It is significant of the pessimistic char acter of the system that, while the formation of the world is con sidered as a work of the good spirits, the creation of man is referred to the princes of darkness. The first man, Adam, was engendered by Satan in conjunction with "sin," "cupidity," "de sire." But the spirit of darkness drove into him all the portions of light he had stolen, in order to be able to dominate them the more securely. Hence Adam is a discordant being, created in the image of Satan, but carrying within him the stronger spark of light. Eve is given him by Satan as his companion. She is seduc tive sensuousness, though also having in her a small spark of light. But if the first human beings thus stood entirely under the dominion of the devil, the glorious spirits took them under their care from the very outset, sending aeons down to them (including Jesus), who instructed them regarding their nature, and in par ticular warned Adam against sensuality. But this first man fell under the temptation of sexual desire. Cain and Abel indeed are not sons of Adam, but of Satan and Eve ; Seth, however, who is full of light, is the offspring of Adam by Eve. Thus did mankind come into existence, its various members possessing very different shares of light, but the men having uniformly a larger measure of it than the women. In the course of history the demons sought to bind men to themselves by means of sensuality, error and false religions (among which is to be reckoned above all the religion of Moses and the prophets), while the spirits of light carried on their process of distillation with the view of gaining the pure light which exists in the world. But these good spirits can only save men by imparting to them the true gnosis concerning nature and her forces, and by calling them away from the service of darkness and sensuality. To this end prophets, preachers of true knowledge, have been sent into the world. Mani, following the example of the gnostic Jewish Christians, appears to have held Adam, Noah, Abraham (perhaps Zoroaster and Buddha) to be such prophets. Probably Jesus was also accounted a prophet who had descended from the world of light—not, however, the historical Jesus, but a contemporaneous phantom Jesus, who neither suffered nor died (Jesus impatibilis). According to the teaching of some Mani chaeans, it was the primal man who disseminated the true gnosis in the character of Christ.
But at all events Mani himself, on his own claim, is to be reckoned the last and greatest prophet, who took up the work of Jesus impatibilis, and first brought full knowledge. He is the "leader," the "ambassador of the light," the "Paraclete." It is only through his agency and that of his imitators, "the elect," that the separation of the light from the darkness can be completed. The system contains very fantastic descriptions of the processes by which the portions of light when once set free finally ascend even to the God of light. He who during his lifetime did not become one of the elect, who did not completely redeem himself, has to go through a severe process of purification on the other side of the grave, till he too is gathered to the blessedness of the light. When the imprisoned ele ments of light have at last been completely, or as far as possible, delivered from the world, the end of all things comes. All glorious
spirits assemble, the God of light himself appears, accompanied by the aeons and the perfected just ones. The angels supporting the world withdraw themselves from their burden, and everything falls in ruins. A tremendous conflagration consumes the world ; the per fect separation of the two powers takes place once more.
On the basis of such a cosmical philosophy, ethics can only have a dualistic ascetic character. Manichaean ethics is not merely negative, however, since it is necessary to cherish, strengthen and purify the elements of light, as well as free oneself from the elements of darkness. The aim is not self-destruction, but self-preservation; and yet the ethics of Manichaeism appears in point of fact as ascetic, to an extent that could only be practised by few ; hence the religion must have abandoned all attempts at an extensive propaganda had it not con ceded the principle of a twofold morality. A distinction was made in the community between the electi (perfecti), the perfect Mani chaeans, and the catechumeni (auditores), the secular Mani chaeans. Only the former submitted themselves to all the demands made by their religion ; for the latter the stringency of the pre cepts was relaxed. They had to avoid idolatry, sorcery, avarice, falsehood, fornication, etc.; above all, they were not allowed to kill any living being (the ten commandments of Mani). They had also to free themselves as much as possible from the world; but in truth they lived very much as their non-Manichaean fellow citizens. We have here essentially the same condition of things as in the Catholic Church, where a twofold morality is also in force, that of the religious orders and that of secular Christians—only that the position of the electi in Manichaeism was a more dis tinguished one than that of the monks in Catholicism. For, after all, the Christian monks never quite forgot that salvation is given by God through Christ, whereas the Manichaean electi were actually themselves redeemers.
It is evident that the religion of Mani borrowed various ele ments from older Oriental faiths, especially from Babylonian and Zoroastrian sources. It arose "in a country where several religions were competing with one another, and where, in conse quence of this, various hybrid sects had been formed." The rela tions of Manichaeism to other religions have been investigated in much detail by Kessler and Cumont (see references given below) ; but special mention must be made here of its relation to Christianity.
Manichaeism and Christianity.—It is very difficult to de termine what was the extent of Mani's knowledge of Christianity, how much he himself borrowed from it, and through what channels it reached him. It is certain that Manichaeism, in those districts where it was brought much into contact with Christianity, became additionally influenced by the latter at a very early period. The Western Manichaeans of the 4th and 5th centuries are much more like Christians than their Eastern brethren. In this respect Mani chaeism experienced the same kind of development as Neo-Platon ism. As regards Mani himself, it is safest to assume that he held both Judaism and Catholic Christianity to be false religions.