Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 15.djvu/510

Rh 486 MANICH^ISM knew of i Buddhism. The name Buddha (Buddas) which occurs in the legendary account of Mani, and perhaps in the latter s own writings, indicates further that he had occupied his attention with Buddhism when engaged in the work of founding his new religion. But his borrowings from this source must have been quite insignificant. A detailed comparison shows the difference between Buddhism and Manichteism in all their principal doctrines to be very great, while it becomes evident that the points of resem blance are almost everywhere accidental. This is also true of the ethics and the asceticism of the two systems. There is not a single point in Manichseism which demands for its explanation an appeal to. Buddhism. Such being the case, the relationship between the two religions remains a mere possibility, a possibility which the inquiry of Geyler (Das /System des Manichxismus und sein Verhciltniss zum Buddliismus, Jena, 1875) has not been able to elevate into a probability. How are we to explain the rapid spread of Mauichaeism, and the fact that it really became one of the great religions 1 One answer is that Manichaeism was the most complete gnosis, the richest, most consequent, and most artistic system formed on the basis of the ancient Babylonian re ligion (so Kessler). This explanation is insufficient, for no religion operates mainly through the perfection of its system of doctrine ; and it is not strictly correct, for the older gnostic systems were not less richly equipped than the Mauichsean. What gave strength to Manichaaism was rather that it united an ancient mythology and a thorough going materialistic dualism with an exceedingly simple spiritual worship and a strict morality. On comparing it with the Semitic religions of nature, we perceive that it retained their mythologies, after transforming them into &quot;doctrines,&quot; but abolished all their sensuous cultus, substituting instead a spiritual worship as well as a strict morality. Manichaaism was thus able to satisfy the new wants of an old world. It offered revelation, redemption, moral virtue, and immortality, spiritual benefits on the basis of the religion of nature. A further source of strength lay in the simple yet firm social organization which was given by Mani himself to his new institution. The wise man and the ignorant, the enthusiast and the man of the world, could all find acceptance here, and there was laid on no one more than he was able and willing to bear. Each one, however, was attached and led onward by the prospect of a higher rank to be attained, while the intellectually gifted had an additional inducement in the assurance that they did not require to submit themselves to any authority, but would be led to God by pure reason. Thus adapted from the first to individual requirements, this religion also showed itself able to appropriate from time to time foreign elements. Originally furnished from fragments of various religions, it could increase or diminish this possession without rupturing its own elastic framework. And, after all, great adaptability is just as necessary for a universal religion as a divine founder in whom the highest revelation of God Himself may be seen and reverenced. Manichaaism indeed, though it applies the title &quot; redeemer &quot; to Mani, has really no knowledge of a redeemer, but only of a physical and gnostic process of redemption ; on the other hand, it possesses in Mani the supreme prophet of God. If we consider in conclusion that Manichaaism gave a simple, apparently profound and yet convenient solution of the problem of good and evil, a problem that had become peculiarly oppressive to the human race in the 2d and 3d centuries, we shall have named the most important factors which account for the rapid spread of the system. Manichaaism first gained a firm footing in the East, i.e., in Persia, Mesopotamia, and Transoxania. The persecutions it had to endure did not hinder its extension. The seat of the Manichaaan pope was for centuries in Sketch Babylon, at a later period in Samarkand. Even after the f the conquests of Islam the Manichaean Church continued to maintain itself, indeed it seems to have become still more widely diffused by the victorious campaigns of the Mohammedans, and it frequently gained secret adherents among the latter themselves. Its doctrine and discipline underwent little change in the East ; in particular, it drew no nearer to the Christian religion. More than once, however, Manichaaism experienced attempts at reforma tion ; for of course the auditores very easily became worldly in character, and movements of reformation led temporarily to divisions and the formation of sects. Towards the close of the 10th century, at the time the Fihrist was written, the Manichaaans in Mesopotamia and Persia had already been in large measure ousted from the towns, and had withdrawn to the villages. But in Turkestan, and as far as the Chinese frontier, there existed numerous Manichaaan communities, and even whole tribes that had adopted the name of Mani. Probably it was the great migrations of the Mongolian race that first put an end to Manichaaism in Central Asia. But even in the 15th century there were Manichaaans living beside the Thomas-Christians on the coast of Malabar in India (see Germann, Die Thomas-Christen, 1875). Manichaaism first penetrated the Greek-lloman empire about the year 280, in the time of the emperor Probus (see the Chronicon of Eusebius). If we may take the edict of Diocletian against the Manichaaans as genuine, the system must have gained a firm footing in the West by the beginning of the 4th century, but we know that as late as about the year 325 Eusebius had not any accurate knowledge of the sect. It was only subsequent to about 330 that Manichaeism spread rapidly in the Roman empire. Its adherents were recruited on the one hand from the old gnostic sects (especially from the Marcionites, Manicbaeism exerted besides this a strong influence on the development of the Marcionite churches of the 4th century), on the other hand from the large number of the &quot;cultured,&quot; who were striving after a &quot; rational&quot; and yet in some manner Christian religion. Its polemics and its criticism of the Catholic Church now became the strong side of Mani chaeism, especially in the West. It admitted the stumb ling-blocks which the Old Testament offers to every intelligent reader, and gave itself out as a Christianity without the Old Testament. Instead of the subtle Catholic theories concerning divine predestination and human freedom, and instead of a difficult theodicaaa, it offered an exceedingly simple conception of sin and goodness. The doctrine of the incarnation of God, which was especially objectionable to those who were going over to the new universal religion from the old cults, was not proclaimed by Manichseism. In its rejection of this doctrine Manichaaism agreed with Neo-Platonism ; but, while the latter, notwithstanding all its attempts to conform itself to Christianity, could find no formula by which to inaugurate within its own limits the special veneration of Christ, the Western Manichaaans succeeded in giving their teaching a Christian tinge. The only part of the Manichaaan mythology that became popular was the crude, physical dualism. The barbaric elements were judiciously screened from view as a &quot;mystery;&quot; they were, indeed, here and there explicitly disavowed even by the initiated. The further Manichseism advanced into the West, the more Christian and philosophic did it become. In Syria it maintained itself in comparative purity. In North Africa it found its most numerous adherents, gaining secret support even among the clergy. The explanation of this perhaps lies in the fact that one part of the population of North Africa was of Semitic origin. Augustine was an