The Ante-Nicene Church · AD 180–313 · External witness

Mani

c. 216 – c. 277 · Founder of Manichaeism · Babylonia (Sasanian Persia)

External witness

Who Mani was

A Persian visionary of Babylonia who proclaimed himself the final Paraclete and “apostle of Jesus Christ,” founding a dualist world-religion — Manichaeism — that fused Christian, Zoroastrian, Buddhist, and Gnostic elements into a cosmic myth of Light imprisoned in Darkness and released through knowledge. He wrote his own scriptures to fix his teaching against corruption and sent missionaries from Rome to China. Flayed and killed under the Persian king Bahram I around 277, he left a church that spread rapidly into the Roman East, drawing the alarmed notice of late-third-century Christian writers and, most famously, capturing the young Augustine for nine years. Diocletian’s edict of 302 against the Manichaeans is the first Roman law against the movement. To the orthodox, the great new heresy of the age.

Also listed in non-christian witnesses and heretics & schismatics.

Common questions

When did Mani live?

Mani is dated c. 216 – c. 277 in the archive, which places Mani in the Ante-Nicene Church (AD 180–313). The dating is traditional and approximate; the archive marks it as uncertain rather than fixing a year the sources do not give.

Which early sources mention Mani?

Mani is named in 4 primary-source passages catalogued here, drawn from Eusebius of Caesarea, Hegemonius (attrib.), Epiphanius of Salamis and Augustine of Hippo. Every passage is quoted from a named public-domain translation, earliest first.

Where was Mani from?

The archive associates Mani with Babylonia (Sasanian Persia).

Who were Mani’s contemporaries?

The archive links Mani to 4 other figures, including Bardaisan of Edessa, Augustine of Hippo, Archelaus of Carrhae and Titus of Bostra. Each connection is drawn from a source that places them together, not from inference.

Primary-source mentions (4)

Every passage below is quoted from a named public-domain translation, earliest first.

Ecclesiastical History VII.31 ('the madman', his name turned against him)

c. AD 325
Eusebius of Caesarea · Ecclesiastical History VII.31 · source text

Acta Archelai (Hegemonius) & later notices

c. AD 350
Manes… gave himself the name of an apostle of Christ, and asserted that he was the Paraclete whom Christ had promised to send; and he chose twelve disciples after the manner of the Lord.
Hegemonius (attrib.) · source text

Panarion 66 (the great Manichaean dossier)

c. AD 375
Epiphanius of Salamis · Panarion 66 · source text

On Heresies 46 (the longest entry — by the catalogue's own ex-Manichee)

c. AD 428
Augustine of Hippo · On Heresies 46 · source text

Connected in the archive

People

Events in this lifetime

Place

Places served

The one place the sources put Mani.

  1. 1Babyloniaprovince only

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