c. 9th century CE
trans. Jason Colavito
2025
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NOTE |
Several versions of the abjuration formula used during conversion from Manichaeism to Catholicism survive in various medieval texts. Although these are relatively late in time, primarily dating from the eighth or ninth centuries CE, their value is the preservation of Manichaean myths and doctrines in the form of their condemnation by the Church. The formula below dates to the eighth or ninth century and was found appended to a codex of the Pseudo-Clementine Recognitions.
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The Anti-Manichaean Abjuration Formula
In what way should those who join the holy catholic and apostolic Church of God from among the Manichaeans anathematize their heresy in writing?
I. I anathematize Manes, also known as Manichaeus and Cubricus, who dared to call himself the Paraclete and Apostle of Jesus Christ. I anathematize Scythianus and Terebinthus, who are also called Buddhas, the teachers of Manes, I anathematize the god Zarades (Zoroaster), whom Manes said appeared before him among the Indians and Persians, and whom he called the Sun; but with him I also anathematize the prayers of Zarades. I anathematize all the gods fabricated by Manes: namely, the four-faced Father of Greatness, and him who is called the First Man, and the Crown, and him who is called the Virgin of Light, then the one breathed in by the Lord, and endowed with five intelligences, called the Worker, and by him the Just Judge, and also the one who carries the law, likewise the Old Man, and all the gods whom Manes forged, the Aeons, and the Aeons of Aeons, which are all elaborated by him concerning the giants and abortions. I anathematize all who have spoken or speak or will speak of the two unborn principles, mutually opposed to each other: one good, the other evil. I anathematize Marcion with Valentinus and Basilides, and every man who has dared or will dare to blaspheme against the Old or New Testament and to despise and insult Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joshua the son of Nun, Samuel, David, Elijah, and all the other prophets and their writings.
In short, I anathematize those who slander the true Creator of the universe, and do not confess the God of the Old and New Testaments to be one and the same, nor believe that those who shone forth in both Testaments are holy and friends of God. I anathematize all those who will not confess that there is only one true God, the good creator of the world, and almighty, the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ; who with him and the Spirit, from non-existence and from nothing, produced heaven, earth, sea, and all that is contained in them by his will; and who did not need matter, which was not yet extant, nor the skins, bones, bodies, and sweats of evil princes, whom Manes has invented. I anathematize those who say that the body was created from an evil beginning, and that evil nature is easy, I anathematize the crazy fable of Manes, in which he says that the first man was not formed by God in any way like us; that is, Adam, but from the Sacrum, the prince of debauchery, and Nebroda, which he says was the matter from which Adam and Eve were made; that the first was indeed created in a beastly form, but the second inanimate; and that Eve indeed received life from a virgin called a man, and that Adam was freed from wildness through Eve. I curse those who assert the opinion that our Lord Jesus Christ was manifested to the world and do not profess that He truly assumed flesh from the womb the holy Virgin Mary of the line of David, human flesh consubstantial with us, and perfectly man in the form of Jesus; and that He was born of that Virgin after the space of nine months, and likewise lived with men until his thirtieth year, and was then baptized in the Jordan by the most holy forerunner John the Baptist, who bore witness from the heavenly, true and good Father, that Jesus Himself was His Son, true God and consubstantial, through the incarnation of the Virgin made man, yet remaining God.
II. I anathematize, therefore, as has been said, those who hold the contrary view, and who indeed think that one Jesus is the one who was born of Mary, and who was baptized or dipped, or rather, as they themselves say, immersed; and another is the one who ascended from the water and received testimony, whom they call both the incarnate Jesus and the Light, who appeared in the form of a man; and the one whom they fantasize to be from an evil beginning, but the other from a good one. I anathematize those who say that our Lord Jesus Christ suffered merely for the sake of reputation, and that one is indeed the one who was on the cross, and another who stood far from it, laughing as if someone else were suffering for him. I therefore anathematize those who do not believe that the Word of God himself was conceived and born of the holy and ever-virgin Mary, but was not truly crucified in the flesh, truly died in the flesh, and rose again on the third day, as God.
