ABSTRACT
After securing Church union with the Greeks at the Council of Florence in 1439, the Papacy aimed to drive the Turks from Europe, save Constantinople, and ensure the unity of all Christians under the Roman Church. With the defeat of crusading armies in 1444, attention moved to Bosnia and the Bosnian Church, which dominated the local court and society. Members of this church called themselves Krstjani (Christians), but the popes condemned them as “Manichean heretics.” From 1443 to 1463, papal efforts to Catholicize the Kingdom divided it both politically and religiously. A critical event was the forced conversion of 12,000 Krstjani in 1459, comparable to the forced baptisms of Jews and Muslims carried out decades later in Iberia. This paper reinterprets the charge of “Manicheanism” and the 1459 purge, looking at the role of papal legates and nuncios, and drawing on the papal bulls which, together with the Commentaries of Pope Pius II, are our principal source for the event.
