The Quotable Augustine 0813228883, 9780813228884

Table of contents :
Contents
Foreword by James V. Schall, SJ
Editor’s Note
1. Beginnings
2. The Church and Theology
3. Creation
4. Learning
5. Life and Labor
6. Virtue and Vice
7. State and Society
8. Endings
Sources Quoted
Chronological Index of Quoted Works of Augustine
Topical Index

Citation preview

The Quotable Augustine

 

The Quotable Augustine edited by Phillip H. Melton Foreword by

James V. Schall, SJ

The Catholic University of America Press Washington, D.C.

Copyright © 2016 The Catholic University of America Press All rights reserved The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standards for Information Science — Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984. ∞   Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Augustine, Saint, Bishop of Hippo, author. | Melton, Phillip H., editor. Title: The quotable Augustine / edited by Phillip H. Melton ; foreword by James V. Schall, SJ. Description: Washington, D.C. : The Catholic University of America Press, 2016. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2016041113 | ISBN 9780813228884 (pbk. : alk. paper) Subjects: LCSH: Augustine, Saint, Bishop of Hippo.—Quotations. Classification: LCC BR65.A52 E6 2016 | DDC 270.2092—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016041113

contents Foreword by James V. Schall, SJ Editor’s Note

ix xvii

1  Beginnings 1

The Church and Theology 2 

3

God 3 The Church and Her Enemies

5

Theology 11 The Christian Life

13

On Grace and Free Will

20

Evils, Ills, and Sin

24

The Soul

31

Eternal Life

32

Saints 33 3  Creation 37 Creation 37 Body 42 Food 43 4  Learning 45 Truth 45 Mind and Memory

47

v

Knowledge and Reason

48

Learning 51 Teaching 53 Eloquence 54 Books 56 Philosophy 59 Science 61 5  Life and Labor

63

Life

63

Family and Marriage

66

Friendship

73

Happiness

74

Goods

80

Grief

85

Will

87

Labor

90

6  Virtue and Vice

91

Conscience

91

Virtue

94

Vice

96

Faith

 

Hope

98 100

Charity

100

Prudence

106

Justice

107

Patience

111

Temperance

114

vi  •  Contents

7  State and Society

127

Law

127

War

132

Peace

134

Society 137 Custom 137 The Two Cities

139

8  Endings

143

Sources Quoted

145

Chronological Index of Quoted Works of Augustine

149

Topical Index

153

Contents  •  vii

 

foreword A collection of brief sayings or maxims of an author is a recognized and welcome literary form. I think of the thousands of aphorisms of Nietzsche, or those of Pascal, of Martial, or even of the Book of Proverbs. I used to have three volumes of The Quotable Chesterton. Being in the World is a collection of Maritain’s statements. Likewise, I have a yearly day-by-day collection of short reflections of Benedict XVI. Will Cuppy’s How to Get from January to December is an amusing assembly of improbable events in the lives of everybody and nobody. I have long been a collector of short sentences or paragraphs from something that strikes me as insightful, amusing, or memorable in what I happen to be reading at a given time. When it comes to a “quotable” Augustine, we encounter a master in the field of things worth remembering. Who can forget “Late, late, have I loved Thee” or “Our hearts are restless till they rest in Thee”? This collection of “citations” from Augustine is a definite service to the mind of man, made as it is to comprehend what is. Few men have seen things as clearly as Augustine or recorded them quite so memorably or graphically. We cannot forget, of course, that Augustine’s literary and intellectual output was enormous. There is a wealth of material to choose from. Most everyone cites the famous observation that “Anyone who claims he has read the whole of Augustine’s works is a liar.” There are just too many of them for the normal lifetime.

ix

The City of God itself comes to some twelve hundred pages. The question is: Where to begin? And when we have ended with a representative selection, we know how much more is left to remember. We fortunately have many of Augustine’s books and treatises that survived Vandal and Saracen depredations. We have his sermons and his dialogues. I used to encourage students to take some time to go to the library and just look at the Collected Works of Augustine. They should wonder how it was possible for one man in a busy life to write so much. This book of Augustine’s statements, however, does not pretend to be a “summary,” outline, or scientific guide to Augustine’s works. Few men, if any, have had more people write about them and their thought than Augustine. Socrates once said, in a most memorable sentence, that “an unexamined life is not worth living.” No one since perhaps examined his own life more carefully and lucidly than Augustine. His Confessions are simply indispensable for understanding not only Augustine but ourselves. This collection of Augustine citations is divided according to subject matter — theology, creation, virtue, labor, and learning. It tells us where each selected item is found in Augustine’s works. Augustine, like Chesterton, had a paradoxical mind. He could see the truth in its opposite. He was incisive even in the prolixity of his overall writings. Like Aristotle before him and   almost always preAquinas after him, Augustine’s works are sented in manageable subsections. He invites us slowly to reflect on what he tells us. Often Augustine needs to be read again and again. In addition to his literary and intellectual “style,” Augustine was a most interesting man. He had close friends. Everyone knows about his mother, Monica. He loved the Roman classics and writes well in their language. He knew scripture. He argued

x  •  Foreword

his way through most of the aberrant philosophical schools concocted by the human mind. He did not mind telling us that he was a sinner. He might even be said to be a bit vain about his impious ways. He writes a short dialogue “On the Teacher” for his natural son Adeodatus. As in the case of the Donatists, he probably was too fair with his enemies over an issue that remains as lively today as it was in his time — namely, what do you do with fanatics?  To my mind, in a scene that I often cite, the most earth-shaking event that happened to Augustine was when he was a young man just starting out in his home town in Africa. Everyone knew he was bright and precocious. He was a leader. Most everyone sensed this quality in him. His parents wanted him to have a career, to succeed. They wanted him to settle down with a woman of respectable standing. But he managed to find a local girl with whom he took up. In the meantime, he was trying to figure things out in that way brilliant young men often do, by claiming to know it all already. He taught rhetoric, the avenue to public life, sort of law school kind of stuff. It was at this time that Augustine came across a dialogue of the great Roman orator and philosopher Cicero, who lived some four hundred years before Augustine. Cicero’s book was an exhortation on philosophy; this is a document we no longer possess. But on reading it, the young Augustine was persuaded that he wanted to become a philosopher. Few more important decisions have ever been made by unknown young men in the hinterlands. His decision to become a philosopher literally changed the world, though it would take some time to see just how. Beginning with this desire to philosophize, Augustine in the next few decades proceeded to embrace and then to think his way out of most of the classic philosophical aberrations of mind. It has been remarked that almost every subsequent heresy found its origins in Augustine. Indeed, John Rist’s book

Foreword  •  xi

Augustine Deformed follows this line of disorder.1 Sometimes it took Augustine time to see where ideas led. His initial enthusiasm for them yielded to experience and the incisive logic of his mind that was never content with an inconsistency when he saw it, even in his own works. This is why, at the end of his life, he spent time writing two volumes of Retractions of errors that he later perceived in his own writings. He did not mind if we knew that he was wrong, provided that we also knew that he saw his way out of the error. “Augustine’s imposing structure was a vast array of Christian and non-Christian sources and traditions, but for better or worse it held a unique position at the center of European cultural life for hundreds of years, no proposed alternative has yet earned so enduring an influence,” Rist wrote. “A basic part of this structure, with its vast ramifications, was built on a set of axioms and conclusions about the nature of the ‘will,’ human and divine; or its freedom (however understood), its responsibilities, and, perhaps fundamentally, its relationship to love.”2 Clearly, when we confront Augustine, we are aware not only of reading a man who thought his way through his life. It is a life that most other thinkers have considered in one way or another. My own favorite passage from Augustine — and how can one have only one when it comes to Augustine? — is this one from the nineteenth book of the City of God: “Nulla sit — for man no   other cause for philosophizing exists except in order that he be happy.” This passage was the introductory citation of E. F. Schumacher’s seminal book, A Guide for the Perplexed.3 It is a passage that deftly links so many things together. In it, we have Aristotle’s notion that philosophy is for its own sake. We have the 1. John Rist, Augustine Deformed: Love, Sin and Freedom in Western Moral Tradition (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014). 2. Ibid., 5. 3. E. F. Schumacher, A Guide for the Perplexed (New York: Harper Colophon, 1977).

xii  •  Foreword

whole ethical tradition that tells us that whatever we do, we do in order to be happy. We have the Socratic tradition of spending our lives in search of the truth. It is not wealth, honor, or pleasure that explains us to ourselves. The reader of these insightful words from Augustine will find himself again and again pausing to wonder whether what is said here is not really what he needs to put his mind and soul in order. How, one might ask, does he go about reading a wide range of selected quotations from what seems at first sight to be just a famous and rather ancient Christian author from Carthage? One must be prepared to be surprised at every reading of Augustine. Few of these passages will not seem pertinent to our lives, or, if we reject their thesis, still unsettling to our souls. Let me here read “out loud,” as it were, a few random passages from Augustine in this collection to taste the wonder of his words. This book can be begun or ended almost anywhere. A reader need not begin at the beginning. He can begin at the end and read forward to the beginning. He can begin at the middle and read both ways at once. In English letters, there was a type of book usually called in Latin a vade mecum, something that I could carry along with me to read when I had time. I suppose that in these days of cellphones and iPads of various sorts this sort of vade mecum would be easy to arrange. In any case, quotation 240 from this Augustine text reads: “All things are rightly deserving of praise by the very fact that they exist, since they are good inasmuch as they exist.” It could not be put more succinctly. If I had read that passage not knowing who the author was, I am sure I would have said that it was Thomas Aquinas. And it is quite certain that Aquinas, who was an avid reader of Augustine, knew of this observation of Augustine and probably said much the same thing. We note here that praise follows existence. It is not enough that things exist, but they must be acknowledged, praised. We

Foreword  •  xiii

cannot praise what is not. It means that we did not cause what exists to exist. We can only receive it. If we did cause existence, it is we who would deserve the praise. But if we have any sense, we know better. Moreover, and this was something Augustine learned early in his philosophical life in his dealings with the Manicheans, whatever exists is good, not evil. This view, no doubt, comes right out of the Book of Genesis, in which all orders of creation are seen to be good. It is worth our whole lives to know that the cause of evil does not exist simply because things exist. In a somewhat related remark (258), Augustine tells us: “No one person could catalogue all of God’s bounties in creation.” We live in an era when entities like Wikipedia or Google or the Library of Congress do their level best to catalogue everything that they can think of. Augustine, of course, was not opposed to this endeavor as if, as in the case of David counting his troops, it was a sign of lack of confidence in God. Rather the opposite is the case. We cannot count the “bounties” of creation because that would also involve the question of how God allows evil in the world if some good not otherwise possible might come about. We do not need to count everything, or many things, to realize that we live in a world of abundance, not paucity. We live in an era in which truth is said to be relative or not to exist at all. Augustine understood that the claim that truth   did not exist was probably but a clever device to allow us to do what we want without having to face the question of the truth in what we do. We read in quotation 284: “A thorough search for the truth is neither a trifling nor a needless occupation for us, but rather a necessary and important one.” Though such a search should be the purpose of the universities, when it is not, we must often reflect back on ourselves to found a grounding that resists the temptation to go along with a culture of denial of truth. We actually live in a time of much martyrdom. We see

xiv  •  Foreword

more and more people, strange to us, who are given a choice between denying their faith or martyrdom. The fault line that separates us is between those who think this choice makes an ultimate difference and those who do not. And one final selection from Augustine, quotation 309: “He who says that he knows what he does not know is rash; he who denies that he knows what he does know is ungrateful.” Again, reading Augustine we catch intimations of Socrates. Augustine thought the Platonists understood that there was a Word, but not a Word made flesh. Socrates told us that he was very aware of what he did not know. He did not intend to imply that he knew nothing, only that there were things even about what he did know that he did not know. Aquinas would proceed to tell us that, even of the smallest thing, we could not know everything there was to know about it. But this apparent humility was not intended to justify our not speaking the truth when we did in fact know something that was true and know that we knew it. The reader, I think, even the casual one, will find in these quotations from Augustine much for reflection. We often see in them the truth unadorned with surrounding arguments. When we read Augustine we are, at first glance, aware that we are reading something written some seventeen centuries before our time. As we work our way through these passages, sooner or later, I suspect, we will begin to wonder if this or that insight was not written yesterday afternoon. We do not leave Augustine untouched in our souls. As he tells us in his Confessions, his discourse is directly with God. Yet the mere fact that he records what he writes means that all souls, including our own, have the same awareness of whom they address and are addressed in the core of their lives. When we come across a passage that particularly strikes us, the first thing we want to do is either copy it down for future reference or rush out to read it to the first person we meet. We

Foreword  •  xv

know that certain truths cannot be kept only to ourselves. Nor were they meant to be. Perhaps this is why we have the pleasure of having these citations presented to us in this book. It is a vade mecum that will serve us well by reminding us of the important things. And if it leads to reading more and more Augustine himself, it will only prove what a good idea it was to have this collection come into our hands, to read as we see fit. James V. Schall, SJ Professor Emeritus, Georgetown University

 

xvi  •  Foreword

editor’s note The quotations in this book were chosen for a variety of reasons: eloquence, relevance to Augustine’s thought, fame, utility, piety, and indeed humor — more often than not, because they met several of these criteria. In general, the quotations in a section appear in the order that they appear within a certain work, while works are ordered chronologically (see Chronological Index for further details). While trying to remain faithful to the source texts and translations, I have occasionally needed to modify a quotation, for example, to clarify whom or what Augustine was referring to in a particular passage. Sometimes sentences were combined or words omitted for ease of reading in the present context. Likewise, archaic pronouns (thee, thou) have been replaced by modern equivalents. In a very few cases, a particular quotation was retranslated from Augustine’s Latin. The published source of each quotation, in general the Fathers of the Church (FOTC) series, is noted in parentheses; full details of these sources are provided in the bibliography. One minor note about the structure of this book: in chapter 6, “Virtue and Vice,” I have followed a scheme that may be familiar to students of Aquinas by placing particular virtues and vices under the heading of one of the cardinal virtues: faith, hope, charity, prudence, justice, temperance, and “that virtue by which we endure evils with equanimity,” patience. However, no philosophical

xvii

claims are intended or to be implied by my borrowing of Thomas’s schema. This book is dedicated to students, translators, and scholars of Augustine, in all times and places, who have come to the Doctor of Grace not at a place to which they are obliged to travel, but in his books, which have traveled to them.

 

xviii  •  Editor’s Note

The Quotable Augustine

one

Beginnings 1  Great are You, O Lord, and greatly to be praised.  Confessions

1.1.1 (FOTC 21) 2  Let those who are going to read this book not imitate me

when I err, but rather when I progress toward the better.  The Retractations Prologue 3 (FOTC 60)

1

 

two

The Church and Theology God 3  To avoid blasphemy, we must either understand or hold it on

faith that God is the supreme good, the being than which nothing better can be or be conceived.  The Way of Life of the Manichaeans 11.24 (FOTC 56) 4  The Lord is good, who often does not give us what we want

so as to grant us what we would rather have.  Letter 31 (FOTC 12) 5  What are You, then, my God? What, I ask, but the Lord God?

For, who is the Lord, but the Lord? Or who is God, besides our God?  Confessions 1.4.4 (FOTC 21) 6  What man comprehends the wisdom, the foresight, and the

knowledge of God, seeing that we are unable even to comprehend our own?  The Trinity 15.7.13 (FOTC 45) 7  The whole point of being Almighty is that God has the power

to do whatever He wills to do, and He has shown this power in creating so many things that would certainly seem impossible were they not before our very eyes.  The City of God 21.7 (FOTC 24)

3

Christ 8  By possessing a male nature and being born of a woman,

Christ 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.  Faith and the Creed 5.9 (FOTC 27) 9  We have Christ as our Advocate; would we fear him as our

Judge? Nay, rather, because we have sent Him ahead as our Advocate, let us hope that He will be our Judge.  Sermon 212 (FOTC 38) 10  We abused our immortality, and, as a result, died; Christ

used His mortality well, and so we live.  Christian Instruction 1.14.13 (FOTC 2) 11  Believe in Christ made mortal for you, that you may grasp him immortal; for when you grasp His immortality, neither will you be mortal. God conquered death, that death might not conquer man.  Tractates on the Gospel of John 14.13.3 (FOTC 79) 12  Let the Pelagians not marvel that only the son of a virgin, whom they cannot say was conceived by the concupiscence of the flesh, did not contract original sin.  Letter 6* 8 (FOTC 81)

Christmas

 

13  This Christmas day, from which each subsequent day receives additional light, symbolizes the work of Christ by whom our inner man is renewed day by day.  Sermon 186 (FOTC 38) 14  Consider, O man, what God became for your sake; under-

stand this lesson of surpassing humility presented by an infant teacher who, as yet, says no word.  Sermon 187 (FOTC 38)

4  •  The Church and Theology

The Church and Her Enemies The Church 15  In these Christian times there can be no doubt about which

religion should be held onto and which offers the road to truth and to happiness.  On True Religion 3.3 (Harmless, Augustine) 16  Nowhere should loving kindness prevail more than in the

catholic Church.  The Christian Combat 30.32 (FOTC 2) 17  This faith of all the Fathers, this is also my faith, since it is the catholic faith.  The Trinity 1.4.7 (FOTC 45) 18  Indeed, all of us together and each one in particular constitute God’s temple, as He deigns to take for a dwelling both the community of all and the person of each individual.  The City of

God 10.3 (FOTC 14) 19  The house of God, the Church, is more glorious by far than

was the Temple, the first house built of wood, stone, precious metals, and other costly materials.  The City of God 18.48 (FOTC 24) 20  In this unfriendly world, in evil days like these, the Church,

through the lowliness she now endures, is winning the sublime station she is to have in heaven.  The City of God 18.49 (FOTC 24) 21  We ourselves, who form God’s City, are His best and most

worthy sacrifice.  The City of God 19.23 (FOTC 24) 22  In both parts of the world, East and West, the faith is one faith, for this faith is Christian.  Against Julian 1.4.14 (FOTC 35) 23  This is the holy Church, the one Church, the true Church, the catholic Church, fighting against all heresies; she can fight, but she cannot be conquered.  The Creed 6.14 (FOTC 27)

The Church and Theology  •  5

Baptism 24  Therefore, those whom the drunkard baptized, those whom

a murderer baptized, those whom an adulterer baptized, if it was the baptism of Christ, Christ baptized.  Tractates on the Gospel of John 5.4.1 (FOTC 78) 25  Those unbaptized people who die confessing the name of

Christ receive the forgiveness of their sins as completely as if they had been cleansed by the waters of baptism.  The City of God 13.7 (FOTC 14) 26  Although Christ died once, He dies for each at that time

when each is baptized in His death; the death of Him who was without sin benefits each man at the time when, having been baptized in His death, he who was dead in sin shall also die to sin.  Against Julian 6.15.48 (FOTC 35)

Eucharist 27  Let not the Sacrament appear of trifling value to you because you look upon it. What you see passes; but the invisible, that which is not seen, does not pass; it remains. Behold it is received; it is eaten; it is consumed. Is the body of Christ consumed? Is the Church of Christ consumed? Are the members of Christ consumed? God forbid! Here they are cleansed; there they will be crowned.  Sermon 227 (FOTC 38)   28  You are the body of Christ and its members. Be what you see; receive what you are.  Sermon 272 (Harmless, Augustine)

Clergy 29  To preach, to rebuke, to correct, to build up, to feel respon-

sible for every one of you — it’s a terrible burden, a huge weight, an enormous task.  Sermon 339.1 (Harmless, Augustine)

6  •  The Church and Theology

30  Thus, in praying for himself and for those whom he is about

to address, one should be a suppliant before he is a speaker; before he uses his tongue in preaching, he should raise his parched soul to God.  Christian Instruction 4.15.32 (FOTC 2) 31  The man who is able to escape the horrors of invasion, but

does not flee because he will not forsake the ministry of Christ, without which men can neither become nor live as Christians, wins a greater reward for his charity than the one who flees for his own sake, not for his brethren, but who is caught, refuses to deny Christ, and wins martyrdom.  Letter 228 (FOTC 32)

Monks 32  Just as it is hard to find better men than those who live virtuously in monasteries, so have I not found worse than those who have fallen into sin in monasteries.  Letter 78 (FOTC 12) 33  The washing of the body, also, and the use of baths is not to be too frequent for sisters, but may be allowed at the usual interval of time, that is, once a month.  Letter 211 (FOTC 32)

The Pope 34  If we would truly honor the Apostle Peter, we ought to har-

ken more eagerly to his teachings and to the epistle in which his will appears, rather than turn our eyes to the basilica in which it does not appear.  Letter 29 (FOTC 12) 35  We who are Christians in name and in deed do not believe in

Peter, but in Him in whom Peter believed; we have been drawn to Christ by Peter’s exhortations, not drugged by his incantations; we have been helped by his services, not hoodwinked by his sorceries.  The City of God 18.54 (FOTC 24)

The Church and Theology  •  7

Persecution 36  Persecution is the usual lot of those who proclaim the truth.  Commentary on the Lord’s Sermon on the Mount 1.6.16 (FOTC 11) 37  No one can be trodden underfoot unless he is underneath,

and a man is not underneath if his heart is fixed in heaven, no matter what bodily evils he may be enduring on earth.  Commentary on the Lord’s Sermon on the Mount 1.6.16 (FOTC 11) 38  What else persecutes the life of the good but the life of the

wicked, not by forcing them to imitate what displeases them, but by making them grieve over what they see?  Letter 248 (FOTC 32)

Heretics and Heresies 39  The knowledge of truth is well fitted to distinguish and de-

molish all false doctrines, even those previously unheard, provided only that they are expressed.  Letter 118 (FOTC 18) 40  Heretics are those who entertain in Christ’s Church unsound and distorted ideas and stubbornly refuse, even when warned, to return to what is sound and right, to correct their contagious and death-dealing doctrines, but go on defending them. 

The City of God 18.51 (FOTC 24) 41  When our enemies from without leave off raging and there

ensues a span of tranquility — even of genuine tranquility and great consolation, at least to the weak — we are not without enemies within, the many whose scandalous lives wound the hearts of the devout.  The City of God 18.51 (FOTC 24) 42  It is worse to be a deserter from the faith and, by desertion, an enemy of the faith, than to be one who has never lost what they never had.  The City of God 21.25 (FOTC 24)

8  •  The Church and Theology

43  God forbid that I should ever challenge you heretics to sin-

gle combat, since, wherever any of you appears, the ubiquitous army of Christ routs you.  Against Julian 3.1.4 (FOTC 35) 44  Wondrous are the things you say. New are the things you say. False are the things you say. We gape at wonders. We are wary of novelties. We convict falsity.  Against Julian 3.3.9 (FOTC 35) 45  Proceed on your merry way of invention, but remember you are giving fiction, not Scripture.  Against Julian 3.19.36 (FOTC 35) 46  Whoever tries to undermine the foundations of the Christian faith will himself be destroyed, but they will remain firm.  Against Julian 6.4.10 (FOTC 35) 47  Those who are separated from the catholic Church cannot

be good as long as they hold views contrary to it; even if an apparently laudable conduct seems to point out some of them as good, the very division makes them bad.  Letter 208 (FOTC 32) 48  The case is closed! Would that the Pelagian error come

to a close as well! Therefore, we advise that they pay attention; we teach that they be instructed; we pray that they be changed.  Sermon 131.10 (Harmless, Augustine)

Pagans 49  If the Lord admits fornication as the only grounds for di-

vorce in marriage, and if He does not forbid divorce in pagan marriages, then it follows that paganism should be considered fornication.  Eighty-three Different Questions 83 (FOTC 70) 50  The idolatry which unbelievers follow is fornication — 

and the same is true of every other pernicious superstition.  Commentary on the Lord’s Sermon on the Mount 1.16.45 (FOTC 11)

The Church and Theology  •  9

51  Now let those babblers go on and even now dare to defend

ancient vanities against the Christian religion and against the true worship of God, that they may perish in noise.  The Divination of Demons 10.14 (FOTC 27) 52  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 I know, that these mockers of us are fewer this year than they were the year before.  The Divination of Demons 10.14 (FOTC 27) 53  For what earthly reason was a false god worshiped as the protector of the land and people, when she could not even protect the guards of her temple? It was not the idol that guarded the men, but the men who guarded the idol.  The City of God 1.2

(FOTC 8) 54  How much more sensible and proper would it be to have Plato’s writings read in a temple dedicated to him than the perpetration of every cruel and foul (or foully cruel and cruelly foul) abomination that is wont to pass for a religious rite in the temples of the demons?  The City of God 2.7 (FOTC 8) 55  I do not know when or where the elect of the goddess Cae-

lestis ever heard any maxims of chastity, but this I do know: before the temple gates, my morbid gaze shifted from one side to the other, now falling on a procession of strumpets, now   on the virgin goddess, now on the humble supplications being addressed to her, now on the foul antics being enacted before her face. Everyone knew what gratified the whim of the virgin goddess, and an exhibition was put on in the temple that gave even experienced matrons something to take home.  The City of God 2.26 (FOTC 8) 56  In the temple of the virgin goddess, those obscenities were openly flaunted which, at home, are done only in the dark;

10  •  The Church and Theology

some women turned in shame from the filthy gestures of the actors, learning the artistry of vice only by furtive glances.  The City of God 2.26 (FOTC 8) 57  As is the case with most poetic inventions, we need not believe that any mythological creatures, human or sub-human, ever lived.  The City of God 19.12 (FOTC 24)

Atheism 58  Those who do not believe and therefore do not understand

that the right way to the vision of God and eternal union with Him is that which is proclaimed and proved in the Holy Scriptures can continue to debate, but they can never disprove our position.  The City of God 10.32 (FOTC 14) 59  What fragment of justice can there be in a man who is not

subject to God?  The City of God 19.21 (FOTC 24) 60  The belief that God exists is so ingrained in nature that

hardly any impiety ever tears it out.  Letter 184A (FOTC 30)

Theology 61  For nowhere but in investigating the Trinity is error more

dangerous, the search more laborious, or the results more rewarding.  The Trinity 1.3.5 (FOTC 45)

Scripture 62  I think nothing is more prudent, more chaste, more worthy

of reverence, than are those writings — all of them — which the Catholic Church preserves under the name of the Old Testament. Believe me, whatever there is in the Scriptures is something lofty and divine.  The Advantage of Believing 6.13 (FOTC 4)

The Church and Theology  •  11

63  If anyone piously and earnestly ponders the Sermon on the

Mount, I believe that he will find therein, with regard to good morals, the perfect standard of the Christian life.  Commentary on the Lord’s Sermon on the Mount 1.1.1 (FOTC 11) 64  Oh, what an honest and helpful adversary is the Word of

God! It does not seek what we wish; it seeks what is good for us. It is our adversary so long as we are opposed to ourselves.  Sermon 109.3 (FOTC 11) 65  So long as you are your own enemy, you have also the Word

of God as your enemy; be a friend to yourself, and you are in agreement with it.  Sermon 109.3 (FOTC 11) 66  Do not treat as canonical Scripture some theological debate

or a book of some such debate. In the sacred writings of Scripture we learn to judge; in terms of our own writings, we are not above being judged.  Sermon 162C.15 (Harmless, Augustine) 67  We ought not to protest against Holy Scripture, either when

we understand it and it is attacking some of our faults, or when we do not understand it and think that we could be wiser and give better advice.  Christian Instruction 2.7.9 (FOTC 2) 68  Whatever a man has learned apart from Scripture is cen-

sured there, if it is harmful, and, if it is useful, it is found there.  Christian Instruction 2.42.63 (FOTC 2)   69  Whatever harshness and apparent cruelty in deed and word we read of in the Holy Scriptures as used by God or His saints is efficacious in destroying the power of lust.  Christian Instruction 3.11.17 (FOTC 2) 70  Let us consent to and yield to the authority of Holy Scrip-

ture, which knows not how to deceive nor be deceived.  On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins and Infant Baptism 1.22.33 (Harmless, Augustine)

12  •  The Church and Theology

71  The very language in which Holy Scripture is expressed is

easy for all, although understood by very few.  Letter 137 (FOTC 20) 72  Scripture speaks to the heart of unlearned and learned like a familiar friend who uses no subterfuge, but, in those truths which it veils in mystery, it does not raise itself aloft with proud speech.  Letter 137 (FOTC 20)

Tolerance 73  In the diversity of true opinions, may truth itself produce concord.  Confessions 12.30.41 (FOTC 21) 74  So long as they involve no offense against the divine law, the City of God does not in the least care what kind of dress or social manners a man of faith affects; it is faith and not fashion that brings us to God.  The City of God 19.19 (FOTC 24) 75  There are some matters on which at times even the most learned and excellent defenders of the Catholic rule do not agree, without breaking the bond of the faith, and one speaks better and more truly about one thing and another about another.  Against Julian 1.6.22 (FOTC 35)

The Christian Life Conversion 76  But if the Lord helps you to be persuasive, you will still make

little progress among those whom you desire to see Christians if you merely overcome their unbelief by truthful arguments, unless you beg the gift of faith for them with suppliant prayers.  Letter 184A (FOTC 30) 77  Does anyone doubt that it is better for man to be led to the

worship of God by teaching rather than forced to it by fear of suffering?  Letter 185.21 (FOTC 30)

The Church and Theology  •  13

Prayer 78  Let our prayers not be that wealth or honors or any fleeting and changing thing come to us — things that quickly pass away no matter who may strive to hold them — but let us rather pray for what will make us virtuous and happy.  Divine Providence and

the Problem of Evil 2.20.52 (FOTC 5) 79  Prayer for a brother is more pleasing to God when the sacri-

fice of love is offered.  Letter 20 (FOTC 12) 80  While God already knows what we need, the very attention to prayer clears and cleanses our heart, and makes it more capable of receiving the divine gifts which are spiritually infused into us.  Commentary on the Lord’s Sermon on the Mount 2.3.14

(FOTC 11) 81  The Creed contains what you are to believe; the Lord’s Prayer, what you are to ask for. It is the believer’s prayer that is heard.  Sermon 56.1 (FOTC 11) 82  One must guard against two things while praying: not to ask what ought not to be asked for, and not to ask from whom one ought not to ask — not from the Devil, from idols, or from demons.  Sermon 56.2 (FOTC 11) 83  There are many things which we do not speak from the   Continence 1.2 mouth of the body, but shout from the heart. 

