Reaction of East towards Persia in Roman times—Struggle between Rome and Persia only closes with Mahommedan Invasion—Rome leans to Persian fashions and proclaims Mithras protector of Empire—How Mithraism reached Rome—Its propagation by the soldiery—Mithras may have been originally god of Western Asia—His place in Persian religion—Magism, its tenets and connection with magic—And with astrology—Uncertainty as to Mithraic tenets and Cumont’s theory—Roman ideas as to Ormuzd and Ahriman—Connection of Mithras with the Sun—The Legend of Mithras—Explanation of Tauroctony—The Mithraic Eucharist or Banquet—Mithras probably the only god for his worshippers—His position midway between heaven and earth—Ahriman in Mithraism—Identified with Greek Hades—Lord of Destiny—The seven spheres in Mithraism—Eclecticism of Mithraics as to worship of other gods—Possibly as to Christianity also—The Mysteries of Mithras—The seven degrees of initiation—Privileges of higher initiates doubtful—The so-called Mithraic Liturgy—The priests and ceremonies of Mithraism—Likeness of Mithraism to Freemasonry and its political uses—Decline of Mithraism on loss of Dacia—Its extinction under Gratian—Exclusion of women from mysteries drawback to Mithraism—Not attractive save to soldiers—Survivals of Mithraism in royal titles—And in magic and astrology 224-276 CHAPTER XIII MANES AND THE MANICHAEANS Contrast between Mithraism and Manichaeism—Life and Death of Manes—Ardeshîr, son of Sassan, finds religion necessary to State—Restores Zoroastrianism—Manichaeism a Zoroastrian heresy—Christian account of origin of Manichaeism too late—Manes’ cardinal doctrines Persian—Conflict between Light and Darkness—Satan and the First Man—Defeat of latter and creation of Universe—The Redemption of the Light—Birth and ancestry of Adam—Jesus sent as Saviour to Adam—Infidelity of Eve and its results—Likeness of these to Mandaite stories—Rôles of Buddha, Zoroaster, and Jesus in Manichaeism—The salvation and transmigration of souls—The death of the perfect righteous—Of the Hearer—Distinction between Perfect and Hearer peculiar to Manichaeism—Obligations of Hearers—Hatred of Manes for Jews—Manes aims at syncretic religion—MSS. found at Turfan prove chameleon-like character of Manichaeism—Manichaeans are Christians among Christians, Buddhists among Buddhists—Manichaean Cosmogony and Anthropogony in Bar Khôni and the Turkestan MSS.—-Organization of Manichaean Church—Ritual of Manichaeans confined to prayers and hymns—Manichaean prayers from Mahommedan sources—_Khuastuanift_ or Manichaean Litany from Turkestan given with commentary—Perfect redeem Light by eating food—Hearers’ fasts help scheme of redemption—Sacrament among Manichaeans doubtful—Symbolical pictures in Manichaean Churches—Festivals of the Bema, Christmas, and Sunday—Manichaean Scriptures—Manichaean treatise found at Tunhuang—The two great archangels and the division of the sexes—History of Manichaeism 277-357 CONCLUSION