2. After some examination of the various opinions of
Tillemont, Beausobre, Lardner, etc., I am convinced that
Manes did not propagate his sect even in Persia, before the
year 270. It is strange that a philosophic and foreign
heresy should have penetrated so rapidly into the African
provinces; yet I cannot easily reject the edict of
Diocletian against the Manichaeans, which may be found in
Baronius. (Annal. Eccl. A.D. 287.)