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ACTS OR DISPUTATION

AGAINST FORTUNATUS,

FORTUNATUS, THE MANICHÆAN.

[ACTA SEU DISPUTATIO CONTRA FORTUNATUM MANICHÆUM.] A.D. 392.1

DISPUTATION OF THE FIRST DAY.

ON THE FIFTH OF SEPTEMBER, THE MOST RENOWNED MEN ARCADIUS AUGUSTUS (THE SECOND TIME) AND RUFINUS BEING CONSULS, A DISPUTATION AGAINST FORTUNATUS, AN ELDER OF THE MANICHEANS, WAS HELD IN THE CITY OF HIPPO REGIUS, IN THE BATHS OF SOSSIUS, IN THE PRESENCE OF THE PEOPLE.

i. AUGUSTIN said: I now regard as error another race of darkness, whatever it may what formerly I regarded as truth. I desire be, has rebelled against the kingdom of God; to hear from you who are present whether my supposition is correct. First of all I regard it as the height of error to believe that Almighty God, in whom is our one hope, is in any part either violable, or contaminable, or corruptible. This I know your heresy affirms, not indeed in the words that I now use; for when you are questioned you confess that God is incorruptible, and absolutely inviolable, and incontaminable; but when you begin to expound the rest of your system, we are compelled to declare Him corruptible, penetrable, contaminable. For you say that

This Disputation seems to have occurred shortly after the writing of the preceding treatise. It appears from the Retractations that Fortunatus had lived for a considerable time at Hippo, and had secured so large a number of followers that it was a delight

but that Almighty God, when He saw what ruin and desolation threatened his domains, unless he should make some opposition to the adverse race and resist it, sent this virtue, from whose commingling with evil and the race of darkness the world was framed. Hence it is that here good souls labor, serve, err, are corrupted: that they may see the need of a liberator, who should purge them from error, loose them from this commingling with evil, and liberate them from servitude. I think it impious to believe that Almighty God ever feared any adverse race, or was under necessity to precipitate us into afflictions.

FORTUNATUS said: Because I know that to him to dwell there. The Disputation is supposed to be a ver- you have been in our midst, that is, have batim report of what Augustin and Fortunatus said during a two lived as an adherent among the Manichæans, days' discussion. The subject is the origin of evil. Augustin maintains that evil, so far as man is concerned, has arisen from a these are the principles of our faith. The free exercise of the will on man's part; Fortunatus, on the other hand, maintains that the nature of evil is co-eternal with God. matter now to be considered is our mode of Fortunatus shows considerable knowledge of the New Testament, living, the falsely alleged crimes for which we but no remarkable dialectic powers. He appears at great disadvantage beside his great antagonist. In fact, he is far from saying are maltreated. Therefore let the good men the best that can be said in favor of dualism. We may say that he was fairly vanquished in the argument, and at the close con- present hear from you whether these things fessed himself at a loss what to say, and expressed an intention of with which we are charged and which we have more carefully examining the problems discussed, in view of what Augustin had said. Augustin is more guarded in this treatise than thrown in our teeth are true or false. For in the preceding in his statements about free will. He found little from your instruction, and from your exposiexpresses himself vaguely and obscurely. If some sentences are tion and explanation, they will have been able difficult to understand in the translation, they will be found equally to gain more correct information about our

occasion here, therefore, to retract or explain. Fortunatus often

so in the Latin.-A. H. N.

mode of life, if it shall have been set forth by you.

2. AUGUSTIN said: I was among you, but faith and morals are different questions. I proposed to discuss faith. But if those present prefer to hear about morals, I do not decline that question.

FORTUNATUS Said: I wish first to purge myself in your conscience in which we are polluted, by the testimony of a competent man, (who even now is competent for me), and in view of the future examination of Christ, the just judge, whether he saw in us, or himself practiced by imitation, the things that are now thrown in our teeth?

