Bogomils

1. Edgar bedolla BOGOMILS

2. The term "Bogomil" means "Loved by/Dear to God" in most Slavic languages. Bogomils were a Gnostic dualistic sect, the synthesis of Armenian Paulicianism, which emerged in the First Bulgarian Empire between 927 and 970. It also presented a form of political movement and opposition to the Bulgarian state and the church. The Bogomils are identified with the Massaliani in Slavonic documents of the 13th century.

3. BOGOMILS COURT - OTTO RAPP

4. RELIGIOUS FACTORS The Bogomils taught that God had two sons, the elder Satanail and the younger Michael. The existence of older Christian heresies in the Bulgarian lands which were considered very dualistic, influenced the Bogomil movement. The elder son rebelled against the father and became the evil spirit. After his fall he created the lower heavens and the earth and tried in vain to create man, in the end he had to appeal to God for the Spirit. After creation Adam was allowed to till the ground on condition that he sold himself and his posterity to the owner of the earth. Each community had its own twelve "apostles," and women could be raised to the rank of "elect .

5. HISTORY Much of the heretical literature has been thoroughly persecuted and burned by the Bulgarian state, the Roman Empire and the Holy Roman Empire. Some has survived in changed forms in other countries like France or Italy where Bogomilism was spread under the name Catharism. The old Slavonic lists of forbidden books of the 15th and 16th century also give us a clue to the discovery of this heretical literature and of the means the Bogomils employed to carry on their teachings.