Christianity, Christ being identical with Mithras (see ante, p. 362),
and having come upon earth in an apparent body only to deliver mankind.
Manes was the paraclete sent to complete his teaching; the body was
evil, and only by long struggle and mortification could man be delivered
from it, and reach final blessedness. Those who desired to lead the
highest life, _the elect_, abstained from flesh, eggs, milk, fish, wine,
and all intoxicating drink, and remained in the strictest celibacy; they
were to live on bread, herbs, pulse, and melons, and deny themselves
every comfort and every gratification (see pp. 80-82). The Hieracites in
Egypt were closely allied with the Manichæans. The Novatians differed
from the orthodox only in their refusal to receive again into the Church
any who had committed grievous crimes, or who had lapsed during
persecution. The Arabians denied the immortality of the soul,
maintaining that it died with the body, and that body and soul together
would be revivified by God. The controversies on the persons of the
Godhead now increased in intensity. Noctus of Smyrna maintained the
doctrine of the Patripassians, that God was one and indivisible, and
suffered to redeem mankind; Sabellius also taught that God was one, but
that Jesus was a man, to whom was united a "certain energy only,
proceeding from the Supreme Parent" (p. 83). He also denied the separate
personality of the Holy Ghost. Paul of Samosata, Bishop of Antioch,
taught a cognate doctrine, and founded the sect of the Paulians or
Paulianists, and was consequently degraded from his office. Thus we see
that the history of the Church, before it came to power, is a mass of
quarrels and divisions, varied by ignorance and licentiousness. If we
exclude Origen, whose writings contain much that is valuable, the works
produced by Christian writers in these centuries might be thrown into
the sea, and the world would be none the poorer for the loss.