CHAPTER IV

VENETIAN SUPREMACY

II.—SERVIAN AND BOSNIAN WARS, 1276-1358

To return to our story; in 1276 Ragusa was once more threatened from outside. The King of Servia[141] determined to make another attempt to convert Ragusa into a Servian seaport; he crossed the mountains with a large army and raided the territory of the Republic. A Ragusan force sent against him was defeated, and its leader, Benedetto Gondola, captured and hanged. Elated by this success, the King marched forward and tried to capture Ragusa itself by a _coup de main_. But the citizens were prepared, and the city put in a state of defence. The massive walls and well-armed battlements baffled the Servian king, and the Count Pietro Tiepolo, who had called in a Venetian contingent to stiffen the Ragusan levies, defeated the enemy. The Venetian Government sent a deputation to the King threatening him with severe reprisals if he dared to attack the cities under Venetian protection, whereupon the Servians retired and peace was made.[142] Ten years later the King of Servia, being offended with the Republic, harried and plundered its merchants, raided Ragusan territory, and tried to capture the city, but was again defeated.

Ragusa’s relations with Venice were on the whole satisfactory. There were occasional complaints on the part of the Venetian Government that the Ragusans did not fulfil their treaty obligations and failed to send the promised galleys to take part in the expeditions against the Almissan pirates and other enemies.[143] On other occasions they were blamed for delaying goods (chiefly grain) which passed through the city on the way to Venice. However, when in 1296 Ragusa was almost entirely destroyed by fire, the Venetians showed generosity in providing money and building materials,[144] and the Count Marino Morosini (1296-1298) issued a decree for rebuilding the city on a handsomer scale.[145] During the Genoese war Ragusa lent four galleys to the Venetians, which took part in the battle of Curzola, and after that disastrous defeat the Ragusan ships lent aid to the scattered remnants of the Venetian fleet (1298).

Ragusa had considerable intercourse with the neighbouring Dalmatian townships, especially with Cattaro, which was one of the oldest city-republics on the coast. But there were frequent quarrels between the two communities, partly through the intrigues of the Slavonic princes, and partly on account of commercial rivalries, both towns being competitors for the salt trade from the coast to the interior.[146] Cattaro had sometimes been under the protection of the Servian kings, who used it as their seaport, and sometimes under that of Venice. But in 1257 a treaty was made by which the Cattarini promised in the event of a war between the Serbs and Ragusa to do their best to harass the former without openly espousing the latter’s cause, and each Republic was to try and promote arbitration if the other was at war. We are not told how this curious compact was carried out, but it was not by any means an unusual arrangement among these semi-independent Dalmatian townships.

In 1301 or 1302 there was another Servian war, in which Venice and Ragusa co-operated, caused by a quarrel with Cattaro. This town was now under Venetian protection, but continued to hold underhand intercourse with the Slaves. The Venetians protested, and Stephen Uroš, who called himself “King of Servia, Melinia, Albania, Chelmo, Doclea, and the maritime region,”[147] made another raid on Ragusan territory, burning the houses, destroying the crops, and murdering many of the inhabitants and making prisoners of others.[148] The Venetians, however, came to the rescue, and ordered their _Capitano in Golfo_, or Admiral of the Adriatic, to remain with the fleet at Ragusa for so long as the city should be in any danger. The Serbs were defeated on several occasions, and finally induced to listen to the remonstrances of the Venetian ambassadors.[149] In 1302[150] peace was made, and as the Ragusans had suffered much during the war, and the devastating raids had caused a famine, they were allowed to retain the grain destined for Venice, and received loans and other favours.

For the next fourteen years there was peace, and Ragusa remained undisturbed save for one or two small disputes with Venice about certain _prava statuta_, which denied all value to the evidence of Venetian witnesses at Ragusa.[151] But in 1316 another quarrel broke out with Uroš, who arrested and plundered a number of Ragusan traders. Venetian attempts at conciliation proved fruitless,[152] and in 1317 war broke out. The Count Paolo Morosini wrote that “much serious damage has been done to the commune and people of Ragusa in their persons and property by Uroš and his people, who have again raided our territory.” Among other damage, the Franciscan monastery outside the Porta Pile was burnt.[153] The Venetians sold arms to the Ragusans, and deferred claiming payment until the following year. These arms were “many breast-plates, 100 cross-bows, 10,000 arrows, and 5000 _falsatores_.[154]

