ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on a poem, written in Provencal, which is by William of Tudela, who describes himself as a 'clerk in holy orders'. The cursed heresy is Catharism and the early-thirteenth-century followers in the region to which William refers believed in a version of it known as absolute dualism. The Bogomils share some characteristics with two earlier eastern heresies Paulicianism and Messalianism - both of which were present in the Balkans as a result of Byzantine policy which aimed to break up opposition in the imperial heartland of Asia Minor by the physical removal of disaffected populations to other regions. The first detailed description of dualist heresy in Bulgaria is by Cosmas the Priest, whose Discourse or Treatise against the Bogomils can be dated between 969 and 972. Cosmas may have been a bishop, or at least held a position of authority within the Church.
