In the fifth century Manichaeism was one of the most widespread religions in the world.

The reigion was founded by a Persian nobleman called Mani (210-276 AD). He lived in Babylon, which at the time was a province of the Sassanid Persia.Mani taught that two natures existed from the beginning: light and darkness. The realm of light lived in peace, while the realm of darkness was in constant conflict with itself. The universe we know is the result of an attack by the realm of darkness on the realm of light. In other words Manichaeism is a Dualist religion.

A corollary of Mani's teaching is that there is no omnipotent good power, and therefore no problem in explaining how an omnipotent, omniscient and omnibenificent god could have allowed evil to enter his creation - a major unresolved philosophical problem for educated Jews, Christians and Moslems to this day.

Human beings provided the main battleground for the two opposing powers: the good part is the soul (which is composed of immaterial light) and the bad part is the body (composed of dark material). The soul defines the person and is incorruptible, but in human beings it is under the domination of a foreign power. Humans are said to be able to be saved from this power (the power of matter) if they come to know who they are and identify themselves with their soul.

One of the tenets of Manichaeism was that it presented the complete version of teachings revealed only partially by teachers such as Zoroaster, Hermes, Plato, Buddha, and Jesus. Mani was also influenced by Mandaeanism.

He began preaching at an early age. He claimed to be the 'Paraclete of the Truth', as promised in the New Testament: the Last Prophet and Seal of the Prophets that finalised a succession of men guided by God. Buddhist influences were significant in the formation of Mani's religious thought, and the transmigration of souls became a Manichaean belief.

Manichaeism spread rapidly throughout both the east and west. To the east the religion spread to Northern India, Tibet, and Western China, where it was known by the second half of the sixth century. The religion was adopted by the Uyghur ruler Bugug Khan (759-780 AD), and it remained state religion for about a century before the collapse of the Uyghur Empire. It spread along trade routes as far as Chang'an, the capital of the Tang Dynasty in China. In its last organised form appears to have died out before the 16th century in southern China

To the west it reached Rome through the apostle Psattiq by AD 280. He was also in Egypt in 244 and 251 and Manichaeism is known to have been flourishing in the Fayum area of Egypt by 290 AD Manichaean monasteries are known in Rome in 312 AD, during the time of Pope Miltiades. By 354 AD, Hilary of Poitiers was writing that the Manichaean faith was a significant force in southern Gaul - exactly the area where later Gnostic Dualists that we now know as Cathars were to appear in the Middle Ages.

Third and Fourth century Christian writers such as Hippolytus and Epiphanius mention a certain Scythianus, who visited India around 50 AD. From there he is said to have brought "the Doctrine of the Two Principles". According to these writers, Scythianus' pupil Terebinthus presented himself as a "Buddha" Terebinthus went to Palestine and Judea where he met the Apostles, and ultimately settled in Babylon, where he transmitted his teachings to Mani, thereby creating the foundation of Manichaeism.

The Manichaean faith was widely persecuted. In 381 AD Christians requested the Emperor Theodosius I to strip Manicheans of their civil rights. By the following year the devout Christian emperor had decreed death for Manicheans.

From now on Christians who showed any sympathy for Dualism would be heretics and liable to execution. The first victims appear to have been the Christian bishop Priscillian and his followers, soon afterwards. They appear to have attempted to adapt what they thought were valuable parts of Arian Christianity and Manichaeism into Catholic Christianity. Priscillian was beheaded at Trier in 385, with the approval of the Catholic Church synod that met there in the same year. He has been called the first Christian martyred by Christians, but it is probably more accurate to describe him as the first mainstream Christian martyred by the Catholic Christians

For a thousand years the faith maintained a patchy existence in the Christian Roman Empire including Mesopotamia, North Africa, the Iberian peninsular, Gaul, North Italy, and the Balkans, It flourished for a time in the land of its birth (Persia) and for a while at least was tolerated. In the 9th century the Muslim Caliph Ma'mun tolerated a community of Manicheans.

Manichaean Ideas and Christianity

Manichaean ideas undoubtedly had a major effect on the development of Christianity.

In particular Gnostic Christians held similar Dualist ideas. The Pauline line of Christianity that developed into what we now call the Orthodox and Catholic Churches was also influenced. It absorbed a number of characteristic Manichaean ideas that are not generally recognised as such. A few examples are the God of Light locked in battle with the "god of this world", along with their armies of light and darkness respectively, with human beings as combatants on either side.

Augustine of Hippo (354-430 AD) Augustine was a "hearer" of Manichaeism for nine years, but he failed to make any progress in the hierarchy of his chosen faith. Soon after Christian persecution of his faith started in earnest he dropped it and adopted Christianity, becoming a critic of his earlier faith. According to his Confessions of St. Augustine, he converted to Christianity from Manichaeism in the year 387, possibly sensing greater opportunities given his failure to progress, and the ascendancy of the Christian Church. The Emperor Theodosius I, prompted by Christians, had issued a decree in 382 AD imposing the death penalty for Manicheans, and in 391 he was to declare Christianity to be the only legitimate religion in the Roman Empire.

