MAKICllEANS, 
653 
o| the appstTes, pretending that whatever was inconsistent with thiis 
had been foisted into the New Testament by later writers, who were 
half jews. Oh the other hand, they made fables and apocryphal 
bpohs pass for apostolical writings^ and are even suspected to have 
forged several others, the better to maintain their errors. 
The rule of life and manners, which Manes prescribed to his fob 
lowjefs, was most extravagantly rigorous and severe. However, he 
divided his disciples into two classes ; one of which comprehended 
the perfect Christians, under the name of the elect, — and the other, 
the imperfect and feeble, under the title of auditors or hearers. The 
elect were obliged to a rigorous and entire abstinence from flesh, 
eggs, milk, fish, wine, all intoxicating drink, wedlock, and all gratifi- 
cations ; and to live in a state of the severest penury, nourishing their 
emaciated bodies with bread, herbs, pulse, and melons, and depriving 
themselves of all the comforts that arise from the moderate indulgence 
of natural passions, and also from a variety hf innocent and agreeable 
pursuits. The auditors were allowed to possess houses, lands, and 
wealth, to feed on flesh, to enter into the bonds of conjugal tenderness, 
but this liberty was granted them with many limitations, and under 
the strictest conditions of moderation and temperance. 
The general assembly of the Manicheans was headed by a presi- 
dent, who represented Jesus Christ. There were joined to him twelve 
rulers or masters, who were designed to represent the twelve apostles, 
and these were followed by seventy-two bishops, the images of the 
seventy-two disciples of our Lord. These bishops had presbyters or 
deacons under them ; and all the members of these religious orders 
were chosen out of the class of the elect. 
Their worship was simple and plain, and consisted of prayers, 
reading the scriptures, and hearing public discourses, at which both 
the auditors and elect were present. They observed baptism and 
the eucharist, and kept the Lord’s day, observing it as a fast. They 
likewise kept Easter and Pentecost. Towards the fourth century the 
Manicheans concealed themselves under various names, which they 
successively adopted, and changed, in proportion as they were dis- 
covered by them. Thus they assumed the names of EncratiteSj 
Apotastips, Sacophori, Hydroparastates, Solitaires, and several others, 
.under which they lay concealed fora certain time, but could not; 
however, long escape the vigilance. of their enemies. About the close 
of the sixth cent^iry, this sect gained a very considerable influence, 
particularly among the Persians. 
In the twelfth century, this sect took a new face, on occasion of 
one Constantine, an Armenian, and ^in adherer to it, who took upori 
himself to suppress the reading of all other hooks besides the Evan- 
gelists, and the epistles of St. Paul, which he explained in such a 
manner as to make them contain a new system of Manicheism. He 
entirely discarded all the writings of his predecessors, rejecting th6 
chimeras of the Valentinians, and their thirty ?eons ; the fable of Manes 
yvith regard to the origin of rain and other dreams, — but still retained 
tlie impurities of Barsiiides. In this manner he reformed Maniche- 
ism, Insomuch that his followers made, no scruple of anathematizing 
Scythian Buddas, called also Addas and Terebinth, the contemporaries 
4 A 
