10. The Church
"the four excellences." These have
a Christian sound, but in fact God is
the king of the paradise of light, his
light is the sun and the moon, his might is the five
angels, and his
wisdom is the
religion, that is, the
Manichean church. The five grades of the Mani
chean church are symbolized by the five steps of
the Bema; the highest grade is composed of teach
ers, " sons of mildness "; the second of servers,
" sons of knowledge "; the third of presbyters,
" sons of understanding "; the fourth of the true
(adepts), " sons of secrecy "; and the fifth of the
adherents (hearers), "sons of discernment." Thus,
the church visible consists of the last two
classes;
a select number of the adepts furnish the clergy,
and the community is made up of the rest of the
adepts and the hearers or adherents. Augustine
gives practically the same arrangement, but ap
plies to the grades the Christian terms master,
bishop, presbyter, elect, and auditors or hearers.
The epithets applied to these five grades (given
above in quotation marks) all have significance in
the terminology of the system. Thus the lowest
class are called sons of discernment because they
have discerned in Mani's teaching the most perfect
religion. The three upper grades correspond closely
to the three grades of the Mandwan clergy. Au
gustine's statement that there were twelve teachers
and seventy-two bishops is a. further indication of
Mani's borrowing from the Christian system, for
this arrangement is not to be derived from Baby
lonia. Both Augustine and the
Fihriat
mention a
head of the church who corresponded to the
Rish
nmma of the Mandæans or to the pope of the Ro
man Church. Holy offices, like the sacraments of
the Christian Church, arose among the Manicheans,
but were employed only among the adepts; to this
is due the lack of information concerning them.
The Church Fathers speak of a Manichean bap
tism and service of communion. In a time like the
fourth century, when the sacraments of the Chris
tian Church were part of a secret discipline, it is
not strange that on the one side the Manicheans
kept their rites secret, nor, on the other, that the
foes of the Manicheans charged them with trav
esties of Christian rites. The baptism of the
Manicheans should doubtless be brought into con
nection with the employment of water in nature
religions, and the Eucharist may also be so re
ferred, as in the case of the
Mandæans (q.v., § 7).
In the Eleusinian mysteries, in Parseeism, and in
Mithraism there was a kind of Eucharist. The
Manicheans of the Middle Ages had instead of bap
tism a laying-on of hands by which hearers were ad
vanced to the grade of adept. The churches were
like those of the Manda:ans, small and unadorned.
Bloody sacrifice had no part in the system.
When one of the adepts dies and his soul leaves
his body, the original man sends a light-god in the
form of a wise guide, i.e., Jesus, and with him three
other light-deities and a light-maiden, who
carry
five articles which symbolize relationship to the
kingdom of light-a water vessel, a cloak, a head-
