Book V Summary and Analysis

Augustine meets Faustus, the Bishop of the Manicheans, who visits Carthage. At this time, Augustine is twenty-nine years old, and has been a member of the Manichean sect for nine years. Augustine compares the notions he has learned from secular philosophy and science, such as the knowledge of eclipses, with the Fables of Manes, a book of the Manicheans. Manes writes about subjects in the book that he knows nothing about. Augustine is not satisfied with the explanations of Manichean doctrine that Faustus gives him. At the time, Augustine is a professor of literature in Carthage.

Augustine wants to move to Rome, in Italy. He hears that the students are much more disciplined there. In Carthage, students would walk in and out of class during a lecture and certain students would be very disruptive. Augustine hears that this type...