Manichaeism
General - History - Legacy

MANICHAEAN WRITERS

Manichaeism, like Gnosticism, is an intellectual religion, it despised the simplicity of the crowd. As it professes to bring salvation through the knowledge, ignorance is a sin. Manichaeism, in consequence, is literary and refined, its founder was a fruitful writer, and so were many of his followers. Of all this literary output only fragments are presently extant. No Manichaean treatise came down to us in its entirety. Mani wrote in Persian and Babylonian Aramaic, apparently using either language with equal facility. The following seven titles of works of his have come down to us:

"Shapurakhan", I.e. "Princely", because it was dedicated to Peroz, the brother of Shapur I (written in Syrian). It was a kind of Manichaean eschatology, dealing in three chapters with the dissolution of Hearers, Elect, and Sinners. It was written about 242 A.D.

"The Book of Mysteries", polemical and dogmatic in character.

"The Book of the Giants", probably about cosmogonic figures and similar to the Dead Sea Scroll work of the same name.

"The Book of Precepts for Hearers", with appendix for the Elect.

"The Book of Life-giving", written in Greek, probably of considerable size.

"The Book of Pragmateia", contents totally unknown.

"The Gospel", written in Persian, of which the chapters began with successive letters of the alphabet.

Besides these more extensive 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 immediate 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 Sogdian(?) 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 Manichaean writers the following names came down to us: Agapius (Photius, Cod. 179), of Asia Minor, Aphthonius of Egypt (Philostorgium, "Hist. Eccl.", III, 15) Photinus refuted by Paul the Persian (Mercati, "Per la vita de Paulo il Persiano"), Adimantus, refuted by Augustine.

ANTI-MANICHAEAN WRITERS

St. Ephraem (306-373), his treatise against the Manichaeans was published in poems (59-73) in the Roman edition with Latin translation and again by K. Kessler in his "Mani", I, 262-302, Hegemonius is said by Heracleon of Chalcedon to be the author of the "Acta disputationis Archelai episcopi Mesopotamiae et Manetis haeresiarchae". This important work on Manichaeism, written originally in Greek or perhaps in Syriac, between 300 A.D. and 350 came 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 between Archalaus, Bishop of Charcar, and Mani, himself. The dispute is a literary device, but the work ranks as the "first class" authority on Manichaeism. It was translated into English in the Ante-Nicene library.

Alexander of Lycopolis published a short treatise against Manichaeism, last edited by A. Brinkmann (Leipzig, 1895). Serapion of Thmuis (c. 350) is credited by St. Jerome with an excellent work against Manichaeans. This work has recently been restored to its original form by A. Brinkmann "Sitz. ber der Preuss. Acad. Berlin"(1895), 479sqq. Titus of Bostra (374) published four books against the Manichaeans, two containing arguments from reason and two arguements from Scripture and theology against the heresy. They have come down to us complete only in a Syriac version (LaGarde, "Tit. Bost. contra Manichaeos Libri IV", Berlin, 1859), but part of the original Greek is published in Pitra's "Analecta sacra. et class." (1888), I, 44-46. St. Epiphanius of Salamis devoted his great work "Adversus Haereses" (written about 374) mainly to refutation of Manichaeism. The other heresies receive but brief notices and even Arianism seems of less importance. Theodoret of Cyprus (458), "De haereticorum fabulis", in four books (P.G. LXXXIII), gives an exposition of Manichaeism. Didymus the Blind, president of the catechetical school at Alexandria (345-395), wrote a treatise in eighteen chapters against Manichaeans. St. John Damascene (c.750) Wrote a "Dialogue against Manichaeans" (P.G. XCIV), and a shorter "Discussion of John the Orthodox with a Manichaean" (P.G. XCVI), Photius (891) wrote four books against the Manichaeans, and is a valuable witness of the Paulician phase of Manichaeism. Paul the Persian (c.529) "Disputation with Photinus the Manichaean" (P.G. LXXXVIII, 528). Zacharias Rhetor (c.536), "Seven theses against Manichaeans", fragments in P.G. LXXXV, 1143-. Heraclian (c.510) wrote twenty books against Manichaeans (Photius, Cod. 86). Amongst Latin writers St. Augustine is foremost, his works being "De utilitate credendi", "De moribus Manichaeorum", "De duabus animabus", "Contra Fortunatum", "De actis cum Felice", "De Natura Boni", "Contra Secundinum", "Contra Adversarium Legis et Prophetarum" in "Opera", VIII (Paris, 1837). Some in English. "De Genesi contra Manichaeos lib. II." Ambrosiaster (370-380): for his commentaries on St. Paul's Epistles and his "Quaestiones V. et N. Testamenti" see A. Souter, "A Study of Ambrosiaster" (1907), Marcus Victorinus (380), "Ad Justinum Manichaeum".