We are not informed as to the outcome of this war; but apparently Ragusa was reconciled with Servia in 1322, as in that year Stephen Uroš IV.,[155] who succeeded his father in 1321, granted the city an accession of territory, _i.e._ the districts of Bosanka and Osoinik.[156] A far more important acquisition obtained during the next few years was that of Stagno and the peninsula of Punta, or Sabbioncello, as it is now called, which converted Ragusa from a city-republic, with only a few miles of territory beyond the walls and some small islands, into a fairly respectable territorial State. The Punta di Stagno is a long mountainous peninsula jutting out from the Dalmatian coast in a north-westerly direction, with a sort of spur or branch promontory stretching towards the south-east and forming a deep bay. Its length is 71.2 km., in breadth it varies from 3.1 km. to 7.1 km. Parts of the peninsula are very fertile, especially in vineyards. Its population is to-day over 10,000, and in the Middle Ages it was probably more considerable. It is joined to the mainland by a narrow isthmus 1½ km. across, with two small towns, Stagno Grande (Slav. _Veliki Ston_), looking towards Ragusa, and Stagno Piccolo (_Mali Ston_), on the north towards the Mare di Narenta, each with a good port. On both shores of the peninsula are other small harbours. On the southern coast, opposite the island of Curzola, rises the imposing mass of the Monte Vipera, with the town of Orebić at its foot. The importance of this territory for the Ragusans was partly strategical, as it formed a bulwark against invaders, from the north, whether by sea or by land, and partly commercial, on account of the valuable salt-pans of Stagno, which afterwards formed one of the chief sources of revenue for the Republic, and are still in use to this day. The Punta and the island of Curzola are the only spots in Europe where jackals are still to be found. This territory had formed part of the principality of Hlum, which, as we have seen, was originally joined to Doclea, and recognised Servian overlordship from about 1222 until some time between 1320 and 1330, when it was added to the Banat of Bosnia under Hungarian suzerainty. Hlum was divided into a number of _župe_, like the other Serb lands, under different feudal families. Stagno and the Punta was ruled by that of the Branivoj, with whom the Ragusans had hitherto lived on terms of friendship and commercial intercourse. The Republic sent them an annual gift of 100 _ipperperi_,[157] which may, however, have been blackmail to secure immunity from piracy, to which so many of the Slave tribes were addicted. It is probable that the Ragusans had had their eyes on this district for some time, and in 1320-21 they gladly obeyed the injunctions of the Venetian Senate to act against the pirates of Stagno and Cattaro.[158] About 1323, for some unrecorded reason,[159] a quarrel broke out between Ragusa and the Branivoj; and on April 8, 1325, instead of sending the usual gift, the Republic decreed warlike preparations against the lord Branivoj and his sons “qui fecerunt offensionis multas, depredationes, et rubarias contra comune et speciales personas civitatis Ragusii.” A few months later Ragusa sent envoys to Venice to request the Doge’s intervention on account of the King of Servia’s attitude, which appeared to be insincere.[160] Hostilities were commenced, and carried on with a barbarity unusual even for those times. The following year Braico, one of Branivoj’s sons, was captured at Sant’ Andrea in Pelago, and condemned to be exposed in a cage and starved to death. Some time afterwards his brother Grubaza or Grubeza was captured, and their mother, who had asked for Ragusan hospitality on her way to Bosnia, was detained as a hostage. The third brother, Branoe, was arrested by the King of Servia, who was now friendly towards the Ragusans. The latter requested him to hand the prisoner over to the commune of Cattaro, where he would have less chance of escaping. Uroš agreed, but the Republic was still unsatisfied, and private citizens offered rewards out of their own pockets for the heads of the surviving members of the Branivoj family. A certain Pasqua promised 500 _ipperperi_, and the Croce family 2000, to any one of the King’s barons who would kill Branoe on the way from Svezana (where he had been detained) to Cattaro![161] The Servian king apparently had another slight disagreement with the Ragusans about 1327; but when war broke out between him and the Bulgarian Tsar Michael, he required their help to obtain Italian mercenaries, and in return he favoured their projects on Stagno.[162] His successor, Stephen Dušan (1330-1355), was still more favourable, and through the two citizens of Cattaro, Trifone and Niccolò Bucchia, who held high positions at his court as Protospathar and Protovestiar, the Republic obtained his full support. Trifone was sent to arbitrate, but his sympathies were so thoroughly Ragusan that he actually contributed to the price on Branoe’s head. Niccolò finally induced the King formally to cede the coveted territory to Ragusa, and accompanied him on a state visit to that city. The Servian king was received by the citizens with their usual magnificence (1332), and Niccolò Bucchia was presented with wide lands and houses on the Punta, and a house in Ragusa itself. He was afterwards granted citizenship and a seat in the Grand Council, and became the founder of a famous family. The document ceding Stagno in exchange for a tribute is published in the _Monumenta specantia Historiam Slavorum Meridionalium_.[163]

