Title Page
Editor's Preface
The City of God
Translator's Preface.
The City of God.
The City of God.Book I.
Preface, Explaining His Design in Undertaking This Work.
Chapter 1.--Of the Adversaries of the Name of Christ, Whom the Barbarians for Christ's Sake Spared When They Stormed the City.
Chapter 2.--That It is Quite Contrary to the Usage of War, that the Victors Should Spare the Vanquished for the Sake of Their Gods.
Chapter 3.--That the Romans Did Not Show Their Usual Sagacity When They Trusted that They Would Be Benefited by the Gods Who Had Been Unable to Defend Troy.
Chapter 4.--Of the Asylum of Juno in Troy, Which Saved No One from the Greeks; And of the Churches of the Apostles, Which Protected from the Barbarians All Who Fled to Them.
Chapter 5.--Cæsar's Statement Regarding the Universal Custom of an Enemy When Sacking a City.
Chapter 6.--That Not Even the Romans, When They Took Cities, Spared the Conquered in Their Temples.
Chapter 7.--That the Cruelties Which Occurred in the Sack of Rome Were in Accordance with the Custom of War, Whereas the Acts of Clemency Resulted from the Influence of Christ's Name.
Chapter 8.--Of the Advantages and Disadvantages Which Often Indiscriminately Accrue to Good and Wicked Men.
Chapter 9.--Of the Reasons for Administering Correction to Bad and Good Together.
Chapter 10.--That the Saints Lose Nothing in Losing Temporal Goods.
Chapter 11.--Of the End of This Life, Whether It is Material that It Be Long Delayed.
Chapter 12.--Of the Burial of the Dead: that the Denial of It to Christians Does Them No Injury.
Chapter 13.--Reasons for Burying the Bodies of the Saints.
Chapter 14.--Of the Captivity of the Saints, and that Divine Consolation Never Failed Them Therein.
Chapter 15.--Of Regulus, in Whom We Have an Example of the Voluntary Endurance of Captivity for the Sake of Religion; Which Yet Did Not Profit Him, Though He Was a Worshipper of the Gods.
Chapter 16.--Of the Violation of the Consecrated and Other Christian Virgins, to Which They Were Subjected in Captivity and to Which Their Own Will Gave No Consent; And Whether This Contaminated Their Souls.
Chapter 17.--Of Suicide Committed Through Fear of Punishment or Dishonor.
Chapter 18.--Of the Violence Which May Be Done to the Body by Another's Lust, While the Mind Remains Inviolate.
Chapter 19.--Of Lucretia, Who Put an End to Her Life Because of the Outrage Done Her.
Chapter 20.--That Christians Have No Authority for Committing Suicide in Any Circumstances Whatever.
Chapter 21.--Of the Cases in Which We May Put Men to Death Without Incurring the Guilt of Murder.
Chapter 22.--That Suicide Can Never Be Prompted by Magnanimity.
Chapter 23.--What We are to Think of the Example of Cato, Who Slew Himself Because Unable to Endure Cæsar's Victory.
Chapter 24.--That in that Virtue in Which Regulus Excels Cato, Christians are Pre-Eminently Distinguished.
Chapter 25.--That We Should Not Endeavor By Sin to Obviate Sin.
Chapter 26.--That in Certain Peculiar Cases the Examples of the Saints are Not to Be Followed.
Chapter 27.--Whether Voluntary Death Should Be Sought in Order to Avoid Sin.
Chapter 28.--By What Judgment of God the Enemy Was Permitted to Indulge His Lust on the Bodies of Continent Christians.
Chapter 29.--What the Servants of Christ Should Say in Reply to the Unbelievers Who Cast in Their Teeth that Christ Did Not Rescue Them from the Fury of Their Enemies.
Chapter 30.--That Those Who Complain of Christianity Really Desire to Live Without Restraint in Shameful Luxury.
Chapter 31.--By What Steps the Passion for Governing Increased Among the Romans.
Chapter 32.--Of the Establishment of Scenic Entertainments.
