Paulicianism (Classical Armenian: Պաւղիկեաններ, Pawłikeanner; Medieval Greek: Παυλικιανοί, "The followers of Paul"; Arab sources: Baylakānī, al Bayāliqa البيالقة) was a Christian group that began in Armenia during the 7th century. People who followed this group were called Paulicians and referred to themselves as Good Christians. Not much is known about the beliefs of the Paulicians, and some scholars think their ideas were influenced by other religious traditions such as Gnosticism, Marcionism, Manichaeism, and Adoptionism. Other scholars believe the Paulicians were more like a traditional Christian group that wanted to make changes to their faith.
The founder of the Paulicians is traditionally believed to have been an Armenian named Constantine, who came from a Syrian community near Samosata in what is now Turkey. The group grew in strength between 650 and 872 in the area near the border of the Byzantine Empire and the Arab Caliphate in Armenia and Eastern Anatolia. Despite occasional persecution and forced relocations by the rulers in Constantinople, the Paulicians continued to practice their faith. In the mid-9th century, after a period of more tolerance, renewed persecution by the Byzantines led the Paulicians to create a new state centered in Tephrike in the Armenian borderlands, where they received protection from Arab rulers.
After many years of fighting, the Byzantines destroyed the state of Tephrike in the 870s. Over the next century, some Paulicians moved further into Armenia, while others were moved by the imperial authorities to the Balkan region of Thrace. In Armenia, the Paulicians eventually merged with another religious group called Tondrakism. In Thrace, the Paulicians continued to practice their faith for many years, in some places until the 17th and 18th centuries. Over time, they gradually converted to other religions and are considered the ancestors of the modern Roman Catholic Banat Bulgarians and the Muslim Pomaks. The Paulicians may also have influenced later religious groups in medieval Europe, such as Bogomilism and Catharism.
Etymology
The Paulicians called themselves "Good Christians" or "True Believers" and referred to orthodox Christians as "Romanists." The name "Paulician" was used by people outside the group to describe them and means "the followers of Paul." It is unclear which Paul the movement was named after. Most sources suggest it was Paul the Apostle, a religious leader who the Paulicians are said to have honored highly from the earliest records until the group disappeared around the early modern period. Some medieval texts from the Byzantine Empire and Muslim writers linked the Paulicians to Paul of Samosata, a 3rd-century bishop of Antioch. However, this may be a mix-up with another group called the Paulianists. The earliest Byzantine source that describes the Paulicians clearly separates the "Paul of Samosata" associated with the movement from the more well-known heretic. Another possible figure is Paul the Armenian, a lesser-known Paulician leader who is said to have led the group to Episparis after they were persecuted by Justinian II at the end of the 7th century.
History
The sources show that most Paulician leaders were Armenians. The founder of the sect was an Armenian named Constantine, who came from Mananalis, a community near Samosata. He studied the Gospels and Epistles, mixed dualistic and Christian ideas, and strongly opposed the church's formal rules. He believed he was called to restore the pure Christianity of Paul the Apostle. He took the name Silvanus, one of Paul's disciples, and in about 660, he started his first group in Kibossa, Armenia. Twenty-seven years later, he was arrested by the imperial government, tried for heresy, and stoned to death. Simeon, the official who carried out the execution, was converted and took the name Titus. He became Constantine's successor and was burned to death in 690, the punishment given to Manichaeans.
The followers of the sect fled, led by their new leader Paul, to Episparis. Paul died in 715, leaving two sons: Gegnaesius, whom he named his successor, and Theodore. Theodore claimed he had received the Holy Ghost and opposed Gegnaesius's leadership but failed. Gegnaesius went to Constantinople, appeared before Emperor Leo III, was found innocent of heresy, and returned to Episparis. He later moved to Mananalis in Eastern Anatolia out of fear. He died in 745, causing a split in the sect.
In 747, Emperor Constantine V moved many Paulicians from Eastern Anatolia to Thrace to strengthen the Bulgarian border, starting the sect's presence in Europe. Despite being forced to move and facing persecution, the sect grew and gained members from iconoclasts.
