Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 9.djvu/645

 MJjnOHJEISM

596

MAKICHiBISM

It 18 well known how St. Augustine (383) found a home at Rome in the Manichaean community, which must have been considerable. According to the "Liber Pontificalis" Pope Miltiades (311-314) had al- ready discovered adherents of the sect in the city. Valentinian's edict (372), addressed to the city prefect, was clearly launched mainlv against Roman Mani- chseans. The so-called "Ambrosiaster" combated Manichffiism in a great number of his writings (370- 380). In the years 384-388 a special sect of Slani- chseans arose in Rome called Martari or Mat-s(juatters. who, supported by a rich man called Constantius, triea to start a sort of monastic life for the Elect in contra- vention of Mani's command that the Elect should wander about the world preaching the Manichsean Gospel. The new sect found the bitterest opposition among their co-reli^onists. In Rome they seem to have made extraordinary endeavours to conceal them- selves by almost complete conformity with Christian customs. From the middle of the sixth century on- ward Manichaeism apparently died out in the West. Though a number of secret societies and dualistic sects may have existed here and there in obscurity, there is apparently no direct and conscious connex- ion with the Prophet of BaWlon and his doctrine. Yet when the Paulicians and Bo^omili from Bulgaria came in contact with the West m the eleventh cen- tury, and Eastern missionaries driven out by the Byzantine emperors taught duahst doctrines m the North of Italy and the South of France they found the leaven of Manichajism still so deeply pervading the minds of many that they could make it ferment and rise into the formidable Catharist heresies.

V. MANicHiEAN WRiTERs.—Manichseism, like Gnos- ticism, was an intellectual religion, it despised the sim- plicity of the crowd. As it professed to bring salvation through knowledge, iterance was sin. Manichaeism in consecjuence was literary and refined, its founder was a fruitful writer, and so were many of his followers. Of all this literary output only fragments are at present extant. No Manichsean treatise has come down to us in its entirety. Mani wrote in Persian and Babylon- ian Aramaic, apparently using either language with e€[ual facility. The following seven titles of works of his have come down to us: (1) "Shapurdk&n", i. e. " Princely '\ because it was dedicated to Peroz the brother of oapor I (written in Syrian) . It was a kind of Manichflean eschatology, dealing in three chapters with the dissolution of Hearers, Elect, and Sinners. It was written about a. d. 242. (2) "The Book of Mys- teries", polemical and dogmatic in character. (3) "The Book of the Giants", probably about cosmogonic figures. (4) "The Book of Precepts for Hearers", with appendix for the Elect. (5) "The Book of Life-Givmg", written in Greek, probably of consider- able size. (6) "The Book of the Pragmateia", con- tents totally unknown. (7) "The Gospel" (written in Persian), of which the chapters began with succes- sive letters of the alphabet. Besides these more ex- tensive works no less than seventy-six letters or brief treatises are enumerated, but it is not always^ clear which of these are by Mani himself, which by his im- mediate successors. The " Epistola Fundamenti ", so well known in Latin writers, is probably the "Treatise of the Two Elements", mentioned as first of the seventy-six numbers in Arabic sources. Small and often unintelligible fragments in Pahlevi and in Sog- dian (?) have recently been found in Chinese Turkestan by T. W. K. Mueller. The " Epistola Fundamenti " is extensively quoted in St. Augustine's refutation and also in Theodore Bar Khoni and Titus of Bostra, and the "Acta Archelai ". Of Manichean writers the fol- lowing names have come down to us: A^pius (Pho- tius, Cod. 179), of Asia Minor; Aphthonius of Egypt (Philostorgium, "Hist. Eccl.", Ill, 15), Photinus re- futed by Paul the Persian (Mercati, "Per la vita di Paolo il Persian©"), Adimantus, refuted by Augustine.

VI. ANTi-MANiCHiEAN WRITERS. — St. Eplmem (a. d. 306-373) ; his treatise against the Manidupans wa« publish^ in poems (59 to 73) in the Roman edition with Latin translation, and again by K. Kessler in his " Mani ", 1, 262-302; Hegemonius is said by Heracleon of Chaloedon to be the author of the " Acta disputa- tionis Archelai episcopi Mesopotamise et Manetis hseresiarchse ". This important work on Ifonidueism, written originally in Greek or perhaps in Syriac, be* tween a. d. 300 and 350, has come down to us only^ in a Latin translation, though small fragments exist in Greek. The most recent edition is that of M. Beeson (Berlin, 1906). It contains an imaginary dispute be* tween Archelaus. Bishop of Charcar, and Mani nimself. The dispute is out a literary device^ but the woiIl ranks as the first class authority on Manichseism. It was translated into English in the Ante-Nicene library.