(FOTC 16) 84  I was afraid that God would quickly heed my prayer, that He

would cure me from the disease of concupiscence.  Confessions 8.7.16 (FOTC 21) 85  One prayer of an obedient man is heard more quickly than

ten thousand prayers from a stubborn one.  The Work of Monks 17.20 (FOTC 16)

14  •  The Church and Theology

86  However devoutly we try to live in the mists and miseries

of this life, there will always be some falls for which we shall need to pray for pardon — and we shall always need to forgive those who sin against us with the prayer that we, too, may be forgiven.  The City of God 21.27 (FOTC 24)

Alms 87  You forbid the giving of bread to a beggar; the poor beggar will die of starvation while a wise and benevolent individual like you feels more compassion for a cucumber than your fellow man.  The Way of Life of the Manichaeans 16.53 (FOTC 56) 88  The Christian soul understands how far removed he should be from theft of another’s goods when he realizes that failure to share his surplus with the needy is like to theft.  Sermon 206

(FOTC 38) 89  Let us graciously and fervently perform these two kinds of almsgiving, giving and forgiving.  Sermon 206 (FOTC 38) 90  It is effrontery to refuse to give to our needy neighbor those things that we would never have possessed except from the bounty of Him who urges us to give.  Sermon 206 (FOTC 38) 91  In this kind of almsgiving, the giving of forgiveness, no one is poor. Even he who has no means of livelihood in this world may do this to insure his living for eternity. Gratuitously this alms is given; by being given away it is increased; and it is not consumed except when it is not shared.  Sermon 206 (FOTC 38) 92  If you wish to live eternally in that good place where no one is hungry, now in this evil place break your bread with the hungry.  Sermon 217 (FOTC 38) 93  When the hand of the one who has much is placed in the hand of the needy, the mind of the one who makes the offering

The Church and Theology  •  15

to the poor man suffers, as it were, in sympathy with his common humanity and infirmity.  Sermon 259 (FOTC 38) 94  It pleases me very, very much to think of the collection box as a sort of feeding trough for us, that we may be God’s beasts of burden and you God’s fields where we graze.  Sermon 356.13

(Harmless, Augustine) 95  It is more profitable for bread to be taken away from the

hungry, if he neglects right living because he is sure of his food, than for bread to be broken to the hungry, to lead him astray into wrongdoing.  Letter 93 (FOTC 18) 96  The purpose of almsgiving is that we may be heard when

we pray for the pardon of our sins, not that we may have the illusion that by our alms we pay the price for a permission to do evil.  City of God 21.27 (FOTC 24)

Fasting 97  It is sometimes necessary to check the delight of the flesh

in respect to licit pleasures in order to keep it from yielding to illicit joys.  On the Usefulness of Fasting 5 (FOTC 16) 98  Indeed, for the clean all food is clean, but for no one is

luxury clean.  Sermon 205 (FOTC 38). 99  It is not that certain kinds of food are to   be detested by those

fasting, but that bodily pleasure is to be checked.  Sermon 207

(FOTC 38) 100  Let us always fast from hatred and feast upon love. 

Sermon 207 (FOTC 38) 101  I think it should not be burdensome for married people to

do on the holy days of Lent what widows have openly professed

16  •  The Church and Theology

for a certain part of their life and what virgins have undertaken for their entire life.  Sermon 208 (FOTC 38) 102  Let the needy Christ receive that of which the fasting Chris-

tian deprives himself. Let the self-restraint of the willing soul be the sustenance of the one in need. Let the voluntary neediness of the one possessing an abundance become the necessary abundance of the one in need.  Sermon 210 (FOTC 38)

Miracles 103  For who is there who reflects upon the works of God, by

which this whole world is governed and managed, and is not struck dumb and overwhelmed by miracles? A dead man arose; men were astonished. Every day many are born and no one is amazed — yet it is a greater miracle that one who was not, now is.  Tractates on the Gospel of John 8.1.2 (FOTC 78) 104  The performance of an amazing deed by God ought not to

be a source of amazement. It would be an amazing thing only if a human being had performed it.  Tractates on the Gospel of John 17.1 (FOTC 79) 105  For the governance of the whole world is a greater miracle

than the satisfying of five thousand from five loaves; yet, at the former miracle, no one is amazed, but at the latter one, people are — though not because it is greater, but because it is rare.  Tractates on the Gospel of John 24.1.2 (FOTC 79) 106  What gave power to the preachers who first converted the

world was not the eloquence of the words they uttered, but the miracles in the deeds they did.  The City of God 22.5 (FOTC 24) 107  The truth is, even today miracles are being done in the

name of Christ — only such miracles do not strike the imagination with the same flashing brilliance as the earlier miracles,

The Church and Theology  •  17

so they do not get the same flashing publicity the others did.  The City of God 22.8 (FOTC 24) 108  How can I delay to tell all the miracles I know — but if I

kept merely to miracles of healing and omitted all others, and if I told only of those wrought by the glorious martyr Saint Stephen, and if I limited myself to those that happened locally, I should have to fill several volumes to do no more than tell those cases that have been officially recorded for public reading in our churches.  The City of God 22.8 (FOTC 24). 109  It is a simple fact that there is no lack of miracles even in

our day.  The City of God 22.8 (FOTC 24)

The Soul’s Rest 110  So, let us put our joy neither in carnal pleasure, nor in

the honors and praises of men, nor in the exploring of things touching the body from without, having God within where all we love is sure and unchangeable.  On Music 14.48 (FOTC 4) 111  I believe that God, its Creator, is the soul’s proper habita-

tion and its home.  Magnitude of the Soul 1.2 (FOTC 4) 112  It is in our own greatest interest that we are admonished

to turn away from this world and to turn with all haste to God, the Truth which ever abides.  Eighty-three Different Questions 9   (FOTC 70) 113  You have made us for You, and our heart is restless until it

rests in You.  Confessions 1.1.1 (FOTC 21) 114  For, in whatever direction the soul of man turns, it is fixed

upon sorrows if it is fixed anywhere other than on God.  Confessions 4.10.15 (FOTC 21)

18  •  The Church and Theology

115  When I shall cleave to You with all my being, sorrow and

toil will no longer exist for me, and my life will be alive, being wholly filled with You.  Confessions 10.28.39 (FOTC 21) 116  Because I am not filled with You, I am a burden to myself,

and my joys, which are to be lamented, struggle against my sorrows, which are cause for joy, and I know not on which side victory may stand.  Confessions 10.28.39 (FOTC 21) 117  Without God’s true comfort, there is more grief than con-

solation to be found in earthly comforts, whatever they may be.  Letter 130 (FOTC 18) 118  Man is never fully blessed in the enjoyment of either corporal or spiritual good, but only by a fruition in God, a joy not like any pleasure found in physical or intellectual satisfaction. 

The City of God 8.8 (FOTC 14) 119  The promised reward of virtue will be the best and the

greatest of all possible prizes — the very Giver of virtue Himself.  The City of God 22.30 (FOTC 24)

Thanks 120  “Thanks be to God!” Nothing can be said more briefly than

this, or heard more joyfully, or used more fruitfully.  Letter 41 (FOTC 12) 121  We can never sufficiently thank God for the gifts of nature:

that we exist and are alive, that we can enjoy the sight of earth and sky, that we have a reasoning mind by which we can seek Him who has made all these things. Yet, for the greater gifts of grace there are not hearts or tongues enough in all the world even to try to thank Him.  The City of God 7.31 (FOTC 8)

The Church and Theology  •  19

On Grace and Free Will Freedom 122  They are good who serve God with an undivided will, but

the wicked serve Him out of necessity, for no one escapes the laws of the Almighty; the good act according to law, and the wicked suffer according to law.  The Christian Combat 7.7 (FOTC 2) 123  By misusing his free will, man destroys both himself and

it.  Faith, Hope and Charity [Enchiridion] 9.30 (FOTC 2) 124  We shall be made truly free, then, when God fashions,

forms, and creates us not as men — for that He has already done — but to be good men by His grace.  Faith, Hope and Charity [Enchiridion] 9.31 (FOTC 2) 125  The will is truly free only when it is not a slave to sin and

vice.  The City of God 14.11 (FOTC 14)

Predestination 126  It is not that the justified are choosing life eternal, but that

those who will be justified are chosen.  To Simplicianus 1.2.22 (Harmless, Augustine) 127  Not one of those whom God predestined and called, justi-

fied, and glorified will He damn, but mercy   is not for all men whatsoever.  The City of God 21.24 (FOTC 24) 128  None the Lord chooses is worthy; but, choosing, He makes

them worthy.  Against Julian 5.3.13 (FOTC 35) 129  So long as this mortal life endures, no one of the faithful

may presume that he is in the number of the predestined.  Admonition and Grace 13.40 (FOTC 2)

20  •  The Church and Theology

Grace 130  Grace is not given according to men’s merits; otherwise

grace is no longer grace, seeing that it is called grace precisely because it is freely given.  Grace and Free Will 21.43 (FOTC 59) 131  No one keeps the Ten Commandments by his own powers

unless he is aided by the grace of God.  Sermon 248 (FOTC 38) 132  We recognize, you see, our Lord’s merciful greed, every-

where seeking a lucrative return on His money; Christ will be the one who exacts profits not only from this man here, but from all of us.  Sermon 279.10 (Harmless, Augustine) 133  No one does good works in order that one may receive grace,

but only because one has received grace.  To Simplicianus 1.2.3 (Harmless, Augustine) 134  The rational soul cannot be just, or saved, or wise, or hap-

py, except by sharing in the unchangeable Good; it cannot by its own will be its own good, but only its own evil.  Letter 140.31 (FOTC 20) 135  Why do you stand upon yourself and so have naught to

stand upon? Throw yourself upon God, and fear not; He will not pull Himself away and let you fall.  Confessions 8.11.27 (FOTC 21) 136  Now, whoever reckons his true merits before God, what

does he reckon but His gifts?  Confessions 8.13.34 (FOTC 21) 137  This is the mystery of grace — to heal the weak who do not falsely boast of a happiness not their own, but rather, humbly and truly, confess their misery.  The City of God 10.28 (FOTC 14) 138  When the will turns from the good and does evil, it does

so by the freedom of its own choice, but when it turns from evil

The Church and Theology  •  21

and does good, it does so only with the help of God.  The City of God 15.21 (FOTC 14) 139  The Law knows how to command; grace, how to help. 

Letter 177 (FOTC 30) 140  What is man, using his own will in this life, before he

chooses and loves God, except an unjust and impious creature? What is man, I say? A creature wandering from the Creator unless his Creator is mindful of him and freely chooses and loves him.  Patience 22.19 (FOTC 16) 141  Now a good life that is rewarded is simply a grace, whereas

eternal life, which is given in return as a recompense, is a grace given for a grace.  Grace and Free Will 8.20 (FOTC 59) 142  The fact is that the human will does not achieve grace

through freedom, but rather freedom through grace.  Admonition and Grace 8.17 (FOTC 2) 143  Think how strange it would be for us to believe that God

moves men’s wills for the establishment of earthly kingdoms, but that for the attainment of the kingdom of heaven men move their own wills.  On the Predestination of the Saints 42 (FOTC 86)

Works 144  The mere fact you refrain from inflicting   an injury is not

enough, for you must also bestow benefits insofar as you are able.  Commentary on the Lord’s Sermon on the Mount 1.20.67 (FOTC 11)

145  Unless a man acts upon what he hears or perceives, he does

not fix himself firmly upon the Rock of Christ against the fog of superstition, the windy murmurings of men, nor the flux of this life that floods the earth with carnal lusts.  Commentary on the Lord’s Sermon on the Mount 2.25.87 (FOTC 11)

22  •  The Church and Theology

146  If one loves the reward, let him not decline the labor; let

the thought of the reward enkindle the mind to haste in the labor.  Sermon 53.1 (FOTC 11) 147  If you true Christians believe, hope, and love otherwise

than the pagans do, then live otherwise and gain approval for your distinctive faith, hope, and charity by distinctive actions.  Sermon 198 (FOTC 30) 148  If you wish to crush a most dangerous opponent with the

forces of faith, then destroy your evil ways and embrace good ones.  Sermon 216 (FOTC 38) 149  We are going to appear in God’s presence; let our works

speak for us there and let them speak so effectually that they will prevail over our offenses.  Sermon 259 (FOTC 38) 150  Strive to outdo the wicked in goodness.  Letter 134 (FOTC 20) 151  It is man, not God, who benefits from the whole economy

of worship.  The City of God 10.5 (FOTC 14) 152  The man of action should not love worldly position or

power — for all is vanity under the sun — but only what can be properly and usefully accomplished by means of such position or power for contributing to the eternal salvation of those committed to one’s care.  The City of God 19.19 (FOTC 24) 153  There are three levels of living: one so evil that those who

lead it can be helped into the Kingdom of Heaven by no amount of almsgiving; another good enough to make possible the obtaining of beatitude; and a third between these two, a middle kind of life standing in need of the merits of those whom they have befriended by their alms that mercy may be obtained.  The City of God 21.27 (FOTC 24)

The Church and Theology  •  23

154  There is a middle mode of living, too sinful of itself to pre-

pare a way to the kingdom of God, yet too full of services to the saints not to win their friendship and their grateful intercession for God’s indulgence.  The City of God 21.27 (FOTC 24) 155  We owe to everyone, in order to attain salvation in Christ, a

sort of free servitude.  On the Proceedings of Pelagius 26.51 (FOTC 86) 156  Good works are understood to be more pleasing to the

Lord to the extent that they are shown to be done without obligation.  Adulterous Marriages 1.14.15 (FOTC 27) 157  Our good works themselves, which enable us to receive

eternal life, are referred to God’s grace by reason of our Lord’s words: “Without me, you can do nothing.” [John 15.5]  Grace and Free Will 8.20 (FOTC 59) 158  God makes men good that they may do good.  Admonition

and Grace 12.36 (FOTC 2)

Evils, Ills, and Sin Evil 159  There is nothing that the most gifted minds search out

more eagerly than how it is that God has a care for human affairs, yet perversity is so serious and widespread that it must   seem unattributable not only to God’s governance, but even to a hireling’s management — if indeed such management could be entrusted to a hireling.  Divine Providence and the Problem of Evil 1.1.1 (FOTC 5) 160  If your enemy had no wickedness, he would not be an en-

emy — but how profitable his wickedness can be for you! Wish him well; let him put an end to his evils, and he will no longer be your enemy. It is not the man’s nature that is your enemy; it is his vice.  Sermon 56.14 (FOTC 11)

24  •  The Church and Theology

161  For if the Omnipotent, being good, did not have the power

to produce justice and goodness from the deeds of the evil, under no circumstances would He permit them to be born or to live.  Sermon 214 (FOTC 38) 162  Evil is but the privation of the good, even to the extent that

evil does not exist at all.  Confessions 3.7.12 (FOTC 21) 163  It is because things are good that they can be corrupted. 

Confessions 7.12.18 (FOTC 21) 164  Evil has no positive nature; what we call evil is merely the

lack of something that is good.  The City of God 11.9 (FOTC 14) 165  Good things without defects can sometimes be found;

absolutely bad things, never — for even those natures that were tainted at the outset by an evil will are only evil insofar as they are defective, while they are good insofar as they are natural.  The City of God 12.3 (FOTC 14) 166  That which is called evil does not exist if there is no

good.  Faith, Hope and Charity [Enchiridion] 4.13 (FOTC 2)

Order 167  Thus, if I wanted to use the word “fate” for anything at all, I

should prefer to say that it is the action of a weak person, while “choice” is the act of the stronger man who holds the weak man in his power.  The City of God 5.9 (FOTC 8) 168  While God, in His goodness, made the Devil good, He

found a way, by His foresight, to use the Devil’s future wickedness.  The City of God 11.17 (FOTC 14) 169  God would never have created a single angel, nor even a

single man, whose future wickedness He foresaw, unless, at

The Church and Theology  •  25

the same time, He knew of the good that could come of this evil.  The City of God 11.18 (FOTC 14) 170  Is there anything more beautiful than a leaping, luminous

flame of fire, or anything more useful when it warms us, heals us, cooks our food? Yet, nothing is more painful when it burns us. The same thing applied in one way is harmful, but when properly used, extremely beneficial.  The City of God 12.4 (FOTC 14) 171  All things are good simply because they exist and, there-

fore, have each their own measure of being, their own beauty, and even, in a way, their own peace.  The City of God 12.5 (FOTC 14) 172  In the long run, good triumphs over evil.  The City of

God 14.11 (FOTC 14) 173  The trouble with a person who does not see the whole is

that he is offended by the ugliness of a part because he does not know its context or relation to the whole.  The City of God 16.8 (FOTC 14) 174  Nothing, then, comes about unless God wills it, either

through permitting it to happen or performing it Himself.  Faith, Hope and Charity [Enchiridion] 24.95 (FOTC 2)

Sin 175  It makes no difference whether you commit the crime your 

self or wish to have someone else do it for you.  The Way of Life

of the Manichaeans 17.57 (FOTC 56) 176  The very fact that someone is blamed for not doing what he

ought to do, is simply to give praise to God to whom he owes a debt.  The Free Choice of the Will 3.16.46 (FOTC 59) 177  Perhaps you now say to me: “Even you, a debtor?” I answer,

yes, even me. “What! Even you holy bishops are debtors?” Yes,

26  •  The Church and Theology

even we are debtors. “Even you! Far be it from you, my Lord; do not so unjustly accuse yourself.” I do not unjustly accuse myself; I am speaking the truth, for we are debtors.  Sermon 56.11 (FOTC 11) 178  But, even if the hand does no evil, if the foot advance to-

ward no evil, if the eye be directed toward nothing lascivious, if the ear be willingly open to no scurrility, if the tongue be exercised on no indecent speech — even then, tell me, who could restrain his thoughts?  Sermon 56.12 (FOTC 11) 179  What does it matter whether it be lead or sand that presses

you down? The lead is one compact mass; the sand is composed of many grains, but it crushed you by their multitude. Your sins are small; yet do you not see that from tiny drops rivers are filled and lands are lessened? Our sins are small, but they are many.  Sermon 56.12 (FOTC 11) 180  Therefore, forget the merits of your sins lest they bring ter-

ror to your heart; or rather, do not forget them lest, by reason of your pride, you repel mercy.  Sermon 259 (FOTC 38) 181  How are sins trifling which press upon one and bring de-

struction? What is more minute than drops of rain? Yet, they fill the rivers. What is more minute than grains of wheat? Yet, they fill the barns.  Sermon 261 (FOTC 38) 182  There are two classes of sin as a whole — the action of un-

bridled lust in demoralizing one’s own soul and body, called vice, and what it does to harm another, called crime — but vices are first. When these have weakened the soul and brought it to destitution, it leaps into crimes in order to eliminate impediments to vices or procure help for them.  Christian Instruction 3.10.16 (FOTC 2) 183  One may sacrifice to the offending angels in more than one

way.  Confessions 1.17.27 (FOTC 21)

The Church and Theology  •  27

184  I loved my own destruction, I loved my own fault; not the

object to which I directed my faulty action, but my fault itself, was what I loved, not shamefully coveting anything, but coveting shame itself.  Confessions 2.4.9 (FOTC 21) 185  Not even Catiline himself loved his own crimes, but that for

which he committed them.  Confessions 2.5.11 (FOTC 21) 186  Even in their very sins, souls are only striving for a certain

likeness to God in their proud, perverted, and (so to speak) servile liberty.  The Trinity 11.5.8 (FOTC 45) 187  How many lie sick in bed and are innocent, and yet, if they

were healthy, they would go out to commit crimes? For how many is health a disadvantage?  Tractates on the Gospel of John 7.12.2 (FOTC 78) 188  Since human beings are able to live in this life without sin

so long as divine grace helps the human will, then why don’t we? This I can easily and truthfully answer: Because people are unwilling to.  On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins and Infant Baptism 2.17.16 (Harmless, Augustine) 189  He who fears Hell does not fear to sin, he fears to burn; but

the one who hates sin itself as he hates Hell, he is the one who fears to sin.  Letter 145 (FOTC 20) 190  Every sin can be called a lie, for, when we choose to sin,

what we want is to get some good or get rid of something bad; but the lie is in this, that what is done for our good ends in something bad, or what is done to make things better ends by making them worse.  The City of God 14.4 (FOTC 14)

191  Sin is to a nature what blindness is to an eye — an evil

or defect that is a witness to the fact that the eye was created to see the light; were it not created with this capacity for

28  •  The Church and Theology

goodness, there would be no reason to think the defect a misfortune.  The City of God 22.1 (FOTC 24) 192  Those things which are clearly sins ought not to be done

under any pretext of a good reason, for any supposedly good end, with any seemingly good intention.  Against Lying 7.18 (FOTC 16) 193  For those who love Him, God makes all things work to-

gether unto good — absolutely all things, even to the extent that if some of them swerve and stray from the path, He makes their wanderings contribute to their good, because they come back wiser and more humble.  Admonition and Grace 9.24 (FOTC 2)

Original Sin 194  No one is free from sin in Your presence, not even the infant whose life has lasted but one day.  Confessions 1.7.11 (FOTC 21) 195  The weakness of infant limbs is innocent, but not the mind

of infants.  Confessions 1.7.11 (FOTC 21) 196  If man made himself deserving of an eternal evil, it was be-

cause he drowned within himself a good that could have been eternal.  The City of God 21.12 (FOTC 24) 197  This life of ours — if a life so full of such great ills can prop-

erly be called a life — bears witness to the fact that, from its very start, the race of mortal men has been a race condemned.  The City of God 22.22 (FOTC 24) 198  Consequently, the whole human mass ought to be pun-

ished, and if the deserved punishment of damnation were rendered to all, beyond all doubt it would be justly rendered.  On Nature and Grace 5.5 (FOTC 86)

The Church and Theology  •  29

Temptation 199  The Christian ought to be suspended constantly on the

Cross of Christ through his entire life, passed as it is in the midst of temptation.  Sermon 205 (FOTC 38) 200  Not every trial is to be reckoned a temptation, but rather a

probation, and, therefore, to be welcomed with joy.  The City of God 16.32 (FOTC 14)

Demons 201  One should not marvel that demons can know and predict

that downfall was impending their own temples and images.  The Divination of Demons 1.1 (FOTC 27) 202  The good angels laugh at the demons when they unwill-

ingly do more good than harm by their persecutions; the latter envy the former when they bring their pilgrims home.  The City of God 11.33 (FOTC 14) 203  Not even the holy and faithful followers of the the one true

and supreme God are beyond the reach of demonic trickery and temptation in its many forms.  The City of God 19.10 (FOTC 24) 204  The diabolical prince of the ungodly city is not allowed to

harm the pilgrim City of God, even when he stirs up his tools and dupes against her.  The City of God 18.51 (FOTC 24)

Astrology 205  Although it is said that the astrologers have predicted many

true things, this opinion results from men forgetting their falsehoods and errors, because they attend only to what takes place in accord with the astrologers’ answers by a certain

30  •  The Church and Theology

unknown coincidence of things and forget what is not in accord with them.  Eighty-three Different Questions 45 (FOTC 70) 206  Whenever a free man enters the home of an astrologer to

have his fortune read, he pays money in order that he may leave as the slave of Mars or Venus or all the stars.  Christian Instruction 2.21.32 (FOTC 2) 207  When I asked my friend Vindicianus how it was that many

true things were foretold through astrology, he answered that it was due to the force of chance, which is so widespread in nature.  Confessions 4.3.5 (FOTC 21) 208  Now, regarding those who draw lots from the pages of the

Gospel, although it might be wished that they do this rather than run around consulting demons, I do not like this custom of turning the divine oracles to worldly business and the vanity of this life, when their object is another life.  Letter 55 (FOTC 12) 209  As for those who think that the stars determine, indepen-

dently of God’s will, what we are to do and have and suffer, they should be given no hearing by anyone — none, certainly, by those who profess the true religion, and none even by those who worship any kind of gods, however false; for the conclusion from their way of thinking is that no god at all should be either adored or implored.  The City of God 5.1 (FOTC 8)

The Soul 210  Of all the things that give vigor to the body, none is better

nor more important than the soul.  The Way of Life of the Catholic Church 5.7 (FOTC 56) 211  To make the soul pure is one thing; to keep it pure, another. 

The Magnitude of the Soul 33.74 (FOTC 4)

The Church and Theology  •  31

212  Better than the soul, there is nothing.  The Magnitude of the

Soul 34.78 (FOTC 4) 213  Among all the things which have been created by God, the

rational soul is the most excellent of all, and it is closest to God when it is pure.  Eighty-three Different Questions 46 (FOTC 70)

Eternal Life 214  What are we going to reply to those who mock the resurrec-

tion of the body? Are we to say that we shall rise without intestines after the fashion of statues?  Sermon 243 (FOTC 38) 215  In Heaven, your neighbor is going to have knowledge of

what you know you are thinking. Why are you afraid? Now you wish to conceal your thoughts, and you fear to make them public because, perchance, you sometimes think something evil, something base, or something vain. But, when you will be there, you will think nothing but what is good, nothing but what is honorable, nothing but what is true, nothing but what is pure, nothing but what is sincere.  Sermon 243 (FOTC 38) 216  As sure as you are of your own existence, so sure must you

be that the life which is passed in temporal pleasures is not to be considered life but death in comparison with the eternal life promised to us through Christ and in Christ.  Letter 56 (FOTC 12)   217  Man longs to live, but is forced to die; but how can any man be said to live as he longs to live who does not live as long as he longs to live?  City of God 14.25 (FOTC 14) 218  The City of God holds that eternal life is the supreme good

and eternal death the supreme evil, and that we should live rightly in order to obtain the one and avoid the other.  City of God 19.4 (FOTC 24)

32  •  The Church and Theology

219  Suppose a starving man eats the body of a fellow, to whose

body is the flesh to belong in the resurrection? After all, it became the flesh of the starving man who fed upon it. I say that the eaten flesh will be restored by God to the man in whom it first became human flesh; like any other borrowed goods, the loan taken out by the famished man must be returned to the one from whom it was taken.  City of God 22.12 (FOTC 24) 220  On that last day, we shall rest and see, see and love, love

and praise — for this is to be the end without end of all our living, that Kingdom without end, the real goal of our present life.  City of God 22.30 (FOTC 24)

Hell 221  God’s sentence of damnation will be pronounced on the

wicked, both angels and men; can we suppose it will hold for demons but not for men? Only if men’s imaginings have more weight than God’s words!  City of God 21.23 (FOTC 24) 222  Some pagans rouse such an attraction in us that we could

wish to have them freed from the sufferings of Hell — but human feeling is not the same as the justice of the creator.  Letter 164 (FOTC 20) 223  The perpetual death of the damned, that is, their alienation

from the life of God, will abide without end, and it will be the common punishment of them all, whatever conjectures rising from human emotions men may make about the variety of the punishments and the relief or intermission of their woes.  Faith, Hope and Charity [Enchiridion] 29.113 (FOTC 2)

Saints 224  Choose for yourselves as worthy of imitation those who fear

God, those who enter the church with reverential fear, those

The Church and Theology  •  33

who hear the word of God with diligence, keeping it in mind, pondering it in their thoughts, and carrying it out in their deeds.  Sermon 228 (FOTC 38) 225  I find more delight in considering the saints when I regard

them as the teeth of the Church. They bite off men from their heresies and carry them over to the body of the Church, when their hardness of heart has been softened by being bitten off and chewed.  Christian Instruction 2.6.7 (FOTC 2) 226  Any signs of veneration paid by pious people at the tombs

of martyrs are mere tributes to their memory, not sacred ceremonies nor sacrifices offered to the dead, as to gods.  City of God 8.27 (FOTC 14) 227  We Christians never build temples to the martyrs as though

they were divine; we merely erect shrines where we venerate dead mortals whose spirits, we believe, abide with God.  City of God 22.10 (FOTC 24) 228  While the martyrs who suffered from amputation or de-

capitation will not appear in the resurrection without their head or members, they will, if it is becoming, appear with the traces of their glorious wounds in their immortal flesh, where the scars made by cutting or crushing will remain.  City of God 22.20 (FOTC 24) 229  How much reason have I to beg to be  indebted to your

Charity, brother Jerome, by whose learning, in the name and with the help of the Lord, ecclesiastical literature in the Latin tongue has been advanced as it could never have been before!  Letter 167.21 (FOTC 30) 230  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, my devout mother would be with me every

34  •  The Church and Theology

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!  The Care to Be Taken for the Dead 13.16 (FOTC 27) 231  You see how ruinous it is for you to accuse the Fathers of

heresy, and how glorious for me to be accused of any crime whatsoever together with such men.  Against Julian 1.4.12 (FOTC 35) 232  The Fathers were famous in the catholic Church for their

pursuit of sound doctrine; armed and girded with spiritual arms, they carried on strenuous warfare against heretics, and, after they had faithfully completed their labors in this world, they fell asleep in the arms of peace.  Against Julian 1.7.30 (FOTC 35)

Saint Augustine 233  If someone, therefore, reads a book of mine, he may criti-

cize me. If I speak in a reasonable way, let him follow not me, but reason itself. If I prove something by citing some clear and divine testimony, let him follow not me, but the sacred Scriptures. I get more irritated with those lavishers of praise who treat my books as though a canonical text than with those who criticize my books for what’s not criticizeable.  Sermon 162C.15 (Harmless, Augustine) 234  I had left behind all hopes of this world when I came to

Hippo. What I could have been, I did not wish to be; nor did I seek to be what I am now.  Sermon 355.2 (Harmless, Augustine) 235  What was it that delighted me in my youth, except to love

and to be loved? But the moderate relation of mind to mind was not maintained according to the bright bond of friendship;

The Church and Theology  •  35

rather, the mists of slimy concupiscence of the flesh and of the bubbling froth of puberty rose like hot breath beclouding and darkening my heart.  Confessions 2.2.2 (FOTC 21) 236  Do not be bound to my writings as though they were the

Scriptures; if you find anything in them which does not appear to be certain, then do not hold fast to it unless your mind has grasped it as certain.  The Trinity 3 Prologue 1 (FOTC 45) 237  And which of my works has been able to be more widely

and agreeably known than the books of my Confessions?  On the Gift of Perseverance 53 (FOTC 86) 238  Do you not remember how I told the story of my conversion

in such a way as to show that it was granted to the faithful and daily tears of my mother that I should not perish?  On the Gift of Perseverance 53 (FOTC 86)

 

36  •  The Church and Theology

three

Creation Creation 239  Even though all these visible things, considered in them-

selves, are marvelous and beautiful, having been created by God their Maker, still, in comparison with the unseen realities, they are as nothing.  The Magnitude of the Soul 33.76 (FOTC 4) 240  All things are rightly deserving of praise by the very fact

that they exist, since they are good inasmuch as they exist.  The Free Choice of the Will 3.7.21 (FOTC 59) 241  Not even the creation of a single leaf of a tree is superflu-

ous.  The Free Choice of the Will 3.23.66 (FOTC 59) 242  Consider the changes of day and night, the very constant

order of heavenly bodies, the fourfold change of the seasons, the fall of leaves and their return to the trees the following spring, the infinite power in seeds, the beauty of light, and the varieties of colors, sounds, smells, and tastes; and then give me a man who sees and experiences these things for the first time — he is amazed and overwhelmed at these miracles. But we have little respect for all these things, not because of the ease with which we know them (for what is more obscure than

37

their causes?) but surely because we constantly experience them.  The Advantage of Believing 16.34 (FOTC 4) 243  Love God; whatever else you love is from Him. Let us not,

neglecting the Creator, love the creature; instead, let us look at the creature and give praise to the Creator.  Sermon 261 (FOTC 38) 244  I cannot show you my God; I show you what He has done; I

call your attention to what He has made.  Sermon 261 (FOTC 38) 245  Those who regard any of God’s creatures with displeasure

are insane.  Confessions 7.14.20 (FOTC 21) 246  Nothing is far from God.  Confessions 8.11.28 (FOTC 21) 247  “What did God do before he made heaven and earth?” If ev-

ery creature be understood under the name, heaven and earth, then I make bold to say this: He did not make anything. For if He made anything, what did He make, except a creature?  Confessions 11.12.14 (FOTC 21) 248  Books proclaim that there is a God, but the whole nature of

the universe itself, which surrounds us and to which we belong, cries aloud that it has the most exalted Creator of all.  The Trinity 15.4.6 (FOTC 45) 249  Who can describe in words the splendor of the sky? Who

can describe in words the abundance of the earth? Who can   adequately praise the variation of seasons? Who can adequately praise the power of seeds?  Tractates on the Gospel of John 1.9.3 (FOTC 78) 250  Again, how many customary things are trampled underfoot

which would fill us with awe, if we considered them carefully! Take the force which is found in seeds; who can grasp in his thought or describe in language their numbers, their urge to

38  •  Creation

live and grow, their hidden strength, their power to unfold their littleness into something great?  Letter 137 (FOTC 20) 251  God left no part of this creation without its appropriate

peace, for in the last and least of all His living things, even the entrails are wonderfully ordered — not to mention the beauty of birds’ wings, and the flowers of the fields, and the leaves of trees, and, above the beauty of sky and earth, that of angels and of man.  City of God 5.11 (FOTC 8) 252  Even in our fallen state, everyone knows that there are

human beings so unlike ordinary people that, whenever they want, they can do tricks with their bodies so unusual that practically no one can imitate them or even believe they can be done. There are people who can swallow an enormous number and variety of objects and then, by a slight contraction of the stomach, bring up as from a bag whichever object they want, and in good condition. There are even individuals who can make musical notes issue from the rear of their anatomy, so that you would think they were singing.  City of God 14.24 (FOTC 14) 253  The histories of many peoples records that there have been,

for example, beings who have no mouths, breathe only through their ears, and live on air; the Sciopodes, people who have but one leg with two feet and who can run with remarkable speed without bending a knee, who lie on their back in the summer and keep the sun off with their feet; and the Cynocephalae, whose dog-like heads and barking voices prove they are more like animals than men.  City of God 16.8 (FOTC 14) 254  As to the nonsense about there being antipodae, that is,

men living on the far side of the earth where the sun rises when it sets for us, men who have their feet facing ours when they walk — that is utterly incredible. It is utterly absurd to say that

Creation  •  39

any men from this side of the world could sail across the immense tract of the ocean, reach the far side, and then people it with men sprung from the single father of all mankind.  City of God 16.9 (FOTC 14) 255  Who can explain the marvels of fire? Bright as it is in itself,

it blackens everything it burns; for all its lovely color, it discolors almost everything it licks with its flames.  City of God 21.4 (FOTC 24) 256  There are astonishing marvels that happen in daily experi-

ence, but no longer surprise us, merely because we are used to them.  City of God 21.4 (FOTC 24) 257  When experience comes, a wonder becomes astonishment

in the presence of the unusual — but when the experience is repeated, familiarity soon saps the stirrings of excitement.  City of God 21.4 (FOTC 24) 258  No one person could catalogue all of God’s bounties in

creation.  City of God 22.24 (FOTC 24) 259  In vain would the gardener cultivate his plants from

without if the Creator did not operate secretly from within.  The Excellence of Widowhood 18.22 (FOTC 16) 260  Let godly men praise the heavens and earth and all they

contain, but let it be in consideration of their   beauty, not through ardent lust; a pious man and a miser both praise the glory of gold, if in different ways.  Against Julian 4.14.66 (FOTC 35) 261  What Catholic does not proclaim the works of God in ev-

ery creature of all soul and flesh and in contemplating them does not burst forth in a hymn to the Creator who was active, not only before the sin, but even now does all good things well?  Letter 6* 3 (FOTC 81)

40  •  Creation

Beauty 262  All things are beautiful to their creator and maker, who

uses all of them for governing the universe which he rules by the supreme law.  Two Books on Genesis against the Manichees 1.16.25 (FOTC 84) 263  Everything beautiful comes from God, the highest beauty.

