Stephen Kulinić

Stephen Kulinić ("Stevan", "Stjepan" or "Stefan"), son of Bosnia's Ban Kulin, was a Bosnian Ban in 1204-1232. He was a faithful Catholic and thus a supporter of the Hungarian Crown, but not very popular in Bosnia - as he turned away from his father's policies and prosecuted the Bogumils. He was the last member of the House of Kulinić.

Reign

The Bosnian Church spread greatly across Bosnia and even further, throughout Croatia, southern Hungary and the Seaside and even went as far as Northern Italy and southern France during his reign. It became very illfamed in Rome and Buda - in the first because of its heretical teachings and opposings of the Roman Catholic Church, and in the latter because of its political influence amongst the Bosnians in Bosnia - which was a Hungarian vassalage. Stjepan's Bosnia was thus characterized as being "half-Barbaric". Furious because of this, Pope Honorius III dispatched in 1221 his legate, Aconcius, to Bosnia, to determinate the status of the Bosnian heresy. Aconcius said that the Bogumils spread Bogumilism over there "just as younglings are being breast-fed". The Pope complained to the Hungarian King Andrews and the Hungarian Bishoprics to destroy the Bosnian Bogomils, calling for a Crusade. King Andrews was fighting inner conflicts, so he could not heed the Papacy's callings. The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Kaločki, wanted to lead the Crusade against Bosnia if the Pope promised that Bosnia would be ecclesiastically subjected to him; and so the Pope asked him to keep his promise in 1225. That year by Pope's edict Bosnia, Soli and Usora was transferred to Bishop Ugrin of Kalocs' suzeiranity from the coastal Dalmatian bishoprics. The Archbishop negotiated with the ruler of Srem to launch a joint operation in Bosnia. The Archbishop dispatched John Angelo of Srem, the nephew of the Hungarian King and a Byzantine emigrant to lead a military attempt into Bosnia.

It is because of these anti-Bogumil activities Stjepan was deposed by the Bogumils in 1232, when a disorder caught Hungary. His throne was seized by Matej Ninoslav. He retired to his son, "Sibislav", who ruled as "Prince of Usora". There he died in 1236.

See also

* List of Bosnian rulers
* History of Bosnia and Herzegovina

References