OF THE KOMAN EMPIRE 111 awaken their subjects : under their influence, reason might ob- tain some proselytes, a far greater numl>er was swayed by interest or fear ; but the Eastern world embraced or deplored their visible deities, and the restoration of images was celebrated as the feast [a.d. 843] of orthodoxy. In this passive and unanimous state the ecclesi- astical rulers were relieved from the toil, or deprived of the pleasure, of persecution. The Pagans had disappeared ; the Jews were silent and obscure ; the disputes with the Latins were rare and remote hostilities against a national enemy ; and the sects of Egypt and Syria enjoyed a free toleration, under the shadow of the Arabian caliphs. About the middle of the seventh century, a branch of Manichaeans was selected as the victims of spiritual tyranny : their patience was at length ex- asperated to despair and rebellion ; and their exile has scattered over the West the seeds of reformation. These important events will justify some inquiry into the doctrine and story of the Paulicians : ^ and, as they cannot plead for themselves, our candid criticism will magnify the good, and abate or suspect the evil, that is reported by their adversaries. The Gnostics, who had distracted the infancy, were oppressed ongin of the by the greatness and authority, of the church. Instead of emu- dicipi'^s^of"^ lating- or surpassing the wealth, learning, and numbers of the I'd^gso', &c. Catholics, their obscure remnant was driven from the capitals of the East and West, and confined to the villages and mountains along the borders of the Euphrates. Some vestige of the Marci- onites may be detected in the fifth century ; - but the numerous sects were finally lost in the odious name of the Manicha.'ans ; and these heretics, who presumed to reconcile the doctrines of Zoroaster and Christ, were pursued by the two religions with equal and unrelenting hatred. Under the grandson of Heraclius, in the neighbourhood of Samosata, more famous for the birth of Lucian than for the title of a Syrian kingdom, a reformer arose, esteemed by the PauUcians as the chosen messenger of 1 The errors and virtues of the Paulicians are weighed, with his usual judgment and candour, by the learned Mosheim (Hist. Ecclesiast. seculum ix. p. 311, &c.). He draws his original intelligence from Photius (contra Manichseos, 1. i. ) and Peter Siculus (Hist. Manichasorum). The first of these accounts has not fallen into my hands ; the second, which Mosheim prefers, I have read in a Latin version inserted in the Maxima Bibliotheca Patrum (tom. xvi. p. 754-764) from the edition of the Jesuit Raderus (Ingolstadii, 1604, in 4to). [See Appendix 6.]
- In the time of Theodoret, the diocese of Cyrrhus, in Syria, contained eight
hundred villages. Of these, two were inhabited by Arians and Eunomians, and eight by Marcionites, whom the laborious bishop reconciled to the Catholic church (Dupin, Bibliot. Eccl&iastique, tom. iv. p. 81, 82). [The existence of Marcionites at the end of the 6th century is attested by Theophylactu? Simocatta.]
