Manichæism

Widespread and long-enduring religion, which grafted Christian, Zoroastrian, and even Buddhist tenets on the Babylonian religion of nature. Knowledge was its idea of redemption. It had two cla es, the "perfect" and the "hearers"; the former ascetic. Its belief in two original and eternal principles, good and evil, may have arisen among the Parsees, but owed its extended acceptance to Mani.