Augustine: Earlier Writings (continued)

Augustine: Earlier Writings (continued)

3l8 AUGUSTINE: EARLIER WRITINGS

32. Of course, if such men deny that 'we are to believe in Christ unless some indubitable reason is given, they are not Christians. That is what some pagans urge against us, foolishly but not inconsistently. Who could allow people to profess to belong to Christ, who maintain that nothing is to be believed unless fools are offered an absolutely clear and rational doctrine of God? We see how Christ himself, according to the storywhich they also accept, demanded faith above ever)'thing else and before everything else, because those with whom he was dealing were not yet able to penetrate to the divine secrets. What was the purpose of so many great miracles? He said himself that they were done for no other purpose than that men should believe in him. He led the foolish by faith; you do it by reason. He cried aloud that men should believe; you declaim against faith. He praised those who believed; you rebuke them. Would he have turned water into wine, to mention only one instance, if men would have followed him if he had merely taught them and done no miracle? Is that word not to be taken into account: "Ye believe in God, believe also in me" (John 14:1)? Is the man to be blamed for rashness who would not have the Lord come to his house, believing that by his bare command his boy's sickness would be cured? Christ, therefore, bringing a medicine to heal corrupt morals, by his miracles gained authority, by his authority deserved faith, by faith drew together a multitude, thereby secured permanence of the tradition, which in time corroborated religion. That religion neither the foolish novelty of heretics working deceitfully, nor the ancient error of the nations in violent opposition, will avail to pluck up and destroy in any part.

XV, 33. Wherefore, though I have no ability to teach, I do not cease to utter this warning. Many want to appear wise, and it is not easy to discern whether they are not in reality fools. Pray to God with all intensity of mind, with all your vows, with groans and, it may be, with tears, that he may deliver you from the evil of error, if your heart is set on the happy life. You will obtain your desire more easily if you willingly obey his precepts which are confirmed by the authority of the Catholic Church. The wise man is so closely united with God in his mind that nothing can come between to separate them. God is truth, and no one is wise if he have not truth in his mind. We cannot deny that man's wisdom is a kind of intermediar)^ placed between the folly of man and the pure truth of God. The wise man, so far as it is given to him, imitates God. The foolish man has nothing

THE USEFULNESS OF BELIEF

nearer to him for wholesome imitation than the wise man. But, as has been said, it is not easy by the use of reason to know who is wise. Miracles must be presented to the eyes, of which fools are much readier to make use than of the mind, so that under the constraint of authority men's lives and morals may first be purified, and they may thus become able to follow reason. Since, then, there had to be a human example to imitate, and yet hope was not to be stayed on man, what could better show the mercy and generosity of God than that the pure, eternal and unchangeable Wisdom of God, to whom we must cleave, saw fit to assume human nature? Not only did he do miracles in order to incite us to follow God, but he also suffered those things which deter us from following God. No man can obtain the supreme and most certain good unless he fully and perfectly loves it; and that he cannot do so long as he fears bodily evils and fortuitous circumstances. By being bom miraculously and by doing miracles he procured our love, and by dying and rising again he drove away our fears. In everything else he did, which it would take too long to recall, he showed himself such that wc could perceive how far the divine clemency would go, and to what heights human infirmity could be raised. xvi, 34. Here is, believe me, most wholesome authority. Here is the preliminary raising of our minds above their earthly habitation. Here is conversion from love of this world to the true God. It is authority alone which urges fools to hasten to wisdom. So long as we cannot know pure truth it is misery no doubt to be deceived by authority; but it is certainly greater misery not to be moved by it. If the providence of God does not preside over human affairs, there is no need to worry about religion. But if all the best minds are urged to seek and to serve God, openly, as it were, by the outward appearance of the universe, which assuredly must be believed to emanate from some fountain of truest beauty, and, privately, by some inward consciousness, there is no need to give up the hope that God himself has constituted some authority relying on which as on a sure ladder we may rise to him. Putting aside reason, which, as we have often said, is difficult for fools to follow in its purity, this authority has two ways of appealing to us, partly by miracles and partly by the multitude of those who accept it. Neither of these is necessary for the wise man. No one denies that. But the problem now is how we can become wise, that is, how we can cleave to the truth. That, assuredly, the unclean mind cannot do. Uncleanness of the mind, let me briefly explain, is love of anything besides God and the soul. The more pure a man is from such uncleanness the more easily does he behold the truth. To wish to see the truth in order that you may purge your soul is a perverse and preposterous idea, because it is precisely in order that you may see, that it has to be purged. For the man who is not able to behold the truth, in order that he may become able and allow himself to be purified, authority is available, making its appeal, as I have just said and as no one doubts, partly by miracles, and partly by the multitudes of its adherents. By "miracle" I mean something strange and difficult which exceeds the expectation and capacity of him who marvels at it. Among events of this kind there is nothing more suited to the populace, and to foolish men generally, than what appeals to the senses. But again there are two kinds of miracle. Some there are which merely cause wonder; others produce great gratitude and good will. If one sees a man flying one merely marvels, for such a thing brings no advantage to the spectator beyond the spectacle itself. But if one is affected by some grave and desperate disease and at a word of command immediately gets better, love of one's healer will surpass wonder at one's healing. Such things were done when God appeared to men as true Man, as far as was necessary. The sick were healed. Lepers were cleansed. To the lame the power to walk was restored; to the blind, sight; to the deaf, hearing. The men of that time saw water turned into wine; five thousand satisfied with five loaves of bread, waters walked upon, the dead raised. Of these miracles some looked to the body, conferring on it an obvious benefit, others looked to the mind, conveying to it a hidden signal. But all of them had regard to men, bearing testimony to them of the majesty of Christ. So at that time divine authority drew the erring minds of mortal men towards itself. But why, you say, do such things not happen now? Because they would not affect us unless they were mar\'ellous, and they would not be marvellous if they were familiar. Take the alternation of day and night, the unvarying order of the heavenly bodies, the annual return of the four seasons, the leaves falling and returning to the trees, the endless vitality of seeds, the beauty of light, colour, sounds, odours, the varieties of flavours. If we could speak to someone who saw and sensed these things for the first time, we should find that he was overwhelmed and dizzy at such miracles. But we make light of all these things, not because they are easy to understand—for what is more obscure than their causes?—but because we are continually aware of them.

Christ's miracles, therefore, were done at the most opportune moment so that a muhitude of believers might be drawn together, and that authority might be turned to profitable account in the interests of good morals. xvii, 35. Morals, of course, have a certain value in gaining the minds of men. But we find it easier to disapprove and detest wickedness, usually the result of the prevalence of lusts, than to abandon it or change it for the better. Do you think that too little regard has been paid to the human condition, in that no earthy or fiery object, in short no object accessible to the bodily senses, is to be worshipped as God? Not a few learned men have maintained that God is to be approached through the intellect alone. But unlearned folk too, male and female, in many diverse nations, both believe and declare this. Think of abstinence limiting itself to the slenderest ration of bread and water. Think of fasts continued not for one day only but for several days together. Think of chastity caring not at all for marriage and offspring. Think of endurance that makes light of crosses and flames; of liberality that distributes its patrimony to the poor; of contempt of this world not stopping short of a longing for death. What does all this mean? Few do these things. Still fewer do them rightly and wisely. But the populace hear and approve, favour and in the end love such men. They blame their own weakness in not being able to perform such deeds, wherein they show that they are not without some advancement of mind God-ward, some sparks of virtue. All this has divine providence accomplished through the predictions of the prophets, through the incarnation and teaching of Christ, through the journeys of the apostles, through the reproaches, crosses, blood and deaths of the martyrs, through the laudable lives of the saints, and in every case through miracles worthy of such achievements and virtues, and suitable to the various times. When, therefore, we see such fruit progressively realized by God's aid, shall we hesitate to place ourselves in the bosom of his Church? For it has reached the highest pinnacle of authority, having brought about the conversion of the human race by the instrumentality of the Apostolic See and the successions of bishops. Meantime heretics have barked around it in vain, and have been condemned partly by the judgment of the common people, partly by the weighty judgment of councils, partly also by the majesty of miracles. To be unwilling to give it the first phice is assuredly the mark of consummate impiety or of heady arrogance. If there is for souls no certain way to wisdom and salvation unless

