Commonitorium Quomodo Sit Agendum Cum Manichaeis Qui Convertuntur [Auctore Incerto]

A memorandum, commonly of Saint Augustine, bishop of the Catholic Church, on how to proceed with Manichaeans who convert. When Manichaeans who convert and whom it repents of this most unspeakable error have anathematized the same heresy according to the form written below, and each of them has given a little book of their confession and penance and of their anathema, seeking in the Church either the place of a catechumen or of a penitent; if it has pleased his bishop and he has received him, let him give him a letter with the day and the consul, so that he may suffer no trouble from the earlier time, either by public laws or by ecclesiastical discipline. And after that day, if he appears by any indications to be a Manichaean, let him feel the severity of justice which is to be applied to such persons: that is, that Christians abstain from his company, or friendship, or any association whatsoever, according to apostolic discipline (Titus 3:10). Moreover, let those who have received letters from the bishop be commended to religious Catholics, whether neighbors or cohabitants of theirs, whether clerics or laity, by whose care for them they may frequent the hearing of the word of God, and by whose testimony they may become known: so that they may not easily be admitted to Baptism, if they are catechumens, nor to reconciliation, if they have received the place of penance, unless the danger of death is pressing, or if the bishop has known them to be tested for some time, by the testimony of those to whom they were commended.

Therefore, the form according to which those who are converted ought to anathematize this heresy is as follows: I. — Whoever believes that there are two natures, existing from different principles, one good which is God, the other evil which God did not create, having its own princes and its own evils which God did not create, let him be anathema. II. — Whoever believes that the two natures waged war against each other, and that a part of the nature of God in that same war was mixed in with the princes of darkness and all the races belonging to the evil creation, and is held bound, oppressed, polluted by them, and that he makes it believed that the nature of God is mutable and contaminable, let him be anathema. III. — Whoever believes that a part of God is held bound and polluted in demons, and in all kinds of animals and plants, and is released and purified through the foods of the Manichaean Elect, so that it is believed that a polluted part of God is held in cucumbers, and melons, and radishes, and leeks, and any most vile little plants, and that it is helped when these are eaten by the Manichaean Elect, let him be anathema.

IV. — Whoever believes that the first man, who is called Adam, was not made by God, but was born from the princes of darkness, so that the part of God which was held captive in their members might be more copiously and abundantly imprisoned on earth, and was created in this way: that the male and female princes of darkness had copulated, and had given their offspring to the greater prince of darkness, and he had devoured them all, and had copulated with his own consort, and thus had begotten Adam from her, binding in him the great part of God which had been bound in all the offspring of the princes of darkness which they gave him to devour — let him be anathema. V. — Whoever believes that the princes of darkness are bound in the heavens, having in themselves the vital substance (that is, the part of God) collected together in straits and torments, and that they are freed from their members in this way: when the blessed Father, who has the luminous ships which are the dwelling-places and habitations (that is, the sun and the moon), transfigures his powers into beautiful women which he sets forth to be desired by the male princes of darkness, and into beautiful men which he sets forth to be desired by the female princes of darkness, so that through that very desire the vital substance (that is, the part of God) is released from them, and, freed from their members, is purified — let him be anathema.

VI. — Whoever believes that a part of God, which could not be freed and purified from the mixture with the race of darkness, is condemned and bound forever in a horrible globe, where the race of darkness is enclosed, let him be anathema. VII. — Whoever believes that the law which was given through Moses was not given by the good and true God, nor that the Prophets who were in the people of Israel and are held in the canon of the divine Scriptures by the Catholic Church were inspired by the Spirit of the good and true God, let him be anathema. VIII. — Whoever believes that the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, did not have true flesh, nor was born of the Virgin Mary, nor suffered a true death, and rose from the dead, but was only a spirit without flesh, and wished to appear in such a way that flesh, which was not, was supposed to be, and in this way contradicts the Gospel, where it is read that the Lord Himself says, "See my hands and my feet; touch and see, because a spirit does not have bones and flesh, as you see me have" (Luke 24:39): whoever, therefore, confesses Christ as God in such a way that he denies that He is also true and complete man, let him be anathema.

