 The same author says his books and knowledge were taken over by Mani, and became the foundation of the Manichean doctrine.Saint Jerome (4th century CE) mentions that the Buddhist belief of Buddha's birth from a virgin as their "opinion [...] authoritatively handed down that Budda, the founder of their religion, had his birth through the side of a virgin," (the Buddha was, according to Buddhist tradition, born from the hip of his mother).It has been suggested that this virgin birth legend of Buddhism influenced Christianity.