A.E.W.—21 faith prepares them for the use of reason, how is it possible to be more ungrateful for the help of God than to want to resist an authority so strongly established? Every kind of scholastic discipline, however humble or easy to acquire, demands a teacher or a master if it is to be acquired. What is more rashly proud than to be unwilling to learn to understand the books of the divine oracles from their own interpreters and to be ready to condemn them without understanding them? xviii, 36. Wherefore, if my reasoning and my pleading affect you, and you have, as I trust, a true care for your own good, I hope you will listen to me and commit yourself in pious faith, keen hope and simple charity to good teachers of Catholic

Christianity; that you will not cease to pray to God, by whose goodness alone we were created, by whose justice we pay the penalty for our sins, by whose clemency we are delivered. Thus you will never lack the precepts and discourses of learned men who are truly Christian, nor books, nor quiet thoughts, enabling you easily to find what you are seeking. Abandon utterly those verbose and unhappy Manichees (what gentler adjectives could I use?) who search too much for the source of evil and never find anything but evil. They often stir up their hearers to inquire into that problem, but when they are eager they teach them things they ought not to hear. It would be better to be continually asleep than to be awake in that manner. Into the lethargic they instil frenzy. Both of these diseases are deadly, but they differ in that the lethargic die without troubling others, while a frenzied person is dangerous to many sane people, especially to those who wish to help him. God is not the Author of evil. He never repented of anything he had made. His mind is disturbed by no emotional storms. No particular part of the earth is his Kingdom. He neither approves nor commands any crimes or evil deeds. He never lies. The Manichees used to influence us by aggressively brandishing these truths and insinuating that the contrary was Old Testament doctrine; which is utterly false. I grant they were right in attacking statements which attribute evil to God. But what have I discovered? In attacking such statements they were not attacking Catholic doctrine. So I hold fast the truth I learned from them, and I reject the false opinion they taught me. But many other things the Catholic Church has taught me which these men of bloodless bodies and crass minds cannot aspire to teach: that God is not corporeal; that no part of him can be perceived by the bodily eyes; that none of his substance and nature is in any way violable or mutable, compounded or moulded to a pattern. If you grant me all this—and in no other way may we think of God—all the devices of the Manichees are brought to naught. How it comes to be that God neither begat nor created evil; that there is no nature or substance, or ever has been or will be, which God did not either beget or create; and that he nonetheless delivers us from evil; all this can be proved by reasons so compelling that it is impossible to doubt it, especially for you and people like you, if at any rate piety and peace of mind are added to a good disposition. For without these spiritual qualities nothing at all can be understood of these deep matters. This is no story worthless as smoke, no mere Persian fable to which it is enough to lend an ear and a mind not subtle but quite puerile. Not as the Manichees have it in their folly is the truth. It is far, far different. But since my discourse has gone to much greater length than I expected, let me put an end to this book. You remember my purpose. I have not yet begun to refute the Manichees or to attack their absurdities. Nor have I expounded much of the Catholic Faith. I wanted only, if I could, to rid you of a false opinion about true Christians maliciously and ignorantly distilled into us, and to stimulate you to learn certain great divine truths. Let this book, then, be as it is. If your mind is somewhat placated, perhaps I shall be more ready to deal with the other questions.

Tlie Nature of the Good

St. Augustine's Review of'De Natura Boni^^

Retractations, II, ix

The book Of the Nature of the Good is against the Manichees. There it is shown that God is unchangeable by nature and is the supreme good, that other natures whether spiritual or corporeal derive their existence from him, and that, so far as they are natures, they are good. Also it is shown what evil is, and whence it springs, what great evils the Manichees attribute to the good nature and what good things they attribute to the evil nature; for their error has conjured up two opposing "natures." The book begins: "The supreme good beyond all others is God."

The Nature of the Good

INTRODUCTION THE De Natura Boni, written in 404, is the last of the Anti-Manichaean writings, coming soon after the massive Contra Faustum. No special occasion for writing is mentioned, and it seems strange that St. Augustine did not rather continue his refutation of the Fundamental Epistle of Manes, for which, he tells us, he had made some preparation. The fragment which survives is in some respects more interesting than this work, but it is already accessible in translation, and the De Natura Boni has interesting features of its own.

It falls into three sections. A. i-xxiii. A summary but reasoned account of the Augustinian metaphysic—God, the Supreme Being and the Supreme Good, from whom all other beings derive existence and value, all being good by nature each in its degree. Evil is nothing but the corruption of natural good. Sin is voluntary and is exactly compensated by its penalty, in a perfect world.

B. xxiv-xxxix. Proof of the doctrine, point by point, is adduced from Scripture "so that the less intelligent may believe on authority." C. xl-xlviii. An attempt is made to show that (i) the Manichees are inconsistent, attributing many good qualities to their "Evil Nature," and many bad qualities to their "Good Nature." (2) Manichaeism leads to certain abominable practices, at least so it is rumoured. Passages from the Thesaurus and the Fundamental Epistle of Manes are quoted to show that the suspicion is not without foundation in their authoritative writings.

The Nature of the Good

Against the Manichees

THE TEXT

i. The Supreme Good beyond all others is God. It is thereby unchangeable good, truly eternal, truly immortal. All other good things derive their origin from him but are not part of him. That which is part of him is as he is, but the things he has created are not as he is. Hence if he alone is unchangeable, all things that he created are changeable because he made them of nothing. Being omnipotent he is able to make out of nothing, i.e., out of what has no existence at all, good things, both great and small, celestial and terrestrial, spiritual and corporeal. Because he is just, he did not make the things he made out of nothing to be equal to him whom he begat of himself. Therefore, all good things throughout all the ranks of being, whether great or small, can derive their being only from God. Ever)^ natural being, so far as it is such, is good. There can be no being which does not derive its existence from the most high and true God. All are not supremely good, but they approximate to the supreme good, and even the very lowest goods, which are far distant from the supreme good, can only derive their existence from the supreme good. Ever}' mutable spirit and every corporeal thing, that is, the whole of created nature, was made by God, for everything that exists is either spirit or body. God is immutable Spirit. Mutable spirit is a created thing, but it is better than corporeal things. Body is not spirit, though in a different sense we speak of the wind as spirit because it is invisible to us, and yet we feel its not inconsiderable force. ii. There are those who cannot understand that every natural being, that is, every spiritual and corporeal existent, is good by nature. They are impressed by the wickedness of spirits and the mortality of bodies, and so they endeavour to

