ever. In 1240 Ninoslav appears
again as Ban, visiting Ragusa with a splendid retinue to renew the old
treaty of trade and alliance. King Bela's energies, in fact, were just
then turned in another direction, for Assan, the Bulgarian prince, had
declared in favor of the Greeks; his people therefore were denounced as
heretics and schismatics, and Bela was stimulated to undertake a crusade
against him, for which, as usual, Holy Land indulgences were promised.
It was hard to make head at once against so many enemies of the faith,
and in the confusion the Cathari of Bosnia had a respite. Still more
important for them as a preventive of persecution was the Tartar
invasion which, in 1241, reduced Hungary to a desert. In the bloody day
of Flusse Sajo the Hungarian army was destroyed, Bela barely escaped
with his life, and Coloman was slain. The respite was but temporary,
however, for in 1244 Bela again overran Bosnia. Ninoslav made his peace
and the heretics were persecuted, until 1246, when Hungary was involved
in war with Austria, and promptly they rose again with Ninoslav at their
head.[331]
All these endeavors to diffuse the blessings of Christianity had not
been made without bloodshed. We have few details of these obscure
struggles in a land little removed from barbarism, but there is one
document extant which shows that the Albigensian crusades, with all
their horrors, had been repeated to no purpose. In 1247 Innocent IV., in
making over the see of Bosnia to the Archbishop of Kalocsa, alludes to
the labors performed by him and his predecessors in the effort to redeem
it from heresy. They had meritoriously devastated the greater part of
the land; they had carried away into captivity many thousands of
heretics, with great effusion of blood, and no little slaughter of their
own men and waste of their substance. In spite of these sacrifices, as
the churches and castles which they had built were not strong enough to
resist siege, the land could not be retained in the faith; it had wholly
relapsed into heresy, and there was no hope of its voluntary redemption.
The church of Kalocsa had been thoroughly exhausted, and it was now
rewarded by placing the recalcitrant region under its jurisdiction, in
the expectation that some future crusade might be more fortunate.
Innocent IV. had, a few months earlier, ordered Bela to undertake a
decisive struggle with the Cathari, but Ninoslav appealed to him,
protesting that he had been since his conversion a faithful son of the
Church, and had only accepted the aid of the heretics because it was
necessary to preserve the independence of the Banate. Moved by this,
Innocent instructed the Archbishop of Kalocsa to abstain from further
persecution. He ordered an investigation into the faith and actions of
Ninoslav, and gave permission to use the Glagolitic writing and the
Slavic tongue in the celebration of Catholic service, recognizing that
this would remove an obstacle to the propagation of the faith.
Ninoslav's last years were peaceful, but after his death, about 1250,
there were civil wars stimulated by the antagonism between Catharan and
Catholic. He was succeeded by Prijesda, who had remained Catholic since
his conversion in 1233. Under pretence of supporting Prijesda, Bela
intervened, and by 1254 he had again reduced Bosnia to subjection,
leading, doubtless, to active persecution of heresy, although the
transfer of the see of Bosnia to Kalocsa was not carried into
effect.[332]
It was about this time that Rainerio Saccone gives us his computation of
the Perfects in many of the Catharan churches. In Constantinople there
were two churches, a Latin and a Greek, the former comprising fifty
Perfects. The latter, together with those of Bulgaria, Roumania,
Slavonia, and Dalmatia, he estimates at about five hundred. This would
indicate a very large number of believers, and shows how unfruitful had
been the labors and the wars which had continued for more than a
generation. In fact, although Bela's long reign lasted until 1270, he
failed utterly in his efforts to extirpate heresy. On the contrary, the
Cathari grew ever stronger and the Church sank lower and lower. Even
the Bosnian bishops dared no longer to remain in their see, but resided
in Djakovar. So little reverence was there felt in those regions for the
Holy See that so near as Trieste, when, in 1264, two Dominicans
commissioned to preach the crusade against the Turks endeavored to
perform their duty, the dean and canons hustled them violently out of
the church, and would not even allow them to address the crowd in the
public square, while the archdeacon publicly declared that any one who
listened to them was excommunicate.[333]
Things grew worse with the accession, in 1272, of Bela's grandson,
Ladislas IV., known as the Cuman, from his mother Elizabeth, a member of
that pagan tribe. Ladislas lived with the Cumans and shared their
religion until his contempt for the Holy See manifested itself in the
most offensive manner. The papal legate, Filippo, Bishop of Fermo, had
called a council to meet at Buda, when Ladislas ordered the magistrates
of the city not to permit the entrance of any prelates, or the supplying
of any food to the legate, who was thus forced to depart ignominiously.
