Paulicians
.
Christian sect prominent in the 7th–11th cents. in Armenia and the east of the Byzantine Empire. According to Gk. sources they were
Manicheans
, and by modern scholars they have often been considered a link in the chain between the early
gnostics
and the Manichees of the Middle Ages. Apart from a period of favour under the
Iconoclast
emperors of the 8th–9th cents., the Paulicians were persecuted in the Empire, and allied themselves with the Muslim power.
Paul of Samosata
(3rd cent.).
Christian heretic. He became bishop of Antioch
c.
260 but was deposed by a synod there in 268 on account of his
Christological
teaching, little of which has survived. The best-attested accusation against Paul is that he taught that Christ was a mere man.
Pau
(Pañj
b
, ‘ladder’). Sikh verse. The
pad
s
(sections) of longer poems in the
di
Granth are called pau
s.