Chap. XVIII. — The understanding judges of the truth of things, and of its own action 137 Chap. XIX. — If the mind has no material extension, much less has God 13S Ch.\p. XX. — Refutation of the absurd idea of two territories 138 Chap. XXI. — This region of light must be material if it is joined to the region of darkness. The shape of the region of darkness joined to the region of light 138 Chap. XXII. — The form of the region of light the worst of the two 139 Chap. XXIII. — The Anthropomorphites not so bad as the Manichceans 139 Chap. X.XIV. — Of the number of natures in the Manichcean fiction 140 Chap. XXV. — Onmipotence creates good things differing in degree. In every description whatsoever of the junction of the two regions there is either impropriety or absurdity 140 Chap. XXVI. — The Manichceans are reduced to the choice of a tortuous, or curved, or straight line of , junction. The third kind of line would give symmetry and beauty suitable to both regions...141 128 CONTENTS OF MANICH^US CALLED FUNDAMENTAL.
PAGE Chap. XXVII. — The beauty of the straight line might be taken from the region of darkness without taking anything from its substance. So evil neither takes from nor adds to the substance of the soul. The straightness of its side would be so far a good bestowed on the region of darkness by God the Creator 142 Chap. XXVIII. — Manichceus places five natures in the region of darkness 142 Chap. XXIX. — The refutation of this absurdity 143 Chap. XXX. — The number of good things in those natures which Manichaeus places in the region of darkness 143 Chap. XXXI. — The same subject continued 144 Chap. XXXII. — Manichseus got the arrangement of his fanciful notions from visible objects...144 Chap. XXXIII. — Every nature, as nature, is good 145 Chap. XXXIV. — Nature cannot be without some good. The Manichseans dwell upon the evils...146 Chap. XXXV. — Evil alone is corruption. Corruption is not nature, but contrary to nature. Corrup- tion implies previous good 147 Chap. XXXVI. — The source of evil or of corruption of good 147 Chap. XXXVII. — God alone perfectly good 148 Chap. XXXVIII. — Nature made by God; corruption comes from nothing 148 Chap. XXXIX. — In what sense evils are from God 149 Chap. XL. — Corruption tends to non-existence 149 Chap. XLI. — Corruption is by God's permission, and comes from us 150 Chap. XLII. — Exhortation to the chief good 150 j Chap. XLIII. — Conclusion 150 ■<n r AGAINST THE EPISTLE OF MANICH/EUS CALLED FUNDAMENTAL; [CONTRA EPISTOLAM MANICH^I QUAM VACANT FUNDAMENT!.] A.D. 397.
CHAP. I. TO HEAL HERETICS IS BETTER THAN TO DESTROY THEM.
I. My prayer to the one true, almighty God, of whom, and through whom, and in whom are all things, has been, and is now, that in opposing and refuting the heresy of you Manichseans, as you may after all be heretics more from thoughtlessness than from malice, He would give me a mind calm and composed, and aiming at your recovery rather than at your discomfiture. For while the Lord, by His servants, overthrows the king- doms of error, His will concerning erring men, as far as they are men, is that they should be amended rather than destroyed. And in every case where, previous to the final judgment, God inflicts punishment, whether through the wicked or the righteous, whether through the unintelligent or through the intelligent, whether in secret or openly, we must believe that the designed effect is the healing of men, and not their ruin; while there is a preparation for the final doom in the case of those who reject the means of re- cover}'-. Thus, as the universe contains some 'Written about the year 397. In his Retractations (ii. 2) Augustin says: "The book against the Epistle of Manicha;iis, called Fundamental, refutes only its commencement; but on the other parts of the epistle 1 have made notes, as required, refuting the whole, and sufficient to recall the argument, had I ever had lei- sure to write against the wh le." [The Fundamental E/>istte seems to have been a sort of hand-book for Manicha;an catechu- mens or Auditors. In making this.document the basis of his attack, Augustin felt that he had selected the best-known and most gen- erally accepted standard of the I\Ianicha;an faith. Tiie tone of the work is conciliatory, yet some very sharp thrusts are made at Manichaean error. The claims of Mani to be the Paraclete are set aside, and the absurd cosmological fancies of Mani are ruth- lessly exposed. Dualism is combated with substantially the same .weaponsas in the treatise Concerning Two Souls. We could wish that the author had found time to finish the treatise, and had thus preserved fur us more of the Fundamental Epistle itself. This work was written after the author had become Bishop of Hippo.— *, H.N.I 9 9 things which serve for bodily punishment, as fire, poison, disease, and the rest, and other things, in which the mind is punished, not by bodily distress, but by the entanglements of its own passions, such as loss, exile, bereave- ment, reproach, and the like; while other things, again, without tormenting are fitted to comfort and soothe the languishing, as, for example, consolations, exhortations, dis- cussions, and such things; in all these the supreme justice of God makes use sometimes even of wicked men, acting in ignorance, and sometimes of good men, acting intelligently. It is ours, accordingly, to desire in preference the better part, that we might attain our end in your correction, not by contention, and strife, and persecutions, but by kindly conso- lation, by friendly exhortation, by quiet dis- cussion; as it is written, " The servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle toward all men, apt to teach, patient; in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves."^ It'is ours, I say, to desire to obtain this part in the work; it belongs to God to give what is good to those who desire it and ask for it.
