Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 9.djvu/640

 BCANIOHiBISM

591

UAmOUMOM

MaxiichiBiam is the religion founded by the Persian Mani in the latter half of the third century. It piyr- port^d to be the true synthesis of all the religious systems then known, and actually consisted of Zoroas- trian Dualism, Babylonian folklore, Buddhist ethics, and some small and superficial addition of Christian elements. As the theory of two eternal principles, good and evil, is predominant in this fusion of ideas and eives colour to the whole, Manichseism is classified as a form of religious Dualism. It soread with extraor- dinary rapidity both in East ana West and main- tained a sporadic and intermittent existence in the West (Africa, Spain, France, North-Italy, the Balkans) for a thousand years, but it flourished mainly in the land of its birth (Mesopotamia, Babylonia, Turkestan) and even further East in Northern India, Western China, and Tibet, where, c. a. d. 1000, the bulk of the population professed its tenets and where it died out at an uncertain date.

I. Life of the Founder. — Mani (Gr. Mdwyt, gen. usually, Md^TTOf, sometimes Mdi^rrof, rarely Mdrov; or MavixoMt; Lat. Manes, gen. Manetis; in Augustine al- ways ManichcBus) is a title and term of respect rather than a personal name. Its exact meaning is not quite certain, ancient Greek interpretations were ffKeOos and 6fu\ta, but its true derivation is probably from the Baby- lonian-Aramaic MdnA, which among the Mandseans was a term for a light-spirit, mdnd rabl^ being the ** Light- King". It would therefore mean "the illustrious". This title was assumed by the founder himself and so completely replaced his personal name that the precise form of the latter is not known; two latinized forms however are handed down, Cubricus and Ubricus, and it seems likely that these forms are a corrup- tion of the not unusual name of Shuraik. Although Manias personal name is thus subject to doubt, there is no douDt concerning that of his father and family. His father's name was Ffi,tdk BAb&k (Par^/wof, or the cient Median capital, and a member of the famous Chascanian Gens. The boy was bom a. d. 215-216 in the village of Mardinu in Babylonia, from a niother of noble (Arsacide) descent whose name is variously given as Mes, Utdchtm, Marmarjam, and Karossa. The father was evidently a man of strong religious propensities, since he left Ecbatana to join the South-Babylonian Puritans (Menakkede) or Man- dseans and had his son educated in their tenets. Manias father himself must have displayed consider- able activities as a religious reformer and have been a kind of forerunner of his more famous son, in the first years of whose public life he had some share. It IS not impossible that some of Patekios's writing lies embedded in the Mandsean literature which has come down to us. Through misunderstanding the Aramaic word for disciple {Tarbithaf stat abs. Tarbt), Greek and Latin sources speak of a certain Tepi^pdos, Tere- binthus of Turbo, as a distinct person, whom they con- found partially with Mani, partially with Patekios, and as they also forgot that Mani, besides being Patekios' great disciple, was his bodily son, and that in conse- quence the Scythian teacher, Scvthianus, is but Fatak Babak of Hamadam, the Scythian metropolis, their account of the first ongins of Manichseism differs con- siderably from that given in Oriental sources. Notwith- standing Kessler's ingenious researches in this field, we cannot say that the relation between Oriental and Western sources on this point has been suflSciently cleared up, and it may well be that the Western tradi- tion going back through the *' Acta Archelai " to within a century from Mani's death, contains some truth.
 * Well-preserved"), a citizen of Ecbatana, the an-

Mani's father was at first apparently an idolator, for, as he worshipped in a temple to his gods he is sup- posed to have heard a voice urging him to abstain trom meat, wine, and women. In obedience to this voice he emigrated to the south and joined tiie Mugb- tasilah^ or Mandsean Bapt^ts, taking the boy Mani,

with him, but possibly leaving Mani's mother behind. Here, at the age of twelve Mani is supposed to have received his first revelation. The aneei EUtaum (God of the Covenant; Tamiel, of Jewish rabbinical lore?), appeared to him, bade him leave the Mandseans and live chastely, but to wait still some twelve years before proclaiming himself to the people. It is not unlikely that the &)y was trained up to the profession of painter, as he is often thus designated in Oriental (though late) sources.

Babylon was still a centre of the pagan priesthood; here Mani became thoroughlv imbued with their an- cient speculations. On Sundav, 20 March, a. d. 242, Mani first proclaimed his Gospel in the royal residence, Gundesapor, on the coronation day of Sapor I, when vast crowds from all parts were gathered together. " As once Buddha came to India, ^roaster to Persia, and Jesus to the lands of the West, so came in the present time this Prophecy through me, the Mani, to the land of Babylonia", sounded the proclamation of this ** Apostle of the true God". He seems to have had but little immediate success and was compelled to leave the country. For many years he travelled abroad, founding Manichsean communities in Turkes- tan and India. When he finally returned to Persia he succeeded in converting to his doctrine Peroz, the brother of Sapor I, and dedicated to him one of his most important works, the *'Shapurakan". Peroi obtained for Mani an audience with the king and Mani delivered his prophetical message in the royal presence. We soon find Mani again a fugitive from his native land ; though here and there, as in Beth Garmia, his teaching seems to have taken early root. While travelling. Mam spread and strengthened his doctrine by epistles or encyclical letters, of which some fourscore are known to us bv title. It is said that Mani afterwards fell into the hands of Sapor I, was cast into prison, and only released at the king's death in 274. It seems certain that Sapor's successor, Ormuzd I, was favourable to the new prophet; perhaps he even personally released him from his dungeon, unless, indeed, Mani had al- ready effected his escape by bribing a warder and fleeing across the Roman frontier. Ormuzd's favour, however, was of little avail, as he occupied the Persian throne only a single year, and Bahram I, his successor, soon after his accession, caused Mani to be crucified, had the corpse flayed, the skin stuffed and hune up at the city gate, as a terrifying spectacle to his followers, whom he persecuted with relentless severity. The date of his death is fixed at 276-277.

II. System of Doctrine and DisaPLiNE. — Doctrine. — ^The key to Mani's ^rstem is his cosmogony. Onee this is known there is little else to learn. In this sense Mani was a true Gnostic, as he brought salvation by knowledge. Manich£eism professed to be a religion of pure reason as opposed to Christian credulity; it professed to explain the origin, the composition, and the future of the universe; it had an answer for everything and despised Chnstianity, which was fuU of mysteries. It was utterly unconscious that its every answer was a mystification or a whimsical in- vention; in fact, it gained mastery over men's minds by ^e astonishing completeness, minuteness, and consistency of its assertions.

We are giving the cosmogony as contained in Theo- dore Bar Khoni, embodying the results of the study of Francois Ciunont. Before the existence of heaven and earth and all that is therein, there were two Princi- ples, the one Good the other Bad. The Good Principle dwells in the realm of light and is called the Father of Majesty (Grandeur or Greatness, TAiytBot, Abba D'rabbutna), or the Father with the Four Faces or Persons (rerpairpd<n#ror), probably because Time. Light, Force, and Goodness were regarded as essential manifestations of the First ^ein^ oy the Zervanites (see Cosmogony : Jranian). ' Outside the Father then are^is^fyeTabern^efeQ.^t '^'"

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