THE NATURE OF THE GOOD

maintain that there is another nature besides that which God has made, viz., that of malignant spirit and mortal body. On their account we think that what we say can be brought to bear on their understanding, in this way. They admit that there can be no good thing save from the most high and true God. Now this is true and is sufficient to correct them if they will but pay attention. iii. We, Catholic Christians, worship God, from whom are all good things, great or small, all measure great or small, all form great or small, all order great or small. All things are good; better in proportion as they are better measured, formed and ordered, less good where there is less of measure, form and order. These three things, measure, form and order, not to mention innumerable other things which demonstrably belong to them, are as it were generic good things to be found in all that God has created, whether spirit or body. God transcends all measure, form and order in his creatures, not in spatial locality but by his unique and ineffable power from which come all measure, form and order. Where these three things are present in a high degree there are great goods. Where they are present in a low degree there are small goods. And where they are absent there is no goodness. Moreover, where these three things are present in a high degree there are things great by nature. Where they are present in a low degree there are things small by nature. Where they are absent there is no natural thing at all. Therefore, every natural existent is good. iv. If we ask whence comes evil, we should first ask what evil is. It is nothing but the corruption of natural measure, form or order. What is called an evil nature is a corrupt nature. If it were not corrupt it would be good. But even when it is corrupted, so far as it remains a natural thing, it is good. It is bad only so far as it is corrupted. v. Of course it is possible that one nature even when corrupted may still be better than another nature which has remained uncorrupted, because the one has a superior, the other an inferior measure, form and order. According to the estimation of men, judging by what they see before them as they look, corrupted gold is better than uncorrupted silver, and corrupted silver is better than uncorrupted lead. Among spiritual natures of greater potency a rational spirit, even when corrupted by an evil will, is better than an irrational spirit that is uncorrupted; and any spirit, even when corrupted, is better than any body even when uncorrupted. For the thing which when present t gives life to a body is better than the body to which it gives life. However corrupt the created spirit of life may become, it can still give life to its body. Hence even when corrupted it is better than its body though the latter be uncorrupted. vi. If corruption take away from corruptible things all measure, form and order, nothing at all will remain in existence. Similarly any nature which cannot be corrupted will be the supreme good, as God is. Any nature which can be corrupted has some good in it, for corruption could not harm it except by taking away or diminishing what is good in it. vii. To his most excellent creatures, that is to rational spirits, God has given the power not to be corrupted if they do not will to be; but remain obedient under the Lord their God and cleave to his incorruptible beauty. But if they will not remain obedient and are willingly corrupted by sin, they are unwillingly corrupted by penalties. God is the good, so that it can be well with no one who deserts him; and among his creatures the rational nature is so great a good that no other good save God can make it happy. Sinners are ordained to punishment. This order is contrary to their nature, and is therefore penalty. But it suits their fault and is therefore just. viii. Other things created out of nothing which are inferior to rational spirit can be neither happy nor miserable. Since they are themselves good, because of the degree of measure and form they possess, and since, though the good in them be small or even minimal, they could not have existed save by the act of the good God most high; they are so ordered that the weaker yield to the stronger, and the feebler to those that have greater might, and the less powerful to the more powerful. So terrestrial things have peace with celestial things, being as it were submissive to things which are more excellent than they are. When things pass away and others succeed them there is a specific beauty in the temporal order, so that those things which die or cease to be what they were, do not defile or disturb the measure, form or order of the created universe. A well-prepared speech is beautiful even though all its syllables and sounds pass in succession as if they are born and die. ix. The nature and quantity of the penalty due to each fault is determined by the judgment of God, not by that of man. When it is remitted to the converted, that is proof of the great goodness of God. When it is paid as due there is no inequity with God. It is a better order that a thing [natura] should suffer punishment justly than that it should rejoice in sin with impunity. So long as it retains some measure, form and order there is still some good in it no matter into what extremity it may come. If these were all together taken away and destroyed completely there would be no good because there would be nothing left.

X. Corruptible natures would not be natures at all unless they derived being from God. Nor would they be corruptible if they were part of him. They would then be as he is. The fact that they have some measure, form and order is due to their having been created by God. And they are not immutable because they were made out of nothing. It is sacrilegious audacity to equate nothing and God as we do ifwe want to make that which he created out of nothing equal to that which is born of God. xi. No hurt whatever can be done to the divine nature, nor can any other nature which is less than divine be hurt unjustly. No doubt some people by sinning do harm unjustly. Their will to harm unjustly is counted against them, but the power by which they are permitted to do the harm comes only from God, who knows, though they do not, what those ought to suffer whom he permits them to harm. xii. If those who want to introduce a nature other than that which God has made would only pay attention to these clear and certain facts, they would not be filled with such blasphemies as to impute so much good to the supreme evil, and to impute to God so many evils. As I said above, it is sufficient for their correction if they would only pay attention to what truth compels them to confess even against their will, that all good things come from God alone. Good things whether they are great or small all come from one source, that is from the supreme good, which is God. xiii. Let us, therefore, recall all the good things we can which are worthy to be attributed to God as their author, and let us see whether when they are removed anything will remain in existence. All life, potency, health, memory, virtue, intelligence, tranquillity, plenty, sense, light, sweetness, measure, beauty, peace—all these things whether great or small, and other similar things which may occur to one, and especially those things which are found universally in spiritual or corporeal existence, measure, form and order, come from the Lord God. Whoever willingly makes a bad use of these good things will, by the divine judgment, pay the penalty. But wherever none of them is present at all, absolutely nothing will remain in existence. xiv. Of these good things, if any of them is present in a small degree it is given a bad name to distinguish that condition from conditions in which it is present in a higher degree. For example, because there is greater beauty in the form of a man, by comparison with it the beauty of an ape is called deformity. And this misleads the unkno%\ing. They think that the one is good and the other bad. They do not notice that the body of the ape has its own proper measure, correspondence of limbs on both sides, concord of all its parts, readiness in self-defence, and other qualities which it would take a long time to pursue. XV. That what we are saying may be understood and satisfy those whose intelligence is rather slow, or even compel the pertinacious who resist the most patent truth to confess the truth, let us ask whether corruption can harm the body of an ape. If it can, and the ape can become more hideous, what is diminished if not such beauty as it has, which is a good thing? So long as its body continues to exist some beauty will remain. So if the destruction of good implies the destruction of existence nature is good. We say that the slow is the opposite of the swift, but if anyone does not move at all he cannot be said to be slow. \Ve say that a low voice is the opposite of a shrill one, or a harsh voice of a musical one. But if you take away completely every kind of sound there is silence with no sound at all. \Ve are accustomed to contrast silence with sound as contraries for the very reason that silence means the absence of sound. We speak of clear and obscure as contraries, but obscurity may have some light. If it has none at all, the darkness that results from the complete absence of light is like the silence which is the result of the complete absence of sound. xvi. Qualitative deprivations are so ordered throughout the universe of nature that, for those who consider them wisely, their vicissitudes are not without propriety. By not causing light to shine on certain places and during certain times God made darkness quite as appropriately as day. If by keeping silent we interpose a suitable pause in our speech, how much more does he, the perfect artificer of all things, suitably and appropriately cause these deprivations? Hence, in the Hymn of the Three Youths, Light and Darkness alike praise God, that is, cause his praise to arise from the hearts of those who give full and right consideration to them. xvii. No nature is evil so far as it is naturally existent. Nothing is e\dl in anything save a diminishing of good. If the good is so far diminished as to be utterly consumed, just as there is no good left so there is no existence left. Not merely no such existence as the Manichees introduce, in which there is so much good that their blindness is wonderfully great, but no such existence as anyone can imagine. xviii. Not even matter which the ancients called "Hyle" is to be called evil. I do not mean what Manes in his stupid vanity ignorantly calls "Hyle," that is to say the power that forms bodies. He is rightly said to be introducing a second god. None but God can form and create bodies. Nor are bodies created without measure, form and order being created with them. Now

I imagine that even the Manichees admit that these things are good and can only come from God. By "Hyle" I mean matter completely without form and quality, out of which are formed the qualities we perceive, as the ancients said. Hence wood is called "Hyle" in Greek, because it is suitable material for workmen, not that it makes anything but that something may be made out of it. That "Hyle" is not to be called evil. It has no form by which we can perceive it. Indeed, it can hardly be conceived because it is so utterly without form. But it has the capacity to receive form. If it could not receive the form imposed on it by the artificer it could not be called material either. Now if form is a good thing, so that those who have a superior form are called beautiful [formosi], doubtless even capacity for form is a good thing. Wisdom is a good thing, and no one doubts that capacity for wisdom is also a good thing. And because every good thing comes from God, no one should doubt that matter, if there is such a thing, derives its existence from God alone. xix. Gloriously and divinely our God said to his servant: "I am who I am. Say to the children of Israel: He who is hath sent me unto you" (Ex. 3:14). He truly is because he is unchangeable. Every change causes that which was to cease to be.

Therefore he truly is who is unchangeable. All other things which he made received existence from him each in its own degree. To him who supremely is there can be no contrary except that which is not. Consequently, just as all that is good comes from him, so from him comes all that has natural existence, since all that has natural existence is good. Every nature is good, and every good thing is from God. Therefore all nature is from God.

