important a personage the Ragusan bishop was in the constitution, and if he were to owe obedience to a prelate in a foreign and possibly hostile State, he might be induced to act in a manner prejudicial to the interests of the Republic. The existence of a separate province, which lasted down to our own times, also constituted a further assertion of Ragusan independence. The importance of the Ragusan Church was further enhanced by the conversion of the neighbouring Slaves, to whom Ragusa was the nearest religious centre. Ragusan missionaries went among them to preach the Gospel, and ecclesiastics from Constantinople made the city their headquarters and starting-point. The part which Ragusa played in these conversions explains the gifts which the Servian princes and nobles made to its churches.[88] In later times religious controversies arose between the citizens and their neighbours, in consequence of the heretical and schismatic sects which were spreading throughout the Balkan lands. Ragusa was nothing if not orthodox, and used all her influence to second the Papacy in trying to suppress these movements, which were often countenanced by the kings and princes of Servia and Bosnia. Bernard, archbishop of Ragusa at the end of the twelfth century, wished to bring the bishops of Bosnia under his authority, and the Banus Čulin, who at that time professed himself a Catholic, consented. But while Bernard was in Rome, Čulin abjured Catholicism for Bogomilism,[89] and set up Bogomil bishops in opposition to those consecrated by Bernard. Vulkan, Grand Župan of Chelmo (Zachulmia), did likewise, and convoked a synod at Antivari.[90] In 1023 the Benedictine Order came to Ragusa from the Tremiti Islands under one Peter, and established itself on the island of Lacroma. Various Serb princes and Ragusan citizens made gifts of land to the monastery.