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448 Credibility of the Gospel History.
' faitli, the oracles of the Lord, and the epistles of the great
' apostle Paul, and some of them the Acts of the Apostles,
' and the catholic epistles, except those of the chief apostle.'
6. Again, ' they "* endeavoured to confirm their doctrines
' by the scriptures of the gospel, and the divine apostle Paul.'
7. He quotes to them'^ the divine Luke in the Acts, though,
as he adds, many of the sect do not receive that book.
8. He quotes to them expressly^ Paul's epistle to the
Hebrews, or Jews, as his word is.
9. What regard the Paulicians had for the book of the
Revelation I cannot particularly say ; Photius not quoting
it in his argument with them.
10. 1 add one thing more. These' people greatly
respected the scriptures of the New 'Testament, and approved
that all people, the laity, and even women, should
read, study, and understand them. This appears from a
story told by Photius, of a conversation between a Manicheean
woman and Sergius, who afterwards became a zealous
promoter of the sect.
11.1 have almost entirely confined myself to Photius, not
thinking it needful to be more particular at present, or to
copy much from Peter, or any other author, concerning so
late a sect. However, I shall briefly observe, that Peter of
Sicily in the main agrees with Photius, often saying that the
Paulicians rejected the Old Testament, and used only the
gospels and the apostle. In particular he says :
' They"
' receive the four gospels, and the fourteen epistles of Paul,
' and the catholic epistle of James, and the three epistles of
' John, and the catholic epistle of Jude, and the Acts of the
* Apostles, without making any alterations in them. But
' they admit not the two epistles of the chief of the apostles.'
'' O'lQ Ti rag ivayyEKiKug ypa