F252
fathers of the Church/'
27 ' 66-C&327
"i"
THE FATHERS
JL, JILJL " -* JC-. _A. Ji. *JL JLJL . /I </ ~M. tt. *>_X
A NEW TRANSLATION
VOLUME 27
A NEW TRANSLATION
Founded by
LUDWIG SCHOPP
EDITORIAL BOARD
ROY JOSEPH DEFERRARI
The Catholic University of America
Editorial Director
RUDOLPH ARBESMANN, O.S.A. BERNARD M. PEEBLES
Fordham University The Catholic University of America
STEPHAN KUTTNER ROBERT P. RUSSELL, O.S.A.
The Catholic University of America Villanova University
MARTIN R. P. McGuiRE ANSELM STRITTMATTER, O.SJB.
The Catholic University of America St. Anselm's Priory
WILFRID PARSONS, SJ. JAMES EDWARD TOBIN
The Catholic University of America Queens College
The Good of Marriage, Adulterous Marriage, Holy Virginity,
Faith and Works, The Creed, Faith and the Creed, The Care
To Be Taken for the Dead, In answer to the Jews, The
Divination of Demons
Translated by
Charles T. Wilcox, M.M., Charles T. Huegelmeyer, M.M.,
John McQuade, S.M., Sister Marie Liguori, I.H.M., Robert P.
Russell, O.SA, John A. Lacy, and Ruth Wentworth Brown
Edited by
ROY J. DEFERRARI
New York
FATHERS OF THE CHURCH, INC.
1955
IMPRIMATUR:
* FRANCIS CARDINAL SPELLMAN
Archbishop of New York
February 2 f 1955
Copyright 1955 by
FATHERS OF THE CHURCH, INC,
475 Fifth Avenue, New York 17, N. Y.
All rights reserved
Lithography by Bishop Litho, Inc.
U.S.A.
CONTENTS
THE GOOD OF MARRIAGE
Introduction 3
Text 9
ADULTEROUS MARRIAGES
Introduction 55
Text: Book I 61
Book II 101
HOLY VIRGINITY
Introduction 135
Text 143
FAITH AND WORKS
Introduction 215
Text 221
THE CREED
Introduction 285
Text 289
FAITH AND THE CREED
Introduction 311
Text 315
THE CARE TO BE TAKEN FOR THE DEAD
Introduction 349
Text 351
IN ANSWER TO THE JEWS
Introduction 387
Text 391
THE DIVINATION OF DEMONS
Introduction 417
Text 421
INDEX 443
SAINT AUGUSTINE
VOLUME 15
THE GOOD
coniugali)
Translated by
CHARLES T. WILCOX, M.M.
Maryknoll, New York
INTRODUCTION
I HE PIONEER and pattern-setting treatise De bono
coniugali has been called the most complete patristic
consideration of the duties of married persons. 1
Theologians considered it most authoritative down to the
time of St. Thomas Aquinas; as late as 1930, Pope Pius XI
quoted from it in his encyclical, Casti Connubii.
St. Augustine wrote De bono coniugali in 401, as an
answer to the false teaching of Jovinian which considered
the married state equal to that of virginity. Pope Siricius
and St. Ambrose had condemned this heresy before him, but
it still was so rampant that many consecrated virgins were
leaving their convents to marry. St. Jerome also had written
his Adversus Jovinianum exalting virginity, but in doing so
he seemed to have sacrificed the dignity and honor of married
life. Therefore, St. Augustine felt that before he treated of
virginity he should write on the good of marriage, both to
prove false the charge of Manichaeism that was hurled
against the Christian teaching and to refute Jovinian.
By calling marriage a good, St. Augustine immediately
refuted the chief charge of Manichaeism. For him, the good
1 E. Portali, 'Augustin/ Dictionnaire de theologie catholique I 2304.
4 SAINT AUGUSTINE
of marriage was threefold: offspring (proles], fidelity (fides),
sacrament (sacr amentum] . He used this terminology so often
that these goods have been called pillars or columns that
support his doctrine. 2
To have children who would people the kingdom of God
is the primary purpose of marriage. However, when Augustine
spoke of the procreation of children, he was thinking also of
their moral or spiritual procreation and education.
The second good of the marriage contract is that of
fidelity or faithfulness. This refers to the right that the spouse
has over the body of his partner. St. Augustine noted that
St. Paul called this right a power. The violation of this
fidelity is adultery. Fidelity in general is such a good that in
matters of little importance it is worthy of praise; even in
evil contracts, if it is broken the violator is looked upon as
more degraded because of this added malice.
St. Augustine used the term for the third good, sacra-
mentum, with what De Ghellinck calls 'an incredible diversity
of meanings. ... It is not easy to determine the exact
meaning that one ought to give to each of the examples that
the ten large volumes of his works contain. The penchant of
Augustine for symbolism and allegorical explanation pre-
disposed him, moreover, to the frequent use of the word
"sacr amentum" ' 3 for example, when speaking of the marri-
ages of Adam and Eve, the Jews, the pagans, Joseph and
Mary, and the Christians. However, Pereira believes that in
De bono coniugali St. Augustine attributes the word only to
the marriage of Christians. 4 This is easy to explain when we
realize that the pagan world repudiated the idea of the
indissolubility of marriage which is attendant on this teaching,
Vasquez says that the saint never called marriage a sacra-
2 B. Pereira, La doctrine du manage selon saint Augustin 40.
3 J. de Ghellinck, Pour I'histoire du mot 'sacramentum' I 16.
4 Pereira, op. cit. 173.
THE GOOD OF MARRIAGE
ment in our sense of the term. 5 Mausbach recognizes that
the term usually referred to the indissolubility of marriage, 6
as does Pourrat: 'St. Augustine calls the indissoluble bond
"sacr amentum" because it is the figure, the symbol of the
union of Jesus Christ with His Church. It is in order to
secure that most holy symbolism that Christian marriage has
for its essential characteristics unity and indissolubility. For St.
Augustine the bond which unites the Christian husband and
wife is the sacrament of Matrimony, just as the sacerdotal
"character" is the sacrament of Holy Orders.' 7 Joyce writes:
'The blessing of children and the blessing of mutual fidelity
belong to marriage even outside the Church. But the third
benefit, the indissolubility consequent on its sacred symbolism
(for "sacr amentum" as here employed has this meaning, and
is not used in its technical sense of "a sacrament") is, at
least in its full perfection, peculiar to matrimony within the
Catholic Church.' 8 Ladomerszky considers sacramentum in
the sense of (1) a property or symbolic characteristic of
marriage; (2) a figure, sign, or symbol; (3) an indissoluble
bond; (4) a seal or sanction. 9
To the threefold good of marriage St. Augustine added the
following: the companionship between the sexes and the
turning of concupiscence to the honorable task of pro-
creation. As to the morality of the marriage act, he was
most explicit. When the act is performed for the purpose of
generation, he stated, it is a good act and one that is perfectly
lawful. However, intercourse other than for procreation he
considered sinful. This teaching dominated the patristic and
early scholastic periods. Its rigorism is rooted at least to some
5 G. Vasquez, Commentariorum ac disputationurn in tertiam partem
Sancti Thomae tomus tertius, De matrimonii sacramento, dsp. II, c. 5.
6 J. Mausbach, Die Ethik des heiligen Augustinus I 323.
7 JP. Pourrat, Theology of the Sacraments 65.
8 G, Joyce, Christian Marriage 149.
9 N. Ladomerszky, Saint Angus tin 116-121.
SAINT AUGUSTINE
extent in St. Augustine's defective metaphysical psychology of
human nature, with its attendant misconceptions of the
character of concupiscence, as well as in his imperfect theory
of the nature of original sin and, above all, of its mode of
transmission, which attributed to concupiscence a real in-
strumental causality. 10 Like all other questions on marriage,
this has been exhaustively treated and carefully explored from
the time of St. Thomas on, and the strict Augustinian view
has been modified in part.
Another question raised in De bono coniugali (9, 15, 22,
24-27) is that of the polygamy of the patriarchs. The
virgins and celibate men of St. Augustine's time were being
challenged by the. insidious questions: 'You, then, are better
than Sara? You, then, are better than Abraham?' St. Augus-
tine showed how the difference in times called for a difference
in action. The patriarchs were told to rear children for the
people of God, but, after Christ said: 'Let him accept it
who can, 5 the situation had changed. The patriarchs possessed
the virtue of continence even though they did not show it
in practice, just as Christ was temperate although He
admitted that He came eating and drinking while St. John
the Baptist came in a far different way. St. Augustine pointed
out that obedience is the mother virtue and the ancients by
their obedience served best in the army of Christ.
10 E. Sheridan, The Morality of the Pleasure Motive in the Use of
Marriage 2.
THE GOOD OF MARRIAGE /
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
for
Treatises on Marriage
Texts and Translations:
Sancti Aurelii Augustmi Hipponensis Eptscopi Opera Omnia, ed.
J. P. Migne, in Patrologia Latina 40 (Paris 1841,)
Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum, ed. J. Zycha, 41
(Vienna 1900) .
Oeuvres de Saint Augustin 2 ... Probl ernes moraux, ed. Gustave
Combes (Paris 1948) .
Oeuvres de Saint Augustin 3 . . . ed. J. Saint-Martin (Paris 1949) .
A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the
Christian Church, ed. C. L. Cornich (New York 1905) .
Secondary Writings:
Adam, Karl, Saint Augustine, the Odyssey of His Soul (New York
1932) .
Bardenhewer, Otto, Geschichte der altkirchlichen Literatur 4
(Freiburg im Br. 1924) .
Bardy, Gustave, Les revisions, Oeuvres de Saint Augustin, Opuscles
12 (Paris 1950) .
Batift'ol, P., Le catholicisme de saint Augustin (Paris 1920) .
Bellarmine, Robert, De scriptoribus ecclesiasticis (Louvain 1678) .
Burkitt, F. C., The Old Latin and the Itala (Cambridge 1896) .
Cappello, Felix, Tractatus canonico-moralis De sacramentis 5, De
matrimonio (Roma 1947) .
Cavallera, F., Saint Jerdme, $a vie et ses oeuvres (Louvain 1922) .
Cayr, F., Manual of Patrology 1 (Paris 1936) .
Ceillier, Dom Remy, Histoire generale des auteurs sacrds et eccle"~
siastiques 10 (Paris 1861) .
Cunningham, W., Saint Augustine and His Place in the History of
Christian Thought (London 1886) .
Dawson, Christopher, 'St. Augustine and His Age,' in A Monument
to St. Augustine (London 1934) .
Dermine, J., La doctrine du manage chr&tien, 5nie eM. (Louvain
1938) .
Esmein, A., Le mariage en droit canonique (Paris 1891) .
Froget, J., 'Jovien/ Dictionnaire de theologique catholique 8 (Paris
1931) cols. 1577-1580.
Ghellinck, J. de, Pour I'histoire du mot 'sacramentum' (Louvain
1924) .
SAINT AUGUSTINE
Joyce, George H., Christian Marriage: An Historical and Doctrinal
Study (New York) 1933) .
Labriolle, P. de, Literature latine chretienne, rev. G. Burdy (Paris
1946) .
Ladomerszky, Nicolas, Saint Augustin docteur de manage, chtctien
(Rome 1942) .
Mausbach, Joseph, Die Ethik des heiligen Augustinus (Berlin
1909) .
Marrou, H. I., Saint Augustin et la fin de la culture antique
(Paris 1938) .
Milne, C. H., A Reconstruction of the Old Latin Text of the
Gospels Used by Saint Augustine (Cambridge 1926) .
Montgomery, W., St. Augustine: Aspects of His Life and Thought
(London 1914).
Noldin, H., De sexto praecepto et de usu matrimonii (New York.
1940) .
Pereira, B., La doctrine du mariage selon saint Augustin (Paris
1930) .
Perrone, E. Vincent, Tractatus de matrimonio (Lyons 1840) .
Peters, J., Die Ehe nach der Lehre des heiliges Augustinus, Gesell-
schaft zur Pflege der Wissenschaft im katholischen Deutsch-
land, Sekt. f. Rechts u. Socialwiss. 32 (Paderborn 1918) .
Pope, Hugh, Saint Augustine of Hippo (Westminster, Md. 1949) .
Portaii, E., 'Augustin, saint/ DTC 1 (Paris 1931) col, 2268ff.
Pourrat, P., Theology of the Sacraments (St. Louis 1910) .
Reuter, A., Sancti Aurelii Augustini doctrina de bonis matrimonii
(Rome 1942) .
Serrier, G., De quelques recherches concernant f le mariage con-
trat-sacrament' et plus particuliercment de la doctrine augus-
tinienne des biens du manage (Paris 1928) .
Sheridan, Edward, The Morality of the Pleasure Motive in the Use
of Marriage (Rome 1947) .
Tillemont, L. de, Memoir es pour scrvir a I'histoire tccttsiastique
des six premiers siecles 13 (Paris 1705) .
Tixeront, Histoire dogmatique 2 (St. Louis 1914) .
Vasquez, G., Commentariorum ac disputationum in tertiam partern
sancti Thomae tomus tertius (Lugduni 1631) .
Wernz-Vidal, lus canonicum 5 t lus matrimoniale f 3rd ed. (Rome
1946) .
THE GOOD OF MARRIAGE
Chapter 1
I INGE EVERY MAN is a part of the human race, and
human nature is something social and possesses the
capacity for friendship as a great and natural good,
for this reason God wished to create all men from one, so
that they might be held together in their society, not only by
the similarity of race, but also by the bond of blood relation-
ship. And so it is that the first natural tie of human society
is man and wife. Even these God did not create separately
and join them as if strangers, but He made the one from
the other, indicating also the power of union in the side
from where she was drawn and formed. 1 They are joined to
each other side by side who walk together and observe
together where they are walking. A consequence is the union
of society in the children who are the only worthy fruit, not
of the joining of male and female, but of sexual intercourse.
For there could have been in both sexes, even without such
intercourse, a kind of friendly and genuine union of the one
ruling and the other obeying.
1 Cf. Gen. 2.21.
10 SAINT AUGUSTINE
Chapter 2
(2) There is no need now for us to examine and put
forth a final opinion on this question how the progeny of
the first parents might have come into being, whom God had
blessed, saying, 'Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth/ 1 if
they had not sinned, since their bodies deserved the condition
of death by sinning, and there could not be intercourse except
of mortal bodies. Many different opinions have existed on
this subject, and, if we must examine which of them agrees
most with the truth of divine Scriptures, there is matter for
an extended discussion: 2 Whether, for example, if our first
parents had not sinned, they would have had children in
some other way, without physical coition, out of the munifi-
cence of the almighty Creator, who was able to create them
without parents, and who was able to form the body of
Christ in a virgin's womb, and who, to speak now to the
unbelievers themselves, was able to grant progeny to bees
without intercourse; whether, in that passage, much was
spoken in a mystical and figurative sense and the written
words are to be understood differently: Till the earth and
subdue it, 3 that is, that it should come to pass by the fullness
and the perfection of life and power that the increasing and
multiplying, where it is said : c Be fruitful and multiply,' might
be understood to be by the advancement of the mind and by
the fullness of virtue, as it is expressed in the psalm : 'Thou
shalt multiply me in my soul unto virtue/ 3 and that succession
of offspring was not granted to man except that later, because
of sin, there was to be a departure in death; whether, at first,
1 Gen. 1.28.
2 Cf, De civ. Dei 1.14.
3 Cf. Ps. 137.3.
THE GOOD OF MARRIAGE 1 1
the body of those men had been made spiritual but animal,
so that afterwards by the merit of obedience it might become
spiritual to grasp immortality, not after death, which came
into the world through the envy of the Devil 4 and became
the punishment for sin, but through that change which the
Apostle indicates where he says: Then we who live, who
survive, shall be caught up together with them in clouds to
meet the Lord in the air,' 5 so that we may understand that
the bodies of the first marriage were both mortal at the first
formation and yet would not have died, if they had not sinned,
as God had threatened, 6 just as if He threatened a wound,
because the body was vulnerable, which, however, would not
have happened, unless that was done which He had for-
bidden.
Thus, then, even through sexual intercourse generations of
such bodies could have come into existence, which would
have had increase up to a certain point and yet would not
have inclined to old age, or they would have inclined as far
as old age and yet not to death, until the earth should be
filled with that multiplication of the blessing. For, if God
granted to the garments of the Israelites 7 their proper state
without any damage for forty years, how much more would
He have granted a very happy temperament of certain state
to the bodies of those who obeyed His command, until they
would be turned into something better, not by the death of
man, by which the body is deserted by the soul, but by a
blessed change from mortality to immortality, from an animal
to a spiritual quality.
4 Cf. Wisd. 2.24.
5 1 Thess. 4.17.
6 Cf. Gen. 2.17.
7 Cf. Deut. 29.5.
1 2 SAINT AUGU STINE
Chapter 3
It would be tedious to inquire and to discuss which of these
opinions is true, or whether another or other opinions can
still be extracted from these words.
(3) This is what we now say, that according to the pres-
ent condition of birth and death, which we know and in
which we were created, the marriage of male and female is
something good. This union divine Scripture so commands
that it is not permitted a woman who has been dismissed by
her husband to marry again, as long as her husband lives,
nor is it permitted a man who has been dismissed by his wife
to marry again, unless she who left has died. Therefore,
regarding the good of marriage, which even the Lord con-
firmed in the Gospel, 1 not only because He forbade the
dismissal of a wife except for fornication, but also because
He came to the marriage when invited, 2 there is merit in
inquiring why it is a good.
This does not seem to me to be a good solely because of
the procreation of children, but also because of the natural
companionship between the two sexes. Otherwise, we could
not speak of marriage in the case of old people, especially
if they had either lost their children or had begotten none
at all. But, in a good marriage, although one of many years,
even if the ardor of youths has cooled between man and
woman, the order of charity still flourishes between husband
and wife. They are better in proportion as they begin the
earlier to refrain by mutual consent from sexual intercourse,
not that it would afterwards happen of necessity that they
would not be able to do what they wished, but that it would
be a matter of praise that they had refused beforehand what
they were able to do. If, then, there is observed that promise
1 Cf. Matt. 19.9.
2 Cf. John 2,
THE GOOD OF MARRIAGE 13
of respect and of services due to each other by either sex,
even though both members weaken in health and become
almost corpse-like, the chastity of souls rightly joined together
continues the purer, the more it has been proved, and the
more secure, the more it has been calmed.
Marriage has also this good, that carnal or youthful in-
continence, even if it is bad, is turned to the honorable task
of begetting children, so that marital intercourse makes some-
thing good out of the evil of lust. Finally, the concupiscence
of the flesh, which parental affection tempers, is repressed
and becomes inflamed more modestly. For a kind of dignity
prevails when, as husband and wife they unite in the marriage
act, they think of themselves as mother and father.
Chapter 4
(4) There is the added fact that, in the very debt which
married persons owe each other, even if they demand its
payment somewhat intemperately and incontinently, they owe
fidelity equally to each other. And to this fidelity the Apostle
has attributed so much right that he called it power, when
he said: 'The wife has not authority over her body, but the
husband; the husband likewise has not authority over his
body, but the wife.' 1 But the violation of this fidelity is
called adultery, when, either by the instigation of one's own
lust or by consent to the lust of another, there is intercourse
with another contrary to the marriage compact. And so the
fidelity is broken which even in material and base things is a
great good of the soul; and so it is certain that it ought to
be preferred even to the health of the body wherein his life
is contained. For, although a small amount of straw as
compared to much gold is as nothing, fidelity, when it is
1 1 Cor. 7.4.
1 4 SAINT AUGU STINE
kept pure in a matter of straw, as in a matter of gold, is not
of less importance on this account because it is kept in a
matter of less value.
But, when fidelity is employed to commit sin, we wonder
whether it ought to be called fidelity. However, whatever its
nature may be, if even against this something is done, it has
an added malice; except when this is abandoned with the
view that there might be a return to the true and lawful
fidelity, that is, that the sin might be amended by correcting
the depravity of the will.
For example, if anyone, when he is unable to rob a man
by himself, finds an accomplice for his crime and makes an
agreement with him to perform the act together and share
the loot, and, after the crime has been committed, he runs
off with everything, the other naturally grieves and complains
that fidelity had not been observed in his regard. In his
very complaint he ought to consider that he should have
observed his fidelity to human society by means of a good life,
so that he would not rob a man unjustly, if he feels how
wickedly fidelity was not kept with him in an association of
sin. His partner, faithless on both counts, is certainly to be
judged the more wicked. But, if he had been displeased with
the wickedness which they had committed and so had refused
to divide the spoils with his partner in crime on this account,
that he could return them to the man from whom they were
taken, not even the faithless man would call him faithless.
So, in the case of a woman who has broken her marriage
fidelity but remains faithful to her adulterer, she is surely
wicked, but, if she is not faithful even to her adulterer, she is
worse. On the contrary, if she repents of her gross sin and
returns to conjugal chastity and breaks off all adulterous
unions and purposes, I cannot conceive of even the adulterer
himself thinking of her as a violater of fidelity.
THE GOOD OF MARRIAGE 15
Chapter 5
(5) The question is also usually asked whether this case
ought to be called a marriage: when a man and a woman
(he not being the husband nor she the wife of another)
because of incontinence have intercourse not for the purpose
of procreating children but only for the sake of intercourse
itself, with this pledge between them, that he will not perform
this act with another woman, nor she with another man. Yet
perhaps not without reason this can be called wedlock, if
this has been agreed upon between them even until the death
of one of them and if, although they do not have intercourse
for the purpose of having children, they do not avoid it, so
that they do not refuse to have children nor act in any evil
way so that they will not be born. But, if both or either one
of these conditions is lacking, I do not see how we can call
this a marriage.
For, if a man lives with a woman for a time, until he
finds another worthy either of his high station in life or his
wealth, whom he can marry as his equal, in his very soul he
is an adulterer, and not with the one whom he desires to find
but with her with whom he now lives in such a way as not
to be married to her. The same is true for the woman, who,
knowing the situation and willing it, still has relations un-
chastely with him, with whom she has no compact as a wife.
On the other hand, if she remains faithful to him and, after
he has taken a wife, does not plan to marry and is prepared
to refrain absolutely from such an act, surely I could not
easily bring myself to call her an adulteress; yet who would
say that she did not sin, when he knows that she had
relations with a man though she was not his wife,
If from the union, as far as she is concerned, she wishes
for nothing except children and whatever she endures beyond
16 SAINT AUGUSTINE
the cause of procreation she endures unwillingly, surely this
woman is to be placed above many matrons, who, although
they are not adulteresses, force their husbands, who often
desire to be continent, to pay the debt of the flesh, not with
any hope of progeny, but through an intemperate use of their
right under the ardor of concupiscence, still, in the marriage
of these women there is this good, that they are married.
They are married for this purpose, that concupiscence may
be brought under a lawful bond and may not waver dis-
gracefully and loosely, having of itself a weakness of the
flesh that cannot be curbed, but in marriage an association
of fidelity that cannot be dissolved; of itself an increase of
immoderate intercourse, in marriage a means of begetting
chastely. For, although it is disgraceful to make use of a
husband for purposes of lust, it is honorable to refuse to have
intercourse except with a husband and not to give birth
except from a husband.
Chapter 6
There also are men incontinent to such a degree that they
do not spare their wives even when pregnant. Whatever
immodest, shameful, and sordid acts the married commit with
each other are the sins of the married persons themselves,
not the fault of marriage.
(6) Furthermore, in the more immoderate demand of
the carnal debt, which the Apostle enjoined on them not as
a command but conceded as a favor, to have sexual inter-
course even without the purpose of procreation, although
evil habits impel them to such intercourse, marriage protects
them from adultery and fornication. For this is not permitted
because of the marriage, but because of the marriage it is
pardoned. Therefore, married people owe each other not only
THE GOOD OF MARRIAGE 1 7
the fidelity of sexual intercourse for the purpose of procreating
children and this is the first association of the human race
in this mortal life but also the mutual service, in a certain
measure, of sustaining each other's weakness, for the avoid-
ance of illicit intercourse, so that, even if perpetual con-
tinence is pleasing to one of them, he may not follow this
urge except with the consent of the other. In this case, 'The
wife has not authority over her body, but the husband; the
husband likewise has not authority over his body, but the
wife/ So, let them not deny either to each other, what the
man seeks from matrimony and the woman from her husband,
not for the sake of having children but because of weakness
and incontinence, lest in this way they fall into damnable
seductions through the temptations of Satan because of the
incontinence of both or of one of them.
In marriage, intercourse for the purpose of generation has
no fault attached to it, but for the purpose of satisfying
concupiscence, provided with a spouse, because of the marri-
age fidelity, it is a venial sin; adultery or fornication, however,
is a mortal sin. And so, continence from all intercourse is
certainly better than marital intercourse itself which takes
place for the sake of begetting children.
Chapter 7
While continence is of greater merit, it is no sin to render
the conjugal debt, but to exact it beyond the need for
generation is a venial sin; furthermore, to commit fornication
or adultery is a crime that must be punished. Conjugal
charity should be on its guard lest, while it seeks for itself
the means of being honored more, it creates for the spouse
the means of damnation. 'Everyone who puts away his wife,
save on account of immorality, causes her to commit
1 8 SAINT AUGUSTINE
adultery.' 1 To such a degree is that nuptial pact which has
been entered upon a kind of sacrament that it is not nullified
by separation, since, as long as the husband, by whom she
has been abandoned, is alive, she commits adultery if she
marries another, and he who abandoned her is the cause of
the evil.
(7) I wonder if, as it is permitted to put away an
adulterous wife, it is accordingly permitted, after she has
been put away, to marry another. Holy Scripture creates a
difficult problem in this matter, since the Apostle says' that
according to the command of the Lord a wife is not to depart
from her husband, but, if she departs, she ought to remain
unmarried or be reconciled to her husband. She surely ought
not to withdraw and remain unmarried except in the case
of an adulterous husband, lest, by withdrawing from him
who is not an adulterer, she causes him to commit adultery.
But, perhaps she can justly be reconciled with her husband
either by tolerating him, if she on her own part cannot
contain herself, or after he has been corrected. But I do not
see how a man can have freedom to marry another if he
leaves an adulteress, since a woman does not have freedom
to marry another if she leaves an adulterer.
If this is so, that bond of fellowship between married
couples is so strong that, although it is tied for the purpose
of procreation, it is not loosed for the purpose of procreation.
For, a man might be able to dismiss a wife who is barren and
marry someone by whom he might have children, yet in
our times and according to Roman law it is not permissible
to marry a second wife as long as he has another wife living.
Surely, when an adulteress or adulterer is abandoned, more
human beings could be born if either the woman were wed
to another or the man married another. But, if this is not
1 Matt. 5.32.
2 Ct I Cor. 7.10,11.
THE GOOD OF MARRIAGE 19
permitted, as divine Law seems to prescribe, who will not be
eager to learn what the meaning of such a strong conjugal
bond is? I do not think that this bond could by any means
have been so strong, unless a symbol, as it were, of something
greater than that which could arise from our weak mortality
were applied, something that would remain unshaken for
the punishment of men when they abandon and attempt to
dissolve this bond, inasmuch as, when divorce intervenes, that
nuptial contract is not destroyed, so that the parties of the
compact are wedded persons even though separated. More-
over, they commit adultery with those with whom they have
intercourse even after their repudiation, whether she with a
man, or he with a woman. Yet, except c in the city of our
God, His holy mountain,' 3 such is not the case with a woman.
Chapter 8
But who does not know that the laws of the pagans are
otherwise. Among them, when repudiation intervenes, both
she marries whomever she wishes and he whomever he wishes,
without any offense that requires human punishment. Moses,
because of the Israelites 1 hardness of heart, 1 seems to have
permitted something similar to this practice regarding a
written notice of dismissal 2 In this matter there appears to be
a rebuke rather than an approval of divorce.
(8) 'Let marriage be held in honor with all, and let the
marriage bed be undefiled.' 3 We do not call marriage a good
in this sense, that in comparison with fornication it is a
good ; otherwise, there will be two evils, one of which is worse.
3 PS. 47.2.
1 Cf. Matt. 19.8.
2 Cf. Deut. 24.1.
3 Heb. 13.4.
20 SAINT AUGUSTINE
Or even fornication will be a good because adultery is worse
since violation of another's marriage is worse than associating
with a prostitute. Or adultery will be a good because incest
is worse since intercourse with one's mother is worse than
lying with another's wife and so on, until we come to those
things about which, as the Apostle says: c lt is shameful even
to speak.' 4 All will be good in comparison with that which is
worse. But who would doubt that this is false? Therefore,
marriage and fornication are not two evils, the second of
which is worse; but marriage and continence are two goods,
the second of which is better. Just so, your temporal health
and sickness are not two evils, the second of which is worse;
but your health and immortality are two goods, the second
of which is better.
Likewise, knowledge and vanity are not two evils, vanity
being the worse of the two; but knowledge and charity are
two goods, charity being the better of the two. For, 'knowledge
will be destroyed/ says the Apostle, yet it is necessary for this
life, but 'charity will never fall. 55 So also, this mortal genera-
tion, which is the purpose of marriage, will be destroyed,
but freedom from all sexual intercourse is both an angelic
ideal here, and remains forever. But, as the meals of the just
are better than the fastings of the sacrilegious, so the
marriage of the faithful is placed above the virginity of the
unbeliever. Nevertheless, neither is a meal preferable to fasting
in the one case, but justice to sacrilege; nor in the second
case is marriage preferred to virginity, but faith to unbelief.
For, the just, when there is need, will dine for this purpose,
that as good masters they may furnish for their slaves, their
bodies, what is right and fitting; but the sacrilegious fast for
this purpose, that they may serve devils. So, faithful women
marry for this purpose, that they may join chastely with
4 Eph. 5.12.
5 1 Cor. 13.8.
THE GOOD OF MARRIAGE 2 1
their husbands; but the unfaithful are virgins for this purpose,
that they may commit fornication against the true God.
Therefore, just as that was good which Martha did when
occupied with the ministering to holy souls, yet that was better
which Mary her sister did, who 'seated herself at the Lord's
feet, and listened to his words'; 6 so we praise the good of
Susanna 7 in married chastity, yet we place above it the good
of the widow Anna 8 and much more so that of the Virgin
Mary. 9 That was good which they were doing who out of
their substance were supplying the necessaries to Christ and
His disciples, but they did better who gave away all their
substance that they might follow the same Lord more readily.
In both these goods, whether what the latter did or what
Martha and Mary did, the better could not be done without
passing over and abandoning the other.
We must understand that marriage is not to be considered
an evil for this reason, that widowed chastity or virginal purity
cannot be possessed unless there is abstinence from marriage.
Nor was that which Martha did an evil for this reason, that,
unless her sister abstained from it, she would not be doing
what was better; nor is it an evil to take a just man or a
prophet into one's house, because he who wishes to follow
Christ unto perfection, in order that he might do what is
better, ought not to own any house at all.
Chapter 9
(9) Surely we must see that God gives us some goods
which are to be sought for their own sake, such as wisdom,
health, friendship; others, which are necessary for something
6 Cf. Luke 10.39.
7 Dan. 13.
8 Cf. Luke 2.36.
9 Cf. Luke 1.28.
22 SAINT AUGUSTINE
else, such as learning, food, drink, sleep, marriage, sexual
intercourse. Certain of these are necessary for the sake of
wisdom, such as learning; others for the sake of health, such
as food and drink and sleep ; others for the sake of friendship,
such as marriage or intercourse, for from this comes the
propagation of the human race in which friendly association
is a great good. So, whoever does not use these goods, which
are necessary for something else, for the purpose for which
they are given does well. As for him for whom they are not
necessary, if he does not use them, he does better. In like
manner, we wish for these goods rightly when we have need,
but we are better off not wishing for them than wishing for
them, since we possess them in a better way when we possess
them as not necessary.
For this reason it is a good to marry, since it is a good to
beget children, to be the mother of a family ; but it is better
not to marry, since it is better for human society itself not to
have need of marriage. For, such is the present state of the
human race that not only some who do not check themselves
are taken up with marriage, but many are wanton and given
over to illicit intercourse. Since the good Creator draws good
out of their evils, there is no lack of numerous progeny and an
abundance of generation whence holy friendships might be
sought out.
In this regard it is gathered that in the earliest times of
the human race, especially to propagate the people of God,
through whom the Prince and Saviour of all peoples might
both be prophesied and be born, the saints were obliged to
make use of this good of marriage, to be sought not for its
own sake but as necessary for something else. But now, since
the opportunity for spiritual relationship abounds on all sides
and for all peoples for entering into a holy and pure associa-
tion, even they who wish to contract marriage only to have
children are to be admonished that they practice the greater
good of continence.
THE GOOD OF MARRIAGE 23
Chapter 10
(10) But I know what they murmur. 'What if,' they say,
'all men should be willing to restrain themselves from all
intercourse, how would the human race survive?' Would that
all men had this wish, if only in 'charity, from a pure heart
and a good conscience and faith unfeigned.' 1 Much more
quickly would the City of God be filled and the end of time
be hastened. What else does it appear that the Apostle is
encouraging when he says, in speaking of this: Tor I would
that you all were as I am myself 5 ? 2 Or, in another place:
'But this I say, brethren, the time is short; it remains that
those who have wives be as if they had none; and those
who weep, as though not weeping; and those who rejoice, as
though not rejoicing; and those who buy, as though not
buying; and those who use this world, as though not using it,
for this world as we see it is passing away. I would have you
free from care.' Then he adds: 'He who is unmarried thinks
about the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord.
Whereas he who is married thinks about the things of the
world, how he may please his wife, and he is divided. And
the unmarried woman and the virgin, who is unmarried, is
concerned about the things of the Lord, that she may be holy
in body and in spirit. Whereas she who is married is concerned
about the things of the world, how she may please her
husband. 53
And so it seems to me that at this time only those who do
not restrain themselves ought to be married in accord with
this saying of the same Apostle : 'But if they do not have self-
control, let them marry, for it is better to marry than to
burn. 54
1 1 Tim. 1.5.
2 1 Cor. 7.7.
3 1 Cor. 7.29-34.
4 I Cor. 7.9.
24 SAINT AUGUSTINE
(11) Such marriage is not a sin. If it were chosen in
preference to fornication, it would be a lesser sin than
fornication, but still a sin. But now what are we to say in
answer to that very clear statement of the Apostle when he
says: 'Let him do what he will; he does not sin if she should
marry' 5 and 'But if thou takest a wife, thou hast not sinned.
And if a virgin marries, she does not sin.' 6 Certainly from
this it is not right to doubt that marriage is not a sin. And so
it is not the marriage that the Apostle grants as a pardon
for who would doubt that it is most absurd to say that they
have not sinned to whom a pardon is granted but it is that
sexual intercourse that comes about through incontinence,
not for the sake of procreation and at the time with no thought
of procreation, that he grants as a pardon. Marriage does
not force this type of intercourse to come about, but asks
that it be pardoned, provided it is not so great as to encroach
on the times that ought to be set aside for prayer, and does
not degenerate into that practice that is against nature,
which the Apostle was not able to pass over in silence when
he spoke of the extreme depravities of impure and impious
men. 7
The intercourse necessary for generation is without fault
and it alone belongs to marriage. The intercourse that goes
beyond this necessity no longer obeys reason but passion. Still,
not to demand this intercourse but to render it to a spouse,
lest he sin mortally by fornication, concerns the married
person. But, if both are subject to such concupiscence, they
do something that manifestly does not belong to marriage.
However, if in their union they love what is proper rather
than what is improper, that is, what belongs to marriage
rather than that which does not, this is granted to them with
5 1 Cor. 7.36.
6 1 Cor. 7.28.
7 Cf. Rom. 1.26.
THE GOOD OF MARRIAGE 25
the Apostle as an authoriy. They do not have a marriage that
encourages this crime, but one that intercedes for them, if
they do not turn away from themselves the mercy of God,
either by not abstaining on certain days so as to be free for
prayers, and by this abstinence as by their fasts they put
their prayers in a favorable light, or by changing the natural
use into that use which is contrary to nature, which is all
the more damnable in a spouse.
Chapter 11
(12) For, although the natural use, when it goes beyond
the marriage rights, that is, beyond the need for procreation,
is pardonable in a wife but damnable in a prostitute, that use
which is against nature is abominable in a prostitute but
more abominable in a wife. For, the decree of the Creator
and the right order of the creature are of such force that,
even though there is an excess in the things that have been
granted to be used, this is much more tolerable than a single
or rare deviation in those things which have not been granted.
Therefore, the immoderation of a spouse in a matter that is
permitted is to be tolerated lest lust may break forth into some-
thing that has not been granted. So it is that, however
demanding one is as regards his wife, he sins much less than
one who commits fornication even most rarely.
But, when the husband wishes to use the member of his
wife which has not been given for this purpose, the wife is
more shameful if she permits this to take place with herself
rather than with another woman. The crown of marriage,
then, is the chastity of procreation and faithfulness in render-
ing the carnal debt. This is the province of marriage, this is
what the Apostle defended from all blame by saying: But
if thou takest a wife, thou hast not sinned. And if a virgin
26 SAINT AUGUSTINE
marries, she does not sin 51 and 'Let him do what he will;
he does not sin, if she should marry.' 2 The somewhat
immoderate departure in demanding the debt from the one
or the other sex is given as a concession because of those
things which he mentioned before,
(13) Therefore, what he says: The unmarried woman
thinks about the things of the Lord, that she may be holy in
body and spirit,' 3 is not to be understood in such a way that
we think a chaste Christian wife is not holy in body. To all
the faithful, indeed, it is said: 'Do you not know that your
bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you,
whom you have from God?' 1 Also holy, therefore, are the
bodies of married people who remain faithful to themselves
and to the Lord.
That an unbelieving spouse does not hinder this sanctity
of either of the couple, but, rather, the sanctity of the wife
profits the unbelieving husband or the sanctity of the husband
profits the unbelieving wife, the same Apostle is a witness
when he says: 'For the unbelieving husband is sanctified in
the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified in the believing
husband. 35
Moreover, this was said in regard to the greater sanctity
of the unmarried woman than of the married woman, and
a more ample reward is due to this sanctity because it is
better than the other good, because she thinks only of this,
how she might please the Lord. For it is not that a faithful
woman, observing conjugal chastity, does not think how she
might please the Lord, but she does so less because she is
thinking also of things of the world, how she might please her
husband. This is what he wished to say about them, what
1 1 Cor, 7.28.
2 1 Cor. 7.36.
3 1 Cor. 7.34.
4 1 Cor. 6.19,
5 1 Cor. 7.14.
THE GOOD OF MARRIAGE 27
they can expect, as it were, from the demands of marriage,
namely, that they must think of the things of the world, how
they might please their husbands.
Chapter 12
(14) Not without reason is it doubted whether he said
this of all married women or of such women of this type who
are so numerous that almost all women can be considered
the same. Nor does this, which he says of the unmarried:
The unmarried woman thinks about the things of the Lord,
that she may be holy in body and spirit,' 1 hold good for all
unmarried women, since there are some widows who are
dead in that they are living in sinful pleasures. 2 However,
in regard to this certain distinction and quasi characteristic
of unmarried and married, just as she is the most detestable
who while refraining from marriage, that is, from a thing
that has been granted, does not refrain from the sins whether
of lust or pride or idle curiosity and gossip, so, too, rare is
the married woman who in conjugal conduct thinks only
how she might please God, by adorning herself 'not with
braided hair or gold and pearls and expensive clothing, but
by good behavior such as become women professing godli-
ness.' 3
The Apostle Peter also describes marriages of this type
when he charges: 'In like manner also let wives be subject
to their husbands; so that even if any do not believe the word,
they may without word be won through the behavior of
their wife, observing your reverence and chaste behavior. Let
them not be such as are adorned with the curling of hair or
1 1 Cor. 7.34.
2 Cf. 1 Tim. 5.6.
3 1 Tim. 2.9,10.
28 SAINT AUGUSTINE
clothed with gold or a fine robe; but let it be the inner life of
your heart, in the imperishableness of a quiet and gentle
spirit, which is of great price in the sight of the Lord. For
after this manner certain holy women who hoped in the
Lord, adorned themselves, while being subject to their hus-
bands. So Sara obeyed Abraham, calling him lord. You have
become daughters of hers when you do what is right and
fear no vain disturbance. Husbands, in like manner dwell in
peace and in chastity with your wives, pay honor to the
weaker and subjected vessel, as if coheir of grace, and see
that your prayers be not hindered.' 4
Is it true that such spouses do not think about the things of
the Lord, how they might please the Lord? They are very
rare. Who denies this? And in the very rareness almost all the
married people who are of this type were not joined to be
this way, but, after they were united, then they became such.
Chapter 13
(15) What Christian men of our times, free from the
bond of marriage, able to restrain themselves from all
intercourse, when they see it is c a time,' as it is written, *not to
embrace, but a time to abstain from embraces/ 1 would not
choose to observe virginal continence or that of a widower
rather than to undergo the tribulation of the flesh, without
which marriage cannot exist to pass over in silence other
things which the Apostle spares us" since now no duty of
human society presses. But, when they have been joined under
the rule of concupiscence, if they afterwards overcome it, since
4 1 Peter 3.1-7.
1 Eccle. 3.5.
2 Cf. 1 Cor. 7-28.
THE GOOD OF MARRIAGE 29
it is not permissible to dissolve the marriage, as it was per-
missible not to join together, they become such as the form
of marriage professes, so that either by mutual consent they
ascend to a higher grade of sanctity or, if both are not of
this mind, he who is such will not be the one who demands
the carnal debt but renders it, observing in all things a chaste
and religious harmony.
In those times, when the mystery of our salvation was still
veiled in prophetic signs, even those who were of this nature
before marriage were accustomed to marry because of the
obligation of procreation, not overcome by passion, but
motivated by piety. If they had been given the free choice
such as was given in the revelation of the New Testament
when our Lord said: 'Let him accept it who can,' 3 that
person does not doubt that they would have taken it upon
themselves with joy who attentively and diligently reads how
they used their spouses, when it was permissible for one man
to have many wives, whom he had more chastely than any
one of these in whose regard we see what the Apostle grants,
K Y VgAV^of nnr/*gginn nrvtA/ Vag Vng nnf wife
possessed their wives for the work of procreation, not h in
the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God.' 4
This is so great that many today would contain themselves
more easily for their whole life from all intercourse than to
hold to the norm of not uniting except for offspring, if they
were to be joined by marriage.
Indeed, we do have many continent brothers and associates
of both sexes in the heavenly heritage, whether they have
entered the marriage state or whether free from all such
intercourse; in fact, they are numberless. Yet, whom have
we heard in friendly talks, whether of those who are married
or who have been married, saying to us that he never had
3 Matt. 19.12.
4 Cf. 1 Thess. 4.5.
30 SAINT AUGUSTINE
intercourse with his wife except when hoping for conception?
Therefore, what the Apostles prescribe for married people
belongs to marriage; what they grant by way of a concession,
or what interferes with prayer, marriage does not force but
endures.
Chapter 14
(16) Still, if by chance I do not know whether it can
happen, and I rather think that it cannot at any rate, if
by chance a concubine taken for a time should seek only
children from this same union, not for this reason is such a
union to be preferred to the marriage of those women who
take advantage of that which is pardonable. For, what
belongs to marriage must be considered, not what is the
action of those marrying and using marriage intemperately.
Neither does anyone, if he should use fields that have been
wickedly and wrongly invaded so as to make large sums
from their produce, therefore justify rapine; if another one,
an avaricious man, takes over the incumbency of his father's
farm or one rightly acquired, the civil statute of law whereby
he became the rightful owner is not therefore to be found
fault with. Neither will the wickedness of a tyrannical faction
be praiseworthy if the tyrant treats his subjects with regal
clemency; nor is the system of kingly power deserving of
blame if a king conducts himself with tyrannical cruelty. It
is one thing to wish to use an unjust power justly, and
another to use a just power unjustly. So, concubines taken
for a time, if they have intercourse for the sake of children,
do not justify their concubinage; nor do the married wives,
if they are wanton with their husbands, put a stain on the
marriage state.
( 17 ) It is clear that by a subsequent honorable agreement
there can be a marriage for those who had not been rightly
united.
THE GOOD OF MARRIAGE 3 1
Chapter 15
Once, however, marriage is entered upon in the City [that
is, Church] of our God, where also from the first union of
the two human beings marriage bears a kind of sacred bond,
it can be dissolved in no way except by the death of one of
the parties. The bond of marriage remains, even if offspring,
for which the marriage was entered upon, should not follow
because of a clear case of sterility, so that it is not lawful for
married people who know they will not have any children
to separate and to unite with others even for the sake of
having children. If they do unite, they commit adultery with
the ones with whom they join themselves, for they remain
married people.
It was indeed permissible among the ancients to have
another woman with the consent of the wife, from whom
common children might be born by the union and seed of
the husband, by the privilege and authorization of the wife.
Whether this is permissible now, as well, I would not care
to say. There is not the need for procreation which there
was then, when it was permissible for husbands who could
have children to take other women for the sake of a more
copious posterity, which certainly is not lawful now. The
mysterious difference of times brings so great an opportunity
of doing or of not doing something justly that, now, he does
better who does not marry even one wife, unless he cannot
control himself; then, however, they had without fault several
wives, even they who could restrain themselves much more
easily, except that piety in that time demanded something
else. For, as the wise and just man, who for a long time
was desiring to be dissolved and to be with Christ 1 and
was delighted rather by this greatest good, not the desire of
living here but the duty of caring for others, took food that
1 Cf. Phil. 1.23.
32 SAINT AUGUSTINE
he might remain in the flesh, which was necessary for the
sake of others, so, too, for the men of those times it was
not lust but duty to be joined with women by the law of
marriage.
Chapter 16
(18) For, what food is to the health of man, intercourse
is to the health of the race, and both are not without carnal
pleasure, which, however, when modified and put to its
natural use with a controlling temperance, cannot be a
passion. 1 However, what unlawful food is in the sustaining
of life, this is the intercourse of fornication or adultery in
seeking a child; and what unlawful food is in the excessive
indulgence of the stomach and palate, this is unlawful inter-
course in a passion seeking no offspring; and what is
immoderate appetite for some as regards lawful food, this is
that pardonable intercourse in spouses. Therefore, just as it
is better to die of hunger than to eat food sacrificed to idols,
so it is better to die childless than to seek progeny from an
unlawful union.
However, from whatever source men are born, if they do
not follow the vices of their parents and if they worship God
rightly, they will be honest and safe. The seed of man, from
any kind of man, is a creature of God and will prove bad for
those who use it wrongly; of itself, it will not at any time be
an evil. Yet, just as the good children of adulterers are no
defense for adultery, so the bad children of married people
do not constitute an accusation against marriage. Accordingly,
just as the fathers of New Testament times, taking food
1 CL Retractationes 2.22: 'This was said since the good and proper use
of passion is not a passion. Just as it is wicked to use good things
wrongly, it is good to use wicked things rightly. I argued more care-
fully about this matter on another occasion, especially againsi the new
Pelagian heretics/
THE GOOD OF MARRIAGE 33
because of the duty of caring for others, though they ate it
with a natural delectation of the flesh by no means, however,
was their pleasure to be compared with the pleasure of those
who were eating food sacrificed to idols or of those who,
though they were consuming lawful foods, were doing so
immoderately so the fathers of Old Testament times had
intercourse because of the duty of caring for others. That
natural delight they derived was by no means given rein up
to the point of unreasoning and wicked lust, nor is it to be
compared to the debaucheries of lust or the intemperance of
the married. Indeed, for the same fountainhead of charity,
then carnally, now spiritually, were children to be propagated
because of that great Mother Jerusalem; only the difference
in times made the works of the fathers diverse. So, it was
necessary that non-carnal Prophets copulate carnally, as it
was necessary that non-carnal Apostles also eat carnally.
Chapter 17
(19) Therefore, as many women as there are now, to
whom it is said: 'If they do not have self-control, let them
marry,' 1 are not to be compared even to the holy women
who married then. Marriage itself among all races is for the
one purpose of procreating children, whatever will be their
station and character afterwards; marriage was instituted for
this purpose, so that children might be born properly and
decently.
But the men who do not have self-control step up, as it
were, into marriage by a step of honesty; those, however, who
without a doubt would have practiced self-control, if the
conditions of that time would have allowed this, step down,
in a certain sense, into marriage by a step of piety. Therefore,
1 1 Cor. 7.9.
34 SAINT AUGUSTINE
the marriage of both, inasmuch as they are marriages because
they exist for the sake of procreation, are equally good;
yet, married men of our times are not to be compared to
married men of those days. The former have something that
is granted to them as a concession because of the dignity of
marriage, although it does not pertain to marriage, that is,
that departure which goes beyond the need for procreating,
which the other men in question did not have. But neither
can these, if any by chance are now to be found who do not
seek or desire in marriage anything except that for which
marriage was instituted, be put on the same footing with
those men. For, in these the very desire for children is carnal;
in those, however, it was spiritual, because it was in accord
with the mystery of the time. In our day, it is true, no one
perfect in piety seeks to have children except spiritually; in
their day, however, the work of piety itself was to propagate
children even carnally, because the generation of that people
was a harbinger of future events and pertains to the prophetic
dispensation.
(20) Therefore, while it was permitted for one husband
to have several wives, it was not permitted for one woman
to have several husbands, not even for the sake of offspring,
if, perhaps, she was able to bear while her husband was not
able to beget. For, by a hidden law of nature things that rule
love singularity; things that are ruled, indeed, are subjected
not only each one to an individual master, but also, if natural
or social conditions allow, many of them are not unfittingly
subjected to one master. Neither does one servant have many
masters, as many servants have one master. And so we
read where no one of the holy women served two or more
living husbands; we do read, however, that one man had
several wives when the customs of that people permitted it
and the nature of the time encouraged it, for it is not
against the nature of marriage. Many women can conceive
THE GOOD OF MARRIAGE 35
children by one man, but one women cannot do so by many
men this is the nature of principals just as many souls are
properly subjected to the one God. Therefore, there is only
the one true God of souls; one soul through many false
gods can commit fornication, but not be made fruitful
Chapter 18
(21) Since from many souls there is to be one City of
those having one soul and one heart in regard to God, 1 this
perfection of our unity is to be after this peregrination, when
the thoughts of all will not be hidden from one another nor
in any way opposed to one other; for this reason, the
sacrament of marriage in our time has been reduced and
confined to one man and one woman, so that it is not
lawful to ordain a minister of the Church unless he is the
husband of one wife. 2 This was more keenly understood by
those who believed that the person should not be ordained
who as a catechumen or as a pagan had had a second wife. It
is a question of the sacrament, not of sin. In baptism all sins
are remitted. But he who said: 'If thou takest a wife, thou
hast not sinned. And if a virgin marries, she does not sin/ 3
and 'Let him do what he will, he does not sin if she should
marry,' 4 has sufficiently declared that marriage is no sin.
However, because of the sanctity of the sacrament, just as
a woman, even if she has had intercourse while still a
catechumen, is not able after baptism to be consecrated
among the virgins of God, just so it did not seem harsh that
he who has had more than one wife did not commit any
1 Cf, Acts 4,32.
2 Cf. 1 Tim. 3.2; Titus 1.6.
3 1 Cor. 7.28.
4 1 Cor. 7.36.
36 SAINT AUGUSTINE
sin, but lost a certain standard, as it were, to the sacrament,
necessary not for the reward of a good life, but for the seal
of ecclesiastical ordination.
And on this account, just as the many wives of the ancient
fathers signified our future churches of all races subject to
one man-Christ, so our bishop, a man of one wife, signifies
the unity of all nations subject to one man-Christ. This
unity will be perfected at that time when He will reveal "the
things hidden in darkness' and make manifest 'the hidden
things of the heart; and then everyone will have his praise
from God/ 5 Now, however, there are open, there are hidden,
dissensions, even though charity is preserved among those
who are to be one and in One; these dissensions then,
indeed, will be no more.
Therefore, just as the multiple marriages of that time
symbolically signified the future multitude subject to God in
all peoples of the earth, so the single marriages of our time
symbolically signify the unity of all of us subject to God
which is to be in one heavenly City. And so, just as serving
two or more masters, so, too, passing from one husband while
alive to the marriage of another was not lawful then, nor is
it lawful now, nor will it ever be. Indeed, to apostatize from
the one God and to go into the adulterous superstition
of another is always wicked. Neither for the sake of a more
numerous progeny did our holy father do what Cato the
Roman is said to have done, that while he was still living he
handed over his wife to fill the house of another with
children. Indeed, in the marriage of our women the sanctity
of the sacrament is of more importance than the fecundity of
the womb.
(22) Therefore, even these who are joined for the sake of
generation alone, for which marriage was instituted, are not
to be compared with the ancients, who sought children in a
5 Cf. 1 Cor. 4.5.
THE GOOD OF MARRIAGE 37
much different way than they; since intrepid and devout
Abraham, when he was ordered to sacrifice his son, whom
he had received after great despair, would not have spared
his sole child, but only he lowered his hand on being checked
by Him at whose command he had raised it.
Chapter 19
It remains for us to see whether at least our continent men
are to be compared with the married patriarchs; unless, per-
haps, these continent men are to be preferred to the patriarchs,
in respect to whom we have not yet found any to be com-
pared. For there was a greater good in their marriage than
the good proper to marriage, to which, without a doubt, the
good of continence is to be preferred, because the ancients
were not seeking children from their marriage out of an
obligation such as the others are led by a certain instinct of
mortal nature requiring a replacement for a loss. Whoever
denies that this is a good is ignorant of the fact that God is
the creator of all good things from the heavenly even to the
earthly, from the immortal even to the mortal. Yet, this
instinct of generation not even the animals lack deep within,
and especially the birds whose care for building a nest is
obvious and to a certain extent comparable with married
people as regards the procreation and nourishment of off-
spring.
But, the men of old, with much more holy minds, were
surpassing this tendency of mortal nature whose own chastity
in its kind, when the worship of God is added, is reckoned as
producing fruit thirtyfold, as some have understood. They
were seeking from their marriage children for the sake of
Christ, to distinguish His descent according to the flesh from
all others; as it pleased God to arrange it that this people
38 SAINT AUGUSTINE
before the rest should be able to prophesy Him because it
was foretold from what family and from what people He was
to come in the flesh. 1 Very much, then, was that a greater
good that the chaste marriage of our faithful which father
Abraham had known in his thigh, on which he ordered the
servant to place his hand, that he might take an oath con-
cerning the wife who was to be married by his son." For,
putting the hand under the thigh of a man and swearing by
the God of heaven, what else did that signify except that in
that flesh, which took its origin from that thigh, the God of
heaven would come?
Marriage, therefore, is a good in which the married are
better in proportion as they fear God more chastely and more
faithfully, especially if they also nourish spiritually the children
whom they desire carnally.
Chapter 20
( 23 ) The fact that the Law orders a man to be purified
even after marital intercourse does not mean that it is a
sin; if it is not that intercourse which is granted as a concession,
which, also, being intemperate, impedes prayers. But, just as
the Law placed many things in mysteries and in the shadows
of things to come, a certain material shapelessness, as it were,
in the seed, which when it is formed will produce the body
of a man, is placed as a sign of a life shapeless and unin-
structed; so, since it is fitting that men be cleansed from this
shapelessness by the form and learning of doctrine, as a sign
of this, purification after the loss of seed has been ordered.
Nor is loss of seed in sleep a result of sin; yet in this case,
also, purification is prescribed. Or, if anyone considers this a
1 Cf. Mich. 5.2.
2 Cf. Gen. 24.2,
THE GOOD OF MARRIAGE 39
sin, thinking that it does not happen except from some desire
of this sort which, without a doubt, is false arc, then, the
cycle menstruations of women sins? However, the same Old
Law ordered that the women be purified from them only
because of the material shapelessness which, when conception
takes place, is added, as it were, for the purpose of developing
the body. And on this account, since there is a formless flow,
the Law wished that by this the mind without the force of
discipline, unseemly fluid and dissipated, be understood; it
shows that the mind must be formed, when it orders such a
flow of the body to be purified. Finally, is it a sin to die, or is
not the burial of the dead also a good work of kindness?
Still, purification was ordered after this, also, 1 because a dead
body when life has left it is no sin, but it signifies the sin of a
soul abandoned by justice.
(24) Marriage, I say, is a good and can be defended by
right reason against all charges. However, with regard to the
marriage of the holy patriarchs, I am asking not what
marriage but what continence is comparable. Moreover, I
am not comparing marriage with marriage for a gift equal
in all things has been given to the mortal nature of man
but men who make use of marriage. Since I do not find any
to compare with those men of old who used marriages far
differently, it must be asked what continent men can be
compared to them unless, perhaps, Abraham could not
restrain himself from marriage because of the kingdom of
heaven, who because of the kingdom of heaven could fear-
lessly immolate his single beloved son on whose account
marriage was dear to him.
1 Cf. Num. 19,11.
40 SAINT AUGUSTINE
Chapter 21
(25) Continence, indeed, not of the body but of the soul
is virtue. Virtues of the soul, however, sometimes are mani-
fested in work, sometimes they lie dormant in habit and
character, just as the virtue of martyrdom stood out and was
manifested by bearing sufferings. But how many there are in
that same virtuous condition of soul for whom the temptation
is lacking by which that which within is in the sight of God
might also come forth into the sight of men, and at the time
not begin to exist but then begin to be known!
As an example, Job had possessed patience for a long time. 1
God knew this and He bore witness to it, but it became
known to men by the trial of a temptation, and what was
hidden within was not born, but was manifested, by the
assaults made from without. Likewise, Timothy had the
virtue of refraining from wine, 2 which Paul did not take
from him by admonishing that he use a little wine for the
stomach's sake and his frequent infirmities otherwise, he
would have taught perniciously that for the health of the
body there should be a loss of virtue in the soul but because
it was possible to do what he ordered and safeguard virtue at
the same time, so the advantage of drinking was relaxed as
regards the body in such a way that the habit of temperance
remained in the soul.
For habit is that by which something is done when the
need arises, yet, when it is not being practiced, it can be,
but there is no need. They do not have this habit in respect
to the continence that is from intercourse, since it is said to
them: 'But if they do not have self-control, let them marry/ 3
On the other hand, they do have the habit to whom the words
1 Cf. Job 1.
2 Cf. 1 Tim. 5.23.
3 Cf. 1 Cor. 7.9.
THE GOOD OF MARRIAGE 41
are addressed: c Let him accept it who can.' 4 Through this
habit of continence perfect souls have so used worldly goods
that are necessary for another purpose that by means of this
habit they were not bound by these goods and were able not
to use them when there was no need. Nor does anyone use
them properly unless he is able also not to use them. Many,
indeed, more easily abstain from them so as not to use them
at all, rather than control themselves so as to use them well.
Yet, no one can use them wisely except him who through
continence is able not to use them. In consequence, Paul
could say of this habit : 'I know how to have abundance and
to suffer want. 35 In any event, to suffer want is the lot of
certain men, but to know how to suffer want belongs to great
souls. So, who is not able also to have abundance? However,
to know how to abound belongs only to those whom
abundance does not corrupt.
( 26 ) That it might be more clearly understood how virtue
can be in habit, even if not in practice, I speak of an example
regarding which there can be no doubt among Catholic
Christians. That our Lord Jesus Christ in His true flesh was
hungry and thirsty, ate and drank, no one doubts who is
faithful in accordance with His Gospel. Therefore, was there
not in Him the virtue of continence from food and drink such
as was in John the Baptist? Tor John came neither eating nor
drinking, and they said, "He has a devil!" The Son of Man
came eating and drinking, and they said, "Behold a glutton
and a wine-drinker, a friend of publicans and sinners !" ' 6
Are not such things said of the members of His family, our
fathers, of their use of earthly goods of another kind, such as
pertain to intercourse; behold the lustful and unclean, the
lovers of women and licentiousness? And just as in His case
4 Matt. 19.12.
5 Phil. 4.10.
6 Matt. 11.18,19.
42 SAINT AUGUSTINE
this was not true, although it was true that He did not
abstain from eating and drinking as John did, for He Himself
says very openly and truly: 'John came neither eating nor
drinking. The Son of Man came eating and drinking/ so
neither is this true as regards the patriarchs, although the
Apostle of Christ came in our time neither married nor
having children, yet the pagans say: he was a magician; at
that time the Prophet of Christ came marrying and begetting
children, and yet the Manichaeans say: he was fond of
women. 'And wisdom is justified by her children.' 7 This is
what our Lord added at that point when He said these things
about John and Himself. 'Wisdom,' He said, 'is justified by
her children.' They see that the virtue of continence ought
always to be in the disposition of the souls, to be shown, how-
ever, in practice in accord with the opportunity of the time
and circumstances. So the virtue of patience of the holy
martyrs appeared, indeed, in act, although equally in habit it
was in the rest of the saints. Therefore, just as there was not an
unequal reward for patience in Peter who suffered and in
John who did not suffer, so there was not an unequal reward
for continence in John who had no experience with marriage
and in Abraham who begot sons. Both the celibacy of the one
and the marriage of the other did service for Christ in accord
with the needs of the time, but John possessed continence in
practice; Abraham indeed possessed it, but only in habit.
Chapter 22
(27) Accordingly, when even the Law following the time
of the patriarchs then called him accursed who did not rear
children in Israel, even he who could did not show forth
this continence, yet he possessed it. Afterwards, the fullness
7 Matt. 11.19.
THE GOOD OF MARRIAGE 43
of time came/ so that it was said: 'Let him accept it who
can 3 ; 2 from that time up till now and henceforward to the
end, he who possesses this continence puts it into practice;
he who is unwilling to practice it, let him not say untruthfully
that he has it. Therefore, it is with a subtlety that is empty
and of no use that they who corrupt good morals by evil
conversation 3 say to the Christian man, continent and refusing
marriage: Tou, then, are better than Abraham?' When he
hears this, let him not be troubled or dare to say : 'Yes, better,'
or to fall from his resolution because the former he does
not say truthfully, the latter he does not do rightly but
let him say: C I am indeed not better than Abraham, but the
chastity of the unmarried is better than the chastity of
marriage. Abraham had one of them in practice, both in
habit. He lived chastely in the married state, yet he could
have been chaste without marriage, but then it was im-
possible. I, indeed, more easily do not make use of marriage,
which Abraham made use of, than I could make use of
marriage as Abraham used it. Therefore, I am better than
those who through incontinence of mind cannot do what I
am doing. I am not better than those who because of the
difference of times did not do what I am doing. What I
now do they would have done better, if it was to be done at
that time. But what they did I would not be doing as they
did, if it had to be done now/
Or, if he feels and knows that he is of such a character
that, if he would descend to the use of marriage because of
some religious obligation, the virtue of continence remaining
safe and secure in the habit of his mind, he would be the
type of husband and the type of father that Abraham was,
let him openly dare to respond to that captious questioner
1 C. Gal. 4.4.
2 Matt. 19.12.
3 C. 1 Cor. 15.33.
44 SAINT AUGUSTINE
and to say: 'I am not even better than Abraham in at least
this type of continence which he did not lack, though it was
not apparent; but I am not such a one who has one thing
but does another.' Let him say these things openly, because,
even if he does wish to boast, he will not be foolish, for he
speaks the truth. But, if he forbears, lest any man thinks that
he is above what he sees in him or hears from him, 4 let him
remove from his own person the knot of the question, and
let him respond not about the man but about the thing itself,
and say : 'Who can do so much, he is such a one as Abraham
was/ Yet, it can happen that the virtue of continence is less
in the soul of him who does not make use of marriage which
Abraham made use of; still, it is greater than that in the soul
of him who on this account observed the chastity of marriage
because he could not observe the greater.
The same is the case of the unmarried woman who thinks
about the things of the Lord, how she might be holy in body
and in spirit. 5 When she hears that impudent inquirer saying:
'You are, then, better than Sara?' Let her answer: *I am
better, but better than those who lack the virtue of this
continence, and I do not believe this in respect to Sara.
Therefore, she possessed that virtue and did what was suited
to that time. I am free from this duty so that in my body,
also, there can appear what she had in her soul/
Chapter 23
(28) Therefore, if we compare the things themselves, in
no way can it be doubted that the chastity of continence is
better than the chastity of marriage. Although both, indeed,
are a good, when we compare the men, the one who has the
4 Cf. 2 Cor. 12.6.
5 Cf, 1 Cor. 7.34.
THE GOOD OF MARRIAGE 45
greater good than the other is the better. Moreover, he who
has the greater good of the same kind has also that which is
less; however, he who has only what is less certainly does not
have what is greater. For, thirty is contained in sixty, but
not sixty in thirty. The failure to act in accordance with
one's full capacity to act depends upon the distribution of
duties, not upon the lack of virtue, because he does not lack
the good of mercy who does not come upon the unfortunate
ones whom he could help in his mercy.
(29) We must take this into account, too, that it is not
right to compare men with men in some one good. For, it
can happen that one does not have something that the other
has, but he has something that is to be valued more highly.
Greater, indeed, is the good of obedience than the good of
continence. Marriage is nowhere condemned by the authority
of our Scriptures; disobedience, however, is nowhere con-
doned.
If, then, we have to choose between one who remains a
virgin who is at the same time disobedient and a married
woman who could not remain a virgin but who is nevertheless
obedient which of the two shall we say is the better? Is it
the one who is less laudable than she would be if she were
a virgin, or the one worthy of reproach although she is a
virgin? So, if you compare a drunken virgin with a chaste
spouse, who would hesitate to pass the same judgment?
Marriage and virginity are, it is true, two goods, the second
of them is the greater. So with sobriety and drunkenness^
obedience and disobedience the former are goods; the
latter, evils. However, it is better to have everything that is
good in a lesser degree than to have a great good with a
great evil, since even in the goods of the body it is better to
have the stature of Zaccaeus 1 together with health than the
height of Goliath 2 together with a fever.
1 Cf. Luke 19.3.
46 SAINT AUGUSTINE
(30) The right question is plainly not whether a virgin
thorougly disobedient should be compared with an obedient
married woman, but a less obedient to a more obedient, for
there is also nuptial chastity and it is indeed a good, but a
lesser one than virginal chastity. Therefore, if the woman who
is inferior in the good of obedience in proportion as she is
greater in the good of chastity is compared with the other,
then he who sees, when he compares chastity itself and
obedience, that obedience in a certain way is the mother of all
virtues, judges which woman is to be placed first. On this
account, then, there can be obedience without virginity, be-
cause virginity is of counsel, not of precept. I am speaking of
that obedience whereby precepts are obeyed. There can be
obedience to precepts without virginity, but there cannot be
this obedience without chastity. For it is of the essence of
chastity not to commit fornication, not to commit adultery, not
to be stained with any illicit intercourse. Whoever do not ob-
serve these precepts act against the commands of God and on
this account are banished from the virtue of obedience. Vir-
ginity can exist by itself without obedience, since a woman can,
although accepting the counsel of virginity and guarding her
virginity, neglect the precepts; just as we know many sacred
virgins who are garrulous, inquisitive, addicted to drink, con-
tentious, greedy, proud. All these vices are against the precepts
and destroy them through their sin of disobedience, like Eve
herself. Therefore, not only is the obedient person to be pre-
ferred to the disobedient one, but the more obedient wife is
to be preferred to the less obedient virgin.
(31) In accord with this, that patriarch who was not
without a wife was prepared to be without his only son and
one to be slain by his own hand. 3 Indeed, I may speak of
3 Cf. Retractationes 2.22: 'What I said concerning Abraham ... I do
not entirely approve. It ought to be thought that he believed that his
son, if he had been killed, must soon be returned to him by a re-
surrection from the dead, as it is read in the Epistle to the Hebrews'
[11.19].
THE GOOD OF MARRIAGE 47
*his only son' not unfittingly, concerning whom he had
heard from the Lord : Through Isaac shall your descendants
be called.' 4 Therefore, how much more readily would he
have obeyed if it were ordered that he was not to have a wife.
So it is that not in vain do we often wonder at some of
both sexes, who, containing themselves from all intercourse,
carelessly obey the commands, though they have so ardently
embraced the idea of not using things that have been granted.
Seeing this, who doubts that the men and women of our
times, free from all intercourse but inferior in the virtue of
obedience, are not rightly compared to the excellence of
those holy patriarchs and mothers begetting children, even
if the patriarchs had lacked the habit of mind that is manifest
in the actions of the men of our day?
Therefore, let the young men singing a new canticle follow
the Lamb, as it is written in the Apocalypse : 'Who have not
defiled themselves with women,' 5 on no other account than
that they remained virgins. Let them not think, then, that
they are better than the early patriarchs, who used their
marriage, if I may put it this way, nuptially. The use, indeed,
of marriage is such that there is a defilement if anything is
done in marriage through the union of the flesh that exceeds
the need for generation, though this is pardonable. For, what
does pardon expiate, if that departure does not defile entirely.
It would be remarkable if the children following the Lamb
would be free from this defilement unless they remained
virgins.
Chapter 24
(32) The good, therefore, of marriage among all nations
and all men is in the cause of generation and in the fidelity
4 Gen. 21.12.
5 Apoc. 14.4.
48 SAINT AUGUSTINE
of chastity; in the case of the people of God, however, the
good is also in the sanctity of the sacrament. Because of this
sanctity it is wrong for a woman, leaving with a divorce, to
marry another man while her husband still lives, even if she
does this for the sake of having children. Although that is
the sole reason why marriage takes place, even if this for
which marriage takes place does not follow, the marriage
bond is not loosed except by the death of a spouse. Just as if
an ordination of the clergy is performed to gather the people,
even if the congregation does not follow, there yet remains in
those ordained the sacrament of orders. And if, because of
any fault, anyone is removed from clerical office, he retains
the sacrament of the Lord once it has been imposed, although
it remains for judgment.
The Apostle is a witness to the fact that marriage exists
for the sake of generation in this way: C I desire/ he says,
'that the younger widows marry.' 1 And as if it were said to
him: for what reason? he added immediately: 'to bear
children, to rule their households. 5 But this pertains to the
faithfulness of chastity: 'The wife has not authority over her
body, but the husband; the husband likewise has not authority
over his body, but the wife/ 2 As to the sanctity of the
sacrament, this is pertinent : 'A wife is not to depart from her
husband, and if she departs, that she is to remain unmarried
or be reconciled to her husband, 3 and 'Let not a husband
put away his wife.' 3 These are all goods on account of which
marriage is a good : offspring, fidelity, sacrament. Yet, not to
seek carnal offspring now at this time, and on this account to
retain a certain perpetual freedom from all such practice and
to be spiritually subject to one man, Christ, is better and
indeed holier; especially if men use this freedom so acquired
1 1 Tim. 5.14.
2 1 Cor. 7.4.
3 1 Cor. 7.10.
THE GOOD OF MARRIAGE 49
in such a way as it is written, to think about the things of the
Lord, how they may please God, 4 that is, that continence
unceasingly consider lest obedience fall short in any way. The
holy patriarchs practiced this virtue as basic and, as it is
customarily called, a source and clearly a universal one; but
continence they possessed in the disposition of the soul. Even
if they had been ordered to abstain from all intercourse, they
certainly would have done so by means of the obedience by
which they were just and holy and prepared for every good
work. For, how much more easily were they able not to have
intercourse at the command or bidding of God who could by
being obedient immolate the offspring whose propagation
alone they were making possible by having intercourse.
Chapter 25
(33) Since these things are so, I have answered enough
and more than enough to the heretics, whether Manichaeans
or whoever else calumniate the patriarchs for their many
wives, alleging that this is an argument by which they prove
their incontinence, if, however, they understand that what is
not done contrary to nature is not a sin, since they made use
of their wives not for the sake of being wanton, but for
procreation; nor against the customs, because at the time
those things were being done; nor contrary to the precept,
because they were not prohibited by any law. Those, indeed,
who illicitly made use of women, either that divine dictum in
the Scriptures convicts, or the text puts them before us as
ones who are to be judged and avoided, not to be approved
or imitated.
4 Cf. 1 Cor. 7.32.
50 SAINT AUGUSTINE
Chapter 26
(34) However, as much as we can, we advise our people
who have spouses not to dare to judge those patriarchs accord-
ing to their weakness, comparing, as the Apostle says, them-
selves with themselves, 1 and therefore not understanding what
great powers the soul that serves justice has against the
passions, so that it does not acquiesce in carnal impulses of
this kind and does not allow them to fall into or to proceed
to intercourse beyond the need for generation, that is, beyond
what the order of nature, beyond what customs, beyond what
laws permit.
Men indeed have this suspicion concerning these patriarchs
because they themselves either have chosen marriage because
of incontinence or they make use of their wives immoderately.
But let continent people, either men whose wives have died,
or women whose husbands have died, or both, who with
equal consent have pledged their continence to God, know
that a greater reward is due them than conjugal chastity
demands. But, as to the marriage of the holy patriarchs, who
were joined in a prophetic way, who neither in intercourse
sought anything but progeny, nor anything in the progeny
itself except what would profit Christ who was to come in
the flesh, let them not only not despise it in comparison with
their own resolution, but also in accordance with their own
resolution; let them prefer it with hesitation.
(35) Most especially do we warn the young men and the
virgins dedicating their virginity to God, so that they may
know that they ought to guard the life they are living in the
meantime upon earth with the greatest humility, since the
greater life which they have vowed is of heaven. For it is
written: The greater thou art, the more humble thyself in
l cf. 2 Cor. 10.12.
THE GOOD OF MARRIAGE 5 1
all things.' 2 Therefore, it is for us to say something of their
greatness; it is theirs to think of great humility. Thus, with
the exception of certain of the married patriarchs and married
women of the Old Testament for these, though they are
not married, are not better than they, because if they were
married they would not be equal let them not doubt that
all the other married people of this time, even the ones who
are continent after experiencing marriage, are surpassed by
them, not as much as Susanna is surpassed by Anna, but as
much as both are surpassed by Mary. I am speaking of what
pertains to the holy integrity of the flesh, for who is ignorant
of the other merits that Mary had?
Therefore, let them add a fitting conduct to such a high
resolve, so that they may have a certain security in respect to
obtaining such a splendid reward, knowing, indeed, that to
themselves and to all the faithful beloved and chosen members
of Christ coming from the East and the West, though shining
with a light different in each case, because of their merits,
this great reward is given in common, to recline with Abraham
and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of God, 3 who, not for the
sake of this world but for the sake of Christ, were spouses,
for the sake of Christ were parents.
2 Eccli. 3.20.
3 Cf. Matt. 8.11.
(De incompetentibus nuptiis)
Translated by
CHARLES T. HUEGELMEYER, M.M.
Maryknoll, New York
INTRODUCTION
JHILE CONSIDERING the state of marriage as a natural
contract and a social institution regulated by the
Gospel, as well as the sacramental character of
matrimony in a special way, Augustine systematized the
rather elementary doctrine which preceded him and deve-
loped it by establishing it on a firm foundation, largely in
the course of his struggles against the Manichaean and
Pelagian heretics.
The first book of the present treatise was occasioned by a
letter received by Augustine from a certain Pollentius, who
had some erroneous notions concerning divorce and remar-
riage and who had asked Augustine to answer and resolve
his difficulties. After Augustine had answered Pollentius'
original queries, the text of his replies were edited by some
of his friends, before he could answer some later questions
addressed to him also in letter form by the same Pollentius.
Thus, Augustine's treatise on marriage and divorce was in-
tended by him to appear as a unit, but the zeal of his friends
forced the premature publishing of his earlier replies.
The two books, Adulterous Marriages, are basically ex-
egetical in character. Augustine's conclusions are based on a
carefully considered and finely drawn comparison of the
55
56 SAINT AUGUSTINE
passages in holy Scripture which relate to the question at
hand. They are written in argumentative style and are a
model of dialectic development of a main premise, which is,
in this case, the statement of Mark and Luke that a Christian
who divorces his spouse and remarries contracts an adulterous
union, even if the divorce has as its ground adultery on the
part of one of the spouses. Rarely does Augustine resort, in
this work, to the finer devices of rhetoric. Rather, with a
point of dogma at stake, Augustine's language is direct.
Augustine tells in the Retractations that this work con-
sidered a question treated many years before in his treatise,
De sermone Domini in monte, written in 396. Augustine
considers Adulterous Marriages in his Retractations imme-
diately after the De anima et eius origine, which was written
in the year 419, but before the work entitled Contra adver-
sarium legis et prophetarum, which was written in 420. Thus
the work can be dated either late in 419 or early in 420,
with preference for the former period. It is included by
Possidius, Augustine's earliest biographer, in his Indiculus
under the title De incompetentibus nuptiis.
Augustine had given his opinion in his Commentary on the
Lord's Sermon on the Mount 1 that women who leave their
husbands because of unfaithfulness ought not to be allowed
to marry again stressing the possibility of reconciliation
and that St. Paul added a necessary condition to our Lord's
command in this respect, that this prohibition is meant to
extend only to the lifetime of each party. With this opinion
Pollentius disagreed, maintaining that St. Paul's intention
was to prohibit remarriage only to women who leave their
husbands for reasons other than unfaithfulness including
clashes of temperament and difficulties of cohabitation. 2
1 1.14.39; cf. translation by D. J. Kavanagh in this series, Vol. 11
(New York 1951) .
2 Cf. below, 1.1; also, Gustave Combes, Oeuvres de Saint Augustin 2
(Paris 1948) 103-107.
ADULTEROUS MARRIAGES 57
Married persons who have not accused each other of
conjugal infidelity have the preceptive duty to remain to-
gether, Augustine held, even if their marital obligations seem
to impose an insufferable burden. In fact, nothing may relieve
them of these obligations, not even the desire they may have
to practice continence. 3
In reference to the cause of fornication, the bond of
marriage remains intact, no matter what the cause for
separation may be even though it be this one legitimate
cause. The separated persons remain husband and wife after
the separation, and the contraction of a new marriage is
strictly forbidden.
In the second part of his reply to Pollentius, Augustine
answered the major contention that adultery destroys the
bond of marriage and allows the contraction of a new
marriage. He bases his argument on Paul's text: 'The wife
is bound to the husband as long as he is alive, 54 arguing
clearly that the death referred to here is the death of the
body, not of the soul. Forgiveness and attempts at regeneration
of the offending person are offered as better solutions than
divorce.
It was Augustine's mind and intention that Christian
marriage retain the stability and permanent character in-
herent in its institution. Undoubtedly, some Christians of his
age were affected by the loose attitude of the pagans toward
the marriage contract and he was adamant in his refusal to
permit any but a reverential, firm, and mature attitude on
the part of his own brethren toward the foundation of the
Christian social structure, the sacramental bond of marriage.
The quality of unity, as it pertains to Christian marriage,
excludes all other marriage bonds; such mutual fidelity
3 Cf. Smith and Wace, Dictionary of Christian Biography 4 (London
1887) 422, 'Pollentius.'
4 Matt. 19.9.
58 SAINT AUGUSTINE
excludes not only polyandry, 5 but also polygamy. 6 As to the
first, as Ladomerszky says: C A plurality of husbands destroys
the principle of authority in the family by introducing many
heads. It is likewise opposed in a direct fashion to the end
of marriage; or, at least, propagation of children is hindered.
The wife in such a case no longer will be a true wife, but
simply a kept woman.' 7 Polygamy, Augustine admitted, had
been allowed to the patriarchs, in order that the Israelites
might increase in number, but monogamy is more in harmony
with the primitive institution of marriage and more conducive
to its success. Polygamy is not directly opposed to the nature
of conjugal society, for it does not exclude the primary end
of marriage the generation of children; nor does it greatly
impugn the authority which is demanded by the closely
integrated society of marriage. 8 God, at the beginning of
time, established Adam and Eve in a marriage of perfect
unity. That marriage was the prototype of all subsequent
ideal marriages. Then, for a reasonable motive, He relaxed
His decree for a period of time. Finally, the New Covenant,
in superseding the Old, restored to marriage its pristine unity.
St. Augustine regards the indissolubility of marriage as
a special property, the bonum sacramenti? Ladomerszky
writes: 'Augustine indicates the necessity of restraining con-
cupiscence within the restrictive limits of a stable marriage,
so that one will not look in married life merely for the
satisfaction of carnal desires, but rather to the propagation of
offspring in honorable and lawful wedlock. If marriage were
dissoluble, it would continue to be an occasion of immorality
and never an effective remedy for concupiscence. Augustine
5 C. above, The Good of Marriage 18.21; also, De nuptiis et concu-
piscentia L10.
6 Ct. The Good of Marriage 17.20.
7 Nicolas Ladomerszky, Saint Augustin (Rome 1942) 134,
8 Cf, Wernz-Vidal, lus Canonicum 5 (Rome 1946) 308-310 n. 245.
9 Cf, The Good of Marriage 24.32; De gratia Christi et de peccato
originali 2.39.