“We, Stephen Nemanja Dušan, by the grace of God, King of Servia, Dalmatia, Dioclia, Albania, Zeuta,[164] Chelmo, and the Maritime Region, ... concede and grant to the community of Ragusa by hereditary right to them and to their successors the whole Punta and coast of Stagno, beginning from Prevlaca to the confines of Ragusan territory, with all the towns and villages and houses therein contained, and also Posrednica[165] ... in exchange for which they must pay to us and to our successors annually on the day of the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ 500 _soldi_ in Venetian _grossi_, on pain of paying double in case of delay.” In addition he was to receive a sum down of 2000 _ipperperi_, and Stephen Kotromanić, Banus of Bosnia, who had certain rights over the Punta, was to receive 600 _ipperperi_ a year. According to Resti,[166] it was necessary for the Republic to bribe several of the King’s nobles and councillors so that they should influence him in favour of the grant, and they influenced the Banus of Bosnia through his secretary, Domagna Bobali, who was a native of Ragusa. The compact was carried out, save for the island of Posrednica, which the Ragusans were not allowed to occupy until 1345. What became of the Branivoj family, whether it was entirely wiped out or whether the surviving members were merely expelled, we are not informed.

The Republic at once set to work to partition the land in the new territory among its citizens. Three-quarters of it were granted to the nobles, and the rest to the burghers; the grantees were forbidden to sell any land to the Slaves. A colour of piety was lent to this conquest by the determination of the Ragusans to stamp out Bogomilism and schism from the peninsula, and the caloyers[167] and heretical priests were exiled, and their places occupied by Roman Catholics. At the end of the century the Franciscans were established as an additional bulwark of the Church. In order to protect Stagno from more earthly dangers an elaborate system of fortifications was begun, which were to serve the Republic in good stead on more than one occasion. Both Stagno Grande and Stagno Piccolo were surrounded with massive walls, and a castle was built in each. A third was erected at the top of the hill, between the two seas; a long wall with towers at intervals was carried right across the isthmus, and other walls from both towns to the castle on the hill. These defences may be seen to this day, and although in a woeful state of neglect and disrepair, still form a most conspicuous feature in the landscape.

The following year King Stephen rather repented his generosity, and demanded back the gift on the pretext that the Ragusans were incapable of defending it securely. But his envoys, who visited Stagno, being convinced by the sight of the Ragusan fortifications, and perhaps by that of Ragusan gold, that it was being rapidly made quite secure, induced him to confirm the grant. This he did, and forbade his subjects to attempt to enter the ceded territory. Another dispute with the fickle Servian king broke out in 1330, because the Ragusans had given shelter to the widow of the Bulgarian Tsar, who had been forced to fly after the defeat and death of her husband by the Serbs at the battle of Velbužd.[168] Stephen wished to secure the fugitive, and demanded her of the Republic. The latter refused the demand, in spite of promise of still further territories and privileges, and sent the Empress safely to Constantinople. Stephen then demanded back Stagno once more, and tried to take it by storm. But as it was too strongly fortified he limited himself to a raid on Ragusan territory on the mainland, until called away to defend his northern frontier against the Hungarians. Peace was made in 1335, and in 1336[169] a solemn Ragusan embassy was sent to honour him at Scutari.

The maritime trade of the Republic had brought great riches to the citizens, but contact with the East also brought the plague in its train, and in 1348 Ragusa, like the rest of Europe, was visited by the terrible scourge. It was probably introduced into the western world by the Tartars besieging Caffa in 1344, and although the town was saved, the relieving force caught the disease, which spread through Europe with lightning-like rapidity. The following document preserved in the book of wills in the Cathedral treasury at Ragusa, written by eye-witnesses, gives a vivid picture of the terror inspired by the fell scourge:—

