The Confessions — Book 5

St. Augustine of Hippo

1. 0. Greeting
2. 1. That It Becomes the Soul to Praise God, and to Confess Unto Him.
3. 2. On the Vanity of Those Who Wished to Escape the Omnipotent God.
4. 3. Having Heard Faustus, the Most Learned Bishop of the Manichæans, He Discerns that God, the Author Both of Things Animate and Inanimate, Chiefly Has Care for the Humble.
5. 4. That the Knowledge of Terrestrial and Celestial Things Does Not Give Happiness, But the Knowledge of God Only.
6. 5. Of Manichæus Pertinaciously Teaching False Doctrines, and Proudly Arrogating to Himself the Holy Spirit.
7. 6. Faustus Was Indeed an Elegant Speaker, But Knew Nothing of the Liberal Sciences.
8. 7. Clearly Seeing the Fallacies of the Manichæans, He Retires from Them, Being Remarkably Aided by God.
9. 8. He Sets Out for Rome, His Mother in Vain Lamenting It.
10. 9. Being Attacked by Fever, He is in Great Danger.
11. 10. When He Had Left the Manichæans, He Retained His Depraved Opinions Concerning Sin and the Origin of the Saviour.
12. 11. Helpidius Disputed Well Against the Manichæans as to the Authenticity of the New Testament.
13. 12. Professing Rhetoric at Rome, He Discovers the Fraud of His Scholars.
14. 13. He is Sent to Milan, that He, About to Teach Rhetoric, May Be Known by Ambrose.
15. 14. Having Heard the Bishop, He Perceives the Force of the Catholic Faith, Yet Doubts, After the Manner of the Modern Academics.

He describes the twenty-ninth year of his age, in which, having discovered the fallacies of the Manichæans, he professed rhetoric at Rome and Milan. Having heard Ambrose, he begins to come to himself.