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The Manicheci. Sect. III. 323
a treasure hid in a field : See Mattli. xii. 44. Augustine'^
and the author'' De Fide, joined with Augustine's works,
allege a passage as taken out of The Treasure : but'' Beausobre
says it is not genuine, and oiiers very weighty arguments
against it. As I do not intend to examine all the notions
of the Manichees, I shall have no occasion to consider that
passage.
5. By Epiphanius, Mani is said to have Avritten*^ a book
about astrology : it is likely he means astronomy.
6. In Photius is a book entitled^ The Gigantic Book : it
is one of the three books of Mani which were confuted by
Heraclean : the other two are The Gospel arid the Treasures.
Timothy of Constantinople mentions a Manicheean book,
entitled'' The Giant's Enterprize : very probably he means
the same with that just taken notice of.
7. Mani's epistles: of Avhich there was a' book or'' collection
made by soinebod3%
(1.) The lirst to be observed by us is The Epistle of the
Foundation : this was confuted by Augustine,who transcribed
the beoinnino- of it into his own' works. There is a large
fragment of it in another book of'" Augustine : there are
fragments of it also in the*^ treatise De Fide, joined with
Augustine's works. It was publicly read by the Manichees
in their" assemblies. Possibly it was a long epistle; for
AngustineP calls it a book, and says it contained almost their
whole scheme.
There is an epistle to Patricius, cited byi Julian the
Pelagian, in the Opus Imperfectum of Augustine. Tillemonf^
considers this as different from the Epistle of the
•^ Aug. de Natiira Eoni. cap. 44. Vid. et Act. cum Felice. 1. 2. c. 7. et
Contr. Faust. 1. 20. c. 6.
^ Cap. 14, &c. ^ Vid. Hist, de Manich. T. i. p. 49, 426. T. ii. p.
387, &c. ' AWrjv £t rrjv Trtpt a^^poXo-j-iaf H. 66. n. 13. p. 619. L).
^ Avarpfiru St to Trapa rote Mari^aioic icaXs/ifvov evayyeXwv, Kai ti]V
yiyavTuov jiifiXov, km thq S/ijaavpsg. Phot, Cod. 85. p. 204.
' 'H Twv yiyavrcov TrpayfiuTua. ap. Meurs. Var. Div. p. 117.
' Kai TO T(x)v f TTiToXwv avTH /3i|3Xeov. ap. Coteler. ubi supr. et Toll. p. 152.
^
jj T(i)v tiriToXoiv byLOQ. ap. Meurs. ib. p. 117.
1 Vid. Aug. contr. Ep. Manichai. " Vid. De Natura Boni.
cap. 46. T. 8. " De Fide. cap. v. xi. xxviii.
" Ipsa enim nobis illo tempore miseris quando lecta est, illuminati dice-
bamur a vobis. Aug. contr. Ep. Man. cap. v. n. 6.
p Et potissimum ilium considerenius librum, quem Fundamenti epistolam
dicitis, ubi totum pene quod creditis continetur.—Aug. Ibid.
•* Sic etiam in lUa ad Patritium epistola. ap. Aug. Op. Imp. 1. 3. c. 186.
Dixit hoc idem et Manichaeus m epistola ad Patntium. Dixit et in epistola,
quam scripsit ad filiam Menoch. ib. 1. 4. c. 102.
Mem. Ec. T. iv. Les Manicheens, AtL 1 3.
V 2
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