resorted to the banks of Abana and Pharpar, whose limpid waters seemed particularly appropriate for the administration of the baptismal rite. The bishops of Syria, Pontus, and Cappadocia, complained of the defection of their spiritual flocks. Their murmurs, a principle of policy, above all an implacable hatred against everything bearing the semblance of freedom, induced the Grecian emperors to commence, and continue for nearly two centuries, the most terrible persecutions against the Paulicians. During these frightful convulsions, Armenia was ravaged from border to border with fire and sword; its monarchy—then held by a younger branch of the family of the Parthian kings—extinguished; its cities demolished, and its inhabitants either massacred by the hands of their enemies, driven into exile, or sold into servitude. Great numbers fled for safety and protection to the Saracens, by whom they were hospitably entertained, and who permitted them to build a city for their residence, which was called Tibrica. This afforded them an opportunity for returning, with interest, the miseries that they had suffered at the hands of the Greeks; for, entering into a league with the Saracens, and choosing for their leader a chief named Carbeas, they prosecuted against the Greeks a war which continued during the century, and in which the slaughter on both sides was prodigious.[2] During these convulsions several companies of the Paulicians passed into Bulgaria, Thrace, and the neighbouring provinces, where their opinions became the source of new dissensions. After the Council of Basil had commenced its deliberations, these sectaries removed into Italy, where they became amalgamated with the Albigenses and Waldenses.