Retractations 2.25–2.54

Before I finished the books On the Trinity and the books On Genesis according to the Letter, there burst upon me the task of answering the letter of Petilian the Donatist which he wrote against the Catholic Church, a task I could not put off; and I wrote three volumes on this matter. In the first of them I replied, with as much speed and truth as I could, to the first part of his letter, which he wrote to his own people, because not all of it had come into our hands but only a small first part of it. This too is a letter, addressed to our people; but it is counted among the books because the other two on the same case are books. For afterward we found the whole letter, and I replied to it with as much care as to Faustus the Manichaean, setting down his words first, piece by piece, under his name, and my reply to each under mine. But what I had written first, before we found the whole, reached Petilian, and in anger he tried to reply, saying against me rather whatever he pleased, but failing altogether in the case. Although this can be noticed very easily by comparing the writings of us both, I nevertheless took care to show it myself by replying, for the sake of the slower. Thus a third book was added to this work of ours. This work begins in the first book thus: “You know that we have often wished…”; in the second thus: “To the first parts of the letter of Petilian…”; and in the third thus: “I have read, Petilian, your letter…”

A certain Donatist grammarian, Cresconius, having found my letter in which I refuted the first parts of Petilian's letter that had then come into our hands, thought that he should reply to me, and wrote this very thing to me. I answered this work of his in four books, in such a way indeed that I accomplished in three what the whole reply required. But when I saw that everything he wrote could be answered from the single case of the Maximianists, whom they condemned as their own schismatics, and some of whom they received back in their offices, without repeating the baptism given by them outside their communion, I added a fourth book too, in which I showed this very thing as carefully and clearly as I could. When I wrote these four books, the emperor Honorius had already given laws against the Donatists. This work begins thus: “Not knowing when my writings could reach you, Cresconius…”

After this, so that they might reach the Donatists, I provided necessary documents against their error and for the Catholic truth, whether from church proceedings or public records or the canonical Scriptures; and first I sent to them the promise of these, so that they themselves might ask for them, if that could be. When this came into the hands of some of them, someone or other appeared who wrote against it without giving his name, calling himself a Donatist as though that were his name. Replying to him, I wrote another book. Those documents which I had promised I joined to the same little book in which I had promised them, and I wished one book to be made out of both; and I published it so that it was first posted and read on the walls of a basilica which had belonged to the Donatists. Its title is Of Proofs and Testimonies against the Donatists. In this book we did not set the acquittal of Felix of Abthugni, the consecrator of Caecilianus, in the order which afterward became clear to us when the consuls had been carefully examined, but as though he had been acquitted after Caecilianus, whereas it happened before. Also, as for what I added after recalling the testimony of the apostle Jude, where he says, “These are those who separate themselves, animal men, not having the Spirit,” saying, “Of whom the apostle Paul also says, ‘But the animal man does not perceive the things of the Spirit of God’”: those are not to be equated with these whom schism has cut off altogether from the church. For the same apostle Paul says that these are little ones in Christ, whom, not yet able to take solid food, he nevertheless nourishes with milk; but the others are to be counted not among little children but among the dead and the lost, so that if any of them is corrected and joined to the church, it can rightly be said of him: “He was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found.” This book begins thus: “You who fear to consent to the Catholic Church…”

The title of the other book, which I mentioned above, I wished to be Against a Certain Donatist. In it, likewise, the true order of time concerning the acquittal of Caecilianus's consecrator is not given. Also, what I said, “to the multitude of tares, by which all heresies are understood,” lacks one necessary conjunction; for I should have said, “by which all heresies are also understood.” As it is, it is said as though tares were only outside the church and not also in the church, although the church itself is the kingdom of Christ, from which his angels will gather all causes of stumbling at the time of the harvest. Hence the martyr Cyprian too says: “Even if there seem to be tares in the church, neither our faith nor our charity ought to be hindered, so that, because we see that there are tares in the church, we ourselves should withdraw from the church.” This sense we have defended elsewhere too, and especially against these same Donatists when they were present at the conference. This book begins thus: “We promised proofs of necessary matters collected in a certain short summary…”

When I saw that many were hindered by the labor of reading from learning how the party of Donatus has nothing of reason or truth, I made a very short little book, in which I thought they should be warned only about the Maximianists, so that it might reach the hands of more people by being easy to copy and might more easily be committed to memory by its very brevity. I gave it the title A Warning to the Donatists about the Maximianists. This book begins thus: “Whoever of you are moved by the slanders and accusations of men…”