XX. Some think that pain whether in mind or body is the chief evil. But there cannot be pain except in things naturally good. For pain means that something that has been is in a sense

Striving against extinction, because what has been was good. When it is being compelled to become better the pain serves a useful purpose, otherwise it is useless. Mental pain is caused by the will's resisting a greater power. Bodily pain is caused by the senses resisting a more powerful body. But evils that have no accompanying pain are worse. It is worse to rejoice in iniquity than to suffer in corruption. There cannot be no rejoicing except by acquiring inferior good things. Iniquity is the abandonment of the better things. In the body a wound that gives pain is better than a painless festering which is specifically called corruption. The mortal flesh of our Lord did not see, i.e., suffer, corruption, as was foretold in the prophecy: "Thou wilt not give thy Holy One to see corruption" (Ps. i6:io). Who denies that he was wounded by the driving in of the nails and pierced with the spear? Take festering, which men call specifically a corruption of the body. Now if there is still something deep in the wound which it can consume, the corruption grows as good is diminished. But if there is nothing left to consume, there will be no festering since there is no good left. There will be nothing for corruption to corrupt; and there will be no festering, for there will be nothing to fester. xxi. Tiny little things are in the common usage of speech said to be moderate because some measure remains in them. Without that they would not even be moderate but would not exist at all. Things which have gone too far are called immoderate and are blamed for being over-large. But even these must be kept within bounds under God, who has disposed all things by measure, number and weight. xxii. We may not say that God has measure, in case that is taken to mean that he has an end. Yet is he not without measure by whom measure is given to all things so that they may in some measure exist. On the other hand we must not say that God has measure, as if it were imposed upon him from elsewhere. If we call him the supreme measure we perhaps say something significant, at any rate if we understand the supreme good by what we call the supreme measure. All measure, so far as it is measure, is good, and we cannot speak of things as moderate, modest or modified without implied praise of them. In another sense we speak of measure as implying end, and we say "measureless" meaning "endless." Sometimes that too implies praise, as in the words: "Of his kingdom there shall be no end" (Luke 1:33). The writer might have said "there shall be no measure [modusY' provided Tnodus was understood to mean end I finis]. For, of course, he who reigns in no measure [nullo modo =in no way] simply does not reign at all. xxiii. Measure, form and order are said to be bad when there is less of them than there ought to be. Or it may be because they are not suited to things as they ought to be. Or they may be called bad because they are alien and incongruous. For example, someone may be said to have acted in a bad manner

[modus] because he did less than he ought or more than he ought, or because he acted unsuitably or in a wrong way in the particular situation. The action which is blamed as having been done in a bad manner is justly blamed for no other reason than that it did not preserve modus. We speak of a form or appearance as being bad because it is inferior not in size but in comeliness when it is compared with more comely and beautiful forms. The reason is that it does not suit the things which wear it, and appears alien and unsuitable; as, for example, if a man were to walk naked in the market-place, an action which would give no offence if it took place in the baths. Likewise order is said to be bad when too little order is observed. It is not order but disorder that is bad, where there is less order than there ought to be, or where such order as there is is not as it ought to be.

Nevertheless, wherever there is some measure, form and order there is some good and something naturally existing. Where there is no measure, form or order there is neither good nor existence. xxiv. These things which we hold according to our faith, and which reason also demonstrates, can be fortified by testimonies from the divine Scriptures, so that the less intelligent who cannot follow the argument may believe on divine authority, and so may deserve to reach understanding. Those who understand, and are less instructed in ecclesiastical sacred books, are not to think that we have produced them out of our heads, and that they are not in the Scriptures. That God is immutable is written thus in the Psalms: "Thou shalt change them and they shall be changed; but thou art the same" (Ps.

102:26-27). And in the Book of Wisdom it is written of Wisdom itself: "Abiding in herself she reneweth all things" (Wisdom

7:27). The apostle Paul says: "To the invisible, incorruptible, only wise God" (I Tim. 1:17). The aposde James writes: "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning" (James 1:17). Because the Son was not made, but all things were made through him, it is written: ''In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him and without him nothing was made" (John 1:1-3).

XXV. We are not to listen to the nonsense of men who think that in this passage '"nothing" must mean something. They think that they can force us to this absurd and vain conclusion because the word nihil is put at the end of the sentence. You see. say they, "nothing was made." and seeing it was made it is therefore something. They have lost all sense in their eagerness to contradict. They do not understand that there is no difference between saying "without him was made nothing" and saying "without him nothing was made." In either case they could equally well say that nothing is something because it was made. Take something that really exists. What difference is there between saying, "without him there was made a house" and saying, "without him a house was made"? The point is that something was made without him, in this case a house. So when it is said: "without him was made nothing" "nothing" does not mean something, when words are truly and properly used. Xo matter where '"nothing" is placed in the sentence, it makes nothing of a difference. ^Vho \\ould be willing to hold conversation with men who when they hear the expression "nothing of a difference" can say: Therefore there is some difference because nothing is something? Those who have sound brains see quite clearly that my meaning is exactly the same whether I say "nothing of a difference" or "a difference of nothing." And yet these contentious people might say to somebody, What have you done? and if he replied that he had done nothing, they might slander him, sa>dng. You have done something because you have done nothing, for nothing is something. There is the Lord himself putting that word at the end of a sentence where he says: "In secret have I said nothing" (John 18:20). Let them read and hold their peace. xx\i. All things which God did not beget of himself but made through his \Vord, he made not out of things which already existed but out of what did not exist at all, i.e., out of nothing. Thus the apostle says: "Who calleth those things which be not as though they were" (Rom. 4:17). But it is written more clearly in the Book of the ^Iaccabees. "I beseech thee, my child, lift thine eyes to the heaven and the earth and all that are therein. See and know that the things were not of which the Lord God made us" (II Maccabees 7:28). There is also what is written in the Psalms. "He spake and they were made" (Ps. 148:5). Clearly he did not beget these things of himself, but made them by his Word and command. What he did not beget he made of nothing; for there was nothing else out of which he might have made them. Of him the aposde says most openly: "Since of him and through him and in him are all things" (Rom. 11:36). xxvii. "Of him" does not have the same meaning as "out of him" [de ipso]. What is de ipso may also be said to be ex ipso. But not everything that is ex ipso can be correctly said to be de ipso. Of him are the heaven and the earth for he made them. But they are not "out of him" because they are not parts of his substance. If a man beget a son and make a house both are "of him" but the son is of his substance, the house is of earth and wood. This is because he is a man who cannot make anything of nothing. But God, ofwhom and through whom and in whom are all things, had no need of any material which he had not made himself, to help his omnipotence. xxviii. By these words "Of him and through him and in him are all things" we must understand all natures that naturally exist. For sins are not of him. They do not observe nature but vitiate it. In many ways Holy Scripture testifies that sins come from the will of the sinners; especially in that passage where the apostle writes: "And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them which do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God? Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and long-suffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurcst up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God; who will render to every man according to his deeds" (Rom. 2:3-6). xxix. Though all things which God has made are in him, those who sin do not defile him. Of his wisdom it is written: "She pervadeth all things by reason of her pureness, and nothing defiled can find entrance into her" (Wisdom 7:24). We must therefore believe God to be incapable of defilement as he is incapable of corruption and change.

XXX. That God made also the lesser good things, that is, earthly and mortal things, may without hesitation be understood from that passage of the apostle where he speaks of our carnal members. "Whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured all the

members rejoice with it." Again: "God hath set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him." And again: *'God hath tempered the body together, having given more abundant honour to that part which lacked; that there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care one for the other" (I Cor. 12:18-26). This measure, form and order which the apostle praises in our carnal members can be found in the flesh of all animals both great and small. For flesh of all kinds is ranked among earthly goods, that is to say among the lowest good things. xxxi. The kind and magnitude of the penalty due to any particular sin is a matter for the judgment of God, not man. Therefore it is written: "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!" (Rom. 1 1 :33). That sins are forgiven, to those who are converted, by the goodness of God, is sufficiently proved by the fact that Christ was sent; who died on our behalf not in his divine nature but in our nature which he assumed of a woman. The apostle thus preaches the goodness and love of God towards us: "God commendeth his own love towards us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, shall we be saved from wrath through him. For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, shall we be saved by his life" (Rom. 5:8-10). Because there is no iniquity with God when sinners pay the due penalty, he writes thus: "\Vhat shall we say? Is God unrighteous who visiteth with wrath?" (Rom.

