the political clime
Simeon of Bulgaria expanded the Empire towards both the Adriatic and the Black Sea. Its northern frontier coincided with the Danube and its southern one passed by Servia, Veria, Serres, and Edirne. At the beginning of the 10th century these points marked the limit of Bulgarian penetration.
 
The dualistic ideas of the newcomers, frontiersmen from the east, soon put their roots down in the but recently Christianized pagan soil.

Towards the middle of the 10th century Macedonia became the centre of the new, Bogomil, cosmogony, a doctrine original in its eclecticism. Because of its origin this doctrine is frequently called the neo-Manichaean system, although a "system" requires a more developed organization of dogma. The teaching of Priest Bogomil is the most striking religious, ideological and sociological phenomenon of the Middle Ages.

THE BOGOMIL MOVEMENT

(BOGOMIL- Beloved to God)
It is said that at the dawn of medieval Macedonian history two great men arose: Clement of Ohrid and the priest Bogomil. The first one was an educator and writer, whose distinguished personality and work are the pride both of Macedonians and of all Slavs: the second was an idealist, whose heretical theory became a rallying cry for the oppressed throughout Europe in the Middle Ages.
 
According to its context Bogomilism is a religious heresy, but its content it is a social movement conditioned by the economic and political circumstances in the country where it emerged. It is beyond doubt that Bogomilism emerged in Macedonia. At that time a larger part of Macedonia was under Bulgarian authority. The aim of the conquerors was clear: to incorporate Macedonia within the framework of the military and administrative regime of the Bulgaria state in a speedy and painless way, thus breaking up the clan-tribal system of the Macedonian principalities. Bulgarian rulers achieved their aim, the tribal rule of the Macedonian Slavs weakened, and new feudal relations gained ground. The independent traditions of the Macedonian Slavs gave way to feudal exploitation. Wars became frequent, taxes higher, robberies and violence common, and natural disasters an additional punishment for the common people. Villages grew poorer: peasants lost their properties and means of production. Many of them were taken as prisoners, and a majority of them became serfs, slaves to the land they cultivated, owing to actions by King Symeon. Symeon began to replace tribal ownership of land with feudal ownership, whereby the peasant was fully dependent on the feudal lord. "In order to satisfy his soldiers and officers, Symeon had to rob the defeated. And as the Macedonian Slavs were those who were defeated and conquered, he robbed their properties." Romanus I Lecapenus informed King Symeon in a letter that 20,000 people from Macedonia had escaped to Byzantium; they had fled "because of the violence and intent of the Bulgarian armies." Some historians argue that the visit of Clement of Ohrid to the Bulgarian capital and his resignation of the office of bishop a few months before his death was a response to the violence and devastation wrought by the conquerors on the territory of the Bishopric of Velika. Under such living conditions, aggravated further when King Petar increased the exploitation in order to sustain his vast military, government and church apparatus, indignation and dissatisfaction were inevitable and had an anti-church and anti-feudal character.

This was the reasons why the restless masses accepted "the newly-emerged heresy", and the priest Bogomil as founder of the movement. Some unconfirmed historical sources claim that Bogomil was a disciple of Clement, accepting the Glagolitic as Clement of Ohrid did. He taught the people "not to submit themselves to the boyars and to have in mind that those who serve the king are repulsive to God, and to order every servant not to work for his master."

Bogomil cosmology and mythology about the creation and destruction of the world possessed logic in a popular form. It could be understood by the masses of the Middle Ages, and they could thus be encouraged to take an active part in resolving the social conflicts imposed by feudalism. The Bogomils taught that there are two gods: a god of good and a god of evil. The god of evil created the material world and humanity, while the god of good created the human soul. The Bogomils denied all prayers except "Our Father, the Lord" and did not respect the cross, icons or churches. They prayed at home and made mutual confessions, denying bishops' authority over believers. They denied the authority the Old Testament and recognized the New Testament only. Believers were encouraged to rebellion and resistance to authorities, with poverty a virtue and material wealth-and those who possessed it-preached as an evil.

The Bogomil movement in Macedonia was directed fully against the Byzantine and Bulgarian rulers, against local feudal masters and against a church which was completely corrupt.

The anti-feudal essence of Bogomilism is reflected in its social and political viewpoints and in the framework of its mystic and religious conceptions. By preaching equality in poverty, a modest, simple life and disobedience to authorities, Bogomilism contained a strong anti-feudal note and instigated the people to rebellion and indignation.

Macedonia was the center of opposition against King Petar, both because he was an usurper but also because Bogomilism at that time was a strong, militant movement. The churches of Draguvit and Melnik were representative of the extreme opposition, unlike the Bulgarian Bogomilian church which tended to be more peaceful and moderate. That Bogomilism had distinct features of a liberation movement is supported by the fact that the komitopulis David, Moysey, Aron and Samuil, sons of the Komitadji Nikola, accepted Bogomilism and began a rebellion in 869 resulting in breaking Macedonia away from the Bulgarian Empire, establishing the first Slavic-Macedonian state .

the Bogomils were the only organized anti-Byzantine party in Macedonia with a clear Slavic orientation. It is interesting that the rebellion of the Macedonian Slavs broke out in the region where Bogomilism was strongest, in the territory defined by the triangle of the Vardar River, Ohrid and Mt. Shar. The measures taken by Byzantium and Bulgaria against this "evil" were severe. Patriarch of Constantinople Theophylast advised Tsar Petar: "Those who will remain in evil, sick from unrepentance, will be cut out of God's church as rotten.

The Bogomils considered duality to be an integral part of man himself his body a shell possessed by evil and his soul striving towards the inalienable Heavens. Deeply pessimistic, the Bogomil doctrine, uncompromising towards the entire earthly creation, rose against all order and all churches. It profited from the crises and problems of the Middle Ages, spreading and growing deeper roots.

THE LEGACY

The Bogomil movement, under various names - Patarenes, Babuni, Cathari, Albigenses, the shorn ones - spread from Armenia to the south of France.
 
In the 12th century the Byzantine Empire still had problems with the Bogomils: the leader of the heretics, Basil, and his brethren, were burned at the stake, by order of Alexius I Comnenius. At the same time, the Bosnian Patarenes, with the open support of the Kulin Ban, founded an independent church; even the Pope, Innocent III, was informed. Boril's Synodic written in 1211 in the section entitled "Against the Iconoclasts, Against John Italus, Against Bogomil and His Kind ... "testifies that the heresy had not been uprooted in the Bulgarian Empire either. Dusan's Code of 1349 contains articles in accordance with which "the sermons of the Babuni are to be severely punished". The Bogomil movement in Russia survived the longest; the sources indicate that the shorn ones were powerful even in the l6th century. The Turks exterminated the seed of the heresy; still, there are indications that "some of the Christians converted to Islam preached the Bogomil learning". In those troublesome ages and with the Bogomil movement the people rose in favour of a new order, a re-birth, a reformation.

In Macedonia the Bogomil movement was particularly influential in the creation of favourable circumstances for a liberation uprising for an independent state. The sons of the Duke-Comes Nikola, the Comitopouloi David, Moses, Aaron and Samuel, did not miss this opportunity, and Samuil took full advantage of it and established a state which bore his name.