CHAP. 2. WHY THE MANICH^ANS SHOULD BE MORE GENTLY DEALT WITH.
2. Let those rage against you who know not with what labor the truth is to be found and with what difificulty error is to be avoided. Let those rage against you who know not how rare and hard it is to overcome the fancies of the flesh by the serenity of a pious disposition. Let those rage against you who know not the difficulty of curing the eye of the inner man that he may gaze upon his Sun, — not that sun Ti m. II. 24,25.
130 THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN.
[Chap. V.
vvuich you worship, and which shines with the brilliance of a heavenly body in the eyes of carnal men and of beasts, — but that of which it is written through the prophet, "The Sun of righteousness has arisen upon me;"' and of which it is said in the gospel, " That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that Cometh into the world. "= Let those rage against you who know not with what sighs and groans the least particle of the knowledge of God is obtained. And, last of all, let those rage against you who have never been led astray in the same way that they see that you are.
CHAP.
-AUGUSTIN ONCE A MANICHyEAN.
3. For my part, I, — who, after much and long-continued bewilderment, attained at last to the discovery of the simple truth, which is learned without being recorded in any fanci- ful legend; who, unhappy that I was, barely succeeded, by God's help, m refuting the vain imaginations of my mind, gathered from theories and errors of various kinds; who so late sought the cure of my mental obscura- tion, in compliance with the call and the ten- der persuasion of the all-merciful Physician; who long wept that the immutable and inviol- able Existence would vouchsafe to convince me inwardly of Himself, in harmony with the testimony of the sacred books; by whom, in fine, all those fictions which have such a firm hold on you, from your long familiarity with them, were diligently examined, and atten- tively heard, and too easily believed, and commended at every opportunity to the belief of others, and defended against opponents with determination and boldness, — I can on no account rage against you; for I must bear with you now as formerly I had to bear with myself, and I must be as patient towards you as my associates were with me, when I went madly and blindly astray in your beliefs.
4. On the other hand, all must allow that you owe it to me, in return, to lay aside all arrogance on your part too, that so you may be the more disposed to gentleness, and may not oppose me in a hostile spirit, to your own hurt. Let neither of us assert that he has found truth; let us seek it as if it were un- known to us both. For truth can be sought with zeal and unanimity if by no rash pre- sumption it is believed to have been already found and ascertained. But if I cannot in- duce you to grant me this, at least allow me to suppose myself a stranger now for the first time hearing you, for the first time examining your doctrines. I think my demand a just I:\Ial. iv.
' John: one. And it must be laid down as an under- stood thing that I am not to join you in your prayers, or in holding conventicles, or in taking the name of Manichjeus, unless you give me "a clear explanation, without any ob- scurity, of all matters touching the salvation of the soul.
CHAP. 4. PROOFS OF THE CATHOLIC FAITH.
