cannot be said to be established, by satisfactory historical proof, that there is a genetic connection between the heretical groups or parties known as Paulicians, Bogomils, and Albigenses. They are widely separated in time and space, and visible links to connect them there are none. Yet the Manichæan element common to their theology and organisation is so distinct as to make it certain that a genetic connection subsists between them, whether it can be traced or not. Documentary proof is only one method, after all, of convincing the human reason as to historical fact: there are other methods that are both effective and valid. Historical investigation, though it is quite right to rely mainly on documents, cannot altogether ignore other methods of reaching truth.
The characteristic feature of all these older reform-parties is that, beginning in each instance as a revolt from a corrupt and impure Church, and attempting to return to the Scriptural ideals of faith and practice, these parties reach at length an identical conclusion: that a pure church cannot exist except on the basis of believers' baptism, and that the baptism of infants is totally unwarranted by the
