her;
therefore they elected their "teachers" from among themselves to be
their spiritual guides, and had no special priests. Prayers were to be
said in private houses, not in separate buildings such as churches.
Ordination was conferred by the congregation and not by any specially
appointed minister. The congregation were the "elect," and each member
could obtain the perfection of Christ and become a Christ or "Chlist."
Marriage was not a sacrament. The Bogomils refused to fast on Mondays
and Fridays. They rejected monachism. They declared Christ to be the Son
of God only through grace like other prophets, and that the bread and
wine of the eucharist were not transformed into flesh and blood; that
the last judgment would be executed by God and not by Jesus; that the
images and the cross were idols and the worship of saints and relics
idolatry.

These Paulician doctrines have survived in the great Russian sects, and
can be traced back to the teachings and practice of the Bogomils. But in
addition to these doctrines of an adoptionist origin, they held the
Manichaean dualistic conception of the origin of the world. This has
been partly preserved in some of their literary remains, and has taken
deep root in the beliefs and traditions of the Bulgarians and other
nations with whom they had come into close contact. The chief literature
of all the heretical sects throughout the ages has been that of
apocryphal Biblical narratives, and the popes Jeremiah or Bogumil are
directly mentioned as authors of such forbidden books "which no orthodox
dare read." Though these writings are mostly the same in origin as are
known from the older lists of apocryphal books, they underwent in this
case a certain modification at the hands of their Bogomil editors, so as
to be used for the propagation of their own specific doctrines. In its
most simple and attractive form--one at the same time invested with the
authority of the reputed holy author--their account of the creation of
the world and of man; the origin of sin and redemption, the history of
the Cross, and the disputes between body and soul, right and wrong,
heaven and hell, were embodied either in "Historiated Bibles"
(Paleya[1]) or in special dialogues held between Christ and his
disciples, or between renowned Fathers of the Church who expounded these
views in a simple manner adapted to the understanding of the people
(Lucidaria). The Bogomils taught that God had two sons, the elder
Sat