VENETIAN SUPREMACY
II.—SERVIAN AND BOSNIAN WARS, 1276-1358
To return to our story; in 1276 Ragusa was once more threatened from
outside. The King of Servia[141] determined to make another attempt
to convert Ragusa into a Servian seaport; he crossed the mountains
with a large army and raided the territory of the Republic. A Ragusan
force sent against him was defeated, and its leader, Benedetto Gondola,
captured and hanged. Elated by this success, the King marched forward
and tried to capture Ragusa itself by a _coup de main_. But the
citizens were prepared, and the city put in a state of defence. The
massive walls and well-armed battlements baffled the Servian king, and
the Count Pietro Tiepolo, who had called in a Venetian contingent to
stiffen the Ragusan levies, defeated the enemy. The Venetian Government
sent a deputation to the King threatening him with severe reprisals if
he dared to attack the cities under Venetian protection, whereupon the
Servians retired and peace was made.[142] Ten years later the King of
Servia, being offended with the Republic, harried and plundered its
merchants, raided Ragusan territory, and tried to capture the city, but
was again defeated.
Ragusa’s relations with Venice were on the whole satisfactory. There
were occasional complaints on the part of the Venetian Government that
the Ragusans did not fulfil their treaty obligations and failed to
send the promised galleys to take part in the expeditions against the
Almissan pirates and other enemies.[143] On other occasions they were
blamed for delaying goods (chiefly grain) which passed through the city
on the way to Venice. However, when in 1296 Ragusa was almost entirely
destroyed by fire, the Venetians showed generosity in providing money
and building materials,[144] and the Count Marino Morosini (1296-1298)
issued a decree for rebuilding the city on a handsomer scale.[145]
During the Genoese war Ragusa lent four galleys to the Venetians, which
took part in the battle of Curzola, and after that disastrous defeat
the Ragusan ships lent aid to the scattered remnants of the Venetian
fleet (1298).
Ragusa had considerable intercourse with the neighbouring Dalmatian
townships, especially with Cattaro, which was one of the oldest
city-republics on the coast. But there were frequent quarrels
between the two communities, partly through the intrigues of the
Slavonic princes, and partly on account of commercial rivalries, both
towns being competitors for the salt trade from the coast to the
interior.[146] Cattaro had sometimes been under the protection of the
Servian kings, who used it as their seaport, and sometimes under
that of Venice. But in 1257 a treaty was made by which the Cattarini
promised in the event of a war between the Serbs and Ragusa to do
their best to harass the former without openly espousing the latter’s
cause, and each Republic was to try and promote arbitration if the
other was at war. We are not told how this curious compact was carried
out, but it was not by any means an unusual arrangement among these
semi-independent Dalmatian townships.
In 1301 or 1302 there was another Servian war, in which Venice and
Ragusa co-operated, caused by a quarrel with Cattaro. This town was now
under Venetian protection, but continued to hold underhand intercourse
with the Slaves. The Venetians protested, and Stephen Uroš, who called
himself “King of Servia, Melinia, Albania, Chelmo, Doclea, and the
maritime region,”[147] made another raid on Ragusan territory, burning
the houses, destroying the crops, and murdering many of the inhabitants
and making prisoners of others.[148] The Venetians, however, came to
the rescue, and ordered their _Capitano in Golfo_, or Admiral of the
Adriatic, to remain with the fleet at Ragusa for so long as the city
should be in any danger. The Serbs were defeated on several occasions,
and finally induced to listen to the remonstrances of the Venetian
ambassadors.[149] In 1302[150] peace was made, and as the Ragusans had
suffered much during the war, and the devastating raids had caused a
famine, they were allowed to retain the grain destined for Venice, and
received loans and other favours.
For the next fourteen years there was peace, and Ragusa remained
undisturbed save for one or two small disputes with Venice about
certain _prava statuta_, which denied all value to the evidence of
Venetian witnesses at Ragusa.[151] But in 1316 another quarrel broke
out with Uroš, who arrested and plundered a number of Ragusan traders.
