RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
New Manicheans
an ethereal body such as he had on earth. The sacraments of the Church were rejected. Members were received into the sect by a " baptism of the Spirit " for which preparation was made by confession and prayer for seven days. An oath of silence was exacted, and after a further period of probation the candidate was received by the imposition of hands from all the Bogomiles present, the postulant facing the east and the Gospel of John being placed on his head. Sacred images, including the cross, were abhorred; marriage was despised and prayer and the eating of meat were prohibited; fasting was required thrice each week until midafternoon; and the saints and fathers of the Church were banned as false prophets. The Bogomilian heresy maintained itself in the Byzantine empire for centuries, though undergoing many modifications. The heresy spread to Asia Minor, for in 1143 at a synod at Constantinople two Cappadocian bishops were deposed for Bogomilianism. The emissaries of the sect were still active in the thirteenth century, nor were the Bogomiles finally extirpated until the fifteenth century (see below).
II. In the West: The genetic connection of the western New Manicheans with the early Manicheans is much clearer than in the case of the eastern dualistic sects. As early as the time of Augustine and Leo the Great numerous Manichean i. Their communities were to be found in Diffusion North Africa, Spain, France, and Italy, and whence they reached Holland and Names ; Germany by the beginning of the elev- Cathari, enth century. Manichean dualism had Bulgari, penetrated Northern Gaul in the course Albigenses. of the fourth century, and records show its wide dissemination in Italy in the sixth and seventh centuries. While the Spanish Priscillianists (see Priscillian) may have exercised some slight influence on the development of New Manicheism in the West, its connection with the eastern Euchites and Bogomiles is indubitable. Certain " Poor men of Christ," burned for heresy on the lower Rhine in the first half of the twelfth century, asserted that their doctrines were held in Greece and elsewhere, a statement confirmed by the similarity of their tenets to those of the Bogomiles. Besides being called Manicheans and Cathari these heretics were also known as Publicani or Popelicani, and (especially in Northern France and Flanders) Bulgari (French Bougres). A large number of Cathari were likewise termed Druguria (or Dugrutia or Dugunthia) from a Thracian district belonging to the Byzantine exarchate of Philippopolis. In Northern Italy they were called Patareni or Paterini (a name transferred from the anti-clerical followers of Ariald and Erlembald), Albanenses (from the city of Alba in Piedmont), Concorrezani (after Concorrezzo near Monza), and Bagnolesi (after Bagnolo near Brescia). Somewhat later the Southern French local designations came into use, such as Albigenses (after Albi in Languedoc), Tolosates, Agennenses, Provencals, and Tisserands or Texerants (" weavers ")• The sect was propagated in the West both by the emigration caused by the measures taken by the Commense against VIII.— 10
the Euchites and Bogomiles, and also by their wandering missionaries, who found their way from Bulgaria through Bosnia and Dalmatia to Northern Italy, whence some of them penetrated to Southern France or down the Rhine to the Netherlands. Everywhere they found the land prepared for them, for the remnants of ancient Manichean communities, hidden for centuries, began in the early eleventh century to resist the Church.
Before the rise of the Cathari there thus lay a period of preliminary development. About 1000 a certain Leutard attempted to found a sect near Chalons which was clearly influenced by Manicheism; and in 1022 there was dis-
2. Fore- covered at Origans a sect of the Canon runners and Stephen and the Scolastic Lisoy which
Founda- likewise taught such tenets as docetions. tism, rejection of baptism, the mass, the veneration of the saints, and the doctrine of good works. A similar sect appeared about the same time in the dioceses of Liege and Arras, founded by an Italian named Gundulf ; and in 1030 another body arose at Monteforte near Turin, which, beside the usual doctrines, required communism in property and constant prayer by day and night. They put to death fellow sectaries who were mortally ill, holding that a violent death was the surest path to blessedness. For the pope they substituted another head, though whether this was the Holy Ghost or some secret head of the sect is unknown. They also seem to have rejected the doctrine of the Trinity. Similar sects appeared in Northern Germany, as at Goslar, where Henry III. executed certain " Manicheans " about Christmas, 1052. By the second half of the twelfth century New Manicheism had become a power in Flanders, Western and Southern France, and Upper Italy, where its adherents not only boldly proclaimed their dualism but also sought formal organization. In 1152 the Cathari of Flanders were at least tolerated by Archbishop Henry of Reims. Five years later the Cathari held a great council at St. Felix de Caraman near Toulouse, where a " pope," Nicetas or Niquinta, lately come from Constantinople, consecrated several Cathari bishops by the consolamentum, or the " baptism of the spirit " by the laying on of hands. Bishops of the sect are henceforth recorded as residing in various cities of Southern France, and the Cathari in Middle and Southern Italy were also divided into " dioceses " until late in the thirteenth century. Bosnia is frequently regarded as the seat of the Cathari " pope," who seems to have been represented by a deputy, especially in Southern France. Each " bishop " was aided by an " elder son " and a " younger son"; and deacons and deaconesses of the Cathari are also mentioned.
A harsh dualism was maintained by the Albanenses of Northern Italy and the Albigenses of Southern France. Their distinctive 3. Albigen- doctrines may be summarized as folsian Doc- lows. From all eternity the god of light trines. has ruled over things invisible, and the prince of this world over things visible. Lucifer, the son of the prince (or god) of this world, seduced some of the angels, the creatures of
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