In the preface to "History of Bulgarian Literature" by Boyan Penev ("Boyan Penev and Contemporary Literary Historiography"), Academician Pantaley Zarev writes: "There is a different attitude towards the scientific work of a great creative personality. The attitude is apologetic, close to the jubilee anniversary. It receives nourishment from subjective preferences, devoid of looking at all the complexity of creation. There is also an attitude of non-objectification, evaluation, covering equally the strengths and weaknesses. Boyan Penev did not deserve empty praise. "
The work of Boyan Penev, in the field of literary historiography, is truly colossal - there is nothing to boast about again. But the other extreme - to pay too much attention to the pycantheria in his personal life, at the expense of his professional contributions, is not appropriate to the great talent, and above all to the methodical and systematic efforts to create a modern history of Bulgarian literature. .
Let us turn our attention to some Bulgarian mixed-content collections, analyzed by Boyan Penev, in which different folk beliefs of pagan nature, as well as different types of teaching, are of interest. The attitude of the scribes to popular traditions is markedly negative, but it finds a logical basis in the official Bulgarian religion. In order to understand the jealousy of Bulgarian medieval writers on church dogmas, we must bear in mind the unusual nature of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church.
On the one hand, Bulgaria has been creating and developing over the centuries as a Christian kingdom. On the other hand, throughout its existence in the Middle Ages, until the fall of Ottoman rule, Bulgaria was in constant conflict with the Christian Empire (Byzantium). According to the Symbol of Faith affirmed at the First (325) and the Second (381) Ecumenical Councils, however, the Orthodox Christian faith rests on the view of "one, holy, conciliar, and apostolic church."
What specifically does the conciliar church of Christ mean? It is "universal in the geographical sense (" to the ends of the world "), and even more in the qualitative sense of the word, encompassing people of different races, cultures, social backgrounds." Therefore, the Bulgarian Church and the Bulgarian people, through their very existence, enter into contradiction with Byzantine universalism (the Byzantine claim for domination of humanity), but in this way, in this conflict, the Symbol of Faith is confirmed: the people of different races, cultures, social achievements are included in the Orthodox Orthodox Church - Byzantines, Bulgarians, Russians, Serbs, etc. That is why the Bulgarian Orthodox Church and the Bulgarian people are a separate entity in a linguistic relationship, very different from the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the Byzantines (on 4 March 870, a local church council was established in Constantinople The Bulgarian Orthodox Church).
The sense of difference, but also the struggle for defending diversity, is so characteristic of Bulgarian literature in the Middle Ages. Yet it must be borne in mind that at that time, everywhere in the Christian world, the influence of the church on art was enormous.
Boyan Penev notes that in the Ottoman period the most common words in the literature were "magicians". In the eighteenth-century Bulgarian collection, the following words are found: “A word for self-propellers and vagrants, and magicians, and charmers; the second word for magicians, from various books collected; the third word for magicians, and self-wills, and fables, and betting, and wanderers, and obedience. "Even Presbyter Kozma (10th c.) raises the question in one of his words against the Bogomils," What about Christians are those who believe in Sretya (Happiness - the Slavic goddess of happiness), in dreams and all devilish teachings. "
Penev recalls the words of a writer from the time of the rule: “I also went to many lands, and I have not seen so many magicians, as in this Bulgarian land of ours, and fairies and wanderers. They have other sins in other lands. The magicians and Bulgarians who follow and listen to them are called "idolaters, like those who worship many gods." The worst sin in the world is considered to be the belief in fortune tellers, sorcerers and healers:
And again, "They are adversaries and vagabonds and charmers: these are the disciples of Antichrist, and they who go to them worship the enemy, and the enemy records them and they are his; and there is no other sin greater and more grave than all that sin. It is very annoying when God creates fornication, but if he repents and cries and prays, God will forgive him. And murderers, and all other sinners, may also repent, because they have never denied themselves to God; and who go to self-wills, and to witches, to magicians, to betting, to slaughter, they have all renounced both men and god, and have trampled on the honest cross, and all the Christian laws. " : "Pop shall not let them go to church, give them no seed, no sacrament, and when they die, do not sing them, no memorial to make them, or" God forgive "to call them; and will any one pop such as receive them into church and give them ruffle and adoration, and sing them, and he will be like them - an ungodly and an idolater. "
In a conversation between a Christian clergyman and one of the demons of hell, the evil spirit tells of women sorceresses and sorcerers: and they understand much, and we have great help from them, and all our great works they perfect, and we have much help from sorcerers, We said to teach them, and they became more cunning than us, and we demons were afraid of sorcerers women, because they seduce many innocent souls and bring them to our lord Beelzebub.
Characteristic of popular collections with mixed content are the teachings in which the people are instructed in certain moral deeds. It is impressive, for example, "A word of instruction to kings, voivodes, bishops and priests, and all Christians not to get drunk with wine, Father bless" in the Koprivshtitsa damask from the XVII century The preacher writes at the beginning of the text: “I am anxious for this, and I have written, my brethren, this teaching of your obedience; lest you be consumed with evil drunkenness, as the Apostle Paul said, drunks cannot be found in the Kingdom of Heaven, but eternal torment is prepared for them with the outlaws and wolves… ”
As B. Penev also commented, it is very interesting, however, that the preacher does not advise to abstinence to the extreme, but simply to drink with a measure: “Let us be blessed, Christians, from this evil wine and drunkenness, but to drink. drinking for the glory of God, both in good times and in law. "
