Manichaeism was the most important Gnostic religion. Central in the Manichaean teaching was dualism; that the world itself; and all creatures; were part of a battle between the good; represented by God; and the bad; the darkness; represented by a power driven by envy and lust.

Manichaeism spread over most of the known world of the 1st millennium CE; from Spain to China. But the religion disappeared from the West in 10th century; and from China in the 14th century. Today it is extinct.