Europe's 50 Years of Manichaeism

What European politicians and statesmen, intellectuals and philosophers tried to exorcise with the most ardent fervor is precisely what they have immutably been so far: Manichaean.

Europe had tried in the past various forms of union; Roman Empire, Western Roman Empire, Eastern Roman Empire, Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, Ottoman Empire (at its zenith it included territories belonging to no less than 19 European states of today), Empire of All the Russias, Napoleonic France, Austrian Empire (and its offspring, Austria – Hungary), Hitler’s Third Reich, and the Soviet Union.

None of them attempted a peaceful expansion, nor was this possible. All of them were multinational, multi-ethnic, multi-linguistic, multicultural and multi-religious unions, whereby one culture, one religion and one language was supposed as unifying link, and had therefore to prevail over the rest.

The European Union comes as the latest effort, and in contrast to all of the previous attempts, it is supposed to be a peaceful union of countries that accept a certain political democratic system, involving human rights, protection of the minorities, the rule of law, and adopt a liberal economic model (Copenhagen criteria). It is standard spin for European lawmakers and statesmen to underscore the transparence of their policies and their commitment to humanism and other intellectual movements that emanate from the Renaissance world. Knowledge, truth, search for truth, science, exploration, discovery, moral values accepted as universal, and other Renaissance values are said to prevail. But ...

The Manichaean Doctrine and expansion

Based on sources involving more than 10 different languages (from Latin to Syriac, and from Sogdian to Coptic, including Arabic and Chinese), we are able to reconstitute the most elaborate and sophisticated system of Cosmogony in world history. According to Mani’s doctrine, before the existence of Heaven and Earth, there were two principles, the Good the Bad.
The 'Good Principle' dwells in the realm of light and is called the Father of Majesty (Megethos in Greek, Abba D'rabbutha in Syriac – a late Aramaic language), or the Father with the Four Persons (Tetraprosopon in Greek as opposed to Tetragrammaton of the Hebrew God), probably because Time, Light, Force, and Goodness were regarded as its essential manifestations.

Opposed to the Father of Majesty is the King of Darkness. He is actually never called God, but otherwise, he and his kingdom down below are exactly parallel to the ruler and realm of the light above.

Manichaeism did not survive down to our times; although it expanded from NW Africa and NW Europe to China, in various parts of the world was superseded by Roman Catholicism, Eastern Roman Orthodoxy, Monophysitic Christianity (Northern Mesopotamia – SE Turkey), Nestorian Christianity (Iraq, Persia, and India), Parsism (Persia and India), Buddhism (Tibet and China), Islam (Egypt, Persian Gulf, and Central Asia). The last Manichaean temple was still functioning 150 years ago on the eastern coast of China.

With the aforementioned in mind, and with the similarities between Manichaeism and some of the superseding religions - Christianity, Islam, Buddhism to name the most immediate affinities - one can easily understand to what extent Manichaeism has been at the same time copied, misinterpreted and deprecated. Already the attitude of accepting a theoretical element, attributing to it a different meaning than that it had within the earlier, original, environment (or system), and then denigrating the earlier system bears witness of duplicitous attitude.

You don't need to be Manichaean in order to be duplicitous, and none can demonstrate that the Manichaeans were duplicitous. But when duplicity becomes a
lifestyle, a basic trait of cultural and behavioural system, then the dots do get connected.

The Manichaean Origins of Europe

Mani's Ten Commandments forbade idolatry, mendacity, avarice, murder (i.e. all killing), fornication, theft, seduction to deceit, magic, hypocrisy (secret infidelity to Manichæism), and religious indifference (agnosticism or atheism).

Prayer was obligatory four times a day: at noon, late in the afternoon, after sunset, and three hours later. Prayer, accompanied by twelve prostrations, was made facing the sun or, in the night, the moon; it was preceded by a ceremonial purification with water, therefore pre-modeling Islamic practices.

Manichaeans fasted on the first day of the week in honor of the sun, and kept the fast during two days after every new moon. In addition, a monthly fast, observed from sunrise to sunset, was begun on the eighth day of the month.

Manichæans practiced Baptism, Eucharist, and "Consolation", an imposition of hands by one of the Manichaean High priests.

On March 20, 242 CE (beginning of Sassanid Era in Iran), Mani proclaimed himself the Paraclete promised by Jesus; he rejected the Old Testament in its entirety, but adopted three Christian books later considered by the Official Roman Church as Apocrypha, namely the Gospel of Thomas, the Teaching of Addas, and the Shepherd of Hermas. Jesus Christ was to Mani an Aeon or persistent personification of Light in the world. Mani used the term "Evangel" (Gospel) for his message.

In no country did Manichæism enter more insidiously into Christian life than in Egypt. One of the governors of Alexandria under Constantine was a Manichæan, whereas St. Athanasius says that Anthony the Hermit had forbidden all intercourse with "Manichæans and other heretics".

In the Eastern Roman Empire, Manichaeism came to a zenith around 400 CE, but then rapidly declined. Around 150 years later, it once more rose into prominence. The Emperor Justinian himself disputed with them; Barsymes the Nestorian prefect of Theodora, was an avowed Manichæan too. After a certain decline at the moment of the rise of Islam, Manichaeism flooded the Eastern Roman Empire again, this time under the name of Paulicians, or Bogomiles (8th – 10th centuries).