Eighty-three Different Questions 44 (FOTC 70) 264  How many seductions without number have men added

to the things that entice the eyes through the arts and work of craftsmen, by clothes, shoes, vessels, and other artefacts of this kind — these far overstep the bounds of necessary utility, moderation, and faithful representation. In this, men become devotees of their external products, while abandoning internally their own Maker and annihilating the things made by Him.  Confessions 10.34.53 (FOTC 21) 265  Surely, since Christ desires your interior beauty, wherein He

gave you power to become children of God, He does not seek bodily beauty from you, but beauty of conduct, by which you even subdue the flesh.  Holy Virginity 55.56 (FOTC 27) 266  Bodily beauty is still but a lowly good, fleeting and fleshly,

and cannot be loved without sin if it is preferred to God.  City of God 15.22 (FOTC 14) 267  The human body has such rhythm, poise, symmetry, and

beauty that it is hard to decide whether it was the utility or the beauty of the body that the Creator had most in mind — but I think that God put form before function.  City of God 22.24 (FOTC 24) 268  The true and unique adornment of Christian men and

women is a good character, not lying paint, or even gold, or the ostentation of fine apparel.  Letter 245 (FOTC 32)

Creation  •  41

Time 269  Eternity, however, simply is. Neither did it use to be, as if

it no longer is, nor will it be, as if it is not yet.  On True Religion 49.97 (Harmless, Augustine) 270  A foul period, if used to advantage, is a fertile period. 

Sermon 254 (FOTC 38) 271  Whatever history teaches us about past events is a very im-

portant help to us.  Christian Instruction 2.28.42 (FOTC 2) 272  Time takes no holiday; it is never idle as it glides through

our perceptions.  Confessions 4.8.13 (FOTC 21) 273  A man’s future conduct is not even known to himself. Truly,

a man hardly knows what he is like now; of what he will be in the future he knows nothing.  Letter 73 (FOTC 12) 274  The day that has passed does not return again; after yester-

day follows today, and after today tomorrow will follow. Behold, all times and the things of time pass away.  The Excellence of Widowhood 20.25 (FOTC 16)

Body 275  But of what use is a beard unless it be for beauty alone?

  Why did God create a beard for man? I see its beauty; I do not seek its use.  Sermon 243 (FOTC 38)

276  We should despise physical excellence, which even the

demons share, in comparison with morality, in which we outmatch them.  City of God 8.15 (FOTC 14) 277  Let those who are too thin or too fat here on earth take

comfort; they will certainly not be that way in eternity.  City of God 22.19 (FOTC 24)

42  •  Creation

Senses 278  Can the senses discover the goodness of a thing? In odor

alone, a morsel of roasted meat is superior to a ripe green fig; in taste alone, a slaughtered kid is better than the grass it fed upon while living; in color alone, the excrement of an infant surpasses lentils.  The Way of Life of the Manichaeans 16.41 279  Truth is far removed from the minds of the vain men who, hav-

ing gone too far in these corporeal things, mistakenly think nothing else exists except what they perceive with the five well-known messengers of the body.  The Advantage of Believing 1.1.1 (FOTC 4)

Food 280  I do not mean to compel the rich to eat the same kind of

food as the poor, though they would be healthier if they could; no, let the rich follow the custom induced through their debility, but let them regret that they are unable to do otherwise.  Sermon 61.12 (FOTC 11) 281  For, if a hungry man, and not a Manichaean, were to ask for

food and it was given to him, I once would have thought that mouthful destined to receive capital punishment.  Confessions 3.10.18 (FOTC 21)

Wine 282  Many are nauseated by a sober celebration as drunkards are

at the prospect of a watery drink, and the love of wine moves them to the hatred of truth.  Confessions 6.2.2 (FOTC 21) 283  Children drink water only because they are not in charge of

the wine; however, when they are older and look after it, water will lose its appeal, but the habit of drinking will continue.  Confessions 8.8.17 (FOTC 21)

Creation  •  43

 

four

Learning Truth 284  A thorough search for the truth is neither a trifling nor a

needless occupation for us, but rather a necessary and important one.  Answer to Skeptics 3.1.1 (FOTC 5) 285  Truth is the food of the soul.  Letter 1 (FOTC 12) 286  Surely, only he whose whole life corresponds to the truth

lives well and uprightly; only the man who is so minded must be judged to have virtue and to live it.  The Magnitude of the Soul 16.27 (FOTC 4) 287  Sometimes feeling is more trustworthy than opinion, when

the latter arises from error and feeling springs from nature.  The Free Choice of the Will 3.8.23 (FOTC 59) 288  Nothing is easier, my dear friend, than not only to say but

even to think that one has found truth — but I trust you will realize how difficult it is in reality.  The Advantage of Believing 1.1 (FOTC 4) 289  Nothing is more firm and peaceful than the truth.  On the

Literal Interpretation of Genesis 14.45 (FOTC 84)

45

290  No one should consider anything his own except perhaps

for falsehood, since all truth comes from Him who says “I am the Truth.” [John 14.6]  Christian Instruction 1 Prologue 8 (FOTC 2) 291  Every good and true Christian should understand that

wherever they discover truth, it is the Lord’s.  Christian Instruction 2.18.28 (FOTC 2) 292  Truths made clear give pleasure of themselves because they

are true — and even falsehoods frequently give pleasure when they are detected and refuted.  Christian Instruction 4.12.28 (FOTC 2) 293  The lover of truth has to fear no man’s censure.  The Trinity 2

Prologue 1 (FOTC 45) 294  But if they think that truths ought to be denied because

they are unable to perceive them with their blind minds, then they who have been blind from birth ought also to deny that there is a sun.  The Trinity 15.27.49 (FOTC 45) 295  Tell the truth, even when it hurts.  City of God 5.22 (FOTC 8) 296  Only truth convinces.  City of God 5.26 (FOTC 8) 297  Truth must necessarily prevail, whether we deny or admit it. 

Letter 238 (FOTC 32)

 

298  Truth is both sweet and bitter. When it is sweet, it spares

us; when it is bitter, it cures us.  Letter 247 (FOTC 32)

Error 299  The chief cause of error is that man does not know him-

self.  Divine Providence and the Problem of Evil 1.1.3 (FOTC 5) 300  There are two intolerable things in human error: taking

something for granted before the truth becomes known, and,

46  •  Learning

when it has become known, defending the falsehood that was taken for granted.  The Trinity 2 Prologue 1 (FOTC 45) 301  You are mistaken, my son, wretchedly mistaken, if not also

detestably mistaken. When you overcome the animosity that possesses you, you will possess the truth that has overcome you.  Against Julian 6.26.83 (FOTC 35) 302  I think that, through the mercy of God, I have made prog-

ress in writing and did not begin at the point of perfection. For that matter, I would be speaking with more arrogance than truth if I were to say that even now, in my old age, I have arrived at perfection, in writing without any errors.  On the Gift of Perseverance 55. 303  It makes a difference to what extent and in what matters

one has erred, and how easily one corrects one’s error, or with what obstinacy one attempts to defend it.  On the Gift of Perseverance 55 (FOTC 86)

Mind and Memory 304  The human mind, in passing judgment on visible things,

can know that it itself is better than everything visible.  Eightythree Different Questions 45 (FOTC 70) 305  You do not differ from the animals, except in intellect;

don’t boast about anything else. Do you have confidence in your strength? You are surpassed by wild animals. Do you have confidence in your speed? You are surpassed by flies. Do you have confidence in your beauty? How great is the beauty of the peacock’s feathers! How, then, are you better? From the Image of God in the mind, in the intellect!  Tractates on the Gospel of John 3.4.2 (FOTC 78)

Learning  •  47

306  Great is the power of memory, exceedingly great, an im-

mense palace, a vast and unlimited inner chamber; who has plumbed its depths? I myself do not grasp all that I am.  Confessions 10.8.14 (FOTC 21)

Knowledge and Reason 307  What we understand, we owe to reason; what we believe, to

authority; what we have an opinion on, to error.  The Advantage of Believing 11.25 (FOTC 4) 308  If someone knows an answer to a question of faith or mor-

als, he ought to give the answer, especially for the sake of others, because their faith may be weakened if they believe that the question cannot be answered.  Commentary on the Lord’s Sermon on the Mount 2.20.70 (FOTC 11) 309  He who says that he knows what he does not know is rash;

he who denies that he knows what he knows is ungrateful.  Sermon 265 (FOTC 38) 310  If no one asks me, I know; but, if I want to explain it, I do

not know.  Confessions 11.14.17 (FOTC 21) 311  Alas, I do not even know what I do not know!  Confessions

11.25.32 (FOTC 21)

 

312  Knowledge does good only in company with charity; other-

wise, it merely puffs a man into pride, swelling him like a balloon with a valueless volume of air.  City of God 9.20 (FOTC 14) 313  What is the good of knowledge, even knowledge of the

greatest good, if you do not accept those means by which you can alone escape from evil?  Letter 2* (FOTC 81)

48  •  Learning

314  The simple truth is that man’s reason is no less baffled

by many of the marvels of nature than it is by the mysteries of faith.  City of God 21.5 (FOTC 24) 315  Last, but not least, of the works of human ingenuity — 

though thinking only of the nature of the human mind as a glory of this mortal life — is the brilliance of talent displayed by both pagan philosophers and Christian heretics in the defense of error and falsehood.  City of God 22.24 (FOTC 24)

Understanding 316  The soul is not nourished except by the understanding and

knowledge of things.  The Happy Life 2.8 (FOTC 5) 317  The yearning to understand what things are true and best is

the soul’s highest vision; beyond this it has nothing more perfect, more noble, and more true.  The Magnitude of the Soul 33.75 (FOTC 4) 318  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.  Faith and the Creed 9.20 (FOTC 24) 319  To answer those who do not understand me, I should

not be criticized because they do not understand, just as they should not become enraged at me if, wishing to see some barely visible star that I was pointing out, they did not have vision keen enough to even see my finger.  Christian Instruction 1 Prologue 3 (FOTC 2)

Wisdom 320  What is wisdom? Is it not the true beauty itself ?  Answer to

Skeptics 2.3.7 (FOTC 5)

Learning  •  49

321  There is no greater or pitiable want than want of wisdom;

whoever does not lack wisdom cannot lack anything.  The Happy Life 4.27 (FOTC 5) 322  Wise men are truly the gift of fortune, and the only ones

who can rightly be called happy.  Letter 3 (FOTC 12) 323  Without wisdom, no one is happy.  The Free Choice of the Will

2.9.26 (FOTC 59) 324  The beauty of truth and wisdom does not turn away any

who come because the audience is already overcrowded.  The Free Choice of the Will 2.14.38 (FOTC 59) 325  A wise man is so closely united to God in mind that noth-

ing intervening can separate him, for God is Truth and one is not at all wise unless his mind is in contact with Truth.  The Advantage of Believing 15.33 (FOTC 4) 326  The wise man does nothing at all unless reason sees that

it has to be done, and he acts rightly by being submissive and docile to it.  The Trinity 3.3.8 (FOTC 45) 327  Christ, therefore, is our science, and the same Christ is also

our wisdom.  The Trinity 13.20.24 (FOTC 45) 328  What is more powerful and more beautiful than wisdom,

which reaches from end to end mightily and disposes all things   sweetly?  The Trinity 15.5.7 (FOTC 45) 329  Who would say that there is any wisdom where love does

not even exist?  The Trinity 15.7.12 (FOTC 45) 330  Wise men do not yield to passion when they are tempted

either to approve or to perpetuate any action that runs counter to the way of wisdom and the law of justice.  City of God 9.3 (FOTC 14)

50  •  Learning

Learning 331  When men of little ability make inquiry into matters of

great importance, they are usually made into men of great ability.  Answer to Skeptics 1.2.6 (FOTC 5) 332  The order of nature is such that, when we learn anything,

authority precedes reason; for reason may seem weak when having stated its argument, it turns to authority for support. The Way of Life of the Catholic Church 2.3 (FOTC 56) 333  There is nothing so obscure and difficult that cannot, with

God’s help, become perfectly clear and easy.  The Free Choice of the Will 1.6.14 (FOTC 59) 334  How in the world do you suppose we learn, if not by asking

questions?  The Teacher 1.1 (FOTC 59) 335  He who loves the Scriptures of God, and who does not wish

to be ignorant forever, keeps in touch with new findings and diligently examines all things.  Sermon 232 (FOTC 38) 336  Let whatever should be acquired through human means

be acquired humbly, and let anyone who is instructing another teach whatever he has received without haughtiness or grudging.  Christian Instruction 1 Preface 5 (FOTC 2) 337  Charity itself, which unites us to one another with the bond

of unity, would have no way of joining and almost fusing souls with each other, if men learned nothing from other men.  Christian Instruction 1 Prologue 6 (FOTC 2) 338  Among the pagan science, I consider nothing beneficial

except history, the study of sensible things (including the useful mechanical arts), and the sciences of reasoning and of numbers.  Christian Instruction 2.39.58 (FOTC 2)

Learning  •  51

339  What did it avail me that I read and understood all the

books I could on the liberal arts, those proper to a free man, when I was in fact the vilest slave of wicked lusts?  Confessions 4.16.30 (FOTC 21) 340  As for myself, I shall not be reluctant to inquire if I am any-

where in doubt, nor will I be ashamed to learn if I am anywhere in error.  The Trinity 1.2.4 (FOTC 45) 341  Good is the lecture that graciously instructs and suitably

admonishes the listener.  The Trinity 8.3.4 (FOTC 45) 342  For if he who gives his whole attention scarcely grasps

something, he who divides himself by diverse thoughts dissipates even what he had grasped, doesn’t he?  Tractates on the Gospel of John 11.1.2 (FOTC 79) 343  Whoever remains firm in the faith, without which one can-

not live religiously and uprightly, finds so many truths which have to be learned, such a depth of wisdom lying hidden, that even the most advanced in years, the most penetrating in mind, the most ardent in zeal for learning, might find himself described by what the same Scripture says: “When a man hath done, then shall he begin.” [Eccli. 18:6]  Letter 137 (FOTC 20). 344  By reading and meditating, if you pray wholeheartedly to

God, the Giver of all good things, you will learn all that is worth   knowing, or at least you will learn more under His inspiration than through the instruction of any man.  Letter 140.37 (FOTC 20)  345  No one should give up entirely their delight in learning,

no matter what burdens charity demands they carry, lest the sweetness once known be lost and they be overwhelmed by the burden they bear.  City of God 19.19 (FOTC 24)

52  •  Learning

346  It is difficult to remember, and easy to forget; hard to learn,

and easy to be ignorant; difficult to make an effort, and easy to be lazy.  City of God 22.22 (FOTC 24) 347  Men toil at learning, but they are at the same time not

clever enough to understand short explanations and disinclined to read long ones. Likewise, men toil at teaching, vainly devising short lessons for the lazy and long ones for the dull.  Letter 162 (FOTC 20) 348  No age is too advanced to learn what needs learning; al-

though it is more fitting for old men to teach than to learn, it is even more fitting to learn what they teach than to remain ignorant.  Letter 166 (FOTC 30) 349  I ought to be more ready to learn from anyone at all what I

am so useless as not to know rather than eager to teach anyone at all what I do know.  Letter 167.21 (FOTC 30) 350  You are a man; consider nothing human foreign to you.

[Terence, Heaut. 1.1.25]  Against Julian 4.16.83 (FOTC 35)

Teaching 351  There is no sounder principle in the Catholic Church than

that authority should precede reason.  The Way of Life of the Catholic Church 25.47 (FOTC 56). 352  Teach and guide children with childlike simplicity, youths

with firmness, and the aged with mild persuasion, taking into account the age of the mind as well as that of the body.  The Way of Life of Life of the Catholic Church 30.63 (FOTC 56) 353  It is the business of teaching not only to explain obscurities

and settle the difficult points of questions, but also, while this is being done, to meet other questions which might possibly

Learning  •  53

occur, so that they might not make void or disprove what we are saying.  Christian Instruction 4.20.39 (FOTC 2) 354  Now if we feel disgusted because we are so often repeating

things geared to the little ones, familiar things, let us equip ourselves with a brother’s or a father’s or a mother’s love, and by linking our hearts to theirs, those things will again seem new to us; for so great is this feeling of compassion that when people are touched by us as we speak, and we by them as they learn, we each dwell in the other, and so it is as if they speak in us what they hear, while we, in some way, learn in them what it is we teach.  On Catechizing Beginners 12.17 (Harmless, Augustine) 355  It is absurd that you should have learned so many use-

less things for the express purpose of preparing men’s ears to receive the necessary truths from you, if you do not know the necessary truths yourself.  Letter 118 (FOTC 18) 356  The more capable someone is of learning, the more suit-

able he is for teaching others.  On the Gift of Perseverance 40 (FOTC 86) 357  Humility is easily preserved in listening, whereas it is hard

to do it in teaching; for the teacher must necessarily hold a higher position where it requires an effort for him to keep his footing without letting conceit steal in on him.  Letter 266 (FOTC 32)

 

Eloquence 358  Poets have found delight in bad grammar and barbarisms;

by a mere change of name, they chose to call them tropes and metaplasms, rather than refrain altogether from the use of such manifest blunders. Remove them from poems, and we shall be wanting their delightful relish; crowd a great many of them

54  •  Learning

into one passage, and I shall loathe the whole thing as sour, malodorous, and rancid.  Divine Providence and the Problem of Evil 2.4.13 (FOTC 5) 359  Unpretentious and inelegant diction in a discourse brings

into bolder relief the fancy flights and ornate passages; if it is ever by itself, you throw it out as worthless, but whenever it is lacking, the adornments are a hindrance to themselves by their own brilliance, and they confuse the whole design.  Divine Providence and the Problem of Evil 2.4.13 (FOTC 5) 360  The power of eloquence, so very effective in convincing

us of either wrong or right, lies open to all. Why, then, do the good not zealously procure it that it may serve truth, if the wicked, in order to win unjustifiable and groundless cases, apply it to the advantage of injustice and error?  Christian Instruction 4.2.3 (FOTC 2) 361  Eloquence grows upon those who read and listen eagerly

and intelligently to the eloquent more easily than upon those who strive merely to imitate the rules for eloquence.  Christian Instruction 4.3.4 (FOTC 2) 362  Those who speak eloquently are listened to with delight;

those who speak wisely are listened to with profit.  Christian Instruction 4.5.8 (FOTC 2) 363  A grand style of eloquence adopts nearly all the ornaments

of style, but it does not search for them if it does not have them at hand; it is not so much embellished with fine expressions as it is forceful because of the passionate feelings of the heart.  Christian Instruction 4.20.42 (FOTC 2) 364  Grand eloquence is driven on by its own ardor and, if it

chances upon any beauty of style, carries it off and claims it, not through a concern for beauty, but because of the force of the subject matter.  Christian Instruction 4.20.42 (FOTC 2)

Learning  •  55

365  Even in his very speech, the teacher should choose to

please by his subjects rather than by his words, and not to believe that a thing is better expressed unless it is expressed more truthfully.  Christian Instruction 4.28.61 (FOTC 2) 366  If someone cannot speak either eloquently or wisely, then

let him live in such a way that he will not only prepare a reward for himself, but will also furnish an example for others; may his beauty of life be, as it were, a powerful sermon.  Christian Instruction 4.29.61 (FOTC 2) 367  Both wisdom and folly can be presented in ornate or in

plain language, just as both delicious and disgusting food can be served upon elegant or simple platters.  Confessions 5.6.10 (FOTC 21)

Speech 368  It should be a small enough obligation for the man who is

worthy of his species to refrain from starting or stoking animosities by evil talk — if, in fact, he does not even strive to extinguish them by good talk.  Confessions 8.8.21 (FOTC 21) 369  No one has spoken in such a way as to be understood by

everyone in everything.  The Trinity 1.3.5 (FOTC 45) 370  The swiftest flight of ever-busy rumor has the first word

everywhere.  Letter 150 (FOTC 20)

 

371  Who is more talkative than a man who has nothing to

say?  City of God 5.26 (FOTC 8)

Books 372  Therefore, it is useful if many men, differing in style but

not in faith, write many books, in order that the subject might reach as many people as possible.  The Trinity 1.3.5 (FOTC 45)

56  •  Learning

373  Scripture’s divine authority puts it above the literature of

all other people and brings under its sway every type of human genius.  City of God 11.1 (FOTC 14) 374  You can see the Fathers of the Church gathered from vari-

ous periods and regions, from the East and the West, not at a place to which men are obliged to travel, but in a book which can travel to men.  Against Julian 2.10.37 (FOTC 35)

Writing 375  We who debate things and write books, we make progress

as we write. Every day we learn, we explore as we dictate our books. We knock on God’s door as we speak.  Sermon 162C.15 (Harmless, Augustine) 376  I have learned many things by writing that I did not

know.  The Trinity 3 Prologue 1 (FOTC 45) 377  Good is the poem with its measured rhythm and the seri-

ousness of its thoughts.  The Trinity 8.3.4 (FOTC 45) 378  Copyists so often negligently transcribe other people’s hard

work.  City of God 18.31 (FOTC 24) 379  When necessary things are said, God forbid that it be con-

sidered wordiness, no matter how prolix or loquacious it may be.  The Retractations Prologue 3 (FOTC 60)

Reading 380  I warn you not to allow yourself to be swept along in your

reading or discussion by the torrent of words that pour out of men who rely too much on the senses of the body, until you make straight and steady the steps that lead the soul up to God.  The Magnitude of the Soul 31.63 (FOTC 4)

Learning  •  57

381  Things that have been beautifully written are usually not

only read with pleasure by those who are learning about them for the first time, but are even reread with pleasure by those who know them very well already and from whose memory forgetfulness has not yet erased them.  Christian Instruction 4.10.25 (FOTC 2) 382  Who does not know that when one reads good books, he

advances the more quickly in proportion as he puts into practice what he reads?  The Work of Monks 17.20 (FOTC 16) 383  Repeated reading helps one to understand what is

read.  Letter 231A (FOTC 32) 384  You are not unaware how helpful re-reading a section can

be in understanding what is read; for difficulty of understanding is nonexistent or certainly very slight where there is facility in reading, and this becomes so much the greater the more it is repeated.  Letter 1*A (FOTC 81)

Interpretation 385  We must be careful not to take a figurative expression in

Scripture literally.  Christian Instruction 3.5.9 (FOTC 2) 386  Besides, not only one but perhaps two or more interpreta-

tions are understood from the same words of Scripture; so,   there is no daneven if the meaning of the writer is unknown, ger, provided that it is possible to show from other passages that any one of them is in accord with truth.  Christian Instruction 3.27.38 (FOTC 2) 387  What harm does it do me, if different meanings can be

understood in these words, meanings which are yet true? What harm does it do me, if I have a different interpretation of the writer’s intention than someone else?  Confessions 12.18.27 (FOTC 21)

58  •  Learning

388  No one is free to think that there is no deeper meaning in

the written words of Scripture or that all we should look for is the truth of the facts without regard to any allegorical purpose, nor should they think that the whole story is merely a fabric of words full of mystical meanings or that it has no prophetic relevance to the Church.  City of God 15.27 (FOTC 14) 389  You should not try to impose your ideas on the meaning of

the holy books, but submit and hold your mind in check, rather than savagely attack its hidden meaning.  Letter 171A (FOTC 30)

Philosophy 390  Whoever thinks that all philosophy is to be avoided wishes

nothing else than that we do not love wisdom.  Divine Providence and the Problem of Evil 1.11.32 (FOTC 5) 391  In this age, since we find no true philosophers, men need

to be led back to the hope of discovering truth.  Letter 1 (FOTC 12) 392  While skill in reasoning is very valuable in penetrating and

answering all kinds of disputed points which are found in sacred writings, we must beware of an inclination to wrangle and a certain puerile pretension of deluding our opponent.  Christian Instruction 2.31.48 (FOTC 2) 393  Furthermore, if those who are called philosophers, espe-

cially the Platonists, have said things that are, by chance, true and conformable to our faith, we must not only have no fear of them, but even appropriate them for our own use from those who are their illegal possessors.  Christian Instruction 2.40.60 (FOTC 2) 394  There are those who lead one astray by means of philoso-

phy, coloring and disguising their errors with a great, alluring, and honorable name.  Confessions 3.4.8 (FOTC 21)

Learning  •  59

395  All those Dialogues of Cicero you read — what good are they

if they have not helped you to consider your end, and to direct all of your actions to it?  Letter 118 (FOTC 18) 396  By the keenness of mind with which they are endowed, phi-

losophers have striven to fathom the secrets of nature, what is to be aimed at and what avoided in the domain of morals, and, in logic, what conclusions are to be drawn with the rigorous sequence demanded by the laws of reasoning and what conclusions do not so follow or even contradict their premises.  City of God 2.7 (FOTC 8) 397  Some of the philosophers, so far as they were guided from

on high, made great discoveries; but, so far as they were hindered by human nature, they fell into error.  City of God 2.7 (FOTC 8) 398  To whom, then, should the city award divine honors with

greater propriety? To Plato, who strove to debar those unspeakable obscenities of the poets and actors, or to the demons who gloated in deluding the men whom Plato failed to convince of the truth?  City of God 2.14 (FOTC 8) 399  The pursuit of wisdom follows two paths — action and con-

templation.  City of God 8.4 (FOTC 14) 400  Speaking of philosophy, it is the essential function of this

  City of God 18.39 subject to teach men how to attain happiness. 

