Page "Manichaeism" Paragraph 28

Augustine of Hippo ( AD 354 – 430 ) converted to Christianity from Manichaeism, in the year 387.

This was shortly after the Roman Emperor Theodosius I had issued a decree of death for Manichaeans in AD 382 and shortly before he declared Christianity to be the only legitimate religion for the Roman Empire in 391.

According to his Confessions, after nine or ten years of adhering to the Manichaean faith as a member of the group of " hearers ", Augustine became a Christian and a potent adversary of Manichaeism ( which he expressed in writing against his Manichaean opponent Faustus of Mileve ), seeing their beliefs that knowledge was the key to salvation as too passive and not able to effect any change in one's life.