Adams gives Mani exactly the coalition the archive reads him for: a Persian educated among the Magi who fused their doctrine with the Christian system and claimed to be the promised Paraclete.
In Hannah Adams
In Adams’s own words, from the 1817 Dictionary. Each passage is quoted verbatim under its own entry.
MANICHEANS, or Maniciiees, a denomination founded in the third century, by one Manes, or Manicheus. Being a Persian by birth, and educated among the magi, he attempted a coalition of their doctrine with the Christian system; or rather, the explication of the one by the other; and in order to succeed in the enterprize, affirmed, that Christ had left the doctrine of salvation imperfect arid unfinished: and that he was the Paraclete, or Comforter, whom the departing Saviour had promised to his disciples, to lead them into all truth. He rejected the old testament, the four gospels, and the acts of the apostles; said that the epistles of Paul wTere. falsified in a variety of places, and wrote a gospel which he pretended was dictated to him by God himself, and distinguished it by the name of Erteng.
Manes taught, that there are two principles from which all things proceed; the one, a most pure and subtle matter, called light; and the other, a gross and corrupt substance, called darkness. Each of these is subject to the dominion of an eternal, superintending Being. He, who presides over the light, is called God; he, who rules the darkness, bears the title of i/y/e, or a Demon. The ruler of the light is supremely benevolent, good, and happy. The prince of darkness is in himself unhappy; and being desirous to render others partakers of his misery, evil and malignant. These two beings have each produced an immense multitude of creatures resembling themselves, and distributed them through their respective provinces.
The prince of darkness long knew not that light existed in the universe; and no sooner did he perceive it, by means of a war kindled in his dominions, than he endeavoured to subject it to his empire. The ruler of the light opposed his efforts, at first with no great success: for the prince of darkness seized upon a considerable portion of the celestial elements, even of the light itself, and mingled them in the mass of corrupt matter. The ruler of the light then employed the living spirit, who succeeded better; but he could not entirely disengage the pure particles of the celestial matter from the corrupt mass, through which they had been dispersed. The prince of darkness after his defeat produced the first parents of the human race. These consist of a body formed out of the corrupt matter of the kingdom of darkness; and of two souls, one of which is sensitive and lustful, and is attributed to the evil principle; the other is rational and immortal; a particle of that divine light which was carried away by the army of darkness, and immersed into the mass of malignant matter.
Mankind being thus formed, God created the earth out of the mass of matter by that living spirit, who had vanquished the prince of darkness; in order to furnish a dwelling for the human race; to deliver by degrees the captive souls from their corporeal prisons; and to extract the celestial elements from the gross substance, in which they were involved. In order to this design, God produced two beings of eminent dignity from his own essence— Christ, and the Holy Ghost. The former is supposed to be that glorious intelligence which the Persians called Mythras; the brightness of the eternal light, subsisting in and by himself, endowed with life, enriched with infinite wisdom, and having his residence in the sun. The latter, also a luminous, animated substance, diffused throughout the atmosphere, which surrounds this terrestrial globe. This genial principle warms and illuminates the minds of men, also renders the earth fruitful, and draws forth gradually from its bosom the latent particles of celestial fire, which it wafts up on high to their primitive station. After tiie supreme Being had for a long time admonished the captive souls, by the ministry of the angels and holy prophets, he directed Christ to descend upon earth, in order to hasten the return of those imprisoned spirits to their celestial country. In obedience to this command Christ appeared among the Jews, clothed with the shadowy form of a human body, and not with the real substance. He taught mortals how to disengage the rational soul from the corrupt body, to conquer the violence of malignant matter; and demonstrated his divine mission by stupendous miracles. On the other hand, the prince of darkness used every method to inflame the Jews against this divine messenger, and incited them at length to put him to death upon an ignominious cross; which punishment however, he suffered not in reality, hut only in appearance, and in the opinion of men. When Christ had fulfilled the purposes of his mission, he returned to his throne in the sun, and appointed a certain number of chosen apostles to propagate his doctrines through the world. But before his departure, he promised that at a certain period he would send a messenger, superiour to all others in eminence and dignity, whom he called the Paraclete, or Comforter, who should add many things to the precepts he had delivered, and dispel the errours under which his servants laboured. This comforter is Manes, who, by order of the Most High, declared to mortals the whole doctrine of salvation, without concealing any of its truths under the veil of metaphor.
