Writings in Connection with the Manichaean Heresy

during the debate. His incompetence, however, was manifest to the Manichaeans themselves; and so hopeless was it to think of any further proselytizing in Hippo, that he left that city and was too much ashamed of himself ever to return. The character of his reasoning is shifty: he evades Augustine's questions and starts fresh ones. Augustine pushes his usual and fundamental objection to the Manichaean system: If God is impassible (incapable of suffering) and incorruptible, how could He be injured by the assaults of the kingdom of darkness? In opposition to the statement of Fortunatus that the Almighty produces no evil, he explains that God made no nature evil, but made man free, and that voluntary sin is the grand original evil. The most remarkable circumstance in the discussion is the desire of Fortunatus to direct the conversation to the conduct of the Manichaeans, and the refusal of Augustine to make good the charges which had been made against them, or to discuss anything but the doctrine.¹

Twelve years after this, a similar disputation was held between Augustine and one of the elect among the Manichaeans, who had come to Hippo to propagate his religion. This man, Felix, is described by Augustine² as being ill-educated, but more adroit and subtle than Fortunatus. After a keen discussion, which occupied two days, the proceedings terminated by Felix signing a recantation of his errors in the form of an anathema (a formal curse/renunciation) on Manichaeus, his doctrines, and the seducing spirit that possessed him. These two disputations are valuable as exhibiting the points of the Manichaean system to which its own adherents were accustomed to direct attention, and the arguments on which they specially relied for their support.

¹ This cannot but make us cautious in receiving the statements of the tract, On the Morals of the Manichaeans. There can be little doubt that many of the Manichaeans practiced the ascetic virtues and were recognizable by the gauntness and pallor of their looks, so that Manichaean became a byword for anyone who did not appreciate the felicity of good living. Thus Jerome says of a certain class of women, “When they see a woman pale and sad, they call her poor, a nun, or a Manichaean” (De Custod. Virg. Ep. 18). Lardner throws light on the practices of the Manichaeans and effectually disposes of some of the calumnies uttered regarding them. Pusey's appendix to his translation of the Confessions may also be referred to with advantage.
² Retract. ii. 8.