This called down upon him the anger of Rodolph of Hapsburg and of
Charles of Anjou, and he was fain, in 1280, to make reparation, not only
by a humble apology and a grant of one hundred marks per annum for the
founding of a hospital, but by adopting and publishing as the law of the
land all the papal statutes against heresy, and swearing to enforce them
vigorously, while his mother Elizabeth did the same as Duchess of
Bosnia. Something was gained by this, and still more, when, in 1282,
Ladislas appointed as ruler of Bosnia his brother-in-law, Stephen
Dragutin, the exiled King of Servia. The latter, although a Greek,
persecuted the Cathari; and when, about 1290, he was converted to
Catholicism, his zeal increased, He sent to Rome Marino, Bishop of
Antivari, to report the predominance of heresy and to ask for aid.
Nicholas IV. promptly responded by commissioning a legate to Andreas
III., the new King of Hungary, to preach a crusade, and the Emperor
Rodolph was ordered to assist, but the effort was bootless. Equally vain
was his command to the Franciscan Minister of Slavonia to select two
friars acquainted with the language, and send them to Bosnia to
extirpate heresy. The request at the same time made to Stephen to
support them with the secular arm shows that the missionaries were in
fact inquisitors. Unluckily, Nicholas in his zeal also employed
Dominicans in the business. Inspired by the traditional hatred between
the Orders, the inquisitors, or missionaries, employed all their
energies in quarrelling with each other, and became objects of ridicule
instead of terror to the heretics.[334]
In 1298 Boniface VIII. undertook finally to organize the Inquisition in
the Franciscan province of Slavonia, which comprised all the territory
south of Hungary, from the Danube to Macedonia. The provincial minister
was ordered to appoint two friars as inquisitors for this immense
region, and was intrusted as usual with the power of removing and
replacing them. This slender organization he endeavored to supplement by
ordering the Archbishop of Kalocsa to preach a crusade, but there was no
response, and the proposed Inquisition effected nothing. When Stephen
Dragutin died, in 1314, Bosnia was conquered by Mladen Subic, son of the
Ban of Croatia, under whom it was virtually independent of Hungary.
Mladen made some show of persecuting heresy--at least when he had a
request to make at Avignon--but as the vast majority of his subjects
were Cathari, whose support was absolutely necessary to him, it is safe
to say that he made no serious effort. In 1319 John XXII. describes the
condition of Bosnia as deplorable. There were no Catholic ecclesiastics,
no reverence for the sacraments; communion was not administered, and in
many places the rite of baptism was not even known or understood. When
such a pontiff as John felt obliged to appeal to Mladen himself to put
an end to this reproach, it shows that he had no means of effective
coercion at hand.[335]
Mladen was overthrown by Stephen Kostromanic, and when he fled to
Hungary, Charles Robert cast him in prison, leaving undisturbed
possession to Stephen, who styled himself Ban by the grace of God.
Stephen, in 1322, seems to have abandoned Catholicism, joining either
the Greeks or the Cathari, but in spite of this affairs commenced to
look more favorable. Hungary began to emerge from the disorders and
disasters which had so long crippled it, and King Charles Robert was
inclined to listen to exhortations as to his duty towards the Bosnian
heretics. In 1323, therefore, John XXII. made another attempt, sending
Frà Fabiano thither and ordering Charles Robert and Stephen to give him
effective support. The latter was obdurate, though the former seems to
have manifested some zeal, if one may believe the praises bestowed on
him in 1327 by John. Fabiano was indefatigable, but his duty proved no
easy one. At the very outset he met with unexpected resistance in a city
so near at hand as Trieste. When he endeavored there to enforce the
decrees against heresy, and to arouse the people to a sense of their
duty, the bells were rung, a mob was assembled, he was dragged from the
pulpit and beaten, the leaders in the disturbance being two canons of
the Cathedral, Michele da Padua, and Raimondo da Cremona, who were
promptly ordered by the pope to be prosecuted as suspects of heresy.
Hardly had he settled this question when he was involved in a
controversy with the rival Dominicans, whom he found to be poaching on
his preserves. A zealous Dominican, Matteo of Agram, by suppressing the
fact that Slavonia was Franciscan territory, had obtained from John
letters authorizing the Dominican provincial to appoint inquisitors,
commissioned to preach a crusade with Holy Land indulgences, and these
inquisitors had been urgently recommended by the pope to the King of
Hungary and other potentates. It was impossible that the Orders could
co-operate in harmony, and Fabiano made haste to represent to John the
trap into which he had been led. The pope was now at the height of his
controversy with the greater part of the Franciscans over the question
of poverty, and it was impolitic to give just grounds of complaint to
those who remained faithful; he therefore promptly recalled the letters
given to the Dominicans, and scolded them roundly for deceiving him.