(FOTC 24) 401  The philosophers, in all their laborious investigations,

seem to have had one supreme and common objective: to discover what manner of living is best suited to laying hold upon happiness. Yet, they have ended up by disagreeing — disciples with masters, and disciples with disciples. Why is this, except that they sought the answer to their question merely in human

60  •  Learning

terms, depending solely upon human experience and human reasoning?  City of God 18.41 (FOTC 24) 402  What do all the arguments of the philosophers go to prove

except that human unhappiness cannot get very far along the road to happiness unless divine authority shows the way?  City of God 18.41 (FOTC 24) 403  Strange life, indeed, where pleasure is the mistress and

virtue is the handmaid! Yet, even this shameless and revolting theory has found philosophers to back and defend it.  City of God 19.1 (FOTC 24) 404  The Stoic sage — an astonishingly silly sage — may go deaf,

dumb, and blind, may be crippled, wracked with pain, visited with every imaginable affliction, driven at last to take his own life, yet have the colossal impertinence to call such an existence the happy life! Happy life, indeed, which employs death’s aid to end it! If such a life is happy, then I say, live it!  City of God 19.4 (FOTC 24)

Science 405  No one reasons correctly without science.  The Immortality of

the Soul 1.1 (FOTC 4) 406  Without science, we cannot even possess the very virtues

by which we live rightly and by which this miserable life is so regulated that it may arrive at that eternal life which is truly blessed.  The Trinity 12.14.21 (FOTC 45) 407  Some take it for granted that they can give a rational expla-

nation of all the established wonders in the world. Remarkable rationalists, these! Very well, let them explain a few of the marvels of nature I could mention — salt that flows like water in fire,

Learning  •  61

a mineral that burns a hand that holds it tightly, a substance that burns forever once it is lit.  City of God 21.5 (FOTC 24) 408  Many marvels of God are too much for the powers of poor

human reason to explain.  City of God 21.5 (FOTC 24) 409  The completeness of scientific knowledge is beyond all

words and becomes all the more astonishing when one pursues any single aspect of this immense corpus of information.  City of God 22.24 (FOTC 24)

 

62  •  Learning

five

Life and Labor Life 410  Every servant of the most high and true God may live their

earthly life without regret, for it is a school training them for life eternal, a school in which they learn to use temporal goods in the spirit of a pilgrim refusing to be enslaved by them, and in which their strength is put to the proof or their character purified by the crosses they have to bear.  City of God 1.29 (FOTC 8) 411  What flow of eloquence is sufficient to set forth the miser-

ies of human life? How little was even Cicero’s very best?  City of God 19.4 (FOTC 24) 412  The reason why we are born is that we may please God,

who is justly displeased by that which we brought with us at birth.  Faith, Hope and Charity [Enchiridion] 20.76 (FOTC 2) 413  It appears to be very rash to deny that those fetuses have

ever lived who are cut away limb by limb and ejected from the womb for fear that the mothers too should die, if they were left there dead.  Faith, Hope and Charity [Enchiridion] 23.86 (FOTC 2)

63

Age 414  After the labors of youth, peace in some measure is granted

to old age, but from old age health deteriorates and fades, as one becomes more and more subject to weaknesses and diseases, leading to death.  On True Religion 26.48 (Harmless, Augustine) 415  Our infancy proves with what ignorance of the truth man

enters life, and adolescence makes clear to all the world how full we are of folly and concupiscence.  City of God 22.22 (FOTC 24) 416  Advancing age is an ailment common to humankind. 

Letter 151 (FOTC 20)

Death 417  But God accomplishes some good in reforming the lives of

older people when they are chastised by the suffering and death of their little ones so dear to them.  The Free Choice of the Will 3.25.68 (FOTC 59) 418  This is indeed a dying life, whatever mortal comfort it

may shower on us, whatever companions may share it with us, whatever wealth of worldly goods it may lavish on us.  Letter 130 (FOTC 18) 419  Bury this body anywhere; let its care give you no concern.

One thing only I ask of you, that, wherever  you may be, you remember me at the altar of the Lord.  Confessions 8.11.27 (FOTC 21)

420  No death is to be deemed evil which has been preceded by

a good life; nor can anything make death evil save what follows it.  City of God 1.11 (FOTC 8) 421  A costly funeral can do no more good for a villain than a

cheap one — or none at all — can harm a saint.  City of God 1.12 (FOTC 8)

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422  What harm is it for beings destined to die to lose the life of

the flesh? And what do those who fear death achieve except to die a little later?  Letter 151 (FOTC 20) 423  Whatever misfortune befalls the dying comes from their

life, not their death.  Letter 151 (FOTC 20) 424  So, all these things — the care of the funeral arrangements,

the establishment of the place of burial, the pomp of the ceremonies — are more a solace for the living than an aid for the dead.  The Care to Be Taken for the Dead 2.4 (FOTC 27) 425  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.  The Care to Be Taken for the Dead 2.4 (FOTC 27) 426  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 Care to Be Taken for the Dead 4.6 (FOTC 27) 427  Now, from whatever moment a human being begins to live,

from that moment it is possible for him to die.  Faith, Hope and Charity [Enchiridion] 23.86 (FOTC 2) 428  Death is not only not to the disadvantage of believers, but is

even found to be to their advantage, for it removes a man from the risk of sinning and establishes him in the security of sinning no more.  On the Predestination of the Saints 14.26 (FOTC 86) 429  I do not mean that we should be angry at the sorrow of

mortals for their dear dead, but the sorrow of believers should not be of long duration.  Letter 263 (FOTC 32) 430  If I should never die, very well; but if at some time, why not

now?  Possidius, Life of St. Augustine 27 (FOTC 15)

Life and Labor  •  65

Family and Marriage Women 431  Because man’s fall was occasioned by womankind, man’s

restoration was accomplished through womankind, since a virgin brought forth Christ and a woman announced that He had risen from the dead. Through a woman came death; through a woman came life.  Sermon 232 (FOTC 38) 432  It is sufficiently clear, I think, that women are earnestly

urged by the eloquence of Cyprian and Ambrose not to defile their faces with cosmetics, but to practice modesty and fear. [Cyprian, De hab. virg. 15; Ambrose, De virg. 1.6.28]  Christian Instruction 4.21.50 (FOTC 2) 433  A woman’s sex is her nature, not a blemish.  City of God 22.17

(FOTC 24) 434  Woman is as much the creation of God as man is; if she was

made from the man, this was to show her oneness with him, and if she was made in the way she was, this was to prefigure the oneness of Christ and the Church.  City of God 22.17 (FOTC 24) 435  When our Lord said that there would be no marriage in the

resurrection, he did not say that there would be no women.  City of God 22.17 (FOTC 24)

 

436  There is nothing to prevent us from applying to women

what is expressly stated of men, since “man” often means “human being,” as in the words “Blessed is the man who fears the Lord” [Psalm 111.1], which certainly also applies to women who fear the Lord.  City of God 22.18 (FOTC 24) 437  What difference does it make whether it is a wife or a moth-

er, when a man has to guard against Eve in every woman?  Letter 243 (FOTC 32)

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438  Women should never live in the same house as God’s

servants, even the most chaste, lest by such an example some scandal or stumbling block be placed before the weak.  Possidius, Life of St. Augustine, 26 (FOTC 15)

Men 439  Men say “We are men; will the dignity of our sex sustain

this affront, 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 though, for the very reason that they are men, they ought not all the more to offer themselves to their wives as exemplars of virtue; as though, for the same reason, they ought not to be less overcome by lustful desire; and, as though, for the same reason that they are men, they ought not to be less servile to their wanton flesh!  Adulterous Marriages 2.8.7 (FOTC 27) 440  Never believe that something is owed the stronger sex as an

honor which is detrimental to chastity, since honor is owed to virtue and not to vice.  Adulterous Marriages 2.20.21 (FOTC 27)

Sex 441  Husbands and wives are to be regarded as more truly happy

if, by mutual consent, they are able to abstain from all carnal intercourse with one another.  Commentary on the Lord’s Sermon on the Mount 1.14.39 (FOTC 11) 442  I have more regard for a man who makes use of the fruitful-

ness of many wives for the sake of an ulterior purpose than for a man who indulges in carnal pleasures with only one wife for the sake of pleasure.  Christian Instruction 3.18.27 (FOTC 2)

Life and Labor  •  67

443  Marital intercourse, turned to the honorable task of beget-

ting children, makes something good out of the evil of lust.  The Good of Marriage 3.3 (FOTC 27) 444  Whatever immodest, shameful, and sordid acts the mar-

ried commit with each other are the sins of the married persons themselves, not the fault of marriage.  The Good of Marriage 6.5 (FOTC 27) 445  Sexual lust does not merely invade the whole body and

outward members; it takes such complete and passionate possession of the whole man, both physically and emotionally, that what results is the keenest of all sense pleasures, and, at the crisis of excitement, it practically paralyzes all power of deliberate thought.  City of God 14.16 (FOTC 14) 446  Any lover of wisdom and holy joys would prefer, if possible,

to sire his children without suffering the passions of lust.  City of God 14.16 (FOTC 14) 447  Curiously enough, not even those who love sex most can

control their own indulgences. Sometimes, their lust is most importunate when they least desire it, while at other times, the feelings fail them when they crave them most, their bodies remaining frigid when lust is blazing in their souls.  City of God 14.16 (FOTC 14) 448  Wherever sexual passion is at work, it feels ashamed of

itself. This is so not only in the case of rape, which seeks dark corners to escape the law, but even where worldly society has legalized prostitution; even when there is no fear of the law and passion is indulged with impunity, it shrinks from the public gaze.  City of God 14.18 (FOTC 14) 449  There is a natural shame which forces even houses of ill

fame to make provision for secrecy, because, easy as it was for lust to get rid of legal restrictions, it was far too difficult ever

68  •  Life and Labor

to remove the darkness from the dens of indecency. The most shameless of men know that what they are doing is shameful; much as they love the pleasures of sex, they hate publicity.  City of God 14.18 (FOTC 14) 450  What is done by parents so that children may be born

comes to be known to all the world; in fact, it is to get this action done that marriages are made with such pomp — but when it is being done, things are different. Not even the children who have been born because it was done are allowed to be witnesses while it is being done.  City of God 14.18 (FOTC 14) 451  All Christians, and, above all, all clerics, must be innocent

of all illicit sexual intercourse and all impurity, even illicit kissing and embracing.  Letter 18* (FOTC 81)

Marriage 452  There is nothing I should avoid so much as marriage; I

know nothing which brings the manly mind down from the heights more than a woman’s caresses.  Soliloquies 10.17 (FOTC 5) 453  Where there is a wife, there must be marriage. But there is

no marriage where action is taken to prevent motherhood, and hence there is no wife.  On the Way of Life of the Manichaeans 18.65 (FOTC 56) 454  Fidelity is owed to you; you owe fidelity. The husband owes

fidelity to his wife; the wife, to her husband; both, to God.  Sermon 260 (FOTC 38) 455  What a difference there is between the moderated plea-

sure of conjugal union, which is mutually entered into for the generation of offspring, and a union of wanton love, in which a child is born but not wanted, though when born it compels one to love it.  Confessions 4.2.2 (FOTC 21)

Life and Labor  •  69

456  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.  The Good of Marriage 3.3 (FOTC 27) 457  A kind of dignity prevails when, as husband and wife they

unite in the marriage act, they think of themselves as mother and father.  The Good of Marriage 3.3 (FOTC 27) 458  God created marriage; as the union is from God, so divorce

is from the devil.  Tractates on the Gospel of John 9.2.2 (FOTC 78) 459  The pleasures of passionate love on earth are made legiti-

mate by marriage, yet they do not escape such burning flames of tribulation as widowhoods and other woes that take away all wedded bliss.  City of God 21.26 (FOTC 24) 460  The good of marriage is always a good; it is a remedy for

infirmity and for some a solace for their human desire.  The Excellence of Widowhood 8.11 (FOTC 16) 461  Let chastity in the marriage bond be the adornment of your

character, let sobriety and moderation be its adornment, for it is exceedingly disgraceful that lust should conquer one whom man cannot conquer, and that he who cannot be captured by the sword should be laid low by wine.  Letter 189 (FOTC 30) 462  Marriage should be so praised that no blame or censure

should accrue to it.  Against Julian 1.2.4 (FOTC 35)

463  Marriage is a good which God instituted in the state and

union of the two sexes, and which He blessed with fecundity. Against Julian 4.1.1 (FOTC 35)

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Adultery 464  Do you have a wife? Well then, as I said, any woman other

than your wife who cohabits with you is a harlot. There, go and tell her that the bishop has insulted you!  Sermon 224 (FOTC 38) 465  If a man lives with a woman for a time, until he finds an-

other 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.  The Good of Marriage 5.5 (FOTC 27) 466  It appears harsh to you that, after adultery, spouse should

be reconciled to spouse, but, if faith is present, it will not be harsh.  Adulterous Marriages 2.6.5 (FOTC 27) 467  A horde of women lie down beside you, the number of your

concubines increases daily; shall we bishops listen patiently to the master, or, rather, the slave of that mob, a man who indulges his insatiable lust with so many harlots, when he asks of us, as if by right of friendship, praise for his grief over his late wife?  Letter 259 (FOTC 32)

Children 468  When I was not heeded as an infant, either because I was

not understood or because of a harmful request, I became indignant at the fact that my elders did not obey and would not serve me — so I got even with them by crying.  Confessions 1.6.8 (FOTC 21) 469  Even if there had been no sin in the Garden of Eden, there

would still have been marriages worthy of that blessed place and lovely babies would have flowered from a love uncankered by lust.  City of God 14.23 (FOTC 14)

Life and Labor  •  71

470  Who is there who does not shudder at the thought of re-

turning to infancy? If the choice had to be made between this and death, who would not choose to die?  City of God 21.14 (FOTC 24) 471  Infancy, in beginning life not with laughter but with tears,

is, for all its ignorance, a kind of prophecy of the way of woe upon which it has entered.  City of God 21.14 (FOTC 24) 472  Who would claim that those words of God, “Increase and

multiply,” were intended as a curse on sinners, not a blessing on marriage?  Letter 184A (FOTC 30) 473  While preserving the ties of nature and choice, the Lord

unites all those related by kinship or marriage in a bond of mutual love.  The Way of Life of the Catholic Church 30.63 (FOTC 56) 474  There is in human modesty an inborn respect for parents

which wickedness itself cannot efface.  City of God 2.4 (FOTC 8) 475  The price of peace in domestic society is to have everyone

subject in the home to some head.  City of God 19.12 (FOTC 24) 476  In the home of a religious man, one living by faith and

as yet a wayfarer from the heavenly City, those who command serve those whom they appear to rule, because they do not command out of lust to domineer, but out of a sense of duty.  City of God 19.14 (FOTC 24)   477  The family arrangement is what nature prescribes, and

what God intended in creating man.  City of God 19.15 (FOTC 24) 478  Fathers ought to look upon their duty to command as hard-

er than the duty of slaves to obey.  City of God 19.15 (FOTC 24)

72  •  Life and Labor

Friendship 479  In all circumstances of life, in every place and at all times,

let us have friends or earnestly seek to have them.  Divine Providence and the Problem of Evil 2.8.25 (FOTC 5) 480  Friendship is the disinterested desire for good for that per-

son whom one loves, together with a reciprocal desire on his part.  Eighty-three Different Questions 31 (FOTC 70) 481  The friendship of this world is unfaithfulness to God. 

Confessions 1.13.21 (FOTC 21) 482  Friendship is not true unless You cement it between those

who cleave to You with the charity that is diffused into our hearts through the Holy Spirit.  Confessions 4.4.7 (FOTC 21) 483  Making one out of many, fusing minds together — this is

what is loved among friends, and it is so loved that the human conscience feels guilty before itself if it does not give love for love.  Confessions 4.9.14 (FOTC 21) 484  Without friends, even the happiness of the senses is im-

possible, no matter how great the abundance of carnal pleasures.  Confessions 6.16.26 (FOTC 21) 485  Good is the soul of a friend with the sweetness of concord

and the fidelity of love.  The Trinity 8.3.4 (FOTC 45) 486  How unreliable is knowledge based on the sentiments of

present friends, when there is no foreknowledge of what they will be in the future?  Letter 73 (FOTC 12) 487  Whenever I feel that a man burning with Christian charity

and love for me has become my friend, when I entrust any of my plans and thoughts to him, I am entrusting them not to a man, but to Him in whom he abides.  Letter 73 (FOTC 12)

Life and Labor  •  73

488  Let us, then, with all the insistence we can put into it, im-

press this upon our dearest friends, those who are the most sincerely interested in our work, and let them know that it is possible between dear friends for something to be objected to in the speech of either, without charity being thereby diminished, without truth begetting hatred.  Letter 82 (FOTC 12) 489  However much the tie of blood prevails, it does not surpass

the bond of friendship.  Letter 84 (FOTC 18) 490  There is no one in the human race to whom love is not due,

but those who love us mutually in holiness and chastity give us the truest joy.  Letter 130 (FOTC 18) 491  All human relationships are fraught with misunderstand-

ings; not even the pure-hearted affection of friends is free from them.  City of God 19.5 (FOTC 24) 492  If and when we hear that our friends have failed us in faith-

fulness, the fire of pain is whipped to such a blazing in our heart as none can guess who has not felt the smart; indeed, we would rather hear that our friends are dead.  City of God 19.8 (FOTC 24) 493  Nobody can be a true friend of man unless he is first a

friend of Truth.  Letter 155 (FOTC 20) 494

Who slanders the name of an absent friend May not as guest at this table attend  

[Carved in Augustine’s dinner table.]  Possidius, Life of St. Augustine, 22 (FOTC 15)

Happiness 495  If someone wishes for and possesses good things, he is

happy; if he desires evil things — no matter if he possesses them — he is wretched.  The Happy Life 2.10 (FOTC 5)

74  •  Life and Labor

496  To strive after God, then, is to desire happiness; to reach

God is happiness itself.  On the Way of Life of the Catholic Church 11.18 (FOTC 56) 497  Life is happy when all of one’s emotions are in accord with

reason and truth.  Two Books on Genesis against the Manichees 1.20.31 (FOTC 84) 498  To love God and to know God, that is the happy life. 

The Teacher 14.46 (FOTC 59) 499  All proclaim they are seeking the happy life, but few there

are who can rejoice at having really found it.  The Teacher 14.46 (FOTC 59) 500  The fish is delighted when, failing to notice the hook, it de-

vours the bait; but it is dragged to its destruction, away from all the pleasure that its joy in the bait had brought it. So it is with all who imagine they are happy with temporal goods.  The Christian Combat 7.8 (FOTC 2) 501  When I look for You, my God, I am looking for the happy

life.  Confessions 10.20.29 (FOTC 21) 502  Therefore, he alone is blessedly happy who has all that he

wills, and wills nothing wrongly.  The Trinity 13.5.8 (FOTC 45) 503  He who seeks the way to attain happiness seeks nothing

else but the right purpose in life, that is to say, where the supreme good of man is to be found; and this is based on a sure and unalterable truth, not on some rash and perverted opinion.  Letter 118 (FOTC 18) 504  Pray for happiness; for what else ought we to pray for ex-

cept that which both the bad and good desire, but which only the good attain?  Letter 130 (FOTC 18)

Life and Labor  •  75

505  He is happy who has everything he wants, but wants noth-

ing that is improper.  Letter 130 (FOTC 18) 506  Only God can make us happy, for He is the true riches of

our souls.  City of God 5.18 (FOTC 8) 507  That all men wish to be happy is certain for anyone who

can think.  City of God 10.1 (FOTC 14) 508  The vision of God is so beautiful and so supremely lovable

that no matter how abounding in all other blessings a man may be, if he lacks this vision, he will be utterly miserable.  City of God 10.16 (FOTC 14) 509  To possess God is to be happy; to lose Him is to be in

misery.  City of God 12.1 (FOTC 14)

Pleasure 510  If we take pleasure in the enjoyment of something, it must

be repressed if the pleasure is sinful.  Commentary on the Lord’s Sermon on the Mount 1.12.34 (FOTC 11) 511  When the soul disregards the higher law by which it is gov-

erned and prostitutes itself as for a price, then it corrupts itself through base delight in lower natures.  Commentary on the Lord’s Sermon on the Mount 1.12.36 (FOTC 11)

 

512  The heretics and the worldly, having spent their souls upon

sense pleasures, are like damp wood in which the fire cannot give forth bright flames, but only smoke to add to the darkness.  The Christian Combat 16.18 (FOTC 2) 513  Oh rottenness, oh monstrosity of life and bottomless

depths of death! Is it possible to take pleasure in what is against the law, not for any reason, except that it is against the law?  Confessions 2.6.14 (FOTC 21)

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514  Scipio saw how easily ease and plenty would soften and

ruin the Romans; he did not wish them to be free from fear, lest they should rot in debauchery.  City of God 1.33 (FOTC 8) 515  Let spiritual pleasures take the place of carnal pleasures

in holy chastity: reading, prayer, psalms, holy meditation, diligence in good works, hope of the world to come, and a heart uplifted.  The Excellence of Widowhood 21.26 (FOTC 16)

Passions 516  Those who calm their passions and subject them to reason

engender peace within themselves and become a kingdom of God in which all things are well ordered.  Commentary on the Lord’s Sermon on the Mount 1.2.9 (FOTC 11) 517  Man is a deep mystery, and the Lord has numbered even

the hairs of his head; yet his hairs are more easily numbered than his feelings and the movements of his heart.  Confessions 4.14.22 (FOTC 21) 518  Now, if that Stoic apathy is a state in which no emotion

of any kind can affect the mind, surely it is nothing but a state of stupor, and, as such, is worse than any vice.  City of God 14.9 (FOTC 14) 519  Each individual in the city of man is driven by his passions

to pursue his private purposes; unfortunately, the object of these purposes are such that no one person, let alone the world community, can ever be wholly satisfied. The result is that the city of man remains in a chronic condition of civil war.  City of God 18.2 (FOTC 24) 520  Surely it is better to be the slave of a man than the slave of

passion.  City of God 19.15 (FOTC 21)

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521  Who indeed despises the occasion of his rejoicing or

grief ?  Against Julian 1.1.1 (FOTC 35)

Music and Drama 522  All the things of the stage are in some respect true precisely

because they are in other respects false; they never succeed in being what they want or ought to be, so long as they refuse to be false. There is nothing in them worthy of imitation.  Soliloquies 10.18 (FOTC 5) 523  I am inclined to approve of the custom of singing in

church, in order that the weaker mind may rise to a disposition of piety through the delights of hearing; but when I am more moved by the song than the thing that is sung, I confess that I sin, and, then, I would rather not hear the singing.  Confessions 10.33.50 (FOTC 21) 524  It was to serve God that David made use of music in order

to express a tremendous truth by means of mystical symbols, for what can better suggest the unity in variety of a well-ordered city than the harmony produced by the rational and controlled concord of differing tones?  City of God 17.14 (FOTC 24) 525  David was a man skilled in the shaping of songs, but one

who loved the harmony of music less as a common emotional indulgence than as a religious dedication to his God, the true   God.  City of God 17.14 (FOTC 24)

Fame and Praise 526  Tell me, please, who of the philosophers made popular

fame or the opinion of men, however good and wise, the object of their actions?  Letter 118 (FOTC 18)

78  •  Life and Labor

527  What is certain is that it is better to resist this passion of

seeking fame and glory than to yield to it, for the freer a man is from this vice, the more he is like God.  City of God 5.14 (FOTC 8) 528  Wherever we direct our attention, we find that God de-

serves praise far beyond the power of language to express.  The Free Choice of the Will 3.12.35 (FOTC 59) 529  One must teach the need of shame in wanting to please

those whom you do not want to imitate; for either they are not good, and there is nothing worthwhile in the praise of the wicked, or they are good, and it is necessary to imitate them.  Eighty-three Different Questions 36 (FOTC 70) 530  One who imitates good men desires the praise of no man;

one who imitates the wicked is not worthy of praise.  Eightythree Different Questions 36 (FOTC 70) 531  Human praise ought not to be sought by the worker of

righteousness, but ought to follow as a consequence of their righteous deeds, so it may be profitable to those who can imitate what they are praising.  Commentary on the Lord’s Sermon on the Mount 2.2.5 (FOTC 11) 532  Even though a man is seen by men when he is doing good

works, in his conscience he ought to have the intention of a good work, and only for the sake of God’s glory ought he aim toward having it known.  Sermon 54.3 (FOTC 11) 533  What belching is to a disordered stomach, praise is to a full

heart.  Sermon 255 (FOTC 38) 534  The whole life of true Christians is an uplifting of the

heart.  Sermon 6 (Denis) 3 (FOTC 11) 535  Though we can say nothing worthy of God, He has ac-

cepted the tribute of our human voice and has wished us to

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rejoice in His praise in our own language.  Christian Instruction 1.6.6 (FOTC 2) 536  To praise You is the wish of man who is but a part of Your

creation, man who carries about with him his own mortality, who carries about the evidence of his sin — and yet, to praise You is the wish of man who is but a part of Your creation.  Confessions 1.1.1 (FOTC 21) 537  I should prefer to be blamed by the critic of falsehood than

praised by its defender.  The Trinity 1.3.6 (FOTC 45) 538  I would rather be criticized by anyone at all, rather than

praised by one who errs or flatters.  The Trinity 2 Prologue 1 (FOTC 45) 539  When praise is free from vanity, reproof is safe from of-

fense.  Letter 112 (FOTC 18) 540  God is never to be blamed for any defects that offend us,

but should ever be praised for all the perfection we see in the natures He has made.  City of God 12.5 (FOTC 14) 541  When good men are praised, the benefit falls on those

who praise, not on those who are praised. As far as the latter are concerned, it is enough for them that they are good, but the former, whose advantage it is to imitate the good, are to be congratulated when they praise the good   because they give evidence that those whom they praise sincerely are pleasing to them.  Letter 231 (FOTC 32)

Goods 542  It does not befit a Christian to possess a slave in the same

way he might possess a horse or money.  Commentary on the Lord’s Sermon on the Mount 1.19.59 (FOTC 11)

80  •  Life and Labor

543  Even in the procuring of temporal goods, we should keep

our mind on the kingdom of God, and in the service of the Kingdom, we should give no thought to temporal goods.  Commentary on the Lord’s Sermon on the Mount 2.17.58 (FOTC 11) 544  If a man is not in want, that is due to the mercy of God, not

because of man’s own ability.  Sermon 56.9 (FOTC 11) 545  All things are good, even riches, through which men be-

come haughty and enamored of distinctive clothing rather than mindful of the skin that is common to all humanity — yes, even riches are good.  Sermon 61.2 (FOTC 11) 546  You seek gold because you think that you will acquire hap-

piness from the possession of gold, but gold does not make men happy. Why do you seek for what is deceptive? Why do you wish to be exalted in this world?  Sermon 231 (FOTC 38) 547  An expensive cloak might be well suited for a bishop, but

it is really not suited to Augustine, a poor man born of poor parents. It’s not right that I should have clothes that I can’t pass along to my brother if he doesn’t have something.  Sermon 356.13 (Harmless, Augustine)

Prosperity 548  Temporal goods are loved more before we have them,

but become worthless when they have come into our possession; they do not content the soul, whose true abode is eternity.  Christian Instruction 1.38.42 (FOTC 2) 549  It is not the quality of the things we use, but our motive

in using them and our way of striving for them that causes our actions to be either commendable or reprehensible.  Christian Instruction 3.12.19 (FOTC 2)

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550  Treasures generally lead the mind astray, but the mind

that is not led astray by treasures can live more freely without any.  The Trinity 14.14.19 (FOTC 45) 551  My dearest people, let it be a characteristic of our need and

poverty that we grieve for those who seem to themselves to have abundance; for theirs is a joy like that of madmen, madmen who rejoice in their insanity, laughing and lamenting for him who is sane.  Tractates on the Gospel of John 7.2.1 (FOTC 78) 552  Not by worldly goods do men become good, but having

become good, they make these things good by their good use of them.  Letter 130 (FOTC 18) 553  Until God’s consolation comes to you, remember that you

are desolate, however much you may abound in the good fortune of worldly wealth.  Letter 130 (FOTC 18) 554  Nothing can be really lost on earth save what one would be

ashamed to take to heaven.  City of God 1.10 (FOTC 8) 555  If men so love the goods of earth as to believe that these are

the only goods, or if they love them more than the goods they know to be better, then the consequence is inevitable: misery and more misery.  City of God 15.4 (FOTC 14) 556  Any created thing, though it is good, can be loved both well

and poorly; there is nothing wrong with gold,   but there is with a miser.  City of God 15.22 (FOTC 14) 557  Where virtue is lacking, no number of other goods are re-

ally any good to the one who has them and, therefore, cannot really be called his goods, since they cannot profit the one who uses them badly.  City of God 19.3 (FOTC 24) 558  The faithful must also be warned not to expect from God

perishable and transient benefits whose abundance even the

82  •  Life and Labor

impious can enjoy, but rather lasting and eternal benefits whose acceptance requires a complete disdain of all things deemed good and evil in this world.  Eighty-three Different Questions 36 (FOTC 70) 559  Let us put up with, rather than love, present realities. Ad-

versity is openly pernicious; prosperity is charmingly deceitful. Fear the sea, even when it’s dead calm.  Sermon 105.11 (Harmless, Augustine) 560  Hence, those who seek earthly advantages in the Church do

not set before their minds what God promises, for here there are temptations, dangers, and difficulties but He promises eternal rest and the companionship of the holy angels after these temporal sufferings.  Sermon 252 (Harmless, Augustine) 561  Almighty God, by a most bountiful providence, granted

early happiness to the wicked so that the good might not seek it as a great boon.  Letter 140.5 (FOTC 20) 562  As for the paltry goods and evils of this transitory world,

these God allotted to the just and unjust alike, in order that men might not seek too eagerly after those goods that they see even the wicked to possess, or shrink too readily from those ills that commonly afflict the just.  City of God 1.8 (FOTC 8) 563  Both the good and the wicked are scourged by God with

temporal sufferings, not because both lead a bad life, but because both love an earthly life.  City of God 1.9 (FOTC 8) 564  No one should become a Christian for any motive but eter-

nal life.  City of God 5.25 (FOTC 8) 565  We should not seek and worship God for the sake of the

passing cloud of this mortal life, but for the sake of that happy life that cannot be other than everlasting.  City of God 7, Prologue (FOTC 8)

Life and Labor  •  83

566  We are schooled to bear misfortune calmly, for the good

and bad without distinction have to bear it; and we set no great store by prosperity, since the bad and good alike may come to enjoy it.  City of God 20.2 (FOTC 24) 567  It is good for our souls to learn to attach no importance to

the good or ill fortune that we see visited without distinction upon the good and the bad.  City of God 20.2 (FOTC 24) 568  Can you deny before God that you would not have become

involved in these dire straits if you had not loved the goods of this world, which, like the servant of God we knew you formerly to be, you should have despised entirely and have counted as nothing?  Letter 220 (FOTC 32)

Use 569  All useful things ought to be used according as there is

need for them; for what is badly used benefits no one, and what is of no benefit obviously is not useful.  Eighty-three Different Questions 30 (FOTC 70) 570  Make use of what is useful, watch out for what is harmful,

leave what is superfluous.  Two Books on Genesis against the Manichees 1.16.26 (FOTC 84) 571  What use to me was a good thing if I did not use it

well?  Confessions 4.16.30 (FOTC 21)

 

572  This is the difference between good men and bad men,

that the former make use of the world in order to enjoy God, whereas the latter would like to make use of God in order to enjoy the world — if, of course, they are not so bad as to deny even belief in God and His providence over mankind.  City of God 15.7 (FOTC 14)

