PREFACE.

the most learned within the Clergy of Orléans. Their constancy did not belie this praise. They suffered their execution with a hope and a joy that astonished their Persecutors. I shall provide a Critical History A "Critical History" refers to a scholarly approach that scrutinizes original sources and documents to separate fact from legend. of them, God willing, after that of the Paulicians A medieval Christian sect from Armenia and Byzantium often accused of dualism. and the Bogomiles A Bulgarian dualist sect that emerged in the 10th century and influenced later Western movements..

A few years later, a great number of Persons were discovered around Arras and Cambrai who held the same Belief, but who, it is said, did not possess the same firmness. At the same time, others were found in Toulouse and in neighboring Towns: And since the beginning of the eleventh century, they have been discovered everywhere in the West: in Spain, in France, in England, in the Low Countries, in Germany, and in Italy. There were nothing but Gallows erected, nothing but Pyres lit to make them perish; and the reason for so much cruelty was that they were MANICHAEANS Followers of a dualistic religion that taught a cosmic struggle between Light and Darkness; in the Middle Ages, the term was frequently used as a label for any perceived heretic..

To properly judge the facts, it was necessary to know, on one hand, the Heresies of Manichaeus The 3rd-century Persian prophet Mani, who founded Manichaeism.; and on the other, the Errors of this new Sect, in order to make a comparison. This was what led me into the study and examination of Manichaeism: an undertaking of which I have repented more than once, when I saw the difficulty of truly knowing this Heresy. However, being unable to resolve to abandon a Design that I had begun to execute, I persisted in finishing it, and it is this which produced this Critical ESSAY on the History and Dogmas of Manichaeus.

Having learned through my own experience that one does things very poorly when one does not go back to the sources, I left all the Moderns, who