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.The text is printed in Acta Sanctorum; Nov.iii; Vita S.Lazari auctore Gregorio Monachovol.3, pp.508 88 (1910)p.512.When he learnt from the brethren who had been there beforehim that in the mountain opposite the monastery there is a cave con-venient for those who desire quiet, he asked leave of the superior andgoing away, made his dwelling in it.There he displayed many remark-able acts of asceticism.These the enemy of mankind could not endure,but undermined him another way; the evil one incited heretics1 of thevillage near the mountain for there were many in it intending to usethem to drive him from the mountain.They came up and hurledmockery and insults at him, indeed, they attempted to strike him unlesshe rapidly withdrew from the mountain, but he bore it all meekly andgently, for he knew well who it was who had incited them to this.So hedid not cease to exhort and admonish them with gentle words until hemade them not merely cease their hostility to himself, but deny theirinherited heresy, and approach the Orthodox Church.As he saw themyielding to his arguments, he wrote to the bishop of Philetus2 andreceived them into fellowship when they had first anathematized theirheresy in church.Some of them, after they had made their denial,approached him and begged him to tonsure them and to make theirdwelling with him.He was not persuaded to do this, but they continuedto beg him more earnestly.When he had been unable to convince them,after much discussion he wrote to the superior and on his instructionsreceived them.[p.543] Another, a Paulician, came to the father and the moment hesaw him had no need for further arguments to receive the true word ofpiety in his soul, but immediately abjured the heresy of which he had1 That this heresy was Paulicianism is inferred from the second passage translated;there is no evidence in this text.2 Philetus was a suffragan see of Myra.Throughout this life there is emphasis on thecare taken by St Lazarus to observe ecclesiastical discipline.For the forms used for thereception of heretics see [10], [11].141 CHRISTIAN DUALIST HERESIESbeen fond.When he had anathematized it at the bidding of the holyfather he was deemed worthy of holy baptism in the monastery.Indeedlater, against all expectation, through the good pleasure of God hebecame a monk.After he had spent some time in the monastery, beingscandalized for some reason, or rather swept off his feet through light-ness of mind, since he was still a layman,3 he left the monastery and wentaway to his own country.But God, that lover of men, through theprayers of our holy father provided that he should go to Jerusalem andreceive the tonsure in the monastery of St Sabas.419.EUTHYMIUS OF THE PERIBLEPTONCONDEMNS BOGOMILS (c.1045)This is the earliest account in Greek of the activities and beliefs of Bogomils.Nothing is known of the author except what he himself tells us, that he origi-nated from (or at least had family connections with) the diocese of Acmonia,1and was of age to accompany his mother to a lawsuit in the reigns of theemperors Basil and Constantine (976 1025).The case was to be judged by thelate Romanus, who subsequently became emperor so we must assume thatEuthymius was born at least twenty years before the accession of Romanus III(1028), and that the text was written after Romanus death in 1034.There areverbal similarities between his condemnation of Bogomils and an abjurationformula [11], which is found in a euchologion dated August 1027.2 Euthymiusspeaks as though he were in a position of authority in his monastery, which wasfounded by the emperor Romanus in 1030.3 His text is evidence that Bogomilswere active in the capital and in a monastery with imperial patronage.The text of Euthymius survives in five MSS, of which three are only fragmen-tary.One of these fragments is printed in PG 131; the others are printed inFicker, Die Phundagiagiten.These are cited as C.Two MSS, Vindob.307 ( Ficker A) and Vindob.193 ( Ficker B) contain thewhole text.The relation between these is complex.A is the longer, but B is nota shortened version, since at many points it is fuller than A, while A itself hasbeen substantially interpolated.Internal evidence suggests that Euthymius him-3 That is, he had not yet taken monastic vows.4 For the monastery of St Sabas at Jerusalem see Hirschfeld, The Judean desert monasteries,pp.24 6; for the relationship of St Lazarus and the monastery of St Sabas see Morris,Monks and laymen, pp.34, 197.1 See map.2 For the details of this MS see [16].P3 See note 5 below.142 EUTHYMIUS OF THE PERIBLEPTONself wrote more than one anti-Bogomil document, and that these were laterreworked by other authors.We have printed the translation of a composite text, based on B.Variations inA are recorded in the footnotes; important variations from C (which is incom-plete) are included in the main text, but are underlined for ease of identification
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