3:5). In one passage he briefly indicates that there are both goodness and severity in God. "Behold, then, the goodness and severity of God: toward them that fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness" (Rom. 11:22). xxxii. That the powder of those who do harm comes from God alone is thus stated in Scripture. It is wisdom that speaks: "By me kings reign, and tyrants by me rule the earth" (Prov. 8:15). The apostle says: "There is no power but of God" (Rom. 13:1). That this is rightly so, it is written in the book of Job: "He makes the hypocrite king on account of the perversity' of the people" (Job 34:30, LXX). Of the people of Israel God says: "I have given them a king in my wrath" (Hos. 13:11). For it is not unjust that the wicked should receive power to harm so that the patience of the good should be proved and the iniquity of the bad should be punished. By the power given to the devil Job was proved that his justice might be made apparent; Peter was tempted so that he might not think too highly of himself; Paul was buffeted that he might not be puffed up; and Judas was condemned to hang himself. God himself, therefore, did all things justly by the power he gave to the devil. Not for performing these just actions, but for the wicked will to do hurt, which came from the devil himself, will he in the end be awarded punishment, when it will be said to the impious accomplices who have persevered in his iniquity: "Depart into the eternal fire which my Father hath prepared for the devil and his angels" (Matt. 25:41). xxxiii. Because the bad angels were not made bad by God but became bad by sinning, Peter says this in his Epistle: "God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down and committed them to pits of infernal darkness to be reserved for punishment in the judgment" (II Pet. 2:4). Peter thus shows that there is still due to them the penalty of the last judgment, of which the Lord says: "Depart into the eternal fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels." Of course they have even now received as a prison by way of penalty this infernal lower murky air in which we live. It is indeed called heaven but it is not the heaven in which the stars exist, but this lower region whose murk piles up in clouds and where birds fly. It is also called the cloudy heaven, and we speak of the birds of the heaven. For this reason the apostle Paul calls these same wicked angels against whose em we fight when we live pious lives, "Spiritual powers of wickedness in celestial places" (Eph. 6:12). And that this should not be understood to refer to the superior heavens, he says clearly in another passage: "According to the prince of the power of the air, who now worketh in the sons of disobedience" (Eph. 2:2). xxxiv. Because sin or iniquity is not a seeking of things evil by nature but an abandonment of the better things, this is found written in Scripture. "Every creature of God is good" (I Tim. 4:4). Every tree that God planted in paradise was good. Man, therefore, did not desire anything evil by nature when he touched the forbidden tree. But by departing from what was better he himself committed an act that was evil. The Creator is better than any of his creatures, and his command should not have been disobeyed by touching what was forbidden, even though it was good. The better was abandoned and a creaturely good sought which it was contrary to the command of the Creator to touch. God had not planted a bad tree in paradise.

A.E.W.—22 t But he who had forbidden that tree to be touched was better than the tree.

XXXV. The reason for the prohibition was to show that the rational soul is not in its own power but ought to be subject to God, and must guard the order of its salvation by obedience, or by disobedience be corrupted. Hence God called the tree which he had forbidden to be touched the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, because anyone who had touched it contrary to the prohibition would discover the penalty of sin, and so would be able to distinguish betsveen the good of obedience and the e\il of disobedience. xxxvi. Who could be so mad as to think that a creature of God, especially one planted in paradise, can be found fault

Even the thorns and thistles which the earth produced according to the will of God in judgment, in order to afflict the sinner by making him labour, are not rightly to be found fault with. Even such herbs have measure, form and order, and anyone who soberly considers them will find them worthy of praise. But they are evil to the being who had to be disciplined in this way because of the fault of his sin. As I said, therefore, sin is not a seeking of something evil by nature, but an abandonment of what is better. So the deed is the evil thing, not the thing of which the sinner makes an e\il use. Evil is making a bad use of a good thing. Hence the apostle reproaches some whom the divine judgment has condemned, who worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator. He does not find fault with the creature, for, whoever does that, does injustice to the Creator, but he reproaches those who have abandoned the better thing and made a bad use of a good thing. xxxvii. If all natural things would preserve their proper measure, form and order, there would be no evil. But if anyone willingly makes a bad use of these good things, he cannot overcome the will of God, who knows how to subject even the unjust to a just order. If they by the wickedness of their wills have made a bad use of his good things, he by the justice of his power makes a good use of their evil deeds, rightly ordaining them to punishment who have perversely ordained themselves to sin. xxxviii. Even the eternal fire which is to torment the impious is not an evil thing. It has its own measure, form and order, debased by no iniquity. But torment is evil to the damned for whose sins it is the due reward. Nor is light an evil thing because it hurts the weak-eyed. xxxix. The eternal fire is not eternal as God is, for though it is without end it is not without beginning. God has no beginning. Again, though it is apphed perpetually to the punishment of sinners, it is nonetheless mutable by nature. God alone has true eternity, true immortality and absolute immutability, for he cannot be changed at all. It is one thing not to be changed when there is a possibility of change; quite another when there is no such possibility. A man is said to be good, but not as God is, ofwhomit is said: "None is good but God alone" (Mark io:i8). The soul is said to be immortal, but not as God is, ofwhom it is said: "He alone hath immortality" (I Tim. 6:i6). A man is said to be wise, but not as God is, of whom it is said: "To the only wise God" (Rom. 16:27). So ^^e fire is said to be eternal, but not as God is whose immortality alone is true eternity. xl. Since these things are so according to the Catholic faith and sound doctrine, and also according to truth as it is clear to those who have understanding, none can harm the divine nature; the divine nature can inflict harm on no one unjustly, nor suffer anyone to do harm and to go unpunished. "He who doeth hurt," says the apostle, "shall receive again for the hurt he hath done; and there is no respect of persons with God" xli. If the Manichees would think of these things in the fear of God and without the pernicious desire to defend their error, they would not blaspheme most wickedly by introducing two natures, one good which they call God, and the other evil which God did not make. So great is their error, silliness, and indeed madness, that they cannot see what they are doing. In effect they attribute to what they call the supreme evil by nature all these great good things: life, potency, safety, memory, intelligence, moderation, virtue, plenty, sensation, light, sweetness, dimension, numbers, peace, measure, form and order. And to the supreme good they attribute these great evils: death, sickness, forgetfulness, madness, perturbation, impotence, neediness, stupidity, blindness, pain, iniquity, dishonour, war, lack of moderation, deformity, perversity. They tell us that the princes of darkness lived in their natural element, and were safe in their kingdom, and had both memory and intelligence. At any rate they tell us that the prince of darkness made a speech such as he could not have made, and such as his hearers could not have listened to, unless they had memory and intelligence.

These powers of darkness, we are told, had suitably tempered minds and bodies, and reigned in mighty potency. They were plentifully supplied with all their elements, and could perceive themselves and the Hght which was their neighbour. They had eyes wherewith to see it afar off. Now eyes without some Hght in them could not have seen light. That is why eyes are rightly called luminaries. They enjoyed their pleasures sweetly. Their limbs were well-proportioned and their dwe Uings well-planned. At any rate unless there was some kind of beauty they would not have loved their marriages, nor would their bodies have consisted of parts that harmonized; and without that the events recorded in the silly tale could not have taken place. If they had no peace of any kind they would not have obeyed their prince. If they had no measure, they would do nothing but eat and drink and play the savage and act in other unsocial ways. Even so, they would not have been determined by their particular forms unless they had some kind of measure. As it is, we are told that they performed such actions that there is no denying them fitting measure. If there were no form there would be no natural quality. If there were no order there would not be some ruling and others ruled; they would not live harmoniously with their elements; in short their limbs would not be arranged in their fitting places, as is assumed by the vain Manichee fable. On the other hand, on their vain showing, the divine nature is dead and Christ resuscitates it. It is sick and he heals it. It is forgetful and he brings it to remembrance. It is foolish and he teaches it.

