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Works Augustine of Hippo (354-430) De moribus Ecclesiae catholicae et de moribus Manichaeorum On the Morals of the Catholic Church and of the Manichaeans
On the Morals of the Catholic Church.
Chapter 2.--He Begins with Arguments, in Compliance with the Mistaken Method of the Manichaeans.

3.

Where, then, shall I begin? With authority, or with reasoning? In the order of nature, when we learn anything, authority precedes reasoning. For a reason may seem weak, when, after it is given, it requires authority to confirm it. But because the minds of men are obscured by familiarity with darkness, which covers them in the night of sins and evil habits, and cannot perceive in a way suitable to the clearness and purity of reason, there is most wholesome provision for bringing the dazzled eye into the light of truth under the congenial shade of authority. But since we have to do with people who are perverse in all their thoughts and words and actions, and who insist on nothing more than on beginning with argument, I will, as a concession to them, take what I think a wrong method in discussion. For I like to imitate, as far as I can, the gentleness of my Lord Jesus Christ, who took on Himself the evil of death itself, wishing to free us from it.

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Translations of this Work
Des moeurs de l'Église Catholique et des moeurs des Manichéens Compare
On the Morals of the Catholic Church and of the Manichaeans

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Faculty of Theology, Patristics and History of the Early Church
Miséricorde, Av. Europe 20, CH 1700 Fribourg

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