Reviews and echos

Written by Georgi Vasilev (senior research fellow at the State Agency for Bulgarians Abroad), Heresy and the English Reformation: Bogomil-Cathar Influence on Wycliffe, Langland, Tyndale and Milton is a fascinating exploration of the dualist religious movement that evolved as a culture of the masses from the 12th to 17th centuries. Medieval Europe fostered a wealth of revolt against religious dogma, to the dismay of established churches; the Cathar's beliefs in particular left the Roman Catholic church so aghast it condemned them as heretical. Chapters discuss the remnants of the Bogomil movement in the English Language (including the linguistic history of the word "bugger"), the heresy's views of women, John Wycliffe and the Dualists, Bogomil-Cathar imagery and theology in "The Vision of Piers Plowman", the spiritual kinship between "Paradise Lost" and the secret book of the Bogomils, and more. Exhaustive notes, a bibliography and index complement this thoughtful examination of the interconnection between medieval religious counterculture and classic literature.

by Dr. Roumen Genov, Medieval Surprises - in The European English Messenger, Volume XVII, Issue 2, Autumn 2008:
I have chosen this title for my review because Heresy and English Reformation: Bogomil-Cathar influence on Wycliffe, Langland, Tyndale and Milton*, by Georgi Vasilev, really offers a new and original perspective on English medieval literature and culture. The period in question, in fact, stretches further in history. Prof. Georgi Vasilev, Ph.D., D.Litt., is teaching European civilization and Old Bulgarian literature at the State University of Library Studies and Information Technologies, Bulgaria, Sofia. E-mail: <g.vasilev@cust.skknet.net>;web: www.geocities. com/bogomil1bg>. In his well-sourced study, Vasilev claims that from the 12th to the 19th century in English culture there has been a tendency towards dualistic, i.e. Bogomil-Cathar, imagery and thought, which have their origin in Bulgarian apocrypha such as The Legend of the Tree, The Secret Book of Bogomils, or Interrogatio Johannis, Oratione of St. John Chrysostom on how Michael Vanquished Satanael, or apocryphal texts used and disseminated by dualists: The Dispute between Our Lord Jesus Christ and Antichrist, Gospel of Nicodemus, The Tiberiad See, The Infancy Gospel. The cornerstones of this influence are the 14th century poet William Langlang...>>more>>

Reviews of the previous edition: Dualist ideas in the English Pre-Reformation and Reformation (Bogomil-Cathar Influence on Wycliffe, Tyndale, Langland and Milton). Translated into English by Bistra Roushkova.  Sofia. Bul Koreni, 2005.  Pp. 208.  ISBN 954-798-019-X - in
 ♣ by Professor Norman Tanner SJ, Gregorian University, Rome  - in the  The Toronto Slavic Quarterly 14 Fall 2005:

In this imaginative and original study, the Bulgarian scholar Georgi Vasilev seeks to trace the roots of various English reformers from the fourteenth to the seventeenth centuries back of the dualist movements of Catharism in southern Europe and Bogomilism in Bulgaria.  As Vasilev correctly observes, Wycliffe and the English Lollards have been studied in a largely insular fashion, without much reference to their possible roots outside England.   The English Reformation from the 1530’s onwards has always been considered within the wider context of the European Reformation and while some attention has been given to its links with medieval Lollardy, little attention has been given to its links with medieval dualist movements on the Continent. >> more>>

♣ by Dr. Michelle M. Sauer in - The Year’s Work in English Studies, 2007:

The second book, Dualist Ideas in the English Pre-Reformation and Reformation: Bogomil-Cathar Influence on Wycliffe, Langland, Tyndale and Milton by Georgi Vasilev, traces the origins of English reformers back to the dualist movements Catharism and Bogomilism. This is the first large-scale study of Lollardism as a non­isolated movement, and the arguments presented are fascinating, if not always completely convincing; some of the so-called direct connections might not be parallel modes of thought drawn from similar experiences. Nevertheless, the final three chapters of the book provide an interesting view of Piers Plowman (among other texts), focusing on its inherent dualism. In particular, Piers is related to The Secret Book of the Bogomils, which is accompanied by an examination of the 'Bulgarian image of Christ the Ploughman' (p. 120). This thought-provoking study is sure to incite further work in the area.

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