During the same time it became necessary for me, in a certain discussion, to write a little book on the divination of demons, whose title is just that. In one place in it, where I said that “demons sometimes learn with complete ease even the dispositions of human beings, not only when uttered by voice but also when conceived in thought, when certain signs from the mind are expressed in the body,” I spoke about a most hidden matter with bolder assertion than I should have. For that these things come to the knowledge of demons has been found out even by a number of experiences. But whether certain signs are given from the body of those who are thinking, perceptible to them but hidden from us, or whether they know these things by another power, and that a spiritual one, either can be discovered by human beings only with the greatest difficulty or cannot be discovered at all. This book begins thus: “One day, in the holy days of the octave…”

Meanwhile six questions were sent to me from Carthage, which a certain friend, whom I desired to become a Christian, put forward to be solved against the pagans, especially since he said that some of them had been put forward by the philosopher Porphyry. But I do not think it is the Sicilian Porphyry, whose fame is very great. I gathered the discussions of these questions into one book, not long, whose title is Six Questions against the Pagans Explained. The first of them is on the resurrection; the second, on the time of the Christian religion; the third, on the distinction of sacrifices; the fourth, on what is written, “With the measure with which you measure it will be measured back to you”; the fifth, on the Son of God according to Solomon; the sixth, on the prophet Jonah. In the second of these, what I said, “The salvation of this religion, through which alone true salvation is truly promised, was never lacking to anyone who was worthy of it, and he to whom it was lacking was not worthy,” I did not say as though anyone was worthy by his own merits, but in the way in which the apostle says that it was said not from works but from him who calls, “The elder will serve the younger,” a calling which he asserts belongs to God's purpose. Hence he says, “not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace”; and hence again he says, “We know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” Of this calling he says, “that he may count you worthy of his holy calling.” This book, after the letter which was afterward added at its head, begins thus: “It troubles some, and they ask…”

Among my small works I found an exposition of the letter of James, which, in reviewing it, I noticed was rather notes of my explanations of certain passages of it, gathered into a book by the diligence of the brothers, who did not want them to remain in the margins of the manuscript. They help somewhat, then, except that we did not have the letter itself, which we were reading when I dictated these things, carefully translated from the Greek. This book begins thus: “To the twelve tribes which are in the dispersion, greeting.”

There came also a necessity which compelled me to write against the Pelagian heresy, against which, when it was needed, we had been acting not by writings but by sermons and conferences, as each of us could or should. When, therefore, their questions were sent to me from Carthage for me to resolve by writing back, I first wrote three books whose title is On the Merits and Remission of Sins. There is discussed chiefly the baptism of little children because of original sin, and the grace by which we are justified, that is, made just; although in this life no one keeps the commandments of righteousness in such a way that it is not necessary for him to say in prayer for his sins, “Forgive us our debts.” Holding views against all these things, they founded a new heresy. In these books, however, I thought their names should still be passed over, hoping that they could more easily be corrected so; indeed, in the third book, which is a letter but is counted among the books because of the two to which I thought it should be joined, I set down the name of Pelagius himself not without some praise, because his life was praised by many; and I refuted those things of his which he set down in his writings not in his own person but as an exposition of what was said by others, which, however, afterward, when he was already a heretic, he defended with most obstinate animosity. Caelestius, however, his disciple, had already incurred excommunication for such assertions at Carthage, in an episcopal court at which I was not present. In the second book, in one place, I said: “This will be granted to some even at the end, that they will not feel death because of a sudden change,” leaving room for a more careful inquiry on this matter. For either they will not die, or, passing from this life into death and from death into eternal life by a most rapid change, as in the twinkling of an eye, they will not feel death. This work begins thus: “Although in the midst of great and fierce heats of cares…”

At that time a certain friend of mine received a book On the One Baptism from some Donatist presbyter, who indicated that Petilian, their bishop of Constantina, had written it. My friend brought it to me and earnestly asked me to answer it. I wished my own book, in which I replied, to have the same title, that is, On the One Baptism. In this book, what I said, that the emperor Constantine did not deny the Donatists an opportunity for accusation when they charged Felix of Abthugni, the consecrator of Caecilianus, although he had found them slanderers in the fictitious charges against Caecilianus, was found otherwise when the order of times was considered later. For the aforesaid emperor first had the case of Felix heard by the proconsul, where we read that he was acquitted; and afterward he himself heard Caecilianus with his accusers and found him innocent, where he found them slanderers in their charges against him. This order of times, made clear by the consuls, refutes the slanders of the Donatists in that case much more forcefully and overturns them completely, as we have shown elsewhere. This book begins thus: “To reply to those who hold opposite views…”

Among other things against the Donatists I also wrote a book, not very short as before, but large and much more careful, in which it appears how the case of the Maximianists alone, which was a schism made from the party of Donatus itself, overturns completely their ungodly and most arrogant error against the Catholic Church. This book begins thus: “We have already said much, we have already written much.”