Even yet it seemed impossible for Fabiano to penetrate beyond the
borders of his district, or to work without impediment, for in 1329 he
was occupied with prosecuting for heresy the Abbot of SS. Cosmas and
Damiani of Zara and one of his monks, when John, the Archbishop of Zara,
intervened forcibly and stopped the proceedings. The difficulties thrown
in Fabiano's way must have been great, for he felt compelled to visit
Avignon for their removal, but his usual ill-luck accompanied him. The
contest between the papacy on the one side, and the Visconti and Louis
of Bavaria on the other, rendered parts of Lombardy unsafe for
papalists, and a son of Belial named Franceschino da Pavia had no
scruple in laying hands on the inquisitor and despoiling him of his
horses, books, and papers. During all this time the Inquisition must
have been at a standstill, but at last Fabiano overcame all obstacles.
In 1330 he returned to the scene of action; Charles Robert and Stephen
lent him their assistance, and the work of suppressing the Cathari
commenced under favorable auspices, and by the methods which we have
seen so successful elsewhere. The condition of the Bosnian Church may be
guessed from the fear felt by John XXII. that the bishops would be
heretics, leading him, in 1331, to reserve their appointment to the Holy
See. Yet on the death of Bishop Peter, in 1334, the chapter elected a
successor, and Charles Robert endeavored to force a layman on the
Church, causing a disgraceful quarrel which was not settled until
Benedict XII., in 1336, pronounced in favor of the candidate of the
chapter.[336]
The spiritual condition of the Slavs at this period is indicated by an
occurrence in 1331 nearer home. The Venetian inquisitor, Frà Francesco
Chioggia, in visiting his district, found in the province of Aquileia
innumerable Slavs who worshipped a tree and fountain. Apparently they
were impervious to his exhortations, and he had no means at the moment
to enforce obedience. He was obliged to preach against them, in Friuli,
a crusade with Holy Land indulgences. He thus raised an armed force with
which he cut down the tree and choked up the fountain; unfortunately, we
have no record of the fate of the nature-worshippers.[337]
Benedict XII. was as earnest as his predecessor. Yet even Dalmatia was
still full of heresy, for in 1335 be felt obliged to write to the
Archbishop of Zara and the Bishops of Trau and Zegna, ordering them to
use every means for the extermination of heretics, and to give efficient
support to the inquisitors. The Dalmatian prelates, it is true,
prevailed upon the magistrates of Spalatro and Trau to enact laws
against heresy, but these were not enforced. A century had passed since
the Inquisition was founded, and yet the duties of persecution had not
even then been learned on the shores of the Adriatic. The work seemed
further than ever from accomplishment. The Cathari continued to multiply
under the avowed protection of Stephen and his magnates. A gleam of
light appeared, however, when, in 1337, the Croatian Count Nelipic, a
bitter enemy of Stephen, offered his services to Benedict, who joyfully
accepted them, and summoned all the Croatian barons to range themselves
under his banner in aid of the pious labors of Fabiano and his
colleagues. War ensued between Bosnia and Croatia, of the details of
which we know little, except that it brought no advantage to the faith,
until it threatened to spread.[338]
Stephen's position, in fact, was becoming precarious. To the east was
Stephen Dusan the Great, who styled himself Emperor of Servia, Greece,
and Bulgaria, and who had shown himself unfriendly since the union of
Herzegovina with Bosnia. To the north was Charles Robert, who was
preparing to take part in the war. It is true that the Venetians,
desirous to keep Hungary away from their Adriatic possessions, were
ready to form an alliance with Stephen, but the odds against him were
too great. He probably intimated a readiness to submit, for when, in
1339, Benedict sent the Franciscan General Gherardo as legate to
Hungary, Charles Robert convoyed him to the Bosnian frontier, where
Stephen received him with all honor, and said that he was not averse to
extirpating the Cathari, but feared that in case of persecution they
would call in Stephen Dusan. If liberally supported by the pope and King
of Hungary he would run the risk. In 1340 Benedict promised him the help
of all Catholics, and he allowed himself to be converted, an example
followed by many of the magnates. It was quite time, for Catholicism had
virtually disappeared from Bosnia, where the churches were mostly
abandoned and torn down. Gherardo hastened to follow up his advantage by
sending missionaries and inquisitors into Bosnia. That there was no
place there, however, for the methods of the Inquisition, and that
persuasion, not force, was required, is seen by the legends which
recount how one of these inquisitors, Fray Juan de Aragon, made
numerous converts, after a long and bitter disputation in an heretical
assembly, by standing unhurt on a blazing pyre; and how one of his
disciples, John, repeated the experience, remaining in the flames while
one might chant the Miserere. These miracles, we are told, were very
effective, and the stories show that nothing else could have been so.
