232 The Races of the Danube. [xi. 



Manichsean sect of Pa^ilicians, that Bulgaria was con- 

 verted from heathenism. In the middle of the eighth 

 century the Emperor Constantine Copronymus trans- 

 planted a large colony of Paulicians from Armenia 

 into Thrace/ and these immigrants were not long in 

 spreading their heresy beyond the Balkans. A cen- 

 tury later the persecuting zeal of the orthodox em- 

 perors 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 direful 

 persecution was inaugurated that the inhabitants in 

 great numbers sought the shelter which the Bulgarian 

 Czar Simeon was both able and willing to give. 

 " From this period onward," says Mr. Evans, " the 

 Paulician heresy may be said to change its nation- 

 ality, and to become Slavonic." It also acquired a 

 new name. In their Slavonic home these heretics 

 were called Bogomiles, from the Bulgarian Bog z milui^ 

 or " God have mercy," in allusion to their peculiar 

 devotion to prayer. The sect now became very power- 

 ful, as the czars, in their struggle for supremacy with 

 the Byzantine overlords, could not afford to incur the 



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

 fi:sed to his excellent work Through Bosnia and the Herzegovina on Foot, 

 London : 1876. 8vo. 



