paulicians

Updated: May 28, 2025

But the proud hope of eradicating the prejudices of a nation was speedily overturned by the invincible zeal of the Paulicians, who ceased to dissemble or refused to obey. After the departure and death of Alexius, they soon resumed their civil and religious laws. From that æra, a minute scrutiny might prolong and perpetuate the chain of tradition.

Edward Gibbon - History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 5

It was in the country of the Albigeois, in the southern provinces of France, that the Paulicians were most deeply implanted; and the same vicissitudes of martyrdom and revenge which had been displayed in the neighborhood of the Euphrates, were repeated in the thirteenth century on the banks of the Rhone. The laws of the Eastern emperors were revived by Frederic the Second.

Edward Gibbon - History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 5

Despite the foundation of the orthodox city of Alexiopolis in the neighbourhood, the Paulicians still continued about Philippopolis, where they were secretly strengthened in their particularist attitude by the continued presence of the remnants of the Bogomiles. Even a century later the Patriarch Germanus attacks the latter on the plea that they are still secretly making converts.

D. J. (Dudley Julius) Medley - The Church and the Empire, Being an Outline of the History of the Church from A.D. 1003 to A.D. 1304

The favor and success of the Paulicians in the eleventh and twelfth centuries must be imputed to the strong, though secret, discontent which armed the most pious Christians against the church of Rome.

Edward Gibbon - History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 5

Under the Byzantine standard, the Paulicians were often transported to the Greek provinces of Italy and Sicily: in peace and war, they freely conversed with strangers and natives, and their opinions were silently propagated in Rome, Milan, and the kingdoms beyond the Alps.

Edward Gibbon - History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 5

Paul, his faithful follower investigated the Creed of primitive Christianity; and, whatever might be the success, a Protestant reader will applaud the spirit, of the inquiry. But if the Scriptures of the Paulicians were pure, they were not perfect. Their founders rejected the two Epistles of St.

Edward Gibbon - History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 5

These beliefs survived for a thousand years throughout Christendom: they were held by a great multitude of persecuted sects, from the Albigenses and Cathars to the eastern Paulicians. The catholic church found it necessary to prohibit the circulation of the Old Testament among laymen very largely on account of the polemics of the Cathars against the Hebrew God.

H. G. (Herbert George) Wells - God the Invisible King

Paul: the name of the Paulicians is derived by their enemies from some unknown and domestic teacher; but I am confident that they gloried in their affinity to the apostle of the Gentiles.

Edward Gibbon - History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 5

The Paulicians sincerely condemned the memory and opinions of the Manichæan sect, and complained of the injustice which impressed that invidious name on the simple votaries of St. Paul and of Christ.

Edward Gibbon - History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 5

But he found that Sergius could give him no information on that subject, but, on the contrary, discoursed so wisely and beautifully on holy things, that his pupil's intellect was enlightened, and his enthusiasm was inflamed, and he longed to go forth and instruct the ignorant people around him; the Saracens, and the Sabaeans, and the Zoroastrians, and the Carmathians, and the Baphometites, and the Paulicians, who are a remnant of the ancient Manichees.

Richard Garnett - The Twilight of the Gods, and Other Tales