I anathematize those who affirm that Christ is the sun, and offer veiled prayers to the sun or the moon, and attend to them entirely as to gods, and call them most luminous gods: likewise those who not only supplicate to the true God towards the East, but circle themselves according to the movement of the sun in their innumerable prayers. I anathematize those who say that Zarades and Buddha and Christ and Manichaeus and the sun are one and the same. I anathematize those who dare to call the Paraclete whom the Lord promised to send the wretched Manes, nor confess him to be the true Paraclete the Spirit of Truth, who descended upon the holy disciples and apostles of Christ on the day of Pentecost, and raised the dead, and worked other miracles. I anathematize those who say that human souls are consubstantial with God, and are absorbed by matter, and that God now sits and draws them from the depths through the sun and the moon, which they also call ships. I anathematize those who admit metempsychosis, which they themselves call the migration of souls from vessel to vessel: moreover, those who think that herbs, plants, water, and all other things are animate, and say that their collectors are to be transformed into them; but we Christians, who do not at all accept such fabulous discourses, call them Simpletons. I anathematize both those who corrupt the resurrection of the flesh; and those who teach inhumanity, who command abstinence from foods which God created to be eaten. I anathematize those who defile themselves with their urine, and do not allow water to wash away their filth, for they say the water is polluted. I anathematize those who perpetrate a filth contrary to nature, not only with men, but also women; indeed, they reject marriage, and abstain from lawful intercourse with women, lest they bear children, they say, and lead their souls to the mire of human souls.
III. I strike with anathema and curse all the Manichaeans, and their opinions and dogmas, with the souls and bodies of the Blessed, and the abominable, impure and full of sorcery and mysteries, and their so-called Bema; and all that they impiously practice, which is contained in their Manichaean volumes, and more so in their sorcery books. I anathematize all the opinions and books of Manes, and the volume of his Epistles, and all the Manichaean writings: such as their deadly Gospel, which they call the Living; and the Treasury of Death, which they call the Treasury of Life; and the book entitled Mysteries, in which they strive to overthrow the law and the prophets; and the book of the Apocrypha and another of the Commentaries; likewise written by Ada and Adiment against Moses and other prophets; and also the book of Agapius, called the Heptalogue, the work of Aristocritus, which he inscribed Theosophy, that is, the wisdom of God; in which he attempts to show that Judaism, paganism, Christianity, and Manichaeism are one and the same dogma; and that he may seem to say what is probable, he also accuses Manes as evil. I pronounce anathema and a curse against all the Manichaeans, all their books, all their prayers, nay, their artifices, all their leaders, teachers, bishops, priests, chosen men, chosen women, listeners, disciples, with souls and bodies, and with impious tradition. I anathematize the father of Manes, Patecius, as a liar and the father of lies; likewise his mother Carossa, and Hieracus, Heraclides, Aphthonius, who wrote commentaries and expositions on his books; and all his other disciples, Sisinnius, the successor of the madness of Manes, Thomas who composed the Gospel of Thomas, Buda, Herman, Adam, Adimanthus, Zarua, Gabriabius, Agapius, Hilarius, Olympius, Aristocritus, Salmaeus, Innaeus, Paapimus, Baraea, and besides those who at last ruled over this church in the last times, Paul and John, the sons of Callinica, Constantine, who was also Silvanus, Simeon who is Titus, Gedesius who was also Timothy, Zacharias the mercenary, Joseph who was also Epaphroditus, Baanna the filthy, Sergius who was also Tychicus; and his disciples and companions, Michael, Canacarius, John, Theodotus, Basil, and Zosimus; whose superiors in rank, called Notaries, had undertaken the care of abominable orgies or ceremonies. Besides these, I anathematize the most wicked Carbea, who is related to him in lineage, but is the daughter-in-law of Chrysocherus.
IV. Anathema on those which are called Churches of the Manichaeans; and they are these: Macedonia, or Cibossa in Colonia; Achaia (or Mananalis, Laodicea), or Argais which is in Lycia; of the Colossians, or of the Cynochoritae; of the Ephesians, or that which is at Mopsuestia; and the Church of the Philippians. Anathema upon those who deny the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and of all things in them, visible and invisible; and upon those who deny the communion of the blood and body of Christ, but contrive to approve it while they substitute for it an understanding of the words of Christ’s teaching, who, they say, when giving it to the apostles, said: Take, eat, drink. Likewise, anathema upon those who indeed abhor baptism, yet pretend that many perform it, while they understand Christ Himself in its place, who, they say, said: I am the living water. Then, anathema upon those who turn away from the Catholic Church, but say that they hold it in esteem, while they understand in its place their own gatherings and assemblies, and John the brother of Paul, the leader of their heresy.
