The City of God, Volume I

FOOTNOTES:

[1] a.d. 410.

[2] Retractations, ii. 43.

[3] Letters 132-8.

[4] See some admirable remarks on this subject in the useful work of Beugnot, Histoire de la Destruction du Paganisme, ii. 83 et sqq.

[5] As Waterland (iv. 760) does call it, adding that it is "his most learned, most correct, and most elaborate work."

[6] For proof, see the Benedictine Preface.

[7] "Hitherto the Apologies had been framed to meet particular exigencies: they were either brief and pregnant statements of the Christian doctrines; refutations of prevalent calumnies; invectives against the follies and crimes of Paganism; or confutations of anti-Christian works like those of Celsus, Porphyry, or Julian, closely following their course of argument, and rarely expanding into general and comprehensive views of the great conflict."—Milman, History of Christianity, iii. c. 10. We are not acquainted with any more complete preface to the City of God than is contained in the two or three pages which Milman has devoted to this subject.

[8] See the interesting remarks of Lactantius, Instit. vii. 25.

[9] "HÆret vox et singultus intercipiunt verba dictantis. Capitur urbs quÆ totum cepit orbem."—Jerome, iv. 783.

[10] See below, iv. 7.

[11] This is well brought out by Merivale, Conversion of the Roman Empire, p. 145, etc.

[12] Ozanam, History of Civilisation in the Fifth Century (Eng. trans.), ii. 160.

[13] Abstracts of the work at greater or less length are given by Dupin, Bindemann, BÖhringer, Poujoulat, Ozanam, and others.

[14] His words are: "Plus on examine la CitÉ de Dieu, plus on reste convaincu que cet ouvrage dÛt exercea tres-peu d'influence sur l'esprit des paÏens" (ii. 122); and this though he thinks one cannot but be struck with the grandeur of the ideas it contains.

[15] History of Ecclesiastical Writers, i. 406.

[16] Huetiana, p. 24.

[17] Flottes, Etudes sur S. Augustin (Paris, 1861), pp. 154-6, one of the most accurate and interesting even of French monographs on theological writers.

[18] These editions will be found detailed in the second volume of Schoenemann's Bibliotheca Pat.

[19] His words (in Ep. vi.) are quite worth quoting: "Cura rogo te, ut excudantur aliquot centena exemplarium istius operis a reliquo Augustini corpore separata; nam multi erunt studiosi qui Augustinum totum emere vel nollent, vel non poterunt, quia non egebunt, seu quia tantum pecuniÆ non habebunt. Scio enim fere a deditis studiis istis elegantioribus prÆter hoc Augustini opus nullum fere aliud legi ejusdem autoris."

[20] The fullest and fairest discussion of the very simple yet never settled question of Augustine's learning will be found in Nourrisson's Philosophie de S. Augustin, ii. 92-100.

[21] Erasmi EpistolÆ xx. 2.

[22] A large part of it has been translated in Saisset's Pantheism (Clark, Edin.).

[23] By J. H., published in 1610, and again in 1620, with Vives' commentary.

[24] As the letters of Vives are not in every library, we give his comico-pathetic account of the result of his Augustinian labours on his health: "Ex quo Augustinum perfeci, nunquam valui ex sententia; proximÂ vero hebdomade et hac, fracto corpore cuncto, et nervis lassitudine quadam et debilitate dejectis, in caput decem turres incumbere mihi videntur incidendo pondere, ac mole intolerabili; isti sunt fructus studiorum, et merces pulcherrimi laboris; quid labor et benefacta juvant?"

[25] See the Editor's Preface.

[26] Ps. xciv. 15, rendered otherwise in Eng. ver.

[27] Jas. iv. 6 and 1 Pet. v. 5.

[28] Virgil, Æneid, vi. 854.

[29] The Benedictines remind us that Alexander and Xenophon, at least on some occasions, did so.

[30] Virgil, Æneid, ii. 501-2. The renderings of Virgil are from Conington.

[31] Ibid. ii. 166.

[32] Ibid.

[33] Horace, Ep. I. ii. 69.

[34] Æneid, i. 71.

[35] Ibid. ii. 319.

[36] Ibid. 293.

[37] Non numina bona, sed omina mala.

[38] Virgil, Æneid, ii. 761.

[39] Though "levis" was the word usually employed to signify the inconstancy of the Greeks, it is evidently here used, in opposition to "immanis" of the following clause, to indicate that the Greeks were more civilised than the barbarians, and not relentless, but, as we say, easily moved.

[40] De Conj. Cat. c. 51.

[41] Sallust, Cat. Conj. ix.

[42] Ps. lxxxix. 32.

[43] Matt. v. 45.

[44] Rom. ii. 4.

[45] So Cyprian (Contra Demetrianum) says, "Poenam de adversis mundi ille sentit, cui et lÆtitia et gloria omnis in mundo est."

[46] Ezek. xxxiii. 6.

[47] Compare with this chapter the first homily of Chrysostom to the people of Antioch.

[48] Rom. viii. 28.

[49] 1 Pet. iii. 4.

[50] 1 Tim. vi. 6-10.

[51] Job i. 21.

[52] 1 Tim. vi. 17-19.

[53] Matt. vi. 19-21.

[54] Paulinus was a native of Bordeaux, and both by inheritance and marriage acquired great wealth, which, after his conversion in his thirty-sixth year, he distributed to the poor. He became bishop of Nola in a.d. 409, being then in his fifty-sixth year. Nola was taken by Alaric shortly after the sack of Rome.