Stephen remained true to his promises, and the Catholic Church commenced
to revive. A bull of Clement VI., in 1344, recites that, deceived by the
falsehoods of the Franciscan General Gherardo, he had ordered the
Bosnian tithes paid over to the friars on the pretext of rebuilding the
churches, but on the representation of Laurence, Bishop of Bosnia, that
they belonged to him and that he had no other source of support, he is
in future to receive them. At the instance of Clement, in 1345, Stephen
consented to allow the return of Valentine, Bishop of Makarska, who for
twenty years had been an exile from his see, and the next year a third
bishopric, that of Duvno, was erected. The Catharan magnates were
restless, however, and when Dusan the Great, in 1350, invaded Bosnia
many of them joined him, but their prospects became worse when peace
followed in 1351, and when, in 1353, shortly before his death, Stephen
married his only child to Louis of Hungary, a zealous Catholic who had
succeeded his father, Charles Robert, in 1342.[339]
Stephen Kostromanic was succeeded by his young nephew, Stephen Tvrtko,
under the regency of his mother, Helena. Under such circumstances,
dissatisfied and insubordinate Catharan magnates had ample opportunity
to produce confusion. Of this full advantage was taken by Louis of
Hungary as soon as the death of Dusan the Great, in 1355, relieved him
from that formidable antagonist. The Dominicans hastened, in 1356, to
obtain from Innocent VI. a confirmation of the letters of John XXII., of
1327, authorizing them to preach a crusade against the heretics with
Holy Land indulgences. Louis seized Herzegovina as a dower for his wife
Elisabeth, reduced Stephen Tvrtko to the position of a vassal, and
forced him to swear to extirpate the Cathari. Not content with this he
proceeded to stir up rebellion among the magnates, producing great
confusion, during which the Cathari regained their position. Then, in
1360, Innocent VI. conferred on Peter, Bishop of Bosnia, full powers as
papal inquisitor, and also ordered a new crusade, which served as a
pretext to Louis for a fresh invasion. Nothing was accomplished by this;
but in 1365 the Cathari, irritated at Tvrtko's efforts to suppress them,
drove him and his mother from Bosnia. Louis furnished him with troops,
and asked Urban V. to send two thousand Franciscans to convert the
heretics. After a desperate struggle Tvrtko regained the throne. His
brother, Stephen Vuk, who had aided the rebels, fled to Ragusa and
embraced Catholicism, after which, in 1368, he appealed for aid to Urban
V., representing that his heretic brother had disinherited him on
account of his persecuting heretics. Urban accordingly urged Louis to
protect the orthodox Vuk, and to force Tvrtko to abandon his errors, but
nothing came of it. Whether Tvrtko was Catharan or Catholic does not
clearly appear. Probably he was indifferent to all but his personal
interests, and was ready to follow whatever policy promised to serve his
ambition, and his success shows that he must have had the support of his
subjects, who were nearly all Cathari. Although, in 1368, Urban V.
congratulated Louis of Hungary on the success of his arms, aided by the
friars, in bringing into the fold many thousand heretics and
schismatics, Louis himself, in 1372, reported that Christianity was
established in but few places; in some the two faiths were commingled,
but for the most part all the inhabitants were Cathari. It was in vain
that Gregory XI. endeavored to found Franciscan houses as missionary
centres; the Bosnians would not be weaned from their creed. Had Tvrtko
followed a policy of persecution he could not have accomplished the
conquests which, for a brief period, shed lustre on the Bosnian name. He
extended his sway over a large part of Servia and over Croatia and
Dalmatia, and when, in 1376, he assumed the title of king, there was no
one to dispute it. After his death, in 1391, the magnates asserted
virtual independence under a succession of royal puppets--Stephen
Dabisa, his young son, under the regency of his widow, Helena, and then
Stephen Ostoja. The most powerful man in Bosnia was the Vojvode Hrvoje
Vukcic, who ruled the north, and next to him was his kinsman Sandalj
Hranic who dominated the south. Both of these men were Cathari, and so
was the king, Stephen, Ostoja, and all his family. Catholicism almost
disappeared, and Catharism was the religion of the State. It was
organized under a Djed (grandfather), or chief, with twelve Ucitelji, or
teachers, of whom the first was the Gost, or visitor, the deputy and
successor of the Djed, and the second was known as the Starac, or
elder.[340]
These were state officials, and we see them occasionally acting in an
official capacity. Thus, when, in 1404, the Vojvode Paul Klesic, who had
been exiled, was recalled, it was the Djed Radomjer who sent Catharan
envoys to Ragusa to bring him home, and who wrote to the Doge of Ragusa
on the subject. Klesic was a Catharan, and his residence in Ragusa, as
well as that of many similar Catharan exiles, shows that persecution had
grown obsolete even on the coast of the Adriatic. In spite of his
Catharism, Hrvoje Vukcic was made by Ladislas of Naples, Duke of
Spalatro and lord of some of the Dalmatian islands, thus making
Catharism dominant along the shore. In the troubles which ended in the
deposition of Stephen Ostoja and the election of Stephen Tvrtko II. a
"Congregation of the Bosnian Lords" was held in 1404, in which, among
those present, are enumerated the Djed and several of his Ucitelji, but
no mention is made of any Catholic bishop. Toleration seemed to have
established itself. The Great Schism gave the Holy See abundant
preoccupation, and missionary efforts are no longer heard of, until the
Emperor Sigismund, as King of Hungary, bethought himself of
re-establishing his claim over Bosnia. Two armies sent in 1405 were
unsuccessful, but in 1407 Gregory XII. aided him with a bull summoning
Christendom to a crusade against the Turks, the apostate Allans, and
the Manichæans. Under these auspices, in 1408, he led a force of sixty
thousand Hungarians and Poles into Bosnia, defeated and captured Tvrtko
II., and recovered Croatia and Dalmatia, but the Bosnians were
obstinate, and replaced Ostoja on the throne. Another expedition, in
1410-1411, drove Ostoja to the south, and Sigismund, for a while,
retained possession of Bosnia, but when, in 1415, he released Tvrtko II.