.Despite his hostility it is apparent that Manichaean ways of thinking had an influence on the development of Augustine's ideas, even after his conversion to Christianity. Some of his Manichaean ideas that were later considered mainstream (but were not mainstream before his time) include the polarised nature of good and evil (Good/Bad; Light/Dark; Heaven /Hell ; Immaterial/Material; eternal/corruptible); the separation of people into elect, hearers, and sinners; the hostility to the flesh and a horror of sexual activity. His novel idea of Origin Sin, by which sin became a sexually transmitted disease, owes much to his fundamentally Manichaean outlook.

Augustine's writings documented some Manichaean beliefs and when later Christians encountered Dualist ideas they tended to assume that they represented a survival or re-emergence of Manichaeism, and thus heresy. This is unfortunate, not only for the Dualist who were persecuted as heretics, but also for modern scholars. Whenever medieval Christian chroniclers recorded the discovery of Manicheans it is generally impossible to determine whether they really were Manicheans or whether they were other Dualists branded as Manicheans and with Manichaean beliefs falsely imputed to them.

Intriguingly there are also links with the Essenes. Comparisons between Manichaean myths and the Book of Enoch reveal that they both recognised the same "King of Glory", also referred to in other Dead Sea Scrolls.

Manichaeism and Catharism.

It has been extensively argued that the Bogomils, Paulicians, and the Cathars were deeply influenced by Manichaeism. Scholars hold varying opinions on this as the evidence is ambiguous - or in the case of Medieval Christian Chroniclers, unreliable. On balance the majority view is that all three groups were inheritors of the Manichaean tradition, a view based largely on the amount of detail that accords. One example they held identical views in interpreting the word superstantial which occurs in the Lord's Prayer. Another is the close resemblance to Manichaean principles of Church organisation. On the other hand their religious cosmology from what we know does not appear to match.

Regardless of its historical accuracy the charge of Manichaeism was levelled at Cathars by contemporary Catholic opponents, who routinely tried to match contemporary heresies with those recorded by the Church Fathers such as Saint Augustine.

 

Manichaean Writings. Seven or eight books were originally written by Mani. Only scattered fragments and translations of the originals remain. The Evangelion: (in Syriac) Quotations from the first chapter were brought in Arabic by al-Nadim, who lived in Baghdad at a time when there were still Manicheans living there, in his book the "Fihrist" (written in 938), a catalogue of books known to him. The Treasure of Life (in Syriac) The Treatise (in Syriac) Secrets (in Syriac) The Book of Giants: Original fragments were discovered at Qumran (pre-Manichaean) and Turfan. This is actually part of six of the "Book of Enoch"). Known in Coptic and also from the Dead Sea Scrolls found in the Judean Desert Parts of Mani's Fundamental Epistle is recorded by Augustine (in Latin) in his anti-Manichaean works. Psalms and Prayers (in Coptic). A Manichaean Psalter, discovered in Egypt in the early 1900s, was edited and published by Charles Alberry from Manichaean manuscripts in the Chester Beatty collection and in the Berlin Academy, 1938-9. The Shabuhragan, (in Middle Persian): dedicated to Shapur I: Original Middle Persian fragments were discovered at Turfan, quotations were made in Arabic by al-Biruni. Other books: The Ardahang, the "Picture Book". In Iranian tradition, this was one of Mani's holy books which became remembered in later Persian history, and was also called Aržang, a Parthian word meaning "Worthy", and was beautified with paintings. Therefore Iranians gave him the title of "The Painter". The Kephalaia, "Discourses" The Acts of Thomas In later centuries, as Manichaeism passed through eastern Persian speaking lands and arrived to the Uyghur Empire, and ultimately the Uyghur kingdom of Turfan there were also hymn cycles and prayers composed in Middle Persian and Parthian. The Manicheans made every effort to include all known religious traditions in their faith. As a result, they preserved many apocryphal Christian works, such as the Acts of Thomas.

Manichaean Sources Until discoveries in the 1900s of original sources, the only sources we had for Manichaeism were polemical descriptions and quotations from non-Manichaean authors representing rival faiths, Christian, Muslim, or Zoroastrian. Most of the Western world's concept of Manichaeism came through Augustine's polemics against it after his conversion to Christianity, which included a supposed theological debate with Manicheans. In the early 1900s, German scholars excavated an ancient site (destroyed around 1300 AD), in the Manichaean Uigur Kingdom near Turfan, now in Chinese Turkestan. The texts they discovered were published in Berlin in 1933. Around the same time other German researchers in Egypt found a large body of Manichaean works written in Coptic. These were published in Berlin before World War II. (Some of the original Coptic Manichaean writings were destroyed during the war.) Prompted by the success of German researchers, French scholars went into China and discovered another set of Manichaean writings, written in Chinese. These Chinese writings are today kept in London, Paris, and Beijing. Original studies and analyses of these writings, along with their translations, originally appeared in French, English, German, and Japanese before and after World War II. In the latter part of the 20th century another Manichaean work, written in Greek and describing the life of Mani, was also discovered. Thanks to these discoveries the complete Manichaean story of the creation and purpose of the universe has been reconstructed from primary sources.

Click on the following external link for more on Manichaeism and Bogomilism