This series traces the chain: Donatists → Paulicians → Bogomils → Cathars, with the Waldensians and Lollards as western parallel streams. The Paulician case sits at the origin of that genealogy — which makes its documentary situation all the more consequential. The entire succession narrative depends on what the Paulicians actually believed. And on that question, the sources disagree fundamentally with each other, and Nina Garsoïan disagrees with most of them.
The Garsoïan Problem — Central to This Library: Nina Garsoïan's The Paulician Heresy (1967) and her subsequent work, including "Byzantine Heresy: A Reinterpretation" (1971), argued that Paulicianism was not a Manichaean or dualist sect in any meaningful sense, but a largely conventional adoptionist reform movement that opponents systematically mischaracterized by assimilating it to older Manichaean heresiological templates. This argument — that hostile sources manufactured the doctrinal portrait of the Paulicians out of stock anti-Manichaean categories — is structurally identical to the concept of Inquisitorial Deflection, applied here to the earliest link in the dualist chain. If Garsoïan is right, the entire genealogy of Paulician → Bogomil → Cathar "dualist heresy" rests partly on a shared institutional fabrication replicated across centuries. The Bedrosian/Hamilton compilation in the Bogomil library references Garsoïan directly; her argument appears in the footnotes of virtually every serious entry below.
The Deepest Documentary Crisis in the Series: The Paulician documentary situation is more severe than the Bogomil case in one specific respect: even the one candidate for an internal Paulician text — The Key of Truth — is contested not merely in its date but in its identity as a Paulician document at all. Its 18th-century manuscript may represent a Protestant-influenced Armenian dissident tradition rather than medieval Paulicianism proper. If it is disqualified, the entire internal Paulician record consists of fragments of Sergius's letters embedded within a hostile Greek source. Everything else is Photius, Petrus Siculus, George the Monk, and their successors: four Byzantine polemicists who explicitly set out to prove the Paulicians were Manichaeans. The documentary silence is as close to absolute as in any movement in this series.
Dating and Identity Dispute: The Key of Truth was first identified by Armenian ecclesiastical authorities in 1837 while investigating a dissident group led by Hovhannes Vartabedian. Frederick Conybeare published the Armenian text with English translation in 1898. The surviving manuscript transmission traces to the 18th century; no medieval copy is known. Three positions exist in the scholarship: (1) Conybeare's own view — that it preserves a genuine Paulician/Tondrakian manual dating to c. 800–850, or even earlier; (2) that it is a later Tondrakian text related to but distinct from Byzantine Paulicianism; (3) that its 18th-century form reflects Protestant missionary influence on Armenian dissidents rather than medieval Paulician tradition. The Wikipedia article on Paulicianism presents all three; the text itself is on Internet Archive.
c. 800–850? / MS 18th c.
The only candidate for a document of internal Paulician/Tondrakian authorship. Armenian text with facing English translation by Frederick Cornwallis Conybeare (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1898). Includes the main manual text, an appendix of old Armenian author notices on the Paulicians, the letter of Macarius to the Armenians, and Conybeare's first English translation of the Provençal Cathar Ritual of Lyon — making this volume uniquely significant as a connector between the Armenian and western streams. The text accepts the Old Testament, baptism, penance, and the Eucharist, which led Conybeare to revise his initial expectation of finding a Manichaean book. Garsoïan's later work used this to argue Paulicianism was adoptionist rather than dualist. Full text; free download. Via Internet Archive
c. 800–850? / MS 18th c.
Alternate Internet Archive digitization of the same Conybeare edition, useful if the primary scan has degraded pages. Includes the full djvu text stream for search purposes. Via Internet Archive (text stream)
Ongoing
The Wikipedia Paulicianism article's treatment of the Key of Truth provides the clearest accessible summary of the three scholarly positions on its dating and identity. Includes the Protestant missionary hypothesis and the relationship to Tondrakism. Read before engaging Conybeare's text directly. Via Wikipedia
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Embedded Evidence: The only undisputed Paulician voices that reach us are fragments of letters attributed to Sergius-Tychicus, the reforming Paulician leader (active c. 801–835), preserved within Petrus Siculus's Historia Manichaeorum. Petrus quotes them to refute them. The same adversarial-source problem governs this material that governs Dymok's preservation of the Lollard Twelve Conclusions and the Carcassonne Inquisitors' preservation of the Interrogatio Johannis: the enemy is the archivist.
