en the
so-called heretical sects of the East and those of the West. They were,
moreover, the most active agents in disseminating such teachings in
Russia and among all the nations of Europe. They may have found in some
places a soil already prepared by more ancient tenets which had been
preserved in spite of the persecution of the official Church, and handed
down from the period of primitive Christianity. In the 12th and 13th
centuries the Bogomils were already known in the West as "Bulgari." In
1207 the _Bulgarornm heresis_ is mentioned. In 1223 the Albigenses are
declared to be the local _Bougres_, and at the same period mention is
made of the "Pope of the Albigenses who resided within the confines of
Bulgaria." The Cathars and Patarenes, the Waldenses, the Anabaptists,
and in Russia the Strigolniki, Molokani and Dukhobortsi, have all at
different times been either identified with the Bogomils or closely
connected with them.

_Doctrine._--From the imperfect and conflicting data which are alone
available one positive result can be gathered, viz. that the Bogomils
were both Adoptionists and Manichaeans. They had accepted the teaching
of Paul of Samosata, though at a later period the name of Paul was
believed to be that of the Apostle; and they were not quite free from
the Dualistic principle of the Gnostics, at a later period too much
identified with the teaching of Mani. They rejected the pneumatic
Christianity of the orthodox churches and did not accept the docetic
teaching of some of the other sects. Taking as our starting-point the
teaching of the heretical sects in Russia, notably those of the 14th
century, which are a direct continuation of the doctrines held by the
Bogomils, we find that they denied the divine birth of Christ, the
personal coexistence of the Son with the Father and Holy Ghost, and the
validity of sacraments and ceremonies. The miracles performed by Jesus
were interpreted in a spiritual sense, not as real material occurrences;
the Church was the interior spiritual church in which all held equal
share. Baptism was only to be practised on grown men and women. The
Bogomils repudiated infant baptism, and considered the baptismal rite to
be of a spiritual character neither by water nor by oil but by
self-abnegation, prayers and chanting of hymns. Carp Strigolnik, who in
the 14th century preached this doctrine in Novgorod, explained that St
Paul had taught that simple-minded men should instruct one anot