84  •  Life and Labor

Grief 573  In a certain way, sadness is like dung. Dung, not consigned

to its proper place, makes a house unclean; but, in its place, it makes a field fertile.  Sermon 254 574  Let grief arise on account of one’s sins, not on account of

frustrated desires.  Sermon 254 (FOTC 38) 575  What is it that makes a man want to become sad in be-

holding mournful and tragic events which he himself would not willingly undergo? Yet, as he watches, he wishes to suffer their sorrow; this sorrow is his own pleasure. What is this but a wretched weakness of mind?  Confessions 3.2.2 (FOTC 21) 576  If someone finds it is a sin that I wept for my mother during

a little part of an hour, the mother who was dead for the time being to my eyes, who had wept over me for many years that I might live before Your eyes, let him not be scornful, but rather let him weep himself for my sins before You.  Confessions 8.12.33 (FOTC 21)

Sadness 577  So long as we are in this place of misery, we cannot be im-

mune to all grief, unless, as one of the world’s great writers realized and remarked, it is bought at the high price of insensibility of the soul and sluggishness of body. [Cicero, Tusc. Disp., 3.6, 12]  City of God 14.9 (FOTC 14) 578  There are some who say men should not grieve. Let them

try, if they can, to ban all friendly feelings, callously break the bonds of all human fellowship, or claim that human relationships must be emptied of all tenderness; and if this is utterly impossible, it is no less impossible for us not to taste as bitter

Life and Labor  •  85

the death of those whose life for us was such a source of sweetness.  City of God 19.8 (FOTC 24)

Suffering 579  Whatever you suffer for an act of fidelity and kindness, then,

is judged not only as unmerited, but even as praiseworthy.  Lying 13.24 (FOTC 16) 580  Can anyone be so silly and so madly attached to his own

opinion as to say that, in the trials of this mortal life, the whole of God’s people or even a single individual among them is, was, or ever will be free from tears and pain?  City of God 20.17 (FOTC 24) 581  It often takes pain to drive out pain, so that care and cures

can be as cruel as the complaints themselves.  City of God 22.22 (FOTC 24)

Suicide 582  You should, therefore, experience no regret, but rather

great elation, over the fact that you prefer even an unhappy existence to the termination of an unhappy existence, since you would then not be existing at all.  The Free Choice of the Will 3.7.21 (FOTC 59)

  of God 1.20 (FOTC 8) 583  One who kills himself kills a man.  City 584  One thing is clear: suicide is a sin for those who worship

the one true God.  City of God 1.22 (FOTC 8) 585  Just as there is no one who does not wish to be happy, so

there is no one who does not wish to exist, for how can anyone be happy if they do not exist?  City of God 11.26 (FOTC 14)

86  •  Life and Labor

586  The philosophers say — rightly say — that the first and most

fundamental command of nature is that a man should cherish his own human life, and, by his very nature, shun death; a man should be his own best friend.  City of God 19.4 (FOTC 24) 587  Since everyone who kills a man without any authorization

of lawful power is a murderer, anyone who kills himself will not be a murderer if he is not a man.  Letter 204 (FOTC 32) 588  If parricide is more heinous than any homicide in that one

slays not merely a man, but one’s neighbor, and in that type of murder one’s guilt is more serious the closer the person one has destroyed, then without doubt he is a worse sinner who commits suicide, for no one is closer to a man than himself.  Patience 13.10 (FOTC 16)

Will 589  I am not always able to do what I wish, unless I always cease

to wish what I am not able to do.  Letter 10 (FOTC 12) 590  In all our actions, it is the intention, and not the act, that

ought to be considered, for the intention is indeed the light within us.  Commentary on the Lord’s Sermon on the Mount 2.13.46 (FOTC 11) 591  That the will of God be done in you is one thing; that it

be done by you, quite another. For no other reason do you pray that God’s will be done in you but that it may be well for you, for, whether it be well or ill with you, it shall be done in you — but may it be also done by you!  Sermon 56.7 (FOTC 11) 592  The Omnipotent One makes use of the wicked not accord-

ing to their depraved will but according to His own just desires.  Sermon 214 (FOTC 38)

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593  Indeed, no one does well against his will, even though what

he does is good.  Confessions 1.13.19 (FOTC 21) 594  For what am I for myself without You, O God, but a guide

unto destruction?  Confessions 4.1.1 (FOTC 21) 595  Why follow your flesh and be perverted? Rather let it follow

you, and be converted!  Confessions 4.12.18 (FOTC 21) 596  The whole thing amounts to this: not to will what I will, but

to will what God wills.  Confessions 9.1.1 (FOTC 21) 597  Generally, it is not because of a voice from heaven, nor

through a Prophet, nor by the revelation of a dream or of that mental seizure which is called ecstasy that we are forced to recognize a will of God different from our own, but by the accident of circumstances that call us to something other than what we had planned. This might be if we had set out on a journey, and were asked to do something which a true regard for our duty would prevent us from refusing.  Letter 80 (FOTC 12) 598  Our wills have power to do all that God wanted them to do

and foresaw they could do.  City of God 5.9 (FOTC 8) 599  In the punishment for the first sin, the only punishment

for that disobedience was, to put it simply, more disobedience; there is nothing that now makes a man more miserable than his own disobedience to himself. Because he would not do what he could, he can no longer do what he would.  City of God 14.15 (FOTC 14) 600  Nevertheless, when we consider how many other organs

still obey the will even after the fall, we have no reason for doubting that man’s one unruly member could have done the same, so long as there was no defiance from lust.  City of God 14.23 (FOTC 14)

88  •  Life and Labor

601  There is no doubt that, in Eden, the will would have been

able to keep passion in place, so that every organ of the body would be equally obedient to reason, whether it was the hand sowing seed in the field of earth or the generative organ in the field of birth.  City of God 14.23 (FOTC 14) 602  What good is it to us if we will what we cannot do, or are

unwilling to do what we are able to do?  Grace and Free Will 15.31 (FOTC 59) 603  It must be admitted that we have a will free to do both evil

and good, but, in doing evil, one is free of justice and the slave of sin, and in the matter of good no one is free unless he be freed by Him who said “If the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.” [John 8:36]  Admonition and Grace 1.2 (FOTC 2)

Habit 604  Anyone is more easily involved in false opinions the more

he is exposed to them, and the same happens to the mind in the case of truth.  Letter 4 (FOTC 12) 605  What, indeed, can be mentioned or imagined more labori-

ous and toilsome than the struggle in which the mind of a believer is exercising all its active powers in overcoming a vicious habit?  Commentary on the Lord’s Sermon on the Mount 1.18.54 (FOTC 11) 606  Lust is the product of a perverse will, and when one obeys

lust habit is produced, and when one does not resist habit necessity is produced.  Confessions 8.5.10 (FOTC 21) 607  Old habits have deep roots.  City of God 6.12 (FOTC 8) 608  So long as passions have not been strengthened by con-

stant victory, they are easily conquered and put to rout; but, if

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they have acquired the habit of conquest and domination, they can be defeated only by difficult effort.  City of God 21.16 (FOTC 24) 609  Taking on the burden of new virtues is difficult and it is

easy to be oppressed by the burden of old sins.  Letter 2* (FOTC 81)

Labor 610  We are to do no work merely from the love of gaining tem-

poral possessions or from the fear of want, but, as it were, from necessity.  Lying 15.29 (FOTC 16) 611  Whatever work men perform without guilt and trickery is

good.  The Work of Monks 13.14 (FOTC 16) 612  It is one thing to do manual work with a free mind, as a

workman does if he be not dishonest, avaricious, or greedy for personal profit, but it is another matter to occupy one’s mind with the pursuit of riches without expending bodily labor, as do business men, administrators, or overseers, for, in attending to their duty, they work with care, not with their hands, and hence they occupy their minds with the anxiety of possessing.  The Work of Monks 15.16 (FOTC 16)

Leisure

 

613  The attraction of leisure ought not to be empty-headed

inactivity, but in the quest or discovery of truth.  City of God 19.19 (FOTC 24) 614  No one is forbidden to pursue knowledge of the truth, for

that is the purpose of legitimate leisure.  City of God 19.19 (FOTC 24)

90  •  Life and Labor

six

Virtue and Vice Conscience 615  Nothing is unclean except from an evil conscience.  The Way

of Life of the Manichaeans 14.31 (FOTC 56) 616  What is public opinion but a cloud of error, compared with

the light and purity of one’s conscience?  City of God 1.22 (FOTC 8) 617  The conscience of a wicked man, with all its dread and pe-

nal shadows, outweighs not only all prisons, but even all Hell.  Letter 151 (FOTC 21)

Righteousness 618  The mind is subject to God to be ruled and aided while the

passions are subject to the mind to be tempered, tamed, and turned to the uses of righteousness.  City of God 9.5 (FOTC 14) 619  Nobody is good through dread of punishment but through

love of righteousness.  Letter 153 (FOTC 20)

91

Discipline 620  As for Lot’s wife, who looked back and was turned into a

pillar of salt, she has provided, for all who believe, a condiment to help them relish the wisdom of taking warning from her example.  City of God 16.30 (FOTC 14) 621  If any person desires this life in the heavens and longs to

see these good days, let him restrain his tongue from evil and his lips from deceit; let him turn from evil and do good; let him thus be a man of good will.  Sermon 193 (FOTC 30) 622  The discipline established by the Lord is to be preserved

without any reservation; justice, which is of the Lord, imposes it whether men approve or disapprove.  Adulterous Marriages 1.22.27 (FOTC 27)

Correction 623  Just as friends may pervert by their flattery, so do enemies

often correct by their criticism.  Confessions 8.8.18 (FOTC 21) 624  It is a joy for good men to hear of the past evils of those

who are now free from them, not that joy arises from the fact that there are evils, but from the fact that they were, but are no longer.  Confessions 10.3.4 (FOTC 21) 625  If I receive your medicinal correction   with peaceful mind,

I shall not suffer; if, through a human weakness which is also mine, I feel some sadness at being put in the wrong with good reason, it is better for the swelling of the head to suffer while it is being cured than to be spared pain and not be healed.  Letter 73 (FOTC 12) 626  But, if something sharp is said in the process of refuting

an argument, let us, to make it more acceptable, temper it

92  •  Virtue and Vice

with milder language, and let us imagine that we wield a sword tipped with honey.  Letter 82 (FOTC 12) 627  We fear to correct sinners either because the effort wearies

us, or we fear offending them, or we avoid antagonizing them lest they thwart or harm us in those temporal matters where our cupidity ever seeks to acquire, or our faint hearts fear to lose.  City of God 1.9 (FOTC 8) 628  What is reprehensible is that, while leading good lives

themselves and abhorring those of wicked men, some, fearing to offend, shut their eyes to evil deeds instead of condemning them and pointing out their malice.  City of God 1.9 (FOTC 8) 629  It is the duty of a blameless person not just to do no wrong,

but to keep others from wrongdoing and to punish it when done, so that the one punished may be improved by the experience and others warned by their example.  City of God 19.15 (FOTC 24) 630  Through penance, our life must be changed for the better

and alms must be used in propitiating God for past sins, not for somehow buying a license to commit these same sins with impunity.  Faith, Hope and Charity [Enchiridion] 19.70 (FOTC 2) 631  Whenever you fail to follow the known commands of

God and are unwilling to be admonished, you are for this very reason to be admonished, that you are unwilling to be admonished.  Admonition and Grace 5.7 (FOTC 2) 632  Truly, only an ignorant man will have the hardihood to

criticize me for criticizing my own errors.  The Retractations Prologue 1 (FOTC 60)

Virtue and Vice  •  93

Virtue 633  Stubbornness is surely not a treasure because consistency

is a jewel.  The Magnitude of the Soul 26.51 (FOTC 4) 634  To see virtue and not to have it is a torment.  The Teacher 9.28

(FOTC 59) 635  Whoever fancies he can have an insight into virtue while he

is yet leading a wicked life is mistaken.  The Christian Combat 13.14 (FOTC 2) 636  Just as we are set apart by faith, let us be distinguished

by our morals; let us be distinguished by our works; let us be enkindled by the fire of charity which the demons did not possess.  Sermon 234 (FOTC 38) 637  Scripture commands only charity, and censures only lust;

in this manner, it molds the character of men.  Christian Instruction 3.10.15 (FOTC 2) 638  The maxim, “Do not do to another what you do not wish to

have done to you” [Acts 15.20,29; Tob. 4.16], cannot be varied in any way. When this rule is applied to the love of God, all vices die; when it is applied to the love of our neighbor, all crimes vanish.  Christian Instruction 3.14.22 (FOTC 2)

  fierceness of pride, 639  Restrain yourselves from the monstrous from the soft pleasure of luxury, and from the deceptive name of curiosity.  Confessions 13.21.30 (FOTC 21) 640  Therefore, in leading our temporal life in order to attain

eternal life, I know that our fleshly desires must be curbed, and only so much indulgence granted to sensual pleasures as may be needed to sustain and carry on this life, and that all worldly troubles must be borne with patience and fortitude, for the

94  •  Virtue and Vice

truth of God and the eternal salvation of us and our neighbor.  Letter 95 (FOTC 18) 641  Now let these words suffice: grow strong in Christ, be

strengthened in the faith, and be watchful in good works.  Tractates on the Gospel of John 2.16.3 (FOTC 78) 642  The better way to reach honor, glory, and dominion is by

virtue, not by conniving and lying.  City of God 5.12 (FOTC 8) 643  A good citizen seeks rewards as a bad one does, but the

good citizen takes the right way, the way of virtue.  City of God 5.12 (FOTC 8) 644  Virtue rests not on others’ judgments, but on the witness

of one’s own conscience, and, therefore, is better than a good name.  City of God 5.12 (FOTC 8) 645  And if we are separated from the holy angels by reason of

the weakness of our will and the misery of our human infirmity, this is a matter of grace and not space.  City of God 8.25 (FOTC 14) 646  What is the life of virtue save one unending war with evil

inclinations?  City of God 19.4 (FOTC 24) 647  What prudence preaches, temperance puts into prac-

tice.  City of God 19.4 (FOTC 24) 648  There are still within the reach of man himself, if only he

will pay the price of toil and trouble, the twin resources of law and education. With the one, he can make war on human passion; with the other, he can keep the light of learning lit even in the darkness of our native ignorance.  City of God 22.22 (FOTC 24) 649  Great are these two gifts, wisdom and continence: wisdom,

by which we are formed in the knowledge of God; continence, by which we are no longer conformed to this world.  The Excellence of Widowhood 17.21 (FOTC 16)

Virtue and Vice  •  95

650  He who has one virtue has them all, and he who does not

have a particular one has none.  Letter 167.4 (FOTC 30) 651  No one can be either learned or continent unless God

give it.  Letter 188 (FOTC 30) 652  It is undoubtedly in the gift of apostleship that all those

graces mentioned are contained.  On the Proceedings of Pelagius 36 (FOTC 86) 653  Faith believes, hope and charity pray.  Faith, Hope and Charity

[Enchiridion] 2.7 (FOTC 2) 654  There is no charity without hope, nor hope without charity,

and neither without faith.  Faith, Hope and Charity [Enchiridion] 2.8 (FOTC 2) 655  In the life of one of God’s servants, the advice of St. Ambrose

should be observed, namely, never to seek a wife for another man, lest you be blamed if they quarrel; never encourage anyone who wishes to go to war, lest you be blamed if they suffer injury; and never attend a feast in one’s own city, lest the bounds of temperance be exceeded.  Possidius, Life of St. Augustine, 27 (FOTC 15)

Vice 656  A soul infected with vice cannot overcome one fortified by

virtue.  The Free Choice of the Will 1.10.20

 

657  So long as a man prefers to pursue whatever is easier for his

weakened condition to endure, the more he is encompassed in darkness.  The Free Choice of the Will 2.16.43 658  It is by sinful pleasures, by vanity, and baneful curiosity

that the world can obtain the mastery over us; these things of the world, by their deadly delight, enslave the lovers of things

96  •  Virtue and Vice

transitory and compel them to serve the Devil and his angels.  The Christian Combat 6.6 (FOTC 2) 659  Let not those things be done which God hates: injustice

in games, wickedness in jest; let not men make themselves judges, lest they fall into the hands of the true Judge. Hearken, O Christians, you are the members of Christ. Consider what you are; ponder at what price you have been bought.  Sermon 196 (FOTC 38) 660  “Am I not permitted to do what I wish in my own house?”

You are not so permitted; they who act thus go to Hell and will burn in everlasting fire.  Sermon 224 (FOTC 38) 661  No one wishes to endure a long, drawn out, and distasteful

banquet, and yet all wish to have a long and evil life, and among your goods you wish for nothing evil except yourself.  Sermon 232 (FOTC 38) 662  For as a snake creeps along not with open steps, but by the

most minute movements of its scales, so the slippery movement of falling away from the good takes possession of the careless little by little.  The Trinity 12.11.16 (FOTC 45) 663  Envy follows pride as her daughter and handmaid. Indeed,

pride immediately begets her, and is never without this offspring and companion. By these two vices, that is, pride and envy, the Devil is the Devil.  Holy Virginity 31.31 (FOTC 27) 664  Thus, a good man, though a slave, is free; but a wicked

man, though a king, is a slave — for he serves not one man alone, but, what is worse, as many masters as he has vices.  City of God 4.3 (FOTC 8) 665  Thus, unjust as it is to encroach on another’s property out

of greed, it is still more wicked to transgress the limits of established morals out of lust.  City of God 15.16 (FOTC 14)

Virtue and Vice  •  97

666  We must not imagine that any thoroughgoing scoundrel

who remains utterly unreformed is likely to be received into the everlasting tabernacles on account of helping the saints by the mammon of iniquity.  City of God 21.27 (FOTC 24) 667  We must keep our eyes from yielding to concupiscence and

conquer our craving for revenge; we must stop our sight and thought from lingering on what is sinful, our ears from listening to idle and immoral words, and our will from choosing what is illicit — even though we like it.  City of God 22.23 (FOTC 24) 668  There are wretched shadows in the human soul, which

knows how to tame a lion, but not how to live.  On Nature and Grace 40.47 (FOTC 86) 669  There are so many windings and dark places in the minds

of men that, although all the mistrustful are deservedly blamed, they even think they ought to be praised for being cautious.  Letter 150 (FOTC 20) 670  The useful function of the law, then, is that it shows man to

himself, that he may know his own wickedness and see how his carnal concupiscence is increased rather than healed by prohibition.  Letter 196 (FOTC 30)

Faith

 

671  The man without faith is prudent in his own folly.  The Happy

Life 4.26 (FOTC 5) 672  He lies who says that he is just without faith, for he lies in

whom there is no faith. If anyone wishes to speak the truth, let him turn to the Truth.  Sermon 189 (FOTC 38) 673  What human reason does not grasp faith lays hold on; and

where human reason fails faith succeeds.  Sermon 190 (FOTC 38)

98  •  Virtue and Vice

674  Therefore, my brethren, believe. Where faith is concerned,

there is no need of resorting to lengthy discussion.  Sermon 215 (FOTC 38) 675  Let no one make a mistake; let no one argue against this

truth; let no one insist foolishly on his own mad theory; but let us hold most tenaciously to the belief that what God has promised will come to pass.  Sermon 242 (FOTC 38) 676  Where reason has failed, there faith builds up.  Sermon 247

(FOTC 38) 677  Let no man think himself weak when God affords him

strength, lest he not only fear for his own weakness, but even lose trust in Him who works in him.  Sermon 13 (Denis) 2 (FOTC 11) 678  What is closer to your ears, Lord, than a heart that is peni-

tent and a life founded on faith?  Confessions 2.3.5 (FOTC 21) 679  Let faith precede reason, and let the heart be cleaned by

faith so as to receive and bear the great light of reason; this is indeed reasonable.  Letter 120 (FOTC 18) 680  For faith has its own eyes with which it sees that what it

does not yet see is true, and with which it most certainly sees that it does not yet see what it believes.  Letter 120 (FOTC 18) 681  This, then, is beneficial, to believe in God with the right

kind of faith, to worship God, to know God, that He might help us to live the right kind of lives, and, if we sin, that we might merit His pardon.  Faith and Works 22.41 (FOTC 27) 682  Let faith be on the alert; the reality of what has been pre-

dicted is right before us to be seen and grasped. It is even forcibly borne in on those who refuse to see it.  City of God 17.5 (FOTC 24)

Virtue and Vice  •  99

683  No one believes anything unless he has first thought that it

is to be believed.  On the Predestination of the Saints 5 (FOTC 86) 684  “Give what You command, and command what You will.”

What does God command first and foremost but that we believe in Him?  On the Gift of Perseverance 53 (FOTC 86)

Hope 685  Let no lowly person despair; let him hold fast to Christ and

his hope will not go unrewarded.  Sermon 197 (FOTC 38) 686  The sting of fears and ache of tears, the vexatious toil and

hazardous temptations, all these teach the Church to rejoice only in the healthy joy of hope.  City of God 18.49 (FOTC 24) 687  The hope that hardly anyone but a single thief dying on a

cross could entertain is now shared by peoples everywhere on earth, who sign themselves with the very Cross on which He died, in the hope that they may escape eternal death.  City of God 20.30 (FOTC 24)

Joy 688  Why is it that man rejoices more at the salvation of a soul

which has been despaired of and which has been delivered from a greater danger, than if hope had always  been with it?  Confes-

sions 8.3.6 (FOTC 21)

Charity 689  We cannot believe that there is any surer step to the love of

God than the charity of one man toward another.  The Way of Life of the Catholic Church 26.48 (FOTC 56)

100  •  Virtue and Vice

690  But we know that, above all, we must try to be benevolent,

that is, we must entertain no malice or evil design against one another.  The Way of Life of the Catholic Church 26.49 (FOTC 56) 691  Everything which is not exhausted by being given away is

not owned as it ought to be, so long as we hold on to it and do not give it away.  Christian Instruction 1.1.1 (FOTC 2) 692  Charity is a motion of the soul whose purpose is to enjoy

God for His own sake, and one’s self and one’s neighbor for the sake of God.  Christian Instruction 3.10.16 (FOTC 2) 693  The more the power of lust is destroyed, the more the pow-

er of charity is strengthened.  Christian Instruction 3.10.16 (FOTC 2) 694  Though he who sorrows for the unfortunate is commended

for a work of charity, he who is sincere in his compassions would much prefer to have no reason for feeling sorrow. If there were such a thing as malevolent benevolence, which is impossible, then he who truly and sincerely feels compassion could desire people to be unhappy so that he might feel compassion for them.  Confessions 3.2.3 (FOTC 21) 695  Nothing is more excellent than charity. It is this gift of God

alone that divides the children of the eternal kingdom from the children of eternal perdition.  The Trinity 15.18.32 (FOTC 45) 696  Unlike material possessions, goodness is not diminished

when it is shared with others, but expands; and the more heartily each of the lovers of goodness enjoys the possession, the more does goodness grow.  City of God 15.5 (FOTC 14) 697  Goodness is not merely a possession that no one can main-

tain who is unwilling to share it, but it is one that increases the more its possessor loves to share it.  City of God 15.5 (FOTC 14)

Virtue and Vice  •  101

698  As severity is ready to punish the sins which it discovers, so

charity does not wish to discover anything to punish.  Letter 211 (FOTC 32) 699  Whatever a man supposes he is doing well is not done

well at all if it is done without charity.  Grace and Free Will 18.37 (FOTC 59) 700  Whoever has charity as well as truth will never be guilty of

folly or envy; error must yield to truth, envy to charity.  Against Julian 6.1.1 (FOTC 35) 701  Let not their charity grow cold; rather, let the devil, whose

tricks and snares set this up, be overcome by their peace.  Letter 13* (FOTC 81)

Love 702  There is nothing, however hard or unyielding, which can-

not be conquered by the fire of love.  The Way of Life of the Catholic Church 22.40 (FOTC 56) 703  You will not even try to love your enemy if you think it im-

possible for you to love him. Therefore, begin by believing it possible, and then pray that the will of God be done in you.  Sermon 56.14 (FOTC 11) 704  Every sinner, as he is a sinner, should not be loved, and

every man, as a man, should be loved for the sake of God. 

Christian Instruction 1.27.28 (FOTC 2) 705  We love and feel compassion for our enemies, because the

more they hate us the farther they sever themselves from Him whom we love.  Christian Instruction 1.29.30 (FOTC 2) 706  When the woman with whom I had lived for so long was

torn from my side because she was a hindrance to my arranged

102  •  Virtue and Vice

marriage, my heart, to which she clung, was cut and wounded, and the wound drew blood; and, after the fever and most severe pain, it began to fester, and though the pain seemed cooler, it was more desperate.  Confessions 6.15.25 (FOTC 21) 707  Late have I loved You, O Beauty so ancient and so new, late

have I loved You!  Confessions 10.27.38 (FOTC 21) 708  He loves God less who loves something else along with

Him, which is not loved for His sake.  Confessions 10.29.40 (FOTC 21) 709  He who knows how to love himself loves God.  The Trinity

14.14.18 (FOTC 45) 710  He who does not love God hates himself, since he does that

which is opposed to himself, pursuing himself as if he were his own enemy; it is a tragic delusion that, though all wish to be useful to themselves, many only do what is most fatal to themselves.  The Trinity 14.14.18 (FOTC 45) 711  By what sign does anyone recognize that someone has re-

ceived the Holy Spirit? Let each question his heart; if he loves his brother, then the Spirit of God abides in him.  Tractates on the First Epistle of John 6.10 (FOTC 92) 712  Love mingled with severity is better than deceit with indul-

gence.  Letter 93 (FOTC 18) 713  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.  Faith and Works 13.20 (FOTC 27) 714  The supreme human law is love.  City of God 15.16 (FOTC 14) 715  Even love itself, whereby we love well what it is well to love,

must not be loved too well.  City of God 15.22 (FOTC 14)

Virtue and Vice  •  103

716  In God’s two chief commandments — the love of God and

the love of neighbor — man finds three beings to love: God, his fellow man, and himself.  City of God 19.14 (FOTC 24) 717  Bad men are to be loved, so that they may not continue to

be bad, just as sick men are to be loved so that they may not remain sick, but may be cured.  Letter 153 (FOTC 20) 718  Love is not expended like money. Besides the fact that the

one is diminished by being expended and the other increased, they also differ in that we show greater good will toward anyone if we do not seek to recover the money we have given him, but no one can be a true spender of love unless he is also a kindly collector of it.  Letter 192 (FOTC 30) 719  We would not love God unless He first loved us.  Grace and

Free Will 18.38 (FOTC 59)

Mercy 720  If you wish to obtain the mercy of God, be merciful. If you

as a man refuse human help to a man, God will refuse you His divine help.  Sermon 259 (FOTC 38) 721  Woe even to the praiseworthy life of men if God scrutinizes

it when mercy has been set aside!  Confessions 8.13.34 (FOTC 21) 722  God commands us especially to practice   mercy, declar-

ing that it pleases Him as much as or even more than sacrifices.  City of God 10.1 (FOTC 14)

723  So it falls out that in this world, in evil days like these, the

Church walks onward like a wayfarer stricken by the world’s hostility, but comforted by the mercy of God.  City of God 18.51 (FOTC 24)

104  •  Virtue and Vice

Forgiveness 724  Therefore, when we are about to offer any gift to God in

our heart, we must proceed to a reconciliation with a brother if it occurs to our mind that we have injured him in any way.  Commentary on the Lord’s Sermon on the Mount 1.10.27 (FOTC 11) 725  If the power to forgive sins were not in the Church, there

would be no hope; if there were no remission of sins in the Church, there would be no hope of future life and of eternal salvation.  Sermon 212 (FOTC 38) 726  But see to it that you forgive, for if you do not forgive you

lie, and you lie to him whom you do not deceive; you can lie to God, but you cannot deceive Him.  Tractates on the Gospel of John 26.11.2 (FOTC 79)

Anger 727  The justice of the Pharisees is that they shall not kill; the

perfect justice of those who are to enter the kingdom of God is that they shall not become angry without cause.  Commentary on the Lord’s Sermon on the Mount 1.9.21 (FOTC 11) 728  It is human to get angry; but your anger ought not, like a

tender young twig, to be watered by suspicions and finally to grow into a tree of hatred — for anger is one thing, and hatred another.  Sermon 211 (FOTC 38) 729  Why do you rage against the bad? You say, “Because they’re

bad.” By raging against them, you add yourself to them. I’m going to give you some advice: Does someone who’s evil bother you? Don’t let there be two of you. You condemn him, and you get added on; you increase the number of what you’re condemning.  Sermon 302.10 (Harmless, Augustine)

Virtue and Vice  •  105

730  But because some do not hear what they want, they believe

that we are either acting cunningly to conceal our ignorance, or maliciously, because we are envious of their knowledge; and they take their leave indignant and wroth.  The Trinity 1.1.3 (FOTC 45) 731  As vinegar corrodes a vessel if it is left in it for too long, so

anger corrodes the heart if it goes over to the next day.  Letter 210 (FOTC 32) 732  The sister who is often tempted to anger but quickly begs

pardon of the one she knows she has injured is better than the one who is slower to anger, but less easily moved to ask pardon.  Letter 211 (FOTC 32)

Prudence 733  Prudence, constantly on the lookout to distinguish what is

good from what is evil, bears witness to the fact that we are surrounded by evil and have evil within us.  City of God 19.4 (FOTC 24)

Foolishness 734  Just as every fool is miserable, so is every miserable man a

fool.  The Happy Life 4.28 (FOTC 5) 735  Men go to admire the mountains’ peaks,   giant waves in the

sea, the broad courses of rivers, the vast sweep of the ocean, and the circuits of the stars, but they leave themselves behind! 