Venetian attempts at conciliation proved fruitless,[152] and in 1317
war broke out. The Count Paolo Morosini wrote that “much serious
damage has been done to the commune and people of Ragusa in their
persons and property by Uroš and his people, who have again raided our
territory.” Among other damage, the Franciscan monastery outside the
Porta Pile was burnt.[153] The Venetians sold arms to the Ragusans,
and deferred claiming payment until the following year. These arms
were “many breast-plates, 100 cross-bows, 10,000 arrows, and 5000
_falsatores_.[154]
[Illustration: BAS RELIEF OF ST. BLAIZE, NEAR THE PORTA PLOCE]
We are not informed as to the outcome of this war; but apparently
Ragusa was reconciled with Servia in 1322, as in that year Stephen
Uroš IV.,[155] who succeeded his father in 1321, granted the city
an accession of territory, _i.e._ the districts of Bosanka and
Osoinik.[156] A far more important acquisition obtained during the
next few years was that of Stagno and the peninsula of Punta, or
Sabbioncello, as it is now called, which converted Ragusa from a
city-republic, with only a few miles of territory beyond the walls and
some small islands, into a fairly respectable territorial State. The
Punta di Stagno is a long mountainous peninsula jutting out from the
Dalmatian coast in a north-westerly direction, with a sort of spur or
branch promontory stretching towards the south-east and forming a deep
bay. Its length is 71.2 km., in breadth it varies from 3.1 km. to 7.1
km. Parts of the peninsula are very fertile, especially in vineyards.
Its population is to-day over 10,000, and in the Middle Ages it was
probably more considerable. It is joined to the mainland by a narrow
isthmus 1½ km. across, with two small towns, Stagno Grande (Slav.
_Veliki Ston_), looking towards Ragusa, and Stagno Piccolo (_Mali
Ston_), on the north towards the Mare di Narenta, each with a good
port. On both shores of the peninsula are other small harbours. On the
southern coast, opposite the island of Curzola, rises the imposing
mass of the Monte Vipera, with the town of Orebić at its foot. The
importance of this territory for the Ragusans was partly strategical,
as it formed a bulwark against invaders, from the north, whether by
sea or by land, and partly commercial, on account of the valuable
salt-pans of Stagno, which afterwards formed one of the chief sources
of revenue for the Republic, and are still in use to this day. The
Punta and the island of Curzola are the only spots in Europe where
jackals are still to be found. This territory had formed part of the
principality of Hlum, which, as we have seen, was originally joined to
Doclea, and recognised Servian overlordship from about 1222 until some
time between 1320 and 1330, when it was added to the Banat of Bosnia
under Hungarian suzerainty. Hlum was divided into a number of _župe_,
like the other Serb lands, under different feudal families. Stagno and
the Punta was ruled by that of the Branivoj, with whom the Ragusans
had hitherto lived on terms of friendship and commercial intercourse.
The Republic sent them an annual gift of 100 _ipperperi_,[157] which
may, however, have been blackmail to secure immunity from piracy, to
which so many of the Slave tribes were addicted. It is probable that
the Ragusans had had their eyes on this district for some time, and in
1320-21 they gladly obeyed the injunctions of the Venetian Senate to
act against the pirates of Stagno and Cattaro.[158] About 1323, for
some unrecorded reason,[159] a quarrel broke out between Ragusa and the
Branivoj; and on April 8, 1325, instead of sending the usual gift, the
Republic decreed warlike preparations against the lord Branivoj and
his sons “qui fecerunt offensionis multas, depredationes, et rubarias
contra comune et speciales personas civitatis Ragusii.” A few months
later Ragusa sent envoys to Venice to request the Doge’s intervention
on account of the King of Servia’s attitude, which appeared to be
insincere.[160] Hostilities were commenced, and carried on with a
barbarity unusual even for those times. The following year Braico,
one of Branivoj’s sons, was captured at Sant’ Andrea in Pelago, and
condemned to be exposed in a cage and starved to death. Some time
afterwards his brother Grubaza or Grubeza was captured, and their
mother, who had asked for Ragusan hospitality on her way to Bosnia,
was detained as a hostage. The third brother, Branoe, was arrested
by the King of Servia, who was now friendly towards the Ragusans.
