A rectangular decorative headpiece composed of four horizontal rows of repeating floral, star-shaped, and geometric typographical ornaments.

CONCERNING

THE NAME OF THE BOGOMILS,

THEIR ORIGIN AND FATE.

In setting out to recall the memory of the Bogomils, we will first present those accounts from the reliable records of proven authors that help us better understand this infamous group of people, from their earliest beginnings through the various shifts in their fortune. With this goal in mind, it seems necessary to treat the name itself with greater care, as its meaning is easily missed due to its obscurity and its origin in another language. They did not take the name "Bogomils" from the leader or founder of the sect—as is often the case—but rather from a characteristic of their teaching, or perhaps more accurately, from their common customs. On this point, I find that the writers living closest to the time when this "unhappy harvest" first sprouted are in agreement. For Euthymius Zigabenus A 12th-century Byzantine monk and the author’s primary source for understanding medieval heresies, in Part II of his Dogmatic Panoply original: Panoplia dogmatica, a systematic defense of Orthodox doctrine against heresies, Title XXIII, provides the following explanation for the name: For in the language of the Bulgarians, "Bog" refers to God, and "milui" means "have mercy." According to them, a Bogomil is one who seeks to obtain the mercy of God. original Greek: Βὸγ μὲν γὰρ ἡ τῶν Βουλγάρων γλῶσσα καλεῖ τὸν Θεὸν μίλοι δὲ τὸ ἐλέησον. εἴη δ᾽ ἂν Βογόμιλος κατ᾽ αὐτοὺς ὁ τοῦ Θεοῦ τὸν ἔλεον ἐπισπώμενος. That is to say, as Francesco Zino, the Latin translator in the Lyons edition of the Library of the Fathers original: Bibliotheca Patrum, a collection of early Christian writings, Volume XIX, page 220, rendered it: Bog, in the Bulgarian tongue, signifies God; and Milui, have mercy; so that among them a Bogomil is one who implores the mercy of God. Peter Lambeck Lambecius (1624–1680), a scholar and librarian of the Imperial Library in Vienna presents the Greek text in a similar way from a manuscript codex in his Commentary on the Library of Vienna, Book III, page 170. Nor does the Bodleian transcript original: ἀπόγραφον (apographon), a handwritten copy of a manuscript which I consulted differ, except that the foreign The text ends here with the catchword "grina," likely part of the word "peregrina" meaning foreign or strange