and sent him to Bosnia as king, a civil war immediately ensued. Tvrtko
at first was successful, supported with a large Hungarian army, but
Ostoja called the Turks to his assistance, and in a decisive battle the
Hungarians were defeated. The Turks penetrated to Cillei in the
Steyermark, devastating and plundering everywhere, and on their return
carried with them thousands of Christian captives.[341]
This shows the new factor which had injected itself into the already
tangled problem. In 1389 the fatal day of the Amselfeld had thrown open
the whole Balkan peninsula to the Turks, who since then had been
steadily winning their way. In 1392 we hear of their first incursion in
southern Bosnia, after which they had constantly taken a greater part in
the affairs of the Banate. The condition of the country was that of
savage and perpetual civil war. There was no royal power capable of
enforcing order, and the magnates were engaged in tearing each other to
pieces. Devoid of all sentiment of nationality, no one had any scruple
in calling in the aid of the infidel, in paying allegiance to him, or in
subsidizing him to prevent his joining the opposite party. It was the
same with Catholic, Catharan, and Greek. No sense of the
ever-approaching danger served to make them abandon their internecine
quarrels, and if a temporary petty advantage was to be gained there was
no hesitation in aiding the Turk to a farther advance. The only wonder
is that the progress of the Moslem conquest was so slow; there can be
little doubt that it could have been arrested by united effort, and it
may be questioned whether the rule of Islam was not, after all, an
improvement on the state of virtual anarchy which it replaced. To the
peasantry it offered itself rather as a deliverance. When, in 1461,
Stephen Tomasevic ascended the throne, in his appeal for aid to Pius II.
he describes the Turks as treating the peasants kindly, promising them
freedom, and thus winning them over, and he adds that the magnates
cannot defend their castles when thus abandoned by the peasants.[342]
As regards the Cathari, the Turkish advance produced two contrary
effects. On the one hand there was the danger that persecution would
drive them to seek protection from the enemy. On the other hand there
was absolute need of assistance from Christendom, which could only be
obtained by submission to Rome, and obedience to her demands for their
extermination. Both of these influences worked to the destruction of
Bosnia, for when toleration was practised aid was withheld, and when at
last persecution was established as a policy the Cathari welcomed the
invader, and contributed to the subjugation of the kingdom.
In 1420 Stephen Tvrtko II. reappeared upon the scene, and the next year
he was acknowledged. There followed a breathing-space, for the Turkish
general Isaac was defeated and killed during an incursion into Hungary,
and Mahomet I., involved in strife with Mustapha, had no leisure to
repair the disaster. This did not last long, however, for in 1424 the
sons of Ostoja endeavored, with Turkish help, to win back their father's
throne, the only result of which was a war ending with the surrender of
a portion of Bosnian territory to Murad II. Again, in 1433, when Tvrtko
was fighting with the Servian despot, George Brankovic, he was suddenly
called to the south to withstand a Turkish inroad invited by Radivoj,
one of the sons of Ostoja, and this was immediately followed by the
rising of Sandalj Hranic, the powerful magnate of Herzegovina, who drove
Tvrtko to seek refuge with Sigismund. His absence lasted three years,
during which the wildest confusion reigned in Bosnia, the Turks being
constantly called in to participate with one side or the other.[343]
Meanwhile the rise of the Observantine Franciscans was restoring to the
Church some of its old missionary fervor, and furnishing it with the
necessary self-devoted agents. In spite of the preoccupations arising
from the contest between Eugenius IV. and the Council of Basle, an
effort was made to win back Bosnia to the faith. If anything could
accomplish this there might be hope from the fierce and inexhaustible
enthusiasm of the Observantine Friar, the Blessed Giacomo della Marca,
who had already given evidence of ruthless efficiency as inquisitor of
the Italian Fraticelli. In 1432 he was accordingly sent with full powers
to reform the Franciscan Order in Slavonia, and to turn its whole
energies to missionary work. Under this impulsion we are told that
conversions were numerous from Bosnia to Wallachia, and Eugenius IV.
