Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series I/Volume IV/Manichaean Controversy/Against the Epistle of Manichaeus/Chapter 28

Chapter 28.—Manich&#230;us Places Five Natures in the Region of Darkness.

31.&#160; "There dwelt," he says, "in that region fiery bodies, destructive races."&#160; By speaking of dwelling, he must mean that those bodies were animated and in life.&#160; But, not to appear to cavil at a word, let us see how he divides into five classes all these inhabitants of this region.&#160; "Here," he says, "was boundless darkness, flowing from the same source in immeasurable abundance, with the productions properly belonging to it. Beyond this were muddy turbid waters, with their inhabitants; and inside of them winds terrible and violent, with their prince and their progenitors.&#160; Then, again, a fiery region of destruction, with its chiefs and peoples.&#160; And, similarly, inside of this a race full of smoke and gloom, where abode the dreadful prince and chief of all, having around him innumerable princes, himself the mind and source of them all.&#160; Such are the five natures of the pestiferous region."&#160; We find here five natures mentioned as part of one nature, which he calls the pestiferous region.&#160; The natures are darkness, waters, winds, fire, smoke; which he so arranges as to make darkness first, beginning at the outside.&#160; Inside of darkness he puts the waters; inside of the waters, the winds; inside of the winds, the fire; inside of the fire, the smoke.&#160; And each of these natures had its peculiar kind of inhabitants, which were likewise five in number.&#160; For to the question, Whether there was only one kind in all, or different kinds corresponding to the different natures; the reply is, that they were different:&#160; as in other books we find it stated that the darkness had serpents; the waters swimming creatures, such as fish; the winds flying creatures, such as birds; the fire quadrupeds, such as horses, lions, and the like; the smoke bipeds, such as men.