Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 9.djvu/644

 MANICBLfiISM

595

MAHIOHiBISM

cand were molested by the Prince of Chorazaii, in whose dominion they were yety numerous. Detailed information on the extreme Eastern Manichseans is still lacking. In Persia and Babybnia proper, Mani- chseism seems never to have been the predominant religion, but the Manichaians enjoyed tnere a large amount of prosperity- aiid toleration under Mahoname- dan rule. Some caliphs were actually favourable to Manichseism, and it had a number of secret sympa- thizers throughout Islam. Though not numerous in the capital, Bagdad, they were scattered in the vil- lages and hamlets of the Irak. Their prosperity and intimacy of social intcreourse with non-Manichseans aroused the indignation of the Puritan part)r amongst Mani's followers, and this led to the formation of the heresy of Miklas, a Persian ascetic in the eighth century.

As Manichseism adopted three Christian apocrypha, the Gospel of Thomas, the Teaching of Addas, ana the Shepherd of Hennas, the legend was soon formed that Tliomas, Addas, and Hermas were the first great apos- tles of Mani's system. Addas is supposed to have spread it in the Orient (t4 t^i dyaroXrjs), Thomas in Syria, and Hennas in Eeypt. Manichsism was cer- tainly known in Judea lx?fore Mani's death; it was brought to Elcutheropolis by Akouas in 274 (Epiph., that no country was more infected with Manichsism than Mesopotamia in his day, and Manicha^ism main- tained its ground in Edessa even in a. d. 450. The fact that it was comlmted by Eusebius of Emesus, George and Apollinaris of Laodicea, Diodorus of Tarsus, John (Chrysostom) of Antioch, Epiphanius of Salamis, and Titus of Bostra, shows how early and ubiquitous was the danger of Manichseism in Western Asia. Alx)ut A. D. 404, Julia, a lady of Antioch, tried by her riches and culture to pervert the city of Gaza to ^la^ichaJism, but without success. In Jerusalem St. C3'ril had many converted Manicha'ans amongist his catechumens and refuted their errors at length. St. Nilus knew of secret Manicha^ans in Sinai before a. d. 430.
 * 'H«r.", LXVI, 1). St. Ephrem (378) complained

In no country did Manichaeism enter more insidi- ously into Christian life than in Egj'pt. One of the governors of Alexandria under Constantine was a Manichxan, who treated the Catholic bishops with unheard-of severity. St. Athanasius says of Anthony the Hermit (330) that he forbade all intercourse with "Maniclucans and other heretics".

In the Eastern Roman Empire it came to the zenith of its power about a. d. 375-400, but then rapidly declined. But in the middle of the sixth century it once more rose into prominence. The Emperor Justin- ian himself dispute<i wnth them; Photinus the Mani- chiean publicly disputed with Paul the Persian. Manicliu^isin obtained adherents amongst the highest classes of society. Barsymes, the Nestorian prefect of Theodora, was an avoweism: Diocletian (Alexan- dria, 31 March, 296) commands the Proconsul of .Africa to persecute them, he speaks of them as a sordid and impure sect recently come from Persia, which he is determined to destroy root and branch (utirpilun am- putari). Itjs leaders and propagators must Ix? burnt, together with their hooks; the rank and file Ix^headed, goods confiscatee without civil rights and incapaUeof testamentary disposition. In the following year Ik
 * H»ople of note condemned to the mines, and their

condemned them to death under the name of Encm> tites, Saccophores, and Hydroparastates. Valentinian II confiscated their goods, annulled their wills, and sent them into exile. Honorius in 405 renewed the edicts of his predecessors, and fined all governors of cities or provinces who were remiss in carr>'ing out his orders; ne invalidated all their contracts, declared them outlaws and public criminals. In 445 Valen- tinian III renewed the edicts of his predecessors; Anastasius condemned 'all Manicha^ans to death; Justin and Justinian decreed the death penalty, not only against Manicha>ans who remained obstinate in their heresy, but even against converts from Manichse- ism who remaine(l in touch with their former co-reli- gionists, or who did not at once denounce them to the magistrates. Heavy penalties were likewise decreed against all State officials who did not denounce their colleagues, if infected with Manichxism, and against all those who rctaine<l Manichaian books. It was a war of extermination and was apparently successful, within the confines of the Byzantine Empire.

IV. History in the West. — In the West the special home of Manichaiism was Proconsular Africa, where it seems to have had a second apostle inferior only to Mani, a further incarnation of the Paraclete, Adiman- tus. Previous to 296 Julian the Proconsul had writ- ten to the emperor that the Manichceans troubled the peace of the populat ion and caused injury tothetowns. After the etlict of Diocletian we hear no more of it till the days of St. Augustine. Its most notorious cliam- pion was Faustus of Mileve. Bom at Mileve of poor

Sirents, he had gone to Rome, and being converted to anichieism he had begun to study rhetoric somewhat late in life. He was not a man of profound erudition, but he was a suave and unctuous speaker. His fame in Manicho^an circles was very great. He was a Mani- cha>an cpUcopus and boasted of having left his wife and children and all he had for his religion. He ar- rivefl at Carthage in 383, and was arrested, but the Christians obtained the commutation of his sentence to banishment, and even that was not carried out. .\bout A. D. 400 he wrote a work in favour of Manichaeism, or rather against Christianitv, in which he tried to wrest the New Testament to the suppKDrt of Manicha'ism. St. Augustine anstN-ercd him in thirty-three l)ooks em- bodying verlxilly much of his teaching. On 28 and 29 August, 392,St. Augustine had refuted a certainPortu- natus in public discussion held in the Baths of SossiuB. Fortunatus acknowledged defeat and disappeared from the town. On 7 Dec, 404, St. Augustine held a dispute with Felix, a Manichsean priest. He con- vinced him of the error of his ways and he made him say: Anathema to Mani. St. Augustine knew how to use severitv to extirpate the heresy. VictorinuB»« a deacon, had become an auditor and propagandifi cf the Manichs^ans. He was discovered, upon which he ap- parently repented and asked for reconcilbUcn. but St, Augustine punished him and banished him from the town, warning all people against him. H* would not hear of his repentance unless he tfencuneed all the Manichseans he knew in the province. ^. Augustine did not write against MaxuciiMsn during the last twenty-five years of his life: hmop it i» thought that the sect decreased in importanc* during that time. Yet in 420 Ursus, the imfml jwrfect, aircsted some Manichaeans in Oirtba^^ aaS n***^ \^"^ recar:*:. When the Arian Vaadak «»?»««* -^"«* ^^ ^-^-^ chseans thou^t rf ^iaa^tbe Arian c]erg>- 1 y secrr-hr entering their raska. hdl Huawic {4. i-4s4 K- c rf

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