ADULTEROUS MARRIAGES 59
does not see, however, that the nature of marriage itself
demands that it be indissoluble. . . . Scripture indicates well
this indissolubility, but Augustine prefers to demonstrate the
stability of Christian marriage by indicating its sacramental
aspect. He maintains that it is only in the Church that it has
this quality. ... In speaking of the difference between the
Christian and the pagan law, a difference which consists of
the fact that the former does not permit remarriages during
the life of one's spouse, while the latter does, Augustine is
quick to say: "Moses seems to have permitted the Israelites,
through a bill of divorce, and by reason of the hardness of
their hearts, something similar to this custom. However, it is
clear that this permission is more of censure than an
approval of divorce." 31
Augustine failed to appreciate fully the implications of the
purely natural contract such as obtains in a marriage between
two non-Christians. 11 However, certain passages indicate that
Augustine attributed a certain sacramental character to
marriage: 'In addition to the fidelity which spouses owe
each other so as to exclude adultery, and in addition to
offspring for the sake of whose generation the two sexes join
together in marriage, I have also taken notice of a third
good which is a necessary part of marriage particularly a
marriage between two Christians and this good has seemed
to me to be something with a sacramental character for the
purpose of excluding divorce, even from a wife who cannot
obey.' u> From this text we may conclude that, according to
Augustine, marriage has a sacramental character, when con-
sidered absolutely, but that Christian marriage is a sacrament
in a distinct and peculiar fashion.
10 Ladom&rszky, op. cit, 141-142.
11 Cf. Wernz-Vidal, op. cit. 809 n. 630; Felix Cappello, Tractatus
Canonico-moralis de sacramentis 5 (5th ed., Rome 1947) 40 n. 45.
12 Contra Julianum 5.12.
TO POLLENTIUS ON ADULTEROUS MARRIAGES
BOOK ONE
Chapter 1
Y DEAREST BROTHER Pollentius, the first question
among those which you discussed when writing to
consult me is whether this statement of the Apostle,
namely, 'But to those who are married, not I, but the Lord
commands that a wife is not to depart from her husband,
and if she departs, that she is to remain unmarried or be
reconciled to her husband; and let not a husband put away
his wife,' 1 is to be taken in such a way that is understood to
have forbidden that woman to marry who has departed from
her husband without the ground of immorality. Indeed, this
is your opinion. Or, on the other hand, is that statement to
be taken as a command that those women who have left their
husbands for that ground which has alone been declared
lawful, that is, fornication, are to remain unmarried? This
was my opinion as expressed in those books which I wrote
l 1 Cor. 7.10,11.
61
62 SAINT AUGUSTINE
many years ago on the Gospel sermon which the Saviour
delivered, according to Matthew, on a mountain.
You think, then, that a woman who leaves her husband
should not marry, if she departed under no constraint of
immorality on the part of her husband. Nor do you revert
to the fact that, if her husband has not given her the ground
of immorality, she should not only remain unwed after the
separation, but she should not leave him at all. For, according
to that opinion of yours, the freedom to marry, and not the
freedom to separate, is taken away from the woman who is
commanded to remain unmarried if she separates from her
husband. But, if this is the case, to wives who wish to practice
the virtue of continence is given the freedom not to await
any consent on the part of their husbands. And so, what has
been said, A woman is not to depart from her husband,'
seems to be a precept enjoined upon those women who
might possibly choose not continence but a divorce that would
render it lawful for them to espouse other husbands. By the
same token, those who no longer desire to have any inter-
course, and find their marriages unbearable, will be given
license to leave their husbands without any grounds of
immorality and, according to the Apostle, to remain unmar-
ried. Because the nature of men and women is the same, the
case of the husband is parallel to that of the wife. If husbands
wish to practice continence, they will leave their wives even
without their consent and remain unmarried. I say this
because you think that they would be permitted to seek
other marriages when the divorce is based on the ground of
immorality. But, when this ground of immorality does not
exist, it follows, according to you, that spouse must remain
with spouse, or, if there is a separation, that the married
person is either to remain unmarried or to return to the
previous marriage. In the event, then, that there is not the
ground of immorality, each and every married woman may
ADULTEROUS MARRIAGES 63
lawfully choose one of three courses : she may lawfully decide
not to depart from her spouse, or, if she has left her spouse,
to remain in a state of separation, or, if she does not so
remain, she may lawfully choose to return to her previous
partner. However, she may not choose to seek another spouse.
Chapter 2
(2) And where is it that the same Apostle has wished
husband and wife to withhold from each other without
mutual consent the debt of the flesh, even for a short time
to afford occasion for prayer? How will this command retain
its force: 'Yet, for fear of immoralities, let each man have
his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband?
Let the husband render to the wife her due, and likewise the
wife to the husband. The wife has not authority over her
body, but the husband; the husband likewise has not authority
over his body, but the wife'? 1 How will this be true except
by virtue of the prohibition of a spouse's practicing continence
against the will of the other partner? For, if the wife has the
right to put her husband away, so long as she does not
marry, she herself, and not the husband, has authority over
her body. We may say the same of the husband. Then, when
it is said that 'Whoever puts away his wife, save on account
of immorality, causes her to commit adultery, 52 how are we
to understand it except as a prohibition against a husband's
dismissal of his wife, when there is no ground of immorality?
The statement was clearly made so that he would not make
his wife an adulteress. We may believe, then, that the wife
will be an adulteress if she remarries, even though she herself
does not put her husband away, but is put away by him.
1 1 Cor. 7.2-4.
2 Matt. 5.32.
64 SAINT AUGUSTINE
Chapter 3
Because of this monstrous evil, therefore, it is not lawful
for a man to put away his wife except for the ground of
immorality. For, in that event, he does not himself cause her
to be an adulteress by the dismissal, but he puts away an
adulteress. What if he should therefore say: It is true that I
am putting away my wife without any ground of immorality,
but I shall remain continent? Are we to say, therefore, that
he has done this deed with no prospect of redress? Who is
there, who recognizes the will of the Lord in those words of
His, who would presume to say this? The Lord's will was
not for a spouse to be put away for the sake of continence,
since He expressly stated that the ground of immorality was
the only valid one.
(3) Let us return, then, to the statement itself of the
Apostle where he says: c But to those who are married, not
I, but the Lord commands that a wife is not to depart from
her husband, and if she departs, that she is to remain un-
married.' 1 Let us interrogate him, and consult with him, as
though he were present. Apostle, why have you said: 'And
if she departs, she is to remain unmarried'? Is it lawful for
her to depart, or not? If not, why do you command her to
remain unmarried when she departs? If, on the other hand,
it is lawful, there is undoubtedly some reason for its being
so. But this reason, on investigation, is not found, unless it
be that reason alone which the Saviour clearly determined,
that is to say, the ground of immorality. Therefore, in giving
the precept, the Apostle does not command the woman to
remain unwed after she departs, unless she leaves her hus-
band for that cause alone which makes it lawful for her to
depart from him. For, when it is written: 'I command her
not to depart, and if she departs, that she is to remain
1 1 Cor. 7.1041.
ADULTEROUS MARRIAGES 65
unmarried/ Heaven forbid that a woman who departs and
remains unmarried be thought to disregard this precept.
Therefore, if we are not to understand that the Apostle is
speaking of the woman for whom it is lawful to depart she
may not lawfully separate, however, except from an unfaith-
ful husband in what way is she commanded to remain
unwed if she separates? Who is there who would say: If a
woman leaves a man who is not a fornicator, she is to remain
unmarried, since in no way may she lawfully separate from
other than a fornicator? And so I think you now understand
to what extent your opinion is opposed to the marriage bond,
concerning which the Lord's will has been that no one
undertake to practice the virtue of continence without mutual
agreement and consent.
Chapter 4
(4) However, let us bring out the point at issue a little
more clearly and examine it more closely. Observe how
continence has usually been pleasing to the woman, but does
not please the man. The wife leaves him and begins to lead
a life of continence. She obviously intends to remain chaste,
but she will make an adulterer of her husband, which the
Lord does not wish. For, the husband will seek another
woman when it becomes impossible for him to restrain him-
self. What are we to say to the woman, except to repeat what
the sound doctrine of the Church maintains, that is, render
the debt to your husband, lest, while you seek after a source
of further glory, he find the source of his damnification. We
would say the same to the husband, if he should desire to
practice continence against your will. All this, because you
have not authority of your body, but he does; and he has not
authority of his body, but you do. Except by mutual consent,
do not refuse each other his due. When we have said this and
66 SAINT AUGUSTINE
much else pertaining to it, are you satisfied that this response
of the woman is made according to your counsel? I hear the
Apostle say: 'I command that a wife is not to depart from
her husband, and if she departs, that she is to remain un-
married or be reconciled to her husband. 5 Behold, I have
departed; I do not wish to be reconciled to my husband, but
I am remaining unmarried. The Apostle does not say: 'If
she departs, she is to remain unmarried until reconciled to
her husband,' but he says: 'She is to remain unmarried or
be reconciled to her husband.' He says: Do this or that.
His permission was to choose between two alternatives, but
he did not force a choice of either. I choose to remain un-
married, and I fulfill his precept in so doing. But, if I
remarry, criticize me, accuse and upbraid me, use what
severity you will.
Chapter 5
(5) What can I say to refute this, except that you do not
properly understand the Apostle? He would not have com-
manded a woman to remain unmarried after she leaves her
husband unless she has the permission to separate for that
one stated cause, which he himself has failed to mention in
that passage because it was so well known, the ground, that
is, of immorality. God, our Master, expressly mentioned
only that cause when He spoke of dismissing one's wife. He
gave it to be understood that the same precept was to be
observed by the husband, also, because, just as 'The wife
has not authority over her body, but the husband, 5 so 'The
husband has not authority over his body, but the wife.' Since,
therefore, you cannot accuse your husband of fornication,
how do you think you exonerate yourself by not marrying?
You are separating from one whom you are not at all per-
ADULTEROUS MARRIAGES 67
mitted to leave. When the wife hears this from us, I do not
think she will be inclined to answer that she is remaining
unmarried because she has departed without any fornication
on the part of her husband; for, if he committed fornication,
not only would she be permitted to depart, but she would
even be permitted to remarry.
Chapter 6
(6) She would by no means say this, since you yourself
have been ashamed to grant this freedom to women. You
said: 'If a husband dismisses an adulterous wife and marries
another, disgrace will redound to the wife only. But, if the
wife puts her husband away for the reason mentioned above
and marries another, not the husband alone, but the wife
also, will incur disgrace.' Giving a reason for this opinion,
you say: 'They will maintain that she has left her husband
with the intention of taking to herself another husband,
although his character may be the same as that of the
husband she has left. For, how extraordinarily easy it is for
men to rush blindly into this disease-like vice. But, if she
puts away this other husband, also, more and more will they
say that she sought a plurality of husbands.' Having given
your reason, you conclude with the statement: 'The woman,
then, after weighing and closely considering these arguments,
ought to bear with her husband or remain unmarried.' You
have clearly given good advice to wives in urging them not to
separate from their husbands, but, rather, to bear with them,
although they are aware that the freedom has been given
them to be joined to other spouses, if they put away their
adulterous husbands. They are urged by you to tolerate even
unfaithful husbands, so that they may not seem to be desirous
of taking advantage of the opportunity which is set before
68 SAINT AUGUSTINE
them to become involved with many men, since it is difficult
for a woman to find a man to marry who is different from
the one she has put away. I say this, because men are so
strongly inclined toward this malady. When we say, therefore,
that even the woman who has put away an unfaithful hus-
band is not given the freedom to marry another, you still
maintain that it is indeed lawful, but not expedient. We
both undoubtedly agree that the woman who puts away an
unfaithful husband ought not to remarry. But this fact is
important, namely, that, when both spouses are Christian,
we say that a wife is not allowed to marry another if she
departs from a fornicator. You, on the other hand, say that,
if a wife separates from her husband who is not guilty of
fornication, she is forbidden by the precept to marry another.
If, however, she separates from a fornicator, it is not proper
for her to marry because of disgrace. Herein you grant the
wife leave to depart from a husband, whether he be a
fornicator or not, as long as she has no intention of re-
marrying.
Chapter 7
(7) Furthermore, since the blessed Apostle nay, the
Lord through the Apostle has not permitted the wife to
depart from a husband who is not guilty of fornication, it
follows that he prohibits a marriage after separation on the
part of the woman whom he permits to depart from a
fornicator. For, concerning such a woman, it is said that, if
she departs from her husband, she should not remarry. She
is allowed to separate on the condition that she does not
remarry. If she chooses, then, not to marry, there is no
reason why she should be forbidden to separate just as the
woman, of whom it is written that if she cannot be continent
she should marry, is certainly granted leave to omit the
ADULTEROUS MARRIAGES 69
practice, provided, of course, that she marries. So, if such a
woman prefers to marry, she cannot be constrained to practice
continence. And as the woman who does not restrain herself is
compelled to marry, so that inability to remain continent
may not redound to her spiritual death, in like manner the
woman who departs from her husband is compelled to remain
unmarried, so that her separation may not become subject
to blame. However, not without fault does a wife separate
from a husband who has not committed fornication, even
though she remains unmarried. Therefore, she who departs
from a fornicator is commanded to remain unmarried if she
departs. Since this is the case if we understand the Apostle,
in such a way that we say to women: 'Do not depart from
your husbands, shameless though they be, so that, if you
wish to leave them, you are to remain unmarried/ all who
are attracted to a life of continence will judge that they may
lawfully leave their husbands, even without their consent.
Since we certainly ought not to allow that, it follows that we
should point out what has already been said, that is: c lf she
departs, she is to remain unmarried,' 1 and demonstrate that
it was said in reference to the woman whom we have dis-
covered to be unable lawfully to depart from her husband,
unless, of course, he is unfaithful. So as not to seriously
disturb Christian marriages by giving false instruction under
the pretence of urging the practice of continence, let us not
countermand the precept of the most merciful Lord and
compel incontinent husbands to commit adultery, after they
have been put away by their continent wives, or incontinent
wives after they have been put away by their continent
husbands.
70 SAINT AUGUSTINE
Chapter 8
(8) Therefore, if what the Lord says elsewhere, and not,
indeed, in that selfsame sermon which we were explaining,
but elsewhere, namely: 'Whoever puts away his wife except
for immorality, and marries another, commits adultery,' 1 is
to be understood in this way, that whoever puts away a
woman because of immorality and marries another does not
commit adultery, it does not seem that, in reference to this
cause of immorality, there is a natural equality between
husband and wife. This assumption would be true, since the
wife commits adultery if she departs from her husband and
marries another, even on account of immorality. The husband,
on the contrary, does not commit adultery if he puts his
wife away and remarries for the same reason. But, if both
husband and wife have the same nature, each of them
commits adultery if one or the other enters into a second
union, even though a union with an unfaithful spouse has
been disrupted. The Apostle has indicated that there is
between husband and wife a natural equality as regards this
cause of immorality in that memorable passage which says:
'The wife has not authority over her body, but the husband,'
and where he also adds: 'The husband likewise has not
authority over his body, but the wife.'
Chapter 9
(9) 'Why, then/ you ask, 'did the Lord insert the ground
of immorality? Why does He not say, in a general way:
Whoever puts away his wife and marries another commits
adultery, if he also is an adulterer who remarries after he
puts away an unfaithful spouse?' I believe the Lord did not
1 Matt. 19.9.
ADULTEROUS MARRIAGES 71
speak thus because He wished to mention what is more
important. For, who denies that in each case the adultery is
greater, if another wife is taken after one who had committed
no fornication has been put away, than if an unfaithful wife
is put away and then another taken? This is true, not because
the second mentioned is not an adulterer, also, but because
the adultery is less serious when another woman is taken
after an unfaithful wife is put away. The Apostle James,
employing a similar expression, says: 'Therefore, he who
knows how to do good and does not do it, commits a sin.' 1
Does the one, then, who does not know how to do good and
so does not do it, commit sin? He certainly does, but the one
who has knowledge of the good and does not do it sins more
grievously. But, the sin of the one who lacks knowledge is
not made null by the fact that it is less serious. Therefore, to
state both cases in the same terms: Just as anyone who puts
away his wife for a cause other than immorality and takes
another commits adultery, so does everyone who knows how
to do good and does not do it commit sin. Likewise, it cannot
be correctly stated here that a man who lacks knowledge
cannot sin, for there are sins even on the part of the ignorant,
although they are less serious than those of men who have
knowledge. It cannot be correctly affirmed either that the
husband who puts away his wife because of immorality and
marries another does not commit adultery. For there is
adultery, also, on the part of those who marry others after
the repudiation of their former wives because of immorality.
Yet, this adultery is certainly less serious than that of men who
put them away not because of fornication and take other
wives. In fact, just as it has been said: 'He who knows how
to do good, and does not do it, commits a sin,' it can likewise
be asserted, according to the same principle, that he who
puts away his wife without the cause of fornication and
1 James 4.17.
72 SAINT AUGUSTINE
marries another commits adultery. Therefore, when, in the
one case, we say that whoever marries a woman put away
for other than the cause of immorality by her husband
commits adultery, we most certainly state the truth; yet, we
do not thereby acquit of the crime the one who marries a
woman who has been put away on account of immorality,
and we also have not the slightest doubt that each of them
is an adulterer. We likewise declare him to be an adulterer
who puts away his wife without the cause of immorality and
marries another; yet we do not therein defend from the
taint of this sin the man who puts away his wife because of
immorality and marries another. For, while the one offense is
greater than the other, we yet recognize both men to be
adulterers. There is no one so unreasonable as to say that he
who marries a woman whose husband has put her away
because of immorality is not an adulterer, while he says that
the one who marries a woman who has been cast off without
the ground of immorality is an adulterer. Both of these men
are guilty of adultery. So, when we say: Whoever takes a
woman- who has been put away by her husband for a reason
other than the ground of immorality commits adultery, we
are, indeed, speaking of one of them. However, we do not
thereby maintain that whoever marries a woman whom her
husband has put away because of immorality does not
commit adultery. Also, since both of these men are adulterers,
that is to say, the one who puts away his wife and marries
another without the ground of immorality, and the one who
puts away his wife because of immorality and marries another
since, then, both of these men are adulterers, when we
read of one of them, we certainly ought not to interpret the
reading in such fashion that the one is acquitted of the
charge of adultery because the other is formally declared to
be an adulterer.
(10) But, if Matthew the Evangelist has made the ques-
ADULTEROUS MARRIAGES 73
tion difficult to comprehend, because he mentioned the one
case and was silent concerning the other, have not the other
Evangelists treated the same matter so comprehensively that
both sides of the problem can be understood? Mark wrote
the following: 'Whoever puts away his wife and marries
another, commits adultery against her; and if the wife puts
away her husband and marries another, she commits adul-
tery.'" And Luke wrote: 'Everyone who puts away his wife
and marries another commits adultery; and he who marries
a woman who has been put away from her husband, commits
adultery. 53 Therefore, who are we to say that there is one who
commits adultery in taking another woman after he puts
away his wife, and that there is another who, in doing this,
does not commit adultery, when the Gospel says that everyone
who performs such an act commits adultery? Furthermore, if
everyone who does this, namely, marries another woman after
the dismissal of his wife, commits adultery, there are un-
doubtedly included both the one who puts away his wife
without the cause of immorality and the one who puts away
his wife for this reason. For the one passage reads: 'Whoever
puts away his wife/ and the other : 'everyone who puts away
his wife/
Chapter 10
(11) However, when I set forth the words of Matthew's
Gospel, I did not omit and I do not know why you believed
1 did this passage of the Scripture: 'and shall marry
another,' and I made this statement: 'He commits adultery.'
On the contrary, I have set down those words which are
contained in that lengthy discourse which the Lord delivered
on the mountain, for I had undertaken to write a commentary
2 Mark 10.11,12.
3 Luke 16.18.
74 SAINT AUGUSTINE
on this sermon. These words read, as I have set them down
therein: 'Whoever puts away his wife, save on account of
immorality, causes her to commit adultery; and he who
marries a woman released by her husband commits adultery/ 1
Some passages, expressed in different words, have the same
meaning when they are understood, and there is no dis-
crepancy in their sense. For example, one text reads ; 'Who-
ever puts away 3 ; 2 another has: 'Everyone who puts away 5 ; 3
likewise, one says: 'save on account of immorality'; 4 while
another says: 'without the cause of immorality.' 5 Still another
reading is: 'except for immorality,' and yet another is: c He
who marries a woman released from her husband commits
adultery.' Finally, there is one passage that has: 'He who
marries a woman who has been put away from her husband
commits adultery.' I think you realize that there is in those
texts no variation from one and the same opinion. While
some of the Latin and Greek codices do not have that last
passage, namely, 'He who marries a woman who has been
put away from her husband commits adultery,' included in
that discourse which the Lord delivered on the mountain, I
believe that it is omitted because the meaning of the sentence
could have been thought to have been conveyed by that
passage which was written just before it, that is, 'He causes
her to commit adultery.' For, how does the dismissed wife
become an adulteress if the one who marries her does not
also become an adulterer?
1 Matt. 5.32.
2 Mark 10.11.
3 Luke 16.18.
4 Matt. 5.32.
5 Matt. 19.9.
ADULTEROUS MARRIAGES 75
Chapter 11
(12) Indeed, the words which you have set down, the
result of which is that the man who puts away his wife
because of immorality and marries another has not seemed
to you to commit adultery, have certainly been written in an
obscure fashion. Wherefore, I wonder not that the reader is
at pains to understand them. However, the words do not
appear in that discourse of the Lord which I was commenting
upon at the time when I wrote those pages, which moved
you when you read them. Elsewhere, as a matter of fact,
the same Matthew has written that the Lord spoke them,
to be sure, not when He delivered that lengthy sermon on
the mountain, but after He had been questioned by the
Pharisees as to whether it was lawful to repudiate a wife for
any reason whatsoever. But what is insufficiently understood
in Matthew's account can be understood from the words of
the other Evangelists. Therefore, when we read in the Gospel
according to Matthew: 'Whoever puts away his wife except
for immorality,' 1 or, to use the better reading of the Greek:
'Without the cause of immorality and marries another com-
mits adultery/ we should not immediately think that that
man does not commit adultery who puts away his wife
because of immorality and marries another. We should sus-
pend judgment until we consult the accounts of the other
Evangelists who have written this down for us. All that per-
tains to this question is not expressed in the Gospel of
Matthew, but the portion contained therein is expressed in
such a way that from it may be inferred the whole, that both
Mark and Luke have preferred to state, in explanation, as it
were, so that the sense might be understood in full. Therefore,
not doubting that what Matthew says is true: 'Whoever
puts away his wife without the cause of immorality and
l Matt. 19.9.
76 SAINT AUGUSTINE
marries another commits adultery/ as soon as we inquire if
that man alone commits adultery by taking another wife
who has put away his previous spouse without the cause of
immorality, or whether everyone who marries another after
the repudiation of the first commits adultery, so that even
the one who dismisses an unfaithful spouse is included as
soon as we place these questions, shall not our answer come
from Mark: Why do you ask whether this man be an
adulterer, and that one not? 'Whoever puts away his wife
and marries another, commits adultery.' 2 Will not Luke also
say to us: Why do you doubt that the man who puts away
his wife because of immorality and marries another commits
adultery? 'Everyone who puts away his wife and marries
another, commits adultery.' 3 Therefore, since it is not proper
for us to maintain that the Evangelists, in writing on one
topic, disagree in meaning and sense, although they may use
different words, it follows that we are to understand Matthew
as having desired to indicate the whole by the part, but,
neverthless, as having held the same opinion as the other
Evangelists. As a result, neither the particular man who puts
away his wife because of immorality and marries another
commits adultery, nor does the particular man who puts
away his wife without the cause of immorality commit
adultery; on the contrary, everyone who puts away his wife
and marries another is most certainly guilty of adultery.
Chapter 12
(13) For, how is the following passage in Luke's Gospel
also true: He who marries a woman who has been put
away from her husband commits adultery'? How does he
2 Mark 10.11.
3 Luke 16,18.
ADULTEROUS MARRIAGES 77
commit adultery, unless by reason of the fact that the woman
whom he has married remains the wife of that other man
who put her away, as long as he is living. For, if he is at pre-
sent united with his own wife and not the wife of another, he
surely does not commit adultery. However, he is committing
adultery, and, therefore, the woman with whom he is joined
is the wife of another. If she is in fact the wife of another,
that is to say, if she is the wife of him who put her away, she
has not ceased to be his wife, even if he put her away because
of immorality. If, on the other hand, she has ceased to be
his wife, she is now the wife of the other man she has
married, and, if this be true, the man is not to be considered
an adulterer, but a husband. Yet, since Scripture maintains
that he is not a husband, but an adulterer, the woman is
still the wife of the man who cast her off, even though it
was for immorality. We conclude, therefore, that whoever a
man takes to wife after she is put away is an adulteress,
since she engages in illicit relations with the husband of
another woman. In view of this, how can it be that he
himself is not also an adulterer who admittedly commits
adultery with the woman whom he takes to himself?
Chapter 13
(14) Let us now turn to this statement of the Apostle:
'For the rest I say, not the Lord. 51 This certainly refers to a
marriage of unequals, wherein not both parties are Christian.
I was of the opinion that he wrote this to counsel Christians.
For, since a Christian spouse could lawfully depart from a
non-Christian, the Lord, therefore, does not forbid it to be
done, but the Apostle forbids it. For, what the Lord forbids
cannot possibly be done lawfully. The Apostle, therefore,
1 1 Cor. 7.12.
78 SAINT AUGUSTINE
counsels believing spouses to forego the liberty granted them
of leaving their unbelieving partners, because they will thereby
have a great opportunity for winning souls to Christ. How-
ever, you also think that it is not permitted believers to put
away unbelievers, because the Apostle forbids it; while I say
that it is lawful, because he does not forbid it, but that it is
not expedient, because the Apostle advises against it. He
also gives us a reason why it is not expedient that it be done,
although it may be lawful. He says: Tor how dost thou
know, O wife, whether thou wilt save thy husband? Or
how dost thou know, O husband, whether thou wilt save
thy wife?' 2 Besides, where he said before: Tor the unbelieving
husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife
is sanctified by the husband' which is to say by the Christian
husband he had also said : 'Otherwise your children will be
unclean, but, as it is, they are holy/ 3 Accordingly, he seems
to have made his exhortation to win partners and children
to Christ, because of the examples that had gone before.
Therefore, the reason why it is not expedient that even
unbelieving spouses should be put away by the faithful has
been clearly stated. The Apostle forbids separation from
unbelievers, not to preserve the marriage bond with such
persons, but so that they may be assimilated in Christ. 4
2 1 Cor. 7.16.
3 1 Cor. 7.14.
4 Augustine here begins his discussion of the Pauline privilege, which
allows for the dissolution of a marriage between two pagans, but only
after one of the parties has been converted, and the pagan refuses to
cohabit at all or to do so peacefully. While the converted party is
permitted to separate under the necessary conditions, Augustine urges
against it on the grounds that the continuation of the union of Chris-
tian and pagans presents a marvelous opportunity for conversion of the
infidel. His stand is logical, as the privilege was orginally constituted
to safeguard the faith of the converted spouse, but it a Christian were
to cohabit with an infidel and solicit his acceptance of the faith, the
Church would profit. Making allowance for certain legal technicalities,
Augustine' view is comprehensive and extensive enough to serve as a
precedent for modern Church thought on this question.
ADULTEROUS MARRIAGES 79
Chapter 14
(15) As a matter of fact, much is to be done, not at the
prescription of the Law, but from a free impulse of charity.
Such actions are the more meritorious of those which duty
prescribes, since it is lawful for us not to perform them, yet
we do perform them for the sake of love. Wherefore, in
former times, the Lord Himself paid the tribute, after He
had shown that He did not owe it, so as not to give scandal
to those with whose salvation He was concerned in assuming
a human nature. 1 Moreover, the extent of the Apostle's
approval of those words of the Saviour is attested when he
says: Tor free though I am as to all, unto all I have made
myself a slave, that I might gain the more.' 2 Yet, he had
said just before: 'Have we not a right to eat and to drink?
Have we not a right to take about with us a woman, a sister,
as do the other Apostles, and the brethren of the Lord, and
Cephas? Or it is only Barnabas and I who have not the
right to do this? What soldier ever serves at his own expense?
Who plants a vineyard and does not eat of its fruit? Who
feeds the flock, and does not partake of the milk of the
flock?' 3 And he says a little later: 'If others share in this
right over you, why not we rather? But we have not used
this right, but we bear all things, lest we offer hindrance to
the Gospel of Christ.' Then, a few sentences after, he says:
'What, then, is to be my reward? That in preaching the
Gospel, I deliver the Gospel without charge, so as not to
abuse my right in the Gospel.' 4 Immediately he subjoins what
I related a while back: Tor, free though I was to all, unto
all have I made myself a slave that I might gain the more.'
1 Cf. Matt. 17.24ff.
2 1 Cor. 9.19.
3 1 Cor. 9.4-7.
4 1 Cor. 9.18.
80 SAINT AUGUSTINE
Likewise, he says in another place with reference to certain
matters pertaining to food: 'All things are lawful for me,
but not all things are expedient. All things are lawful for me,
but I will not be brought under the power of any. Food for
the belly and the belly for food, but God will make void both
it and them.' 5 Also, on this same subject, he says elsewhere:
'All things are lawful, but not all things are expedient. All
things are lawful, but not all things edify. Let no one seek
his own interests, but those of his neighbor.' 6 Therefore,
to give a reason for his statement he says: 'Anything
that is sold in the market, eat, asking no questions
for conscience 3 sake.' 7 Yet, he says in another place: 'I will
eat flesh no more forever, lest I scandalize my brother.' 8
Again he says: 'All things indeed are clean; but a thing is
evil for a man who eats through scandal.' 9 The phrase, 'All
are lawful, 3 is the same as 'All indeed are clean, 5 and the
words, 'but not all things are expedient,' are equivalent to
'but a thing is evil for a man who eats through scandal.' He
demonstrates how those things that are lawful, that is, for-
bidden by no precept of the Lord, ought preferably to be
accomplished in the measure that they are advantageous,
not, indeed, at the prescription of the Law, but by the
counsel of charity. Such were the services rendered with
uncalled-for generosity to the man whom the good Samaritan
conducted to the inn to be cared for. They are not said to
be prescribed by the Lord, therefore, although they are
preferred at His counsel. Hence, they are understood to be
more pleasing to Him to the extent that they are shown to
be done without obligation.
5 1 Cor. 6.12,13,
6 1 Cor. 10,23,24.
7 1 Cor. 10.25.
8 1 Cor. 8.13.
9 Rom. 14.20.
ADULTEROUS MARRIAGES 81
Chapter 15
(16) However, it cannot be said of those actions which
are included here, and which are not expedient, although
lawful, that this action is good, but that one is better in ihe
same way that it has been written that 'He who gives her in
marriage does well, and he who does not give her does
better.' 1 For, in this second instance, both courses are lawful,
although, at times, the one may be expedient, at times, the
other. Doubtlessly, those who cannot remain chaste should
marry. This is expedient because it is lawful. For those,
however, who have vowed to remain continent, it is neither
lawful nor expedient to marry. As a matter of fact, one
may lawfully separate from an unbeliever, but it is not
expedient. However, if the spouse consents to cohabitate, it
is both lawful and expedient to remain with him, because
if it were not lawful, it could not be expedient. Therefore, an
action can be lawful and not expedient, but what is unlawful
cannot be expedient, because not everything that is lawful is
also expedient, but everything that is unlawful is inexpedient.
For, it is certain that every one who has been redeemed by
the Blood of Christ belongs to the human race; nevertheless,
it is likewise true that not every human person has been
redeemed by the Blood of Christ. It is just as true that
everything that is not lawful is also inexpedient; but, not
everything that is inexpedient is likewise unlawful. Certainly,
then, there are lawful acts which are inexpedient, just as we
have learned from the testimony of the Apostle.
1 1 Cor, 7.38.
82 SAINT AUGUSTINE
Chapter 16
(17) But it is difficult to draw with some universal
dividing line the distinction between what is unlawful and,
therefore, inexpedient, and what is lawful, although inex-
pedient. For anyone will be quick to say that what is not
expedient is sinful, and, since every sin is unlawful, that,
therefore, everything that is inexpedient is unlawful. But will
there be any of those actions which the Apostle has said are
lawful but not expedient, if everything that is not expedient
is unlawful? Wherefore, since we cannot doubt that the
Apostle has spoken the truth and do not dare to say that some
sins are lawful, we must maintain that some act is performed
which is not expedient and yet is not a sin, providing, of
course, it is lawful. Yet, since such an act is not expedient, it
certainly should not be done. But if it seems foolish for a
thing to be done which is not expedient, and for one who
does it not to be considered a sinner, it is understood to be
foolish only in a manner of speaking. Such a way of speaking
has become so universal that we often say that even plodding
beasts, although they are bereft of reason, ought to be beaten
when they sin. Sin, however is properly predicated of no
being except one that is endowed with intellect and free
will. God has bestowed these on man alone of all mortal
and animate creatures. It is one thing to speak in appropriate
terms, quite another to interchange words, transferring them
from other objects, or misusing them.
Chapter 17
(18) Therefore, let us try to distinguish, if we can, in
some definite fashion between that which is lawful and not
expedient, and that which is not lawful and, therefore, inex-
ADULTEROUS MARRIAGES 83
pedient. Those acts seem to me to be lawful and not expedient
which justice, as it comes from God, permits, but which
should be avoided because of some scandal to men, lest they
be thereby prevented from being saved. On the other hand,
those acts seem to be unlawful and, therefore, not expedient
which justice herself forbids in such a way that they are not
to be done, even if they are praised by those who have learned
of them. But if this is so, only acts that are unlawful are
forbidden by the Lord; and, as a result, acts which are
lawful, but not expedient, are avoided, not because of the
bond of the Law, but by the free and generous exercise of
charity.
(19) Therefore, if it were not lawful to put away the
unbelieving spouse, the Lord would forbid it, and the Apostle,
in forbidding it, would not say 'I say, not the Lord. 31 For, if
a man is permitted to separate from his spouse because of the
fornication of the flesh, how much more is to be detested the
fornication of the mind on the part of the spouse, that is,
the infidelity of which it has been written: Tor, behold,
they that go far from Thee shall perish: Thou hast destroyed
him who is disloyal to Thee ! 32
Chapter 18
However, that separation is lawful in such a way as to be
inexpedient, so that men not be offended by the separation
of their spouses and repudiate the doctrine of salvation which
forbids unlawful acts, and so, remaining in the same state of
unbelief, be in a worse state and in danger of being lost. The
Apostle, therefore, intervenes and counsels that it not be
done, because, while it is lawful, it is inexpedient. The Lord
1 1 Cor. 7.12.
2 Ps. 72.27.
84 SAINT AUGUSTINE
does not forbid believing husbands and wives to depart from
unbelieving wives or husbands, so as to command them to do
so. For, if they were commanded to put away partners of
that kind, there would be no place for the advice and counsel
of the Apostle against their doing it. We say this, because
a good servant in no way forbids what the Lord commands
to be done.
( 20 ) The Lord formerly gave this commandment through
the Prophet Esdras, and it was followed. 1 Those among the
Israelites who were able at that time to have foreign wives
put them away. Through them, the Israelites were being led
after strange gods, while their wives were not being won over
to God by their husbands. For, the powerful grace of the
Saviour had not yet cast its illumination, and the greater
portion of that people were still longing for the earthly goods
which the Old Law promised. Wherefore, when they saw
those who worshiped many false gods replete with those
worldly goods which they themselves were seeking from the
Lord in abundance, they were fearful, at first, of giving
offense to those gods, due to the coaxing of their wives. Then,
they were even induced to worship them. It was for that
reason that the Lord had commanded through holy Moses
that no one marry a foreign wife. 4 With reason, then 3 at the
Lord's command, they put away the women they had married
against His prohibition. But, when the Gospel came to be
preached to the Gentiles, many of the pagans were discovered
married to their own kind. In their case, if both spouses did
not embrace the faith, but either the unbelieving husband
or wife consented to live with the believing spouse, the
Christian spouse should not have been either forbidden or
commanded by the Lord to put away the unbeliever. I say
that he should not have been forbidden, because justice
3 Cf. Esd. 9.7ff.
4 Cf. Deut. 7.3.
ADULTEROUS MARRIAGES 85
allows one to separate from a fornicator, and the fornication
of an unbeliever is more serious, though it is of the spirit.
Nor can the relation of the unbeliever with his spouse be said
to be truly chaste, for 'All that is not from faith is sin.' 5 How-
ever, the believing spouse may preserve chaste relations with
an unbeliever who does not. On the other hand, the believing
spouse ought not to have been commanded to separate from
the unbeliever, since both, while they were pagans, were not
united contrary to the commandment of the Lord.
Chapter 19
(21) Therefore, because the Lord neither, forbids nor
commands the believing spouse to depart from the unbeliever,
the Apostle, therefore, and not the Lord, speaks, so that he
may not depart. Since he possessed the Holy Spirit, the
Apostle was to be able to give both practical and reliable
advice. Wherefore, when he said concerning the woman
whose husband had died: 'She will be more blessed in my
judgment, if she remains as she is,' he added : 'And I think I
also have the Spirit of God/ 1 so that no one would think
this advice worthy of condemnation, as though it came from
man and not from God. Furthermore, it is to be understood
that even what is not commanded by the Lord but is urged
by His holy servant in a useful manner is urged under the
inspiration of the same Lord. May it never happen that some
Catholic will say that, when the Holy Spirit gives counsel,
the Lord does not; because the Holy Spirit is Himself the
Lord, and the works of the Trinity are inseparable. Yet, Paul
says: 'Now concerning virgins, I have no commandment of
5 Rom. 14.23.
1 1 Cor. 7.40.
86 SAINT AUGUSTINE
the Lord, yet I give an opinion,' in order to prevent us from
considering this counsel as given apart from the Lord, inas-
much as he immediately follows with: 'As one having ob-
tained mercy from the Lord to be trustworthy.' 2 Therefore,
according to the mind of God, and also the Holy Spirit of
whom he says: 'And I think that I also have the Spirit of
God/ he gives trustworthy advice.
(22) However, the authority of the Lord giving a
command is one thing, and the faithful counsel of His
servant which has been breathed into and granted him by the
Lord is another. When a commandment of God is involved,
it is not lawful to act otherwise. It is lawful, however, to
act against the counsel of the Apostle, so that, obviously, that
which is lawful itself may be at one time expedient, but at
another time inexpedient. An act is expedient when it is
both permitted by that justice which is from God and also
when there is no obstacle placed in the way of men's salvation.
Such is the case when the Apostle advises the virgin not to
marry, concerning which counsel he testifies that he has no
commandment of the Lord. It is lawful to do the other, that
is, to marry, and to fasten upon the goods of marriage,
although they are inferior to the joys of continence. This
course, which is lawful, is also advantageous, because by an
honorable marriage he reinforced the weakness of the flesh,
which is prone to rush into forbidden and unlawful acts, to
an extent that he placed an obstacle in the way of no one's
salvation. However, it would be more advantageous and more
honorable for the virgin to seize upon the counsel, in virtue of
which she is not constrained by any precept. On the other
hand, that which is lawful is not expedient when permission
is indeed granted, but the use of the power places an obstacle
in the way of salvation for others. And, as we have long
been saying, such is the case when the believing spouse
2 1 Cor. 7.25.
ADULTEROUS MARRIAGES 87
separates from the non-Christian. The Lord does not forbid
that separation by a precept of the Law, because, in His
judgment, it is not unjust. However, the Apostle forbids it
by a counsel of charity, because it impedes the salvation of
unbelievers, not only because the parties offended are most
harmfully scandalized, but also because it is most difficult to
free them from the ties of an adulterous marriage, in the
event they have fallen into such marriages, while the ones who
put them away are still living.
(23 ) Therefore, in this case, wherein that which is lawful
is not expedient, one cannot say: If he puts away the
unfaithful spouse, he does well; if he does not put away the
unfaithful spouse, he does better, in the same way it has
been said: 'He who gives his virgin in marriage does well,
and he who does not give her does better.' 3 For, in the latter
case, not only are both courses equally lawful whence not
everyone is compelled by a commandment of the Lord to
either course but each course is even advantageous, the one
less, the other more, by reason of which fact whoever can
accept it is urged by a counsel of the Apostle to that which
is more expedient. However, in the following case, when the
question is asked concerning putting away or not putting
away the non-Christian spouse, each course is indeed as
lawful as the other by reason of the justice which is of God.
For this reason, the Lord forbids neither, but because of the
weaknesses of men, both are not advantageous; and it is for
this same reason that the Apostle forbids what is not advan-
tageous. The Lord gives him freedom to prohibit, because He
neither prohibits what the Apostle counsels nor commands
what he forbids. And, if that were not so, the Apostle would
not advise anything against the Lord's prohibition, nor would
he forbid anything against his command. In like manner, in
reference to these two questions, one of which concerns mar-
3 1 Cor. 7.38.
88 SAINT AUGU STINE
riage and non-marriage, and the other, putting away and
not putting away a non-Christian spouse, some similarity and
some dissimilarity exist in the words of the Apostle. On the
one hand, there is a similarity between these two phrases: 'I
have no commandment of the Lord, yet I give an opinion' 4
and C I say, not the Lord.' 5 'I have no commandment of the
Lord' is similar to The Lord does not say,' and *I give an
opinion' is similar to { I say,' On the other hand, there is a
dissimilarity, because it may be stated in reference to the
advisability of marriage or non-marriage: This would be
done well, that better, since both are advantageous, the one
less, the other more so. But, certainly, in reference to the
advisability of putting away or not putting away a non-
Christian spouse, since one course is expedient while the other
is not, it should not be said: Whoever puts away the
non-Christian does well, and he who does not put away the
unbelieving spouse does better. Rather, one ought to say:
Let not the unbelieving spouse be dismissed, because, while
it is lawful to do so, it is not expedient. We can say, therefore,
that it is better not to put away the unbelieving spouse,
although it may even be lawful to do so, to the extent that it
can be reasonably asserted that what is both lawful and
expedient is better than that which is lawful but not ex-
pedient.
Chapter 20
(24) For these reasons, as I was expounding the lengthy
sermon which the Lord delivered on the mount, and when I
had come to the question of whether a spouse was to be put
away or not, I came to say, in employing the Apostle's
testimony, that there was a counsel of the Apostle and not a
4 1 Cor, 7.25.
5 1 Cor. 7.12.
ADULTEROUS MARRIAGES 89
precept of the Lord, when he says Tor the rest I say, not
the Lord/ In that statement he advises those who have
unbelieving spouses to consent to live with them and not to
put them away. Justifiedly, then, ought this to have been
advised and not commanded, because men ought not to be
as forcefully forbidden to do what is lawful, however dis-
advantageous it may be, as they are forbidden to perform
unlawful deeds. But, if the Apostle has somewhere seen fit
to counsel even those actions which are commanded, he has
done so out of regard for the weakness of men, without
prejudice to a commandment of the Lord. Wherefore, if he
has said: 'I write these things not to put you to shame, but
to admonish you, as my dearest children, 51 what connection
does this have with the following: 'I say, not the Lord'?
Likewise, when he says: 'Behold, I, Paul, tell you that if
you be circumcised, Christ will be of no advantage to you,' 2
has he also said here, in effect: C I say, not the Lord'? No.
For those phrases are not similar, since it is not unseemly or
contradictory for the Apostle to advise the very things which
the Lord commands. We admonish those whom we cherish
to abide by the precepts and commandments of the Lord.
But, when the Apostle says: 'I say, not the Lord,' he shows
sufficiently that the Lord does not forbid what he himself
forbade. The Lord, however, would have forbidden it if it
were unlawful Therefore, in keeping with what we have
long been saying and expounding, the act was lawful by
reason of the justice of God, but, even though lawful, it
was not to be done because of free good will.
1 1 Cor. 4.14.
2 Gal. 5.2.
90 SAINT AUGUSTINE
Chapter 21
(25) But you are pleased to think that what the Lord
does not forbid but the Apostle does is unlawful to as great
an extent as what the Lord does forbid. When you wished
to show what these words of the Apostle mean, that is, 'I
say, not the Lord' which the Apostle addressed to the
Christians who were married to unbelievers you said:
'because the Lord has commanded that marriages between
persons of different faiths be not contracted/ and you used
the very testimony of the Lord, who says: 'Thou shalt not
take a wife for thy son from the daughters of other nations,
lest she lead him after her gods and his soul perish.' 1 You
also added the words of the Apostle, wherein he said: 'A
woman is bound as long as her husband is alive, but if her
husband dies, she is free. Let her marry whom she pleases,
only let it be in the Lord.' 2 But, in giving your exposition,
you added: 'that is, a Christian.' Then you went on to say:
'The following, therefore, is a precept of the Lord in the
Old as well as in the New Testament, namely, that only those
marriages are to remain joined that are between members of
one religion and one faith.' Therefore, if that is a precept
in the Old as well as in the New Testament, and if the
Lord commands and the Apostle teaches it, so that only
marriages between persons of one religion and faith remain
joined, why does the Apostle, contrary to the precept of the
Lord, contrary to his own teaching, and contrary to a
precept of the Old and New Testaments, command that
marriages between persons of different faiths remain joined?
For, you say : 'Paul, the Preacher and Apostle of the Gentiles,
not only admonishes, but even commands, those living in
marriage not to put away the other spouse who does not
1 Deut. 7.3,4.
2 1 Cor. 7.39.
ADULTEROUS MARRIAGES 91
believe, if he or she consents to cohabit, in the event that
either husband or wife should be converted. 3 In these your
own words you show clearly enough that this latter case is
one thing; the former, another. The first quotation concerns
those marriages which are contracted for the first time, so
that a woman will not marry a man not of her religion or a
man marry a woman of another faith. For, as you say: 'God
orders, the Apostle teaches, both Testaments prescribe.' Who
would deny that this case is different, since here the concern
is not with projected marriages, but with couples already
joined? In this case, surely, both parties are of one and the
same unbelief when they were joined, but, when the Gospel
had come, a husband believed without the wife, and she
without him. If, then, this case differs from the other which
fact is clear without any trace of doubt why does not the
Lord also command the believer to remain in wedlock with
the unbeliever, just as the Apostle does? Unless, perhaps,
there is lacking in that place what he so confidenlty states:
'Do you wish to have proof of the Christ who speaks in me?' 3
And, surely, Christ is the Lord. Do you understand what I
am saying, or shall I pause to give a somewhat more careful
explanation?
(26) Please give me your attention, so that I may put
the heart of the matter more fully before you, for your con-
sideration. Consider, then, two married people of one belief.
They were so when they were joined. There is no question
concerning these which may refer to that commandment of
the Lord, the teaching of the Apostle, and the precept of the
Old and New Testament, by which the believer is forbidden
to join marriage with an unbeliever. They are already man
and wife, and until now both have been unbelievers. Until the
present, they have been such as they were, both before and
when they were married. The preacher of the Gospel comes;
3 1 Cor. 13.3.
92 SAINT AUGUSTINE
the husband or the wife has accepted the faith, but in such
a way that the unbelieving party consents to live together
with the believer. Does the Lord command the believer not
to put away the unbeliever, or not? If you say He does
command him, the Apostle cries out in protest: C I say, not
the Lord.' If you say He does not command him, I ask for
your reason. You do not intend to give in answer the reason
which you included in your letter, namely : 'Because the Lord
forbids believers to be joined to unbelievers. 3 That reason in
no way applies here; we are speaking of persons already
married, not about those who are to be married. If, therefore,
you have discovered no reason why the Lord does not forbid
what the Apostle forbids for you are now coming to realize,
I believe, that the reason is not the one you had thought
consider whether the reason be the one, perhaps, which I
thought best to advance at that time and then to defend, so
that we may understand the Lord to be uttering what His
absolutely inviolable justice dictates, that is to say, what He
commands or forbids in such a way that to do otherwise is
absolutely unlawful. But, what he leaves to the authority of
the free individual in such wise, that a person either do it or
omit it lawfully, in this case He gives an opportunity for the
advice of His servants, so that they may urge more strongly
what they will see to be expedient.
(27) In this matter, then, first and foremost, let it be
accepted that unlawful acts are not to be performed. When
some action is lawful in such a way that to act otherwise is
not unlawful, what is expedient or that which is more
expedient ought to be done. What the Lord says as Master,
therefore that is, not in the nature of counsel on the part
of one advising, but in the nature of a command on the part
of one who is master cannot lawfully be left undone, and
is therefore inexpedient. So, the Lord commands: 'The
woman is not to depart from the man, but if she departs,'
ADULTEROUS MARRIAGES 93
for the one reason, at any rate, which makes the departure
lawful, 'to remain unmarried or to be reconciled to her
husband.' 4 Tor the married woman is bound by the Law,
while her husband is alive; and, while her husband is alive,
she will be called an adulteress, if she lives with another
man/ 5 because 'the married woman is bound as long as her
husband lives.' 6 Wherefore, If the wife puts away her hus-
band and marries another, she commits adultery,' 7 and 'He
who marries a woman who has been put away by her husband
commits adultery.' 8 Therefore, we have this same precept of
the Lord: 'Let not a husband put away his wife,' 9 because
'Everyone who puts away his wife, save on account of
immorality, causes her to commit adultery/ 10 But if he put
her away for this reason, even so: let him remain unmarried.
For, 'Everyone who puts away his wife and marries another,
commits adultery.'
Chapter 22
This dicipline, established by the Lord, is to be preserved
without any reservation. Justice, which is of the Lord, imposes
it whether men approve or disapprove. Therefore, it ought
not be said that it is not to be preserved because of scandal
to men, or so that men may not be withheld from the
salvation which is in Christ. For, what Christian would
presume to say: So as not to offend men and to gain men
for Christ, I will cause my wife to commit adultery, so that I
myself may become an adulterer.
(28) For it can happen that, after each Christian has
4 1 Cor. 7.10,11.
5 Rom. 7.2,3.
6 1 Cor. 7.39.
7 Mark 10.12.
8 Luke 16.18.
9 1 Cor. 7.11.
10 Matt. 5.32.
94 SAINT AUGUSTINE
put away his unfaithful wife, he be tempted in such a way
that some woman who has not yet become a Christian, but
is desirous of entering wedlock with him, may promise that
she will become a Christian. She does not promise this falsely,
but she promises that, if she marries him, she will become a
complete Christian. And so the Tempter will be able to
suggest to this man who now refuses to marry: The Lord
said 'Whoever puts away his wife, save on account of im-
morality, and marries another, commits adultery.' 1 But you
who have put your wife away because of immorality will not
commit adultery if you marry another. As the Tempter sug-
gests this, let him, from the depths of his knowledge, answer
that he indeed commits a more serious adultery who marries
another after putting away his wife without the cause of
immorality. But, even he who marries another wife after
putting away an adulterous spouse is not then free from
adultery because he leaves an adulteress. In like manner, he
who marries a woman who is put away without the cause of
immorality commits adultery, but not on that account is that
man free from adultery who marries a woman whom he
finds to be put away without the cause of immorality. And,
therefore, what Matthew has put down somewhat obscurely,
because the whole has been signified by the part, has been
explained by those who expressed the whole in a general way,
just as we read in Mark: 'Whoever puts away his wife and
marries another commits adultery,' 2 and in Luke: 'Everyone
who puts away his wife and marries another commits adul-
tery.' 3 For, they have not said that some who marry others
after putting away their wives commit adultery, and some do
not; but they have said: 'Whoever puts away,' that is,
absolutely everyone, without exception, who puts away his
wife and marries another commits adultery.
1 Matt. 5.32.
2 Mark 10.11.
3 Luke 16.18.
ADULTEROUS MARRIAGES 95
Chapter 23
(29) However, if that Christian makes this reply to the
Tempter in the knowledge that permission has indeed been
granted him to put away an adulteress, but that he may not
remarry, what if the Temptor should say: Commit the sin
so that you may gain for Christ the soul of this woman,
living as it is in the death of unbelief. She is prepared to
become a Christian, if she marries you? What else is the
Christian to say in answer, except that, should he act thus,
he will not be able to avoid the judgment which the Apostle
mentioned, when he says: c As some accused us of teaching,
do evil that a good may come of it? The condemnation of
such is just. 51 How, then, will this woman be able to be
saved in becoming a Christian, since she will commit adultery
along with the man who marries her?
Chapter 24
(30) However, not only must adultery not be committed }
which not a certain one, but everyone, commits who puts away
his wife and marries another, even though he does this for
the purpose of making her a Christian, but also everyone
who is not bound to a wife and has made a vow of continency
ought not to sin under the pretext that he believes he should
marry the woman who seeks to be his wife, because she has
promised to be a Christian. What was lawful to each one
before his vow will not be permitted to him when he has
vowed he will never do it, that is, if he vowed what ought
to have been vowed, such as the vow of perpetual virginity
or continency, either on the part of those who have been
married but are released from the bond of marriage, or on
1 Rom. 3.8.
96 SAINT AUGUSTINE
the part of those who make a vow from mutual consent,
and, remaining faithful and chaste spouses, release each
other from the debt of the flesh. Such a vow is not proper,
if either husband or wife makes it without the other. There-
fore, when men make these vows, or any others which are
vowed most properly, they should on no condition break them,
because these vows were made unconditionally, and because
it is to be understood that the Lord commanded this very
thing where it is read: 'Vow ye, and pay to the Lord, your
God.' 1 Wherefore, the Apostle says in reference to certain
women who vow to practice continence and afterwards wish
to marry, because it was lawful for them to do so before the
vow: 'They are to be condemned, because they have broken
their first troth.' 2
Chapter 25
(31) Therefore, there is nothing which is at the same
time expedient and unlawful, and nothing which the Lord
forbids is lawful But, in these matters, in reference to what
has been left to personal discretion, without any restraining
precept of the Lord, let us heed the Apostle, advising and
counseling in the Holy Spirit that either the better be fastened
upon or that which is not expedient be avoided. Let him
be heard as he says: 'I have no commandment of the Lord,
yet I give an opinion/ 1 and T say, not the Lord.' 2 If a man
would follow the better course, let him listen to this: 'Let
not him who has been freed from his wife seek another; but
if he does take a wife, he does not sin.' 3 Here there is
1 PS. 75.12.
2 1 Tim. 5.12.
1 1 Cor. 7.25.
2 1 Cor. 7.12.
3 1 Cor. 7.27.
ADULTEROUS MARRIAGES 97
advice against a virgin's marrying: 'Therefore, both he who
gives his virgin in marriage does well, and he who does not
give her does better.' 4 Let the woman be happier by remain-
ing as she is, as long as it is within her power after the death
of her husband 'To marry whom she pleases, only let it be
in the Lord. 55 These last words can be understood in two
ways: either that she remains a Christian, or that she marries
a Christian. For, during the era of the revealed New Testa-
ment, I do not recall that either in the Gospel or in any
letters of the Apostles was it stated without ambiguity whether
the Lord forbade Christians to be joined to unbelievers. How-
ever, most blessed Cyprian does not hesitate in this matter
and does not reckon marriage with an unbeliever among
the less serious sins. He also says that it is a prostitution of
the members of Christ to the Gentiles. 6 But, because the
question of those already married is different, let the Apostle
again be heard as he says: 'If any brother has an unbelieving
wife and she consents to live with him, let him not put her
away. And if any woman has an unbelieving husband and
he consents to live with her, let her not put away her hus-
band.' 7 And let him be heeded in such wise that, although it
may be done lawfully, because the Lord makes no mention
of it, still, because it is not expedient, it is not to be done.
The Apostle, as we have pointed out already, most clearly
teaches that not all that is lawful is also expedient. 8 Because
of any kind of fornication whether it be of the flesh or the
spirit, wherein also is understood it is not lawful for a wife
to marry after a husband has been put away, nor is it lawful
for the husband to remarry after his wife has been put away,
because the Lord has left no place for exception, in saying:
4 1 Cor. 7.38.
5 1 Cor. 7.39.
6 Cf. Cyprian, De lapsis (Hartel.) p. 249.
7 1 Cor. 7.12,13.
8 Cf. 1 Cor. 10.23.
98 SAINT AUGUSTINE
'If the wife puts away her husband and marries another,
she commits adultery,' and 'Everyone who puts away his
wife and marries another commits adultery. 3
(32) After this rather paltry treatment and discussion of
mine, I am not ignorant of the fact that the question of
marriage still remains very obscure and involved. Nor dare I
say that either in this work or in any other up to the present
have I explained all its intricacies, or that I am to explain
them now, if urged to do so. In reference to the point,
however, on which you have a mind to consult me in another
letter, I would also take care to explain it separately to you,
if it seemed different to rne than to you. Since, however,
both our opinions are the same, there is, on that account,
no need to discuss the matter further.
Chapter 26
(33) Therefore, if catechumens are at the end of this
life, whether they be stricken by disease or some misfortune,
and if they cannot request baptism for themselves or answer
questions, although they still are alive, let baptism be ad-
ministered to them, because the disposition of their will
toward Christianity has long been known. Let them be
baptized after the manner of infants, whose will, to be sure,
is not yet in evidence. Nevertheless, we ought not to condemn
for this reason those who act more timidly than seems proper
to us, lest we be judged for having desired to judge with too
little foresight, rather than with caution, concerning a treasure
entrusted to a fellow servant. 1 In such matters, adequate
attention must be paid to this statement of the Apostle:
'Each one of us will render an account of himself to God/ 2
1 Cf. Confessions 4.4.8.
2 Rom. 14.12.
ADULTEROUS MARRIAGES 99
Let us not, then, go on to judge each other further. As a
matter of fact, there are men who think that, in these matters
and in others, what \ve read that the Lord said must be
observed, namely: 'Do not give to dogs what is holy, neither
throw your pearls before swine.' 3 Therefore, in deference to
these words of the Saviour, they dare not baptize those who
are unable to answer for themselves, lest, perhaps, the decision
of theirs will be contrary. This cannot be said of children, in
whom there is not as yet the use of reason. However, it is
not alone incredible for a catechumen not to wish to be
baptized at the end of this life, but, even if his will is
uncertain, it is much more satisfactory to give it against his
will than to deny it to him when he desires it. When it is
not clear whether he desires it or not, it is easier to conclude
that, if he could speak, he would more likely say that he
wished to receive those sacraments without which he had
already believed that it was not proper for him to die.
Chapter 27
(34) However, if the Lord, when He says: Do not give
to dogs what is holy/ wished it to be understood as they
think it to be a thing to be guarded against, He would
not have given over to His betrayer what he, unworthy as
he was, received together with the Worthy to his own
destruction, without any fault of the One giving. Wherefore,
when the Lord said this, we must believe that He wished to
signify that unclean hearts do not bear the light of spirtual
understanding. And if a teacher implants something to be
carried away by them, which they receive perversely, because
they do not grasp them, they either lacerate them with words
of censure or crush them with reprobation. For, if the blessed
3 Matt. 7.6.
100 SAINT AUGUSTINE
Apostle says that he has given milk and not solid food to
those who, while they have just been reborn in Christ, are
yet but spiritual children Tor you were not yet ready for
it, nor are you now ready for it' 1 if, accordingly, the Lord
Himself said to the chosen Apostles: 'Many things have I
yet to say to you, but you cannot bear them now,' 2 how much
less can the sordid intellect of the wicked bear what is said of
the incorporeal light?
Chapter 28
(35) But, more fittingly to conclude this exposition with
relation to its beginning, I think that not only those other
catechumens, but also the ones who are joined to living
spouses and persist in adulterous unions although we do
not admit them to baptism when they are sound in body, yet,
if they have fallen critically ill and are not able to answer
for themselves, I say that I think they are to be baptized,
so that even this sin, along with the rest, may be cleansed
by the laver of regeneration. For, who knows whether they
had perhaps decided to persevere in the unlawful pleasure
of an adulterous union until baptism? But if, recovered from
that grave illness, they continue to live, they will do what they
had resolved, or, as they have been taught, they will obey,
or, if they refuse, they will be dealt with as one should deal
with such baptized persons. For, the motive of reconciliation
is the same as that of baptism, if, perchance, the threat of
life's end preoccupies the penitent. Mother Church ought
not to wish them to depart from this life without the gage
of her peace.
1 I Cor. 3.2.
2 John 16.12.
BOOK TWO
Chapter 1
|N ANSWER TO THE LETTER yOU WFOtC me, my holy
brother Pollentius, I had already written in reply a
rather large volume about persons who marry others
while their spouses are still living. When this came to your
Charity and you were pleased, you added a few points to your
original queries, desiring me to answer them, also. Although
I proposed to do this by way of an addition to my previous
book, so that there would be a single book that would
contain this response also, the work I had previously com-
pleted was published without any warning, at the demand
of my brethren who were ignorant that something was still
to be added. Thus it happened that, perforce, I answered
your further questions in another, separate book. However,
your additional questions were placed, not at the end of
your letter, but were interspersed in the body, wherever it
seemed best.
101
102 SAINT AUGUSTINE
Chapter 2
(2) The following words of the Apostle bear on one of
your questions which I think I ought to answer at the
outset : Tor to the rest, I say, not the Lord, that the woman
is not to depart from her husband, and if she departs, that she
is to remain unmarried or be reconciled to her husband. 51
You do not think that the expression 'if she departs' has
been used so as to be understood that she departs from an
unfaithful husband for this reason alone is a departure
lawful you conjecture, rather, that a departure from a
Christian husband is understood; and, therefore, the wife
has been commanded to remain unmarried so that she can be
reconciled to him if he is unwilling to remain continent. This
will prevent her, while unreconciled, from compelling her
husband to commit fornication, that is, to marry another,
while she is still alive. Furthermore, you think that, if she
departs from an unfaithful husband, she is not commanded to
remain unwed, and it is your opinion that, if she wishes
to practice continence, she does, in fact, remain unwed, but
not so as to be considered as violating a precept if she does
marry. This rule you think applies also to the husband, so
that he may not put away his wife, except because of
immorality. Yet, if he does put her away, he is to enter no
other union so that he can be reconciled to his chaste wife
unless, perhaps, she chooses to practice continence lest,
avoiding a reconciliation with a chaste wife, he force her to
commit adultery. This she will do if she does not remain
continent and marries another during his life. You think also
that, if he separates from an adulterous wife, he is not
bound by any precept commanding him to remain continent,
nor is he at all guilty of adultery if he remarries while his
1 1 Cor. 7.12,10,11.
ADULTEROUS MARRIAGES 103
first wife is still living. This you say because of what the
same Apostle says, namely, C A woman is bound as long as her
husband is alive, but if her husband dies, she is free. Let
her marry whom she pleases,' 2 is to be understood, in your
opinion, in such a way that, if a man or woman commits
adultery, he or she is considered to be dead. Therefore, it
is permitted both of them to remarry after the adultery, just
as though after death.
Chapter 3
(3) After considering your interpretation, I ask you
whether everyone is to be considered an adulterer who
marries a woman who is not bound to a husband. I think
that your answer would be no. For C A woman, while her
husband is alive, will be called an adulteress, if she be with
another man,' 1 because e she is bound as long as her husband
is alive.' 2 But, if this bond with her living husband were
dissolved, she would marry another with no accusation of
adultery. Accordingly, if she is bound as long as her husband
lives, she is in no wise said to be freed from this bond except
after the death of her husband. Furthermore, if the death of
either severs the bond between husband and wife, and if
fornication also is equivalent to death, as you say, a woman
will undoubtedly be loosed also from this bond when she
has committed fornication. Nor will one be able to say that
she is bound to her husband, when her husband has been
freed from her. Hence, as soon as she afterwards ceases to be
bound to her husband by reason of her fornication, no one
who marries her will be guilty of adultery.
2 1 Cor. 7.39.
1 Rom. 7.3.
2 1 Cor. 7.39.
104 SAINT AUGUSTINE
Chapter 4
See how absurd it is for him not to be considered an
adulterer, therefore, since he has married an adulteress. Yes,
and what is more unnatural: the woman herself will not be
an adulteress, because she will be to her second husband,
not the wife of someone else, but his own wife. For, since
the bond of her previous marriage has been dissolved through
adultery, no matter whom she now marries, as long as he has
no wife, her second marriage will not be regarded as a union
of two adulterers, but one, rather, between husband and
wife. How will these words be true: C A woman is bound as
long as her husband is alive'? See! Her husband is alive.
He has neither died a physical death, nor committed for-
nication, which you wish to be regarded as death, yet his
wife is not now bound to him. Do not you realize how
contrary this is to the Apostle's words: C A woman is bound
as long as her husband is alive'? Or are you, perhaps, going
to say: As a matter of fact, he is alive, but he is no longer her
husband, because he ceased being her husband at the time
when she dissolved the marriage bond by her adultery? How,
then, these words, 'While her husband is alive, she will be
called an adulteress, if she be with another man,' since he
is not now her husband after the marriage bond has already
been dissolved through the adultery of the woman? For,
during what husband's life, if not her own husband's, will
she be called an adulteress, if she be found with another
man? But, if he has now ceased to be her husband, she
will not be called an adulteress, even if her husband is alive,
and she be with another man. However, not having a hus-
band, she will obtain one through her second marriage. Do
you not perceive how contrary to the Apostle is the opinion
of the one who thinks this way? As a matter of fact, you
yourself do not think this, but it follows from your opinion.
ADULTEROUS MARRIAGES 105
Therefore, if you wish to avoid the consequences, change the
premises. Do not say that an adulterous spouse, whether
husband or wife, should be considered dead.
(4) For these reasons, the accepted teaching is: 'The
woman is bound as long as her husband is alive/ that is to
say, as long as he has not yet departed from the body. Tor
the married woman is bound by the Law, as long as her
husband is alive, 5 that is to say, with body intact. 'If he
dies,' that is, if he departs from the body, 'she is released
from the Law which binds her to her husband. Therefore,
while her husband is alive, she will be called an adulteress,
if she be with another man; but if her husband dies, she is
set free from the law [of her husband] so that she is not an
adulteress, if she has been with another man.' 1 The words of
the Apostle, so often repeated, so often impressed, are true,
living, rational, and unequivocal. The woman begins to be
the wife of no later husband, unless she has ceased to be the
wife of her former one. But, she will cease to be the wife
of the former one, if he should die, and not if he should
commit fornication. As a consequence, a spouse is lawfully
put away because of fornication, but the bond of chastity
remains. For this reason, whoever marries a woman who has
been put away, even for the reason of fornication, incurs the
guilt of adultery.
Chapter 5
Just as a person guilty of some crime is excommunicated,
yet the sacrament of regeneration remains in itself, and the
person does not lack that sacrament even if he should never
be reconciled to God, so does the bond of the marital contract
persist in itself when the wife is dismissed because of for-
nication, and she will not be free from the bond even if she
1 Rom. 7.2,3.
106 SAINT AUGUSTINE
should never be reconciled to her husband. However, she
will be free if her husband dies. Indeed, the guilty person
who has been excommunicated will never, simply for that
reason, be without the sacrament of regeneration, even
though he has not been reconciled, because God never dies.
So it follows that we should not say if we wish to be wise
with the wisdom of the Apostle that the adulterous husband
is to be reckoned as dead, and that, therefore, it is lawful
for his wife to marry another. For, while adultery may be
death, it is not the death of the body; what is worse, it is
the death of the soul. Yet, the Apostle was not speaking of
this second type of death when he said: 'but if the husband
dies, let her marry whom she pleases'; he was speaking of
that death alone which consists in departure from the body.
For, if the marital bond is dissolved by the adultery of
either spouse, this perversity follows, that must be avoided,
as I pointed out above, that the wife also would be freed
from this bond by reason of her unchastity. If she is released,
she will be freed from the law of her husband; therefore, she
will not as it is most foolishly maintained be an adulteress
if she is with another man, because she has been freed from
her former husband by her adultery. But, if this conclusion
is so far removed from the truth that no human I do not
say Christian intelligence will admit it, then, assuredly, 'A
woman is bound, as long as her husband is alive, 3 that is, to
speak more plainly, as long as he is physically alive. The
husband, being subject to the same law, is likewise bound as
long as his wife is physically alive. Wherefore, if he wishes
to dismiss an adulteress, he is not to marry another, lest he
himself commit what he reproaches in her. And so with
the wife. If she puts away her adulterous husband, she is
not to join herself to another husband. She is bound as long
as her husband lives. She is not freed from the law of her
husband, unless he be dead, so that she will not be guilty of
adultery if she has been with another man.
ADULTEROUS MARRIAGES 107
Chapter 6
(5) It appears harsh to you that, after adultery, spouse
should be reconciled to spouse. If faith is present, it will not
be harsh. Why do we still reckon as adulterers those who we
believe have either been cleansed by baptism or have been
healed by penance? Under the Old Law of God, no sacrifices
wiped away these crimes, which, without a doubt, are
cleansed by the Blood of the New Covenant. Therefore, in
former times, it was forbidden in every way to take unto
oneself a woman sullied by another man, although David,
as a figure of the New Testament, took back, without any
hesitation, the daughter of Saul, whom the father of the
same woman had given to another after her separation from
David. 1 But now, afterwards, Christ says to the adulteress:
'Neither will I condemn thee. Go thy way, and from now on
sin no more.' 2 Who fails to understand that it is the duty of
the husband to forgive what he knows the Lord of both has
forgiven, and that he should not now call her an adulteress
whose sin he believes to have been eradicated by the mercy
of God as a result of her penance?
Chapter 7
(6) However, the pagan mind obviously shrinks from
this comparison, so that some men of slight faith, or, rather,
some hostile to true faith, fearing, as I believe, that liberty
to sin with impunity is granted their wives, remove from
their Scriptural texts the account of our Lord's pardon of
the adulteress, as though He who said: 'From now on, sin
no more,' granted permission to sin, or as though the woman
1 Cf. 2 Kings 3.4.
2 John 8.11.
108 SAINT AUGUSTINE
should not have been cured by the Divine Physician by the
remission of that sin, so as not to offend others who are
equally unclean. The ones whom that act of the Lord
displeases are themselves shameless, nor is it chastity that
makes them stern. They belong, rather, to those men of
whom the Lord says: 'Let him who is without sin among
you be the first to cast a stone at her.' 1 But the men, terrified
by their consciences, departed, and they ceased to try Christ
and to vilify the adulteress. These men, on the contrary,
sick as they are, censure the physician, and, themselves adul-
terers, rage at the adulteress. If one were to say to them, not
what they heard: 'Let him who is without sin' for who is
without sin? but: Let him who is without that particular
sin c be the first to cast a stone at her/ then, perhaps, those
who were incensed at the fact that they had not killed the
adulteress will consider how great is the mercy of God which
spares them so that they may live as adulterers.
Chapter 8
(7) When we speak thus to these men, they not only
are not willing to detract at all from their severity, but also
become enraged at the truth. They say in answer: We are
men; will the dignity of our sex sustain this affront, so that
we become like women in paying the penalty for our sins if
we have relations with women other than our own wives?
As if for this very reason, that they are men, they ought not
all the more to bridle their sinful desires, as becomes men;
as though, for the very reason that they are men, they ought
not all the more to offer themselves to their wives as exemplars
of this virtue; as though, for the same reason, they ought not
to be less overcome by lustful desire; and, as though, for the
1 John 8.7.
ADULTEROUS MARRIAGES 109
same reason that they are men, they ought not to be less
servile to their wanton flesh. Yet they become indignant if
they should hear that men, guilty of adultery, pay the same
penalty as adulterous women, although they should be pun-
ished as much more severely as it befits them to surpass the
virtue of their wives and to govern them by their example.
I am definitely speaking to Christians who heed faithfully
the words: 'A husband is head of the wife, 51 whereby they
realize they are to be the leaders; their wives, on the other
hand, followers. Therefore, the husband must avoid entering
upon a path of conduct which he may fear his wife will
follow in imitation. However, there are some who are not
pleased at the fact that, in the matter of chastity, there is a
single norm for both husband and wife. In this matter,
particulary, they would rather.be subject to the standard of
the world than the law of Christ, because civil law does not
seem to restrict men with the same bonds of chastity as it
does women. They should read the decree, passed by the
Emperor Antoninus, who certainly was not a Christian. In
the decree, he did not allow the husband whose conduct did
not furnish an example of chastity to accuse his wife of the
crime of adultery. As a result, both were condemned if the
investigation proved that both were equally unchaste. The
following are the words of the emperor, mentioned above,
as they appear in the Gregorian Code: 'Surely, my letter
will in no way prejudice the case. For, if the blame for the
dissolution of your marriage lies with you, and if it is entirely
your fault that Eupasia, your wife, avails herself of the
privilege of the Julian Law to remarry, she will not be
condemned by my rescript as an adulteress, unless she has
already been proven one. However, the judges must consider
whether you, by your chaste life, have been her inspiration
to also cultivate virtuous habits. It seems to me the height of
1 Eph. 5.23.
110 SAINT AUGU STINE
injustice for a husband to demand of his wife a chastity which
he himself does not practice. This fact may serve to condemn
the husband, also, but it will not serve to conciliate both
parties, or remove the cause of the deed, of the establishment
of the mutual guilt.' 2 If these things are to be observed for
the decorum of the earthly city, how much more chaste are
the men who are sought by the heavenly fatherland and the
company of the angels. Since this is the case, is this proud
and unwarranted boasting on the part of men a lesser, or
rather, a greater and more debased, form of unchastity?
Therefore, let not men be shocked because Christ forgave
the adulteress; let them, rather, realize their own danger,
and let them, struggling as they are with the same disease,
flee with pious supplication to that same Saviour. Let them
acknowledge that they also require what they read was
accomplished in that woman; let them receive the remedy
of their own adulteries; let them now cease to commit adul-
tery; let them praise the forbearance of God shown to them;
let them perform works of penance, receive pardon, and,
finally, let them alter their opinion of the punishment of
women and their own impunity.
Chapter 9
(8) After these matters have been considered and dis-
cussed, if the reflection is made with humility and faith that
for all men there is a common lot, a common evil, a common
danger, a common weakness, and a common salvation, the
reconciliation of the spouses will be neither dishonorable nor
difficult, even after perpetuated and cleansed adulteries, since
the remission of sins is undoubtedly effected by means of the
keys of the kingdom of heaven, not so that after the divorce
2 Ulpiani de adult. 13.3.
ADULTEROUS MARRIAGES 111
of her husband a woman may be called an adulteress, but
so that, after her participation with Christ, she may not be
called an adulteress. Rest assured that not everyone will
follow this counsel. No one compels it, because, perchance,
some law of this world forbids it, according to the manner of
the earthly city, wherein the removal of sin is not reckoned
through the sacred Blood. Therefore, let continence be
undertaken because no law prohibits it. Further adultery
should not be entered upon. But, of what concern is it to
us, if an adulteress, not yet at least cleansed by the mercy
of God, be not reconciled to her husband, as long as no
other so-called marriages which are proven to be adulterous
are attempted by unreconciled adulterers? Tor a woman is
bound, as long as her husband is alive.' 1 As a consequence,
therefore, the husband is also bound, as long as his wife is
alive. This bond renders any further union impossible without
the implication of adultery. Hence, four adulterers are pro-
duced of necessity from the two marriages, whenever the
wife remarries and the husband marries an adulteress. How-
ever, a more infamous adultery is imputed to the one who
remarries after the dismissal of his wife for other than the
cause of fornication. Matthew spoke of this type of adultery.
Such a one is not the only one who commits adultery, but,
as we read in Mark: 'Whoever puts away his wife and
marries another, commits adultery against her; and if the
wife puts away her husband, and marries another, she
commits adultery, 52 and, as we read in Luke: 'Everyone who
puts away his wife and marries another commits adultery;
and he who marries a woman who has been put away from
her husband commits adultery.' 3 Their testimony was suffi-
ciently discussed in my previous book.
1 1 Cor. 7.39.
2 Mark 10.11,12.
3 Luke 16.18.
112 SAINT AUGUSTINE
Chapter 10
(9) However, you answer me: A few can live continently.
Therefore, those who have put away their unfaithful spouses,
because they cannot be reconciled to them, realize that they
endanger themselves only in so far as they proclaim the law
of Christ to be fit for beasts and not for men. My brother,
as far as the incontinent are concerned, they can have many
complaints, among which, you say, they proclaim that the
law of Christ is fit for beasts and not for men. However, we
ought not to pervert or alter the Gospel of Christ on their
account. Certainly, only the complaint of those men who put
away their wives by reason of the intervening cause of
adultery would move you, if otherwise they would not be
permitted to marry, because only a few can practice con-
tinence. These should be urged to do so by the prospect of
glory, not compelled by the Law. Therefore, if there is no
second marriage after the dismissal of the first wife, the
incontinence of men, you think, will have a reasonable com-
plaint. But, take notice of how many cases will arise, when
we must permit adultery to be committed, if we ackowledge
the complaints of these men. What are we to do if the wife
is gripped by some chronic, incurable disease which prevents
her having relations with her husband? Again, suppose they
are separated by captivity or some other calamity, so that
the husband knows his wife is still alive, whose favors are
denied him. Do you think that the mutterings of the in-
continent are to be allowed and that adultery is to be
countenanced? What about this case, when the Lord, upon
being questioned, answered that it ought not to be done, but,
in view of the hardness of their hearts, Moses had permitted
a bill of divorce to be granted and to dismiss a wife for any
reason whatsoever? 1 Does not Christ's law displease the in-
1 Ci Matt. 19.8.
ADULTEROUS MARRIAGES 113
continent, who wish to cast off, through a process of divorce,
wives who are quarrelsome, insulting, domineering, finicky,
and ill-disposed toward rendering the marriage debt, and
wish to marry others? 2 Is Christ's law to be altered at their
discretion, for this reason, because their incontinence has
been in dread of that law?
(10) However, if a wife should leave her husband, or
the husband his wife, not because of immorality, but for
the sake of continence, and if the one should be incontinent
to whom the separation is granted because of this, I ask
whether either the husband or wife will not be an adulterer
if he or she marries another. If either of them will not be, the
Lord is contradicted, for His words are as follows: 'Whoever
puts away his wife, let him give her a written note of
dismissal ! But I say to you that everyone who puts away his
wife, save on account of immorality, causes her to commit
adultery; and he who marries a woman who has been put
away commits adultery.' 3 But look! She has been put away;
she has not put away her husband, but, because it is possible
for only a few to practice continence, she has given in to
her carnal desires and married. Nevertheless, an adulterer
has married an adulteress. Both are party to the act and
both are condemned, that is, the woman who has married
while her husband was still living, and the man who married
a woman whose husband was still living. And are we to say
here that the law of Christ is inhuman by which a woman is
convicted of so great a crime whose husband has put her
away without any previous infidelity on her part and has,
by putting her away, forced her to marry, in so far as it is
possible for only a few to remain continent? Why do we
not say here that whoever prematurely severs the marriage
bond by an unjust dismissal is to be considered as one dead?
2 Cf. 1 Tim. 5.13.
3 Matt. 5.31,32.
114 SAINT AUGUSTINE
Why are you going to say that the husband who, although
an adulterer, has not put away his wife has severed the
marriage bond, and that the one who has put away even a
chaste wife has not broken it? However, I maintain that
this bond remains intact in either case, because the 'woman
is bound as long as her husband is alive.' She is bound
whether he be continent or an adulterer, and, therefore, she
commits adultery who remarries after her dismissal. He also
commits adultery who marries a woman who has been put
away, whether she has been put away by an adulterous or a
continent husband, because 'A woman is bound as long as
her husband is alive. 3 But, now, to mention something about
the complaints of incontinent men. For what seems more
just than the complaint of this woman who says: I have
been put away; I have not put away my husband, and,
because it is possible for only a few to remain continent, I
have not remained so. I have married to avoid committing
fornication, and am I to be called an adulteress because I
have married? Shall we think that, because of the seemingly
warranted complaint of this woman, the divine Law is to be
altered so that we may not judge that woman to be an
adulteress? Heaven forbid! But you will answer: She should
not have been put away, because there was no antecedent
cause of fornication. You would be correct, for the Lord
indicated the sin of her husband when He said: 'Whoever
puts away his wife, save on account of immorality, causes
her to commit adultery.' But has not that woman sinned by
her later marriage for the very reason that her husband
sinned by previously putting her away? What does it avail
her, therefore, incontinent woman that she is, to complain
about the law of Christ, except to be punished as a grumbler.
ADULTEROUS MARRIAGES 115
Chapter 11
(11) And now let us also consider the points that you
added and inserted in another section of your letter. You
looked for an answer from me on those points. When you
are concerned and feel sorry for the man who is constrained
to lie with an adulteress, if not by his incontinence, certainly
by the necessity for procreating children, if it is not permitted
him to so dismiss his wife that he may remarry during her
life in this case, you would be justly concerned if it would
not be adultery to remarry while one's wife is alive, regardless
of how unfaithful she may be. But, if this be adultery, as the
points discussed have indicated, why is the motive of pro-
creating children advanced as a plea? For, not on that
account is license to sin to be permitted. Or, indeed, is death
without heirs to be avoided, just as life hereafter is to be
chosen? This will not be granted to adulterers, for after their
first death they will be condemned to an everlasting second
death. For that motive of begetting children compels women
who are not adulterous, and even those who are most chaste,
to be put away, and other women to be taken, if, perchance,
they be sterile. I do not think that this pleases you.