The latter requested him to hand the prisoner over to the commune of
Cattaro, where he would have less chance of escaping. Uroš agreed,
but the Republic was still unsatisfied, and private citizens offered
rewards out of their own pockets for the heads of the surviving members
of the Branivoj family. A certain Pasqua promised 500 _ipperperi_,
and the Croce family 2000, to any one of the King’s barons who would
kill Branoe on the way from Svezana (where he had been detained)
to Cattaro![161] The Servian king apparently had another slight
disagreement with the Ragusans about 1327; but when war broke out
between him and the Bulgarian Tsar Michael, he required their help to
obtain Italian mercenaries, and in return he favoured their projects on
Stagno.[162] His successor, Stephen Dušan (1330-1355), was still more
favourable, and through the two citizens of Cattaro, Trifone and
Niccolò Bucchia, who held high positions at his court as Protospathar
and Protovestiar, the Republic obtained his full support. Trifone was
sent to arbitrate, but his sympathies were so thoroughly Ragusan that
he actually contributed to the price on Branoe’s head. Niccolò finally
induced the King formally to cede the coveted territory to Ragusa, and
accompanied him on a state visit to that city. The Servian king was
received by the citizens with their usual magnificence (1332), and
Niccolò Bucchia was presented with wide lands and houses on the Punta,
and a house in Ragusa itself. He was afterwards granted citizenship and
a seat in the Grand Council, and became the founder of a famous family.
The document ceding Stagno in exchange for a tribute is published in
the _Monumenta specantia Historiam Slavorum Meridionalium_.[163]
[Illustration: PLAN OF RAGUSA.]
“We, Stephen Nemanja Dušan, by the grace of God, King of Servia,
Dalmatia, Dioclia, Albania, Zeuta,[164] Chelmo, and the Maritime
Region, ... concede and grant to the community of Ragusa by hereditary
right to them and to their successors the whole Punta and coast of
Stagno, beginning from Prevlaca to the confines of Ragusan territory,
with all the towns and villages and houses therein contained, and also
Posrednica[165] ... in exchange for which they must pay to us and to
our successors annually on the day of the Resurrection of our Lord
Jesus Christ 500 _soldi_ in Venetian _grossi_, on pain of paying double
in case of delay.” In addition he was to receive a sum down of 2000
_ipperperi_, and Stephen Kotromanić, Banus of Bosnia, who had certain
rights over the Punta, was to receive 600 _ipperperi_ a year. According
to Resti,[166] it was necessary for the Republic to bribe several of
the King’s nobles and councillors so that they should influence him in
favour of the grant, and they influenced the Banus of Bosnia through
his secretary, Domagna Bobali, who was a native of Ragusa. The compact
was carried out, save for the island of Posrednica, which the Ragusans
were not allowed to occupy until 1345. What became of the Branivoj
family, whether it was entirely wiped out or whether the surviving
members were merely expelled, we are not informed.
The Republic at once set to work to partition the land in the new
territory among its citizens. Three-quarters of it were granted to
the nobles, and the rest to the burghers; the grantees were forbidden
to sell any land to the Slaves. A colour of piety was lent to this
conquest by the determination of the Ragusans to stamp out Bogomilism
and schism from the peninsula, and the caloyers[167] and heretical
priests were exiled, and their places occupied by Roman Catholics.
At the end of the century the Franciscans were established as an
additional bulwark of the Church. In order to protect Stagno from more
earthly dangers an elaborate system of fortifications was begun, which
were to serve the Republic in good stead on more than one occasion.
Both Stagno Grande and Stagno Piccolo were surrounded with massive
walls, and a castle was built in each. A third was erected at the top
of the hill, between the two seas; a long wall with towers at intervals
was carried right across the isthmus, and other walls from both towns
to the castle on the hill. These defences may be seen to this day, and
although in a woeful state of neglect and disrepair, still form a most
conspicuous feature in the landscape.
