212 IN THE LAND OF THE BORA. 



The faith of the Bogumilites can best be com- 

 pared to that of some of the earlier of the reformed 

 Churches — to that of John of Leyden, of Huss, 

 of the Albigenses, and Waldenses. They rejected 

 the Old Testament, Mariolatry, the Sign of the 

 Cross, Transubstantiation, and Baptism. Their 

 faith in the devil, to whom they gave credit for 

 the creation of the world, seems to have been very 

 vivid ; and in their simple chnrches, where nothing 

 was to be found but the gospel laid on a white- 

 covered table, a sentry stood day and night to 

 guard against his wiles. It was, perhaps, because 

 they gave him credit for the creation of woman 

 that they held married life as a sin. They thus 

 naturally rejected the sacrament of marriage, 

 their weddings being purely conditional. The 

 Bogumilite was at liberty to put away his wife 

 if he alleged that she did not live in the fear of 

 God, and virtuously, and that she had no good 

 character. 



Bogumil no doubt soon realized the difficulty 

 of keeping a church going literally on the prin- 

 ciples laid down in the " Sermon on the Mount." 

 So he early divided his people into two parts — 

 the martyrs and the "perfected." The latter, 

 who towards the end of the thirteenth century 

 numbered some four thousand, seem to have 

 been the priesthood of this sect. They were 

 vowed to celibacy, and to abstinence from flesh 



