booknetsaWebster-secretSocietiesAndSubversiveMovements

remony known as the Bema around the catafalque of Manes, whose real sufferings they were wont to contrast
with the unreal sufferings of Christ.
The fundamental doctrine of Manicheism is Dualism- that is to say, the existence of two opposing principles
in the world, light and darkness, good and evil-founded, however, not on the Christian conception of
this idea, but on the Zoroastrian conception of Ormuzd and Ahriman, and so perverted and mingled with
Cabalistic superstitions that it met with as vehement denunciation by Persian priests as by Christian Fathers.
Thus, according to the doctrine of Manes, all matter is absolute, the principle of evil is eternal, humanity itself
of Satanic origin, and the first human beings, Adam and Eve, are represented as the offspring of devils.
(114) Much the same idea may be found in the Jewish Cabala, where it is said that Adam, after other abominable
practices, cohabited with female devils whilst Eve consoled herself with male devils, so that whole
races of demons were born into the world. Eve is also accused of cohabiting with the Serpent.(115) In the
Yalkut Shimoni it is also related that during the 130 years that Adam lived apart from Eve, " he begat a generation
of devils, spirits, and hobgoblins "(116) Manichean demonology thus paved the way for the placation
of the powers of darkness practised by the Euchites at the end of the fourth century and later by the
Paulicians, the Bogomils and the Luciferians.
So it is in Gnosticism and Manicheism that we find evidence of the first attempts to pervert Christianity.
The very fact that all such have been condemned by the Church as "heresies" has tended to enlist sympathy
in their favour, yet even Eliphas Lévi recognizes that here the action of the Church was right, for the " monstrous
gnosis of Manes " was a desecration not only of Christian doctrines but of pre-Christian sacred traditions.
Nesta H. Webster — Secret Societies and Subversive Movements — Part I
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