Paulicianism
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Paulicianism was a Christian sect that flourished between 650 and 872 in Anatolia, outgoing from Armenia and the Eastern Themes of the Byzantine Empire. While there were some Paulicians that had Gnostic elements, the charge that they were Manicheans and dualists is unfounded. An ancient Paulician manuscript, The Key of Truth, was discovered in Armenia in 1891. The translator, Fred Conybeare, said "I found nothing that savoured of these ancient heresies... the Manicheans and Mani was anathematized by the Paulician Church." (The Key of Truth, Conybeare, 1898, pg. vi, cxxxi) "The Paulicians are not dualists in any other sense than the New Testament was dualistic." (pg. xxxvi) The Old Testament is not rejected." (pg. xxxvii).
The adherents of the sect called themselves Christians. The name Paulicians was given by others, derived from their respect for the apostle Paul, rather than from their third leader, the Armenian Paul, as Photius and Petrus Siculus affirm. They especially honoured the Gospel According to Luke, Saint John, and the Letters of St. Paul. They accepted both the Old and new Testaments. There were many that were adoptionists and there were also many among them that adhered to modalistic monarchianism which they probably inherited from certain Monanists that joined them. Their denial of the Trinity may have resulted in many of them altering their baptismal rite by immersion in the name of Christ as opposed to exclusively baptizing into the Trinity. Some may have combined the two forms. Only adults 30 years of age or over were eligible for baptism since this was the age Christ was baptized. The person that performed the baptism had to be pure of heart in order for the baptism to be considered valid. (The Key of Truth, Conybeare)
Some historians have stated that incidences of prophetic and estatic utterances among the Paulicians was actually glossolalia which phenomena occuring outside of the Church was considered witchcraft.
[edit] History
The founder of the sect was Constantine-Silvanus, who hailed from Mananalis, a dualistic community near Samosata, and was a strong Christian. He studied the Gospels and Epistles, combined dualistic and Christian doctrines, and, upon the basis of the former, vigorously opposed the formalism of the church. Regarding himself as called upon to restore the pure Christianity of Paul, he adopted the name Silvanus, one of Paul's disciples, and about the year 656 founded his first congregation at Kibossa in Armenia. Twenty-seven years later, in 683, he was stoned to death by order of the emperor. Simeon-Titus, originally plain Simeon, the court official who executed the order, was himself converted, and, adopting the name Titus, became Constantine's successor, but was burned to death in 690 (the punishment pronounced upon the Manichaeans).
The adherents of the sect fled, with an Armenian named Paul as their head, to Episparis. The sect went into hiding. Paul died in 715, leaving two sons, Gegnaesius (whom he had appointed his successor) and Theodore. The latter, giving out that he had received the Holy Ghost, rose up against Gegnaesius, but was unsuccessful. Gegnaesius was taken to Constantinople, appeared before Emperor Leo III, was declared innocent of heresy, returned to Episparis, but, fearing danger, went with his adherents to Mananalis. His death (in 745) was the occasion of a division in the sect; Zacharias and Joseph being the leaders of the two parties. The latter had the larger following and was succeeded by Baanies, 775. The sect grew in spite of persecution, receiving additions from the opponents of image-worship. In the middle of the 8th century the emperor Constantine Copronymus settled a number of Armenian Paulicians in Thrace. These were noted heretics and were persecuted by the Greek Church with fire and sword.
Baanies, an immoral man, was supplanted by Sergius-Tychicus, 801, who was very active for thirty-four years, and received into the number of the saints. He expanded the sect into Cilicia and Asia Minor. His activity was the occasion of renewed persecutions on the part of Emperor Michael I Rhangabes and Leo V. Obliged to flee, Sergius and his followers settled at Argaum, in that part of Armenia which was under the control of the Saracens. At the death of Sergius, the control of the sect was divided between several leaders. The empress Theodora killed, drowned or hanged no fewer than 100,000 Paulicians in Grecian Armenia.
Under Karbeas, who fled with the residue of the sect, two fortified cities were built, Tephrica (now Divriği) and Amara (now Amran Köyü). His successor, Chrysocheres, devastated many cities; in 867 advanced as far as Ephesus, and took many priests prisoners. Under Karbeas and Chrysocheres the number and power of the Paulicians were greatest.
In 868 the emperor, Basil I, despatched Petrus Siculus to arrange for their exchange. His sojourn of nine months among the Paulicians gave him an opportunity to collect many facts, which he preserved in his ..." History of the empty and vain heresy of the Manichæans, otherwise called Paulicians"). The propositions of peace were not accepted, the war was renewed, Chrysocheres killed and the military power of Paulicians was broken (872).
In 970 the emperor John Tzimisces, himself of Armenian origin, transplanted no less than 200,000 Armenian Paulicians to Europe and settled them in the neighbourhood of Philippopolis in Thrace, which henceforth became the centre of a far-reaching propaganda. Settled along the Balkans as a kind of bulwark against the invading Bulgarians, the Armenians on the contrary soon fraternized with the newcomers, whom they converted to their own views; even a prince of the Bulgarians adopted their teaching. A town in present-day Northern Bulgaria is named Pavlikeni, after the local Paulician community.
[edit] References
- Nikoghayos Adontz: Samuel l'Armenien, Roi des Bulgares. Bruxelles, Palais des academies, 1938, Pp. 63.
- R. M. Bartikian: Quellen zum Studium der Geschichte der paulikianischen Bewegung, Eriwan 1961 (in armenischer Sprache)
- F. G. Conybeare: The Key of Truth, 1898.
- S. B. Dadoyan: The Fatimid Armenians: Cultural and Political Interaction in the Near East, Islamic History and Civilization, Studies and Texts 18. Leiden: Brill Publishers, 1997, Pp. 214.
- Nina G. Garsoian: The Paulician Heresy. A Study in the Origin and Development of Paulicianism in Armenia and the Eastern Provinces of the Byzantine Empire. Publications in Near and Middle East Studies. Columbia University, Series A 6. The Hague: Mouton, 1967, 296 pp.
- Nina G. Garsoian: Armenia between Byzantium and the Sasanians, London: Variorum Reprints, 1985, Pp. 340.
- Herzog: "Paulicians". In Philip Schaff (ed.): A Religious Encyclopaedia or Dictionary of Biblical, Historical, Doctrinal, and Practical Theology, 3rd edn, Vol. 2. Toronto, New York & London: Funk & Wagnalls Company, 1894. pp. 1776-1777.
- Vahan M. Kurkjian: A History of Armenia (Chapter 37, The Paulikians and the Tondrakians), New York, 1959, 526 pp.* A. Lombard: Pauliciens, Bulgares et Bons-hommes, Geneva 1879
- Vrej Nersessian: The Tondrakian Movement, Princeton Theological Monograph Series, Pickwick Publications, Allison Park, Pennsylvania, 1948, Pp. 145.
- Edouard Selian: Le dialect Paulicien, In: The Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Armenian Linguistics, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, 1995. Publisher: Caravan books, Delmar, New York, 1996, 408 pp.
