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 CHAP. XXVIII.-Manichæus places five natures in the region of darkness. CHAP. XXXIV.-Nature cannot be without some good. The Manichæans dwell upon the evils. CHAP. XXXV.-Evil alone is corruption. Corruption is not nature, but contrary to nature. Corrup- AGAINST THE EPISTLE OF MANICHEUS CALLED FUNDAMENTAL.' [CONTRA EPISTOLAM MANICHÆI QUAM VACANT FUNDAMENTI.] A.D. 397. CHAP. I.—TO HEAL HERETICS IS BETTER THAN TO DESTROY THEM. things which serve for bodily punishment, as fire, poison, disease, and the rest, and other 1. My prayer to the one true, almighty things, in which the mind is punished, not by God, of whom, and through whom, and in its own passions, such as loss, exile, bereavebodily distress, but by the entanglements of whom are all things, has been, and is now, ment, reproach, and the like; while other that in opposing and refuting the heresy of you Manichæans, as you may after all be things, again, without tormenting are fitted to comfort and soothe the languishing, as, heretics more from thoughtlessness than from for example, consolations, exhortations, dismalice, He would give me a mind calm and composed, and aiming at your recovery rather cussions, and such things; in all these the than at your discomfiture. For while the supreme justice of God makes use sometimes Lord, by His servants, overthrows the king-sometimes of good men, acting intelligently. even of wicked men, acting in ignorance, and doms of error, His will concerning erring It is ours, accordingly, to desire in preference men, as far as they are men, is that they the better part, that we might attain our end should be amended rather than destroyed. in your correction, not by contention, and And in every case where, previous to the strife, and persecutions, but by kindly consofinal judgment, God inflicts punishment, lation, by friendly exhortation, by quiet diswhether through the wicked or the righteous, cussion; as it is written, "The servant of the whether through the unintelligent or through Lord must not strive; but be gentle toward the intelligent, whether in secret or openly, all men, apt to teach, patient; in meekness we must believe that the designed effect is the healing of men, and not their ruin; while instructing those that oppose themselves." there is a preparation for the final doom in in the work; it belongs to God to give what It is ours, I say, to desire to obtain this part the case of those who reject the means of re- is good to those who desire it and ask for it. covery. Thus, as the universe contains some CHAP. 2.-WHY THE MANICHEANS SHOULD BE 2. Let those rage against you who know not with what labor the truth is to be found and with what difficulty 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. 1 Written about the year 397. In his Retractations (ii. 2) Augustin says: "The book against the Epistle of Manichæus, called Fundamental, refutes only its commencement; but on the other parts of the epistle I have made notes, as required, refuting the whole, and sufficient to recall the argument, had I ever had leisure to write against the wh le." The Fundamental Epistle seems to have been a sort of hand-book for Manichæan catechumens or Auditors. In making this document the basis of his attack, Augustin felt that he had selected the best-known and most generally accepted standard of the Manichæan faith. The tone of the work is conciliatory, yet some very sharp thrusts are made at Manichæan error. The claims of Mani to be the Paraclete are set aside, and the absurd cosmological fancies of Mani are ruth-Let those rage against you who know not the lessly exposed. Dualism is combated with substantially the same difficulty of curing the eye of the inner man that he may gaze upon his Sun,-not that sun weapons as in the treatise Concerning Two Souls. could wish that the author had found time to finish the treatise, and had thus preserved for us more of the Fundamental Epistle itself. This work was written after the author had become Bishop of Hippo.-A. H. N.] 22 Tim. ii. 24, 25. 1 which you worship, and which shines with the one. And it must be laid down as an underbrilliance of a heavenly body in the eyes of stood thing that I am not to join you in your carnal men and of beasts,-but that of which prayers, or in holding conventicles, or in it is written through the prophet, "The Sun taking the name of Manichæus, unless you of righteousness has arisen upon me;" and give me a clear explanation, without any obof which it is said in the gospel, "That was scurity, of all matters touching the salvation the true Light, which lighteth every man that of the soul. cometh into the world."2 Let those rage against you who know not with what sighs CHAP. 4.-PROOFS OF THE CATHOLIC FAITH. 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. 3. AUGUSTIN ONCE A MANICHÆAN. 