c. 801–835 / preserved c. 870
The letters of Sergius (Tychicus), the most significant Paulician missionary leader, are not independently preserved. What survives are quotations and paraphrases embedded within Petrus Siculus's refutation. Sergius reportedly boasted of spreading his Gospel "from East to West, from North to South." The Hamilton translation of Petrus Siculus (in the 65-page Internet Archive PDF linked here) presents these fragments with editorial apparatus identifying them within the hostile text. This is the closest approximation to a Paulician voice that does not carry the dating problems of the Key of Truth. Via Internet Archive (Bedrosian/Hamilton)
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The Catholic Encyclopedia's Summary: The New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia article on Paulicians (linked in Section V) identifies four chief documents for Paulician history: (1) Photius, Four Books Against the Paulicians; (2) Euthymius Zigabenus, Panoplia Dogmatica ch. XXIV; (3) Petrus Siculus, Historia Manichaeorum; (4) George the Monk, Chronikon. Of these, only Petrus Siculus is freely digitized in English. The others require access to Migne's Patrologia Graeca or academic library holdings. All four are interdependent — Photius appears to have substantially rewritten Petrus Siculus, and Zigabenus drew on both. The scholarly consensus (including Garsoïan) is that this interdependency severely limits their independent evidentiary value.
c. 870 / trans. Hamilton
The single most important hostile source for Paulician history, and the only one of the four chief documents freely digitized in English. Petrus Siculus, a Byzantine official or monk, spent nine months in the Paulician city of Tephrike during a prisoner-exchange mission (869–70) under Emperor Basil I. His account — whatever its disputed authorship (Garsoïan argued it is a 10th-century forgery; Paul Lemerle defended its 9th-century provenance) — is the fullest extant description of Paulician doctrine, organization, and history from a contemporary witness. Sole surviving manuscript: Vatican, Vat. gr. 511, an 11th-century copy, damaged at both ends. Hamilton English translation in 65-page bookmarked PDF. Also includes Peter the Higoumenos's summary of Petrus's work. Via Internet Archive (Bedrosian/Hamilton)
c. 870 / trans. Hamilton
The same Hamilton translation of Petrus Siculus also appears within the larger 240-page Bedrosian compilation covering both Paulician and Bogomil sources. This version provides broader documentary context by placing Petrus Siculus alongside the Patriarch Theophylact letter, the Bogomil council sources, and papal correspondence — enabling comparison of how the same heresiological apparatus was replicated from the Paulician to the Bogomil case. Cross-reference with the Bogomil library. Via Internet Archive (Bedrosian/Hamilton)
c. 867
Photius's Diegesis peri tes ton neophanton manichaion anablasteseos (Four Books Against the Paulicians) is the second major hostile source. Photius, Patriarch of Constantinople, conducted a personal inquisition of Paulicians and then wrote this refutation. Book I covers Paulician history; Books II–IV are homilies against the heresy. The New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia article (freely accessible) provides the scholarly apparatus identifying the text's location in Migne's Patrologia Graeca (PG CII, 15–264) and summarizes its content. Photius's account is widely regarded as substantially derivative of Petrus Siculus, making the two sources less independent than they appear. Not freely digitized in English; the Catholic Encyclopedia article is the accessible reference point. Via New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia (contextual)
c. 1100
Chapter XXIV of Zigabenus's Panoplia Dogmatica addresses the Paulicians; Chapter XXVII covers the Bogomils (catalogued in the Bogomil library). The section on the Paulicians draws heavily on Photius and Petrus Siculus, further compressing the already narrow evidentiary base. Gieseler's 1841 edition (Göttingen) is the critical text. The Catholic Encyclopedia article locates it in Migne's PG (CXXX, 1189ff.) and describes its relationship to the other sources. Via New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia (contextual)
c. 840–870
George the Monk's Chronikon contains the earliest substantial account of Paulician history, possibly dating to c. 840, and was incorporated into later accounts by Photius and Petrus Siculus. The anonymous source (designated "Esc." by scholars, from its 10th-century Escorial manuscript) is the likely common source for the Byzantine tradition on the Paulicians. Philip Schaff's History of the Christian Church, Vol. IV, Ch. 12 (freely accessible at CCEL) summarizes the evidence from George the Monk and its relationship to the other sources. The Chronikon is not independently digitized in English. Via CCEL (Schaff History, contextual)
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Distinct Tradition: Armenian sources on the Paulicians operate partly independently of the Greek Byzantine tradition, though they share the hostile framing. The most important are Gregory of Narek (c. 950), Gregory Magistros (c. 1045–1058), and the 7th-century Armenian Catholicos Isaac's doctrinal summary — all preserved in Armenian and accessible primarily through Conybeare's appendices or the Hamilton compilation. The Tondrakian movement that succeeded the Paulicians in Armenia is addressed partly in these sources and partly in the Key of Truth.
7th–15th c.
