Against Felix the Manichaean 2.18–2.22

Felix said: “Did you say this of the soul, that it is not from God?” Augustine said: “I did not; but I said that it is from God as made by God, not as born of God.” Felix said: “You said of the soul that it is not from God, but God's making, because without God there is nothing; for you say this and are unwilling to affirm that the soul is from God.” Augustine said: “It is from God, but made by God.” Felix said: “Whether made or sent or given, it is from God. So if it is from God and was polluted and Christ came to free it from pollution, why do you blame Mani?” Augustine said: “Because I say that the soul, not the nature of God but made by God, sinned through free choice and was polluted by sin and freed through God's mercy in repentance; but you say that the very nature of God, what God is, God from God, was captured and polluted in the race of darkness. And there is a great difference between what God begot of himself and what he made not of himself but from nothing — that is, which, when it did not exist at all, received from God that it should be, that is, that it should be established.” Felix said: “So it is a part of God.” Augustine said: “You have already been told: it is not a part of God. And learn how you may understand God as the almighty maker. Everything that is made, and what anyone makes, is either from himself, or from something, or from nothing. Man, because he is not almighty, makes a son from himself, and from something, as a craftsman makes a chest from wood or a vessel from silver. For he could make the vessel, but he could not make the silver; he could make the chest, but he could not make the wood. But to make from nothing, from what does not exist at all, so that it exists — no human being can. But God, because he is almighty, both begot a Son from himself and made the world from nothing and formed man from clay, to show through these three powers that his making is mighty in all things. For what he made from himself he must not be said to have made, but to have begotten. And what he made from something, as man from earth, he did not make man from earth in such a way that another had made for him the earth from which to make man — as God made silver for the silversmith from which to make a vessel; but he himself made both what was not, so that it should be, and what should then be made from what he himself had already created from nothing, so that it should be. So, then, the body, so the soul, so the whole creation is understood to have been made by God, not begotten of God so as to be what God is. Now perhaps you will choose what to hold and what to reject. Choose which is better. Since we see many changeable things that are nevertheless good though changeable, many mortal things that are nevertheless good though mortal, while God himself is the wholly unchangeable good, choose which is better for you to hold: that God is changeable, or that what God made is changeable; for you must say one of the two. If you refuse to admit that what God made is changeable, it remains for you to say that God himself is changeable. But to clear yourself of this sacrilege and this blasphemy, so as not to say that the substance of God is changeable, why do you not grant that God, who truly is and is unchangeable — for he himself said, ‘I am who I am’ — made all things good, but not equal to himself? Accordingly, since he himself is unchangeable, it is no wonder if what he made, since it is not equal to him, is not unchangeable but changeable. Therefore it could both sin through free choice and be polluted, and be freed through his mercy.”

Felix said: “You said that a man makes himself a son; there is no difference between father and son. Since your holiness brought this forward, I too answer that God and the things he makes are equal to each other.” Augustine said: “What you refused to understand is this: that a man, when he produces a son, is not properly said to make but properly said to beget; so too God begot his only Son, I told you, he did not make him. But he made what is not equal to him; what he begot is equal to him. So choose whether you wish to say that God's making is changeable, or that God's nature is changeable.” Felix said: “As God is unchangeable, so likewise the one he begot is unchangeable, and what he made, if it is of his nature, is not changed.” Augustine said: “But you have already been told that what he made is not of his nature, but he made it from nothing, because he is almighty. It was not, and he made it — not from himself, not from some thing which he had not made, but from nothing.” Felix said: “I did not say this, but I said: since God is unchangeable, what he begot is unchangeable, and what he made is unchangeable. I did not say from what he made it; I did not ask this, from what he made it.” Augustine said: “But you heard from me what you did not ask, so that you might stop talking foolishly. Almighty God could both beget from himself and make from nothing and form something from what he had already made: from himself, a Son equal to himself; from nothing, the world and the whole creation; from something, man from earth — because he is almighty. What is from himself, then, can never be polluted, just as he cannot; but what was made by him, not from him, can both be polluted through free choice and be cleansed through his mercy, by condemning what it sinned and acknowledging the one who created it. But you said a little earlier that one who says that a part of God is corruptible and capable of contamination is to be anathematized, and you cannot deny that Mani said that a part of God was seized and polluted in the race of darkness; and it is plain that in these words he blasphemed so that perhaps he could not blaspheme worse. Either anathematize him for saying such things, or you are to be anathematized and cast out with him.”

