many native Bulgarians
were associated to the communion of arms and heresy. As long as they
were awed by power and treated with moderation, their voluntary bands
were distinguished in the armies of the empire; and the courage of these
_dogs_, ever greedy of war, ever thirsty of human blood, is noticed with
astonishment, and almost with reproach, by the pusillanimous Greeks. The
same spirit rendered them arrogant and contumacious: they were easily
provoked by caprice or injury; and their privileges were often violated
by the faithless bigotry of the government and clergy. In the midst
of the Norman war, two thousand five hundred Manichaeans deserted the
standard of Alexius Comnenus, and retired to their native homes. He
dissembled till the moment of revenge; invited the chiefs to a friendly
conference; and punished the innocent and guilty by imprisonment,
confiscation, and baptism. In an interval of peace, the emperor
undertook the pious office of reconciling them to the church and state:
his winter quarters were fixed at Philippopolis; and the thirteenth
apostle, as he is styled by his pious daughter, consumed whole days and
nights in theological controversy. His arguments were fortified, their
obstinacy was melted, by the honors and rewards which he bestowed on
the most eminent proselytes; and a new city, surrounded with gardens,
enriched with immunities, and dignified with his own name, was founded
by Alexius for the residence of his vulgar converts. The important
station of Philippopolis was wrested from their hands; the contumacious
leaders were secured in a dungeon, or banished from their country; and
their lives were spared by the prudence, rather than the mercy, of an
emperor, at whose command a poor and solitary heretic was burnt alive
before the church of St. Sophia. But the proud hope of eradicating the
prejudices of a nation was speedily overturned by the invincible zeal
of the Paulicians, who ceased to dissemble or refused to obey. After
the departure and death of Alexius, they soon resumed their civil and
religious laws. In the beginning of the thirteenth century, their pope
or primate (a manifest corruption) resided on the confines of Bulgaria,
Croatia, and Dalmatia, and governed, by his vicars, the filial
congregations of Italy and France. From that aera, a minute scrutiny
might prolong and perpetuate the chain of tradition. At the end of the
last age, the sect or colony still inhabited the valleys of Mount