282 MANIC 
opportunity to propagate his opinions, and where he was 
regarded as a wonderful man, and even a god. In this 
afyium he compofed his Gofpel, fuppofed by Lardner to 
be the fame with what is fometimes called “The Living 
Gofpel concerning the contents of which we have no¬ 
thing but uncertain reports and conjeffures, no fragments 
of it being preferved in any of the authors who wrote 
againft Manes, The Perfian authors relate the following- 
account of the origin and firft publication of this book, 
which has much of the air of fiction, and feems to have 
been borrowed from the hiftory of Zoroafter. To'give his 
opinions the weight of apparently divine authority, he de- 
vifed an expedient fimilar to what has been praftifed by 
other falfe prophets. Having found-in a lolitary place a 
cave, in which was a fine fpring, he conveyed into it fuffi- 
cient provilions to lalf a year, and then told his difciples 
that he was about to take a journey to heaven, and that 
he would be abfent from them during that period, at the 
expiration of which he would return to them. Taking 
the neceffary precautions to prevent difcovery, he then 
withdrew to his place of concealment, where in filence 
and folitude he methodized his fyftem of philofophy and 
religion, which he wrote in a book filled with emblemati¬ 
cal images and figures, deiigned to illuftrate his peculiar 
principles. At the end of the year he left his retreat, and 
prefented this book to his difciples, faying that he had 
brought it from heaven ; and by this artifice greatly in- 
creafed the number of his followers. This book was called 
by the Perfians Ertenh-Mani, or Book of the Pictures of 
Mani. Upon the death of Sapor, and the acceflion of his 
foil Hormifdas, Manes returned into Perfia, confident of 
the protection of a prince who appears to have fecretly 
favoured him during his father’s reign. On his arrival 
at court, Manes prefented his Gofpel to the king, w ho re¬ 
ceived it very gracioufly, and even adopted the tenets of 
the author, openly declaring himfelf his protestor and 
patron. Finding at length, however, that, notwithftand- 
ing the royal fupport, Manes was expofed to perpetual 
danger from the united hatred of the Chriftians, the Magi, 
the Jews, and the Pagans, the king built for him a ftrong 
caftle between Bagdad and Suza, as a place of fecurity 
again ft his perfecutors. Upon the death of Hormifdas, he 
was fucceeded by his fon Varanes I. who in the beginning 
of his reign protected Manes, and appeared favourable to 
his opinions; but afterwards, influenced by the reprefen- 
tations and remonftrances of the Magi, he determined to 
facrifice him to their jealoufy. In order to inveigle him 
out of his caftle, the king appointed a l’olemn deputation 
to be held between the principal doctors of the feCt of 
Zoroafter and Manes ; at which the latter was condemned 
to death, for denying the refurreCtion of the body asfome 
lay, but, according to others, for having intermixed the 
doCIrines of Chriftianity with the tenets of the Magi. 
Hiftorians differ in their relations concerning the manner 
of his execution ; fome telling us that he w'as crucified ; 
others that he was cut in two through the middle of his 
body, and that the feparated parts were hung up over two 
of the gates of the capital city ; and others, that he was 
flayed alive, and that his.{kin, filled with chaff, was fuf- 
pended on a gibbet ereCfed in a confpicuous fttuation, as 
an object of terror to thole of his feet. Upon this, molt 
of his followers fled into India, and fome even to China. 
All who remained in Perfia loft their liberty, and were 
reduced to fervitude. This is generally fuppofed to have 
happened in the year 2.78. 