[Illustration: FORTIFICATIONS OF STAGNO GRANDE]
The following year King Stephen rather repented his generosity, and
demanded back the gift on the pretext that the Ragusans were incapable
of defending it securely. But his envoys, who visited Stagno, being
convinced by the sight of the Ragusan fortifications, and perhaps by
that of Ragusan gold, that it was being rapidly made quite secure,
induced him to confirm the grant. This he did, and forbade his subjects
to attempt to enter the ceded territory. Another dispute with the
fickle Servian king broke out in 1330, because the Ragusans had given
shelter to the widow of the Bulgarian Tsar, who had been forced to fly
after the defeat and death of her husband by the Serbs at the battle of
Velbužd.[168] Stephen wished to secure the fugitive, and demanded her
of the Republic. The latter refused the demand, in spite of promise of
still further territories and privileges, and sent the Empress safely
to Constantinople. Stephen then demanded back Stagno once more, and
tried to take it by storm. But as it was too strongly fortified he
limited himself to a raid on Ragusan territory on the mainland, until
called away to defend his northern frontier against the Hungarians.
Peace was made in 1335, and in 1336[169] a solemn Ragusan embassy was
sent to honour him at Scutari.
The maritime trade of the Republic had brought great riches to the
citizens, but contact with the East also brought the plague in its
train, and in 1348 Ragusa, like the rest of Europe, was visited by the
terrible scourge. It was probably introduced into the western world
by the Tartars besieging Caffa in 1344, and although the town was
saved, the relieving force caught the disease, which spread through
Europe with lightning-like rapidity. The following document preserved
in the book of wills in the Cathedral treasury at Ragusa, written by
eye-witnesses, gives a vivid picture of the terror inspired by the fell
scourge:—
“Our Lord God sent a terrible judgment, unheard of in the whole world,
both on Christians and on pagans, a mortality of men and still more
of women, through an awful and incurable disease, which caused the
spitting of blood and swellings on various parts of the body, so
contagious that sons fled from their fathers and still more often
fathers from their sons; all the art of Apocrates, Galen, and Avizena
proved useless, for no art or science availeth against Divine judgment.
This disease commenced at Ragusa on the 15th day of December, in the
year of our Lord 1348, and lasted for six months, during which 120
persons or more died each day; of the (Grand) Council there died 110
nobles.”[170] According to Gelcich, the total number of deaths in the
town ranged from 7000 to 10,000, including 160 nobles and 300 burghers;
it is impossible to conjecture how many died in the territory. It
made its appearance at the same time at Spalato, preceded, according
to the legend, by an eclipse of the sun, so complete that the stars
were visible by day, and by a drought so great that the dust remained
suspended in huge clouds in mid air.[171] Ragnina, who wrote more than
a century after the event, declares that the belief that the Jews had
poisoned the wells was very prevalent, while others believed that the
cause of the disease was a conjunction of three planets under Jupiter
and Mars.[172] At this time no sanitary precautions were taken against
further visitations, but large sums were collected to build the votive
church of San Biagio.
This same year there was another disagreement with King Stephen, as we
find the Venetian Government authorising the Ragusans to purchase a
further supply of arms;[173] in 1349 and 1350 Venetian embassies were
sent to Servia to protest against his raids on Ragusan territory, a
Venetian galley stationed in the harbour as a protection,[174] and two
_mangani_ or catapults were forwarded to the citizens.[175] Some of the
Venetian documents on the subject allude to Bosnian as well as Servian
raids. Klaić says that the Banus Stephen Kotromanić actually did make
raids before 1345, but in that year made peace and never molested the
Ragusans again. His nephews, however, the Nikolići counts of Hlum
and Popovo, had many quarrels with Ragusa and raided her territory,
and it is to them that the documents allude.[176] War now broke out
between Servia and Bosnia, because the Banus would not consent to his
daughter’s marriage with the King’s son, Uroš. The King invaded Bosnia
on two occasions with a large army, and besieged the Banus in the royal
castle of Bobovac, but could not capture him. These quarrels between
Bosnia and Servia, like those between Servia and Bulgaria, were paving
the way for the Turkish conquest, and the obscure battles in the Bosna
and Drina valleys formed the prelude to the fatal day of Kossovo and
the bondage of the South-Slavonic race. The Banus Kotroman died in
1353, and was succeed by his nephew, Stephen Tvrtko, who was the first
King of Bosnia. He too was friendly to the Ragusans, and granted them
important privileges.
