The Saint's Mistress by Kathryn Bashaar Page A

Aurelius and Amicus.
    The chamber we entered was a back room of someone’s home, the shutters drawn closed so
    the room was veiled in shadow. Although seldom prosecuted, Manicheism was an illegal
    religion, and had no temples. Well-to-do adherents offered their homes for worship. Already,
    several other hearers were seated in front of the priest, swathed in swirls of smoke from the
    incense burners to either side of him. Bread, cheese and fruit lay in front of him, and we added
    our own offerings to the pile before sitting on the floor with the others.
    “I call the spirit of light out of the darkness of matter. I call the spirit of the Christ out of the
    darkness of matter. I call the soul out of the darkness of matter,” the priest intoned.
    “Tell us a story,” one of the hearers urged.
    The priest slowly opened his eyes and gazed around the room. “A parable,” he began. “Once a
    shepherd saw a lion stalking his flock. What should he do?” He gazed around the room, but he
    clearly expected no answer, so he went on, holding up three fingers. “The shepherd worried
    about this for three days, and on the third day he made a plan. He dug a pit and placed in it a new
    young lamb to tempt the lion. But he tied a rope around the lamb and left the long end in his own
    hand. Having already secreted the rest of his flock on the hill behind, he waited for the lion. And
    the lion came and leapt into the pit to devour the lamb. But the shepherd quickly drew the kid up
    by the rope before it could be eaten. So the lamb was safe, but the lion was trapped in the pit and
    perished.” He paused. “Who can tell me what this means?”
    Quintus ventured, “The shepherd is the spirit and the lion is matter. The lamb is a human soul.
    The story tells how good and evil battle for the fate of our souls.”
    “Just so,” the priest agreed. I glanced at Aurelius, knowing he was accustomed to being the
    brightest student in every class, and wondering how he reacted to being out-thought for once. I
    saw a little twitch in his cheek, and it amused me in a mean way. For myself, I wondered: what if
    the shepherd hadn’t been quick enough? What if the lamb had been devoured before the
    shepherd could manage to put it out of the pit? What if the rope had broken? What if the lion had
    attacked the flock on the hillside instead, while the shepherd was digging the pit? But, not being
    a scholar, I kept these thoughts to myself.
    The priest turned to another topic. “We will speak today of so-called miracles.” He paused.
    “What is a miracle? It is whatever the poor human mind, imprisoned in matter, cannot explain.
    And so they believe that these phenomena they can’t explain are caused by invisible spirits,
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    either good or evil. But Mani tells us it is knowledge which will save us. It is knowledge which
    will free our inner light from the dark matter wherein it is imprisoned. It is for knowledge that
    we must strive. Mani was the perfect student. Through study and self-denial, he found wisdom,
    and explained for us the composition of the universe, how it was made, of what it was made,
    who made it and its inevitable future. These are not stories, such as the pagans told. This is
    science. Would you like to know what causes the moon to wax and wane?”
    We all leaned forward slightly.
    The priest went on, “It’s simply caused by the influx and outflow of light particles from the
    world. No miracle. No spirits. Light, freed from matter and light trapped by matter again. That’s
    all.”
    “How do we come to understand these things?” he went on. “How do we purify ourselves so
    the light particles within us can absorb Mani’s wisdom? Through self-denial. Who can tell me
    our only two duties?”
    “Prayer and fasting,” Quintus called out.
    “Prayer and fasting,” the priest agreed. “Exactly right. Through self-denial, we free the
    particles of light within. When all the particles of light are finally gathered together,