time of Tsar Simeon, himself an author, considerable
literary activity prevailed; among the more remarkable works of this period
was the _Shestodnev_, or Hexameron, of John the exarch, an account of the
creation. A little later the heresy of the Bogomils gave an impulse to
controversial writing. The principal champions of orthodoxy were St Kosmas
and the monk Athanas of Jerusalem; among the Bogomils the _Questions of St
Ivan Bogosloff_, a work containing a description of the beginning and the
end of the world, was held in high esteem. Contemporaneously with the
spread of this sect a number of apocryphal works, based on the Scripture
narrative, but embellished with Oriental legends of a highly imaginative
character, obtained great popularity. Together with these religious
writings works of fiction, also of Oriental origin, made their appearance,
such as the life of Alexander the Great, the story of Troy, the tales of
_Stephanit and Ichnilat_ and _Barlaam and Josaphat_, the latter founded on
the biography of Buddha. These were for the most part reproductions or
variations of the fantastical romances which circulated through Europe in
the middle ages, and many of them have left traces in the national legends
and folk-songs. In the 13th century, under the Asen dynasty, numerous
historical works or chronicles (_letopisi_) were composed. State records
appear to have existed, but none of them have been preserved. With the
Ottoman conquest literature disappeared; the manuscripts became the food of
moths and worms, or fell a prey to the fanaticism of the Phanariot clergy.
The library of the patriarchs of Trnovo was committed to the flames by the
Greek metropolitan Hilarion in 1825.

The monk Paisii (born about 1720) and Bishop Sofronii (1739-1815) have
already been mentioned as the precursors of the literary [v.04 p.0786]
revival. The _Istoria Slaveno-Bolgarska_ (1762) of Paisii, written in the
solitude of Mount Athos, was a work of little historical value, but its
influence upon the Bulgarian race was immense. An ardent patriot, Paisii
recalls the glories of the Bulgarian tsars and saints, rebukes his
fellow-countrymen for allowing themselves to be called Greeks, and
denounces the arbitrary proceedings of the Phanariot prelates. The _Life
and Sufferings of sinful Sofronii_ (1804) describes in simple and touching
language the condition of Bulgaria at the beginning of the 19th century.
Both works were written in a modified form of