At the very time when we were vigorously engaged against the Donatists and had already begun to be engaged against the Pelagians, a certain friend sent me five questions from Carthage and asked me to explain them to him in writing. They are: what that cry means, “God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”; and what it is that the apostle says, “that, rooted and grounded in love, you may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth”; and who the five foolish virgins are, and who the wise; and what the outer darkness is; and how “The Word became flesh” is to be understood. But I, considering the aforesaid heresy, new and hostile to the grace of God, set myself a sixth question, on the grace of the New Testament. In discussing it, with an exposition of the twenty-first Psalm inserted (at whose head is written what the Lord cried out on the cross, which that friend had put to me first to be explained), I solved all those five, not in the order in which they had been put, but as they could fittingly come up in their places, as it were, while I was discussing the grace of the New Testament. This book begins thus: “You have put five questions to me to be treated…”

He to whom I had written the three books whose title is On the Merits and Remission of Sins, in which the baptism of little children is also carefully discussed, wrote back to me that he had been troubled because I had said that it could happen that a man is without sin, if his will is not lacking, with divine aid helping, although no one in this life either has been or is or will be of such perfect righteousness. For he asked how I could say that something could happen of which there is no example. Because of this inquiry of his I wrote a book whose title is On the Spirit and the Letter, treating thoroughly the apostle's statement where he says, “The letter kills, but the spirit gives life.” In this book, as far as God helped, I argued fiercely against the enemies of the grace of God by which the ungodly is justified. But when I was treating the observances of the Jews who abstain from certain foods according to the old law, I said “the ceremonies of certain foods.” This word is not in use in the holy writings; yet it seemed fitting to me because I remembered that ceremonies (caerimoniae) are named from lacking (carere), as if carimoniae, because those who observe them lack the things from which they abstain. If there is an origin of this word which is foreign to true religion, I did not speak according to it, but according to the one I mentioned above. This book begins thus: “Having read the small works which I recently produced for you, my dearest son Marcellinus…”

Meanwhile some writings were sent to me by certain brothers, laymen indeed but zealous for the divine oracles, which so separated Christian faith from good works as to urge that one cannot arrive at eternal life without the former, but can without the latter. Replying to them, I wrote a book whose name is On Faith and Works. In it I discussed not only how those reborn by the grace of Christ ought to live but also what sort of people should be admitted to the washing of regeneration. This book begins thus: “It seems to some…”

After our conference with the Donatists had taken place, I briefly recorded what was done and set it down in writing according to the three days on which we conferred with them; and I thought this work useful, so that anyone, being reminded, might either know without labor what was done or, by consulting the numbers which I noted against each matter, read in the proceedings themselves at the place whatever he wished, since they weary the reader by their excessive length. The title of this work is A Summary of the Conference. This work begins thus: “When the Catholic bishops and those of the party of Donatus…”

I also wrote a fairly large book, carefully, I think, to the Donatists themselves after the conference which we held with their bishops, so that they might no longer be led astray by them. In it I also replied to certain empty claims of theirs which were able to reach us, which, though defeated, they were boasting of wherever and however they could; besides the things I said about the proceedings of the conference, from which what was done might be briefly known. I did this much more briefly in a certain letter to the same people again; but because it pleased all of us who were there at the council of Numidia that this be done, it is not among my letters. For it begins thus: “Silvanus the senior, Valentinus, Innocentius, Maximinus, Optatus, Augustine, Donatus, and the other bishops from the council of Zerta to the Donatists.” This book begins thus: “Why are you still led astray, Donatists?”