“Our Lord God sent a terrible judgment, unheard of in the whole world, both on Christians and on pagans, a mortality of men and still more of women, through an awful and incurable disease, which caused the spitting of blood and swellings on various parts of the body, so contagious that sons fled from their fathers and still more often fathers from their sons; all the art of Apocrates, Galen, and Avizena proved useless, for no art or science availeth against Divine judgment. This disease commenced at Ragusa on the 15th day of December, in the year of our Lord 1348, and lasted for six months, during which 120 persons or more died each day; of the (Grand) Council there died 110 nobles.”[170] According to Gelcich, the total number of deaths in the town ranged from 7000 to 10,000, including 160 nobles and 300 burghers; it is impossible to conjecture how many died in the territory. It made its appearance at the same time at Spalato, preceded, according to the legend, by an eclipse of the sun, so complete that the stars were visible by day, and by a drought so great that the dust remained suspended in huge clouds in mid air.[171] Ragnina, who wrote more than a century after the event, declares that the belief that the Jews had poisoned the wells was very prevalent, while others believed that the cause of the disease was a conjunction of three planets under Jupiter and Mars.[172] At this time no sanitary precautions were taken against further visitations, but large sums were collected to build the votive church of San Biagio.

This same year there was another disagreement with King Stephen, as we find the Venetian Government authorising the Ragusans to purchase a further supply of arms;[173] in 1349 and 1350 Venetian embassies were sent to Servia to protest against his raids on Ragusan territory, a Venetian galley stationed in the harbour as a protection,[174] and two _mangani_ or catapults were forwarded to the citizens.[175] Some of the Venetian documents on the subject allude to Bosnian as well as Servian raids. Klaić says that the Banus Stephen Kotromanić actually did make raids before 1345, but in that year made peace and never molested the Ragusans again. His nephews, however, the Nikolići counts of Hlum and Popovo, had many quarrels with Ragusa and raided her territory, and it is to them that the documents allude.[176] War now broke out between Servia and Bosnia, because the Banus would not consent to his daughter’s marriage with the King’s son, Uroš. The King invaded Bosnia on two occasions with a large army, and besieged the Banus in the royal castle of Bobovac, but could not capture him. These quarrels between Bosnia and Servia, like those between Servia and Bulgaria, were paving the way for the Turkish conquest, and the obscure battles in the Bosna and Drina valleys formed the prelude to the fatal day of Kossovo and the bondage of the South-Slavonic race. The Banus Kotroman died in 1353, and was succeed by his nephew, Stephen Tvrtko, who was the first King of Bosnia. He too was friendly to the Ragusans, and granted them important privileges.

The conditions of Venice in the middle of the fourteenth century were far from prosperous. The plague of 1348 had carried off three-fifths of the population, in spite of the most stringent precautions.[177] In 1350 the fratricidal war with Genoa was again renewed in consequence of disputes about the Black Sea trade. The battle of the Bosporus (1353) was indecisive; in that of Cagliari the Venetians were successful, but dared not attack Genoa, because the city had placed itself under the protection of the Visconti. But in the same year they were totally defeated at Sapienza in the Greek Archipelago and their whole fleet captured. In 1354 the conspiracy of Marin Faliero broke out, and kept the whole State in a turmoil for many months, until the execution of the Doge and his accomplices.[178] His successor, Giovanni Gradenigo, made peace with Genoa, and the Venetians set to work to rebuild their fleet and restore their exhausted treasury by means of new commercial enterprises in the Levant. But their possession of Dalmatia and the land frontier north of Treviso were now threatened by Lewis of Hungary. The latter allied himself with the Count of Gorizia and the Carraresi of Padua against Venice, and invaded the Trevisan march, defeating all the forces sent against him and capturing city after city. A five months’ truce was concluded in 1356, but when it expired hostilities broke out once more, and the treasury was soon empty. Merchandise might arrive by sea, but with the mainland in the hands of the enemy there was no outlet for its distribution.[179] New taxes were raised, causing much discontent, and the Republic was at last forced to sue for peace. Lewis made the cession of Dalmatia an express condition of his retirement from the Trevisan march. After much discussion and expostulation the Senate was forced to agree to these humiliating terms, and Dalmatia, which had been acquired and maintained at such great sacrifices, was now given up (Feb. 1358). The Republic had hoped to create a diversion by an alliance with the King of Servia, who had been fighting with the Banus of Bosnia, then a Hungarian vassal. But Stephen Dušan got more and more involved in the Greek war, and when the Hungarians invaded the Venetian _terraferma_ he was marching towards Constantinople, but died on the way thither (1355).

