christian dualist heresies in t

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.In the 1140s Constantinople seems to have been in the grip of Bogomil fever: the accusation of being a covert Bogomil then became a very useful weapon against opponents of all kinds, because it touched on a general fear, that Bogomils were masters of disguise who were in league with the powers of darkness and were intent on overthrowing the divinely ordained society of Orthodox Byzantium.In fact they occupied much the same place in the public imagination as Communists did in that of the USA during the 1950s (see also [35]).There were, of course, still a large number of real Bogomils in the provinces; there is evidence of them at Philippopolis131 and at Moglena, west of Thessalonica [33].There is also evidence which suggests that Manuel ordered the arrest of Bogomil provincial leaders, but it is difficult to interpret.This is the work usually called The Dialogue concerning Demons [34], which used to be attributed to Michael Psellus (d.1078), but which Gautier has argued dates from the mid-twelfth century and may have been written by Nicholas of Methone.Gautier’s dating is 131 Browning, ‘Unpublished correspondence between Michael Italos, archbishop of Philippopolis, and Theodore Prodromos’, Byzantinobulgarica 1, pp.279–97; reprinted in his Studies on Byzantine history, literature and education, no.VI.P41CDHIN4111/28/97, 10:39 AMCHRISTIAN DUALIST HERESIESmore convincing than the traditional one, which would mean that the treatise was written at a time when no action was being taken against the Bogomils by the imperial authorities.132The treatise is cast in the form of a dialogue between Timothy and Thrax, the man from Thrace.There is no doubt that it is about Bogomils.Thrax describes the heretics as those who believe in a three-fold God: a Father who is supreme, his younger Son who rules the heavens and his elder Son, Satanael, who rules the earth and is ‘the creator of plants and animals and everything that is composite’ [34].This is the Bogomil cosmology described by all earlier writers.The narrative is discursive: Thrax tells us that he had visited the city of Elasson in Thessaly and tried to arrest the local Bogomil leader and his followers and take them back to Constantinople to stand trial, but had been prevented from doing so, presumably by the strength of local opposition.His chief informant about the heretics was a monk called Mark Mesopotamites.A scholion in an early manuscript states: ‘This Mark came from Thebes.At first he was a teacher of the Bogomils, later he became Orthodox.He encountered Thrax who had been sentagainst the Bogomils’ ([34], note 6).Michael Angold points to independent evidence that the Mesopotamites family had a connection with Thebes in the early twelfth century.133 It would seem, therefore, that Thrax’s mission was directed to Thessaly and Hellas, and the presence of Bogomils in those provinces during the twelfth century is confirmed by the fact that special anti-Bogomil anathemas were added to the Synodikon of Orthodoxy by the church of Hellas at that time [16(d)].The quality of information which the Dialogue contains about the Bogomils is poor.They are accused, as heretics so often were, of disgusting and orgiastic practices, far removed from the asceticism of the Bogomil elect; and of worshipping Satanael and his minions.Angold is certainly correct in saying that because Orthodox observers could not accept that the Bogomil initiation rite was a true vehicle of grace, they had to suppose that it was diabolically inspired.134 One consequence of this was that Bogomils were believed to be particularly well informed about the operation of demons.The chief interest of this text is that it reveals that there was a great deal of overlap between the Bogomil and 132 Angold, Church and society in Byzantium, p.496.133 Ibid., p.498, n.125.P134 Ibid., p.499.42CDHIN4211/28/97, 10:39 AMHISTORICAL INTRODUCTIONOrthodox views of the place of demons in the natural order [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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