The conditions of Venice in the middle of the fourteenth century were
far from prosperous. The plague of 1348 had carried off three-fifths
of the population, in spite of the most stringent precautions.[177] In
1350 the fratricidal war with Genoa was again renewed in consequence of
disputes about the Black Sea trade. The battle of the Bosporus (1353)
was indecisive; in that of Cagliari the Venetians were successful, but
dared not attack Genoa, because the city had placed itself under the
protection of the Visconti. But in the same year they were totally
defeated at Sapienza in the Greek Archipelago and their whole fleet
captured. In 1354 the conspiracy of Marin Faliero broke out, and kept
the whole State in a turmoil for many months, until the execution of
the Doge and his accomplices.[178] His successor, Giovanni Gradenigo,
made peace with Genoa, and the Venetians set to work to rebuild their
fleet and restore their exhausted treasury by means of new commercial
enterprises in the Levant. But their possession of Dalmatia and the
land frontier north of Treviso were now threatened by Lewis of Hungary.
The latter allied himself with the Count of Gorizia and the Carraresi
of Padua against Venice, and invaded the Trevisan march, defeating
all the forces sent against him and capturing city after city. A five
months’ truce was concluded in 1356, but when it expired hostilities
broke out once more, and the treasury was soon empty. Merchandise
might arrive by sea, but with the mainland in the hands of the enemy
there was no outlet for its distribution.[179] New taxes were raised,
causing much discontent, and the Republic was at last forced to sue
for peace. Lewis made the cession of Dalmatia an express condition
of his retirement from the Trevisan march. After much discussion and
expostulation the Senate was forced to agree to these humiliating
terms, and Dalmatia, which had been acquired and maintained at such
great sacrifices, was now given up (Feb. 1358). The Republic had hoped
to create a diversion by an alliance with the King of Servia, who had
been fighting with the Banus of Bosnia, then a Hungarian vassal. But
Stephen Dušan got more and more involved in the Greek war, and when the
Hungarians invaded the Venetian _terraferma_ he was marching towards
Constantinople, but died on the way thither (1355).
The Ragusans were delighted at the successes of Lewis; they had
received him with great honour when he touched at their city in 1349 on
his return from the Neapolitan expedition,[180] and from that moment
they began to contemplate the advisability of placing themselves
under his protection. They had been afraid of the Hungarians when
they threatened to conquer Bosnia and Hlum, but now there was little
fear of that, and Hungary not being a great naval Power, could not
threaten their liberties by means of the fleet as Venice could always
do. When in 1356 the Venetians sent commissioners to claim the
Ragusan contingent for the war, the Grand Council made professions
of friendship, and agreed to send it. At the same time they were
negotiating with the Hungarian king for the surrender of their city
to him. On July 7, 1357, Lewis confirmed their possession of Stagno,
which, having formed part of Bosnia, was in a measure under his
authority, and it is probable that a preliminary treaty of dedition was
signed at the same time. When, by the peace of February 1358, Venice
gave up the whole eastern shore of the Adriatic, from the Quarnero to
Durazzo, she attempted to retain her hold over Ragusa on account of
that very claim to separation from the rest of Dalmatia which she had
hitherto always combated. Blandishments were tried, and by a rescript
of the Doge Giovanni Dolfin (Jan. 2, 1358) the Ragusans were granted
Venetian citizenship and commercial equality with the Venetians.[181]
But Ragusa had no wish to retain even a vestige of Venetian authority,
and a few weeks later Marco Soranzo, the last Venetian Count, left the
city by order of the Doge. The Ragusans treated him with courtesy and
evinced no ill-feeling against him, whereas the Venetian officials in
the other Dalmatian towns had departed amidst the jeers and curses of
the inhabitants. A triumvirate of Ragusan nobles was elected by the
