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108 MANICILEANS morality was self-conquest by asceticism, of hi.-h they held to three degrees: 1, what the Latin writers call signaculum oris, abstinence from all impure words, and even thoughts, and from any kind of food which might in- crease the power of the body over the spirit, and especially flesh, wine, and strong drinks ; 2, the signaculum manuum, abstinence from such work as makes this world an attractive home; 8, the signaculum sinus, abstinence from sexual intercourse. Legal external mar- riage was not absolutely forbidden, but celi- bacy was strongly recommended, while absti- nence from procreation was a moral duty. This rigorous asceticism imposed on the bap- tized members such privations that most Mani- cheeans remained catechumens, postponing bap- tism as long as possible. The worship of the Manichaeans was very simple. Sunday was cel- ebrated by fasting ; they kept the day of Manes's death as an annual festival; they adminis- tered baptism with oil, and admitted only bap- tized members to the Lord's supper, which was celebrated in secret. Manes himself sent out 12 apostles, and these were afterward repre- sented by 12 magistri, with a 13th invisible one, without doubt Manes himself, at their head. After them followed 70 or 72 bishops, who in turn had under them presbyters, dea- cons, and the other electi, or baptized members of the church. The cruel execution of Manes, the date of which is commonly fixed at A. D. 276, in the reign of Bahram I., was undoubt- edly followed by a persecution of his disciples. The Manichseans consequently fled from Iranian territory into lands occupied by Tartaric races, where Buddhism was the general religion, and toleration was shown to other sects. They re- turned to the west only after the fall of the Sas- sanian dynasty, and settled especially in Baby- lon and its environs, which became the seat of the Manichroan primate, and seems to have been looked upon as a sort of holy city. Many emi- grated to Khorasan in the reign of the caliph Muktadir, and still more to Samarcand. Mos- lem fanaticism did not disturb them here, as the chief of the Turkish tribe of Tagazgaz, who took an interest in them, threatened vengeance against the Mohammedans in his territory if any harm should be done to the Manichseans. At the time of the author of the Fihrist, in the 10th century, there were but few Mani- chaeans in the west, and in Bagdad their num- ber diminished, within his own recollection, from 300 to 5. Manes had appointed Sis or Sisinnius to be his successor as the head of the church, and the succession was continued for several centuries. But in the time of the <"ili|'h Walid I. (705), while Mihr was the head of the ManichaBans, a certain Zadhnrmn/ separated from the community and built in Madain a temple, of which he declared himself to be the chief. He appointed Miklas to be hi* -m-cessor, and hence those who adhered to him were called Miklasiya, and those who recognized the authority of Mihr were called Mihriya. It seems that the two sects were subsequently reunited. During the caliphate of Al-Mamoun (813-833) one Yazdanbakht caused another schism, of which very little is known. The doctrine of Manes succeeded in gaining many converts, as it appealed large- ly to the imaginative and philosophic charac- ter of the oriental mind. Manichaeism spread beyond Iran and Mesopotamia over Asia Mi- nor and Africa, and it found its way into Eu- rope. Its history may be divided into three periods. The first period extends to the end of the 6th century, until which time the Ma- nichaean doctrines continued in a measure in their original oriental form. In Africa its suc- cess was sufficiently great to be looked upon as the rival of Christianity. It numbered among its converts many eminent and learned men, as Alexander Lycopolitanus, Faustus of Milevi, and even St. Augustine for at least nine years. St. Augustine says that the name of Manes or Mani was changed to Manichasus, in order to avoid ribald remarks called forth by the resemblance of the former to the Greek fiavia. The persecutions of Diocletian, Con- stantine, Gratian, Theodosius, Valentinian, and Honorius finally succeeded in weakening their power, and the Vandal kings drove them out of Africa into Sicily and Italy, where Pope Leo I. and Valentinian III, soon took measures either to convert or destroy them. But a cen- tury and a half later Gregory I. still complained of the large number of Manichaeans in Christian lands. Persecutions had taught them, how- ever, the wisdom of appearing to adopt some of the Christian rites and doctrines, which had the effect of gradually perverting the oriental faith into a Christian heresy, and thus Mani- chaeism entered upon a new phase of its ex- istence. The second period reaches from the 7th to the llth century. Cappadocia and Ar- menia had been the cradle of strong Mani- chaean communities, which, finally exiled into Bulgaria, by degrees renounced even the name and headship of Manes, and rejected various doctrines seemingly unintelligible and un- profitable. Constantinople was not as severe on them as the Roman pontiffs and emperors, though the East finally subjected them to the same persecutions which their brethren had suffered in the West. (See PAULIOIANS.) The Manichaeans of Italy soon came under the in- fluence of the Bulgarian reform, and a new variety of the original doctrine sprung up in the West. This third development embraces the llth, 12th, and 13th centuries. Germany, France, and Italy proceeded against the heretics with unwavering severity, and even the popu- lace joined in a general persecution of them, surrendering them to the penalty of death. (For the history of these new sects, see ALBI- GENSES, and CATHARISTS.) In modern times the various forms of Manichaeism have gradu- ally disappeared, and to all appearance, per- haps with the exception of a few in Bulgaria and Persia, disciples of Manes are nowhere to