Compared with the military success of his father's reign, Peter has been traditionally considered a weak ruler, who lost lands and prestige, allowed his military forces to decline while his country was ravaged by foreign invaders, and turned Bulgaria into a Byzantine satellite governed by Byzantine agents in the persons of his empress and her retinue. This view has been questioned by more recent scholarship, which emphasizes the affluence and internal peace enjoyed by Bulgarian society during his long reign, re-evaluates the relationship between Bulgaria and its semi-nomadic neighbors (Magyars and Pechenegs), and questions the allegedly sinister role of Romanos' granddaughter and her retinue. While Peter's reign witnessed the spread of the Bogomil heresy, its origins were more demographic (perhaps inspired by Paulicians settled earlier by Byzantine emperors in Thrace) than social, and the Bulgarian Orthodox Church canonized him as a saint. Peter was considered a good ruler in the Middle Ages, and when Bulgaria fell under Byzantine rule (1018–1185), leaders of attempts to restore Bulgarian independence adopted his name to emphasize legitimacy and continuity (both Peter Delyan and Constantine Bodin adopted the royal name of Peter in their attempts to regain the throne from the Byzantines).