5. For in the Catholic Church, not to speak of the purest wisdom, to the knowledge of which a few spiritual men attain in this life, so as to know it, in the scantiest measure, in- deed, because they are but men, still without any uncertainty (since the rest of the multi- tude derive their entire security not from acuteness of intellect, but from simplicity of faith,) — not to speak of this wisdom, which you do not believe to be in the Catholic Church, there are many other things which most justly keep me in her bosom. The con- sent of peoples and nations keeps me in the Church; so does her authority, inaugurated by miracles, nourished by hope, enlarged by love, established by age. The succession of priests keeps me, beginning from the very seat of the Apostle Peter, to whom the Lord, after His resurrection, gave it in charge to feed His sheep, down to the present episcopate. And so, lastly, does the name itself of Cath- olic, which, not without reason, amid so many heresies, the Church has thus retained; so that, though all heretics wish to be called Catholics, yet when a stranger asks where the Catholic Church meets, no heretic will venture to point to his own chapel or house. Such then in number and importance are the precious ties belonging to the Christian name which keep a believer in the Catholic Church, as it is right they should, though from the slowness of our understanding, or the small attain- ment of our life, the truth may not yet fully disclose itself. But with you, where there is none of these things to attract or keep me, the promise of truth is the only thing that comes into play. Now if the truth is so clearly, proved as to leave no possibility of doubt, it j must be set before all the things that keepi me in the Catholic Church; but if there is | only a promise without any fulfillment, no one* shall move me from the faith which binds my' mind with ties so many and so strong to the Christian religion.
CHAP. 5. AGAINST THE TITLE OF THE EPISTLE OF AIANICH^US.
6. Let us see then what Manichasus teaches me; and particularly let us examine that treat- ise which he calls the Fundamental Epistle, I Chap. VI.]
AGAINST THE EPISTLE OF MANICHyEUS.
131 in which almost all that you believe is con- tained. For in that unhappy time when we read it we were in your opinion enlightened. The epistle begins thus: — " Manichteus, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the providence of God the Father. These are wholesome words, from the perennial and living fountain." Now, if you please, patiently give heed to my inquiry. I do not believe Manichaeus to be an apostle of Christ. Do not, I beg of you, be en- raged and begin to curse. For you know that it is my rule to believe none of your statements without consideration. Therefore I ask, who is this Manichceus? You will reply, An apostle of Christ. I do not believe it. Now you are at a loss what to say or do; for you promised to give knowledge of the truth, and here you are forcing me to believe what I have no knowledge of. Perhaps you will read the gospel to me, and will attempt to find there a testimony to Manichaeus. But should you meet with a person not yet believing the gos- pel, how would you reply to him were he to say, I do not believe? For my part, I should not believe the gospel except as moved by the authority of the Catholic Church/ So when those on whose authority I have con- sented to believe in the gospel tell me not to believe in Manichccus, how can I but consent? Take your choice. If you say. Believe the Catholics: their advice to me is to put no faith in you; so that, believing them, I am precluded from believing you; — If you say. Do not believe the Catholics: you cannot fairly use the gospel in bringing me to faith in Manichaeus; for it was at the command of the Catholics that I believed the gospel; — Again, if you say, You were right in believing the Catholics when they praised the gospel, but wrong in believing their vituperation of Manichaeus: do you think me such a fool as to believe or not to believe as you like or dis- like, without any reason? It is therefore fairer and safer by far for me, having in one instance put faith in the Catholics, not to go over to you, till, instead of bidding me believe, you make me understand something in the clear- est and most open manner. To convince me, then, you must put aside the gospel. If you ' keep to the gospel, I will keep to those who ' ommanded me to believe the gospel; and, in obedience to them, I will not believe you at all. But if haply you should succeed in finding in the gospel an incontrovertible tes- timony to the apostleship of Manichaeus, you will weaken my regard for the autliority of the Catholics who bid me not to believe you; md the eifect of that will be, that I shall no ' LThis is one of the earliest distinct assertions of the depend- ' nee of the Scriptures for authority on the Church.— A. H. N.]