self; that the Word born from the foundation of the world, when He had formed the world, after the formation of the world came among men; that He has chosen souls worthy of Himself according to His own holy will, sanctified by celestial command, imbued with the faith and reason of celestial things; that under His leadership those souls will return hence again to the kingdom of God according to the holy promise of Him who said: "I am the way, the truth, and the door; "3 and “No one can come unto the Father, except through me." These things we believe because otherwise, that is, through another mediator, souls cannot return to the kingdom of God, unless 3. AUGUSTIN said: You call me to some- they find Him as the way, the truth, and the thing else, when I had proposed to discuss door. For Himself said: " He that hath seen faith, but concerning your morals only those me, hath seen my Father also;" and "whowho are your Elect can fully know. But you soever shall have believed on me shall not know that I was not your Elect, but an Audi- taste death forever, but has passed from death tor. Hence though I was present at your unto life, and shall not come into judgment.” s prayer meetings,' as you have asked (whether These things we believe and this is the reason separately among yourselves you have any of our faith, and according to the strength of prayer meetings, God alone and yourselves our mind we endeavor to act according to His can know); yet in your prayer meetings commandments, following after the one faith where I have been present I have seen nothing of this Trinity, Father and Son and Holy shameful take place; but only that the faith Spirit." that I afterwards learned and approved is denounced, and that you perform your services facing the sun. Besides this I found out nothing new in your meetings, but who ever raises any question of morals against you, raises it against your Elect. But what you who are Elect do among yourselves, I have no means of knowing. For I have often heard from you that you receive the Eucharist. But since the time of receiving it was concealed from me, how could I know what FORTUNATUS said: Nay but do you deign you receive? So keep the question about to say whether there is anything besides God, morals, if you please, for discussion among or all things are in God. your Elect, if it can be discussed.

You gave

4. AUGUSTIN said: What was the cause of those souls being precipitated into death, whom you confess come through Christ from death to life?

FORTUNATUS said: Hence now deign to go on and to contradict, if there is nothing besides God.

5. AUGUSTIN Said: Nay, do you deign to answer the question put to you: What cause has given these souls to death?

6. AUGUSTIN said: This I can reply, that me a faith that I to-day disapprove. This I the Lord wished me to know that God cannot proposed to discuss. Let a response be made suffer any necessity, nor be violated or corto my proposition. rupted in any part. Which, since you also acknowledge, I ask by what necessity He sent hither souls that you say return through Christ?

FORTUNATUS said: And our profession is this very thing: that God is incorruptible, lucid, unapproachable, intenible, impassible, that He inhabits His own eternal lights, that FORTUNATUS Said: What you have said: nothing corruptible proceeds from Him, that thus far God has revealed to you, that neither darkness, demons, Satan, nor any. thing adverse can be found in His kingdom. But that He sent forth a Saviour like Him

The word used is oratio, by which is evidently meant the religious services to which Auditors were admitted, prayer (oratio) being the prominent feature.-A. H. N.

The allusion here is doubtless to the probably slanderous charge that the Manichæans were accustomed to partake of human semen as a Eucharist. The Manichæan view of the relation of the substance mentioned to the light, and their well-known opposition to procreation, give a slight plausibility to the charge. Compare the Morals of the Manichæans, ch. xviii., where Augustin expresses his suspicions of Manichæan shamelessness. See also further references in the Introduction.-A. H. N.

He is incorruptible, as He has also revealed to me; the reason must be sought, how and wherefore souls have come into this world, so that now of right God should liberate them

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from this world through his Son only begotten 9. AUGUSTIN said: It is known to all that and like Himself, if besides Himself there is nothing?

the Catholic faith is to the effect that our Lord, that is the Power and Wisdom of God,3 7. AUGUSTIN said: We ought not to disap- and the Word through whom all things have point those present, being men of note, and been made and without whom was not anyfrom the question proposed for discussion go thing made, took upon Himself man to to another. So we both confess, so we con- liberate us. In the man whom He took cede to ourselves, that God is incorruptible upon Himself, He demonstrated those things and inviolable, and could have in no way suf- that you spoke of. But we now ask concernfered. From which it follows, that your ing the substance of God Himself and of Unheresy is false, which says that God, when speakable Majesty, whether anything can inHe saw desolation and ruin threaten His king- jure it or not. For if anything can injure it, dom, sent forth a power that should do battle He is not inviolable. If nothing can injure with the race of darkness, and that out of the substance of God, what was the race of this commingling our souls are laboring. My darkness about to do to it, against which you argument is brief, and as I suppose, perfectly say war was waged by God before the foundaclear to any one. If God could have suffered nothing from the race of darkness because He is inviolable, without cause He sent us hither that we might here suffer distress. But if anything can suffer, it is not inviolable, and you deceive those to whom you say that God is inviolable. For this your heresy denies when you expound the rest of it.

I

For

tion of the world, in which war you assert that
we, that is souls that are now manifestly in
need of a liberator, have been commingled
with every evil and implicated in death.
I return to that very brief statement: If He
could be injured, He is not inviolable; if He
could not, He acted cruelly in sending us
hither to suffer these things.

FORTUNATUS Said: Does the soul belong to
God, or not?

10. AUGUSTIN said: If it is just that you should fail to respond to my questions, and that I should be questioned, I will reply.

FORTUNATUS said: Does the soul act independently? This I ask of you.