[55] Much of a kindred nature might be gathered from the Stoics. Antoninus says (ii. 14): "Though thou shouldest be going to live 3000 years, and as many times 10,000 years, still remember that no man loses any other life than this which he now lives, nor lives any other than this which he now loses. The longest and the shortest are thus brought to the same."

[56] Augustine expresses himself more fully on this subject in his tract, De cura pro mortuis gerenda.

[57] Matt. x. 28.

[58] Luke xii. 4.

[59] Ps. lxxix. 2, 3.

[60] Ps. cxvi. 15.

[61] Diogenes especially, and his followers. See also Seneca, De Tranq. c. 14, and Epist. 92; and in Cicero's Tusc. Disp. i. 43, the answer of Theodorus, the Cyrenian philosopher, to Lysimachus, who threatened him with the cross: "Threaten that to your courtiers; it is of no consequence to Theodorus whether he rot in the earth or in the air."

[62] Lucan, Pharsalia, vii. 819, of those whom CÆsar forbade to be buried after the battle of Pharsalia.

[63] Gen. xxv. 9, xxxv. 29, etc.

[64] Gen. xlvii. 29, l. 24.

[65] Tob. xii. 12.

[66] Matt. xxvi. 10-13.

[67] John xix. 38.

[68] Dan. iii.

[69] Jonah.

[70] "Second to none," as he is called by Herodotus, who first of all tells his well-known story (Clio. 23, 24).

[71] Augustine here uses the words of Cicero ("vigilando peremerunt"), who refers to Regulus, in Pisonem, c. 19. Aulus Gellius, quoting Tubero and Tuditanus (vi. 4), adds some further particulars regarding these tortures.

[72] As the Stoics generally would affirm.

[73] Virgil, Æneid, vi. 434.

[74] Plutarch's Life of Cato, 72.

[75] 1 Cor. ii. 11.

[76] Ecclus. iii. 27.

[77] Rom. xi. 33.

[78] Ps. xlii. 10.

[79] Ps. xcvi. 4, 5.

[80] Originally the spectators had to stand, and now (according to Livy, Ep. xlviii.) the old custom was restored.

[81] Ps. xciv. 4.

[82] 2 Tim. iii. 7.

[83] "Pluvia defit, causa Christiani." Similar accusations and similar replies may be seen in the celebrated passage of Tertullian's Apol. c. 40, and in the eloquent exordium of Arnobius, C. Gentes.

[84] Augustine is supposed to refer to Symmachus, who similarly accused the Christians in his address to the Emperor Valentinianus in the year 384. At Augustine's request, Paulus Orosius wrote his history in confutation of Symmachus' charges.

[85] Tertullian (Apol. c. 24) mentions Coelestis as specially worshipped in Africa. Augustine mentions her again in the 26th chapter of this book, and in other parts of his works.

[86] Berecynthia is one of the many names of Rhea or Cybele. Livy (xxix. 11) relates that the image of Cybele was brought to Rome the day before the ides of April, which was accordingly dedicated as her feast-day. The image, it seems, had to be washed in the stream Almon, a tributary of the Tiber, before being placed in the temple of Victory; and each year, as the festival returned, the washing was repeated with much pomp at the same spot. Hence Lucan's line (i. 600), 'Et lotam parvo revocant Almone Cybelen,' and the elegant verses of Ovid, Fast. iv. 337 et seq.

[87] "Fercula," dishes, or courses.

[88] See Cicero, De Nat. Deor. ii. 24.

[89] Prov. vi. 26.

[90] Fugalia. Vives is uncertain to what feast Augustine refers. Censorinus understands him to refer to a feast celebrating the expulsion of the kings from Rome. This feast, however (celebrated on the 24th February), was commonly called "Regifugium."

[91] Persius, Sat. iii. 66-72.

[92] See below, books viii.-xii.

[93] "Galli," the castrated priests of Cybele, who were named after the river Gallus, in Phrygia, the water of which was supposed to intoxicate or madden those who drank it. According to Vitruvius (viii. 3), there was a similar fountain in Paphlagonia. Apuleius (Golden Ass, viii.) gives a graphic and humorous description of the dress, dancing, and imposture of these priests; mentioning, among other things, that they lashed themselves with whips and cut themselves with knives till the ground was wet with blood.

[94] Persius, Sat. iii. 37.

[95] Ter. Eun. iii. 5. 36; and cf. the similar allusion in Aristoph. Clouds, 1033-4. It may be added that the argument of this chapter was largely used by the wiser of the heathen themselves. Dionysius Hal. (ii. 20) and Seneca (De Brev. Vit. c. xvi.) make the very same complaint; and it will be remembered that his adoption of this reasoning was one of the grounds on which Euripides was suspected of atheism.

[96] This sentence recalls Augustine's own experience as a boy, which he bewails in his Confessions.

[97] Labeo, a jurist of the time of Augustus, learned in law and antiquities, and the author of several works much prized by his own and some succeeding ages. The two articles in Smith's Dictionary on Antistius and Cornelius Labeo should be read.

[98] "Lectisternia," feasts in which the images of the gods were laid on pillows in the streets, and all kinds of food set before them.

[99] According to Livy (vii. 2), theatrical exhibitions were introduced in the year 392 a. u. c. Before that time, he says, there had only been the games of the circus. The Romans sent to Etruria for players, who were called "histriones," "hister" being the Tuscan word for a player. Other particulars are added by Livy.

[100] See the Republic, book iii.