It is disturbed and he makes it whole again. It is conquered and captive and he sets it free. It is in poverty and need, and he aids it. It has lost feeling and he quickens it. It is blinded and he illumines it. It is in pain and he restores it. It is iniquitous and by his precepts he corrects it. It is dishonoured and he cleanses it. It is at war and he promises it peace. It is unbridled and he imposes the restraint of law. It is deformed and he reforms it.

It is perverse and he puts it right. All these things, they tell us, are done by Christ not for something that was made by God and became distorted by sinning by its own free will, but for the very nature and substance of God, for something that is as God is. xlii. What can be compared to blasphemies such as these? Nothing at all, if you consider the errors of other perverse sects. Nay, if you compare the error we have been describing with another Manichee error, which we have not yet mentioned, that sect will be proved to allege still worse and more execrable blasphemies against the divine nature. They tell us that certain souls, parts of the substance of God and sharers in the divine nature, as they will have it, went down, not of their own accord but at the command of their Father, to fight against the race of darkness, which the Manichees call the evil nature; that they were defeated and taken captive and were imprisoned for ever in a horrible sphere of darkness. These souls, of course, did not sin voluntarily. In this way, according to their vain profane babbling, God freed part of himself from a great evil, but condemned another part of himselfwhich he could not liberate from the enemy, and yet celebrated a triumph as if the enemy had been defeated. What wicked and incredible audacity to say or believe or proclaim such things about God! When they try to defend this they fall with closed eyes into worse error. For they say that mixing with the evil nature causes the good divine nature to undergo such evils; by itself it cannot and could not have suffered the like. As if an incorruptible nature is to be praised because it does itself no harm, and not because nothing else can harm it. Now, if natural darkness harmed the divine nature, and the divine nature harmed natural darkness, the fact that they did each other harm mutually means that there are two evils. But the race of darkness was of a better mind, for if it did harm it did it unwillingly. It did not wish to harm the divine good but to enjoy it. God wanted to blot out his enemy as Manes vapours most openly in his deadly Fundamental

Epistle. Forgetting what he had written a little earlier—"His glorious realms are founded upon a bright and blessed earth so that they can never be either moved or shaken by anyone"—he goes on to say, "The Father of most blessed light knew that a great destruction and devastation, arising from the realm of darkness, was threatening his holy realms unless some excellent brilliant and mighty divine power should intervene to overcome and at the same time destroy the stock of darkness. If that were blotted out perpetual rest would be achieved for the inhabitants of the realm of light." You see, he feared destruction and devastation threatening his realms. And yet they were founded upon a bright and blessed earth so that none could ever move or shake them! Because of this fear he determined to harm a neighbouring race and tried to destroy it and blot it out, so that perpetual rest might be achieved for the inhabitants of the realm of light. Why did he not add "and a perpetual prison"? Were not those souls whom he imprisoned for ever in a sphere of darkness also inhabitants of the realm of light? Of them he openly says, "They endured exile from their former bright nature." There he is forced against his will to say that they sinned by their free will, though he will not allow sin to be explained except as due to necessity imposed by the contrary evil nature. He does not know what he is talking about, and is as if he were himself shut up in his imaginary' sphere of darkness, seeking for a way out and not finding one. Let him say what he likes to the miserable followers whom he has seduced, by whom he is much more highly honoured than Christ is; so that in return for this honour he sells them his long and profane fables. Let him say what he likes. Let him shut up the race of darkness in a sphere as in a prison, and hem it in with light to which he promised perpetual rest when the enemy was blotted out. The penalty suffered by light is worse than that suffered by darkness. The penalty suffered by the divine nature is worse than that suffered by the hostile race. No doubt the latter is all darkness within, but then it was natural for it to inhabit darkness. But the souls which are of the same nature as God will not be able, he says, to be taken back into the peaceful realms. They will be exiled from the life and liberty of holy light, and will be imprisoned in the aforesaid horrible sphere. x\nd so, he says, "these souls will cleave to the things they have loved, abandoned in the sphere of darkness, procuring for themselves this fate by their deserts." Is not that freedom of the will, with a vengeance? You see how the raving man does not know what he is talking about. By contradicting himself he wages a worse war against himself than against the God of the race of darkness itself Moreover, if souls that belong to light are condemned because they loved darkness, the race of darkness is unjustly condemned, for it loved the light. The race of darkness loved the light from the beginning. It did not want to blot it out, but to take possession of it, albeit by violence. The race of light determined to blot out the darkness by war, but when defeated came to love darkness. Choose which you will. Either it was compelled by necessity to love darkness or it was voluntarily seduced. If it was by necessity, why is it condemned? If voluntarily, why is the divine nature caught in such iniquity? If the divine nature is compelled by necessity to love darkness, it is vanquished, not victorious.

