書信與論戰集（CSEL） 第 22 章 第 2/4 段

But now, since yesterday you gave a petition to the curator and publicly cried out with your books that you were prepared to be burned, if anything evil should be found in them—whence yesterday you demanded the laws as though a brave man—today do you flee from the truth as a timid man? Felix said: I do not flee from the truth. Augustine said: Then say, if you see God face to face according to your promise—for you said that the apostle Paul spoke of you, that you were to receive so full a truth that we might understand or believe that the apostle had it in part and you the whole. Felix said: I do not flee from the truth, but I seek the truth. What you say that I do not hold, let it be proved to me through the divine Scriptures. This is what I now seek. Augustine said:

First profess that you could not prove that Mani is an apostle of Jesus Christ; and, as far as I shall be able, when all things contrary shall have been rooted out of your heart through my ministry, by the Lord's gift, I will graft into you what is the knowledge of the truth which leads to God, beginning from faith. Felix said: Since you say this—that I should deny my law and receive another, provided it be better, which is what I seek—I do not answer thus, so as to deny my law before I receive the other. Augustine said: But first that is poured out of a vessel which it holds contrary, and thus is filled up that which is good; or, if you still hesitate to pour out, defend that of which you are full.

For I will show you, as much as the Lord helps me, with how much uncleanness and blasphemies the doctrine of Mani is full, if you permit that epistle to be read, of whose beginning we have already treated, and you could not prove that Mani is an apostle of Christ. But for this reason you weave delays, lest the rest be read, where your sacrileges are openly detected; or, if you permit, let them be read. Felix said: I permit, since you said that all unclean things are poured out and thus good things are put in; for this was said by your Holiness. To which I too say: no one pours in water, unless another has emptied it. Augustine said: See how inconsiderately you have spoken, to speak more mildly and not say insanely. Surely I set before you the likeness from a vessel;

into a full vessel no one can put anything, unless that with which it was full is poured out. Felix said: You said one, and I said two. Augustine said: If you said two vessels, do you wish that we empty your fellow vessel and fill it, so that you can pour out what you have? Felix said: We both have one water. Augustine said: Since therefore you are both full of your own water, what shall we fill, that we may teach you, unless one of you pours out what he has? Or, if it is good and therefore ought to be kept, so that that epistle may be defended and read, let us see whether the rest at least can be defended, if you have failed at its very beginning; or, if you say that you did not fail in it, prove to us how Mani is an apostle of Christ. Felix said:

Christ said that he would send the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. Augustine said: If you have him, attend to what I asked you a while ago. For you said that to know these worldly things also pertains to his doctrine. Tell me: how many are the stars, if you have been led into that whole truth? Felix said: I too say that, if the Paraclete spoke through the apostles, then also through Paul; and I ask your Holiness to show me those things which I have already mentioned. Augustine said: Confess that you could not show what I asked, and I will show, according to the Scriptures, what pertains to the Christian faith. Felix said:

And I too, if you bring me the Scriptures of Mani, the five authors whom I named to you, whatever you ask me, I will prove to you. Augustine said: Of those same five authors is this epistle, whose beginning we opened, and we found written there: 'Mani, an apostle of Christ Jesus.' And I see that you do not expound to me that very beginning, because you do not prove how Mani is an apostle of Jesus Christ. Felix said: If I do not prove it in this one, I prove it in the second. Augustine said: In what second? Felix said: In the Treasure. Augustine said: This 'Treasure,' which you call by such a name in order to seduce the wretched, who wrote it? Mani. I will not have you prove it to me from him: because Mani himself lies by saying that he is what he is not. Felix.

Said: Prove it to me through another. Augustine said: What do you wish me to prove to you? Felix said: That Mani lies. Augustine said: Since you cannot prove that Mani speaks the truth, is it necessary that I prove that Mani has lied? Felix said: Why could I not prove it? Were the Scriptures which I asked for brought forth, and did I not prove it? Augustine said: But you ask for the Scriptures of Mani, in which we place no faith; prove it from elsewhere. But I, from that very Scripture of Mani, prove to you that Mani lied and that Mani blasphemed. Felix said: Let the books be brought forth. Augustine said: The epistle of Mani which you call 'of the Foundation' is here present. There is no beginning in a building except the foundation.