[101] Comp. Tertullian, De Spectac. c. 22.

[102] The Egyptian gods represented with dogs' heads, called by Lucan (viii. 832) semicanes deos.

[103] The Fever had, according to Vives, three altars in Rome. See Cicero, De Nat. Deor. iii. 25, and Ælian, Var. Hist. xii. 11.

[104] Cicero, De Republica, v. Compare the third Tusculan QuÆst. c. ii.

[105] In the year a.u. 299, three ambassadors were sent from Rome to Athens to copy Solon's laws, and acquire information about the institutions of Greece. On their return the Decemviri were appointed to draw up a code; and finally, after some tragic interruptions, the celebrated Twelve Tables were accepted as the fundamental statutes of Roman law (fons universi publici privatique juris). These were graven on brass, and hung up for public information. Livy, iii. 31-34.

[106] Possibly he refers to Plautus' Persa, iv. 4. 11-14.

[107] Sallust, Cat. Con. ix. Compare the similar saying of Tacitus regarding the chastity of the Germans: "Plusque ibi boni mores valent, quam alibi bonÆ leges" (Germ. xix.).

[108] The same collocation of words is used by Cicero with reference to the well-known mode of renewing the appetite in use among the Romans.

[109] Æneid, ii. 351-2.

[110] 2 Cor. xi. 14.

[111] Cicero, C. Verrem, vi. 8.

[112] Cicero, C. Catilinam, iii. 8.

[113] Alluding to the sanctuary given to all who fled to Rome in its early days.

[114] Virgil, Æneid, i. 278.

[115] Compare Aug. Epist. ad Deogratias, 102, 13; and De PrÆd. Sanct. 19.

[116] Ch. iv.

[117] Virg. Georg. i. 502, 'LaomedonteÆ luimus perjuria TrojÆ.'

[118] Iliad, xx. 293 et seqq.

[119] Æneid, v. 810, 811.

[120] Gratis et ingratis.

[121] De Conj. Cat. vi.

[122] Helen's husband.

[123] Venus' husband.

[124] Suetonius, in his Life of Julius CÆsar (c. 6), relates that, in pronouncing a funeral oration in praise of his aunt Julia, CÆsar claimed for the Julian gens to which his family belonged a descent from Venus, through Iulus, son of Eneas.

[125] Livy, 83, one of the lost books; and Appian, in Mithridat.

[126] The gates of Janus were not the gates of a temple, but the gates of a passage called Janus, which was used only for military purposes; shut therefore in peace, open in war.

[127] The year of the Consuls T. Manlius and C. Atilius, a. u. c. 519.

[128] Sall. Conj. Cat. ii.

[129] Æneid, viii. 326-7.

[130] Sall. Cat. Conj. vi.

[131] Æneid, xi. 532.

[132] Ibid. x. 464.

[133] Livy, x. 47.

[134] Being son of Apollo.

[135] Virgil, Æn. i. 286.

[136] Pharsal. v. 1.

[137] Æneid, x. 821, of Lausus:

"But when Anchises' son surveyed
The fair, fair face so ghastly made,
He groaned, by tenderness unmanned,
And stretched the sympathizing hand," etc.

[138] Virgil, Æneid, vi. 813.

[139] Sallust, Cat. Conj. ii.

[140] Ps. x. 3.

[141] Æneid, ii. 351-2.

[142] Cicero, De Rep. ii. 10.

[143] Contra Cat. iii. 2.

[144] Æneid, vi. 820, etc.

[145] His nephew.

[146] Hist. i.

[147] Lectisternia, from lectus, a couch, and sterno, I spread.

[148] Proletarius, from proles, offspring.

[149] The oracle ran: "Dico te, Pyrrhe, vincere posse Romanos."

[150] Troy, Lavinia, Alba.

[151] Under the inscription on the temple some person wrote the line, "VecordiÆ opus Ædem facit ConcordiÆ"—The work of discord makes the temple of Concord.

[152] Cicero, in Catilin. iii. sub. fin.

[153] Lucan, Pharsal. ii. 142-146.

[154] Virgil, Æneid, i. 417.

[155] In Augustine's letter to Evodius (169), which was written towards the end of the year 415, he mentions that this fourth book and the following one were begun and finished during that same year.

[156] Comp. Bacon's Essay on the Vicissitudes of Things.

[157] Matt. v. 45.

[158] 2 Pet. ii. 19.

[159] Nonius Marcell. borrows this anecdote from Cicero, De Repub. iii.

[160] It was extinguished by Crassus in its third year.

[161] Cloacina, supposed by Lactantius (De falsa relig. i. 20), Cyprian (De Idol. vanit.), and Augustine (infra., c. 23) to be the goddess of the "cloaca," or sewage of Rome. Others, however, suppose it to be equivalent to Cluacina, a title given to Venus, because the Romans after the end of the Sabine war purified themselves (cluere) in the vicinity of her statue.

[162] Forculum foribus, Cardeam cardini, Limentinum limini.

[163] Virgil, Eclog. iii. 60.

[164] Virgil, Æneid, i. 47.

[165] Cicero, De Nat. Deor. ii. 25.

[166] Virgil, Georg. ii. 325, 326.

[167] Eusebius, De PrÆp. Evang. i. 10.

[168] Virgil, Georg. iv. 221, 222.

[169] The feminine Fortune.

[170] Hab. ii. 4.

[171] So called from the consent or harmony of the celestial movements of these gods.

[172] Tusc. QuÆst. i. 26.

[173] Livy, ii. 36; Cicero, De Divin. 26.

