Bohemia-Moravia 115of providence and fate. The world was created by a prov-
idential GODand contained no possibility of evil as a
true reality. In achieving cosmic order, God used the
instrument of fate, which necessitated each individual
happening. However unfortunate a fated event may seem
to human beings from their limited and secondary point
of view, they still have the genuine freedom to turn their
mind to a providential God. They could thereby rise
above the apparent misery of their circumstances and
find certain consolation.
Further reading:Boethius, Tractates: The Consolation
of Philosophy,trans. H. F. Stewart, E. K. Rand, and S. J.
Tester, Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge, Mass.: Har-
vard University Press, 1973); Boethius, Anicius Manlius
Severinus, Fundamentals of Music,trans. Calvin M. Bower
and ed. Claude V. Palisca (New Haven, Conn.: Yale
University Press, 1989); Margaret T. Gibson, ed. Boethius:
His Life, Thought and Influence(Oxford: Oxford Univer-
sity Press, 1981); Henry Chadwick, Boethius: The Conso-
lation of Music, Logic, Theology, and Philosophy(Oxford:
Clarendon Press, 1981); Edmund Reiss, Boethius(Boston:
Twayne Publishers, 1982).
Bogomils (Bogumils) Bogomils (“those pleasing to God”)
were dualists who denounced both the church and the
state as creations of an evil material world. The founder
of the movement was a priest, Pop Bogomil, who began
preaching during the reign (927–69) of Peter of Bulgaria
that the world was created by the devil and must be
avoided. This DUALISMhad a long tradition, derived from
the MANICHEANSand GNOSTICISM. Bogomil and his fol-
lowers were pacifists who practiced civil disobedience.
The movement might be based in popular resistance
to BYZANTINE cultural imperialism in BULGARIA. The
emperor ALEXIOS I KOMNENOS had a Bogomil leader
named Basil burned in the HIPPODROMEin the late 11th
century. Bogomilism was to spread to western Europe,
where its alleged adherents had many names, including
ALBIGENSIANSand CATHARS.
In the 11th century, the sect’s doctrine took root
among the aristocracy of Constantinople under the direc-
tion of BORISthe Bogomil, known from the Alexiadand
from the Refutation of Euthymius Zigabenus commis-
sioned by Alexios I Komnenos. The sect later spread
throughout the Balkans, particularly to BOSNIA, where a
Patarine or heretical church was set up under its influ-
ence. In Anatolia the patriarch of NICAEAwrote a treatise
opposing it in the 13th century. In LANGUEDOC, the idea
of the sect mentioned were considered a Bulgar heresy
from the early 13th century.
DOCTRINESThey were antithetical to some of the fundamental
beliefs of the Byzantine or Orthodox Church. They
denied the value of the sacraments and thus the value of
the priesthood as intermediary. The beliefs of the
Bogomils are known to us mainly through descriptions
by persecutors. The Bogomils seemed to be dualists who
separated a divine world from a material world; the latter
was the work of Satan. The Incarnation of Christ was
not possible, since God could not take on evil, a fleshly
existence. The “elect” were forbidden the consumption
of meat, wine, and sexual relations. The sect did not
survive the OTTOMANconquest of the Balkans in the
14th and 15th centuries.
Further reading:Dimitri Obolenky, The Bogomils: A
Study in Balkan Neo-Manichaeism (Cambridge: Cam-
bridge University Press, 1948); Steven Runciman, The
Medieval Manichee: A Study of the Christian Dualist Heresy
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1947).Bohemia-Moravia It is now a western region of the
Czech Republic and was once a part of the HOLYROMAN
EMPIRE. In the sixth century, SLAVtribes settled in the
country and established two small principalities, Bohemia
and MORAVIA. At the end of the eighth century, CHARLE-
MAGNEestablished a protectorate over these principali-
ties, advancing into Moravia by 822.MORAVIA RISES AS EMPIRE
In Moravia, the tribes were united in 840 under a Prince
Mojmir, who sought independence from the CAROLIN-
GIANS. His successor, Rostislav (r. 846–70), was appointed
by the Frankish Louis the German (ca. 804–76) but sup-
ported the mission of CYRILand Methodios, in an attempt
to prevent German or Frankish domination. After the
death of Methodios in 885, however, the Slavonic texts
were replaced with Roman and Latin liturgy.
Rostislav was succeeded by Bohvoj, or Svatopluk
(r. 870–894/895), who took advantage of the anarchic
state among the Carolingians and was able to gain inde-
pendence. By 880 he had control over the whole of Czech
territory, Slovakia, and much of southern Poland. This
great Moravian empire was then the most influential
political power in central Europe. Its control over the
trade route between western and eastern Europe provided
abundant resources and economic prosperity. Because
this short-lived empire lacked administrative structure,
strong tribal traditions weakened the unity of this state.
After Bohvoj’s death in 894/895, Great Moravia declined
and fell into a civil war as his sons tried to divide the
country.
In Bohemia itself Carolingian control had a marginal
practical effect. Nonetheless, Louis the German invaded
in 846 and 855 to keep it in place; the result was the
introduction of Christianity into the country.UNION, GERMANIZATION, CHRISTIANITY
The Magyar invasions destroyed the remnants of Moravia
at the end of the 10th century, and what was left was