AGAINST JULIAN

 

S. AURELII AUGUSTINI HIPPONENSIS EPISCOPI CONTRA JULIANUM, Haeresis Pelagianae defensorem, LIBRI SEX
 LIBER QUINTUS. CAPUT IX.
37

 

 

 

You slanderously boast that my words contradict one another, although I did not say: `The union of bodies was instituted by the Devil,' for, even if no one had sinned, children would not have been born except by the union of the two sexes. I said: `The disobedience of the flesh which appears when the flesh lusts against the spirit is a result of the diabolic wound.' You boast because I said: `The law of sin warring against the law of the mind was inflicted in vindication by God, and is therefore punishment for sin,' and you find these two statements contradictory, as though it could not be true that one and the same evil is inflicted on sinners both by the Devil's iniquity and God's justice. Yet, the Devil himself both besets men by his own malevolence and by God's judgment is permitted to harm sinners. Holy Scripture itself cannot be said to contradict itself when it says: `God made not death,' and also says: `Life and death are from the Lord God'(5 Eccli. 11.14). For the cause of death is he who deceived man, the Devil; God inflicted death, not as its first author, but as the avenger of sin. You yourself answered the question fully when you said that man has been left to himself, so that his being a torment to himself comes from the divine judgment and also from his own free will. It is not contradictory that in his punishment he himself is the author, God the avenger.

 

(37) You take advantage of the less gifted. I do not wish to say you also do not understand, cannot distinguish these two, and, in malevolent calculation or deep blindness confuse the voluntary and the voluptuous, so that, just as the words sound the same to dull ears, you hope to convince the dull of heart that the things themselves are the same. This is the source of your thinking, or wishing others to think, my statements are contradictory, as though I disapproved what I had earlier approved or accepted what I earlier rejected. Hear my open declaration, and understand it, or permit others to understand, raising no more mists of obscurity about the serenity of the most sincere truth. Just as it is good to use evils well, so it is honest to use the unseemly well. Not because of the beauty of the divine work, but because of the ugliness of lust, the Apostle calls these members of the body unseemly' (Cf. I Cor. 12.23). The chaste are not bound by a necessity to depravity, for they resist lust lest it compel them to commit unseemly acts; yet not even honorable procreation can exist without lust. In this way in chaste spouses there is both the voluntary, in the procreation of offspring; and the necessary, in lust. But honesty arises from unseemliness when chaste union accepts, but does not love, lust.

 

(38) Since it is your custom joyfully to report any conclusions of secular authors which you think will help you, examine honestly, if you can, what the poet says about Cato: He is a father to the city, a husband to the state; devoted to justice; servant of strict honesty; good in all things. No sudden pleasure rises to take him unawares" (Lucan, Pharsal).

 That is the sort of man Cato was. Whether it was true virtue and honesty which was praised in him is another question. But, regardless of the end to which he referred his acts, he certainly did not procreate children without pleasure. Yet, sudden pleasure did not take Cato unawares ...

 

Et insuper jactas [Col. 0806] mea inter se dicta esse contraria; quia dixi, non quidem ut tu calumniaris, «concubitum corporum a diabolo fuisse repertum;» cum etiamsi nemo peccasset, nonnisi concumbente utroque sexu filii nascerentur: sed dixi, «inobedientiam carnis quae in carne concupiscente adversus spiritum apparet, diabolico vulnere contigisse.» Et rursus, quia dixi, «hanc legem peccati repugnantem legi mentis a Deo illatam propter ultionem, et ideo poenam esse peccati.» Haec inter se asseveras esse contraria: quasi fieri non possit ut unum atque idem malum et diaboli iniquitate et Dei aequitate peccantibus ingeratur; cum etiam ipse diabolus et propria malignitate sit infestus hominibus, et Dei judicio sinatur nocere peccantibus. Neque hinc sibi ipsa divina adversantur eloquia, quia scriptum est, Deus mortem non fecit (Sap. I, 13); itemque scriptum est, Vita et mors a Domino Deo (Eccli. XI, 14). Quia deceptor hominis causa mortis est diabolus, quam non ut primus auctor ejus, sed ut peccati ultor intulit Deus. Verum istam quaestionem satis dilucide ipse solvisti, qui hominem malum dixisti sibi esse commissum, ut quod sibi est ipse supplicium, [1 1Kb]  et divinum sit judicium, et ipsum liberum arbitrium; nec sint inter se duo ista contraria, quod in poena sua et ipse auctor est, et ultor Deus.

 

37. Abuteris autem ingeniis tardioribus. Nolo enim dicere quia et tu non intelligis, ut non discernas haec duo, et maligna calliditate aut tenebrosa caecitate confundas voluntatem et voluptatem: et sicut [2 1Kb]  ipsa nomina surdastris auribus unum atque idem sonant, ita res ipsas surdastris cordibus unum idemque esse persuadere te posse confidas. Hinc est quod sententias meas inter se contrarias putas vel putari cupis, tanquam improbem quod ante approbaverim, aut amplectar quod ante respuerim.  Audi ergo apertam sententiam meam, et intellige vel sine intelligere alios, non offundendo caligines nebulosae disputationis serenitati sincerissimae veritatis. Sicut bonum est bene uti malis, ita honestum est bene uti inhonestis. Unde et ipsa membra non propter divini operis pulchritudinem, sed propter libidinis foeditatem inhonesta dixit Apostolus (I Cor. XII, 23). Nec ad stupra coguntur necessitate qui casti sunt: quia resistunt inhonestae libidini, ne compellat eos inhonesta committere, sine qua tamen non possunt honeste filios procreare. Ita fit ut conjugibus castis et voluntas sit in sobolis procreatione, et necessitas in libidine. De inhonesto quippe honestas agitur procreandi, quando libidinem non amat, sed tolerat castitas concumbendi.

 

38. Soles libenter commemorare, quibus te adjuvari putas, auctorum sententias saecularium. Intuere honesto corde, si potes, quid de Catone poeta cecinerit:

 

Urbi (inquit) pater est, urbique maritus;

Justitiae cultor, rigidi servator honesti,

[Col. 0807] In commune bonus; nullosque Catonis in actus

Subrepsit partemque tulit sibi nata voluptas. (Lucan. Pharsal. lib. 2, vers. 388-391).