I wrote a book On Seeing God, in which I put off a more careful inquiry about the spiritual body that will exist in the resurrection of the saints: whether, or how, God, who is spirit, is seen through such a body. But that question, a very difficult one indeed, I afterward explained sufficiently, I think, in the last book, that is, the twenty-second, of The City of God. I also found in a certain manuscript of ours, in which this book also is, a memorandum I made on this matter to Fortunatianus, bishop of Sicca, which is not noted in the list of my small works either among the books or among the letters. This book begins thus: “Mindful of my debt…”; and the other thus: “As I asked you in person, so now I remind you…”

There also came into my hands at that time a certain book of Pelagius, in which he defended, with all the argument he could, the nature of man against the grace of God, by which the ungodly is justified and by which we are Christians. The book in which I answered him, defending grace not as against nature but as that by which nature is set free and governed, I named On Nature and Grace. In it I defended certain words, which Pelagius set down as being those of Xystus, bishop of Rome and martyr, as though they really were that Xystus's; for so I had thought. But afterward I read that they belong to Sextus the philosopher, not to Xystus the Christian. This book begins thus: “The book which you sent…”

Meanwhile Rome was overthrown by the invasion of the Goths acting under King Alaric and by the onslaught of a great disaster. The worshipers of the many false gods, whom we call by the customary name of pagans, trying to blame its overthrow on the Christian religion, began to blaspheme the true God more sharply and bitterly than usual. Hence I, burning with zeal for the house of God, decided to write the books On the City of God against their blasphemies or errors. This work occupied me for several years, because many other things kept coming in which ought not to be put off and which occupied me first to resolve. This great work On the City of God was at last completed in twenty-two books. The first five of these refute those who want human affairs to prosper in such a way that they think the worship of the many gods whom the pagans were accustomed to worship is necessary for this, and who contend that these evils arise and abound because it is forbidden. The next five speak against those who admit that these evils have never been lacking and will never be lacking to mortals, and that they vary, now great, now small, by places, times, and persons, but who argue that the worship of many gods, in which sacrifice is offered to them, is useful because of the life that will come after death. In these ten books, then, these two empty opinions, opposed to the Christian religion, are refuted. But lest anyone should reproach us for having only refuted the views of others and not asserted our own, the second part of this work, which is contained in twelve books, does this; although, where it is needed, we both assert our own views in the first ten and refute opposing views in the last twelve. Of the following twelve books, then, the first four contain the origin of the two cities, one of which is of God, the other of this world; the second four their course or progress; the third four, which are also the last, their due ends. So, although all twenty-two books were written about both cities, they nevertheless took their title from the better, so as to be called rather On the City of God. In the tenth of these books, the flame from heaven which ran between the divided victims in Abraham's sacrifice ought not to have been set down as a miracle, since this was shown to him in a vision. In the seventeenth, what was said of Samuel, “He was not of the sons of Aaron,” should rather have been said, “He was not the son of a priest.” For it was more the lawful custom that sons of priests should succeed priests when they died; for Samuel's father is found among the sons of Aaron, but he was not a priest; nor was he among the sons in the sense that Aaron himself begot him, but as all of that people are called sons of Israel. This work begins thus: “The most glorious city of God…”

Meanwhile I answered, with as much brevity and clarity as I could, the inquiry of a certain Orosius, a Spanish presbyter, about the Priscillianists and about certain opinions of Origen which the Catholic faith rejects. The title of this small work is To Orosius against the Priscillianists and Origenists; and his inquiry itself is attached at the head of my reply. This book begins thus: “To reply to you as you ask, dearest son Orosius…”

I also wrote two books to the presbyter Jerome, living in Bethlehem: one on the origin of the human soul, the other on the statement of the apostle James where he says, “Whoever keeps the whole law but stumbles in one point has become guilty of all,” consulting him about both. But in the first I myself did not solve the question I set out; in the second, however, I did not keep silent about what seemed to me the way to solve it, but I consulted him whether he too agreed with it. He wrote back praising my inquiry, but replied that he was not going to answer it. I, however, did not wish to publish these books as long as he was in the body, lest perhaps he should answer at some time and they should rather be published together with his answer. But after his death I published the first, so that whoever reads it may be warned either not to inquire at all how the soul is given to those being born, or at least, on a most obscure matter, to admit such a solution of this question as is not contrary to things that are most clear, although concerning original sin the Catholic faith knows that little children, unless they are reborn in Christ, are without doubt condemned; and the second for this purpose, that the solution which seemed right to us of the question treated there may also be known. This work begins thus: “Our God, who has called us…”

To Emeritus, bishop of the Donatists, who at our conference which we held with them seemed to plead their cause most of all, I wrote some time after that conference a quite useful book, since it gathers with convenient brevity the facts by which they are defeated or are shown to have been defeated. This book begins thus: “If even now, brother Emeritus…”