Grand Council to carry on the government while arrangements with King
Lewis were being completed. By a curious irony they sent commissioners
to Venice in March to order “unum gonfalonem et aliquas banderias
cum armis D. N. D. Regis Hungariæ pro galleis et lignis nostris,”
and later “unum gonfalonerium ad modum penoni de sindone torto cum
arma (_sic_) Regis Hungariæ cum argento albo et cum argentum (_sic_)
deauratum pro duc. auri xxx.”[182]
On June 27 the final treaty was signed by Lewis of Hungary and Giovanni
Saraca, Archbishop of Ragusa, at Višegrad. The Ragusans placed
themselves under Hungarian protection, but were allowed to retain
their own internal liberties more fully than under Venice. The King’s
praises, instead of those of the Doge, were to be sung in the churches
of Ragusa three times a year. The Hungarian standard was to be adopted
as well as the banner of San Biagio, and 500 _ipperperi_ a year were to
be paid to the King. Should Hungary be engaged in naval warfare Ragusa
must provide one galley for every ten Hungarian galleys whenever the
Dalmatian fleet put to sea; if the Royal fleet alone were employed,
Ragusa need only provide one for every thirty. The supreme government
of the State was no longer to be vested in a foreign count, but in
three native Ragusans (afterwards reduced to one) to be chosen by the
Council. The only representative of the King was the captain of the
Hungarian and Bosnian guard, but he too was really in the service of
the Republic, and had no political authority. From this moment Ragusa
may be considered an independent State, as Hungarian authority, save
for the tribute, was little more than a formality.
During the Venetian epoch the territory of the Republic had expanded
considerably, and when the last count departed it consisted of the
following districts:—In the immediate neighbourhood of the city it
possessed the valleys of Gionchetto (Šumet), Bergato (Brgat), and Ombla
(Rijeka), with the bay of Gravosa and the Lapad peninsula, but the
frontiers were very near, and on the crest of Monte Sergio, immediately
behind the city, watchmen were posted day and night. Part of this
territory had been acquired in the earliest times, but small additions
had been made at intervals. Beyond the Ombla the citizens owned the
stretch of coast known as Starea or Astarea.[183] Of the islands, they
possessed in the thirteenth century Mercana—a small rock opposite the
promontory of Ragusavecchia, with a monastery of St. Michael[184]—and
Isola di Mezzo, Calamotta, Daksa, and S. Andrea of the group known
to the ancients as the Elaphites Insulæ were added in 1080.[185] In
1218 the more distant island of Lagosta had been acquired, and at an
early date that of Meleda had been granted by the Servian king to
the Benedictine monks, with the condition that the civil government
should be entrusted to the Republic. Stephen the First-Crowned gave
them Giuppana in 1216. Between 1220 and 1224 Stephen, Nemanja’s son,
granted the same monks a stretch of land about Žrnovica and Ombla. As
a consequence of the Ragusan alliance with Michael Asen, the Bulgarian
Tsar, against Stephen Uroš I., King of Servia, in 1254, the Republic’s
southern frontiers were extended so as to include the vineyards of
Breno and the peninsula on which the ruins of Epidaurus are said to
lie.[186] Here a new town arose, which by a strange inversion of names
was called Ragusavecchia. We have seen how in 1333-1334 Stagno and
the peninsula of Sabbioncello and the coast as far as the Narenta’s
mouth were acquired. In 1357 small additions were made about Breno and
Gionchetto between the Ljuta stream and the village of Kurilo[187]
(north of the Ombla). The districts of Carina and Drieno, although
on the Ragusan side of the mountain above Breno, remained beyond the
frontier: eventually they became Turkish territory, and such they
remained until 1878.[188]
[Illustration: CLOISTER OF THE FRANCISCAN MONASTERY]
The Ragusan Church had also been increasing in wealth and dignity with
the growth of the Republic, and a number of handsome ecclesiastical
buildings were begun during the fourteenth century. In the eleventh,
twelfth, and thirteenth centuries the Slavonic princes gave the