(12) Wherefore, if adulteries are not to be excused for
the sake of incontinence, how much less are they to be
excused for the sake of procreating children?
Chapter 12
It is that weakness, namely, incontinence, that the Apostle
wished to remedy by the divinity of marriage. He did not
say: If he does not have sons, let him marry, but: e lf he
does not have self-control, let him marry. 51 Indeed, the con-
1 1 Cor. 7.9.
1 16 SAINT AUGUSTINE
cessions to incontinence in marriage are compensated for by
the procreation of children. Incontinence surely is a vice,
although marriage is not. So, through this good, that evil is
rendered pardonable. Since, therefore, the institution of mar-
riage exists for the sake of generation, for this reason did our
forebears enter into the union of wedlock and lawfully take
to themselves their wives, only because of the duty to beget
children. There then was a certain necessity for having
children which does not exist now, because 'the time to
embrace,' 2 as it is written, was in those days, but now is
'the time to refrain from embracing.' Alluding to the present
age, the Apostle says: 'But this I say, brethren, the time is
short; it remains that those who have wives be as if they
had none.' 3 Whence, with perfect conviction, the following
can be said: 'Let him accept it who can, 54 but 'let her marry
who cannot control herself.' In former times, therefore, even
continence was made subordinate to marriage for the sake
of propagating children. Now, the marriage bond is a remedy
for the vice of incontinence, so that children are begotten
by those who do not practice continence, not with a dis-
graceful display of unbridled lust, but through the sanctioned
act of lawfully wedded spouses. Then why did the Apostle
not say: If he does not have sons let him marry? Evidently,
because in this time of refraining from embrace it is not
necessary to beget children. And why has he said: 'If he
cannot control himself, let him marry'? Surely, to prevent
incontinence from constraining him to adultery. If, then, he
practices continence, neither let him marry nor beget children.
However, if he does not control himself, let him enter into
lawful wedlock, so that he may not beget children in disgrace
or avoid having offspring by a more degraded form of inter-
2 Esdras 3.5.
3 1 Cor, 7.29.
4 Matt. 19.12.
ADULTEROUS MARRIAGES 117
course. There are some lawfully wedded couples who resort
to this last, for intercourse, even with one's lawfully wedded
spouse, can take place in an unlawful and shameful manner,
whenever the conception of offspring is avoided. Onan, the
son of Juda, did this very thing, and the Lord slew him on
that account. 5 Therefore, the procreation of children is itself
the primary, natural, legitimate purpose of marriage. Whence
it follows that those who marry because of their inability to
remain continent ought not to so temper their vice that they
preclude the good of marriage, which is the procreation of
children. The Apostle was certainly speaking of the in-
continent where he said: 'I desire, therefore, that younger
widows marry, bear children, rule their households, and
give the adversary no occasion for abusing us. For already
some have turned aside after Satan.' 6 So, when he said: *I
desire that the younger widows marry, 3 he surely gave the
advice to bolster their collapsing self-control. Then, lest
thought be given only to this weakness of carnal desire, which
would only be strengthened by the marital act, while the
good of marriage would be either despised or overlooked, he
immediately added: 'to bear children, rule their households/
In fact, those who choose to remain continent certainly choose
something better than the good of marriage, which is the
procreation of children. Whence, if the choice is continence,
so that something better than the good of marriage is
embraced, how much more closely is it to be guarded so that
adultery may be avoided! For, when the Apostle said: 'But
if they do not have self-control, let them marry, for it is
better to marry than to burn,' 7 he did not say that it is
better to commit adultery than to burn.
5 Cf. Gen. 38.8-10.
6 1 Tim. 5.14,15.
7 1 Cor. 7.9.
118 SAINT AUGUSTINE
Chapter 13
( 13 ) Therefore, there is nothing to which we may exhort
those who fear reconciliation with their adulterous spouses,
who have been healed by their repentance, except to safe-
guard their continence, because A woman is bound as long
as her husband lives,' whether he be adulterous or chaste.
She is guilty of adultery if she remarries. The husband also is
bound as long as his wife lives, whether she be adulterous or
chaste, and he, too, commits adultery if he marries another.
This bond is never dissolved at any time, even if a spouse is
separated by divorce from a chaste partner. Much less is
the bond dissolved if she commits adultery before the separa-
tion. From this we may know that she is freed only by the
death of her husband, whose death is reckoned, not from
his lapse into adultery, but from his departure from the
body. As a result, if the wife leaves her adulterous husband
and does not wish to be reconciled to him, let her remain
unmarried. And if a husband dismisses an adulterous wife
and is unwilling to take her back, even after her repentance,
he must preserve his continence, if not with the desire of
choosing the greater good> certainly from the necessity of
avoiding a deadly evil I would urge this even if the wife
were afflicted with a chronic, incurable disease, and even if
she were physically separated in a place where her husband
could not go to her. Finally, I would urge the practice of
continence even if the wife, in her desire to live continently
although against the general rule, since it is without his
consent would nevertheless dismiss him though both he and
she were chaste. I do not think that any Christian will main-
tain that he is not an adulterer who has had relations with
another woman, in the event that his wife has long been
sick or absent or is desirous of living continently. Therefore,
he is also an adulterer if, after the dismissal of an adulterous
ADULTEROUS MARRIAGES 119
wife, he is found with another woman, because not this or
that man, but 'everyone who puts away his wife and marries
another commits adultery. 51 For this reason, if one free from
the marriage bond strives less to live a saintly life, he is to
fear the punishment of the adulterers, and let his lust be
bridled at least by fear, if continence is not chosen because
of love. For, where there is fear it is toilsome to strive, and
where there was toil there will be love. We must not confide
in our own strength, but prayer must be added to our
endeavors so that He who deters us from evil may fill us
with good.
Chapter 14
(14) Let us also answer your argument wherein you
think that husbands are constrained to punish adulterous
women unmercifully, when they wish them to die, if it is not
permitted them to remarry while their wives are alive. In
your desire to exaggerate this cruelty, you said: 'It does not
seem to me, my most beloved father, that this can be the
mind of God, when kindness and love are excluded. 3 You
say that as though husbands ought to spare their adulterous
wives on the ground that it is lawful for them to marry other
women, so that, if it is not lawful, they would not spare them,
in order that it would become lawful. On the contrary, they
ought to show mercy to their sinful wives so as also to obtain
merciful treatment themselves for their sins. Much more is
this to be done by those who, after the dismissal of their
adulterous wives, desire to live continently. They ought, in
truth, to be as much more merciful as they wish to be holy,
so that in the preservation of chastity in themselves they may
gain divine aid, while they themselves do not avenge in
human fashion the violation of chastity on the part of their
1 Luke 16.18.
120 SAINT AUGUSTINE
wives. These words of the Lord are particulary to be recalled :
'Let him who is without sin be the first to cast a stone at
her. 51 He did not say: who is without that particular sin.
Since we are discussing chaste men, the man who is without
sin 5 if they say that they are without sin, they are deluding
themselves and 'there is no truth in them. 52 If they are not
deluding themselves and there is truth in them, they will not
be savagely harsh. In the knowledge that they are not
without sin, they forgive, in order that they may be granted
forgiveness. Likewise, kindness and love will not be withheld
from them. These are excluded the more if their unbridled
lust, and not pious solicitude, secures pardon for the sins of
their spouses, that is to say, if they pardon them because it is
permitted them to marry others, and not rather because they
also crave the Lord's pardon for themselves.
Chapter 15
(15) It is proper, then, and much more honorable and
worthy of men professing Christianity not to seek the blood
of their adulterous spouses. We quote to them what has been
written: Torgive the injustice of thy neighbor, and then
shall thy sins be forgiven thee, when thou prayest. Man to
man reserveth anger: And doth he seek remedy of God?
He hath no mercy on a man like himself: And doth he
entreat for his own sins? Since he is but flesh, he nourisheth
anger. . . . Who shall obtain pardon for his sins? 51 And the
following is from the Gospel: Torgive and you shall be
forgiven/ 2 so that we can say: Torgive us our debts, as we
1 John 8.7.
2 Cf. John 1.8.
1 Eccle. 28.2,5.
2 Luke 6.37.
ADULTEROUS MARRIAGES 121
also forgive our debtors.' 3 This is from the Apostle: To no
man render evil for evil. 54 We might also quote other passages
in holy Scripture of a like nature, by which the human
spirit, when roused to vengeance, may be mollified, in so far
as it is Christian. How much better it is, I maintain, to
express those sentiments than to say: Merely dismiss your
adulterous wives and do not seek their blood. For, whatever
discomfort you experience as a result of their derelictions
others whom you wed will console you. Not without reason
would you wish to remove them from the ranks of the living
if their lives were to prevent your marrying others. But now,
since it is permitted you, even during their lives, to look
forward to other marriages, why do you wish so strongly to
kill them? If we say this, do you not see how far removed
our counsel is from the spirit of Christianity? We also say
wrongly that something is lawful for them which is not,
namely, that it is lawful to join themselves to others while
their wives are still alive; and, if they spare them for that
reason, they do not spare them because of piety but because
of the complete freedom to remarry. Finally, I ask you
whether it is lawful for a Christian husband to kill an adul-
terous wife according to the old law of God, or according
to Roman Law. If it is lawful, it is better for him to refrain
from either course, that is, both from lawful chastisement,
in case she sins, and from unlawful wedlock, during her life.
But, if he has decided to choose either of the two, it is more
proper for him to have the adulteress punished because it is
lawful than to do what is not lawful, that is, to commit
adultery while she is alive. If, however, to speak more truth-
fully, it is not lawful for a Christian to kill an adulterous
spouse, but only to put her away, who would be so foolish
as to say to him: Do what is lawful, so that what is not
3 Matt. 6.12.
4 Rom. 12.17.
122 SAINT AUGUSTINE
permitted may become lawful for you? Since each action is
unlawful according to the law of Christ, both to kill an
adulteress and to remarry while she lives, one must refrain
from both. One unlawful act must not be done in lieu of
another. The one who intends to do what is unlawful must
commit adultery now and not murder, so that he will remarry
during the life of his spouse and not shed human blood. If
each is a heinous crime, he ought not to commit either in
preference to the other, but should avoid both.
Chapter 16
(16) At this point, I realize what can be said by the
incontinent, namely, that it is evident that the man who puts
away his adulterous wife and permits her to live is, while
his former wife is living, an adulterer all the while and does
not repent fruitfully as long as he does not withdraw from
sin. Also, if he is a catechumen, he is not admitted to baptism,
because he does not turn aside from its impediment. And if
he is persistent in the same evil, he cannot be reconciled as a
penitent. If, however, accusing her of adultery, he kills her,
this sin, since it is over and done with and does not perdure
in him, is absolved in baptism, if the crime has been
committed by a catechumen; if by a baptized person, it is
healed by penance and reconciliation. Are we to say, there-
fore, that that adultery is not adultery which is committed
without doubt, if another wife is taken while the adulterous
spouse is still living? With the exception of this species of
adultery, you surely do not doubt that it is adultery for anyone
to take the wife of a living husband who has been put away
by her husband through a bill of divorce with no infidelity
on her part. What then? When he sees that he is neither
admitted to baptism, if he is a catechumen, and that he is
ADULTEROUS MARRIAGES 123
not usefully performing penance, if he has done this after
being baptized, in not correcting or abandoning what he has
done, if he wishes and is able to kill the man whose wife he
has taken, so that this sin may be cleansed by baptism or
forgiven by penance, that, on the one hand, adultery may
not remain, after the wife has been freed from the law of
her husband once he has died, and, on the other hand, that
satisfaction through penance may be had for the deed
committed, and that it may be blotted out by baptism if
any of these things is done, is the law of Christ therefore to
be accused, as though it compelled the crime of murder,
when it states that it is adultery to marry a woman repudiated
without the crime of fornication?
(17) Here, if we pay too little attention to what we are
discussing, there can be much more serious conclusions than
you yourself have drawn. For, while you wish there to be no
adultery if there is remarriage after the dismissal of adul-
teresses, you have reached the following conclusion : 'Because,
if we maintain that this is adultery, husbands will be con-
strained to kill adulterous wives, whose lives prevent their
marrying others.' And, to magnify the issue, you said: "My
beloved father, it does not seem to me that the mind of
God is expressed where kindness and piety are excluded.'
Then, if anyone, unwilling to believe it to be adultery for a
woman to be taken to wife after she has been repudiated
by her husband without being guilty of adultery, should
discover this also to be contrary to your opinion, because for
that reason men are persuaded to commit murder and to
seek out by any possible trickery and calumny, or accuse of
some actual crime and kill the husbands of the women they
marry after such a repudiation, so that the marriages which
had been adulterous during their life are possible after their
death if anyone, I say, were to find this flaw in your
reasoning, is he not going to say to you, to exaggerate his
1 24 SAINT AUGU STINE
case: It does not seem to me, most beloved father, that the
mind of God can be here, where not only kindness and
devotion are excluded, but where also great malice and
impiety are fostered? Therefore, for husbands to kill their
adulterous wives is much less serious and easier to countenance
than for adulterers to kill husbands. Does it please you that
we cease to defend the Lord's opinion because of this most
fruitless envy, or, what is more, for us to cast aspersions on
it by saying that adultery should not be determined, even
if a woman who has been repudiated for other than the
cause of fornication is joined to another man, so that she
may not be constrained to kill her husband who put her
away, while she desires to convert adultery into marriage
by the death of her former husband? I know that this does
not please you to say that the law of Christ is harsh and
inhumane because of this fruitless envy, when it is found to
be true and reasonable. Thus, you should not feel that it is not
to be considered adultery when a second wife is taken during
the life of an adulterous wife, because a husband can be
forced to kill the adulteress for this reason, while he desires
to be permitted to marry another after her death, if he is
not permitted to do so during her life. Why? Because, if
those who scoff at the Christian faith should also say that
men are compelled to kill, by wicked and insidious means,
their troublesome wives whom they cannot tolerate, whether
because they are afflicted with a chronic illness and are not
able to perform the marriage act, or because they are poor
or sterile or deformed, in hope of taking other wives who
would be healthy, wealthy, fruitful, and exceedingly beautiful,
because it is not permitted them to divorce, save on account
of fornication, those whom they are unwilling to tolerate,
nor to marry others, so that, unhampered by perpetual
adultery, they can be baptized and healed by penance, are
we to say, then, that there is no adultery when they take
ADULTEROUS MARRIAGES 125
other women, after their wives have been divorced for other
than the cause of fornication, so that those foul deeds of
murder may not be perpetrated?
Chapter 17
(18) But now, since it is your opinion that there is no
adultery if a man puts away his wife because of fornication
and takes another, do not you think that care must be
taken that husbands do not learn to force their wives, whom
they cannot bear for numberless other reasons, to commit
adultery, to enable them lawfully, according to your mind, to
remarry after the bond of marriage has been removed from
them through fornication, and also, after they have con-
strained their wives to adultery, to enable them to be cleansed
by baptism or be healed by penance, because both grace and
spiritual remedy will be denied them as long as they live
with adulteresses, if they remarry after they divorce their
former spouses for other than the cause of fornication unless,
perchance, someone may say that no man can cause his
wife to commit adultery if she is chaste. Yet, the Lord says:
'Everyone who puts away his wife, save on account of im-
morality, causes her to commit adultery.' 1 Certainly, while
she remains chaste when with her husband, yet, after she
has been put away, she is constrained by her lack of self-
control to have relations with another man while her former
husband is still alive. And this is to commit adultery. If she
does not do this, her husband compels her to it, as best he
can. God will lay this sin to his account, even though she
remains chaste. But, who does not know how few wives
there are who live so chastely with their husbands that, even
though put away by them, they do not look for others?
1 Matt. 5.32.
126 SAINT AUGUSTINE
Indeed, incomparably greater is the number of women who,
while they cling chastely to their husbands, do not defer
marriage if they have been put away by them. Therefore,
when men lend credence to this saying of the Lord: 'Every-
one who puts away his wife, save on account of immorality,
causes her to commit adultery/ if they believe you who say
that it is lawful for a husband to remarry if his wife is
unfaithful, everyone shall wish to separate for any other
difficulty you may mention from the wife to whom he is
joined prior to his forcing her to commit adultery by putting
her away without any fornication, so that he may then take
a second wife, although she becomes an adulteress by the
marriage, and so that, freed from his former sin by which
he caused her to commit adultery, either by baptism or
penance, he may seem to have the second wife, whom he
has taken after the adultery of the former, as though the
marriage bond had been dissolved thereby. As a matter of
fact, if he contrives to do this, and makes his wife an
adulteress, he himself will likewise be an adulterer by taking
a second wife, even after the adultery of his former spouse.
It will avail him nothing that he has believed you and not
rather Him who said: 'Everyone who puts away his wife
and marries another, commits adultery. 52
Chapter 18
(19) After considering and discussing these points, it
remains for those who receive them faithfully to quote to us
what was said to the Lord in the Gospel: 'If the case of a
man with his wife is so, it is not expedient to marry.' 1 And
2 Luke 16.18.
1 Matt. 19.10.
ADULTEROUS MARRIAGES 127
what are we to answer to them, if not what He Himself
answers? 'Not all accept this teaching; but those to whom
it has been given. For there are eunuchs who were born so
from their mother's womb; and there are eunuchs who were
made so by men; and there are eunuchs who have made
themselves so for the kingdom of heaven's sake. Let him
accept it who can. 32 Therefore, let him who can accept it
accept what not all men do accept. However, they to whom
the hidden, but not unjust, mercy of God offers it can
accept it. And that just mercy is shown all those 'who have
made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake.'
There are some of either sex who have no knowledge of
marital relations; there are others who have had such ex-
perience, but have turned away. Some of these, indeed, have
secured their knowledge of marriage unlawfully; others, law-
fully. Accordingly, among those who have had their ex-
perience in lawful wedlock there are some who have had only
such lawful knowledge of marriage, and others who have
had both lawful and unlawful marital relations. There are
certainly among them some who have had relations only
with their own wives, but there are those who also know
other women as well as any form of immorality you may
mention. But those who make themselves eunuchs for the
kingdom of heaven either lose their spouses through death,
after marital experience, or through their consent, when they
make known their intention to live continently with them,
or through the necessity of separation, lest they commit
adultery in joining themselves to others while their spouses
live. These make themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of
heaven's sake, not so that they can be greater in glory there,
but because they are not able to be there otherwise. For,
those who practice the virtue of continence, not because of
that necessity, but in their quest of the greater good, would
2 Matt. 19.11,12.
1 28 SAINT AUGUSTINE
be able to attain heaven even by the practice of chastity in
their marriage. They would reach heaven, although their
reward would be less. Those who practice continence because
they fear to join themselves to other women while their
former wives are still living should exercise greater care for
their salvation than those have exercised who have chosen
continence in view of a greater reward. Surely they will then
attain heaven, if they are not adulterers. If, on the contrary,
they do not restrain themselves, they will be adulterers,
because, during the lives of their former spouses, they will
cleave, not to other spouses, but to adulterers. And if they
are not in heaven, where will they be, except in the place
where they will not be saved?
Chapter 19
(20) I exhort them, therefore, to do what men should
do, if they have wives who are afflicted with a protracted
disease, or wives who are apart from them in an inaccessible
place or practicing continence with unlawful zeal. When
they have wives who are besmirched with the foul stain of
idultery, and although they be separated from their com-
panions, I urge them for that very reason to treat their
jpouses as they are bound to do in the former instances; and
[ urge them not to seek other marriages, because they will
lot be marriages, but adulterous unions. For, since the
lusband and wife are equal as regards the marriage bond,
iust as 'The wife, while her husband is alive, will be called
in adulteress, if she be with another man,' 1 so will the
lusband also be called an adulterer if, while his wife is
iving, he is with another woman. For, although the adultery
s more serious on the part of the one who puts his wife
Rom, 7.3.
ADULTEROUS MARRIAGES 129
away for other than the cause of fornication and marries
another, 'Everyone who puts away his wife and marries
another commits adultery.' 2 The burden of self-restraint must
not terrify them. It will be lighter if it is Christ's and it will
be Christ's if that faith is present which obtains from the
Lawgiver the grace to do what He has ordained. Let them
not be crushed by the fact that their self-restraint seems to
be forced and not to come from the will, because even
those who have freely chosen it have made it a matter of
necessity, since they cannot deviate from its practice without
condemnation, and those who have been forced into its
practice make it a matter of free choice, providing they do
not rely upon themselves but upon Him from whom is
every good. The former have embarked upon its practice
for the sake of greater glory, in order to come upon something
of greater worth; the others have fled to it with a mind to
their final salvation, lest they perish. Both must persist and
walk unto the end in the path they have entered. Let them
burn with zeal and importune God with their prayers, because
their salvation is to be considered by the former group, so
that they fear to fall away from what their will has fastened
upon, and because the latter are not to lose the hope of
final glory, if they choose to persevere in that which necessity
has thrust upon them. For it can happen that, with God
frightening, exhorting, changing, and flooding them with
grace, the disposition of men may change for the better, and
also that they desire so strongly to live with the greatest
impure and lustful desire that, even if an opportunity for
new marriage is presented, after they have been separated
from their spouses by death, the course, lawfully opened to
them, is closed by a vow, and what began of necessity
becomes perfect through charity. Undoubtedly, these persons
will be repaid in the same manner as those who have either
2 Luke 16.18.
130 SAINT AUGUSTINE
made this vow along with their spouses by mutual consent,
or have chosen continence for the sake of a greater good,
although they were bound to no wife. If, however, they
restrain themselves in such a manner that they are of a
mind to remarry, if those women should die whose lives are
an impediment to marriage, marital chastity assuredly would
be imputed to them, even though they themselves depart
from the body in such a state of continence, for the sake of
which they are not doing anything which they would do, if
it were lawful. To live continently with this intention is, in
fact, too little to receive the reward of that self-restraint which
is freely chosen, but it suffices as a safeguard against
adultery.
Chapter 20
(21) You will remember that I am making these obser-
vations about both sexes, but particulary on account of men
who think themselves superior to women, lest they deem
themselves their equals in the matter of chastity. They should
have taken the lead in chastity, so that their wives would
follow them as their heads. But, since the law forbids adultery,
if weakness of the flesh should be admitted as an excuse for
incontinence, an occasion for losing their souls is offered to
many under the guise of a false impunity. Women also have
flesh, to whom their husbands are unwilling to make some
such allowance., as though it were granted them because
they are men. Never believe that something is owed the
stronger sex as an honor which is detrimental to chastity,
since meet honor is owed to virtue and not to vice. On the
contrary, when they demand such great chastity on the part
of their wives, who assuredly have flesh, so that, when they
go on long journeys away from their wives, they wish them
ADULTEROUS MARRIAGES 131
to pass their glowing youth, untarnished by any adulterous
relations in fact, a great many women pass their days most
virtuously, particulary the women of Syria, whose husbands,
absorbed in business affairs, leave them as young men and
hardly return to their old wives in their advanced age by
the very fact that they pretend that they are unable to
practice continence they prove more clearly that it is not
impossible. For, if the weakness of men could not accomplish
this, much less could the weaker feminine sex.
(22) Wherefore, when we frighten those men who think
virile excellence to be nothing other than license to sin to
prevent their being lost for eternity by reason of their per-
sistence in adulterous marriages, we habitually hold up to
them the restraint of clerics, who, usually against their will,
are constrained to bear this same burden, and, once accepted,
carry it through to its proper end with the help of the Lord.
Therefore, we say to them: Look here! If you were forced
to undergo this by the violence of the people, would you
not chastely carry out your duty, once you had taken it upon
yourself, after you had turned to the Lord to secure the
strength you had never before considered? But they say that
honor affords them the greatest consolation. We answer that
fear should also govern them much more. For, if many of
God's ministers have taken this upon themselves, although it
has been imposed suddenly and unexpectedly, with the hope
that they will shine with greater brightness in the inheritance
of Christ, how much more ought you to live continently,
avoiding adultery, not in the fear that you may shine with
less splendor in the kingdom of God, but fearing lest you
burn in the fiery abyss. This and similar statements we make,
as the opportunity presents itself, to those who, at the de-
parture of their wives in any manner at all, or after their
dismissal because of adultery, wish to remarry, and, when
132 SAINT AUGU STINE
they are forbiden, place before us as an excuse the weakness
of the flesh. Now, this book also must be closed and God be
sought that He either not permit them to be tempted by the
separation of their wives, or else permit it in such a way
that fear for their imperiled salvation may become for them
the occasion of a fuller and more praiseworthy chastity.
(De sancta virginitate)
Translated by
JOHN McQUADE, S.M.
Marist College
Washington, D. C.
INTRODUCTION
IUGUSTINE'S TREATISES,, The Good of Marriage and
Holy Virginity, constitute his answer to the heresy
of Jovinian. 1 This monk, whose early life was
characterized by austerity, gained notoriety during the
pontificate of Pope Siricius (384-398). He left his monastery
in 385 and went to Rome, where he became a scandal to
the Church both by his conduct and his teaching. His
writings are entirely lost. Their contents are known only
through the answers of his opponents. From these we learn
that he centered his attack principally on the practice of
virginity, denying its superiority over marriage, and accusing
the Catholics of Manichaeism in their preference for celibacy. 2
The doctrine met with considerable success. Many monks
and consecrated women were persuaded by Jovinian's specious
reasoning to desert their monasteries and marry. 3 The situ-
ation became grave enough to call for papal action. In 389,
Pope Siricius, in the presence of the Roman clergy, solemnly
1 Cf. Augustine, De haeresibus 82; Jerome, Adv. Jovinianum libri duo,
passim; J. Froget, 'Jovinien/ DTC 8, cols. 1577-80.
2 De nuptiis et cancupiscentiis 2.23.
3 Retract. 2.22.
135
136 SAINT AUGUSTINE
condemned the doctrine of Jovinian, declaring him, together
with eight of his followers, excommunicated for the crimes
of heresy and blasphemy. 4
The renegade monk answered with a series of tracts called
Commentarii or Comment arioli, which Jerome describes in
his own caustic manner: 'Indeed, the barbarity of the writ-
ings is such, and the language, extremely corrupt, is befuddled
with such defects, that I was able to understand neither what
he says nor with what arguments he would prove what he
says.' 5
Finding the opposition in Rome too great, the condemned
men moved to Milan in the hope of continuing their opera-
tions in a locality where they were unknown. This hope was
thwarted by the vigilance of Siricius, who immediately dis-
patched a copy of the condemnation to Ambrose. The latter
convoked a provincial synod. The condemnation was read
and a letter warmly supporting the papal action was penned
by Ambrose and signed by the assembled bishops. 6
Meanwhile, Jerome had received copies of the Commentarii
from friends in Rome, with a request to write a refutation.
He responded in 392 with his two works Against Jovinian
(Adversus Jovinianum libri duo] in which he unleashes the
full fury of his pen against the sophisms of the unhappy
heretic.
This combination of papal authority and capable defenders
of Christian truth quickly broke the power of the heresy as
an organized and open threat to the Church.
St. Augustine says: This heresy was quickly crushed and
extinguished, nor could it succeed in deceiving any priests.' 7
Nevertheless, its effects were still felt when Augustine wrote
4 Cf. letter of Siricius to Ambrose, in Mansi, Sacrorum Conciliorum
nova et amplissima collectio 3, col. 663; PL 13.1168.
5 Adv. Jovinianum 1.1.
6 Cf. reply of Ambrose to Siricius, Ep. 42 (PL 16.1123) .
7 De haer. 82.
HOLY VIRGINITY 137
Holy Virginity, about 401. In the Retractations he gives
us an accurate summary of the circumstances of its com-
position. Deprived of the power to teach publicly, the
heretics still clung tenaciously to their views and continued
to foster them surreptitiously: 'But these contentions of his,
which no one dared to defend openly, had survived in the
prattlings and innuendoes of certain men/ 8
The accusation was made that the champions of virginity
could defend its superiority only by joining company with
the Manichaeans in condemning marriage. Some of Jerome's
expressions regarding married people were open to such a
false interpretation, and his subsequent explanations failed
to dispel the bad impression. 9
It was to meet such continuous sly insinuations of the
heretics that Augustine took up his pen: 'But even the
stealthily creeping poisons had to be fought, especially since
it was boastfully maintained that Jovinian could not be
answered by praising, but only by maligning marriage.' 10
He entered the controversy with The Good of Marriage,
demonstrating in detail its goodness and beauty before estab-
lishing its inferiority to the state of perpetual continence.
The wisdom of this cautious procedure is demonstrated by
the fact that, in spite of his effort to avoid the possibility of
misinterpretation, he was forced subsequently to defend
himself against the charge of Manichaeism. 11
'After I wrote The Good of Marriage, it was expected
that I would write on holy virginity; nor did I delay. And,
in so far as I was able, in a single book, I portrayed that
gift of God, both how great it is, and with what great
humility it is to be guarded.' 12
8 Retract. 2.22.
9 Cf. Jerome, Ep. 48,49.
10 Retract. 2.22,23; De s. virg. 1.
11 Cf. Contra secundam Juliani responsionem imperfectum opus 1.123.
12 Retract. 2.23.
138 SAINT AUGUSTINE
The details furnished by Augustine are helpful in deter-
mining the precise date of the treatise, Holy Virginity. In
the Retractations, The Good of Marriage follows The Work
of Monks, published in 400. Since Augustine assures us that
he lost no time in turning to the praise of virginity, and
since the next work in the Retractations, The Literal In-
terpretation of Genesis, was begun in 401, Holy Virginity
was probably completed in 40 1, 13
The subject of virginity had been dear to the hearts of
Christian writers from the very beginning. Chrysostom,
Ambrose, and Jerome had already made valuable con-
tributions to the stream of Christian thought on this theme. 14
That stream is even more richly endowed as it passes through
Augustine's hands.
His theological insight finds depths of meaning in the
virginal consecration which his predecessors had failed to
fathom. His investigation, moreover, is made with character-
istic breadth of vision. Virginity is viewed, not in isolation,
but in relation to fundamental Christian teachings. We are
enriched with Augustinian thought on a variety of doctrines.
Jovinian's attack on Mary's virginity was a logical step
in the development of his doctrines. It does not seem to
have entered into his original teachings, and is not mentioned
either in the letter of Pope Siricius or by Jerome in Against
Jovinian. 1 * It is, however, listed by Ambrose in the letter of
the Synod of Milan to the Pope, and by Augustine in On
Heresies. 1 *
Since the champions of virginity always pointed to Mary
as the most perfect model of virgins, Jovinian was led, in
13 Cf. ibid. 2.21-24.
H Chrysostom, De virginitate; Ambrose, De virginibus] De virginitate; De
institutidne virginis; Exhortatio virginitatis; Jerome, Adv. Jovinianum.
15 Cf. Adv. Jov. 1, where he lists the errors of Jovinian.
16 Cf. above, notes 6,7.
HOLY VIRGINITY 139
defense of his position, to claim that her virginity was lost
at the birth of Christ.
To this denial we owe one of the richest passages in Holy
Virginity. Chapter 4 could, indeed, form the nucleus for a
treatise on Augustinian Mariology. It includes the following
teaching of Christian tradition: (1) Mary remains per-
petually a virgin, in the conception of Christ, in His birth,
and throughout her life. (2) Mary had made a vow of
virginity. This teaching, found implicitly in Jerome and
Ambrose, is stated explicitly by Augustine. (3) Mary is
spiritually the Mother of Christ's Mystical Body, the Church. 17
She fulfills this function by her union with Him through
charity and obedience in carrying out the will of His
heavenly Father. (4) Mary preserved her virginal integrity,
yet gave physical birth to Christ; the Church, though virginal,
is spiritually the mother of Christ in His members through
baptism; the consecrated virgin, likewise, while preserving her
integrity, has a spiritual motherhood by co-operation with
Christ through charity in bringing souls to eternal life.
The second part of the treatise, the practical exhortation
on the conduct of virgins, rests on the thought taken from
the Apocalypse, 18 that the virgins follow the Lamb wherever
He goes. From this Augustine draws the twofold lesson of
the unique glory of virginity and of the necessity of deep
humility for the preservation of true Christian virginity,
meritorious for heaven. 19
In its style, Holy Virginity bears the imprint both of the
rhetoric of the contemporary schools and of the Christian
Scriptures.
There is hardly a device of the schools that is not used.
The very first sentence exemplifies the flair for circum-
17 Cf. De s. virg. 2-7.
18 Cf. Apoc. 14.2-4
19 Cf. De s. virg. 27-56.
140 SAINT AUGUSTINE
locution so foreign to modern style. At times word is piled
upon word and phrase upon phrase for the cumulative effect.
Member is balanced against member for the purpose of
stressing similarity or contrast of ideas, with due attention
to the effect of the cadence on the ear. Emphasis is produced
by repetition of words or phrases. Metaphor abounds. Ex-
clamation and rhetorical question are mingled in profusion.
The Scriptural influence on Augustine's style is inescapable.
The text is richly sprinkled with direct citations and obvious
allusions, and the very language of the man himself is
evidently colored by his intimate association with the inspired
books. His vocabulary includes a rich treasure of Scriptural
terms. His phraseology is frequently molded after the pattern
of the sacred text. His thoughts, especially in many sections
which approach the oratorical style, seem to flow naturally
into a form of expression akin to that of the Prophecies and
Psalms.
The modern reader, accustomed to a less ornate and less
artificial style, is apt to find Augustine's rhetoric foreign to
his taste. It can be appreciated only through a sympathetic
understanding of the literary heritage which forms its back-
ground and of the tastes of the times in which it was used
by him. In any other form he would not have been re-
presentative of the age which produced him.
On the whole, even for the modern reader Holy Virginity
possesses both power and beauty of style. Aside from a few
complicated sentences, an excessive indulgence in alliteration,
and a preoccuption with parallelism and rhyme, Augustine
displays throughout an artistic reserve in his use of figures.
The form, in most instances, is worthy of the lofty thought
it is meant to convey.
Since style is personal, it would be impossible for the
strong personality of Augustine to be lost in his rhetoric. It
does shine through in all its deep sincerity, charm, and
HOLY VIRGINITY 141
persuasiveness. His keen logic is mingled with his profound
theological penetration. Under the inspiration of his pure
mystical insight and burning love for eternal Truth, many
passages attain a delicacy and beauty of expression that defy
translation or paraphrase.
Augustine's concept is full and rich in its implications.
Without overlooking the element of suppression of self
entailed in the surrender of natural rights and inclinations,
he goes straight to the heart of the mystery of divine grace
which raises the soul to angelic heights. He places the
essence of virginal consecration in the positive element, the
throwing of one's whole being into intimate, loving union
with God, so that He becomes the center of thought and
action.
In this union the soul finds its deepest satisfaction and
noblest self-expression. It achieves a fruitfulness immeasurably
superior to that of carnal generation. Like Mary, like the
Church, it becomes in a special way, in a spiritual way, the
mother of Christ in His members.
The modern mind often tends to miss the deep significance
of consecrated virginity by placing excessive emphasis on
the surrender of natural human affections. Augustine leads
us into the broad realms of traditional Christian thought.
With him we contemplate the virgin, not as one who has
coldly rejected love, but as one who lives in the embrace of
the love of Christ.
HOLY VIRGINITY
Chapter 1
RECENTLY PUBLISHED a book, The Good of Mar-
riage, 1 in which we also admonished and warned
the virgins of Christ that they must not, because of
the superiority of the more perfect gift which they have
received from on high, despise, by comparison with them-
selves, the fathers and mothers 2 of the people of God; and
that, because by divine law continence is preferred to matri-
mony and holy virginity to wedlock, they must not belittle
the worth of those men whom the Apostle praises as the
olive tree, that the ingrafted wild olive may not boast; 3 who,
1 DC bono coniugali.
2 The patriarchs and holy women of the Old Testament, through whom
the Jewish race was propagated.
3 Cf. Rom, 11.16-22. St. Paul pictures the Church as an olive tree with
its roots anchored deeply in Judaism, thus preserving an organic unity
between the Old and the New Dispensations. The full -developed tree
is the Church herself. The root and stem are the patriarchs. The many
branches are the various members of the Church, some of whom
(those of Jewish descent) belong to her by natural growth, while
others (the Gentile Christians) have been grafted from wild stock.
These latter should preserve a humble respect for the natural branches,
and especially for the root and stem; for it is only by being grafted
into the stem that the wild branches share in the life of the tree. Cf.
Sermtfnes 77.10; 20L2; 203.3; 218.7; also, Fernand Prat, S. J., The
Theology of Saint Paul, trans. John L. Stoddard (New York 1927) 2
275-276. St. Augustine here makes particular application of the analogy
in defense of the sacred character of the conjugal life as practiced by
the patriarchs.
143
144 SAINT AUGUSTINE
by the very begetting of children, served the Christ who was
to come.
In them, indeed, were prepared and brought to term those
future events which we now behold marvelously and ef-
ficaciously fulfilled, of which their conjugal life was, in fact,
prophetic. 4 Wherefore, not after the manner of human vows
and pleasures, but by the most profound design of God, in
some of them fecundity deserved to be honored, 5 in others
sterility even merited to become rendered fruitful. 6
At the present time, however, those to whom it is said:
If they do not have self control, let them marry/ 7 are not
to be exhorted, but consoled; but those to whom it is said:
'Let him accept it who can,' 8 are to be exhorted lest they be
frightened, and to be frightened lest they be proud. Therefore,
virginity must not only be praised that it may be loved, but
also admonished that it may not be puffed up.
4 Cf. Contra Faustum 22.24: 'Not only the speech of these men, but
their life also was prophetic. ... So, as regards those [Hebrews] who
were then made wise of heart in the wisdom of God, ... a prophecy
of the coming of Christ and of the Church ought to be discovered both
in what they said and in what they did.' It was especially in their
conjugal life that they typified the marvelous mysteries that would be
revealed in Christ and in His Church. Cf., above, De bono coniugali
16; 19-23. The patriarchs typified Christ. Their marriage typified His
union with the Church. Cf. Contra Faustum 22.38. Their numerous off-
spring, constituting the chosen people, typified the multitudes who
would be born to the faith through the mystical union of Christ with
His Spouse, the Church. Cf. Contra Faustum 22.57 et passim; Sermo
213.7. Even in the practice of polygamy among the patriarchs St.
Augustine finds something prophetic; cf. above, De bono coniugali 18.
5 Cf. Gen. 12.2.; 26.4; 35.11.
6 Cf. Gen. 18.10; 25.21; 30.22.24.
7 1 Cor. 7.9.
8 Matt. 19.12.
HOLY VIRGINITY 145
Chapter 2
(2) That is what we have undertaken in this treatise.
May Christ, the Son of a virgin and Spouse of virgins, born
bodily from a virginal womb, wed spiritually by a virginal
espousal, help us.
Since, therefore, the whole Church is espoused as a virgin
to one man, Christ, as the Apostle says, 1 how great honor
her members deserve who preserve in their very flesh this
which the whole Church, imitating the Mother of her Spouse
and Lord, preserves in the faith. The Church, too, is both
mother and virgin. 2 For, about whose integrity are we
solicitous if she is not a virgin? Or of whose progeny do we
speak if she is not a mother?
Mary bore the Head of this body in the flesh; the Church
bears the members of that Head in the spirit. In neither
does virginity impede fecundity; in neither does fecundity
destroy virginity.
Therefore, since the whole Church is holy, both in body
and in spirit, yet is not exclusively a virgin in body, but only
in spirit, how much more holy is she in those members where
she is a virgin both in body and in spirit.
Chapter 3
(3 ) It is written in the Gospel that when the Mother and
brethren of Christ, that is, His relatives according to the
flesh, were announced to Him, and were waiting outside
because they could not get near Him for the crowd, He
answered: c "Who is my mother, or who are my brethren?"
1 2 Cor. 11.2; also, Eph. 5.27-32; Apoc. 21.9; 22.17; Matt. 9.15; 25.1-13.
St. Augustine explains more fully in his commentary on the marriage
feast at Cana (In Joannis Evangelium 8.4) .
2 St. Augustine places the virginity of the Church in her integrity of
faith, hope, and charity; cf. De bano viduitatis 10.
146 SAINT AUGUSTINE
Stretching forth His hand over His disciples, He said: 'These
are my brethren; and whoever does the will of my Father,
he is my brother and mother and sister." n What else was
He teaching us except to prefer our spiritual kinship to carnal
affinity, and that men are not blessed by being connected with
just and holy people through blood relationship, but by
being united to them through obedience to their teaching
and imitation of their life?
Thus, Mary was more blessed in accepting the faith of
Christ than in conceiving the flesh of Christ. 2 For, to someone
who said : 'Blessed is the womb that bore Thee/ He replied :
'Rather, blessed are they who hear the word of God and
keep it. 33
Finally, for His brethren, that is, His relatives according
to the flesh, who did not believe in Him, of what advantage
was that relationship? So, even her maternal relationship
would have done Mary no good unless she had borne Christ
more happily in her heart than in her flesh.
Chapter 4
(4) Indeed, her virginity was itself more beautiful and
more pleasing, because Christ, in His conception, did not
Himself take away that which He was preserving from
violation by man; but, before He was conceived He chose
one already consecrated to God of whom He would be born. 1
1 Matt. 12.48-50; also, In Joan. 10.3.
2 Cf. In Joan. 10.3; Centra Faustum 29.4; De peccatorum meritis el
remissione 2.24; Sermones 69.3; 196.1; 233.3.
3 Luke 11.27,28.
1 Here St. Augustine summarizes the belief in the perpetual virginity of
Mary. With St. Ambrose he champions the Catholic doctrine that she
was a virgin, not only in the conception of Christ, but also in His
birth, and that she remained virginal throughout her life in fulfillment
of the vow made to God previous to her marriage. Cf. Enchiridion 34;
De bono vid. 10; Centra Faustum 29.4; Sermones 69.3; 1103' 1841-
191.1; 196.1; 213.7; 215.3; 233.3; et passim.
HOLY VIRGINITY 147
The words which Mary addressed to the angel who
announced her Child to her indicate this. 'How shall this
happen/ she asked, 'since I do not know man?' 2 And this
she would certainly not have said unless she had previously
vowed herself to God as a virgin. But, because the customs
of the Jews as yet forbade this, 3 she was espoused to a just
man; not to one who would ravage by violence, but to one
who would protect against violent men that which she had
already vowed.
Although, even if she had only said: 'How shall this
happen?' and had not added 'since I do not know man,' she
would never have asked at all how a woman was to bear
the son promised to her if she had married with the intention
of cohabiting.
Again, she could have been commanded to remain a virgin
in whom the Son of God would, by a fitting miracle, take
upon Himself the nature of a slave, 4 but, in order to be a
model for holy virgins, lest it be thought that only she ought
to be a virgin who had merited to conceive a child even
without carnal intercourse, she consecrated her virginity to
God while she was still ignorant of what she would conceive,
so that the imitation of the heavenly life in her earthly and
mortal body might come about by vow, not by precept, by
a love of her own choice, not by the compulsion of obedience.
Thus, Christ, in being born of a virgin who, before she
knew who was to be born of her, had resolved to remain a
virgin, chose rather to approve holy virginity than to impose
it. So, even in that woman in whom He took upon Himself
the nature of a slave, He desired virginity to be free.
2 Luke 1.34.
3 Perpetual virginity was not unknown among the Jews. The sect of the
Essenes demanded absolute continence of its members. However, since
the great glory of the race lay in the propagation of the people of
God and in providing the carnal generation of the Messias, marriage
and parenthood were more highly esteemed than virginity. Cf. De
sancta virginitate 1, 9; De bono coniugali 19; De bono vid. 7.
4 Cf. Phil. 2.7.
1 48 SAINT AUGU STINE
Chapter 5
(5) There is no reason, therefore, why the virgins of God
should be troubled because they cannot likewise, while
preserving their virginity, be mothers in the flesh. For, vir-
ginity could appropriately bear Him alone who in His birth
could not have an equal.
Nevertheless, the Child of the one holy Virgin is the
glory of all holy virgins, and they, together with Mary, are
the mothers of Christ if they do the will of the Father. On
this account Mary herself is more praiseworthily and more
happily the Mother of Christ, according to His saying
mentioned above: 'Whoever does the will of my Father in
heaven, he is my brother and sister and mother.' 1
All these relationships to Himself He manifests spiritually
in the people whom He has redeemed. He regards holy men
and women as His brothers and sisters because they are
co-heirs 2 with Him in the inheritance of heaven. The whole
Church is His mother, because she most truly brings forth
His members, that is, His faithful, through the grace of God,
Every holy soul who carries out the will of His Father is
likewise His mother by a most fruitful charity toward those
for whom it is in labor until He be formed in them. 3 Mary,
therefore, in fulfilling the will of God, is merely the Mother
of Christ in the body, but both Sister and Mother in the
spirit.
1 Matt. 12.50.
2 Cf. Rom. 8.17.
3 Cf. Gal. 4.19.
HOLY VIRGINITY 149
Chapter 6
(6) That one woman, therefore, is both Mother and
Virgin, not only in spirit, but also in body. She is mother,
indeed, in the spirit, not of our Head, who is our Saviour
Himself, of whom she was rather born spiritually, since all
who believe in Him (among whom she, too, is included) are
rightly called children of the bridegroom, 1 but she is evidently
the mother 2 of us who are His members, because she has
co-operated by charity that the faithful, who are members
of that Head, might be born in the Church. Indeed, she
is Mother of the Head Himself in the body.
It behooved our Head to be born of a virgin according
to the flesh, for the sake of a wonderful miracle by which
He might signify that His members would be born according
to the spirit, of a virgin, the Church. 3
Mary alone, therefore, is mother and virgin both in spirit
and in body, both Mother of Christ and Virgin of Christ.
The Church, on the other hand, in the saints who are to
possess the kingdom of God, is indeed wholly the mother of
Christ, wholly the virgin of Christ in spirit; in the body,
however, not as a whole, but in some she is a virgin of
Christ, in others a mother, although not Christ's mother.
Both married women of the faith and virgins consecrated
to God, by holy lives and by charity 'from a pure heart and
a good conscience and faith unfeigned/ 4 are spiritually the
mothers of Christ because they do the will of His Father.
But those who, in married life, give physical birth bring
forth not Christ, but Adam; 5 and they therefore hasten that
1 Cf. Matt. 9.15.
2 For a detailed treatment of Mary's universal Motherhood cf. M. J.
Scheeben, Mariology (1947) 2 245-246 el passim.
3 Cf. also, Sermones 189.4; 192.2; 213.7.
4 1 Tim. 1.5.
5 I.e., having the stain of original sin. Cf. 1 Cor. 15.22. Cf. De peccatorum
meritis et remissione, passim] Ep. 166 (ad Hier.) , passim.
150 SAINT AUGUSTINE
their offspring may be initiated into the sacraments, 6 and
may become members of Christ, for they know what they
have borne.
Chapter 7
(7) I have said this lest, perhaps, conjugal fecundity
might dare to quarrel with virginal integrity, and adduce
Mary herself, and say to the virgins of God: 'She possessed
in her body two things deserving of honor: virginity and
fecundity, since she remained inviolate and yet conceived. As
we could not each possess this boon in its entirety, we have
divided it, so that you are virgins, we are mothers. Let the
preservation of your virginity console your lack of progeny,
and let our loss of virginal integrity be compensated for by
the reward of children/
This claim of the faithful who are married ought to be
brought in some way or other against consecrated virgins if
those whom they brought forth in the body were Christians,
so that Mary's fecundity of the flesh, apart from her virginity,
would be superior only in this, that she brought forth the
Head itself of these members, whereas they would bring
forth the members of that Head. But now, even though
they argue in this fashion who are united and cohabit with
their husbands for the sole purpose of having children, and
who have no other concern for their children than that they
6 Infant baptism was the common custom in the Church at this time;
St. Augustine defends the practice as of apostolic origin in Ep. 166.7.21,
8.23; cf. De peccatorum mentis et retnissione 3.5.10; 13.22. His use of
the plural, 'sacraments/ can be understood as referring merely to
baptism as the gateway to the others, or as indicating his familiarity
with the custom of admitting infants to confirmation and Holy
Eucharist immediately after baptism. Cf. Sermo 174.6.7; Ep. 98.4;
Contra Julianum opus imperfectum 2.30; also, Innocent I,- Ep. 25 (ad
Decentium) 6, DB 98; G. Bareille, 'Bapteme d'apres les peres grecs et
latins/ DTC 3 col. 215; H. Leclercq, 'Communion des enfants/ DACL
3 cols. 2440-2442.
HOLY VIRGINITY 151
may gain them for Christ, and who see to this as soon as
they are able, those born of their flesh are not Christians,
but become such afterwards through the motherhood of the
Church, inasmuch as she is spiritually the mother of Christ's
members, as she is also spiritually His virgin.
In this holy birth the mothers also co-operate who have
brought forth non-Christians in the body, that these may
become what they know they could not bring forth in the
body. Yet they co-operate through this hi which they are
also both virgins and mothers of Christ, namely, in faith
'which works through charity.' 1
Chapter 8
(8) No fecundity of the flesh, therefore, can be compared
with holy virginity, even of the flesh. Even this itself is not
honored because it is virginity, but because it is consecrated
to God; although it is preserved in the flesh, it is nevertheless
preserved by religion and devotion of soul. Therefore, even
bodily virginity, which a loving chastity vows and preserves,
is spiritual. For, just as no one uses the body impurely
except through wickedness already conceived in the spirit, so
no one preserves purity of body except through chastity
already rooted in the spirit.
Moreover, if conjugal chastity, although it is preserved in
the flesh, is nevertheless attributed not to the flesh, but to the
soul, under whose command and direction the flesh itself is
used in no other except its own proper union, how much
the more, and how much the more honorably, is that
continence to be numbered among the goods of the soul by
which integrity of body is vowed, consecrated, and preserved
for the Creator Himself of the soul and of the body.
1 Gal. 5.6.
152 SAINT AUGUSTINE
Chapter 9
(9) So, the physical fecundity, even of those who at the
present time desire nothing in marriage except children whom
they may hand over to Christ, must not be thought capable
of making up for the loss of virginity. In former times, it is
true, carnal generation in a certain numerous and prophetic
nation was itself necessary for the coming of Christ in the
flesh. 1 Now, however, since the members of Christ can be
gathered from every race of men and from all nations into
the people of God and the city of the kingdom of heaven,
'let her accept it who can 52 accept holy virginity, and let
only her who does not have self-control marry. 3
What if some rich woman devote a large sum of money
to the good work of ransoming slaves from various nations
and making Christians will she not provide more fruitfully
and more abundantly for the begetting of Christ's members
than by the very greatest fruitfulness of the womb? Yet,
she will not presume on that account to compare her money
with the gift of consecrated virginity. But, if fecundity of the
flesh shall compensate fully for the loss of virginity because
it makes Christians of those who are born, this will be a
more profitable exchange, to surrender virginity for a large
sum of money with which many more children might be
purchased to be made Christians than would be born of
one womb, no matter how fertile.
1 Cf. above, De bono coniugali 9.
2 Cf. Matt. 19.12.
3 Cf. 1 Cor. 7.9.
HOLY VIRGINITY 153
Chapter 10
If it is the height of foolishness to say this, let the married
faithful have their blessing, which we discussed in so far as
seemed necessary in another book; 1 and let them honor more
highly in consecrated virgins (as they have been most rightly
accustomed to do) their greater blessing, which we are
discussing in this treatise.
(10) Married people ought not to claim a share in the
merits of the continent even from the fact that virgins have
their birth from them; this is not the blessing of marriage,
but of nature, which is so constituted by God that the
daughter born of any human union of both sexes, whether
lawful and good or base and illicit, must be a virgin. But
no woman is born a consecrated virgin. So it is that a virgin
is born even of fornication, but a consecrated virgin not
even of wedlock.
Chapter 11
(11) So, we do not praise in virgins the fact that they
are virgins, but that they are virgins dedicated to God by
holy chastity. A married woman seems more blessed to me
(and I am not rash in saying it) than a virgin who intends
to marry, because the former already possesses what the
latter still desires, especially if she is not even betrothed to
anyone. The former strives to please one man to whom she
has been given; the latter, many, not knowing to whom she
will be given. In this alone she protects her purity of thought
against the multitude, that she seeks not an adulterer, but a
husband from the multitude.
That virgin, therefore, is rightly preferred to the married
woman, who neither places herself before the multitude to
1 De bono coniugali.
154 SAINT AUGUSTINE
be loved, while she is seeking the love of one out of the
multitude, nor unites herself to one already found, concerned
with 'the things of the world' how she may please her
husband/ 1 but who so loves Him who is 'beautiful above
the sons of men 3 - that, since she cannot, like Mary, conceive
Him in the flesh, she preserves even her body intact for
Him who has been conceived in her heart.
Chapter 12
No corporal fecundity has brought forth this race of
virgins; they are not the offspring of flesh and blood. If
their mother is sought, she is the Church. No one brings
forth consecrated virgins except a consecrated virgin, she
who has been betrothed to be presented undefiled to one
Spouse, Christ. 1 Of her, not wholly virginal in body, but
wholly virginal in spirit, are born holy virgins, both in body
and in spirit.
(12) Let spouses have their blessing, not because they
beget children, but because they beget them honorably and
lawfully and chastely and for society, and bring up their
offspring rightly, wholesomely, and with perseverance; be-
cause they keep conjugal fidelity with each other; because
they do not desecrate the sacrament 2 of matrimony.
1 1 Cor. 7.34.
2 Ps. 44.3.
1 Cf. 2 Cor. 11. 2.
2 St. Augustine sometimes uses the term 'sacrament' in a wide sense for
any sacred symbol. Here, however, he employs the term in the strict
sense, as it later came to be used exclusively for the seven sacraments.
HOLY VIRGINITY 1 55
Chapter 13
These, however, are all duties of a human office, but
virginal integrity and freedom from all carnal relation through
holy chastity is an angelic lot, and a foretaste in the corruptible
flesh of perpetual incorruption. Let all carnal fecundity and
all conjugal chastity bow to this. The former is not within
one's own power, the latter is not found in eternity; free
choice does not control carnal fecundity, heaven does not
contain conjugal chastity. 1 Certainly they shall possess some-
thing greater than others in that common immortality, who
in the flesh already possess something not of the flesh.
(13) They are amazingly foolish, therefore, who think
that the perfection of this continence is necessary, not because
of the kingdom of heaven, but because of the present life,
that is, because married people are distraught by so many
urgent worldly cares, while virgins and celibates are freed
from such affliction; as though it were better not to marry
for this reason alone, that the cares of this life may be
lightened, not because continence is of value for the future
life.
Lest they seem to have conceived this foolish opinion from
their own foolishness of heart, they allege proof from the
Apostle, where he says: c Now concerning virgins I have no
commandment of the Lord, yet I give a counsel, 2 as one
having obtained mercy from God to be trustworthy. I think,
then, that this is good on account of the present distress that
it is good for a man to remain as he is.' 3
'Notice/ they say, 'where the Apostle teaches that this is
good because of the present distress, not because of future
1 Cf. Matt. 22.30.
2 The Confraternity edition of the New Testament renders consilium by
'opinion.'
3 1 Cor. 7.25,26.
156 SAINT AUGU STINE
eternity. 5 As though the Apostle would take account of the
present distress except to provide and counsel for the future,
when his whole teaching is directed only to eternal life!
Chapter 14
(14) The present distress should be avoided, therefore,
but for this reason, that it hinders some of our future rewards.
By this distress conjugal life is forced to be concerned about
the things of the world: the husband how he may please
his wife, and the wife how she may please her husband.
Not that these things exclude from the kingdom of God, as
do sins, which are therefore forbidden by precept, and not
by counsel, because to disobey a commandment of the Lord
is deserving of damnation, but what would be more fully
possessed within the kingdom of God if more thought were
given to the manner of pleasing God shall certainly be less
when this itself is given less thought due to the cares of
marriage. 1
Therefore, 'Concerning virgins/ he says, 'I have no com-
mandment of the Lord. 5 Whoever disobeys a commandment
is a criminal, and subject to punishment. Hence, because it
is no sin to take a wife and to marry (for if it were a sin
it would be forbidden by precept), therefore there is no
commandment of the Lord concerning virgins. Since eternal
life is to be reached by avoiding sins or by having them
forgiven, and in it a special glory is to be given, not to all
who shall live forever, but to certain ones, and since to
obtain this it is not enough to be freed from sins, but
something must be vowed to the Deliverer Himself which
it would not be wrong to have left unvowed, but to have
vowed and to have rendered is worthy of praise, he adds:
1 Cf. above, De bono coniugali 11.13.
HOLY VIRGINITY 157
' "I give a counsel, as one having obtained mercy to be
trustworthy;" for I must not jealously withhold the trust-
worthy counsel, who am trustworthy, not by my own merits,
but by the mercy of God. "Therefore, I think that this is
good on account of the present distress." ' 2
The thing,' he says, 'about which I do not have a
commandment of the Lord but give a counsel, is this : "Con-
cerning virgins, ... I think that this is good on account
of the present distress." For I know the character of the
present time, to which married people are subject. Necessity
compels them to think less of the things of God than is
necessary to secure that glory which will not be the lot of
all, even though they dwell in eternal life and salvation. "For
star differs from star in glory. So also with the resurrection
of the dead." 3 Therefore, "it is good for a man to remain
as he is." ' 4
Chapter 15
(15) Then the same Apostle goes on to say: 'Art thou
bound to a wife? Do not seek to be freed. Art thou freed
from a wife? Do not seek a wife.' 1
The first of these two things which he lays down is in the
nature of precept, against which it is not lawful to act. For
it is not lawful to put away one's wife except because of
fornication, as our Lord Himself says in the Gospel. 2 But,
what he adds: 'Art thou freed from a wife? Do not seek a
wife,' is the statement of a counsel, not of a precept;
therefore, it is lawful to do it, but it is better not to do it.
2 1 Cor. 7.25,26.
3 1 Cor. 15.41,42.
4 1 Cor. 7.26.
1 1 Cor. 7.27.
2 Cf. Matt. 19.9.
158 SAINT AUGUSTINE
Moreover, he immediately adds: 'But if thou takest a wife,
thou hast not sinned. And if a virgin marries, she has not
sinned.' 3
But when, in the first place, he said this: 'Art thou
bound to a wife? Do not seek to be freed/ did he add:
c and if thou dost free thyself, thou hast not sinned 3 ? He had
already said above: 'But to those who are married, not I,
but the Lord commands that a wife is not to depart from
her husband, and if she departs, that she is to remain
unmarried or be reconciled to her husband. 54 (For it can
happen that she departs, not through her own fault, but
through that of her husband.)
Then he says: 'And let not a husband put away his wife/ 5
which he laid down no less by the command of the Lord.
Nor did he there add: 'And if he does put her away, he
does not sin. 5 For this is a precept, and disobedience to it
is a sin; not a counsel by refusing to follow which you will
choose a lesser good, but will not do anything wrong.
Therefore, after he had said: 'Art thou freed from a wife?
Do not seek a wife/ 6 because he was not commanding that
an evil thing should not be done, but counseling that some-
thing better be done, he immediately added: 'And if thou
takest a wife, thou hast not sinned. And if a virgin marries,
she has not sinned/
Chapter 16
(16) However, he added: 'Yet such will have tribulation
of the flesh. But I spare you that/ 1 in this manner exhorting
3 1 Cor. 7.28.
4 1 Cor. 7.10,11.
5 1 Cor. 7.1L
6 1 Cor. 7.27,28.
1 1 Cor. 7.28.
HOLY VIRGINITY 159
to perpetual virginity and continence, even to the extent of
discouraging a little from marriage, moderately, indeed, not
as from something evil and illicit, but as from something
burdensome and difficult.
It is one thing to engage in carnal vice; another, to have
tribulation of the flesh. To do the former is a sin; to bear
the latter is a hardship; and men, for the most part, do
not shirk hardship, even for the sake of the most honorable
positions.
But it would be very foolish, for the sake of enjoying
marriage even at the present time, when the coming of
Christ is not served through carnal generation by the very
begetting of children, to take upon oneself the burden of this
tribulation of the flesh which the Apostle predicts for those
who marry unless those who cannot remain continent feared
that under the temptation of Satan they would fall into
sins leading to damnation.
When he remarks, however, that he is sparing those who
he says will have tribulation of the flesh, nothing seems more
certain to me than that he was unwilling to reveal and
explain in words that same tribulation of the flesh which
he had predicted for those who choose marriage, in the
suspicions of marital jealousy, in the bearing and raising of
children, in the fears and anguish of bereavement. For, what
man is there who, when he has bound himself by the bonds
of wedlock, is not torn and harassed by these emotions?
Yet, we must not exaggerate them, lest we might fail to
spare those who the Apostle thought ought to be spared.
Chapter 17
(17) Merely from what I have briefly set forth, the
reader ought to have been put on his guard against those
160 SAINT AUGUSTINE
who, from what was written: 'Such will have tribulation of
the flesh. But I spare you that/ falsely charge against marriage
that this pronouncement implicitly condemns it, as though he
were unwilling to pronounce the condemnation itself when
he said: 'But I spare you that'; so that, as a matter of fact,
while he spares them, he did not spare his own soul, if he
lied in saying: 'And if thou takest a wife, thou hast not
sinned. And if a virgin marries, she has not sinned.'
Those who believe this, or would have it believed, con-
cerning the sacred Scripture, as though they are paving the
way for themselves for freedom to lie or for the defense of
their erroneous opinion, hold a view altogether opposed to
what sound teaching demands.
For, if something clear shall be adduced from the divine
books by which their errors are refuted, they keep this at
hand like a shield with which, as if defending themselves
against the truth, they expose themselves to be wounded by
the Devil in order to claim that the author of the book
spoke this falsehood, now that he might spare the weak,
and again that he might frighten the contemptuous, just as
the occasion demands when their erroneous teaching is being
defended.
And thus, while they prefer to uphold rather than to
correct their opinions, they attempt to break the authority
of the Holy Scriptures, by which, single-handedj all proud
and obdurate necks are broken.
Chapter 18
(18) Wherefore, I admonish the men and women who
have embraced perpetual continence and sacred virginity to
prefer their blessing to marriage in such a way that they
may not consider marriage an evil, and may acknowledge
HOLY VIRGINITY 161
that it was not said falsely, but in all truth, by the Apostle:
'He who gives his virgin in marriage does well, and he who
does not give her does better. 1 . . . And if thou takest a
wife, thou hast not sinned. And if a virgin marries, she has
not sinned'; and a little further on: c But she will be more
blessed, in my judgment, if she remains as she is. 3 And, lest
it should be regarded as a human judgment, he adds: 'And
I think that I also have the spirit of God.' 2
This is the teaching of the Lord, the teaching of the
Apostle, the true teaching, the sound teaching: so to choose
the greater gifts as not to condemn the lesser. The truth of
God in the Scripture of God is better than virginity in the
mind or in the flesh of any man.
Let what is chaste be so loved that what is true be not
denied. For, what evil are they not capable of thinking,
even concerning their own flesh, who believe that the tongue
of the Apostle, in the very place where it was commending
virginity of the body, was itself defiled by the corruption
of falsehood?
In the first place, therefore, and above all, let those who
choose the blessing of virginity believe with the utmost stead-
fastness that the holy Scriptures contain no falsehood, and
that, therefore, this saying is also true: 'And if thou takest
a wife thou hast not sinned. And if a virgin marries, she has
not sinned.' And let them not think that so great a blessing
of integrity is diminished if marriage shall not be evil. Nay,
more, let her rather be confident that a palm of greater
glory has been prepared for her who did not fear to be
condemned if she married, but who aspired to be more
honorably crowned for not marrying.
Wherefore, let not those who have chosen to remain
unmarried flee marriage as a pitfall of sin, but let them
1 1 Cor. 7.38.
2 1 Cor. 7.28,40.
162 SAINT AUGUSTINE
surmount it as a hill of inferior blessing, that they may
come to rest on the mountain of the greater blessing of
continence.
Indeed, that hill is dwelt upon under this law, that one
may not leave it at will. For 'a woman is bound as long as
her husband is alive. 5 Truly by it, as by a step, the chastity
of widowhood is reached. But for the sake of virginal chastity,
it is either to be avoided by rejecting suitors, or to be
surmounted by forestalling suitors.
Chapter 19
(19) However, lest anyone think that the rewards of the
two works, that is, of the good and of- the better, shall be
equal, we had to refute those who so interpreted the words
of the Apostle: C I think, then, that this is good on account
of the present distress,' as to claim that virginity is useful,
not because of the kingdom of heaven, but because of the
present life, as though they who had chosen the higher good
were going to possess nothing more than the rest in that
eternal life.
In the argument, when we came to this saying of that
same Apostle: c Yet such will have tribulation of the flesh.
But I spare you that/ we turned against the other opponents
who did not make nuptials equal to perpetual chastity but
who condemned them altogether.
For, while either one is an error, either to make nuptials
equal to holy virginity or to condemn them, these two errors,
in their overeagerness to avoid each other, attack from
opposite extremes, since they have refused to cling to the
middle position of truth, in which, both from certain reason
and from the authority of the holy Scriptures, we find that
marriage is not sinful, yet we do not make it equal to the
blessing, either of virginal, or even of widowed continence.
HOLY VIRGINITY 1 63
Chapter 20
Some, indeed, in embracing virginity, have regarded mar-
riage as a loathsome adultery; others, on the contrary, in
defending marriage, have desired the perfection of perpetual
continence to merit nothing more than conjugal chastity; as
though either the blessing of Susanna 1 were an humiliation
of Mary, or Mary's greater blessing ought to be a condemna-
tion of Susanna.
(20) God forbid, therefore, that the Apostle spoke thus
to those married or about to be married: 'But I spare you
that, 32 as though he were loath to pronounce the punishment
which would be due to married people in the world to
come ! God forbid that Paul consigned her to hell who had
been freed from the temporal tribunal by Daniel! God
forbid that her marriage bed be a source of punishment for
her before the tribunal of Christ, who, by preserving her
fidelity to it, chose either to run the risk of being put to
death or even to die under the false accusation of adultery.
What was the use of that exclamation: 'It is better for
me to fall into yaur hands than to sin in the sight of God/ 3
if God was not going to deliver her for preserving her
nuptial chastity, but was going to condemn her for having
married?
And now, as often as conjugal chastity is defended by the
truth of the holy Scripture against those who abuse and
denounce marriage, Susanna is defended by the Holy Spirit
against her false accusers, and is again exonerated of the
false charge and this in a much more serious matter. Then
the accusation was made against one spouse, now it is made
against all spouses; then it concerned a secret and sham
1 Cf. Dan. 13; Susanna is a symbol of marital fidelity.
2 1 Cor. 7.28.
3 Dan. 13.23.
164 SAINT AUGUSTINE
adultery, now it concerns true and public marriage; then
one woman was accused on the word of the wicked elders,
now all husbands and wives are accused on the word that
the Apostle was unwilling to utter.
'He withheld your condemnation/ they say, 'when he said :
"But I spare you that." ' Who did this? He, in truth, who
had previously said : 'But if thou takest a wife, thou hast not
sinned. And if a virgin marries, she has not sinned. 5
Why, then, do you detect an accusation against husbands
and wives in that which, through moderation, he refrains
from saying, and do not recognize a defense of spouses in
that which he says plainly? Or does he condemn by his
silence those whom he has exonerated by speech?
Is not Susanna more leniently accused, not of marriage,
but of adultery itself, than the teaching of the Apostle is
accused of a lie? What would we do in such a plight, if it
were not as evidently certain that chaste nuptials ought not
to be condemned as it is evidently certain that the holy
Scripture cannot lie?
Chapter 21
(21) At this point, someone will ask: 'What has this to
do with sacred virginity or perpetual continence, whose
praise was undertaken in this treatise?' To this I answer:
First, as I explained above, the glory of that greater blessing
is greater from this, that to obtain it the blessing of marriage
is foregone, not that the sin of marriage is avoided. Other-
wise, it would suffice for perpetual continence not to be
especially praised, but merely not to be disparaged, if it
were embraced on this account, that to marry were sinful.
Moreover, since men ought to be urged to such an excellent
gift, not by human opinion, but by the authority of the
HOLY VIRGINITY 165
divine Scripture, this divine Scripture must not be handled in
an indifferent or cursory manner, or it may appear to
someone to have lied on some point.
They rather discourage than encourage virgins who compel
them to persevere in their state by condemning marriage. How
will they rely on the truth of what is written: 'And he who
does not give her does better,' if they shall consider false that
which, as shown above, is just as surely written: 'And he
who gives his virgin in marriage does well'? 1
But, if they have believed the Scripture without hesitation
when it speaks of the blessing of marriage, they shall press
on with ardent and confident eagerness, sustained by the
same truthful authority of the divine Word, to their own
more perfect blessing.
But we have said enough for the purpose undertaken. And,
in so far as we were able, we have also shown that neither
is this saying of the Apostle: 'I think, then, that this is good
on account of the present distress,' 2 to be so understood as
though consecrated virgins were better off than married
women of the faith in this world, but that in the kingdom
of heaven and in the world to come they will be equal; nor
is that in which he says to spouses: 'Yet such will have
tribulation of the flesh. But I spare you that/ to be so
understood as though he preferred to conceal rather than to
pronounce the sinfulness and the condemnation of marriage.
Two mutually contradictory errors have, indeed, each
espoused one of these two statements by failing to understand
them. For, those who claim that married people are equal to
the unmarried interpret the one concerning the present
distress in their favor; while those who take it upon them-
selves to condemn married people interpret the other, where
it is said: 'But I spare you that,' in their favor.
1 1 Cor. 7.38.
2 I Cor. 7.26.
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We, however, according to the trustworthiness and sound
teaching of the holy Scriptures, do not claim that marriage
is sinful, yet we place its blessing not only beneath virginal
continence, but even beneath that of widowhood.
We also claim that the present distress of married people
is an obstacle to their attainment, not, indeed, of eternal
life, but certainly of that eminent glory and honor which is
reserved for perpetual chastity. We claim likewise that at
the present time marriage is not expedient except for those
who do not have self-control, 3 and that the Apostle, as the
prophet of truth, was unwilling to conceal the tribulation
of the flesh springing from carnal emotions, from which the
marriage of those who lack self-control can never be free,
but that, as the consoler of human weakness, he was unwilling
to explain it more fully.
Chapter 22
(22) We hope now to demonstrate even more clearly
from the most obvious pronouncements of the divine Scrip-
tures which, within the limits of our memory, we are able
to recall, that perpetual continence is to be embraced, not
for the sake of the present earthly life, but for the sake of
the future life which is promised in the kingdom of heaven.
Who does not, in fact, detect this in the words of the
same Apostle, spoken a little later: 'He who is unmarried
is concerned about the things of the Lord, how he may
please the Lord. Whereas he who is married is concerned
about the things of the world, how he may please his wife.
And the unmarried woman, or the virgin, is set apart. She
who is unmarried thinks about the things of the Lord, that
she may be holy in body and in spirit. Whereas she who is
3 Cf. 1 Cor. 7.9.
HOLY VIRGINITY 167
married thinks about the things of the world, how she may
please her husband'? 1
He certainly does not say: c She is concerned with the
things that make for security in this world, that she may
pass her time free from more pressing cares.' He does not
say that the virgin or the unmarried woman is set apart,
that is, separated and distinguished from the married woman,
for this purpose, that the unmarried woman may be secure in
this by avoiding the temporal cares which the wife does not
escape; but 'she thinks, 3 he says, 'about the things of the
Lord, how she may please the Lord, 5 and 'she thinks about
the things of the Lord, that she may be holy in body and
in spirit.'
Unless, perchance, anyone is even so stupidly contentious
that he will attempt to maintain that we desire to please the
Lord, not because of the kingdom of heaven, but because of
the present world; or that we desire to be holy in body and
in spirit for the sake of this life, not for the sake of eternal life.
What is the one who believes this but the most pitiable
of all men? For so the Apostle says: 'If with this life only
in view we have had hope in Christ, we are of all men the
most pitied.' 2 Is he, indeed, foolish who shares his bread
with the hungry, if he does it merely for the sake of this
life, and shall he be wise who restrains his body to the
extent of continence, by which he refrains even from marriage,
if it shall bring him no reward in the kingdom of heaven?
Chapter 23
(23) Finally, let us listen to the Lord Himself, pro-
nouncing the most conclusive argument on this point. When
1 Cf. I Cor. 7.32-34.
2 1 Cor. 15.19.
168 SAINT AUGUSTINE
He proclaimed in a divine and terrifying manner that spouses
must not separate except because of fornication, the disciples
said to Him: If the case of a man with his wife is so, it is
not expedient to marry! 5 And He replied: 'Not all accept
this teaching. . . . For there are eunuchs who were born so
from their mother's womb ; and there are eunuchs who were
made so by men; and there are eunuchs who have made
themselves so for the kingdom of heaven's sake. Let him
accept it who can.' 1
What truer, what clearer word could have been spoken?
Christ, the Truth, the Wisdom, and the Power of God,
proclaims that they who, by a holy resolve, have refrained
from taking a wife make themselves eunuchs for the kingdom
of heaven's sake. On the other hand, human foolishness,
with impious temerity, contends that those who do this
merely escape the present distress of conjugal cares but
receive nothing more than others in the kingdom of heaven !
Chapter 24
(24) But who are the eunuchs about whom God speaks
through Isaias the Prophet, 1 to whom He says He will give
a place of renown in His house and within His walls, a
place much better than that of sons and daughters, if not
those who make themselves eunuchs for the sake of the
kingdom of heaven?
For those whose generative faculty itself is so weakened
1 Matt. 19.10-12.
1 Isa. 56.4,5. Isaias represents a more tolerant view than that of Deut.
23.1, which excluded eunuchs from the Jewish religion. The prophecy
is concerned primarily with the statement that eunuchs will enjoy
equality with others in the Messianic Kingdom. The Fathers generally
see in the text a reference to the superior position of virgins over that
of parents of children.
HOLY VIRGINITY 1 69
that they are unable to procreate (such as are the eunuchs
of the wealthy and of kings), when they become Christians
and observe the laws of God, but are of such a mind that
they would have married if they had been able, it is quite
enough that they be placed on the same level as the other
married faithful in the house of God, who bring up in the
fear of God the progeny legitimately and chastely begotten,
teaching their children to place their hope in God. However,
they are not to receive a higher place than that of sons and
daughters. For they do not remain unmarried through virtue
of soul, but through necessity of the flesh.
Let him contend, then, who will that the Prophet foretold
this concerning those eunuchs who have been mutilated in
body. This error also lends support to the cause which we
have defended. God did not prefer these eunuchs to those
who have no place in His house, but undoubtedly to those
who store up the merit of conjugal life by generating children.
For, when He said: 'I shall give them a much better place, 5
He made it clear that a place shall be given also to the
married, but a much lower one.
Let us concede, therefore, that eunuchs according to the
flesh, who were not numbered among the people of Israel,
are foretold to dwell in the house of God, since we see that,
while they do not become Jews, they do become Christians.
And let us concede that the Prophet did not speak of those
who, refraining from marriage from a resolution of continence,
make themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake.
Is anyone so fanatically opposed to the truth as to believe
that those made eunuchs according to the flesh possess a
higher place than married people in the house of God, and
to contend that the continent by holy vow, who mortify
their body to the point of spurning marriage, who make
themselves eunuchs, not in body, but at the very root of
concupiscence, who enjoy a foretaste of the heavenly and
170 SAINT AUGUSTINE
angelic life in their earthly mortality, are on an equal level
with the merits of spouses? And will a Christian contradict
Christ., who praises those who have made themselves eunuchs,
not for the sake of the present world, but for the sake of
the kingdom of heaven, by asserting that this is valuable for
the present, not for the future life?
What else remains for them, except to assert that the
kingdom of heaven itself refers to this temporal life in
which we dwell at present? Why does not blind presumption
proceed even to this absurdity? What is more absurd than
this assertion? For, although the Church which exists at
this time is also called the kingdom of heaven, she is called
so precisely for this reason, because she is connected with the
future and eternal life. 2 Therefore, although she has 'the
promise of the present life as well as of that which is to
come/ 3 nevertheless, in all her good works, she looks not at
the things 'that are seen, but at the things that are not
seen. For the things that are seen are temporal, but the things
that are not seen are eternal.' 4
Chapter 25
(25) Indeed, the Holy Spirit did not fail to utter the
clear and invincible word that would prevail against these
shameless and fanatic assailants, and would, with irresistable
force, drive their brutish ranting from His sheepfold. For,
when He had said concerning eunuchs: I will give to them
2 Matt. 19.12.
3 1 Tim. 4.8.
4 2 Cor. 4.18.
HOLY VIRGINITY 171
in my house, and within my walls, a place of renown much
better than sons and daughters/ 1 lest anyone excessively
carnal might think that something temporal should be hoped
for from these words, He immediately added: 'I will give
them an everlasting name which shall never perish,' as though
He were saying: 'Why do you equivocate, O unholy blind-
ness? Why do you equivocate? Why do you spread the clouds
of your deception over the clear sky of truth? Why do you
seek in so great a light of the Scriptures a source from which
to spread darkness? Why do you promise nothing but
temporal gain to holy celibates?
' "I shall give them an everlasting name." Why do you
strive to limit those who abstain from all carnal relations
to an earthly reward? And that also through the very thing
by which they do abstain from them, that is, by being con-
cerned about the things of the Lord, how they may please
the Lord?
6 "I will give them an everlasting name." Why do you argue
that the kingdom of heaven, for the sake of which holy
eunuchs make themselves eunuchs, is to be understood only
in this life?
"I will give them an everlasting name." And if, perchance,
you attempt to interpret "everlasting" itself in this place as
a long period of time, I add, I amplify, I insist: "which
shall never perish." '
What more do you ask? What more do you have to say?
This everlasting name for the eunuchs of God (whatever it
is), which certainly signifies some special and eminent glory,
will not be possessed in common with the multitude, even
though they dwell in the same kingdom and in the same
house. Perhaps it is even called a name from this, that it
distinguishes those to whom it is given from others.
1 Cf. Isa. 56.5.
1 72 SAINT AUGUSTINE
Chapter 26
(26) 'What, then/ they ask, 'does that denarius 1 signify,
which at the completion of the work in the vineyard is paid
equally to all, whether to those who have worked from the
first hour, or to those who have worked for one hour?' What,
indeed, unless it signifies something which all shall have in
common, such as eternal life itself, the very kingdom of
heaven, where all shall dwell whom God has predestined,
called, justified, and glorified? 2
Tor this corruptible body must put on incorruption, and
this mortal body must put on immortality.' 3 This is that
denarius, the reward of all. Nevertheless, 'star differs from
star in glory. So also with the resurrection of the dead.' 4
These are the different rewards of the saints. For, if heaven
be signified by that denarius, is not to be in heaven common
to all the stars? Yet, 'there is one glory of the sun, and
another glory of the moon, and another of the stars.' 5 If the
denarius were to represent health of body, is not health
common to all the members when we are in good health?
And if it persist even till death, it is not just as equally
present in all? Nevertheless, 'God has set the members, each
of them, in the body as He willed,' 6 so that it is not all
eye, nor all ear, nor all nose; everything else has its own
individuality, although it has health in common with all
the members.
Thus, because eternal life itself shall belong to all the
saints, the same sum of a denarius is given to all, but, because
in that eternal life the splendor of merits will present a
1 Cf. Matt. 20.9,10.
2 Rom. 8.30.
5 1 Cor. 15.53.
4 1 Cor. 15.41,42.
5 1 Cor. 15.41.
6 1 Cor. 18.18.
HOLY VIRGINITY 173
varied luster, 'there are many mansions' 7 with the Father.
Therefore, in the equality of the denarius, one will not live
longer than another, but, in the many mansions, one will
be honored with greater glory than another.
Chapter 27
(27) Press on, then, saints of God, youths and maidens,
men and women, celibates and virgins, press on unflaggingly
toward the goal! Praise the Lord more sweetly, to whom
your thoughts are more fully devoted; hope in Him more
eagerly, whom you serve more eagerly; love Him more
ardently, whom you please more carefully. With loins girt,
and lamps lit, await the Lord when He returns from the
wedding. 1
You shall offer, at the nuptials of the Lamb, a new
canticle, which you shall accompany on your harps; by no
means such as the whole earth sings, to which it is said:
'Sing ye to the Lord a new canticle, sing to the Lord, all the
earth,' 2 but such as no one shall be able to sing except
yourselves. Thus you saw in the Apocalypse 3 the one who
was loved above others by the Lamb, who was accustomed
to lean upon His breast, and to drink in and pour forth the
supercelestial wonders of the word of God.