V. Anathema, then, to all those who hold similar opinions; and to those who reject the churches of Christians whom they themselves call Romans; and they that are blasphemous against the holy Mother of God Mary, the venerable cross, sacred images, and salutary baptism; and indeed those who hate the reception of divine mysteries but use the burnt navels of infants for the purification of souls, or rather for defilement, and they defile their own food with them. Anathema to those who defile themselves by eating carrion; and who indeed reject all Christian fasting, but during the time of Lent they fill themselves with cheese and milk. Anathema to those who either deny or corrupt the four Gospels of Christ, and the Epistles of the holy Apostle Paul; and who, instead of all the workers of God, worship him who is called the prince of this world; instead of the apostle Paul, they honor Paul, the son of Callinica, and when they accept four of his disciples in the figure of the four Gospels, they then designate the other three with the name of the Trinity. Anathema to those who lie with their sister, and mother-in-law, and daughter-in-law; and also to those who, having gathered for a feast on the first day of the month of January, after evening drunkenness, put out the lights and indulge in carnal lust among themselves, sparing no one at all in sex, kinship, or age. Anathema to those who never preach the truth under oath, but always deliberately lie and sin according to the teaching of the most execrated Manes, who says thus: “I am not unmerciful, like Christ, nor will I deny him who denies me before men; but rather him who has lied for the sake of his own salvation, and him who has denied his faith through fear, I will receive with joy.” But if I do not feel and say these things with all my heart, or with pretense have I made the above anathemas, let me be anathema and cursed, both in this world and in the world to come, and let my soul be condemned and perish and be imprisoned perpetually in Tartarus.
VI. When the one who comes forward before the church says this, we make him a Christian, or regard him as a Christian not yet baptized — such, for the most part, as are the children of Christians who are to be baptized. Then, in the second place, we enroll him among the catechumens, pronouncing over him the prayer which we are accustomed to say over catechumen children. Next, on the following day, we make use of the prayers of exorcisms. And thus, in order, we carry out all the rites of baptism.
I. I anathematize Manes, also known as Manichaeus and Cubricus, who dared to call himself the Paraclete and Apostle of Jesus Christ. I anathematize Scythianus and Terebinthus, who are also called Buddhas, the teachers of Manes, I anathematize the god Zarades (Zoroaster), whom Manes said appeared before him among the Indians and Persians, and whom he called the Sun; but with him I also anathematize the prayers of Zarades. I anathematize all the gods fabricated by Manes: namely, the four-faced Father of Greatness, and him who is called the First Man, and the Crown, and him who is called the Virgin of Light, then the one breathed in by the Lord, and endowed with five intelligences, called the Worker, and by him the Just Judge, and also the one who carries the law, likewise the Old Man, and all the gods whom Manes forged, the Aeons, and the Aeons of Aeons, which are all elaborated by him concerning the giants and abortions. I anathematize all who have spoken or speak or will speak of the two unborn principles, mutually opposed to each other: one good, the other evil. I anathematize Marcion with Valentinus and Basilides, and every man who has dared or will dare to blaspheme against the Old or New Testament and to despise and insult Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joshua the son of Nun, Samuel, David, Elijah, and all the other prophets and their writings.