If I show that it made its ruin in the very foundation, why do we investigate the rest of its structure? FELIX said: You say this pointing out that the ruin is in the foundation itself; but I say, provide arbiters, as many as you too have, and I will prove to you that he does not lie. AUGUSTINE said: Far be it from us and from the human race that you should see as many Manichaeans as you see here. FELIX said: Provide, I said, what I asked of you. AUGUSTINE said: Whom then do you wish me to give you? FELIX said: Whomever you shall wish. AUGUSTINE said: I give these; if you have better ones, ask for them. FELIX said: How do you give these? AUGUSTINE said: Those present, who are listening to us. FELIX said: These do not favour me. AUGUSTINE said: So then you seek such men as favour you, not such as favour the truth? FELIX said:

Men who will hear me, and not only me, but also the Scripture itself, so that it may be tested whether he speaks the truth or lies. AUGUSTINE said: You see then that they are listening. Let us read the rest, since you have confessed that this letter is Manichaeus's. FELIX said: I do not deny it. AUGUSTINE said: Then let it be read. FELIX said: I have no arbiters. And he added: Let its heading be read. And when it was being read and they had come to the place where the same letter has written: "Peace to you, invisible peace, and may the knowledge of the truth be with his brethren and dearly beloved, who believe alike in the heavenly commandments and serve them; but also may the right hand of the light guard you and snatch you from every malignant assault and from the snare of the world;"

and may the piety of the Holy Spirit open the innermost recesses of your breast, that with your very eyes you may see your own souls" — Felix said: Give me a Scripture that refutes these things. AUGUSTINE said: As yet we have heard nothing evil, except that Manichaeus dared to call himself an apostle of Christ. For the things he said still pertain to the plaster of deceit and to the sheep's skin, whereby he first speaks good words to men, that he may be able to introduce evil ones. But let us see what he wishes to introduce through these words. For if he introduces something evil, then those words too will be evil and seductive; but if in what follows he says something good and true, we shall be compelled by necessity. Permit therefore the following to be read. FELIX said:

If then you assert that good things are placed first and evil things are afterwards insinuated, how can I believe you, when you have first spoken good things to me? AUGUSTINE said: I have as yet called those things neither good nor evil. I said we have as yet heard nothing evil; I did not say: we have already heard something good. For the only evil thing I mentioned was that he dared to say he was an apostle of Christ. But the words he spoke in what follows will then be evil, if they introduce something evil; they will then be good, if they introduce something good. Permit therefore that the following be read. Why are you afraid? FELIX said: I am not afraid. AUGUSTINE said: Permit therefore that they be read. FELIX said: Let them be read. And when it was being read and they had come to the place where it has written:

"And so the most splendid realms of the same one were founded upon the shining and blessed earth, so that they can never be moved or shaken by anyone" — Augustine said: This earth of which he speaks, whence did he have it? Did he make it, or beget it, or was it equal and coeternal with him? I mean this earth, the shining and blessed one of which he speaks. FELIX said: As it is written: "In the beginning God made heaven and earth, and the earth was invisible and defiled and unformed." I understand it thus: "In the beginning God made heaven and earth, and the earth was" — there seem to me to be, as it were, two earths, according to what Manichaeus says of two kingdoms. AUGUSTINE said:

Since you have cited our Scripture, which you are wont to blaspheme, it belongs to me to expound it and to show you that what is written is without blasphemy and in accord with truth, and not according to Manichaeus, so that then, at least in the second place, you may answer me what I asked. FELIX said: I answer. AUGUSTINE said: What is written, "In the beginning God made heaven and earth," the Scripture briefly comprehended what God had made. Then, because this earth which he had made did not yet appear before he distinguished and adorned it, of what sort of earth God had made, the following Scripture set forth what the earth was like, concerning which it had said: "In the beginning God made heaven and earth"; as though, when we had heard:

"In the beginning God made heaven and earth," we should ask, what sort of earth? — it subjoined and said: "But the earth," that is, that which God had made, "was invisible and unformed." It did not therefore speak of two earths, but set forth of what sort that one was. You therefore now answer me what I briefly asked: this shining and blessed earth of which Manichaeus speaks, upon which the realms of God were founded, was it made by God himself, or was it begotten of him, or was it coeternal with him? One of the three, if it is not troublesome, answer without evasion. FELIX said: The Scripture itself interprets itself. AUGUSTINE said:

If then you know there is here some place where Scripture says this, that God either begot that earth or made it or that it was coeternal with him, open to the place you know and read it to me. FELIX said: It is not in this Scripture, but in another. AUGUSTINE said: I believe then that, if there is any such Scripture, you remember what it said there. So then you answer me, you who know that Scripture; and if I say that it does not read so, you will convict me. But if I recognize that it is so, I argue according to that which you yourself have answered. Say therefore whether God made this earth, or begot it, or it was coeternal with him — you who have read in I know not what book where you say this is written. FELIX said:

