bad god of darkness. And he divided his
followers into two classes, the lower of which were called _hearers_,
while the higher were called _elect_. These _elect_ were supposed to be
very strict in their lives. They were not to eat flesh at all;--they
might not even gather the fruits of the earth, or pluck a herb with
their own hands. They were supported and were served by the hearers; and
they took a very odd way of showing their gratitude to these; for it is
said that when one of the elect ate a piece of bread, he made this
speech to it:--"It was not I who reaped or ground or baked thee; may
they who did so be reaped and ground and baked in their turn!" And it
was believed that the poor "hearers" would after death become corn, and
have to go through the mill and the oven, until they should have
suffered enough to clear away their offences and make them fit for the
blessedness of the elect.

[30] Page 5.

The Manichaeans (as the followers of Manes were called) soon found their
way into Africa, where they gained many converts; and, although laws
were often made against their heresy by the emperors, it continued to
spread secretly; for they used to hide their opinions, when there was
any danger, so that persons who were really Manichaeans pretended to be
Catholic Christians, and there was some of them even among the monks and
clergy of the Church.

In the humour in which Augustine now was, this strange sect took his
fancy; for the Manichaeans pretended to be wiser than any one else, and
laughed at all submission to doctrines which had been settled by the
Church. So Augustine at twenty became a Manichaean, and for nine years
was one of the hearers,--for he never got to be one of the elect, or to
know much about their secrets. But before he had been very long in the
sect, he began to notice some things which shocked him in the behaviour
of the elect, who professed the greatest strictness. In short, he could
not but see that their strictness was all a pretence, and that they were
really a very worthless set of men. And he found out, too, that, besides
bad conduct, there was a great deal very bad and disgusting in the
opinions of the Manichaeans, which he had not known of at first. After
learning all this, he did not know what to turn to, and he seems for a
time to have believed nothing at all,--which is a wretched state of mind
indeed, and so he found it.

PART II.

Augustine now set up as a teacher at Carthage, the