He saw you, twelve times twelve thousand blessed harpers,
of undefiled virginity of body, of inviolate truthfulness of
heart; because you follow the Lamb wherever He goes, he
wrote about you.
7 John 14.2.
1 Cf. Luke 12.35,36.
2 Ps. 95.1.
3 Apoc. 14.24.
1 74 SAINT AUGUSTINE
Where do we think this Lamb goes, where no one either
dares or is able to follow, except yourselves? Where do we
think He goes; to what heights and what meadows? I think
where the delights of rich pasture are not the empty delights
of the world, which are deceitful follies; nor such delights
as belong to the others, not virgins, in the kingdom of God
itself distinct from the portion of delights of all others, the
delight of the virgins of Christ, from Christ, in Christ, with
Christ, after Christ, through Christ, because of Christ.
The special delights of the virgins of Christ are not the
same as those of non-virgins, although these be Christ's. There
are other delights for the others, but such delights for no
others. Enter into these. Follow the Lamb, because the flesh
of the Lamb is also virginal. For He preserved in Himself
in His manhood what He did not take away from His
Mother in His conception and birth,
You deservedly follow Him wherever He goes because of
your virginity of heart and of body. For, what is it to follow
Him except to imitate Him? 'For Christ has suffered 3 for
us, 'leaving 5 us 'an example,' as the Apostle Peter says, 'that'
we 'may follow in His steps.' 4 Each one follows Him in that
in which he imitates Him.
Not inasmuch as He is the only Son of God, through
whom all things were made, but inasmuch as He is the Son
of Man, because it was fitting, He exemplified in Himself the
things to be imitated. Many things in Him are proposed to
all for imitation, but virginity of the flesh is not proposed
to all, for there is nothing they can do to become virgins
whom it has befallen not to be virgins.
4 1 Peter 2.21.
HOLY VIRGINITY 1 75
Chapter 28
(28) Let the rest of the faithful, therefore, who have lost
virginity of body, follow the Lamb, not wherever He goes,
but wherever they are able. And they are able to follow Him
everywhere, exce_gt when He walks in the splendor of virginity.
'Blessed are the poor in spirit.' 1 Imitate Him who, 'being
rich, became poor for your sakes.' 2
'Blessed are the meek.' 3 Imitate Him who said: 'Learn
from me, for I am meek and humble of heart. 54
'Blessed are they who mourn.' 5 Imitate Him who wept over
Jerusalem. 6
'Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for justice.' 7
Imitate Him who said: 'My food is to do the will of Him
who sent me.' 8
'Blessed are the merciful.' 9 Imitate Him who succored the
man wounded by robbers and lying in the road, half dead
and in despair. 10
'Blessed are the merciful.' Imitate Him who did no sin,
neither was deceit found in His mouth.' 11
'Blessed are the peacemakers. 512 Imitate Him who pleaded
for His persecutors: 'Father, forgive them, for they do not
know what they are doing.' 13
1 Matt. 5.3.
2 2 Cor. 8.9.
3 Matt. 5.4.
4 Matt. 11.29.
5 Matt. 5.5.
6 Luke 19.41.
7 Matt. 5.6.
8 John 4.34.
9 Matt. 5.7.
10 Luke 10.30-35.
11 1 Peter 2.22; rf. Isa. 53.9.
12 Matt. 5.9.
13 Luke 23.34.
176 SAINT AUGUSTINE
'Blessed are they who suffer persecution for justice 5 sake.' 14
Imitate Him 'who suffered for you, leaving you an example,
that you may follow in His steps. 515
Those who imitate these things follow the Lamb in them.
But certainly, even married people can walk in these foot-
steps, although not placing their foot perfectly in the same
imprint, nevertheless walking in the same paths.
Chapter 29
(29) But behold, the Lamb walks in the path of virginity.
How shall they follow Him who have lost this path, which
they do not accept in any way? Therefore, you, you His
virgins, follow Him. Follow Him even there, since because of
this one thing you do follow Him wherever He goes. We
can exhort spouses to any other gift of sanctity in which they
may follow Him except to this, which they have irreparably
lost.
Follow Him, therefore, by steadfastly preserving what
you have eagerly vowed. Take care while you can that you
may not lose the blessing of virginity, which you can do
nothing to regain.
The other multitude of the faithful, which was unable to
follow the Lamb to this blessing, shall see you; it shall see
you and shall not envy you; by rejoicing with you, it shall
possess in you what it does not possess in thyself. It will not
be able to sing that new canticle which will be yours alone;
however, it will be able to hear, and to delight in your
blessing so marvelous.
But you who shall both sing and listen (since you shall also
hear what you sing rising from yourselves) shall rejoice more
14 Matt. 5.10.
15 1 Peter 2.21.
HOLY VIRGINITY 177
fully, and reign more joyfully. There will be no regret, how-
ever, concerning your great delight on the part of those who
do not possess it. Indeed, the Lamb, whom you follow
wherever He goes, will not desert those who are unable to
follow Him where you are able. We are speaking of the
omnipotent Lamb. He will both go before you and will not
desert them, since God will be 'all in all. 31 And those who
shall possess less shall not turn away from you. For, where
there is no envy, variety is harmonious.
Take courage, therefore: have confidence; be strengthened;
persevere, you who vow, and who fulfill c to the Lord your
vows' 2 of perpetual continence, not for the sake of the present
world, but for the sake of the kingdom of heaven.
Chapter 30
(30) You, also, who have not yet vowed this, accept it,
you who can. 1 Run with perseverance, 'that you may obtain.' 2
'Bring up your sacrifices/ each one of you, 'and come into
the courts of the Lord,' 3 not through compulsion, since you
are masters of your will. For, not in the same way as it is
said: 'Thou shalt not commit adultery; thou shalt not kill,' 4
can it be said: Thou shalt not marry.' Those things are
demanded; these are freely offered. If the latter are observed,
they merit praise; unless the former are observed, they
merit condemnation. In the former, the Lord lays an ob-
ligation on you; in the latter, whatever extra you have
1 1 Cor. 15.28.
2 Ps. 75.12.
1 Matt. 19.12.
2 Cf. 1 Cor. 9.24.
3 Ps 95.8.
4 Exod. 20.13,14.
1 78 SAINT AUGUSTINE
expended in fulfilling them, He, on His return, will repay you. 5
Consider the place of honor within His walls (whatever
it is) much better than that of sons and daughters; consider
there the eternal name. 6 Who will explain what kind of a
name it will be? Nevertheless, whatever it will be, it will be
eternal. In believing in, and hoping for, and loving this, you
have been able, not to avoid a forbidden marriage, but to
ascend above a lawful marriage.
Chapter 31
(31) Hence, in proportion as the gift, the embracing of
which we have urged as forcefully as we were able, is more
excellent and divine, so much the more does its sublimity
urge us to say something with great care, not only about the
exceeding glory of chastity, but also about its most excellent
safeguard, humility.
Therefore, since the proponents of perpetual chastity, com-
paring themselves with spouses, according to the Scriptures,
have found them to be inferior both in work and in merit,
both in vow and in reward, there immediately comes to
mind what was written: 'The greater thou art, the more
humble thyself in all things, and thou shalt find grace before
God/ 1 A standard of humility is given to each one from the
very measure of his greatness, to which pride is a menace,
since it lays more cunning snares for those of superior station.
Envy follows pride as her daughter and handmaid. Indeed,
pride immediately begets her, and is never without this
5 Cf. Luke 10.35.
6 Isa. 56.5.
1 Eccli. 3.20.
HOLY VIRGINITY 179
offspring and companion. By these two vices, that is, pride
and envy, the Devil is the Devil. Therefore, the whole
Christian way of life wages war above all against pride, the
mother of envy; for it inculcates humility, by which it acquires
and preserves charity, concerning which, when it was said:
'Charity does not envy,' 2 as though we sought a reason
whence it comes about that it does not envy, it was im-
mediately added: 'It is not puffed up,' as if to say: 'It is not
envious for this reason, because it is not proud.'
Wherefore, Christ, the Teacher of humility, first 'emptied
himself, taking the nature of a slave and being made like
unto men. And appearing in the form of man, He humbled
himself, becoming obedient to death, even to death on a
cross.' 3
But who can readily explain, and collect all the testimony
to prove this point, how carefully His teaching itself instils
humility, and how strongly it insists in commanding it? Let
whoever desires to write expressly on humility attempt or
accomplish this. But this treatise has a different scope* It is
concerned with virginity, a thing so great that it must be
especially warned against pride.
Chapter 32
(32) Therefore, I mention a few testimonies, which the
Lord vouchsafes to call to my mind, from the teaching of
Christ on humility, which will perhaps suffice for what I
have undertaken.
The first lengthy discourse which He delivered to His
disciples began thus : 'Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs
2 1 Cor. 13.4.
3 Phil. 2.7,8.
180 SAINT AUGUSTINE
is the kingdom of heaven.' 1 And these we understand without
any question to be the humble.
This is why He especially praised the faith of the centurion,
and said that He had not found so great faith in Israel,
because he believed so humbly that he said; I am not worthy
that thou shouldst come under my roof. 32 Wherefore, the only
reason why Matthew says that He came to Jesus, while Luke
very clearly indicates that he himself did not come, but sent
his friends, 3 is that, by a most trusting humility, he himself
did come more than those whom he sent.
Therefore, this is also prophetic: The Lord is high, and
looketh on the low; and the high he knoweth afar off,' 4
undoubtedly as those who do not draw near.
Hence, He also said to the Canaanite woman: 'O woman,
great is thy faith. Let it be done to thee as thou wilt.' 5 He
had already called her a dog, and had answered her that
the i^read of the children was not to be cast to her. She had
humbly accepted the remark, saying: 'Yes, Lord; for even
the dogs eat of the crumbs that fall from their masters' table/
Thus, what she did not receive through importunate pleading,
she merited by a humble confession.
In the same way, the two men are portrayed praying in
the temple, 'the one a pharisee, and the other a publican/
because of those who regard themselves as just, and despise
others, and the confession of sins is preferred to the enumera-
tion of merits. 6
Now, the pharisee undoubtedly thanked God for those
things in which he was very self-complacent. I thank thee,' he
said, 'that I am not like the rest of men, robbers, dishonest,
1 Matt. 5.3.
2 Matt. 8.5-10.
3 Cf. Luke 7.6,7.
4 Ps. 137.6.
5 Matt. 15.28,27.
6 Luke 18.10,9,14.
HOLY VIRGINITY 181
adulterers, or even like this publican. I fast twice a week: I
pay tithes of all that I possess. But the publican, standing
afar off , would not so much as lift up his eyes to heaven,
but kept striking his breast, saying: "O God, be merciful
to me, the sinner!" ' The divine judgment follows: 'Amen,
I tell you, the publican went out of the temple justified rather
than the pharisee.' Then the reason is shown why this is just :
Tor he who exalts himself shall be humbled, and he who
humbles himself shall be exalted.' 7
It can happen, therefore, that someone avoid real sins, and
be conscious of real virtues in himself, and give thanks for
them to the Father of lights, from whom every good gift and
every perfect gift comes, 8 yet be damned because of the
vice of pride if in his superiority he despise the other sinners,
especially those who confess their sins in prayer, or even
only in thought, since this is evident to God. Such sinners,
indeed, deserve not an arrogant upbraiding, but mercy
untouched by despair.
Why was it that, when the Apostles were disputing among
themselves which one of them would be greater, He placed
a little child before their eyes, saying: 'Unless you become
like this child, you will not enter into the kingdom of
heaven'? 9 Did He not praise humility most highly, and place
the merit of greatness in it?
Or when He answered the sons of Zebadee 10 in such a
way, when they desired to occupy the seats of honor at His
side, that they considered the drinking of the chalice of
His passion, in which He 'humbled Himself even to death,
even to death on a cross/ 11 rather than asked through proud
ambition to be preferred to others, what lesson did He teach,
7 Luke 18.11-14.
8 James 1.17.
9 Cf. Matt. 18.3.
10 Matt. 20.21-23.
II Phil 2.8.
182 SAINT AUGUSTINE
except that He would be the dispenser of honor to those who
would follow Him beforehand as the Teacher of humility?
Moreover, when, as He was about to go forth to His
passion, He washed the feet of His disciples 12 and gave them
the clearest instruction to do for their fellow disciples what
the Master and the Lord had done for them, how highly this
recommended humility! He even chose that time to recom-
mend this when they were watching Him with great eager-
ness, as He was very close to His death. They would surely
hold fast in their memory the last lesson which the Master
whom they were to imitate had shown them. Yet He per-
formed at that time this action, which He could certainly
have done several days before while He was going about in
their company. And if it had been done then. He would,
indeed, have taught the same thing, but they would by no
means have received it in the same way.
Chapter 33
(33) Therefore, while humility ought to be observed by
all Christians, since they are named Christians from Christ,
whose Gospel no one studies carefully without finding in Him
the Teacher of humility, yet it especially becomes those who
by some great blessing excel over others to be followers and
adherents of this virtue, so that they earnestly observe what
I proposed in the first place : The greater thou art, the more
humble thyself in all things, and thou shalt find grace before
God. 31
Wherefore, because perpetual continence and, above all,
virginity is a great blessing in the saints of God, it must be
12 John 13.1-15.
1 Eccli. 3.20.
HOLY VIRGINITY 183
guarded with the utmost vigilance, lest it be corrupted by
pride.
(34) The Apostle mentions evil unmarried women who
are gossipers and busybodies, and says that this vice springs
from idleness. 'And further/ he says, 'being idle, they learn
to go about from house to house, and are not only idle, but
gossipers as well as busybodies, mentioning things they ought
not. 52
He had previously said of these: 'But refuse younger
widows, for when they have wantonly turned away from
Christ, they wish to marry, and are to be condemned because
they have broken their first troth, 33 that is, they did not
persevere in what they had first vowed.
Chapter 34
However, he does not say: 'They marry/ but: 'They wish
to marry, 5 for it is not the love of their noble vow which
prevents many of them from marrying, but fear of outright
indecency; and this itself springs from pride by which the
displeasure of men is more dreaded than that of God.
Those, therefore, who wish to marry, and do not marry
because they cannot do it with impunity; those who would
do better to marry than to be burnt 1 (that is, than to be
consumed by concupiscence itself while concealing the fire
of concupiscence ) ; those who regret their profession, and
are ashamed to confess their regret unless they reform and
control their heart, and once more shackle their lust with the
fear of God, they will be counted with the dead; no matter
whether they give themselves over to pleasure (whence the
2 1 Tim. 5.13.
3 1 Tim. 5.11,12.
1 Cf. 1 Cor. 7.9.
1 84 SAINT AUGUSTINE
Apostle says: 'She who gives herself up to pleasures is dead
while she is still alive' 2 ), or whether they give themselves up
to hardships and fasts, useless without conversion of heart,
and serving rather for display than for correction.
I do not urge a great solicitude for humility on such
persons, in whom their very pride is confounded and tortured
by remorse of conscience. Nor do I impose this great solicitude
for holy humility on drunkards or misers or those languishing
from any other form of loathsome disease, since they keep
up the profession of corporal continence and give the lie to
their name by their sinful manner of life unless, perhaps,
they shall even dare to flaunt themselves in these crimes and
are not content to have their punishment postponed.
Neither am I concerned with those in whom there is a
certain inclination to attract admiration, either by a more
elegant dress than the necessity of their kind of profession
demands, 3 or by an unusual headdress, whether by pro-
truding knots of hair, or by veils so thin that the little braids
set underneath show through. 4 Admonitions are not yet to
be given to these on humility, but on chastity itself, or on
the perfection of modesty.
Give me someone professing perpetual continence, and
free from these and all similar vices and blemishes of conduct.
For her I fear pride; for her I dread the swelling of self-
conceit from so great a blessing. The more there is in her
2 1 Tim. 5.6.
3 By Augustine's time, consecrated virgins had adopted a distinctive dress;
cf. Contra Julianum 5.6.24. There was no absolute uniformity, although
he mentions a veil and cincture, but the garb was expected to be
modest and unadorned. Cf. Ep. 211.10,12; 242.9.
4 Christian women, even consecrated virgins, were apparently not immune
to the allurement of the elaborate and worldly coiffures of the Roman
ladies. Cf. Ep. 211.10; Tertullian, De cultu feminarum 2.6; Cyprian,
De habitu virginis 16; De lapsis 6.30; Jerome, Ep. 107.5; also H.
Leclercq, 'Chevdure/ DACL 3 col. 1307ff.
HOLY VIRGINITY 1 85
from which she finds self-complacence, the more I fear lest
by pleasing herself she will displease Him who 'resists the
proud, but gives grace to the humble.' 5
Chapter 35
(35) Certainly, the principal teaching and example of
virginal integrity is to be observed in Christ Himself. There-
fore, what more shall I prescribe for the continent concerning
humility than He did, who said to all: 'Learn from me, for
I am meek and humble of heart'? 1 When He had proclaimed
His greatness above, and, desiring to show this very thing:
how great a being became how little for our sakes, He said:
C I praise thee, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou didst
hide these things from the wise and prudent and didst reveal
them to little ones. Yes, Father, for such was thy good
pleasure. All things have been delivered to me by my Father;
and no one knows the Son except the Father; nor does anyone
know the Father except the Son and him to whom the Son
chooses to reveal Him. Come to me, all you who labor and
are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon
you, and learn of me, for I am meek and humble of heart.' 2
He to whom the Father has delivered all things, and whom
no one knows except the Father, and who alone knows the
Father, together with him to whom He chooses to reveal Him,
does not say: 'Learn from Me to make the world, or to
raise the dead/ but 'for I am meek and humble of heart/
O salutary doctrine! O Master and Lord of mortal men
to whom death was passed and shipped in the cup of pride !
5 James 4.6; cf. Prov. 29.23.
1 Matt. 11.29.
2 Matt. 11.25-29.
186 SAINT AUGUSTINE
He would not teach what He Himself was not; He would
not command what He Himself did not practice. I see you,
good Jesus, with the eyes of faith which Thou hast opened
for me, as though in the assembly of the human race, crying
out and saying: 'Come to me, and learn from me.' What, I
beg of Thee, through whom all things were made, Son of
God, and who wast Thyself made among all things, Son of
Man, what do we come to learn from Thee? Tor I am
meek, 3 He says, 'and humble of heart.'
Is 'all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden in
Thee 33 reduced to this, that we learn from Thee as something
great that Thou art meek and humble of heart? Is it so
great a thing to be humble that, unless it were learned from
Thee who art so great, it could not be learned at all? So it
is, indeed! For in no other way is rest found for the soul,
except by curing the infectious tumor by which it was great
in its own eyes when it was diseased in Thine eyes.
Chapter 36
(36) Let those who seek Thy mercy and truth hear Thee,
and let them come to Thee, and let them learn from Thee
to be meek and humble, by living for Thee; for Thee, and
not for themselves. Let him who labors and is burdened hear
this, who is weighed down under such a load that he dare
not lift his eyes to heaven, the sinner, who strikes his breast
and draws near from afar. 1 Let the centurion hear, who is
unworthy that Thou shouldest enter under his roof. 2 Let
Zachaeus, the chief of the publicans, hear, who restores four-
3 Col. 2.3.
1 C. Luke 18.13.
2 Cf. Matt. 8.8.
HOLY VIRGINITY 187
fold the gain of his detestable sins. 3 Let the woman, the
town's sinner, hear, who is so much the more contrite at
Thy feet as she had been further away from Thy footsteps. 4
Let the harlots and publicans hear, who enter the kingdom
of heaven before the scribes and pharisees. 5 Let every sort of
diseased person hear, with whom Thou didst dine and wast
charged with a crime, as if, indeed, by the healthy who had
no need of the physician, since Thou didst not come to call
the just, but sinners to repentance. 6
All these, when they turn to Thee, easily become meek and
humble, mindful of their own most wicked life and of Thy
most tender mercy, for 'where the offense has abounded, grace
has abounded yet more/ 7
(37) But turn Thy gaze upon the companies of virgins,
of holy youths and maidens. This generation has been
brought up in Thy Church. There it was nurtured for Thee
at its mother's breasts. With its first speech it invoked Thy
name. It drank in Thy name, instilled into it like the milk of
its childhood. No one out of this company is able to say: C I
formerly was a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a bitter adver-
sary; but I obtained mercy because I acted ignorantly, in
unbelief.' 8 They have, indeed, even embraced and vowed what
Thou hast not commanded, but hast only recommended to
be embraced by those who will, when Thou didst say: 'Let
him accept it who can.' And not because Thou hast threat-
ened, but because Thou hast exhorted, they 'have made
themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake/ 9
3 Cf. Luke 19.2-8.
4 Luke 7.3738.
5 Cf. Matt. 21.31.
6 Matt. 9.11-13.
7 Rom. 5.20.
8 1 Tim. 1.13.
9 Matt. 19.12.
188 SAINT AUGUSTINE
Chapter 37
Cry out to these, and let them hear Thee, that Thou art
meek and humble of heart. Let these, in proportion as they
are great, so humble themselves in all things that they may
find grace with Thee. They are just, but do they, like Thee,
make the sinner just? 1 They are chaste, but their mothers
nurtured them in sins in their womb. 2 They are holy, but
Thou art even the Holy of Holies. They are virgins, but they
were not also born of virgins. They are inviolate both in
spirit and in flesh, but they are not 'the Word made flesh.' 3
Yet, let them learn, not from those whose sins Thou for-
givest, but from Thee Thyself, the Lamb of God who takest
away the sins of the world, 4 c for thou art meek and humble
of heart/ 5
(38) I do not send you, O holy and chaste soul, who
have not yielded to carnal instinct even to the extent of
lawful marriage, who have not indulged your mortal flesh
even for the propagation of a descendant, who have con-
strained your weak earthly members to a heavenly way of
life, I do not send you to the publicans and sinners that you
may learn humility although they enter the kingdom of
heaven before the proud. I do not send you to these, for
these, who have been freed from the abyss of uncleanness, are
not worthy that unspotted virginity be sent to imitate them.
I send you to the King of heaven, to Him through whom
men were created, and who was created in the midst of men
for the sake of men; to Him who is 'beautiful above the sons
of men,' 6 and despised by the sons of men for the sake of
1 Cf. Prov. 17.15.
2 Cf. Ps. 50.7.
3 John 1.14,
4 John 1.29.
5 Matt. 11.29.
6 Ps. 44.3.
HOLY VIRGINITY 189
the sons of men; to Him who, although ruling over the
immortal angels, did not disdain to serve mortal men.
Not iniquity, certainly, but charity made Him humble,
charity which is not puffed up, is not ambitious, is not
self -seeking'; 7 for Christ did not please Himself, but, as it is
written concerning Him: 'The reproaches of those who re-
proach thee have fallen upon me,' 8
Hasten! Come to Him, and learn, for He is meek and
humble of heart. You shall not go to him who, through the
weight of his sinfulness, did not dare to raise his eyes to
heaven, but to Him who, through the weight of charity,
came down from heaven. You shall not go to her who washed
the feet of her Lord with tears, seeking the forgiveness of
grievous sins, but you shall go to Him who, although He
granted pardon of all sins, washed the feet of His servants.
I know the dignity of your virginity. I do not propose for
your imitation the publican humbly confessing his sins, but,
in your behalf, I fear the pharisee proudly boasting of his
merits. I do not say: 'Be like her of whom it was said: "Many
sins are forgiven her because she has loved much," ' 9 but I
fear lest, since you think that little is forgiven you, you will
love little.
Chapter 38
(39) I greatly fear for you, I say, lest, while you glory
that you will follow the Lamb wherever He goes, you will not
be able to follow Him through the narrow ways, because of
swollen pride.
It is your blessing, O virginal soul, that, just as you are
a virgin, thus preserving perfectly in your heart what you
7 1 Cor. 13.4,5.
8 Rom. 15.3; cf. Ps. 68.10.
9 Luke 7.47.
1 90 SAINT AUGUSTINE
are by rebirth, while preserving in your flesh what you
are by birth, you conceive of the fear of the Lord and bring
forth the spirit of salvation. 1
Truly, 'there is no fear in love; but perfect love/ as it is
written, 'casts out fear 3 ; 2 the fear of men, however, not of
God; the fear of temporal evils, not of the final divine
judgment.
'Be not high minded, but fear.' 3 Love the goodness of God;
fear His severity. They both forbid you to be proud. For, in
loving, you fear lest you seriously offend your loved one and
your lover. And what would be a greater offense than that
you displease by pride Him who for you displeased the proud?
And where ought that 'holy fear which endures for ever and
ever 34 be greater than in you who are not concerned with
the things of the world, how you may please a husband, but
with the things of the Lord, how you may please the Lord? 5
That other fear is not found in love, but this chaste fear
never departs from love. If you do not love, fear lest you
perish; if you do love, fear lest you displease. Love casts out
that one fear; it runs, bearing this other fear within itself.
The Apostle Paul also says: 'Now we have not received
a spirit of bondage so as to be again in fear, but we have
received a spirit of adoption as sons, by virtue of which we
cry: Abba! Father! 36 I believe he is speaking of the fear
which was inspired in the Old Testament, lest the temporal
be lost which God had promised to those who were not yet
His sons under grace, but still servants under the Law. It
is also the fear of eternal fire, and to serve God in order to
1 Cf. Isa. 26.18.
2 1 John 4.18.
3 Rom. 11.20.
4 Ps. 18.10.
5 Cf. 1 Cor. 7.32.
6 Rom. 8.15.
HOLY VIRGINITY 191
avoid this is not yet by any means the work of perfect
charity. The desire of reward is one thing; the fear of
punishment is another.
The words, 'Whither shall I go from thy spirit? Or whither
shall I flee from thy face/ 7 are one thing, but these words are
a different matter : 'One thing I have asked of the Lord, this
will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord
all the days of my life, that I may see the delight of the
Lord, and may visit 8 his temple,' 9 and 'Turn not away thy
face from me,' 10 and, on the other hand, 'My soul longeth
and fainteth for the courts of the Lord.' 11
He will speak the former words who did not dare to raise
his eyes to heaven, 12 and she who washed the feet with
tears to obtain the pardon of grave sins; 13 but speak the
latter, you who are concerned about the things of the Lord,
that you may be holy both in body and in spirit. 14
A tormenting fear accompanies the former words, and
perfect love casts it out; a holy fear of the Lord accompanies
the latter words, and it remains for ever and ever. And both
classes must be told: 'Be not high minded, but fear,' 15 so
that man will exalt himself neither by the defense of his sins,
nor by the presumption of righteousness.
The same Paul who said: 'Now you have not received
a spirit of bondage so as to be again in fear/ 16 says, since
fear is the companion of charity: 'I was with you in fear
7^ PS. 138.1,
8 The Vulgate visitem ('visit') has been used here in preference to
protegar, (1 may be protected') , which is found in St. Augustine's text.
9 Ps. 26.4.
10 Ps. 26.9.
11 Ps. 83.3.
12 Cf. Luke 18.13.
13 Cf. Luke 7.37,38.
14 1 Cor. 7.34.
15 Rom. 11.20.
16 Rom. 8.15.
192 SAINT AUGUSTINE
and in much trembling. 517 And he employs that pronounce-
ment which I have cited: 18 that the ingrafted wild olive is
not to lord it over the broken olive branches, when he says:
'Be not high minded, but fear.' 19
Admonishing all the members of Christ in general, he says :
'Work out your salvation with fear and trembling. For it is
God who of His good pleasure works in you both the will
and the performance/ 20 lest what was written: 'Serve ye the
Lord with fear, and rejoice unto him with trembling,' 21 might
seem to be confined to the Old Testament.
Chapter 39
(40) And what members of the holy body which is the
Church ought to have greater care that the Holy Spirit rest
upon her than those who profess virginal holiness? But how
does He rest where He does not find His dwelling place?
What else is His dwelling place but a humble heart which
He fills, not one from which He recoils; a heart which He
lifts up, not one which He crushes? It is most clearly said:
'But upon whom shall my Spirit rest? Upon him who is
humble and peaceful, and who trembleth at my words,' 1
You already live justly; you already live piously; you live
modestly, holily, in virginal chastity. Nevertheless, do you
still dwell here and are not made humble by hearing: 'Is
not the life of man upon earth a trial?' 2 Does not this
restrain you from presumptuous pride: 'Woe to the world
17 1 Cor. 2.3.
18 Cf. above, Ch. 1.
19 Rom. 11.20.
20 Phil. 2.12,13.
21 Ps. 2.11.
1 Cf. Isa. 66.2.
2 Job 7.1; the Vulgate differs slightly.
HOLY VIRGINITY 193
because of scandals'? 3 Do you not tremble lest you be
numbered among the many whose 'charity' grows 'cold be-
cause iniquity abounds'? 4 Do you not strike your breast when
you hear: Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed
lest he fall'? 5 In the midst of these divine warnings and human
perils, do we still labor thus to persuade holy virgins to
humility?
Chapter 40
(41) Or, indeed, is it to be thought that God permits
that many men and women who will fall away be included in
the ranks of your profession for anything else than that by
their fall your fear may be increased and by it pride may be
crushed?
God so hates pride that against it alone the Almighty
humbled Himself so much. Unless, perhaps, you will on this
account so fear less and be more puffed up that you will
love Him less who loved you so much that He gave Himself
up for you, 1 because He forgave you less; that is, since you
have from childhood lived religiously, modestly, in holy chas-
tity and inviolate virginity. As though you ought not in truth
love Him all the more ardently who forgave all things whatso-
ever to the profligates who turned to Him, but who did
not allow you to fall into them! Or was the pharisee who
loved little on this account, that he judged that little was
forgiven him, 2 blinded by this error because of anything else
than because, 'ignorant of the justice of God' and seeking
3 Matt. 18.7.
4 Matt. 24.12.
5 1 Cor. 10.12.
1 Gal. 2.20.
2 Luke 7.3647.
194 SAINT AUGUSTINE
'to establish his own,' he was 'not submitted to the justice of
God 3 ? 3
But you, also, a chosen people, and preferred even among
the elect, choirs of virgins who follow the Lamb, 'by grace you
have been saved through faith; and that not from yourselves,
for it is the gift of God; not as the outcome of works, lest
anyone may boast. For his workmanship we are, created in
Christ Jesus in good works, which God has made ready
beforehand that we may walk in them.' 4
Will you, then, the more richly you are adorned with His
gifts, love Him so much less? May He avert so detestable a
folly! Therefore, since the Truth has said truly that he to
whom less is forgiven loves less, do you, that you may love
Him more ardently, out of love for whom you live free from
the bonds of matrimony, account as entirely pardoned to you
whatever evil you have, through His power, not committed.
Your "eyes are ever towards the Lord, for he shall pluck'
your 'feet out of the snare,' 5 and, 'unless the Lord keep the
city, he watcheth in vain that keepeth it.' 6 And, speaking of
continence itself, the Apostle says: 'For I would that all men
were as myself; but each one has his own gift from God,
one in this way, and another in that.' 7 Who, then, bestows
these things? Who 'distributes to everyone according as he
wills'? 8 God, certainly, with whom there is no iniquity. 9 And
for this reason, with what justice He makes some in this way
and others in that, it is either impossible or exceedingly
difficult for men to understand, but to doubt that He does
it in justice is wicked. Therefore, 'what hast thou that thou
3 Rom. 10.3.
4 Eph, 2.8-10.
5 Ps. 24.15.
6 Ps. 126.1.
7 1 Cor. 7.7.
8 I Cor. 12.11.
9 Cf. Rom. 9.14.
HOLY VIRGINITY 1 95
hast not received? 310 And by what perversity do you love
less Him from whom you have received more?
Chapter 41
(42) Wherefore, let the first thought of the virgin of God
be to be filled with humility, lest she think that it comes to
her from herself that she is such, and not think rather that
this best gift comes from above, from the Father of lights,
with whom there is no change nor shadow of alteration/ 1
Thus, she will not think that little is forgiven her, and so
love little, and, 'ignorant of the justice of God, and seeking
to establish' 2 her own, be unsubmissive to the justice of God.
In this vice was Simon ensnared, and the woman to whom
many sins were forgiven because she loved much, surpassed
him. 3 But she will more safely and more truly consider that
all the sins which God has preserved her from committing
ought to be reckoned as though they are forgiven.
The words of pious supplications in the holy Scriptures
are witnesses. Through them it is shown that the very things
which are commanded by God are not carried out except
by the gift and the help of Him who commands. They are
insincerely requested if we were able to do them without the
help of His grace.
What is so generally or so forcefully commanded as obedi-
ence, by which the commandments of God are observed? Yet
we find that it is the object of petition. Thou hast com-
manded thy commandments to be kept most diligently.' Then
10 1 Cor. 4.7.
1 James 1.17.
2 Cf. Rom. 10.3.
3 Cf. Luke 7.36-47.
196 SAINT AUGUSTINE
follows: 'O! that my ways may be directed to keep thy
justifications. Then shall I not be confounded, when I shall
look into all thy commandments.' 4 He begged that this thing
be fulfilled by him, which he stated God had commanded.
This is done, clearly, that sin may not be committed. But
if sin has been committed, it is commanded that it be
expiated, lest he who committed it perish by pride in the
defense and justification of his sin, while he is unwilling that
what he has committed perish by his repentance. Even this
is requested from God, that it may be understood that it is
not accomplished except by His help from whom it is begged*
'Set a watch, O Lord/ he says, 'before my mouth, and a
restraining door round about my lips. Incline not my heart
to evil words, to make excuses in sins, with men that work
iniquity. 35 If, therefore, even the obedience by which we
observe the commandments, and repentance, by which we
do not excuse but accuse our sins, is requested and prayed
for, it is evident that, when it is carried out, it is had by His
gift, it is accomplished by His help.
It is even more clearly said because of obedience: 'By the
Lord are the steps of a man directed, and he shall like well
his way.' 6 And concerning penance the Apostle says: 'In case
God should give them repentance.' 7
(43) Further, concerning continence itself, was it not
most clearly said: 'And as I knew that no one can be
continent, except God give it, and this itself as a point of
wisdom, to know whose gift it was'? 8
4 Ps. 118.4-6.
5 Ps. 140.3,4.
6 Ps. 36.23.
7 2 Tim. 2.25.
8 Wisd. 8.21.
HOLY VIRGINITY 197
Chapter 42
Perhaps continence is a gift of God, but man acquires for
himself the wisdom by which he acknowledges that gift to be
not his own, but God's. In truth, 'God maketh the blind
wise, 51 and The testimony of the Lord is faithful; he gives
wisdom to little ones,' 2 ad 'if anyone is wanting in wisdom,
let him ask it of God, who gives abundantly to all men and
does not reproach; and it will be given to him.' 3
It behooves virgins to be wise, lest their lamps be ex-
tinguished. 4 How will they be wise except by 'not setting their
mind on high things, but condescending to the lowly'? 5
Wisdom itself has said to man: 'Behold the fear of the
Lord is wisdom. 30
If, therefore, you have nothing that you have not received,
'Be not high minded, but fear.' 7 And do not love little, as
though little is pardoned you by Him; rather, love Him much,
by whom much has been given to you. For, if he loves to
whom pardon was granted from paying his debt, how much
more ought she to love to whom it was granted that she
might have possessions!
For, whoever remains chaste from the beginning is ruled
by Him, and whoever is made chaste from impurity is
corrected by Him, and whoever is unchaste to the very end
is abandoned by Him. He can accomplish this, indeed, by a
mysterious judgment; He cannot accomplish it by an unjust
judgment. And perhaps it is mysterious, that fear may be
increased and pride diminished.
1 Ps. 145.8.
2 Ps, 18.8.
3 James 1.5.
4 Cf. Matt. 25.4.
5 Rom. 12.16.
6 Job 28.28.
7 Rom. 11.20.
198 SAINT AUGUSTINE
Chapter 43
(44) Next, knowing now that he is what he is by the
grace of God, let man not fall into another snare of pride,
so that, by exalting himself because of the grace of God
itself, he despises others. By this vice that other man, the
pharisee, 1 gave thanks to God for the good things which he
had, yet exalted himself above the publican who confessed
his sins.
What, then, shall a virgin do? What shall she keep in
mind that she may not exalt herself over those men or
women who lack so great a gift as this? She must feign
humility, but must actually practice it, because the pretense
of humility is greater pride. Thus, the Scripture, wishing to
show that humility must be genuine, when it had said : 'The
greater thou art, the more humble thyself in all things,'
immediately added: 'and thou shalt find grace before God,' 2
before whom it is altogether impossible to feign self-abasement.
Chapter 44
(45) What shall we say, then? Is there something which
the virgin of God will consider truthfully from which she
will not presume to prefer herself to the faithful woman, not
only the widow, but even the spouse? I am not speaking of
a faithless virgin. For, who does not know that an obedient
wife is to be preferred to a disobedient virgin? But when
both are obedient to the commandments of God, will she
be so afraid to prefer holy virginity even to chaste nuptials,
and continence to marriage, and for the hundredfold fruit
1 Luke 18.10-14.
2 Eccli. 3.20.
HOLY VIRGINITY 1 99
to precede the thirtyfold? 1 No, Let her not hesitate in the
least to place this state above the other. Nevertheless, let not
this or that obedient and God-fearing virgin presume to set
herself above this or that obedient and God-fearing wife.
Otherwise, she will not be humble, and 'God resists the
proud.' 2
What, then, will she consider? The hidden gifts of God,
of course; and only the proof of trial reveals these to each
one, even within herself. For, not to mention other things,
how does the virgin know, although she be 'concerned with
the things of the Lord, how she may please the Lord,' 3
whether, perhaps, because of some weakness of soul unknown
to her, she is not yet ready for martyrdom, whereas that
woman to whom she seeks to prefer herself is already able to
drink the cup of the Lord's humiliation, which He presented
to be consumed first to the disciples who desired honors? 4
How does she know, I ask, whether, perhaps, while she is
not yet Thecla, 5 the other is already Crispina? 6
Chapter 45
(46) Certainly, unless it be tried, there is no proof of
this gift.
1 Cf. Matt. 13.23.
2 James 4.6; Prov. 29.23
3 1 Cor. 7.32.
4 Cf. Matt. 20.22.
5 A virgin martyr, greatly venerated in the early Church, heroine of the
apocryphal Acts of Paul and Thecla. She is said to have been born of
noble parents at Iconium, to have been a disciple of St. Paul, to have
spurned marriage for the sake of perpetual virginity, and to have been
subjected to a series of tortures during the reign of Nero, from which
she escaped miraculously. The account in the Roman Breviary states
that she lived to be ninety and was buried at Seleucia.
6 A noble woman of Thagara, martyred at Thebeste on December 5, 304,
under Anulinus, proconsul of Africa, during the persecutions of
Diocletian. Augustine comments on her courage in Enarr. in ps. 120.13
and 137.3. As Thecla was the model of virgin martyrs, Crispina was
the pride of Christian matrons.
200 SAINT AUGUSTINE
And this gift is so great that some take it to be the
hundredfold fruit. Ecclesiastical authority offers most excellent
testimony, by which it is known to the faithful in what place
the martyrs and in what place the departed nuns are
commemorated at the Sacrifice of the Altar. 1
Let those who understand these things better than we do
investigate what the distinction of fruitfulness signifies,
whether the virginal life is found in the hundredfold fruit,
widowhood in the sixtyfold, and conjugal life in the thirty-
fold; 2 or whether the hundredfold fruitfulness is rather at-
tributed to martyrdom, the sixtyfold to continence, and the
thirtyfold to marriage; 3 or whether virginity, together with
martyrdom, constitutes the hundredfold fruit, virginity alone
is discovered in the sixtyfold, but spouses, who bear the
thirtyfold, advance to the sixtyfold if they become martyrs;
or whether (and this seems more probable to me), since the
gifts of divine grace are manifold, and one is greater and
better than another (whence the Apostle says: 'Strive for
the greater gifts' 4 ) it must be understood that they are too
numerous to be divided into three categories.
In the first place, we must neither reckon the continence of
widowhood without any fruit, nor reduce it to the rank of
conjugal chastity, nor make it equal to the glory of virgins;
nor must we think that the crown of martyrdom, whether
it is placed in the disposition of soul, even though the test
of suffering be lacking, or in the experience of suffering
1 The practice of commemorating the names of the living and dead-
civil officials and clerics, martyrs and confessors, the faithful departed-
was well established long before Augustine's time. Names were some-
times inscribed on ornate tables of wood, metal, or ivory, called
diptychs; where the list was long, a book was used. Cf. Conf. 9.13.37;
Sermo 273.7.; Cyprian, Epistolae 1,9; also, F. Cabrol, 'Dyptiques/ DACL
4 cols. 1045-1094.
2 Matt. 13.8,23. Cf. Jerome, Comment, in ev. Matt. 2.13.23; Contra
Jovin. 1.3.
3 Cf. Quaest. in ev. sec. Matt. 1.9; Cyprian, De habitu virs. 21.
4 1 Cor. 12.3L
HOLY VIRGINITY 20 1
itself, is added to each of these three grades of chastity
without any increase of fruitfulness.
Moreover, where do we place this, that many men and
women preserve virginal continence, in such a manner, how-
ever, that they do not carry out what the Lord says : 'If thou
wilt be perfect, go, sell all that thou hast, and give to the
poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven; and come,
follow me'; 5 nor do they venture to join the company of
those among whom no one calls anything his own, but who
have all things in common? 6 Do we judge that no fruitfulness
is added to the virgins of God when they do this, or that
virgins of God are without fruit even though they do not do it?
Chapter 46
So, there are many gifts, some more glorious and more
exalted than others; to each is given that which is proper
to him. Sometimes one is fruitful through fewer but more
perfect gifts, another through inferior but more numerous
ones. And what man will dare to decide in what way they
are equal to one another, or different from one another, in
receiving eternal honors; while it is clear both that these
different gifts are many and that the better ones are ad-
vantageous, not for the present time, but for eternity?
But I think that the Lord wished to designate three cat-
egories of fruitfulness, and that He left the rest to those who
understand. Another Evangelist 1 mentions only the hundred-
fold. Is he therefore to be judged either to have disapproved
of, or to have been ignorant of, the other two, and not to
have left them to be understood?
5 Matt. 19.21.
6 Cf. Acts 2.44; 4.32.
1 Cf. Luke 8.8.
202 SAINT AUGUSTINE
(47) But, as I began to say, whether the hundredfold
fruit be virginity consecrated to God, or whether the dis-
tinction of fruitfulness is to be understood in some other
way (either one which we have mentioned, or one which we
have not mentioned), in any case, no one, in my opinion,
could have dared to prefer virginity to martyrdom, and no
one could have doubted that this gift is hidden if the test of
suffering is lacking.
Chapter 47
Thus, the virgin has something which she will consider,
which will help her to preserve humility, that she may not
violate that charity which surpasses all gifts, without which,
whatever other things she has whether few or many, whether
great or small are nothing at all.
She has, I say, something which she will consider, so that
she will not be puffed up, will not envy; namely, that the
blessing of virginity professes to be much greater and better
than the conjugal blessing, so that it does not know whether
this or that married woman is already able to suffer for
Christ, while itself is not yet able, and whether it is being
spared in this, that its weakness is not tested by suffering.
'God is faithful,' says the Apostle, 1 'and will not permit you
to be tempted beyond your strength, but with the temptation,
will also give you a way out that you may be able to bear it.'
Perhaps, therefore, some or other adherents of the state
of conjugal life, praiseworthy in its own class, are already
able to fight, even by disembowelment and the shedding of
their blood, against the enemy who urges them to iniquity,
while some or other of those men and women who have been
continent from childhood, 'and who make themselves eunuchs
1 1 Cor. 10.13.
HOLY VIRGINITY 203
for the kingdom of heaven's sake, 32 are, nevertheless, still
unable to undergo such things, either for justice, or even for
chastity itself.
It is one thing, for the sake of truth and the holy vow,
not to give in to him when he entices and cajoles; it is
something else not to yield to him when he tortures and
buffets. These things lie hidden in the faculties and powers
of the soul; they are called forth by temptation; they are
revealed by test.
Therefore, that no one may be puffed up over that which
he sees he is able to do, let him humbly consider that he is
unaware that he may not be able to do something more
noble, but that others, who neither possess nor profess that
for which he glorifies himself, can do this which he cannot
do. Thus, he will be preserved, not by false, but by true
humility, 'anticipating one another with honor, 53 and 'each
one regarding the other as his superior.' 4
Chapter 48
(48) Now, what shall I say concerning caution itself and
vigilance against falling into sin? 'Who will boast that he
has a chaste heart? Or who will boast that he is pure from
sin?' 1 Holy virginity is, indeed, intact from its mother's womb.
But 'no one,' it is said, 'is clean in thy sight, not even the
child whose life is one day upon the earth.' 2
In the inviolate faith there is also preserved a kind of
2 Matt. 19.12.
3 Rom. 12.10.
4 Phil. 2.3.
1 Prov. 20,9; the Vulgate reading is slightly different.
2 Job 25.4; the wording of the Vulgate is quite different.
204 SAINT AUGUSTINE
virginal chastity, by which the Church is joined as a chaste
virgin to one Spouse. 3 But that one Spouse taught not only
the faithful virgins in body and soul, but each and every
Christian, to pray, from the spiritual even to the carnal, from
the Apostles even to the lowliest penitents, as though 'from
end to end of the heavens,' 4 and He admonishes them to say
in the prayer itself: Torgive us our debts as we also forgive
our debtors/ 5 wherein, through that which we ask, He
teaches us to be mindful of what we are.
It is not for those debts of our whole past life, which we
trust were forgiven us in baptism through His peace, that He
commands us to pray and to say: Torgive us our debts as
we also forgive our debtors.' Otherwise, the catechumens
ought rather to say this prayer up to the time of baptism.
But, since those who have been baptized prelates and
people, pastors and flocks say it, it is sufficiently demon-
strated that in this life, the whole of which is a trial, no one
ought to glorify himself as though free from all sins.
Chapter 49
(49) Wherefore, the irreproachable virgins of God also
follow the Lamb wherever He goes, both by perfect purifi-
cation from sins and by the preservation of virginity, which,
once lost, does not return. Since this very same Apocalypse,
wherein like were revealed to like, 1 also praises them for
this, that no lie is found in their mouth, let them remember
to be truthful in this, too, that they are without sin.
3 Cf. 2 Cor. 11.2.
4 Matt. 24.31.
5 iMatt. 6.12.
1 Apoc. 14.4,5. The glorious virgins were revealed to the Virgin Disciple.
HOLY VIRGINITY 205
In fact, the same John who witnessed that said this: C I
we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the
truth is not in us. But if we acknowledge our sins, he is
faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us
from all iniquity. But if we say that we have not sinned, we
make him a liar, and his word will not be in us/ 2
This is said, surely, not to some or to others, but to all
Christians, among whom virgins must also recognize them-
selves. Thus they will be free from untruth, such as they
appeared in the Apocalypse, and in this way, as long as
their perfection is not yet attained in the heights of heaven,
their confession renders them irreproachable to humility.
(50) Again, lest by reason of this pronouncement anyone
sin through fatal rashness and allow himself to be seduced,
as though sins are to be quickly washed away by a prompt
confession, he immediately added: c My dear little children,
these things I have written to you in order that you may
not sin. But if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the
Father, Jesus Christ, the just; and he is the propitiator of
our sins.' 3 Let no one, therefore, fall away as though he will
quickly return from sin, nor bind himself by a kind of pact
with iniquity, of this nature, that it pleases him to confess
it rather than to avoid it.
Chapter 50
Since, even in those who are careful and who watch lest
they sin, sins do arise in some way because of human frailty
however small, however few, yet sins these very same sins
become great and grievous if pride shall add growth and
weight to them. But, if they are enveloped by holy humility,
2 1 John 1.8-10.
3 1 John 2.13.
206 SAINT AUGUSTINE
they are cleansed with perfect felicity by the Priest whom we
have in heaven. 1
(51 ) I do not argue with those who affirm that man can
live in this life without any sin; I do not argue; I do not
contradict them. Perhaps we measure the great by our own
misery, and, comparing ourselves with ourselves, 2 we do not
understand. One thing I know: These great ones, such as
we are not, such as we have not yet encountered, the
greater they are, let them humble themselves so much the
more in all things, that they may find grace before God. 3
For, no matter how great they may be, c no servant is greater
than his Lord, nor is the disciple greater than his master.' 4
And He is by all means the Master who says: 'All things
have been delivered to me by my Father 5 ; He is likewise the
Master who says: 'Come to me all you who labor . . . and
learn from me.' Yet, what do we learn? 'For I am meek/
He says, 'and humble of heart.' 5
Chapter 51
(52) At this point someone will say: 'But this is not to
write on virginity, but on humility.' As if, indeed, we had
undertaken the praise of any kind of virginity whatsoever,
and not of that which is according to God. The greater I
see this blessing to be, the more do I fear pride in it, lest it
perish in the hereafter. 1
1 Cf. Heb. 4.4-16.
2 2 Cor. 10.12.
3 Eccli. 3.20.
4 John 13,16; the Vulgate reading differs slightly.
5 Matt. 11 .27-29.
I In futurum. Some Mss. read furem ('the thief) . The meaning is the
same; St. Augustine fears that through pride the virgin will be robbed
of her merits for heaven.
HOLY VIRGINITY 207
No one, therefore, protects the virginal blessing except God
Himself, who bestowed it, and 'God is love. 32 Therefore, the
protector of virginity is love, but the dwelling place of this
protector is humility. He indeed dwells there who said that
His Spirit rests upon him who is humble and peaceful and
who trembles at His words. 3
Wherefore, what have I done that is out of order, if,
desiring the blessing which I have praised to be more safely
guarded, I have also taken care to prepare a place for its
protector? I say confidently (and I have no fear that those
whom I earnestly admonish to fear with me will be angry
with me ) : Humble spouses follow the Lamb, although not
wherever He goes, certainly as far as they are able, more
easily than proud virgins. How does she follow Him whom
she does not wish to approach? And how does she approach
Him to whom she does not come to learn that He is 'meek
and humble of heart'? 4
The Lamb, therefore, leads those who follow Him wherever
He goes, those among whom He has already found a place
where He may lay His head. For, a certain proud and
deceitful fellow also said this to Him: 'Master, I will follow
thee wherever thou goest.' And He answered him : 'The foxes
have dens, and the birds of the air nests; but the Son of
Man has nowhere to lay his head. 55 He condemned cunning
deceitfulness by the title of foxes, and puffed-up pride by the
title of birds of the air, in this man, in whom He did not
find the loving humility whereon He might lay His head.
For this reason, he who had promised that he would follow
the Lord, not up to a certain point, but wherever He would
go, never followed Him at all.
2 1 John 4.8.
3 Cf. Isa. 662.
4 Matt. 11J29.
5 Matt. 8.19,20.
208 SAINT AUGUSTINE
Chapter 52
(53) Wherefore, do this, O virgins of God, do this!
Follow the Lamb wherever He goes. But first, come to Him
whom you will follow, and learn that He is 'meek and
humble of heart.' 1 Come humbly to the humble One, if
you love, and do not depart from Him, lest you fall away.
For, whoever fears to depart from Him pleads, and says:
'Let not the foot of pride come to me!' 2 Advance on the
road to sublimity by the footstep of humility. He Himself
exalts those who follow Him humbly, who was not ashamed
to descend to the fallen.
Entrust His gifts to Him to be preserved; keep your
strength for Him. 3 Whatever evil thing you do not commit
through His protection consider as remitted by Him, lest, by
judging that little has been forgiven you, you may love
little, and may, by a ruinous pride, despise the publicans
striking their breasts.
Beware of those powers of yours which have been tested,
lest, because you are able to bear something, you be puffed
up; but pray regarding those powers which have not been
tested, lest you be tempted beyond what you are able to
bear. Esteem as superior to you in what is hidden some of
those whom you excel in what is evident. When you kindly
believe the blessings of others, perhaps unknown to you, your
own blessings, which are known to you, are not lessened by
the comparison, but are strengthened by love. And those
which are perhaps yet wanting are so much the more readily
bestowed as they are so much more humbly desired.
Let those who persevere in your company be an example
to you, but let those who fall by the wayside increase your
1 Matt. 1129.
2 Ps. 35.12.
3 Ps. 58.10.
HOLY VIRGINITY 209
fear. Love that perseverance, so that you will imitate it;
weep for this defection, lest you be puffed up. Do not desire
to proclaim your own righteousness; submit yourself to God
who vindicates you. Pardon the sins of others; pray for your
own. Avoid future falls by vigilance; repair those of the past
by confession.
Chapter 53
(54) Behold, you are already such that you conform in
the rest of your conduct to the virginity you have professed
and preserved. Behold, you already not only abstain from
murder, sacrifices to devils and abominations, theft, robbery,
cheating, lying, drunken reveling, all extravagance and ava-
rice, deceit, envy, irreverence, cruelty, but even those things
which either are or are considered less grave are not found
and do not arise in your midst: neither immodest mein, nor
wandering eyes, nor unbridled tongue, nor coquettish smile,
nor indecent jest, nor unbecoming dress, nor haughty or
undignified carriage.
Even now you do 'not render evil for evil, nor abuse for
abuse.' 1 Finally, even now you fulfill that measure of love,
that you lay down your life for your brethren. 2
Behold, you are already such, because you truly ought to
be such. These things, combined with virginity, display an
angelic life before men, and a heavenly manner of deportment
before the world. The greater you are, whoever are so great,
'the more humble yourselves in all things, that you may find
grace before God,' 3 lest He resist you as proud, 4 lest He
humble you who exalt yourselves, 5 lest He not lead you who
1 1 Peter 3.9.
2 1 John 3.16; cf. John 15.13.
3 Eccli. 3.20.
4 James 4.6; 1 Peter 5.5.
5 Luke 18.14.
210 SAINT AUGUSTINE
are puffed up through the narrow places although there is
no reason for anxiety that, where charity is on fire, humility
will be wanting.
Chapter 54
(55) If, therefore, you have despised the nuptials of the
sons of men, out of which you would beget sons of men,
love Him with all your heart who is 'beautiful above the
sons of men. 51 You have the opportunity; your heart is free
from bonds of marriage. Contemplate the beauty of your
Lover; consider Him, equal to His Father, subject also to
His Mother; ruling even over the heavens, and serving upon
earth, making all things to exist, and being made to exist in
the midst of all things. 2
That very thing which the proud deride in Him, see how
beautiful it is. By your interior illumination contemplate the
wounds of the Crucified, the scars of the risen One, the
blood of the dying One, the ransom of the believer, the
price paid by the Redeemer.
Chapter 55
Consider how much these things are worth. Weigh them
in the scale of charity, and whatever love you were holding
in reserve to be devoted to your marriage repay it to Him.
(56) Surely, since He desires your interior beauty, where-
in He gave you power to become children of God, 1 He
does not seek bodily beauty from you, but beauty of conduct,
1 Ps. 44.3.
2 Cf. above, Ch. 37.
1 John 1.12.
HOLY VIRGINITY 211
by which you even subdue the flesh. He is not the kind to
whom someone may lie about you and cause Him to fly into
a jealous rage. See how securely you love Him whom you do
not fear to displease through suspicions. A husband and
wife love each other because they see each other, and they
fear in each other what they do not see. They do not
rejoice with certainty from that which is evident, since they
suspect in secret what, for the most part, does not exist.
You, in Him whom you do not behold with your eyes, but
contemplate by faith, do not find anything true of which
you will disapprove; nor do you fear that perhaps you will
offend Him by something falsely alleged.
If, therefore, you owed great love to husbands, how much
ought you to love Him for whose sake you have chosen not to
have husbands ! Let Him be placed in complete possession of
your heart, who for you was placed upon the cross; let
Him possess entirely within your soul whatever you did not
wish to be usurped by marriage. It is not lawful for you to
love sparingly Him for whose sake you did not love even
what was lawful. I have no fear of pride in you who so love
Him who is meek and humble of heart.
Chapter 56
(57) And so, within the limits of our ability, we have
said enough, both concerning that sanctity by which you are
properly called 'holy nuns,' and concerning humility by which
is preserved whatever greatness is attributed to you.
Let the three children, 1 to whom He whom they loved
with a most fervent heart granted coolness in the fire, more
worthily admonish you from this little work of ours. They
1 Dan. 3.20-90.
212 SAINT AUGUSTINE
do it much more briefly, indeed, by the measure of words,
but much more grandly by the weight of authority, in the
hymn through which God is praised by them.
For, combining humility with sanctity in those who praise
God, they taught most clearly that each one take so much
greater care not to be deceived by pride, in proportion as
something more holy is professed.
Wherefore, do you also praise Him who vouchsafes to you
in the midst of the fire of this world that, although you do
not enter into the union of marriage, you nevertheless do not
burn, 2 and, praying also for us: 'O ye holy and humble of
heart, bless the Lord; sing a hymn and exalt him above all
for ever/ 3
2 Ct I Cor. 7.9.
3 Dan. 3.87.
(De fide et operibus)
Translated by
SISTER MARIE LIGUORI, LH.M., PH.D.
Marygrove College
Detroit, Michigan
INTRODUCTION
[RECEIVED LETTERS/ St. Augustine wrote in the Re-
tr dotations, 'from certain brethren of the laity to
be sure, but nevertheless, well advanced in religious
studies who so divorce Christian faith from good works that
they are convinced that one is able to attain eternal salvation,
not without faith, of course, but without good works. I wanted
to answer these brethren and, accordingly, wrote a book
entitled Faith and Works. In that book I have not only set
forth how Christians should live who through the grace of
Christ have been regenerated in baptism, but also what
manner of persons are to be admitted to the font of rebirth.' 1
This work short but significant enough for him to men-
tion it three times in the course of his writings 2 is engaged
with three problems that reveal the mentality of a not
uncommon class of catechumens, catechists, and converts in
early Christian times. These were as true products of the
environment, culture, and tradition of their day as are the
secularized Christians of our own. The problem of dealing
gently but firmly with well-intentioned, yet essentially pagan,
1 Retractationes 2.64.
2 Cf. Enchiridion 18.67; Quaestionibus Duldtii 1.2; Ep. 205.4.18.
215
2 1 6 SAINT AUGU STINE
minds and attitudes taxed to the utmost the persuasive power,
learning, and patient endurance of the Fathers of the Church.
They faced the difficulty as frankly as St. Paul had done a
few centuries earlier; they struggled and grappled with it
and in their fervent agony brought forth some of their most
vigorous and apostolic writings.
The first part of St. Augustine's discussion (1-6.8) is a
dogmatic answer to the gravely erroneous contention that
there is no necessary connection between faith and the
personal good works of the Christian, and that, therefore,
everyone is to be admitted indiscriminately to baptism, even
avowed and deliberate sinners who intend to remain in their
state of iniquity. In the second place, he refutes (6.9-13.20)
the argument that candidates for baptism must only be
taught the tenets of belief before baptism, and Christian
morals not until after baptism. The third error he confounds is,
according to his own opinion (14.21-26.48), the most serious
because of its insidious and far-reaching consequences:
namely, that the baptized will be eventually saved by fire
even though they refuse to reform their lives.
A brief summary of the normal procedure of the catechu-
menate will afford better understanding and deeper apprecia-
tion of the Bishop of Hippo's position and of the serious
necessity for and timeliness of Faith and Works.
At the time of a pagan's application for admission to the
Catholic Church, he was questioned as to his motive for
applying. A carefully adapted instruction long or short,
depending on the previous knowledge of the individual
followed the declaration of his sincerity of purpose. After the
instruction, the applicant expressed his belief in what had
been explained and promised to live in accordance with the
precepts he had just received. His profession of faith was
acknowledged by a signing with the cross, imposition of
FAITH AND WORKS 217
hands, and exorcism through the administration of salt.
Thereafter, the candidate was looked upon as belonging to
the Church as a catechumen. At this time he received no
further instruction, but he had the right and the duty to
attend the Mass of the Catechumens, and either to read
holy Scripture by himself or have it read to him. Usually,
he remained a catechumen for two or three years.
When a catechumen was ready for baptism, he applied for
the reception of the sacrament at the beginning of Lent and
was listed in the official register of the Church as a competent.
With this registration began a period of continuous instruction
through lectures by the bishop. There also was the usual
scrutiny, exorcism (which consisted in the signing with the
cross), imposition of hands, and insufflation. A special and
solemn ceremony was the imparting of the Creed of Baptism
(traditio symboli} which was carefully guarded by the dis-
cipline of the secret and could not be shared with a non-
Christian. The competent memorized the Creed and the
Lord's Prayer. On Easter Sunday morning, he was baptized
and made his baptismal profession by reciting the Creed
(redditio symboli}. After that, he received his first Com-
munion. During Easter Week, sermon-instruction on bap-
tism and Communion continued. On Low Sunday, having
laid aside his white garments, he recited the Lord's Prayer
with the Church. Then only did he enjoy full membership
in the Church community. 3
In view of this normal procedure, it is easy to see how
disturbed St. Augustine was over the growing tendency that
had crept into the catechumenate of cutting down the period
of preparation for baptism and limiting instruction to one
lesson on doctrine alone. Those who promoted this practice
maintained that it mattered not at all whether the candidate
3 Cf. S. Mitterer, O.S.B., Einleitung, Buchlein vom ersten katechestischen
Unterricht, BKV VIII 49 (Munich 1925) 229-230.
218 SAINT AUGUSTINE
had any intention of conforming his normal life to Christian
teaching.
The traditional date 4 for the composition of De fide et
operibus, 413, has been accounted for by some scholars from
a remark Augustine makes in its Chapter 14. While com-
menting on the literal interpretation of certain somewhat
obscure statements of St. Paul, Augustine mentions in passing
that he has published a detailed answer to the question of
literal interpretation of Scripture in a book bearing the title,
The Letter and the Spirit. Since the Maurist text carries the
temporal modifier modo which the Zycha text in the Vienna
Corpus rejects those 5 who base their reading on the Migne
edition logically conclude that the work mentioned has
just been completed and that Faith and Works follows closely
upon The Letter and the Spirit issued late in 412.
In Enchiridion 18.67, written about 412, St. Augustine
refers to De fide et operibus in an almost similar manner to
his reference to the De spiritu et littera, and for the length
of an entire chapter repeats much of the thought, expression,
and Scriptural passages of Chapters 15-16. Again, in
Quaestionibus Dulcitii L2, written about 421 or 425, he
says: C I am answering him from my book entitled Faith and
Works where I spoke as follows on this matter,' and repro-
duces exactly section 14.23. Sometime during the year 419,
in his letter to Consentius, 6 St. Augustine says that he has
written a not inconsiderable book dealing with the current
question of whether the baptized who die impenitent will
eventually attain pardon. This treatise was written, then,
sometime between 412 and 421 or 425. Since, however, in
4 Cf. E. Portalie", 'Saint Augustin/ DTC I 2 (Paris 1909) 2303; ML
Schanz, Geschichte der romischen Litteratur IV 2 (Munich 1920) 420,
422; H. Pope, O.P V Saint Augustine of Hippo (Westminster, Md. 1946)
376.
5 Cf. Mitterer, Einleitung, Vom Glauben und von den Werken, BKV
VIII 49 (Munich 1925) 313-314.
6 Ep. 205.4.18.
FAITH AND WORKS 219
Retractations 2.64, St. Augustine reports his purpose for
having written on Faith and Works immediately after his
review of The Letter and the Spirit, it would be reasonable
to accept 413 as the more probable date of publication.
7 Mitterer, Des heiligen Kirchenvaters Aurelius Augustinus ausgewahlte
praktische Schriften homiletischen und katechetischen Inhalts aus dem
Lateinischen iibersetzt, BKV VIII 49 (Munich 1925) 313-385; 229-230.
FAITH AND WORKS
Chapter 1
JHERE ARE CERTAIN PERSONS who are of the opinion
that everybody without exception must be admitted
to the font of rebirth which is in Christ Jesus our
Lord, even those who, notorious for their crimes and flagrant
vices, are unwilling to change their evil and shameful ways,
and declare frankly and publicly that they intend to con-
tinue in their state of sin. Suppose a man to be strongly
attached to a harlot; he would not need to be instructed to
give her up before he comes for baptism, but even while
staying with her and confessing, or even professing, that he
is going to continue living with her, he should be admitted
and baptized and not prevented from becoming a member
of Christ, even though he persists in being one with a harlot. 1
Let him subsequently be taught how evil this is; after he
has been baptized, let him be instructed on changing his
habits for the better. They consider it perverse and pre-
posterous first to show a man how he ought to live as a
Christian and then to baptize him. But they maintain that
1 Cf. 1 Cor. 6.15.
221
222 SAINT AUGUSTINE
the sacrament of baptism ought to come first, so that instruc-
tion on the conduct of life may follow. And if he should wish
to accept and abide by this instruction, it would be to his
advantage; if, however, he should prefer not to, as long as he
retains the Christian faith, without which he would perish
forever, he will be saved, as it were by fire. This would hold
regardless of his attachment and persistence in any sin of
impurity, as if it were perfectly possible to build upon the
foundation, which is Christ, not gold, silver, precious stone,
but wood, hay, stubble, 2 that is, not just and chaste, but
unjust and impure habits.
(2) Now, it would seem that these who argue in this
fashion are impelled to do so because, if baptism is refused
such persons, it would have to be denied also to men who
have put away their wives 3 and remarried, or to women who,
having put away their husbands, have married again, since
the Lord Christ has shown beyond any doubt that such mar-
riage is not marriage at all, but adultery. Since, therefore,
they could not deny that that is adultery which Truth in no
uncertain terms confirms as adultery, and since they were
willing to recommend for the reception of baptism those
whom they saw so ensnared by a snare of this kind that, if
they were not admitted to baptism, they would prefer to live
and even die without any sacrament than to free themselves by
deliberately breaking the bond of adultery, they have been
moved by a sort of human pity to support, therefore, the
cause of those involved in adulterous marriage, to the extreme
that they maintain that everyone must be admitted to baptism
the vicious and profligate, even those most insensible to
prohibitions, impervious to instruction, and unmoved by pen-
ances. They judge that, if this indulgence be not granted,
2 Cf. 1 Cor. 3.11-15.
3 Cf. Matt. 19.9; Mark 10.11,12; Luke 16.18; 1 Cor. 7.10,1L
FAITH AND WORKS 223
these souls would be lost for all eternity; if, however, it
were, even though they persevered in these evils, they would
be saved by fire.
Chapter 2
(3) In answer to these persons I say first and foremost:
No one should be so misconstrue these testimonies of sacred
Scripture, which recognize in the Church either a present
mingling of both the good and the wicked or foretell a
future mingling, as to conclude that the solicitude and severity
of discipline must be relaxed altogether, and even omitted.
Such a one is misled by his own preconceptions and is not
taught by those very words of sacred Scripture. The fact that
Moses, the servant of God, endured with so much patience
that mingling of bad with good among the chosen people did
not stop him from punishing many offenders with the sword.
And Phineas the priest thrust his avenging dagger through the
adulterers found in each other's company. 1 Nowadays, since
the visible sword has become inactive in the discipline of the
Church, retribution has to be visited on the culprits by re-
duction in rank and excommunication. And though the
blessed Apostle groaned deeply with utmost patience among
false brethren, 2 and although some of them were stirred up
by the diabolical goad of envy, he even permitted them to
preach Christ; 3 on this account he does not think the man
ought to be spared who had 'his father's wife/ and advised
the assembled Church to deliver him 'to Satan for the
destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the
day of our Lord Jesus Christ.' 4 Nor did he on this account not
1 Cf. Num. 25.5-8; Exod. 3237.
2 Cf. 2 Cor. 11.26.
3 Cf. Phil. 1.15-18.
4 Cf. 1 Cor. 5.1-5.
224 SAINT AUGUSTINE
deliver others up 'to Satan that they may learn not to
blaspheme.' 5 Otherwise, he says in vain: 'I wrote to you in
the letter not to associate with the immoral not meaning, of
course, the immoral of this world, or the covetous, or the
greedy, or idolators; otherwise you would have to leave the
world. But now I write to you not to associate with one who
is called a brother, if he is immoral, or greedy, or an idolater,
or evil-tongued, or a drunkard, or a robber; with such a
one not even to take food. What have I to do with judging
those outside? Is it not those inside whom you judge? For
those outside God will judge. Expel the wicked man from
your midst/ 6 It is true that some take the phrase 'from your
midst' to mean that each one is to expel the wicked man
from out of himself, in order that he may be good, but, no
matter how it is interpreted, whether that the wicked in
the Church are checked by the severity of excommunication
or whether each one by self-blame and self-discipline drives
wickedness out of himself, there can be no misunderstanding
of the teaching of the Apostle in the passage of Scripture
just quoted: to refrain from association with brethren who
are accused of any of the vices mentioned above, that is,
with those who are notoriously scandalous.
Chapter 3
With what intention and with what charity this merciful
severity is to be administered is evidenced not only by his
statement, 'that his spirit may be saved in the day of our
Lord Jesus Christ/ 1 but appears elsewhere even more clearly
5 I Tim. 1.20.
6 Cf. 1 Cor. 5.9-13.
1 1 Cor. 5.5.
FAITH AND WORKS 225
where he says: 'if anyone does not obey our word by this
letter, note that man and do not associate with him, that he
may be put to shame. Yet do not regard him as an enemy,
but admonish him as a brother/ 2
(4) Even the Lord Himself, an unsurpassed model of
patience, who suffered a devil 3 among His twelve Apostles up
to the moment of His Passion, and who said: 'Let both
grow until the harvest; lest in gathering the weeds you root
up the wheat along with them,' 4 and announced that the
net 5 represented the Church as a net that would hold good
and bad fish all the way up to the shore, that is, up to the
end of the world, whenever He spoke about a mixture of
good and wicked, directly or by analogy, it was not to counsel
that the discipline of the Church was to be laid aside. Indeed,
He urged strongly that it should be enforced when He said:
'Give heed; if thy brother sin against thee, go and show him
his fault, between thee and him alone. If he listen to thee,
thou hast won thy brother. But if he do not listen to thee,
take with thee one or two more so that on the word of two or
three witnesses every word may be confirmed. And if he
refuse to hear even the Church, let him be to thee as the
heathen and the publican. 36 Then He laid down the fearful
gravity of this severity when He said, also in this place:
'whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed also in heaven;
and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound also in
heaven.' 7 He also forbids giving holy things to dogs. 8 The
Apostle, moreover, does not contradict the Master because
he says: 'When they sin, rebuke them in the presence of
2 2 Thess. 3.14,15.
3 Cf. John 6.71.
4 Matt. 13.30,29.
5 Cf. Matt. 13.47-49.
6 Matt. 18.15-17.
7 Cf. Matt. 18.18.
8 Cf. Matt. 7.6.
226 SAINT AUGUSTINE
all, that the rest also may have fear/ 9 although the Lord
says: e show him his fault between thee and him/ 10 Both
remedies must be used according to the malady of those
whom we undertake to treat, certainly not to their destruction,
but for their correction and cure; one must be restored to'
health in one way; another in a different way. This, then, is
the reason for ignoring and tolerating the wicked in the
Church; again, this the reason for punishing and reproaching
them; but not the reason for admitting to or removing from
the community of the Church.
Chapter 4
(5) Men fall into error when they do not observe a
happy mean. When they begin to incline too much to one
side, they cease to consider other testimony of divine authority
which could recall them from their aberration and establish
them in the mean position of truth and restraint which is
the proper measure of both sides. Not on this question only
do men lose their balance, but in many others, too. Some,
for instance, on examining the testimony of sacred Scripture
which teaches us that one God is to be worshiped, think
that the same One who is the Son is the Father and also the
Holy Spirit; others again, when laboring, as it were, under
an opposite disorder, in applying their mind to those passages
in which the Trinity is revealed, are not able to understand
how there can be one God, since the Father is not the
Son, nor is the Son the Father, nor the Holy Spirit either
Son or Father, and even think that a difference of substance
must be posited. Others, in considering the praise of virginity
in sacred Scripture, condemn marriage. Still others, following
9 I Tim. 5.20.
10 Matt. 18.15.
FAITH AND WORKS 227
the testimony in which chaste espousals are lauded, make
virginity the equal of wedlock. When some read: *It is
good, brethren, not to eat meat and not to drink wine 31 and
some similar passages, they have interpreted the words to
mean that the created things of God, even those that they
wish for food, are unclean. Others who read: Tor every
creature of God is good, and nothing is to be rejected that is
accepted with thanksgiving, 32 actually succumb to greediness
and wine-bibbing and are unable to rid themselves of one
vice without falling into more and greater ones.
(6) Similarly, in this question we have been discussing,
some people, intent on severe disciplinary precepts which
admonish us to rebuke the restless not to give what is holy
to dogs, 3 to consider a despiser of the Church as a heathen, 4
to cut off from the unified structure of the body the member
which causes scandal, 5 so disturb the peace of the Church
that they try to separate the wheat from the cockle 6 before
the proper time and, blinded by this error, are themselves
separated instead from the unity of Christ. Of the same
nature is our cause against the schism of Donatus. Here our
contention is not with those who knew that Caecilian was
charged falsely and calumniously with crimes and, to their
fatal shame, did not alter their pernicious opposition, but
with the others to whom we say: Even if there were in the
Church the wicked people because of whom you have left it,
you ought to have remained in it, patiently bearing with
those whom you could not either reform or expel from the
flock. Certain others, on the contrary, being in danger, when
they find that a mixture of good and evil in the Church is
1 Rom. 14.21.
2 1 Tim. 4.4.
3 Cf. Matt. 7.6; Mark 7J27.
4 Cf. Matt. 18.17.
5 Cf. Matt. 18.8,9; 5.30; Mark 9.42.
6 Cf. Matt. 13.29,30.
228 SAINT AUGUSTINE
pointed out or prophesied and learn the precepts of patience
(which precepts render us so strong that, even if cockle is
seen to exist in the Church, neither our faith nor our charity
is entangled, so that when we perceive that cockle does exist
in the Church we ourselves do not withdraw from it),
these, I repeat, believe that the disciplinary action of the
Church should be done away with, and they quote the
above-mentioned passages of Scripture to excuse a kind of
utterly perverse indifference, to the extent that it should
concern them only to say what should be avoided and what
should be done, and not to exercise any care as to the action
of the individual.
Chapter 5
(7) We sincerely believe that it is a part of sound
doctrine to govern our lives by both testimonies. We, there-
fore, tolerate dogs in the Church for the sake of the peace
of the Church; on the other hand, as soon as the peace of the
Church is ensured, we do not give what is holy to dogs. 1
When we discover in the Church wicked members who have
gained entrance through the carelessness of superiors or some
understandable necessity or by concealed intrusion, and who
are not corrected or restrained by ecclesiastical discipline, then
we must not permit an impious and wicked presumption to
find its way into our hearts and think that we must be
separated from them in order to escape defilement from their
sins. Nor may we attempt to attract disciples, presumably
clean and holy, from the bond of unity under the false
supposition that we are thereby segregating them from the
society of the wicked. Rather, we should recall those similes
and divine oracles from Scripture, or explict examples which
distinctly prophesy that in the Church the wicked will be
1 Cf. Matt. 7.6.
FAITH AND WORKS 229
mingled with the good until the end of the world and the
last judgment and will not harm the good in the union with
and participation in sacraments which are not at all in har-
mony with their conduct. Since, indeed, those through whom
the Church is governed possess for the peace of the Church
the salutary power of disciplining the reprobate or the
abominable, then I say once more, lest we sleep in negligence
and slothfulness, we must be aroused by the spur of those
other precepts which justify the severity of coercion, in order
that, following the Lord as our Leader and Guide for both
angles of truth, we neither become torpid in the name of
patience nor rage violently under the pretext of zeal
Chapter 6
(8) Let us see what course, to follow if we are going to
uphold that moderation which is in accordance with sound
doctrine, on the question of whether or not men ought to be
admitted to the reception of baptism without diligent guard
against giving what is holy to dogs. Apparently, the most
open and stubbornly persistent perpetrators of adultery are
not to be withheld from a sacrament so great and holy;
whereas there is no question of admitting candidates who,
during the days of preparation for this grace, having sub-
mitted their names and having been duly cleansed by absti-
nence, fasts, and exorcisms, declare that they will cohabit with
their lawful and true wives, but, as to the matter of conjugal
pleasure permissible at other times, they do not intend to
practise continence during these few solemn days of pre-
paration. How, then, is the adulterer who refuses correction
to be admitted to the sacred rite, when the married man
who refuses to observe ecclesiastical prescriptions is not ad-
mitted?
230 SAINT AUGUSTINE
(9) Let him be baptized first, they say; then instruct him
in what contributes to good life and habits. This is exactly
what is done whenever it happens that the end of life is at
hand and the final day suddenly presses upon a man. Such
instruction is then given in very few words, in which, never-
theless, are contained all the essentials of faith and for the
reception of the sacrament. If afterwards the newly baptized
departs from this life, he goes forth freed from the guilt of
all past sins. If, however, a well person asks for baptism and
there is time to instruct him, when would it be more pro-
pitious for him to hear how it behooves him to become a
faithful Christian and to live accordingly than the very time
when, with attentive mind sustained by religion itself, he
asks for the sacrament of life-giving faith? Do we repress the
testimony of our own experience so far as to forget how
intent and anxious we were over what the catechists taught
us when we were petitioning for the sacrament, and for
precisely this reason were called competentes! Do we also
refrain from observing others who year by year hasten to the
cleansing waters of regeneration, and not how they comport
themselves during the days they are being catechized, ex-
orcised, scrutinized: their careful vigilance when assembling,
their fervent zeal and eagerness, their solicitous suspense? If
that is not the proper time to tell them what manner of life
befits that wonderful sacrament for which they are yearning,
when will be? Or, indeed, is that the proper time when they
have been baptized and continue in their many and serious
sins even after baptism, not new men but old culprits? If
that is the time, then with what remarkable perversity you
may say to them, prior to the reception of the sacrament:
Put on the new man; and afterwards, when the new man
has been put on, say: Strip off the old; since the Apostle
maintaining a sound order says: 'strip off the old man and
FAITH AND WORKS 23 1
put on the new/ 1 and the Lord Himself exclaims: e no one
puts a patch of raw cloth on an old garment, nor do people
pour new wine into old wine-skins/ 2 What, moreover, is all
that time for, during which they hold the name and place of
catechumens, except to hear what the faith and pattern of
Christian life should be, so that first they may prove themselves
and then eat of the Bread of the Lord and drink of the
Chalice, since 'he who eats and drinks unworthily, eats and
drinks judgment to himself 5 ? 3 This training actually goes on
during all that time which the Church has beneficially
appointed for the candidates 4 for admission to the catechu-
menate. Their study, too, becomes far more earnest and
intensive during the period in which they are called com-
petentes, that is, when they have already given in their
names for the reception of baptism.
Chapter 7
(10) What about the case, they say, of a virgin who
unknowingly marries a married man? As long as she does
not know that he is the husband of another, there is no
question of adultery. If, however, she becomes aware of the
fact, from the moment that she realizes that she is enjoying
conjugal intercourse with the husband of another she commits
adultery. So in the right to estates one is rightfully said to be
the owner in good faith as long as he does not know that he
is in possession of the property belonging to another. When,
however, he understands that he is and does not withdraw
from the possession of that property, he is said to be in bad
1 Cf. Col. 3.9,10.
2 Matt. 9.16,17.
3 Cf. 1 Cor. 11.28,29.
4 ad nomen Chris ti accedentes.
232 SAINT AUGUSTINE
faith and is properly called unjust. God forbid, therefore, that
we should lament when wrongs are set right as if actual
marriages were being dissolved. That would not be grief
worthy of man, but a foolish delusion, especially so 'in the
city of our God, in his holy mountain, 51 that is, in the
Church where not only the bond, but also the sacrament of
marriage, is so cherished that it is not lawful for one man
to give his wife to another, as in time of the Roman Republic
Cato is said to have done, not only blamelessly, but laudably. 2
But why prolong the argument along this line, since even they
whom I am answering do not dare to assert that there is no
sin in the instance I have just cited, nor deny that it is
adultery,, for they would then be openly convicted of opposing
the Lord Himself and His holy Gospel. It seems right to
them that such sinners must be admitted to the reception of
the sacrament of baptism and to the Lord's table even if they
have unquestionably and publicly refused correction. Indeed,
they believe that it is absolutely unnecessary that the adul-
terers be admonished for their sins; only afterwards are they
to be taught that, if they choose to observe the commandments
and correct their faults, they will be among the wheat; if,
however, they despise the commandments, they still will be
tolerated among the cockle. The promoters of this view make
it sufficiently clear, nevertheless, that they do not defend these
sins or treat them as inconsiderable or inculpable; for what
Christian of good hope would view adultery as no sin or a
small one?
