XL] THE RACES OF THE DANUBE. 233 



displeasure of such a considerable body of their sub- 

 jects. Bogomilian apostles, in keen rivalry with the 

 orthodox missionaries, carried their Manichsean doc- 

 trines westward all over Serbia. After another 

 hundred years the catastrophe which had driven this 

 heresy from Asia into Europe was curiously repeated 

 in its new home. After the power of the Bulgarian 

 czars had been finally broken down by Basil II., the 

 orthodox emperors began once more to roast the 

 obnoxious Paulicians. A fierce persecution under 

 Alexius Comnenus set up a current of Bogomilian 

 migration into Serbia, and as these immigrants found 

 no favour in the eyes of the orthodox Serbian princes, 

 their westward pilgrimage was continued into that 

 part of Illyricum now known as Bosnia, a hilly 

 region inhabited, then as now, mainly by fair-haired 

 Serbs. From the twelfth century onward Bosnia 

 became the head-quarters of Manichaean heresy, and 

 was a very uncomfortable thorn in the flesh of the 

 popes, who with the aid of pious Hungarian kings 

 kept up a perpetual crusade against the stubborn 

 little country, without ever achieving any considerable 

 success. 



The Papacy had very good grounds for its anxiety, 

 for it was from Bosnia that the great Albigensian 

 heresy was propagated through Northern Italy and 



