Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series • VOLUME 2
Augustine — City of God & Christian Doctrine
SECTION 1
A SELECT LIBRARY
Title: NPNF1-02. St. Augustine's City of God and Christian Doctrine Creator(s): Schaff, Philip (1819-1893) (Editor) Print Basis: New York: The Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1890 Rights: Public Domain CCEL Subjects: Proofed;Early Church; All; Classic LC Call no: BR60 LC Subjects: Christianity Early Christian Literature. …
2,276 wordsSECTION 2Such is the account given by Augustin himself [5] of the occasion and plan of this his greatest work. But in addition to this explicit infor
Such is the account given by Augustin himself [5] of the occasion and plan of this his greatest work. But in addition to this explicit information, we learn from the correspondence [6] of Augustin, that it was due to the importunity of his friend Marcellinus that this defence of Christianity extended beyond the limits of a few l…
2,238 wordsSECTION 3"The fourteen centuries fall away
"The fourteen centuries fall away Between us and the Afric saint, And at his side we urge, to-day, The immemorial quest and old complaint. No outward sign to us is given, From sea or earth comes no reply; Hushed as the warm Numidian heaven, He vainly questioned bends our frozen sky." It is true, the style of the book is …
1,231 wordsSECTION 4Book I.
Book I. ------------------------ Argument--Augustin censures the pagans, who attributed the calamities of the world, and especially the recent sack of Rome by the Goths, to the Christian religion, and its prohibition of the worship of the gods. He speaks of the blessings and ills of life, which then, as always, happened to goo…
1,309 wordsSECTION 5Chapter 2.--That It is Quite Contrary to the Usage of War, that the Victors Should Spare the Vanquished for the Sake of Their Gods.
Chapter 2.--That It is Quite Contrary to the Usage of War, that the Victors Should Spare the Vanquished for the Sake of Their Gods. There are histories of numberless wars, both before the building of Rome and since its rise and the extension of its dominion; let these be read, and let one instance be cited in which, when a city…
1,018 wordsSECTION 6Chapter 4.--Of the Asylum of Juno in Troy, Which Saved No One from the Greeks; And of the Churches of the Apostles, Which Protected from the Barbarians All Who Fled to Them.
Chapter 4.--Of the Asylum of Juno in Troy, Which Saved No One from the Greeks; And of the Churches of the Apostles, Which Protected from the Barbarians All Who Fled to Them. Troy itself, the mother of the Roman people, was not able, as I have said, to protect its own citizens in the sacred places of their gods from the fire and…
1,368 wordsSECTION 7Chapter 8.--Of the Advantages and Disadvantages Which Often Indiscriminately Accrue to Good and Wicked Men.
Chapter 8.--Of the Advantages and Disadvantages Which Often Indiscriminately Accrue to Good and Wicked Men. Will some one say, Why, then, was this divine compassion extended even to the ungodly and ungrateful? Why, but because it was the mercy of Him who daily "maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rai…
1,852 wordsSECTION 8Chapter 10.--That the Saints Lose Nothing in Losing Temporal Goods.
Chapter 10.--That the Saints Lose Nothing in Losing Temporal Goods. These are the considerations which one must keep in view, that he may answer the question whether any evil happens to the faithful and godly which cannot be turned to profit. Or shall we say that the question is needless, and that the apostle is vaporing when h…
1,413 wordsSECTION 9Chapter 11.--Of the End of This Life, Whether It is Material that It Be Long Delayed.
Chapter 11.--Of the End of This Life, Whether It is Material that It Be Long Delayed. But, it is added, many Christians were slaughtered, and were put to death in a hideous variety of cruel ways. Well, if this be hard to bear, it is assuredly the common lot of all who are born into this life. Of this at least I am certain, that…
1,219 wordsSECTION 10Chapter 13.--Reasons for Burying the Bodies of the Saints.
Chapter 13.--Reasons for Burying the Bodies of the Saints. Nevertheless the bodies of the dead are not on this account to be despised and left unburied; least of all the bodies of the righteous and faithful, which have been used by the Holy Spirit as His organs and instruments for all good works. For if the dress of a father, o…
2,030 wordsSECTION 11Chapter 17.--Of Suicide Committed Through Fear of Punishment or Dishonor.