Confessions 10.8.14 (FOTC 21) 736  Unfortunately, there prevails a major and malignant mala-

dy of fools, the victims of which mistake their irrational impulses for truth and reason, even when confronted with as much evidence as any man has a right to expect from another.  City of God 2.1 (FOTC 8)

106  •  Virtue and Vice

737  If we have a right to laugh in the theatre where actors know

their parts, we should laugh still louder at ignorant fools in real life.  City of God 6.1 (FOTC 8) 738  It is strange indeed that in the face of a man there is so

great a distance between his head and his tongue that in this case the head does not subdue the tongue.  Against Julian 1.5.20 (FOTC 35) 739  Men who have less understanding of the reason why some-

thing is said want to form their opinions in haste, and take up the defense of some theory from which it is difficult or impossible to detach them, because they yearn to be thought, rather than to be, learned and wise.  Letter 238 (FOTC 5)

Justice 740  Yet, of what advantage is the fact that you hit back when

you have been hit? Is your injury repaired by this in any way?  Commentary on the Lord’s Sermon on the Mount 1.20.62 (FOTC 11) 741  He is guilty in will who would willingly do what is unlaw-

ful, but who does not do it because he cannot escape punishment — for so far as lies in him, he would prefer that there were no justice to forbid and punish sin, and who can doubt that he would therefore do away with it if he could?  Letter 145 (FOTC 20) 742  True justice is not to be found save in that commonwealth

whose Founder and Ruler is Jesus Christ — for no one can deny that this is the weal of the people.  City of God 2.21 (FOTC 8) 743  What is rightly done is justly done; what is done unjustly

cannot be done by right.  City of God 19.21 (FOTC 24) 744  It is unfair for anyone to wish to judge another and refuse

to judge himself.  Letter 238 (FOTC 32)

Virtue and Vice  •  107

Lies 745  It is better to err by an excessive regard for the truth and by

an equally emphatic rejection of falsehood  On Lying 1.1 746  In reality, the fault of the person who tells a lie consists in

his desire to deceive in expressing his thought.  Lying 3.3 (FOTC 16) 747  Whoever thinks that there is any kind of lie which is not a

sin deceives himself sadly when he considers that he, a deceiver of others, is an honest man.  Lying 21.42 (FOTC 16) 748  Nothing should be judged more characteristic of men and

derived from themselves than whatever is deceitful and mendacious.  Christian Instruction 2.25.39 (FOTC 2) 749  I have met many men who wished to deceive, but not one

who wished to be deceived.  Confessions 10.23.33 (FOTC 21) 750  Those who turned to the Name of Christ with a lying

tongue, in order to enjoy this temporal light, deserve the penalty of eternal darkness.  City of God 1.1 (FOTC 8) 751  There are many kinds of lies, all of which we should de-

test uniformly, for there is no lie which is not contrary to truth.  Against Lying 3.4 (FOTC 16)

 

752  He who says that there are some just lies must be regarded

as saying nothing else than that there are some just sins, and, consequently, that some things that are unjust are just. What could be more absurd?  Against Lying 15.31 (FOTC 16) 753  Lies, then, should either be avoided in right action or be

confessed in penitence, but they should not be increased by our teaching, though they abound unhappily in our living.  Against Lying 21.40 (FOTC 16)

108  •  Virtue and Vice

754  Every lie is a sin, though it makes a great difference with

what intention and in what matter the lie is uttered.  Faith, Hope and Charity [Enchiridion] 6.18 (FOTC 2) 755  A man who lies in a desire to help does not sin in the same

way as does one who lies in a desire to hurt.  Faith, Hope and Charity [Enchiridion] 6.18 (FOTC 2) 756  Anyone who says something false while thinking it true

is not to be judged a liar, for he is himself deceived, not consciously a deceiver.  Faith, Hope and Charity [Enchiridion] 6.18 (FOTC 2) 757  Sometimes we can help someone by lying, but this gives us

no reason to think there is any lie that is not a sin.  Faith, Hope and Charity [Enchiridion] 7.22 (FOTC 2)

Oaths 758  If you are forced to take an oath, remember that the neces-

sity for it arises from the infirmity of those whom you are trying to persuade; although you do no evil when you make good use of an oath, its necessity is “from evil,” that is, from the evil of the one whose infirmity forces you to take an oath.  Commentary on the Lord’s Sermon on the Mount 1.17.51 (FOTC 11) 759  Those who keep literally to the words, but cheat the expec-

tation of the ones to whom they take the oath, commit perjury; those who do not keep literally to the words, but perform what is expected of them by those to whom they swear, do not commit perjury.  Letter 125 (FOTC 18) 760  God does not exact from us what is vowed at another’s

expense; rather, He forbids us to trespass on another’s rights.  Letter 127 (FOTC 18)

Virtue and Vice  •  109

761  Avoid swearing as far as possible. It is certainly better not

even to swear to the truth than to form the habit of swearing, thereby often falling into perjury.  Letter 157 (FOTC 20)

Obedience 762  A slave ought not to contradict the Lord.  Sermon 355.2

(Harmless, Augustine) 763  My whole hope is nowhere but in Your exceedingly great

mercy, O God; grant what You command and command what You will.  Confessions 10.29.40 (FOTC 21) 764  What is more unjust than that persons who do not wish to

obey their superiors should wish to be obeyed by their inferiors?  The Work of Monks 31.39 (FOTC 16) 765  Had they not sinned, had they believed and obeyed God,

our first parents would have been happier in their ignorance.  City of God 14.17 (FOTC 14) 766  In the world, this is the life of virtue: when God com-

mands, man obeys; when the soul commands, the body obeys; when reason rules, our passions must be conquered or resisted, even when they fight back.  City of God 19.27 (FOTC 24)

Excuses

 

767  Nothing is as familiar for sinners as to want to attribute to

God everything for which they are accused.  Two Books on Genesis against the Manichees 2.17.25 (FOTC 84) 768  In making excuses, there is not a hint of any prayer for par-

don, nor a word of entreaty for any medicine to heal the wound; while not denying the sin like Cain, pride still seeks to put the blame for the sin on someone else.  City of God 14.14 (FOTC 14)

110  •  Virtue and Vice

Patience 769  Even if you return no evil for the evil you receive, the Lord

deems it insufficient unless you are ready to receive even further evil.  Commentary on the Lord’s Sermon on the Mount 1.19.57 (FOTC 11) 770  No man loves what he endures, even though he loves to en-

dure; though he rejoice that he can endure them, he prefers to have nothing to endure.  Confessions 10.28.39 FOTC 21) 771  He who aims at being crowned in victory after the battle

must not be cast down while the fight goes on, for He who prepares prizes beyond telling for the victors furnishes strength to the fighters.  Letter 99 (FOTC 18) 772  Those who disdain success when everything in the world

succeeds deserve praise and commendation, but those who delight in death when the world is falling to ruin are equally worthy of blame and condemnation.  Letter 127 (FOTC 18) 773  You do well to regard the evils of this world as bearable, in

view of our hope of the future, for these things are changed into good by our good use of them, so long as they exercise our patience without increasing our covetous desire.  Letter 131 (FOTC 20) 774  It is the way of Providence to test men of virtuous and

exemplary life by afflictions, and to call them, once tried, to a better world, or to keep them for a while on earth for the accomplishment of other purposes.  City of God 1.1 (FOTC 8) 775  God’s patience is an invitation to the wicked to do penance,

just as God’s scourge is a school of patience for the good.  City of God 1.8 (FOTC 8)

Virtue and Vice  •  111

776  A good man is neither puffed up by fleeting success nor

broken by adversity, whereas a bad man is chastised by such a failure because he is corrupted by success.  City of God 1.8 (FOTC 8) 777  In the same fire, gold gleams and straw smokes; the tide of

trouble will test, purify, and improve the good, but beat, crush, and wash away the wicked. The sufferers are different even though they suffer the same trials; though what they endure is the same, their virtue and vice are different.  City of God 1.8 (FOTC 8) 778  The virtue of the soul that is called patience is so great a gift

of God that it is even said to belong to Him who bestows it, in that He waits for the wicked to amend.  Patience 1.1 (FOTC 16) 779  The patience of man that is good, praiseworthy, and de-

serving the name of virtue is said to be that by which we endure evils with equanimity so as not to abandon the good through which we arrive at the better.  Patience 2.2 (FOTC 16) 780  By their unwillingness to suffer evil, the impatient do not

effect their deliverance from it; instead, they bring upon themselves the suffering of more grievous ills.  Patience 2.2 (FOTC 16) 781  The patient, who prefer to bear wrongs without commit-

ting them rather than to commit them by not enduring them,   escape worse both lessen what they suffer in patience and things by which, through impatience, they would be submerged.  Patience 2.2 (FOTC 16) 782  Strong desires make labor and suffering tolerable.  Patience

4.3 (FOTC 16) 783  When, therefore, anything evil tortures us, without in

turn extorting evil from us, not only do we possess our souls

112  •  Virtue and Vice

through patience, but, when through suffering the body itself is afflicted or lost temporarily, it actually regains lasting stability and happiness, and through pain and death secures inviolable health and endless happiness.  Patience 8.7 (FOTC 16) 784  The true patience of the just is from the same source as the

charity of God which is in them, and the false patience of the unjust is from the same source as is their lust of the world.  Patience 17.14 (FOTC 16) 785  It is good for a man to believe he will have to suffer eternal

punishment if he denies Christ, and for him to endure and make light of any punishment whatsoever for that faith.  Patience 27.24 (FOTC 16) 786  Let us cry out, therefore, with the spirit of charity, and, un-

til we come to the inheritance in which we are to abide forever, let us be liberal in love, not patient with a servile fear.  Patience 29.26 (FOTC 16) 787  On the pathway to God easy and fruitful things are avoided

through cowardly fear, but on the way of the world hard and fruitless things are borne with toil and labor.  Letter 256 (FOTC 32)

Fear 788  Unquestionably the only cause for fear lies in the fact that

what is loved might be lost once acquired, or might not be acquired once hoped for.  Eighty-three Different Questions 33 (FOTC 70) 789  Since with all the risks that daily threaten life, every mortal

is in a measure exposed to every kind of death and is uncertain which of them he will meet, I ask which is preferable: to suffer one death once for all, or to keep on living in constant dread of all?  City of God 1.11 (FOTC 8)

Virtue and Vice  •  113

Temperance 790  The whole work of temperance, therefore, is to make us

strip off the old man and be renewed in God, to disdain all bodily delights and popular acclaim and to turn our love wholly to things invisible and divine.  The Way of Life of the Catholic Church 19.36 (FOTC 56) 791  Any sane man would rather eat fish as the Lord did rather

than lentils like Esau or barley like oxen; the fact that they eat coarser food does not mean that animals are more selfrestrained than we are.  Christian Instruction 3.12.19 (FOTC 2) 792  Temperance must bridle our fleshly lusts if they are not to

drag our will to consent to abominations of every sort.  City of God 19.4 (FOTC 24)

Continence 793  Continence is worthless unless it is ordered to some noble

end; even a she-mule is a virgin.  The Way of Life of the Manichaeans 13.28 (FOTC 56) 794  Therefore, let not concupiscence usurp for itself our mem-

bers, but let continence claim them for itself that they might be the instruments of the justice of God, not the instruments of iniquity unto sin.  Continence 3.8 (FOTC 16)   795  Depraved passions, unclean lusts, carnal and base move-

ments are resisted by the sweetness of holiness, by the love of chastity, by spiritual vigor, and by the beauty of continence.  Continence 14.31 (FOTC 16)

114  •  Virtue and Vice

Chastity 796  How can someone be chaste who refrains only from illicit

intercourse, but does not desist from a steady pollution of his soul through other sins? One is truly chaste who keeps God in mind and devotes himself to Him alone.  The Happy Life 3.18 (FOTC 5) 797  God give me chastity and continence — but not yet. 

Confessions 8.7.16 (FOTC 21) 798  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.  Holy Virginity 42.43 (FOTC 27) 799  Fertility is a blessing in marriage, but integrity in holiness

is better.  Sermon 187 (FOTC 38)

Moderation 800  There is scarcely anyone who has a just estimate of his own

powers. He who thinks too little of himself should be roused, while he who thinks too much should be checked, the former that he may not be crushed by despair, the latter that he may not be carried on headlong in his boldness.  The Advantage of Believing 10.24 (FOTC 4) 801  Not to exceed due measure in punishment, lest the requital

be greater than the injury; that is the lesser justice of the Pharisees — and it is a high degree of justice, for it would not be easy to find a man who, on being hit, would be content to give only one in return, or who, on being insulted, would be content to return one word exactly equivalent.  Commentary on the Lord’s Sermon on the Mount 1.19.56 (FOTC 11)

Virtue and Vice  •  115

802  It is better to have everything that is good in a lesser degree

than to have a great good with a great evil; better to have the stature of Zacchaeus with health than the height of Goliath with a fever.  The Good of Marriage 23.28 (FOTC 27) 803  Men fall into error when they do not observe a happy

mean.  Faith and Works 4.5 (FOTC 27) 804  No man must be so committed to contemplation as to give

no thought to his neighbors’ needs, nor so absorbed in action as to dispense with the contemplation of God.  City of God 19.19 (FOTC 24)

Humility 805  Let the haughty, therefore, quarrel and contend for earthly

and temporal things; but “blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the land,” the land from which they cannot be expelled.  Commentary on the Lord’s Sermon on the Mount 1.2.4 (FOTC 11) 806  The Lord Jesus, choosing the weak things of the world to

confound the strong, did not begin with generals or senators, but with fishermen; for if they had enjoyed any honors before their selection, they would have dared to attribute the Lord’s choice to themselves, not to the grace of God.  Sermon 250 (FOTC 38)

  to death, so did 807  Just as the proud Devil led the proud man the humble Christ lead the obedient man back to life; as the former fell when exalted and dragged down those who consented to him, so the latter, when humbled, arose and raised up those who believed in Him.  The Trinity 4.10.13 (FOTC 45) 808  Therefore, while humility ought to be observed by all

Christians, it especially becomes those who by some great blessing excel over others to be followers and adherents of this virtue.  Holy Virginity 33.33 (FOTC 27)

116  •  Virtue and Vice

809  The way is first, humility; second, humility; and third,

humility.  Letter 118 (FOTC 18) 810  If humility does not precede and accompany and follow ev-

ery good work we do, and if it is not set before us to look upon, and beside us to lean upon, and behind us to fence us in, pride will wrest from our hand any good deed we do while we are in the very act of taking pleasure in it.  Letter 118 (FOTC 18) 811  The path of virtue starts from humility and rises to higher

things.  City of God 2.7 (FOTC 8) 812  Humility is the virtue especially esteemed in the City of

God, and so recommended to its citizens in their present pilgrimage on earth.  City of God 14.13 (FOTC 14) 813  The real way to build a highway to heaven is by humility. 

City of God 16.4 (FOTC 14) 814  Those rejoicing on the right path ought to do it with trem-

bling, and they should not arrogantly rely on their own strength to remain on it.  Admonition and Grace 9.24 (FOTC 2)

Shame 815  Someone just says “Let’s go, let’s do it!” and one is

ashamed not to be unashamed.  Confessions 2.9.17 (FOTC 21) 816  Had there been no fall, there would have been none of the

embarrassment I now feel in discussing sex, and no need to apologize for possible offense to chaste ears; on the contrary, one could feel free to discuss every detail connected with sex without the least fear of indelicacy.  City of God 14.23 (FOTC 14) 817  Therefore, if some of my readers have been shocked by

my frank discussion of sex, let them put this down to their fallen nature, not to their nature as such; let them blame the

Virtue and Vice  •  117

indecency of their own curiosity rather than the expressions I was compelled to use.  City of God 14.23 (FOTC 14)

Lust 818  Unlike charity, lust is a motion of the soul bent upon enjoy-

ing one’s self, one’s neighbor, or any creature without reference to God.  Christian Instruction 3.10.16 (FOTC 2) 819  I was not in love, yet I loved to love and, in the hidden

depths of unseated desire, I hated myself for my lack of desire; I sought some object that I might love, loving the very act of love.  Confessions 3.1.1 (FOTC 21) 820  Lust is an usurper, defying the power of the will and play-

ing the tyrant with man’s sexual organs.  City of God 14.20 (FOTC 14) 821  The peculiarity of the passion of lust is that the soul can

neither sufficiently control itself so as to be free from lust, nor in any way control the body when lust takes over the control of sexual excitement in defiance of the will. This defiance is precisely what makes both lust, and the organs it controls, such sources of shame.  City of God 14.23 (FOTC 14) 822  The greater the power given concupiscence by habit, the

greater the effort of the will striving to overcome it. A widow   and a harlot who combats lust more vigorously than a virgin, wants to be chaste combats more vigorously than a woman always chaste.  Against Julian 6.18.55 (FOTC 35) 823  I know that the Devil is playing his part and that he does

not cease to speak in the hearts of those whom he holds bound by his fetters. I know that to fornicators, to adulterers who are not content with their own wives, he says in their hearts: “Sins of the flesh are not grievous.”  Sermon 224 (FOTC 38)

118  •  Virtue and Vice

824  Do not claim to have chaste minds if you have unchaste

eyes, because the unchaste eye is the messenger of the unchaste heart; and when unchaste hearts reveal themselves to each other by a mutual glance, even though the tongue is silent, and when they take pleasure in each other’s passion according to the lust of the flesh, chastity flees from the character though the body remains untouched by impure violation.  Letter 211 (FOTC 32)

Desire 825  It is already a sin merely to desire things which the law of

God forbids and to abstain from them out of fear of punishment rather than out of love for what is right.  City of God 14.10 (FOTC 14) 826  There lives no man so perfected in wisdom as not to have

some conflict with excessive desires.  City of God 19.4 (FOTC 24) 827  If anyone were left to live as he pleased and do what he

desired, he would go through practically the whole gamut of lawlessness and lust.  City of God 22.22 (FOTC 24) 828  For the concupiscence of the flesh forces itself in where it

is not needed and, by insistent or even wicked desires, it seduces the hearts of even the faithful and the saints.  Letter 6*.7 (FOTC 81)

Pride 829  Who hides from the sight of God but he who has aban-

doned Him and is now beginning to love what is his own?  Two Books on Genesis against the Manichees 2.16.24 (FOTC 84) 830  That we might not fall from continence, we ought to be es-

pecially vigilant against the treachery of diabolical suggestions

Virtue and Vice  •  119

to presume in our own strength, for “cursed be the one that trusteth in man.” [Jer. 17.5]  Continence 4.10 (FOTC 16) 831  It is characteristic of a depraved mind to seek after and

claim as its due what is properly owed to God alone; such love of one’s self is better termed hatred.  Christian Instruction 1.23.22 (FOTC 2) 832  The proud love their own opinion not because it is true, but

because it is their own.  Confessions 12.25.34 (FOTC 21) 833  Every other vice leads to evil deeds, but pride disguises

itself among good deeds in order to spoil them.  Rule 1.7 (Harmless, Augustine) 834  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, yet be damned because of the vice of pride if in his superiority he despise the other sinners.  Holy Virginity 32.32 (FOTC 27) 835  It is because of pride that God created that most worth-

less and least of creatures to torment us; since man has exalted himself, he may be laid low by fleas.  Tractates on the Gospel of John 1.15.1 (FOTC 78) 836  And if a free man should be haughty, he is a slave, and,

what is worse, the slave of an evil mistress,   of pride itself. 

Tractates on the Gospel of John 11.4.3 (FOTC 79)

837  Heal pride and there will be no wickedness.  Tractates on the

Gospel of John 25.16.2 (FOTC 79) 838  Other defects are to be feared in our sins, but pride is to

be feared in our very acts of virtue; otherwise, those praiseworthy acts will be lost through our desire for praise.  Letter 118 (FOTC 18)

120  •  Virtue and Vice

839  Therefore, by unicorns the Psalmist obviously means the

proud, because pride hates companionship, and every proud man aims, with all his might, to shine alone. [Psalm 21:22]  Letter 140.16 (FOTC 20) 840  When all the boasting is over, what is any man but just an-

other man?  City of God 5.17 (FOTC 8) 841  It is true that some of the worldlings seem to rule and regu-

late their passions, but they become swollen with the tumors of godlessness because their medicine of pride is filled with more poison than the malady of passion.  City of God 14.9 (FOTC 14) 842  It is advantageous for the proud to fall into some open and

manifest sin, and so become displeasing to themselves, after they have already fallen by pleasing themselves.  City of God 14.13 (FOTC 14) 843  There is a worse and more execrable kind of pride whereby

one seeks the subterfuge of an excuse even when one’s sin is manifest.  City of God 14.14 (FOTC 14) 844  Do not hold your own way of life in such high esteem that

you censure as evil in another what is not evil.  The Excellence of Widowhood 4.6 (FOTC 16)

Vanity 845  However, among adults, trifling and play is called “busi-

ness,” though the same sort of behavior in children is punished by adults and no one has pity on the children.  Confessions 1.9.15 (FOTC 21) 846  A man often becomes vain because of his very contempt for

vanity.  Confessions 10.38.63 (FOTC 21)

Virtue and Vice  •  121

847  The joy of the world is vanity. Its coming is very ea-

gerly awaited; and yet when it has come, it cannot be held on to.  Tractates on the Gospel of John 7.1.3 (FOTC 78) 848  You will not see the truth at all so long as you build your ed-

ifice of deadly joys upon the tongues of men.  Letter 118 (FOTC 18) 849  Since the vanity of human praise will not satisfy the hungry

spirit, because it gives it nothing to eat but emptiness and air, by that very hunger it is forced to turn to something fuller and more profitable; but since it is none the less carried along by the stream of time, it is as if a river led into another river, and there is no end of wretchedness, so long as the object of our striving has no sure foundation.  Letter 118 (FOTC 18) 850  The excessive love of this life has this great evil: that many,

wishing to live a little longer, grievously offend God “who is the fountain of life” [Psalm 35:10], and thus, while they vainly fear the inevitable end of life, are cut off from the life that has no end.  Letter 127 (FOTC 18) 851  It is the vain glory of vain men never to yield to the

truth.  City of God 6 Prologue (FOTC 8)

Gluttony 852  I cannot believe that you would be so blind as to prefer the

frugal man who takes a little bacon fat and  wine to the glutton who feasts on choice and exotic vegetables.  The Way of Life of the

Manichaeans 13.29 (FOTC 56) 853  And so it turns out that anyone who confesses to having

eaten a piece of chicken, not for pleasure but rather for his health, cannot be included among your Elect, while another who admits a violent craving for truffles, preserves, and other meatless delicacies is included. What an admirable way of

122  •  Virtue and Vice

life! What a splendid system! What remarkable temperance!  The Way of Life of the Manichaeans 16.51 (FOTC 56) 854  What makes a person guilty at the table is not the quality

of his food, but rather his unbridled greed.  City of God 16.37 (FOTC 14)

Greed 855  Thus, the farther the mind departs from God in fondness

and in greed for things inferior to him, the more it is filled with foolishness and misery.  The Way of Life of the Catholic Church 12.21 (FOTC 56) 856  By covetousness the Devil rules within man and takes pos-

session of his heart; he is cast out when we renounce this world with all our heart.  The Christian Combat 1.1 (FOTC 2) 857  The hope of getting and holding onto temporal things is

the poison of charity; the lessening of covetousness, its nourishment; the absence of covetousness, its perfection.  Eightythree Different Questions 36 (FOTC 70) 858  Beware of supposing that anything could possibly be truer

than the saying that “avarice is the root of all evil” [1 Tim. 6:10], namely the desire for more than is sufficient.  The Free Choice of the Will 3.17.48 (FOTC 59) 859  Anyone who perversely loves the good of any created nature

whatsoever, and even acquires this good, makes himself bad by gaining something good and sad by losing something better. City of God 12.8 (FOTC 14) 860  We see men eager for money, glory, and lust, who, to attain

their desires and to keep what they have acquired, suffer, not through absolute need but with a culpable will, the heat of the sun, rain, icy cold, billows and stormy tempests, the bitterness

Virtue and Vice  •  123

and uncertainty of wars, the strokes of terrific blows and dreadful wounds. But these insane acts, somehow, seem licit.  Patience 3.3 (FOTC 16) 861  Coveting knows not where necessity ends.  Against Julian

4.14.70 (FOTC 35)

Curiosity 862  To give your attention to what you should not heed is a sin;

to listen gladly to something which you should not hear is a sin; to think of something upon which you should not dwell is a sin.  Sermon 261 (FOTC 38) 863  What are men but a race interested in finding out about

another man’s life, but slothful in amending their own?  Confessions 10.3.3 (FOTC 21) 864  What pleasure is there in seeing a horrifically mangled

corpse? Yet, if one is lying around somewhere, people rush to it, only to become sad and pale.  Confessions 10.35.55 (FOTC 21) 865  It is from idle curiosity that, in religion itself, God is put on

trial, through a demand for signs and wonders, wanted not for any saving purpose, but simply for the sake of personal experience.  Confessions 10.35.55 (FOTC 21) 866  They are certainly better who prefer the   knowledge of

themselves to the knowledge of the heavens and earth.  The Trin-

ity 4 Prologue 1 (FOTC 45) 867  A mind that knows even its own weakness is more deserv-

ing of praise than one that searches out the courses of the stars in order to know them, but is ignorant of how it must proceed to reach its own true health and strength.  The Trinity 4 Prologue 1 (FOTC 45)

124  •  Virtue and Vice

868  If we did not know that apes, monkeys, and baboons are

not humans, but animals, historians, eager to show off the curiosity of their knowledge, might falsely and with impunity describe them as human.  City of God 16.8 (FOTC 14) 869  There is no need to pry into the nature of created things;

for a Christian, it is enough to believe that their cause is nothing other than the goodness of God, their creator.  Faith, Hope and Charity [Enchiridion] 3.9 (FOTC 2)

Virtue and Vice  •  125

 

seven

State and Society Law 870  An unjust law, it seems to me, is no law.  The Free Choice of

the Will 1.5.11 (FOTC 59) 871  For those people whom it governs, the law allows for mi-

nor transgressions to prevent the commission of more serious crimes.  The Free Choice of the Will 1.5.11 (FOTC 59) 872  My brothers and sisters, I exhort you, I beg you by the Lord

and by his gentleness that you live gently, that you live peacefully. Let the authorities do what belongs to them — for they will have to render an account to God and to their superiors.  Sermon 302.21 (Harmless, Augustine) 873  “If killing is evil in every respect, how will the just who,

in obedience to a law, have killed many, be excused from this charge?” The answer to this question is that he does not kill who is the executor of a just command.  Lying 13.23 (FOTC 16) 874  What arguments, what works of any philosophers, what

laws of any states can be compared in any way with the two commandments on which Christ says the whole Law and the Prophets depend?  Letter 137 (FOTC 20)

127

875  The Law, therefore, leads to faith; faith obtains the out-

pouring of the Spirit; the Spirit spreads charity abroad; charity fulfills the Law.  Letter 145 (FOTC 20) 876  So long as the life of the heavenly City in the earthly city is

that of a captive and an alien, she has no hesitation about keeping in step with the civil law which governs matters pertaining to our existence here below. For, as mortal life is the same for all, there ought to be common cause between the two cities in what concerns our purely human living.  City of God 19.17 (FOTC 24) 877  It is not without advantage that human recklessness should

be confined by fear of the law so that innocence may be safe among evildoers, and the evildoers themselves may be cured by calling on God when their freedom is checked by fear of punishment.  Letter 153 (FOTC 20)

Natural Law 878  There is a law rooted in nature. Opinion has not begotten

it; rather, a certain innate force has implanted it.  Eighty-three Different Questions 31 (FOTC 70) 879  Where are these rules written in which even the unjust rec-

ognize what is just, and in which they perceive that they ought to have what they do not have, but in the book of that light   called Truth?  The Trinity 14.15.21 (FOTC 45)

Judgment 880  We cannot see into the human heart nor bring it out into

the open. Let us not lay claim to judging others’ thoughts, but let us set before God our prayers, even for those about whom we may have doubts.  Sermon 279.10 (Harmless, Augustine)

128  •  State and Society

881  As a Christian judge, you must play the part of a loving

father, you must show anger for wrongdoing, but remember to make allowance for human weakness; do not indulge our inclination to seek vengeance for the vile acts of sinners, but direct your effort to the cure of the sinners’ wounds.  Letter 133 (FOTC 20)

Crime 882  Do not commit a great crime of your own in your horror for

someone else’s greater crime. No matter how great the distance between your crime and another’s, your crime is yours and not the other’s.  Against Lying 9.22 (FOTC 16) 883  One unlawful act must not be done in lieu of another. If

each is a heinous crime, one ought not to commit either in preference to the other, but should avoid both.  Adulterous Marriage 2.15.15 (FOTC 27)

Theft 884  He who steals for lust is worse than he who steals for

mercy — but, if all theft is a sin, we must abstain from all theft. The latter is not good because the former is worse.  Against Lying 8.19 (FOTC 16) 885  No one should steal, even intending to provide for needy

paupers.  Against Julian 5.10.41 (FOTC 35)

Killing 886  In regard to killing men so as not to be killed by them,

this view does not please me, unless perhaps it should be a soldier or a public official. In this case, he does not do it for his own sake, but for others or for the state to which he belongs,

State and Society  •  129

having received the power lawfully in accord with his public character.  Letter 47 (FOTC 12) 887  We do not apply “Thou shalt not kill” to unfeeling plants,

or to irrational animals, because they are linked to us by no association or common bond; by the Creator’s wise ordinance they are meant for our use, dead or alive.  City of God 1.20 (FOTC 8) 888  The agent of a just authority is but a sword in the hand, and

is not responsible for the killing of enemies in war or putting criminals to death, according to the rule of rational justice.  City of God 1.21 (FOTC 8) 889  Apart from men excepted by the command of a just law in

general or God, the Source of justice, in a special case, anyone who kills a human being, himself or another, is guilty of murder.  City of God 1.21 (FOTC 8) 890  But when no laws or lawful authorities give command, it is

not lawful to kill another, even if he wishes and asks for it, and has no longer the strength to live.  Letter 204 (FOTC 32)

Punishment 891  What is more hideous than the hangman? What is more

cruel and ferocious than his character? Yet he holds a necessary   of the order of a post in the very midst of laws, and he is part well-regulated state; himself criminal in character, he is nevertheless, by others’ arrangement, the penalty of evildoers.  Divine Providence and the Problem of Evil 2.4.12 (FOTC 5) 892  If we see some great and good man sacrificing his body to

be burned from a sense of duty, we do not call this a punishment for sin, but a proof of courage and patience. But when we see the body of a ruthless robber destroyed in a similar way as

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a punishment, we approve this orderly process of the law. Both men enhance such torments, but the first does so on the merit of his virtue, the other, by the demerit of his sin.  The Free Choice of the Will 3.9.28 (FOTC 59) 893  The beauty of the universe may not be disfigured even for

an instant by having the ugliness of sin without the beauty of a just punishment.  The Free Choice of the Will 3.15.44 (FOTC 59) 894  When anyone does not act as he ought, this, far from being

a fault on the part of the Creator, even redounds to His praise, because such a one suffers due punishment.  The Free Choice of the Will 3.16.46 (FOTC 59) 895  A punishment designed for the purpose of correction is not

forbidden; for that very punishment is an exercise of mercy. Commentary on the Lord’s Sermon on the Mount 1.20.63 (FOTC 11) 896  When a man inflicts a penalty, his intention ought to be to

make the offender happy by a correction, rather than unhappy by a punishment.  Commentary on the Lord’s Sermon on the Mount 1.20.63 (FOTC 11) 897  Not everyone who spares is a friend, nor is everyone who

strikes an enemy.  Letter 93 (FOTC 18) 898  When temporal powers use fear to make war on truth, it

becomes a glorious test for the strong, but a dangerous temptation for the weak; when they use it to champion truth, it becomes a warning useful to prudent men when they go astray, but a meaningless chastisement to the unthinking.  Letter 93 (FOTC 18) 899  In applying the deterring effect of judges and laws, we wish

for lawbreakers to be restrained, but not put to death; otherwise, they might incur the punishment of everlasting judgment.