Since just now your Holiness has interpreted your own Scripture as you wished, and I accepted it, so you too do the same for me: accept whatever I shall say. AUGUSTINE said: Meanwhile, as to what I asked, if nothing moves me against it, I accept; but if something moves me, I shall declare my difficulty to you, so that you may answer it. FELIX said: I have not answered your statements. AUGUSTINE said: Because the prior thing is that you should answer me as to what I asked, nevertheless I have arranged even to answer you first. Perhaps it did not move you; therefore you did not answer. Perhaps it will not move me either, when you have answered. Answer therefore what I asked. FELIX said: I answer. And he added:

You have therefore asked concerning that earth in which God is held, whether it was made by him, or he begot it, or it is coeternal with him. And I say that, just as God is eternal and there is with him nothing made, the whole is eternal. AUGUSTINE said: He neither begot it then nor made it? FELIX said: No, but it is coeternal with him. AUGUSTINE said: But if he had begotten it, it would not be coeternal with him. FELIX said: What is born has an end; what is unborn has no end. AUGUSTINE said: Of whom then was he the father, or whose father was he, whom just now you named father? For if he had begotten nothing, he could not be a father. FELIX said: But there are other things which he begot. AUGUSTINE said:

Those things then which he begot, are they not coeternal with him, or are they too coeternal? FELIX said: Whatever God begot is coeternal with him. AUGUSTINE said: Then you erred in what you said above: everything that is born has an end. FELIX said: For the moment, I erred, because I spoke according to the generation of the flesh. AUGUSTINE said: Confessing your error most modestly, may you deserve to understand the truth. FELIX said: May God grant it. AUGUSTINE said: Attend then now, that you may begin to recognize the error of this Scripture. If the things which God begot are not coeternal with him, then that earth is better, which God did not beget, where dwell all the things which God begot — which earth you say was not begotten by him. FELIX said:

All things are equated to one another, both those he begot and those he did not beget, that is, that earth where he dwelt. AUGUSTINE said: What? Is he himself who begot equal to all those things, or greater than they? FELIX said: Both he who begot and those whom he begot and where they are placed — all are equal. AUGUSTINE said: They are then of one substance? FELIX said: Of one. AUGUSTINE said: What God the Father is, this his sons are, this that earth also is? FELIX said: These are all one. AUGUSTINE said: Of this earth then he is not the father, but the inhabitant? FELIX said: Even so. AUGUSTINE said: If he neither begot it nor made it, how it pertains to him except by mere neighbourhood I do not see — as if one has a good neighbour;

and there will then be two things both unbegotten: the earth and the father. FELIX said: Nay rather, there are three: the unbegotten father, the unbegotten earth, and the unbegotten air. AUGUSTINE said: Is this whole one substance? FELIX said: One. AUGUSTINE said: And so founded that it can never be moved or shaken by anyone? FELIX said: Motion and shaking have a difference. AUGUSTINE said: Let them have it; but nevertheless were they such that they could never be moved or shaken by anyone? FELIX said: There is a difference between being moved and being shaken. AUGUSTINE said: I do not ask you about that. FELIX said: But it is from that side that you wish to hold me. AUGUSTINE said: Take it however you wish — "it could not be moved"; could it be moved? FELIX said: I do not say that it could not be moved, but motion is a difference. AUGUSTINE said: But I said thus:

neither moved nor shaken; I did not say: it can indeed be moved, but cannot be shaken, or: it can indeed be shaken, but cannot be moved. But I spoke of both things: that they can neither be moved nor shaken. FELIX said: Concerning both things there is a difference between being moved and being shaken. AUGUSTINE said: Let us then read what follows; let us see whether that god, who had his realms founded upon the shining and blessed earth, which can never be moved or shaken by anyone, feared no one, as befitted, so that he feared no one whose realms were so founded that they could be neither moved nor shaken by anyone. And he read what followed: "But beside one part and side of that illustrious and holy earth." And when he read it, he asked: What side? The right or the left?