stimulated rivalry by also setting the Dominicans at work. In 1434
Giacomo was driven out, but was sent back the next year, and
distinguished himself by redoubled ardor and success, attributed,
according to his biographers, partly to his miraculous powers. Alarmed
at his progress, the wicked queen sent four assassins to despatch him,
when he extended his arms and bade them do whatever God would permit,
whereupon they became rigid and suffered agonies until he prayed for
their release. Indignant at this attempt, he bearded the king and queen
in full court, and his boldness gained him so many converts that the
king became alarmed for his throne. A sorcerer was accordingly employed
to slay the intrepid inquisitor, but Giacomo promptly rendered the man
speechless for life. Some heretics then sawed through the supports of a
platform where he was preaching. It fell, but he escaped, and to this
day, says the legend, the posterity of the perpetrators have all been
born halt and lame. These proofs of divine favor led to numerous
conversions, but he became involved in quarrels with the Catholic
clergy, caused, we are told, by envy, and they excommunicated him, so
that he was obliged to seek absolution from the pope. His triumphant
career was cut short by a summons from the Emperor Sigismund to assist
in the pacification of the Hussite troubles, and his field of action was
transferred to regions farther north, where we shall meet him hereafter.
Even there, however, he did not forget his Bosnian enemies, for at
Stuhlweissenburg, on meeting the legates of the Council of Basle, he at
once asked them to exert their influence on Sigismund. Though King
Stephen, he said, was an unbaptized heretic who would not allow his
subjects to be baptized, a command from the emperor would be sufficient
to compel him to yield. Giacomo, moreover, had left behind him worthy
disciples from among the natives. One of these, the Blessed Angelo of
Verbosa, shone also by miraculous gifts. On one occasion the heretics
gave him poison to drink, but on making the sign of the cross above the
cup it became innocuous, which brought him many converts.[344]
This legendary extravagance has some foundation in fact. A bull of
Eugenius IV., in 1437, speaks of sixteen Franciscan churches and
monasteries destroyed by the Turks within two years, and another grants
to the friars who remained certain privileges in hearing confessions,
which show that they had been active, and had been winning their way.
Giacomo's influence at Stuhlweissenburg is, moreover, indicated by his
inducing Sigismund to compel Stephen Tvrtko to undergo baptism, and to
issue from that place, in January, 1436, an edict taking the Franciscans
under his protection, and permitting them to spread Catholicism
throughout Bosnia. In reward for this Sigismund aided his return to his
kingdom, which he found possessed partly by Servia, partly by the Turks,
and wholly devastated. For what he could obtain of this ruined land he
had to render allegiance to Murad II., and to pay him a yearly tribute
of twenty-five thousand ducats. Wretched as was this simulacrum of
royalty, it was incompatible with the favor which he had been compelled
to show to Catholicism. Southern Bosnia by this time was independent
under Stephen Vukcic, nephew and successor of Sandalj; as a Catharan, he
was regarded throughout Bosnia as the defender of the national faith,
and, in alliance with Murad II., he overthrew Stephen Tvrtko II.[345]
In 1444 another king was elected in the person of Stephen Thomas
Ostojic, a younger natural son of Ostoja, who had carefully kept himself
in obscurity with a low-born Catharan wife, to whom he had been married
with the Catharan ceremony--a fact which subsequently served as an
excuse for a divorce. Almost the first question which the new king had
to decide was whether he would adhere to his religion or cast his
fortunes with Catholicism. The Church had not relaxed its efforts to win
over the fragments remaining of Bosnia, in spite of the fact that it
was only aiding the designs of the Turks by adding to confusion and
discord. In 1437 the vacancy left by Giacomo della Marca had been filled
by the appointment of Frà Niccolò of Trau, and since 1439 Tommaso,
Bishop of Lesina, had been in Bosnia as papal legate, busily engaged in
furthering the interests of Catholicism. He had failed in an effort to
convert Stephen Vukcic, but the advent of a new king was an incentive to
further exertions. Eugenius promptly appointed the Observantine Vicar of
Bosnia, Fabiano of Bacs, and his successors perpetual inquisitors over
the Slavonic lands, and instructed the Bishop of Lesina to promise
Stephen Thomas the recognition of his election if he would embrace the
true faith. The position was a difficult one. All his magnates, with the
exception of Peter Vojsalic, were Catharans, and to offend them would be
to invite Turkish intervention, while, so long as he held aloof from