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 fanciful legend; who, unhappy that I was, barely succeeded, by God's help, in refuting the vain imaginations of my mind, gathered from theories and errors of various kinds; who so late sought the cure of my mental obscuration, in compliance with the call and the tender persuasion of the all-merciful Physician; who long wept that the immutable and inviolable 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 attentively 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. of the purest wisdom, to the knowledge of 5. For in the Catholic Church, not to speak which a few spiritual men attain in this life, so as to know it, in the scantiest measure, indeed, because they are but men, still without any uncertainty (since the rest of the multitude 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 consent 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 Catholic, 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 attainment 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 must be set before all the things that keep 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. 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 unknown to us both. For truth can be sought with zeal and unanimity if by no rash presumption it is believed to have been already found and ascertained. But if I cannot induce you to grant me this, at least allow me CHAP. 5.-AGAINST THE TITLE OF THE EPISTLE 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 OF MANICHEUS. 6. Let us see then what Manichæus teaches me; and particularly let us examine that treatise which he calls the Fundamental Epistle, longer be able to believe the 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 pel, I will believe the Catholics rather than you. But if you read thence some passage clearly in favor of Manichæus, I will believe 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 believed 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 Manichæus. 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 The same book contains the well-known narrative of the calling and apostleship of Paul.4 Read me now, if you can, in the gospel where Manichæus is called an apostle, or in any other book in which I have professed to believe. Will you read the passage where the Lord 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 Manichæus. in which almost all that you believe is contained. For in that unhappy time when we read it we were in your opinion enlightened. The epistle begins thus:- Manichæus, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the providence of God the Father. These are wholesome words, apostleship of Manichæus is found in the gosfrom the perennial and living fountain." Now, if you please, patiently give heed to my inquiry. I do not believe Manichæus to be an apostle of Christ. Do not, I beg of you, be enraged 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 Manichæus? 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 Manichæus. But should you meet with a person not yet believing the gos-ings alike Catholic authority commends to me. 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 consented to believe in the gospel tell me not to believe in Manichæus, 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 Manichæus; for it was at the command of the Catholics that I believed the gospel;- 7. For I am at a loss to see why this epistle Again, if you say, You were right in believing begins, "Manichæus, an apostle of Jesus the Catholics when they praised the gospel, Christ," and not Paraclete, an apostle of but wrong in believing their vituperation of Jesus Christ. Or if the Paraclete sent by Manichæus: do you think me such a fool as Christ sent Manichæus, why do we read, to believe or not to believe as you like or dis-Manichæus, an apostle of Jesus Christ,' like, without any reason? It is therefore fairer instead of Manichæus, an apostle of the Parand safer by far for me, having in one instance aclete? If you say that it is Christ Himself put faith in the Catholics, not to go over to who is the Holy Spirit, you contradict the you, till, instead of bidding me believe, you very Scripture, where the Lord says, “And make me understand something in the clear- I will send you another Paraclete." Again, est and most open manner. To convince me, if you justify your putting of Christ's name, then, you must put aside the gospel. If you not because it is Christ Himself who is also keep to the gospel, I will keep to those who the Paraclete, but because they are both of commanded me to believe the gospel; and, the same substance, that is, not because in obedience to them, I will not believe you they are one person, but one existence [non at all. But if haply you should succeed in quia unus est, sed quia umum sunt],-Paul too finding in the gospel an incontrovertible tes- might have used the words, Paul, an apostle timony to the apostleship of Manichæus, you of God the Father; for the Lord said, "I will weaken my regard for the authority of and the Father are one.' 196 Paul nowhere the Catholics who bid me not to believe you; uses these words; nor does any of the aposand the effect of that will be, that I shall no [This is one of the earliest distinct assertions of the dependence of the Scriptures for authority on the Church.