Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series I/Volume IV/Manichaean Controversy/Concerning the Nature of Good/Preface

Concerning the Nature of Good,

Against the Manich&#230;ans.

[De Natura Boni Contra Manich&#230;os.]&#160; c. 405.

In One Book.

Written after the year 404.&#160; It is put in the Retractations immediately after the De Actis cum Felice Manich&#230;o, which was written about the end of the year 404.&#160; It is one of the most argumentative of the Anti-Manich&#230;an treatises, and so one of the most abstruse and difficult.&#160; The lines of argument here pursued have already been employed in part in the earlier treatises.&#160; The most interesting portions of the contents of the treatise, and the most damaging to the Manich&#230;ans, are the long extracts from Mani&#8217;s Thesaurus, and his  Fundamental Epistle.—A.H.N.