Chapter 33.—Opposition of the Manichean and Catholic Dogmas.

What is it, then, which in their raging blindness of mind they are now spreading about,388    See above, ch. 20.“that almost throughout the entire West a dogma not less foolish than impious is taken up;” when by the mercy of God and by His merciful governance of His Church, the catholic faith has been so watchful that the dogma, “not less foolish than wicked,” as of the Manicheans, so also of these heretics, should not be taken up? So holy and learned catholic men, such as are attested to be so by the report of the whole Church, praise both God’s creation, and marriage as ordained by Him, and the law given by Him by means of the holy Moses, and the free will implanted into man’s nature, and the holy patriarchs and prophets, with due and fitting proclamation; all which five things the Manicheans condemn, partly by denying, and partly also by abominating. Whence it appears that these catholic doctors were far removed from the notions of the Manicheans, and yet they assert original sin; they assert God’s grace above free will, as antecedent to all merit, so as truly to afford a gratuitous divine assistance; they assert that the saints lived righteously in this flesh, in such wise that the help of prayer was necessary to them, by which their daily sins might be forgiven; and that a perfected righteousness which could not have sin would be in another life the reward of those who should live righteously here.

33. Quid est ergo quod rabiosa mentis caecitate nunc jactant, toto penitus Occidente non minus stultum quam impium dogma susceptum: quandoquidem Domino miserante suamque Ecclesiam misericorditer gubernante, sic vigilavit catholica fides, ut non minus stultum quam impium dogma, quemadmodum Manichaeorum, ita etiam non susciperetur istorum? Ecce sancti et docti viri fama totius Ecclesiae contestante catholici, et creaturam Dei, et nuptias ab illo institutas, et legem ab eo per sanctum Moysen datam, et liberum arbitrium naturae hominis insitum, et sanctos Patriarchas et Prophetas debitis ac congruis praedicationibus laudant; quae omnia quinque Manichaei, partim negando, partim etiam detestando condemnant; unde apparet istos doctores catholicos longe a Manichaeorum sensibus alienos: et tamen asserunt originale peccatum, asserunt gratiam Dei super liberum arbitrium, omne antecedere meritum, ut vere gratuitum divinum praebeat adjutorium; asserunt sanctos ita juste in hac carne vixisse, ut eis esset necessarium, quo dimittantur quotidiana peccata, orationis auxilium, perfectamque justitiam, quae non possit habere peccatum, in alia vita futuram eis, qui juste hic vixerint, praemium.