Stoyanov Yuri: Skrivena predaja u Europi

Yuri Stoyanov: The Hidden Tradition in Europe

The Secret History of the Medieval Christian Heresy

recent works, whose topics range from the legend of the Holy Grail to the medieval transformation of Hellenistic alchemy, have opened new avenues for the study of the history and teachings of medieval Neomanicheism. Today, the importance of Bohumilism as a religious mediator between East and West and guardian of traditions that can best be described as gnostic-dualistic and which seemed to have been irrevocably suppressed by the establishment of normative Christianity is generally accepted. For a more complete understanding of the origin, essence and continuity of these traditions, it is necessary to study their prehistory in more detail and to place European Neo-Manicheanism in a wider historical and religious context. This book traces some of the most important phases and trends in the early history of the Near Eastern and Balkan-Byzantine world, which could have had a significant impact on the learning and development of medieval dualism. The phenomenon of an extremely mystical and ascetic dualist movement that developed into a powerful social and historical force in various parts of Europe and became a threat to the spiritual supremacy of the Church has always been much more than a simple religious puzzle. Many members of the medieval clergy saw in the great heresy a dangerous revival of Manichaeism, the age-old rival of Christianity; therefore, both Bogomils and Cathars were repeatedly accused as new Manichaeans. The history of the European neo-Manicheans is known to us mainly from the malicious and distorted testimonies of their orthodox opponents and persecutors. Some of its most famous and dramatic episodes include the infamous Albigensian Crusade against the Cathars in Languedoc, the siege of the Cathar citadel Montségur, and the first devastating anti-heretical campaigns of the Holy Inquisition. The saga of the conflict between the Cathars and Catholicism has long been one of the most fascinating areas of research and a source of delight, myth, legend and controversy. The fall of the Cathar fortress Montségur and the mass burning of the Cathar perfects that followed in a place known as the field of the burnt are traditionally considered, as Lawrence Durell called it, the Thermopylae of the Gnostic soul, and the Cathar movement continues to capture the imagination of Europeans with its special mystique. (Yuri Stoyanov)