Against the Fundamental Epistle of Manichaeus

St. Augustine of Hippo

  1. 1. — To Heal Heretics is Better Than to Destroy Them
  2. 2. — Why the Manichæans Should Be More Gently Dealt with
  3. 3. — Augustine Once a Manichæan
  4. 4. — Proofs of the Catholic Faith
  5. 5. — Against the Title of the Epistle of Manichæus
  6. 6. — Why Manichæus Called Himself an Apostle of Christ
  7. 7. — In What Sense the Followers of Manichæus Believe Him to Be the Holy Spirit
  8. 8. — The Festival of the Birth-Day of Manichæus
  9. 9. — When the Holy Spirit Was Sent
  10. 10. — The Holy Spirit Twice Given
  11. 11. — Manichæus Promises Truth, But Does Not Make Good His Word
  12. 12. — The Wild Fancies of Manichæus. The Battle Before the Constitution of the World
  13. 13. — Two Opposite Substances. The Kingdom of Light. Manichæus Teaches Uncertainties Instead of Certainties
  14. 14. — Manichæus Promises the Knowledge of Undoubted Things, and Then Demands Faith in Doubtful Things
  15. 15. — The Doctrine of Manichæus Not Only Uncertain, But False
  16. 16. — The Soul, Though Mutable, Has No Material Form. It is All Present in Every Part of the Body
  17. 17. — The Memory Contains the Ideas of Places of the Greatest Size
  18. 18. — The Understanding Judges of the Truth of Things, and of Its Own Action
  19. 19. — If the Mind Has No Material Extension, Much Less Has God
  20. 20. — Refutation of the Absurd Idea of Two Territories
  21. 21. — 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
  22. 22. — The Form of the Region of Light the Worse of the Two
  23. 23. — The Anthropomorphites Not So Bad as the Manichæans
  24. 24. — Of the Number of Natures in the Manichæan Fiction
  25. 25. — Omnipotence Creates Good Things Differing in Degree. In Every Description Whatsoever of the Junction of the Two Regions There is Either Impropriety or Absurdity
  26. 26. — The Manichæans 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
  27. Chapter 27
  28. 28. — Manichæus Places Five Natures in the Region of Darkness
  29. 29. — The Refutation of This Absurdity
  30. 30. — The Number of Good Things in Those Natures Which Manichæus Places in the Region of Darkness
  31. 31. — The Same Subject Continued
  32. 32. — Manichæus Got the Arrangement of His Fanciful Notions from Visible Objects
  33. 33. — Every Nature, as Nature, is Good
  34. 34. — Nature Cannot Be Without Some Good. The Manichæans Dwell Upon the Evils
  35. 35. — Evil Alone is Corruption. Corruption is Not Nature, But Contrary to Nature. Corruption Implies Previous Good
  36. 36. — The Source of Evil or of Corruption of Good
  37. 37. — God Alone Perfectly Good
  38. 38. — Nature Made by God; Corruption Comes from Nothing
  39. 39. — In What Sense Evils are from God
  40. 40. — Corruption Tends to Non-Existence
  41. 41. — Corruption is by God's Permission, and Comes from Us
  42. 42. — Exhortation to the Chief Good
  43. 43. — Conclusion

1. 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 Manichæans, 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 kingdoms 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 recovery. Thus, as the universe contains some 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, bereavement, reproach, and the like; while other things, again, without tormenting are fitted to comfort and soothe the languishing, as, for example, consolations, exhortations, discussions, 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 consolation, by friendly exhortation, by quiet discussion; 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." [[2 Timothy 2.24]]-25 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.