The Ragusans were delighted at the successes of Lewis; they had received him with great honour when he touched at their city in 1349 on his return from the Neapolitan expedition,[180] and from that moment they began to contemplate the advisability of placing themselves under his protection. They had been afraid of the Hungarians when they threatened to conquer Bosnia and Hlum, but now there was little fear of that, and Hungary not being a great naval Power, could not threaten their liberties by means of the fleet as Venice could always do. When in 1356 the Venetians sent commissioners to claim the Ragusan contingent for the war, the Grand Council made professions of friendship, and agreed to send it. At the same time they were negotiating with the Hungarian king for the surrender of their city to him. On July 7, 1357, Lewis confirmed their possession of Stagno, which, having formed part of Bosnia, was in a measure under his authority, and it is probable that a preliminary treaty of dedition was signed at the same time. When, by the peace of February 1358, Venice gave up the whole eastern shore of the Adriatic, from the Quarnero to Durazzo, she attempted to retain her hold over Ragusa on account of that very claim to separation from the rest of Dalmatia which she had hitherto always combated. Blandishments were tried, and by a rescript of the Doge Giovanni Dolfin (Jan. 2, 1358) the Ragusans were granted Venetian citizenship and commercial equality with the Venetians.[181] But Ragusa had no wish to retain even a vestige of Venetian authority, and a few weeks later Marco Soranzo, the last Venetian Count, left the city by order of the Doge. The Ragusans treated him with courtesy and evinced no ill-feeling against him, whereas the Venetian officials in the other Dalmatian towns had departed amidst the jeers and curses of the inhabitants. A triumvirate of Ragusan nobles was elected by the Grand Council to carry on the government while arrangements with King Lewis were being completed. By a curious irony they sent commissioners to Venice in March to order “unum gonfalonem et aliquas banderias cum armis D. N. D. Regis Hungariæ pro galleis et lignis nostris,” and later “unum gonfalonerium ad modum penoni de sindone torto cum arma (_sic_) Regis Hungariæ cum argento albo et cum argentum (_sic_) deauratum pro duc. auri xxx.”[182]

On June 27 the final treaty was signed by Lewis of Hungary and Giovanni Saraca, Archbishop of Ragusa, at Višegrad. The Ragusans placed themselves under Hungarian protection, but were allowed to retain their own internal liberties more fully than under Venice. The King’s praises, instead of those of the Doge, were to be sung in the churches of Ragusa three times a year. The Hungarian standard was to be adopted as well as the banner of San Biagio, and 500 _ipperperi_ a year were to be paid to the King. Should Hungary be engaged in naval warfare Ragusa must provide one galley for every ten Hungarian galleys whenever the Dalmatian fleet put to sea; if the Royal fleet alone were employed, Ragusa need only provide one for every thirty. The supreme government of the State was no longer to be vested in a foreign count, but in three native Ragusans (afterwards reduced to one) to be chosen by the Council. The only representative of the King was the captain of the Hungarian and Bosnian guard, but he too was really in the service of the Republic, and had no political authority. From this moment Ragusa may be considered an independent State, as Hungarian authority, save for the tribute, was little more than a formality.

During the Venetian epoch the territory of the Republic had expanded considerably, and when the last count departed it consisted of the following districts:—In the immediate neighbourhood of the city it possessed the valleys of Gionchetto (Šumet), Bergato (Brgat), and Ombla (Rijeka), with the bay of Gravosa and the Lapad peninsula, but the frontiers were very near, and on the crest of Monte Sergio, immediately behind the city, watchmen were posted day and night. Part of this territory had been acquired in the earliest times, but small additions had been made at intervals. Beyond the Ombla the citizens owned the stretch of coast known as Starea or Astarea.[183] Of the islands, they possessed in the thirteenth century Mercana—a small rock opposite the promontory of Ragusavecchia, with a monastery of St. Michael[184]—and Isola di Mezzo, Calamotta, Daksa, and S. Andrea of the group known to the ancients as the Elaphites Insulæ were added in 1080.[185] In 1218 the more distant island of Lagosta had been acquired, and at an early date that of Meleda had been granted by the Servian king to the Benedictine monks, with the condition that the civil government should be entrusted to the Republic. Stephen the First-Crowned gave them Giuppana in 1216. Between 1220 and 1224 Stephen, Nemanja’s son, granted the same monks a stretch of land about Žrnovica and Ombla. As a consequence of the Ragusan alliance with Michael Asen, the Bulgarian Tsar, against Stephen Uroš I., King of Servia, in 1254, the Republic’s southern frontiers were extended so as to include the vineyards of Breno and the peninsula on which the ruins of Epidaurus are said to lie.[186] Here a new town arose, which by a strange inversion of names was called Ragusavecchia. We have seen how in 1333-1334 Stagno and the peninsula of Sabbioncello and the coast as far as the Narenta’s mouth were acquired. In 1357 small additions were made about Breno and Gionchetto between the Ljuta stream and the village of Kurilo[187] (north of the Ombla). The districts of Carina and Drieno, although on the Ragusan side of the mountain above Breno, remained beyond the frontier: eventually they became Turkish territory, and such they remained until 1878.[188]

