Manichaeism before the Manichaeans, and its Revival in Christianity

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...is. original: "τόν ἐστίν. ἀπολλῦσθαι δὲ τὴν φαύλην παντάπασιν ἀδύνατον, πολλὴν μὲν ἐμφεφυκυῖαν τῷ σώματι, πολλὴν δὲ τῇ ψυχῇ ᾗ παντὸς ἀεὶ πρὸς τὴν βελτίονα καὶ δυσμαχοῦσαν." This Greek passage, likely from Plutarch's On the Procreation of the Soul in the Timaeus, discusses the impossibility of completely destroying the "base" or "bad" soul because it is deeply rooted in both the body and the world-soul, where it constantly struggles against the better part. But it is entirely impossible for the base soul to be destroyed, as much of it is implanted in the body and much in the soul, where it always fights a hard battle against the better part. Since I will prove this in a future treatment regarding individual cases, having brought forward their own passages, I can now dispense with this labor.

A certain disagreement of minds is also observed among the ancients regarding the essence of those Principles In this context, "Principles" refers to the fundamental, self-existent sources of Good and Evil in the universe.; for while some attribute a spiritual essence to both, others—leaving this to the Good Principle alone—establish Evil solely as matter devoid of sense. These latter thinkers are altogether to be judged as belonging to this class of those in error, as TERTULLIAN Tertullian (c. 155–220 AD) was an early Christian author who argued extensively against the Gnostic idea that matter is inherently evil. correctly warns in B. THOMASIUS Jacob Thomasius (1622–1684) was a German philosopher and influential teacher of Leibniz; his Schediasmata Historica (Historical Essays) examined the origins of philosophical errors., page 23 of the Essays.

Hence PETAVIUS Dionysius Petavius (1583–1652) was a French Jesuit theologian known for his work on the history of Christian doctrine. in Theological Dogmas, Volume I, Book VI, page 260b, after he had warned that most of the ancient heretics conspired in this: to affirm some single principle of evil, entirely distinct from him who is the author of good, in section 3, he adds: "Others introduced not an efficient cause, but an eternal matter of evil, produced by no one. For many said that evil arises from this matter, mixed with the stain of good in divine works—especially the Platonists, as PLOTINUS Plotinus (c. 204–270 AD) was the founder of Neoplatonism; his Enneads explored the hierarchy of existence, often viewing "matter" as the furthest point from the "One" and thus the source of evil. discusses at length in Ennead I, book 8."

And since some of them—at least the most prudent among those who so decided—understood that in this way, action was being attributed to a thing devoid of all motion and sense (inappropriately and with reason resisting), they, about to add fictions to fictions, introduced almost a third principle: namely, an evil soul, which would as it were preside over matter, and in-