FORTUNATUS said: We are of that mind in which the Apostle Paul instructs us, who says: "Let this mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus, who when He had been constituted in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God; but emptied Himself receiving the form of a servant, having been made in the likeness of men, and having II. AUGUSTIN said: I indeed will tell what been found in fashion as a man, He humbled you have asked; only remember this, that Himself, and was made obedient even unto while you have refused to respond to my death." We have this mind therefore about questions, I have responded to yours. ourselves, which we have also about Christ,who when He was constituted in the form of God, was made obedient even unto death that He might show the similitude of our souls. And like as He showed in Himself the similitude of death, and having been raised from the midst of the dead showed that He was from the Father, in the same manner we think it will be with our souls, because through Him we shall have been able to be freed from this death, which is either alien from God, or if it belongs to God, His mercy ceases, and the name of liberator, and the works of Him who liberates.'

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If you ask whether the soul descended from God, it is indeed a great question; but whether it descends from God or not, I make this reply concerning the soul, that it is not God; that God is one thing, the soul another. That God is inviolable, incorruptible, and impenetrable, and incontaminable, who also could be corrupted in no part and to whom no injury can be done in any part. But we see also that the soul is sinful, and is conversant with misery, and seeks the truth, and is in want of a liberator. This changing condition of the soul shows me that the soul is not God. For if the soul is the substance of God, the substance of God errs, the substance of God is corrupted, the substance of God is violated, the substance of God is deceived; which it is impious to say.

FORTUNATUS said: Therefore you have denied that the soul is of God, so long as it serves sins, and vices, and earthly things, and is led by error, because it cannot happen that either God or His substance should suffer

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this thing. For God is incorruptible and His substance immaculate and holy. But here it is inquired of you whether the soul is of God, or not? Which we confess, and show from the advent of the Saviour, from His holy preaching, from His election; while He pitied souls, and the soul is said to have come according to His will, that He might free it from death and might bring it to eternal glory, and restore it to the Father. But what do you say and hope concerning the soul; is it from God or not? Can the substance of God, from which you deny that the soul has its being, be subject to no passions?

12. AUGUSTIN said: I have denied that the soul is the substance of God in the sense of its being God; but yet I hold that it is from God as its author, because it was made by God. The Maker is one thing, the thing made is another. He who made cannot be corruptible at all, but what He made cannot be at all equal to Him who made it.

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differ from each other both in names and appearances. And for good reason did our Lord say: "The tree which my heavenly Father has not planted shall be rooted up and cast into the fire, because it brings not forth good fruit:" and that the tree has been rooted up. Hence truly it follows from the reason of things that there are two substances in this world which agree in forms and in names, of which one belongs to corporeal natures, but the other is the eternal substance of the omnipotent Father, which we believe to be God's substance.

15. AUGUSTIN said: Those contrary things that move you so that we think adversely, have happened on account of our sin, that is, on account of the sin of man. For God made all things good, and ordered them well; but He did not make sin, and our voluntary sin is the only thing that is called evil. There is another kind of evil, which is the penalty of sin. Since therefore there are two kinds FORTUNATUS said: Nor have I said that the of evil, sin and the penalty of sin, sin does soul is like God. But because you have said not pertain to God; the penalty of sin pertains that the soul is an artificial thing, and that to the avenger. For as God is good who there is nothing besides God, I ask whence constituted all things, so He is just in taking then God invented the substance of the soul? vengeance on sin. Since therefore all things 13. AUGUSTIN said: Only bear in mind are ordered in the best possible way, which that I reply to your interrogations, but that seem to us now to be adverse, it has deyou do not reply to mine. I say that the servedly happened to fallen man who was soul was made by God as all other things that unwilling to keep the law of God. For God were made by God; and that among the things gave free will to the rational soul which is in that God Almighty made the principal place man. For thus it would have been possible was given to the soul. But if you ask whence to have merit, if we should be good volunGod made the soul, remember that you and tarily and not of necessity. Since therefore I agree in confessing that God is almighty. it behooves us to be good not of necessity But he is not almighty who seeks the assist- but voluntarily, it behooved God to give to ance of any material whence he may make the soul free will. But to this soul obeying what he will. From which it follows, that according to our faith, all things that God made through His Word and Wisdom, He made out of nothing. For so we read: He ordered and they were made; He commanded and they were created."'

FORTUNATUS Said: Do all things have their existence from God's command?

His laws, He subjected all things without adversity, so that the rest of the things that God made should serve it, if also the soul itself had willed to serve God. But if it should refuse to serve God, those things that served it should be converted into its punishment. Wherefore if all things are rightly ordered by God, and are good, neither does God suffer

14. AUGUSTIN said: So I believe, but all evil. things which were made.

FORTUNATUS said: As things made they agree, but because they are unsuitable to themselves, therefore on this account it follows, that there is not one substance, although from the same order of the One they came to the composition and fashioning of this world. But it is plain in the things themselves that there is no similarity between darkness and light, truth and falsehood, death and life, soul and body, and other similar things which

1 Ps. cxlviii. 5.

FORTUNATUS said: He does not suffer, but prevents evil.

