The Races of the Danube. 247 



sion to the very important part played by the 

 Danubian Slavs in the origination of the Protes- 

 tant revolt against the ecclesiastical supremacy of 

 Rome. The circumstances under which the Bul- 

 garians were converted to Christianity were such 

 that during their brief political and literary emi- 

 nence in the tenth century they became the arch- 

 heretics of Europe. The Mahichaean heresy, sug- 

 gested by the ancient theology of Persia, in which 

 the Devil appears as an independently existing 

 Principle of Evil, had always been rife in Arme- 

 nia ; and it was partly by Armenian missionaries, 

 belonging to the Manichgsan sect of Paulicians, 

 that Bulgaria was converted from heathenism. 

 In the middle of the eighth century the Emperor 

 Constantino Copronymus transplanted a large col- 

 ony of Paulicians from Armenia into Thrace, 1 and 

 these immigrants were not long in spreading their 

 heresy beyond the Balkans. A century later the 

 persecuting zeal of the orthodox emperors drove 

 Armenia into rebellion, and for a short time an 

 independent Paulician state maintained itself on 

 the upper Euphrates. Early in the tenth century 

 this little state was overthrown, and such a dire- 



1 See the "Historical Sketch of Bosnia," by Mr. A. J. Evans, pre- 

 fixed to his excellent work Through Bosnia and the Herzegovina on 

 Foot. London. 1876. 8vo. 