In short, I anathematize those who slander the true Creator of the universe, and do not confess the God of the Old and New Testaments to be one and the same, nor believe that those who shone forth in both Testaments are holy and friends of God. I anathematize all those who will not confess that there is only one true God, the good creator of the world, and almighty, the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ; who with him and the Spirit, from non-existence and from nothing, produced heaven, earth, sea, and all that is contained in them by his will; and who did not need matter, which was not yet extant, nor the skins, bones, bodies, and sweats of evil princes, whom Manes has invented. I anathematize those who say that the body was created from an evil beginning, and that evil nature is easy, I anathematize the crazy fable of Manes, in which he says that the first man was not formed by God in any way like us; that is, Adam, but from the Sacrum, the prince of debauchery, and Nebroda, which he says was the matter from which Adam and Eve were made; that the first was indeed created in a beastly form, but the second inanimate; and that Eve indeed received life from a virgin called a man, and that Adam was freed from wildness through Eve. I curse those who assert the opinion that our Lord Jesus Christ was manifested to the world and do not profess that He truly assumed flesh from the womb the holy Virgin Mary of the line of David, human flesh consubstantial with us, and perfectly man in the form of Jesus; and that He was born of that Virgin after the space of nine months, and likewise lived with men until his thirtieth year, and was then baptized in the Jordan by the most holy forerunner John the Baptist, who bore witness from the heavenly, true and good Father, that Jesus Himself was His Son, true God and consubstantial, through the incarnation of the Virgin made man, yet remaining God.
II. I anathematize, therefore, as has been said, those who hold the contrary view, and who indeed think that one Jesus is the one who was born of Mary, and who was baptized or dipped, or rather, as they themselves say, immersed; and another is the one who ascended from the water and received testimony, whom they call both the incarnate Jesus and the Light, who appeared in the form of a man; and the one whom they fantasize to be from an evil beginning, but the other from a good one. I anathematize those who say that our Lord Jesus Christ suffered merely for the sake of reputation, and that one is indeed the one who was on the cross, and another who stood far from it, laughing as if someone else were suffering for him. I therefore anathematize those who do not believe that the Word of God himself was conceived and born of the holy and ever-virgin Mary, but was not truly crucified in the flesh, truly died in the flesh, and rose again on the third day, as God.
I anathematize those who affirm that Christ is the sun, and offer veiled prayers to the sun or the moon, and attend to them entirely as to gods, and call them most luminous gods: likewise those who not only supplicate to the true God towards the East, but circle themselves according to the movement of the sun in their innumerable prayers. I anathematize those who say that Zarades and Buddha and Christ and Manichaeus and the sun are one and the same. I anathematize those who dare to call the Paraclete whom the Lord promised to send the wretched Manes, nor confess him to be the true Paraclete the Spirit of Truth, who descended upon the holy disciples and apostles of Christ on the day of Pentecost, and raised the dead, and worked other miracles. I anathematize those who say that human souls are consubstantial with God, and are absorbed by matter, and that God now sits and draws them from the depths through the sun and the moon, which they also call ships. I anathematize those who admit metempsychosis, which they themselves call the migration of souls from vessel to vessel: moreover, those who think that herbs, plants, water, and all other things are animate, and say that their collectors are to be transformed into them; but we Christians, who do not at all accept such fabulous discourses, call them Simpletons. I anathematize both those who corrupt the resurrection of the flesh; and those who teach inhumanity, who command abstinence from foods which God created to be eaten. I anathematize those who defile themselves with their urine, and do not allow water to wash away their filth, for they say the water is polluted. I anathematize those who perpetrate a filth contrary to nature, not only with men, but also women; indeed, they reject marriage, and abstain from lawful intercourse with women, lest they bear children, they say, and lead their souls to the mire of human souls.
III. I strike with anathema and curse all the Manichaeans, and their opinions and dogmas, with the souls and bodies of the Blessed, and the abominable, impure and full of sorcery and mysteries, and their so-called Bema; and all that they impiously practice, which is contained in their Manichaean volumes, and more so in their sorcery books. I anathematize all the opinions and books of Manes, and the volume of his Epistles, and all the Manichaean writings: such as their deadly Gospel, which they call the Living; and the Treasury of Death, which they call the Treasury of Life; and the book entitled Mysteries, in which they strive to overthrow the law and the prophets; and the book of the Apocrypha and another of the Commentaries; likewise written by Ada and Adiment against Moses and other prophets; and also the book of Agapius, called the Heptalogue, the work of Aristocritus, which he inscribed Theosophy, that is, the wisdom of God; in which he attempts to show that Judaism, paganism, Christianity, and Manichaeism are one and the same dogma; and that he may seem to say what is probable, he also accuses Manes as evil. I pronounce anathema and a curse against all the Manichaeans, all their books, all their prayers, nay, their artifices, all their leaders, teachers, bishops, priests, chosen men, chosen women, listeners, disciples, with souls and bodies, and with impious tradition. I anathematize the father of Manes, Patecius, as a liar and the father of lies; likewise his mother Carossa, and Hieracus, Heraclides, Aphthonius, who wrote commentaries and expositions on his books; and all his other disciples, Sisinnius, the successor of the madness of Manes, Thomas who composed the Gospel of Thomas, Buda, Herman, Adam, Adimanthus, Zarua, Gabriabius, Agapius, Hilarius, Olympius, Aristocritus, Salmaeus, Innaeus, Paapimus, Baraea, and besides those who at last ruled over this church in the last times, Paul and John, the sons of Callinica, Constantine, who was also Silvanus, Simeon who is Titus, Gedesius who was also Timothy, Zacharias the mercenary, Joseph who was also Epaphroditus, Baanna the filthy, Sergius who was also Tychicus; and his disciples and companions, Michael, Canacarius, John, Theodotus, Basil, and Zosimus; whose superiors in rank, called Notaries, had undertaken the care of abominable orgies or ceremonies. Besides these, I anathematize the most wicked Carbea, who is related to him in lineage, but is the daughter-in-law of Chrysocherus.