churches many valuable gifts of land, gold and silver ornaments, and
relics. But in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries Bosnia, Hlum,
and Servia were torn by religious wars owing to the spread of that
strange and little known heresy called Bogomilism, on which it will
be useful to say a few words. Of the origin of this heresy as of its
tenets there is very little reliable evidence. In all probability it
was an offshoot of Armenian Paulicianism, itself derived from the
earlier Adoptionist creed.[189] Paulician colonies have been settled
in Europe as early as the ninth century by the Emperor Constantine
Copronymus, and the heresy spread to Bulgaria, Servia, Bosnia, and
Macedonia. In his History of the Bulgarians, Prof. C. J. Jireček gives
an account of the beliefs of the Bogomils according to the researches
of various Slavonic scholars. They believed in the existence of two
principles, equal in age and power, one good personified in God, and
one evil personified in Satan. They recognised the New Testament, but
not the Old. All matter and all the visible world were essentially
evil; the body of Christ was only an apparent, not a real, body. The
sacraments were corporeal, therefore evil. They had no hierarchy, but
an executive consisting of a bishop and two grades of Apostles. Besides
the ordinary Bogomils there was a special order of the Perfect, who
renounced all worldly possessions, marriage, animal food, and lived
like hermits. They had no churches or images. They had a deathbed
ceremony, without which one went to hell. They did not believe in
purgatory.[190] But, as Prof. Bury remarks, it is doubtful if this is
a true presentation of the Bogomil creed. Hardly any of their books of
ritual survive, and all the accounts of them which have been preserved
are written by their prosecutors. It is more probable that they were
a monotheistic sect, believing in one God only, and rejecting the
Trinity. This view is supported by the fact that at the time of the
Turkish conquest such numbers of Bogomils became Muhamedans. It was
not merely that they went over to the conqueror’s creed from motives
of mere self-interest; there was really more similarity between that
religion and Bogomilism than between the latter and either the Eastern
or the Western Church.
In the tenth century there was a bishopric of Bosnia, which until
the eleventh century was in the ecclesiastical province of Spalato.
In 1067 it was transferred to that of Antivari. Later in the same
century it was added to the archbishopric of Ragusa. But the dioceses
of Antivari and Spalato continued to dispute Ragusa’s supremacy, and
in the conflict of authorities Bogomilism found scope to increase its
adherents. The Bosnians were mostly Roman Catholics, although there
were Orthodox Christians among them. Ban Čulin was himself a Catholic,
but when in 1189 the Pope, at the instigation of the King of Hungary,
Bela III., transferred the Bosnian bishopric once more from the Ragusan
province to that of Spalato, he went over to Bogomilism, so as not to
be in any way under Hungarian authority. His conversion gave the heresy
a fresh impetus, and it spread all over Bosnia, Slavonia, Dalmatia, and
Croatia, even to the coast towns. Pope Innocent III. had to induce the
King of Hungary to make a crusade against the Bogomils in Bosnia, but
Čulin declared that they were good Catholics, induced the Archbishop
of Ragusa to go to Rome with several of the heretics to be examined by
the Pope, and asked for a Papal envoy to be sent to Bosnia to study
the question. The Pope agreed, and sent his chaplain, Johannes de
Casamaris, to Bosnia in 1203. The heads of the Bogomil community, who
were also heads of monasteries, met at Bjelopolje on the Bosna, and
met the Banus, Casamaris, and Marinus, the Archdeacon of Ragusa, and
presented an address in which they affirmed their orthodoxy and their
attachment to the Roman Church,[191] and declared themselves ready to
obey the Pope in everything. Čulin himself abjured all heresy. They
renewed these declarations before the King of Hungary and the Banus at
Pest. The Papal legate was quite content, and advised the Pope to erect
some new bishoprics in Bosnia.