(11) Furthermore, they think that they derive from
sacred Scripture regulations whereby these vices in others are
either to be corrected or to be endured, when they declare
that the Apostles followed this method and adduce certain
proofs from their letters in which they are found to have
1 Ps. 47.2.
2 Plutarch, Cato min. 25.
FAITH AND WORKS 233
introduced the doctrine on faith prior to having rules for
the conduct of life. In addition, they would force this
testimony to prove that only the rule of faith had to be
taught to those who were to be baptized; after they had
already been baptized, they were to be given rules for
amending their lives. Just as if they understood that to the
candidates for baptism some epistles had been written con-
taining discussions on faith, and that, to the baptized, others
with precepts for guarding against evil habits and forming
good ones. But, since everybody knows that the Apostles
wrote letters to those already baptized as Christians, why
were both types of sermons, one pertaining to faith the other
to a good life, woven into one letter? Does it by any chance
seem right that we should not give both doctrine and counsel
to those to be baptized, yet give both to those who have been
baptized? If this is said foolishly, they must at least admit
that the Apostles included in their epistles instructions that
were complete both in doctrine and counsel, and generally
introduced faith first and then appended a pattern for correct
behavior, because, unless faith comes first in man himself,
the good life cannot follow. For instance, whatever good act
a man performs, unless it leads him to piety, that is, to God,
ought not to be called meritorious. But if some were so
foolish and so inexperienced as to believe that the epistles of
the Apostles had been written to the catechumens, they
themselves assuredly would confess that precepts for conduct
in accordance with faith had to be brought in at the same
time with the rules of faith; unless, perhaps, by this argument
they compel us to conclude that the first part of the Apostolic
letters, where they speak on faith, was intended to be read to
the catechumens; the latter part prescribing the Christian
way of life, to the faithful. Now, if it is most stupid to say
this and there is no justification for this opinion in the
letters of the Apostles why, then, should we think that those
234 SAINT AUGUSTINE
to be baptized must be exhorted on faith, alone, and the
baptized on conduct, simply because the Apostles have recom-
mended faith in the first part of their letters and afterwards
have admonished the faithful, as evidence of their belief, to
lead good lives? Although, frequently enough, faith comes
first and admonitions follow, very often, nevertheless, in any
sermon, both are given to catechumens, both to the faithful,
both to the candidates for baptism, both to the baptized;
whether for their instruction or warning against heedlessness,
whether to inspire or to confirm their faith by sound doctrine,
both have to be very earnestly preached. To the epistle of
Peter and the epistle of John, from which they have cited
their testimony, they also add the epistles of Paul and the
other Apostles. The process of reasoning we must employ
against their observations and interpretation of Scripture in
regard to teaching faith first and morals later, I have, if I
am not mistaken, explained with sufficient clarity.
Chapter 8
(12) But, they argue, in the Acts of the Apostles, on the
occasion of the conversion of the 3,000 who, having heard
the word, were baptized in one day, Peter preached to them
faith alone by which they believed in Christ. When they had
asked: c What shall we do?' Peter answered: 'Repent and be
baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for
the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of
the Holy Spirit.' 1 Why do they not notice that he said:
'Repent 5 ? That means the stripping off of the old life so
that those who are being baptized may put on the new. Of
what avail is repentance for dead works, if one persists in
1 Acts 2.37,38.
FAITH AND WORKS 235
adultery and all the other sins with which the love of this
world is entangled?
(13) To this they answer: Peter wanted them to repent
only for their lack of faith in not believing in Christ. Strange
presumption (I do not want to say anything more serious)
if after the expression 'repent' has been heard it indicates an
act of infidelity, when the evangelical teaching on the necessity
of changing the old way of life for the new has been
continuously handed down. What, too, is the purport of what
the Apostle puts in this tenor: 'He who was wont to steal,
let him steal no longer,' 2 and similar expressions which
indicate how to put off the old man and put on the new?
In the very words of Peter quoted above they have the source
from which they could have been admonished, if they had
cared to study them diligently. When he had said: 'Repent
and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ
for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the
gift of the Holy Spirit. For to you is the promise and to
your children and to all who are far off, even to all whom
the Lord our God calls,' the writer of the book immediately
appended the words: 'And with very many other words he
bore witness, and exhorted them, saying : Save yourselves from
this perverse generation. Now they who received his word
accepted it eagerly and believed and were baptized, and
there were added that day about three thousand souls.' 3 Who
does not here understand that, with the 'very many other
words' which were omitted by the writer for the sake of
brevity, Peter with strong appeal had urged them to tear
themselves away from this perverse generation, since this
very thought is itself concisely contained in the many words
with which he was urging it upon them? It was, in fact,
placed last in the most important position with the words:
2 Eph. 4.28.
3 Acts 2.38-41.
236 SAINT AUGUSTINE
'Save yourselves from this perverse generation 5 ; and with
many more words besides, Peter pressed his exhortations upon
them. In these words there was condemnation of dead works
which the lovers of this world perform wretchedly, but com-
mendation of the good life which those who save themselves
from this perverse generation hold and strive after. Now, if
it seems right, let them attempt to affirm that he who just
believes in Christ is saving himself from this perverse genera-
tion, although he continues to sin deliberately., even to the
public acknowledgment of adultery. If, however, it is wrong,
let those to be baptized hear not only what they ought to
believe, but also how they may save themselves from this
perverse generation. Certainly at this time it is necessary for
them to hear how, as believers in Christ, they are bound to live.
Chapter 9
(14) The eunuch, they insist, whom Philip baptized, said
nothing more than: 'I believe Jesus Christ to be the Son of
God/ 1 and immediately after this profession of faith he was
baptized. Does it really seem right that upon simply making
this response men should straightway be baptized? Is nothing
to be said by the catechist, nothing to be professed by the
believer about the Holy Spirit, about holy Church, nothing
about the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the dead,
nothing, finally, about the Lord Jesus Christ Himself except
that He is the Son of God nothing about His Incarnation
in the womb of a virgin, His passion, His death on the cross,
His burial, His resurrection on the third day, His ascension
and sitting at the right hand of the Father? When the
eunuch answered: C I believe Jesus Christ to be the Son of
God/ if this was enough for him to say in order to go right
1 Acts 8.38.
FAITH AND WORKS 237
down into the waters of baptism, why do we not follow his
example? Why not imitate it and do away with all the rest
of the preparation that we consider so necessary even when
the time for baptism is short and urgent? Why not so place
our questions that the one to be baptized gives all the right
answers even if he has no chance to commit them to memory?
If, however, Scripture is silent and dismisses the rest of what
Philip talked over with the eunuch as understood and taken
for granted, the words Thilip baptized him' 2 imply that
everything was fulfilled which, for the sake of brevity, may
be passed over in Scripture, but which, nevertheless, we
know from the unbroken chain of tradition must have been
carried out. Likewise, where it says that Philip had preached
the Lord Jesus to the eunuch, 3 there must be no doubt that
the ensuing catechism embraced all the necessary instruction
on the duties and proper mode of living for one who believes
in the Lord Jesus. To preach Christ consists in declaring not
only what must be believed about Him, but also what precepts
must be observed by one hoping for membership in the unity
of the Body of Christ. Indeed, to preach Christ is to state
everything that must be believed about Christ, not only
whose Son He is, whence begotten according to His divinity,
whence according to His flesh, what He suffered and why
He suffered, what is the virtue of His resurrection, what
gift of the Spirit He promised and gave to the faithful; but
also what kind of members He, the Head, seeks, ordains,
loves, frees from bonds of sin, and leads to eternal life and
glory. When these facts are related, sometimes more briefly
and with restriction, other times more comprehensively and
in greater detail, Christ is being preached. At the same time,
what pertains to the habits and morals of the faithful as
well as what pertains to faith is not left unsaid.
2 Acts 8.39.
3 Acts 8.36.
238 SAINT AUGUSTINE
Chapter 10
(15) This point of view is again easily perceived in how
they quote from the Apostle Paul, as if Tor I determined
not to know anything among you, except Jesus Christ and
Him crucified' 1 could possibly mean that nothing else had
been taught the Corinthians except what induced belief in
Christ in order that they might first be baptized and later be
presented a pattern for living. This, they hold, was all the
Apostle required of them; yet he said 'although they had
ten thousand tutors in Christ yet they had not many fathers'
because he himself had begotten them c in Christ Jesus through
the gospel.' 2 If, then, he who begot them through the Gospel,
although he thanked God because he baptized none of
them 'but Crispus and Gaius' and 'the household of
Stephanas,' 3 taught them nothing more than Christ crucified,
what if someone should say that they had not heard that
Christ had risen from the dead, when were they begotten
through the Gospel? How could he say to them: 'I delivered
to you first of all, what I also received, that Christ died for
our sins according to the Scriptures, and that he was buried,
that he rose again the third day, according to the Scriptures/ 4
if he had taught them nothing but the crucifixion? If they
are persistent in their misunderstanding and claim that all
this is part of the teaching of Christ crucified, may they
know that there is a great deal to learn in Christ crucified
and, above all, that 'our old self has been crucified with
him, in order that the body of sin may be destroyed, that
we may no longer be slaves to sin. 35 Why, then, does he also
say this about himself: 'But as for me, God forbid that
1 1 Cor. 2.2.
2 Cf. 1 Cor. 4.15.
3 Cf, 1 Cor. 1.14,16.
4 1 Cor. 15.3,4.
5 Rom. 6.6.
FAITH AND WORKS 239
I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ,
through whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the
world.' 6 Let them attend carefully and see how Christ
crucified is to be taught and learned. Let them know how it
is a part of His cross that we, too, are crucified to the world
in His Body, by which is understood the entire repression of
all our evil concupiscences. For this reason it is utterly
impossible that open adultery be permitted those who are
formed by the cross of Christ. In teaching the mystery of
the cross, that is, the passion of Christ, the Apostle Peter
likewise exhorts that they who are saved by the passion of
Christ must cease from sin: 'Since Christ therefore has
suffered in the flesh, do you also arm yourselves with the
same intent; because he who has died in the flesh has ceased
from sins; that during the rest of his time in the flesh he
may live no longer according to the lusts qf man, but
according to the will of the Lord God'; 7 and in other places
again he shows that he logically belongs to Christ crucified
that is, through the suffering of the flesh who, having
crucified the desires of the flesh in his own body, lives well
by the Gospel.
(16) What is to be said of their contention that even the
two commandments upon which the Lord says the whole Law
and Prophets depend 8 support their theory? Their argument
goes this way: Since the first commandment states 'Thou
shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with
thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind, and the second is
like it, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself,' 9 the first, with
its command to love God, they might believe applies to
those ready for baptism; the second, because of its apparent
reference to human intercourse, refers to the already baptized.
6 Gal. 6.14.
7 Cf. 1 Peter 4.1 ,2.
8 Cf. Matt. 22.40.
9 Matt. 22.37,39.
240 SAINT AUGUSTINE
Apparently they forget the text: Tor how can he who does
not love his brother, whom he sees, love God whom he does
not see?' 10 and that other declaration in the same epistle of
John: 'If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is
not in him.' 11 To what do the enormities of evil habits tend
if not to the love of this world? For that very reason, the
first commandment, which they think applies to the candidates
for baptism, can in no way be carried out without good habits.
I do not want to delay over too many considerations, however.
Briefly, these two commandments, on careful reflection, are
found to be so intrinsically united that there can be no love
of God in man without love for his neighbor, nor love of
neighbor without love of God. What we have said now about
these two commandments is sufficient for our present purpose.
Chapter 11
(17) The people of Israel, it is further objected, were
first led across the Red Sea, an event signifying baptism.
Afterwards, they received the Law which gave them rules for
living. If this is so, why do we even teach the Creed to those
to be baptized and demand it be repeated from memory?
Nothing of that kind was required of those whom God
delivered from the Egyptians through the Red Sea. If, how-
ever, they understand correctly the significance of the preced-
ing mysteries 1 the blood of the lamb smeared on the door
posts and the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth why
do they not also see that the escape from the Egyptians
signifies the separation from sin which they who are going to
10 1 John 4.20.
11 1 John 2.15.
1 Cf. Exod. 12.7-17.
FAITH AND WORKS 241
be baptized profess to make? To this effect are the words of
Peter: 'Repent and be baptized every one of you in the
name of the Lord Jesus Christ, 52 as if he were saying: Depart
from Egypt and cross over the Red Sea. Then, too, in the
Epistle to the Hebrews, repentance from dead works is
included in the elementary instruction of those who are going
to be baptized. The Apostle says: Therefore, leaving the
elementary teaching concerning Christ, let us pass on to
things more perfect, not laying again a foundation of re-
pentance from dead works and of faith towards God, of the
doctrine of baptism and the laying on of hands, of the
resurrection of the dead and of eternal judgment. 33 That all
these teachings belong to the initial instruction of the neo-
phytes is sufficiently and clearly attested by Scripture. What,
moreover, is ''repentance from dead works' unless it be from
works which must be slain that we might live? If adulteries
and fornications are not such, what are to be named among
dead works? Thus, the intention to abandon such dead works
is not sufficient unless all past sins which, so to speak, pursue
them are destroyed by the cleansing of regeneration, in the
same way it would not have sufficed the Israelites to withdraw
from Egypt unless the multitude of the pursuing enemy had
perished in the waves of the sea that opened for the passage
and liberation of the people of God. How, then, will anyone
who professes that he does not want to change from his
state of adultery cross over the Red Sea while he is still
determined to abide in Egypt? Further, they pay no attention
to the first injunction of the Law which was given the Jews
after their passage of the Red Sea: 'Thou shalt not have
strange gods before me. Thou shalt not make thyself a graven
thing, nor likeness of anything that is in the heaven above,
or in the earth beneath, nor of those things that are in the
2 Acts 2.38.
3 Heb. 6.1,2.
242 SAINT AUGUSTINE
waters under the earth. Thou shalt not adore them, nor serve
them/ 4 with all the other statements pertinent to this com-
mandment. Let them insist, if they like, in contradiction to
their own assertion, that worship of the one true God and
the prohibition against idolatry is not to be preached to the
unbaptized, but to the already baptized. Do not, however,
let them any longer say to those who are going to receive
baptism that they need be instructed only on belief in God,
and after the reception of the sacrament they will be taught
the manner of living required by the second precept on the
love of neighbor, for both are contained in the Law which
the people received after the Red Sea, that is, after baptism.
The commandments were not so distributed that before
crossing the Red Sea the Jews were warned against idolatry,
and not until after their escape taught to honor father and
mother, not to commit adulery, not to kill, and the remaining
prescriptions for a rational and godly way of living. 5
Chapter 12
(18) If anyone were to so petition for the sacred cleansing
as to declare that he was not going to absent himself from
idolatrous sacrifices, unless perhaps later if it should please
him to do so, and even if he repeatedly requested baptism
and pleaded ardently to be made a temple of the living God,
continuing at the same time not only to worship idols, but
even to execute some sacrilegious office of the priesthood, I
ask them whether they agree that such a person ought even
be made a catechumen? Undoubtedly, they will declare that
this ought not to be done. From their very hearts they could
not say otherwise. Accordingly, they would support their
4 Exod. 20.3-5.
5 Cf. Exod. 20.12-17.
FAITH AND WORKS 243
reasoning with the testimony of Scripture which they think
should be so interpreted as to afford reason for daring to
oppose him and not agreeing that he should be admitted
despite his protest and insistence: 'I have learned of Christ,
and I adore Him; I believe that Christ Jesus is the Son of
God; you may not put me off any longer nor may you at
this time require any more of me. You claim the Apostle did
not ask those whom he begot through the Gospel to know
anything more than Christ crucified and that, after the
eunuch expressed his belief that Jesus Christ was the Son of
God, Philip did not put off baptizing him. Why do you then
forbid me to worship idols and refuse to admit me to the
sacrament of Christ until I repudiate this worship? In my
childhood the practice of worshiping idols was deeply im-
pressed upon me; I shall give up the habit when I can when
it is convenient to do so; but, even should I not renounce
idolatry, I should not be forced to die without Christ's
sarcrament, lest God exact my soul at your hands.' Now, I
ask, in their judgment, what answer must be given him?
Would they want to admit him to the sacrament? God forbid !
Under no circumstance could I believe that they would go
that far. But what answer will they give one who urges
these questions and who declares, further, that nothing should
be said to him before baptism about the necessity of disavow-
ing idolatry; the chosen people heard nothing of such re-
nouncement before they crossed the Red Sea; the prohibition
was contained in the Law that was given them only after
they had been delivered from Egypt. Surely, they would say
to that man: 'You are going to be a temple of God when
you shall have received baptism.' Besides, the Apostle asserts :
'And what agreement has the temple of God with idols?' 1
Why do they not see that this is just the same as saying:
when you are baptized you will belong to Christ; the members
1 2 Cor. 6.16.
244 SAINT AUGUSTINE
of Christ cannot be the members of a harlot, 2 can they? The
Apostle says they cannot. In another place he says: 'Do not
err; neither fornicators, nor idolaters' and other abomina-
tions which he lists 'will possess the kingdom of God. 53
Why, then, do we refuse baptism to idolaters and contend
that fornicators must be admitted to it, since the Apostle
specifically mentions fornicators and other evil-doers, saying:
'And such were some of you, but you have been washed, you
have been sanctified, you have been justified in the name of
our Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God'? 4 What
is my reason for permitting baptism to an invincible f ornicator
and yet refusing an idolator, since the way lies open to denying
both and since the same words are said to both: 'And such
were some of you, but you have been washed'? They are
pushed to their position because they suppose that salvation
is secure, although through fire, for those who believe in
Christ and receive His sacrament, that is, have been baptized,
even if they are completely indifferent about reforming their
lives and therefore live wickedly. With the help of God, I
shall presently show what is, according to the Scriptures, the
right opinion on this matter.
Chapter 13
(19) For the moment, I am still concerned with the
contention that the baptized are to be admonished to acquire
habits that befit the Christian way of living, but, for those
to be baptized, only faith need be instilled. But if this were
so, consider the following passages of Scripture in addition to
the many I have mentioned: John the Baptist would not
have said to those coining to his baptism : 'Brood of vipers !
2 Cf. 1 Cor. 6.15.
3 1 Cor. 6.9,10.
4 1 Cor. 6.11.
FAITH AND WORKS 245
who has shown you how to flee from the wrath to come?
Bring forth therefore fruit befitting repentance' 1 and the rest
of his urgent appeals, obviously not for faith, but for good
works. Why to the soldiers asking 'what are we to do?' did
he not answer: Tor the time being, believe and be baptized;
after that you will hear what you must do'? Before giving
his answer, he warned them that as the precursor he would
make the way into their hearts clean for the Lord who was
about to come: Tlunder no one, neither accuse anyone
falsely, and be content with your pay.' 2 In like manner, to
the publicans who inquired what they should do, he said:
'Exact no more than what has been appointed you.' 3 With
a brief mention of these exhortations, the Evangelist, for it
was not fitting to insert the entire catechism, indicates clearly
enough that it is the duty of the catechist to indoctrinate and
to encourage good morals and right habits in the one to be
baptized. On the other hand, if they had replied to John:
'We absolutely shall not bring forth fruit worthy of re-
pentance ; we intend to calumniate, to plunder, to exact more
than has been appointed us,' and if even in spite of this
declaration he had consented to baptize them, it still could
not be said, no matter whence the objection, that before
baptism is not the time to inculcate the essentials of a good
life.
(20) I might mention other testimony, but let my adver-
saries recall the answer given by our Lord Himself when the
rich young man asked Him what works he should do to
gain eternal life : 'if thou,' He said, 'wilt enter into life, keep
the commandments.' And the young man asked: 'Which?'
Then the Lord repeated the commandments of the Law:
'Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not commit adultery,' and
the rest of them. When the rich young man replied that he
1 Matt. 3.7,8.
2 Luke 3.14.
3 Luke 3.12,13.
246 SAINT AUGUSTINE
had kept all of these from his youth, the Lord added the
counsel of perfection: that he was to sell all his possessions
and give to the poor, in order that he might have a treasure
in heaven, then follow the Lord Himself. 4 Let them note
carefully that He did not say that he had only to believe and
be baptized the sole requirement for eternal salvation
according to their reasoning but that He gave him precepts
for the conduct of his life, precepts which certainly cannot
be guarded and kept without faith. Just because the Lord
seems to have been silent here about teaching faith, we
shall most certainly not prescribe and maintain that only
precepts for living well must be preached to men desiring
eternal life. The two phases of instruction are mutually
interrelated and connected, as I have said before, because
there can be no love for God in the man who does not love
his neighbor, nor love of neighbor without the love of God.
Although in Scripture one set of instructions sometimes is
found without the other, either faith alone or good works
alone instead of the complete doctrine, it is to be understood
that one cannot be without the other, because whoever
believes in God ought to do what God commands and
whoever does what God commands because He commands it
necessarily believes in God.
Chapter 14
(21) Therefore, let us now see what must be torn away
from the hearts of the God-fearing to prevent the loss of
salvation through a treacherously false security, if, under the
illusion that faith alone is sufficient for salvation, they neglect
to live a good life and fail by good works to persevere in the
way that leads to God. Even in the days of the Apostles
4 Matt. 19.16-21.
FAITH AND WORKS 247
certain somewhat obscure statements of the Apostle Paul
were misunderstood, and some thought he was saying this:
'Let us do evil that good may come from it' 1 because he said:
'Now the Law intervened that the offense might abound.
But where the offense has abounded, grace has abounded yet
more/ 2 These words are true only because the receivers of
the Law were men presumptuous of their own strength, with
too much pride to beg God in right faith to help them
overcome their evil concupiscence. They were burdened,
therefore, with many and serious sins and even with the
Law itself by reason of their perversion of it. Compelled by
deep guilt, they took refuge in faith to obtain for them the
mercy of indulgence and 'help from the Lord, who made
heaven and earth.' 3 With charity poured forth in their hearts
by the Holy Spirit, 4 they effected through love the conquest of
the concupiscence of this world as predicted in the psalm:
'Their infirmities were multiplied: afterwards they made
haste. 55 When the Apostle says, then, that in his opinion man is
justified through faith without the works of the Law, 6 he
does not intend by this decision to express contempt for the
commandments and the works of justice by the profession of
faith, but to inform anyone that he can be justified by faith
even if he has not previously fulfilled the works of the Law;
for they follow when one has been justified, and do not
come before for one to be justified. There is no need, however,
for further discussion of this problem in the present work,
especially since I have published a detailed answer to the
question in a book bearing the title, The Letter and the Spirit.
Since this problem is by no means new and had already
arisen at the time of the Apostles, other apostolic letters of
1 Cf. Rom. 3.8.
2 Rom. 5.20.
3 Ps. 120.2.
4 Cf. Rom. 5.5.
5 Ps. 15.4.
6 Cf. Rom. 4.
248 SAINT AUGUSTINE
Peter, John, James, and Jude are deliberately aimed against
the argument I have been refuting and firmly uphold the
doctrine that faith does not avail without good works. Paul
himself also does not approve any kind of faith whatever as
long as it achieves belief in God, but only that salutary and
definitely evangelical faith from which good works proceed
through love, for he says very plainly: 'but faith which works
through charity/ 7 That is why he claimed that the faith
which seems to some sufficient for salvation is useless, so
that he says: 'and if I have all faith so as to remove
mountains, yet do not have charity, I am nothing.' 8 It
follows that where charity is operative in the Christian, there
is no doubt that he is living the right kind of life: 'Love
therefore is the fulfillment of the Law.' 9
(22) From this it is clear that Peter, in his second epistle
when he was urging to holiness in living and character and
was declaring that this world would pass and that new
heavens and a new earth are expected 10 which would be
given to the just to inhabit, so that from this they might
take care how they ought to live, and that they might become
worthy of that dwelling, knowing that some unjust persons
had taken occasion from some obscure passages of the
Apostle Paul, so that they took no care to live well, as if
secure in the salvation which is by faith, mentioned that
certain passages hard to understand were in his epistles and
that men twisted them, as also other Scriptures, to their own
ruin. When Paul refers to eternal salvation which will be
given only to them who have lived good lives, he is in
perfect agreement with the other Apostles. Here is what
Peter says: 'Seeing therefore that all these things are to be
7 Gal. 5.6.
8 1 Cor, 13.2.
9 Rom. 13.10.
10 2 Peter 3.13.
FAITH AND WORKS 249
dissolved, what manner of men ought you to be in holy and
pious behavior, you who await and hasten towards the
coming of the day of God, by which the heavens, being on
fire, will be dissolved and the elements will melt away by
reason of the heat of that fire ! But we look for new heavens
and a new earth, according to his promises, wherein dwells
justice. Therefore, beloved, while you look for these things,
endeavor to be found by him without spot and blameless, in
peace. And regard the long-suffering of our Lord as salvation.
Just as our most dear brother Paul also, according to the
wisdom given him, has written to you, as indeed he did in
all his epistles, speaking in them of these things. In these
epistles there are certain things difficult to understand, which
the unlearned and the unstable distort, just as they do the
rest of the Scriptures also, to their own destruction. You
therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, be on
your guard lest, carried away by the error of the foolish, you
fall away from your own steadfastness. But grow in grace
and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. To
him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. 311
( 23 ) James was so severely annoyed with those who held
that faith without works avails to salvation that he compared
them to evil spirits, saying: Thou believest that there is
one God. Thou doest well. The devils also believe, and
tremble. 512 What could be said more tersely, with greater
truth and more vehemence? We also read in the Gospel that,
when the evil spirits confessed Christ to be the Son of God,
He rebuked them. 13 He praised Peter for making this same
acknowledgment. 14 'What will it profit, my brethren,' James
says, e if a man says he has faith, but does not have works?
11 2 Peter 3.11-18.
12 James 2.19.
13 Cf. Mark 1.24,25,27; Luke 4.41.
14 Cf. Matt. 16.16,17.
250 SAINT AUGUSTINE
Can the faith save him?' and again, 'faith without works is
useless. 115 How long are they going to cling to deception and
promise themselves eternal life from dead faith!
Chapter 15
(24) From all the foregoing discussion it is necessary to
take careful note of the right interpretation of that passage
of the Apostle Paul which is clearly difficult to understand,
where he says: Tor other foundation no one can lay, but
that which has been laid, which is Christ Jesus. But if anyone
builds upon this foundation, gold, silver, precious stones,
wood, hay, straw the works of each will be made manifest,
for the day of the Lord will declare it, since the day is to be
revealed in fire. The fire will assay the quality of everyone's
work: if his work abides, which he has built thereon, he will
receive reward; if his work burns he will lose reward, but
himself will be saved, yet so through fire/ 1 By some this
passage is taken to mean that they who add good works to
faith in Christ seem to build gold, silver, precious stones upon
the foundation of Christ; they who with the same faith work
evil build wood, hay, straw. As a result, they arrive at the
conclusion that through the efficacy of certan punishments of
fire they can be purified unto salvation by merit of their
foundation, which is Christ,
(25) If this be true, we grant that they, with a charity
that is laudable, attempt to admit all to baptism indis-
criminately, not only adulterers and adulteresses who adhere
stubbornly to false nuptials against the will of the Lord, but
also public harlots, who persist in a most disgraceful pro-
15 James 2.14,20.
1 1 Cor. 3.11-15.
FAITH AND WORKS 25 1
fession, and whom not the most negligent of churches has
been accustomed to receive unless they first freed themselves
from that prostitution. How, according to their reasoning,
harlots are excluded, I do not at all see. Who would not
prefer, once the foundation has been laid granted it is
permissible to gather wood, hay, and straw that they be
purified by a considerably longer burning rather than they be
lost for all eternity? But the following statements will be
false : 'and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains, yet
do not have charity, I am nothing'; 2 and 'What will it profit,
my brethren, if a man says he has faith, but does not have
works? Can the faith save him?' 3 False, too, will be the
words: 'Do not err; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor
adulterers, nor the effeminate, nor sodomites, nor thieves,
nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor the evil-tongued, nor
the greedy will possess the kingdom of God.' 4 False again:
'Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are
immorality, uncleanness, licentiousness, riotous living, idolatry,
witchcrafts, enmities, contentions, jealousies, anger, quarrels,
factions, envies, drunkenness, carousings, and suchlike. And
concerning these I warn you, as I have warned you, that
they who do such things will not attain the kingdom of
God.' 5 These warning and entreaties will be false, for, if
they only believe and are baptized, although they persist in
such evils, they will be saved by fire; and so the baptized in
Christ, even those who do such things, will possess the
kingdom of God. Also to no purpose does Scripture say:
'And such were some of you, but you have been washed,' 6
since they also have been washed who hold on to these even
after baptism. In vain, also, will Peter seem to have said:
2 I Cor. 13.2.
3 James 2.14.
4 1 Cor. 6.9,10.
5 Cf. Gal. 5.19-21.
6 1 Cor. 6.11.
252 SAINT AUGUSTINE
'Its counterpart, baptism, now saves you also (not the putting
off the filth of the flesh, but the inquiry of a good con-
science . . .)' 7 if certain ones with very bad consciences,
full of all vices and sins and unchanged by repentance, are
nevertheless saved by baptism. Because of the foundation
laid in the same baptism, they will be saved, even if by fire.
Then, too, I do not see why the Lord said : 'if thou wilt enter
into eternal life, keep the commandments' 8 and mentioned
the commandments pertaining to good behavior if without
observing these commandments one is able to enter life by
faith alone, which 'unless it has works, is dead. 5 * How, under
the circumstances, will there be any truth in what He will
say to those whom He places on His left hand: 'Depart
from me into everlasting fire which was prepared for the
devil and his angels'? 10 He will not unbraid them because
they did not believe in Him, but because they had not done
good works. Actually, it was lest anyone promise himself
eternal life from a faith which without works is dead that our
Lord said that He would separate 11 all the nations formerly
gathered together under the protection of the same shepherds,
that He might make known those who will say to Him:
'Lord, when did we see thee' suffering this or that 'and did not
minister to thee?' 12 These are the ones who had believed in
Him but had not bothered to do good works, as if they
expected to attain everlasting life from dead faith alone. Or
perhaps, indeed, they who have not performed works of
mercy will go into everlasting fire, but they who have robbed
another of his possessions or who have been unmerciful to
themselves by corrupting the temple of God within them
7 1 Peter 3.21.
8 Matt. 19.17.
9 James 2.17.
10 Matt, 25.41.
11 Matt. 25.32.
12 Matt. 25.44.
FAITH AND WORKS 253
will be spared as if the works of mercy might profit any-
thing without charity! The Apostle says: s lf I distribute all
my goods to the poor, yet do not have charity, it profits me
nothing.' 13 Does one love his neighbor as himself who does not
love himself: 'He that loveth iniquity hateth his own soul.' 14
Nor will that opinion hold here by which many are seduced,
which claims that the fire is said to be everlasting, not the
punishment itself. To be sure, they suppose that they to
whom they promise salvation by fire because their faith is
useless will pass through fire that will last forever. As they
judge, the flames themselves are everlasting; their burning,
that is, the works of the fire on sinners, is not for eternity.
But the Lord, as if He anticipated this misunderstanding,
pronounces His own sentence upon it: 'These will go into
everlasting punishment, but the just into everlasting life. 315
The burning will be just as everlasting as the fire and Truth
has warned that they whom He has declared to be wanting
in good works not faith will go into that burning fire.
(26) If all these admonitions and innumerable others
which can be found throughout the Scriptures stated in very
plain terms are false, then that interpretation of the wood,
hay, and straw can be true which maintains that they will be
saved through fire who, although they have neglected good
works, hold fast solely to faith in Christ. If, however, these
words of Scripture are both true and clear, another inter-
pretation assuredly must be sought for them, and these
expressions of the Apostle Paul must be counted among the
passages in his writings which Peter says are difficult to
understand 16 and which men must not distort to their own
destruction. This they do when, contrary to the evident
13 1 Cor. 13.3.
14 Ps. 10.6.
15 Matt. 25.46.
16 Cf. 2 Peter 3.16.
254 SAINT AUGUSTINE
testimony of Scripture, they assure salvation to the most
wicked who cling tenaciously to their wickedness and are
neither changed nor improved by repentance.
Chapter 16
(27) Perhaps at this point I shall be asked what I think
about the opinion of the Apostle Paul and how I think it
should be interpreted. I confess that I would rather listen to
the more skilled and learned who could expound and
demonstrate this problem in such a way that all those proofs
would remain true and unshaken which I have assembled
above, and whatever others I have not mentioned by which-
Scripture very clearly reveals that faith avails nothing unless
it is that faith described by the Apostle as the 'faith which
works through charity. 51 Moreover, without there is no
possible salvation, neither apart from nor through fire,
because, if faith saves by fire, it is faith itself that saves.
Positive and clear is the meaning of the words: 'What will
it profit if a man says he has faith, but does not have works?
Can the faith save him?' 2 Nevertheless I shall explain, in as
few words as possible, how I feel about this perplexing
problem in the writings of the Apostle Paul, provided that
my sentiments in regard to this matter be clearly recalled,
namely, that I said I preferred to hear my superiors elucidate
these difficulties. In the first place, Christ is the foundation of
the house of the wise builder. This needs no exposition, for
it is clearly said: Tor other foundation no one can lay, but
that which has been laid, which is Christ Jesus/ 3 If, more-
over, Christ is the foundation, that foundation is indisputably
the faith of Christ; 'through faith 3 indeed Christ dwells 'in
1 Gal. 5.6.
2 James 2.14.
3 Cf, 1 Cor. 3.10,11.
FAITH AND WORKS 255
our hearts' 4 as the same Apostle affirms. If, then, it is the
faith of Christ, it is no other than that defined by the Apostle
as the faith 'which works through charity.' 5 Manifestly, we
cannot accept as a foundation the faith of the devils by
which they believe and tremble and confess Jesus the Son of
God. 6 Why? Theirs is a faith impelled by fear, not the faith
which works through charity. The faith of Christ, the faith
of Christian grace, that is, this faith which works through
love, when laid as the foundation, allows no one to perish. If
I attempt to elaborate in greater detail what it means to
build gold, silver, precious stones, or wood, hay, straw upon
this foundation, I am afraid that my very explanation will
become more difficult to understand. Nevertheless, with the
help of God, briefly, and as well as I can, I shall make an
effort clearly to set forth my convictions.
Consider with me the young man who asked the good
Master what he should do to gain eternal life and was told
that, if he wanted life everlasting, he must keep the com-
mandments. He asked which commandments, and the answer
was: 'Thou shalt not kill; Thou shalt not commit adultery;
Thou shalt not steal; Thou shalt not bear false witness;
Honor thy father and mother; and, Thou shalt love thy
neighbor as thyself.' 7 If he observed these commandments in
the faith of Christ, he indubitably would have the faith which
operates through love. He could not love his neighbor as
himself if he had not received love from God without which
he would not love himself. Then, if he went further and
carried out the counsels that our Lord added: 'if thou wilt
be perfect, go, sell what thou hast, and give to the poor,
and thou shalt have treasure in heaven; and come, follow
me/ 8 he would be building upon the foundation of Christ
4 Cf. Eph. 3.17.
5 Gal. 5.6.
6 Cf. James 2.19.
7 Matt. 19.16-19.
8 Matt. 19.21.
25 6 SAINT AUGU STINE
gold, silver, precious stones; he would be 'concerned about
the things of the Lord, how he may please God/ 9 and such
considerations are, in my judgment, gold, silver, precious
stones. If, on the other hand, he had an essentially human
affection for his wealth, although he generously gave alms
from it and did not plan to increase it by any fraud or
robbery, or fall into any guilt or shame through fear of
diminishing or losing it, or otherwise draw away from the
stability of that foundation, but if on account of a too
human affection, as I have said, he could not part with such
goods without pain, he would be building wood, hay, straw
upon that foundation. This would be especially true if he
were married besides, and on account of his wife were
'concerned with the things of this world, how he might please
his wife. 510 Since possessions loved with a carnal affection are
not lost without pain, they who base their holdings on faith
in the foundation 'which works through charity' 11 and under
no circumstance or desire prefer their possessions to faith,
when they suffer deeply in the loss of them, they attain
salvation through a sort of fire of grief. Now, one is more
secure from so great grief and pain of loss the less one loves
these temporal things or possesses them as if not possessing
them. But, he who commits murder, adultery, fornication,
idolatry and the like in order to hold fast to his wealth, or
acquire it, will not be saved by fire by merit of the foundation;
having lost the foundation, he will be tormented in ever-
lasting fire.
(28) Those who argue in favor of the potency of faith
alone for salvation use also the following text from the
Apostle: 'But if the unbeliever departs, let him depart. For
brother or sister is not under bondage in such cases.' 12 This
is to say that by reason of his faith in Christ a man may leave
9 1 Cor. 7.32.
10 1 Cor. 7.33.
11 Gal. 5.6.
12 1 Cor. 7.15.
FAITH AND WORKS 257
the wife to whom he is legitimately bound, without any fault
on his part, if she does not want to remain with him, her
Christian husband, because he is a Christian. They take no
cognizance of the fact that she is quite justly dismissed in
the event that she were to say to her husband: 'I am not
your wife unless you amass wealth for me by fraud or unless,
even though you are a Christian, you continue to ply your
trade in prostitution by which you used to support our house-
hold,' or if she knew any other shameful or disgraceful act
of her husband by which, once seduced, she had grown
accustomed to satisfy her lust, to live a life of ease, or appear
more elegant. If that husband to whom his wife says these
things had sincerely repented of his dead works when he
approached the sacrament of baptism, and if he has faith in
the foundation 'which works through charity/ 13 the love of
divine grace is sure to have mastery over him and not love
for the body of his wife, and the member which scandalizes
him he firmly amputates. Whatever grief of heart he endures
by this separation because of a sensual attachment to his
spouse is the pain of loss which he will suffer; this is the
fire through which by the burning hay he will be saved. If,
on the contrary, he has his wife as if he had none, 14 that is,
not for the sake of concupiscence, but out of mercy, paying
rather than exacting the conjugal debt, lest perchance he
might save her, assuredly he will not grieve in a purely human
manner when a union of that kind is broken. As such a one is
solely preoccupied with the things 'which are of the Lord,
how he may please God,' 15 to the extent that he builds a
superstructure of gold, silver, precious stones upon his
solicitude for the things of God, he will suffer no real loss.
His structure, not built of hay, will escape the ravages of
any fire.
13 Gal. 5.6.
14 Cf. 1 Cor, 7.29-35.
15 1 Cor. 7.32.
258 SAINT AUGUSTINE
(29) Whether men endure these sufferings only in this
life or whether similar judgments come after death, the
interpretation that I have offered of Paul's thought is not,
in my opinion, inconsistent with the principles of truth. But,
as I was saying, even if there is a better selection of proof
which does not occur to me, the fact remains that we do
not have to say to the unjust, the rebellious, criminals, and
the defiled, parricides, matricides, murderers, immoral people,
sodomites, kidnappers, liars, perjurers, 'and whatever else is
contrary to the sound doctrine, according to the gospel of the
glory of the blessed God': 16 'as long as you only believe in
Christ and receive His sacrament of baptism, you will be
saved even if you do not reform from that most evil life of
yours.'
(30) Nor does the case of the woman of Canaan force
us to conclude otherwise because the Lord granted her
petition although He had previously said: 'It is not fair to
take the children's bread and cast it to the dogs,' 17 because
that Searcher of the heart saw the change in her when He
praised her. And so He does not say: 'O dog, great is thy
faith!' but: *O woman, great is thy faith! 518 He changed the
word because He saw that her affection had changed and
knew that His correction had borne fruit. I wonder if He
would have praised in her a faith without works, that is, not
a faith such as could now operate through charity, but a
dead faith which James did not hesitate in the least to call
the faith of devils, 19 not the faith of Christians. Finally, if
they refuse to realize that the Ganaanite woman had changed
her corrupt ways when Christ rebuffed her with contempt
and correction, whenever they come upon one who only
believes in Christ and makes no attempt to conceal a really
16 Cf. 1 Tim. 1.10,11.
17 Matt. 15.26.
18 Matt. 15.28.
19 Cf. James 2.19.
FAITH AND WORKS 259
depraved life, but freely boasts of it, and is unwilling to
change it, let them heal their son's if they can, just as the
daughter of the Canaanite woman was healed. They must
not, however, make him a member of Christ, since he does
not cease to be united to a harlot. They are not illogical, of
course, in recognizing the sin against the Holy Spirit and the
unpardonable guilt of an eternal offense against God in one
who up to the end of his life does not want to believe in
Christ. If they only rightly understand what it means to
believe in Christ! To believe in Christ is not to have the
faith of devils, accurately termed a dead faith; it is to have
a faith 'which works through charity.' 20
Chapter 17
(31) Bearing in mind all that has been said, when we
refuse baptism to such as I have described, it is not that we
are attempting to uproot the cockle before it is time, but we
are unwilling to sow cockle, as the Devil does, among the
good. 1 We are not, moreover, preventing those who want to
go to Christ from going to Him. We are convicting of guilt
those who by their own profession do not want to go to
Christ. We are not making belief in Christ prohibitive. We
are pointing out that they do not believe in Christ who
either defend as not adultery what He says is adultery, or
who believe that adulterers may be members of His Body,
although He says through the Apostle that they do not possess
the kingdom of God and are opposed 'to the doctrine,
according to the gospel of the glory of the blessed God.' 2
20 Gal. 5.6.
1 Cf. Matt. 13.24-30.
2 1 Tim. 1.10,11.
260 SAINT AUGUSTINE
These opponents of Christ are not to be reputed among
those who come to the marriage feast, 3 but among those
who do not want to come. When they dare, without the
least disguise, to contradict the teaching of Christ and resist
the holy Gospel, it is not that they are rejected when they
seek admission; they reject themselves by making light of
coming. Moreover, they who renounce the world, at least
in words if not in deeds, come indeed to the feast and are
sown among the wheat and are gathered into the barn and
are joined with the sheep and are caught in the net 4 and
are mingled with the banqueters. Whether their misconduct
is open or secret, once within the Church, if there is no
possibility of reforming them, there will be reason for
toleration. And there should be no presumption of ejecting
them. God forbid that we should so interpret the statement
of the Gospel that those were brought into the marriage
feast 'whom they found, both good and bad/ 5 that they are
believed to have won over those who declared that they
would persist in evil. If that were so, the servants of the
householder sowed the cockle themselves, and that accusation
will be false which states: 'and the enemy who sowed them
is the devil. 36 Still, the words, 'his servants . . . gathered . . .
both good and bad/ 7 cannot be false whether the bad were
hidden and hence unknown, or whether they were discovered
after they had already been invited in, or whether 'both good
and bad 5 is merely a stock phrase conveying the usual praise
or censure of those who are still among the unbelievers.
What about the Lord's directions to His disciples the first
time He sent them to preach the Gospel that : 'whatever town
or village' they entered they should inquire e who in it is
3 Cf. Matt. 22.2-14; Luke 14.16-24,
4 Cf. Matt. 13.47.
5 Cf. Matt. 22.10.
6 Matt. 13.39.
7 Cf. Matt. 22.10.
FAITH AND WORKS 261
worthy,' 8 that they might stay with him until they were ready
to leave? Who, in truth, is the worthy one if not he who is so
acclaimed by his fellow townsmen; and who unworthy if
not he who is condemned by them? Converts to faith in
Christ are of both kinds and so it happens that both good
and bad are brought in because the evil ones, too, do not
refuse to repent of their dead works. But, if they refuse to
repent, they are not driven away when they desire to enter,
but of their own accord they withdraw from entering by an
open contradiction.
(32) Therefore, even that servant will be safe and not
damned among the slothful because he was unwilling to pay
out his master's talent, 9 since they were indeed unwilling to
accept what the Lord was paying out to them. This parable
was also preached on account of those who are unwilling to
undertake the duty of a dispenser in the Church, offering
for an excuse the slothful pretext that they do not want to
render an account of the sins of others. They are the ones
who hear but do not heed, that is, who receive but make
no return. When, in truth, a faithful and loving dispenser
of God, zealously prepared in paying out and eagerly alert
for the Lord's gain, says to an adulterer: c do not be an
adulterer if you want to be baptized; believe in Christ who
says that this that you are doing is adultery, if you want to
be baptized; do not be a member of a harlot 10 if you want
to become a member of Christ,' and the adulterer in turn
replies: 'I will not obey: I will not do it,' it is because he
does not want to receive the Lord's true money, but prefers
to bring his own adulterous money into the treasury of the
Lord. If, however, he should promise to amend his ways and
then does not keep his promise and after baptism is by no
8 Cf. Matt. 10.11.
9 Cf. Matt. 25.15-30.
10 Cf. 1 Cor. 6.15.
262 SAINT AUGUSTINE
means able to be reformed, measures would be found to
make such persons, who are so unprofitable to themselves,
harmless to others. This is to say that, if within the good net
of the Lord there should be a bad fish, he nevertheless would
not catch his Lord's fish with bad nets. By analogy, if within
the Church he should lead a bad life, he still would not on
that account teach an evil doctrine. When persons of that
kind who defend such conduct of their own, and who at the
same time are frankly and wilfully determined to persevere
in their evil ways, are admitted to baptism, there apparently
would be nothing else except to preach that fornicators and
adulterers who persist in their wickedness even to the end
of their lives will possess the kingdom of God and, by merit of
a faith which without works is dead, 11 will attain eternal
life and salvation. These are the bad nets 12 which fishermen
ought especially guard against, if in that parable fishers are
to be understood as bishops or superiors of a lower order in
the Church, because of the words: 'Come, and I will make
you fishers of men.' 13 With good nets can be caught fish
good and bad: with bad nets, however, good fish cannot be
caught, since from good teaching one can be good he who
hears and heeds and another can be bad he who hears
and does not heed, but from bad doctrine he who thinks
that the teaching is true although he does not submit to it
is bad and he who submits is worse.
11 Cf. James 2.17,20.
12 Cf. Matt. 13.47,48.
13 Matt. 4.19.
FAITH AND WORKS 263
Chapter 18
(33) It is truly remarkable that brethren who are wise in
other respects, when they ought to discard that pernicious
opinion whether old or new, instead raise the objection that
this is a new dogma indeed which teaches that the exceed-
ingly wicked who declare openly that they will persist in
their licentious practices are not to be admitted to baptism.
I scarcely understand such aberrations, since harlots and
actors and all others professionals in public indecency are
not permitted to approach the Christian sacrament without
having first loosened, or broken themselves away altogether
from, their filthy bondage. All these, according to my adver-
saries 3 way of thinking, surely would be admitted to baptism
if holy Church did not retain her ancient and healthy
practice, based on a truth so evident that they cannot miss
it, 'that they who do such things will not attain the kingdom
of God,' 1 and not allow them to approach baptism before
they repented of their dead works. If it should happen that
they receive the sacrament through deception, they still can-
not be saved unless their behavior indicates that they have
amended their ways. Drunkards, on the other hand, the
covetous, the evil-tongued, 2 if they cannot be convicted or
charged with open commission of any other damnable vice,
are rigorously disciplined according to the precepts and
manuals of instruction, and all such persons seem to approach
baptism with a change of heart for the better. But, if by
chance they notice that in some places, through carelessness,
it has become customary to admit adulterers that is, men
who use the wives of others as if their own, or women, the
husband of others whom divine Law, not human law,
condemns, they ought to try to correct these evil practices
1 Gal. 5.21.
2 Cf. 1 Cor. 6.10.
264 SAINT AUGUSTINE
by right custom, that is, that even these be not admitted.
They ought not pervert right custom by these corrupt
practices; they should not think that it is unnecessary to
instruct the competentes in the reformation of their manner
of living, and, consequently, should think that all perpetrators
even of public obscenities and outrages, that is, harlots,
seducers, gladiators, and whoever else there are of this kind,
ought to be admitted even if resolute in the pursuit of their
evil activities. All those vices, to be sure, which the Apostle
enumerates, concluding: 'they who do such things will not
attain the kingdom of God,' 3 they should readily acknowledge,
and should fittingly rebuke, on exposure, those who do such
things excessively, and refuse them baptism if they resist
correction and publicly declare themselves inflexible.
Chapter 19
(34) They who believe that other things are easily com-
pensated for by the giving of alms do not doubt, however,
that there are three deadly sins that must be punished by
excommunication until the offenders are cured by humble
repentance: impurity, idolatry, murder. It is not now our
task to inquire into the nature of this opinion or to determine
whether it is to be corrected or approved, lest we run the
risk of extending too long the work we have undertaken, in
order to answer a question not at all necessary for bringing
our problem to solution. Let it suffice to say that if some vices
exclude one from the sacrament of baptism, among them is
adultery; if, however, only three kinds of sin prevent the
reception of baptism, among the three is adultery, whence
our whole discussion has arisen.
(35) Since the morals of bad Christians, who were even
3 Gal. 5.21.
FAITH AND WORKS 265
far more wicked before they became Christians, do not seem
to have included the evil of men marrying others' wives and
women wedding others' husbands; perhaps on that account
the negligence crept in among certain churches of not
inquiring into or uprooting such evil practices during the
instructions of the candidates for baptism. In this way it came
about that those evils began to be defended, which up to the
present time are rare enough among the baptized if we do
not cause them to increase rapidly through our own lack of
vigilance. In certain instances, of course, their appearance is
due simply to neglect; in others, it is a matter of inexperience;
while in still others, probably ignorance, as the Lord is
understood to have signified under the term 'sleep,' when He
says : 'but while men were asleep, his enemy came and sowed
weeds.' 1 From this we must not conclude that such vices have
appeared for the first time in the lives of bad Christians,
inasmuch as blessed Cyprian in his letter on the fallen-away
Christians, while bemoaning and rebuking them, mentioned 2
many evil practices which he asserts deservedly called down
the indignation of God, so that He permitted His Church
to be scourged by an intolerable persecution. He does not,
however, mention the vices I have spoken of, although he is
not silent in regard to a particular evil which he affirms
belongs to those same bad practices. He maintains that that
union with unbelievers in the bond of matrimony is nothing
short of prostituting the members of Christ with heathens, a
condition no longer considered sinful in our times. Because
in the New Testament there is nothing explicitly prescribed
about it, it is either believed to be lawful or it is passed over
as a doubtful matter. So, too, it is questionable whether
Herod 3 had married the wife of a dead or living brother, and
1 Matt. 13.25.
2 Cyprian, De lapsis 6.470.
3 Ct. Matt. 14.3,4.
266 SAINT AUGUSTINE
for that reason it is not quite clear what John was declaring
unlawful for him. Similarly, in the case of a concubine, if
she has publicly promised that she will cohabit with no
other, even if she should be dismissed by the one to whom she
has been subject, there is just doubt whether she should be
admitted to the reception of baptism. Furthermore, it does
not seem right that whoever puts away his wife caught in
adultery and marries another ought to be reduced to the
equality of those who put away their wives for another
reason than adultery, and remarry. 4 In the divine expressions
themselves it is not clear whether one would be considered an
adulterer if, having lawfully put away an adulteress, he
should marry again; so that in this case, according to my
judgment, one might be pardonably mistaken. On this
account, those guilty of a misconduct of impurity which has
been exposed must in every way be barred from baptism
except where they have been straightened out by voluntary
amendment and repentance. On the other hand, wherever
there is a doubt, everything possible must be done to prevent
questionable unions. What is the need of racking one's brains
about an ambiguous distinction? If, however, such unions
have been made, I question whether the contracting parties
ought to be admitted to baptism.
Chapter 20
(36) So far as it belongs to the healthy teaching of truth
to prevent granting a dangerous security and an unwholesome
warrent to any death-bringing sin, there is this order of
spiritual remedy : the candidates for baptism believe in God,
Father, and Son, and Holy Spirit as formulated in the
Creed; and especially they repent of dead works. They may
4 Cf. Matt. 5.32.
FAITH AND WORKS
267
then be confident that in baptism they will receive complete
remission of all past sin. The purpose of the remedy is not
to make sinning lawful, but to remove the harm wrought by
sin; not to give permission to sin, but to effect the remission
of sin. The spiritual connotation becomes evident in : 'Behold,
thou art cured. Sin no more' 1 words which our Lord spoke
as He healed the body of a man, since He knew that his
body had been struck by an affliction, the just result of sin.
I wonder, indeed, how they think the Lord's sentence,
'Behold, thou art cured/ can be passed on a man who enters
baptism as an adulterer, and, after having been baptized,
goes away still an adulterer. If adultery is health, what grave
and deadly disease can there be?
Chapter 21
(37) But among the three thousand, they insist, whom
the Apostles baptized in one day, and the many thousands
of believers upon whom the Apostle c from Jerusalem round
about as far as Illyricum completed the gospel,' 1 there cer-
tainly were some married to the wives of other men and
women to the husbands of other women. The Apostles ought
to have established the rule then which would thereafter be
observed in the churches, whether such were not to be
admitted to baptism unless they had rectified these adulteries.
As if the rule did not hold on that occasion just because they
do not find anyone mentioned who had been admitted
although he was an adulterer ! Truly was it possible that the
crimes infinite in number of individual men be enumer-
ated, since the general rule more than covers all where Peter,
1 John 5.14.
1 Cf. Rom. 15.19.
268 SAINT AUGUSTINE
bearing witness with many words, says to the baptismal
candidates: 'Save yourselves from this perverse generation. 52
Who would ever doubt that the perversity of this generation
refers to adultery and those who choose to remain in this
state of iniquity? It could just as well be asserted that public
harlots, whom, certainly, no church admits to baptism before
they have been released from such disgraceful bonds, could
be found among the thousand believers of that time through-
out the many nations and that the Apostles ought to have
set them up as examples of those to be received or rejected.
Nevertheless, from certain minor examples, we can conjecture
greater. If the publicans coming to the baptism of John were
forbidden to exact anything more than what had been
appointed them, 3 I wonder if adultery could be permitted
those coming to the baptism of Christ.
(38) They also recount how the Israelites had committed
many serious offenses and had shed so much blood of the
prophets, and yet not for these deeds entirely had merited
destruction, but particulary for the infidelity by which they
wilfully disbelieved in Christ. They pay no attention to the
fact that this was not their only sin, that they did not believe
in Christ, but that they killed Christ. Their one sin belongs to
the crime of incredulity, the other to the crime of cruelty;
one is contrary to the right faith, the other to right living.
But he is free from both outrages who has the faith of Christ,
not a dead faith without works 4 found even among devils,
but the faith of grace 'which works through charity/ 5
(39) This is the faith of which it is said: c the kingdom
of God is within you.' 6 This is the faith the violent have been
2 Acts 2.40.
3 Cf. Luke 3.12,13.
4 Cf. James 2.18,19.
5 Gal. 5,6.
6 Luke 17.21.
FAITH AND WORKS 269
seizing by credence; they, by fulfillment of the Law, 7 are
obtaining the spirit of love without which the Law, through
the observance of the letter only, made them guilty of trans-
gression. The saying, therefore: 'the kingdom of heaven is
enduring violent assault, and the violent are seizing it by
force/ 8 must not be thought to mean that the wicked, merely
by believing and at the same time leading the worst kind of
lives, enter the kingdom of heaven, but that that guilt of
transgression which was caused by the Law alone, that is,
by the letter of the Law without the spirit commanding, is
absolved by believing, and that by the violence of faith the
Holy Spirit is obtained, through whom with 'charity poured
forth in our hearts' 9 the Law is fulfilled, not in the fear of
punishment, but in the love of justice.
Chapter 22
(40) By no means should the unwary make the mistake
of thinking that they know God if they confess God with a
dead faith, that is, without works after the manner of devils,
and firmly trust that they will come to life everlasting because
the Lord says: 'Now this is everlasting life, that they may
know thee, the only true God, and him whom thou hast sent,
Jesus Christ.' 1 They must also remember that Scripture says :
'And by this we learn of him, if we keep his commandments.
He who says "I know him," and does not keep his command-
ments, is a liar and the truth is not in him.' 2 Lest anyone
should think that His commandments pertain to faith alone
7 Cf. Rom. 13.10.
8 Cf. Matt. 11.12.
9 Cf. Rom. 5.5.
1 John 17.3.
2 1 John 2.3,4.
270 SAINT AUGUSTINE
although no one has dared to say this, especially since He
said 'commandments/ and lest these disperse thought by
their number, He said: 'On these two commandments depend
the whole Law and the Prophets' 3 it may be said quite
rightly that the commandments of God pertain to faith alone,
if not a dead but a living faith which works through charity
is understood. John explains later on exactly what he meant,
when he says: 'And this is his commandment, that we
should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love
one another. 54
(41) This, then, is beneficial, to believe in God with the
right kind of faith, to worship God, to know God, that He
may help us to live the right kind of lives, and, if we sin,
that we may merit His pardon, not continuing with per-
sistence and rash security in deeds that are hateful to Him,
but withdrawing from them and saying to Him: 'I said:
O Lord, be thou merciful to me: heal my soul, for I have
sinned against thee/ 5 a prayer which, for those who do not
believe in Him, has no auditor. In vain, too, do they utter
these words who are estranged from the grace of the Mediator
because they have strayed far from Him. Therefore, we have
those words from the Book of Wisdom which I certainly do
not understand how a rash confidence interprets: Tor if we
sin, we are thine, 3 since we have a good and great Lord who
both wills and has the power to heal the sins of penitents,
One who by no means would fail to destroy the persistently
malicious. Finally, when Solomon had said 'we are thine,' he
added : 'knowing thy power, a power indeed from which the
sinner is neither able to hide nor withdraw. He went on to
add : 'But we shall sin not, knowing that we are counted with
thee/ 6 Who, worthily reflecting on our habitation with God,
3 Matt. 22.40.
4 1 John 3.23.
5 Ps. 40.5.
6 Cf. Wisd. 15.2.
FAITH AND WORK S 271
to which all who are called according to plan are appointed
by predestination, 7 does not strive to live in a manner be-
fitting that dwelling place? John, too, says: 'these things I
have written to you in order that you may not sin. But if
anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus
Christ the just; and he is a propitiation for our sins.' 8 He
does not say this to give us protection in sinning, but, rather,
that if we have sinned we may, by forsaking sin utterly, have
every hope of forgiveness because of that Advocate of whom
infidels are deprived.
Chapter 23
(42) From these words we must be careful not to pro-
mise a too lenient condition to those willing to believe in
God but with a faith that permits them retain their corrupt
ways. Much more so must we be cautious of the words of
the Apostles: 'Whoever have sinned without the Law, will
perish without the Law; and whoever have sinned under the
Law, will be judged by the Law,' 1 as if there were any
difference between perishing and being judged, since the
same idea is signified by another word. Scripture often
employs the term 'judgment 5 for eternal damnation, just as
the Lord does in the Gospel : 'for the hour will come in which
all who are in the tombs shall hear the voice of the Son of
God. And they who have done good shall come forth unto
resurrection of life; but they who have done evil unto
resurrection of judgment.' 2 Our Lord does not say those who
have believed in the resurrection of life and, on the other
hand, those who have not believed in the resurrection of
7 Cf. Rom, 8.28-30.
8 1 John 2.1,2.
1 Rom. 2.12.
2 Cf. John 5.28,29.
272 SAINT AUGUSTINE
judgment; He says: 'those who have done good'; 'those who
have done evil.' Truly, the good life is inseparable from faith,
'which works through charity 5 ; 3 indeed, this is the good life
itself, and hence we see that when the Lord had said the
resurrection of judgment He meant the resurrection to eternal
damnation. In regard to the final resurrection of all among
whom, of course, will be total unbelievers, who obviously will
not be left in their tombs He made two divisions, declaring
that some would rise again unto resurrection of life; others,
unto resurrection of judgment.
(43 ) If they presume to say that the reference above must
not be assumed to concern those who are complete unbelievers,
but those who will be saved by fire because they have believed
even if they have lived wicked lives for a passing punish-
ment is signified by the term 'judgment 3 they do so brazenly.
The Lord plainly divided that last resurrection of all, among
whom without question will be the incredulous, into two
groups: 'life 5 and 'judgment. 5 Now, by 'judgment' He
intended to infer eternal judgment, although He did not add
the word 'eternal 5 to judgment; just as He did not qualify
'life' and say 'unto the resurrection of eternal life, 5 when
certainly He did not mean any other but eternal. Let them
see what answer they will give when He says: 'but he who
does not believe is already judged.' 4 Here, no doubt, either
they understand that judgment has been used for eternal
punishment or they will venture to say that even unbelievers
will be saved by fire, since He says : 'he who does not believe is
already judged,' that is to say, his destiny is already deter-
mined. That promise of theirs of judgment to believers, even
those living bad lives, will not be such a great benefit after
all, since even unbelievers will not necessarily be lost, but
will be judged. If they do not dare to say this, then they dare
3 GaL 5.6.
4 John 3.18.
FAITH AND WORKS 273
not promise anything more clement to those about whom
the Scriptures say: 'they will be judged by the Law/ 5 since
it is agreed that judgment is the usual expression for eternal
damnation. What about the fact, moreover, that we find the
lot of those who sin knowingly, not only not very mild, but,
even, far worse? They are those especially who have received
the Law, for the words of Scripture are: 'where there is no
law, neither is there transgression'; 6 and again: 'I had not
known lust unless the Law had said: Thou shalt not lust.
But sin, having found an occasion, worked in me by means of
the commandment all manner of lust.' 7 There are many
other places where the Apostle expresses the same thought.
From this more serious guilt the grace of the Holy Spirit sets
one free through Jesus Christ our Lord. Grace, 'because the
charity of God is poured forth in our hearts,' 8 gives justice
satisfaction by which the inordinance of lust is overcome. It
is evident, therefore, that nothing milder, but something even
more serious, must be understood about those of whom the
Apostle says: 'whoever have sinned under the Law, will be
judged by the Law/ than about those who, sinning without
the Law, will perish without the Law. Nor in this passage
does the word 'judged' imply a passing punishment, but that
punishment by which even unbelievers will be judged.
(44) Their whole aim is, of course, to promise salvation
by fire to those who, while believing, continue to lead very
bad lives. To this end they say to them: 'whoever have sinned
without the Law, will perish without the Law; and whoever
have sinned under the Law, will be judged by the Law/ as
if they meant 'they will not perish, but will be saved by
fire.' They are not able to comprehend the Apostle's dis-
tinction of sinners without the Law and sinners under the
5 Rom. 2.12.
6 Rom. 4.15.
7 Rom. 7.7,8.
8 Rom. 5.5,
274 SAINT AUGUSTINE
Law, when he was speaking about pagans and Jews in order
to emphasize the necessity of the liberating grace of Christ
not only for the pagans, but for both pagans and Jews, as
the entire Epistle to the Romans very clearly testifies. Surely,
then, even to the Jews sinning under the Law, who, the
Apostle said, 'will be judged under the Law,' they may not
promise, in virtue of the liberating grace of Christ, salvation,
if you please, by fire, since Scripture said: they c will be
judged under the Law/ But, if they do not make such a
promise, lest they contradict themselves they who claim that
the most serious sin of disbelief was an obstacle to the Jews
why do they apply to the problem of faith in Christ in
unbelievers and believers what was written regarding those
who sinned without the Law and those who sinned under
the Law, since this was written about Jews and pagans in
order to invite both to the grace of Christ?
Chapter 24
Scripture does not say : 'whoever have sinned without faith
will perish without faith; and whoever have sinned in faith
will be judged by faith, but 'without the Law' is said and
'under the Law,' to make it very evident that the reference
was to the judgment being passed on pagans and Jews,
and not on good and bad Christians.
(45) In the citation above, if they want to accept Law
for faith, which is a great deal less unreasonable and absurd,
even here they can apply the most clear judgment of the
Apostle Peter in speaking of those who had taken occasion
for sensuality and found a cloak for malice 1 in the words of
Scripture: 'we' who belong to the New Testament 'are' not
the children 'of a slave-girF but 'of the free woman in
1 Cf. 1 Peter 2.16.
FAITH AND WORKS 275
virtue of the freedom wherewith Christ has made us free' 2
and had thought that to live in freedom meant that, secure,
as it were, by such great redemption, they could consider
lawful for themselves whatever released them from obligation,
ignoring the words: 'you have been called to liberty, brethren;
only do not use liberty as an occasion for sensuality. 33 Peter
himself says: 'Live as freemen, yet not using your freedom
as a cloak for malice, 34 and in his second epistle: 'These
men are dry springs and mists driven by storms; the blackness
of darkness is reserved for them. For by high-sounding, empty
words they entice with sensual allurements of carnal passion
those who are just escaping from such as live in error. They
promise them freedom whereas they themselves are the slaves
of corruption; for by whatever a man is overcome, of this
also he is a slave. For if after escaping the defilements of the
world through the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ, they are again entangled therein and overcome, their
latter state has become Worse for them than their former.
For it were better for them not to have known the way of
justice, than having known it, to turn back from the holy
commandment delivered to them. For what that true proverb
says has happened to them : A dog returns to his vomit, and :
A sow even after washing wallows in the mire.' 5 Why,
contrary to this manifest truth, is a better condition promised
to them for having known the way of justice, that is, the
Lord Christ, and yet living inordinately, than if they had not
known it at all, since the text says without reserve: 'it were
better for them not to have known the way of justice, than
having known it, to turn back from the holy commandment
delivered to them 3 ?
2 Cf. Gal. 4.31; 5.1.
3 Gal. 5.13.
4 1 Peter 2.16.
5 Cf. 2 Peter 2.17-22.
276 SAINT AUGUSTINE
Chapter 25
(46) In this passage the 'holy commandment' is not to
be interpreted as the precept whereby we should believe in
God, although everything is contained in that very precept
if we understand the faith of believers to be that faith 'which
works through charity.' 1 What the 'holy commandment'
means is clearly expressed, namely, the precept whereby,
withdrawing from the defilements of this world, we lead a
life of purity. It states : Tor if after escaping the defilements
of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour
Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein and overcome,
their latter state has become worse for them than the former.' 2
It does not say 'escaping the ignorance of God' or 'escaping
the unbelief of the world' or anything like that, but 'the
defilements of the world/ in which,, certainly, is included
every foulness of sin. In speaking of those mentioned pre-
viously, he said: 'while banqueting with you, they have
eyes full of adultery and turned unceasingly towards sin.' 3
On this account, he even calls them dry springs; 4 springs, to
be sure, because they have received knowledge of the Lord
Christ; dry, however, because they do not live in accordance
with that knowledge. The Apostle Jude, also, when speaking
of such person, says: 'These, who after becoming stained
join in your feasts, feeding themselves without fear, are
clouds without water,' 5 and so on. Where Peter says: 'while
banqueting with you they have eyes full of adultery/ Jude
says: 'after becoming stained they join in your feasts,' for
they have mingled with the good at sacramental banquets
1 Gal. 5.6.
2 2 Peter 2.20.
3 2 Peter 2.13,14.
4 Cf, a Peter 2.17.
5 Cf. Jude 1.12.
FAITH AND WORKS
277
and the feasts of the people. Where Peter says 'dry springs, 3
Jude says 'clouds without water,' and James says c a dead
faith.' 6
(47) It is obvious, therefore, that a passing judgment of
fire may not be promised to such as live disgracefully and
sinfully, because they know the way of justice, although it
were better for them not to know, as the unquestionably
true Scripture testifies. About these very people, in fact, the
Lord says : 'and the last state of that man will be worse than
was the first'; 7 because they have not received the Holy
Spirit as the indweller of their purged soul, they cause a
more insidious unclean spirit to return within them. Unless,
perhaps, those under consideration are to be considered
better because they have not returned to the uncleanness of
adultery, but they have not withdrawn from it, or those who
do not defile themselves iafter they have been cleansed, but
they have refused to be cleansed ! In order to receive baptism
with a clear conscience, they do not disdain to vomit out the
foulness of their former manner of living, but, like a dog,
they lap it up again. In the holiness of their purification by
baptism, with unfeeling heart, they stubbornly strive to retain
their undigested filth; they do not conceal it with promises
and deception, but belch it forth with the impudence of a
public acknowledgment. Going out from Sodom, they do not,
like Lot's wife, 8 turn and gaze back upon the things of the
past, but they refuse to depart from Sodom; nay, rather,
clinging to Sodom, they attempt to enter Christ. Paul the
Apostle says : 'I formerly was a blasphemer, a persecutor, and
a bitter adversary; but I obtained the mercy of God because
I acted ignorantly, in unbelief ; 9 to the wilfully wicked they
6 James 2.20.
7 Cf. Matt. 12.45.
8 Cf. Gen. 19.26.
9 1 Tim, 1.13.
278 SAINT AUGUSTINE
would say: then rather will you obtain mercy, if, knowing
evil, you will have lied by faith alone. It would be an almost
endless task to wish to assemble all the testimony from
Scripture which would evince conclusively that the condition
of those who knowingly lead extremly wicked and unjust
lives is not only less clement but actually much graver than
those who lead such lives in ignorance; hence, this proof
must suffice.
Chapter 26
(48) With the help of our Lord God, let us diligently
beware henceforth of giving men a false confidence by
telling them that if only they will have been baptized in
Christ, no matter how they will live in His faith, they will
arrive at eternal salvation. Let us not so make Christians as
the Jews made proselytes, to whom the Lord says: 'Woe to
you, Scribes and Pharisees, because you traverse sea and
land to make one convert; and when he has become one,
you make him twofold more a son of hell than yourselves/ 1
In both cases let us remain firm to the sound teaching of God
the Master, namely, that the Christian life be consonant with
holy baptism and that to none may eternal life be promised,
if he will have lacked either one or the other. He who said :
'unless a man be born again of water and the Spirit, he
cannot enter into the kingdom of God,' 2 also said: 'unless
your justice exceeds that of the Scribes and the Pharisees,
you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven. 33 In truth, He
says of them: The Scribes and the Pharisees have sat on
the chair of Moses. All things, therefore, that they command
you, observe and do. But do not act according to their works;
1 CL Matt. 23.15.
2 John 3.5.
3 Matt. 5.20.
FAITH AND WORKS 279
for they talk but do nothing.' 4 Their justice is c to talk and
do nothing.' That is why He willed that our justice 'to talk
and do 5 abound over theirs; if it will not have abounded,
there will be no entrance for us into the kingdom of heaven.
Not that each one ought to be so exalted that he would dare,
I shall not say boast before others, but even believe himself
that he is without sin in this life, but that he remember that,
unless there were certain sins so serious that they must be
punished with excommunication, the Apostle would not say:
'you and my spirit gathered together with the power of our
Lord Jesus to deliver such a one over to Satan for the
destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the
day of our Lord Jesus Christ'; 5 and also: lest ; I should mourn
over many who sinned before and have not repented of the
uncleanness and immorality that they practised.' 6 Moreover,
if there were not certain sins which must be healed, not by
that humility of penance such as is given within the Church
to the penitents properly so called, but by definite remedies
of discipline, the Lord Himself would not say: c go and show
him his fault, between thee and him alone. If he listen to
thee, thou hast won thy brother.' 7 Finally, if there were not
certain things without which this life could not go on, He
would not put into prayer the daily healing remedy for
which He teaches us to pray: 'And forgive us our debts, as
we also forgive our debtors.' 8
4 Matt. 23.2,3.
5 1 Cor. 5.4,5.
6 Cf. 2 Cor, 12.21.
7 Matt. 18.15.
8 Matt. 6.12.
280 SAINT AUGUSTINE
Chapter 27
(49) It seems to me that I have adequately presented my
position in regard to that whole controversy, which revolves
about three issues.
The first is the mixture of good and wicked in the Church,
similar to the mixture of wheat and cockle. Here we must be
cautious against giving the impression that these likenesses
either the wheat and the coclde, or the unclean animals in
the ark, 1 or any other pertinent figure of Scripture have
been pointed out to imply that the discipline of the Church,
which is spoken of in the likeness of the valiant woman:
'Austere are the ways of her house,' 2 has grown lax. On the
contrary, they have been emphasized to prevent the indiscre-
tion of folly, rather than the severity of diligence, from
advancing to the point of presuming to separate the good
from the bad, as it were, by impious schism. Nor is there
any intention by means of these parables and predictions to
counsel slothfulness to the good whereby they might become
careless where they ought to exercise precaution, but, rather,
to counsel patience with which to endure in the firm doctrine
of truth what they are not able to amend. Because unclean
animals entered the ark with Noe, that is no reason why
bishops ought to grant baptism to impure dancers who ask
for it; yet they are certainly less offensive than adulterers.
By this allegory it is prophesied that in the Church there will
be the impure by reason of tolerance, not because of corrup-
tion of doctrine or dissolution of discipline. Furthermore, the
unclean animals did not break their way into the ark through
any part of the structure, but, because the ark was an
1 Cf. Gen. 7.3.
2 Cf. Prov. 31.27. St. Augustine seems to be translating from the Septua-
gint.
FAITH AND WORKS 28 1
integral whole, they entered by the one and only entrance
which the architect had made.
The second question seems to indicate that the candidates
must be taught faith alone prior to baptism, and, after
baptism, instructed in Christian morality. Unless I am mis-
taken, I have amply demonstrated that it is the duty of the
guardian, at the time when all the faithful who ask for the
sacrament are listening intently and anxiously to all that is
being taught, not to be silent in regard to the punishment
with which the Lord threatens those living evil lives, lest in
baptism itself, to which the guilty one comes for the remission
of all sins, there is matter for very serious sin.
The third question is the most dangerous of all. And since
it has received too little consideration and treatment not in
accordance with divine eloquence, that whole idea seems to
me to have sprung up which promises to the most vicious and
disgraceful sinners even if they persist in their sinful living
but believe in Christ and receive His sacrament that they
will attain salvation and everlasting life, contrary to the most
evident judgment of the Lord, who answered the young man
yearning for eternal life: 'if thou wilt enter into life, keep
the commandments,' 3 and enumerated 'which command-
ments,' clearly indicating the sins to be avoided which
obviously bar one from eternal salvation, because faith with-
out works is useless. 4
In answer to the three questions of the controversy I have,
in my opinion, adequately demonstrated and made sufficiently
evident that the wicked must be tolerated in the Church in
such a way that ecclesiastical discipline will not suffer; that
candidates for baptism must be instructed not only to hear
and accept what they must believe, but also to live as befits
that belief; that life without end must be promised to the
faithful with such precision that no one will harbor the
3 Matt. 19.17.
4 Cf. James 2.20.
282 SAINT AUGUSTINE
illusion that he can attain it with a dead faith useless for
salvation because it is without works, but only by means of
the faith of grace 'which works through charity.' 5 Nor has it
been my purpose to find fault with the faithful dispensers of
God for negligence or slothfulness, but, rather, to reprove the
obstinacy of certain individuals who refuse to accept the
Lord's talents, and compel the Lord's servants to use their
adulterous money instead. At the same time, not for anything
would they want to be classed with the evil servants such as
St. Cyprian mentions, 6 who renounce this world in words
alone, not in deeds; although not even in words do they
renounce the works of the Devil, since they publicly announce
without any embarrassment that they intend to remain in their
state of adultery. In conclusion, if my adversaries are apt to
say anything which by chance my discussion has failed to
touch upon, I am sure that it would be of such nature that
an answer would be totally unnecessary, either because their
comment would be irrelevant to the problem under debate,
or because it would be so trivial that it could easily be refuted
by anyone at all.
5 Cf. Gal. 5.6.
6 Cyprian, De lapsis 6.470,471.
71
JL/
(De symbolo ad catechumenos)
Translated by
SISTER MARIE LIGUORI, I.H.M., PH.D.
INTRODUCTION
I ERY LITTLE is definitely known about the De symbolo
ad catechumenos. Possidius, In his Indiculum, merely
notes three sermons on the Creed. 1 In PL 38 there
are four sermons attributed to St. Augustine in which the
Creed is expounded to catechumens. Sermons 212, 213, and
214 were delivered on the occasion of the traditio symbol^
that is, the imparting of the Creed, 2 and Sermon 215 on
the redditio symboli or the rectkation of the Creed. 3
Of the four sermons De symbolo ad catechumenos in PL
40 that are there associated with the name of St. Augustine,
the Benedictines of St. Maur considered only the first as
genuine. The other three fall far short of the genius of Hippo.
Their want of polish in diction and style, their lack of
gravity, erudition, and intellectual acumen are noticeably at
variance with all his other writings. 4 The Creed, too, as it is
formulated in them, differs from the one used by St.
Augustine. 5
1 Cf. A. Wilmart, 'Operum S. Augustini Elenchus/ Miscellanea Agosti-
niana II (Rome 1931) 205: '175 De symbolo tractatus tres.'
2 All three sermons were delivered about fourteen days before Easter;
Sermon 212 between 410 and 412; Sermon 213 before 410; Sermon 214
in 391 or possibly 423, Cf. A. * Kunzelmann, 'Die Chronologic der
Sermones des HI. Augustinus/ Miscellanea, Agostiniana II (Rome
1931) 417-520.
3 No specific date known. Cf. Kunzelmann, op. cit.
4 'Admonitio/ PL 40.625-626.
5 Cf. E. Portalte 'Saint Augustin/ DTC I 2 (Paris 1909) 2310.
285
286 SAINT AUGUSTINE
The first and approved De symbolo, moreover, bears
striking resemblance in content to the exposition of the
Apostle's Creed in De fide et symbolo* which St. Augustine
presented to an impressive audience, when, as a simple priest,
he took part by request in the Council held at Hippo in
October, 393. 7 Naturally, however, there is this difference
between them: the lecture long, philosophical, dogmatic,
carefully planned and prepared was delivered to the general
Synod of African Bishops, men of knowledge and experience;
the sermon was preached as an instruction to catechumens,
who, for the most part, had little or no knowledge of religious
matters. Dogma was, in fact, kept from them by the discipline
of the secret until they were actually members of the Church.
One of the chief duties of bishop in the Christian Church
was preaching. In the first Christian centuries, the Sacrifice of
the Mass was unthinkable without a homily from the bishop.
St. Augustine, however, had been commanded to fulfill this
office when still only a priest. Then, after Valerius, Bishop of
Hippo, died and Augustine succeeded him four or five
years after his ordination to the priesthood preaching con-
tinued to play a dominant role in his life. To it he gave all
the ardor and zeal of his temperament, the brilliance of his
native endowment, and the refinement of his long years of
rhetorical training. 8
It goes without saying that the African Father was an
eloquent and stirring preacher, enthusiastically received. He
is pre-eminent for his deep psychological insight and great
power of adapting his thought and expression to the
comprehension level of his audience or auditor. He had the
gift of eliciting the right responses and reactions from his
6 Cf. above, Faith and Works 1.1; 1.4; 4.8: 5.11; 7.14. 7.18; 9.16-21.
7 V. J. Bourke, Augustine's Quest of Wisdom (Milwaukee 1945) , 132;
cf. G. Bardy, Saint Augustin, I'homme et I'oeuvre (Paris 1946) 164-
169; also, Retractationes 1.17 (PL 32) .
8 Cf. Kunzelmann, op. cit. 417-419.
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287
hearers who, although sometimes noisy, listened to him,
nevertheless, with avidity and devotion. 9
De symbolo ad catechumenos is an excellent example of
the fine sympathy and understanding of one sensitively aware
of the individual need of those before him. It may well
represent the effort of the priest who, as bishop, was to
become the consummate master of the theory and art of
catechising, as De catechizandis rudibus so clearly indicates.
The bishop, too, was a perfect example of that personal love
for mankind and God which he strongly demanded of the
catechist. His was ever a tender regard for the catechumens
whom, on every occasion, he never ceased to encourage and
exhort to ask for the sacrament of baptism.
Pertinent to an appreciation of the preacher's art of
teaching is a comparison of the De symbolo ad catechumenos
with the Tractatus de symbolo, the first of the thirty-three
sermons found in the Guelferbytanian collection and edited
by Dom Morin for the Augustinian fifteenth centenary. The
two sermons necessarily cover the same material, but differ in
emphasis because of the experience, learning, preparation,
and previous instructions of those addressed. De symbolo,
for example, in treating of the Trinity, develops in great
detail the equality and relation of Father and Son; the
Tractatus de symbolo stresses the procession of the Holy
Spirit. The virgin maternity of Mother Church is likened to
the virginal maternity of the Mother of God in the latter;
the former dwells on the Incarnation of the Son as contrasted
with His eternal nativity. Strangely enough, there is no
9 Cf. Bardy, op. cit. 213-263; cf. also, H. Pope, O.P. Sam* Augustine of
Hippo (Westminster, Md. 1949) 139-194.
10 This sermon is practically identical with Sermon 213, PL 38 (1841)
1060-1065. It is longer by two additional sections, the first and last.
Morin believes Tractatus de symb-olo to be the genuine sermon
because of its wording of the Creed, and distinctly Augustinian
clausulae. Cf. 'Sermones Moriniani I Ex Collectione Guelferbytana I,
Miscellanea Agostiniccna I (Rome 1930) , 441-450.