IX. — Whoever believes that Mances or Manichaeus, who preached and taught all the above things, which are worthy of anathema and condemnation, had the Holy Spirit as Paraclete, when the Spirit of truth could not have taught all those things, but rather the spirit of falsehood, let him be anathema. X. — And especially let Manes or Manichaeus himself, who taught and wrote down all the above impieties and other sacrilegious and damnable fables, and persuaded wretched men to believe them, intent upon seducing spirits and the teachings of lying demons, be anathema. Likewise, the form of the letter which the bishop gives to converts is this: Since you repent of having been a Manichaean Hearer, as you yourself have confessed, pronouncing anathema upon the blasphemies and the most impious and most unclean heresy of theirs, from which only the Catholic faith saves you; you will have this letter against those who might think to reproach you for the error of past times, insofar as it pertains to that nefarious sect, which letter was written on that day and in that consulship.

As for their Elect, who claim to have converted to the Catholic faith, even if they themselves have anathematized the same heresy according to the above form, letters of recommendation are not to be given to them easily; but they ought to remain with the servants of God, whether clerics or laymen, in a monastery or a xenodochium, until they appear to have been completely freed from that superstition itself; and then either they are to be baptized, if they have not been baptized, or reconciled, if they have received a place of penance; nor, once they have received letters, are they to abandon the places in which they had been commended. ADMONITION CONCERNING THE FOLLOWING BOOK. Erasmus once pronounced that it is not probable that this dialogue is by Augustine, who does not mention it in his books of Retractations. For, he says, in ecclesiastical Acts the place is usually added, and sometimes also what the one who proposes and the one who responds did. Moreover, the Arians are not usually so ready to concede in disputation as Felicianus does here. Furthermore, Augustine is denser in citing Scriptures than this author is. Finally, Erasmus notes a dissonance of phrasing, and concludes that some learned person composed the dialogue for the sake of exercising his intellect; which we know was also done by Jerome. But with this censure of Erasmus dissembled, the Louvainists had this book printed among the genuine works and under the name of Augustine, because, evidently, Bede, in his published commentary on Paul to 1 Corinthians 1, and Lanfranc, in his work against Berengar, acknowledge it to be his; to whom may be added Alcuin, in his book against Elipandus, and Peter Lombard, in the Sentences.

dist. 21, ch. Sicut; and dist. 22, ch. Et utique. But as for Bede, certainly the genuine collection of Bede on Paul, which we have in the library of Germania and which has not yet been published, entirely lacks that passage of the lily which in the published collection, whose author we have often noted to be Florus, is cited as if it were Augustine’s. No wonder that a book was believed to be Augustine’s, since it was actually prefixed with his name in very ancient manuscripts, and perhaps was even attributed to him by the true author for certain reasons. We have observed that this was done by Vigilius of Thapsus in our note to the Altercatio cum Pascentio, in the Appendix of the second volume. This same Vigilius was discovered and demonstrated to be the author of the subsequent Altercatio cum Feliciano by Petrus Franciscus Chiffletius, not only because of the similarity of style with the undisputed books of Vigilius against Eutyches, but also because in the ancient codex of the Abbey of Dijon (which we believe was written about eight hundred years ago) it bears the name of Vigilius. Vigilius himself, in the preface of the books against Varimadus, mentions that he compiled into one body the booklets on the Unity of the Trinity, where he responded to the propositions of his opponents not by the authority of testimonies, but in rustic speech, as he says, that is, as if he were unskilled in sacred letters. Moreover, the name of Optatus, to whom the book is directed in the printed editions, is absent from the Dijon codex and from other manuscripts of better note. In some manuscripts, however.

The title reads: On the Unity of the Trinity, to Optatus; and the preface: "You have wrung from me, most beloved son Optatus.