nd
religion of the East; from whence this doctrine was transfused to the
various swarms of the Gnostics. A thousand shades may be devised in the
nature and character of _Ahriman_, from a rival god to a subordinate
daemon, from passion and frailty to pure and perfect malevolence: but, in
spite of our efforts, the goodness, and the power, of Ormusd are placed
at the opposite extremities of the line; and every step that approaches
the one must recede in equal proportion from the other.

The apostolic labors of Constantine Sylvanus soon multiplied the number
of his disciples, the secret recompense of spiritual ambition. The
remnant of the Gnostic sects, and especially the Manichaeans of Armenia,
were united under his standard; many Catholics were converted or seduced
by his arguments; and he preached with success in the regions of Pontus
and Cappadocia, which had long since imbibed the religion of Zoroaster.
The Paulician teachers were distinguished only by their Scriptural
names, by the modest title of Fellow-pilgrims, by the austerity of their
lives, their zeal or knowledge, and the credit of some extraordinary
gifts of the Holy Spirit. But they were incapable of desiring, or at
least of obtaining, the wealth and honors of the Catholic prelacy; such
anti-Christian pride they bitterly censured; and even the rank of elders
or presbyters was condemned as an institution of the Jewish synagogue.
The new sect was loosely spread over the provinces of Asia Minor to
the westward of the Euphrates; six of their principal congregations
represented the churches to which St. Paul had addressed his epistles;
and their founder chose his residence in the neighborhood of Colonia, in
the same district of Pontus which had been celebrated by the altars of
Bellona and the miracles of Gregory. After a mission of twenty-seven
years, Sylvanus, who had retired from the tolerating government of the
Arabs, fell a sacrifice to Roman persecution. The laws of the pious
emperors, which seldom touched the lives of less odious heretics,
proscribed without mercy or disguise the tenets, the books, and the
persons of the Montanists and Manichaeans: the books were delivered to
the flames; and all who should presume to secrete such writings, or to
profess such opinions, were devoted to an ignominious death. A Greek
minister, armed with legal and military powers, appeared at Colonia to
strike the shepherd, and to reclaim, if possible, the lost sheep. By a
refin