Traduction Masquer
Reply to Faustus the Manichaean

3.

As to your calling us a schism of the Gentiles, and not a sect, I suppose the word schism applies to those who have the same doctrines and worship as other people, and only choose to meet separately. The word sect, again, applies to those whose doctrine is quite unlike that of others, and who have made a form of divine worship peculiar to themselves. If this is what the words mean, in the first place, in our doctrine and worship we have no resemblance to the Pagans. We shall see presently whether you have. The Pagan doctrine is, that all things good and evil, mean and glorious, fading and unfading, changeable and unchangeable, material and divine, have only one principle. In opposition to this, my belief is that God is the principle of all good things, and Hyle [matters] of the opposite. Hyle is the name given by our master in divinity to the principle or nature of evil. The Pagans accordingly think it right to worship God with altars, and shrines, and images, and sacrifices, and incense. Here also my practice differs entirely from theirs: for I look upon myself as a reasonable temple of God, if I am worthy to be so; and I consider Christ his Son as the living image of his living majesty; and I hold a mind well cultivated to be the true altar, and pure and simple prayers to be the true way of paying divine honors and of offering sacrifices. Is this being a schism of the Pagans?

Edition Masquer
Contra Faustum Manichaeum libri triginta tres

3.

Sed nunc ad illud, quia nos non sectam, sed schisma gentium nuncupasti. Schisma, nisi fallor, est eadem opinantem atque eodem ritu colentem quo ceteri solo congregationis delectari discidio; secta vero est longe alia opinantem quam ceteri, alio etiam sibi ac longe dissimili ritu divinitatis instituisse culturam. Quae si ita sunt, mea interim et opinio et cultus longe alia sunt quam paganorum; de tuis postea videbimus. p. 537,10 Pagani bona et mala, taetra et splendida, perpetua et caduca, mutabilia et certa, corporalia et divina unum habere principium dogmatizant. His ego valde contraria sentio, qui bonis omnibus principium fateor deum, contrariis vero hylen; sic enim mali principium ac naturam theologus noster appellat. Item pagani aris, delubris, simulacris, victimis atque incenso deum colendum putant; ego ab his in hoc quoque multum diversus incedo, qui ipsum me, si modo sim dignus, rationabile dei templum puto, vivum vivae maiestatis simulacrum Christum filium eius accipio, aram mentem bonis artibus et disciplinis imbutam, honores quoque divinos ac sacrificia in solis orationibus et ipsis puris ac simplicibus pono. Quomodo ergo schisma sum paganorum? p. 537,23