SOURCES

Theodore bar Khoni, NestorianBishop of Cascar (ca. end of sixth century), 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 gives an account of the Manichaeans and relates at length the Manichaean cosmogony. This is especially interesting and valuable as he retains the original Syriac designations of the cosmogonic figures and probably gives Mani's own account verbally from the Fundamental Epistle, in Pognon, Inscriptions mandaites des coupes de Khouabir (Paris, 1898), French tr. (see also M. Noldere Wiener, Zeitsch. Kund. Morg., XII, 355), Abu' Lfaradsh usually called En Nadim ("The Shining One"), an Arab historian who in A.D. 908 wrote his Firhist al'ulum or Compendium of Sciences". The chapters dealing with the Manichaeans were published in German tr. by Fluegel in his Mani. Al Biruni, an Arabic chronologist (A.D. 1000), in his Chronology of Eastern Nations, Eng. ed. Sachau, Or transl. Fund (London, 1879), and India, Eng. ed. Sachau, truebn, Or. ser. (London, 1888).

LITERATURE

Beausobre, Hist. crit. de Manichee et du Manicheisme (Amsterdam, 1734),
Bischoff, Im Reiche der Gnosis (Leipzig, 1906). 40-104,
Bousett, Hauptprobleme der Gnosis (Goettingen, 1907),
Bruckner, Faustus von Mileve, Ein Beitrag sur Geschichte des abendl. Manich. (Leipzig, 1901),
Casartelli, La Philosophie du Mardeisme, Rochat, Essai sur Mani et sa doctrine (Geneva, 1897),
Congress of History of Religion (Basle, 1905), Idem in Realencyckl. fur Prot. Theol., s.v. Mani, Manichaer, Fluegel, Mani, seine Lehre und seine Shriften (Leipzig, 1862),
Cumont, Recherche sur les Manecheisme, I, La Cosmogonie Manecheenne (Brussels, 1908), In course of publication, II, Fragments syriaques d'ouvrages manichiens, III, Les formules grecque d'abjuration,
De Stoop, La diffusion du Manicheisme dans l'empire Romain (Ghent, 1908),
Doellinger, Geschichte der gnost-manisch. Secten (Munich, 1890),
DuFurcq, Etudes sur les Gesta Martyrum Romains, IV, Le Neo-Manichaeisme et la legende chret. (Paris, 1910), Idem, De Manichaismo apud Latinos quinto sextoque seculo, etc. (Paris, 1910),
Geyler, System des Manichaeismus (Jena, 1875)
Kessler, M ini Forschungen ueber die mani-chaeische Religion, I, (Berlin, 1889), II (1903), Idem in Acts of Internat.
Mueller, Handschr. Reste in Estrangelo-Schrift aus Turfan. Chin-Turkestan (Berlin, 1904),
Newmann, Introd. Essay on Manisch. Heresy (1887),
Salemann, Eine Bruchstuck man. Schrifftums in Mem. Acad. S. Petersburg, 1904.,
Salemann, Maniscaeische Studien (Petersburg, 1908),
Ter-Mekertschian, Die Paulicianer (Leipzig, 1893)