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Remarks on Mr. Bower's Account of the Manichees, 45
' be always eating; whilst you cease to eat, you forbear to
' deliver the particles of the good nature from their chains.'
Farther, p. 21 :
' They rejected the Old Testament, and
' some parts of the New, especially the Acts of the Apostles.'
That the Mnnichees rejected the Old Testament is un-
doubted ;
whether they rejected any books of the New Testament,
and particularly the Acts of the Apostles, has
carefully examined, p. 397—405.
been
In the latter part of that note, p. 23, Mr. Bower gives a
shocking account of their eucharist, taken from ancient ecclesiastical
writers. And afterwards, at p. 25, he tells the same,
or like story, from pope Leo, commonly called the great : this
was also examined. Nee particularly my reference to Beauso-
bre, with his arguments and observations, p. 295 ;
1
in which, if
I am not mistaken, there is a sufficient vindication of the
Manichees from the charge of lewd and abominable rites
and mysteries.
Nevertheless, as 1 did not then distinctly speak of po|)o
Leo, upon whom Mr. Bower chiefly insists, I shall now
consider what is alleged from him. ' He spared no pains,'
says Mr. B. p. 25, ' to find them out ; and being informed
* by some, whom they had attempted to seduce, where they
' assembled, he caused great numbers of them to be seized,
' in virtue of the imperial edicts, and among- the rest their
' bishop, and some of their teachers. Flaving them thus in
' his power, his first care was to learn of them their true
' tenets, antl the secret practices of their sect; which he had
' no sooner done, than he assembled the neighbouring
' bishops, ;uid those who happened to be then at Rome, with
* a great number of presbyters ; inviting- to the assembly
' even the laymen of any rank, the great officers of the
' empire, and the senate. Being all met and in great
' expectation, Leo ordered the elect of the Manichees, that
' is, their teachers and chief men among them, to be brought
' forth. Great Mas their confusion when they appeared
' before so grand an assembly ; but being encouraged by
' Leo, they first owned their impious tenets, and their super-
* stitious practices, and discovered a crime, which modesty,'
says pope Leo, * would not allow him to name : but it was so
' fully proved,' adds he, ' that the uiost incredulous were
' thoroughly satisfied it was true, for all those who were con-
in qua spiritale aurum de stercoris commixtionc piirgatur, et a miserandis
nexibus divina membra solvuntur. Quaproptcr ille est misericordior inter
vos, qui se potuerit ita excrcere, iit nihil ejus valetudini obsit, saepe crudos
cibos sumere, et multa consumere. Vos autem—a membrorum divinonira
purgatione cessando crudeliter jejiinatis. Contr. Faust. 1. 6. c. 4. T. 8.
2 c 2