IV. Anathema on those which are called Churches of the Manichaeans; and they are these: Macedonia, or Cibossa in Colonia; Achaia (or Mananalis, Laodicea), or Argais which is in Lycia; of the Colossians, or of the Cynochoritae; of the Ephesians, or that which is at Mopsuestia; and the Church of the Philippians. Anathema upon those who deny the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and of all things in them, visible and invisible; and upon those who deny the communion of the blood and body of Christ, but contrive to approve it while they substitute for it an understanding of the words of Christ’s teaching, who, they say, when giving it to the apostles, said: Take, eat, drink. Likewise, anathema upon those who indeed abhor baptism, yet pretend that many perform it, while they understand Christ Himself in its place, who, they say, said: I am the living water. Then, anathema upon those who turn away from the Catholic Church, but say that they hold it in esteem, while they understand in its place their own gatherings and assemblies, and John the brother of Paul, the leader of their heresy.
V. Anathema, then, to all those who hold similar opinions; and to those who reject the churches of Christians whom they themselves call Romans; and they that are blasphemous against the holy Mother of God Mary, the venerable cross, sacred images, and salutary baptism; and indeed those who hate the reception of divine mysteries but use the burnt navels of infants for the purification of souls, or rather for defilement, and they defile their own food with them. Anathema to those who defile themselves by eating carrion; and who indeed reject all Christian fasting, but during the time of Lent they fill themselves with cheese and milk. Anathema to those who either deny or corrupt the four Gospels of Christ, and the Epistles of the holy Apostle Paul; and who, instead of all the workers of God, worship him who is called the prince of this world; instead of the apostle Paul, they honor Paul, the son of Callinica, and when they accept four of his disciples in the figure of the four Gospels, they then designate the other three with the name of the Trinity. Anathema to those who lie with their sister, and mother-in-law, and daughter-in-law; and also to those who, having gathered for a feast on the first day of the month of January, after evening drunkenness, put out the lights and indulge in carnal lust among themselves, sparing no one at all in sex, kinship, or age. Anathema to those who never preach the truth under oath, but always deliberately lie and sin according to the teaching of the most execrated Manes, who says thus: “I am not unmerciful, like Christ, nor will I deny him who denies me before men; but rather him who has lied for the sake of his own salvation, and him who has denied his faith through fear, I will receive with joy.” But if I do not feel and say these things with all my heart, or with pretense have I made the above anathemas, let me be anathema and cursed, both in this world and in the world to come, and let my soul be condemned and perish and be imprisoned perpetually in Tartarus.
VI. When the one who comes forward before the church says this, we make him a Christian, or regard him as a Christian not yet baptized — such, for the most part, as are the children of Christians who are to be baptized. Then, in the second place, we enroll him among the catechumens, pronouncing over him the prayer which we are accustomed to say over catechumen children. Next, on the following day, we make use of the prayers of exorcisms. And thus, in order, we carry out all the rites of baptism.
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Source: St. Clement, “Appendix monumentorum ad recognitiones Clementinae. Opera dubia,” Patrologiae Graeca, vol. 1, ed. J.-P. Migne (Paris: Garnier Bros., 1886), 1461-1472.
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