Those souls, who believe Jesus to be the Son of God, renounce the worship of the God of the Jews, who is the prince of darkness, obey the laws delivered by Christ, as they are enlarged and illustrated by Manes, and combat with persevering fortitude the lusts and appetites of a corrupt nature, derive from this faith and obedience the inestimable advantage of being gradually purified from the contagion of matter. The total purification of souls cannot indeed be accomplished during this life. Hence it is that the souls of men after death must pass through two states more of probation and trial, by water and fire, before they can ascend to the regions of light. They ascend, therefore, first into the moon, which consists of benign and salutary water; whence, after a lustration of fifteen days, they proceed to the sun, whose purifying fire removes entirely their corruption. The bodies, composed of matter, which they have left behind them, return to their MAN i first state, and enter into their original mass. Qn the other hand, those souls, who have neglected the salutary work of their purification, pass after death into the bodies of animals of different kinds, where they remain till they have expiated their guilt, and accomplished their salvation. When the greatest part of the captive souls are restored to liberty and to the regions of light, then a devouring fire shall break forth at the divine command, from the caverns m which it is at present confined, and shall destroy the frame of the world. After this tremendous event, the prince and powers of darkness shall be forced to return to their primitive abode of anguish and misery, in which they shall dwell forever: for, to prevent their renewing this war in the regions of light, God shall surround the mansions of darkness with an invincible guard, composed of those souls who have not finished their purifications. ‘These set in array, like a military band, shall fully prevent any of their wretched inhabitants from coming forth again to the light.
To support their fundamental doctrine of two principles, the Manicheans argue thus: If we depend only on one almighty Cause, infinitely good, we cannot account for the existence of natural and moral evil: for it is impossible, that the first man could derive the faculty of doing ill from a good principle, for evil cannot proceed but from a bad cause; therefore the free-will of Adam was derived from two opposite principles. He depended on the good principle for his power to persevere in innocence; but his power to deviate from virtue owed its rise to an evil principle. Hence it is argued, there are two contrary principles; the one, the source of good; the other, the fountain of all vice and misery.
Manes enjoined his followers to mortify and afflict the body, which he looked upon as essentially corrupt; and to divest themselves of all the passions and instincts of nature: but he did not impose this severe manner of living without distinction. He divided his disciples into two classes; one of which comprehended perfect christians, under the name of the elect; the other the imperfect and feeble, under the title of hearers. 'The elect were obliged to an entire abstinence from flesh, eggs, milk, fish, wine, all intoxicating drink, and wedlock; and to live in a state of the sharpest penury, nourishing their emaciated bodies with only bread, herbs, pulse, and melons. The discipline of the hearers was milder: they were allowed to possess houses, lands, and wealth; to feed upon flesh, and to enter into the bonds of conjugal life; but under conditions of moderation and temperance.
The gencral assembly of the Manicheans was headed by a president, who was considered as the representative of Jesus Christ. To him were joined twelve rulers, who were designed to represent the twelve apostles; and these were followed by seventy two bishops—the successors of the seventy two disciples. These bishops had presbyters and deacons under them; arid all members of these orders were chosen out of the class of the elect.
The Manicheans observed the Lord’s day, but fasted upon it. They likewise celebrated Easter, and had a regular church discipline and censors. They read the scriptures; they baptized in the name of the Father, Son, arid Holy Ghost, and partook of the Lord’s supper.
The doctrine of Manes differs from that of the Gnostics in this respect: instead of supposing evil to have originated ultimately from inferiour and subordinate beings, he held the doctrine of two original independent principles; the one immaterial, and supremely good; the other material, and the source of all evil; but actuated by a soul, or something of the nature of intelligence. This sect concealed themselves under various names during the fourth century; in the sixth, they revived and spread much in Persia: in the twelfth, they Were again revived under one Constantine, an Armenian, with many refinements and improvements, and subsisted down to the fifteenth century.
Hannah Adams, A Dictionary of All Religions and Religious Denominations, 4th ed. (Boston: Cummings and Hilliard, 1817), entry “Manicheans” (pp. 162–166).