But in 1218 the heresy was again rampant, and Honorius III. sent
a legate to Hungary and Dalmatia to preach a crusade against the
Bogomils. But no crusade was organised, and the legate went alone
to Bosnia, where he died in 1222. The quarrels between the Pope and
Hungary gave the Bogomils a respite, and they became even more numerous
in consequence. In 1222 Andrew II., King of Hungary, placed Bosnia
under the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of Ugolin, Bishop of Kalocsa, on
condition that he stamped out the heresy, and Pope Honorius confirmed
the donation. But the crusade never came off, and the Bogomils became
so powerful that they deposed the Banus Stephen and succeeded in
placing their co-religionary Matthew Ninoslav on the throne (1232).
James, the Papal legate, went to Bosnia and found that the greater
part of the inhabitants were tainted with the heresy, including the
Catholic bishop; the Archbishop of Ragusa knew of this and did not
trouble about it, so that the legate reconfirmed the union of the
bishopric to that of Kalocsa. He succeeded, however, in inducing
Ninoslav to become a Catholic, and endow a new cathedral, which was to
be in the hands of the Dominicans. Many magnates followed his example.
But the Bogomils soon raised their heads once more, and the Banus was
either unable or unwilling to extirpate them. A crusade was therefore
proclaimed against them, which lasted from 1234 to 1239. Bosnia was
ravaged with fire and sword, and finally conquered by the crusaders
under Koloman, the King of Hungary’s son. In 1238 the Dominican Ponsa
was made bishop of Bosnia, and by 1239 Bogomilism seemed to have been
suppressed. But the moment the crusaders retired the heretics, who were
supported by the nation, rose in arms once more and became independent
of Hungary. In 1246 Innocent IV. ordered a second crusade, but this
time without success. After Ninoslav’s death Bosnia again fell under
Hungary, but no very severe measures were taken against the Bogomils.
The Bogomil Church of Bosnia became an established institution, and the
Catholic bishops themselves no longer resided in the country, but at
Djakovar, in Slavonia. Various attempts to organise crusades against
them failed. The Bani were afraid of persecuting them lest they should
rise in arms and put themselves under the protection of the King of
Servia, who as a Greek Christian was also an enemy to the Catholics.
Moreover, the missionary efforts of the Catholic Church were hindered
by the quarrels between the Franciscans and the Dominicans. Bogomilism
spread to Croatia and Dalmatia, and found adherents even at Traù and
Spalato. Pope Benedict XII. ordered the Croatian barons to make war on
the heretics (1337), but they were too busy fighting among themselves
to achieve much result. But the Banus Stephen declared himself a good
Catholic in 1340, and protected the Roman Church in Bosnia once more,
agreeing to the establishment of two more bishoprics. We hear little
more of the heresy after this date until the crusade of 1360.[192]
The Ragusan Church suffered in consequence of the heterodoxy of so
many of the Slave princes, and no longer received rich gifts from
them. On the other hand, both on account of its convenient situation
and because it was a stronghold of Catholicism, the town became the
centre of all this missionary activity. In 1225 the Dominican Order
was established at Ragusa, and occupied a small house attached to the
church of S. Giacomo in Peline. When the Order became more numerous
it removed to the Ploce quarter, where a large new church was erected
for it in 1306, and a monastery about 1345. The Franciscans first
came to Ragusa in 1235, twenty-eight years after the foundation of
the Order by St. Francis of Assisi, who is said to have visited the
city himself on his return from the Holy Land, although there is no
foundation for the legend. In 1250 a monastery was built for them
outside the Porta Pile; it was destroyed by the Serbs during the raid
of 1319.[193] A concession of land was granted to them within the walls
in the Menze quarter, and by the middle of the fourteenth century they
were established in the large, handsome monastery which still exists,
built partly at Government expense and partly by the munificence of
private citizens, including the guild of Ghent merchants established
there.[194] The two Orders gave battle to the heretics, and helped to
organise crusades against them, which are among the most barbarous
examples of religious persecution which history records. On the other
hand, if we are to believe the Ragusan legend, the Bogomils themselves
persecuted the Catholics in the Cattaro districts, and the bodies of
three martyrs who were murdered by them were brought to Ragusa, where
a church was built in their honour.[195] It is somewhat difficult
to unravel the tangle of contradictory accounts on this subject,
especially as Ragusan writers often confuse the Bogomils with the
followers of the Oriental Church.