"Pictures had their opponents also in other quarters. Some staunch Monophysites regarded ikon-worship as the thin end of the
wedge of the Chalcedonian doctrine. One of the Armenian Patriarchs of the second half of the tenth century has been blamed by a writer of the same period as ‘introducing pictures into the Church in order to renew the Chalcedonian doctrine’. Another Armenian Patriarch, at a much earlier period, about the end of the sixth century, has identified the veneration of ikons with the doctrine of two natures. Still another Patriarch at the end of the tenth century did the same. Until thethirteenth century iconoclasm had its protagonists in the eastern provinces of the Empire."

" Thus it is readily seen that Paulicianism, iconoclasm and so-called Monophysitism had considerable connections with one
another. It may probably be seen that Paulicianism is another form of reaction against a misunderstood Chalcedonianism. It is
very significant that the Paulicians, though they vigorously repudiated Manichaeism, have been insistently accused of being
such."

" This is more than just a common and meaningless use of a term of abuse. Their dualism, in asserting a very sharp distinction
between matter and spirit, between man and God, made them tend towards a position similar to that of the Manichaeans.
Exaggerated spiritualism (as distinct from spiritism, i.e. ghost hunting) has always been inclined to minimize and to disregard the significance and the value of matter and body, and of the sensible things in general."

" This has bred indifference towards the things of this world, and in the end has resulted in a kind of religious cynicism, producing the idea that whatever you do with your body is immaterial and cannot harm your spirit; the Paulicians themselves could not have been an exception to this rule. This process is the result of misunderstanding passages such as the following in the Apostle or in the Gospel: John 4:24, ‘God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship in spirit ans truth,’ or John 4:64 (A.V. 4:63), ‘It is the spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing’; 1 Cor. 7:29, ‘Those that have wives may be as though they had none’; 1 Cor. 7:19: ‘Circumcision is nothing, and incircumcision is nothing’; Rom. 14:4, ‘Let every man abound in his own sense’ (A.V.
‘be fully persuaded in his own mind’); Mark 2:19, ‘As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast,’ etc."

" This cynicism has led many extreme spiritual sectarians to immorality, and particularly to sexual license. Even making full
allowance for the baseless and cheap accusations of adversaries against Paulicians, who started as reformers and upholders of
the ‘worship in truth and spirit’, it is pretty certain that they gradually degenerated from the moral point of view and for that reason were completely lost in the end. Paulicianism was in essence only an anti-ritualistic movement."

" All such movements eventually tend to denial of the Incarnation. This natural process is also seen in Protestantism. Unitarians, Christian moralists, and a host of other trends in modern Christianity are the logical outcome of the original character of the Reformation. The militarism of the Paulicians also has its parrallel in the activities of Protestantism. It is not without reason that those Paulicians who lived in the south and were in contact with Mohammedanism were easily lost among the Mohammedans, because Islam is a nonsacramental religion."

All these posts on 'The Paulicians' are from "Armenian Church Historical Studies" by the late Archbishop TIRAN NERSOYAN