The Races of the Danube. 249 



dox Serbian princes, their westward pilgrimage 

 was continued into that part of Illyricura 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 Manichsean 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 north- 

 ern Italy and southern Gaul. This connection be- 

 tween eastern and western Protestantism, though 

 generally forgotten now, was well understood at 

 the time. Matthew Paris states that the Albi- 

 gensians possessed a pope of their own, whose 

 seat of government was in Bosnia, and who kept 

 a vicar residing in Carcassonne. By orthodox 

 writers the western heretics were quite frequently 

 termed " Bulgares," a designation which became 

 invested with the vilest opprobrium, and a 

 glance at the principal Bogomilian doctrines shows 

 that the relationship was asserted on valid grounds. 

 Like the Manichseans generally, the Bogomiles 