During the same time, in the East, that is, in Syria Palestine, Pelagius was brought before an episcopal court by certain Catholic brothers; and in the absence of those who had submitted a document against him, since they could not come on the day of the synod, he was heard by fourteen bishops, who pronounced him Catholic when he condemned the very dogmas hostile to the grace of Christ which were read against him from the document. But when those same proceedings came into our hands, I wrote a book about them, lest, with him being as it were acquitted, the judges should be thought to have approved those same dogmas too; for unless he had condemned them, he would in no way have left them except condemned. This book begins thus: “After there came into our hands…”

At the same time I also wrote a book On the Correction of the Donatists, because of those who did not want them to be corrected by the imperial laws. This book begins thus: “I praise and congratulate and admire…”

I wrote a book On the Presence of God, in which our attention is chiefly on guard against the Pelagian heresy, though it is not expressly named. But in it there is also a laborious and subtle discussion of the presence of the nature which we call the supreme and true God, and of his temple. This book begins thus: “I confess, dearest brother Dardanus…”

After the Pelagian heresy with its authors had been refuted and condemned by the bishops of the Roman church, first Innocent and then Zosimus, with the cooperation of letters of African councils, I wrote two books against them, one On the Grace of Christ, the other On Original Sin. This work begins thus: “How much we rejoice at your bodily and especially spiritual health…”

Some time after the conference which we held with the heretical Donatists, the necessity arose for us to go to Mauretania Caesariensis. There, at Caesarea itself, we saw Emeritus, bishop of the Donatists, one, that is, of the seven whom they had chosen to defend their cause, and who had labored most in that cause. What we did with him, in the presence of the bishops of that province and of the people of the church of Caesarea, in which city he was both a citizen and bishop of the aforesaid heretics, the church proceedings attest, which are counted among my small works. There, finding nothing to reply, he listened as though mute to my whole discourse, which I set out in his hearing and that of all who were present about the Maximianists alone. This book, or these proceedings, begin thus: “In the twelfth consulship of the most glorious Honorius Augustus and the second of Constantius, men of senatorial rank, consuls, on the eleventh day before the Kalends of October, at Caesarea, in the greater church.”

Meanwhile there came into my hands a certain sermon of the Arians without the name of its author. At the request and urging of the one who had sent it to me, I replied to it with as much brevity and speed as I could, attaching that sermon at the head of my reply and adding numbers to each point, by looking at which one can easily notice what we answered to which place. This book, after their sermon, which is attached at the head, begins thus: “To their preceding discussion I reply with this discussion.”

I wrote two books to the illustrious man, Count Valerius, when I had heard that the Pelagians had written something or other to him about us, namely that we condemned marriage by asserting original sin. The title of these books is On Marriage and Concupiscence. For we defended the goodness of marriage, lest the concupiscence of the flesh and the law in the members warring against the law of the mind should be thought to be a fault of marriage; an evil of lust which conjugal chastity uses well for procreating children. That there came to be two books, however, was because the first came into the hands of Julian the Pelagian, and he wrote four books against it; from these someone copied some passages and sent them to Count Valerius, and he to us. When I had received them, I replied to these very things in another book. The first book of this work begins thus: “The new heretics, dearest son Valerius…”; and the second thus: “Amid the cares of your military service…”

I made seven books on seven books of the divine Scriptures, that is, the five of Moses, one of Joshua son of Nun, and another of Judges, noting the expressions of each that are less usual in our language. Those who read the divine oracles, paying too little attention to these, look for a meaning when it is only a manner of expression, and sometimes dig out something which is not indeed foreign to the truth, yet the author who wrote it is not found to have meant it; rather it appears more credible that he said it by a manner of expression. Many obscure things in the holy Scriptures become clear once the manner of expression is known. For this reason the same manners of expression are to be learned where the sense is plain, so that where it is hidden, this knowledge may come to the rescue and open the meaning to the attentive reader. The title of this work is Expressions in Genesis, and likewise for each book. As for what I set down in the first book as written, “And Noah did all the words which the Lord commanded him; so he did,” and said that this expression is similar to that in the account of the creation where, after it is said, “And so it was done,” there is added, “And God made”: this does not seem to me altogether similar to that. Indeed, there a meaning is hidden too; here it is only an expression. This work begins thus: “Expressions of the Scriptures…”