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St Photius the Great, tr. Freese, 1920; selections

85. Codex 85: Heraclian, Against the Manichaeans

Read the twenty books of Heraclian,¹ bishop of Chalcedon, Against the Manichaeans.² His style is concise, free from redundancies, lofty, not wanting in clearness, at the same time tempered with dignity. He combines atticism with ordinary language, like a teacher of boys entering into a contest of superatticism. He refutes the Gospel, Book of the Giants, and the Treasures of the Manichaeans. He also gives a list of those who wrote against the Manichaean impiety before him---- Hegemonius, who wrote out the disputation of Archelaus against Manes; Titus,³ who was supposed to be an opponent of the Manichaeans, whereas he rather attacked the writings of Addas;⁴ George of Laodicea,⁵ who uses nearly the same arguments as Titus against the impious heresy; Serapion, bishop of Thmuis;⁶ lastly, Diodorus,⁷ who wrote twenty-five books against the Manichaeans, in the first seven of which he imagines that he is refuting the Living Gospel of Manes, instead of the work of Addas named Modion,⁸ as is really the case. In the remaining books he explains and clears up the meaning of certain passages in the Scriptures which the Manichaeans were in the habit of appropriating to support their own views. Such is his account of Diodorus. Any statements in the works of these Fathers (as the pious Heraclian calls them) that do not appear to be sufficiently emphatic, he briefly confirms, carefully supplies what is missing, and quotes with approval in their entirety passages which are adequate for the purpose, adding further reflections of his own.

The man is full of philosophical vigour, and is admirably equipped with the theoretical knowledge of other branches of learning. Hence he energetically combats and overthrows the trifling fables of Manichaeus,⁹ and from the consideration of what exists refutes the fabulous nonsense about Being (that which is).

This treatise against the Manichaeans was written at the request of a certain Achillius, whom the author calls his faithful and beloved son. This Achillius, seeing that the Manichaean heresy was growing, begged that it might be publicly refuted, and this work was written, an unexceptionable triumph over impiety. This most pious Heraclian flourished in...

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