BOGOMIL

BOGOMIL. A dualist movement in Byzantium, particularly the Slavic territories in the Balkans (qq.v.), from the 10th-14th c., it was first preached by the Bulgarian priest, Bogomil. He rejected the sacraments (q.v.) and hierarchy of the Orthodox Church in favor of a spiritualized Christianity that saw matter and the world as intrinsically evil and reserved salvation for those who rejected this creation. Perhaps related to the Paulician heresy (q.v.) originating in Syria and Armenia in about the 7th c. or before, and with roots extending into ancient Manichaeism and gnosticism (q.v.), the movement is usually held to have played an important role in medieval Bosnia (q.v.) and to have taken on a second life in the Cathari or Albegensians of southern France during the 12th-13th c.-just when the Paulicians disappeared.