[174] Called by Cicero (De Oratore, i. 39) the most eloquent of lawyers, and the best skilled lawyer among eloquent men.

[175] Superflua non nocent.

[176] Rom. i. 25.

[177] De Divin. ii. 37.

[178] Cic. De Nat. Deorum, lib. ii. c. 28.

[179] Superstition, from superstes. Against this etymology of Cicero, see Lact. Inst. Div. iv. 28.

[180] Balbus, from balbutiens, stammering, babbling.

[181] See Cicero, De Nat. Deor. i. 2.

[182] Plutarch's Numa, c. 8.

[183] Written in the year 415.

[184] On the application of astrology to national prosperity, and the success of certain religions, see Lecky's Rationalism, i. 303.

[185] This fact is not recorded in any of the extant works of Hippocrates or Cicero. Vives supposes it may have found place in Cicero's book, De Fato.

[186] i.e. the potter.

[187] Epist. 107.

[188] Odyssey, xviii. 136, 137.

[189] De Divinat. ii.

[190] Ps. xiv. 1

[191] Book iii.

[192] Ps. lxii. 11, 12.

[193] Sallust, Cat. vii.

[194] Augustine notes that the name consul is derived from consulere, and thus signifies a more benign rule than that of a rex (from regere), or dominus (from dominari).

[195] Æneid, viii. 646.

[196] Æneid, i. 279.

[197] Ibid. vi. 847.

[198] Sallust, in Cat. c. xi.

[199] Sallust, in Cat. c. 54.

[200] 2 Cor. i. 12.

[201] Gal. vi. 4.

[202] Sallust, in Cat. c. 52.

[203] Horace, Epist. i. 1. 36, 37.

[204] Hor. Carm. ii. 2.

[205] Tusc. QuÆst. i. 2.

[206] John v. 44.

[207] John xii. 43.

[208] Matt. x. 33.

[209] Matt. vi. 1.

[210] Matt. v. 16.

[211] Matt. vi. 2.

[212] Jactantia.

[213] Æneid, vi. 820.

[214] Matt. x. 28.

[215] Matt. viii. 22.

[216] Acts ii. 45.

[217] Rom. viii. 18.

[218] Prov. viii. 15.

[219] Æneid, vii. 266.

[220] Job xxxiv. 30.

[221] Of the Thrasymene Lake and CannÆ.

[222] Constantinople.

[223] Constantius, Constantine, and Constans.

[224] Panegyr. de tertio Honorii consulatu.

[225] Tusc. Quaest. v. 19.

[226] Ps. xl. 4.

[227] Plato, in the TimÆus.

[228] Ch. xi. and xxi.

[229] See Virgil, Ec. iii. 9.

[230] Of the four books De Acad., dedicated to Varro, only a part of the first is extant.

[231] Cicero, De QuÆst. Acad. i. 3.

[232] In his book De Metris, chapter on phalÆcian verses.

[233] Tarquin the Proud, having bought the books of the sibyl, appointed two men to preserve and interpret them (Dionys. Halic. Antiq. iv. 62). These were afterwards increased to ten, while the plebeians were contending for larger privileges; and subsequently five more were added.

[234] Ch. 31.

[235] Fabulare.

[236] Fabulosum.

[237] Civile.

[238] Timeri.

[239] Vereri.

[240] Intercido, I cut or cleave.

[241] Paranymphi.

[242] Comp. Tertullian, Adv. Nat. ii. 11; Arnobius, Contra Gent. iv.; Lactantius, Inst. i. 20.

[243] Mentioned also by Tertullian, Apol. 12, but not extant.

[244] Numina. Another reading is nomina; and with either reading another translation is admissible: "One is announcing to a god the names (or gods) who salute him."

[245] Tert. Apol. 13, "Nec electio sine reprobatione;" and Ad Nationes, ii. 9, "Si dei ut bulbi seliguntur, qui non seliguntur, reprobi pronuntiantur."

[246] Cicero, De Nat. Deor. ii., distinguishes this Liber from Liber Bacchus, son of Jupiter and Semele.

[247] Januam.

[248] Vivificator.

[249] Sensificator.

[250] As we say, "right-minded."

[251] Ch. 21, 23.

[252] The father Saturn, and the mother Ops, e.g., being more obscure than their son Jupiter and daughter Juno.

[253] Sallust, Cat. Conj. ch. 8.

[254] Vicus argentarius.

[255] Virgil, Æneid, viii. 357, 358.

[256] Quadrifrons.

[257] Frons.

[258] "Quanto iste innocentior esset, tanto frontosior appareret;" being used for the shamelessness of innocence, as we use "face" for the shamelessness of impudence.

[259] Cicero, Tusc. QuÆst. v. 13.

[260] An interesting account of the changes made in the Roman year by Numa is given in Plutarch's life of that king. Ovid also (Fasti, ii.) explains the derivation of February, telling us that it was the last month of the old year, and took its name from the lustrations performed then: "Februa Romani dixere piamina patres."

[261] Ennius, in Cicero, De Nat. Deor. ii. 18.

[262] John x. 9.

[263] Georgic, ii. 470.

[264] Summa, which also includes the meaning "last."

[265] Virgil, Eclog. iii. 60, who borrows the expression from the PhÆnomena of Aratus.

[266] Soranus lived about b.c. 100. See Smith's Dict.

[267] Tigillus.

[268] Ruma.

[269] "Pecunia," that is, property; the original meaning of "pecunia" being property in cattle, then property or wealth of any kind. Comp. Augustine, De discipl. Christ. 6.