FELIX said: This Scripture I cannot interpret and expound to you, for what is not there; it is its own interpreter. I cannot say, lest perhaps I fall into sin. AUGUSTINE said: Then let what follows be read. And when he read it and had come to the place where it has: "But the father of the most blessed light, knowing the great ruin and devastation which would rise up from the darkness and was hanging over his holy realms, unless he should set against it some excellent and illustrious deity, mighty in power, whereby he might at once overcome and destroy the stock of the darkness, which being extinguished, perpetual rest might be prepared for the inhabitants of the light," Augustine said:

Now then, since open blasphemies have begun, if you think they should be defended, say what this race of darkness — which God seems to have feared, lest a great ruin and devastation from the darkness should burst into his realms — could do to harm God; especially since he said above that his realms were so founded that they could never be moved or shaken by anyone. What then was this race going to do to him? Could it harm him, or could it not? Answer one of the two. FELIX said: And I answer: if there is nothing against God, according to what the Scripture of Manichaeus said — that there is another kingdom — for what cause was Christ sent, to free us from the snare of this death? Whose is this snare and death? If there is no adversary against God, why have we been baptized?

Why the Eucharist, why Christianity, if there is nothing against God? AUGUSTINE said: Since I see that you are unwilling to answer what I ask you, and that you question me so that I may answer you — and this I do not refuse, provided you remember that I answer you when you question, whereas you have refused to answer me when I question — but since you have questioned me, hear what you have asked. We indeed say that Christ the Liberator has come, and we say that we are freed from our sins, because we are not begotten of the substance of God, but made by God through his Word. Now there is a great difference between what is born of the substance of God and what is made by God, which is not of the substance of God. Whatever therefore God has made can be mutable;

but God himself is not mutable, because the works cannot be equal to the craftsman and founder. But you, who a little before said in answer to my question that both the father, who begot the sons of the light there, and the air and the earth itself and the sons themselves are of one substance and all are equal — it behoves you to tell me how the race of darkness could harm this substance, which is surely incorruptible. For if it could harm it, it was not an incorruptible nature; but if it could not, there was no cause why it should wage battle and send hither that deity of which he speaks. FELIX said: I ask for a postponement, that I may be able to answer. AUGUSTINE said: When? Is tomorrow's interval enough? FELIX said:

Grant me three days, that is, today and tomorrow and the day after, or until the day which is after the Lord's Day, that is, the day before the Ides of December. AUGUSTINE said: I see you have asked for a postponement in order to answer; it is human that it be granted to you. But if you cannot answer by the appointed day, what shall be done? FELIX said: I shall be vanquished. AUGUSTINE said: What if you flee? FELIX said: I shall be guilty toward this city and everywhere and toward my law. AUGUSTINE said: Nay rather, say this: if I flee, let me be regarded as though I had anathematized Manichaeus. FELIX said: This I cannot say. AUGUSTINE said: Then say to us openly that you are thinking of fleeing and no one holds you. FELIX said: I do not flee. AUGUSTINE said: As I see, you do not wish to depart as though vanquished; but at least say this:

if I flee, I am vanquished. FELIX said: I have said it. AUGUSTINE said: And whence will it appear that you fled on account of the proceedings? FELIX said: Command that I may be with whomever I shall choose. AUGUSTINE said: Choose for yourself someone from these brethren here present who stand at the railing. FELIX said: But with him who is in the middle. AUGUSTINE said: As you have chosen for yourself, you shall be with him until the day. FELIX said: Even so; and I consent to this. BONIFACE said: Christ will grant that, if I come with him, he is a Christian. I, Augustine, bishop of the Catholic Church of Hippo Regius, have subscribed to these proceedings enacted in the church before the people. I, Felix, a Christian, a worshipper of the law of Manichaeus, have subscribed to these proceedings enacted in the church before the people. BOOK TWO.

When the appointed day had come, that is, the day before the Ides of December, the matter began to be conducted thus in the Church of Peace. AUGUSTINE, bishop of the Catholic Church of the regions of Hippo Regius, said: When we held our discussion a while ago, you remember that you asked for a postponement, since you could not answer at the moment the things I had asked. If then, in so wide a span of time, namely after the fifth day, you have thought out anything, answer. For this is what I asked then: if nothing could harm God, why did he wage war with the race which you call the race of darkness, in which war he mingled his own substance — which is that which he himself is — with the nature of the demons, as you said when questioned?