The Ragusan Church had also been increasing in wealth and dignity with the growth of the Republic, and a number of handsome ecclesiastical buildings were begun during the fourteenth century. In the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries the Slavonic princes gave the churches many valuable gifts of land, gold and silver ornaments, and relics. But in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries Bosnia, Hlum, and Servia were torn by religious wars owing to the spread of that strange and little known heresy called Bogomilism, on which it will be useful to say a few words. Of the origin of this heresy as of its tenets there is very little reliable evidence. In all probability it was an offshoot of Armenian Paulicianism, itself derived from the earlier Adoptionist creed.[189] Paulician colonies have been settled in Europe as early as the ninth century by the Emperor Constantine Copronymus, and the heresy spread to Bulgaria, Servia, Bosnia, and Macedonia. In his History of the Bulgarians, Prof. C. J. Jireček gives an account of the beliefs of the Bogomils according to the researches of various Slavonic scholars. They believed in the existence of two principles, equal in age and power, one good personified in God, and one evil personified in Satan. They recognised the New Testament, but not the Old. All matter and all the visible world were essentially evil; the body of Christ was only an apparent, not a real, body. The sacraments were corporeal, therefore evil. They had no hierarchy, but an executive consisting of a bishop and two grades of Apostles. Besides the ordinary Bogomils there was a special order of the Perfect, who renounced all worldly possessions, marriage, animal food, and lived like hermits. They had no churches or images. They had a deathbed ceremony, without which one went to hell. They did not believe in purgatory.[190] But, as Prof. Bury remarks, it is doubtful if this is a true presentation of the Bogomil creed. Hardly any of their books of ritual survive, and all the accounts of them which have been preserved are written by their prosecutors. It is more probable that they were a monotheistic sect, believing in one God only, and rejecting the Trinity. This view is supported by the fact that at the time of the Turkish conquest such numbers of Bogomils became Muhamedans. It was not merely that they went over to the conqueror’s creed from motives of mere self-interest; there was really more similarity between that religion and Bogomilism than between the latter and either the Eastern or the Western Church.

In the tenth century there was a bishopric of Bosnia, which until the eleventh century was in the ecclesiastical province of Spalato. In 1067 it was transferred to that of Antivari. Later in the same century it was added to the archbishopric of Ragusa. But the dioceses of Antivari and Spalato continued to dispute Ragusa’s supremacy, and in the conflict of authorities Bogomilism found scope to increase its adherents. The Bosnians were mostly Roman Catholics, although there were Orthodox Christians among them. Ban Čulin was himself a Catholic, but when in 1189 the Pope, at the instigation of the King of Hungary, Bela III., transferred the Bosnian bishopric once more from the Ragusan province to that of Spalato, he went over to Bogomilism, so as not to be in any way under Hungarian authority. His conversion gave the heresy a fresh impetus, and it spread all over Bosnia, Slavonia, Dalmatia, and Croatia, even to the coast towns. Pope Innocent III. had to induce the King of Hungary to make a crusade against the Bogomils in Bosnia, but Čulin declared that they were good Catholics, induced the Archbishop of Ragusa to go to Rome with several of the heretics to be examined by the Pope, and asked for a Papal envoy to be sent to Bosnia to study the question. The Pope agreed, and sent his chaplain, Johannes de Casamaris, to Bosnia in 1203. The heads of the Bogomil community, who were also heads of monasteries, met at Bjelopolje on the Bosna, and met the Banus, Casamaris, and Marinus, the Archdeacon of Ragusa, and presented an address in which they affirmed their orthodoxy and their attachment to the Roman Church,[191] and declared themselves ready to obey the Pope in everything. Čulin himself abjured all heresy. They renewed these declarations before the King of Hungary and the Banus at Pest. The Papal legate was quite content, and advised the Pope to erect some new bishoprics in Bosnia.