Chapter 33.--That the Overthrow of Rome Has Not Corrected the Vices of the Romans.
Chapter 34.--Of God's Clemency in Moderating the Ruin of the City.
Chapter 35.--Of the Sons of the Church Who are Hidden Among the Wicked, and of False Christians Within the Church.
Chapter 36.--What Subjects are to Be Handled in the Following Discourse.
Book II.
Chapter 1.--Of the Limits Which Must Be Put to the Necessity of Replying to an Adversary.
Chapter 2.--Recapitulation of the Contents of the First Book.
Chapter 3.--That We Need Only to Read History in Order to See What Calamities the Romans Suffered Before the Religion of Christ Began to Compete with the Worship of the Gods.
Chapter 4.--That the Worshippers of the Gods Never Received from Them Any Healthy Moral Precepts, and that in Celebrating Their Worship All Sorts of Impurities Were Practiced.
Chapter 5.--Of the Obscenities Practiced in Honor of the Mother of the Gods.
Chapter 6.--That the Gods of the Pagans Never Inculcated Holiness of Life.
Chapter 7.--That the Suggestions of Philosophers are Precluded from Having Any Moral Effect, Because They Have Not the Authority Which Belongs to Divine Instruction, and Because Man's Natural Bias to Evil Induces Him Rather to Follow the Examples of the Gods Than to Obey the Precepts of Men.
Chapter 8.--That the Theatrical Exhibitions Publishing the Shameful Actions of the Gods, Propitiated Rather Than Offended Them.
Chapter 9.--That the Poetical License Which the Greeks, in Obedience to Their Gods, Allowed, Was Restrained by the Ancient Romans.
Chapter 10.--That the Devils, in Suffering Either False or True Crimes to Be Laid to Their Charge, Meant to Do Men a Mischief.
Chapter 11.--That the Greeks Admitted Players to Offices of State, on the Ground that Men Who Pleased the Gods Should Not Be Contemptuously Treated by Their Fellows.
Chapter 12.--That the Romans, by Refusing to the Poets the Same License in Respect of Men Which They Allowed Them in the Case of the Gods, Showed a More Delicate Sensitiveness Regarding Themselves than Regarding the Gods.
Chapter 13.--That the Romans Should Have Understood that Gods Who Desired to Be Worshipped in Licentious Entertainments Were Unworthy of Divine Honor.
Chapter 14.--That Plato, Who Excluded Poets from a Well-Ordered City, Was Better Than These Gods Who Desire to Be Honoured by Theatrical Plays.
Chapter 15.--That It Was Vanity, Not Reason, Which Created Some of the Roman Gods.
Chapter 16.--That If the Gods Had Really Possessed Any Regard for Righteousness, the Romans Should Have Received Good Laws from Them, Instead of Having to Borrow Them from Other Nations.
Chapter 17.--Of the Rape of the Sabine Women, and Other Iniquities Perpetrated in Rome's Palmiest Days.
Chapter 18.--What the History of Sallust Reveals Regarding the Life of the Romans, Either When Straitened by Anxiety or Relaxed in Security.
Chapter 19.--Of the Corruption Which Had Grown Upon the Roman Republic Before Christ Abolished the Worship of the Gods.
Chapter 20.--Of the Kind of Happiness and Life Truly Delighted in by Those Who Inveigh Against the Christian Religion.
Chapter 21.--Cicero's Opinion of the Roman Republic.
Chapter 22.--That the Roman Gods Never Took Any Steps to Prevent the Republic from Being Ruined by Immorality.
Chapter 23.--That the Vicissitudes of This Life are Dependent Not on the Favor or Hostility of Demons, But on the Will of the True God.
Chapter 24.--Of the Deeds of Sylla, in Which the Demons Boasted that He Had Their Help.
Chapter 25.--How Powerfully the Evil Spirits Incite Men to Wicked Actions, by Giving Them the Quasi-Divine Authority of Their Example.
