Background In the 14th century, when the Diocese of Duvno was established, the
Archbishop of Split had a right to establish dioceses in his metropolitan area and appoint and consecrate the bishops. The exact year of the establishment of the Diocese of Duvno remains unknown. It is not mentioned before the rule of
Paul I Šubić of Bribir, and it was most probably established by the Archbishop of Split Petar,
O.F.M., who served as the archbishop from 1297 to 1324. The establishment of the Diocese of Duvno, as well as the dioceses
Šibenik and
Makarska was initiated for the political goals of the
Šubić family, the dukes of
Bribir. Namely, in this way, they would secure support among the clergy. On the verge of the 13th to 14th century, the sons of Paul Šubić –
Mladen,
George and
Paul, after securing the territory of the eastern
Adriatic hinterland, adopted the title of a "Duke of
Tropolje,
Livno and
Cetina". They intended to extend their territories further east towards the hinterland and establish the highest church organisation there. At the time, the circumstances within the Papacy allowed the Šubić's to implement their church policy. The Papacy at the time, faced complex issues, including the dispute with
Philip IV of France over the taxation of clergy and expropriation of the church's property and especially the property previously owned by the
Knights Templar. This resulted in moving the papal seat to
Avignon. The Avignon popes used the church institutions mainly to collect taxes to build their new residence in Avignon. As the Šubić's were able to issue their own currency, they were wealthy and good taxpayers, so they were allowed to pursue their church policies. The rival to the Šubić family were the
Kotromanićs who ruled the
Banate of Bosnia. For example,
Stephen II Kotromanić, although himself a
Latin Catholic, supported the heterodox
Bosnian Church, which in return, supported the claims of the Kotromanić family. The Bosnian Church, protected by the Kotromanić family, managed to expand outside of its Bosnian core to
Zachlumia, Tropolje and the area between
Neretva and Cetina. Thus, the Šubić's were seen as the fighters for the orthodoxy against the heterodox Bosnian Church. Thus,
Pope John XXII calls Mladen II Šubić to remove "the enemies of the Christ's Cross" from Bosnia. The Šubić's mission to appropriate the members of the Bosnian Church to the Catholic Church gained them a favour among the
Bosnian Franciscan missionaries. They constructed Franciscan friaries and appointed Franciscans as bishops in the dioceses under their control.
Establishment and early years Škegro writes that the Diocese of Duvno was established somewhere around the establishment of the
Diocese of Makarska, if not at the same time. Franciscan historian
Dominik Mandić puts the establishment of the Diocese of Duvno between 1274 and 1297. Other authors, like Karlo Jurišić, Slavko Kovačić and
Krunoslav Draganović, also put the establishment of the Diocese of Duvno at the end of the 13th century and the beginning of the 14th century respectively. The cathedral church of the Diocese of Duvno was the Church of St.
John the Baptist, located within the fortress of Rog, in present-day
Roško Polje. John the Baptist was the Šubićs' patron saint, along with
Mary, mother of Jesus, so they consecrated to them the churches and monasteries that they would build. The collapse of the Šubićs' power in Duvno after the Kotromanićs takeover in 1322, resulted badly for
Madius of Duvno, who complained to
Pope Clement VI that he had to leave his seat because of the "evil of the people". Many authors, like Ivo Bagarić, Slavko Kovačić, and Damir Kabrić consider that the "evil of the people" referred to the resistance of the local populace to the Church authorities over the taxation, which would be impossible under the rule of the Šubićs. The fall of Duvno also enabled the spread of the Bosnian Church, and at the same time, a significant
Vlach population arrived on the territory of Duvno. The Vlachs were especially averse to the Church authorities, and often, in order to avoid taxation, they would also change their confession. The proof that the Diocese of Duvno suffered a hard time after Šubićs fall is a testimony of an anonymous Spanish travel writer who in the second quarter of the 14th century wrote that the Catholics are almost non-existent in Bosnia. Ever since its establishment, the Diocese of Duvno suffered from poverty and the personal insecurity of the bishops. In 1345, Madius' successor
John de Leoncello was freed from paying a regular fee paid by the diocesan bishops upon their appointment because of poverty. For those reasons, the bishops of Duvno were forced to live outside their diocese and lived mostly on the territory of the Archdiocese of Split, where, at the same time, they held high posts. On the other hand, they would suffer from serious poverty. For example, Bishop Stephen, who resided in the Diocese of Duvno, was forced to beg due to poor conditions, and later, as a high-ranking church dignitary in Split, he acted as a missionary for his Diocese of Duvno. One of the
canons of the Diocese of Duvno, Nicholas, became a bishop in his own right in present-day
Albania in 1472.
Ottoman conquest During the
Ottoman conquest of
Herzegovina in the 1470s, the bishops of Duvno, who only occasionally resided in the fortress of Rog, were forced to leave their cathedral church. The Diocese of Duvno thus practically became a missionary territory. Finally, in 1477, the fortress of Rog, as well as the wider area of Duvno, became an Ottoman
nahiyah in the
Sanjak of Herzegovina. During the Ottoman rule, in order to survive, the bishops of Duvno relied on Franciscans and their own families respectively. During their missionary activity, the bishops had no official residence on the territory of the diocese and held the religious services around the ruins of the destructed church objects. During the reign of bishop
Pavao Posilović, in 1655, the Franciscan friary of St. Peter in present-day
Prozor-Rama was mentioned as the cathedral church of the Diocese of Duvno. The Friary of St. Peter served to Posilović as a temporary refuge.
Apostolic Vicariate of Bosnia The territory that remained in the Ottoman Empire after the
Austro-Turkish War (1716–1718) and signing of the
Treaty of Passarowitz in 1718, became part of the
Apostolic Vicariate of Bosnia, by the decree of
Pope Clement XII of 1735. By this decree, the Holy See harmonised the ecclesiastical situation with the political one. It was also in accordance with the Ottoman policy that the clergy serving in its territory should be Ottoman subjects. A special ecclesiastical province under Ottoman Empire was promoted by the Bosnian Franciscans with the help of the Bishop of
Zadar Vicko Zmajević. The initiative was accepted by the Propaganda, which asked the Pope to appoint the new bishop for the Catholics in the Ottoman Bosnia, which would be appointed from the ranks of the Bosnian Franciscans. The territory encompassed by the Vicariate of Bosnia included the territory of the dioceses of Duvno and
Bosnia, parts of the dioceses of Makarska, and the Archdiocese of Split that fell under the Ottoman rule. The first apostolic vicar was
Mato Divelić. The appointment of a special bishop of Duvno was, at the time, impossible, because during the
Morean War (1684–1699) the regions of Duvno and Rama were devastated, while the Friary of St. Peter that served as a temporary cathedral was destroyed by the Ottomans in 1687. Further, the Catholics of Duvno largely left the region during the
Ottoman–Venetian War (1714–1718) and settled in the neighbouring regions under the
Venetian control. == Episcopal ordinaries ==