Tractates on the Gospel of John
54 ST. AUGUSTINE cause it is a very closely related matter. He [the Manichean] led from a bee to a locust, from a locust to a lizard, from a lizard to a bird; from a bird he proceeded to a sheep, then to a cow, then to an elephant, and finally to man. And he persuaded a man that man was not made by God.^^ So. that wretched fellow, when he was annoyed at flies, became a fly whom the devil possessed.
(3) Indeed, it is said that Beelzebub means prince of flies; and it has been written of them, "Dying flies spoil the sweetness of the oil."^^ 15. What then, brothers, why have I said these things? Close the ears of your heart against the tricks of the enemy. Understand that God made all things and arranged them in their gradations. But why do we suffer many evils from a creature which God made? Because we have sinned against God. And do angels suffer these things? Perhaps we also might not fear those things in such a life. As for your own punishment, accuse your sin, not the judge. For it is because of pride that God created that most worthless and least of creatures, to torment us, so that, since man has been proud and vaunted himself against God and, although he is mortal, has struck terror into a mortal man, and, although he is a man, has not recognized his neighbor as a man, since he has exalted himself, he may be laid low by fleas.
(2) For what reason do you puff yourself up with human pride? A man insulted you, and you swelled up and were angered. Rid yourself of the fleas that you may sleep. Find out who you are! For that you may know, brothers, that these things which would bother us were created to enable us to control our pride [remember], God could have tamed the
35. The Manichaeans held that man's body was created by powers from the realm of evil not by the good God of light, in order to entrap the particles of the light that are the souls of men. See Berrouard, Homelies I-XVI, 841-842; F. Decret, Aspects du manicheisme dans I'afrique romaine (Paris, 1970), 210-212, 218-219, 254-257, 259-262; J. Ries, "Manichaeism," NCE 9.157; and Widengren, 59.
36. Cf. Eccl 10. 1 (NAB, 9. 18). Augustine's Latin text reads muscae moriturae, literally, "the flies which are about to die." Optatus of Milevis, De Schismate Donatistarum 7.4 (CSEL 26.173-174) has the same reading.