The Early Years Of Bulgaria And The Introduction Of Christianity 700-893

From the time of their establishment in the country to which they have

given their name the Bulgars became a thorn in the side of the Greeks, and

ever since both peoples have looked on one another as natural and

hereditary enemies. The Bulgars, like all the barbarians who had preceded

them, were fascinated by the honey-pot of Constantinople, and, though they

never succeeded in taking it, they never grew tired of making the attempt. br />


For two hundred years after the death of Asparukh, in 661, the Bulgars

were perpetually fighting either against the Greeks or else amongst

themselves. At times a diversion was caused by the Bulgars taking the part

of the Greeks, as in 718, when they 'delivered' Constantinople, at the

invocation of the Emperor Leo, from the Arabs, who were besieging it. From

about this time the Bulgarian monarchy, which had been hereditary, became

elective, and the anarchy of the many, which the Bulgars found when they

arrived, and which their first few autocratic rulers had been able to

control, was replaced by an anarchy of the few. Prince succeeded prince,

war followed war, at the will of the feudal nobles. This internal strife

was naturally profitable to the Greeks, who lavishly subsidized the rival

factions.



At the end of the eighth century the Bulgars south of the Danube joined

forces with those to the north in the efforts of the latter against the

Avars, who, beaten by Charlemagne, were again pressing south-eastwards

towards the Danube. In this the Bulgars were completely successful under

the leadership of one Krum, whom, in the elation of victory, they promptly

elected to the throne. Krum was a far more capable ruler than they had

bargained for, and he not only united all the Bulgars north and south of

the Danube into one dominion, but also forcibly repressed the whims of the

nobles and re-established the autocracy and the hereditary monarchy.

Having finished with his enemies in the north, he turned his attention to

the Greeks, with no less success. In 809 he captured from them the

important city of Sofia (the Roman Sardica, known to the Slavs as

Sredets), which is to-day the capital of Bulgaria. The loss of this city

was a blow to the Greeks, because it was a great centre of commerce and

also the point at which the commercial and strategic highways of the

peninsula met and crossed. The Emperor Nikiphoros, who wished to take his

revenge and recover his lost property, was totally defeated by the Bulgars

and lost his life in the Balkan passes in 811. After further victories, at

Mesembria (the modern Misivria) in 812 and Adrianople in 813, Krum

appeared before the capital, where he nearly lost his life in an ambush

while negotiating for peace. During preparations for a final assault on

Constantinople he died suddenly in 815. Though Krum cannot be said to have

introduced civilisation into Bulgaria, he at any rate increased its power

and gave it some of the more essential organs of government. He framed a

code of laws remarkable for their rigour, which was undoubtedly necessary

in such a community and beneficial in its effect. He repressed civil

strife, and by this means made possible the reawakening of commerce and

agriculture. His successor, of uncertain identity, founded in 822 the city

of Preslav (known to the Russians as Pereyaslav), situated in eastern

Bulgaria, between Varna and Silistria, which was the capital until 972.



The reign of Prince Boris (852-88) is remarkable because it witnessed the

definitive conversion to Christianity of Bulgaria and her ruler. It is

within this period also that fell the activities of the two great

'Slavonic' missionaries and apostles, the brothers Cyril and Methodius,

who are looked upon by all Slavs of the orthodox faith as the founders of

their civilisation. Christianity had of course penetrated into Bulgaria

(or Moesia, as it was then) long before the arrival of the Slavs and

Bulgars, but the influx of one horde of barbarians after another was

naturally not propitious to its growth. The conversion of Boris in 865,

which was brought about largely by the influence of his sister, who had

spent many years in Constantinople as a captive, was a triumph for Greek

influence and for Byzantium. Though the Church was at this time still

nominally one, yet the rivalry between Rome and Constantinople had already

become acute, and the struggle for spheres of spiritual influence had

begun. It was in the year 863 that the Prince of Moravia, anxious to

introduce Christianity into his country in a form intelligible to his

subjects, addressed himself to the Emperor Michael III for help. Rome

could not provide any suitable missionaries with knowledge of Slavonic

languages, and the German, or more exactly the Bavarian, hierarchy with

which Rome entrusted the spiritual welfare of the Slavs of Moravia and

Pannonia used its greater local knowledge for political and not religious

ends. The Germans exploited their ecclesiastical influence in order

completely to dominate the Slavs politically, and as a result the latter

were only allowed to see the Church through Teutonic glasses.



