Paulicians

PAULICIANS. - A heresy of a dualistic-Gnostic character, in the Byzantine Empire. The name P. was given to the sect by its adversaries, either because of a supposed connection with the doctrines of Paul of Samosata (as Conybeare tends to demonstrate), or after one of their first leaders, an Armenian named Paul, or because the sect displayed a particular enthusiasm for the apostle Paul, while the writings of Peter were rejected by it.

They were also called Neo-Manichaeans, since their rigorous dualism was bound to recall the analogous Manichaean (and Marcionite) conceptions; the P. themselves protested vigorously against the assertion of such a dependence and were always ready to anathematize Mani. It must be borne in mind, however, that the sect, like the Messalians (v.) before them, did not hesitate to dissemble and to deny its own doctrines in times of persecution. They called themselves simply "Christians," while they reserved the name of "cenni" for Catholics.

The origin of the sect is obscure. Its founder is considered to be a certain Constantine (called Silvanus, according to the P.'s custom of giving their leaders the names of the apostle Paul's collaborators), a native of the vicinity of Samosata, who spread his ideas around the middle of the 7th century at Kibossa, in the regions of Armenia, while other leaders were active in Lycaonia and Phrygia. After the death of Constantine (stoned after 37 years of leadership), serious internal discord agitated the sect for several decades. The attitude of the imperial authority toward the sect was wavering. Some emperors, particularly Nicephorus I (802-11), had shown themselves not unfavorable to the P., who had proved to be good soldiers and who were therefore enlisted in the imperial army and transferred to the regions threatened by Bulgarian pressure, to the capital or to Thrace. But under the emperor Michael (811-13) the decisive repression of the sect resumed, continued by Leo V (813-20) and carried out with particular severity under Theodora (842-56). A large part of the P. then took refuge in Persian territory, whence they committed every kind of harassment against the neighboring Byzantine provinces until they were definitively defeated by the emperor Basil I (871). Photius boasts, in his encyclical of the year 866, of having brought many P. of the capital back to orthodoxy. In Thrace the P. seem to have survived in the Bogomils (v.), in Armenia in the movement of the Thondrakians (first half of the 9th century). The P. believed they formed the true Catholic Church; their fundamental doctrine lies in the clear distinction between the Creator and Lord of this world and the heavenly God, author of the spirits. They consequently deny the Incarnation; Christ is, according to them, an angel called Son by God and sent to the human race; therefore they reject the Old Testament, the Sacraments (the true Baptism would be found in the words of Christ, and these alone would also be the true supper prepared by the Lord), just as they also reject the ecclesiastical hierarchy and monasticism; instead of the Cross and sacred images, the Gospel must be venerated, since it contains the words of Christ; the P. claimed, in short, to represent a purer and more spiritual Christianity. Similar movements appeared in Armenia until recent times.

Agostino Mayer