But if anything could harm him, you do not worship an incorruptible God, such as truth and apostolic doctrine attest. FELIX said: From the time I departed from your Holiness, that I might return on the appointed day to answer your questioning, whatever you should wish to ask, the day has come. And because I have had no Scripture in my hands, since they have not been restored to me, whence I might instruct myself — for no one goes forth to a contest unless he has first meditated, and no litigant can litigate without his documents — likewise I too cannot answer without my Scripture. AUGUSTINE said:

This evasion you have devised in so long a span of days, but it will be able to help you not at all, since in a lost cause and a sacrilegious error you have nothing to answer. For it is known to all who were present, whom I see present even now, that you asked only for a postponement of days, but that you ought also to have asked for the codices when you asked for the postponement, if you thought you could be instructed by them to answer — which you did not do. I know that you asked for the codices, not indeed to be inspected for instruction, but this was far before you asked for the postponement; when, however, you asked for the postponement, you made no mention of the codices being restored to you and inspected, that you might be better instructed. FELIX said:

Now I ask that the codices be restored to me, and I will come to the contest after two days; and if I am vanquished, I shall undergo whatever you shall have decided. AUGUSTINE said: I do not think you a novice in this wicked sect, which you also confess. But that you have nothing to answer, even if you do not confess it, every man already sees. But since you demand back your codices, which are kept under the public seal, and say that, having inspected them, you can come instructed after two days, recall this, which is now established, that you were not able to answer the questions put to you. But take your codices, and say what you wish to be produced from them, that you may now inspect and answer. FELIX said: All the Scriptures which have been taken from me.

For this is the Letter of the Foundation, as your Holiness well knows, and as I too have said, since it itself contains the beginning, the middle, and the end. Let it be read, and let whatever evil is charged against my law be proved; and I renounce it, if those crimes which are charged against my law shall have been proved. AUGUSTINE said: Since you confess this to be the letter wherein the beginning, middle, and end of your doctrine is contained, how sacrilegious this beginning is — where you say that God fought against the race of darkness and mingled his own part, which is that which he himself is, with the nature of the demons, to be polluted and bound — is so sacrilegious that it can scarcely be borne by those who hear it.

This is charged first against your sect — whether you call this the beginning, or the middle, or the end, I do not much care; yet you do not deny that this was read from this letter, which you confess to be Manichaeus's — this is charged against you; defend this, if you can, that we may come to other matters. Whence I ask again: if you worship an incorruptible God, what could some hostile race, which you imagine, harm him? If it could harm him nothing, there was no cause why he should mingle his own part with the nature of the demons; but if it could harm him, you do not worship an incorruptible God. FELIX said: Manichaeus says there are two natures, and now for that he is blamed, because he said there are two, a good and an evil. Christ in the Gospel says there are two trees:

a good tree never makes bad fruit, and a bad tree never makes good fruit. Behold two natures. Then in the Gospel it is written: "Did you not sow good seed in the field? Whence then have the tares appeared? This the enemy has done." This enemy, if he is not foreign to God, let it be proved to me; if this enemy pertains to God, what kind of seed did he sow? Again in the Gospel it is written, Christ saying that in the last times he will set his throne in the midst of the world and will send his angels into the east and the west, the north and the south, and will gather all nations before him and will separate them, as a shepherd separates the lambs from the kids. And, to speak briefly, to the lambs he will say:

Go into the kingdom which was prepared for you from the origin of the world. To the kids, who are on the left side, he will say: Depart from me, you who have worked iniquity; for you had my name, but you did not do the works; go into the eternal fire, which is prepared for the devil and his angels. Who are they who have the name of Christ and are sent into eternal fire with the devil and his angels, and to what part do these belong, with whom Christ is not mingled, and yet they bear his name? For this Manichaeus says, that those whom Christ condemns are not his. For Paul the Apostle says: the prudence of the flesh is an enemy to God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can it be. This Manichaeus says, that what is an enemy to God does not pertain to God;

but if it pertains to God, he has made an enemy for himself; this Manichaeus does not say. Again Paul says: the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, that they should not contemplate the brightness of the Gospel of Christ, who is the image of God. Paul himself again says: there was given to me a goad of my flesh, an angel of Satan, who buffets me day and night; wherefore I besought the Lord that it might depart from me. And he said to me: my grace is sufficient for you; for virtue is proved in weakness. Behold what the Apostle has said, behold what the Evangelist has said.

Since Manichaeus asserts this, that he is foreign to God who warred against God — whether because Christ was crucified, or because all the apostles were slain for the sake of God's command — this one who crucified them, whom the command of God does not please, let your Holiness tell me this, whether he pertains to God. AUGUSTINE said: You have wished to cite the holy Scriptures, from which, by not understanding them, you stray far from the truth, as though drawing from them a patronage for your idle talk.