DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.63447#0101
THE EASTERN EMPIRE.
85
tion, they applied the faculty of reason to the study
of Scripture, admitting allegory as an aid to exposition.
They admitted the Spiritual Advent of our Lord, but
denied his Incarnation. The Crucifixion was to them
an “ unreal representation ” to deceive the Jews. The
mother of Christ they believed to be a simple woman ;
man in general, angels fallen from their pristine glory;
but who would, in due time, resume their dignity.
These Paulicians, under Constantine, formed a society
known as Fellow Pilgrims; they incorporated in theirs
many of the Gnostic and Manichaean doctrines, and
attached to themselves, in Cappadocia and Pontus, the
remnants of these sects, to whom were added Catholics
on one hand, and the followers of Zoroaster on the
other.
Constantine fell a martyr to Greek persecution ; and
was stoned to death by a weak disciple at the price of his
own pardon. But, as persecution continued, the numbers
of this sect increased; and in one short reign, one
hundred thousand men are said to have been sacrificed to
the fierce intolerance of the times.
The subject of religious controversy formed, indeed,
the sole tie of deep and fervent interest that bound the
population of Constantinople in one common passion.
“ Ask a man to give you small change,” says St. Gregory
of Nazianzus, “ he will, instead of complying, tell you
the difference between the Godhead of the Father and
the Son. Demand the price of bread from another man,
you will be told ‘ the Son is inferior to the Father.’
Inquire if your bath be prepared, and you will be. in-
formed that ‘ the Son was created before all worlds, and
antecedent to space and time.’”
Murders and assassinations often closed or followed
religious disputes; and that respecting the chanting
of the “ Trisagion ”—one party holding to the simple
chant, the other to a more varied form of composition-
would bring the contending choristers in battle array
in the same cathedral, where they would exchange blows
in presence of dismayed congregations of worshippers !
85
tion, they applied the faculty of reason to the study
of Scripture, admitting allegory as an aid to exposition.
They admitted the Spiritual Advent of our Lord, but
denied his Incarnation. The Crucifixion was to them
an “ unreal representation ” to deceive the Jews. The
mother of Christ they believed to be a simple woman ;
man in general, angels fallen from their pristine glory;
but who would, in due time, resume their dignity.
These Paulicians, under Constantine, formed a society
known as Fellow Pilgrims; they incorporated in theirs
many of the Gnostic and Manichaean doctrines, and
attached to themselves, in Cappadocia and Pontus, the
remnants of these sects, to whom were added Catholics
on one hand, and the followers of Zoroaster on the
other.
Constantine fell a martyr to Greek persecution ; and
was stoned to death by a weak disciple at the price of his
own pardon. But, as persecution continued, the numbers
of this sect increased; and in one short reign, one
hundred thousand men are said to have been sacrificed to
the fierce intolerance of the times.
The subject of religious controversy formed, indeed,
the sole tie of deep and fervent interest that bound the
population of Constantinople in one common passion.
“ Ask a man to give you small change,” says St. Gregory
of Nazianzus, “ he will, instead of complying, tell you
the difference between the Godhead of the Father and
the Son. Demand the price of bread from another man,
you will be told ‘ the Son is inferior to the Father.’
Inquire if your bath be prepared, and you will be. in-
formed that ‘ the Son was created before all worlds, and
antecedent to space and time.’”
Murders and assassinations often closed or followed
religious disputes; and that respecting the chanting
of the “ Trisagion ”—one party holding to the simple
chant, the other to a more varied form of composition-
would bring the contending choristers in battle array
in the same cathedral, where they would exchange blows
in presence of dismayed congregations of worshippers !