In the late eighth century, the Paulicians split into two groups: the Baanites (the older group) and the Sergites (the newer group). Sergius, the leader of the Sergites, was a strong and successful preacher. He claimed he spread his message "from East to West; from North to South." By 801, Sergius replaced Baanes, the Baanite leader, and led the sect for thirty-four years. His work led to renewed persecution by Leo the Armenian. After Sergius died, the sect was controlled by several leaders.
In 843, Empress Theodora, acting as regent for her son Michael III, started a major persecution against the Paulicians in Asia Minor. It is said that 100,000 followers in Byzantine Armenia lost their lives or property.
Because of the persecution, many Paulicians, led by their new leader Karbeas, fled to areas of Armenia under Arab control. Under the protection of Umar al-Aqta, the Emir of Melitene, the Arabs allowed the Paulicians to build two fortress cities, Amara and Tephrike, and create an independent state. Karbeas died in 863 during Michael III's campaign against the Arabs and may have been with Umar at Malakopea before the Battle of Lalakaon.
Karbeas's successor, Chrysocheres ("the goldenhand"), attacked many cities in wars with the Byzantines. In 867, he reached Ephesus, taking many priests as prisoners. In 868, Emperor Basil I sent Petrus Siculus to arrange their exchange. Petrus spent nine months with the Paulicians, collecting information about them, which he wrote in his book History of the empty and vain heresy of the Manichaeans, otherwise called Paulicians. The peace offer was rejected, the war continued, and Chrysocheres was killed in the Battle of Bathys Ryax in 872 or 878.
By 878, Emperor Basil I had captured the Paulician strongholds in Asia Minor, including Tephrike. Many survivors were displaced. Some moved further into Armenia, where they joined the Tondrakian sect by the 10th century. Others were sent to the Western frontier of the empire, including a group of about 20,000 Paulicians who served in Byzantine Italy under General Nikephoros Phokas the Elder.
In 970, 200,000 Paulicians on Byzantine land were moved by Emperor John Tzimisces to Philippopolis in Thrace. As a reward for promising to stop "the Scythians" (actually Bulgars), the emperor allowed them to practice their faith without trouble. This began a revival of the sect in the West.
Moving Paulicians to the West harmed the Byzantines, as the group provided little economic or military help to the empire's Balkan border. The sect also failed to mix with Orthodox Roman and Bulgarian people and converted many Thracians to their beliefs. Anna Komnene wrote that by the end of the 11th century, Philippopolis and its area were fully inhabited by Paulicians and joined by new Armenian groups.
According to the Annales Barenses, several thousand Paulicians served in Emperor Alexios I Komnenos's army against Norman Robert Guiscard in 1081 but later deserted and were imprisoned. The Alexiad, written by Alexios's daughter Anna, says Alexios converted many Paulicians around Philippopolis to Christianity and built a new city, Alexiopolis, for the converts.
During the First Crusade, some Paulicians, called "Publicani," were in Muslim armies, while others helped the Crusaders. When Frederick Barbarossa passed near Philippopolis during the Third Crusade, the Paulicians welcomed him as a liberator, unlike the Greek people. In 1205, the Paulicians worked with Kaloyan to hand over Philippopolis to the Second Bulgarian Empire.
According to historian Yordan Ivanov, some Thracian Paulicians converted to Eastern Orthodox Christianity during the Second Bulgarian Empire. After the Bulgarian Empire fell and Thrace was taken by the Ottomans, these people converted with some Bulgarians to Islam, forming a mixed group of Bulgarian-speaking Muslims known as Pomak.
The remaining Thracian Paulicians who kept their original faith eventually converted to Roman Catholicism in the 16th or 17th century. By the late 17th century, these Roman Catholic descendants of Paulicians lived near Nikopol, Bulgaria, and faced religious persecution by the Ottomans. After the Chiprovtsi uprising in
Beliefs
The Paulicians called themselves Christians, but many details about their beliefs are unclear. Christian critics called them Jews, Muslims, or Manichaeans, but these names were likely insults meant to harm them, not accurate descriptions of their faith. Some debated how they saw God, how they viewed Jesus, and how they performed religious rituals.