Chapter 17.--Of Suicide Committed Through Fear of Punishment or Dishonor. And consequently, even if some of these virgins killed themselves to avoid such disgrace, who that has any human feeling would refuse to forgive them? And as for those who would not put an end to their lives, lest they might seem to escape the crime of an…
928 wordsSECTION 12Chapter 19.--Of Lucretia, Who Put an End to Her Life Because of the Outrage Done Her.
Chapter 19.--Of Lucretia, Who Put an End to Her Life Because of the Outrage Done Her. This, then, is our position, and it seems sufficiently lucid. We maintain that when a woman is violated while her soul admits no consent to the iniquity, but remains inviolably chaste, the sin is not hers, but his who violates her. But do they…
1,094 wordsSECTION 13Chapter 20.--That Christians Have No Authority for Committing Suicide in Any Circumstances Whatever.
Chapter 20.--That Christians Have No Authority for Committing Suicide in Any Circumstances Whatever. It is not without significance, that in no passage of the holy canonical books there can be found either divine precept or permission to take away our own life, whether for the sake of entering on the enjoyment of immortality, o…
846 wordsSECTION 14Chapter 22.--That Suicide Can Never Be Prompted by Magnanimity.
Chapter 22.--That Suicide Can Never Be Prompted by Magnanimity. But they who have laid violent hands on themselves are perhaps to be admired for their greatness of soul, though they cannot be applauded for the soundness of their judgment. However, if you look at the matter more closely, you will scarcely call it greatness of so…
878 wordsSECTION 15Chapter 24.--That in that Virtue in Which Regulus Excels Cato, Christians are Pre-Eminently Distinguished.
Chapter 24.--That in that Virtue in Which Regulus Excels Cato, Christians are Pre-Eminently Distinguished. Our opponents are offended at our preferring to Cato the saintly Job, who endured dreadful evils in his body rather than deliver himself from all torment by self-inflicted death; or other saints, of whom it is recorded in …
928 wordsSECTION 16Chapter 26.--That in Certain Peculiar Cases the Examples of the Saints are Not to Be Followed.
Chapter 26.--That in Certain Peculiar Cases the Examples of the Saints are Not to Be Followed. But, they say, in the time of persecution some holy women escaped those who menaced them with outrage, by casting themselves into rivers which they knew would drown them; and having died in this manner, they are venerated in the churc…
1,035 wordsSECTION 17Chapter 28.--By What Judgment of God the Enemy Was Permitted to Indulge His Lust on the Bodies of Continent Christians.
Chapter 28.--By What Judgment of God the Enemy Was Permitted to Indulge His Lust on the Bodies of Continent Christians. Let not your life, then, be a burden to you, ye faithful servants of Christ, though your chastity was made the sport of your enemies. You have a grand and true consolation, if you maintain a good conscience, a…
776 wordsSECTION 18Chapter 29.--What the Servants of Christ Should Say in Reply to the Unbelievers Who Cast in Their Teeth that Christ Did Not Rescue Them from the Fury of Their Enemies.
Chapter 29.--What the Servants of Christ Should Say in Reply to the Unbelievers Who Cast in Their Teeth that Christ Did Not Rescue Them from the Fury of Their Enemies. The whole family of God, most high and most true, has therefore a consolation of its own,--a consolation which cannot deceive, and which has in it a surer hope t…
1,102 wordsSECTION 19Chapter 32.--Of the Establishment of Scenic Entertainments.
Chapter 32.--Of the Establishment of Scenic Entertainments. Know then, ye who are ignorant of this, and ye who feign ignorance be reminded, while you murmur against Him who has freed you from such rulers, that the scenic games, exhibitions of shameless folly and license, were established at Rome, not by men's vicious cravings, …
757 wordsSECTION 20Chapter 35.--Of the Sons of the Church Who are Hidden Among the Wicked, and of False Christians Within the Church.
Chapter 35.--Of the Sons of the Church Who are Hidden Among the Wicked, and of False Christians Within the Church. Let these and similar answers (if any fuller and fitter answers can be found) be given to their enemies by the redeemed family of the Lord Christ, and by the pilgrim city of King Christ. But let this city bear in m…
712 wordsSECTION 21Chapter 1.--Of the Limits Which Must Be Put to the Necessity of Replying to an Adversary.
