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On the Morals of the Manichæans

St. Augustine of Hippo

1h 39m read
Post-Nicene

De Moribus Manichaeorum, the companion treatise, exposing the incoherence of Manichaean asceticism and cosmology and showing the inconsistency between their doctrine and their manner of life.

Table of Contents

1Argument2The Supreme Good is that Which is Possessed of Supreme Existence3What Evil is. That Evil is that Which is Against Nature. In Allowing This, the Manichæans Refute Themselves4If Evil is Defined as that Which is Hurtful, This Implies Another Refutation of the Manichæans5The Difference Between What is Good in Itself and What is Good by Participation6If Evil is Defined to Be Corruption, This Completely Refutes the Manichæan Heresy7What Corruption Affects and What It is8The Goodness of God Prevents Corruption from Bringing Anything to Non-Existence. The Difference Between Creating and Forming9Evil is Not a Substance, But a Disagreement Hostile to Substance10The Manichæan Fictions About Things Good and Evil are Not Consistent with Themselves11Three Moral Symbols Devised by the Manichæans for No Good12The Value of the Symbol of the Mouth Among the Manichæans, Who are Found Guilty of Blaspheming God13Manichæan Subterfuge14Actions to Be Judged of from Their Motive, Not from Externals. Manichæan Abstinence to Be Tried by This Principle15Three Good Reasons for Abstaining from Certain Kinds of Food16Why the Manichæans Prohibit the Use of Flesh17Disclosure of the Monstrous Tenets of the Manichæans18Description of the Symbol of the Hands Among the Manichæans19Of the Symbol of the Breast, and of the Shameful Mysteries of the Manichæans20Crimes of the Manichæans21Disgraceful Conduct Discovered at Rome