Manichaeism before the Manichaeans, and its Revival in Christianity

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...[order] The text continues from the previous page's final word, forming "ordine" or "in order." this entire commentary may proceed, I will take up three points for examination. The first will involve investigating the origin of this most pestilential error The author refers to the belief that the universe is made of the same substance as God.; the second will demonstrate its universal spread; and the last will concern showing the falsity of this most wicked persuasion. Since this subject is so vast, I hope to easily obtain the kind reader's indulgence if I seem here not so much to fully examine it as to draw the first lines of a more extensive treatment.

II. Before I do that, however, a few things must be noted briefly which pertain to understanding the reasoning of my undertaking and argument. It is well known among all who have frequented the schools of the Philosophers that the concept of a "principle" principium: literally 'a beginning,' used here to mean a fundamental source is the same as the notion that the word "Cause" causa otherwise presents to the mind and soul. Since this sense is hardly found among the classical authors of Latinity, I would believe that later authors of the Latin language fashioned this meaning of "principle" after the example of the Greek word beginning original: ἀρχὴ (archē), which, among other things, also denoted "cause" to the Greeks. On this matter, one may read PETAVIUS Denis Pétau (1583–1652), a prominent French Jesuit theologian. The work cited is his Theological Dogmas. in Volume II of his Theological Dogmas, Book V, Chapter 5. Now, since philosophers are accustomed to mentioning four main types of causes The author refers to Aristotle's four causes: material, formal, efficient, and final., we believe it should be explained which one we wish to be understood by the name "principle." Specifically, we mean here that cause which is elsewhere called "acting" or "efficient"—