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Augustine of Hippo, Against the Epistle of Manichæus, Called Fundamental
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Against the Epistle of Manichæus, Called…
Chapter 1.—To Heal Heretics is Better Than to Destroy Them.
Chapter 2.—Why the Manichæans Should Be More Gently Dealt with.
Chapter 3.—Augustin Once a Manichæan.
Chapter 4.—Proofs of the Catholic Faith.
Chapter 5.—Against the Title of the Epistle of Manichæus.
Chapter 6.—Why Manichæus Called Himself an Apostle of Christ.
Chapter 7.—In What Sense the Followers of Manichæus Believe Him to Be the Holy Spirit.
Chapter 8.—The Festival of the Birth-Day of Manichæus.
Chapter 9.—When the Holy Spirit Was Sent.
Chapter 10.—The Holy Spirit Twice Given.
Chapter 11.—Manichæus Promises Truth, But Does Not Make Good His Word.
Chapter 12.—The Wild Fancies of Manichæus. The Battle Before the Constitution of the World.
Chapter 17.—The Memory Contains the Ideas of Places of the Greatest Size.
Chapter 18.—The Understanding Judges of the Truth of Things, and of Its Own Action.
Chapter 19.—If the Mind Has No Material Extension, Much Less Has God.
Chapter 20.—Refutation of the Absurd Idea of Two Territories.
Chapter 22.—The Form of the Region of Light the Worse of the Two.
Chapter 23.—The Anthropomorphites Not So Bad as the Manichæans.
Chapter 24.—Of the Number of Natures in the Manichæan Fiction.
Chapter 28.—Manichæus Places Five Natures in the Region of Darkness.
Chapter 29.—The Refutation of This Absurdity.
Chapter 31.—The Same Subject Continued.
Chapter 32.—Manichæus Got the Arrangement of His Fanciful Notions from Visible Objects.
Chapter 33.—Every Nature, as Nature, is Good.
Chapter 34.—Nature Cannot Be Without Some Good. The Manichæans Dwell Upon the Evils.
Chapter 36.—The Source of Evil or of Corruption of Good.
Chapter 37.—God Alone Perfectly Good.
Chapter 38.—Nature Made by God Corruption Comes from Nothing.
Chapter 39.—In What Sense Evils are from God.
Chapter 40.—Corruption Tends to Non-Existence.
Chapter 41.—Corruption is by God’s Permission, and Comes from Us.
Chapter 10.—The Holy Spirit Twice Given.
11. For the glorification of our Lord among men is His resurrection from the dead and His ascension to heaven. For it is written in the Gospel according to John: "The Holy Ghost was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified."13 John vii. 39. Now if the reason why He was not given was that Jesus was not yet glorified, He was given immediately on the glorification of Jesus. And since that glorification was twofold, as regards man and as regards God, twice also was the Holy Spirit given: once, when, after His resurrection from the dead, He breathed on the face of His disciples, saying, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost;"14 John xx. 22. and again, ten days after His ascension to heaven. This number ten signifies perfection; for to the number seven which embraces all created things, is added the trinity of the Creator.15 [This is, of course, fanciful; but is quite in accordance with the exegetical methods of the time.—A.H.N.] On these things there is much pious and sober discourse among spiritual men. But I must keep to my point; for my business at present is not to teach you, which you might think presumptuous, but to take the part of an inquirer, and learn from you, as I tried to do for nine years without success. Now, therefore, I have a document to believe on the subject of the Holy Spirit’s advent; and if you bid me not to believe this document, as your usual advice is not to believe ignorantly, without consideration,16 [The Manichæans assumed the role of rationalists, and scorned the credulity of ordinary believers. Yet they required in their followers an amount of credulity which only persons of a peculiar turn of mind could furnish. The same thing applies to modern rationalistic anti-Christian systems. The fact is, that it requires infinitely less credulity to believe in historical Christianity than to disbelieve in it.—A.H.N.] much less will I believe your documents. Away, then, with all books, and disclose the truth with logical clearness, so as to leave no doubt in my mind; or bring forward books where I shall find not an imperious demand for my belief, but a trustworthy statement of what I may learn. Perhaps you say this epistle is also of this character. Let me, then, no longer stop at the threshold: let us see the contents.