578 FOURTH PERIOD. A. D. 590-1049.
as "apostles" and "prophets." There is no trace of the Manichaean distinction between two classes of the electi and credentes. (7) Their morals were ascetic. They aimed to emancipate the spirit from the power of the material body, without, however, condemning marriage and the eating of flesh; but the Baanites ran into the opposite extreme of an antinomian abuse of the flesh, and reveled in licentiousness, even incest. In both ex tremes they resembled the Gnostic sects. According to Photius, the Paulicians were also utterly deficient in veracity, and de nied their faith without scruple on the principle that falsehood is justifiable for a good end.
§ 132. The Euchites and other Sects in the East.
I. MICHAEL PSELLUS (a learned Constantinopolitan, llth cent.):
yog irept kvepydas tiai/u.6vuv, ed. Gaulmin. Par. 1615 ; also by J. F. Boissonade. Norimbergse, 1838. CEDRENUS (in the llth cent.) : Histor. Compend. (ed. Bonn. I. 514). — On the older Euchites and Messalians see Epiphanius (Ifcer. 80), Theodoret (Hist. Eccl. IV. 10), John of Damascus (De ffcer., c. 80), Photius (Bibl. cod. 52), and WALCH: Ketzer- Historic, III. 481 sqq. and 536 sqq.
II. SCHNITZER: Die Euchiten im el/ten Jahrh., in Stirm's "Studien der
evang. Geistlichkeit Wiirtemberg's;' vol. XL, H. 1. 169. GIESELER, II. 232 sq. NEANDER, III. 590 sqq., comp. II. 277 sqq.
The EUCHITES were mystic monks with dualistic principles derived from Parsism. They held that a demon dwells in every man from his birth, and can be expelled only by un ceasing silent prayer, which they exalted above every spiritual exercise. Hence their name.1 They were also called ENTHU SIASTS by the people on account of their boasted ecstasies, in which they fancied that they received special revelations. Psellus calls them "devil-worshippers." They despised all outward forms of worship. Rumor charged them with lewdness and infanticide in their secret assemblies; but the same stories were told of the early Christians, and deserve no credit.
1 Ei>xr/Tai or Ev^mzf, from MX*?, prayer. The Syriac name Messalians (t^J?), praying people, from *&?, oravit (Dan. 6: 11; Ezra 6: 10).
§ 132. THE EUCHITES AND OTHER SECTS IN THE EAST. 579
They appear in the eleventh century in Mesopotamia and Armenia, in some connection with the Paulicians. They were probably the successors of the older Syrian Euchites or Mcssalians of the fourth and fifth centuries, who in their conceit had reached the height of ascetic perfection, despised manual labor and all common occupations, and lived on alms — the first specimens of mendicant friars.
From the Euchites sprang towards the close of the eleventh century the Bogomiles (the Slavonic name for Euchites),1 and Catharists (i. e. the Purists, Puritans), and spread from Bul garia into the West. They will occupy our attention in the next period.
Another Eastern sect, called THONDRACIANS (from the vil lage Thondrac), was organized by Sembat, a Paulician, in the province of Ararat, between 833 and 854. They sprang from the Paulicians, and in spite of persecution made numerous con verts in Armenia, among them a bishop, Jacob, in 1002, who preached against the corruptions in the Armenian church, but was branded, exposed to public scorn, imprisoned, and at last killed by his enemies.2
Little is known of the sect of the ATHINGIANS who appeared in Upper Plirygia.3 They seem to have been strongly Judaistic. They observed all the rites of the law except circum cision, for which they substituted baptism. Neander conjectures, that they were the successors of the Colossian errorists opposed by St. Paul.
1 From IIozpocH pomilui, the Slavonic Kyrie eleison, Lord, have mercy upon t«. It is the response in the Russian litany, and is usually chanted by a choir with touching effect. Schaffarik derives the name from a Bulgarian bishop named Bogomil, who represented that heresy in the middle of the tenth century.
3 See Tschamtschean's "History of Armenia" used by Neander (from Petermann's communications1), III. 587-589.
3 'A.$i-yyai>o(, from dr/yar(.>, to touch, to handle; probably with reference to Col. 2: 21, pij tf'Yflf, touch not (things that defile). The translator of Neander calls them Athinganians (III. 592).