Traduction Masquer
Reply to Faustus the Manichaean

14.

You might have found a resemblance in your religion to that of the Pagans as regards Hyle [matter], which the Pagans often speak of. You, on the contrary, maintain that you are directly opposed to them in your belief in the evil principle which your teacher in theology calls Hyle. But here you only show your ignorance, and, with an affectation of learning, use this word without knowing what it means. The Greeks, when speaking of nature, give the name Hyle to the subject-matter of things, which has no form of its own, but admits of all bodily forms, and is known only through these changeable phenomena, not being itself an object of sensation or perception. Some Gentiles, indeed, erroneously make this matter co-eternal with God, as not being derived from Him, though the bodily forms are. In this manifest error you resemble the Pagans, for you hold that Hyle has a principle of its own, and does not come from God. It is only ignorance that leads you to deny this resemblance. In saying that Hyle has no form of its own, and can take its forms only from God, the Pagans come near to the truth which we believe in contradistinction from your errors. Not knowing what Hyle or the subject-matter of things is, you make it the race of darkness, in which you place not only innumerable bodily forms of five different kinds, but also a formative mind. Such, indeed, is your ignorance or insanity, that you call this mind Hyle, and make it give forms instead of taking them. If there were such a formative mind as you speak of, and bodily elements capable of form, the word Hyle would properly be applicable to the bodily elements, which would be the matter to be formed by the mind, which you make the principle of evil. Even this would not be a quite accurate use of the word Hyle, which has no form of any kind; whereas these elements, although capable of new forms, have already the form of elements, and belong to different kinds. Still this use of the word would not be so much amiss, notwithstanding your ignorance; for it would thus be applied, as it properly is, to that which takes form, and not to that which gives it. Even here, however, your folly and impiety would appear in tracing so much that is good to the evil principle, from your not knowing that all natures of every kind, all forms in their proportion, and all weights in their order, can come only from the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. As it is, you know neither what Hyle is, nor what evil is. Would that I could persuade you to refrain from misleading people still more ignorant than yourselves!

Edition Masquer
Contra Faustum Manichaeum libri triginta tres

14.

Sed cur non etiam propter hylen, quae in nonnullis libris paganorum frequentatur, parem vos cum paganis religionem habere dixistis, quin immo propter hoc imparem longeque dissimilem voluistis intellegi, quia hoc nomine mali principium ac naturam theologus vester appellat, in quo quidem imperitia vestra magna deprehenditur, quia nec quid sit hyle scitis et hoc rei vocabulo, quam penitus ignoratis, etiam inflari velut docti affectatis. p. 554,1 Hylen namque Graeci, cum de natura disserunt, materiem quandam rerum definiunt nullo prorsus modo formatam, sed omnium corporalium formarum capacem, quae quidem in corporum mutabilitate utcumque cognoscitur; nam per se ipsam nec sentiri nec intellegi potest. Verum in hoc errant quidam gentilium, quod eam tamquam coaeternam deo coniungunt, ut haec ab illo non sit, quamvis ab illo formetur, quod alienum esse a veritate ipsa veritas docet. Ecce tamen quibus paganis de hac ipsa hyle invenimini esse consimiles, quod eam vos quoque suum habere principium nec ex deo esse perhibetis, et in hoc vos dispares esse dicebatis nescientes, quid dicatis. p. 554,12 In illo vero, quod nulla est huic hyle forma propria nec nisi a deo formari potest, nostrae illi veritati consentiunt, a vestra autem falsitate dissentiunt, qui nescientes, quid sit hyle, id est, quid sit rerum materies, gentem tenebrarum eam dicitis, ubi non solum distinctas quinque generibus innumerabiles corporum formas, verum etiam mentem constituitis horum corporum formatricem, et – quod est imperitius vel potius dementius – ipsam magis mentem dicitis hylen, quam non formari, sed formare perhibetis. Nam si esset ibi mens quaedam formans et elementa corporea, quae formarentur, illa elementa dicenda esset hyle, id est materies, quam formaret eadem mens, quam mentem principium mali esse vultis. Hoc si diceretis, non quidem multum erraretis in eo, quod est hyle, nisi quod ipsa quoque elementa quamvis in alias formas formanda, tamen quia iam elementa essent, et speciebus propriis distinguerentur, hyle non essent, quia illa est prorsus informis. p. 554,28 Verumtamen tolerabilis esset imperitia vestra, quia eam, quae formaretur, non eam, quae formaret, hylen diceretis; sed tamen etiam sic eo teneremini vani atque sacrilegi, quia nescientes omnem modum naturarum numerumque formarum et ordinem ponderum non esse posse nisi a patre et filio et spiritu sancto principio mali tantum bonum tribueretis. Nunc vero cum et quid sit hyle et quid sit malum ignoretis, o si possem vobis persuadere, ut a seducendis imperitioribus vos compesceretis!