Traduction Masquer
Reply to Faustus the Manichaean

10.

If you think that your doctrines are true because they are unlike the errors of the Pagans, and that we are in error because we perhaps differ more from you than from them, you might as well say that a dead man is in good health because he is not sick; or that good health is undesirable, because it differs less from sickness than from death. Or if the Pagans should be viewed in many cases as rather dead than sick, you might as well praise the ashes in the tomb because they have no longer the human shape, as compared with the living body, which does not differ so much from a corpse as from ashes. It is thus we are reproached for having more resemblance to the dead body of Paganism than to the ashes of Manichaeism. But in division, it often happens that a thing is placed in different classes, according to the point of resemblance on which the division proceeds. For instance, if animals are divided into those that fly and those that cannot fly, in this division men and beasts are classed together as distinct from birds, because they are both unable to fly. But if they are divided into rational and irrational, beasts and birds are classed together as distinct from men, for they are both destitute of reason. Faustus did not think of this when he said: There are in fact only two sects, the Gentiles and ourselves, for we are directly opposed to them in our belief. The opposition he means is this, that the Gentiles believe in a single principle, whereas the Manichaeans believe also in the principle of the race of darkness. Certainly, according to this division we agree in general with the Pagans. But if we divide all who have a religion into those who worship one God and those who worship many gods, the Manichaeans must be classed along with the Pagans, and we along with the Jews. This is another distinction, which may be said to make only two sects. Perhaps you will say that you hold all your gods to be of one substance, which the Pagans do not. But you at least resemble them in assigning to your gods different powers, and functions, and employments. One does battle with the race of darkness; another constructs the world from the part which is captured; another, standing above, has the world in his hand; another holds him up from below; another turns the wheels of the fires and winds and waters beneath; another, in his circuit of the heavens, gathers with his beams the members of your god from cesspools. Indeed, your gods have innumerable occupations, according to your fabulous descriptions, which you neither explain nor represent in a visible form. But again, if men were divided into those who believe that God takes an interest in human affairs and those who do not, the Pagans and Jews, and you and all heretics that have anything of Christianity, will be classed together, as opposed to the Epicureans, and any others holding similar views. As this is a principle of importance, here again we may say that there are only two sects, and you belong to the same sect as we do. You will hardly venture to dissent from us in the opinion that God is concerned in human affairs, so that in this matter your opposition to the Epicureans makes you side with us. Thus, according to the nature of the division, what is in one class at one time, is in another at another time: things joined here are separated there: in some things we are classed with others, and they with us; in other things we are classed separately, and stand alone. If Faustus thought of this, he would not talk such eloquent nonsense.

Edition Masquer
Contra Faustum Manichaeum libri triginta tres

10.

Itaque si propterea vos putatis tenere veritatem, quia et errori paganorum longe dissimiles estis, nos autem propterea esse in errore, quia longius a vobis quam a paganis forte distamus, dicatur et mortuus ideo sanus, quia iam nec aegrotus est, et ideo reprehendatur, qui sanus est, quia vicinior est aegroto quam mortuo, aut si plerique pagani non velut aegri, sed velut mortui deputandi sunt, laudetur in sepulcro cinis informis, quia iam nec formam cadaveris tenet, et membra viva culpentur, quia cadaveri sunt similiora quam cineri, p. 547,3 sicut nos ideo isti culpandos putant, quia nos similiores esse dicunt funeri paganorum quam favillae Manichaeorum. Quamquam per multas differentias aliter atque aliter quaeque res ad discernendum dividi soleant, ut, quod in hac erat parte, per alias differentias in alia parte inveniatur, ubi ante non erat. Velut verbi gratia, si quis omnem carnem dividat in volatilia, et ea, quae volare non possunt, per hanc differentiam quadrupedia hominibus sunt similiora quam avibus; pariter enim volare non possunt. Rursus si quis per aliam differentiam dividat, ut dicat alia esse rationalia, alia irrationalia, iam quadrupedes avibus sunt similiores quam hominibus; pariter enim sunt rationis expertes. Hoc Faustus non cogitans ait: p. 547,15 Porro autem sectas si quaeras, non plus erunt quam duae, id est gentium et nostra, qui eis longe diversa sentimus, videlicet quoniam dixerat eo maxime distare gentes a Manichaeis, quod ab uno principio dicunt esse omnia, quod Manichaei negant addentes principium gentis tenebrarum. In hac differentia – quod fatendum est – plerique pagani nobiscum sentiunt. Sed non vidit, quia item, si quis ita dividat, ut dicat eorum, qui aliqua religione detinentur, aliis placere unum deum colendum, aliis multos, per hanc differentiam et pagani a nobis remoti sunt, et isti cum paganis deputantur, nos autem cum Iudeaeis. Potest ergo aliquis secundum hanc differentiam hoc etiam modo duas solas sectas putare[t]. p.547,27 Hic forte dicatis, quod vos multos deos vestros ex una substantia perhibetis, quasi pagani multos suos non ex una asserant, quamvis diversa illis officia et opera et potestates attribuant, sicut etiam apud vos alius expugnat gentem tenebrarum, alius ex ea capta fabricat mundum, alius desuper suspendit, alius subter portat, alius rotas ignium, ventorum et aquarum in imo versat, alius in caelo circumiens radiis suis etiam de cloacis membra dei vestri colligit. Et quis numerat omnia omnium deorum vestrorum officia fabulosa nulla veritate manifesta, nullis aenigmatis figurata? Porro si alius ita dividat omnes homines, ut alios esse dicat, qui credunt deum humana curare, alios, qui id omnino non credunt, p. 548,11 in hac parte et pagani nobiscum sentiunt et Iudaei et vos et omnes haeretici, qui quoquo modo christiani appellantur, in illa vero Epicurei reperiuntur et si qui alii sunt, qui ita senserunt. Parvane ista differentia est? Cur ergo non et secundum istam duae solae sectae esse dicantur, ut in una earum nobiscum sitis? An audebitis in hac differentia discedere a nobis, qui deum praedicamus humana curare, et esse cum Epicureis, qui hoc negant? Hic profecto illos repudiantes ad nos curritis. Sic per alias et alias differentias nunc hic, nunc illic reperiuntur, aliunde iuncti, aliunde disiuncti, vicissim omnes nobiscum et nos cum omnibus, et rursus nulli eorum nobiscum nec nos cum aliquibus eorum. Quod si Faustus cogitaret, non tam diserte deliraret. p. 548,24