[1106]. Augustine, contra Faust. Bk VII. c. 1.
[1107]. Op. cit. Bk XXIII. c. 2; ibid. Bk XXXII. c. 7.
[1108]. Op. cit. Bk XXVI. cc. 6, 8; ibid. Bk XXIX. c. 1.
[1109]. Op. cit. Bk XX. c. 2.
[1110]. Cumont, Cosmog. Manich. p. 15, points out that the Manichaeans had already figured to themselves their King of the Paradise of Light as existing in the three Persons of Father, Mother, and Son in the shape of the Light, the Mother of Life and the First Man. This Trinity corresponds in every particular with that worshipped in Asia Minor under the names of Zeus (or Hadad), Cybele, and Atys, at Eleusis as Dionysos, Demeter, and Iacchos, in Greek Egypt as Osiris, Isis, and Horus, and in Persia, according to M. Cumont, as Ormuzd, Spenta Armaiti, and Gayômort. Cf. Bousset, Hauptprobleme, pp. 333-337. That its origin can be traced, as the last-named author seems to think, to the Babylonian Triad, Ea, Damkina, and Marduk, is more doubtful. The Manichaeans really acknowledged, as they were never tired of affirming, only two gods, Light and Darkness, and considered all the lesser powers of Light, including man’s soul, as formed from God’s “substance.” When, therefore, they spoke of trinities, tetrads, and so on, it was in all probability for the purpose of producing that show of outward conformity with other religions which was one of the most marked features of their system.
[1111]. This is a reversal of the position in the Pistis Sophia, where the female power or Virgin of Light is placed in the Sun and the male Iao in the Moon.
[1112]. Compare the statement of Herodotus (Bk I. c. 131) that Zeus (or Ormuzd) in the opinion of the ancient Persians was the name of “the whole circle of air.”
[1113]. Augustine, contra Faust. Bk XX. c. 2.
[1114]. This is to be found in Harduin’s Acta Consilii. The quotation in the text is taken from Matter, Hist. de Gnost. t. III. p. 89, and Neander, Ch. Hist. II. p. 187.
[1115]. Pognon, op. cit. p. 5; Assemani, Bibl. Orient. t. III. p. 198 cit.