Many believe that the Qumran sectarians were Essenes. Partisan forces began plundering nearby villages and executing captured Italians, party "sectarians" and "perverts". This positive usage was to contrast it with how gnostic sectarians used the word. Drumm listes the conversation and gathers the sectarians as their army. Meanwhile, other Paulicians, sectarians but not rebels, lived in communities throughout the Byzantine Empire. The Committee was responsible for the case of Old Believers and sectarians. Baillie's concern was to maintain church unity and combat the threat posed by sectarians.