[270] Sallust, Catil. c. 11.

[271] Quasi medius currens.

[272] Nuncius.

[273] Enunciantur.

[274] Coelo.

[275] Coelum.

[276] Sc. ??????.

[277] See c. 16.

[278] Varro, De Ling. Lat. v. 68.

[279] Nourisher.

[280] Returner.

[281] In the book De Ratione Naturali Deorum.

[282] Mundum.

[283] Immundum.

[284] Mundus.

[285] Mundum.

[286] Virgil, Æneid, viii. 319-20.

[287] In the TimÆus.

[288] Plutarch's Numa; Livy, xl. 29.

[289] Comp. Lactantius, Instit. i. 6.

[290] Egesserit.

[291] Wisdom vii. 24-27.

[292] "Sapiens," that is, a wise man, one who had attained to wisdom.

[293] Finem boni.

[294] Dii majorum gentium.

[295] Book i. 13.

[296] Rom. i. 19, 20.

[297] Col. ii. 8.

[298] Rom. i. 19, 20.

[299] Acts xvii. 28.

[300] Rom. i. 21-23.

[301] De Doctrina Christiana, ii. 43. Comp. Retract. ii. 4, 2.

[302] Liberating Jewish slaves, and sending gifts to the temple. See Josephus, Ant. xii. 2.

[303] Gen. i. 1, 2.

[304] Spiritus.

[305] Ex. iii. 14.

[306] Rom. i. 20.

[307] Ch. 14.

[308] De Deo Socratis.

[309] Virgil, Æn. 7. 338.

[310] Virgil, Æn. 4. 492, 493.

[311] Virgil, Ec. 8. 99.

[312] Pliny (Hist. Nat. xxviii. 2) and others quote the law as running: "Qui fruges incantasit, qui malum carmen incantasit.... neu alienam segetem pelexeris."

[313] Before Claudius, the prefect of Africa, a heathen.

[314] Another reading, "whom they could not know, though near to themselves."

[315] These quotations are from a dialogue between Hermes and Æsculapius, which is said to have been translated into Latin by Apuleius.

[316] Rom. i. 21.

[317] Jer. xvi. 20.

[318] Zech. xiii. 2.

[319] Isa. xix. 1.

[320] Matt. xvi. 16.

[321] Matt. viii. 29.

[322] Ps. xcvi. 1.

[323] Ps. cxv. 5, etc.

[324] 1 Cor. x. 19, 20.

[325] Ps. xcvi. 1-5.

[326] Jer. xvi. 20.

[327] Ornamenta memoriarum.

[328] Comp. The Confessions, vi. 2.

[329] See Plutarch, on the Cessation of Oracles.

[330] The De Deo Socratis.

[331] De Fin. iii. 20; Tusc. Disp. iii. 4.

[332] The distinction between bona and commoda is thus given by Seneca (Ep. 87, ad fin.): "Commodum est quod plus usus est quam molestiÆ; bonum sincerum debet esse et ab omni parte innoxium."

[333] Book xix. ch. 1.

[334] See Diog. Laert. ii. 71.

[335] Virgil, Æneid, iv. 449.

[336] Seneca, De Clem. ii. 4 and 5.

[337] Pro. Lig. c. 12.

[338] De Oratore, i. 11, 47.

[339] De Deo Soc.

[340] De Deo Soc.

[341] De Deo Soc.

[342] Cat. Conj. i.

[343] Plotinus died in 270 a.d. For his relation to Plato, see Augustine's Contra Acad. iii. 41.

[344] Ennead. iv. 3. 12.

[345] Apuleius, not Plotinus.

[346] De Deo Socratis.

[347] Apuleius, ibid.

[348] Virgil, Georg. i. 5.

[349] Augustine apparently quotes from memory from two passages of the Enneades, I. vi. 8, and ii. 3.

[350] Or, humanity.

[351] Comp. De Trin. 13. 22.

[352] 1 Tim. ii. 5.

[353] da??? = da???, knowing; so Plato, Cratylus, 398. b.

[354] 1 Cor. viii. 1.

[355] Mark i. 24.

[356] Matt. iv. 3-11.

[357] TimÆus.

[358] Ps. l. 1.

[359] Ps. cxxxvi. 2.

[360] Ps. xcv. 3.

[361] Ps. xcvi. 5, 6.

[362] Ps. lxxxii. 6.

[363] 1 Cor. viii. 5, 6.

[364] Rom. i. 21.

[365] Eph. vi. 5.

[366] Namely, d???e?a: comp. QuÆst. in Exod. 94; QuÆst. in Gen. 21; Contra Faustum, 15, 9, etc.

[367] AgricolÆ, coloni, incolÆ.

[368] Virgil, Eneid, i. 12.

[369] 2 Chron. xxx. 9; Eccl. xi. 13; Judith vii. 20.

[370] Ps. lxxxii. 6.

[371] John i. 6-9.

[372] Ibid. 16.

[373] Augustine here remarks, in a clause that cannot be given in English, that the word religio is derived from religere.—So Cicero, De Nat. Deor. ii. 28.

[374] Matt. xxii. 37-40.

[375] Ps. lxxiii. 28.

[376] Ex. xxii. 20.

[377] Ps. xvi. 2.

[378] Ps. li. 16, 17.

[379] Ps. l. 12, 13.

[380] Ps. l. 14, 15.

[381] Micah vi. 6-8.

[382] Heb. xiii. 16.

