degenerate Paulicians were taught, that he who taketh the

The army of Chrysocheir time, in the strong hold of

sword shall perish by the sword. was routed; and though, for a Tibrica, his followers defied the efforts of the emperor's troops, it ultimately fell before his victorious arms; and the haughty leader of the Paulicians was surprised and slain, and Basil had the desire of his heart, in being permitted to shoot three arrows into the lifeless head of his enemy. His followers, who escaped with life, sued for mercy or fled to the borders of the empire. This defeat was a death blow to the growing power of the Paulicians; but their independence and their faith, they still maintained.

As early as the middle of the eighth century, some of these "heretics" had found their way from the banks of the Euphrates and the mountains of Armenia to the capital of the empire. It may have been in the ranks of the Isaurian bands, which Constantine V. raised in his " paternal mountains," to deliver his capital from the usurpations of the image worshippers.*

From Constantinople they spread themselves into Thrace. From thence, they found their way to the Bulgarians, a people living along the Danube, who had then recently been converted to Christianity. This was a favorable soil

* Constantine was the sworn enemy of images; and proceeded as roughly in the overthrow of them, as Theodora afterwards did in the re-establishment of them. In his absence from Constantinople the lovers of images raised a rebellion, seized the capital, and overturned the government. Constantine immediately retired to Isauria, the home of his ancestors, and having raised an army of hardy and faithful soldiers, marched to Constantinople, and regained his throne. In this army the Paulicians would have been very likely to enlist, as they were the most inveterate haters of images.

for the primitive doctrines of the Paulicians; and here, as in Thrace, they took deep root; and for eight or nine centuries, if not longer, continued to live and thrive.* From Bulgaria the Paulicians migrated into Italy and Slavonia; and thence spread into other parts of Europe.t

In the tenth century the European Paulicians were considerably strengthened by emigrations from their native regions, and by proselytes in Europe. They possessed the city of Philippopolis, at the head of navigation on the Merise, or Hebrus, and held "the keys of Thrace." A line of their villages and castles extended thence along through Macedonia and Epirus towards the Adriatic. They were a brave and warlike people, and "their voluntary bands were distinguished in the armies of the empire." These facts illustrate their numbers and importance. Notwithstanding this they were liable to occasional abuse, if not to persecution, from the government and the church.

During the eleventh century they experienced much suffering from the reigning powers. Still they retained their principles and importance. One of the emperors of this century, Alexius Comnenus, adopted a new method of subduing the obstinacy of these heretics. He went in person to their principal city, and spent whole days in disputing with these schismatics. "Not a few," we are told, "gave up to this august disputant and his associates." We shall cease to wonder at this, when we learn, that the arguments of the emperor and his suit were supported by the promise of "rich presents, honors, privileges, lands and houses" to those who should be convinced, and retract their errors,

* Mosheim says, that "there certainly were some there in the seventeenth century." But, they are probably degenerate plants from a good stock.

+ Mosheim, Cent. X. P. II. Chap. 5.

and return to the bosom of the church; while to the obstinate, perpetual imprisonment was promised.*

"As early as the middle of the eleventh century the Paulicians were numerous in Lombardy and Isubria, and especially in Milan ;" and strolling bands of them were to be found in France, Germany, and other countries, “who by their appearance of sanctity captivated no small number of the common people." Their missionaries and teachers seem to have found their way into almost every part of Europe, and made converts wherever they went. In Italy they were called Paterini and Catheri or Gazari (xaagoi) i. e. the pure or puritans. In France they were called Albigenses. Among the names that were given them was that of Separates, a name which we shall hear frequently in the progress of this history.

The light of the Inquisitorial fires enable us to trace this interesting sect of dissenters, from the eleventh century down to the dawn of the Lutheran Reformation. And though as a body they had, doubtless, greatly degenerated in principles and morals, yet the rack and the stake bear record that even during the darkest ages, many of the disciples of Constantine were not unworthy of the name of Paulicians.

Scattered in every clime, mingling with people of every name-Greeks, and Romans, and Saracens, and barbarians, and the objects of hatred and persecution for a thousand years-it would be strange indeed had they retained perfectly the principles and doctrines of their venerable founder. Still they stand out on the page of history among the most interesting bodies of dissenters from the usurpations, and corruptions, and tyranny of the Greek and Rom

* See Mosheim, Cent. XI. B. III. P. II. Chap. 5.

+ Mosheim.

ish churches. And, as their founder, by the light of sacred truth, discovered and proclaimed several of the leading tenets of Congregationalism, the Paulicians deserve a prominent place among the ecclesiastical ancestors of this denomination, to whose history these pages are devoted.

CHAPTER V.

HISTORY OF THE waldenses and Albigenses, A. D. 1100.

No ancient sects-if sects they may be called-have excited more interest, and received more attention than the Waldenses and Albigenses; and yet, several important points in their history are very far from being satisfactorily settled. The very heading of this chapter, suggests some of them.-Are the Waldenses and Albigenses the same sect, under different names? or are they independent branches of the primitive church? Did they rise in the twelfth century, or were they of a much earlier origin ?

Mr. Gilly, in his learned introduction to the Memoirs of Felix Neff, maintains-" that the Italian Waldenses, the Albigenses, the Subalpins of Dauphiné and Provence, and the Pyrenean Waldenses, were all independent of each other, and remains or branches of the primitive churches in those parts."

The Catholic bishop Bossuet, in his "Variations des Englises Protestantes," maintains-and Mr. Waddington thinks successfully+-that the Albigenses "held many opinions

*

* Introduction, particularly, p. 38.

↑ Hist. of the Church, Harper's Ed. pp. 552, 553.

which are condemned by all protestants." "Respecting the Vaudois" [or Waldenses], the same author says," he shows the great uncertainty, perhaps the entire vanity, of their claims to a separate descent from the ante-Nicene Church"* -or the primitive church.

Milner seems to have regarded the Albigenses as "a branch of the Waldenses ;" and "the proper founder of them, Claudius of Turin, the Christian hero of the ninth century."

Mosheim-upon most topics in ecclesiastical history, a standard authority-attributes the origin of the Waldenses to the labors of Peter Waldo, or Waldus, or Valdo, in the twelfth century; and declares, that "those who assign a different origin to the Waldensians * * have no authorities for their opinions, and are refuted by all the historians." He admits, however, that "long before these times [i. e. twelfth century] there had been resident in the vallies of Piedmont, persons who rejected the prevailing opinions of the Romish church, and who agreed in many things with the Waldensians."||

The Albigenses he treats as a branch of the great Paulician family; and supposes the name given to them in France was derived from the circumstance that they were first condemned by a council which sat at Albi, or Albigea, a town of Aquitain, or Aquitania, the name anciently given to the south western part of France.

Gibbon takes substantially the same view of the Albigois; -he speaks of them as identical with the Paulicians.**

*Hist. of the Church, pp. 552, 553. † Cent. XIII. Chap. 3. + Cent. XIII. Chap. 1. § Book III. Cent. XII. P. II. Chap. 5. Cent. XI. P. II. Chap. 5.

The name Albigenses seems to have been a common title given to hereties of all descriptions in France, at one period. ** Decline and Fall, Vol. IV. Chap. 54.