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Act against their offenses so that some of them may repent of having sinned.  Letter 100 (FOTC 18) 900  The Christian must keep far from his heart any lust of ven-

geance when someone is subjected to punishment. Above all, he must not hate the offender, nor return evil for evil, nor burn with a desire of injuring him, nor seek satisfaction in vengeance even when it is legally owed to him. On the contrary, he must look out for the interests of the offender, think of his future, and restrain him from evil.  Letter 104 (FOTC 18) 901  He whose freedom to do wrong is taken away suffers a use-

ful form of restraint, since nothing is more unfortunate than the good fortune of sinners, who grow bold by not being punished.  Letter 138 (FOTC 20) 902  No one is punished for natural defects, but only for deliber-

ate faults.  City of God 12.3 (FOTC 14) 903  We pity the man while detesting the deed or crime, and the

more the vice displeases us, the less do we want the culprit to die unrepentant.  Letter 153 (FOTC 20) 904  We are forced by our love for humankind to intercede for

the guilty lest they end this life by punishment, only to find that punishment does not end with this life.  Letter 153 (FOTC 20)

War

 

905  To become great, must Rome be constantly at war? Is it not

better for men’s bodies to be of moderate stature and healthy than gigantic and chronically diseased? Having attained that size, they know no rest; the larger the limbs, the sharper the pains that torment them.  City of God 3.10 (FOTC 8)

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906  Is it reasonable and wise to glory in the extent and great-

ness of the Empire when you can in no way prove that there is any real happiness in men perpetually living amid the horrors of war and perpetually wading in blood?  City of God 4.3 (FOTC 8) 907  Wars and conquests may bring joy to unprincipled men,

but are a sad necessity in the eyes of the principled.  City of God 4.15 (FOTC 8) 908  The power to reach domination by war is not the same as

the power to remain in perpetual control.  City of God 15.4 (FOTC 14) 909  When men go to war, what they want is to make their en-

emies their own, and then impose on them the victor’s will and call it peace.  City of God 19.12 (FOTC 24) 910  The City of Christ has never taken up arms against its per-

secutors for any merely temporal gain. On the contrary, for the sake of its eternal salvation, it has repudiated military selfdefense. Christians’ idea of going to war for worldly security is to prefer their Savior to the saving of their skin.  City of God 22.6 (FOTC 24)

Just War 911  Thus, if the earthly state observes those Christian teach-

ings, even war will not be waged without kindness, and it will be easier for a society whose peace is based on piety and justice to take thought for the conquered.  Letter 138 (FOTC 20) 912  Can waging war on neighbors and then, by a series of wars,

crushing and enslaving peaceful nations be called anything else but colossal brigandage?  City of God 4.6 (FOTC 8) 913  A good ruler will wage wars only if they are just, but

surely, if he will only remember that he is a man, he will begin

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by bewailing the necessity he is under of waging even just wars.  City of God 19.7 (FOTC 24) 914  A good man would be under compulsion to wage no wars

at all, if there were not such things as just wars.  City of God 19.7 (FOTC 24) 915  A just war is justified only by the injustice of an aggressor;

and that injustice ought to be a source of grief to any good man, because it is human injustice.  City of God 19.7 (FOTC 24) 916  Peace is not sought for the purpose of stirring up war, but

war is waged for the purpose of securing peace. Be, then, a peacemaker even while you make war.  Letter 189 (FOTC 30) 917  Even in the midst of warfare, if you still have to engage in

it, hold fast to the faith, seek peace, do good with the goods of this world, and do no evil for the sake of this world’s goods.  Letter 220 (FOTC 32) 918  Seek the Lord’s eternal peace even in the midst of war,

while you keep faith and love justice in all things.  Letter 17* (FOTC 81)

Peace 919  Because nothing can contend against God, the children of

  God are peacemakers; for, of course, children ought to have a likeness to their Father.  Commentary on the Lord’s Sermon on the

Mount 1.2.9 (FOTC 11) 920  In proportion as we believe and hope and desire, we, too,

shall be a source of additional glory to God in the highest, on the condition, of course, that we work for peace with good will while we are here on earth.  Sermon 193 (FOTC 38)

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921  The purpose even of war is peace.  City of God 15.4 (FOTC 14) 922  It would be folly for anyone to look for so great a boon as

peace in this present life here on this earth.  City of God 17.13 (FOTC 24). 923  The trouble with “peace” is that, even on the level of

earthly and temporal values, nothing that we can talk about, long for, or finally get, is so desirable, so welcome, so good, as peace.  City of God 19.11 (FOTC 24) 924  Peace is so universally loved that its very name falls sweetly

on the ear.  City of God 19.11 (FOTC 24) 925  There is no such thing as a human heart that does not crave

joy and peace.  City of God 19.12 (FOTC 24). 926  Peace is the purpose of waging war; what men want in war

is that it should end in peace.  City of God 19.12 (FOTC 24) 927  Even when men are plotting to disturb the peace, it is mere-

ly to fashion a new peace nearer to the heart’s desire; it is not that they love peace less, but that they love their kind of peace more.  City of God 19.12 (FOTC 24) 928  All men want peace in their own society, and all want it in

their own way.  City of God 19.12 (FOTC 24) 929  The sinful hate the peace of God which is just and prefer

their own peace which is unjust; however, they are powerless not to love peace of some sort.  City of God 19.12 (FOTC 24) 930  But it is a greater glory to destroy war with a word than men

with a sword, and to secure and maintain peace by means of peace rather than by war.  Letter 229 (FOTC 32)

State and Society  •  135

Unity 931  Let us love peace, which everyone, learned and unlearned,

recognizes as preferable to discord; let us cherish and maintain unity.  Letter 105 (FOTC 18) 932  And God knew how good it would be for His community

to often recall that the human race had its roots in one man, precisely to show how pleasing it is to God that men, though many, should be one.  City of God 12.23 (FOTC 14) 933  What is true for a Christian beyond the shadow of a doubt

is that every real man, that is, every mortal animal that is rational, however unusual to us may be the shape of his body, or the color of his skin, or the way he walks, or the sound of his voice, and whatever the strength, portion, or quality of his natural endowments, is descended from the single first-created man.  City of God 16.8 (FOTC 14) 934  The simple truth is that the bond of a common nature

makes all human beings one.  City of God 18.2 (FOTC 24) 935  The city of man, for all the width of its expansion throughout the world and for all the depth of its differences in this place and that, is a single community.  City of God 18.2 (FOTC 24) 936  For all the vast multitude of humanity, every human face

  is no difficulty in is so like every other human face that there distinguishing our species from that of the rest of the animals; at the same time, every human face is so unlike every other face that there is no difficulty in telling one from another. We say they are all alike, and we find them all different.  City of God 21.8

(FOTC 24)

136  •  State and Society

Society 937  What can be mentioned that is more sordid, more bereft

of decency or full of turpitude than whores, pimps, and other such pests? But remove prostitutes from society, and you will unsettle everything because of lusts.  Divine Providence and the Problem of Evil 2.4.12 (FOTC 5) 938  There is nothing so social by nature, so antisocial by sin, as

man.  City of God 12.28 (FOTC 14) 939  We must believe that Adam transgressed the law of God,

not because he was deceived into believing that her lie was true, but because in obedience to a social compulsion he yielded to Eve, as husband to wife, as the only man in the world to the only woman.  City of God 14.11 (FOTC 14) 940  It is wrong to deny that the aims of human civilization are

good, for this is the highest end that mankind can achieve of itself.  City of God 15.4 (FOTC 14) 941  By the very laws of his nature, man seems forced into

fellowship and, as far as in him lies, into peace with every man.  City of God 19.12 (FOTC 24)

Custom 942  Since human nature is inclined to appraise sins not by the

measure of their malice, but, instead, by the measure of its own customs, it often happens that a man considers as reprehensible only those acts which the men of his own country and age usually protest against and denounce, as acceptable and commendable only those allowed by the usage of those with whom he lives.  Christian Instruction 3.10.15 (FOTC 2)

State and Society  •  137

943  Since this or that custom is different for every nation, while

justice must remain immutable, some think that there is no justice anywhere. They have not understood that the maxim “Do not do to another what you would not have done to you” cannot be varied in any way by any diversity of customs.  Christian Instruction 3.14.22 944  “When I am here in Milan, I do not fast on Saturday; when

I am at Rome, I do fast on Saturday. To whatever church you come, keep its custom, if you do not wish either to receive or to give scandal.” [Quoting Ambrose]  Letter 36 (FOTC 12) 945  Woe unto thee, O flood of human customs! Who will resist

thee? How long will it be before you dry up?  Confessions 1.16.25 (FOTC 21) 946  O Hellish flood of wicked ways, men’s sons are thrown into

you, along with their tuition fees, so that they may learn vain and sinful things.  Confessions 1.16.26 (FOTC 21) 947  Those studies which are customarily called honorable have

as their aim preparing one for lawsuits; excellence in them required that my success be measured by deception. Such is the blindness of men who glory even in blindness!  Confessions 3.3.6 (FOTC 21) 948  Those things which are offenses against the customs of

  men are to be avoided in accord with the variation of such customs; but when God commands something opposed to a custom or compact of any people, it is to be done; if it is neglected, it is to be reinstated; and if it has not been established, it is to be established.  Confessions 3.8.15 (FOTC 21)

949  It is not true to say that a thing rightly done once should

not be changed.  Letter 138 (FOTC 20)

138  •  State and Society

950  Custom sometimes disapproves of something that is right,

simply because it is too near to what is wrong.  City of God 15.16 (FOTC 14)

The Two Cities 951  There is no limit or legitimate restriction to our duty to

serve our country — but there is a certain heavenly country, for whose holy love we struggle and toil among those whom we are helping to attain it.  Letter 91 (FTOC 18) 952  God showed in the rich and far-famed Roman Empire how

much can be achieved by natural virtues without true religion, so that we might understand how, with this added, men can become citizens of another state whose king is truth, whose law is love, whose measure is eternity.  Letter 138 (FOTC 20) 953  From the earthly city that lusts to dominate the world (but

is itself dominated by its passion for dominion) issue the enemies against whom the City of God must be defended.  City of God 1.1 (FOTC 8) 954  For all the difference of the many nations throughout the

world in religion and morals, language, weapons, and dress, there exist no more than the two kinds of society — life according to the flesh, and life according to the spirit — which are called the two cities.  City of God 14.1 (FOTC 14) 955  This is the main difference that distinguishes the two cit-

ies of which we are speaking: the humble City of holy men and angels began with the love of God, while the proud society of wicked men and demons had its beginnings in the love of self.  City of God 14.13 (FOTC 14)

State and Society  •  139

956  Both of the two cities make use of temporal goods and both

are equally afflicted by temporal ills — but how different they are in faith, how dissimilar in hope, how unlike in love!  City of God 18.54 (FOTC 24) 957  Instead of nullifying or tearing down, the heavenly City

preserves and appropriates whatever in the diversities of diverse races is aimed at the one objective of human peace, provided only that it does not stand in the way of the faith and worship of the one supreme and true God.  City of God 19.16 (FOTC 24)

Government 958  You have good reason to prefer equality to inequality; in

fact, I think there is no human being who would not make the same choice.  The Magnitude of the Soul 9.15 (FOTC 4) 959  Ruling a province is different from ruling a church; the for-

mer must be governed by instilling fear, the latter is to be made lovable by the use of mildness.  Letter 134 (FOTC 20)

Politics 960  In a happier state of human relations, all kingdoms would

remain small, and rejoice in their neighborly concord.  City of God 4.15 (FOTC 8)

  span of human life, 961  When it is considered how short is the does it really matter to a man whose days are numbered what government he must obey, so long as he is not compelled to act against God or his conscience?  City of God 5.17 (FOTC 8)

Dominion 962  But, if the prince is unjust, or a tyrant, or if the ruling

aristocrats are unjust, or if the people themselves unjust (and

140  •  State and Society

must be called, for lack of a better word, a tyrant also), then the commonwealth is not merely bad, but is no commonwealth at all.  City of God 2.21 (FOTC 8) 963  Rule by good men is a blessing bestowed not so much

on themselves as upon mankind; but the rule of wicked men brings greater harm to themselves, since they ruin their own souls by the greater ease with which they can do wrong.  City of God 4.3 (FOTC 8) 964  God gives earthly rule to both the good and the evil, lest

those who are but beginners in His service should mistake these gifts as important.  City of God 4.33 (FOTC 8) 965  Divine Providence alone explains the establishment of

kingdoms among men.  City of God 5.1 (FOTC 8) 966  The trouble with the Romans was that, once they were free,

such a passion for glory took hold of them that liberty without a lust for domination seemed too little for them.  City of God 5.12 (FOTC 8) 967  Now, nothing could be better for the world than that, by

the mercy of God, those should be in power who join to true faith and a good life the art of political government, attributing all their virtues, however many they may have on earth, to the grace of God.  City of God 5.19 (FOTC 8) 968  The city of man is a city of contention with opinions divid-

ed by foreign wars and domestic quarrels and by the demands for victories which either end in death or are merely momentary respites from further war. The reason is that whatever part of the city of the world raises the standard of war, it seeks to be lord of the world, when, in fact, it is enthralled in its own wickedness.  City of God 15.4 (FOTC 14)

State and Society  •  141

969  There is always the oppression of those who fail by those

who succeed; the vanquished succumb to the victorious, preferring sheer survival and any kind of peaceful settlement to their own continued hegemony — even to liberty itself.  City of God 18.2 (FOTC 24) 970  In nearly all peoples the voice of nature itself has counseled

that, when you have had the bad luck to be beaten, it is better to bow before the conqueror than to risk wholesale annihilation — so much so, in fact, that those who have chosen death rather than slavery have aroused constant admiration in those who do not understand.  City of God 18.2 (FOTC 24) 971  Sinful man hates the equality of all men under God and, as

though he were God, loves to impose his sovereignty on his fellow men.  City of God 19.12 (FOTC 24) 972  God wanted rational man, made to His image, to have no

dominion except over irrational nature; when subjugation by rulers came, it was merely a condition deservedly imposed on sinful man.  City of God 19.15 (FOTC 24) 973  It is for the good of some to be in an inferior position, and

it is good for all without exception to be subject to God.  City of God 19.21 (FOTC 24)

 

142  •  State and Society

eight

Endings 974  I venture to acknowledge openly that I have said nothing

worthy of the ineffability of that highest Trinity, among all these many things that I have already said; I confess rather that its sublime knowledge has been too great for me, and that I am unable to reach it.  The Trinity 15.27.50 (FOTC 45) 975  But there must be an end somewhere to this volume; may

it be as useful as it is lengthy.  Faith, Hope and Charity [Enchiridion] 33.122 (FOTC 2) 976  At long last, I should now bring this book to a close better

by a prayer than by a discussion.  The Trinity 15.27.50 (FOTC 45) 977  I am done. From all who think that I have said either too

little or too much, I beg pardon; and those who are satisfied I ask, not to thank me, but to join me in rejoicing and in thanking God. Amen.  City of God 22.30 (FOTC 24)

143

 

sources quoted All titles in The Fathers of the Church (FOTC) series are published by The Catholic University of America Press, Washington, D.C. Augustine. Christian Instruction; Admonition and Grace; The Christian Combat; Faith, Hope and Charity. Translated, respectively, by John J. Gavigan, John Courtney Murray, Robert P. Russell, and Bernard M. Peebles. FOTC 2. 1947. ———. The Immortality of the Soul; The Magnitude of the Soul; On Music; The Advantage of Believing; On Faith in Things Unseen. Translated, respectively, by Ludwig Schopp, John J. McMahon, Robert Catesby Taliaferro, Luanne Meagher, and Roy Joseph Deferrari and Mary Francis McDonald. FOTC 4. 1947. ———. The Happy Life; Answer to Skeptics; Divine Providence and the Problem of Evil; Soliloquies. Translated, respectively, by Ludwig Schopp, Denis J. Kavanagh, Robert P. Russell, and Thomas F. Gilligan. FOTC 5. 1948. ———. The City of God, Books 1–7. Translated by Demetrius B. Zema and Gerald G. Walsh. FOTC 8. 1950. ———. Commentary on the Lord’s Sermon on the Mount with Seventeen Related Sermons. (Includes Semons 53–56, 60, 61, 72, 94, 109, 346, 4–8 (Denis), 13 (Denis), 11 (Morin).) Translated by Denis J. Kavanagh. FOTC 11. 1951. ———. Letters, Volume 1 (1–82). Translated by Sister Wilfrid Parsons. FOTC 12. 1951. ———.The City of God, Books 8–16. Translated by Gerald G. Walsh and Grace Monahan. FOTC 14. 1952. ———. Treatises on Various Subjects. (Includes The Christian Life; Lying; Against Lying; Continence; Patience; The Excellence of Widowhood; The Work of Monks; The Usefulness of Fasting; Eight Questions of Dulcitius.)

145

Translated, respectively, by Sister Mary Sarah Muldowney (titles 1, 2, 6, 7), Harold B. Jaffee, Sister Mary Francis McDonald, Sister Luanne Meagher, Sister M. Clement Eagan, and Mary E. Deferrari. Edited by Roy J. Deferrari. FOTC 16. 1952. ———. Letters, Volume 2 (83–130). Translated by Sister Wilfrid Parsons. FOTC 18. 1953. ———. Letters, Volume 3 (131–164). Translated by Sister Wilfrid Parsons. FOTC 20. 1953. ———. Confessions. Translated by Vernon J. Bourke. FOTC 21. 1953. ———. The City of God, Books 17–22. Translated by Gerald G. Walsh and Daniel J. Honan. FOTC 24. 1954. ———. Treatises on Marriage and Other Subjects. (Includes The Good of Marriage; Adulterous Marriages; 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, respectively, by Charles T. Wilcox, Charles T. Huegelmeyer, John McQuade, Sister Marie Liguori (titles 4 and 7), Robert P. Russell, John A. Lacy, and Ruth Wentworth Brown. FOTC 27. 1955. ———. Letters, Volume 4 (165–203). Translated by Sister Wilfrid Parsons. FOTC 30. 1955. ———. Letters, Volume 5 (204–270). Translated by Sister Wilfrid Parsons. FOTC 32. 1956. ———. Against Julian. Translated by Matthew A. Schumacher. FOTC 35. 1957. ———. Sermons on the Liturgical Seasons. (Includes Sermons 184–265.) Translated by Sister Mary Sarah Muldowney. FOTC 38. 1959. ———. The Trinity. Translated by Stephen McKenna. FOTC 45. 1963. ———. The Catholic and Manichaean Ways of Life. Translated by Donald A. Gallagher and Idella J. Gallagher. FOTC 56. 1966.   and Free Will. Trans———. The Teacher; The Free Choice of the Will; Grace lated by Robert P. Russell. FOTC 59. 1968. ———. The Retractations. Translated by Sister Mary Inez Bogan. FOTC 60. 1968. ———. Eighty-three Different Questions. Translated by David L. Mosher. FOTC 70. 1982. ———. Tractates on the Gospel of John, 1–10. Translated by John W. Rettig. FOTC 78. 1988. ———. Tractates on the Gospel of John, 11–27. Translated by John W. Rettig. FOTC 79. 1988.

146  •  Sources Quoted

———. Letters, Volume 6 (1*–29*). Translated by Robert B. Eno, SS. FOTC 81. 1989. ———. On Genesis. (Includes Two Books on Genesis against the Manichees; On the Literal Interpretation of Genesis: An Unfinished Book.) Translated by Roland J. Teske. FOTC 84. 1990. ———. Four Anti-Pelagian Writings. (Includes On Nature and Grace; On the Proceedings of Pelagius; On the Predestination of the Saints; On the Gift of Perseverance.) Translated by John A. Mourant and William J. Collinge. FOTC 86. 1992. ———. Tractates on the Gospel of John, 28–54. Translated by John W. Rettig. FOTC 88. 1993. ———. Tractates on the Gospel of John, 55–111. Translated by John W. Rettig. FOTC 90. 1994. ———. Tractates on the Gospel of John, 112–124; Tractates on the First Epistle of John. Translated by John W. Rettig. FOTC 92. 1995. Harmless, William, SJ, ed. Augustine in His Own Words. (Includes On True Religion; Sermons 105, 131, 162C, 272, 279, 302, 339, 355, 356; Rule; On Catechizing Beginners; To Simplicianus; On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins and Infant Baptism.) Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2010. Possidius. Life of St. Augustine. Translated by Sister Mary Magdeleine Muller and Roy J. Deferrari. In Early Christian Biographies, edited by Roy J. Deferrari. FOTC 15. 1952.

Sources Quoted  •  147

 

chronological index of quoted works of augustine Quotations are indicated in the order in which they appear in the original, and works are given in the order in which they were begun, rather than finished; thus (for example), Answer to Skeptics comes before The Happy Life, even though the latter was completed first. This principle is applied even when we know a certain part of a work was written at or after a certain date; for instance, even though Book XXII of the City of God was completed over twenty years after the first book, a quotation from either would still appear before one from On Nature and Grace. The primary exception to these rules is in the case of Letters 232–270, as well as the Divjak Letters (1*–29*), which appear at the end of the chronology. While recent scholarship has assigned dates of varying precision to about half of the Divjak Letters and, notably, the previously undated letters 248 and 262, I have chosen to include these works at the end, in deference to the traditional numbering scheme. Furthermore, given the difficulty of dating the Sermons (especially those on the liturgical seasons, 230–272), these works have been ordered by their traditional numbers, and placed immediately following the Commentary on the Lord’s Sermon on the Mount, as if they were a work begun in 393 A.D. For more information on the dating of Augustine’s works, including the letters and the sermons, see the chronology in Augustine in His Own Words by William Harmless, SJ (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2010), and the relevant articles in Augustine through the Ages: An Encyclopedia (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1999). Answer to Skeptics (Contra Academicos), 331, 320, 284 The Happy Life (De beata vita), 216, 495, 796, 671, 321, 734 Divine Providence and the Problem of Evil (De ordine), 159, 299, 390, 891, 937, 358–59, 479, 78 Soliloquies (Soliloquia), 452, 522

The Immortality of the Soul (De immortalitate animae), 405 Letters 1–4, 391, 285, 322, 604 On Music (De musica), 110 The Way of Life of the Catholic Church (De moribus ecclesiae Catholicae), 332, 210, 496, 855, 790, 702, 351, 689–90, 352, 473

149

The Way of Life of the Manichaeans (De moribus Manichaeorum), 3, 793, 615, 852, 278, 853, 87, 175, 453 The Magnitude of the Soul (De animae quantitate), 111, 958, 286, 633, 380, 211, 317, 239, 212 Letter 10, 589 Two Books on Genesis against the Manichees (De Genesi adversus Manichaeos), 262, 570, 497, 829, 767 The Free Choice of the Will (De libero arbitrio), 870–71, 333, 656, 323–24, 657, 240, 582, 287, 892, 528, 893–94, 176, 858, 241, 417 Eighty-three Different Questions (De diversis quaestionibus octaginta tribus), 112, 569, 878, 480, 788, 857, 558, 529–30, 263, 304, 205, 213, 49 The Teacher (De magistro), 334, 634, 498–99 On True Religion (De vera religion), 15, 414, 269 Letter 20, 79 The Advantage of Believing (De utilitate credenda), 279, 288, 62, 800, 307, 325, 242 Faith and the Creed (De fide et symbolo), 8, 318 On the Literal Interpretation of Genesis: An Unfinished Book (De Genesi ad litteram, imperfectus liber), 289 Commentary on the Lord’s Sermon on the Mount (De sermone Domini in monte), 63, 805, 919, 516, 36–37, 727, 724, 510–11, 441, 50, 758, 605, 801, 769, 542, 740, 895–96, 144, 531, 80, 590, 543, 308, 145 Sermons, 146, 532, 81–82, 591, 544, 177–79, 703, 160, 545, 280, 559, 64–65, 48, 375, 66, 233, 13, 672, 14, 799, 673, 920, 621, 659, 685, 147, 199, 98, 88–91, 99–102, 728, 9, 725,

592, 161, 674, 148, 92, 823, 464, 660, 27, 224, 546, 335, 431, 661, 636, 675, 214–15, 275, 676, 131, 806, 560, 573–74, 270, 533, 720, 180, 149, 93, 454, 243–44, 862, 181, 309, 28, 880, 132, 729, 872, 762, 29, 234, 94, 547, 534, 677 Letter 29, 34 Continence (De continentia), 83, 794, 830, 795 Lying (De mendacio), 745–46, 873, 579, 610, 747 To Simplicianus (De diversis quaestionibus ad Simplicianum), 133, 126 Christian Combat (De agone christiano), 856, 658, 122, 500, 635, 512, 16 Christian Instruction (De doctrina christiana), 319, 336–37, 209 691, 535, 10, 831 704–5, 548, 225, 67, 291, 206, 748, 271, 392, 338, 393, 68, 385, 942, 637, 692, 818, 182, 693, 69, 791, 549, 943, 638, 442, 386, 360–62, 381, 292, 30, 353, 363–64, 432, 365–66 Letter 31, 4 Confessions (Confessiones): Book I, 1, 113, 536, 5, 468, 194–95, 845, 593, 481, 945–6, 183; Book II, 235, 678, 184–85, 513, 815; Book III, 819, 575, 694, 947, 394, 162, 948, 281; Book IV, 594, 455, 207, 482, 272, 483,   517, 339, 571; Book V, 367; 114, 595, Book VI, 282, 706, 484; Book VII, 163, 245; Book VIII, 688, 606, 797, 84, 135, 283, 623, 368, 419, 246, 576, 721, 136; Book IX, 596; Book X, 863, 624, 306, 735, 501, 749, 707, 115–16, 770, 763, 708, 523, 264, 864–65, 846; Book XI, 247, 310–11; Book XII, 387, 832, 73; Book XIII, 639 Letters 36–47, 944, 120, 886 The Trinity (De trinitate), 730, 340, 61,

150  •  Index of Quoted Works of Augustine

369, 372, 537, 17, 300, 538, 293, 376, 236, 326, 866–67, 807, 485, 341, 377, 186, 662, 406, 502, 327, 709–10, 550, 879, 248, 328–29, 6, 294, 974–75 Rule (Regula: Praeceptum), 833 The Work of Monks (De operare monachorum), 611–12, 85, 382, 764 On Catechizing Beginners (De catechizandis rudibus), 354 Letters 55–56, 208, 216 The Good of Marriage (De bono coniugale), 456, 443, 457, 465, 444, 802 Holy Virginity (De sancta virginate), 663, 834, 808, 798, 265 Letters 73–84, 625, 486, 273, 487, 32, 597, 626, 488–89 The Divination of Demons (De divination damonum), 201, 51–52 Tractates on the Gospel of John (In evangelium Ioannis tractatus), 249, 835, 641, 305, 24, 847, 551, 187, 103, 458, 342, 836, 11, 104, 105, 837, 726 Tractates on the First Epistle of John (Tractatus in epistolam Ioannis ad Parthos), 711 Letters 91–127, 951, 897, 712, 95, 898, 640, 771, 899–900, 931, 539, 395, 526, 848–49, 355, 39, 503, 809–10, 838, 679, 690, 759, 772, 850, 760 On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins and Infant Baptism (De peccatorum meritis et remissione et de baptism parvulorum), 188 Faith and Works (De fide et operibus), 803, 713, 691 Letters 130–145, 117, 552, 418, 553, 504–5, 490, 773, 881, 959, 150, 343, 350, 874, 71–72, 949, 911, 901, 952, 561, 839, 134, 344, 875, 741, 189 City of God (De civitate Dei contra paganos): Book I, 953, 774, 750, 53, 775,

562, 776–77, 627–28, 563, 554, 789, 420–21, 887, 583, 888–89, 616, 584, 410, 514; Book II, 736, 474, 396–97, 811, 54, 398, 962, 742, 55–56; Book III, 905; Book IV, 906, 963, 664, 912, 960, 907, 964; Book V, 965, 209, 598, 167, 251, 966, 642–44, 527, 961, 840, 506, 967, 295, 564, 371, 296; Book VI, 851, 737, 607; Book VII, 565, 121; Book VIII, 399, 118, 276, 645, 226; Book IX, 330, 618, 312; Book X, 507, 722, 18, 151, 508, 137, 58; Book XI, 373, 164, 168–69, 585, 202; Book XII, 509, 165, 902, 170–71, 540, 859, 932, 938; Book XIII, 25; Book XIV, 954, 190, 577, 518, 841, 825, 172, 125, 939, 812, 955, 842–43, 768, 599, 445–47, 765, 448–50, 820, 469, 600, 821, 601, 816–17, 252, 217; Book XV, 968, 908, 940, 921, 555, 696–97, 572, 714, 665, 950, 138, 266, 556, 715, 388; Book XVI, 813, 253, 933, 173, 868, 254, 620, 200, 854; Book XVII, 692, 922, 524–25; Book XVIII, 934–35, 519, 969, 970, 378, 400–402, 19–20, 686, 40, 204, 41, 723, 35, 956; Book XIX, 403, 557, 218, 411, 646, 792, 826, 733, 647, 404, 586, 491, 913–15, 492, 578, 203, 923–27, 475, 928, 909, 57, 941, 971, 929, 716, 476–77, 972, 520, 478, 629, 876, 957, 74, 804, 613, 152, 614, 345, 743, 973, 59, 21, 766; Book XX, 566, 567, 580, 687; Book XXI, 255–57, 407–8, 314, 7, 936, 196, 470–71, 608, 221, 127, 42, 459, 96, 86, 666, 153–54; Book XXII, 191, 106, 910, 107–9, 227, 219, 433–36, 277, 228, 197, 415, 827, 648, 346, 581, 667, 409, 315, 267, 258, 119, 220, 976

Index of Quoted Works of Augustine  •  151

On Nature and Grace (De natura et gratia), 198, 668, 652 The Excellence of Widowhood (De bono viduitatis), 844, 460, 649, 259, 274, 515 Letters 150–188, 370, 669, 422–23, 617, 416, 903–4, 717, 619, 877, 493, 761, 347, 222, 348, 650, 349, 229, 389, 139, 472, 76, 60, 77, 651 On the Proceedings of Pelagius (De gestis Pelagii), 652, 155 Patience (De patientia), 778–81, 860, 782–83, 588, 784, 140, 785–86 Letters 189–196, 916, 461, 718, 670 Adulterous Marriages (De coniugiis adulterinis), 156, 622, 466, 439, 883, 440 Against Lying (Contra mendacium), 751, 192, 884, 882, 752–53 Letter 204, 890, 587 The Care to Be Taken for the Dead (De cura pro mortuis gerenda), 424–26, 230 Against Julian (Contra Iulianum), 521, 462, 231, 22, 738, 75, 232, 374, 43–45, 463, 260, 861, 350, 128, 885, 700, 46, 26, 822, 301 Faith, Hope and Charity (Enchiridion ad Laurentium), 653–54, 869, 166,