In answer to this appeal the emperor sent the two brothers Cyril and

Methodius, who were Greeks of Salonika and had considerable knowledge of

Slavonic languages. They composed the Slavonic alphabet which is to-day

used throughout Russia, Bulgaria, Serbia, and Montenegro, and in many

parts of Austria-Hungary and translated the gospels into Slavonic; it is

for this reason that they are regarded with such veneration by all members

of the Eastern Church. Their mission proved the greatest success (it must

be remembered that at this time the various Slavonic tongues were probably

less dissimilar than they are now), and the two brothers were warmly

welcomed in Rome by Pope Adrian II, who formally consented to the use, for

the benefit of the Slavs, of the Slavonic liturgy (a remarkable

concession, confirmed by Pope John VIII). This triumph, however, was

short-lived; St. Cyril died in 869 and St. Methodius in 885; subsequent

Popes, notably Stephen V, were not so benevolent to the Slavonic cause;

the machinations of the German hierarchy (which included, even in those

days, the falsification of documents) were irresistible, and finally the

invasion of the Magyars, in 893, destroyed what was left of the Slavonic

Church in Moravia. The missionary brothers had probably passed through

Bulgaria on their way north in 863, but without halting. Many of their

disciples, driven from the Moravian kingdom by the Germans, came south and

took refuge in Bulgaria in 886, and there carried on in more favourable

circumstances the teachings of their masters. Prince Boris had found it

easier to adopt Christianity himself than to induce all his subjects to do

the same. Even when he had enforced his will on them at the price of

numerous executions of recalcitrant nobles, he found himself only at the

beginning of his difficulties. The Greeks had been glad enough to welcome

Bulgaria into the fold, but they had no wish to set up an independent

Church and hierarchy to rival their own. Boris, on the other hand, though

no doubt full of genuine spiritual ardour, was above all impressed with

the authority and prestige which the basileus derived from the Church of

Constantinople; he also admired the pomp of ecclesiastical ceremony, and

wished to have a patriarch of his own to crown him and a hierarchy of his

own to serve him. Finding the Greeks unresponsive, he turned to Rome, and

Pope Nicholas I sent him two bishops to superintend the ecclesiastical

affairs of Bulgaria till the investiture of Boris at the hands of the Holy

See could be arranged. These bishops set to work with a will, substituted

the Latin for the Greek rite, and brought Bulgaria completely under Roman

influence. But when it was discovered that Boris was aiming at the

erection of an independent Church their enthusiasm abated and they were

recalled to Rome in 867.



Adrian II proved no more sympathetic, and in 870, during the reign of the

Emperor Basil I, it was decided without more ado that the Bulgarian Church

should be directly under the Bishop of Constantinople, on the ground that

the kingdom of Boris was a vassal-state of the basileus, and that from the

Byzantine point of view, as opposed to that of Rome, the State came first

and the Church next. The Moravian Gorazd, a disciple of Methodius, was

appointed Metropolitan, and at his death he was succeeded by his fellow

countryman and co-disciple Clement, who by means of the construction of

numerous churches and monasteries did a great deal for the propagation of

light and learning in Bulgaria. The definite subjection of the Bulgarian

Church to that of Byzantium was an important and far-reaching event. Boris

has been reproached with submitting himself and his country to Greek

influence, but in those days it was either Constantinople or Rome (there

was no third way); and in view of the proximity of Constantinople and the

glamour which its civilization cast all over the Balkans, it is not

surprising that the Greeks carried the day.