Written by Georgi Vasilev (senior research fellow at the State Agency for Bulgarians Abroad, Sofia)*, 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.

*Actually professor of European and Medieval Studies at the State University of Librarian Studies and Information Technologies, Sofia).

Comment on previous edition "Dualist ideas in the English Pre-Reformation and Reformation: Bogomil-Cathar Influence on Wycliffe, Tyndale, Langland and Milton. Sofia, 2001 in The Year’s Work in English Studies. Volume 86, Number 1, 2007. Advance Access published online on June 8, 2007   doi:10.1093/ywes/mam003
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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