Paulicianism

Paulicians (Armenian: Պաւլիկեաններ, also remembered as Pavlikians or Paulikianoi) were a Christian Adoptionist sect and militarized revolt movement, also accused by medieval sources as being Gnostic and quasi Manichaean Christian. They flourished between 650 and 872 in Armenia and the Eastern Themes of the Byzantine Empire. According to medieval Byzantine sources, the group's name was derived after the third century Bishop of Antioch, Paul of Samosata.