754–57, 123–24, 630, 412–13, 427, 174, 223, 977 Letters 208–211, 47, 731, 698, 824, 33, 732 The Creed (De symbolo ad catechumenos), 23 Grace and Free Will (De gratia et libero arbitrio), 157, 141, 602, 699, 719, 130 Admonition and Grace (De correptione et gratia), 603, 631, 142, 193, 814, 158, 129 The Retractations (Retractiones), 2, 632, 379 Letters 220–228, 568, 917, 31 On the Predestination of the Saints (De praedestinatione sanctorum), 693, 428, 143 On the Gift of Perseverance (De dono perseverantiae), 356, 237, 694, 238, 302–3 Letters 229–231A, 930, 541, 383 The Usefulness of Fasting (De utilitate ieiunii), 97 Letters 232–270, 1*−29*, 744, 739, 297, 437, 268, 298, 38, 787, 467, 429, 357, 384, 313, 609, 261, 828, 12, 701, 918, 451

 

152  •  Index of Quoted Works of Augustine

topical index References are to quote numbers; those that relate specifically to a given topic are in bold. Abortion, 413, 427, 453 Actions, 145, 152, 178, 273, 326, 345, 399, 526, 549, 589–90, 602, 629, 699, 743 Adam, 765, 932–33, 939 Adeodatus, 796 Adultery, 24, 49, 464–67, 823 Age, 194–95, 235, 302, 343, 348, 352, 414–16, 456, 468, 470–71, 479, 707, 845 Air, 253, 312, 849 Alms, 87–96, 102, 153, 281, 630, 666, 691, 885 Ambrose, 432, 655, 944 Angels, 169, 202, 221, 251, 560, 645, 955 Anger, 301, 368, 429, 468, 727–32, 881 Animals, 57, 94, 251, 253, 278, 305, 500, 542, 662, 668, 791, 793, 835, 839, 853, 868, 887, 936 Anselm, 3 Apathy, 518, 577 Argument, 58, 332, 392, 396, 626, 736 Art, 264 Ascension, 181, 243–44, 309, 862 Astrology, 205–9 Atheism, 58–60, 279, 572, 671, 841 Augustine, 2, 29, 31, 55, 66, 84, 177, 219, 229–31, 233–38, 281, 302, 340,

348, 349, 416, 430, 455, 464–65, 467–68, 488, 494, 547, 576, 596– 97, 625, 632, 684, 706–7, 797, 817, 819, 944, 974, 976 Authority, 307, 332, 351 Baptism, 24–26 Bathing, 33 Beauty, 170–71, 173, 239, 241–42, 249, 251, 255, 258, 260, 262–68, 275, 277, 305, 320, 324, 328, 364, 366, 381, 433, 508, 707, 735, 893 Beginnings, 1–2, 340 Being, 171 Belief, 11, 57–58, 60, 307, 318, 572, 653, 674, 680, 683–84, 703, 765, 869, 920 Birth, 103, 412–13, 415, 417, 470–71 Bishops, 177, 464, 547 Blame, 175–76, 293, 462, 537, 540, 655, 669, 767–68, 772, 852, 882 Body, 27, 33, 178, 210, 214, 219, 225, 228, 252–53, 267, 275–77, 352, 413, 434, 445, 447, 517, 533, 545, 577, 600–601, 680, 766, 783, 794, 820–21, 824, 864, 905, 933 Books, 75, 108, 233, 236–38, 248, 339, 372–74, 375, 382, 684, 975, 977 Boredom, 256–57

153

Cannibalism, 219 Capital punishment, 281, 687, 873, 886, 888, 890–92, 895, 899, 903–4 Caution, 761 Chance, 205, 207 Changes, 33, 949 Charity, 31, 73, 87, 147, 312, 337, 345, 456, 482, 487–88, 626, 637, 653–54, 689–701, 784, 786, 818, 857, 875, 956. See also Love Chastity, 55, 101, 265, 438, 440, 461, 490, 515, 795, 796–99, 824. See also Continence Children, 12, 14, 103, 194, 195, 283, 352, 415, 417, 442–43, 446, 450, 455, 463, 468–72, 601, 799, 845, 919 Choice, 126, 140, 470 Christ, 8–12, 13–14, 24–26, 35, 102, 103, 132, 145, 216, 290, 327, 434, 687, 742, 807, 874, 910 Christmas, 8, 13–14, 431, 920 Church, 15–23, 27–28, 34, 42–43, 46– 47, 62, 151, 203, 225, 351, 434, 523, 580, 687, 723, 725, 932, 944, 959 Cicero, 395, 411, 577 Citizenship, 643, 963 Civilization, 940 Clergy, 29–31, 94, 438, 451, 547, 655 Clothing, 268, 547 Community, 18, 578, 724, 815, 932– 35, 941, 960 Concupiscence, 84, 235, 415, 460, 627, 667, 670, 794, 822, 828 Condemnation, 729 Conscience, 532, 590, 615–17, 644, 961 Contemplation, 261, 345, 399, 804 Continence, 83, 439, 441, 461, 649, 651, 791, 793–95, 796–98, 830. See also Chastity Conversion, 25, 35, 76–77, 106, 238, 564, 595, 688, 750, 778

Correction, 29, 69, 225, 303, 341, 539, 623–32, 638, 895–96 Cosmetics, 268, 432 Creation, 7, 57, 103, 105, 121, 159, 169, 171, 191, 206, 213, 239–61, 262–63, 267, 279, 304, 314, 407–8, 434, 536, 540, 556, 708, 735, 835, 866, 868–69, 887, 893, 933 Creed, 81 Crime, 175, 182, 187, 321, 638, 687, 871, 882–83, 903, 912 Criticism, 233, 293, 319, 537–38, 632 Cross, 199, 687 Crowds, 324 Curiosity, 110, 355, 575, 614, 639, 658, 667, 817, 862–69 Custom, 74, 250, 280, 523, 665, 942–50, 954 Cyprian, 432 Death, 10–11, 25–26, 197, 216–17, 223, 226, 230, 413, 417–30, 431, 459, 470, 492, 513, 536, 578, 582, 586–88, 687, 772, 783, 789, 864, 887, 890, 899, 904 Deception, 70, 546, 730, 749, 756 Definitions, 40, 162, 164, 182, 480, 498, 502, 505 692, 746, 779, 818 Demons, 53–54, 82, 183, 201–4, 208, 221, 276, 398, 636, 658, 955 Desire, 283, 460, 465, 480, 499, 505,   640, 667, 746, 749, 770, 574, 589, 773, 782, 819, 825–28, 860–61, 920, 923, 925, 927–28 Despair, 685, 688 Devil, 82, 168, 204, 458, 658, 663, 701, 807, 823, 856 Difficulties, 295, 331, 562, 774 Discipline, 97, 99, 101, 148, 199, 439, 510–11, 558, 597, 620–22, 623, 625, 627–28, 630, 639, 646, 659–60, 686, 728, 740, 769, 790, 792, 801,

154  •  Topical Index

845, 877, 895–96. See also Correction Discord, 401–2, 491, 519, 927, 931 Disobedience, 599, 660 Divination. See Astrology Divorce, 458 Dominion, 59, 167, 475–76, 478, 608, 642, 766, 905–6, 908–9, 912–13, 953, 961, 962–73. See also Government; Politics Donatists, 47, 77, 881, 931 Duty, 345, 476, 478, 629, 951 Easter, 27, 224, 464, 660 Eastertide, 93, 131, 149, 180, 214, 215, 270, 275, 335, 431, 454, 533, 546, 560, 574, 636, 661, 675–676, 720, 806 Eden, 469, 601 Eloquence, 75, 106, 358–67, 411, 432 Emotion, 223, 497, 517–18, 525, 577–78. See also Passions Endings, 641, 837, 974–77 Enemies, 41–42, 64–65, 160, 623, 703, 705, 909, 953 Envy, 663, 700, 730 Equality, 357, 545, 958, 971 Error, 2, 61, 67, 254, 287–88, 299– 303, 307, 315, 340, 394, 397, 491, 580, 616, 632, 675, 699, 700, 736, 745, 747, 800, 803, 860, 970 Eternal Life, 10, 92, 119, 126–27, 141, 152, 157, 208, 214–20, 227–228, 277, 395, 406, 435, 558, 564–65, 666, 687, 695, 725, 774, 783, 785–86, 850 Eternity, 196, 221, 223, 247, 269, 565, 908, 952 Eucharist, 27–28, 92 Eve, 437, 765, 939 Evil, 96, 122, 134, 138, 148, 150, 153, 159–66, 168–69, 172, 191, 215, 313,

368, 420, 425, 443, 495, 561, 572, 592, 603, 615, 624, 628, 646, 661, 668, 690, 717, 723, 729, 733, 758, 769, 773, 777, 780, 783, 844, 858, 877, 900, 915, 963 Excuses, 767–68, 843 Eyes, 7, 56, 178, 191, 576, 628, 680, 824 Face, 253, 432, 738, 936 Faith, 3, 17, 22, 42, 60, 74, 76, 135, 147–48, 308, 314, 318, 332, 343, 454, 466, 476, 481, 636, 641, 653–54, 671–84, 685, 875, 917, 956–57, 967 False gods. See Pagans Falsehood, 39, 44, 287, 290, 292, 300, 315, 482, 522, 537, 604, 736, 749, 756, 832, 868. See also Lies Fame, 107, 237, 449, 526–27 Family, 354, 437, 453, 455, 457, 472, 473–78, 489, 576, 588 Farming, 94, 181, 573, 793 Fasting, 97–102, 199, 852–53 Fate, 167, 205, 209, 598, 789 Fear, 77, 180, 189, 215, 224, 293, 422, 436, 514, 627, 686, 786–89, 838, 850, 877, 898, 959 Fire, 170, 255, 407, 459, 512, 636 Flesh, 97, 219, 228, 261, 265, 422, 439, 595, 823–24, 828, 954 Food, 27, 87, 92, 95, 98, 170, 219, 278, 280–81, 285, 298, 358, 367, 494, 620, 626, 655, 661, 731, 791, 849, 852–54, 887 Foolishness, 52, 135, 367, 371, 415, 580, 671, 675, 734–39, 855 Forgiveness, 25, 86, 89, 91, 96, 681, 724–26, 732, 768, 976 Fornication, 49, 50, 451, 467, 823 Fortitude, 562, 640, 771, 773, 781–82, 830, 860, 892, 945. See also Patience

Topical Index  •  155

Fortune, 159, 207, 322, 423, 566–68, 901 Freedom, 122–25, 138, 142, 155, 167, 339, 527, 550, 603, 612, 664, 877, 901, 966, 969 Friendship, 65, 72, 153–54, 207, 235, 418, 467, 473, 479–94, 578, 586, 623, 626, 689, 839, 897 Future, 273 Games, 659 Gifts, 4, 80, 119, 128, 136, 333, 652, 677, 724, 771, 778 Giving, 88, 90, 94 Glory, 127, 315, 398, 527, 642, 644, 840, 851, 860, 906, 920, 966 Gluttony, 852–54 God, 1–2, 3–7, 58–60, 80, 112, 115–16, 119–21, 135, 159, 161, 168, 174, 176, 193, 243–44, 246, 248, 258, 267, 325, 408, 412, 493, 496, 498, 501, 506, 508–9, 525, 527, 535, 540, 591– 92, 596, 598, 618, 689, 681, 684, 707–9, 713, 716, 719, 722–23, 726, 762–63, 767, 775, 778, 798, 804, 869, 894, 919–20, 948, 955, 967 Gold, 19, 260, 546, 556 Goodness, 3, 64, 118, 122, 124, 134, 138, 148, 150, 153, 156, 158, 162–66, 168–69, 171–72, 191–93, 240, 258, 261, 341, 360, 420, 460, 480, 495, 504, 529–30, 541, 552, 557, 572, 593, 602–3, 619, 621, 628, 636, 696–97, 733, 776–77, 779, 810, 914, 923, 940, 963 Goods, 4, 19, 74, 78, 93–94, 98, 117, 185, 260, 264, 280, 410, 418, 425, 500, 508, 514, 542–57, 558–62, 566–72, 610, 612, 643, 658, 666, 691, 696, 718, 772, 82, 857–60, 910, 917, 956, 964 Gossip, 368, 370, 863

Government, 143, 871, 898, 958–59 Grace, 121, 124, 126–29, 130–43, 157–158, 402, 594, 645, 651–52, 719, 721, 763. See also Predestination Greed, 132, 184, 549, 556, 562, 568, 612, 627, 665, 854, 855–61, 865 Grief, 38, 117, 230, 467, 521, 551, 573– 77, 578, 915. See also Sadness Guidance, 200, 224, 287, 620 Habits, 182, 604–9, 656, 693, 822 Happiness, 4, 14, 78, 115, 118, 134, 137, 141, 217, 321–23, 395, 400–402, 404, 406, 441, 484, 495–509, 546, 553, 558, 560–61, 565, 582, 585, 765, 783, 896, 906, 960 Hard times, 204, 559 Hatred, 100, 494, 705, 710, 728, 831, 971 Healing, 108, 581 Heart, 80, 113, 121, 318, 426, 491– 92, 517, 533–34, 627, 678–79, 76, 724, 731, 823–24, 828, 856, 880, 925 Heaven, 20, 92, 119, 154, 215, 218, 220, 554, 621, 695, 813 Heavens, 260, 866 Hell, 127, 189, 196, 198, 218, 221–23, 247, 617, 660, 666, 695, 750, 785, 834, 899, 904   39, 44, 46, 48, 225, 231, Heresy, 23, 301 Heretics, 39–47, 232, 315, 512 History, 107, 253, 271, 338, 624 Holidays, 8, 13. See also Christmas; Easter Holy Spirit, 482, 711, 875 Honor, 8, 34, 394, 440, 546, 642 Hope, 147, 391, 515, 653–54, 685–87, 688, 725, 763, 788, 920, 956 Humanity, 18, 93, 104, 140, 169, 251,

156  •  Topical Index

253, 373, 416, 436, 477, 517, 536, 840, 913, 915, 932–33, 939, 940, 960, 963 Humility, 14, 20, 137, 193, 336, 357, 389, 800, 805–14, 837, 955 Human nature, 8, 93, 124, 160, 196, 252–53, 305, 350, 397, 433, 477, 517, 536, 545, 645, 704, 733, 748, 817, 868, 925, 929, 933–34, 936, 938, 941, 971 Idleness, 346, 613 Idols, 82. See also Pagans Ignorance, 173, 294, 314, 346, 348–49, 386, 415, 471, 648, 737, 765, 970 Imagination, 107, 221 Impatience, 780 Intention, 385, 532, 549, 754–55 Interpretation, 333, 385–89, 759 Jerome, 229, 273, 348–49, 486–88, 625–26, 650 Joy, 97, 116, 118, 120, 200, 345, 490, 499, 521, 523, 624, 686, 688, 770, 847, 907, 925, 976 Judgment, 9, 66, 221, 644, 659, 744, 880–81, 899 Just war, 873, 886, 888–89, 907, 911–18 Justice, 59, 127, 140, 161, 198, 222, 330, 360, 562, 592, 603, 622, 672, 727, 740–44, 752, 784, 800, 870, 873, 879, 888–89, 891, 896, 911, 913, 915, 918, 929, 943, 958, 962 Killing, 583, 587–88, 727, 873, 886–90 Kindness, 626 Kissing, 451 Knowledge, 6, 39, 52, 80, 173, 215–16, 273, 299, 304, 306, 307–13, 316, 335, 344, 349, 386, 406, 409, 486, 614, 649, 670, 730, 866–67, 974

Labor, 61, 146, 264, 347, 543, 605, 610–12, 648, 686, 782, 845, 787 Language, 71, 528, 626 Latin, 130, 229 Laughter, 202, 471, 737 Law, 74, 122, 139, 448–49, 513, 587, 631, 648, 670, 714, 727, 760, 825, 827, 865, 870–77, 878, 881, 886, 890–92, 898–99, 911, 939, 943, 947–49, 957, 962–63, 972 Learning, 52, 61, 68, 72, 159, 271, 284, 291, 331–50, 354–56, 360–61, 375–76, 381–82, 393, 406, 613–14, 648, 651, 739, 946, 947 Leisure, 613–14 Lent, 89, 91, 98–102, 728 Lies, 190, 192, 309, 642, 672, 712, 726, 745–57, 759, 882, 884, 939, 947 Life, 38, 115, 121, 129, 141, 197, 216– 18, 220, 286, 366, 404, 410–13, 415, 418, 420, 423–24, 427, 431, 498–99, 534, 565, 582, 585–86, 661, 681, 753, 774, 789, 827, 844, 850, 887, 922, 954, 961, 969–70 Light, 13, 170, 191, 242, 255, 590, 616, 648, 834, 839 Listening, 145, 357, 362, 404, 523, 667, 730, 862, 924 Living, 153–54, 559, 612, 678, 844, 876 Long, 31, 27, 103, 108, 153, 179, 182, 209, 215, 219, 230, 233, 242, 250, 252–53, 264, 305, 343, 354, 358, 388, 401, 407, 439, 449, 488, 541, 578, 597, 612, 640, 694, 718, 729, 783, 801, 824, 849, 853, 860, 876, 886, 892, 900, 933, 936, 942, 968, 970 Lord’s Prayer, 81, 86 Love, 16, 79, 100, 160, 220, 329, 254, 455, 473, 483, 485, 487, 490, 498,

Topical Index  •  157

Love (cont.) 508, 555–56, 578, 619, 689, 690, 702–19, 770, 786, 788, 790, 819, 825, 829, 880, 900, 904, 924, 952, 955, 959 Lust, 69, 143, 235, 339, 439, 443–49, 455–56, 461, 467, 469, 595, 600, 606, 637, 665, 693, 784, 792, 795– 96, 818–24, 827, 860, 884, 900, 937, 953, 966 Luxury, 98, 264, 639 Manichees, 87, 278, 281, 852–53, 887 Marriage, 49, 101, 435, 437, 439, 441–44, 450, 452–63, 464–66, 469, 472–73, 655, 706, 799, 823, 939 Martyrdom, 31, 37, 108, 226–28, 892, 910 Marvels, 256, 407–8 Memory, 226, 306, 310, 346, 381, 426, 735 Men, 8, 275, 431, 434, 436–37, 439– 40, 456, 465 Mercy, 127, 132, 180, 153–54, 544, 720–23, 763, 895, 897 Merits, 130, 136, 153 Mind, 121, 195, 235, 304–5, 315, 352, 396, 483, 518, 550, 575, 605, 618, 669, 724 Miracles, 103–9, 242, 865 Misery, 137, 197, 404, 411, 508–9, 553, 555, 577, 599, 734, 855 Moderation, 144, 235, 264, 345, 358–59, 570, 633, 769, 800–804, 861, 905, 906, 960 Money, 91, 94, 132, 280, 421, 465, 542, 659, 718 Monica, 230, 238, 246, 283, 316, 419, 495, 576, 944 Monks, 32–33, 732 Mourning, 421

Music, 252, 523–25, 535 Mystery, 72, 137, 314, 407, 517 Natural law, 287, 474, 586, 878–79, 943, 970 Nature, 60, 121, 165, 181, 207, 242, 250, 253, 259, 287, 314, 369, 407, 477, 878, 902, 938, 972 Neighbor, 90, 640, 690, 713, 716 Numbers, 179, 338, 517, 662, 716 Oaths, 758–61. See also Promises Obedience, 70, 85, 303, 468, 478, 762–66, 821, 939 Odd, 33, 214, 225, 252–54, 278, 450, 533, 573, 587, 839, 864, 937 Offense, 627–28, 816 Old law, 19, 62, 144, 727, 801 Opinion, 73, 307, 503, 616, 832 Opportunity, 270 Oppression, 969 Order, 105, 159, 165, 167–74, 193, 251, 262, 328, 358, 516, 524, 891–92, 937, 973 Original sin, 12, 165, 194–98, 252, 412, 431, 468, 599, 600, 816–17, 972 Pagans, 49–57, 147, 201, 209, 222, 338, 398 Pain, 170, 295, 404, 492, 581, 706, 905   4, 10–11, 20, 26, 64, 71, Paradoxes, 91, 116, 132, 155, 166, 170, 181, 186–87, 190, 217, 255, 260, 270, 280, 292, 298, 311, 358, 371, 428, 447, 522, 551, 561, 573, 575, 593, 623, 626, 670–71, 691, 694, 710, 715, 718, 747, 752, 770, 773, 802, 806–7, 814, 842, 846, 853, 875, 891, 897, 901, 916, 921, 926–27, 936–37 Parents, 413, 474, 457, 765 Passion, 330, 363–65, 445–49, 516–21,

158  •  Topical Index

527, 601, 608, 618, 648, 766, 824, 841, 966. See also Emotions; Lust Patience, 563, 579, 640, 769–87, 892, 945 Patriotism, 951 Peace, 41, 171, 289, 475, 516, 701, 872, 909, 911, 916–18, 919–30, 931, 941, 957, 969 Pelagianism, 12, 48, 126, 130, 133, 188, 261, 719, 763, 828 Penance, 630, 678, 753, 775 Persecution, 36–38, 202, 910 Philosophy, 3, 315, 390–404, 475, 508, 518–19, 526, 577, 586, 635, 874 Plants, 87, 241–42, 249–51, 259, 278, 573, 601, 728, 852–53, 887 Plato, 54, 393, 398 Pleasure, 97, 99, 110, 118, 216, 245, 292, 362, 381, 403, 412, 442, 449, 484, 510–15, 529, 575, 640, 790, 810, 827, 842 Plotinus, 393, 508 Poetry, 57, 358, 377, 398 Politics, 143, 524, 881, 905, 908–9, 960–61, 962–64, 967, 969, 972–73 Pope, 34, 35 Posidius, 430, 438, 494, 655 Power, 7, 152, 161, 167, 475, 592 Praise, 1, 2, 110, 176, 220, 233, 240, 243, 260–61, 462, 528–41, 579, 669, 772, 779, 790, 838, 848–49, 894 Prayer, 30, 76, 78–86, 96, 154, 344, 419, 504, 515, 535, 591, 653, 703, 724, 763, 768, 880, 975 Preaching, 29 Predestination, 126–29, 130, 140, 598. See also Grace Presumption, 221, 223, 635, 830, 880 Pride, 72, 180, 312, 545, 625, 639, 663, 764, 768, 800, 805, 807, 810, 829–44, 846, 955, 971

Promises, 216, 675, 760 Prophets, 201, 471, 682 Prosperity, Gospel, 78, 543, 553, 558– 68, 580, 686, 772, 776, 956, 964 Prostitutes, 55, 448–49, 464, 467, 511, 822, 937 Providence, 572, 598, 774, 965 Prudence, 647, 671, 733 Psalms, 436, 814 Punishment, 69, 127, 198, 221, 223, 417, 599, 617, 619, 629, 698, 712, 741, 785, 825, 845, 877, 888, 891–904, 972 Purification, 211, 410 Questions, 5, 247, 308, 310, 334, 353 Rape, 448 Reading, 2, 233, 339, 344, 347, 380– 84, 387–88, 515 Reason, 3, 121, 213, 304, 307, 314–15, 318, 332, 338, 351, 392, 396, 401, 405, 407–8, 497, 524–25, 618, 673– 74, 676, 679, 736, 766, 952, 972 Resurrection, 214, 219, 228, 277, 435 Revelation, 402, 597 Revenge, 667, 881, 900 Reward, 61 Rhetoric, 76, 360–65, 432. See also Eloquence Righteousness, 531, 618–19, 743, 825 Rome, 22, 53, 185, 374, 514, 905–6, 952, 966 Rules, 33, 361, 716, 732, 824 Sacrifice, 21, 79, 151, 183, 226, 722 Sadness, 38, 115, 429, 459, 467, 471, 521, 575–77, 580, 625, 694, 706, 734, 859, 864. See also Grief Saints, 17, 108, 154, 224–31, 232, 374, 421, 432, 666, 828 Salvation, 134, 155, 313, 640, 688, 910

Topical Index  •  159

Sarcasm, 44, 45, 53, 55, 56, 84, 87, 278, 294, 301, 319, 347, 358, 371, 403–4, 467, 526, 661, 736–38, 747, 752, 797, 845, 853, 946, 947 Scandal, 41, 438, 944 Science, 327, 338, 405–9, 868 Scripture, 34, 45, 58, 62–72, 152, 157, 208, 221, 233, 236, 335, 343, 373, 385–86, 388–89, 436, 524–25, 620, 637, 682, 805, 839, 858 Sea, 559 Self, 18, 299, 304, 306, 583, 588, 599, 709–10, 716, 735, 830–831, 842, 866, 928, 955 Senses, 110, 145, 178, 191, 242, 244, 272, 278–79, 294, 304, 319, 338, 380, 445, 484, 512, 640 Sermon on the Mount, 63, 805, 919 Sex, 49, 55, 56, 101, 235, 439, 441–51, 452–53, 455, 457, 459–61, 464, 467, 472, 600–601, 796, 799, 816–17, 820–21, 823, 937 Shame, 184, 448, 529, 815–17, 821 Sickness, 706, 717 Sight, 27, 173, 191, 220, 239, 264, 294, 304, 404, 508, 667, 680, 735, 824, 829, 947 Sin, 25, 26, 32, 41, 86, 96, 125, 149, 154, 175–93, 194–96, 261, 282, 428, 439, 444, 469, 472, 500, 510–13, 520, 523, 536, 560, 574, 576, 584, 588, 590, 594, 599, 609, 627, 630, 658, 662, 667, 681, 698, 704, 725, 741, 747, 748, 752, 754–55, 757, 765, 767–68, 781, 784, 794, 815, 823, 825–26, 829, 834, 838, 842–43, 858, 860, 862, 881–84, 892–94, 899, 901–2, 929, 938, 942, 946, 971 Slaves, 125, 155, 206, 339, 410, 467, 476, 478, 520, 542, 603, 664, 762, 836, 969–70

Sloth, 657, 863 Society, 74, 928, 937–41, 950, 972 Sorrow, 114, 116, 197 Soul, 30, 111, 114, 134, 182, 186, 210–13, 261, 285, 316–17, 380, 425, 506, 512, 656, 668, 766, 783, 963 Soul’s rest, 110–19, 135, 202, 218, 220, 232, 380, 395, 496, 498, 501, 503, 509, 519, 548, 553, 560, 849 Speech, 14, 30, 76, 83, 106, 120, 149, 358–65, 367, 368–71, 375, 379, 411, 468, 494, 535, 621, 672, 738–39, 924 Stars, 121, 206, 209, 251, 735, 867 Stoics, 404, 518, 577 Strength, 641, 677 Stubbornness, 40, 633, 666, 736 Suffering, 20, 36, 37, 122, 170, 200, 209, 404, 410, 417, 459, 492, 554, 559, 562–63, 566, 579–81, 634, 686, 769–70, 774–77, 780–82, 785, 789, 860, 894, 901, 956 Suicide, 404, 582–88, 772, 889 Sun, 253–54, 294, 860 Superstition, 35, 50, 145 Swearing, 761 Teaching, 14, 77, 232, 308, 310, 336, 344, 347, 349, 351–57, 365, 372, 400–401, 736, 753   199, 570, 647, 655, Temperance, 790–92, 853, 856 Temptation, 199–200, 203, 560, 667, 686 Ten Commandments, 131 Thanks, 120–21, 309, 976 Theater, 56, 398, 522, 575, 737 Theft, 88, 884–85, 892 Theology, 6, 61, 66, 247, 974 Things unseen, 239 Thought, 178, 215, 250, 288, 294, 342,

160  •  Topical Index

377, 445, 507, 590, 667, 669, 683, 738, 746, 756, 862 Time, 33, 52, 84, 107, 109, 247, 249, 266, 269–74, 374, 414, 416, 422, 429–30, 456, 486, 576, 624, 661, 707, 731, 797, 849, 945, 949 Tolerance, 73–75, 372, 387, 871, 876, 942–43, 948, 954, 957 Tongue, 30, 121, 178, 621, 738, 824, 848 Trinity, 61, 974 Truer, 15, 39, 51, 209, 525, 534, 675, 750, 952, 957 Truth, 15, 36, 39, 72, 73, 112, 279, 282, 284–98, 300–301, 317, 320, 324–25, 343, 355, 365, 386, 388, 391, 398, 488, 493, 497, 503, 524, 604, 613– 14, 640, 672, 675, 700, 745, 751, 761, 848, 851, 879, 898, 952 Two cities, 21, 143, 204, 218, 220, 410, 476, 519, 543, 555, 563, 727, 742, 812, 876, 910, 935, 951–57, 961, 968 Understanding, 6, 58, 67, 71, 307, 316–19, 369, 383–84, 739, 974 Unhappiness, 402, 582, 855 Unity, 73, 434, 524, 931–36 Use, 98, 120, 152, 170, 264, 267, 275, 552, 557, 569–72, 773, 887, 977 Vanity, 51, 67, 74, 78, 87, 114, 152, 183–84, 215, 223, 239, 264, 266, 281, 339, 347, 401, 500, 539, 548, 551, 560, 658, 721, 735, 772, 793, 805, 829, 831, 844, 845–51, 859– 60, 863, 922, 946, 947 Vice, 38, 56, 95, 125, 160, 176, 182, 449, 518, 527, 530, 566–67, 605, 608, 615, 638, 656–70, 717, 748,

777, 792, 833, 837, 852–853, 855, 894, 903, 946, 950, 968 Virgins, 55, 101, 431, 793, 822 Virtue, 32, 63, 78, 95, 119, 147, 199, 213, 265, 268, 276, 286, 296, 403, 406, 410, 417, 439–40, 527, 530, 557, 566–67, 609, 619, 624, 629, 633–55, 656, 659, 681, 733, 766, 774, 777, 779, 792, 795, 808, 811– 12, 833–34, 838, 874, 892, 952, 967 War, 43, 116, 461, 519, 655, 860, 905– 10, 912–18, 921, 926, 930, 968–70 Water, 25, 282–83, 728 Weakness, 41, 438, 575, 657, 758 Wickedness, 153, 529, 635, 665, 837, 859, 968 Widows, 101, 467, 822 Will, 7, 64, 70, 122–23, 125, 138, 140, 142–43, 167, 174, 187–88, 190, 195, 447, 473, 502, 549, 589–603, 606, 608, 667, 741, 820–21, 860, 902, 909, 929 Wine, 24, 282–83, 461, 852 Wisdom, 6, 52, 134, 193, 320–30, 343, 362, 366–67, 390, 399, 526, 620, 649, 739, 826, 867 Women, 8, 431–38, 439, 452–53, 456, 465, 706, 939 Words, 106, 365, 380, 388, 759, 924, 930 Works, 106, 132–33, 144–58, 203, 224, 315, 345–46, 378, 382, 395, 515, 532, 544, 611, 621, 628–29, 636, 641, 648, 702, 722, 794, 804, 810, 920, 949 Worship, 151, 227, 565, 584, 681, 957 Wretchedness, 668, 842 Writing, 66, 75, 236, 302, 358–59, 372, 375, 375–79, 817, 976

Topical Index  •  161