climate is hot but healthy. The surrounding country is fertile, producing sugar, Indian corn, and maguay in abundance; rice, cacao and fruits are also produced. Hats, baskets, cloths and rope are woven and are exported to a limited extent; small quantities of copra are also exported. The fisheries are of considerable local importance. The language is Cebú-Visayan.
BOGODUKHOV, a town of Russia, in the government of
Kharkov, 45 m. by rail N.W. of the city of that name, in 49° 58′
N. lat. and 36° 9′ E. long., was formerly fortified. Pop. (1860)
10,522; (1897) 11,928. There seems to have been a settlement
on this site as early as 1571. In 1709, at the time of the Russo-Swedish
War, Bogodukhov was taken by Menshikov and the emperor
Alexius. It contains a cathedral, built in 1793. Boots, caps
and furred gowns are manufactured, and gardening and tanning
are carried on. The trade is principally in grain, cattle and fish.
BOGOMILS, the name of an ancient religious community
which had its origin in Bulgaria. It is difficult to ascertain
whether the name was taken from the reputed founder of that
sect, a certain pope Bogumil or Bogomil, or whether he assumed
that name after it had been given to the whole sect. The word
is a direct translation into Slavonic of Massaliani, the Syrian
name of the sect corresponding to the Greek Euchites. The
Bogomils are identified with the Massaliani in Slavonic documents
of the 13th century. They are also known as Pavlikeni,
i.e. Paulicians. It is a complicated task to determine the true
character and the tenets of any ancient sect, considering that
almost all the information that has reached us has come from
the opponents. The heretical literature has to a great extent
either perished or been completely changed; but much has also
survived in a modified written form or through oral tradition.
Concerning the Bogomils something can be gathered from the
information collected by Euthymius Zygadenus in the 12th
century, and from the polemic Against the Heretics written in
Slavonic by St Kozma during the 10th century. The old Slavonic
lists of forbidden books of the 15th and 16th centuries also give
us a clue to the discovery of this heretical literature and of the
means the Bogomils employed to carry on their propaganda.
Much may also be learnt from the doctrines of the numerous
heretical sects which arose in Russia after the 11th century.
The Bogomils were without doubt the connecting link between the so-called heretical sects of the East and those of the West. They were, moreover, the most active agents in disseminating such teachings in Russia and among all the nations of Europe. They may have found in some places a soil already prepared by more ancient tenets which had been preserved in spite of the persecution of the official Church, and handed down from the period of primitive Christianity. In the 12th and 13th centuries the Bogomils were already known in the West as “Bulgari.” In 1207 the Bulgarornm heresis is mentioned. In 1223 the Albigenses are declared to be the local Bougres, and at the same period mention is made of the “Pope of the Albigenses who resided within the confines of Bulgaria.” The Cathars and Patarenes, the Waldenses, the Anabaptists, and in Russia the Strigolniki, Molokani and Dukhobortsi, have all at different times been either identified with the Bogomils or closely connected with them.
Doctrine.—From the imperfect and conflicting data which are alone available one positive result can be gathered, viz. that the Bogomils were both Adoptionists and Manichaeans. They had accepted the teaching of Paul of Samosata, though at a later period the name of Paul was believed to be that of the Apostle; and they were not quite free from the Dualistic principle of the Gnostics, at a later period too much identified with the teaching of Mani. They rejected the pneumatic Christianity of the orthodox churches and did not accept the docetic teaching of some of the other sects. Taking as our starting-point the teaching of the heretical sects in Russia, notably those of the 14th century, which are a direct continuation of the doctrines held by the Bogomils, we find that they denied the divine birth of Christ, the personal coexistence of the Son with the Father and Holy Ghost, and the validity of sacraments and ceremonies. The miracles performed by Jesus were interpreted in a spiritual sense, not as real material occurrences; the Church was the interior spiritual church in which all held equal share. Baptism was only to be practised on grown men and women. The Bogomils repudiated infant baptism, and considered the baptismal rite to be of a spiritual character neither by water nor by oil but by self-abnegation, prayers and chanting of hymns. Carp Strigolnik, who in the 14th century preached this doctrine in Novgorod, explained that St Paul had taught that simple-minded men should instruct one another; therefore they elected their “teachers” from among themselves to be their spiritual guides, and had no special priests. Prayers were to be said in private houses, not in separate buildings such as churches. Ordination was conferred by the congregation and not by any specially appointed minister. The congregation were the “elect,” and each member could obtain the perfection of Christ and become a Christ or “Chlist.” Marriage was not a sacrament. The Bogomils refused to fast on Mondays and Fridays. They rejected monachism. They declared Christ to be the Son of God only through grace like other prophets, and that the bread and wine of the eucharist were not transformed into flesh and blood; that the last judgment would be executed by God and not by Jesus; that the images and the cross were idols and the worship of saints and relics idolatry.
These Paulician doctrines have survived in the great Russian sects, and can be traced back to the teachings and practice of the Bogomils. But in addition to these doctrines of an adoptionist origin, they held the Manichaean dualistic conception of the origin of the world. This has been partly preserved in some of their literary remains, and has taken deep root in the beliefs and traditions of the Bulgarians and other nations with whom they had come into close contact. The chief literature of all the heretical sects throughout the ages has been that of apocryphal Biblical narratives, and the popes Jeremiah or Bogumil are directly mentioned as authors of such forbidden books “which no orthodox dare read.” Though these writings are mostly the same in origin as are known from the older lists of apocryphal books, they underwent in this case a certain modification at the hands of their Bogomil editors, so as to be used for the propagation of their own specific doctrines. In its most simple and attractive form—one at the same time invested with the authority of the reputed holy author—their account of the creation of the world and of man; the origin of sin and redemption, the history of the Cross, and the disputes between body and soul, right and wrong, heaven and hell, were embodied either in “Historiated Bibles” (Paleya[1]) or in special dialogues held between Christ and his disciples, or between renowned Fathers of the Church who expounded these views in a simple manner adapted to the understanding of the people (Lucidaria). The Bogomils taught that God had two sons, the elder Satanail and the younger Michael. 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. Then Michael was sent in the form of a man; he became identified with Jesus, and was “elected” by God after the baptism in the Jordan. When the Holy Ghost (Michael) appeared in the shape of the dove, Jesus received power to break the covenant in the form of a clay tablet (hierographon) held by Satanail from Adam. He had now become the angel Michael in a human form; as such he vanquished Satanail, and deprived him of the termination -il = God, in which his power resided. Satanail was thus transformed into Satan. Through his machinations the crucifixion took place, and Satan was the originator of the whole Orthodox community with its churches, vestments, ceremonies, sacraments and fasts, with its monks and priests. This world being the work of Satan, the perfect must eschew any and every excess of its pleasure. But the Bogomils did not go as far as to recommend asceticism. They held the “Lord’s Prayer” in high respect as the most
- ↑ These betray their Gnostic (Marcianite) spirit by the anti-Jewish tone of the oldest MSS. extant, though this prejudice tends to decrease in later MSS.
