Opposition of Roman Emperors.—The Christian Byzantine and Roman emperors, from Valens onwards, enacted strict laws against the Manichaeans. But at first these bore little fruit. The auditores were difficult to trace out, and besides they really gave little occasion for persecution. In Rome itself between 37o and 440 Manichaeism gained a large amount of support, especially among the scholars and public teachers. It also made its way into the life of the people by means of a popular literature in which the apostles were made to play a prominent part (Apo cryphal Acts of the Apostles). In Rome Leo the Great was the first who took energetic measures, along with the state authorities, against the system. Valentinian III. decreed banishment against its adherents, Justinian the punishment of death. In North Africa Manichaeism appears to have been extinguished by the persecution of the Vandals. But it still continued to exist else where, both in the Byzantine Empire and in the West, and in the earlier part of the middle ages it gave an impulse to the formation of new sects, which remained related to it. It is at least undoubted that the Paulicians and Bogomiles, as well as the Catharists and the Albigenses, are to be traced back to Manichaeism (and Marcionitism). Thus the system, not indeed of Mani the Persian, but of Manichaeism as modified by Christian influences, accompanied Catholicism until the 13th century.
Of the Christian Orientals those that afford most information are Ephraem Syrus (d. 373), in various writings; the Armenian Esnik (German translation by J. M. Schmid, 1900, see also Zeitsch. f. hist. Theol., 1840, ii.; Langlois, Collection, ii. 375 seq.), who wrote in the 5th century against Marcion and Mani ; and the Alexandrian patriarch Eutychius (d. 916), Annales, ed. Pococke (1628). There are, besides, scattered pieces of infor mation in Aphraates (4th cent.), Barhebraeus (13th cent.) and others. The newly found Syriac Book of Scholia of Theodor bar Khouni (see Pognon, Les Coupes de Kouabir, Paris, 1898) gives many details about Mani's teaching (also ed. without translation
by Dr. M. Lewin, Berlin, 1905).
(b) Greek and Latin. The earliest mention of the Manichaeans in the Graeco-Roman Empire is to be found in an edict of Diocletian (see Hanel, Cod. Gregor., tit. xv.), which is held by some to be spurious, while others assign it to one or other of the years 287, 29o, 296, 3o8 (so Mason, The Persec. of Diocl., pp. 275 seq.). Eusebius gives a short account of the sect (H. E., vii. 31). It was the Acta Archelai, however, that became the principal source on the subject of Manichaeism for Greek and Roman writers. In the form in which we now possess them, they are a compilation after the pattern of the Clementine Homilies, and have been subjected to manifold redactions, and give an account of Manichaeism which is largely legendary. These Acta were used by Cyril of Jerusalem (Catech. 6), Epiphanius (Haer. 66), and a great number of other writers. Important matter is to be found in the resolutions of the councils from the 4th century onwards (see Mansi, Acta concil., and Hefele, Conciliengeschichte, vols. i.–iii.), and also in the controversial writings of Titus of Bostra (6th century), rIpen Mamxatovs (ed. Lagarde, 1859), and of Alexander of Lycopolis Ao-yos rpds Tea Mavtxatov (56Ects (ed. Combefis; transl. in Ante-Nic. Lib., vol. xiv.). Of the Byzantines, the most worthy of mention are John of Damascus (De haeres. and Dialog.) and Photius (cod. 179 Bibliotli.).
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--The most important works on Manichaeism are Beausobre, Hist. critique de Manichee et du Manicheisme (2 vols., 1734 seq.; the Christian elements in Manichaeism are here strongly, indeed too strongly, emphasized) ; Baur, Das manich. Religions system (1831 ; in this work Manichaean speculation is exhibited from a speculative standpoint) ; FlilE,Tel, Mani (1862 ; a very careful investi gation on the basis of the Fihrist) ; Kessler, Untersuchung zur Genesis des manich. Religionssystems (1876) ; and the article "Mani, Manichaer," by the same writer in Herzog-Hauck's R.E., xii. 193-228 ; Kessler, Mani (2 vols., Berlin, 1889, 1903) ; Recherches sur le manicheisme; I. La cosmogonie manicheenne d'apres Theodore Bar Khoui, by Franz Cumont (Brussels, 19o8) ; II. Fragments syriaques d'ouvrages manicheens, by Kugener and F. Cumont. III. Les Formules grecques d'abjuration imposies aux manicheens, by F. Cumont. See also A. A. Bevan, art. "Manichaeism" in Hastings' Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics (vol. viii. 1915).