Monica has come to join Augustine in Milan. She is pleased, but not surprised, to hear that Augustine has given up Manichaeism. When Bishop Ambrose forbids her from making offerings for the dead, as was customary in Africa, she obediently gives up the practice. Augustine admires Ambrose and is eager to speak with him, but Ambrose is always busy. Augustine is beginning to understand that in his intellectual pride, he completely misinterpreted the ideas of the Catholic Church. He is still driven by ambition and pride, and he worries about his career. He sees a beggar in the street and is dismayed to think that the beggar is happier than he is.
Augustine discusses his friends Alypius and Nebridius, who had joined Manichaeism because of him and were with him in Milan. In Carthage, Alypius had a weakness for the circus games, which he gave up immediately after a rebuke from Augustine. But in Milan, he is seduced by the gladiatorial shows, against his better judgment. He is mistakenly accused of crime he did not commit, and only God's intervention saves him, in the form of a witness to his good character. Alypius earned his reputation for integrity as a junior lawyer by resisting the bribes and threats of a powerful senator. Like Alypius, Nebridius is also a dear friend to Augustine, a Manichee, and a brilliant thinker. The three of them look for truth together.