[383] Hos. vi. 6.

[384] Matt. xxii. 40.

[385] On the service rendered to the Church by this definition, see Waterland's Works, v. 124.

[386] Literally, a sacred action.

[387] Ecclus. xxx. 24.

[388] Rom. vi. 13.

[389] Rom. xii. 1.

[390] Rom. xii. 2.

[391] Ps. lxxiii. 28.

[392] Rom. xii. 3-6.

[393] Ps. lxxxvii. 3.

[394] Ex. xxii. 20.

[395] Gen. xviii. 18.

[396] Gen. xv. 17. In his Retractations, ii. 43, Augustine says that he should not have spoken of this as miraculous, because it was an appearance seen in sleep.

[397] Gen. xviii.

[398] Goetia.

[399] 2 Cor. xi. 14.

[400] Virgil, Georg. iv. 411.

[401] Ex. xxxiii. 13.

[402] Plotin. Ennead. III. ii. 13.

[403] Matt. vi. 28-30.

[404] Acts vii. 53.

[405] Ennead. I. vi. 7.

[406] Meaning, officious meddlers.

[407] Pharsal. vi. 503.

[408] Ps. lxxiii. 28.

[409] Æneid, vii. 310.

[410] Æneid, iii. 438, 439.

[411] Teletis.

[412] The Platonists of the Alexandrian and Athenian schools, from Plotinus to Proclus, are at one in recognising in God three principles or hypostases: 1st, the One or the Good, which is the Father; 2d, the Intelligence or Word, which is the Son; 3d, the Soul, which is the universal principle of life. But as to the nature and order of these hypostases, the Alexandrians are no longer at one with the school of Athens. On the very subtle differences between the Trinity of Plotinus and that of Porphyry, consult M. Jules Simon, ii. 110, and M. Vacherot, ii. 37.—Saisset.

[413] See below, c. 28.

[414] Ennead. v. 1.

[415] John i. 14.

[416] John vi. 60-64.

[417] John viii. 25; or "the beginning," following a different reading from ours.

[418] Ps. lxxiii. 28.

[419] Ps. lxxxiv. 2.

[420] Matt. xxiii. 26.

[421] Rom. viii. 24, 25.

[422] See above, c. 9.

[423] Virgil, Eclog. iv. 13, 14.

[424] Isa. xxix. 14.

[425] 1 Cor. i. 19-25.

[426] According to another reading, "You might have seen it to be," etc.

[427] John i. 1-5.

[428] John i. 14.

[429] Comp. Euseb. PrÆp. Evan. xiii. 16.

[430] Ennead. iii. 4. 2.

[431] Æneid, vi. 750, 751.

[432] Inductio.

[433] Namely, under Diocletian and Maximian.

[434] Gen. xxii. 18.

[435] Gal. iii. 19.

[436] Ps. lxvii. 1, 2.

[437] John xiv. 6.

[438] Isa. ii. 2, 3.

[439] Luke xxiv. 44-47.

[440] Written in the year 416 or 417.

[441] Ps. lxxxvii. 3.

[442] Ps. xlviii. 1.

[443] Ps. xlvi. 4.

[444] Homine assumto, non Deo consumto.

[445] Quo itur Deus, qua itur homo.

[446] A clause is here inserted to give the etymology of prÆsentia from prÆ vensibus.

[447] Another derivation, sententia from sensus, the inward perception of the mind.

[448] Gen. i. 1.

[449] Prov. viii. 27.

[450] Matt. xviii. 10.

[451] A common question among the Epicureans; urged by Velleius in Cic. De Nat. Deor. i. 9; adopted by the ManichÆans and spoken to by Augustine in the Conf. xi. 10, 12, also in De Gen. contra Man. i. 3.

[452] The Neo-Platonists.

[453] Number begins at one, but runs on infinitely.

[454] Gal. iv. 26.

[455] 1 Thess. v. 5.

[456] Comp. de Gen. ad lit. i. and iv.

[457] Ver. 35.

[458] Ps. cxlviii. 1-5.

[459] Job xxxviii. 7.

[460] Vives here notes that the Greek theologians and Jerome held, with Plato, that spiritual creatures were made first, and used by God in the creation of things material. The Latin theologians and Basil held that God made all things at once.

[461] John i. 9.

[462] Mali enim nulla natura est: sed amissio boni, mali nomen accepit.

[463] Plutarch (De Plac. Phil. i. 3, and iv. 3) tells us that this opinion was held by Anaximenes of Miletus, the followers of Anaxagoras, and many of the Stoics. Diogenes the Cynic, as well as Diogenes of Apollonia, seems to have adopted the same opinion. See Zeller's Stoics, pp. 121 and 199.

[464] "Ubi lux non est, tenebrÆ sunt, non quia aliquid sunt tenebrÆ, sed ipsa lucis absentia tenebrÆ dicuntur."—Aug. De Gen. contra Man. 7.

[465] Wisdom vii. 22.

[466] The strongly Platonic tinge of this language is perhaps best preserved in a bare literal translation.

[467] Vives remarks that the ancients defined blessedness as an absolutely perfect state in all good, peculiar to God. Perhaps Augustine had a reminiscence of the remarkable discussion in the Tusc. Disp. lib. v., and the definition "Neque ulla alia huic verbo, quum beatum dicimus, subjecta notio est, nisi, secretis malis omnibus, cumulata bonorum complexio."

[468] With this chapter compare the books De Dono Persever. and De Correp. et Gratia.

[469] Matt. xxv. 46.

