were more rapid and
scandalous: she had rigorously defined and imposed the doctrine of
transubstantiation: the lives of the Latin clergy were more corrupt, and
the Eastern bishops might pass for the successors of the apostles, if
they were compared with the lordly prelates, who wielded by turns
the crosier, the sceptre, and the sword. Three different roads might
introduce the Paulicians into the heart of Europe. After the conversion
of Hungary, the pilgrims who visited Jerusalem might safely follow the
course of the Danube: in their journey and return they passed through
Philippopolis; and the sectaries, disguising their name and heresy,
might accompany the French or German caravans to their respective
countries. The trade and dominion of Venice pervaded the coast of the
Adriatic, and the hospitable republic opened her bosom to foreigners of
every climate and religion. Under the Byzantine standard, the Paulicians
were often transported to the Greek provinces of Italy and Sicily: in
peace and war, they freely conversed with strangers and natives, and
their opinions were silently propagated in Rome, Milan, and the kingdoms
beyond the Alps. [28] It was soon discovered, that many thousand
Catholics of every rank, and of either sex, had embraced the Manichaean
heresy; and the flames which consumed twelve canons of Orleans was the
first act and signal of persecution. The Bulgarians, [29] a name so
innocent in its origin, so odious in its application, spread their
branches over the face of Europe. United in common hatred of idolatry
and Rome, they were connected by a form of episcopal and presbyterian
government; their various sects were discriminated by some fainter
or darker shades of theology; but they generally agreed in the two
principles, the contempt of the Old Testament and the denial of the
body of Christ, either on the cross or in the eucharist. A confession of
simple worship and blameless manners is extorted from their enemies;
and so high was their standard of perfection, that the increasing
congregations were divided into two classes of disciples, of those
who practised, and of those who aspired. It was in the country of the
Albigeois, [30] in the southern provinces of France, that the Paulicians
were most deeply implanted; and the same vicissitudes of martyrdom and
revenge which had been displayed in the neighborhood of the Euphrates,
were repeated in the thirteenth century on the banks of the Rhone. The
laws of t