Chapter 26.--That the Demons Gave in Secret Certain Obscure Instructions in Morals, While in Public Their Own Solemnities Inculcated All Wickedness.
Chapter 27.--That the Obscenities of Those Plays Which the Romans Consecrated in Order to Propitiate Their Gods, Contributed Largely to the Overthrow of Public Order.
Chapter 28.--That the Christian Religion is Health-Giving.
Chapter 29.--An Exhortation to the Romans to Renounce Paganism.
Book III.
Chapter 1.--Of the Ills Which Alone the Wicked Fear, and Which the World Continually Suffered, Even When the Gods Were Worshipped.
Chapter 2.--Whether the Gods, Whom the Greeks and Romans Worshipped in Common, Were Justified in Permitting the Destruction of Ilium.
Chapter 3.--That the Gods Could Not Be Offended by the Adultery of Paris, This Crime Being So Common Among Themselves.
Chapter 4.--Of Varro's Opinion, that It is Useful for Men to Feign Themselves the Offspring of the Gods.
Chapter 5.--That It is Not Credible that the Gods Should Have Punished the Adultery of Paris, Seeing They Showed No Indignation at the Adultery of the Mother of Romulus.
Chapter 6.--That the Gods Exacted No Penalty for the Fratricidal Act of Romulus.
Chapter 7.--Of the Destruction of Ilium by Fimbria, a Lieutenant of Marius.
Chapter 8.--Whether Rome Ought to Have Been Entrusted to the Trojan Gods.
Chapter 9.--Whether It is Credible that the Peace During the Reign of Numa Was Brought About by the Gods.
Chapter 10.--Whether It Was Desirable that The Roman Empire Should Be Increased by Such a Furious Succession of Wars, When It Might Have Been Quiet and Safe by Following in the Peaceful Ways of Numa.
Chapter 11.--Of the Statue of Apollo at Cumæ, Whose Tears are Supposed to Have Portended Disaster to the Greeks, Whom the God Was Unable to Succor.
Chapter 12.--That the Romans Added a Vast Number of Gods to Those Introduced by Numa, and that Their Numbers Helped Them Not at All.
Chapter 13.--By What Right or Agreement The Romans Obtained Their First Wives.
Chapter 14.--Of the Wickedness of the War Waged by the Romans Against the Albans, and of the Victories Won by the Lust of Power.
Chapter 15.--What Manner of Life and Death the Roman Kings Had.
Chapter 16.--Of the First Roman Consuls, the One of Whom Drove the Other from the Country, and Shortly After Perished at Rome by the Hand of a Wounded Enemy, and So Ended a Career of Unnatural Murders.
Chapter 17.--Of the Disasters Which Vexed the Roman Republic After the Inauguration of the Consulship, and of the Non-Intervention of the Gods of Rome.
Chapter 18.--The Disasters Suffered by the Romans in the Punic Wars, Which Were Not Mitigated by the Protection of the Gods.
Chapter 19.--Of the Calamity of the Second Punic War, Which Consumed the Strength of Both Parties.
Chapter 20.--Of the Destruction of the Saguntines, Who Received No Help from the Roman Gods, Though Perishing on Account of Their Fidelity to Rome.
Chapter 21.--Of the Ingratitude of Rome to Scipio, Its Deliverer, and of Its Manners During the Period Which Sallust Describes as the Best.
Chapter 22.--Of the Edict of Mithridates, Commanding that All Roman Citizens Found in Asia Should Be Slain.
Chapter 23.--Of the Internal Disasters Which Vexed the Roman Republic, and Followed a Portentous Madness Which Seized All the Domestic Animals.
Chapter 24.--Of the Civil Dissension Occasioned by the Sedition of the Gracchi.
Chapter 25.--Of the Temple of Concord, Which Was Erected by a Decree of the Senate on the Scene of These Seditions and Massacres.
Chapter 26.--Of the Various Kinds of Wars Which Followed the Building of the Temple of Concord.
Chapter 27.--Of the Civil War Between Marius and Sylla.
