A Source Book for Ancient Church History - Mirrors

278 A Source Book for Ancient Church HistoryThe last great rival religion to Christianity was Manichæanism,the last of the important syncretistic religions which drew fromPersian and allied sources. Its connection with Christianity was atfirst slight and its affinities were with Eastern Gnosticism. After280 it began to spread within the Empire, and was soon opposedby the Roman authorities. Yet it flourished, and, like otherGnostic religions, with which it is to be classed, it assimilatedmore and more of Christianity, until in the time of Augustine itseemed to many as merely a form of Christianity. On account ofits general character, it absorbed for the most part what remainedof the earlier Gnostic systems and schools.Additional source material: The most important accessibleworks are the so-called Acta Archelai (ANF, V, 175-235), theanti-Manichæan writings of Augustine (PNF, ser. I, vol. IV),and Alexander of Lycopolis, On the Manichæans (ANF, VI,239). On Alexander of Lycopolis, see DCB. In the opinion ofBardenhewer, Alexander was probably neither a bishop nor aChristian at all, but a heathen and a Platonist. Roman edictagainst Manichæanism in Kirch, n. 294.An Nadim, Fihrist. (Translation after Kessler, Mani, 1889.)The Fihrist, i.e., Catalogue, is a sort of history of literaturemade in the eleventh century by the Moslem historian AnNadim. In spite of its late date, it is the most importantauthority for the original doctrines of Mani and the facts ofhis life, as it is largely made up from citations from ancientauthors and writings of Mani and his original disciples.(a) The Life of Mani.Mohammed ibn Isak says: Mani was the son of Fatak, 84 of thefamily of the Chaskanier. Ecbatana is said to have been the84 Or. Fonnak.