Note 1184 — Chapter XIII · MANES AND THE MANICHAEANS (continued 2)

See Cumont, Cosmog. Manich. p. 56, for authorities. Cf. also de Stoop, op. cit. p. 22. As has been many times said above, every religion and sect at the time accused the others of these filthy practices, without our being able to discern any proof of the justice of the accusation in one case more than in another. In any case, St Augustine, here the chief authority, could not have known of it at first hand, as he had never been more than a Hearer, and he himself says (contra Fortunatum, Bk I. App.) that while he had heard that the Elect celebrated the Eucharist, he knew nothing of the mode of celebration. Cf. Neander, Ch. Hist. II. p. 193.