Organization. — " Manichreism," says Dr. Schaff (i, 250), '"differed from the Gnostic schools in having a fix- ed, and that a strictly hierarchal organization. At the head of the sect stood twelve apostles or magistri, among whom Mani and his successors, like Peter and the pope, held the chief place. Under them were seventy-two bishops, answering to the seventy-two (strictly, seven- ty) of the disciples of Jesus; and under these came pres- bj-ters, deacons, and itinerant evangelists. In the con- gregations there were two distinct classes, designed to correspond to the catechumens and the faithful in the Catholic Church — the ' hearers' (Auditores) and the ' per- fect' (Electi), tVie esoteric, the priestly caste, which rep- resents the last stage in the process of the liberation of the spirit and its separation from the world, the transi- tion from the kingdom of matter into the kingdom of light, or, in the Buddhistic terms, from the world of Sansara into Nirvana." The Elect are required to ad- here to the Signaculum Oris, Mamis, and Sinus, that is, they have to take the oath of abstinence from evil and profane speech (including " religious terms such as Chris- tians use respecting the Godhead and religion"), fur- ther, from flesh, eggs, milk, fish, wine, and all intoxicat- ing drinks (comp. Manu, Iiisfit. vs. 51, 52, 53 : " He who makes the flesh of an animal his food . . . not a mortal exists more sinful ... he who . . . desires to enlarge his own flesh with the flesh of another creature," etc.) ; further, from the possession of riches, or, indeed, any property whatsoever; from hurting any being, animal or vegetable ; from heeding their own family, or show- ing any pity to him who is not of the Manichnean creed ; and finally, from breaking their chastity by marriage or otherwise. The Auditors were comparatively free to partake of the good things of this world, but they had to provide for the subsistence of the Elect, and their highest aim, also, was the attainment of the state of their superior brctlircn.
Cultus. — In ^lanicluean worship, the visible repre- sentatives of the light (sun and moon) were revered, but only as representatives of the Ideal, of the good or supreme God. Neither altar nor sacrifice was to be found in their places of religious assemblies, nor did they erect sumptuous temples. Fasts, prayers, occa- sional readings in the suppuscd writings of JVfani, chief- ly a certain Fundamental Kpistle, were all their outer worship. Sunday, as the day on which the visible uni- verse was to be consumed, the day consecrated to the sun, was kept as a great festival ; Church festivals they rejected, and, instead, made the most solemn day in their year the anniversary of tlie death of Mani". Baptism they repudiated, cnnsidcriiig it useless; the Lord's Sup- per was celebrated, but only l).v the Elect. Of the mode of celebration, however, we know next to nothing; even Augustine, who, for about nine years, belonged to the sect, and who is our chief authority on this subject, con-
fesses his ignorance of it. Dr. Schaff (Ch. Hist, i, 250)^ says that they partook of it without wine (because Christ had no blood), " and regarded it perhaps accord- ing to their pantheistic symbolism, as the commemora- tion of the light-soul crucified in all nature."
Character. — As to the general morality of the Mani- cha;ans, we are eipially left to conjecture ; but their doc- trine certainly appears to have had a tendency, chiefly in the case of the uneducated, to lead to a sensual fa- naticism hurtful to a pure mode of life. Bower, in the second volume of his Ilistori/ of the Popes, has attempted to prove that the Manichteans were addicted to immoral practices, but this opinion has been ably controverted by Beausobre and Lardner. " The morality of the Ma- nichieans," says Dr. Schaff, " was severely ascetic, based on the fundamental error of the intrinsic evil of matter and the body; the extreme opposite of the Pelagian view of the essential moral purity of human nature. The great moral aim is to become entirely unworldly, in the Buddhistic sense ; to renounce and destroy cor- poreity ; to set the good soul free from the fetters of matter. This is accomplished by the most rigid and gloomy abstinence, which, however, is required only of the elect, not of the catechumens."
Extent. — Mani, as we have noted already in cur sketch of his life, was put to death about 275 ; but the sect soon spread into proconsidar Asia, and even into Africa, Sicily, and Italy, although they were vehement- ly opposed by the Catholic Church, and persecuted by the heathen emperors, who enacted bloody laws against them, as a sect derived from hostile Persia. The pre- cise time when the doctrines of Mani made their way into the Roman empire it is impossible definitely to de- termine. The principal document on the subject, enti- tled Acta disputatiunis Archelai, ejnscopi Mesopotamice, et Manetis haresiarcha, is deemed apocrjijhal. Dio- cletian, as early as A.D. 296, issued rigorous laws against the Manichiieans, which were reiterated by Valentinian, Theodosius I, and successive monarchs. Notwithstand- ing this, they gained numerous adherents; and very many mediaeval sects, as the PrisciUians, Paulicians, Bog- omiles, Catharists, JosephLnians, etc., were suspected to be secretly Manichajans, and were therefore called " New Manichwans." " Indeed, the leading features of Mani- chaeism, the dualist ic separation of soul and bod)-, the ascription of nature to the devil, the pantheistic confu- sion of the moral and the ph^-sical, the hypocritical symbolism, concealing heathen vieAvs under Christian phrases, the haughty air of mystery, and the aristocratic distinction of esoteric and exoteric, still live in various forms even in modern systems of philosophj' and sects of religion. The ISIormons of our day strongly bring to mind, in many respects, even in their organization, the ancient Manichsrans" (Dr. Schaff). It is a remark- able circumstance in their history, that though they could not stand openly against the power and severity of their persecutors, they continued for ages, up to the very time of the Kcformation, to make proselytes in secret. Their doctrines lurked even among tlie clergy and the monks. The profound and noble Augustine fell under their influence, and was a member of the sect from his twentieth to his twenty-ninth year (.'574-383). They were still to be found in Leo's time, 440. The Arian Hunneric, in 477, began his reign with attempts to persecute them, and was mortified to find most of those whom he detected had professed to be lay or clerical members of his own sect. Gregory the (ireat. about GOO, had. to take means for extirpating them from Africa; and even after his pontificate traces of them appeared now and then in Italy, as well as other coun- tries, threatening danger to the Church. About the year 1000 they spread from Italy into other countries, especially into southern France, Spain, and even Ger- many.