If it loves darkness voluntarily, why do these miserable people hesitate to attribute the will to sin to a being which God made out of nothing rather than to attribute it to the light which he begat? xliii. If, moreover, we show that even before its fabulous admixture with evil, which they have imagined and foolishly believe, there were great evils in the very nature of light, as they call it, how will it seem possible to add to their blasphemies? Before the battle against darkness took place there was for the light the grim and inevitable necessity of fighting. There is a great evil that existed before evil was mixed with good. Where did that come from, seeing there was as yet no admixture? If there was no necessity to fight but the will was there, whence came that great evil that God was willing to harm his own nature which could not have been harmed by the enemy, by sending it to be cruelly embroiled, shamefully tempted and unjustly condemned? How vast an evil is a will at once pernicious, deadly and cruel, before there was any admixture of evil from the hostile race! Did he perhaps not know that this would happen to his members; that they would come to love darkness and become enemies of the holy light, as Manes says, that is, enemies not only of their God but also of the Father from whom they sprang? Whence came this great evil in God that he should be thus ignorant, before there was any admixture of evil from the hostile race? If he knew it would happen, either there was eternal cruelty in him, if he had no grief for the coming defilement and damnation of his nature, or eternal misery, if he did grieve. Whence came this great evil in your supreme good, before there was any admixture of your supreme evil? If the particle of the divine nature which is held fast in the eternal prison of the afore-mentioned sphere, did not know that this fate was threatening it, even so there was eternal ignorance in the divine nature. If it did know, there was eternal misery. Whence came that great evil before there was any admixture of evil from the hostile race? Perchance it was filled with such charity that it rejoiced because through its punishment perpetual rest was achieved for the other inhabitants of light? Let him anathematize this suggestion who sees how impious it is to make it. If the particle of the divine nature did indeed behave in this way, and did not become hostile to the light, perhaps it could be praised not as divine but as a man might be praised who was willing to suffer some evil for his country. But that evil could only be for a time not for eternity. But they say that the imprisonment in the sphere of darkness was eternal, and that it was the divine nature that was so imprisoned, nothing less. It would surely be a most iniquitous, execrable and unspeakably sacrilegious joy if the divine nature should rejoice in loving darkness and becoming the enemy of the holy light. Whence came this gross and wicked evil before there was any admixture of evil from the hostile race? Who could endure such perverse and impious folly as to attribute so much good to the supreme evil, and so much evil to the supreme good, which is God? xliv. They say that this part of the divine nature permeates all things in heaven and earth and under the earth; that it is found in all bodies, dry and moist, in all kinds of flesh, and in all seeds of trees, herbs, men and animals. But they do not say of it, as we say of God, that it is present untrammelled, unpolluted, inviolate, incorruptible, administering and governing all things. On the contrary, they say that it is bound, oppressed, polluted but that it can be released and set free and cleansed not only by the courses of the sun and moon and powers of light, but also by their elect. To what sacrilegious and incredible shame this kind of nefarious error urges, if it does not persuade, them, it is horrible to relate. They say that the powers of light are transformed into beautiful males who are set before women of the race of darkness, while others are transformed into beautiful women who are set before males of the race of darkness. By their beauty they inflame the unclean lust of the princes of darkness. Thus the vital substance, i.e., the divine nature, which they say is held bound in their bodies, escapes from their members when they are relaxed in concupiscence, and is thus released, purged and set free. This is what these unhappy folk read and say and hear and believe. This is set down in the seventh book of their Thesaurus, the name they give to a certain writing of Manes where these blasphemies are written. "Then the blessed Father, who has shining ships as dwellings or lodging places, in his clemency brings aid to set his vital substance free from the impious bonds and straits and torments in which it is held. By his invisible nod he transforms his powers which he has in his shining ship, and causes them to show themselves to the adverse powers which are set in the different parts of the heavens. These are of both sexes, male and female. Hence he makes the aforesaid powers appear partly in the shape of beardless boys to women of the adverse race, pardy in the shape of fair virgins to males of the opposite race. He knows that all these hostile powers are easily taken in because of the deadly unclean lust that is congenital to them, and will yield to the beautiful forms they see, and will so be dissolved. Know that our blessed Father is identical with these powers of his, which for a necessary purpose he transforms into the undefiled likeness of boys and virgins. He uses these as his proper instruments, and by them accomplishes his will. The shining ships are full of these divine powers which are set over against members of the infernal race as in a kind of marriage. Quickly and easily, in a moment, they achieve their purpose. When reason demands that they should appear to males they show themselves in the form of beautiful virgins. Again, when they have to come to women they put off the appearance of virgins and take on that of beardless boys. At the comely sight ardour and concupiscence grow, and the prison of evil thoughts is broken, and the living soul which was held bound in their members is released and escapes and mingles with the purest air which is its native element. Souls that are completely purified board the shining ships which are prepared to carry them away and to transport them to their fatherland. Anyone who still shows the taint of the adverse race goes down step by step through fiery heat, gets mixed up with trees and plants and the like and is stained with divers colours. Out of that great shining ship the figures of boys and virgins appear to the hostile powers whose home is in the heavens and whose nature is fiery. At the fair sight the part of life which is held bound in their members is released and brought down by heat to earth. In the same way the highest power, that inhabits the ship of vital waters, appears by means of his messengers in the shape of boys and holy virgins to the powers whose nature is cold and moist, which also are set in the heavens. To those which are female it appears in the form of boys, and to males in the form of virgins. By this diversity of divine and beautiful forms the princes of cold and moist stock, whether male or female, are brought to naught and the vital element in them escapes. What remains is brought down to earth by cold and is mingled with all the species of earth." Who could bear stuff of this kind? Who could believe, I do not say, that it is true, but that it could even be spoken? Fancy anyone afraid to anathematize the teaching of Manes and not afraid to believe that God could do or suffer anything like that! xlv. They tell us that the part of the divine nature that is mixed with evil is purged by their elect, by eating and drinking, forsooth. For they say it is held bound in all foods, and when these are consumed by the holy elect who eat and drink them for the refreshment of their bodies, the divine nature is released, sealed and set free. The miserable people do not notice that it is vain for them to deny what is, not surprisingly, believed about them, if they will not anathematize these books and cease to be Manichees. For if, as they say, there is a part of God bound in all seeds, which is purged by the elect by eating them, who would not in all good faith beheve that they do what is done by the celestial powers and the princes of darkness according to their Thesaurus, and especially as they say that their flesh belongs to 34^ AUGUSTINE: EARLIER WRITINGS the race of darkness, and do not hesitate to believe and affirm that the vital substance, a part of God, is held bound there too? If it is to be released and purged by eating, as their deadly error forces them to admit, who does not see and abominate the awful and nefarious baseness that must ensue? xlvi. They say that Adam, the first man, was created by certain of the princes of darkness so that the light might not escape from them. In the Epistle which they call Fundamental Manes has described how the prince of darkness, whom they introduce as the father of the first man, addressed the other princes of darkness, his associates; and how he acted. "With wicked fabrications he addressed those who were present saying: What do you think about this great light that arises. You see how it moves the heavens and shakes the greatest powers. It is better, therefore, for you to give up to me the portion of light which you have in your power. Thus I shall make an image of the great one who has appeared gloriously, so that we shall be able to reign free at last from our dark way of life. Hearing this they had long deliberation, and thought it right to give what was demanded. They did not think that otherwise they would be able to keep the light under their yoke. So they thought it better to offer it to their prince, in good hope that in this way they would continue to reign. We must consider how they gave up the light they had. The truth is scattered over all the divine scriptures and the celestial secret documents, but it is not difficult to learn how it is given to the wise to know it. It is known openly and face to face by whosoever wdll behold it truly and faithfully. The multitude of those who had assembled was mixed, including both males and females, so he drove them to have intercourse. . . . Their offspring resembled their parents, obtaining all their great powers. Their prince rejoiced in these as an outstanding gift and consumed them. As we see it happening even now, the e\-il nature that forms bodies draws its power to make forms from this source; so the aforesaid prince accepted the offspring of his companions with all the sense and prudence they derived from their parents, together with the light that had been transmitted to them at birth, and ate them up. From that food he acquired many powers, among which was not only fortitude but, much more, astuteness and bad feeling derived from the savage race of their parents. Then he called to himself his own wife, who came of the same stock as he did, and, as the others had done, he sowed the multitude of evils which he had devoured, and added something of his own

THE NATURE OF THE GOOD 347 thought and power, so that his sense formed and marked out all that he poured forth. His wife received this as well-tilled earth is wont to receive seed, for in her were constructed and knit together the images of all the celestial and terrestrial powers, that what was formed should have the likeness of the whole world." xlvii. O monstrous crime! O execrable destruction and rottenness of souls deceived! I will not say how horrible it is to say that the divine nature is thus bound. Let those who are grievously deceived and poisoned with this deadly error notice this. They profess that part of God can be released and purged by eating. But if it is bound by the intercourse of male and female, by necessity this horrible error compels them to release it not only from bread, vegetables and apples, which are the only things they appear in public to accept; but they must also release and purge the part of God by sexual intercourse, if it has been conceived in the womb, and can be bound there. Some are said to have confessed in a public tribunal that they have done this, not only in Paphlagonia but even in Gaul, as I heard from a Catholic Christian at Rome. When they are asked by what written authority they do these things, I hear they produce the passage from the Thesaurus which I quoted a moment ago. When this charge is made against them they are accustomed to reply that one of their number, that is one of the elect, broke away and made a schism and founded this foul heresy. So it is quite clear that though some of them may not behave in that way, those who do, get the idea from their books. Let them then throw away these books if they abhor the crime, which they are urged to commit if they retain the books. If they do not commit it they try to live cleanly, contrary to the teaching of the books. What do they do when we say to them: Either purge out the light from as many seeds as you can, and don't refuse to do what you assert you do not do; or anathematize Manes who says that in all seeds there is a part of God and that it is bound in sexual intercourse, and that the portion of light, i.e., a part of God, which comes as food for the elect, is purged when they eat it? You see what he is persuading you to do, and yet you still hesitate to anathematize him. What do they do, I say, when we say this to them? To what subterfuges they resort! Either they must anathematize such nefarious doctrine, or they must behave in such a wickedly shameful way that by comparison all the evils they attribute to the divine nature, which I have just said were intolerable, must seem tolerable: I mean, that it was 34^ AUGUSTINE: EARLIER WRITINGS