After the edict of Diocletian against Manichaeans, we hear no more of them until the days of St. Augustine. It is well known how St. Augustine (383) found a home at Rome in the Manichæan community, which must have been considerable. The Father of the Catholic Church was Manichaean before adopting Christianity, but we have not yet got a Manichaean account of the extent St. Augustine’s ‘Christian’ theology was of Manichaean nature and background. After he became Christian, St. Augustine complained that, although the Manichæans pretended to be Christians, their feast of the death of Mani exceeded in solemnity that of the Death and Resurrection of Christ. This is quite telling! St. Augustine engaged in many debates against Manichaeans, but this testifies mainly to Manichaean impact on the Christian theology and religion which, at the time, was still being formulated.

The spread of Manichæism in Spain and Gaul is involved in obscurity on account of the uncertainty concerning the real teaching of Priscillian. In the years 384-388, an offspring of Manichæans arose in Rome called Martari, who, supported by a wealthy benefactor - Constantius - started a monastic life for the Elect.

Around the middle of the 6th century, Manichæism seemed to have died out in Western Europe, but in reality it survived through a number of secret societies
down to the times of the Paulicians and Bogomili. When the latter were driven out by the Byzantine emperors, they met with groups in the North of Italy and the South of France whereby the quintessence of Manichaean teachings had survived, and they merged with them, giving successively birth to the formidable Cathars, the Knights Templar, the Rosicrucians, and the Free Masons.

The Manichaean Nature of today’s Europe

Two diametrically opposed groups of power for various reasons supported the rise of a European Union, trying - each one - to pull the institutions under formation close to their own ideals.

The Catholic pledge for Christian Europe clashes with the Free Masonic concept of a secular Europe; associations fight against or in favor of abortion, and issues like Euthanasia have risen to points of discord. Homosexual marriages and homo-parental legislation have become issues of fundamental political determination. Sooner or later, Europe – united or not – will have to choose between two diametrically opposed groups that have shaped its history.

In parallel with this ideological confrontation between the Catholic church and the descendants of European Manichaeism, another issue should draw more attention; even if eliminated at the ideological level, Manichaean dualism reigns in the sphere of political language and behaviour.

Suffice it that we refer to the highly symbolic Berlin Declaration that is expected to be signed in terms of a 50 years European panegyric, and we are met with an abundance of duplicitous statements that are made for only one purpose: to hide realities.

The first chapter of the Berlin Declaration is expected to make a tribute to the success stories of EU integration, citing peace, prosperity – attributed to the internal market and the single currency - and stability as "central achievements of European unification".

Peace and prosperity were truly met in Bosnia, Croatia, and Kosovo. The bombardments of Belgrade were geared precisely for that. Meanwhile, uncertainty - not the golden age promised by the rich in Europe - persists for the people of Kosovo, Transnistria and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. These countries, de facto independent for years, have not yet been recognized as states. Europe will not be stable until their for independent statehood - real in all but name - is recognized, and these new countries are brought into the fold of the international community.

Freedom for the people of Central and Eastern Europe is a key part of what the EU wants ... or at least pretends to want. The text reads as follows: “The division of the continent could not have been overcome if the people in Central and Eastern European had not so yearned for freedom".
Might this perhaps be the reason why so great a respect is paid to the long-held desire of the people of Transnistria for living in a country of their own making? Historically and ethnically, Transnistria and Moldova are so different that at this point in time, co-existence within a single country can only happen the way Stalin forced the two together: At gun-point.

The second chapter focuses on "Features of European unification/cooperation" and singles out "democracy and the rule of law as the foundations of EU membership" and "equal rights and duties for all member states as well as transparency and subsidiarity as foundations of the EU." This is referred to as the "Community method."
What then prohibits the Brussels bureaucrats from entering into discussions with Ukraine, Albania and Bosnia where free elections have been held?

In the third chapter, there's an open apology for European Manichaeism under the title "Central values on which European unification builds".
The declaration states that "the focus is on the human person whose dignity is inviolable, freedom and responsibility, solidarity as a crucial element of the European way of life, diversity is the hallmark of Europe making tolerance and respect essential."
When reading this, keep in mind how the diversity of the Macedonian minority in Bulgaria and the Turkish minority in Greece (comically called the Muslim minority) has been highly evaluated.

The fourth part of the Berlin statement highlights the EU's external and internal priorities, with energy policy and climate protection topping the list as "two components of a strategy to counter the global threats together" in which the EU should have a "pioneering role".
Skewed priorities? Certainly in the external field. There is no mention as a highlighted priority of the need to end the genocides in Darfur or elsewhere in Africa. And the people of Transnistria, who have been less-than-democratically treated by Europe, are rightly beginning to see their own leaders as being more committed to real democracy and free trade than the doublespeakers in Brussels.

Justice and home affairs policies are also dealt with, thanks to a passage talking about "securing elementary human and civil rights for all". There are 555,000 people in Transnistria who have waited for 17 years now to get a country to call their own. They are Europeans, too. They have a deep understanding of the excerpt, and this may probably be the Achilles’ heel of the ailing European Manichaeism.

Prof. Dr. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis, a Greek citizen of Turkish origin, is an Orientalist, Assyriologist, Egyptologist, Iranologist, Islamologist, Historian and Political Scientist. A prolific writer, Dr. Megalommatis is the author of 12 books and thousands of published articles. Currently residing in Egypt, he speaks, reads and writes 15 modern and ancient languages.