Conybeare's 1898 edition includes an appendix translating connected Armenian-language notices on the Paulicians from old Armenian authors. This is the most accessible English compilation of the Armenian-language hostile tradition — distinct from the Greek stream — and includes material not available in the Hamilton translation. Contains notices from the 7th-century Catholicos Isaac, Gregory of Narek, and Gregory Magistros's letter on the Tondrakians (c. 1050). The Internet Archive scan of the Key of Truth volume contains the appendix in full. Via Internet Archive (Conybeare appendix)
Various / trans. Hamilton
Appendix 2 of Hamilton's compilation (pp. 292–297 of the 240-page PDF) contains translations of Armenian-language sources on the Paulicians. Shorter than Conybeare's appendix but drawing on more recent critical scholarship. Read alongside the Conybeare appendix for a comparative view of the two translation traditions. Via Internet Archive (Bedrosian/Hamilton, Appendix 2)
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Nina G. Garsoïan · Mouton, The Hague, 1967 · Internet Archive (access-restricted borrow)
The foundational revisionist study of Paulicianism in English. Garsoïan argues that the Paulicians were not Manichaean dualists but an adoptionist Christian reform movement whose doctrinal portrait was systematically falsified by Byzantine polemicists using stock anti-Manichaean heresiological templates. Her subsequent article "Byzantine Heresy: A Reinterpretation" (Dumbarton Oaks Papers 25, 1971) sharpened this argument. The Internet Archive listing exists; full borrowing requires a free Archive account and availability. This is the essential critical counterweight to the Hamilton translations — Hamilton accepts the standard dualist interpretation; Garsoïan contests it.
New Advent · Free access
The New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia article on Paulicians identifies the four primary hostile sources (Photius, Zigabenus, Petrus Siculus, George the Monk), their locations in Migne's Patrologia Graeca, and the editions by Gieseler. Also provides the standard narrative of Paulician history from Constantine-Silvanus through the fall of Tephrike (871) and the Balkan transplantation. Written from a Catholic standpoint; pre-Garsoïan, so does not engage her revisionist argument. Still the most accessible single reference for source locations.
Philip Schaff · CCEL (Christian Classics Ethereal Library) · Free full text
Schaff's 19th-century church history chapter on the Paulicians synthesizes the four primary hostile sources with secondary scholarship through the 1880s. Provides footnotes to the original Greek texts, identifies key passages in Petrus Siculus and George the Monk, and situates Paulicianism within the broader arc of "Manichaean" heresies. Pre-Garsoïan in framing but useful as an index to specific passages in the hostile sources and as a representative of the standard dualist interpretation before revisionism.
Wikipedia · Free access
The Wikipedia article on Paulicianism is the most accessible single entry point that reflects post-Garsoïan scholarship, presents the contested dating of the Key of Truth, and addresses the relationship between Byzantine Paulicianism and Armenian Tondrakism. The footnotes index both the standard Hamilton/Lemerle position and Garsoïan's revisionist argument. The sections on sources, the Key of Truth, and the movement's western transmission are well-referenced and current.
Bernard Hamilton & Janet Hamilton · Manchester University Press, 1998 · Table of contents freely accessible
The standard English-language scholarly compilation. Its opening documents (1–14) cover the Paulicians specifically, including the Petrus Siculus translation, the Photius summary, Armenian materials, and the abjuration formula for Paulician converts. Cross-references to the Bogomil library (where this same volume covers docs. 15–50). The full Hamilton translations appear in the Bedrosian compilation (Internet Archive).
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The Silence Is the Evidence: The following texts are attested in hostile sources as having existed. Their absence is the primary documentary fact. As with the Bogomil register of losses, this section carries no links.
The Complete Letters of Sergius-Tychicus
Sergius (c. 801–835) was the most prolific Paulician writer and the movement's principal missionary theologian. Petrus Siculus quotes fragments of his letters; Sergius reportedly described his evangelical reach as spanning from East to West, North to South. The complete letters are not extant. What survives lives inside the hostile refutation.
The Letters of Constantine-Silvanus (founder, c. 660–684)
Constantine, the movement's founder, renamed himself Silvanus after one of Paul's disciples and founded the first congregation at Kibossa, Armenia c. 660. His letters and teachings are referenced but not preserved. He was stoned to death by imperial order in 684.
The Paulician Canon — Their Specific Version of the New Testament
Petrus Siculus states the Paulicians used a version of the New Testament they called The Gospel and The Apostle — the Gospels and the Pauline Epistles — while rejecting the Old Testament and, apparently, Acts, the Catholic Epistles, and Revelation. Whether this was a distinct recension or simply their usage of a standard text is unknown; no copy identified as Paulician survives.
The Books Burned by the Byzantine Persecution of 843–867
The Empress Theodora's persecution (c. 843) reportedly killed between 100,000 and 200,000 Paulicians (a figure almost certainly inflated). The accompanying book burnings destroyed whatever literature the communities held. No inventory of what was destroyed was preserved.
The Epistles of the Tephrike Period (c. 843–872)
During the period of the independent Paulician state centered on Tephrike (Divriği), under the leadership of Karbeas and then Chrysocheres, the movement reached its maximum extent. Any theological writings produced during this period of relative political security were destroyed when Basil I destroyed Tephrike in 871.