longer be able to believe tlie gospel either, for it was through the Catholics that I got my faith in it; and so, whatever you bring from the gospel will no longer have any weight with me. Wherefore, if no clear proof of the apostleship of Manichaeus is found in the gos- pel, I will believe the Catholics rather than you. But if you read thence some passage clearly in favor of Manichasus, I will be- lieve neither them nor you: not them, for they lied to me about you; nor you, for you quote to me that Scripture which I had be- lieved on the authority of those liars. But far be it that I should not believe the gospel; for believing it, I find no way of believing you too. For the names of the apostles, as there recorded,^ do not include the name of Manichaeus. And who the successor of Christ's betrayer was we read in the Acts of the Apostles; 3 which book I must needs believe if I believe the gospel, since both writ- ings alike Catholic authority commends to me. The same book contains the well-known nar- rative of the calling and apostleship of Paul.'' Read me now, if you can, in the gospel where Manichaeus is called an apostle, or in any other book in which I have professed to be- lieve. Will you read the passage where the Ford promised the Holy Spirit as a Paraclete, to the apostles? Concerning which passage, behold how many and how great are the things that restrain and deter me from believing in Manichaeus.
CHAP. 6. — WHY MANICH^US CALLED HIMSELF AN APOSTLE OF CHKIST.
7. For I am at a loss to see why this epistle begins, " Manichaeus, an apostle of Jesus Christ," and not Paraclete, an apostle of Jesus Christ. Or if the Paraclete sent by Christ sent Manichaeus, why do we read, " Manichaeus, an apostle of Jesus Christ," instead of Manichaeus, an apostle of the Par- aclete? If you say that it is Christ Himself who is the Holy Spirit, you contradict the very Scripture, where the Lord says, " And I will send you another Paraclete." 5 Again, if you justify your putting of Christ's name, not because it is Christ Himself who is also the Paraclete, but because they are both of the same substance, — that is, not because they are one person, but one existence \tion quia unus est, sed quia unuin su/it'\, — Paul too might have used the words, Paul, an apostle of God the Father; for the Lord said, " I and the Father are one. "^ Paul nowhere uses these words; nor does any of the apos- * John x. 30.
132 THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN.
[Chap. VIII.
ties write himself an apostle of the Father. Why then this new fashion? Does it not savor of trickery of some kind or other? For if he thought it made no difference, why did he not for the sake of variety in some epistles call himself an apostle of Christ, and in others of the Paraclete? But in every one that I know of, he writes, of Christ; and not once, of the Paraclete. What do we suppose to be the reason of this, but that pride, the mother of all heretics, impelled the man to de- sire to seem to have been sent by the Paraclete, but to have been taken into so close a rela- tion as to get the name of Paraclete himself? As the man Jesus Christ was not sent by the Son of God, that is, the power and wisdom of God — by which all things were made, but, according to the Catholic faith, was taken into such a relation as to be Himself the Son of God — that is, that in Himself the wisdom of God was displayed in the healing of sin- ners,— so Manichseus wished it to be thought that he was so taken up by the Holy Spirit, whom Christ promised, that we are hence- forth to understand that the names Manich- seus and Holy Spirit alike signify the apostle of Jesus Christ, — that is, one sent by Jesus Christ, who promised to send him. Singular audacity this! and unutterable sacrilege!
CHAP. 7. IN WHAT SENSE THE FOLLOWERS OF MANICH^US BELIEVE HIM TO BE THE HOLY SPIRIT.
8. Besides, you should explain how it is that, while the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are united in equality of nature, as you also acknowledge, you are not ashamed to speak of Manichffius, a man taken into union with the Holy Spirit, as born of ordinary genera- tion; and yet you shrink from believing that the man taken into union with the only-be- gotten Wisdom of God was born of a Virgin. If human flesh, if generation \concuhitus viri\ if the womb of a woman could not contam- inate the Holy Spirit, how could the Virgin's womb contaminate the Wisdom of God? This Manichaeus, then, who boasts of a con- nection with the Holy Spirit, and of being spoken of in the gospel, must produce his claim to either of these two things, — that he was sent by the Spirit, or that he was taken into union with the Spirit. If he was sent. let him call himself the apostle of the Para- clete; if taken into union, let him allow that He whom the only-begotten Son took upon Himself had a human mother, since he ad- mits a human father as well as mother in the case of one taken up by the Holy Spirit. Let him believe that the Word of God was not defiled by the virgin womb of Mary, since he exhorts us to believe that the Holy Spirit could not be defiled by the married life of his parents. But if you say that Manich- seus was united to the Spirit, not in the womb or before conception, but after his birth, still you must admit that he had a fleshly nature derived from man and woman. And since you are not afraid to speak of the blood and the bodily substance of Manichaeus as com- ing from ordinary generation, or of the in- ternal impurities contained in his flesh, and hold that the Holy Spirit, who took on Him- self, as you believe, this human being, was not contaminated by all those things, why should I shrink from speaking of the Virgin's womb and body undefiled, and not rather be- lieve that the Wisdom of God in union with the human being in his mother's flesh still remained free from stain and pollution? Wherefore, as, whether your Manichseus pro- fesses to be sent by or to be united with the Paraclete, neither statement can hold good, I am on my guard, and refuse to believe either in his mission or in his susception.