288 SAINT AUGUSTINE
overlapping of Scripture in the two sermons; St. Augustine
does not repeat himself here. There are, however, at least
seven parallels in which not only the thought but also the
manner of expression is reproduced with some identity in
diction. A few examples will illustrate the great preacher's
manner of self-repetition, a natural habit which does not in
the least detract from his evident awareness of the limitations
and resources of his audience.
A part of the instruction on the omnipotence of God is
almost word perfect in the two sermons, as (1.2): 'Deus
omnipotens est : et cum sit omnipotens, mori non potest, falli
not potest, mentiri non potest . . . Quant multa non potest,
et omnipotens est, et ideo omnipotens est, quia ista non
potest' just escapes complete identity with (2.21-26) : 'Nam
ego dico quanta non possit: non potest mori, non potest
peccare, non potest mentiri, non potest falli; tanta non potest,
quae si posset, non est omnipotens.'
In the following parallels, St. Augustine has caught the
difficulties of those whom he is preparing for the sacrament
of baptism which they will probably receive the following
week on Easter Sunday (7.15): 'Nemo dicat: Illud fed,
forte non mihi dimittitur. Quid fecisti? quantum fecisti? Die
immane aliquid quod commisisti, grave horrendum . . /
echoes in the Tractatus (2.10-14) : 'Nemo dicat: Non mihi
potest dimittere peccata, Quomodo non potest omnipotens?
Sed dicis: Ego multum peccavi. Et ego dico: Sed ille
omnipotens est. Et tu: Ego talia peccata commisi, unde
liberari et mundari non possum^
The present translation of De symbolo ad catechumenos
follows the Benedictine text as reproduced in PL 40 (1887)
627-636.
THE CREED
Chapter 1
IECEIVE, MY SONS, the rule of faith which is called
the Creed. When you have received it, write it on
your hearts; recite it daily to yourselves. Before you
go to sleep, before you go forth, fortify yourselves with your
Creed. No one writes the Creed so that it can be read; let
your memory be your codex that you may be able to review
it if it should happen that forgetfulness effaces what diligence
has given you. You will believe what you hear yourself
saying, and your lips will repeat what you believe. The
Apostle says truly: Tor with the heart a man believes unto
justice, and with the mouth profession of faith is made unto
salvation'; 1 this is the Creed that you will be going over in
your thoughts and repeating from memory. These words that
you have heard are scattered throughout the divine Scrip-
tures. They have been assembled and unified to facilitate
the memory of dull mankind in order that everyone will be
able to say the Creed and adhere to what he believes. Can
it be that up to this point you have heard merely that God
I Rom. 10.10.
289
290 SAINT AUGUSTINE
is all-powerful? You are beginning to hold Him as a Father
when you will be born of Mother Church.
(2) You have already received, you have meditated, and
YOU have clung to the fruits of your meditation, so that you
may say: 'I believe in God, the Father Almighty. 5 God is
all-powerful, and, since He is all-powerful, He cannot die,
He cannot be deceived, He cannot lie, and, as the Apostle
says, 'he cannot disown himself.' 2 Very much He cannot do,
yet He is all-powerful; because He cannot do these things,
for that very reason is He all-powerful. If He could die, He
would not be all-powerful; if He could lie, if He could be
deceived, if He could deceive, if it were possible for Him to
do an injustice. He would not be omnipotent; because, if it
were in Him to do any of this, such acts would not be
worthy of the Almighty. Absolutely omnipotent, our Father
cannot sin. He does whatsoever He wills: that in itself is
omnipotence. He does whatever He wishes well, He does
whatever He wishes justly, but, whatever is evil, that He does
not will. No one has the power to resist the Omnipotent and
not do what God wills. He made heaven and earth, the sea,
and all the creatures that are in them, visible and invisible;
invisible, as in heaven the Thrones, Dominions, Principalities,
Powers, Archangels, Angels, all of whom will be our fellow
citizens if we shall have lived rightly. He made the visible
creatures of heaven the sun, moon, stars. He adorned earth
with His terrestrial animals; He filled the sky with winged
creatures, land with moving and creeping things, the sea
with fish; He filled all regions with their proper creatures.
He made the mind of man to His own image and likeness;
that is where the image of God is in the mind. That is
why the soul cannot be comprehended even by itself, where
the image of God is. For this purpose have we been made, to
be lord and master over all other creatures, but through the
2 2 Tim. 2.13.
THE CREED 291
sin of the first man we have fallen and have all come into the
inheritance of death. We have become lowly mortals, filled
with fears and errors. This is the wage of sin. Every man is
born with this penalty and guilt. 3 That is the reason, just
as you have seen today, just as you know, even little children
are breathed upon and exorcized, so that the hostile power of
the Devil who deceived mankind in order to gain possession
of men may be driven out of them. It is not, then, a creature
of God that is breathed upon and exorcized in infants, but
him under whose sway all are who are born with sin, for he
is the prince of sinners. Now, on behalf of one who fell and
thereby sent all to death there was sent into the world One
without sin, who would lead back to life all who believed in
Him, by liberating them from the power of sin.
Chapter 2
(3) We believe, therefore, in His Son, also, that is, the
only Son of the Almighty Father, our Lord. When you
hear the words, 'the only Son of God,' acknowledge that He
is God. It cannot be that the only Son of God is not God,
for God begot what He is, although He is not the Person
whom He begot. Furthermore, if the Son is the true Son,
He is what the Father is; if He is not what the Father is,
He is not the true Son. Consider mortal creatures of earth:
Whatever a thing is, that is what it generates. Man does not
beget an ox, a sheep does not beget a dog, nor a dog a
sheep. Whatever begets, begets according to its kind. Re-
member, therefore, and with fortitude, firmness, and fidelity,
that God the Father has begotten this, that He Himself is
omnipotent. These mortal creatures beget through corruption.
Is this how God begets? A mortal being begets according to
3 Cf, Gen. 1-3.
292 SAINT AUGUSTINE
its kind, an immortal according to its kind; corruptible
begets corruptible; incorruptible, incorruptible; the cor-
ruptible begets by corruption, the incorruptible by incor-
ruption; precisely what itself is, that it begets, so that one
begets one and only one. You know when I went over
the Creed with you I put it this way, and you ought to
believe it this way: We believe in God the Father Almighty
and in Jesus Christ, His only Son. When you believe that
He is the only Son, believe, too, that He is Almighty, for it
is not that God the Father does what He wills and God the
Son does not do what He wills. There is only one will of the
Father and Son because there is only one nature. The will of
the Son cannot, in any degree whatsoever, be separated from
the will of the Father. God and God, both one God;
Almighty and Almighty, both one Almighty.
(4) We are not introducing two gods in the way that
some teach two gods and say: God the Father and God the
Son, but greater God the Father and lesser God the Son.
Both are what? Two gods? You blush to say it; blush, then,
to believe it. You say the Lord God the Father and the
Lord God the Son; the Son Himself says: 'No man can
serve two masters. 31 Are we going to be in His family in a
position similar to a large household where there is a
paterfamilias who Has a son, so that we, too, shall say the
greater Master, the lesser Master? Shun such a thought. If
you think such thoughts in your heart you are setting up an
idol in your soul. Reject it, by all means. First believe,
afterwards understand. On the other hand, when God grants
almost instant understanding to one who believes, remember
that it is a gift of God, not human frailty. Nevertheless, even
if you do not yet understand, believe: one God the Father;
God Christ, the Son of God. Both are what? One God. How
are both said to be one God? In what way? Do you wonder?
1 Matt. 6.24.
THE CREED 293
In the Acts of the Apostles it says: 'Now the multitude of
the believers were of one heart and one soul.' 2 There were
many souls; faith had made them one. There were many
thousands of souls; they loved one another, and the many
are one; they loved God in the fire of charity and from a
multitude they arrived at the oneness of beauty. If love
made so many souls one soul, what is that charity in God
where there is no diversity, only integral equality? If on
earth and among men there can be such great love that
many souls became one soul, then where the Father is ever
inseparable from the Son, the Son inseparable from the
Father, are both able to be other than one God? But those
souls could have been called both several souls and one soul.
God, moreover, in whom there is an ineffable and supreme
union, can only be called one God, not two gods.
(5) The Father does what he wills; the Son does what
He wills. Do not think the Father is almighty and the Son
is not almighty. It is an error; blot it right out of you. Let
it not abide in your memory; let it not be imbibed in your
faith, and if by chance some one of you should imbibe it,
let him spit it out. The Father is omnipotent; the Son is
omnipotent. If the Omnipotent has not begotten the omnipo-
tent, He has not begotten a true Son. What are we saying,
brethren, if the greater Father has begotten a lesser Son?
What have I said, He has begotten? Man, a greater person,
begets a son, a lesser person, that is true, but that is because
the father grows old and the son grows up, and by growing
attains the form of his father. The Son of God, if He does
not grow, since God cannot grow old, was begotten perfect;
indeed, begotten perfect. If He does not grow, yet does not
remain less, He is equal. That you may know the Omnipotent
is begotten from the Omnipotent, hear Him who is Truth
itself. What Truth says about Himself, that is true. What
2 Acts 4.32.
294 SAINT AUGUSTINE
does Truth say? What does the Son who is Truth say?
'Whatever the Father does, this the Son also does in like
manner.' 3 The Son is omnipotent in that He does everything
that He has willed to do. Now, if the Father does anything
which the Son does not do, the Son spoke falsely when He
said: * Whatever the Father does, this the Son also does in
like manner. 3 But, since the Son spoke truth, believe:
'Whatever the Father does, this the Son also does in like
manner' and you have believed in the Omnipotent Son. Even
if you have not pronounced that word in the Creed, that is
what you have expressed when you have believed in only
one God. Does the Father have anything which the Son does
not have? That is what the blaspheming, heretical Arians
say, not I. But I, what do I say? If the Father has anything
which the Son does not have, the Son lies who says: 'All
things that the Father has are mine. 54 Many and innumerable
are the testimonies which prove that the Son is the true Son
of God the Father, and God the Father begot the true Son
God, and Father and Son are one God.
Chapter 3
(6) This only Son of God the Father Almighty, let us
see what He did for us, what He suffered on account of us.
He was born of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary. He,
so great a God, equal to the Father, was born humbly of
the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary that he might heal the
proud. Man exalted himself and fell; God humbled Himself
and arose what is the humility of Christ? God stretched
forth His hand to fallen man. We have fallen; He has come
down from heaven. We were lying prostrate; He stooped
3 John 5.19.
4 John 16.15.
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295
down to us. Let us take His hand and let us rise again that
we may not fall into punishment. This, then, is His bending
down to us: ; He was born of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin
Mary.' This very nativity as man is both lowly and lofty.
Whence lowly? Because as man He was born of men. Whence
lofty? Because He was born of a virgin. A virgin conceived,
a virgin brought forth, and after bringing forth remained a
virgin.
(7) Then what happened? "Suffered under Pontius
Pilate. 5 Pontius Pilate was performing the office of governor
and was himself judge when Christ suffered His Passion. The
time when Christ suffered is linked to the name of the
judge Pontius Pilate: the time when He suffered, was cruci-
fied, died, and was buried. Who? What? For whom? Who?
The only Son of God, our Lord. What? Crucified, died, and
was buried. For whom? For the sacrilegious and for sinners.
Great condescension ! Great grace ! * What shall I render to the
Lord, for all the things that He hath rendered to me? 31
(8) He was begotten before all time, before all ages.
Begotten before. Before what, since there is no before with
Him? Absolutely do not think of any time before that nativity
of Christ whereby He was begotten of the Father. I am
speaking of the nativity by which He is the Son of God
Almighty, His only Son our Lord. This is the nativity of
which I am speaking first. Do not suppose that in this
nativity there was a beginning of time; do not imagine any
interval or period of eternity when the Father was and the
Son was not. From when the Father was, from then the
Son likewise. And what is this 'from when' where there is no
beginning in time? The Father has always been without
beginning, the Son, always without beginning. And how can
it be, you ask, that He was begotten if He has no beginning?
Co-eternal from eternity. The Father has never been when
1 Ps. 115.12.
296 SAINT AUGUSTINE
there was not the Son, yet the Son was begotten by the
Father. Where can I find any analogy at all? We are among
the things of earth; we are among visible creatures. Let
earth give me a comparison; it offers none. Let the element
of the waters give me some likeness; it has none to give.
Let any animal offer an analogy; it cannot. An animal, to
be sure, generates; it is both that which generates and that
which is generated, but first the father is and afterwards the
son is born. Let us find coevality and let us believe in
co-eternity. If we should be able to find a father coeval with
his son and a son coeval with his father, we would believe
God the Father coeval with His Son, and God the Son
co-eternal with His Father. On earth we can find something
coeval, but we are unable to find any co-eternal. Let us
extend coevality and let us believe co-eternity. Some one
perhaps may interrupt you and say: When can a father be
found coeval with his son, or a son coeval with his father?
That the father may beget, he precedes in age; that the son
may be born, he follows in age; but this father coeval with
his son, or the son with the father, how can this be? Think
of the father as fire and the son as its brilliance; see, we
have found coevals. The very instant fire begins, immediately
it brings forth brilliance; the fire is not before the brillance,
nor the brilliance after the fire. And if we should ask which
begets which, the fire the brilliance or the brilliance the fire,
straightway common sense, an inborn wisdom, makes you all
cry out: Fire the brilliance, not brilliance the fire. Behold
the father beginning, behold the son at the same time,
neither coming before nor following after. Behold, therefore,
the father beginning; behold the son beginning simultaneously.
If I have shown you a father beginning, and a son at the
same time beginning, believe in the Father not beginning,
and with Him the Son Himself not beginning; the Father
eternal, the Son co-eternal. If you are making progress, you
THE CREED
297
understand; make an effort now to go on. You are being born,
but you ought also to grow, because no one begins from a
state of perfection. It was permitted for the Son of God to
be born perfect, because He was born without time, co-eternal
with the Father, preceding all things; not in time, but in
eternity. Hence, He was begotten co-eternal with the Father,
and of that generation the Prophet said : 'Who shall declare
his generation? 52 Begotten of the Father without time, He
was born of the Virgin in the fullness of time. Time had
started before this nativity from a virgin. At the opportune
moment, when He willed, when He knew, then He was
born; for He was not born without willing to be born. No
one of us is born because he wills it, and no one of us will
die when he wills it. God was born when He willed it, and
when He willed it He died. He was born as He willed to be
born, of a virgin; He died as He willed to die, on the
Cross. Whatever He willed, that He did: He was man in
such manner as to hide the Godhead; God the assumer,
man the assumed, one Christ, God and man.
(9) What shaU I say about His Cross? What shall I tell
you? He chose the most extreme form of death in order that
His martyrs would fear no kind of death. He made known
His doctrine in the man; in the Cross He gave them an
example of patience. There was His task, that He was
crucified: the execution of the task, the Cross; the reward
of the task, the Resurrection. In the Cross He showed us
what to endure, in the Resurrection what we ought to hope
for. Truly, as the supreme Gladiator, He said: Do, and
endure; do the work and receive the reward; strive in the
contest and you will be crowned. What is the work? Obedi-
ence. What is the reward? Resurrection without death. Why
have I added: without death? Because Lazarus rose and died;
2 Isa. 53.8.
298 SAINT AUGUSTINE
Christ rose and 'dies no more; death shall no longer have
dominion over him.' 3
(10) Scripture says: 'You have heard of the patience of
Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord.' 4 How
much Job endured when he was stripped and was shunned,
when he feared with a great fear, when he trembled all over !
And what did he receive? Double what he had lost. Let no
one, however, be willing to suffer patiently for the sake of a
temporal reward and say to himself: I shall bear this loss;
God will give me back twice as many sons; Job received
everything back twofold, and begot as many sons as he had
buried. Were they not, therefore, twice as many? Certainly
they were twice as many, since the others were still living.
Let no one say: Let evils come; I will put up with them and
God will repay me in the same measure as He repaid Job.
That is no longer patience; that is greed. If that holy man
had not had patience, he would not have so courageously held
up under all the misfortunes that befell him. What proof do
we have that God restored all to him? 'Hast thou con-
sidered, 3 said the Lord, 'my servant Job, that there is none
like him in the earth, a man without a complaint, a true
worshiper of God?' 5 What a testimony, brethren, did that
holy man merit from God ! Yet his wife wanted to deceive
him with her evil persuasion, even to having the appearance
of that serpent which had deceived the first man 6 made by
God in the Garden of Paradise, and now thought that he
could also deceive this man, who was pleasing to God, by
suggesting blasphemy. How much he suffered, brethren!
Who could suffer so much in his possessions, in his 'household,
in his children, in his own flesh, in his very own wife, the
temptress who remained for him? But even her who had
3 Rom. 6.9.
4 James 5.11.
5 Cf. Job 1.8; 2.3.
THE CREED 299
been spared the serpent would have taken away long before
if she had not abetted him, since it was through Eve that
he had vanquished the first man. He had preserved Eve!
How much Job suffered! He lost everything he had. His
house fell into ruins. Would that that were all! It crushed
his children to death. But because patience had retained such
a great hold on that man, what did he answer? Listen: 'the
Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away: as it hath
pleased the Lord so is it done: blessed be the name of the
Lord.' 7 He took away what He gave; would He be lost, too,
He who gave? He took away what He gave. As if Job were
to say: c He has taken everything; let Him take all; let Him
dismiss me naked, but let me keep Him. For, what is lacking
to me, if I have God? What do other things profit me, if I
have not God?' His flesh was afflicted ; he was struck with an
ulcerous scab from his head to the soles of his feet. Corrupt
matter was flowing from his sores and he was swarming with
vermin. Yet he proved himself resolute and constant to his
God. The woman the handmaid of the Devil, not the
comforter of her husband meant to induce him to blaspheme
God : 'How long,' she said, 'are you going to endure all this?
Speak some word against the Lord and die.' 8 Because he
had been humiliated, therefore, he was exalted. And the
Lord did this that He might make his example known to
men; on the other hand, He kept greater things in heaven
for his servant. Job humbled, He exalted; the Devil elated,
He humbled: since 'One he putteth down, and another he
lifteth up/ 9 However, dearly beloved brethren, let no one
look for a reward in this life when he suffers any tribulations
of this kind; for example, if one should endure any loss, let
him beware of perhaps saying to himself: 'the Lord gave,
6 Cf. Gen. 3.1-6.
7 Job 131.
8 Cf. Job 2.9.
9 Ps. 74.8.
300 SAINT AUGUSTINE
and the Lord hath taken away: as it hath pleased the Lord
so is it done: blessed be the name of the Lord' 10 in order to
receive back twofold what he had lost. Patience, not avarice,
gives glory to God. If you seek to receive back double the
things you have lost and for that reason praise God, you
are praising Him from greediness, not from love. Do not
let it so much as occur to you that such is the example of
that saintly man, for you are deceiving yourself. When Job
was bearing all things, he was not looking for a twofold
return. Both his first confession when he suffered the loss of
all his possessions and carried the bodies of his children to
the grave, and his second confession when he endured
patiently the flowing infections of his flesh, testify to what I
am saying. These are the words of his first confession: c the
Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; as it hath pleased
the Lord so is it done: blessed be the name of the Lord.'
He could have said: The Lord gave, the Lord has taken
away; He who has taken can give again, can restore more
than He has taken.' He did not say that, but, c as it hath
pleased the Lord so is it done': because it pleases Him, let
it please me; let not what has pleased the good Lord displease
His obedient servant; let not what has pleased the Physician
displease the sick man. Hear, now, his other confession : Thou
hast spoken, 3 he said to his wife, 'like one of the foolish
women : if we have received good things at the hand of God,
why should we not receive evil?' 11 He did not add, what
would be true, if he had said it: The Lord is powerful, He
can restore my body to its former health, and what He has
taken from us He is able to multiply in return.' He did not
say this, lest it seem that he suffered his torments with such
hope before him. He did not say such things; he did not
look for such things. It was for our instruction that God
10 job. 1.21.
11 Job 2.10.
THE CREED 301
gave to him who was expecting nothing; it was for us to
learn that He was with Job, because, if He had not restored
everything to him as He did, we could by no means have
been able to see his hidden crown. What, then, does divine
Scripture say in exhorting us to patience and the hope of
future rewards, not present ones? 'You have heard of the
patience of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord. 312
Why the 'patience of Job,' and not: 'You have seen the
purpose of Job himself? 5 You would open your jaws for
twice as much; you would say: Thanks be to God, let me
bear up under this and I shall receive twice as much, just
like Job/ 'The patience of Job, the purpose of the Lord. 313
The patience of Job we know, and the purpose of the Lord
we know. What purpose of the Lord? 'O God, my God,
why hast thou forsaken me?' 14 These are the words of our
Lord hanging on the cross. God abandoned Him, as it were,
for present happiness, but did not abandon Him for eternal
immortality. There is the purpose of the Lord. The Jews
held Him, the Jews insulted Him, the Jews bound Him,
they crowned Him with thorns, they dishonored Him by
spitting upon Him, they scourged Him, they heaped abuses
upon Him, they hung Him upon a tree, they pierced Him
with a lance, finally they buried Him; He was, as it were,
abandoned. By whom? By those insulting Him. Have
patience, therefore, that you may rise from the dead and
not die, that is, never die as Christ never dies; for so we
read: 'Christ, rising from the dead, dies now no more. 315
12 James 5.11.
13 Cf. James 5.11.
14 Ps. 21.2.
15 Rom. 6.9.
302 SAINT AUGUSTINE
Chapter 4
(11) Believe: 'He ascended into heaven.' Believe: He
'sitteth at the right hand of the Father.' Understand that
to sit here means to dwell in the same sense that we say of
anyone : he has lived in that country for three years. Scripture
employs the same expression, as : 'a certain man dwelt in the
city many days/ 1 Now, does this mean he sat and never
rose? In this connection : the abodes of men are called seats.
Where their seats are is there always sitting, no rising, or
walking, or lying down? Yet these are called seats. Believe,
then, in this way: Christ dwells on the right hand of God
the Father; He is there. Do not let your heart say: 'What is
He doing?' Do not seek what is not given you to find. He is
there; that is enough for you. He is happy with a happiness
that is called the right hand of the Father; the name, the
right hand of the Father is of happiness itself. If we accept in
its physical sense that He sits at the right hand of the Father,
the Father will be at His left. Is it proper for us to arrange
them in this order: the Son to the right, the Father to the
left? There, all is on the right because there is no misery in
heaven.
(12) 'From thence He shall come to judge the living
and the dead': the living, those who are still alive; the dead,
those who have gone before. It can be interpreted in this
way, too: The living are the just; the dead the unjust. He
judges both, giving each his due. To the just He will say in
judgment: 'Come, blessed of my Father, take possession of
the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the
world. 52 Prepare yourselves for this, hope for these blessings;
for this live, and so live with this before you, for this
1 a. 3 Kings 2.38.
2 Matt. 25.34.
THE CREED
303
believe, for this be baptized, that to you may be said: 'Come,
blessed of my Father, take possession of the kingdom prepared
for you from the foundation of the world. 5 What does He
say to those on His left? 'Go into everlasting fire which
was prepared for the devil and his angels.' 3 Thus will the
living and the dead be judged by Christ. We have spoken
of the first nativity of Christ, without time; we have spoken
of the other nativity, in the fullness of time, the nativity of
Christ from a virgin; we have spoken of the Passion of Christ;
and we have spoken of the judgment of Christ. Everything
has been said which had to be said about Christ, the only
Son of God, our Lord; but not yet is the Trinity completed.
Chapter 5
(13) The Creed continues: 'And in the Holy Spirit.'
This Trinity is one God, one nature, one substance, one
power, supreme equality, no division, no diversity, perpetual
charity. Do you want to know that the Holy Spirit is God?
Be baptized and you will be His temple. The Apostle says:
'Or do you not know that your members are the temple of
the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have from God? 51
God has a temple, Solomon, king and prophet, was, for
example, commanded to build a temple to God. If he had
built a temple to the sun or the moon, or star, or an angel,
would not God have condemned it? Because he built a
temple to God, he showed that he worshiped God. And of
what did he build it? Of wood and stone, since God deigned
to make a home for Himself on earth through His servant,
where He might be petitioned, where He might be re-
3 Cf. Matt. 25.41.
1 1 Cor, 6.19.
304 SAINT AUGUSTINE
membered. That is why blessed Stephen says: 'Solomon
built him a house. Yet not in houses made by hands does the
Most High dwell.' 2 If, then, our bodies are the temple of
the Holy Spirit, what manner of God is He who built a
temple to the Holy Spirit? God of course, for, if our bodies
are the temple of the Holy Spirit, He who made our bodies
also built the temple for the Holy Spirit. Listen to the
Apostle who, when he was speaking of the different members
to stress the absence of dissension in the body, says: 'God
has so tempered the body together in due portion as to give
more abundant honor where it was lacking. 53 God created our
body; God created the grass. Who created our body? Where
do we find proof that God creates the grass? He who clothes
is the very One who creates. Read the Gospel: 'But if God
so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and
tomorrow is thrown into the oven/ 4 Therefore, He who
clothes creates. And the Apostle: 'Senseless man, what thou
thyself sowest is not brought to life, unless it dies. And when
thou sowest, thou dost not sow the body that shall be, but a
bare grain, perhaps of wheat or something else. But God
gives it a body even as He has willed, and to each of the
seeds a body of its own.' 5 If, therefore, God builds our bodies
and our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit, have no
doubt that the Holy Spirit is God. And do not add the
Holy Spirit as if you were naming a third god, because the
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are one God. And so believe.
2 Acts 7.47,48.
3 1 Cor. 12.24.
4 Matt. 6.30.
5 1 Cor. 15.36-38.
THE CREED 305
Chapter 6
(14) After the praise of the Trinity comes 'the holy
Church.' God and His temple have been pointed out. Tor
holy is the temple of God/ says the Apostle, 'and this temple
you are.' 1 This is holy Church, the one Church, the true
Church, the Catholic Church, fighting against all heresies;
she can fight, but she cannot be conquered. All heresies are
expelled from her as if they were dead branches pruned from
the vine; she herself, however, remains fixed in her root, in
her vine, in her charity. The gates of hell shall not prevail
against her. 2
Chapter 7
(15) The forgiveness of sins.' You have the Creed in its
perfection in you when you receive baptism. Let no one say:
'I have committed that sin; perhaps it is not forgiven me.'
What have you done? How great a sin have you committed?
Tell me anything terrible that you have done, something
serious, horrible, something that makes you shudder just to
think about it; whatever you might have done, did you kill
Christ? There is nothing worse than that crime, because
there is nothing better than Christ. What a diabolical thing
it is to kill Christ! Nevertheless, the Jews killed Him, and
afterwards many believed in Him, and drank His Blood. The
sin which they had committed was forgiven them. When
you have been baptized, hold to the good life in the command-
ments of God that you may preserve your baptism up to the
very end. I do not say to you that you will live here without
sin, but they are venial sins which we cannot avoid in this
life. Baptism was devised for all sins; for slight sins without
1 1 Cor, 3.17.
2 Cf. Matt. 16.18.
306 SAINT AUGUSTINE
which it is impossible to live, prayer was found. How does
the prayer go? 'And forgive us our debts, as we also forgive
our debtors. 31 We are cleansed but once by baptism; daily
we are cleansed by prayer. But do not commit those sins that
compel your separation from the Body of Christ; God forbid
that you should! They whom you see doing penance have
committed crimes, either adultery, or some other outrage; that
is the reason why they are doing penance. If their sins were
slight, daily prayer would be enough to destroy them.
Chapter 8
(16) Within the Church, sins are forgiven in three ways:
by baptism, by prayer, and by the greater humility of pen-
ance; yet God does not forgive sins except to the baptized.
Those sins which He forgives in the first way He forgives
only to the baptized. When? When they are being baptized.
Sins which are forgiven afterwards to those who pray and
repent are forgiven them because they have been baptized.
For, how can those who are not yet born say 'our Father'?
As long as they are catechumens, all their sins are still upon
them. If this is true of catechumens, how much more so is it
of pagans, of heretics? But we do not remove baptism from
heretics. Why? Because they possess baptism in the same
way that a deserter from the army possesses a mark. So, too,
do the heretics have baptism. They have it, but unto dam-
nation, not unto the crown. But, if a deserter should resume
service after he has reformed, does one dare to remove his
mark?
1 Matt. 6.12
THE CREED 307
Chapter 9
(17) We believe also in 'the resurrection of the body'
which has gone before us in Christ, and the body which has
gone before us in the Head awaits resurrection. Christ is the
Head of the Church, the Church is the Body of Christ. 1 Our
Head has arisen from the dead, has ascended into heaven;
where the Head is, there, too, are the members. How, then,
do we accept the resurrection of the body? Let no one by
any chance think it the same as the resurrection of Lazarus.
That you may know that it is not the same, the words 'unto
life everlasting 5 are added. May God regenerate; may God
preserve and watch over you; may God bring you unto
Himself who is Life Everlasting. Amen.
1 Cf. Eph. 5.23.
FAITH AND
THE CREED
(De fide et symbolo)
Translated by
ROBERT P. RUSSELL, O.S.A., PH.D.
Villanova University
INTRODUCTION
| HE SHORT WORK entitled Faith and the Creed was
occasioned by the Plenary Council of Hippo cele-
brated in October, 393. * The task of addressing the
Council on the subject of the Creed was entrusted to Augus-
tine, who had been ordained priest scarcely two years before
by the aging Valerius, Bishop of Hippo. The choice of
Augustine as spokesman for the Council is all the more
significant when it is recalled that local custom in Africa
reserved to bishops the right of preaching to the faithful.
This action of the African bishops in making Augustine
their spokesman shows clearly the esteem and authority
already enjoyed by the future Doctor of the Church.
In his Retractations (1.7) Augustine acknowledges that it
was at the insistence of close friends that he was prevailed
upon to publish the discourse delivered before the African
episcopate. If due allowance is made for possible expansion
and literary revision, it may be assumed that the treatise
Faith and the Creed reproduces, in substance, Augustine's
historic address to the Council of Hippo in 393.
The present work of Augustine is but the first of several
devoted to the general theme of faith and the articles of the
1 Cf. Hefele, History of the Councils of the Church (Edinburgh 1896) 2
394-395.
311
312 SAINT AUGUSTINE
Creed. There follows next in order The Christian Combat*
composed in 397, which is closer to the first treatise not
only in time but also in content and form. Important
stylistic differences, however, separate these works widely.
The Christian Combat was written purposely 'for the breth-
ren who were not proficient in the Latin language.' 3 The
present work, a written account of Augustine's discourse to
the African bishops, conforms in literary quality to the high
standards of composition set by the ecclesiastical documents
of the time and place. From a literary point of view, Faith
and the Creed has been judged one of Augustine's finest
compositions. 4
A third work, bearing the title On Faith in Things Unseen*
and written about 399, shows first the reasonableness of faith
and its necessity even in human affairs and then demonstrates
the credibility of faith which is divine and supernatural. In
Faith and Good Works, Augustine insists that adult candidates
for baptism resolve firmly upon a good life before being
admitted to the sacrament and stresses the important teaching
that faith alone, without good works, is insufficient for
eternal salvation.
Augustine's most complete and systematic handling of the
subject of faith and the Creed is to be found in his
Enchiridion, or Handbook, On Faith, Hope, and Charity. 6
The treatise is mostly given over to the subject of faith. Hope
is limited to an explanation of the Lord's Prayer and the
closing chapters extol briefly the dignity and primacy of
charity in the Christian life.
2 Translated by R. P. Russell, O.S.A., in Volume 2 of this series (rev ed
New York 1950) .
3 Retractationes 2.3.
4 Cf. F. Di Capua, 'II ritmo prosaico in S. Agostino/ in Miscellanea
Agostiniana (Roma 1931) 2 665.
5 Translated by Roy J. Deferrari and Sister Mary Francis McDonald,
O.P., in Volume 4 of this series (New York 1947) .
6 Translated by Bernard J. Peebles in Volume 2 of this series
FAITH AND THE CREED
313
A span of nearly thirty years separates Augustine's initial
effort from his definitive work known as the Enchiridion.
These three decades bear witness to the development of
Augustine's theological thought and remind us of his admo-
nition that readers of his works observe the proper chrono-
logical sequence if they would properly understand the history
of his intellectual and religious evolution. 7 The Enchiridion,
which has been aptly described as the saint's 'only systematic
treatment of the Church's doctrine as a whole/ is a work of
theological maturity and one wherein the reader may find
those typically Augustinian positions on the nature and
necessity of grace as well as the related problems of original
sin and predestination.
The earlier and more compendious work, Faith and the
Creed, is distinguished for its simplicity and brevity in the
formulation of the main articles of belief. Here Augustine
sets the pattern, followed later in The Christian Combat, of
setting forth the doctrines of faith together with appropriate
references to the specific heresies in question. Faith and the
Creed is not without historical significance, for it stands as
an important landmark in the life of the great African
Doctor, whose influence was soon to spread from provincial
Africa and mould the theological learning of the Western
Church for centuries to come.
Finally, Faith and the Creed furnishes further evidence for
the conclusion of scholarly research on the origin of the
Creed, that the early Church, far from being indifferent to
religious dogma, was vitally preoccupied with its proper
understanding and correct formulation. 8
The present English translation has been made from the
critical edition of J. Zycha, in Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesia-
sticorum Latinorum 41 (Vienna 1900).
7 Retractationes prol. 3: 'Whoever reads my works in the order in which
they are written will see, perhaps, how I have made progress by writing.'
8 Cf. J. de Ghellinck. Patristique et moyen dge (Bruxelles -Paris 1946) I
224.
3 14 SAINT AUGUSTINE
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
Texts:
Scmcti Augustini Hipponensis episcopi opera VI (Paris 1695),
(Maurist edition) , reproduced in PL 40.181-196.
J. Zycha, ed., Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum
(Vienna 1900) 41 3-32.
H. Smith, ed., De fide et symbolo (London 1926) .
Translations:
'Of Faith and of the Creed/ in Library of the Fathers (Oxford
1847) 15-36.
Treatise on Faith and the Creed/ Works of Aurelius Augustine,
ed. Marcus Dods (Edinburgh 1883) 9 339-370.
M. H. Barreau: Oeuvres Computes de Saint Augustin (Paris 1869)
21 223-241, trans. M. H. Barreau, with Latin text.
J. Riviere: Oeuvres de Saint Augustin, Biblipteque Augustinienne
(Paris 1947) 9 13-25, trans. J. Riviere, with Latin text.
Supplementary Works:
P. Alfaric, L' evolution intellectuelle de saint Augustin (Paris
1918) ; Les ecritures manicheenes (Paris 1918) .
G. Bardy, 'Manicheisme/ in DTC 9, cols. 1841-1895.
F. C. Burkitt, The Religion of the Manichees (Cambridge 1925) .
J. de Ghellinck, S.J., Patristique et moyen age (Bruxelles-Paris
1946) .
F. Di Capua, 'II ritmo prosaico in S. Agostino/ Miscellanea
Agostiniana (Rome 1931) 2 665ff.
J. Finaert, devolution litteraire de saint Augustin (Paris 1939) .
E. Gilson, L' introduction a I' 'etude de S. Augustin (3rd ed., Paris
1949) .
Hefele, A History of the Councils of the Church, trans. H. N.
Oxenham (Edinburgh 1896) .
H. Leclerq, Images/ in DACL 1.1 (Paris 1926) cols. 214ff.
J. Tixeront, Histoire des dogmes (Paris 1922-1924) .
G. Verbeke, devolution de la doctrine du pneuma du stoicisme a
S. Augustin (Paris-Lou vain 1945) .
FAITH AND THE CREED
Chapter 1
HE FACT THAT 'the just man lives by faith' 1 is a
matter of Scripture as well as a truth corroborated
by the very weighty authority of apostolic tradition.
And since this faith requires of us the service of both heart
and tongue, we must be mindful both of justice and salvation,
for the Apostle says: 'With the heart a man believes unto
justice, and with the mouth profession of faith is made unto
salvation.' 2 Since we who expect to reign in everlasting justice
can, in fact, only be saved from this wicked world, if, while
ourselves for our neighbor's salvation, we profess with our
lips the faith we bear about in our heart, we must exercise a
pious and careful vigilance to see that this faith in us is not
sullied in any point of belief by the deceitful snares of heretics.
As expressed in the Creed, the Catholic faith is familiar to
believers who have learned it by heart in as few words as
the subject permits. In this way the truths to be believed are
framed in few words for the benefit of those who have been
1 Hab. 2.4; Gal. 3.2.
2 Rom. 10.10.
315
316 SAINT AUGUSTINE
born again in Christ, for beginners and young ones whose
faith has not yet been made strong by a careful training in
the spiritual meaning of the divine Scriptures. This faith is
to be expounded to them at greater length as they advance
and rise to the heights of divine knowledge along the sure
path of humility and charity.
It is, therefore, underneath these few words which comprise
the Creed that most heretics have attempted to conceal their
poisonous wares. God in His mercy has withstood them and
does so now through the agency of men possessed of spiritual
insight. These have been found worthy not only to embrace
and believe the Catholic faith as set forth in the words of
the Creed, but also to possess a knowledge and understanding
of it, being further aided by enlightenment from the Lord.
For it is written: 'Unless you believe, you shall not under-
stand.' 3
A detailed treatment of the faith is a help in defending
the Creed. This does not mean it should take the place of
the Creed as something to be learned by heart and recited
by those seeking to receive the grace of God. But it does
help to safeguard the truths found in the Creed from the
snares of heretics by an appeal to Catholic authority and by
the erection of a stronger defense position.
Chapter 2
( 2 ) Some heretics have tried to make people believe that
God the Father is not almighty. 1 They have not been rash
3 Isa. 7.9 (Septuagint) .
1 Augustine's preoccupation at this time with the Manichaean heresy is
evidenced here as well as in other passages of the present work. The
sect arose in Persia about the middle of the third century and spread
FAITH AND THE CREED
317
enough to say this, yet, on the basis of their teaching, they
are open to the charge of entertaining such an opinion and
belief. They affirm the existence of a nature which Almighty
God did not create from which He fashioned this world,
which, they admit, is harmoniously designed. Thus they carry
their denial of God's omnipotence to the extent of believing
that He was unable to make the world unless in its pro-
duction He made use of another pre-existing nature which
He Himself had not produced. This comes about, of course,
from a habit of sense perception which observes carpenters,
builders, and artisans of every kind who cannot bring their
skill to full realization without the aid of ready-made material.
This much they do understand: that the Maker of the
world is not almighty if He could not make the world unless
some nature, unproduced by Him, were available to aid Him
in the way of material. But, if they grant that an Almighty
God is the Maker of the world, they are constrained to
acknowledge that He produced the things He made out of
nothing. Since He is almighty, there could be nothing in
existence of which He would not be the Creator.
Even if God did make one thing from another, as man
from slime, He surely did not make it out of something He
had not produced Himself, because He made out of nothing
the earth from which the slime comes. And if He made the
heaven itself and the earth, that is to say, the world and all
things in it, out of some kind of matter, (as it is written:
so rapidly that it soon gained a stronghold throughout the Roman
Empire. Dualistic in its metaphysical basis, Manichaeanism taught the
co-existence of two eternal and antagonistic principles or 'roots', Light
and Darkness. The present world was produced to bring about the
restoration of particles of Light lost through conflict with the hostile
elements of Darkness. In carrying out his cosmic plan, the King of
Light had to avail himself of the elements of Darkness, thus contracting
a dependency hardly consistent with the nature of an omnipotent and
inviolable Deity. For a more detailed exposition cf. titles by G. Bardy,
P. Alfaric, and F. C. Burkitt in Select Bibliography.
318 SAINT AUGUSTINE
'Thou hast made the world out of invisible matter/ 2 and
also from 'unformed 5 matter, as some copies have it), we
are not to suppose for a moment that this same matter, though
unformed and invisible or however it existed, could have
existence of itself, as if it were co-eternal and coeval with
God. But whatever mode of being matter did have, enabling
it somehow to exist and assume the form of differentiated
reality, this it had only from Almighty God, to whose bounty
any reality, formed as well as unformed, owes its existence.
But there is this difference between what is 'formed' and
'unformed 3 : the 'formed' being has its form already, while
the 'unformed' is capable of having it. 3 But He who confers
upon things their form is the same One who also endows them
with the capacity for form. It is from Him and in Him that
there is had the fairest and the changeless pattern of all
things. Hence, it is He alone who bestows upon a being not
only the perfection of beauty but also its capacity for becom-
ing beautiful.
Accordingly, we are perfectly right in believing that God
made the world from nothing, because even if the world was
made from some kind of matter, that matter has itself been
made from nothing. Thus there first was produced the
capacity for forms and then form was given to such things as
were formed, in keeping with God's well-ordered bounty. We
have made this assertion so no one will think that the
utterances of sacred Scripture are at variance with one
another, for it is written both that God made the world from
2 Wisd. 11.18.
3 The distinction drawn here between the complete reality (formatum)
and the incomplete and underlying principle (formabile) suggests the
analogous pre-Christian doctrine of Hylomorphism. Augustine is careful,
however, to stress the fact that the production of the primordial matter
or world-stuff is to be ascribed to. the direct creative act of God. In
De Genesi ad litteram (1.15.29) he expressly denies any kind of
temporal priority to this primordial matter, declaring that the creative
act terminates simultaneously in the production of both aspects of being.
FAITH AND THE CREED 319
nothing and that the world has been made from unformed
matter.
(3) Therefore, as believers in God the Father Almighty,
we are constrained to hold that there is no creature in
existence that has not been created by the Almighty. And
since He has created all things through the Word, this Word
is also called the Truth 4 and the Power and the Wisdom of
God. 5 He who is proposed for our belief as the Lord Jesus
Christ is made known to us by many other names, such as
'our Liberator and Ruler' 6 and 'Son of God.' For, He who
made all things through Him was alone able to beget that
Word through whom all things were fashioned.
Chapter 3
We also believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Only-
begotten of the Father, that is, the one God, our Lord. Yet,
we must not think of this Word as we do our own words,
words which, once uttered by the voice and tongue, pass away
with the movement of the air and last no longer than their
sound. That Word abides in a changeless state, for the words
referring to Wisdom have been spoken about the Word Itself,
that, 'Remaining in herself, she renews all things.' 1 He is
also called the Word of the Father because it is through
4 Cf. John 14.6.
5 Cf. 1 Cor. U4.
6 In earlier works Augustine avoids the term salvator because of its
unclassical standing and prefers the expression liberator to represent
Christ the Redeemer. The term salvator is later used approvingly, a
fact which evidences Augustine's gradual assimilation and mastery of
the Christian terminology. Cf. De Trinitate 13.10.14. For a study of
Augustine's literary development, cf. J. Finaert, L'dvolution litteraire
de saint Augustin (Paris 1939) .
1 Wisd. 7.27.
320 SAINT AUGUSTINE
Him that the Father is made known. In giving utterance
to the truth we aim to disclose our thoughts to the hearer
by words and to bring to the knowledge of another through
such signs what we hold hidden away in our heart. Similarly,
that Wisdom which God the Father begot is most fittingly
styled His Word since it is through Him that the innermost
nature of the Father is revealed to worthy souls.
(4) But, there is a great difference between our mind
and the words by which we endeavor to express that same
mind. We do not, of course, beget the vocal sounds, but we
form them, and it is the body that supplies the basic material
in their formation. There is a vast difference between mind
and body. In begetting the Word, God begot the same nature
as Himself. Neither did He produce the Word from nothing
or from some kind of matter already found and fashioned
in creation, but begot from Himself the same nature as
Himself.
If we examine carefully our motive for speaking, we shall
see that this is also our aim provided we are not lying but
telling the truth. For, what other objective do we have but
to introduce, if such a thing were possible, this very mind of
ours into the mind of the hearer so it can be known and
fully grasped while we really remain within ourselves, not
withdrawing from ourselves? Yet we bring into existence a
sign by which our knowledge is engendered in another. As a
result, another mind is, so to speak, brought forth by the
mind through which this self-revelation is made. We endeavor
to do this by means of words, by facial expressions, and by
gestures of the body, being eager to disclose by so many
devices, as it were, the thought content which is present
within. We are unable to give perfect expression to a reality
of this kind and, consequently, the speaker's mind can not be
FAITH AND THE GREED 321
fully disclosed; whence it also follows that there is room
left for telling lies.
But God the Father, who has been both willing and able
to reveal Himself perfectly to souls destined to know Him,
has, for the sake of revealing Himself, begotten that self -same
Reality which is one with Him who has begotten It. The
Son is called also His Power and Wisdom because He has
made and ordered all things through Him. Accordingly, it is
said of the Son: 'He reacheth from end to end mightily
and ordereth all things sweetly.' 2
Chapter 4
(5) Consequently, God's Only-begotten Son was not
made by the Father, since, in the words of the Evangelist,
'all things were made through him'; 1 neither was He be-
gotten in time, seeing that the eternally wise God enjoys the
eternal possession of His Wisdom; neither is He unequal,
that is, inferior in some respect, to the Father, for the
Apostle also says: 'Who being set up in the form of God
did not think it robbery to be equal to God.' 2
Hence, they must also be excluded from the Catholic faith
who hold that the Son is the same Person as the Father, 3
for this Word being present with God could only be present
with God the Father, and whoever exists alone is equal to
no one. Also excluded are all who say the Son is a creature,
2 Wisd. 8.1.
1 John 1.3.
2 Phil. 2.6.
3 Reference is here made in a general way to those heresies which
denied the real distinction between the Father and the Son and taught
that the Persons of the Trinity are merely different aspects of one and
the same divine Person. Cf. J. Tixeront, Histoire des dogmes (Paris
1924) I 353ff.
322 SAINT AUGUSTINE
though not the same as other creatures. 4 For, no matter
how excellent they say a creature is, if it is a creature it has
been produced and made. 'Produce' is the same as 'create,'
although, in keeping with Latin usage, the term 'create' is
sometimes employed in place of the word 'beget.' But the
Greek language makes a distinction: what they call ktisma
or ktisis we designate as 'creature,' and when we wish to avoid
ambiguity in speaking we do not say 'create, 9 but 'produce. 5
Therefore, if the Son is a creature, He has been made, no
matter how excellent He is. But we believe in Him as the
One through whom all things were made, and not as the One
through whom everything else [except Himself] was made.
In no other way can we understand the expression 'all things 5
except as meaning all things that have been made.
(6) Inasmuch as 'the Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us,' 5 this same Wisdom begotten of God has deigned
also to become a creature among men. This is the import of
the passage which reads: 'The Lord created me in the
beginning of his ways. 56 By 'the beginning of his ways 5 is
meant the Head of the Church, namely, Christ, in' His
assumed human nature. Through Him a pattern of life has
been given us, that is to say, a sure path by which we may
come to God. For we who have fallen through pride could
only return [to God] through humility. Thus was it said to
the first creature of our race: Taste, and you shall be as
God/ 7
4 Augustine has in mind the error of subordinationism, which, in one
form or another, denied the absolute equality and consubstantiality of
the Son with the Father. It was only after the Gothic invasion of
North Africa that Augustine came to grips directly with Arianism.
About 428 he took part in a public dispute at Hippo with the Arian
bishop, Maximinus. Cf. Collatio cum Maximino Arianorum episcopo
(PL 42.709-743) . ^ r
5 John 1.14.
6 Prov. 8.22. The Vulgate reading has 'possessed' (possedit) for 'created'
(creavit) .
7 A free paraphrase of Gen. 3.5.
FAITH AND THE CREED
323
As I was saying, our Saviour has Himself deigned to
exemplify in His own Person that humility which is the
path over which we have to travel on our return [to God] ;
for 'he did not think it robbery to be equal to God, but
emptied himself, taking the form of a slave. 58 Hence, the
Word through whom all things were made was 'in the
beginning of his ways 5 created man.
In so far, therefore, as He is the Only-begotten, He is
without brothers, but in so far as He is the 'first-born' He
has deigned to call all those His brothers who, subsequent to
and in virtue of His being first, are born again unto God's
grace through filial adoption, 9 in accordance with the teaching
of the Apostle. 10
Only one natural Son, then, has been begotten of the very
substance of the Father and having the same nature as the
father: God of God, Light of Light. We, on the contrary,
are not light by our nature, but are illumined by that Light
which enables us to shine forth with wisdom. Tor it was the
true light,' as it is written, 'that enlightens every man who
comes into the world. 511
Now, in addition to our belief in the eternal truths, we
also include the temporal mission of our Lord, which He
deigned for our sake to take upon Himself and to discharge
for our salvation. To the extent that He is the Only-begotten
Son of God, the expressions 'has been' and 'will be 5 cannot
be employed, but only the term 'is 5 ; because what 'has been 5
no longer exists and what 'will be 5 does not yet exist. There-
fore, He is unchangeable, without the character and variation
of time. And it is my opinion that the special kind of name
which He intimated to His servant Moses as His own has no
other basis for its origin. For, when Moses was asking how
8 Phil, 2.6,7.
9 Luke 8.21.
10 Heb. 2.11.
11 John 1.9.
324 SAINT AUGUSTINE
he should reply as to who sent him, in the event the people
to whom he was sent should make little of him, he received
this answer from the One speaking: 'I AM WHO AM/ And to
this He added the further statement : 'This shalt thou say to
the children of Israel: HE WHO is hath sent me to you/ 12
(7) I trust, then, that it is evident to spiritually minded
souls that no nature can be opposed to God. For, if He is,
and of Him alone properly speaking this term can be said,
then God has nothing for an opposite. Whatever has true
existence remains unchangeable. Whatever undergoes change
was something which it is no longer and will be something
which it is not as yet. If anyone were to ask us what the
opposite of 'white' is we would answer 'black 5 ; if asked the
opposite of 'hot' we would answer 'cold 3 ; if asked the
opposite of 'fast' we would answer 'slow' ; and so on in similar
case. But, when asked the opposite of that which 'is 5 , we
answer rightly that it is 'nothing'.
(8) But, hi accordance with His temporal plan, as I
have mentioned, our changing nature was assumed by the
unchangeable Wisdom of God for our salvation and regenera-
tion through the working out of God's liberality. Consequently,
we include hi the scope of our faith the deeds accomplished
in the order of time for our salvation, professing our belief
in Him as the Son of God who was born of the Virgin Mary
through the work of the Holy Spirit, It is by this Gift of
God, namely, the Holy Spirit, that the exceeding humility of
so great a God has been bestowed upon us. He has thus
deigned to take upon Himself a complete human nature
within the Virgin's womb, dwelling within His mother's
inviolate body and leaving it inviolate at His departure. 13
12 Exod. 3.14.
13 A striking statement testifying to the Church's ancient and abiding
belief in the perpetual virginity of the Mother of God. The somewhat
traditional formula used to express the threefold aspect of Mary's
virginity, ante partum, in partu, post partum, is equivalently found
in Augustine: Ilia enim virgo concepit, virgo peperit, virgo permansit
(Sermo 51.11.18) .
FAITH AND THE CREED
325
The heretics level insidious attacks against this temporal
plan in a number of ways. But, if a person holds fast to the
Catholic faith and believes that a complete human nature,
namely, body, soul, and spirit, 14 was assumed by the Word
of God, he is protected well enough against the heretics.
Since this assumption was actually accomplished for the sake
of our salvation, we should be on our guard against the
notion that any particular component of our nature had no
share in the assumed nature and is unrelated to our salvation.
Except for the shape of his bodily members, diversely assigned
to the different species of animals, man differs from the
beast only by reason of his rational soul, which is also called
the mind. How can that faith be sound which teaches that
the Wisdom of God assumed that part of our nature which
we possess in common with the beast but not the part which
is illumined by the light of Wisdom and proper to man? 15
(9) We must likewise repudiate those who deny that the
Lord Jesus Christ had Mary for His mother on earth, since
14 Although the terms 'soul' and 'spirit/ employed to represent the
incorporeal part o man's nature, do not always have a fixed meaning
for Augustine, a fair degree of consistency is observable in their use.
'Soul' (anima) has the broader connotation and signifies the quicken-
ing principle of all living things, rational and irrational; it is not to
be confused with the masculine form animus, which Augustine would
appear to identify with the highest power of the human soul. 'Spirit'
(spiritus) has a twofold meaning for Augustine: scriptural and
philosophical. Taken in the former sense, 'spirit' represents the highest
faculty of the human soul which raises man above the lower animals;
the philosophical meaning of 'spirit,' borrowed from the Stoics, stands
for the imaginative power or sense-memory, common to both man and
beast. G. Verbeke has traced the development of the doctrine of the
'spirit,' or pneuma, from its Stoic origins to Augustine, devolution de
la doctrine du pneuma du stoicisme a S. Augustin (Paris-Lou vain
1944) . For a more detailed account of Augustine's vocabulary dealing
with the soul, cf. E. Gilson, L'introduction a Vetude de S. Augustin
(3rd ed., Paris 1949) 56-57.
15 Appolinaris, a Syrian bishop of the fouth century, denied that Christ
had a rational soul in his attempt to defend the perfect unity of the
two natures in Christ. Cf. Tixeront, op. cit. 2 94ff. A similar error
had been taught earlier by Lucius of Antioch. Cf. Tixeront, op. cit.
2 27.
326 SAINT AUGUSTINE
His temporal plan ennobled each sex, both male and fe-
male. 16 By possessing a male nature and being born of a
woman He further showed by this plan that God has concern
not only for the sex He represented but also for the one
through which He took upon Himself our nature.
Nor should this remark of Christ compel us to deny His
mother: 'Woman, what is it to me and to thee? My hour is
not yet come. 317 He is rather giving us to understand that, as
God, He had no mother, for by changing water into wine He
was making ready to reveal the personal character of His
majesty. It was as man, however, that He was crucified. That
was 'the hour that had not yet come' when He said: 'What
is it to me and to thee? My hour is not yet come' ; that is to
say, 'the hour when I will acknowledge thee.' Then it was,
as a man on the cross, that He acknowledged His human
mother and commended her in a most human fashion to the
Apostle He loved most. 18
Nor should we be disturbed by the fact that when His
mother's and brothers' arrival was announced to Him, He
replied: 'Who is my mother and who are my brethren?' 19
This episode should rather be a lesson that relations are not
to be considered whenever they stand in the way of our
ministry of preaching the word of God to the brethren. If
anyone supposes that He had no mother on earth just because
He said: 'Who is my mother?' he will be forced to deny as
well that the Apostles had fathers on earth, since He imposed
on them this command, saying: 'Call no one on earth your
father, for one is your Father, who is in heaven.' 20
16 The heresy of Docetism denied the physical reality of Christ's human
nature and thus deprived Mary of her prerogative of divine maternity.
The Manichaeans held an analogous position. Cf. Tixeront, o<b. cit.
322-79. ^ ^
17 John 2.4.
18 John 19.26,27.
19 Matt. 12.48.
20 Matt. 33.9.
FAITH AND THE GREED
327
(10) Nor should the thought of the inner body of a
woman weaken our belief [in His human birth], as if this
kind of generation on the part of our Lord would appear
objectionable just because the unclean take an unclean view
of it. 21 The Apostle is perfectly right in declaring that 'the
foolishness of God is wiser than men' 22 and that 'for the
clean all things are clean.' 23
People who hold this view ought, then, to observe how the
rays of this sun of ours (which in fact they do not extol as
God's creature but adore as God) 24 are everywhere spread
over stenches from sewers and over every kind of foulness.
The sun here is operating according to its nature, yet it is
not thereby made sordid by contamination of any kind, even
though visible light is by its nature in somewhat close contact
with sordid visible objects. Was it not, then, a much easier
matter for the Word of God, being neither corporeal nor
visible, to escape contamination from a woman's body wherein
He assumed human flesh together with a soul and spirit?
Through the medium of these, the majesty of the Word
takes up a more hidden abode, removed from the fraility of
a human body.
So it is evident that the Word of God could not in any
way be defiled by a human body, since even the human
soul itself does not suffer defilement on this account. It is
not when the soul rules over, and gives life to, the body that
it is defiled by the body, but when it craves for the fleeting
pleasures of the body. Now, if these [heretics] want to
avoid stains on the soul, they ought rather to have a dread
of all such untruths and sacrileges.
21 In Sermon 12 Augustine enlarges in a more popular vein on the
anti-Manichaean theme that the Incarnation of the Word in no way
compromised the sanctity of the divine Nature.
22 1 Cor. 1.25.
23 Titus 1.15.
24 Sun worship found a logical place in the Manichaean cosmogony where
the sun is represented as a divine emanation. Cf. Contra Secundinum
Manichaeum 20.
328 SAINT AUGUSTINE
Chapter 5
(11) But the humility of our Lord in undergoing human
birth was too little for Him to do for us; in addition, He
deigned to die for mortal man. 'He humbled himself, becom-
ing obedient unto death, even to the death of the cross,' 1
so none of us would recoil from a form of death which men
look upon as utterly disgraceful, even though we might be
able to face death itself fearlessly. Accordingly, we believe in
Him who was crucified under Pontius Pilate and was buried;
the name of the judge had to be added for a proper under-
standing of the time.
In professing belief in His burial, however, we are reminded
of the new tomb which was to bear witness of Him at the
time of His resurrection unto the newness of life, just as the
Virgin's womb had done at the approach of His birth. For,
as no other dead person was buried in that tomb, 2 either
before or after, so no mortal being was conceived in that
womb, either before or after.
(12) We also believe that He rose from the dead on the
third day, the First-born among the brethren who are to
follow. These He has called unto the adoption of the sons
of God 3 and has deigned to make them His fellow sharers and
co-heirs.
Chapter 6
(13 We believe He has ascended into heaven, unto that
realm of bliss which He has promised us, also, saying: They
will be as the angels in heaven,' 1 in that city which is the
1 Phil. 2.8.
2 Cf. John 19.41.
3 Cf. Eph. 1.5.
1 Matt. 22.30.
FAITH AND THE CREED 329
mother of us all, the everlasting Jerusalem in heaven. 2 Our
belief in the assumption of an earthly body into heaven is
wont to give offense to certain godless people, pagans and
heretics alike. 3 Pagans, for the most part, are eager to draw
us into discussion with arguments taken from the philosophers
purporting to prove that nothing made of earth can exist in
heaven. They are unfamiliar with our Scripture and fail to
grasp the proper meaning of the words: 'There is sown a
natural body, there arises a spiritual body.' 4
This statement was not meant to imply that the body is
changed into, and becomes, a spirit, for even now our body
has not been turned into and made a soul, though it is said
to be quickened by the soul. By a 'spiritual body 5 we mean
one so docile to the spirit that it is fit for a heavenly abode,
seeing that its every weakness and all its earthly blemishes
have been changed and transformed into a steadfastness and
purity of a heavenly kind. This is the kind of change the
Apostle is also referring to when he says: 'We shall all rise,
but we shall not all be changed.' 5 And where the same
Apostle declares that c we shall all be changed,' he is teaching
us that this is not a change for the worse, but for the better.
But it is sheer curiosity and a waste of time to inquire as
to the 'where* and 'how' of the Lord's body in heaven; we
have only to believe that it is present in heaven. It is not
for our feeble powers to search into the hidden things of
heaven; but it is the part of faith to entertain lofty and worthy
notions about the excellence of the Lord's body.
2 Gal. 4.26.
3 Among the pagans, belief in the resurrection of the body was assailed
with particular vehemence by Porphyry, a neo- Platonic philosopher of
the third century. Cf. De civitate Dei 13.19. The religious error of the
Jewish sect of the Sadducees concerning the same doctrine was continued
almost from earliest Christian times by both Gnostics and Manichaeans.
Cf. Tixeront, op. cit. I 175; 471 n.l.
4 1 Cor. 15.44.
5 1 Cor. 15.51.
330 SAINT AUGUSTINE
Chapter 7
(14) We believe, too, that He sits at the right hand of
the Father. Nevertheless, we are not to imagine that God the
Father is therefore bounded by a kind of human configuration
so that the notion of a right or left side should arise in mind
when one thinks about Him. Nor should the mention of the
Father's being 'seated' lead us to suppose He is doing so
with knees bent ; otherwise we shall fall into that sacrilegious
belief which the Apostle abominates in those men who have
changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the image
of a corruptible man. 1
It is a wicked thing for a Christian to erect in his temple
such a likeness of God; 2 it is more wicked still to erect it in
the heart wherein is found the true temple of God provided
that heart be cleansed from worldliness and misbelief. The
expression 'at the right hand' must therefore be understood
in this sense: to exist in a state of perfect blessedness, where
there is justice and peace and joy. Similarly, the 'goats' are
placed on the left side; 3 that is to say, they live in a condition
of utter wretchedness because of the weight and torments of
their sins.
The reference, therefore, to God's being seated does not
signify a position of the limbs but the power to judge, a
power ever present to His majesty whereby He is always
1 Rom. 1.23.
2 It is doubtful that Augustine has in mind any specific ecclesiastical
legislation prohibiting images of the Deity in churches. Viewed in its
context, the passage would appear to be a simple reiteration of the
prohibititions already contained in Scripture. Almost a century earlier
the Spanish Council of Elvira enacted its famous canon forbidding
pictures in churches, probably with a view to safeguarding recent
Christians from the danger of relapsing into idolatry. In any case, the
canon would appear to be disciplinary rather than dogmatic. Cf. H.
Leclerq, Dictionnaire d'archeologie chretienne et de liturgie I.I, cols.
214-215.
3 Cf. Matt. 25.23.
FAITH AND THE CREED 33 1
dealing with men according to their merits. At the Last
Judgment, however, the glory to come of the Only-begotten
Son of God, Judge of the living and the dead, will manifest
itself with a brilliance, striking and unmistakable.
Chapter 8
(15) We also believe that at the appropriate time He
will come from heaven and judge the living and the dead.
We may understand by these words the just and sinners; or
we may give them this meaning^ that the living' are those
whom He will find alive on earth, while the 'dead' are those
who are to rise at His coming. His plan for time, unlike
His divine generation, is not a matter of the present only,
but embraces also the past and future. For, our Lord 'was'
on earth; now He 'is' in heaven; and He 'will be' the Judge
of the living and the dead when He appears in His glory. He
will come just the way He ascended, according to the
authoritative teaching found in the Acts of the Apostles. It
is in view of this temporal plan that He is speaking in the
Apocalypse where it is written: 'These things he spoke, who
is and who was and who is coming.' 1
Chapter 9
(16) Once our Lord's divine generation and human
dispensation have been set forth and proposed for belief,
there is added thereto belief in the Holy Spirit, in order to
round out our faith concerning God. The Holy Spirit is not
1 The corresponding passage in the Vulgate reads: 'I am the Alpha and
the Omega, the beginning and the end, says the Lord God, who is and
who was and who is coming, the Almighty.'
332 SAINT AUGUSTINE
inferior in nature to the Father and the Son, but is, so to
speak, consubstantial and co-eternal; for this Trinity is one
God. This does not mean that the Father is the same Person
as the Son and the Holy Spirit. It means, rather, that the
Father is the Father, the Son is the Son, and the Holy Spirit
is the Holy Spirit, and that this Trinity is one God, as it is
written: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord thy God is one God.' 1
But, if we are asked about the Persons in particular and
someone says to us: 'Is the Father God?' we will reply that
He is God. If asked whether the Son is God, we will answer
that He is. And if a like question is raised about the Holy
Spirit, we shall have to reply that He is none other than
God. We must be very careful not to understand the term
c God 5 in the sense in which it has been said of men: 'You
are gods/ 2 For they are not God by nature who have been
made and fashioned by the Father, through the Son, and by
the liberality of the Holy Spirit. It is to the Trinity Itself that
reference is made where the Apostle says : 'For from him and
in him and through him are all things.' 3 Hence, while replying
that the individual Person is God in answer to the question
about the Persons in particular whether the Father, the
Son, or the Holy Spirit no one should suppose that we are
worshiping three Gods.
(17) It is not surprising that words like this are spoken
about the unspeakable Nature. Something akin happens in
the case of those objects that we behold with bodily eyes and
discern by sense perception. When we are asked about the
source of a stream, we may not say it is the river itself; if
asked about the river, we may not call it the source; again,
we may not refer to the drinking water coming from the
source or the river as the source or the river. Yet, if we are
asked separately about the members in this trinity called
1 Deut. 6.4.
2 Ps. 81.6.
3 Rom. 11.36.
FAITH AND THE CREED 333
water, we answer in each instance that it is water. If I
inquire whether that is water in the source, water is given
in reply; if we inquire whether that is water in the river,
the answer is no different; and no other reply will be
possible in the case of the drinking water. Nevertheless, we
do not say there are 'three waters/ but 'one water.'
We must, of course, take care that no one will represent
the unspeakable nature of the divine Majesty as if he were
thinking about that visible and material source of the
stream, or about the river or the drinking water. In these
instances, the water now at the source flows out into the
river and has no fixed resting place; when it flows from
the river, or source, it becomes drinking water; it does not
remain in the same place from which it is drawn. In this
way it is possible for the water to be denominated now as
'source/ again as 'river/ and at an other time as 'drinking
water.'
But we have stated that in the Trinity it is impossible
for the Father to be at any time the Son, or for the Son to
be at any time the Father; for, as in the case of a tree, the
root alone is the root, the trunk is nothing else but the
trunk, and only the branches may be called branches. The
reality called 'root 3 may not be styled 'trunk' or 'branches';
nor is it possible for the wood of the root to shift about some-
how so as to be found now in the root, then in the trunk, and
at another time in the branches. It is able, rather, to exist
only in the root, though the rule about the use of the term
holds good: the root is 'wood 3 ; the trunk is 'wood 3 ; the
branches are 'wood/ Nevertheless, we do not speak of 'three
woods/ but of 'one wood.'
If these examples show a degree of dissimilarity because
there is a variation in thickness of the wood to justify our
speaking of 'three woods/ then the following will at least be
granted by all: If three cups are filled from the one source,
334 SAINT AUGUSTINE
we may speak of three cups; we may not speak of 'three
waters/ however, but only of 'one water.' Yet, if asked about
the cups in particular, you may reply that water is found in
any one of them, even though in this example there is no
such shifting of the water from the source to the river as we
mentioned.
These material illustrations have been given, not because
of a sameness with that divine nature, but because of a
'oneness' that is discernible even in sense objects. In this way
we are able to see how any three objects, no matter what
they are, can bear one particular name, not only as separate
units but also when taken together. Nor should anyone think
it strange or absurd that we call the Father God, 5 the Son
'God,' and the Holy Spirit 'God/ yet say that there are
three Gods in this Trinity but one Substance,
(18) Learned and religious men have indeed dealt with
the subject of the Father and the Son in numerous works. As
far as humanly possible, they have endeavored to show in
these writings how the Father and the Son are not one Person,
but One in nature; and to intimate what is proper to the
Father and what is proper to the Son: how the former is
the Begetter, that latter, the Begotten; the former does not
have His origin from the Son, the latter has His origin in
the Father; the former is the Principle of the Son, for which
reason He is also called the 'head of Christ'; 4 but Christ, too,
is called the Principle 5 [Beginning], but not of the Father;
the latter [the Son] is called the Image of the former 6
though He differs in no respect and enjoys absolute equality.
These matters are treated at greater length by those who do
not aim at presenting so brief an exposition of the whole
Christian faith as we do.
Therefore, in so far as He is the Son, He receives existence
4 Cf. 1 Cor. 11.3.
5 Cf. John 8.25.
FAITH AND THE CREED 335
from the Father, though the latter does not receive it from
Him. Many statements are found in the Scriptures concerning
the Son in so far as He has, in His unspeakable mercy and
in keeping with His temporal plan, taken upon Himself a
human nature, a created nature, that is, and one destined
for a more glorious transformation. These statements have
been put in such a way as to occasion error in the ungodly
minds of heretics who want to teach before they understand.
Such expressions as the following lead them to believe
that the Son is not equal to the Father or consubstantial with
Him: 'For the Father is greater than I'; 7 and the head of
the woman is the man, and the head of the man is Christ;
but the head of Christ is God'; 8 and 'then He Himself
[the Son] will also be made subject to him who subjected
all things to him' ; 9 and 'I go to my Father and your Father,
to my God and your God.' 10 There are other similar state-
ments, but no one of them has been made to indicate an
inequality of nature and substance. Otherwise these statements
would not be true: 'I and the Father are one'; 11 and c He who
sees me sees also the Father 3 ; 12 again, 'the Word was God,'
for He was not made since all things have been made
through Him; 13 also, 'He thought it not robbery to be equal
with God 5 ; 14 and so with other similar places.
The former declarations were made partly with a view
to one mode of operation of the human nature He assumed,
in view of which it is said that 'He emptied himself. 15 This
does not mean that Divine Wisdom, being absolutely un-
6 Cf. Col. 1.5.
7 John 14.28.
8 1 Cor. 11.3.
9 1 Cor. 15.28.
10 John 10.17.
11 John 10.30.
12 John 14.9.
13 John 1.1,3.
14 Phil. 2.6.
15 Ibid.
336 SAINT AUGUSTINE
changeable, has undergone change, but that He chose to
reveal Himself to men in so lowly a manner. These declara-
tions, therefore, which the heretics falsely interpret, were so
made partly with a view to this mode of operation [of His
human nature] and partly to show that the Son owes His
existence to the Father; in fact, He also owes it to the Father
that He is equal and like the Father Himself. The Father
on the contrary, owes nothing of His existence to another.
(19) But, as yet, the subject of the Holy Spirit has not
been so extensively and thoroughly covered by the learned
and outstanding commentators of the sacred Scriptures as to
enable us to see readily what is also proper to Him whereby
we call Him neither the Father nor the Son, but the Holy
Spirit. 16 They simply proclaim Him to be the Gift of God,
so we may believe that God does not communicate a Gift
less perfect than Himself. They refrain, however, from saying
that the Holy Spirit is begotten of the Father, for Christ is
the Only-begotten; or from saying that He is begotten of
the Son, as if He were the grandson of the Father Most High.
They nevertheless do not assert that the Holy Spirit owes
His existence to no one, but rather that He owes it to the
Father from whom all things have their being. Otherwise, we
would be setting up two Principles without an origin a
wholly false and absurd position and one that does not
pertain to the Catholic faith, but to the error of a certain
class of heretics. 17
There are, however, some who have ventured to hold that
the Holy Spirit is the common bond between the Father
16 Augustine acknowledges that in the West literature dealing with the
Holy Spirit was scant. In giving definite form to the doctrine of the
Holy Spirit, he probably consulted polemical works on the subject
from the pens of Greek writers, some of whose works were made
accessible to the West by such contemporaries as St. Jerome. Cf.
Tixeront, op. cit. 2 269-273.
17 A further allusion is made here to the metaphysical dualism of the
Manichaeans mentioned in Chapter 2.
FAITH AND THE CREED 337
and the Son, the Godhead, so to speak, which the Greeks
call theoteta. Accordingly, as the Father is God and the Son
is God, the Godhead Itself by which They are mutually
united the One by the generation of the Son and the Other
by cleaving to the Father is made equal with Him by
whom He was begotten. As I was saying, these commentators
assert that this Godhead is the Holy Spirit, which they would
also have us understand as the mutual Love and Charity of
both [Father and Son].
They uphold this view of theirs by a number of testimonies
from Scripture, as by the statement: 'Because the charity of
God is poured forth in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who
has been given to us,' 18 or by various other such testimonies.
They also rest their view on the very fact that we are
reconciled to God by the Holy Spirit. Hence in our referring
to Him also as 'God's Gift/ they would see a sufficient
indication that the Holy Spirit is the Charity of God. For,
we are reconciled to Him only by love, by reason of which
we are called the 'sons of God.' 19 We live no longer as slaves
under fear, for perfect love casts out fear. 20 We have also
received the spirit of liberty 'whereby we cry, "Abba!
Father!"' 21 Moreover, since we have been reconciled and
restored to His friendship through charity, we shall be enabled
to understand all the hidden things of God. Thus it is said
of the Holy Spirit: 'He will lead you to all truth.' 22 It is
for this reason that the courage which filled His Apostles, at
His coming, to preach the truth is also rightly ascribed to
charity, 23 since want of courage is attributed to fear, which
is excluded by the perfect possession of charity.
18 Rom. 5.5.
19 Cf. 1 John 3.1.
20 John 4.18.
21 Rom. 8.15.
22 The Vulgate reads: 'He will teach you all truth.'
23 Cf. Acts 2.4.
338 SAINT AUGUSTINE
The Holy Spirit is likewise called the 'Gift of God 324 for
the reason that no one finds enjoyment in the object he is
perceiving unless he also loves it. Now, the act of enjoying
God's Wisdom is nothing else than to cleave to Him by
the bond of love. Nor can anyone take a permanent hold
on the object of his perception except through love. And
He is called the Holy Spirit (spiritus sanctus) for the reason
that whatever is 'sanctioned 3 [sanciuntur] is sanctioned for
the sake of permanence, there being no doubt that the term
'sanctity' [sanctitatem] is derived from 'sanction 3 [a
sanciendo].
The partisans of this opinion (that the Holy Spirit is the
common bond of the Godhead) invoke above all the testimony
of the passage which reads: That which is born of flesh,
is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.' 25 Tor
God is Spirit.' 26 Reference is here made to our rebirth, not
of the flesh according to Adam, but of the Holy Spirit
according to Christ. Hence, when mention of the Holy Spirit
is made in this passage which reads: Tor God is Spirit, 5
they say we are to observe that it did not state: Tor the
spirit is God, 5 but did read: Tor God is spirit. 3 In this
passage, then (they say), the Godhead Itself, common to the
Father and the Son, has been called God, that is to say, the
Holy Spirit. Further testimony is furnished by this statement
of John the Apostle: Tor God is love.' 27 Here, again, he
does not say 'Love is God,' but 'God is love,' signifying
thereby that the Godhead Itself is love.
As for the fact that no mention is made of the Holy
Spirit in the sequence of connected expressions wherein we
read: Tor all things are yours, and you are Christ's, and
24 Cf. Eph. 3.7.
25 John 3.6.
26 John 4.24.
27 1 John 4.16.
FAITH AND THE CREED 339
Christ is God's/ 28 and The head of the woman is the man,
and the head of the man is Christ, and the head of Christ
is God/ 29 this, they say, is a working out of the principle
that the connecting bond itself is not usually enumerated
among the mutually connected parts. Hence it is that readers
of finer discernment seem to recognize another reference to
the Trinity Itself in that passage where it says: Tor from him
and through him and in him are all things' 30 from him, as
from one who owes His existence to no one' ; through him,
as through the Mediator; in him, as in one who imparts
stability, that is to say, one who brings about a bond of union.
(20) This opinion is opposed by those who think this
common bond which we call 'Godhead,' 'Love/ or 'Charity'
is not something substantial; they want the Holy Spirit
represented in terms of a substantial reality. Yet they do not
realize that the statement 'God is Love' could be made only
if Love were a substance. These opponents are led astray, of
course, because of habitual contact with corporeal objects;
thus, when two bodies are so united that they are placed in
juxtaposition, the union itself is not a body, since, as a matter
of fact, the union is not to be found once those bodies become
separated which had been united. Yet we do not think that
this union has taken leave, so to speak, and gone elsewhere,
the way the bodies do. People like this should rather do
their utmost to obtain purity of heart so they can see that
in the case of God's substance nothing like this can have
place, namely, that the substance of God be one thing and
the modification of the substance something different and
apart from substance. On the contrary, whatever is knowable
about God is something substantial.
Actually, it is an easy matter to have these truths stated
28 1 Cor. 3.22,23.
29 1 Cor. 11.3.
30 Rom. 11.36.
340 SAINT AUGUSTINE
and assented to by belief, but their inner meaning can only
be fully perceived by the pure of heart. Therefore, whether
this is the true opinion, or something else, we must cling
steadfastly to the faith wherein we call the Father God, the
Son God, and the Holy Spirit God. Neither do we say there
are three Gods, but one God, the Trinity; or that they differ
in nature, but, rather, that they are of the same substance;
or that the Father is at one time the Son, at another time
the Holy Spirit, but rather that the Father is always the
Father, the Son is always the Son, and the Holy Spirit
always the Holy Spirit.
Let us make no rash pronouncement about things unseen,
as if we understood them, but conduct ourselves as becomes
believers; for these things cannot be seen except by the
heart made clean. Furthermore, a person beholding these
truths in the present life 'in part,' as it is said, and 'in an
obscure manner' 31 cannot make his hearer also see them if
such a one is hindered by defilement of heart. But, 'blessed
are the clean of heart, for they shall see God.' 32
Such is the faith we profess cbncerning God our Creator
and Saviour.
(21) But, the precept of charity has been imposed upon
us not only in reference to God in the statement: "Thou
shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with
thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind' but also in
reference to our neighbor, for it adds: Thou shalt love thy
neighbor as thyself . JJ3 Now, if this faith does not embrace
the multitude and society of men wherein fraternal charity
is operative, it bears less fruit.
31 Cf. 1 Cor. 13.12.
32 Matt. 5.8,
33 Luke 10.27.
FAITH AND THE CREED 341
Chapter 10
Accordingly, we believe in the holy Church; in the
Catholic Church, that is, for heretics and schismatics both
call their assemblies 'churches.' Heretics sully the purity of
the faith itself by entertaining false notions about God, while
schismatics withdraw themselves from fraternal charity by
unlawful separation, though they believe the same things we
do. Consequently, neither heretics nor schismatics belong to
the Catholic Church: not heretics, for the Church loves
God; not schismatics, because she has love for the neighbor.
The Church readily pardons the neighbor's sins for the reason
that she prays in her own behalf to be forgiven by Him who
has reconciled us unto Himself, 1 blotting out all past offenses
and beckoning us onward toward a new life. Until we enter
upon this perfect life, we are unable to live sinless lives.
But it makes a difference what kind of sins they are.
(22) There is no need to treat of the distinction of sins.
But we must be sure to believe that our sins are not forgiven
us at all if we have been unrelenting in forgiving offenses.
Therefore, we also believe in the forgiveness of sins.
(23) There are three elements which make up man:
spirit, soul, and the body. Again, they are spoken of as two,
since the term c soul' is also frequently included in the term
'spirit'; for the rational part of the soul, not found in the
beast, is called the spirit.
The spirit is the foremost component of our being; the
principle of life, called the soul, comes next, by which we
are united to the body; last of all there is the body, which,
because of its sense character, comprises the lowest element
of our being.
This whole creation groans and travails in pain until now. 2
1 Cf. 2 Cor. 5.18,19.
2 Rom. 8.22.
342 SAINT AUGUSTINE
Nevertheless, the spirit has yielded its first fruits, for it has
believed in God and is already possessed of a good will. This
spirit is likewise called the 'mind,' with reference to which
the Apostle says: 'With my mind I serve the law of God.' 3
Speaking in the same vein, he says in another place: 'God
is my witness, whom I serve in my spirit. 54
But, while the soul is still hankering for carnal pleasures,
it is called 'flesh' and resists the spirit. This resistance does
not spring from the soul's nature but from a habit of sin.
This is why it is said: 'With my mind I serve the law of
God, but with my flesh the law of sin.' This habit of sin
has been engrafted on our nature through human generation
as a result of the first man's sin. Hence it is written: 'And
we were once by nature children of wrath,' 5 that is to say,
children of vengeance. It has come about in this way that
we serve the law of sin.
The soul is made perfect in its nature when it obeys the
spirit and follows it in its pursuit of God. Hence, 'the
sensual man does not perceive the things that are of the
spirit of God.' 6 But the soul does not become subject to the
spirit in doing good as quickly as the spirit is brought into
submission to God in regard to true faith and a good will.
On the contrary, the tendency of the soul to waste itself
upon the carnal and transitory is not always brought under
speedy restraint. But, as the soul is itself purified by recovering
the equilibrium of its nature under the mastery of the spirit,
which is its head and Christ is the Head of this head we
ought not give up hope that the body will also be restored
to its true nature.
This, of course, will not take place so speedily as does
the soul's restoration, just as the soul's restoration is not so
3 Rom. 7.25.
4 Rom. 1.9.
5 Eph. 2J.
6 1 Cor. 2.14.
