Käsitesivu

Dualistic Christian sect found in Armenia and the east of the Byzantine Empire in the seventh-eleventh centuries. The identity of the Paul after whom the Paulicians are named is disputed. Founded in the mid-seventh century by an Armenian named Constantine, the sect seems to have caused widespread political and military revolt. Other than a brief period when it found favor with the iconoclast emperors of the eighth and ninth centuries, the sect was persecuted and it consequently allied itself with Muslims. The sect was particularly influenced by the dualistic beliefs of Marcionism and of Manichaeism. The sect's fundamental doctrine of dualism stated that there is an evil God and a good God with the former being the creator and ruler of this world and the latter of the world to come. From this they deduced the heretical notion that Jesus was not truly the son of Mary. While Paulicians honored the gospel according to St. Luke and the letters of St. Paul, they rejected the Old Testament and the letters of St. Peter. The sacraments, worship, and hierarchy of the established church were also rejected. While the sect was persecuted, its doctrines still spread, particularly to Macedonian, Bulgarian, and Greek peasants. The Paulicians influenced another neo-Manichaean sect, the Bogomils, that arose in the early tenth century. Small Paulician communities were found in the early 19th century in Russian-occupied areas of Armenia.