A more important sect of decidedly oriental affinities was Manichaeism, or rather it was a truly oriental religion which succeeded in penetrating to Europe and there took on considerably more Christianity than it had possessed in its original form.  Mani himself (215-276) is said to have been a native of Ecbatana but visited Afghanistan, Bactria and India, and his followers carried his faith across Asia to China, while in the west it was the parent inspiration of the Bogomils and Albigenses.  The nature and sources of his creed have been the subject of considerable discussion but new light is now pouring in from the Manichaean manuscripts discovered in Central Asia, some of which have already been published.  These show that about the seventh century and probably considerably earlier the Manichaeism of those regions had much in common with Buddhism.  A Manichaean treatise discovered at Tun-huang[1137] has the form of a Buddhist Sutra:  it speaks of Mani as the Tathagata, it mentions Buddhas of Transformation (Hua-fo) and the Bodhisattva Ti-tsang.  Even more important is the confessional formula called Khuastuanift[1138] found in the same locality.  It is clearly similar to the Patimokkha and besides using much Buddhist terminology it reckons killing or injuring animals as a serious sin.  It is true that many of these resemblances may be due to association with Buddhism and not to the original teaching of Mani, which was strongly dualistic and contained many Zoroastrian and Babylonian ideas.  But it was eclectic and held up an ascetic ideal of celibacy, poverty and fasting unknown to Persia and Babylon.  To take life was counted a sin and the adepts formed an order apart who lived on the food given to them by the laity.  The more western accounts of the Manichaeans testify to these features as strongly as do the records from Central Asia and China.  Cyril of Jerusalem in his polemic against them[1139] charges them with believing in retributive metempsychosis, he who kills an animal being changed into that animal after death.  The Persian king Hormizd is said to have accused Mani of bidding people destroy the world, that is, to retire from social life and not have children.  Alberuni[1140] states definitely that Mani wrote a book called Shaburkan in which he said that God sent different messengers to mankind in different ages, Buddha to India, Zaradusht to Persia and Jesus to the west.  According to Cyril the Manichaean scriptures were written by one Scythianus and revised by his disciple Terebinthus who changed his name to Boddas.  This may be a jumble, but it is hard to stifle the suspicion that it contains some allusion to the Buddha, Sakya-muni and the Bo tree.

I think therefore that primitive Manichaeism, though it contained less Buddhism than did its later and eastern forms, still owed to India its asceticism, its order of celibate adepts and its regard for animal life.  When it spread to Africa and Europe it became more Christian, just as it became more Buddhist in China, but it is exceedingly curious to see how this Asiatic religion, like the widely different religion of Mohammed, was even in its latest phrases the subject of bitter hatred and persistent misrepresentation.