[1096]. See passages from Kessler and Flügel quoted in n. 1, p. [313] supra.
[1097]. Rainerio Saccone, a Manichaean Perfect in Languedoc, who afterwards turned Inquisitor, said that he had often heard the Elect lamenting that they had not taken the opportunity of committing more sins before receiving the “Baptism of the Spirit” which was thought to wash them away. See H. C. Lea, History of the Inquisition, vol. I., p. 94.
[1098]. Flügel, op. cit. pp. 95-97. See, however, n. 4, p. [349] infra.
[1099]. Josephus, Antiquities, Bk XX. cc. 2-4, breaks off his history at the critical point. The Book of Esther is, perhaps, sufficient proof of the capacity of the Oriental Jews for provoking periodical pogroms at least as freely as their co-religionists in modern Russia. Johnson (Oriental Religions), Persia, 1885, p. 410, quotes, apparently from Firdûsi, that the “old Persian nobles” were driven by Ardeshîr’s reforms into Seistan, where they were the ancestors of the present Afghan clans. As some of these clans call themselves the Beni Israel, it is possible that the Jews rather than the nobles were expelled on this occasion, as happened before under Cyrus.
[1100]. Hegemonius, Acta, c. XII. pp. 20-21, Beeson; Ephraem Syrus in Kessler, op. cit. p. 302. For Mahommedan confirmation, see Schahrastâni in op. cit. p. 339.
[1101]. Al Bîrûnî, Chronology, p. 190.
[1102]. See Le Coq’s Short Account in J.R.A.S. 1909, pp. 299-322. Another and more popularly written one by the same author appeared in the Conférences au Musée Guimet, Paris, 1910 (Bibl. de Vulgarisation, t. XXXV.).
[1103]. The Marcionites, another much hated sect, also used a secret script.
[1104]. St Augustine, contra Faustum, Bk V. c. 1.
[1105]. Hegemonius, Acta, c. V., pp. 5, 6.