THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
Carthage in 383. By Faustus' reputation Augustine was much attracted, but he was soon undeceived, since on close association he found Faustus shallow and uninspiring. Faustus wrote a polemic against the Catholic Church, which Augustine answered in his Libri xxxiii. adversus Faustum (Eng. transl. in NPNF, 2 ser., iv. 155-345). Felix was more intimately connected with Augustine, and a disputation between them in the church at Hippo lasted two days, the principal matter of which is reported in Augustine's De actis cum Felice Manichceo, while the result was the defeat of Felix and his renunciation of Manicheism. Under the Vandals the Manicheans of North Africa suffered severe persecution. In Italy, especially at Rome, the religion gained a firm foothold and large numbers of adherents; Leo the Great sought the assistance of the civil authorities against them, and governmental measures were taken to suppress them under Valentinian III. and Justinian. The religion spread as far as Spain, where it was connected with Priscillianism (see Peiscillian, Priscillianists) . The Manicheans of later times were the Cathari of South France in the eleventh and twelfth centuries (see New Manicheans, II.), while in the East their doctrines were continued in the teachings of the Paulicians (q.v.).
The great success of this system of belief is to be found in two particulars: first, its completeness of development as a Gnostic creation, using so fully, richly, and immediately the original sources of all Gnostic forms of faith, viz., the Assyrian- Babylonian religion with its wealth of mythical
material; second, the genius of its
15. Com- founder, who systematized this mate-
ponent rial and developed it into a coherent
Sources of and artistic unity. All the questions
the System, which were raised by the inquiring
thought of his times, questions which concerned the being, destiny, and duties of God and man, questions which related to past, present, and future, were answered in a manner wholly selfconsistent. Where earlier Gnostic systems were weak, Mani's was strong. The problem of necessity and free will he solved by the hypothesis of the original duality of being and the subsequent commingling of the two elements. While the founder was a philosopher, he clothed his ideas in full mythological dress. This dress, however, was not of his own creation, built out of his fancy, in this respect differing from earlier Gnostic doctrines. It was borrowed from the sources already sufficiently indicated, from the surroundings in which Mani's youth and manhood were passed. The " king of light " is clearly Ea (see Babylonia, VII., 2, § 3), originally the ocean of heaven, the deity of profoundest knowledge, enthroned in the deep of the world-sea. In the Manichean system water becomes light, while the Mandseans retained water as the sacred element. Marduk, son of Ea, reappears in Mani's teaching as the " original man," and his wanderings are the antetype of the adventures of the type as developed in Manichean-Elkesaite and Mandsean doctrines. The model for the " spirit of life " was Ramman (see Assyria, VII., § 4; Babylonia, VII., 2, § 6), with recollections of
Shamash and Sin, while the original devil is the Babylonian Tiamat (see Creation, Babylonian Accounts). The mechanism of redemption follows the Babylonian pattern, and the bema recalls in form the ziggurat. These particulars do no more than suggest the wholesale appropriation of the material ready at hand in Babylonian religion. On the other hand, it is noticeable that Mani made the stars evil spirits and forbade the witchcraft and magic which had so large a part in the old faith. The period of transition from the older faith and the break from its control were under the influence of the Mu'tasilah, to which some of the practical details of the religion may be due. To Zoroastrianism something must be accredited, though far less than was formerly thought necessary. Both religions deal fundamentally with light, and manyforms in the two systems are identical, while the influence of the Zoroastrian prayer and eschatology is easily discernible. The great chasm between the two faiths is found in the conception of darkness. In Zoroastrianism Ahriman is a creation of Ormazd become perverted; in Manicheism, darkness is as essentially eternal as the light and originally evil in nature. Similarly, the Parsee conception of man is that the body is a pure creation of Ormazd, who also gave the soul, while Mani makes it a structure of darkness and the prison of the soul. The view of Baur that Manichean morals were drawn from Buddhism can not be substantiated, the one close connection here being the similarity between the idea of the adept and the Buddhist striver after Nirvana. (K. KesslerI".)
Bibliography: Owing to the various persecutions of the Manicheans their writings as a whole are lost. Portions of them are almost certainly embodied in the Ginza of the Mandaeans (q.v.). Other fragments are found in the Syriac of Theodore bar Choni, and in the Arabic in the Fihrist (see below). The source of first importance is the Fihrist al-'ulum (finished 988 a.d.) of Muhammad ibn Ishak, generally known as Al-Nadim, the part concerning Mani being edited with transl. and commentary by G. Fliigel, Leipsic, 1882. Next to the Fihrist as a source is (Abu Fath Muhammad al-) Shahrastani (d. 1153), Kitab almilal wannuhal, ed. W. Cureton, i. 188-192, London, 1842, in Germ, transl. by T. Haarbrucker, 2 vols., Halle, 1850-51. Interesting details from Mani's writings, in Arabic transl., are furnished by (Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-) Biruni in his " Chronology of the Oriental Peoples," written about 1000 a.d., ed. E. Sachau, pp. 207-209, Leipsic, 1878, Eng. transl., London, 1879 (cf. K. Kessler, Mani, i. 304-323, Berlin, 1889), and in his " India," ed. E. Sachau, London, 1887, Eng. transl., ib. 1888. A discussion of Mani's life and teaching is contained in the Nestorian " Chronicle " of 'Amr ibn Matta, ed. H. Gismondi, Rome, 1896-97, though the basis is the Acta Archelai and Epiphanius. Further minor Arabic sources are indicated in Hauck-Herzog, RE, xii. 194. From the Syriac the matter derivable from Ephraem Syrus is collected in Kessler's Mani, ut sup., pp. 262-302. Items of information may be gathered from the Syriac martyrologies in the collections of Assemani, 2 vols., Rome, 1748, and Bedjan, Paris, 1890 sqq. Theodore bar Choni'a Eskolion (in H. Pognon, Inscriptions mandaites des coupes de Khouabir, 2 vols., Paris, 1898-99) i3 of great value, since the author cites long passages from the Manichean originals. The Middle-Persian Pahlavi texts sometimes contain material. Such are: the Shikand-gumanik Vigar, in Eng. transl. in SBE, vol. xxiv., consult pp. 243-251; the Dinkard, ed. with Eng. transl. by Peshotun D. B. Sungana, 6 vols., Bombay. The New-Persian Firdausi has some material in the Shahnameh, for which cf. Kessler, ut sup., pp. 373-376. The report of the Armenian Esnigh is accessible in ZHT, ii (1840).
Of Western sources the first is the Acta disputationis