CHAP. 8. THE FESTIVAL OF THE BIRTH-DAY.
OF MANICHAEUS.
9. In adding the words, "by the provi- dence of God the Father, ''what else did Man- ichseus design but that, having got the name of Jesus Christ, whose apostle he calls him- self, and of God the Father, by whose provi- dence he says he was sent by the Son, we should believe himself, as the Holy Spirit, to be the third person? His words are: " Man- ichseus, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the providence of God the Father. '^ The Holy Spirit is not named, though He ought speci- ally to have been named by one who quotes to us in favor of his apostleship the promise of the Paraclete, that he may prevail upon ignorant people by the authority of the gos- pel. In reply to this, you of course say that in the name of the Apostle Manichseus we have the name of the Holy Spirit, the Para-, clete, because He condescended to come into Manichseus. Why then, I ask again, should; you cry out against the doctrine of the Cath- olic Church, that He in whom divine Wisdom came was born of a virgin, when you do not scruple to affirm the birth by ordinary gene- ration of him in whom you say the Holy Spirit came? I cannot but suspect that this Man- ichseus, who uses the name of Christ to gain access to the minds of the ignorant, wished to be worshipped instead of Christ Himself. I will state briefly the reason of this conjec- ture. At the time when I was a student of; your doctrines, to my frequent inquiries why it was that the Paschal feast of the Lord was.
\ Chap. IX.]
AGAINST THE EPISTLE OF MANICH.'EUS.
133 celebrated generally with no interest, tiiough sometimes tliere were a few languid worsiiip- pers, but no watchings, no prescription of any unusual fast, — in a word, no special cere- mony,— while great honor is paid to your Bema, that is, the day on which Manichasus was killed, when you have a platform with fine steps, covered with precious cloth, placed conspicuously so as to face the votaries, — the reply was, that the day to observe was the day of the passion of him who really suffer- ed, and that Christ, w-ho was not born, but appeared to human eyes in an unreal sem- blance of flesh, only feigned suffering, with- out really bearing it. Is it not deplorable, that men who wish to be called Christians are afraid of a virgin's womb as likely to defile the truth, and yet are not afraid of falsehood? But to go back to the point, who that pays attention can help suspecting that the inten- tion of Manichseus in denying Christ's being born of a woman, and having a human body, was that His passion, the time of which is now a great festival all over the world, might not be observed by the believers in himself, so as to lessen the devotion of the solemn commemoration which he wished in honor of the day of his own death? For to us it was a great attraction in the feast of the Bema that it was held during Pascha, since we used all the more earnestly to desire that festal day [the Bema], that the other which was formerly most sweet had been withdrawn.
CHAP. 9. — •WHEN THE HOLY SPIRIT WAS SENT.
10. Perhaps you will say to me, When, then, did the Paraclete promised by the Lord come? As regards this, had I nothing else to believe on the subject, I should rather look for the Paraclete as still to come, than allow that He came in IManichaeus. But seeing that the advent of the Holy Spirit is narrated with perfect clearness in the Acts of the Apostles, where is the necessity of my so gratuitously running the risk of believing heretics? For in the Acts it is written as fol- lows: " The former treatise have we made, 0 Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, in the day in which He chose the apostles by the Holy Spirit, and commanded them to preach the gospel. By those to whom He showed Himself alive after His passion by many proofs in the day- time, He was seen forty days, teaching con- cerning tlie kingdom of God. And how He ponversed with them, and commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, 'Hit wait for the promise of the Father, which, lith He, ye have heard of me. For John iideed baptized with water, but ye shall begin