Felix said: “Mani says that a part of God was polluted; and Christ says that the soul was polluted, and he came to free it from pollution.” Augustine said: “But the soul is not a part of God. For you have already confessed that Mani said a part of God was polluted; but we say that the soul was polluted by the will to sin, and that the soul is not a part of God, not begotten of God but made by God. So the soul is said to be from God in the way that some work of a craftsman is said to be from his skill or made by him, yet not begotten of him as his son is. Since, then, you have already confessed that Mani said a part of God is polluted, and you said long ago that one who says God or his nature is corruptible or capable of contamination is to be anathematized, you have already anathematized what you do not wish to admit. For in what you said, that it is polluted and that it is cleansed, by the very word ‘cleansed’ you expressed that it is polluted, and you have no way of escape. Both Mani and you have said that a part of God is polluted. So anathematize Mani, or you are to be anathematized with Mani.” Felix said: “I did not learn from Mani that a part of God was polluted, but I learned from Christ that he came for the sake of the soul, which had been polluted.” Augustine said: “You did not learn from Christ that the soul is a part of God.” Felix said: “I learned from Christ that the soul is from God.” Augustine said: “We too have learned that the soul is from God, but it is not a part of God. For the soul is from God as a work is from a craftsman, not of God as a son is of a father.” Felix said: “We are dealing with pollution. If the soul, which is from God, was polluted and can be cleansed by Christ, who came for it, then that part of God of which Mani speaks can also be polluted and be cleansed by the command of God himself.” Augustine said: “See, again you say that a part of God, having been polluted, is cleansed, and a little earlier you had said that one who calls it corruptible is to be anathematized; now you say that it could be polluted, and you say that it can be cleansed, so as to confirm that it could be polluted. We do not say this of a part of God, but we say it of the soul, which is from him as his work, not as his offspring. Go back, then, to what you say, and distinguish what we say: the soul is neither God nor a part of God. But you say that Mani said a part of God is polluted, and he says it is cleansed, which confirms that it is polluted. It remains, then, that you anathematize him, or, holding these views, be anathematized.”

Felix said: “Does the soul, which was defiled through sin, belong to God, or not?” Augustine said: “It belongs to him, but it is not a part of him.” Felix said: “I did not ask this.” Augustine said: “And what did you ask?” Felix said: “Does it belong to God, or does it not?” Augustine said: “I have already said both that it belongs and how it belongs.” Felix said: “I ask whether it is from God.” Augustine said: “From God, not of God.” Felix said: “If it is no sin to say that it is from God and was polluted, and that Christ came to free it and freed it from sin, why do we blame Mani, who says that a part of God was polluted and is cleansed again?” Augustine said: “Because you have already confessed that Mani said a part of God was polluted, and you say that it is no sin to pour out such a blasphemy against God. But we say indeed that the soul sinned through free choice and is cleansed by repenting through the mercy of its creator, because it is not from God as a part of him or as his offspring, but is from God, or made by God, as his work. What the difference is between our faith and your faithlessness is plain to all. So, according to your earlier words, since you granted that one who says the nature of God is corruptible is to be anathematized — and it is plain that both Mani and you say this — because you have refused to anathematize him, you will be anathematized with him.”

After this, when they had argued with each other at length, Felix said: “Tell me now, what do you want me to do?” Augustine said: “To anathematize Mani, whose are these great blasphemies; but if you do it from the heart, then do it. For no one forces you against your will.” Felix said: “God sees whether I do it from the heart; for a man cannot see it. But I ask this, that you strengthen me.” Augustine said: “In what do you want me to strengthen you?” Felix said: “You anathematize first, so that I may anathematize afterward.” Augustine said: “See, I am even writing it with my own hand; for I want you too to write it with your own hand.” Felix said: “But anathematize in such a way that you anathematize the very spirit that was in Mani and spoke these things through him.” Augustine took a sheet and wrote these words: “I, Augustine, bishop of the catholic church, have already anathematized Mani and his doctrine and the spirit that spoke such execrable blasphemies through him, because it was a seducing spirit, not of truth but of abominable error; and now I anathematize the aforesaid Mani and the spirit of his error.” And when he had given the same sheet to Felix, he too wrote these words with his own hand: “I, Felix, who had believed in Mani, now anathematize him and his doctrine and the seducing spirit that was in him, who said that God mixed a part of himself with the race of darkness and frees it so shamefully that he transforms his powers into females against the male demons and again into males against the female demons, so that afterward he fixes the remnants of that part of himself for ever in the globe of darkness. All these and the other blasphemies of Mani I anathematize.” I, Bishop Augustine, have signed these proceedings held in the church before the people. I, Felix, have signed these proceedings.