compelled to wage war; that it was secure in eternal ignorance, or troubled by eternal grief and fear when the corruption of admixture with evil came upon it and the prison of eternal damnation: that when the war had been waged it was taken captive, oppressed and polluted; and that after a false victory had been gained, it was to live for ever fixed in a horrible sphere separated from its original felicity. By comparison with the moral obliquities taught or practised by the Manichees, these doctrinal errors must seem tolerable, even though, considered in themselves, they are not to be endured. xlviii. How great is thy patience, O merciful and compassionate Lord, long-suffering, very pitiful and true, who causest thy sun to rise upon the good and the evdl, and causest the rain to fall on the just and the unjust; who desirest not the death of the sinner but rather that he be converted and live; who chidest little by little and givest place for penitence, so that men may give up their evil and believe in thee. Lord; who by thy patience dost bring men to penitence, though many according to their hard and impenitent heart heap up for themselves wrath in the day of wrath, and of the revelation of thy just judgment when thou renderest to ever)' man according to his works; who forgettest all the iniquities of man in the day when he is converted from his wickedness to thy mercy and truth. Grant us the gift that by our ministry', whereby thou hast willed that this execrable and utterly horrible error should be refuted, others may be set free as many have already been. May they deserve to receive remission of the sins and blasphemies wherewith in ignorance they have offended thee, whether through the sacrament of thy Baptism, or through the sacrifice of a broken spirit and a contrite humbled heart, in penitential sorrow. Such power has thy almights' mercy, thy authority, the truth of thy Baptism, and the keys of the kingdom of heaven given to thy Holy Church, that there is no need to despair even of such men so long as by thy patience they dwell upon the earth; especially those who know how evil it is to think or speak such things of thee, and yet are kept in that malignant profession because of some temporal and earthly advantage which they are accustomed to enjoy, or hope to obtain; if only they will accept thy correction and fly for refuge to thy ineffable goodness, and to all the enticements of the carnal life will prefer life celestial and eternal.

Faith and the Creed

St. Augustine's Review of 'Faith and the Creed^^

Retractations /, xvii

About the same time while still a presbyter I discoursed concerning Faith and the Creed in the presence and at the bidding of the bishops who were holding a plenary Council of the whole African Church at Hippo-regius. At the earnest request of several of them who were on specially friendly terms with me, I wrote down my discourse in a book. I spoke of the articles of the faith but not in the exact terms in which they are delivered to Competents to be retained in the memory. When I was dealing with the resurrection of the flesh in that book I said, "According to the Christian Faith, which is infallible, the body will rise again. Whoever thinks that incredible is paying attention to the flesh as it now is, and does not consider it as it will be. For in the time of angelic change there will be no more flesh and blood, but body only." That, and all that I said about the transformation of terrestrial into celestial bodies, I based on the apostle's words: "Flesh and blood shall not possess the kingdom of God." But if anyone concludes from that that the earthly body we now have is changed into a celestial body by the resurrection in such a way that it will not have its members as at present, and that there will be no fleshly substance, without doubt he is to be corrected by the example of the Lord's body. For not only was he visible with the same members after the resurrection, but he could be touched; and he verbally confirmed the fact that he had flesh, saying, "Handle me and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye behold me having." Clearly, the apostle did not mean to deny that there would be the substance of flesh in the kingdom of God, but meant by the terms "flesh and blood," either men who live after the flesh, or corrupt flesh, of which of course there will be none then. When he said that "flesh and blood shall not possess the kingdom of God" he can perfectly well be understood as explaining what he immediately added: "Neither shall corruption possess incorruption." It is difficult to persuade unbelievers as to this; but whoever will read the last book of the De Civitate Dei will find that I have dealt with it as carefully as I could.

Faith and the Creed

INTRODUCTION THE PLENARY COUNCIL OF THE AFRICAN ChURCH

mentioned above was held at Hippo in October 393, doubtless summoned and presided over by Aurelius, who in 390 had become Bishop of Carthage. In 391 the new primate had written to St. Augustine, then recently ordained, and the latter's reply is extant (Epist. 22). From this we gather that the two men were already on the most friendly terms, and were of one mind as to reforms necessary in the African Church. Indeed it might appear that it was the presbyter who suggested to the primate the desirability of holding a reforming Council. If he did not specifically offer Hippo as its venue, he at least gave Aurelius to understand that the Bishop of Hippo would willingly support him. This correspondence shows that already St. Augustine's importance was widely recognized, and this would account for the remarkable fact that he, a presbyter and a recent one at that, was invited to address the bishops on so important a theme. Indeed the Christians of Hippo were already in fear lest some vacant church might call him away to be its bishop.

The discourse is a plain, straightforward exposition of the Creed, article by article, with a defence of its doctrine, when called for, against the philosophers, the heretics (Sabellians, Arians, Apollinarians and Manichees) and the schismatics (Novatianists and Donatists). The tenets of these sects are briefly described and repelled, but their names are not mentioned. Some of the articles of the Creed are very briefly handled, but some are dealt with at length and very interestingly. For example: The Omnipotence of God the Father Almighty (2); The Divinity of the Word (3-7); The Temporal

Dispensation for man's salvation; the* Incarnation and the Virgin Birth (8-12); The Holy Spirit and the Trinity (16-20); The Resurrection of the Flesh (23-24). The opening chapter briefly explains the use of the Creed, and its relation to theology.

Faith and the Creed

THE TEXT

i, I. It is written and confirmed by the strong authority of apostolic teaching that the just shall live by faith. And faith imposes on us a duty to be fulfilled both by the heart and by the tongue. "With the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation" (Rom. io:io). We must therefore be mindful both of righteousness and of salvation. Though we are to reign hereafter in eternal righteousness, we cannot be saved from the present evil age unless, earnestly seeking the salvation of our neighbours, we profess with the mouth the faith which we hold in our heart. We must see to it with careful and pious vigilance that that faith shall not be violated in any way for us by the fraudulent craft of the heretics. But the Catholic Faith is made known to the faithful in the Creed, and is committed to memory, in as short a form as so great a matter permits. In this way for beginners and sucklings, who have been reborn in Christ but have not yet been strengthened by diligent and spiritual study and understanding of the divine Scriptures, there has been drawn up in few words a formula they must accept in faith, setting forth what would have to be expounded in many words to those who are making progress and are raising themselves up to attain the divine doctrine in the assured strength of humility and charity. Under colour of the few words drawn up in the Creed many heretics have endeavoured to conceal their poison. But the divine mercy withstands and resists them by the instrumentality of spiritual men, whose merit has permitted them not only to receive and believe the Catholic Faith as expressed in these words, but also to know and understand it by revelation from God. It is written "Except ye believe ye shall not understand" (Isa. 7:9, LXX).

A.E.w.—23 353

But the exposition of the Faith serves to fortify the Creed, not that it is given to be committed to memory or repeated instead of the Creed by those who obtain the grace of God. But it guards the things contained in the Creed against the wiles of heretics with full Catholic authority and with a stronger defence. ii, 2. Some have endeavoured to argue that God the Father is not omnipotent. Not indeed that they have ventured to put it in that way, but their teaching proves that this is their opinion and belief. When they say that there is something which God omnipotent did not create, but of which he made the world, beautifully ordered as they admit, they so far deny that God is omnipotent in that they believe he could not have made the world unless, in making it, he had used a material which already existed and which he had not made. They base their argument on the ordinary carnal observation that smiths and builders and other workmen cannot put their art into effect without the aid of material already to hand. So they understand that the maker of the world is not omnipotent, if he could not have made the world without the aid of some kind of material which he had not himself made. If they admit that the world was made by an omnipotent God they must admit that he made what he has made out of nothing. If he were omnipotent there could be nothing of which he was not the Creator. Even if he did make something out of something else, as he made man out of clay, he did not make it out of something which he had not himself made. For he made the earth out of nothing, and clay comes from the earth. If he made the heaven and the earth, i.e., the world and all it contains, out of some matter—as it is written: Thou didst create the world out of invisible, or even, as some copies read, formless matter (Wisdom 11:17)—we must by no means believe that the matter out of which the world was made, however formless or invisible, could have existed as it was by itself, as if it were co-eternal and coeval with God. Only from God omnipotent did it receive whatever mode of being it had, and whatever potentiality it had to receive other different forms. For it is by his gift that any formed thing not only has its being but even is capable of receiving form. There is this difference between what is formed and what is capable of receiving form. That which is formed has already received form. That which is "formable'* is capable of receiving form. He who gives form to things also gives capacity for form, for from him and in him is the unchangeable form which is the highest

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