To Florus 1.1

Although I was burdened with great distress, stirred partly by indignation and partly by pity as I looked at the condition of the churches in these times, I had not abandoned my pledge. Having made myself a debtor by promising, I meant to take care to pay that debt as well. In the books I dictated against Augustine's writings, addressed to our brother Bishop Turbantius, a man distinguished by the great brilliance of his virtues, I promised that, unless some obstacle to my studies arose, I would immediately answer all the arguments of those who, following the opinion of the Manichaeans, defended the transmission of sin by descent, that is, an evil inherent in nature. Various pressing circumstances, which cannot honestly be ignored, have kept me from that task until now.