Constantine-Silvanus
Constantine-Silvanus (653 - 684 CE) was founder of the pre-protestant sect known as the Paulicians. He sought a purer Christianity by rejecting Byzantine practices.
Early Life
Constantine came from the village of Mananali in western Armenia, where he met a devout Christian named Soghman, a slave to travelling Arabs, from whom he received a copy of four Gospels, the epistles of Paul and the Book of the Revelation.
These texts were extremely hard to acquire in the Armenian language and after studying them, Constantine saw that everything he had learnt about religion from the Byzantines was false. He decided in that moment to change his name to Silvanus after one of Paul the Apostle’s disciples and began to preach the true doctrines of the Bible to a congregation in the town of Kibossa. [1]
Ministry
Constantine-Silvanus preached against the baptising of infants, the veneration of idols and the superstitions of the Byzantine church, quoting his copy of Paul’s epistles to support his teachings.[2]
He preached for twenty seven years and spread his doctrines from his church in Kibossa to as far as the western part of Asia Minor. This, predictably, would attract the attention of the Byzantine authorities who would send an officer with a death warrant to deal with him. The officer, named Simeon, ordered Silvanus' friends and followers to stone him. They all refused despite the threat of torture and death.
All, except Silvanus’ adopted son, Justus, who, out of cowardice, stoned Silvanus to death by himself.
Simeon, believing that the events were a repetition of the trial of Jesus, could not go through with the execution of Silvanus’ followers and would join them instead, becoming known as Simeon-Titus.
Silvanus’ followers called themselves the “good Christians” and called the Catholic churches “Romanists”. The Byzantines would label them the “Paulicians”, as they called the Catholics "Peterians" in reference to Paul's correction of Peter.
They also wrongfully accused Silvanus of being a follower of the centuries-dead blasphemer, Marcion as throughout his preaching he never had a copy of the Old Testament, yet, if he had been a follower of Marcion, he would also reject the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, which he did not. It’s certain Silvanus and his followers had never even heard of Marcion or his ideas.
Following Simeon-Titus’ conversion, the imperial authorities sent soldiers to hunt down the so-called Paulicians and kill them. By the 690s, Simeon-Titus had been caught and burnt to death by the imperial soldiers. This was because Justus, overcome with jealousy and rage at having been shunned by the Paulician community, had told the soldiers where to find him.