Few sources describe Paulician beliefs. Most information comes from their opponents or a book called The History of the Paulician Heresy by Petrus Siculus, which includes letters attributed to Sergius-Tychicus and a rewritten version of a Paulician account of their history. Another source is The Key of Truth, a text claimed to be used by the medieval Paulician or Tondrakian church in Armenia. This text was discovered in 1837 by Armenian religious leaders and translated by Frederick Conybeare in 1898. However, historians question its origins, as some believe it may have been influenced by Protestant missionaries in Armenia during the late 18th century.
Some scholars think the Paulicians believed in dualism, a system with two opposing forces: an evil god who rules the visible world and a good god who governs the future world. This idea was also found in the Manichaean faith and early Christian groups like the Marcionists. Because of this, critics and scholars often labeled the Paulicians as Manichaeans or Marcionists.
In the 18th century, Johann Lorenz von Mosheim disagreed with calling the Paulicians Manichaeans. He said both groups believed in dualism but noted differences, including the Paulicians’ rejection of Mani’s teachings. Other scholars, like Johann Karl Ludwig Gieseler and August Neander, believed the Paulicians were linked to Marcionism, a dualistic Christian sect that later became closer to early Christianity but still had Gnostic ideas. By the 19th century, many scholars thought the Paulicians followed a non-Manichaean, dualistic Gnostic belief system similar to Marcionism, though others disagreed. Frederick Conybeare argued that the Paulicians did not believe in dualism beyond what the Bible itself suggests, stating that Satan was simply an enemy of humans and God.
Reports from Catholic missionaries in the Balkans between the 16th and 18th centuries did not mention dualist beliefs among the Paulicians.
The Paulicians may have held unorthodox views about Jesus, such as nontrinitarianism (the belief that Jesus was not equal to God the Father or the Holy Spirit) and docetism (the belief that Jesus only seemed human). These ideas were also found in Arian Christians and early groups like the Adoptionists. Critics sometimes called the Paulicians Arians, while scholars labeled them Adoptionists.
Frederick Conybeare, in his translation of The Key of Truth, noted that the text never uses the word “Trinity” and likely rejected it as unscriptural. He believed the Paulicians thought Jesus came from heaven to free humans from their physical bodies and the world. Conybeare also suggested the Paulicians were followers of early Adoptionist Christianity in Armenia, not dualistic or Gnostic groups. His ideas were not widely accepted at the time, but in the 1960s, Nina Garsoïan supported a link to Adoptionism, saying the Paulicians developed their own versions of docetism and dualism.
In 2022, Sean Finnegan, an adjunct professor at Atlanta Bible College, argued that the Armenian group behind The Key of Truth did not follow Adoptionist beliefs about Jesus. Evidence includes their acceptance of the virgin birth in chapter 23 of the text and the use of the phrase “only-born” in several chapters.
The Paulicians used a different collection of sacred texts than the orthodox Christian Bible. Byzantine scholars claimed they accepted the four Gospels (especially Luke), fourteen of Paul’s letters, the three Epistles of John, and letters from James and Jude. They also claimed to have an Epistle to the Laodiceans. However, they rejected the First Epistle of Peter and the entire Tanakh (Hebrew Bible or Old Testament).
Like the Nestorians, the Paulicians rejected the title “Theotokos” (Mother of God) for Mary and refused to honor her. Their places of worship were called “places of prayer” and were small rooms in homes. They did not avoid certain foods, practiced marriage, and had no special religious hierarchy. They were accused of iconoclasm, meaning they rejected religious images, the cross, and church rituals. Edward Gibbon called them “worthy precursors of Reformation.” Some historians see them as early followers of Protestant ideas.
In The Key of Truth, copied in the 18th century, the Old Testament, Baptism, Penance, and the Eucharist are accepted. Early modern Catholic reports said the Paulicians in the Balkans rejected religious images and the cross, used fire instead of water for baptism, and had a simple view of priesthood. This practice of baptism by fire is confirmed by the English diplomat Paul Rycaut.
Historiography
In the 1940s, Soviet scholars believed the sect was mainly a result of a workers' uprising that showed through a religious movement. Garsoïan agreed that Greek and Armenian sources back this idea, but thought it was only part of the story of the sect.