Chapter 28.--Of the Victory of Sylla, the Avenger of the Cruelties of Marius.
Chapter 29.--A Comparison of the Disasters Which Rome Experienced During the Gothic and Gallic Invasions, with Those Occasioned by the Authors of the Civil Wars.
Chapter 30.--Of the Connection of the Wars Which with Great Severity and Frequency Followed One Another Before the Advent of Christ.
Chapter 31.--That It is Effrontery to Impute the Present Troubles to Christ and the Prohibition of Polytheistic Worship Since Even When the Gods Were Worshipped Such Calamities Befell the People.
Book IV.
Chapter 1.--Of the Things Which Have Been Discussed in the First Book.
Chapter 2.--Of Those Things Which are Contained in Books Second and Third.
Chapter 3.--Whether the Great Extent of the Empire, Which Has Been Acquired Only by Wars, is to Be Reckoned Among the Good Things Either of the Wise or the Happy.
Chapter 4.--How Like Kingdoms Without Justice are to Robberies.
Chapter 5.--Of the Runaway Gladiators Whose Power Became Like that of Royal Dignity.
Chapter 6.--Concerning the Covetousness of Ninus, Who Was the First Who Made War on His Neighbors, that He Might Rule More Widely.
Chapter 7.--Whether Earthly Kingdoms in Their Rise and Fall Have Been Either Aided or Deserted by the Help of the Gods.
Chapter 8.--Which of the Gods Can the Romans Suppose Presided Over the Increase and Preservation of Their Empire, When They Have Believed that Even the Care of Single Things Could Scarcely Be Committed to Single Gods.
Chapter 9.--Whether the Great Extent and Long Duration of the Roman Empire Should Be Ascribed to Jove, Whom His Worshippers Believe to Be the Chief God.
Chapter 10.--What Opinions Those Have Followed Who Have Set Divers Gods Over Divers Parts of the World.
Chapter 11.--Concerning the Many Gods Whom the Pagan Doctors Defend as Being One and the Same Jove.
Chapter 12.--Concerning the Opinion of Those Who Have Thought that God is the Soul of the World, and the World is the Body of God.
Chapter 13.--Concerning Those Who Assert that Only Rational Animals are Parts of the One God.
Chapter 14.--The Enlargement of Kingdoms is Unsuitably Ascribed to Jove; For If, as They Will Have It, Victoria is a Goddess, She Alone Would Suffice for This Business.
Chapter 15.--Whether It is Suitable for Good Men to Wish to Rule More Widely.
Chapter 16.--What Was the Reason Why the Romans, in Detailing Separate Gods for All Things and All Movements of the Mind, Chose to Have the Temple of Quiet Outside the Gates.
Chapter 17.--Whether, If the Highest Power Belongs to Jove, Victoria Also Ought to Be Worshipped.
Chapter 18.--With What Reason They Who Think Felicity and Fortune Goddesses Have Distinguished Them.
Chapter 19.--Concerning Fortuna Muliebris.
Chapter 20.--Concerning Virtue and Faith, Which the Pagans Have Honored with Temples and Sacred Rites, Passing by Other Good Qualities, Which Ought Likewise to Have Been Worshipped, If Deity Was Rightly Attributed to These.
Chapter 21.--That Although Not Understanding Them to Be the Gifts of God, They Ought at Least to Have Been Content with Virtue and Felicity.
Chapter 22.--Concerning the Knowledge of the Worship Due to the Gods, Which Varro Glories in Having Himself Conferred on the Romans.
Chapter 23.--Concerning Felicity, Whom the Romans, Who Venerate Many Gods, for a Long Time Did Not Worship with Divine Honor, Though She Alone Would Have Sufficed Instead of All.
Chapter 24.--The Reasons by Which the Pagans Attempt to Defend Their Worshipping Among the Gods the Divine Gifts Themselves.
Chapter 25.--Concerning the One God Only to Be Worshipped, Who, Although His Name is Unknown, is Yet Deemed to Be the Giver of Felicity.