[470] John viii. 44.

[471] 1 John iii. 8.

[472] Cf. Gen. ad Lit. xi. 27 et seqq.

[473] Ps. xvii. 6.

[474] 1 John iii. 8.

[475] The ManichÆans.

[476] Isa. xiv. 12.

[477] Ezek. xxviii. 13.

[478] Job xl. 14 (LXX.).

[479] Ps. civ. 26.

[480] Job. xl. 14 (LXX.).

[481] It must be kept in view that "vice" has, in this passage, the meaning of sinful blemish.

[482] Ps. civ. 26.

[483] Quintilian uses it commonly in the sense of antithesis.

[484] 2 Cor. vi. 7-10.

[485] Ecclus. xxxiii. 15.

[486] Gen. i. 14-18.

[487] The reference is to the TimÆus, p. 37 C., where he says, "When the parent Creator perceived this created image of the eternal gods in life and motion, He was delighted, and in His joy considered how He might make it still liker its model."

[488] Jas. i. 17.

[489] The passage referred to is in the TimÆus, p. 29 D.: "Let us say what was the cause of the Creator's forming this universe. He was good; and in the good no envy is ever generated about anything whatever. Therefore, being free from envy, He desired that all things should, as much as possible, resemble Himself."

[490] The ManichÆans, to wit.

[491] Gen. i. 31.

[492] Proprietas.

[493] This is one of the passages cited by Sir William Hamilton, along with the "Cogito, ergo sum" of Descartes, in confirmation of his proof, that in so far as we are conscious of certain modes of existence, in so far we possess an absolute certainty that we exist. See note A in Hamilton's Reid, p. 744.

[494] Compare the Confessions, xiii. 9.

[495] Ch. 7.

[496] Or aliquot parts.

[497] Comp. Aug. Gen. ad Lit. iv. 2, and De Trinitate, iv. 7.

[498] For passages illustrating early opinions regarding numbers, see Smith's Dict. Art. number.

[499] Wisd. xi. 20.

[500] Prov. xxiv. 16.

[501] Ps. cxix. 164.

[502] Ps. xxxiv. 1.

[503] John xvi. 13.

[504] In Isa. xi. 2, as he shows in his eighth sermon, where this subject is further pursued; otherwise, one might have supposed he referred to Rev. iii. 1.

[505] 1 Cor. xiii. 10.

[506] Augustine refers to John viii. 25; see p. 415. He might rather have referred to Rev. iii. 14.

[507] Ps. civ. 24.

[508] Matt. xxii. 30.

[509] Matt. xviii. 10.

[510] 2 Peter ii. 4.

[511] Eph. v. 8.

[512] Ps. cxlviii. 2.

[513] Matt. iv. 9.

[514] Jas. iv. 6.

[515] 1 Thess. v. 5

[516] Augustine himself published this idea in his Conf. xiii. 32, but afterwards retracted it, as "said without sufficient consideration" (Retract. II. vi. 2). Epiphanius and Jerome ascribe it to Origen.

[517] Gen. i. 6.

[518] Namely, the Audians and SampsÆans, insignificant heretical sects mentioned by Theodoret and Epiphanius.

[519] Ps. xcv. 5.

[520] Vitium: perhaps "fault" most nearly embraces all the uses of this word.

[521] Essentia.

[522] Ex. iii. 14.

[523] Quintilian calls it dura.

[524] With this may be compared the argument of Socrates in the Gorgias, in which it is shown that to escape punishment is worse than to suffer it, and that the greatest of evils is to do wrong and not be chastised.

[525] Eccles. x. 13.

[526] Specie.

[527] Ps. xix. 12.

[528] C. 13.

[529] Rom. v. 5.

[530] Ps. lxxiii. 28.

[531] De Deo Socratis.

[532] Augustine no doubt refers to the interesting account given by Critias, near the beginning of the TimÆus, of the conversation of Solon with the Egyptian priests.

[533] Augustine here follows the chronology of Eusebius, who reckons 5611 years from the Creation to the taking of Rome by the Goths; adopting the Septuagint version of the patriarchal ages.

[534] See above, viii. 5.

[535] It is not apparent to what Augustine refers. The Arcadians, according to Macrobius (Saturn. i. 7), divided their year into three months, and the Egyptians divided theirs into three seasons: each of these seasons having four months, it is possible that Augustine may have referred to this. See Wilkinson's excursus on the Egyptian year, in Rawlinson's Herod. Book ii.

[536] The former opinion was held by Democritus and his disciple Epicurus; the latter by Heraclitus, who supposed that "God amused Himself" by thus renewing worlds.

[537] The Alexandrian Neo-Platonists endeavoured in this way to escape from the obvious meaning of the TimÆus.

[538] Antoninus says (ii. 14), "All things from eternity are of like forms, and come round in a circle." Cf. also ix. 28, and the references to more ancient philosophical writers in Gataker's notes on these passages.

[539] Eccles. i. 9, 10. So Origen, de Prin. iii. 5, and ii. 3.

[540] Rom. vi. 9.

[541] 1 Thess. iv. 16.

[542] Ps. xii. 7.

[543] Cf. de Trin. v. 17.

[544] Wisdom ix. 13-15.

[545] Gen. i. 1.

[546] Gen. i. 14.

[547] Rom. xii. 3.

[548] Titus i. 2, 3. Augustine here follows the version of Jerome, and not the Vulgate. Comp. Contra Priscill. 6, and de Gen. c. Man. iv. 4.

