Paulicianism in the context of "Pseudo-Gnosticism"

Basil I, nicknamed "the Macedonian" (Greek: Βασίλειος ὁ Μακεδών, romanized: Basíleios ō Makedṓn; 811 – 29 August 886), was Byzantine emperor from 867 to 886. Born to a peasant family in Macedonia, he rose to prominence in the imperial court after gaining the favour of Emperor Michael III, whose mistress he married on his emperor's orders. In 866, Michael proclaimed him co-emperor. Fearing a loss of influence, Basil orchestrated Michael's assassination the next year and installed himself as sole ruler of the empire. He was the first ruler of the Macedonian dynasty.

Despite his humble origins, Basil was an effective and respected monarch. He initiated a complete overhaul of Byzantine law, an effort continued by his successor that ultimately became the Basilika. On the foreign front, he achieved military success against the heretical Paulicians, whom he subjugated in 872. He also pursued an active policy in the west, allying with Carolingian emperor Louis II against the Arabs, which led to a new period of Byzantine domination in Italy. Upon his death in a hunting accident in 886, he was succeeded by his son Leo VI, also rumoured to have been the son of Michael III.

The Banat Bulgarians (Banat Bulgarian: Palćene or Banátsći balgare; common Bulgarian: Банатски българи, romanized: Banatski bălgari; Romanian: Bulgari bănățeni; Serbian: Банатски Бугари / Banatski Bugari), also known as Bulgarian Roman Catholics, Bulgarian Latin Catholics and Bulgarians Paulicians or simply as Paulicians, are a distinct Bulgarian minority group which since the Chiprovtsi Uprising in the late 17th century began to settle in the region of the Banat, which was then ruled by the Habsburgs and after World War I was divided between Romania, Serbia, and Hungary. Unlike most other Bulgarians, they are Roman Catholic by confession and stem from groups of Paulicians (who eventually adopted Catholicism) and Roman Catholics from modern northern and northwestern Bulgaria.

Banat Bulgarians speak a distinctive codified form of the Eastern Bulgarian vernacular with much lexical influence from the other languages of the Banat. Although strongly acculturated to the Pannonian region (remote from Bulgaria's mainland), they have preserved their Bulgarian identity; however, they consider themselves Bulgarians among other ethnic groups but self-identify as Paulicians when compared to ethnic Bulgarians.