FAITH AND THE CREED 343
speedy as is that of the spirit. But it will happen at the
right time, at the sounding of the last trumpet, when the
dead shall rise incorruptible and we shall be changed, 7
Accordingly, we also believe in the resurrection of the
flesh, not merely because of a renewal of the soul, which is
now called 'flesh' because of its propensity to the things of
the flesh. On the contrary, this visible flesh, too, which is
flesh by nature the term being given to the soul not from
its nature but from its carnal inclination this visible flesh,
I say, which is properly called flesh, will rise again, as
doubtless we must believe. For the Apostle Paul seems, as it
were, to be pointing to the flesh with his finger when he
says: 'This corruptible must put on incorruption. 58 At the
mention of the word 'this 5 he is pointing his finger, as it were,
at the flesh. Now, it is at things visible that we are able to
point a finger, for even the soul could be called 'corruptible,'
seeing that it is corrupted by immoral living. And when we
read the sentence: 'and this mortal must put on immortality, 59
reference is being made to the same visible flesh, since the
finger is, so to speak, pointed at it again. Just as the soul
can be called 'corruptible 5 through its immoral living, so,
too, can it be styled 'mortal/ As a matter of fact, it is death
for the soul to fall away from God. 10 This first sin of the
soul in paradise is found in the sacred writings.
(24) The body, then, will rise again according to the
tenets of the Christian faith a faith that cannot lead us
astray. If this belief seems incredible to anyone, that is
because he is thinking of the flesh as it is now and not as it
will be in the future, for at the moment of its spiritual
transformation it will no longer be flesh and blood but only
a body. Speaking with reference to the flesh, the Apostle
7 Cf. 1 Cor. 15.52.
8 1 Cor. 15.53.
9 Ibid.
10 Cf. Eccli. 10.14.
344 SAINT AUGUSTINE
states: 'There is one flesh of beasts, another of birds, another
of fish, another of snakes; and there are heavenly bodies and
earthly bodies.' 11 He does not speak of 'heavenly flesh/ but
does mention 'bodies, 5 both heavenly and earthly.
Whatever is flesh is also a body, but not every body is
at the same time flesh. To begin with the things of earth:
wood is a body, yet it is not flesh, while body and flesh both
belong to man and beast. But in the heavenly realm there
is no flesh, only pure and radiant bodies which the Apostle
calls 'spiritual 3 ; 12 there are some who call them 'ethereal. 5
Consequently, the Apostle's assertion that c flesh and blood
shall not possess the kingdom of God' 13 does not go counter
to the resurrection of the flesh, but proclaims what that
reality which is now flesh and blood will be like in the future.
A person who does not believe that flesh can be trans-
formed into this kind of nature has to be led to the belief
step by step. If you ask him whether earth can be changed
into water, this does not appear incredible to him in view
of their natural affinity. If you ask him, again, whether
water can be changed into air, he replies that this, too, is not
impossible, since they are akin to one another. And if the
question is proposed whether air can be changed into an
ethereal, that is to say, into a heavenly body, the same
natural affinity is a convincing argument in its favor.
Why, then, does the unbeliever not grant that what is
possible through these successive stages the transformation
11 1 Cor. 15.39,40. The Vulgate text omits the expression 'flesh of snakes'
but includes 'flesh of men,'
12 Cf. 1 Cor. 15.44.
13 1 Cor. 15.50. In his Retractationes Augustine is careful to remove all
possible ambiguity from his treatment of the glorified body. Its
substantial idenity is especially stressed, while the evidence of Christ's
risen body is invoked as a prototype of all glorified bodies at the
resurrection. In conclusion, Augustine directs his readers to a more
extensive treatment of the subject in De civitate Dei (147), where
this 'difficult question is examined for the purpose of convincing
non-believers.' &
FAITH AND THE CREED
345
of earth into an ethereal body can happen instantaneously
and, in the words of the Apostle, c in the twinkling of an
eye'/ 4 by the intervention of that same will of God which
made it possible for a human body to walk upon the waves? 10
In a similar way we observe with what amazing rapidity
smoke can change into a flame.
Our flesh is, to be sure, made of earth, and philosophers
admit that it is possible for any kind of body at all to be
transformed and changed into every other kind of body. Yet,
not infrequently, they oppose the resurrection of the body
with arguments purporting to show that it is impossible for
an earthly body to exist in heaven.
When the resurrection of the body will have become a
reality and we are freed from the exigencies of a temporal
existence, we shall experience the full enjoyment of life
eternal with a love unspeakable and a constancy that shall
never fail. Then will be fulfilled the words that are written:
'Death is swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is thy
sting? where, O death, is thy strife?' 16
This is the faith imparted to Christian neophytes. They
are to make profession of it in the few words contained in
the Creed; to believers, these few words are well known.
By believing them they are made subject to God, by being
subject to God they live a good life, by a good life they obtain
purity of heart, and with a pure heart they understand the
things they believe.
14 Cf. 1 Cor. 15.52.
15 Cf. Matt 14.25.
16 1 Cor. 15.39,40,50-54.
Translated by
JOHN A. LACY, M.A.
The Catholic University of America
INTRODUCTION
AUGUSTINE, Bishop of Hippo in North Africa,
wrote The Care to be Taken for the Dead probably
in 421, as he seems to indicate in his Retractations.
The work is addressed to Paulinus, Bishop of Nola.
At Nola there was a church dedicated to St. Felix the
Confessor, who had brought a great blessing to the people
of Nola by his appearance during an attack on the town.
This church had become a popular shrine for many of the
devout of southern Italy. In the neighborhood lived a very
devout lady, Flora, of noble birth. She had requested per-
mission of the bishop to have her son Cynegius buried near
the tomb of St. Felix. This permission was granted, but
then she wanted to know whether it was of any advantage
to his soul that his body was buried in the place dedicated
to this saint. Paulinus told her that would work to his
advantage. Then, as he thought more deeply on the matter,
he began to be puzzled and without delay wrote a letter to
his friend, the Bishop of Hippo, requesting that he set forth
his views on the subject. After some delay, due to pressing
engagements, St. Augustine wrote the present treatise to
'Your holiness, venerable fellow bishop Paulinus.'
349
350 SAINT AUGUSTINE
The discussion is treated in a most learned and loving
manner. It will be of great interest to all who are concerned
over the neglect of the mortal remains of some loved one
who has fallen in battle far from home. Many will find great
consolation in their inability to render such visible service to
their dead as they would wish to perform.
The text used in that of CSEL 41.
THE CARE TO BE TAKEN FOR THE DEAD
Chapter 1
| OR A LONG TIME I have felt obliged to answer the
request of your holiness, venerable fellow bishop,
Paulinus, ever since you wrote to me through some
of your servants concerning our most devout daughter Flora,
asking me whether it is to the advantage of anyone after
death to have his body buried near a memorial of some
saint. For the above-mentioned widow had made a similar
request of you concerning her son who had died in your
region, and in your letter of consolation you related that the
very thing which with motherly and pious devotion she had
requested concerning the faithful youth Cynegius, that his
body be buried in the Church of the most blessed Felix the
Confessor, had been fulfilled.
And on this occasion it happened that you wrote to me
through the same bearers of your letters, posing a question
of this very nature and insisting that I reply what I thought
of the matter, nor did you refrain from stating what you
yourself thought. You write that these things do not seem to
you to be the idle impulses of the devout faithful caring for
351
352 SAINT AUGUSTINE
their dead. You also add that it is of great significance that
it is the practice of the universal Church to pray for their
dead, and that, accordingly, it can be inferred that it is of
advantage to a man after death if by the faith of his relatives
such a place is provided for burying his body in which is
visible the very aid of the saints which is sought by such
method.
(2) Since these things are so, you indicate that you do
not understand how the statement of the Apostle is not
contrary to this belief, when he says : Tor we all shall stand
before the tribunal of Christ in order that each one may
receive according to the things which he has done in the
body, whether good or evil' 1 As a matter of fact, this judg-
ment of the Apostle urges that what can be of profit after
death be done before death, not then when what each man
has earned before death must be accepted.
Yet, this question is thus solved, since by a certain kind of
life there is acquired while one lives in the body that these
works may bring some aid to the dead, and by reason of
this: 'according to what they have done through the body
they are aided by what has been done religiously in their
behalf after the body. There are those whom these works aid
in no way, whether they are performed in behalf of those
whose merits are so evil that they are not worthy to be
aided by such deeds or in behalf of those whose merits are
so good that they have no need of them. Therefore, by the
kind of life which each one has lived through the body it is
brought about that whatever is done piously in behalf of a
person is of advantage or is not of advantage when he has
left the body. For, if there has been accomplished in this
life no merit through which these things may be of advantage,
in vain is any sought after this life. And so it happens that
the Church, through the care relatives take for their dead,
1 Cf. 2 Cor. 5.10.
CARE FOR THE DEAD
353
does not render in vain what religious service it can, yet
each one receives according to what he has done through the
body, whether good or evil, the Lord bestowing on each one
according to his work. That what is provided can be of
benefit to him after he has left the body has been acquired
in the life lived in the body.
(3) This short reply of mine could have been a sufficient
answer to your request, but I call your attention briefly to
some other things involved which I think are worthy of
discussion here. We read in the books of the Maccabees that
sacrifice is offered for the dead. 2 Yet, even if it were read
nowhere in the Old Testament, the authority of the universal
Church which clearly favors this practice is of great weight,
where in the prayers of the priest which are poured forth to
the Lord God at His altar the commemoration of the dead
has its place.
Chapter 2
Whether the location of his body is of any advantage to
the soul of the dead requires more careful study. And we
should especially inquire, not according to common belief,
but according to the sacred writings of our religion, if it
has any effect on the souls of men for enduring or for
increasing their misery after this life, whether their bodies
have not been buired. And we must not believe, as we
read in Vergil, that the unburied are prohibited from sailing
and crossing the river Styx because 'One may not cross the
gloomy banks and foaming crest until his bones find peace-
ful rest.' 1 Who would open his Christian heart to these
fabulous poetic imaginings, when the Lord Jesus asserts that
2 Cf. 2 Mac. 12.43.
1 Aeneid 6.327,328.
354 SAINT AUGUSTINE
not a hair of the head of a Christian will perish? Even
though they are in the hands of enemies who have power
over them, they shall die secure. Indeed, He urged them
not to fear them who, when they have killed the body, have
no more that they can do. Concerning this point, I think I
have said enough in the first book of the City of God to
blunt the teeth of those who by attributing the destruction
of the barbarians, which Rome has recently suffered, to
Christian causes even hurl this abuse, that Christ did not
come to the aid of His followers. And when it has been
pointed out to them that He has received the souls of the
faithful in view of the merits of their faith, they make
insulting remarks about unburied bodies. This whole topic on
burial I have explained 2 with words such as the following.
(4) But, I say, in so great a mass of dead bodies all
could not have been buried. Yet a pious faith does not
dread even this too much, since it holds to the belief that
not even ferocious wild beasts would hinder those bodies at
the time of resurrection. Tor not a hair of their heads shall
perish/ 3 In no wise would Truth say: 'And do not be afraid
of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul,' 4 if it
made any difference to the future life what evil men might
wish to do with the bodies of the slain. Unless anyone is so
absurd as to maintain that those who kill the body ought
not to be feared before death lest they kill the body, but
ought to be feared after death, lest they not permit the slain
body to be buried! Is, then, the statement false which says:
'who kill the body and after that have nothing more that
they can do/ 5 if they are able to do so great harm to the
dead bodies? No, for Truth has not spoken falsely. It has
2 cf, De Civ, Dei 1.12,13.
3 Luke 21.18.
4 Matt. 10.28.
5 Luke 12.4.
CARE FOR THE DEAD
355
been said that they do some harm when they are slaying the
body, for it has feeling while being slain, but later they have
nothing which they can do, for there is no feeling in the
slain body.
It is true that the earth has not covered many of the bodies
of the Christians, but nothing has kept any one of them
away from heaven and earth. All creation is filled with the
presence of Him who knows how to resuscitate what He
created. As the Psalmist says: 'They have given the bodies
of thy servants as food for the fowls of the air, the flesh of
thy saints to the beasts of the earth. They have shed their
blood like water round about Jerusalem, and there was
none to bury them.' 6 But he says this more to magnify the
cruelty of those who do such things than the plight of those
who have suffered them. For, although these things seem
hard and bitter in the sight of men, 'precious in the sight of
the Lord is the death of his saints.' 7 So, all these things the
care of the funeral arrangements, the establishment of the
place of burial, the pomp of the ceremonies are more of a
solace for the living than an aid for the dead.
If an expensive funeral is of any advantage to an evil
man, a cheap one, or none at all, is of no disadvantage
to a devout soul. A large gathering of the household put
on a great show in the sight of men for that rich man clothed
in purple, but of much greater significance in the sight of
the Lord was the service which the angels offered for the
poor beggar covered with sores. The angels did not take the
beggar into a marble tomb, but carried him to Abraham's
bosom. 8 We have undertaken to defend the City of God
against those who ridicule these things. Yet it is true that
their own philosophers despised the care of burial. And, often,
6 Ps. 78.23.
7 Ps. 115.6.
8 cf. Luke 16,19-31.
356 SAINT AUGUSTINE
entire armies, while they were dying for their earthly father-
land, did not care where they might lie afterwards, or for
what beasts they might become food. Thus, the poets might
write about this and be commended for the statement: 'He
is covered by the sky, who has no grave.' 9 How much less
ought they to rail at Christians about unburied bodies? For
the reformation of the body itself and of all its members
is promised to Christians. They are brought together not
only from the earth, but also from other elements from a
most secret region where the dissolved bodies have gone.
But they shall be restored and returned in an instant of
time. 10
Chapter 3
(5) Yet, the bodies of the dead, especially of the just
and faithful, are not to be despised or cast aside. The soul
has used them as organs and vessels for all good work in a
holy manner. If a paternal garment or a ring or anything
else of this kind is as dear to children as is their love for
their parents, in no way are their very bodies to be spurned,
since they are much more familiar and intimate than any gar-
ment we put on. Bodies are not for ornament or for aid, as
something which is applied externally, but pertain to the very
nature of the man. Hence, the funerals of the just men of
old were cared for with dutiful devotion, the processions
solemnized, and a fitting burial provided. Oftentimes, they
themselves, while they were yet alive, gave directions to their
sons concerning everything pertaining to their burial. 1 And
Tobias by burying the dead is commended by the witness
of an angel as having gained favor with God. 2 Also, our
9 Lucan, Pharsalia 7.819.
10 Cf. 1 Cor. 15.52.
1 Cf. Gen. 23; 25.9,10; 47.30.
2 Cf. Tob. 2.9; 12.12.
CARE FOR THE DEAD 357
Lord Himself, knowing that He would rise on the third
day, praised the good work of a devout woman and said
that her work was worthy of mention, because she had
poured precious ointment upon His body and had done it
for His burial. 3 And they are highly commended in the
Gospel who took His body down from the cross and prepared
it with reverent care for burial. 4
Indeed, these examples are not intended to say that there
is any feeling in dead bodies; rather, they are representative
of God's care, for such works of piety are pleasing to Him.
Also, such care for the bodies of our dead indicates a strong
belief in the resurrection. From this we learn with profit
how great can be the reward for the almsdeeds which we
perform for the living who have feeling, if this which we
do for the lifeless members of men as a part of our dutiful
care receives so much praise from God. Indeed, there are
other facts which the holy patriarchs wished to be under-
stood concerning the burial or the removal of their bodies as
having been spoken by the Spirit through the Prophets. 5
But this is not the proper place for elaborating on these
matters, since what I have stated is sufficient.
If these things which are necessary for sustaining the
living such as food and clothing, although these may be
lacking with severe inconvenience, do not overcome the
virtue of endurance and suffering in valiant men, and do
not erase piety from their minds, but, rather, make it more
fruitful by exercising it how much less does the lack of
those things which are usually associated with the funeral
arrangements and the burial of dead bodies bring misery to
those who are at rest in the hidden abodes of devout souls !
And because of this fact, when these things were lacking
3 Cf, Matt. 26.7-13
4 Cf. John 19.38.
5 Cf. Gen. 47.30; 50.24.
358 SAINT AUGUSTINE
for the dead bodies of Christians in that devastation of the
great city, or even of other towns, it was neither the fault
of the living, who were not able to provide them, nor was
it a hardship for the dead, for they were not aware of the lack.
Such, then, is my opinion on the subject of burial. In fact,
I have transferred it from another book of mine to this one
for you, because it could be explained more easily in this
way than by stating the same thing in another manner.
Chapter 4
(6) And if this is true, a place provided for burying
bodies among the memorials of the saints is surely a matter
of good human affection in attending to the funeral of one's
own relatives. Indeed, if there is some religious requirement
that they be buried, there can be some when the question is
considered as to where they shall be buried. But, when
such comforts are sought for the living by which their pious
intentions toward their own loved ones are evident, I do
not see what aids there are for the dead except for this
purpose, that, while the living are worshiping in the place
where the bodies of those whom they love are buried, they
may commend to the same saints, as if to patrons, those
whom they have undertaken before the Lord to aid by
prayer. Actually, they could do this even if they had not
been able to bury them in such places. For no other reason
are those things which plainly become sepulchres of the
dead said to be memorials or monuments, unless it is because
of this: Memorials admonish us to think of and to recall to
our memory those who have been taken away by death
from the eyes of the living, lest by forgetfulness they be
removed from our hearts also. The name memoriae shows
clearly that this is the meaning, and monumentum is also
thus called because it should admonish the mind, that is, it
CARE FOR THE DEAD 359
calls something to the attention of the mind. For this reason,
the Greeks use the word mnemeion for what we call a
memorial or a monument, because in their language memory
itself, by which we remember, is called mneme. When,
therefore, the mind recalls where the body of a very dear
one has been buried, and the place happens to be in the
name of a venerable martyr, to the same martyr he com-
mends the beloved soul in a spirit of prayerful recollection
and affliction. And when such a disposition is shown for the
dead by very dear Christian friends, there is no doubt that
they are benefited by these devotions, if when they were
living in the body they merited such things to be to their
advantage after this life. Indeed, if some necessity permits
bodies to be buried, or does not give any opportunity for
them to be buried in special places, those supplications in
behalf of the dead are not to be passed over. Such prayers
are to be made for all the dead in a Christian and Catholic
society, even though there be a silent mention of their
names which the Church undertakes in the general com-
memoration. In this way commemoration is made by one
devoted mother for those who lack such prayers, whether
parents, or sons, or any relations whatsoever, or friends. If,
however, these supplications which are made with true faith
and devotion for the dead should be lacking, there would be
no advantage to their souls, I think, however holy the places
be in which their lifeless bodies are buried.
Chapter 5
(7) When, therefore, a faithful mother desired the body
of her faithful son who had died to be placed in the church
of a martyr, if she truly believed that his soul was being
aided by the merits of the martyr, this, because she so
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believed, was a kind of prayer, and as such was of advantage,
if anything was of advantage. And the fact that she frequently
returns in spirit to the same sepulchre and there commends
her son by prayers more and more aids the soul of her dead
son. It is not the location of the dead body, but the living
devotion of the mother out of memory of the place which
affords this aid. At the same time, the love for the one who
is commended, as well as for the saint to whom the loved
one is commended, has a beneficial effect on the devout
soul of the one who is praying. Those who pray by using the
members of the body, as when they bend the knees, when
they extend the hands, or even prostrate themselves upon the
ground, or whatever else they do in a visible manner, they
do that which indicates that they are suppliants although
their invisible will and the intention of their heart is known
to God, for He has no need of such outward signs to indicate
that the human mind is in a state of supplication to Him.
By doing this a man excites himself more to a proper state
for praying and lamenting more humbly and fervently, and,
somehow or other, since these movements of the body cannot
be made except by a previous movement of the mind, by
these same actions of the visible man, the invisible soul
which prompted them is strengthened. Then, by reason of
this the devotion of one's heart is strengthened, because he
has resolved that these prayers be made and has made
them. Yet, if anyone is held back or restrained from this
method so that he is unable to make these outward signs,
the soul of the man certainly prays in his most secret chamber
before the eyes of God, where in spirit he is urged on, and
even prostrates himself. Indeed, then, it is a matter of very
great importance where one buries the body of his dead
relative. And when one supplicates God in behalf of some
dear soul after his devotion has chosen a holy place and
there has buried the body, the recollection of the holy
CARE FOR THE DEAD 36 1
place renews and increases the devotion of him who selected
the place. Yet, even if a devout person is not able to bury
in the place of his choice one whom he loves, he by no
means ought to cease from the needed prayers in making
his commendation. In whatever place, then, the flesh of the
dead body lies, or does not lie, repose must be sought for
the soul. For, when the soul departed, it retained its
sensation by which it is possible to distinguish in what manner
each one exists, whether his life is good or evil. For not
from the flesh does the soul expect its life to be helped; the
soul itself furnished life for the flesh, and, withdrawing, took
this life away, but when it returns it shall give it back. The
flesh does not provide the merit of the resurrection for the
spirit; rather, the spirit for the flesh, whether it shall
restore the life for punishment or for glory.
Chapter 6
(8) We read in the Church History which Eusebius
wrote in Greek, and which was translated into Latin by
Rufinus, that the bodies of the martyrs in Gaul were exposed
to dogs and that the remains of the dogs and the bones of
the martyrs were cremated as throughly as possible and that
all these ashes were scattered on the Rhone River, that noth-
ing at all might remain to be remembered. We should
believe that this was divinely permitted for no other reason
than that Christians through their trust in Christ might
learn how to despise this life. What was done to the bodies
of the martyrs with an intense ferocity, if anything could
have harmed them so that their most valiant souls would
not find blessed repose, otherwise would not have been
permitted. In very fact, it has been stated that the Lord
said : c Do not be afraid of those who kill the body, and after
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that have nothing more that they can do/ 1 not because He
would not permit them to do anything with the bodies of
their dead, but because, whatever they would have been
permitted to do, nothing would happen to lessen the Chris-
tian joy of the dead, nothing as a result would affect the
feeling of the living after death, nothing would work to the
harm even of their very bodies to prevent their rising intact.
Chapter 7
(9) Yet from that love of the human heart, because of
which 'no one ever hated his own flesh,' 1 if men believe
that anything would be lacking to their bodies after death
which in their own people or country the solemnity of
burial demands, they become sad like men, and before death
they fear for their bodies that which has no effect on them
after death. Thus we read in the Book of Kings that God
through a Prophet threatens another Prophet who trans-
gressed His word, that his body should not be returned to
the sepulchre of his fathers. Scripture records it in these
words: Thus saith the Lord: Because thou hast not been
obedient to the Lord, and hast not kept the commandment
which the Lord thy God commanded thee, and hast returned
and eaten bread, and drunk water in the place wherein he
commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat bread, nor
drink water, thy dead body shall not be brought into the
sepulchre of thy fathers.' 2
If we consider the extent of this punishment according to
the Evangelist where we learn that, after the body has been
1 Luke 12.4.
1 Cf. Eph. 5.29.
2 3 Kings 13.21,22.
CARE FOR THE DEAD 363
slain, there is no occasion to fear that the lifeless members
will suffer, it should not be called punishment. But, if we
consider it in relation to the love of a man for his own
flesh, then he might have been frightened and saddened
while living at what he was not to feel when dead. This,
then, was the nature of the punishment: The soul grieved
that something would happen to its body, although, when it
did happen, the soul did not grieve. Only to this extent did
the Lord wish to punish His servant, for it was not from his
own obstinacy that he refused to carry out the command,
but, because of the deceit of another person who was deceiv-
ing him, he thought that he obeyed when he did not obey.
It is not to be imagined that one has been so annihilated
by the teeth of a beast that his soul has then been snatched
away to infernal punishment, since the same lion who
slew his very body guarded it. Even the beast of burden
on which the man had been riding was unhurt and with
great courage stood in the presence of the wild beast at the
destruction of his master. By this miraculous sign it is made
clear that the man of God was corrected temporarily even
at the point of death rather than that he was punished after
death. On this subject the Apostle Paul, when he had made
mention of certain unpleasant infirmities and death ex-
perienced by many, said: 'But if we judged ourselves, we
should not thus be judged by the Lord. But when we are
judged, we are being chastised by the Lord, that we may
not be condemned with the world.' 3
Well did the man who had deceived the man of God bury
him with honor in his own tomb and give orders that he
himself should be buried next to his bones, hoping thus to
spare his own bones. He knew that the time would come
according to the prophecy of that man of God when Josias,
king of the Jews, would dig up in the land the bones of
3 1 Cor. 11.31,32.
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many dead and with them defile the sacrilegious altars which
had been set up for graven images. He spared that tomb
where the Prophet lay who more than 300 years before had
predicted these things. And because of him the burying place
of the man who deceived him was not violated. 4 By that
love because of which no one ever hated his own flesh he
provided for his own corpse, while he had slain his soul by
deceit. From this fact, then, because each one naturally loves
his own flesh, it was punishment for him to learn that he
would not be in the tomb of his fathers. So he took care that
his bones be spared by burying them next to him whose
tomb no one would violate.
Chapter 8
(10) The martyrs of Christ in their strivings for truth
have conquered this love of one's flesh. And it is not strange
that they despised what they would not have felt after they
had met death, since they could not be conquered by those
tortures which they felt while living. Just as God was able
to restrain the lion from doing further harm to the body of
the Prophet who had been slain, and changed the killer into
a guardian, so, I say, He was able to keep the bodies of His
own who had been slain from the dogs to whom they had
been cast. In like manner He could have frightened in
countless ways the savagery even of men who dared to burn
the dead bodies or to scatter the ashes. But this proof ought
not have been lacking to the manifold variety of temptations,
otherwise the fortitude of a confession of the faith which
did not yield to the savagery of the persecutions for the saftey
of the body might fear for an honorable burial; finally, in
order that faith in the resurrection of the body might not
4 Cf. 3 Kings 13.24-32; 4 Kings 23.16-18.
CARE FOR THE DEAD 365
become fearful over the destruction of the body. Therefore,
this ought also to have been allowed, so that, even after these
experiences of such great horror, the martyrs remaining fer-
vent in the confession of Christ might also become witnesses
of this truth, in which they had learned that those who had
slain their bodies had nothing which they might do afterwards,
since whatever they might do to the bodies of the dead was as
if they did nothing. For, in all flesh that lacks life, he who
has left the body can be aware of no injury to the lifeless
body, nor can He who created it lose anything. But in the
midst of what was being done to the bodies of the dead,
although the martyrs were enduring them fearlessly with
great fortitude, among the brethren there was great grief,
because no opportunity was given to them to pay just dues
at the burial of the saints, and the vigilance of the cruel
guards did not permit them to take away secretly any relics,
as history likewise bears witness. 1 And thus, although no
misery came upon those who had been slain, in the dis-
memberment of their bodies, in the burning of their bones,
in the scattering of the ashes, a great sorrow did torture
those who were unable to bury anything of theirs, because
they themselves in a certain manner felt for those who had
no feeling in any manner, and where now there was no
passion on the part of the one, there was a wretched com-
passion on the part of the other.
Chapter 9
(11) Those men were praised and called blessed by
King David who had bestowed the merciful kindness of
burial on the dry bones of Saul and Jonathan, in keeping with
1 Cf. Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. 5.1.
366 SAINT AUGUSTINE
that wretched compassion which I have mentioned. 1 But,
pray tell, what compassion is bestowed on those who have
no feeling? Or should one remember that the unburied were
not able to cross the infernal river? 2 May this be far from
the Christian belief ! Otherwise, it worked out very badly for
so great a multitude of martyrs whose bodies could not be
buried, and for them Truth emptily said: 'Do not be afraid
of those who kill the body and after that have nothing more
that they can do,' 3 if they were able to do them such great
wrongs as to prevent their crossing over to the desired places.
But, without any doubt, this is exceedingly false, for it is no
hindrance to the faithful to be denied burial of the bodies.
Also, it is of no advantage if burial be granted the godless.
Why, then, are those men said to have done an act of mercy
in burying Saul and his son, and blessed by good King
David for this, unless it be that the hearts of the com-
passionate are favorably affected when they are concerned
over the well-being of other bodies of the dead? Or is it
because of that love which keeps one from ever hating his
own flesh that they do not wish such things to happen after
their own death to their own bodies, so that what they wish to
be done for them when they shall have no feeling they care
to do for others who now have no feeling, while they them-
selves still have feeling?
Chapter 10
(12) Certain visions are reported which seem to bring
into this discussion a question that should not be neglected.
In fact, some dead persons are reported to have appeared
either in a dream or in some such fashion to the living,
1 Cf. 2 Kings 2.5.
2 Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 6.327.
3 Luke 12.4.
CARE FOR THE DEAD
367
who were ignorant as to where their bodies were lying
unburied. After pointing out these places to them, they
admonished them to provide for them the burial which had
been lacking. Now, if we state that these things are false,
we shall seem indifferently to go against the writings of
certain of the faithful and against the senses of those who
affirm that such things have happened to them. One must
reply that it is not to be assumed that the dead have
knowledge of these things merely because they seem to say
them or to point them out or to seek them in dreams. The
living often appear to the living while they are asleep,
although they are entirely unaware of making any such ap-
pearance, and hear from them, as they speak, the things which
they have dreamed, namely, that they saw them in their
dreams doing or saying something. It is possible for someone to
see me in his dreams indicating to him something that has
happened, or predicting to him something that is to happen,
when I am entirely ignorant of this and do not care what he
may dream, or whether he is awake while I am sleeping, or
he is asleep while I am awake, or whether we both are
awake or asleep at one and the same time when he experiences
the dream in which he sees me. Why, then, is it so strange
if the dead, without their knowledge and not perceiving
these things, are seen by the living in sleep and say some-
thing which, upon awaking, they realize to be true?
I might believe that this is done by the workings of angels.
It may be permitted from above, or it may be ordered, that
they may seem in their sleep to say something about the
burying of their own bodies, when truly they whose the
bodies are know nothing of this. Even this sometimes happens
advantageously for some kind of solace for the living who are
related to those dead whose images appear to them while
dreaming, or that by these friendly admonitions to mankind
the humanity of burial is commended. For, although burial
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may not help the dead, if one neglects it he may be con-
sidered irreligious. However, at times when false visions have
been seen, men are led into great errors, which they ought to
resist. Suppose someone should see in his dream what
Aeneas by a false report of the poet is said to have seen
among the dead, and then the image of someone not buried
should appear to him and should say such things as Palinurus
is said to have spoken to Aeneas. 1 Then, on awaking, he
should find the body in the very place where he heard that
it was lying when he was dreaming. If then, on being
admonished and requested to bury the body he had found
and because he finds this to be true, he should believe that
the dead are buried so that their souls may pass over to
those places from which he dreamed that the souls of the
unburied are prohibited by a wicked law, would he not by
holding such a belief depart far from the path of Truth?
Chapter 11
(13) However, human weakness seems to be such that
when anyone sees in his sleep one who is dead he thinks he
sees the soul of the dead person. But, when he has dreamed
of a living person, he feels confident that it is the likeness
of the person and not his soul or body which has appeared
to him. This amounts to the belief that the souls but not the
likeness of the dead in the same manner without their
knowledge may appear to those sleeping. Indeed, when we
were at Milan, we heard of the following incident: Payment
of a debt was demanded of a certain son, whose father,
without the knowledge of the son, had made full settlement
before his death, but had not received back the original note
which was now produced. The son became very sad and
1 Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 6.337-383.
CARE FOR THE DEAD 369
was wondering why his father as he was dying had not told
him what he owed, since he had made a will. Then the
same father appeared to his son, who was now quite anxious.
While the son was sleeping his father told him where he
might find the receipt which would acknowledge full payment
of his original note. And when the son found this and
presented it, not only did he throw off the slander of the
false claim, but also recovered his father's signature, which
the father had not recovered when he repaid the loan. Here,
indeed, the mind of a man is thought to have exercised a
care for his son and to have come to him sleeping, that he
might inform his ignorance and so set him free from a great
annoyance.
But, at almost the very same time at which we heard the
above report, another story came to us at Milan from
Eulogius, a rhetorician at Carthage. He was a disciple of
mine in this art, and he himself told me the same story
after we had returned to Africa. The story is as follows. When
Eulogius was teaching the rhetorical works of Cicero to his
pupils, as he was reviewing the lecture which he had intended
to deliver the following day, he came upon an obscure passage,
and, not being able to determine the exact meaning, could
scarcely sleep. On that very night I expounded to him in
his dream the passage which he did not understand. Indeed,
not I, but my image, and without my knowledge, and so
far across the sea, either doing or dreaming something else,
and caring not at all for his worries! In what way such
things happen I do not know, but in whatsoever way they
do happen, why do we not believe that they happen in the
same, way, namely, as one in his sleep sees a dead person,
so he sees a living person? In both instances it happens to
those who neither know nor care who dreams of their images,
or where, or when.
370 SAINT AUGUSTINE
Chapter 12
(14) Quite similar indeed to dreams are some of the
visions of people who are awake. They have disturbed feelings,
such as those who are mad or raving in some manner. They
even talk with themselves, as if they actually were speaking
with someone present. They even converse with those who
are absent more than with those who are present, whose
images they think of, whether they be of persons living or
dead. However, the ones who are living do not know that
they are seen by them and that they are conversing with
them. They are not really present nor are they actually
conversing. Yet, because of their disturbed feelings men
suffer such imaginary visions. In this manner, also, these who
depart from this life seem to men, who are so affected, as
if they were really present, although they are absent and
altogether ignorant of whether anyone sees them in his
imagination.
(15) A situation quite similar to this is the following.
Some persons are at times drawn from the senses of the body
and are taken with such visions more deeply than when they
are asleep. To these the images of the living and of the dead
appear. But, when they were brought back to their senses,
they said that they had seen certain dead persons. Indeed,
they are believed to have been with them. But those who
also hear that images of the living, although they are absent
and unaware of it, have been seen in like fashion pay no
attention to these reports.
A certain man, Curma by name, of the township of
Tullium, which is next to Hippo, was a poor member of
the Senate, scarcely qualified to be a magistrate of the town,
merely a simple country fellow. When he was taken ill, he
was out of his mind and lay almost dead for some days.
There was the faintest breath in his nostrils, barely felt on
CARE FOR THE DEAD 371
one's hand when held near, and this was the only sign of
life that kept him from being buried as dead. He moved no
limb, he took no nourishment, he gave no indication with
his eyes or by any other sense of the body that he was aware
of any imposed annoyance. Yet he saw many things, just as
in a dream. Finally, after many days, upon awaking, he
reported all that he had seen. As soon as he opened his eyes
he said: Let someone go to the house of Curma the smith
and see what is going on there. And on arriving there it
was discovered that Curma the smith had died at the very
moment when Curma the magistrate had come out of his
coma, almost returning from death. Then, to those who were
intently curious, he indicated that Curma the smith had
been ordered brought in when he himself was dismissed.
The fact was, he said, that he, Curma the magistrate, had
been ordered brought to those regions of the dead, when the
order was intended for Curma the smith.
Therefore, in those visions, just as in his own dreams,
among those of the dead whom he saw being treated each
according to his own merits he recognized some even whom
he knew to be alive. Indeed, I might have believed him had
he not seen during those so-called dreams some who are
even living to this day, some clerics of his own district. And
he was told by their priest that he should be baptized by
me at Hippo, something which he said had already been
done. Thus he had seen in that vision a priest, clerics, me
myself among the living, and in the same vision he later
saw dead persons. Now, why should not one believe that
he saw the dead in the same way in which he saw the living,
namely, both dead and living being absent and ignorant of
any such incident, and that he did not see real persons and
places, but only the likenesses of both persons and places?
For he saw the place where the priest was with the clerics,
and Hippo where he thought he was baptized by me. But
372 SAINT AUGUSTINE
he certainly was not in these places at the time when he
seemed to himself to be there, for he did not know what
was going on there at the time, and without doubt he would
have known if he had really been there. These things, then,
are seen which are not actually present, but sketched, as it
were, in shadowy imaginings.
Finally, after relating these many things that he had seen,
he added that he had been led into Paradise and that he
was told when he was dismissed to return to his family: e Go,
be baptized, if you wish to be in this place of the blessed.'
Then, on being admonished that he be baptized by me, he
replied that this had already been done. Again, the same one
advised him as before: 'Go, receive true baptism, for you
saw in a vision that baptism of which you spoke.'
After he recovered, he came to Hippo. And, as Easter
was drawing near, he gave his name among the other
catechumens who were seeking baptism, although like many
others he was unknown to us. For he took care not to make
known that vision to me or to anyone of our group. He
was baptized, and after having fulfilled the duties of the
Easter season, he returned home. After two years or more
had passed, I discovered all these things, at first through a
certain friend of mine and of his who was a guest at my
table, when we were speaking of such things. Then I
insisted and brought it about that he relate these things in
person to me with some of his own trustworthy citizens as
witnesses of his marvelous sickness, that he lay almost dead
for many days, and also who knew of that other Curma the
smith, as I have related above. And with respect to all these
incidents, when he was relating them to me, they recalled
that they had heard them at that time from him, thus
confirming his account. And because of this, just as he saw
his baptism and me myself and Hippo and the church and
CARE FOR THE DEAD 373
the baptistry, not in reality, but in mental representations,
so also did he see certain other living persons, although the
same living persons were ignorant of any such thing.
Chapter 13
Why, then, do we not agree that in like manner those
dead persons were present only in the mind of the dreamer,
and without the knowledge of the same dead?
(16) Why do we not believe that these are the workings
of angels through a dispensation of the providence of God,
who puts to good use both good and evil according to the
incomprehensible depth of His judgment? 1 Are the minds of
mortal men thus strengthened or weakened, or consoled or
frightened, by a realization of the fact that to each individual
mercy is shown or punishment imposed by Him to whom
the Church, not in vain, ascribes mercy and judgment? 2 As
each one shall wish, let him receive what I shall say.
If the souls of the dead were taking part in the affairs of
the living, and they themselves were speaking to us when
we see them in our dreams (that I may be silent about others) ,
my devout mother would be with me every night, for she
followed me on land and sea that she might be with me.
Far be it that she should have become for the sake of a
happier life cruel to this extent, that, when anything grieves
my heart, she would not console her grieving son whom she
loved so fondly! She never wished to see me sorrowful.
Truthfully, then, does the inspired Psalmist write: 'When
my father and my mother forsook me, the Lord received me/ 3
1 Cf. Rom. 11.33.
2 CL Ps. 100.L
3 Cf. Ps. 26.10.
374 SAINT AUGUSTINE
If, then, our parents have forsaken us, how do they take
part in our cares and affairs? However, if our parents are
not interested, who are the others among the dead who
know what we are doing or what we are suffering? Isaias the
Prophet says: Tor Thou art our Father, because Abraham
hath not known us, and Israel hath been ignorant of us.' 4
God promised to the patriarchs who believed in Him a
multitude of descendants. And the Prophet Isaias says that
the patriarchs do not know their living descendants. If so
great patriarchs did not know what was going on as concerns
their own offspring, how do the dead associate themselves with
the affairs of the living to learn of and to assist them in
their deeds?
How do we say that they have been advised who have
died before the coming of the evils which followed their
death, if after death they perceive whatever misfortunes
befall the human life? Or is it that we are mistaken when
we imagine that they are at rest when the restless life of the
living concerns them? What is this, then, which God pro-
mised to the most devout king, Josias, for a great reward,
telling him that he would soon die in order that he might
not see the evils which He was threatening to send upon
that place and that people? The words of God are these:
Thus saith the Lord the God of Israel: My words which
you have heard and which you feared from my mouth when
you heard what I said about this place and those who dwell
in it, that it be forsaken and become a curse, and you rent
your garments and wept in my sight, shall not come to pass,
saith the Lord of hosts. Behold I shall bring thee to thy
fathers, and thou shalt be brought with peace, and your
eyes shall not see all the evils which I bring upon this place
and those who dwell in it.' 5 And Josias, alarmed at the dire
4 Isa. 63.16.
5 Cf. 4 Kings 22.18-20.
CARE FOR THE DEAD
375
threats of God, wept and tore his garments and then was
made secure by an early death from all future ills, because
he would so rest in peace that he would not see those evils.
The souls of the dead, then, are in a place where they
do not see the things which go on and transpire in this
mortal life. How, then, do they see their own graves or
their own bodies, whether they are buried or lie exposed?
How do they take part in the misery of the living, when
either they are suffering their own evil deserts, if such they
have merited, or they rest in peace, such as was promised
to this Josias? For there they undergo no evils either by
enduring them themselves or by compassionate suffering for
others, but are liberated from all evils which when they lived
here they endured for themselves and out of compassion for
others.
Chapter 14
(17) Someone might say: If the dead have no care for
the living, how did that rich man who was being tormented
in hell ask father Abraham to send Lazarus to his five
brothers who were not yet dead and to deal with them lest
they come to the same place of torments? When that rich
man said this, did he know anything of what his brothers
were doing, or what they were suffering at that time? Thus,
being evil he suffered more because he had a care for the
living, for he did not know what they were doing, just as
we have a care for the dead, although we do not know
what they are doing. For, if we had no care for the dead,
we would not be in the habit of praying for them. In short,
Abraham did not send Lazarus, but replied that the five
brothers had Moses and the Prophets with them and that
they should hear them so as not to come to such torments.
Someone raises another objection: How did father
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Abraham himself not know what was going on here when
he knew that Moses and the Prophets were here, that is to
say, their books which men might read and obey, thus avoid-
ing the torments of hell; when, finally, he knew that the rich
man had lived in luxury, while Lazarus in toils and pains had
spent his days in poverty? He says this to him: 'Son, re-
member that thou in thy lifetime hast received good things,
and Lazarus in like manner evil things.' 1 Then he knew the
things which had been done among the living, not among
the dead. Truly he did not know of them when they were
happening among the living, but he could have learned of
them from Lazarus after the rich man and Lazarus were
dead. I say this, for the Prophet Isaias cannot be false in
saying: 'Abraham hath not known us.' 2
Chapter 15
(18) Then it must be admitted that the dead do not
know what is going on here, but, when something is happen-
ing here, the dead actually hear about it later from those
who at their death go from here to them. Truly, they do
not report everything. They are allowed to remember and
to report only the things which are proper for those dead to
hear. Also, from angels who are aware of the things which
go on here the dead are able to hear whatever He who
governs all determines is proper for each one to hear. For,
unless there were angels who can be present in the abodes
of the living and the dead, the Lord Jesus would not have
said : c And it came to pass that the poor man died and was
1 Luke 16.25.
2 Isa. 63.16.
CARE FOR THE DEAD
377
borne away by the angels into Abraham's bosom.' 1 Thus,
the angels who carried from this place to that the one whom
God wished are able at one time to be with the living, at
another time to be with the dead. For, the souls of the
dead are able to know some things which go on here which
they ought to know. Further, those who ought to know
such things know not only the present or the past, but also
by divine revelation the things which are to come just as
the Prophets, but not everybody, while they were living here
received revelation. However, not even the Prophets knew
everything, but only such things as the providence of God
decided ought to be revealed to them.
Also, some can be sent to the living from the dead, just
as in the opposite direction divine Scripture testifies that
Paul was snatched from the living into Paradise. 2 Samuel
the Prophet, although dead, predicted future events to King
Saul, who was alive, although some think that it was not
Samuel himself who was able to be called forth by some
magic, 3 but that some spirit so allied with evil works had
feigned a likeness to him yet the Book of Ecclesiasticus,
which Jesus the son of Sirach is said to have written, but
because of some similarity of style is thought to be the work
of Solomon, contains in praise of the fathers the fact that
Samuel prophesied even though dead. 4 If there is objection
to this book on the ground that it is not in the canon of
ancient Hebrew Scripture, what are we going to say of
Moses, who in Deuteronomy is certainly recorded as dead
and again in the Gospel of St. Matthew is reported to have
appeared to the living along with Elias who did not die. 5
1 Luke 16.22,
2 Cf. 2 Cor. 12.2.
3 Cf. 1 Kings 28.7.
4 Cf. Eccli. 46.16-23.
5 Cf. Deut. 34.5; Matt. 17.3.
378 SAINT AUGUSTINE
Chapter 16
(19) The following offers another solution of this ques-
tion: How do the martyrs by their very benefactions, which
are given to those who seek, indicate that they are interested
in human affairs, if the dead do not know what the living
are doing? For, not alone by the operations of his benefactions,
but even to the very eyes of men, . did Felix the Confessor
appear, when Nola was being besieged by the barbarians.
You take pious delight in this appearance of his. We heard
of this not by uncertain rumors, but from trustworthy wit-
nesses. In truth, things are divinely shown which are different
from the usual order nature has given to the separate kinds
of created things. Just because our Lord, when He wished,
suddenly turned water into wine 1 is no excuse for us not to
understand the proper value of water as water. This is a rare,
in fact, an isolated instance of such divine operation. Again,
the fact that Lazarus rose from the dead 2 does not mean
that every dead person rises when he wishes, or that a
lifeless person is called back by a living one just as a sleeping
person is aroused by one who is awake. Some events are
characteristic of human action; others manifest the signs of
divine power. Some things happen naturally; others are done
in a miraculous manner, although God is present in the
natural process, and nature accompanies the miraculous.
One must not think, then, that any of the dead can intervene
in the affairs of the living merely because the martyrs are
present for the healing or the aiding of certain ones. Rather,
one should think this; The martyrs through divine power
take part in the affairs of the living, but the dead of
themselves have no power to intervene in the affairs of the
living.
1 Cf. John 2.9.
2 Cf. John 11.44.
CARE FOR THE DEAD 379
(20) This question as to how the martyrs aid those who
certainly are aided by them surpasses the powers of my
intelligence. Are they themselves by their own power present
at one moment in places so diverse and separated by such
great space between them, or are they wherever their
memorials are, or even beyond their memorials wherever
they are thought to be? Or are they in a place suited to their
own merits, removed from every association with mortals, yet
continuing to pray for the needs of their suppliants? This
would resemble our prayers for mortals with whom, indeed,
we are not present and do not know where they are or
what they are doing. And does Almighty God, who is every-
where present, neither fixed to us nor remote from us, when
He hears the prayers of the martyrs, bring about through
the ministry of angels, which is everywhere, those solaces
for men to whom He judges that in the misery of this life
such solaces should be given? Further, does He by a marvelous
and unbelievable goodness and power bestow the merits of
His martyrs where and when and how He wishes, but
especially through their memorials, since He knows that this
is expedient for us for building up our faith in Christ? For
the martyrs have suffered because of their confession of
Christ. This question is so deep that I cannot comprehend
it, and so complex as to defy all my efforts to scrutinize it
successfully. But, in which of these two ways are we aided
by the martyrs? Or is it possibly by both ways, so that at
one time these aids are secured through the very presence
of the martyrs and at another time through angels who
assume the appearance of the martyrs? I do not wish to
say. I should prefer, rather, to seek out these things from
those who know.
For there is somebody who knows them, but not the one
who seems to himself to know while he does not know. The
gifts are of God, who bestows freely some on these persons,
380 SAINT AUGUSTINE
others on those, according to the Apostle Paul, who says:
'Now the manifestation of the Spirit is given to everyone for
profit. To one through the Spirit is given the utterance of
wisdom; and to another the utterance of knowledge,
according to the same Spirit; to another faith, in the same
Spirit; to another the gift of healing, in the one Spirit; to
another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to
another the distinguishing of spirits; to another various kinds
of tongues; to another interpretation of tongues. But all these
things are the work of one and the same Spirit, who allots
to everyone according as He will.' 3 Of all these spiritual
gifts which the Apostle has mentioned, the discernment of
spirits is the gift which enables one to know things just as
they should be known.
Chapter 17
(21) One must believe that the famous monk, John, 1
was such a person. He is the one whom the elder Theodosius,
the emperor, consulted as to the outcome of the civil war.
He truly had the gift of prophecy. Such gifts are not dis-
tributed one to one man, another to another, but I do not
doubt that one person can have more than one gift.
A certain very religious woman was quite impatient to see
this famous monk, and was urgently insisting through her
husband that her request be granted. But the monk was
unwilling to see her, for he never granted an audience to
women. However, he said to the husband: 'Go, tell your
wife that she will see me tonight, but in her dreams.' And
this did happen. And he gave her such advice as ought to be
3 1 Cor. 12.7-11,
1 Cf, 'Joannes,' Dictionary of Christian Biography 487; also De civitate
Dei 5.26.
CARE FOR THE DEAD 381
given to a faithful wife. When she awoke she told her
husband that she had seen such a man of God, and mentioned
what she had heard from him. Thereupon he knew that she
had seen John, the monk. And when he discovered this
from the facts, he retold it to me. He was a serious and
noble man and most worthy to be believed. But, if I had
seen that holy monk myself, because, as the report goes, he
was being questioned most patiently and was answering most
wisely, I would have asked him this very question: Did
you in person come to that woman in her dreams, that is,
was it your spirit in the likeness of your body, just as we
dream of ourselves in the likeness of our own body? Or
were you doing something else, or, if asleep, were you
dreaming something else, or did such a vision appear to
the woman in her sleep through an angel, or even in some
other fashion? And did he by a revelation of the spirit of
prophecy find out beforehand that this would occur so
that he himself might promise it? For, if he conversed with
her while she was dreaming, this could have been so by a
miraculous gift, not by a natural gift; by the grace of God,
not by a natural faculty. If, however, he himself was doing
something else, either sleeping or occupied in other visions
when the woman saw him in her sleep, clearly something
else took place such as that incident which we read of in
the Acts of the Apostles. 2 Here the Lord Jesus is speaking to 1
Ananias about Saul, and telling him that Saul saw him
coming to him. But Ananias himself knew nothing of it.
Regardless of what answer that man of God might make
to me on this point, I would continue to ask him, concerning
the martyrs, whether they are present in person during
dreams or in whatever other manner they might wish to
appear to those who see them, and especially when demons
in men confess that they are tortured by the martyrs and
2 Cf. Acts 9.10-19.
382 SAINT AUGUSTINE
ask them to obey them, or, whether these things are done
at the will of God through the workings of angels for the
honor and commendation of men, while the martyrs are in
a place of peaceful quiet, separated far from us for beholding
much better visions, and there praying for us.
For, at Milan, near the tomb of the martyr-saints Gervase
and Protase, the demons, while making mention of the
martyrs, also acknowledged in like manner Ambrose the
bishop, who was still living, calling him by name and
imploring him to spare them. Now St. Ambrose, the bishop,
was doing something else at the time and was altogether
unaware when this was done. Is the answer really this: At
one time these things are done through the very presence
of the martyrs, at another time through the presence of
angels? Can we learn these two things and, if so, by what
signs? Or does anyone have the power to be aware of these
things and to draw a distinction, except one who has that
gift through the Spirit of God, who distributes suitable gifts
to each as He wishes? John the monk would, I think, explain
all these things to me as I might wish, that I might learn
from his instruction, and that the things which I might
hear I might discover whether they are really true, or that
I might believe in the things that I do not know when he
tells me what he knows. He might even reply using holy
Scripture, and say: 'Seek not the things that are too high
for thee, and search not into things above thy ability; but
the things that God hath commanded thee, think on them
always/ 3 This I would gratefully accept, for it is a great gain
if it should become clear that we should not even try to
understand some obscure and uncertain facts which we were
not able to understand, and if we should learn that it is of
no disadvantage if we do not understand the things we wish
to know, thinking that such knowledge is a gain when it is not.
3 Eccli. 3.22.
CARE FOR THE DEAD 383
Chapter 18
(22) Since this is so, we should not think that any aid
comes to the dead for whom we are providing care, except
what we solemnly pray for in their behalf at the altars,
either by sacrifices of prayers or of alms. Even this does
not benefit all for whom it is done, but only those who while
they lived made preparation that they might so be aided.
But, even though we do not know who these are, we ought
none the less to do such works for all Christians, so that no
one of them may be neglected for whom these aids can and
ought to come. It is better that there be a superabundance of
aids for those to whom these works are neither a hindrance
nor a help, than that there be a lack for those who are thus
aided. Yet, each one does this more diligently for his own
friends and relatives, in order that a like service may be
performed in his behalf by his friends and relatives. Regard-
less of what is spent for burying the body, it is not an aid to
salvation, but a duty of our humanity according to that
love by which c no one ever hated his own flesh.' 1 Then, it is
fitting that one exercise what care he ca,n for the body of his
relative, when the one who used to exercise the care has
already died. And if they do this who have no faith in the
resurrection of the body, how much more ought we who
have faith that a duty of this kind is due to a dead body which
shall rise again and live forever? And this is in some way a
testimony of one's faith. Truly, the fact that one is buried
in a memorial of a martyr seems to me to benefit the dead
only in this respect, namely, that in commending the dead to
the patronage of the martyr the desire for supplicating in
his behalf is increased.
(23) Thus you have such a response of mine as I have
been able to render to those questions which you thought I
1 Cf, Eph. 5.29.
384 SAINT AUGUSTINE
should seek out. If it is longer than necessary, please forgive
me, for it was undertaken because of my love for conversing
with you. In what manner your esteemed pleasure shall
receive this book please let me know by a return letter from
you. And our brother in Christ and our fellow priest,
Gandidianus, the bearer of this letter to you, will without
doubt make it more pleasing. When I became acquainted
with him through your letter, I received him with my whole
heart. I now regret to send him back, for His presence has
brought much consolation to us in the love of Christ. I must
confess that I have obeyed you because of his insistence.
For so many problems demand my attention that my reply
would have failed your request unless, indeed, he by his
constant reminding had not allowed me to forget.
(Adversus Judaeos)
Translated by
SISTER MARIE LIGUORI, I.H.M., PH.D.
INTRODUCTION
ST. AUGUSTINE does not mention the Tractatus
adversus Judaeos in his Retractations. This omission
raises two obstacles to any agreement upon a prob-
able date of composition. If the treatise were written as a
book, then its probable date would be after the Retractations,
that is, 428-429. This theory Blumenkranz sees as the only
basis for the traditional date 428 or 429. 1 On the other
hand, if the Tractatus is a sermon, it would have no place
in the Retractations, which was restricted to books, as St.
Augustine had reserved the review of his epistles and sermons
for later consideration. 2 Portalie, 3 Schanz, 4 Bardenhewer, 5
classify the Adversus Judaeos as a sermon among St.
Augustine's apologetic or polemical writings. Following a
1 B. Blumenkranz, Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der judisch-christlichen
Beziehungen in den ersten Jahrhunderten (Basel 1946) 208. Blumen-
kranz rejects M. Zarb's chronology (cf. 'Chronologia operum sancti
Augustini,' Angelicum 11 [1934] 87).
2 Cf. Retractationes, prol. I.
3 E. Portalie", 'Saint Augustin/ DTC I 2 (Paris 1909) 2291-2292.
4 M. Schanz, Geschichte der romischen Litteratur IV 2 (Munich 1920)
417.
5 O. Bardenhewer, Geschichte der altkirchlichen Literatur IV (Freiburg
1924) 460.
387
388 SAINT AUGUSTINE
suggestion in Schanz, 6 moreover, Blumenkranz demonstrates
conclusively that the Tractatus bears all the characteristics
of the sermon in form, style, and diction. 7
The fifty-sixth quaestio of the De diversis quaestionibus?
Epistle 196 to Asellicus, 9 and probably Sermon 9 1, 10 St.
Augustine likewise directs against the Jews. His commentaries
on them throughout his writings on their blindness, their
rejection of Christ and consequent reprobation, the loss of
their heritage to the Christians is in accordance with the
traditional attitude of earlier Christian writers. St. Augustine's
original contribution to Jewish- Christian relations, however,
is his interpretation of the Jewish dispersion as the Church's
witness among all nations, of the Messianic mission of
Christ. Since this same idea of bearing witness occurs in
the De civitate Dei (18.46) where St. Augustine gives it
exhaustive treatment, and since the Tractatus presumes the
understanding of this whole chain of ideas and at the same
time exhibits the habit of the preacher to use the same idea
repeatedly, Blumenkranz sets the terminus post quern of
Adversus Judaeos at 425 if this be the accepted date for
De civitate Dei. 11
6 Op. cit. 419.
7 Blumenkranz, op. cit. 200-202.
8 Cf. Possidius, Librorum, tractatum, et epistolarum Sancti Augustini
indiculus 2 (PL 46) . A. Wilmart, in 'Operum S. Augustini Elenchus/
Miscellanea Agostiniana II (Rome 1931) 149-233, presents some
strong conjectures that Possidius based his Indiculum on St. Augustine's
catalogue of his own writings.
9 Possidius, loc. cit.: Epistola ad Asellicam episcopum 4 de cavendo
Judaismo.' Cf. CSEL 57 (1911), ed. Gpldbacher.
10 Cf. PL 38.565-571: 'De verbis Evangelii Matthaei ubi Dominus in-
terrogavit Judaeos, cujus filium dicerent esse Christum.' Cf., also,
Possidius, he. cit.: 'adversos quos supra dictos contra Judaeos tractatus
duo.' Schanz (op. cit. 419) minks that Sermon 91 may be the other
of the two sermons noted by Possidius.
11 Blumenkranz, op. cit. 207-209,211. Pope gives 426 as the date for the
completion of De civ. Dei. Cf. H. Pope, O.P., Saint Augustine of Hippo
(Westminster, Maryland 1949) 377.
IN ANSWER TO THE JEWS 389
It was natural for St. Augustine to refer to the Jews in
his writings and sermons wherever and whenever occasion
demanded. He could scarcely avoid reference to them in
his Scriptural commentaries and reflections any more than he
could overlook their presence in society. It was natural,
moreover, to be alert to the not insignificant problem they
created in his province. The Jews formed no small part of
the population of Hippo and Carthage and, though many
were true to their religious beliefs and customs, others, with
their careless morals and contentious ways, presented a serious
difficulty to the zealous bishop in his solicitude for the
members of his Christian flock who were only too ready to
revert to the practices and customs of their pagan and
Jewish ancestry. 12
The persuasive firmness and kindness of the bishop, so
evident in this sermon, might almost be construed as an
invitation to the Jews to come into the Church. 13 Still, the
Adversus Judaeos apparently contributed more to the struggle
against Jewish influence on the Church and served as a
warning to his own Catholics and catechumens to shun the
society of a people so baneful in its influence upon their
morals and faith. 14 It is with this fact in mind that the
translation of the title In Answer to the Jews emphasizes
that argumentative aspect of adversus which would equip
the Christians with ready answers to the taunts, criticisms,
and even enticements of their unbelieving fellow townsmen.
The following translation of Adversus Judaeos is based on
the Benedictine text of St. Maur in PL 42 (Paris 1886) 51-67.
12 Blumenkranz, op. cit. 68; cf. also Pope, op. cit. 6-8.
13 Cf. below, 10.15.
14 Blumenkranz, op. cit. 203-204, 211.
IN ANSWER TO THE JEWS
Chapter 1
[HE BLESSED APOSTLE Paul, the teacher of the Gen-
tiles in faith and truth, admonishes us with precepts
when he exhorts us to remain firmly fixed in the
same faith of which he was made the fitting minister; he
instils fear in us by example when he says: 'See then, the
goodness and the severity of God: his severity towards those
who have fallen, but the goodness of God towards thee if
thou abidest in his goodness. 51 Assuredly he said this about
the Jews who, as branches of that olive tree which was
fruitful in its root of the holy patriarchs, have been broken
off on account of their unbelief, so that, because of the
faith of the Gentiles, the wild olive was grafted on and
shared in the richness of the true olive tree after the natural
branches had been cut off. He warns, however: c do not
boast against the branches. But if thou dost boast, still it is
not thou that supportest the stem, but the stem thee. 32 And
since some of the Jews are saved, he immediately adds:
1 Rom. 11.22
2 Rom. 11.17,18.
391
392 SAINT AUGUSTINE
'otherwise thou also wilt be cut off. And they also, if they do
not continue in unbelief, will be grafted in; for God is
able to graft them back.' 3 They, however, who persist in
their unbelief are judged by the Lord, who says: 'but the
children of the kingdom will go into the darkness outside:
there will be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth. 34 Of
the Gentiles, on the contrary, who persevere in goodness,
He says in addition: 'many will come from the east and
from the west, and will feast with Abraham and Isaac and
Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. 55 By the just severity of
God, therefore, the unbelieving pride of the native branches
is broken away from the living patriarchal root, and, by
the grace of divine goodness, the faithful humility of the
wild olive is ingrafted.
(2) When these Scriptural words are quoted to the
Jews, they scorn the Gospel and the Apostle; they do not
listen to what we say because they do not understand what
they read. Certainly, if they understood what the Prophet,
whom they read, is foretelling: 'I have given thee to be
the light of the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation
even to the farthest part of the earth 56 they would not be
so blind and so sick as not to recognize in Jesus Christ both
light and salvation. Likewise, if they understood to whom the
prophecy refers which they sing so fruitlessly and without
meaning: 'Their sound hath gone forth into all the earth:
and their words unto the ends of the world/ 7 they would
awaken to the voice of the Apostles, and would sense that
their words are divine. Consequently, testimonies are to be
selected from sacred Scripture, which has great authority
3 Rom. 11.22,23.
4 Cf. Matt. 8.12.
5 Matt. 8.11.
6 Isa. 49.6,
7 Ps. 18.5.
IN ANSWER TO THE JEWS 393
among the Jews, and if they do not want to be cured by
means of this advantage offered them, they can at least be
convicted by its evident truth.
Chapter 2
(3) First of all, however, this error of theirs must be
refuted, that the Books of the Old Testament do not concern
us at all, because we observe the new sacraments and no
longer preserve the old. For they say to us: 'What is the
reading of the Law and the Prophets doing among you
who do not want to follow the precepts contained in them?*
They base their complaint on the fact that we do not cir-
cumcise the foreskin of the male, and we eat the flesh of
animals which the Law declares unclean, and we do not
observe the Sabbath, new moons and their festival days in a
purely human way, nor do we offer sacrifice to God with
victims of cattle, nor do we celebrate the Pasch as they do
with sheep and unleavened bread, nor do we revere the
other ancient sacraments which the Apostle classifies under
the general expression of shadows of things to come, 1 since
at their time they signified events to be revealed which we
have accepted and recognized as already revealed, so that
with the shadows removed we are enjoying their uncovered
light. It would take too long, however, to dispute these
charges one by one; how we are circumcised by putting off
the old man and not in despoiling our natural body; how
their abstinence from certain foods of animals corresponds
to our mortification in habits and morals; how we present
our bodies a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God
before whom we intelligently pour forth our souls in holy
desires, instead of in blood; how we are cleansed from all
1 Cf. Col. 2.17.
394 SAINT AUGUSTINE
iniquity by the Blood of Christ as the Immaculate Lamb.
Christ is even prefigured in the old sacrifices by the goat
because He took the likeness of our flesh of sin; nor does
one who recognizes Christ as the greatest victim refuse to
see Him, in the horns of the cross, prefigured in the bull.
When we find rest in Him we truly observe the Sabbath,
and the observance of the new moon is the sanctification of
our new life. Christ is our Pasch; our unleavened bread is
sincerity of truth without the leaven of decay. If there are
any other events over which there is no need for delay at
this time, events which have been represented by those ancient
signs, they have come to an end in Him whose kingdom
will be without end. It was necessary, indeed, that all things
be fulfilled in Him, who came to fulfill, not to destroy, the
Law or the Prophets. 2
Chapter 3
(4) Christ, then, did not change the ancient signs of
events to come by censuring them; He changed them by
their fulfillment. As there were signs which announced that
Christ had already come, so there were signs foretelling that
He would come. What else is intended to be meant when
certain psalms, which the Jews themselves read and esteem
with the authority of scared writings, are so designated that
they have written in their titles Tor those things that shall
be changed.' 1 The text of these same psalms actually foretells
Christ. They were" so designated because they foretold the
change that Christ would make just as we know that
through Christ the change has been fulfilled, so that the
people of God, now the Christians, no longer have to keep
2 Cf. Matt. 5.17.
1 Cf. Ps, 44.1.
IN ANSWER TO THE JEWS 395
the observances of the days of the Prophets; not because the
observances have been condemned, but because they have
been changed; not that the realities, that were themselves
signified, might be lost, but that the signs of the events
might befit their times.
Chapter 4
(5) Accordingly, in Psalm 44 (for that is the first of the
psalms bearing the title, Tor those things that shall be
changed' where one also reads: 'A canticle for the Be-
loved'), Christ is quite evidently manifested: 'Thou art
beautiful above the sons of men'; 1 'Who though he was by
nature God, did not consider being equal to God a thing
to be clung to.' 2 In this psalm it is said to Him: { Gird thy
sword upon thy thigh,' 3 because He was about to speak to
men in His human flesh. By the figure 'sword,' speech, of
course, is signified; by thigh, the body, for He 'emptied
himself, taking the nature of a slave,' 4 that He who through
His divinity was 'beautiful above the sons of men' through
infirmity might become what another Prophet said of Him:
'and we have seen him, and there is no beauty in him,
nor comeliness; but His countenance is downcast, and He is
acquainted with the infirmity.' 5 The same Psalm 44 shows
very plainly that Christ is not only man but also God, for it
continues: 'Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: the
sceptre of thy kingdom is a sceptre of uprightness, Thou
hast loved justice, and hated iniquity: therefore God, thy
God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy
fellows/ 6 Christ is named, in fact, from the word 'anointing,'
1 PS. 44.3.
2 Phil. 2.6.
3 Ps. 44.4.
4 Phil. 2.7.
5 Cf. Isa. 53.2,3.
6 Ps. 44.7-8.
396 SAINT AUGUSTINE
which in Greek is chrisma. He Himself is God anointed by
God, who changed this corporeal into a spiritual anointing,
along with the rest of the sacraments. This psalm speaks to
Him also of the Church: 'The queen stood on thy right
hand, in gilded clothing; surrounded with variety.' 7 Here
is signified the variety of languages of all the people within
the Church, in whom, nevertheless, there is one simple faith,
for C A11 the beauty of the king's daughter is within.' The
psalm then addresses the Church: 'Hearken, daughter
and see 5 ; hear the promise, see it fulfilled; and 'forget thy
people and thy father's house.' Thus the new is fulfilled;
thus the old is changed. 'And the king shall greatly desire
thy beauty/ The beauty, which He Himself made through
Himself, He did not find in you. How could you be beautiful
in His eyes when you were disfigured with your sins? So
that you will not think, however, that your hope must be
placed in men, the Prophet goes on to say: 'for he is the
Lord thy God.' 8 That you might not despise the nature of a
slave, that you might not scorn the infirmity of the Mighty
One and the lowliness of the Lofty One, he says: 'He is thy
God.' In what appears small, the Mighty One hides; in
the shadow of death hides the Sun of Justice; in the reproach
of the Cross, the Lord of Glory. No matter that persecutors
put Him to death, or unbelievers deny Him, 'He is the Lord
thy God.' Through His Body are changed the things that
before were prefigured through shadows.
7 Ps. 44.10,14,15.
8 Cf. Ps. 44.14,11,12.
IN ANSWER TO THE JEWS 397
Chapter 5
(6) Psalm 68 also includes in its title the words: Tor
the things that shall be entirely changed/ 1 This psalm sings
of the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, assuming to Himself
even certain words of His members, that is, of His faithful.
For He Himself did not have any sin, but carried our sins;
whence the psalm says: 'and my offences are not hidden
from thee. 52 Here is written and foretold what we read in
the Gospel as having happened: 'And they gave me gall
for my food, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to
drink.' 3 In Him, therefore, the old events have been changed
which the title of the psalm predicted were to be changed.
The Jews, reading the psalm and not understanding it, think
that they are saying something when they ask us how we
accept the authority of the Law and the Prophets since we
do not observe the rites which there are prescribed. We do
not observe them because they have been changed; those
rites have been changed, moreover, which were foretold would
be changed. We believe in Him by whose revelation they have
been changed; hence, we do not observe the rites prescribed
there because we understand what is being prophesied, but
we hold fast to the promises made there. Moreover, they
who make these charges against us have inherited the
bitterness of their parents, who gave the Lord gall for His
food; are still emulating the ancients who offered Him
vinegar to drink. That is the reason why they do not under-
stand that in the gall and vinegar the following anathema is
fulfilled, 'Let their table become as a snare before them, and
a recompense, and a stumblingblock.' They themselves have
become full of gall and bitterness in serving food of gall and
1 Cf. PS. 68.1.
2 Ps. 68.6.
3 Cf. Matt. 27.34,48; Mark 15.23; John 19.29.
398 SAINT AUGUSTINE
vinegar to the Living Bread. How else do they look upon these
prophecies in the psalm: 'Let their eyes be darkened that they
see not/ and how are they to be upright in order to lift up
their heart, they about whom it has been foretold, 'and their
back bend thou down always 5 ? 4 These prophecies have not
been made, however, about all the Jews; only about those
to whom the predictions apply. These indictments do not
concern those who believed in Christ at that time because
of these very prophecies, nor those who have believed in
Christ up to the present or who, henceforth, up to the end
of the world, will believe in Christ, that is, the true Israel who
will see the Lord face to face. Tor they are not all Israelites
who are sprung from Israel; nor because they are the
descendants of Abraham, are they all his children; but:
Through Isaac shall thy posterity bear thy name. This is to
say, they are not the sons of God who are the children of
the flesh, but it is the children of promise who are reckoned
as a posterity.' 5 They belong to the spiritual Sion and the
cities of Juda, that is, to the churches about whom the
Apostle says, 'And I was unknown by sight to the Churches
of Juda, which were in Christ/ 6 since a little later in the
same psalm appears, Tor God will save Sion, and the cities
of Juda shall be built up. And they shall dwell there, and
acquire it by inheritance. And the seed of his servants shall
possess it; and they that love his name shall dwell therein/ 7
When the Jews hear these words they take them in their
natural meaning and imagine an earthly Jerusalem which
is in slavery with her children, not our eternal mother who is
in heaven. 8
4 Cf. Ps. 68.22-24.
5 Rom. 9.6-8.
6 Gal. 1.22.
7 Ps. 68.36,37.
8 Cf. Gal. 4.25,26
IN ANSWER TO THE JEWS 399
Chapter 6
(7) Psalm 79 is likewise entitled: Tor the things that
shall be changed. 51 In this psalm among other things is
written: 'look down from heaven, and see, and visit this
vineyard: And perfect what thy right hand hath planted:
and upon the son of man whom thou hast confirmed for
thyself.' 2 This is the vineyard of which is said: 'Thou hast
brought a vineyard out of Egypt.' 3 Christ did not plant
another; by His coming He changed that one into a better
vineyard. Accordingly, we find in the Gospel : 'He will utterly
destroy those evil men, and will let out the vineyard to
other vine-dressers.' 4 The Gospel does not say: 'He will
uproot, and will plant another,' but, 'this same vineyard
He will let out to other vine-dressers.' The City of God and
congregation of the children of promise must be filled with
the same community of saints by the death and succession
of mortal men, and at the end of the world will receive its
due immortality in all men. This same thought is expressed
differently by means of the fruitful olive tree in another
psalm, which says: 'But I, as a fruitful olive tree in the
house of God, have hoped in the mercy of God for ever, yea,
for ever and ever.' 5 It was not because the unbelievers and
the proud had been broken away and the branches were
on that account unfruitful and the wild olive of the Gentiles
was ingrafted that the root of the patriarchs and Prophets
died. 'For if thy people, O Israel,' says Isaias, 'shall be as
the sand of the sea, a remnant of them shall be saved,' 6 but
through Him about whom the psalm says: 'and upon the
son of man whom thou hast confirmed for thyself, 5 and
1 Cf. PS. 79.1.
2 Ps, 79.15,16.
3 Ps. 79.9.
4 Matt. 21.41.
5 Ps. 51.10.
6 Cf. Isa. 10.22.
400 SAINT AUGUSTINE
about whom is reiterated, 'Let thy hand be upon the man
of thy right hand: and upon the son of man whom thou
hast confirmed for thyself. And we depart from thee.' 7
Through this Son of Man, Christ Jesus, and from His
remnant, that is, the Apostles and the many others who
from among the Israelites have believed in Christ as God,
and with the increasing plenitude of the Gentiles, the holy
vineyard is being completed. Thus, in the passing of the
old rites and in the institution of the new, the title of the
psalm, Tor the things that shall be changed,' is fulfilled.
(8) Consequently, it is necessary to review with the Jews
the more evident testimonies. Whether they consent to them
or dissent, they cannot escape being sensible to them : 'Behold
the days shall come, saith the Lord, and I will make a new
covenant with the house of Jacob: not according to the
covenant which I made with their fathers, in the day that I
took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of
Egypt.' 8 This change, certainly having been foretold, is not
indicated through the titles of psalms for the understanding
few; it is expressed in the unmistaken proclamation of the
Prophet. Clearly, a new covenant is promised, not according
to that covenant which was made with the people when
they were led out of Egypt. Since, then, there are in the
Old Testament precepts which we who belong to the New
Testament are not compelled to observe, why do not the
Jews realize that they have remained stationary in useless
antiquity rather than hurl charges against us who hold fast
to the new promises, because we do not observe the old? Just
as it is written in the Canticle of Canticles: The day has
broken, let the shadows retire,' 9 the spiritual meaning has
already dawned, the natural action has already ceased. The
7 Ps. 79.16,18,19.
8 Jer. 31.31,32
9 Cf. Cant. 2-17.
IN ANSWER TO THE JEWS 40 1
God of gods, the Lord hath spoken: and he hath called the
earth from the rising of the sun to the going down thereof 5 ; 10
certainly the whole world is called to the new covenant which
another psalm also makes known: 'Sing ye to the Lord a
new canticle: sing to the Lord, all the earth.' 11 Not, then,
as the God of gods formerly spoke from Mount Sinai to
one people, whom He called from Egypt, but He has spoken
in this manner in order to summon the earth from the
rising of the sun to its setting. If the Jew were willing to
understand the speech he would hear this call, and would
be among those whom the same psalm addresses: 'Hear,
my people, and I will speak to thee: O Israel, and I
will testify to thee: I am God, thy God. I will not reprove
thee for thy sacrifices: and thy burnt offerings are always
in my sight. I will not take calves out of thy house : nor the
goats out of thy flocks. For all the beasts of the woods are
mine: the cattle on the hills, and the oxen. I know all the
fowls of the air: and with me is the beauty of the field. If
1 should be hungry, I would not tell thee: for the world is
mine and the fulness thereof. Shall I eat the flesh of bullocks?
or shall I drink the blood of goats? Offer to God the
sacrifice of praise: and pay thy vows to the most High.
And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee,
and thou shalt glorify me.' 12 Assuredly, here, too, the change
of the ancient sacrifices is manifest. God foretold that the
time would come when He would no longer accept the old
sacrifices; He revealed to His worshipers a sacrifice of praise.
He did not make this revelation because He was seeking
after praise from us as if He needed it, but that in our
praise He was looking to our salvation. The closing of the
psalm makes His purpose quite evident: The sacrifice of
10 Ps. 49.1.
11 Ps. 95.1.
12 Ps. 49.7-15.
402 SAINT AUGUSTINE
praise shall glorify me: and there is the way by which I will
show him the salvation of God.' 13 What in truth is the
salvation of God, if not the Son of God, the Saviour of
the world; the Son as day from the Father as day, that is,
Light from Light, whose arrival the New Testament has
revealed? So, too, where it is said: 'Sing ye to the Lord a
new canticle: sing to the Lord, all the earth. Sing ye to the
Lord and bless His name,' 14 He Himself is at once shown to
be worthy to be proclaimed, and it is added : 'shew forth his
salvation from day to day. 315 He Himself as priest and
victim has fulfilled the sacrifice of praise, granting pardon
for evil works and lavishly bestowing the grace to perform
good works. The sacrifice of praise is offered to the Lord
by His worshipers for this end: 'Let him who takes pride,
take pride in the Lord.' 16
Chapter 7
(9) When the Jews hear the following words from the
psalm, they answer with their heads held high: 'We are
they; the psalm is about us; it is said to us. We are Israel,
the people of God; we recognize ourselves in the words of
the speaker: "Hear, O my people, and I will speak to thee:
O Israel, and I will testify to thee." 31 What shall we say
to these things? We know, of course, the spiritual Israel
about which the Apostle says: 'And whoever follow this
rule, peace and mercy upon them, even upon the Israel of
God.' 2 The Israel, however, about which the Apostle says:
13 Ps. 49J23.
14 Ps. 95.1,2.
15 Ps. 95.2.
16 1 Cor. 1.31.
1 Cf. Ps. 49.7.
2 GaL 6.16.
IN ANSWER TO THE JEWS 403
'Behold Israel according to the flesh/ 3 we know to be the
natural Israel; but the Jews do not grasp this meaning and
as a result they prove themselves indisputably natural. It
may be well to address them for just a little while as if
they were present: And so you belong to that people whom
'the God of gods hath called from the rising of the sun to
the going down thereof'? 4 Were you not brought from
Egypt to the land of Canaan? Not thither were you called
from the rising of the sun to its setting, but from there you
were dispersed to the rising of the sun and to its setting.
Do you not rather belong to His enemies referred to in the
psalm; 'My God shall let me see over my enemies: slay
them not, lest at any time they forget thy law. Scatter them
by the power'? 5 That is the reason why, not unmindful of
the Law of God, but bearing that same Law about for a
covenant to the Gentiles and a reproach to yourselves, you
unknowingly are ministering the Law to a people that has
been called from the rising to the setting of the sun. Or
will you really deny it? Then, too, those events foretold
with such great authority, fulfilled with such manifestation
do you either with great blindness fail to consider them, or
with remarkable impudence refuse to acknowledge them?
What reply, then, are you going to make to what the
Prophet Isaias proclaims : 'And in the last days the mountain
of the house of the Lord shall be prepared on the top of
mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills, and all
the nations shall come to it, and shall say: Come and let
us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of
the God Jacob, and he will teach us the way of salvation,
and we will walk in it: for the law shall come forth from
Sion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.' 6 Or here,
3 1 Cor. 10.18.
4 Cf. Ps. 49.1.
5 Cf. Ps. 58.12.
6 Cf. Isa. 2.2,3.
404 SAINT AUGUSTINE
too, are you going to say: 'We are they, 1 since you heard
the house of Jacob and Sion and Jerusalem? As if we were
denying that Christ the Lord according to the flesh is from
the seed of Jacob, Christ who is represented by the mountain
lifted high above the tops of the mountains because by His
height He transcends all heights; or are we to deny that
the Apostles and those Churches of Judaea, which after the
Resurrection of Christ continued to believe in Him, belong
to the house of Jacob; or is another people to be understood
as the spiritual Jacob other than the Christian people them-
selves, who, although younger than the people of Judaea,
have surpassed them in increases and have replaced them,
that the Scripture might be fulfilled in the figure of the
two brothers, 'and the elder shall serve the younger'? 7 Sion,
however, and Jerusalem, although spiritually understood as
the Church, are nevertheless a fitting witness against the
Jews, because from that place where they crucified Christ
the Law and the Word of God has proceeded to the
Gentiles. The Law, in fact, which was given them through
Moses, on account of which they are quite proudly exalted
and by virtue of which they are far better convicted, is
understood to have come forth from Mount Sinai, not from
Sion and Jerusalem. After forty years, to be sure, they arrived
with the Law itself at the land of promise where Sion is,
which is called Jerusalem. They did not, however, receive it
there or from there. The Gospel of Christ and the Law of
faith certainly did proceed from there, just as the Lord
Himself said after His Resurrection when speaking to His
disciples and showing them that the prophecies of the divine
Scriptures had been fulfilled in Himself: Thus it is written;
and thus the Christ should suffer, and should rise again
from the dead on the third day; and that repentance and
remission of sins should be preached in his name to all the
7 Gen. 25.23.
IN ANSWER TO THE JEWS 405
nations, beginning from Jerusalem.' 8 See what Isaias proph-
esied: 'for the law shall come forth from Sion, and the
word of the Lord from Jerusalem. 59 There according to the
promise of the Lord, the Holy Spirit came down and filled
those who were assembled in the one house and prompted
them to speak in the native languages of all 'the people'
gathered together. 10 From there they went out and preached
the Gospel to the understanding of all nations. Just as the
Law which proceeded from Mount Sinai had been written
by the Finger of God, signifying the Holy Spirit, fifty days
after the celebration of the Pasch, in the same way, this
Law which proceeded from Sion and Jerusalem is written
on the tablets of the heart of the holy Evangelists by the
Holy Spirit not on tablets of stone on the fiftieth day
after the true Pasch of the Passion and Resurrection of the
Lord Christ, on the day on which the Holy Spirit who had
been promised before had been sent.
(10) Go now, O Israelites by nature, not by spirit; go
now and even contradict this very apparent truth. When
you hear: 'Come and let us go up to the mountain of the
Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob' 11 say: 'We are
of the house of Jacob,' so that like blind men you may dash
against the mountain, and with your face badly bruised you
smash your head the worse. If you sincerely want to say:
'We are they' [the house of Jacob], say it when you hear:
'for the wickedness of my people was he led to death.' 12
This is said about Christ whom you, in your parents, led to
death; just like a sheep was led to sacrifice, that the Pasch
which unknowingly you celebrate, unknowingly you fulfill
in your madness. If you truly want to say: 'We are the
8 Luke 24.46,47.
9 Isa. 2.3.
10 Cf. Acts 2.1-6.
11 Isa. 2.3.
12 Isa. 53.8.
406 SAINT AUGUSTINE
house of Jacob/ then say it when you hear: 'Blind the
heart of this people, and make their ears heavy, and shut
their eyes/ 13 Then say: 'We are they/ when you hear: 'I
have spread forth my hands all the day to an unbelieving
and contradicting people.' 14 Say: 'We are they, 5 when you
hear: 'Let their eyes be darkened that they see not; and
their back bend thou down always/ 15 In these and other
prophetic words of this kind say: 'We are they/ Without any
doubt you are, but you are so blind that you say you are
what you are not, and do not recognize yourselves for what
you really are.