[549] 2 Cor. x. 12. Here, and in Enar. in Ps. xxxiv., and also in Cont. Faust. xxii. 47, Augustine follows the Greek, and not the Vulgate.

[550] i.e. indefinite, or an indefinite succession of things.

[551] Again in the TimÆus.

[552] Wisdom xi. 20.

[553] Isa. xl. 26.

[554] Matt. x. 30.

[555] Ps. cxlvii. 5.

[556] De sÆculis sÆculorum.

[557] Ps. cxlviii. 4.

[558] Cicero has the same (de Amicitia, 16): "Quonam modo quisquam amicus esse poterit, cui se putabit inimicum esse posse?" He also quotes Scipio to the effect that no sentiment is more unfriendly to friendship than this, that we should love as if some day we were to hate.

[559] C. 30.

[560] CoquÆus remarks that this is levelled against the Pelagians.

[561]

"Quando leoni
Fortior eripuit vitam leo? quo nemore unquam
Exspiravit aper majoris dentibus apri?
Indica tigris agit rabida cum tigride pacem
Perpetuam; sÆvis inter se convenit ursis.
Ast homini," etc.
Juvenal, Sat. xv. 160-5.

—See also the very striking lines which precede these.

[562] See this further discussed in Gen. ad Lit. vii. 35, and in Delitzsch's Bibl. Psychology.

[563] Jer. xxiii. 24.

[564] Wisdom viii. 1.

[565] 1 Cor. iii. 7.

[566] 1 Cor. xv. 38.

[567] Jer. i. 5.

[568] Compare de Trin. iii. 13-16.

[569] See Book xi. 5.

[570] "The Deity, desirous of making the universe in all respects resemble the most beautiful and entirely perfect of intelligible objects, formed it into one visible animal, containing within itself all the other animals with which it is naturally allied."—TimÆus, c. xi.

[571] Ps. xlvi. 8.

[572] Ps. xxv. 10.

[573] Matt. x. 28.

[574] On this question compare the 24th and 25th epistles of Jerome, de obitu LeÆ, and de obitu BlesillÆ filiÆ. CoquÆus.

[575] Ps. xlix. 12.

[576] On which see further in de Peccat. Mer. i. 67 et seq.

[577] De Baptismo Parvulorum is the second half of the title of the book, de Peccatorum Meritis et Remissione.

[578] 1 Cor. xv. 56.

[579] Rom. vii. 12, 13.

[580] Literally, unregenerate.

[581] John iii. 5.

[582] Matt. x. 32.

[583] Matt. xvi. 25.

[584] Ps. cxvi. 15.

[585] Much of this paradoxical statement about death is taken from Seneca. See, among other places, his epistle on the premeditation of future dangers, the passage beginning, "Quotidie morimur, quotidie enim demitur aliqua pars vitÆ."

[586] Ecclus. xi. 28.

[587] Ps. vi. 5.

[588] Gen. ii. 17.

[589] Gal. v. 17.

[590] Gen. ii. 17.

[591] Gen. iii. 9.

[592] Gen. iii. 19.

[593] Wisdom ix. 15.

[594] A translation of part of the TimÆus, given in a little book of Cicero's, De Universo.

[595] Plato, in the TimÆus, represents the Demiurgus as constructing the kosmos or universe to be a complete representation of the idea of animal. He planted in its centre a soul, spreading outwards so as to pervade the whole body of the kosmos; and then he introduced into it those various species of animals which were contained in the idea of animal. Among these animals stand first the celestial, the gods embodied in the stars; and of these the oldest is the earth, set in the centre of all, close packed round the great axis which traverses the centre of the kosmos.—See the TimÆus and Grote's Plato, iii. 250 et seq.

[596] On these numbers see Grote's Plato, iii. 254.

[597] Virgil, Æneid, vi. 750, 751.

[598] Book x. 30.

[599] A catena of passages, showing that this is the catholic Christian faith, will be found in Bull's State of Man before the Fall (Works, vol. ii.).

[600] 1 Cor. xv. 42.

[601] Prov. iii. 18.

[602] 1 Cor. x. 4.

[603] Cant. iv. 13.

[604] Ps. xlii. 6.

[605] Ps. lix. 9.

[606] Those who wish to pursue this subject will find a pretty full collection of opinions in the learned commentary on Genesis by the Jesuit Pererius. Philo was, of course, the leading culprit, but Ambrose and other Church fathers went nearly as far. Augustine condemns the Seleucians for this among other heresies, that they denied a visible Paradise.—De HÆres. 59.

[607] Tobit xii. 19.

[608] Gen. ii. 17.

[609] Rom. viii. 10, 11.

[610] Gen. iii. 19.

[611] "In uno commune factum est omnibus."

[612] Rom. viii. 28, 29.

[613] 1 Cor. xv. 42-45.

[614] Gen. ii. 7.

[615] 1 Cor. xv. 47-49.

[616] Gal. iii. 27.

[617] Rom. viii. 24.

[618] 1 Cor. xv. 21, 22.

[619] Gen. ii. 7.

[620] John xx. 22.

[621] Gen. ii. 6.

[622] 2 Cor. iv. 16.

[623] 1 Cor. ii. 11.

[624] Eccles. iii. 21.

[625] Ps. cxlviii. 8.

[626] Matt. xxviii. 19.

[627] John iv. 24.

[628] "Breath," Eng. ver.

[629] Gen. i. 24.

[630] Ecclus. xxiv. 3.

[631] Rev. iii. 16.

[632] 1 Cor. xv. 44-49.

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