But in 1218 the heresy was again rampant, and Honorius III. sent a legate to Hungary and Dalmatia to preach a crusade against the Bogomils. But no crusade was organised, and the legate went alone to Bosnia, where he died in 1222. The quarrels between the Pope and Hungary gave the Bogomils a respite, and they became even more numerous in consequence. In 1222 Andrew II., King of Hungary, placed Bosnia under the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of Ugolin, Bishop of Kalocsa, on condition that he stamped out the heresy, and Pope Honorius confirmed the donation. But the crusade never came off, and the Bogomils became so powerful that they deposed the Banus Stephen and succeeded in placing their co-religionary Matthew Ninoslav on the throne (1232). James, the Papal legate, went to Bosnia and found that the greater part of the inhabitants were tainted with the heresy, including the Catholic bishop; the Archbishop of Ragusa knew of this and did not trouble about it, so that the legate reconfirmed the union of the bishopric to that of Kalocsa. He succeeded, however, in inducing Ninoslav to become a Catholic, and endow a new cathedral, which was to be in the hands of the Dominicans. Many magnates followed his example. But the Bogomils soon raised their heads once more, and the Banus was either unable or unwilling to extirpate them. A crusade was therefore proclaimed against them, which lasted from 1234 to 1239. Bosnia was ravaged with fire and sword, and finally conquered by the crusaders under Koloman, the King of Hungary’s son. In 1238 the Dominican Ponsa was made bishop of Bosnia, and by 1239 Bogomilism seemed to have been suppressed. But the moment the crusaders retired the heretics, who were supported by the nation, rose in arms once more and became independent of Hungary. In 1246 Innocent IV. ordered a second crusade, but this time without success. After Ninoslav’s death Bosnia again fell under Hungary, but no very severe measures were taken against the Bogomils. The Bogomil Church of Bosnia became an established institution, and the Catholic bishops themselves no longer resided in the country, but at Djakovar, in Slavonia. Various attempts to organise crusades against them failed. The Bani were afraid of persecuting them lest they should rise in arms and put themselves under the protection of the King of Servia, who as a Greek Christian was also an enemy to the Catholics. Moreover, the missionary efforts of the Catholic Church were hindered by the quarrels between the Franciscans and the Dominicans. Bogomilism spread to Croatia and Dalmatia, and found adherents even at Traù and Spalato. Pope Benedict XII. ordered the Croatian barons to make war on the heretics (1337), but they were too busy fighting among themselves to achieve much result. But the Banus Stephen declared himself a good Catholic in 1340, and protected the Roman Church in Bosnia once more, agreeing to the establishment of two more bishoprics. We hear little more of the heresy after this date until the crusade of 1360.[192]

The Ragusan Church suffered in consequence of the heterodoxy of so many of the Slave princes, and no longer received rich gifts from them. On the other hand, both on account of its convenient situation and because it was a stronghold of Catholicism, the town became the centre of all this missionary activity. In 1225 the Dominican Order was established at Ragusa, and occupied a small house attached to the church of S. Giacomo in Peline. When the Order became more numerous it removed to the Ploce quarter, where a large new church was erected for it in 1306, and a monastery about 1345. The Franciscans first came to Ragusa in 1235, twenty-eight years after the foundation of the Order by St. Francis of Assisi, who is said to have visited the city himself on his return from the Holy Land, although there is no foundation for the legend. In 1250 a monastery was built for them outside the Porta Pile; it was destroyed by the Serbs during the raid of 1319.[193] A concession of land was granted to them within the walls in the Menze quarter, and by the middle of the fourteenth century they were established in the large, handsome monastery which still exists, built partly at Government expense and partly by the munificence of private citizens, including the guild of Ghent merchants established there.[194] The two Orders gave battle to the heretics, and helped to organise crusades against them, which are among the most barbarous examples of religious persecution which history records. On the other hand, if we are to believe the Ragusan legend, the Bogomils themselves persecuted the Catholics in the Cattaro districts, and the bodies of three martyrs who were murdered by them were brought to Ragusa, where a church was built in their honour.[195] It is somewhat difficult to unravel the tangle of contradictory accounts on this subject, especially as Ragusan writers often confuse the Bogomils with the followers of the Oriental Church.