Translation
Hide
Bekenntnisse
10. Törichte Ansichten der Manichäer über die Früchte.
In meiner Unkenntnis der Dinge verlachte ich deine heiligen Diener und Propheten. Indem ich sie aber verhöhnte, siehe, da geschah es, daß ich allmählich ein Spott vor dir wurde und mich nach und nach zu solchen Albernheiten verleiten ließ, daß ich glaubte, die Feige S. 55 weine Milchtränen, da man sie pflücke, und ebenso ihre Mutter, der Feigenbaum. Wenn jedoch ein Heiliger eine solche nicht durch seine, sondern durch fremde Schuld gepflückte Feige verzehre, dann vermische sie sich mit seinem Innersten, und er hauche von ihr im Gebete unter Seufzen und Schluchzen Engel, ja sogar Teilchen der Gottheit aus. Und jene Teilchen des allerhöchsten und wahren Gottes wären in jener Frucht gebunden geblieben - so hieß es -, hätten nicht eines auserwählten Heiligen Zähne und Magen sie erlöst. Und ich Elender glaubte, man müsse den Früchten der Erde mehr Barmherzigkeit angedeihen lassen als den Menschen, für die sie wuchsen. Verlangte aber ein Nichtmanichäer hungernd nach Speise, so hätte es als ein todeswürdiges Verbrechen gegolten, ihm auch nur einen Bissen davon zu reichen.
Translation
Hide
The Confessions of St. Augustin In Thirteen Books
Chapter X.--He Reproves the Triflings of the Manichaeans as to the Fruits of the Earth.
18. These things being ignorant of, I derided those holy servants and prophets of Thine. And what did I gain by deriding them but to be derided by Thee, being insensibly, and little by little, led on to those follies, as to credit that a fig-tree wept when it was plucked, and that the mother-tree shed milky tears? Which fig notwithstanding, plucked not by his own but another's wickedness, had some "saint" 1 eaten and mingled with his entrails, he should breathe out of it angels; yea, in his prayers he shall assuredly groan and sigh forth particles of God, which particles of the most high and true God should have remained bound in that fig unless they had been set free by the teeth and belly of some "elect saint"! 2 And I, miserable one, believed that more mercy was to be shown to the fruits of the earth than unto men, for whom they were created; for if a hungry man--who was not a Manichaean--should beg for any, that morsel which should be given him would appear, as it were, condemned to capital punishment. 3
-
i.e. Manichaean saint. ↩
-
According to this extraordinary system, it was the privilege of the "elect" to set free in eating such parts of the divine substance as were imprisoned in the vegetable creation (Con. Faust. xxxi. 5). They did not marry or work in the fields, and led an ascetic life, the "hearers" or catechumens being privileged to provide them with food. The "elect" passed immediately on dying into the realm of light, while, as a reward for their service, the souls of the "hearers" after death transmigrated into plants (from which they might be most readily freed), or into the "elect," so as, in their turn, to pass away into the realm of light. See Con. Faust. v. 10, xx. 23; and in Ps. cxl. ↩
-
Augustin frequently alludes to their conduct to the poor, in refusing to give them bread or the fruits of the earth, lest in eating they should defile the portion of God contained therein. But to avoid the odium of their conduct, they would inconsequently give money whereby food might be bought. See in Ps. cxl. sec. 12; and De Mor. Manich. 36, 37, and 53. ↩