AND THE NEW MANICHAEANS.

For they worshipped fire as a great God. They considered it lawful for a mother and daughter to be mixed This likely refers to accusations of incestuous marriage practices, known in Persian as Xwedodah, often leveled against them by outside critics.. Furthermore, they practiced divination and predictions, claiming that Gods appeared to them. They believed the air to be full of spirits original: "dæmonibus" which, being thin, flow into the eyes of those watching like a mist or vapor. They forbade external worship and the use of gold. Their clothing was white, their bed the ground, and their food consisted of herbs, cheese, and coarse bread. They used a reed as a staff, and by fixing cheese to its tip, they would bring it to their mouths to eat.

The Magi were the Priests of the Persians, serving Mithra, or the Sun.

IV. The Magi of the Persians were the priests of the Sun, whom the Persians called Mithra. Hence those words of Archelaus Archelaus was a 3rd-century bishop and the protagonist of the Acts of Archelaus, a major anti-Manichaean work. against Mani (1): You barbarian priest of Mithra and fellow-conspirator, you worship only the Sun, Mithra, the illuminator of mystical places—as you believe—and his witness; this is the role you play among them, and like an elegant actor you perform your mysteries.

Horomasdes, Arimanius, and Mithra (or the Sun) were the three Persian deities.

Indeed, among the Persians, according to the teachings of their Magi, there were three supreme Deities: Mithra, Horomasdes, and Arimanius. For they did not separate Fire—for which they had raised public temples called Pyrea original: "Pyrea"; fire-temples, from the Greek word for fire.—from the Sun, as its nature is the same as fire. But Mithra, according to the testimony of Plutarch A Greek historian and philosopher (c. 46–119 AD) who wrote extensively on Persian religion. whom I mentioned above, was a mesites original: "mesites"; a mediator or intermediary., that is, a mediator or intermediary between two opposing Deities, Horomasdes and Arimanius, as if he mitigated the force and power of the two-fold contrary principle.

Now, when Plutarch says that Horomasdes was born from the purest light and Arimanius, by contrast, from gloom, this is not to be understood as if one was the son of light and the other the son of gloom; for these two opposing deities were, among the Persians, eternal, unbegotten, and unproduced principles. Therefore, Horomasdes is said to be "born" from the purest light because he consisted of the purest light; Arimanius indeed was "born" from gloom because he consisted of gloom and shadows. Nor indeed does that testimony of Theodore of Mopsuestia A 4th-5th century Christian theologian. stand in the way, which is found in (2) Photius A 9th-century Patriarch of Constantinople whose Bibliotheca preserved summaries of many lost ancient works. concerning the Per...

(1) Archelaus in Zacagni's Ecclesiastical Collection, volume 1, number 36, page 63.
(2) Photius, Bibliotheca, Code LXXXI.