-A. H. Ñ.] CHAP. 6.-WHY MANICHEUS CALLED HIMSELF AN APOSTLE OF CHRIST. tles write himself an apostle of the Father. since he exhorts us to believe that the Holy Why then this new fashion? Does it not Spirit could not be defiled by the married life savor of trickery of some kind or other? of his parents. But if you say that ManichFor if he thought it made no difference, why æus was united to the Spirit, not in the womb did he not for the sake of variety in some or before conception, but after his birth, still epistles call himself an apostle of Christ, and you must admit that he had a fleshly nature in others of the Paraclete? But in every one derived from man and woman. And since that I know of, he writes, of Christ; and not you are not afraid to speak of the blood and once, of the Paraclete. What do we suppose the bodily substance of Manichæus as comto be the reason of this, but that pride, the ing from ordinary generation, or of the inmother of all heretics, impelled the man to de- ternal impurities contained in his flesh, and sire to seem to have been sent by the Paraclete, hold that the Holy Spirit, who took on Himbut to have been taken into so close a rela- self, as you believe, this human being, was tion as to get the name of Paraclete himself? not contaminated by all those things, why As the man Jesus Christ was not sent by the should I shrink from speaking of the Virgin's Son of God, that is, the power and wisdom womb and body undefiled, and not rather beof God-by which all things were made, but, lieve that the Wisdom of God in union with according to the Catholic faith, was taken the human being in his mother's flesh still into such a relation as to be Himself the Son remained free from stain and pollution? of God—that is, that in Himself the wisdom Wherefore, as, whether your Manichæus proof God was displayed in the healing of sin- fesses to be sent by or to be united with the ners, so Manichæus wished it to be thought Paraclete, neither statement can hold good, that he was so taken up by the Holy Spirit, I am on my guard, and refuse to believe whom Christ promised, that we are hence- either in his mission or in his susception. forth to understand that the names Manich OF MANICHÆUS. æus and Holy Spirit alike signify the apostle CHAP. 8.—THE FESTIVAL OF CHAP. 7.—IN WHAT SENSE THE FOLLOWERS OF MANICHEUS BELIEVE HIM TO BE THE HOLY THE BIRTH-DAY 9. In adding the words, "by the providence of God the Father," what else did Manichæus design but that, having got the name of Jesus Christ, whose apostle he calls himself, and of God the Father, by whose providence he says he was sent by the Son, we 8. Besides, you should explain how it is should believe himself, as the Holy Spirit, to that, while the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit be the third person? His words are: "Manare united in equality of nature, as you also ichæus, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the acknowledge, you are not ashamed to speak providence of God the Father." The Holy of Manichæus, a man taken into union with Spirit is not named, though He ought specithe Holy Spirit, as born of ordinary genera- ally to have been named by one who quotes tion; and yet you shrink from believing that to us in favor of his apostleship the promise the man taken into union with the only-be- of the Paraclete, that he may prevail upon gotten Wisdom of God was born of a Virgin. ignorant people by the authority of the gosIf human flesh, if generation [concubitus viri], pel. In reply to this, you of course say that if the womb of a woman could not contam- in the name of the Apostle Manichæus we inate the Holy Spirit, how could the Virgin's have the name of the Holy Spirit, the Parawomb contaminate the Wisdom of God? clete, because He condescended to come into This Manichæus, then, who boasts of a con- Manichæus. Why then, I ask again, should nection with the Holy Spirit, and of being you cry out against the doctrine of the Cathspoken of in the gospel, must produce his olic Church, that He in whom divine Wisdom claim to either of these two things,-that he came was born of a virgin, when you do not was sent by the Spirit, or that he was taken scruple to affirm the birth by ordinary geneinto union with the Spirit. If he was sent. ration of him in whom you say the Holy Spirit let him call himself the apostle of the Para- came? I cannot but suspect that this Manclete; if taken into union, let him allow that ichæus, who uses the name of Christ to gain He whom the only-begotten Son took upon access to the minds of the ignorant, wished Himself had a human mother, since he ad- to be worshipped instead of Christ Himself. mits a human father as well as mother in the I will state briefly the reason of this conjeccase of one taken up by the Holy Spirit. | ture. At the time when I was a student of Let him believe that the Word of God was your doctrines, to my frequent inquiries why not defiled by the virgin womb of Mary, it was that the Paschal feast of the Lord was |