It has been a lubject of much controverfy, whether 
Mani was an impoftor who pretended to prophecy and 
infpiration. The learned Dr. Lardner has examined the 
arguments on both fides; and, though he does not choofe 
to deny that he was an impoftor, he does not difcern evi¬ 
dent proofs of it. He acknowledges that he was an arro¬ 
gant philofopher, and a great fchemill; but whether he 
was an impoftor he cannot certainly fay. He was much 
too fond of philofophical notions, which he endeavoured 
to bring into religion, for which lie is to be blamed; ne- 
H E A N. 
verthelefs, he obferves, that every bold dogmatifer is not 
an impoftor. Lardner allows that Mani and his followers 
were Chriftians, and held many opinions in common with 
other Chriftians. The doftrine of Mani, fays Molheim, 
was a motley mixture of the tenets of Chriftianity with 
the ancient philofophy of the Perfians, in which he had 
been inltrufted during his youth. He combined thefe 
two fyftems, and applied and accommodated to Jefus 
Chrift the characters and aCtions which the Perfians attri¬ 
buted to the god Mithras. He eftabliftied two principles, 
viz. a good and an evil one ; the firft a moft pure and fub- 
tile matter, which he called light, did nothing but good ; 
and the fecond, a grofs and corrupt fubflance, which he 
called darknefs, nothing but evil. But this philofophy is 
very ancient; and Plutarch (A. D. 109.) treats of it at 
large in his Ifis and Ofiris. 
Our fouls, according to Mani, were made by the good 
principle, and our bodies by the evil one ; thofe two prin¬ 
ciples being, according to him, co-eternal, and independent 
of each other. In this notion, according to St. Auguitine, 
his followers triumphed to a great degree, fuppofing that 
it afforded the beft account of the origin of evil. Each of 
thefe principles is fubjeCt to the dominion of a fupeiin- 
tending being, whofe exiftence is from all eternity. Tiie 
being who prefides over the light is called God ; he that 
rules the land of darknefs bears the title of Hyle, or demon. 
The ruler of the light is fupremely happy, and, in confe- 
quence thereof, benevolent and good : the prince of dark- 
nefs is unhappy in himfelf, and defirous of rendering 
others partakers of his mifery, and is evil and malignant. 
The creation of the world originated in an attempt made 
upon the kingdom of light by the kingdom of darknefs ; 
which the ruler of light no fooner perceived, than he de¬ 
tached from him a power which formed the firft man, who, 
being inverted with the five elements, went down to fight 
with darknefs. In this conteft the prince of darknefs 
proved victorious, and feized upon a confiderable portion 
of the foul, or light, that was in man ; to whofe relief 
God fent another power, called the living fpirit, which 
defeated the prince of darknefs, refcued a portion of this 
light, and out of it formed the fun, moon, and ftars, and 
afterwards the earth from matter. In order to detain the 
remaining portion of this light, which he had mixed with 
matter, the prince of darknefs, upon the model of the firft 
man who came to fight him, formed the firft parents of 
the human race. The beings engendered from this ori¬ 
ginal ftock, confift of a body formed out of the corrupt 
matter of the kingdom of darknefs, and of two fouls ; 
one the fource and caufe of vicious pallions, deriving its 
origin from matter, the other the fource of good purpoles 
and inclinations, deriving its origin from God. In Adam, 
there was a great abundance of the particles of light, with 
but few particles of darknefs, and therefore he lived ho- 
lily a confiderable time ; till at iength, the adverfe part in 
him prevailing, he had commerce with Eve, and fo fell. 
To repair the mifchiefs of the fall, and by degrees to de¬ 
liver captive fouls from their corporeal prifons, God 
formed two beings of eminent dignity from his own per- 
fon, one of whom was Chrift, and the other the Holy 
Ghoft; who conftituted with himfelf one Deity, under a 
three-fold appellation. The Father was believed by the 
Manicheans to inhabit the fupreme and moft fublime light. 
The Son they thought dwelt by his power in the fun,and 
by his vvililom in the moon; and therefore, when they 
prayed, they bowed towards the fun in the daytime, and 
towards the moon in the night. To the Holy Ghoft, the 
third majefty, they aftigned the air for his relidence ; con- 
iidering him to be the genial principle which warms and 
illuminates the minds of men, renders the earth fruitful, 
and gradually draws up from its bofom the latent princi¬ 
ples of celeltial fire, to their primitive • exalted liation. 
After making ufe lor a long time of the miniftry of angels 
and of holy men, to conduct fouls back to the kingdom 
of light, God ordered Chrift to leave the folar regions, and 
to delcend upon earth, clothed with the Ihadovvv form of 
1 a human 