Alexander of Lycopolis published a short treatise against ManichsDism, last edited by A. Brinkmann (Leipzig, 1895). Serapion of Thmuis (c. 350) is credited bv St. Jerome with an excellent work against the Mani- cbpans. This work has recently beeu restored to its original form by A. Brinkmann, "Siti. ber. der Preuss. Acad. Beriin " (1895), 479 sqq. Titus of Bostra (374) published four books against the ManichsDans, two con- taining arguments from reason and two arguments from Scripture and theology against the heresy. They have come down to us complete only in a Syriac ver- sion (Lagarde, " Tit. Bost. contra Manichsos Libri IV". Berlin, 1859), but part of the original Greek ispublishea in Pitra's "Analecta sacr. et class." (1888), I, 44-46. St. Epiphanius of Salamis devoted his great work " Ad- versus Hsereses " (written about 374) mainly to refuta- tion of Manichffiism. The other heresies receive but brief notices and even Arianism seems of less impor- tance. Theodoret of Cyrus (45S), "Dehaereticonim fabulis ", in four books (P. G., LXXXIII), gives an ex- position of Manicha?ism. Didymus the Blind, president of the catechetical school at Alexandria (345 to 395), wrote a treatise in eighteen chapters against Mani- chseans. St. John Damascene (c. 750) wrote a " Dia- logue against Manichaeans "(P. G.,XCTV), and a shorter " Discussion of John the Orthodox with a Manichsean " (P. G., XCVT); Photius (891) wrote four books against the Manichseans, and is a valuable witness of the Paulician phase of Manichaiism. Paul the Persian (c, 529), "Disputation with Photinus the Manichaean" (P.G.,LXXXVTII, 528). Zacharias Rhetor (c. 636), "Seven theses against Manichseans", fragments m P. G., LXXXV, 1143—. Heraclian (c. 610), wrote twenty books against Manichseans (Photius, Cod. 86}. Amongst Latin wiiters St. Augustine is foremost, his works being "De utilitate crcdendi"; "De moribus Manichseorum " ; "De duabus animabus"; "Contra Fortunatum"; "Contra Faustum"; "De actis cum Felice", "De Natura Boni", "Contra Secundinum", "Contra Adversarium Legis et Prophetarum" in " Opera ", VIII (Paris, 183717 Some inT:nglish. " De Genesi contra ManichsBos lib. II . " Ambrosiaster (370- 380) : for his commentaries on St. Paul's Epistles and his "Quffistiones V. et N. Testamenti" see A. Souter, "A Studv of Ambrosiaster" (1907); Marcus Victop- inus (380), "Ad Justinum Manichseum".

Sources. — Theodore Bar Khoni, Kefltorian Bishop of Cas- car (c. end sixth oentu^), wrote a book of "Scholia" or Memoirs. Book XI of this work contains a list of "sects which arose at different times*'; among these he sives an account of the ManichsEtans and relates at length the Monichsan oosmog* ony. This is especially interesting and valuable as he retains the original Synac designations of the cosmogonic figures and probably (rfves Mani's own account verbally from the Fondft'- mental Epbtle; in Poonon. Tnacriptions mandaitea dea ooupe§ d* Khouabir (Paris, 1898), French tr. (see also M. Noldbkb Wiener, Zeitsch. Kund. Morg., XII, 355); Abu* Lfaradsb* usually called En Nahim ("The Shining One"), an Arab hiaio- rian who in a. d. 008 wrote his Fihrist aVulvm or Compendium of Sciences. The chapters dealing with the Manichssans wezB published in German tr. by FLtJosL in his Manx. Al Bnttnti, an Arabic chronologist (a. d. 1000), in his Chronoloov ofBiUUm Naiionej^Eng. od. Sachau, Or. tranaL Fund (London, lo79), and Indiat Bug. ed. Sacbau, TrQbn. Or, aer. (London, 1888).