Challenge: Bogomil Byzantine Empire

Here's an interesting challenge: make it so Bogomilism (a neo-Manichaen / Gnostic dualist heresy) is the dominant religion in the Byzantine Empire by 1200 AD. Any POD works, just have it so the Emperor and the aristocrats are Bogomil.

Should be interesting.
 
Actually it's still not certain (although accepted by a majority of historians who just don't bother looking into it all) that the Bosnian 'Krstjani' were Bogomils.

Most of the account son them came from Catholic sources (including a number of popes) that denounced them as 'Bogomils', but then again they were prone to denounce almost any Christian heresy as 'Catharism' or 'Bogomilism' at that time.

EDIT: Here's a quote from wiki (if it means anything, anyway):

Large numbers took refuge in Bosnia, where they were known under the name of Patarenes or Patareni. There, they were also brought into connection with the indigenous Bosnian Church, which was also considered heretical by the Pope and Byzantines, but was not actually Bogomil in nature.
 
the point is that this church wether bogumil or just under manichean influence, was indeed the official bosnian church on wich the king based his legitimacy, all of wich was largely orchestrated by the monarchy itself, as a means of opposing katolic political influence and the rule of hungarian kings
in many ways simillar to the anglican church, as a source of political legitimacy of non katolic sovrein rule, fabricated politicaly using as a base preexistant religious movements directly oposed to papal autority

in the case of the bizantine empire this would mean a usurper emperor who decides to base the legitimacy of his crown on a non orthodox source, obviously not islam, and being politicaly oposed to the katolic western roman empire for some personal or strategic reasons, he therefore alings with some stronger manichean curent preexistant within the orthodox church/es in and around the empire, as both are using this oportunity to seise power it is a natural aliance, and the rate at wich the empire converts to the new faith is a function of the emperors military force and the wilingness of the population to fight for their christian belifes.
probably things would go similarly to the conversion from non christian to christian religion in germanic and slavic populations
 
probably things would go similarly to the conversion from non christian to christian religion in germanic and slavic populations

But for the emperor to convert, would mean that most of the aristocracy would already have converted, so that would not be like how the Germanics and Slavs were converted.
 
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