Chapter 8
(11) Listen carefully for just a minute to what I am
going to say in reference to these even more obvious testi-
monies. Most certainly, when you hear: c in good Israel,' you
say: 'We are Israel/ and when you hear: s in good Jacob/
you say: 'We are Jacob/ And when you are asked why,
you reply: 'Because Jacob himself is also Israel, and we are
descendants of the patriarch; hence, we are distinguished
by the merited name of our father/ We are not, therefore,
rousing you from a deep and heavy sleep to spiritual matters
which you do not grasp. Nor are we now attempting to
show you, blind and deaf as you are in your spiritual senses,
how these words are to be accepted spiritually. Surely, just
as you admitted and as a perusal of the Book of Genesis
manifestly affirms, Jacob and Israel are one and the same; 1
that is the reason why you boast that the house of Jacob is
13 Isa. 6.10.
14 Isa. 65.2.
15 Ps. 68.24.
1 Cf. Gen. 32.28.
IN ANSWER TO THE JEWS 407
the house of Israel. What did the Prophet Isaias mean,
however, when he announced that a mountain would be
prepared on the summits of the mountains, to which all
peoples were going to come? The Law and the Word of
God was going to proceed from Sion and Jerusalem to all
nations, not from Mount Sinai to one nation. This we see
most evidently fulfilled in Christ and the Christians. A little
later, the Prophet says: C O house of Jacob, come ye, and
let us walk in the light of the Lord.' 2 Here, surely, you
will speak your usual piece: 'We are the house of Jacob';
but listen a moment to what follows, and when you have
said what you want to say, hear what you do not want to
hear. The Prophet continues : Tor he has cast off his people,
the house of Israel.' 3 Here say: 'We are the house of Israel';
here acknowledge yourselves and forgive us for reminding
you of these facts. If you hear them willingly, they are
said for your encouragement; if, however, you hear them
indignantly, then they are said for a reproach. Yet, they
must be said, whether you are willing or unwilling. Behold,
not I, but the Prophet whom you read through whom you
cannot deny God has spoken, to whom you cannot deny
the authority of the sacred Scriptures at the Lord's com-
mand vehemently cries out and lifts up his voice like a
trumpet 4 and, rebuking you, says: 'O house of Jacob, come
ye, and let us walk in the light of the Lord.' You, in the
person of your parents, have killed Christ. For a long time
you have not believed in Him and you have opposed Him,
but you are not yet lost, because you are still alive; you have
time now for repentance; only come now. You should have
come long ago, of course, but come now; your days are
not yet ended; the last day is still to come. Or, if you
2 Isa. 2.5.
3 Cf. Isa. 2.6.
4 Cf. Isa. 58.1.
408 SAINT AUGUSTINE
believe that as the house of Jacob you have followed the
Prophet, that now you are walking in the light of the
Lord, declare yourselves the house of Israel which He has
cast off. We have shown both, those whom with His divine
call He has separated from that house, and those whom He
cast off because they did not heed the call. Not only did
He call the Apostles from that house, but even after the
Resurrection He called a great many peoples. That is why,
as we mentioned earlier, He cast off those whom you
imitate by your unbelief, and by imitating them you are
lingering in the same danger of destruction. If, on the
contrary, you are they whom He called from there, where
are those whom He cast off? For you cannot say that He
cast off any other nation, when the Prophet cries out: Tor
he has cast off his people, the house of Israel. 5 See what you
are, not what you boast to be. Moreover, He also cast off
that vineyard from which He expected a yield of grapes
and received thorns instead, and as a result commanded
His clouds not to rain down upon it. Furthermore, He
called them away from there to whom He says: 'Judge
between me and my vineyard;' 5 about whom the Lord also
says: 'And if I cast out devils by Beelzebub, by whom do
your children cast them out? Therefore they shall be your
judges 5 ; 6 to whom He makes this promise: 'you shall also
sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. 57
That is where the house of Jacob, which has been called and
has walked in the light of the Lord, will sit to judge the
house of Israel, that is, the people of that house whom He
has cast off. How is it that, according to the same Prophet:
'The stone which the builders rejected: the same is become
the head of the corner,' 8 unless because circumcised and
5 Isa. 5.3.
6 Matt. 12.27.
7 Matt. 19.28.
8 Ps. 117.22; cf. Isa. 28.16.
IN ANSWER TO THE JEWS
409
uncircumcised meet and unite in the keystone, like the
union of two adjacent walls, as it were, in the kiss of peace.
That is the reason that the Apostle says: Tor he himself
is our peace, he it is who has made both one.' 9 They who
have followed His call whether from the house of Jacob
or from the house of Israel are cleaving to the corner-stone
and walking in the light of the Lord; they, however, whom
He cast off from the house of Jacob or Israel are themselves
builders of destruction and rejecters of the corner-stone.
Chapter 9
(12) Lastly, O Jews, if you try to distort these prophetic
words into another meaning according to the dictates of your
heart, you resist the Son of God against your own salvation.
If you, I say, choose to understand by these testimonies that
the house of Jacob or Israel is the same people, both called
and cast off not called in respect to some and cast off in
respect to others, but the entire house called to walk in the
light of the Lord, inasmuch as the reason why the house
had been cast off was because its people were not walking in
the light of the Lord; or some of the house certainly were
called and others cast off in such a way that without any
separation having been of the Lord's table as regards the
sacrifice of Christ; both called and cast off were under the
same old sacraments, to be sure, both those who walked in
the light of the Lord and observed His precepts and those
who rejected justice and deserved to be abandoned by it if
you choose to interpret these testimonies in this manner,
what are you going to say and how will you interpret another
Prophet who cuts this reply away entirely, shouting with
unmistakable manifestation: C I have no pleasure in you saith
9 Eph. 2.14.
410 SAINT AUGUSTINE
the Lord Almighty: and I will not receive a gift of your
hand. For from the rising of the sun even to the going down,
iny name is great among the Gentiles, and in every place
sacrifice is offered to my name, a clean oblation: for my
name is great among the Gentiles, saith the Lord Almighty.' 1
Finally, with what words do you cry out against such
evidence? Why do you continue to exalt yourselves so
impudently beyond measure that you perish all the more
miserably and with graver destruction? C I have no pleasure
in you/ He says; not anyone, but 'the Lord Almighty.' Why
do you glory so much in the seed of Abraham, you who,
whenever you hear Jacob or Israel, or the house of Jacob
or the house of Israel, whenever any praise is uttered, assert
so energetically that such praise can refer only to you? The
Lord Almighty says: fi l have no pleasure in you, and I will
not receive a gift of your hand.' Certainly, you cannot deny
that here the Lord not only refuses to receive a gift from
your hands, but you do not offer Him a gift with your hands.
Only one place has been established by the Law of the
Lord where He commanded you to offer a gift with your
hands; He absolutely forbade any other place. Since, there-
fore, you have lost this place through your own fault, you
dare not offer in any other place the sacrifice which He
permitted you to offer there. Behold fulfilled to the letter what
the Prophet says: 'And I will not receive a gift of your hand.'
If in the earthly Jerusalem you still had a temple and altar,
you could say that the prophecy has been fulfilled in the
pagans among you whose sacrifices the Lord does not receive;
of others from among you and in you, however, who keep
the commandments of God He does accept gifts. It can be
said, therefore, that according to the Law that has come
from Mount Sinai there is not one of you who is able to
offer sacrifice with his hands. Nor was the prophecy and its
1 Mai. 1.10,11.
IN ANSWER TO THE JEWS 411
fulfillment such that the prophetic judgment permits you to
answer: 'We do not offer flesh with our hands, but with
our hearts and lips we offer praise as the psalm: "Offer to
God the sacrifice of praise." ' 2 Even here He opposes you
who says: C I have no pleasure in you. 5
(13) In the next place, do not suppose that because
you do not offer sacrifice and God does not accept it from
your hands, a sacrifice is not being offered to God, which
He certainly does not need who needs the goods of no one
of us. Nevertheless, since He is not without sacrifice which is
for our benefit, not His, He adds: Tor from the rising of
the sun even to the going down, my name is great among
the Gentiles, and in every place sacrifice is offered to my
name, a clean oblation: for my name is great among the
Gentiles, saith the Lord Almighty.' What do you say to that?
Open your eyes at last, at any time, and see, from the rising
of the sun even to its setting not in one place as established
with you, but everywhere the sacrifice of the Christians is
being offered ; not to any god at all, but to Him who foretold
these events, to the God of Israel. For this reason, in another
place, He says to His Church: 'And he who delivered you,
the very God of Israel shall be called the God of all the
earth. 53 Search the Scriptures through which you believe that
you have eternal life. 4 Actually, you would have it, if you
recognized Christ in the Scripture and cleaved to Him. Search
the sacred writings carefully; the same writings bear witness
to the world about this sacrifice which is being offered to
the God of Israel, not by your nation alone from whose hands
He foretold He would not take the gift; it is being offered by
all nations who say, 'Come and let us go up to the mountain
of the Lord'; 5 not in one place, in the earthly Jerusalem, as
2 Ps. 49.14.
3 Cf. Isa. 54.5.
4 Cf. John 5.39.
5 Isa. 2.3.
412 SAINT AUGUSTINE
you were bidden; everywhere, even in Jerusalem itself, accord-
ing to the order of Melchisedech, not according to the order
of Aaron. It was said to Christ and about Christ long before
it was prophesied: 'The Lord hath sworn, and he will not
repent: Thou art a priest forever according to the order of
Melchisedech.' 6 What does The Lord hath sworn' mean
except that He confirmed with unshaken truth what He
said? What is the meaning of 'he will not repent' if not
that absolutely for no reason whatsoever will He change
this priesthood? God does not repent as man does. We speak
of repentance in God despite the idea of anything changing
which was instituted by God and thought to be lasting. In
the same sense He says : 'The Lord hath sworn, and he will
not repent; thou art a priest forever according to the order
of Melchisedech.' He shows clearly enough that He had
repented, that is, He had willed to change the priesthood
which He had established according to the order of Aaron.
We see the fulfillment of both: of Aaron, there is no longer
any priesthood in any temple; of Christ, the priesthood
continues everlastingly in heaven.
(14) To this light of the Lord the Prophet calls you
when he says: 'O house of Jacob, come ye and let us walk
in the light of the Lord. 57 You 'house of Jacob' whom He has
called and elected, not 'you' whom He has cast off, Tor
he has cast off his people, the house of Israel.' 8 Who-
ever of you from the house of Jacob choose to come,
you will belong to that house which He has called; you will
be free from that house which He has cast off. The light of
the Lord in which the Gentiles walk, that is the light about
which the same Prophet speaks: T have given thee to be
the light of the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation
6 Ps. 109.4.
7 Isa. 2.5.
8 Isa. 2.6.
IN ANSWER TO THE JEWS 413
even to the farthest part of the earth.' 9 To whom, if not to
Christ, is this said? In whom is it fulfilled if not in Christ?
This light is not in you of whom it has been said over and
over again: c God has given them a spirit of stupor; eyes
that they may not see, and ears that they may not hear,
until this present day.' 10 Not in you, I say, is this light, for
with plenty of blindness you rejected the stone which was
made the corner-stone. 'Come ye to him and be enlightened.' 11
What is 'Come' if not believe? Where may you go in order
to come to Him, since He is the stone of which Daniel the
Prophet speaks, that stone which grew into such a mighty
mountain that it filled the whole earth? 12 The Gentiles who
also say: 'Come and let us go up to the mountain of the
Lord' do not seek to go and reach a fixed place anywhere in
the world. Wherever they are, that is where they ascend,
because sacrifice is offered in every place according to the
order of Melchisedech. Similarly, another Prophet says:
'God shall consume all the gods of the Gentiles of the earth:
and they shall adore him every man from his own place.' 14
Therefore, when you hear: 'Come to him,' you do not hear:
Prepare ships or pack animals, and load yourselves with your
victims, and go a great distance to the place where God will
receive your sacrifice of devotion, but: Come to Him who is
being preached in your ears, come to Him who is being
glorified before your eyes. You will not be worn out with
walking, for you come to Him there where you believe in Him.
9 Isa. 49.6.
10 Cf. Rom, 11.8.
11 Ps. 33. 6.
12 Cf. Dan. 2,35.
13 Isa. 2.3.
14 Soph. 2.11.
414 SAINT AUGU STINE
Chapter 10
(15) Dearly beloved, whether the Jews receive these
divine testimonies with joy or with indignation, nevertheless,
when we can, let us proclaim them with great love for the
Jews. Let us not proudly glory against the broken branches;
let us rather reflect by whose grace it is, and by much mercy,
and on what root, we have been ingrafted. Then, not savoring
of pride, but with a deep sense of humility, not insulting
with presumption, but rejoicing with trembling, 1 let us say:
'Come ye and let us walk in the light of the Lord, 52 because
His 'name is great among the Gentiles.' If they hear Him
and obey Him, they will be among them to whom Scripture
says: 'Come ye to him and be enlightened: and your faces
shall not be confounded.' 3 If, however, they hear and do not
obey, if they see and are jealous, 4 they are among them of
whom the psalm says: 'The wicked shall see, and shall be
angry, he shall gnash with his teeth and pine away.' 5 'But I,'
the Church says to Christ, 'as a fruitful olive tree in the
house of God, have hoped in the mercy of God for ever,
yea for ever and ever.' 6
1 Cf. Ps. 2.11.
2 Isa. 2.5.
3 Ps. 33.6.
4 Cf. Rom. 11.11.
5 Ps. 111.10.
6 Ps. 51.10.
(De divinatione daemonum)
Translated by
RUTH WENTWORTH BROWN, PH.D.
University of Southern California
INTRODUCTION
JENTION is MADE of the The Divination of Demons
in the second book of the Retractations among the
works written after Augustine was elevated to the
episcopacy: 'About the same time I was constrained, in
consequence of a discussion, to write a brief work, which, as
is indicated by its title, deals with the divination of demons.
In a certain passage of this book I wrote: "Sometimes, too,
the demons with all ease discern the intentions of men, not
only as they are expressed by the voice, but also as they
are conceived in reflection, when certain phases of thought
are one by one manifested physically." Here I made a
statement upon a very abstruse subject with a bolder pro-
nouncement than was proper. That these matters do come
to the knowledge of demons has been disclosed even by
some evidence of experience. Yet whether, when men
deliberate, certain physical indications are afforded, dis-
cernible to demons, but hidden from us, or whether demons
recognize these matters by another power, and that a power
of the spirit, is a question very difficult, or entirely impossible,
for men to discover.' 1
1 Retractationes 2.30.
417
418 SAINT AUGUSTINE
The phrase 'about the same time 7 associates the work
chronologically with the publication of the treatises against
the Donatists during the years 406-411. No evidence for a
more precise dating has appeared.
The setting of a dialogue is presented in the first lines,
where we find a group of lay brothers assembled in the
presence of the bishop at an early morning hour in the week
after Easter. A conversation arises concerning the opposition
of pagan arrogance and its worldly wisdom to Christian
teachings. St. Augustine's participation in the discussion is
clearly indicated by the use of the first person. The other
disputants remain anonymous and impersonal. At the end
of the second chapter, the conversation closes with the
departure of the bishop to appear before a congregation of
the people. He promises, before leaving, to resume the
discussion at a later time. This pledge is fulfilled in Augus-
tine's discourse that occupies the eight remaining chapters.
The De divinatione daemonum is rarely mentioned in
works dealing with St. Augustine as thinker and writer. The
existence of evil in a world governed by an omnipotent and
a just God is discussed in the two opening chapters. Readers
will, however, turn to other writings of Augustine for more
profound and satisfying expositions of his views upon this
universal problem. The short treatise was composed to meet
a contemporary situation, and thus is not without its signifi-
cance.
The temple of Serapis 2 in Alexandria had been demolished
some years before by the patriarch Theophilus, who doubt-
less acted upon an edict of Theodosius. This structure was
the greatest of the Isis-Serapis temples, frequented by Greeks
as well as by Egyptians. Through the patronage of the
2 Cic. E, A. W. Budge, The Gods of the Egyptians (London 1904)
2 195-201. V '
THE DIVINATION OF DEMON S 419
Macedonian Ptolemies, Serapis worship had flourished, and,
after the Roman conquest, it spread into the provinces and
even established its shrines in Rome. The image 3 of Serapis,
destroyed with the temple, was of pure Greek type; Bryaxis,
one of the four sculptors of the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus,
was said to have been its creator. The Egyptian conception
of a beast-headed divinity had given place to an anthro-
pomorphic statue, which identified the Egyptian god of the
afterlife with the Greek Hades.
The loss of the Serapeum meant the almost complete
obliteration of the cult. Certain of the rites, doubtless the
most objectionable ones, were still practiced clandestinely.
A report was spread that the downfall had been known in
advance and foretold by the priests of Serapis.
The purpose of the discussion, as we learn in the first
chapter, is to provide the Christian lay brothers with answers
to pagan arguments. This end is not accomplished through
the denial of the possibility of divination in pagan cults;
Augustine seeks, rather, to inspire and confirm the group in
their faith in the one God and to strengthen their convictions
in the truth and righteousness of scriptural prophecy.
The subject of prescience among demoniac powers receives
elaborate treatment in the City of God* where we are made
quite aware of the extensive learning of Augustine in the
ancient lore of divination. Abundant citations occur from
Plato, Plotinus and other Neo-Platonists, from Varro, Cicero,
and especially from the man of Madaura, Apuleius, whose
De deo Socratico is frequently mentioned. The Divination
of Demons, in contrast, entirely omits learned references.
The lay brothers to whom the arguments are addressed would,
3 See Plutarch, Moralia, 'Isis and Osiris' 361.28. Here it is related that
Ptolemy Soter, prompted by a dream, had the statue conveyed from
Sinop to Alexandria.
4 Notably in Books 8-9.
420 SAINT AUGUSTINE
in all probability, have been but meagerly equipped in
erudition to match their wits with the Greek followers of
the Egyptian god. Their power must be derived from another
source. Thus, Scriptural quotations are abundant.
This slight work, then, is interesting as a record of the
time when the mockers were still 'vaunting their learning/
though these mockers were 'fewer this year than they were
the year before/ We may also read it as an example of
St. Augustine's ability and readiness to respond to the needs
of the day.
The present translation has been based upon the Vienna
text of J. Zycha (1900).
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
Texts:
J. P. Migne, Patrologia Latina (Paris 1887) 40.581-592.
J. Zycha, Coy pus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum (Vienna
1900) 41.597-618.
St. Augustin, Oeuvres completes (Paris 1870) 22.130-142. Bene-
dictine text with a French translation by M. H. Barreau et aL
Secondary Works:
V. J. Bourke, Augustine's Quest of Wisdom (Milwaukee 1947) .
H. Lindau, 'Augustin und das Damonische/ Zeitschrift jur
Kirchengeschichte 36 (1916) 99-108.
H. I. Marrou, Saint Augustin et la fin de la culture antique
(Paris 1938) .
J. E. C. Welldon, S. Aurelii Augustini De civitate Dei, 2 vols.
(London 1924) .
THE DIVINATION OF DEMONS
Chapter 1
|N A CERTAIN DAY within the holy octave of Easter,
when in the early morning many Christian lay
brothers were present with me and we had taken
our seats in the familiar place, a conversation arose concern-
ing the Christian religion as opposed to the arrogance and,
as it were, the notable and great knowledge of the pagans.
I thought that this conversation, recorded and completed,
should be set down in writing, without indicating the identity
of the disputants. 1 They were, however, Christians and in
their contrary arguments appeared chiefly to be searching
for replies which they should make to the pagans. Thereupon,
when a question was asked concerning the divination of
demons 2 and a declaration was made that some one had
foretold the downfall of the Temple of Serapis, 3 which had
1 The dialogue form is employed in 1-2, although no names are assigned
to participants.
2 Augustine, following Plato, derives daemon from a Greek word mean-
ing knowledge. Cf. Plato Cratylus 398; also De civitate Dei 9.20.
3 The downfall occurred in 391. The temple's splendor is described by
Ammianus Marcellinus 22.16.
421
422 SAINT AUGUSTINE
taken place in Alexandria, I replied that one should not mar-
vel that demons could know and predict that downfall was
impending their own temples and images, and other events,
also, in so far as it is allowed them to know and to foretell. 4
(2) Then the following response was presented to me:
'Well, then, divinations of this kind are not evil nor do they
displease God. Otherwise, the Omnipotent and Just would
not permit them to be made, if they were evil and unjust.'
I replied that these occurrences were not bound to appear
just, on the ground that the most omnipotent and just
God permits them to take place. 5 Surely, there are acts which
manifestly are unjustly committed, like murders, adulteries,
thefts, pillage and other crimes of like nature. Although
these acts undoubtedly displease a just God, for the very
reason that they are unjust, this same Omnipotent One, by
the fixed order of His judgment, permits them to occur, by
no means with impunity, but to the condemnation of those
by whom the acts that displease a just God are committed.
(3) A counter-argument was advanced that, while, to be
sure, one could not doubt that God is omnipotent and just,
nevertheless He is not concerned with these human sins which
are committed against the society of mankind, while they
are being committed, and therefore they may occur. Surely,
they could not have been committed at all, if the Omnipotent
had not permitted them. Yet, under no consideration, cer-
tainly, could one believe that He disregarded those former
occurrences such as have to do with the actual practice of
religion, and for that reason they could not have taken place,
unless they had been pleasing to Him. Thus, they should
not be regarded evil. To this argument, too, I made reply,
Now, however, those acts are displeasing to Him, in that
4 Cf. De dvitate Del 9.21-22 upon God's permission to the demons to
prophesy and the limitations placed upon their knowledge.
5 Cf. De ordine 2.4f. for exposition of the place of evil in the divine
order.
THE DIVINATION OF DEMONS 423
the temples and images are being overthrown and those
sacrificial rites of the heathen, if ever they are performed, are
punished. So, then, just as it was maintained that these acts
could not have been performed unless they had pleased God,
and on that ground they must be regarded as good since they
please the Just, so it may be said that they could not have been
prohibited, overthrown, and punished unless they displeased
God. If at that time they were performed righteously, inas-
much as they were disclosed as pleasing God through the
fact that He permitted them, so now they are performed
unrighteously, because they are disclosed as displeasing to
God, inasmuch as He bids or allows their overthrow.
Chapter 2
(4) In answer to my argument someone brought forth
these counter-statements: 'Such acts as those are surely un-
lawful now, but they are not evil. They are unlawful for
the reason that they take place contrary to the laws by which
they are forbidden. They are, however, not evil, because, if
they were evil, they assuredly would never have pleased
God. Furthermore, if ti^py had never pleased Him, they
would have taken place without the permission of Him who
can do all things and who would not disregard such matters,
since they are so important that they are performed in
opposition to the very religion by which God is worshiped,
if they are performed wickedly.' Hereupon I interposed: 'If,'
I said, 'they are not evil, inasmuch as they are proved to be
pleasing to God by the fact that the Omnipotent allows
them to occur, how will it be a good thing that their per-
formance is forbidden and that they are overthrown? If,
however, it is not good that those things that are pleasing
to God are overthrown, the Omnipotent would not allow
424 SAINT AUGUSTINE
their overthrow to take place, for this also is an occurrence
opposed to the religion by which God is worshiped, if things
which please God are overthrown by men. Yet, if God permits
this downfall, although it is an evil occurrence, one must
not account those former acts good solely because the
Omnipotent allowed them to take place.'
(5) Someone said hi reply that it must be granted that
those practices do not rightly occur now, nay more, that
they no longer occur at all, because they are now displeasing
to the Omnipotent. They were pleasing to Him, nevertheless,
when they occurred. We, certainly, do not know wherein
they were pleasing then, nor, on the other hand, wherein
they are displeasing now. For all that, it is certain that they
could not have taken place then if they had not been
pleasing to the Omnipotent, nor could they have ceased
now unless they had displeased the Omnipotent, Thereupon
I spoke. 'Why, then, 5 I said, 'are there even now performed
in secret such acts as are either continually concealed or, if
they are detected, are punished, if the Omnipotent permits
none of these things to occur except such as please Him,
the Just One, since to Him as just nothing unjust could be
pleasing?' An answer was made to this query that worship of
that nature does not actually takejplace at present, for those
former rites, declared the disputant, which were recorded in
the pontifical books 1 are not performed. Certainly, in former
times their performance was a righteous act. It is demon-
strated that they were then pleasing to God by the very
fact that the Omnipotent and Just suffered them to occur.
Now, however, whatsoever forbidden sacrifices are carried on
secretly and lawlessly should not be compared with the
former priestly type of worship. They should be regarded
in the same class with ritual which is performed in the
season of night. All unlawful rites like these are assuredly
1 Of the cult,
THE DIVINATION OF DEMONS
425
forbidden and condemned even in their pontifical books.
Hereupon I replied: 'Why, then, does God actually permit
such acts to take place, if He overlooks none of the sins
which are committed against religion? That He does have
regard for such sins must be admitted above all by those
who venerate the pontifical books, since they maintain that
those deeds which are forbidden in the books are assuredly
divinely forbidden. How, pray, are they divinely forbidden,
except that they are displeasing to God? By forbidding them
He certainly discloses not only that the deeds are displeasing
to Him, but that He is concerned with respect to them and
that He does not in any way overlook them. Thence we
conclude that a just God may disapprove an act, yet,
omnipotent as He is, may permit it.'
(6) After this discussion, it was granted that an act
need not be regarded as being performed justly and right-
eously on the ground that God, although He took care to
have it forbidden, allowed it to occur. It must be admitted
that even those evil deeds which are committed in opposition
to the religion by which God is worshiped both displease a
just God and are permitted in the order of His judgment
by an omnipotent God. But it was decided that we must
now discuss another subject, namely, whence arise the
divinations of demons, or of those, whatsoever they may be,
whom the pagans call gods. 2 We must certainly take care
that we do not perchance deem these acts good because the
Omnipotent permits them to take place, but for the reason
that they are so great that it seems that they can only be
attributed to the power of God. To these questions I promised
that I would make reply later, since the hour was now at
hand when I must appear before the assembly of the people. 3
2 Cf. De civitate Dei 9.23.
3 The convention of the dialogue is abandoned here, St. Augustine's
discourse begins with the following chapter.
426 SAINT AUGUSTINE
I have not delayed, now that leisure for writing is afforded,
to revise the early discussion and to supplement it with the
following discourse. 4
Chapter 3
(7) The nature of demons is such that, through the
sense perception belonging to the aerial body/ they readily
surpass the perception possessed by earthly bodies, and in
speed, too, because of the superior mobility of the aerial
body, they incomparably excel not only the movements of
men and of beasts but even the flight of birds. Endowed with
these two faculties, in so far as they are the properties of
the aerial body, namely, with keenness of perception and
speed of movement, they foretell and declare many things
that they have recognized far in advance. At this, because
of the sluggishness of earthly perception, men wonder. The
demons, too, through the long period into which their life
is extended, have gained a far greater experience 2 in events
than accrues to men because of the brief span of their lives.
Through these faculties which the nature of the aerial body
has allotted, demons not only foretell many things that will
occur but also perform many miraculous acts. 3 Since man can
neither tell nor perform these things, certain individuals think
it proper to serve the demons and to render them divine
4 'et ilia retexere et ista subtexere': the paronomasia of the Latin can
not be reproduced in English.
1 Cf. De civitate Dei 8.14-18 where is presented the Neo-Platonic view of
a threefold division of living beings with rational souls, the gods
occupying heaven, men the earth, and demons the air. The De deo
Socratico of Apuleius is the chief source, but Augustine refutes the
argument that demons are superior to men and that they are worthy
of worship. Mention of the aerial bodies of demons is frequent in the
De divinatione and in De civitate Dei. Cf. De civitate Dei 18.15 et
passim; De agone Christiana 3; Contra Academicos 1.7; et aL
2 Cf. De civitate Dei 9.22.
3 Cf. Ibid. 21.6 for demons as workers of miracles.
THE DIVINATION OF DEMONS 4r27
honors. To this service they are prompted especially by the
vice of curiosity, because of their desire for a false happiness
and for an earthly and temporal success. Those, however,
who cleanse themselves from these desires and do not allow
themselves to be lifted up and carried away by them, but
who search out and love something which is forever of the
same nature, by partaking of which they may be blessed,
first of all conclude that they should not regard demons so
far superior to themselves, because the demons have an
advantage in their keener bodily perception, the aerial, to
be sure, that is, one that is derived from a more subtle
element. As a matter of fact, in the case even of earthly
bodies, men do not think that beasts, whose sense perceptions
are in many respects more keen than their own, should be
preferred to themselves, 4 For example, because the keen-
scented dog uncovers the hiding quarry with a sense of smell
so very keen that he affords to man a certain guidance for
capturing his prey, they do not for that reason regard him
as possessed of wiser intellect, but of keener bodily sense.
Nor do they so highly esteem the vulture, because, when a
corpse is exposed, he flies to it from an unforseen distance;
nor the eagle, because it is said that, while she is flying aloft,
from that great distance she discerns the fish swimming under
the waves and 3 as the waters beat mightly upon her, she
thrusts forth her feet and her talons and seizes her prey.
Nor do they so regard many other kinds of living creatures
who, while pasturing, stray among herbs hurtful to their
well-being and do not touch any of those by which they may
be harmed. Man, on the other hand, has scarcely learned
by trial to avoid the poisonous herbs and fears many harmless
varieties because they have not been tested. 5 From these
4 Cf. Ibid. 8.15 for a comparison of the physical powers of men and
animals.
5 Cf. Cicero, De nature deorum 2.47.122
428 SAINT AUGUSTINE
circumstances it is easy to conjecture how much keener may
be the sense in aerial bodies. Nevertheless, no wise man
would conclude that demons who are endowed with such
perception should be preferred to good men. This statement
I would also make concerning swiftness of body. In this
excellence, too, men are also so surpassed, not only by birds
but by many quadrupeds as well, that in comparison with
those creatures men may be regarded as heavy as lead. For
all that, human beings do not think the tribes of animals
superior to themselves. By capturing them, taming them,
and subjecting them to such use and convenience as their own
will imposes, men govern beasts not by physical force, but
by the power of reason. 6
Chapter 4
Now, that third faculty of demons, namely, that by long
experience in events they have learned to prognosticate
many happenings and to announce them in advance, is
lightly esteemed by those who take diligent pains to discern
these circumstances according to the validity of the most
true light. Even so, it comes about that honorable young
men do not think that evil old men excel them through
having undergone many experiences and being on this
account, so to speak, wiser. Likewise, men do not account
as superior to themselves doctors, sailors, and farmers, whose
wills are perverted and whose characters depraved, on the
ground that they respectively make such pronouncements in
advance concerning diseases, storms, and the phases of
orchards and fruits that they seem to one inexperienced in
matters of the kind to prophesy.
(8) As to the fact that demons not only predict some
6 Cf. De diversis quaestionibus LXXXHI 13.
THE DIVINATION OF DEMONS 429
future events, but even perform certain miracles, assuredly
through that actual superiority of the body, why do not wise
men make light of it? It is true that many sinful and aban-
doned men so train their bodies that, by diverse arts, they
can perform such remarkable feats that those who do not
know about them and have never seen them scarcely believe,
even when they are told. How much have rope-dancers and
other theatrical performers 1 done that caused wonderment!
How much have artisans and especially mechanics! Are
they for that reason better than men who are good and
endowed with holy piety? I have mentioned these matters
in order that he who regards them without stubbornness
and without the vain arrogance of controversy may consider
this likewise; If, while each one uses the somewhat gross
material that is at hand, either that of his own body, or of
earth and water, namely stones and wood, and various metals,
certain men can produce such great works that those who
are unable to equal them frequently, in their amazement,
call the producers in comparison with themselves divine,
while actually some of the producers are superior in the arts,
but some of the admirers superior in character, how much
greater and more marvelous deeds in proportion to the
faculty and facility of their most subtle body, that is, the
aerial, can demons perform! For all that, because of the
depravity of their will, and especially because of the haughti-
ness of their arrogance, and the malice of their envy, they are
unclean and perverted spirits! Moreover, how effective is
the element of air, in which their bodies surpass, to produce
invisibly many visible results, to move, to change, and to
overthrow is too long a story to set forth now. I think that it
will occur readily to one who deliberates even moderately.
1 Cf. De civitate Dei 2.4-11 upon the immoralities of the stage.
430 SAINT AUGUSTINE
Chapter 5
(9) Wherefore, one must know in the first place, since
the divination of demons is the subject of discussion, that
they very often foretell acts which they themselves intend to
perform. 1 They often receive the power to induce diseases,
to render the very air unwholesome by vitiating it, and to
counsel evil deeds to men who are perverted and greedy
for earthly gains. They are aware from the character of
these men that they would agree with them if they should
counsel such acts. They persuade them, however, in marvelous
and unseen ways, entering by means of that subtlety of their
own bodies into the bodies of men who are unaware, 2 and
through certain imaginary visions mingling themselves with
men's thoughts, whether they are awake or asleep. Yet
sometimes they foretell, not the deeds which they themselves
perform, but future events which they recognize in advance
through natural signs which cannot reach the senses of men.
Surely, because the physician foresees outcomes that one
ignorant of his art does not foresee, one need not for that
reason esteem him divine. Moreover, what is remarkable if,
even as the physician, when the temperature of the human
body is either disturbed or changed, foresees that the health
will be either good or bad, so a demon in the state and
condition of the atmosphere, known to him and unknown to
us, foresees storms that will arise? Finally, too, with all ease
they discern the intentions of men, not only as they are
expressed by the voice, but also as they are conceived in
reflection, when certain individual phases of the mind are
expressed in the body. These disclosures are truly miraculous
to those who do not know the acts intended; for, to be sure,
1 Cf. De civitate Dei 9.22.
2 Cf. De diversis quaestionibus LXXXIII 12, for a vivid description of
an evil spirit permeating the senses of man.
THE DIVJNr VTION OF DEMONS 43 1
just as an especially violent emotion is reflected in the
countenance so that inward meditations are to some extent
recognized outwardly by men, so it should not be incredible
if even milder thoughts afford some indications through the
medium of the body. These cannot be recognized by the
dull sense of men, but can be through the keen perception
of demons. 3
Chapter 6
(10) By this faculty and faculties of this kind, demons
foretell many events that will come to pass. Yet, far above
them is the loftiness of that prophecy which God brings to
pass through the holy angels and prophets. For, whatsoever
these holy ones prophesy of that which God has ordained,
they hear from Him, that they may prophesy. When they
declare that which they hear from Him, they do not deceive
nor are they deceived. Absolutely true are the pronouncements
of the angels and the Prophets. Still, it is regarded as an
offense that demons should hear and predict some matters
of like nature, as if it were something of an offense that not
only the good but the wicked as well should not keep silent
concerning utterances that were spoken with the intent that
they should be known to men. 1 Yet, even among men, we see
that precepts of a good life are celebrated alike by the
righteous and the depraved. It does not at all hinder, in
fact it furthers the wider knowledge and reputation of truth,
when even those who contradict it by their evil characters
speak what they know concerning it. In their other pre-
dictions, nevertheless, demons are usually deceived and
deceive. They are indeed mistaken, since, when they announce
3 Cf. Retractationes 2.30, where this passage is cited,
1 Cf. De civitate Dei 9.21; De Trinitate 4.17.
432 SAINT AUGUSTINE
their own intentions, a command suddenly is issued from on
high which shatters all their plans. The case would be
similar if any men whatsoever, who were subject to certain
potentates, should think that their superiors would not pre-
vent them from performing an act and should promise that
they would perform it. Yet, those in whom the superior
authority rested might, on the basis of another better plan,
suddenly prevent the entire deed that had been intended
and arranged. They make some mistakes, too, in regard to
natural phenomena. Like doctors, sailors, and farmers, they
prognosticate, but demons do this far more keenly and far
more excellently through the more alert and active percep-
tion of their aerial bodies. The demons make mistakes, I
say, because even these phenomena of nature are unex-
pectedly and suddenly changed by the angels, devotedly
serving God on high, in harmony with another plan unknown
to the demons. Even so, some mishap from without may
befall a sick man to cause his death, although the doctor
had promised that he would survive, since all previous
symptoms assured recovery. For example, some of the sailors,
viewing the state of the atmosphere, had predicted that the
wind would blow for a long time. Our Lord Christ, sailing
with his disciples, commanded the wind to be still 'and
there was a great calm.' 2 Likewise, the husbandman might
promise that a vineyard would that year bear much fruit,
understanding, as he did, the nature of the soil and the
number of the plants. Yet, in that year, an unforeseen storm
might break it down, the command of some despot might
uproot it. Thus, many circumstances contributing to the
foreknowledge and prediction of demons, such as are dis-
cerned in advance in the minor and more ordinary cases,
these are obstructed and changed in more important and
mysterious conditions. Then, too, they also deceive with a
2 Matt. 836.
THE DIVINATION OF DEMONS 433
desire to deceive and with malicious intent, that they may
rejoice in the error of men. But, that they may not lose the
weight of their authority among their own worshipers, they
take pains that their failure be attributed to their seers and
to the interpreters of their signs, claiming that they were
mistaken or that they prevaricated.
(11) How, then, is it remarkable if, when downfall was
already impending for temples and idols a downfall which
the prophets of the most high God foretold so long in
advance Serapis, a demon, 3 betrayed this event, close at
hand, to some one of his own worshipers, so that he, though
yielding and fleeing, might in a sense commend his own
divinity?
Chapter 7
They are actually put to flight, or, rather, they are fettered
and dragged off by higher orders, and they are estranged
from their own places, that in respect to the very powers by
which they held sway and for which they were worshiped,
the will of God may be accomplished, who so long before
foretold among all people that this would come to pass and
commanded that the deed should be accomplished through
His own faithful servants. Why, then, should the demon
[Serapis] not be permitted to foretell this event, since he
knew even beforehand that it was impending for him,
inasmuch as this prediction was attested also by the Prophets?
These matters were recorded by them and it was granted to
the wise to understand how watchfully they must shun the
guile of demons and banish their worship. For a long time
before, the demons kept silent in their own temples con-
cerning the things that would come to pass, although, because
3 On the pagan gods as demons, cf. De civitate Dei 9.23, et passim;
Lactantius, Divinae institutiones 4.27.
434 SAINT AUGUSTINE
of the utterances of the Prophets, they could not have been
unaware of them. When, later, the events began to draw
near, they wished, as it were, to foretell them, so that they
might not be deemed ignorant and vanquished. Nevertheless,
not to mention other instances for the present, long ago there
had been foretold and recorded that which the Prophet
Sophonias says: The Lord shall prevail against them, and
shall cast out all the gods of the Gentiles of the earth: and
they shall adore Him every man from his own place, all the
islands of the Gentiles. 5 1 Possibly those gods who were
worshiped in the temples of the Gentiles did not believe that
those events would occur to them, and consequently did not
wish them to be noised abroad through their own seers and
diviners. Even so, their own poet represents Juno as not
wholly believing that which Jupiter had spoken with regard
to the death of Turnus. Now, Juno is proclaimed by them
a power of the air. She, according to Vergil, speaks thus:
Now dread doom is awaiting the guiltless, else in vain error
Truthless I stray. Mocking my fears, O thou art able,
Repent thee, and change to a kindlier way thy providence
o'er him. 2
So, then, either the demons, that is, the powers of the air,
doubted that those very disasters which they had known as
foretold by the Prophets could happen to themselves, and
for that reason did not wish the predictions of the Prophets
to become known and thereby one may understand the
character of the demons or, though they knew that these
things would most surely come to pass, they kept silent
through their temples, that they might not even then begin
to be abandoned and despised by understanding men, because
1 Cf. Soph, 2.11.
2 Vergil, Aeneid 10.630-632.
THE DIVINATION OF DEMONS 435
witness was given concerning the coming downfall of their
temples and idols to those Prophets who forbade that they
be worshiped. But now, certainly, after the time has arrived
in which should be fulfilled the pronouncements of the
Prophets of the one God, who calls those gods of theirs
false and most sternly commands that they be not worshiped,
why should not even the demons be permitted to declare that
which has been accomplished? Therefore, it should the more
clearly appear that either they did not in the least believe
these prophecies in advance, or that they feared to announce
them to their worshipers. Finally, it is evident that, having
nothing further to accomplish, they determined to display
their power of divination even in the very instance in which
they are now detected as having pretended their divinity. 3
Chapter 8
(12) As to the statement that the remaining worshipers
of pagan gods make, that these events were foreknown and
even included in certain books belonging to them, although
one should regard the inclusions as compiled from events
after their occurrence, the rejoinder is that, if they were
authentic prophecies, they should have become known in
their temples to their peoples long before their occurrence.
Thus, our prophecies are repeated, not only in our churches,
but also a circumstance which is valid as a powerful testi-
mony against our enemies in the synagogues of the Jews. 1
Nevertheless, those actual prophecies, which they with
difficulty pronounce rarely and secretly, should not disturb
us, if some demon is constrained to betray to his worshipers
3 Antithesis and paronomasia: ostendere divinationem simulasse
divinitatem.
1 Cr. De fide rerum quae non videntur 6; De symbolo 4.
436 SAINT AUGUSTINE
a matter which he had learned from the declarations of the
Prophets or from the oracles of the angels. Why should
this not take place, since it is not an assault upon the truth,
but a testimonial for it. Certainly, this argument, the only
one which should be required of them, they have never pre-
viously presented, nor will they ever hereafter try to present,
unless fictitiously, namely, that their gods through their seers
have ever dared to predict or speak anything against the God
of Israel, a God concerning whom their most learned authors,
who could read and know all these matters, have questioned
as to what god He was rather than been able to deny Him
as God. Furthermore, that God, whom no one of them
ventured to deny as the true God, who, if one denied, would
not only have subjected him to the punishment due, but
would have convinced him by the sure consequences, that
God whom, as I have said, no one of them dared deny as
the true God, through His own seers, that is, through the
Prophets, declared with manifest proclamation, commanded
with manifest power, and accomplished with manifest truth
both that the false gods should be entirely abandoned and
that their temples and idols should be overthrown. Knowing
this, who is so foolish that he would not prefer to worship the
God whose worship even the gods that he has been wor-
shiping do not gainsay? Doubtless, when one begins to
worship Him, he will not be at all inclined to worship those
whose worship He whom he worships forbids. 2
Chapter 9
(13) I mentioned a little earlier and now repeat that it
was foretold by His Prophets that the Gentiles, casting out
their false gods whom they formerly worshiped, would
2 Note antithesis and word-play.
THE DIVINATION OF DEMONS 437
worship Him. It is said: The Lord shall prevail against
them, and shall cast out all the gods of the Gentiles of the
earth: and they shall adore Him every man from his own
place, all the islands of the Gentiles.' 1 Nor shall it be the
islands alone, but even so all Gentiles, even as also all
islands of the Gentiles, since in another passage he does
not name 'islands/ but the whole earth. He says : * All the ends
of the earth shall remember and shall be converted to the
Lord: And all the kindreds of the Gentiles shall adore in
his sight. For the kingdom is the Lord's; and he shall have
dominion over the nations. 52 That these words were to be
fulfilled through Christ appears clearly both in many other
testimonies and from the very psalm from which I have
quoted the previous passage. For, when a little earlier the
Lord Himself was telling through His Prophet that His
Passion would come to pass, He said: 'They have dug my
hands and feet. They have numbered all my bones. And
they have looked and stared upon me. They have parted my
garments among them; and upon my vesture they cast lots.' 3
Shortly after, the Psalmist introduces that passage which I
have set down, in which it was said: 'All the ends of the
earth shall remember and shall be converted to the Lord/
and so on. Yet, in record to that testimony which I have
presented formerly, in which it was said: The Lord shall
prevail against them, and shall cast out all the gods of the
Gentiles of- the earth/ it is clearly disclosed, from the fact
that 'shall prevail' is introduced, that it is likewise prophesied
that the heathen will first contend against the Church and,
in so far as they are able, persecute the Christian name,
with the intent that, if it could be accomplished, it should
be blotted out entirely from the earth. Because He was to
1 Cf. Soph. 2.11.
2 Ps. 21.28,29.
3 Ps. 21.17-19.
438 SAINT AUGUSTINE
overcome them through the suffering of the martyrs, the
magnitude of the miracles, and the subsequent faith of the
peoples, it was spoken thus: The Lord will prevail against
them.' For, it would not have been said: 'He will prevail
against them,' unless they had resisted Him, as they fought
against Him. Wherefore, in the psalm, also, it is thus
prophesied: 'Why have the Gentiles raged, and the peoples
devised vain things? The kings of the earth stood up, and
the princes met together, against the Lord, and against his
Christ.' 4 Shortly after, he says: 'The Lord hath said to me:
Thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me,
and I will give thee the Gentiles for thy inheritance, and
the utmost parts of the earth for thy possession.' 5 That is
why in another psalm are spoken the words that I have
quoted above: 'All the ends of the earth shall remember
and shall be converted to the Lord. 3 By these and similar
examples from the Prophets, that prophecy is disclosed which
we see fulfilled through Christ, namely, that it was to come
to pass that the God of Israel, whom we know as the one
true God, would be worshiped, not among His own people
alone, which was called Israel, but among all the Gentiles,
and that He would drive out the false gods of the Gentiles
both from their temples and from the hearts of their wor-
shipers.
Chapter 10
(14) Now let those supporters go 1 on and even now
dare to defend ancient vanities against the Christian religion
4 Ps. 2.1,2.
5 Ps. 2.7,8.
1 Eant nunc: a formula of contemptuous dismissal frequent in Augustan
writers. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 7.425.
THE DIVINATION OF DEMONS 439
and against the true worship of God, that they may perish
in noise. This also is foretold concerning them in the psalms,
when the Prophet says: 'Thou hast sat on the throne, who
judgest justice. Thou hast rebuked the Gentiles, and the
wicked one hath perished: thou hast blotted out their name
for ever and ever. The swords of the enemy have failed unto
the end: and their cities thou hast destroyed. Their memory
has perished with a noise: but the Lord remaineth forever.' 2
It is needful, therefore, that all these sayings be fulfilled : nor,
seeing that those very few who have remained dare to vaunt
their vainglorious doctrines and to mock at the Christians
as wholly unlearned, should we be moved, so long as we
see that in them those prophecies are accomplished. In
truth, the Christians 3 very foolishness of ignorance, which
to the humble and the holy and to those diligently devoted to
it appears the lofty and the only true wisdom this foolish-
ness, at it were, of the Christians has, I say, brought their
enemy to their present scanty numbers, even as the Apostle
says: 'God has made foolish the wisdom of this world.'
Thereafter he adds a saying, wondrous if one understands it,
and continues thus: 'For seeing that in the wisdom of God
the world, by wisdom, knew not God, it pleased God, by
the foolishness of our preaching, to save them that believe.
For both the Jews require signs, and the Greeks seek after
wisdom: But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews
indeed a stumbling block, and unto the Gentiles foolishness:
But unto them that are called, both Jews and Greeks,
Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the
foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of
God is stronger than men/ 3 Then let them mock with all their
might at our ignorance and foolishness, as they call it, and
let them vaunt their own learning and wisdom. So much
2 PS. 9.5-8.
a 1 Cor. 1,20-25.
440 SAINT AUGUSTINE
I know, that these mockers of us are fewer this year than
they were the year before. Ever since 'the Gentiles have
raged, and the people devised vain things' 4 against the Lord
and against His Christ, when they shed the blood of the
saints and laid waste the Church, even to this time and
henceforth they are each day diminished. We, however, are
emboldened against their reproaches and insolent mockeries
by the prophecies of our God. In this very matter we see
them fulfilled and we rejoice. Thus, indeed, He speaks to us
through the Prophets. 'Hearken to me, you that know what
is just, my people, who have my law in your heart; fear ye
not the reproach of men, and be not overcome by their
slander, nor consider it of great moment that now they
scorn you. For as a garment they shall in time be wasted, and
the moth shall consume them as wool, but my justice shall
remain forever.' 5 Let them, nevertheless, read this writing of
ours, if they deem it meet. When their refutal reaches us,
we shall reply, as God shall grant us aid.
4 PS. 2.1.
5 Cf. Isa. 51.7,8.
INDEX
INDEX
Aaron, 412
Abraham, 6, 28, 37-39, 4244, 46,
51, 355, 374-376, 392, 398, 410
abstinence, 229, 393
actors, 263
Adam, 4, 58, 149
Adam, Karl, 7
adoption, 190
adulterer, 14, 15, 18, 32, 65, 70,
71, 72, 74, 77, 93, 94, 104, 106,
108, 111, 113, 114, 115, 118,
119, 122, 124, 128, 153, 180,
223, 229, 250, 251, 259, 261,
262, 263, 266, 267, 280
adulteress, 15, 18, 63, 64, 74, 93,
94, 103-115, 122, 124, 126, 128,
250, 266
adultery, 4, 13, 16-20, 31, 32,46,
56, 59, 63, 69-77, 93-95, 98,
102-119, 122-126, 128, 129, 131,
163, 164, 177, 222, 229, 231,
232, 234, 236, 239, 241, 242,
245, 256, 259, 264, 266-268,
276, 277, 282, 422
advocate, 271
Aeneas, 368
Alexandria, 18, 419 n., 422
Alfaric, P., 314, 317 n.
allegory, 280
allurements, 275
Alpha and Omega, 331 n.
altars, 364
Ambrose, St., 3, 136, 138, 146 n.,
382
Ananias, 381
anathema, 397
ancients, 36, 37
Angels, 290, 355, 376, 379, 431,
436
Anna, 21, 51
Antoninus, Emperor, 109
Anulinus, 199 n.
Apostle, 11, 16, 18, 20, 23-30, 33,
42, 48, 50, 61-66, 68, 70, 71,
77-98, 100, 102-106, 115-117,
121, 143, 145, 155, 156, 159-
167, 174, 181, 183, 190, 194,
196, 202, 204, 223-225, 230,
443
232-235, 238, 241, 243, 244,
246-248, 253-256, 259, 264, 267,
268, 271, 273, 274, 279, 286,
289, 304, 305, 315, 321, 323,
326, 327, 329, 330, 332, 337,
342-345, 392, 393, 398, 400,
402, 404, 408, 409, 439
Apollinaris, 325 n.
Apuleius, 419, 426 n.
Arians, 294, 322 n.
Ascension, 236
Asellicus, 388
Augustine, St., Works cited: City
of God, 10, 23, 30, 35, 36, 329,
344, 354, 380, 388, 399, 419-
421; Confessions, 98, 200; En-
chiridion, 146, 312, 313; Let-
ters, 150, 184, 215, 218; Re-
tractations, 37, 46, 56, 135,
137, 138, 215, 219, 286, 311-
313, 344, 387, 417, 431; Ser-
mons, 143, 146, 149, 150, 200,
285, 287, 324, 327; others, 56,
59, 135, 136, 144-146, 149, 150,
184, 199, 318, 319, 422, 426,
430, 431, 435
avarice, 300
baptism, 35, 98, 100, 107, 123,
139, 150 n., 204, 215-217, 221,
222, 229-232, 234, 237, 239,
240, 242-245, 250-252, 254, 258,
261-268,277-281,287,288,305,
306, 312, 372
baptistry, 373
barbarians, 354
Bardenhewer, Otto, 7, 387-389
Bardy, Gustave, 7, 8, 286 n., 287
n., 289 n., 314, 317 n.
Bareille, G., 150 n.
Barnabas, 79
Barreau,M.H.,314,420n.
Batiffol, P., 7
beasts, 355
Beelzebub, 408
Bellarmine, Robert, 7
Benedictines, 285
bishop, 36, 262, 280, 286, 287,
311,349,382,389
blasphemy, 277, 298
Blood, of Christ, 81, 107, 305,
394
Blumenkranz, B., 387-389 nn.
Body, of Christ, 259, 306, 357
Bourke, V. J., 220 n., 286 n.
Bread, of the Lord, 231, 398
brilliance, 296, 331
Bryaxis, 419
Budge, E. A. W., 418 n.
bull, 394
Burkitt, F. C., 7, 314 n., 317 n.
Cabrol, F., 200 n.
Caecilian, 227
Canaan, 403
Canaanite, 180, 258, 259
Candidianus, 384
Cappello, Felix, 7
Carthage, 369, 389
catechists, 215, 230, 236, 245, 287
catechumens, 35, 98, 100, 122,
444
204, 215, 217, 231, 233, 234,
242, 286, 287, 306, 372, 389
Catholics, 85, 135, 216, 315, 389
Cato, 36, 232
cattle, 393, 401
Cavallera, F., 7
Cayre, F., 7
Ceillier, Dom Remy, 7
celibacy, 42, 155, 171, 173
centurion, 180, 186
Cephas, 79
chalice, 231
chanty, 20, 23, 79, 80, 83, 87,
101, 129, 139, 148, 149, 151,
179, 189, 191, 193, 202, 210,
224, 247, 248, 250, 251, 253-
255, 257-259, 268, 269, 272,
273, 276, 282, 293, 304, 305,
316, 337-341
chastity, 14, 21, 26, 37, 44, 46,
48,50, 109, 110, 119, 128, 130,
131, 151, 153, 155, 162, 166,
178, 184, 192, 197, 201, 202,
204; see also continence
chrisma, 396
Christ, 5, 6, 10,21,31,36,37,41,
42, 48, 50, 51, 78, 79, 89, 91,
93, 95, 97, 100, 107, 109-114,
122, 123, 129, 131, 139, 141,
143-145, 149-152, 154, 159, 163,
167, 168, 170, 174, 179, 180,
182, 183, 186, 189, 192, 194,
202, 205, 215, 221-224, 227,
234-239,241,243,244,249-261,
265, 268-271, 273-281, 292, 294,
295, 297, 298, 301-303, 305-307,
316, 319, 322, 325 n., 326 n.,
334-336, 338, 339, 353, 361,
364, 365, 376, 379, 381, 384,
388, 392, 395, 398, 400, 404,
405, 407, 409, 414, 432, 437-
440; as Head, 149, 150, 307,
322, 342; as Lord, 11, 12, 18,
21, 23, 26, 28, 29, 41, 42, 44,
47-49, 56, 61, 65, 68-70, 73,
75, 77-80, 83-93, 96, 97, 100,
102, 107, 108, 112, 113, 117,
120, 126, 131, 155-158, 160,
166, 167, 173, 177, 179, 180,
185, 190, 191, 197, 199, 201,
206, 207, 212, 221-226, 229,
231, 232, 235-237, 239, 241,
244-247, 249-255, 258, 260,
262, 265, 267-282, 295, 208-
301, 319, 322, 323, 325, 327,
331, 332, 340, 353, 355, 356,
358, 361-363, 373, 374, 376,
378, 381, 397-414, 432, 434,
437, 438; as Priest, 206; as
Saviour, 22, 62, 64, 79, 84, 99,
110, 349, 249, 275, 276, 278,
281, 323, 340, 402; as Son of
God, 174, 185, 186, 226, 236,
237, 243, 249, 255, 266, 270,
271,287,291-297,319,321-324,
331-340, 402, 409; as Son of
Man, 41, 42, 174, 186, 207,
400
Christians, 4, 41, 56, 57, 59, 68,
77, 84, 90, 93-95, 97, 102, 109,
118, 121, 143 n, 150-152, 169,
170, 182, 205, 215, 221, 230,
445
232, 233, 248, 257, 258, 264,
265, 274, 278, 330, 355-357,
361, 383, 388, 389, 394, 404,
407,411,421,439
non-Christian, 87, 88, 151, 217
Christianity, 98, 120, 121
Chrysostom, St. John, 138
Church, The, 5, 30, 35, 59, 65,
78 n., 100, 135, 136, 139, 141,
143 n., 145, 150 n., 151, 154,
170, 187, 192, 199 n., 204, 216,
217, 223-229, 231, 232, 236,
261-263, 279-281, 286, 287, 305-
307, 311, 313, 320, 341, 351-
353, 373, 388, 389, 396, 398,
404, 414, 437, 440
Cicero, 369, 419, 427
clouds, 276, 277
cockle, 227, 228, 232, 260, 280
coevality, 296
co-heirs, 328
Combes, Gustave, 7, 56 n.
commandments, 269, 270, 273,
275, 276, 281
commemoration, 353
communion, 217
competentes, 217, 230, 231, 264
concubinage, 30, 266
concupiscence, 6, 13, 16, 24, 58,
169, 183, 247, 257
confession, 300
Confessor, 349, 351
confidence, 278
confirmation, 150 n.
conscience, 252
Consentius, 218
continence, 2, 17, 20, 22, 37, 39-
45, 49, 50, 57, 62-65, 69, 86,
102, 113, 116-119, 127, 128,
130, 131, 137, 151, 153, 155,
162, 164, 166, 167, 169, 177,
182, 184, 196-198, 201, 202, 229
converts, 215, 261, 278
corner-stone, 409, 413
Cornich, C. L., 7
corruption, 292
Covenant, New, 58, 107, 400, 401
Creed, 217, 240, 266, 285, 286,
287, 289
Crispina, 199
Crispus, 238
cross, 297
crucifixion, 238
Cunningham, W., 7
Curma, 370, 371
Cynegius, 349
Cyprian, 97 n., 184 n., 200 n.,
265 n., 282 n.
dancers, 280
David, King, 107, 365, 366
Dawson, Christopher, 7
deception, 250, 263
Deferrari, R. J., 312 n.
defilements, 275, 276
de Ghellinck, L, 4, 7, 313 n.,
314 n.
Deliverer, 156
demons, 381, 382, 416, 417, 421,
425, 426, 428
denarius, 172, 173
Dermine, J., 7
446
destruction, 249, 253, 279, 354
Devil, 11,41, 160, 179,252, 259,
260, 282, 291, 299, 303; see
also, Satan
Di Capua, F., 312 n., 314
Diocletian, 199 n.
diptychs, 200 n.
discipline, 228
disobedience, 45, 46
divination, 416, 417, 419, 421,
422, 425, 435
divorce, 19, 57, 59, 62, 110, 118,
124
docetism, 326 n.
Dods, Marcus, 314
dogs, 225, 227-229, 258, 277, 291,
361, 364
Donatists, 227, 418
dreams, 368, 371, 373, 380, 381
drunkards, 251, 263
dualism, 336 n.
Easter, 285 n., 288, 372, 418, 421
Egypt, 240, 241, 243, 399401,
403, 418, 420
Elias, 377
Elvira, Spanish Council of, 330
envy, 178
episcopate, 311
error, 226, 393
Esmein, A., 7
Essenes, 147 n.
Eucharist, Holy, 150 n.
Eulogius, 369
eunuchs, 127, 168-171, 187, 202,
236, 237, 243
Euphasia, 109
Eusebius, 361, 365
Evagelists, 72, 73, 76, 201, 362
Eve, 4, 58, 299
excommuication, 223, 224, 264,
279
exorcism, 217, 229
faith, 248-250, 253, 254, 258, 261,
262, 268, 269, 272, 276-278,
281, 282, 311, 389, 396
feast, marriage, 260
fecundity, 36, 144, 145, 150-152,
154, 155
fidelity (fides), 1, 4, 13, 14, 16,
48, 57, 59
Felix, St., 349, 351, 378
filth, 252, 277
Finaert, J., 314, 319 n.
fire, 244, 249, 250, 252-254, 257,
272-274, 277, 293, 296, 303
flesh, 342-345, 362, 364, 383, 394,
395, 398, 401, 405, 411
flora, 349, 351
folly, 280
forgiveness, 305
fornication, 12, 17, 19, 20, 24, 25,
32, 35, 46, 57, 61, 65-69, 71,
83, 85, 97, 102-105, 114, 122,
124-126, 129, 153, 157, 168,
241, 244, 251, 256, 262
foundation, 250, 252, 254-256,
302, 303
fowls, 355
Froget, J., 7
funeral, 355, 358
447
Gaius, 238
gall, 397
Gaul, 361
generation, 36, 37, 47, 48, 50, 58,
59, 116,297,327,331,337
Gentiles, 29, 84, 90, 391, 392,
400, 403, 404, 410414, 434,
436-439
Gervase and Protase, Sts., 382
Gift, of God, 337, 338
Gilson, K, 314, 325 n.
gladiators, 264
Gnostics, 329 n.
goats, 330
God, 6, 9-11, 21, 22, 26, 27, 29,
32, 35-38, 40, 48-51, 66, 80,
82-89,91,96,98, 105,107, 108,
110, 111, 119, 120, 123-125,
129, 131, 137, 141, 144, 146,
147, 151, 152, 155-157, 160,
161, 168, 169, 172, 173, 178,
180, 181, 183, 190, 192, 194-
199, 201, 202, 206, 207, 209,
210, 212, 223, 224, 226, 227,
232, 233, 235, 238, 239-244,
246-252, 255-273, 276-278, 282,
287, 290-307, 316-345, 353, 357,
360, 362, 363, 373, 374-399,
401-414, 418, 419, 422-425, 431-
440; Almighty, 290-292, 294,
317-319, 331 n., 397, 410;
Creator, 10, 22, 25, 151, 317,
340; Father, 181, 185, 195, 205,
206, 210, 226, 240, 266, 271,
287, 290-304, 306, 316, 319-323,
330, 332-340, 374, 402; the Om-
nipotent, 290, 293, 422-425
Godhead, 297, 337, 338
gold, 250, 255-257
Goliath, 45
Gospel, 12, 41, 55, 73, 75, 79, 84,
91,112,120,126,145,182,232,
238, 239, 243, 249, 259, 260,
271, 304, 357, 377, 392, 399,
404, 405
gossipers, 183
grace, 247, 249, 268, 273, 274,
282, 313
Greeks, 75, 359, 361, 396, 418,
439
Gregorian Code, 109-110
guardian, 281
Guelferbytanian, 287
guilt, 291
Hades, 419
hair, 354
Halicarnassus, 419
hand, right, 330
harlots, 187, 221, 244, 250, 251,
259, 261, 263, 264, 268
hay, 251, 255-257
Hefele, 311 n., 314
heresy, 135, 136, 305, 316 n.,
321 n., 326 n.
heretics, 306, 315, 316, 325, 329,
336, 341
Herod, 265
Hippo, 285, 311, 322 n., 349,
370-372, 389
Holy of Holies, 188
448
horns, of the cross, 394
humility, 180-182, 184, 185, 188,
198, 202, 203, 205, 206, 208,
210-212,279,316,322,323,414
hylomorphism, 318
idolatry, 224, 242, 243, 244, 251,
256, 264, 330 n.
idols, 32, 242, 243, 433
images, 330 n., 364
immorality, 61-64, 66, 70-77, 93,
94, 102, 113, 114, 127, 429 n.
immortality, 11, 17, 20, 155, 279,
301, 343, 399
impurity, 264
Incarnation, 236, 287, 327 n.
incest, 20
incontinence, 15, 17, 24, 43, 49,
50, 112-117, 122, 130
incorruption, 155, 292
incredulity, 268
infidelity, 57, 268
infidels, 271
iniquity, 253, 268, 395
injustice, 290
insufflation, 217
intercourse, sexual, 9, 11, 12, 15-
17, 20-24, 29-32, 40, 41, 46-50,
108, 116, 117, 147, 171,231
Isaac, 47, 51, 392, 398
Israel, 42, 180, 240, 324, 332,
374, 398, 401-403, 406-412, 436,
438
Israelites, 11, 19, 58, 59,84, 241,
268, 398, 400, 405
Jacob, 51, 392, 400, 403-410
Jerome, St., 3, 135439, 184 n.,
200 n., 336 n.
Jerusalem, 33, 175, 267, 329, 355,
398, 403-405, 410-412
Jews, 4, 147, 241, 242, 274, 278,
301, 305, 363, 387-404, 409,
414, 435, 439
John the Baptist, St., 6, 41, 42,
244, 245, 266, 268
John, the monk, 380-382
Jonathan, 365
Joseph, 4
Josias, 363, 374, 375
Jovinian, 3, 135, 136, 138
Joyce, G. H., 5, 8
Juda, 117, 398
Judaism, 143 n.
judgment, 271, 281; last, 331
Julian Law, 109
Juno, 434
Jupiter, 434
Just One, the, 422-424
justice, 289, 395
Kavanagh, D. J., 56 n.
kidnapers, 258
Kungelmann, A., 285 n., 286 n.
Labriolle, P. de, 8
Lactantius, 433 n,
Ladomersky, N., 5, 8, 58
Lamb, the, 47, 173-177, 188, 189,
194, 204, 207, 208, 394
Latin, 361
Law, the, 19, 38, 39, 42, 79, 80,
449
83, 84, 87, 93, 105, 107, 112,
114, 121, 190, 239-248, 263,
269-273, 393, 394, 397, 403405,
407, 410
Lazarus, 297, 307, 375-378
leaven, 394
Leclercq, H., 150 n., 314, 330 n.
Lent, 217
liberty, 275
licentiousness, 41, 251
life, 271, 272
light, and darkness, 317 n,
Lindau, H., 420 n.
Lord's Prayer, 217
Lot, wife of, 277
Low Sunday, 217
Lucan, 356
Lucius, of Antioch, 325 n.
lust, 29, 32, 239, 273
Madaura, 419
malice, 274, 275
Manichaeism, 3, 42, 49, 55, 135,
137, 317, 326 n., 329 n., 336 n.
Marcellinus, Ammianus, 421 n.
Mariology, 139
Marrou, H. L, 8, 420 n.
Martha, 21
martyrs, 40, 42, 199 n., 200, 202,
359, 361, 364-366, 378, 379,
381-383, 438
Mary, Virgin, 4, 21, 51, 138, 139,
141, 145-148, 150, 154, 163,
174, 210, 287, 294, 295, 324,
325, 326 n., 398
Mary, 21
Mass, 286
Master, 92, 185, 206, 207, 225,
278, 292
maternity, 326 n.
matricides, 258
matrimony, 5 154, 265
Maur, St., 285, 389
Mauris t text, 218
Mausbach, J., 5, 8
Maximinus, 322 n.
McDonald, Sister M. Francis,
312 n.
Melchisedech, 412, 413
mercy, 45, 257, 277, 278, 316,
335, 399, 414
Migne, }. P., 7, 218, 420 n.
Milan, 136, 138, 368, 369, 382
Milne, C. H., 8
miracles, 380, 429, 438
mire, 275
misery, 302
Mitterer, 218 n.
monastery, 135
money, 261
monk, 380-382
monogamy, 58
Montgomery, W., 8
monuments, 358, 359
moon, new, 393, 394
Morin, Dom, 287 n.
mortality, II, 1$
mortification, 393
Moses, 19,59, 112,223,278,323,
375-377, 404
mother, a faithful, 359, 360
mysteries, 240
450
nativity, 287, 303
negligence, 282
neighbor, 253, 256
Neo-Platonists, 419, 426 n.
Nero, 199 n.
nets, 262
Noe, 280
Nola, 349, 378
Noldin, H., 8
nuns, 200, 211
obedience, 45, 46, 49, 196
obstinacy, 282
offspring, 4, 10, 29, 32, 34, 37,
48, 58, 116, 150, 154
ointment, 357
olive, 392, 399
omnipotence, 288, 317
Onan, 117
oracles, 228, 436
Orders, Holy, 5
ordination, 35, 36, 48
oxen, 291, 401
Oxenham, H. N., 314
pagans, 4, 19, 35, 42, 57, 84, 85,
216, 274, 329, 410
pain, 341
paradise, 298, 377
parricides, 258
Pasch, the, 393, 405
Passion, 225, 239, 295, 303, 405
paterfamilias, 292
patience, 42, 223, 228, 229, 280,
297-301
Patriarchs, 6, 29, 37, 39, 42, 46,
47, 49-51, 58, 143 n., 144 n.,
357, 374, 391, 399, 406, 418
Paul, St., 4, 41, 56, 57, 85, 89,
90, 143 n., 163, 190, 191, 199
n., 216, 218, 234, 238, 247-250,
253, 254, 257, 277, 343, 363,
377, 379, 391
Pauline privilege, 78 n.
Paulinus, 349, 351
Peebles, B. M., 312 n.
penance, 107, 122-124, 222, 279,
306
Pereira, B., 4, 8
perfection, 246, 297
perjurers, 258
Perrone, E. Vincent, 8
persecution, 265, 277
Peter, St., 27, 28, 42, 174-176,
209, 234-236, 239, 241, 248,
249,251-253,267,274-277
Peters, J., 8
Pharisees, 180, 181, 187, 193, 198,
278
Philip, 236, 237, 243
Phineas, 223
piety, 357, 429
Pilate, Pontius, 295, 328
Pius XI, Pope, 3
Plato, 4 19, 42 In.
Plotinus, 419
Plutarch, 232 n., 419
polyandry, 58
polygamy, 6, 58, 144 n.
Pollentius, 55-57, 61, 101
Pope, Hugh, 8, 218 n., 287 n.,
388 n.
451
Portalie, E., 3, 8, 218 n., 285 n.,
387 n.
Possidius, 56, 285, 388 n.
Pourrat, P., 5, 8
Prat, F., 143 n.
prayer, 306
preacher, 90, 91
predestination, 271, 313
pride, 178, 179, 182, 183, 192,
193, 198, 207, 208, 211, 212,
247, 322, 414
priesthood, 412
procreation, 4, 12, 16, 18, 24, 25,
28, 29, 31, 37, 49, 117
progeny, 10, 22, 32, 36, 50, 145,
150, 169
propagation, 58, 188
prophecy, 140, 336, 380, 398, 410,
419, 431, 435, 439, 440
prophets, 33, 42, 84, 168, 169,
239, 268, 270, 297, 357, 362,
364, 374-377, 392-400, 403, 407-
413, 431, 433-440
Porphyry, 329 n.
propitiation, 271
proselytes, 278
prostitution, 20, 25, 97, 251, 257,
265
proverb, 275
Providence, 373
Ptolemies, 419
publicans, 180, 181, 186-188, 198,
208, 225, 245, 268
Durification, 39, 277
writy, 276, 341
rebirth, 338
Red Sea, 240-243
regeneration, 100, 105, 106, 241,
324
relics, 365
repentance, 241, 245, 252, 254,
264, 266, 404
resurrection, 236, 237, 271, 272,
297, 307, 328, 329 n., 343-345,
354, 357, 361, 364, 404, 405,
408
Reuter, A., 8
Rhone River, 361
Riviere, J., 314
Roman Law, 121
Rome, 135, 136, 354, 419
rope-dancers, 429
Rufinus, 361
Russell, R. P., 312 n.
Sabbath, 393, 394
sacrament (sacramentum) , 4, 5,
18, 35, 36, 48, 59, 105, 106,
154, 222, 223, 230, 232, 242-
244, 257, 258, 263, 281, 288,
393, 396
sacrifice, 401,402,410,411, 413;
of the altar, 200, 286
Sadducees, 329 n.
Saint Martin, J., 7
salvation, 253, 254, 256, 262, 273,
274, 289, 315, 324, 325, 383,
392, 401, 402, 409, 412
Samaritan, 80
Samuel, 377
452
sanctity, 26, 35, 36,48, 176, 211,
212, 338
Sara, 6, 28, 44
Satan, 17, 117, 159,223,224,279
Saul, 107, 365, 366, 377, 381
scandals, 193
sceptre, 395
Schanz, M., 387 n., 388
schism, 227, 280
schismatics, 341
scribes, 187, 278
Scripture, Holy, 10, 12, 18, 45,
49, 56, 59, 73, 77, 121, 139,
160-166, 171, 178, 195, 198,
217, 218, 224, 226, 228, 232,
234, 237, 238, 241, 243, 244,
246, 249, 251, 253, 254, 269,
271, 273, 274, 277, 278, 280,
288, 289, 298, 301, 315, 316,
318, 329, 335, 336, 362, 377,
382, 392, 404, 407, 411, 414;
see also, Testaments, two;
quotations from, or references
to, individual Books:
Acts of the Apostles, 35, 201,
234-237, 241, 268, 293, 304,
331, 337, 381, 405
Apocalypse, 47, 139, 145, 173,
204, 205, 331
Canticle of Canticles, 400
Colossians, 186, 231, 335, 393
1 Corinthians, 13, 18, 20, 23,
24, 26-28, 33, 35, 36, 40, 43,
44, 48, 49, 61, 63, 64, 77-81,
83-93, 96, 97, 100, 102, 103,
111, 115-117, 144, 152, 154,
155, 157, 158, 161, 163, 165-
167, 172, 177, 179, 183, 189-
195, 199, 200-202, 212, 221-
224, 231, 237, 238, 244, 248,
250-254, 256, 257, 261, 263,
279, 303-305, 319, 327, 329,
334, 335, 339, 340, 342-345,
356, 363, 380, 402, 403, 439
2 Corinthians, 44, 50, 145, 154,
170, 175, 204, 206, 223, 243,
279, 341, 352, 377
Daniel, 21, 163, 211, 212, 413
Deuteronomy, 11, 19, 84, 90,
168, 332, 377
Eccledastes, 28, 120
Ecclesiasticus, 51, 178, 182,
198, 206, 209, 343, 377, 382
Ephesians, 20, 109, 145, 194,
235, 255, 307, 328, 338, 342,
362, 383, 409
Esdras, 84, 116
Exodus, 177, 223, 240, 242, 324
Galatians, 43, 89, 148, 151,
193, 239, 248, 251, 254-257,
259, 263, 264, 268, 272, 275,
276, 282, 315, 329, 398, 402
Genesis, 9-11, 38, 47, 117, 144,
277, 280, 291, 299, 322, 356,
357, 404, 406
Habacuc, 315
Hebrews, 19,46,206,241, 323
Isaias, 168, 170, 175, 178, 190,
192, 207, 297, 316, 374, 376,
392, 395, 399, 403, 405-408,
411-414, 440
James, 71, 181, 185, 195, 197,
453
199, 209, 248-252, 254, 255,
258, 262, 268, 277, 281, 298,
301
Jeremias, 400
Job, 40, 192, 197, 203, 298-301
John, 12, 100, 107, 108, 120,
173, 175, 182, 188, 206, 209,
210, 225, 234, 248, 267, 269-
272, 278, 294, 319, 321-323,
326, 328, 334, 335, 337, 338,
357, 377, 378, 411
1 John, 190, 205, 207, 209,
240, 269-271, 337, 338
Jude, 248, 276, 277
1 Kings, 45, 377
2 Kings, 107, 366
3 Kings, 302, 362, 364
4 Kings, 364, 374
Luke, 21, 45, 56, 73-76, 93,
94, 111, 119, 120, 126, 129,
146, 147, 173, 175, 180, 181,
186-189, 191, 193, 195, 198,
201, 209, 222, 245, 249, 260,
268, 323, 340, 354, 355, 362,
366, 376, 377, 379, 405
2 Maccabees, 353
Malachias, 410
Mark, 56, 73-76, 93, 94, 111,
222, 227, 249, 397
Matthew, 12, 18, 19, 29, 41-43,
51, 62, 63, 70, 72-76, 79, 93,
94, 99, 111-113, 117, 121, 125-
127, 144-146, 148, 149, 152,
155, 157, 168, 170, 172, 175-
177, 180, 181, 185-188, 193,
197, 199-201, 203, 204, 206-208,
222, 225-228, 231, 239, 245,
246, 249, 252, 253, 255, 258-
262, 265, 266, 269, 270, 277-
279, 281, 292, 302-306, 326,
328, 330, 340, 345, 354, 357,
377, 392, 394, 397, 399, 408,
432
Micheas, 38
Numbers, 39, 223
1 Peter, 28, 174-176, 209, 239,
252, 274, 275
2 Peter, 248, 249, 253, 275, 276
Philippians, 31, 41, 147, 179,
181, 192, 203, 223, 321, 323,
328, 335, 395
Proverbs, 185, 188, 199, 203,
280, 322
Psalms, 10, 19, 83, 96, 140,
154, 173, 177, 180, 188-192,
194, 196, 197, 208, 210, 232,
247, 253, 270, 295, 299, 301,
332, 355, 373, 392, 394403,
406, 408, 411414, 437-440
Romans, 24, 80, 85, 93, 98,
103, 105, 121, 128, 143, 148,
172, 187, 189-192, 194, 195,
197, 203, 237, 238, 247, 248,
267, 269, 271, 273, 274, 289,
298, 301, 315, 330, 332, 337,
339, 341, 342, 373, 391, 392,
398, 413, 414
Sophonias, 413, 434, 437
1 Thessalonians, 11, 29
2 Thessalonians, 225
1 Timothy, 23, 27, 35, 40, 48,
96, 113, 117, 149, 170, 183,
454
184, 187, 224, 226, 227, 258,
259, 277
2 Timothy, 196, 290
Titus, 35, 327
Tobias, 356
Wisdom, 11,196,270,318,319,
321
seducers, 264
Seleucia, 199 n.
sensuality, 274, 275
sepulchres, 358, 360, 362
Serapeum, 419
Serapis, 418, 419, 421, 433
serpent, 298, 299
Serrier, G., 8
sheep, 291, 393, 405
Sheridan, E., 6, 8
Sinai, Mount, 401, 404, 405, 407,
410
Sinope, 419 n.
Sion, 398, 404, 405, 407
Siricius, Pope, 3, 135, 136, 138
sister, 148
slavery, 398
Sodom, 277
sodomites, 251, 258
Solomon, 270, 303, 377
souls, 325 n., 329, 341, 342, 355,
357, 361, 377, 393
spirit, 325 n., 329, 341, 342
Spirit, Holy, 26, 85, 86, 96,
163, 170, 192, 207, 226, 234-
236, 244, 247, 259, 266, 269,
273, 277, 278, 287, 294, 295,
303, 304, 324, 331, 332, 334,
335, 337-340, 380, 405
springs, dry, 275-277
Stephen, 303
Stephanas, 238
sterility, 31, 144
Stoddard, J. L., 143 n.
Stoics, 325 n.
straw, 253
Styx, 353
subordinationism, 322 n.
sun, worship of, 327 n.
superiors, 262
Susanna, 21, 51, 163, 164
swine, 99
symbolism, 4, 5
Synod, of African Bishops, 286
Syria, 131
temperance, 32, 40
temple, 252, 330
Tempter, 94, 95
Testament, New, 29, 32, 90, 91,
97, 107, 265, 274, 400
Testament, Old, 33, 51, 90, 91,
143 n., 190, 192, 353, 393, 400
Thagara, 199 n.
Thebes te, 199 n.
Thecla, 199
Theodosius, 380, 418
Theophilus, 418
Thomas Aquinas, St., 3, 6
Tillemont, L. de, 8
Tixeront, J., 8, 314, 321 n., 325
n., 326 n., 329 n., 336 n.
tomb, 328, 349, 355, 364
455
transformation, 343, 344
transgression, 269, 273
Trinity, 85, 226, 287, 303, 305,
321 n., 332-334, 339
truth, 293, 294, 319, 354, 366, 368
Tullium, 370
Turnus, 434
unbelievers, 265, 272
Valerius, 286, 311
Varro, 419
Vazquez, G., 4, 8
veil, 184
Verbeke, G., 314, 325 n.
Vergil, 353, 366, 368, 434, 438
vermin, 299
vine, 305
vinegar, 397, 398
vineyard, 399, 400
vipers, 244
virgins, 6, 21, 23-25, 35, 45-47,
85-87, 97, 139, 143, 145-151,
153-175, 184 n., 187, 188, 193-
195, 197-199, 201, 202, 204,
231, 236, 294, 295, 297, 303,
324, 328
virginity, 3, 20, 45, 46, 50, 135,
137-139, 141, 143, 145-148, 150-
152, 159-179, 182, 188, 189,
193, 198, 199 n., 202, 203, 206,
209, 226, 227, 324 n.
visions, 382, 430
vomit, 275
vows, 146 n., 183, 203, 401
water, 278
Welldon, J. E. C., 420 n.
Wernz-Vidal, 8
wheat, 227, 228, 232, 260, 280
widowhood, 166
Wilmart, A., 285 n., 388 n.
wine, 40, 231
wisdom, 319-325, 335, 338
Word, divine, 165, 188, 319, 320-
323, 325, 327, 404, 407
works, good, 248-254, 258, 261-
263, 266-269, 281, 282, 312
Zaccaeus, 45, 186
Zarb, M., 387 n.
Zebadee, 181
Zycha, J., 7, 218, 313, 314, 420
456
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