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cess side by side with the state religion until the time when Bahram I ascended the throne. The teachings of Mani acquired a strong hold over the minds of many, and threatened to be a powerful rival of the ancient faith. The national spirit rebelled against the encroachment of the new cult, and the king strove to extinguish the heresy by the exercise of a firm hand. He confronted Mani with his Dastur, who threw him a challenge that both of them should pour molten lead on their bellies, and whosoever came out unhurt should be declared to be in the right. This Mani did not accept. Consequently in a A.D. 276–277 he was flayed to death and his body was stuffed with straw.^[1] With the removal of Mani from the field of activity, the Manichaean propaganda entered upon its dissolution in Iran, but the seed of the new faith he had sown did not remain unfruitful. Despite the heavy slaughter of the Manichaeans, the new cult spread from the home of its origin to the Far East, reaching even as far as China, and penetrated far into the West in the fourth century, where for some time it contested supremacy with Christianity, somewhat as Persian Mithraism had done before it. St. Augustine was a follower of Manichaeism before he was converted to Christianity He was not able to free himself from the influence of his teachings even after he had joined the Christian Church. He imparted its dualistic philosophy to Christian doctrine.^[2]

The Pahlavi writers vehemently attack Mani and his followers. He is dubbed a druj^[3] of evil origin,^[4] and his followers are branded as deceivers, empty-skulled persons that practised witchcraft and deceitfulness, and taught folly in the way of secret societies;^[5] they are denounced as deluding the uninformed and unintelligent, and as capturing the men of little knowledge in their esoteric circle.^[6]

Mani's eclectic system. Mani aimed at forming a world religion and based his new religion on materials drawn from