Christendom, he could expect no aid from the West. Doubtless promises
that could not be fulfilled were made to him in plenty, for he concluded
to cast his fortunes with Catholicism, but he abstained from receiving
the crown offered to him by Eugenius for fear of offending his Catharan
subjects. He permitted the erection of two new bishoprics, he was duly
baptized, and he labored long and earnestly to induce his subjects to
follow his example. Nearly all his magnates did so, but Stephen Vukcic
was a conspicuous exception, and the common people were not so easily
moved. Even the king himself did not dare to omit the customary
"adoration" of the Perfects, for which he was duly excommunicated by
the inquisitor, but the pope recognized the difficulty of his position,
and wisely gave him a dispensation for associating with heretics.[346]
Although many Catholic churches were built, the legate reported, on a
visit to Rome, that the land was too full of heresy for other cure than
the sword. The king's position was too insecure for him to venture on
persecution, which would infallibly have led to a revolt. In a grant, in
1446, of certain towns to Count Paul Dragisic and his brothers, who were
zealous Cathari, it is provided that, in case of their committing
treason, the gift is not to be resumed without a previous investigation
"by the Lord Djed and the Bosnian Church and good Bosnians." The
Franciscans complained of his lukewarmness to Nicholas V., when he
justified himself on the plea of necessity; he longed, he said, for the
time when he could offer to his subjects the alternative of death or
conversion, but as yet the heretics were too numerous and powerful and
his position too precarious. Nicholas calmed the Franciscans, and they
eagerly awaited the good time to come.[347]
The defeat, in 1448, of John Hunyady, in a three days' battle on the
historic Amselfeld, led, in 1449, to a seven years' peace between him
and Murad II., in which Bosnia was included. Peace with Servia followed,
and, thus relieved from the fear of foreign aggression, Stephen Thomas
was summoned to perform his promises. Before the papal representatives
he was obliged to give a solemn pledge to John Hunyady that he would
strike heresy with a crushing blow. Nicholas V., who had sent the Bishop
of Lesina back as legate, ordered him to preach a crusade with Holy Land
indulgences, and active efforts were made in the good work. Early in
1451 the Bishop of Lesina sent most encouraging reports of the result.
Many of the nobles had sought conversion; the king in every way helped
the Franciscans, and had founded several houses for them; wherever these
houses existed the heretics melted away like wax before the fire, and if
a sufficient supply of friars could be had heresy would be extirpated.
Not quite so rose-colored was the statement of a Dominican, Frà Giovanni
of Ragusa, that in Bosnia and Servia there were very few monks and
priests, so that the people were wholly untrained in the faith.
Unmindful of the danger of conjoining the two Orders, Nicholas sent him
thither with some of his brethren on missionary work, and at the same
time despatched the Franciscan Eugenio Somma to Albania, Bulgaria, and
Servia in the double capacity of nuncio and inquisitor.[348]
The good Bishop of Lesina had been over-sanguine. In the first pressure
of persecution forty heads of the Catharan Church, with great numbers of
the laity, sought refuge with Stephen Vukcic, who proceeded to attack
the Catholics of Ragusa, while many others fled to Servia and to the
Turks, and appealed to them for help. Those who remained prepared for
resistance, and a bloody religious war broke out, of which George
Brankovic of Servia took advantage to renew the war suspended in 1449.
This was more than Stephen Thomas could endure; he was forced to abandon
persecution and to call for help. John Hunyady was enraged at his
weakness, and ordered him to make peace with Servia. He appealed to
Nicholas V., who remonstrated with Hunyady, when the latter retorted
that Stephen Thomas was false to his promises, and, in place of
exterminating the heretics, was protecting them, to the scandal of all
Christendom.[349]
On the fall of Constantinople, in May, 1453, Stephen Thomas promptly
sent envoys to Mahomet II. to tender his allegiance. In the
ever-deepening menace of the Turks persecution could hardly be resumed
with activity, but the popes occasionally gave him a portion of the
moneys raised for the crusade, and the Cathari were humiliated and
proscribed as far as could be ventured upon, and constituted a
discontented and dangerous element of the population. In 1459 we find
the king protesting to Pius II. that he persecuted the Cathari roundly,
and asking for more bishops; and one of his latest acts was to send the
Bishop of Nona to the pope with three Catharan magnates--George Kucinic,
Stojsav Tvrtkovic, and Radovan Viencinic--that they might be converted.