Chapter 1.--Of the Limits Which Must Be Put to the Necessity of Replying to an Adversary. If the feeble mind of man did not presume to resist the clear evidence of truth, but yielded its infirmity to wholesome doctrines, as to a health-giving medicine, until it obtained from God, by its faith and piety, the grace needed to heal…
976 wordsSECTION 22Chapter 3.--That We Need Only to Read History in Order to See What Calamities the Romans Suffered Before the Religion of Christ Began to Compete with the Worship of the Gods.
Chapter 3.--That We Need Only to Read History in Order to See What Calamities the Romans Suffered Before the Religion of Christ Began to Compete with the Worship of the Gods. But remember that, in recounting these things, I have still to address myself to ignorant men; so ignorant, indeed, as to give birth to the common saying,…
1,013 wordsSECTION 23Chapter 5.--Of the Obscenities Practiced in Honor of the Mother of the Gods.
Chapter 5.--Of the Obscenities Practiced in Honor of the Mother of the Gods. In this matter I would prefer to have as my assessors in judgment, not those men who rather take pleasure in these infamous customs than take pains to put an end to them, but that same Scipio Nasica who was chosen by the senate as the citizen most wort…
1,608 wordsSECTION 24Chapter 8.--That the Theatrical Exhibitions Publishing the Shameful Actions of the Gods, Propitiated Rather Than Offended Them.
Chapter 8.--That the Theatrical Exhibitions Publishing the Shameful Actions of the Gods, Propitiated Rather Than Offended Them. But, some one will interpose, these are the fables of poets, not the deliverances of the gods themselves. Well, I have no mind to arbitrate between the lewdness of theatrical entertainments and of myst…
871 wordsSECTION 25Chapter 10.--That the Devils, in Suffering Either False or True Crimes to Be Laid to Their Charge, Meant to Do Men a Mischief.
Chapter 10.--That the Devils, in Suffering Either False or True Crimes to Be Laid to Their Charge, Meant to Do Men a Mischief. It is alleged, in excuse of this practice, that the stories told of the gods are not true, but false, and mere inventions, but this only makes matters worse, if we form our estimate by the morality our …
1,189 wordsSECTION 26Chapter 13.--That the Romans Should Have Understood that Gods Who Desired to Be Worshipped in Licentious Entertainments Were Unworthy of Divine Honor.
Chapter 13.--That the Romans Should Have Understood that Gods Who Desired to Be Worshipped in Licentious Entertainments Were Unworthy of Divine Honor. But Scipio, were he alive, would possibly reply: "How could we attach a penalty to that which the gods themselves have consecrated? For the theatrical entertainments in which suc…
1,579 wordsSECTION 27Chapter 15.--That It Was Vanity, Not Reason, Which Created Some of the Roman Gods.
Chapter 15.--That It Was Vanity, Not Reason, Which Created Some of the Roman Gods. But is it not manifest that vanity rather than reason regulated the choice of some of their false gods? This Plato, whom they reckon a demigod, and who used all his eloquence to preserve men from the most dangerous spiritual calamities, has yet n…
1,244 wordsSECTION 28Chapter 18.--What the History of Sallust Reveals Regarding the Life of the Romans, Either When Straitened by Anxiety or Relaxed in Security.
Chapter 18.--What the History of Sallust Reveals Regarding the Life of the Romans, Either When Straitened by Anxiety or Relaxed in Security. I will therefore pause, and adduce the testimony of Sallust himself, whose words in praise of the Romans (that "equity and virtue prevailed among them not more by force of laws than of nat…
963 wordsSECTION 29Chapter 19.--Of the Corruption Which Had Grown Upon the Roman Republic Before Christ Abolished the Worship of the Gods.
Chapter 19.--Of the Corruption Which Had Grown Upon the Roman Republic Before Christ Abolished the Worship of the Gods. Here, then, is this Roman republic, "which has changed little by little from the fair and virtuous city it was, and has become utterly wicked and dissolute." It is not I who am the first to say this, but their…
1,102 wordsSECTION 30Chapter 21.--Cicero's Opinion of the Roman Republic.
Chapter 21.--Cicero's Opinion of the Roman Republic. But if our adversaries do not care how foully and disgracefully the Roman republic be stained by corrupt practices, so long only as it holds together and continues in being, and if they therefore pooh-pooh the testimony of Sallust to its "utterly wicked and profligate" condit…
1,486 wordsSECTION 31Chapter 22.--That the Roman Gods Never Took Any Steps to Prevent the Republic from Being Ruined by Immorality.
