26 Marcionism was still vigorous in the East when Manichæism arose, and through this party unfavorable views of the Old Testament were widely disseminated.  Many Christians doubtless felt that the Old Testament and its religion were burdensome and trammelling to Christianity.  The very fact that Mani set aside so summarily every element of Judaism that he encountered in the current Christianity, doubtless commended his views to a large and influential element in the East and the West alike.  Mani claimed to set forth a spiritual religion as opposed to a carnal.  The asceticism of Manichæism was in the line of a wide- spread popular ascetical movement that was already in progress, and so commended it to many.  The question as to the origin of evil, and as to the relation of the good, wise and powerful God to the evil that appears in the world, in man and in demons was never asked with more interest than during the early Christian centuries, and any party that should ad- vance a moderately plausible theory was sure to receive its share of public attention.  Mani professed to have a solution and the only possible solution of questions of this class, and however fantastic may have been the forms in which his speculations were set forth, they were doubtless all the more acceptable on this account in that semi-pagan age to many in- telligent people.  The fact that these forms satisfied so able a thinker as Mani undoubtedly was, would guarantee their acceptance by a large number both East and West.  There was in the West at this time, and had been for centuries, a hankering after Oriental theosophy, the more extravagant the better.  The wide-spread worship of Mithra was an excellent pre- paration for the more complete system of Mani.  Manichæism and Neo-Platonism antagon- ized the Christianity of the fourth and fifth centuries from opposite sides, and those minds for whom Platonism had no charms were almost sure to be attracted by the theosophy of Mani.  "How are we to explain," asks Harnack,14 "the rapid spread of Manichæism, and the fact that it really became one of the great religions?  Our answer is, that Manichæism was the most complete Gnosis, the richest, most consequent and most artistic system formed on the basis of the ancient Babylonian religion.… What gave strength to Manichæism was… that it united its ancient mythology and a thorough-going materialistic dualism with an exceedingly simple spiritual worship and a strict morality.  On comparing it with the Semitic religions of nature, we perceive that it retained their mythologies, after transforming them into doctrines, but abolished all their sensuous cultus, substituting instead a spiritual worship as well as a strict morality.  Manichæism was thus able to satisfy the new wants of an old world.  It offered revelation, redemption, moral virtue, and immortality [this last is very doubtful, if conscious immortality be meant], spiritual benefits on the basis of the reli- gion of nature.  A further source of strength lay in the simple, yet firm social organization which was given by Mani himself to his new institution.  The wise man and the ignorant, 14 Encyclopædia Britannica, art. Manichæism. 37 The Relation of Manichæism to Christianity.