Christianti Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Christianti - Essay Example However, there are a number of other Christian churches, from a very long time ago, with different interpretations of Christianity that placed them out of favor with the traditional church, and are often forgotten in religious discussions. The Paulicians, the Bogomils, the Cathar (also, called the Albigensians) are all, likely, less familiar, examples of Christianity, but are deserving of attention. The first of these rather obscure branches of Christianity are the Paulicians. This sect is what is called a dualistic sect, which originated in Armenia in, approximately, the 7th century. The Paulician belief system was, primarily, a mixture of two Gnostic movements from the 3rd century, the Marcionism and Manichaeism. Their fundamental doctrine has two distinct principles that gave a different interpretation of traditional Christian doctrine. The first, that there is an evil god, the one responsible for the creation of the world and the ruler of this world and a good god that will rule the next world. This contrary belief, the idea of two gods, put them at serious conflict with accepted, existing, doctrine. The second principle of the Paulician is that they do not believe that Mary was the true mother of Jesus. They, also, rejected the Old Testament, as well as, the sacraments, worship, and established church hierarchy.("Paulician" ) Paulician ideology flourished through the 8th century, but were ultimately destroyed. In at least one massacre, the faith suffered a loss of, approximately, 100,000 people.(Gillis) The Paulician’s ideology spread to places like Macedonia, Greece, and Bulgaria, and, may have, contributed to other later sects, including the Bogomils. The Bogomils formed around the 10th century. The beliefs include the idea that this world was created by the devil and the rejecting the Christian conception as an example of grace. They believe in a good god that has twin sons; Jesus and Satan. However, there are many that believe that the dualistic views of Bogomils may have less to do with influences from the Paulicians, but more to do with traditional Bulgarian mythology, due to its Balkan roots, that have, since the 2nd century, of a god and his twin sons that battle in opposition to one and another. Overall the Bogomils opposed everything about the Orthodox Church. Until the 14th century the Bogomil ideology found its â€Å"congregation† but the Ottoman Conquest of the 15th century, essentially, wiped out the sect and very little more was heard from the movement again.(Weiling Feldthusen 1) The Cathar order appeared around the 12th century and flourished in some areas to the point where their beliefs and practices held the majority, even above Catholicism. This is the only sect, aside from the Knights Templar, that have managed to maintain their presence in continual research and mythology.(Hughes) This sect was, also, on occasion, referred to as the Albigensians. The Albigensians are not a different order of Chris tianity, but the specific name give to a particular sect of Cathar located in Languedoc in 1181. The Cathar, also, had another name given to them by the Catholics, the â€Å" Great Heresy.†