to have been the recipient of angelic visitations at the age of twelve.  Even at this time he was forewarned that he must leave the religion of his father at the age of twenty-four.  At the appointed time the angel At-Taum appeared again and announced to him his mission.  "Hail, Mani, from me and the Lord, who has sent me to thee and chosen thee for his mission.  But he commands thee to invite men to thy doctrine and to proclaim the glad tidings of truth that comes from him, and to bestow thereon all thy zeal."  Mani entered upon his work, according to Flügel’s careful computation, April 1, 238, or, according to calculations based on another statement, in 252.  Mani maintained that he was the Paraclete promised by Jesus.  He is said, in this document, to have derived his teaching from the Magi and the Christians, and the characters in which he wrote his books, from the Syriac and the Persian.  After travelling in many lands for forty years and disseminating his doctrines in India, China, and Turkestan, he succeeded in impressing his views upon Fîrûz, brother of King Sapor, who had intended to put him to death.  Sapor became warmly attached to Mani and granted toleration to his followers.  Afterwards, according to some accounts, Mani was imprisoned by Sapor and liberated by his successor Hormizd.  He is said to have been crucified by order of King Bahraîm I. (276-’7), and his skin stuffed with straw is said to have been suspended at the city gate.  Eusebius (H. E. VII. 31) describes Mani as "a barbarian in life, both in speech and conduct, who attempted to form himself into a Christ, and then also proclaimed himself to be the very Paraclete and the Holy Spirit.  Then, as if he had been Christ, he selected twelve disciples, the partners of his new religion, and after patching together false and ungodly doctrines collected from a thousand heresies long since extinct, he swept them off like a deadly poison from Persia, upon this part of the world."  The account given in the Acta Archel (written probably about 330-’40), is far more detailed than that of the Fihrist and differs widely therefrom.  It contains much that is highly improbable.  Mani is represented as having for his predecessors one Scythianus, an Egyptian heretic of Apostolic times, and Terebinthus, who went with him to Palestine and after the death of Scythianus removed to Babylonia.  The writings of Terebinthus or Scythianus came into the possession of a certain widow, who purchased Mani when seven years of age (then named Cubricus) and made him heir of her property and books.  He changed his name to Mani (Manes), and, having become imbued with the teachings of the books, began at about sixty years of age to promul- gate their teachings, choosing three disciples, Thomas, Addas and Hermas, to whom he entrusted the writings mentioned above, along with some of his own.  Up to this time he 11 knew little of Christianity, but having been imprisoned by the king for failure in a promised cure of the king’s son, he studied the Christian Scriptures and derived therefrom the idea of the Paraclete, which he henceforth applied to himself.  After his escape the famous dialogue with Archelaus and that with Diodorus occurred.  Returning to Arabion he was arrested, carried to Persia, flayed alive, and his skin stuffed and suspended as above.  Some additional facts from an Oriental source used by Beausobre have more or less verisimilitude.  According 16 The Manichæan System.