Chapter 22.--That the Roman Gods Never Took Any Steps to Prevent the Republic from Being Ruined by Immorality. But what is relevant to the present question is this, that however admirable our adversaries say the republic was or is, it is certain that by the testimony of their own most learned writers it had become, long before …
1,534 wordsSECTION 32Chapter 24.--Of the Deeds of Sylla, in Which the Demons Boasted that He Had Their Help.
Chapter 24.--Of the Deeds of Sylla, in Which the Demons Boasted that He Had Their Help. It is certain that Sylla--whose rule was so cruel that, in comparison with it, the preceding state of things which he came to avenge was regretted--when first he advanced towards Rome to give battle to Marius, found the auspices so favourabl…
823 wordsSECTION 33Chapter 25.--How Powerfully the Evil Spirits Incite Men to Wicked Actions, by Giving Them the Quasi-Divine Authority of Their Example.
Chapter 25.--How Powerfully the Evil Spirits Incite Men to Wicked Actions, by Giving Them the Quasi-Divine Authority of Their Example. Now, who does not hereby comprehend,--unless he has preferred to imitate such gods rather than by divine grace to withdraw himself from their fellowship,--who does not see how eagerly these evil…
736 wordsSECTION 34Chapter 26.--That the Demons Gave in Secret Certain Obscure Instructions in Morals, While in Public Their Own Solemnities Inculcated All Wickedness.
Chapter 26.--That the Demons Gave in Secret Certain Obscure Instructions in Morals, While in Public Their Own Solemnities Inculcated All Wickedness. Seeing that this is so,--seeing that the filthy and cruel deeds, the disgraceful and criminal actions of the gods, whether real or feigned, were at their own request published, and…
734 wordsSECTION 35Chapter 27.--That the Obscenities of Those Plays Which the Romans Consecrated in Order to Propitiate Their Gods, Contributed Largely to the Overthrow of Public Order.
Chapter 27.--That the Obscenities of Those Plays Which the Romans Consecrated in Order to Propitiate Their Gods, Contributed Largely to the Overthrow of Public Order. Cicero, a weighty man, and a philosopher in his way, when about to be made edile, wished the citizens to understand [116] that, among the other duties of his magi…
1,476 wordsSECTION 36Book III.
Book III. ------------------------ Argument--As in the foregoing book Augustin has proved regarding moral and spiritual calamities, so in this book he proves regarding external and bodily disasters, that since the foundation of the city the Romans have been continually subject to them; and that even when the false gods were wo…
890 wordsSECTION 37Chapter 3.--That the Gods Could Not Be Offended by the Adultery of Paris, This Crime Being So Common Among Themselves.
Chapter 3.--That the Gods Could Not Be Offended by the Adultery of Paris, This Crime Being So Common Among Themselves. There is no ground, then, for representing the gods (by whom, as they say, that empire stood, though they are proved to have been conquered by the Greeks) as being enraged at the Trojan perjury. Neither, as oth…
910 wordsSECTION 38Chapter 6.--That the Gods Exacted No Penalty for the Fratricidal Act of Romulus.
Chapter 6.--That the Gods Exacted No Penalty for the Fratricidal Act of Romulus. I add another instance: If the sins of men so greatly incensed those divinities, that they abandoned Troy to fire and sword to punish the crime of Paris, the murder of Romulus' brother ought to have incensed them more against the Romans than the ca…
967 wordsSECTION 39Chapter 8.--Whether Rome Ought to Have Been Entrusted to the Trojan Gods.
Chapter 8.--Whether Rome Ought to Have Been Entrusted to the Trojan Gods. Where, then, was the wisdom of entrusting Rome to the Trojan gods, who had demonstrated their weakness in the loss of Troy? Will some one say that, when Fimbria stormed Troy, the gods were already resident in Rome? How, then, did the image of Minerva rema…
1,273 wordsSECTION 40Chapter 11.--Of the Statue of Apollo at Cumæ, Whose Tears are Supposed to Have Portended Disaster to the Greeks, Whom the God Was Unable to Succor.
Chapter 11.--Of the Statue of Apollo at Cumæ, Whose Tears are Supposed to Have Portended Disaster to the Greeks, Whom the God Was Unable to Succor. And it is still this weakness of the gods which is confessed in the story of the Cuman Apollo, who is said to have wept for four days during the war with the Achæans and King Aristo…
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Historical text source: Christian Classics Ethereal Library. The downloaded text itself records Public Domain.