It seems incredible that any one should covet a throne so precarious,
and yet, in 1461, while Stephen Thomas was battling with the Croatian
magnates, he was murdered by his son, Stephen Thomasevic, and his
brother Radivoj. The crown which Stephen Thomasevic thus won by a
parricide was a crown of thorns. To the north Matthias Corvinus of
Hungary was estranged and unforgiving; to the west was Croatia, with
which he was at war; in the south Stephen Vukcic was his enemy; while on
the east lay Servia, now a Turkish pashalic, from which Mahomet II. only
awaited the fitting moment to reduce Bosnia to a like condition. Thus
surrounded by foes, the internal condition of the land was not
reassuring, for it was full of secret or open Cathari, who longed for
help or revenge, no matter whence it might come.[350]
The new king recognized that his only hope lay in obtaining aid from
Christendom, to earn which he labored energetically to strengthen the
Catholic Church in his dominions, but, in the fatal perverseness of the
time, this only precipitated his downfall. From Pius II. he obtained
only barren instructions to the legate, Lorenzo, Abbot of Spalatro, to
collect money and crusaders. From Matthias Corvinus he purchased an
alliance by a heavy payment, by surrendering some castles, and by
breaking off relations with the Turks and ceasing to pay them tribute.
In all this he estranged still further his heretic subjects and drew
upon his head the vengeance of Mahomet II. Many Cathari, driven from
Bosnia, had found refuge in Moslem territory; others, especially nobles,
forced to pretend conversion, maintained constant relations with the
Turks, kept them advised of all that occurred, and were eager to aid
them, in hopes of revenge. The news of the treaty with Matthias Corvinus
was speedily conveyed to Mahomet, who, to test its truth, sent an envoy
to demand the tribute. King Stephen took him to the treasury, showed him
the money, and refused to deliver it, saying that he needed it for
self-defence, or that it would support him in exile if driven from the
kingdom, and he paid no heed to the envoy's warning that treasure
withheld in defiance of pledges would bring him no luck.[351]
Defiance such as this left nothing to hope for from the Turk, but
preoccupations in Wallachia kept Mahomet busy during 1462, and he
postponed his revenge till the following year. It shows the blindness of
Rome to the situation and the unflagging persistency of the
determination to secure uniformity of faith, that during this respite
Pius II. sent learned friars to Bosnia with instructions that the best
mode of overcoming heresy was to promote study. The instructions were
excellent, but sadly misplaced. Through the winter and spring of 1463
Mahomet was preparing the final blow by massing one hundred and fifty
thousand men at Adrianople. To throw Stephen Thomasevic off of his
guard, his request for a fifteen years' truce was granted, and his
envoys, returning with this welcome news, were followed, after an
interval of four days, by the Turkish host. The land was found
defenceless, and no resistance was offered till the invaders reached the
royal castle of Bobovac, a stronghold capable of prolonged defence. Its
commandant, however, was Count Radak, a Catharan who had been forced to
conversion, and on the third day he surrendered on a promise of reward.
When he claimed this, Mahomet, reproaching him with his treason, had him
promptly beheaded, and tradition still points out on the road to Sutiska
the rock Radakovica, where the traitor met his end. The capitulation of
Bobovac cast terror throughout the land. Resistance was no longer
thought of, and the only alternatives were flight or submission. The
king hurried towards the Croatian frontier, with Mahomet Pasha at his
heels, and was compelled at Kljuc to surrender on promise of life and
freedom, but, in spite of this, he was put to death, after being
utilized to order all commandants of cities and castles to surrender
them. Within eight days more than seventy towns fell into the hands of
the Turks, and by the middle of June all Bosnia was in their possession.
Then Mahomet turned southward to overrun the territories of Stephen
Vukcic, but the mountains of Herzegovina were bravely defended by the
Cathari, and by the end of June the Turkish host took its way homeward,
carrying with it one hundred thousand prisoners and thirty thousand
youths to be converted into Janissaries.[352]
Thus abandoned by Christendom, except to hasten the end through
perpetually inflaming religious strife, Bosnia was conquered without a
struggle, while Herzegovina held out for twenty years longer. How easily
the catastrophe might have been averted is seen in the fact that before
the year 1463 was out Matthias Corvinus had reconquered a large portion
of the territory so easily won, which was held until the Hungarian power
was broken on the disastrous field of Mohacs in 1526. In the Turkish
lands the Cathari for the most part embraced Mahometanism, and the sect
which had so stubbornly endured the vicissitudes of more than a thousand
years disappeared in obscurity. The Christians had the resource of
flight, which they embraced, commencing an emigration which continued
until the middle of the eighteenth century. This was rather to escape
oppression than persecution, for the Turks permitted them the exercise
of their religion. When the blessed Angelo of Verbosa, the disciple of
Giacomo della Marca, persuaded his fellow-believers to leave the
country, Mahomet sent for him and menacingly asked him his reasons. "To
worship God elsewhere," he boldly replied, and so eloquently pleaded
his cause that the Turk ordered the Christians to be unmolested, and
gave Angelo permission to preach. Thenceforth the Franciscans were the
refuge and support of the Christians up to modern times, though they had
many cruelties to endure at the hands of the barbarous conquerors.[353]