16. AUGUSTIN said: From whom then was He about to suffer it?

FORTUNATUS said: This is my point, that He wished to prevent it, not rashly, but by power and prescience. But deny evil to be apart from God, when other precepts can be shown which are done apart from His will. A precept is not introduced, unless where there is contrariety. The free faculty of liv

2 Matt. xv. 13, and iii. 10.

ing is not given except where there is a fall, reconciliation with God takes place through according to the argument of the apostle who Jesus Christ. For by sinning we were brought says: "And you did he quicken, when ye into opposition to God; but by holding to the were dead in your trespasses and sins, wherein precepts of Christ we are reconciled to God; aforetime ye walked according to the ruler- so that we who were dead in sins may be ship of this world, according to the prince of made alive by keeping His precepts, and may the power of the air, of the spirit that now have peace with Him in one Spirit, from whom worketh in the souls of disobedience; among we were alienated, by failure to keep His prewhom we also all once lived in the lusts of cepts; as is set forth in our faith concerning our flesh, doing the desires of the counsels of the man who was first created. I ask of you, the flesh, and were by nature children of therefore, according to that passage which has wrath, even as the rest: but God, who is rich been read, how can we have sins if contrary in all mercy, had mercy on us. And when we nature compels us to do what we do? For were dead by sins, quickened us together in he who is compelled by nature to do anything, Christ, by whose grace ye have been saved; does not sin. But he who sins, sins by free and at the same time also raised us up, and will. Wherefore would repentance be enmade us to sit with Him in the heavenly places joined upon us, if we have done nothing evil, with Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come but only the race of darkness? Likewise, I He might show the exceeding riches of his ask, to whom is forgiveness of sins granted, grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. to us or to the race of darkness? If to the For by grace have ye been saved through race of darkness, their race will also reign faith; and that not of yourselves, for it is a with Him, receiving the forgiveness of sin; gift of God; not of works, lest any one should but if to us it is manifest that we have sinned glory. For we are his workmanship created voluntarily. For it is the height of folly for in Christ Jesus in good works, which God him to be pardoned who has done no evil. prepared that we should walk in them. But he has done no evil, who has done Wherefore remember, that aforetime ye were nothing of his own will. Therefore the soul Gentiles in the flesh, who are called uncir- that to-day promises itself forgiveness of sins cumcision, by that which is called circum- and reconciliation to God, if it should cease cision in flesh made by hands, because ye to sin, and repent of past sins; if it should were at that time without Christ, alienated answer according to your faith and should from the commonwealth of Israel, and strang-say: In what have I sinned? In what am ers of the covenant, having no hope of the I guilty? Why hast Thou expelled me from promise, and without God in this world. But Thy domains, that I might do battle with some now in Christ Jesus, ye that once were far off are made nigh in the blood of Christ. For He is our peace, who made both one, and breaking down the middle wall of partition, the enmities in His flesh, making void by His decrees the law of commandments, that in Himself He might unite the two into one new man, making peace, that He might reconcile them both in one body unto God through the cross, slaying the enmities in Himself. And He came and preached peace unto you that were far off, and peace to them that were nigh. For through Him we both have our access in one Spirit unto the Father."'

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17. AUGUSTIN said: This passage from the apostle, which you have thought fit to recite, if I mistake not, makes very strongly for my faith and against yours. In the first place, because free will itself, on which I have said that the possibility of the soul's sinning depends, is here sufficiently expressed, when sins are mentioned, and it is said that our

1 Eph. ii. 1-18. There are several somewhat important variations from the Greek text in this long extract. The attentive reader can get a good idea of the nature of the variations by comparing this literal translation' with the revised English version. A. H. N.

sort of race? I have been trodden under foot, I have been mixed up, I have been corrupted, I am worn out, my free will has not been preserved. Thou knowest the necessity by which I am preserved: Why dost Thou impute to me the wounds that I have received? Wherefore dost Thou compel me to repentance when Thou art the cause of my wounds; when Thou knowest what I have suffered, what the race of darkness has done against me, Thou being the author who couldst suffer no harm and yet wishing to save the domains which nothing could injure, Thou didst thrust me down into these miseries. If indeed I am a part of Thee, who have proceeded from Thy bowels, if I am from Thy kingdom and Thy mouth, I ought not to suffer anything in this race of darkness, so that I being uncorrupted that race should be subjected, if I was a part of the Lord. But now since it cannot be controlled except by my corruption, how can I either be said to be a part of Thee, or Thou remain

2 There are three readings here, "wearied out,' "deceived," and "worn out." The latter is preferred by the Benedictine editors.-A. H. N.

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