Chapter 26.--Of the Scenic Plays, the Celebration of Which the Gods Have Exacted from Their Worshippers.
Chapter 27.--Concerning the Three Kinds of Gods About Which the Pontiff Scævola Has Discoursed.
Chapter 28.--Whether the Worship of the Gods Has Been of Service to the Romans in Obtaining and Extending the Empire.
Chapter 29.--Of the Falsity of the Augury by Which the Strength and Stability of the Roman Empire Was Considered to Be Indicated.
Chapter 30.--What Kind of Things Even Their Worshippers Have Owned They Have Thought About the Gods of the Nations.
Chapter 31.--Concerning the Opinions of Varro, Who, While Reprobating the Popular Belief, Thought that Their Worship Should Be Confined to One God, Though He Was Unable to Discover the True God.
Chapter 32.--In What Interest the Princes of the Nations Wished False Religions to Continue Among the People Subject to Them.
Chapter 33.--That the Times of All Kings and Kingdoms are Ordained by the Judgment and Power of the True God.
Chapter 34.--Concerning the Kingdom of the Jews, Which Was Founded by the One and True God, and Preserved by Him as Long as They Remained in the True Religion.
Book V.
Preface.
Chapter 1.--That the Cause of the Roman Empire, and of All Kingdoms, is Neither Fortuitous Nor Consists in the Position of the Stars.
Chapter 2.--On the Difference in the Health of Twins.
Chapter 3.--Concerning the Arguments Which Nigidius the Mathematician Drew from the Potter's Wheel, in the Question About the Birth of Twins.
Chapter 4.--Concerning the Twins Esau and Jacob, Who Were Very Unlike Each Other Both in Their Character and Actions.
Chapter 5.--In What Manner the Mathematicians are Convicted of Professing a Vain Science.
Chapter 6.--Concerning Twins of Different Sexes.
Chapter 7.--Concerning the Choosing of a Day for Marriage, or for Planting, or Sowing.
Chapter 8.--Concerning Those Who Call by the Name of Fate, Not the Position of the Stars, But the Connection of Causes Which Depends on the Will of God.
Chapter 9.--Concerning the Foreknowledge of God and the Free Will of Man, in Opposition to the Definition of Cicero.
Chapter 10.--Whether Our Wills are Ruled by Necessity.
Chapter 11.--Concerning the Universal Providence of God in the Laws of Which All Things are Comprehended.
Chapter 12.--By What Virtues the Ancient Romans Merited that the True God, Although They Did Not Worship Him, Should Enlarge Their Empire.
Chapter 13.--Concerning the Love of Praise, Which, Though It is a Vice, is Reckoned a Virtue, Because by It Greater Vice is Restrained.
Chapter 14.--Concerning the Eradication of the Love of Human Praise, Because All the Glory of the Righteous is in God.
Chapter 15.--Concerning the Temporal Reward Which God Granted to the Virtues of the Romans.
Chapter 16.--Concerning the Reward of the Holy Citizens of the Celestial City, to Whom the Example of the Virtues of the Romans are Useful.
Chapter 17.--To What Profit the Romans Carried on Wars, and How Much They Contributed to the Well-Being of Those Whom They Conquered.
Chapter 18.--How Far Christians Ought to Be from Boasting, If They Have Done Anything for the Love of the Eternal Country, When the Romans Did Such Great Things for Human Glory and a Terrestrial City.
Chapter 19.--Concerning the Difference Between True Glory and the Desire of Domination.
Chapter 20.--That It is as Shameful for the Virtues to Serve Human Glory as Bodily Pleasure.
Chapter 21.--That the Roman Dominion Was Granted by Him from Whom is All Power, and by Whose Providence All Things are Ruled.
Chapter 22.--The Durations and Issues of War Depend on the Will of God.
Chapter 23.--Concerning the War in Which Radagaisus, King of the Goths, a Worshipper of Demons, Was Conquered in One Day, with All His Mighty Forces.
Chapter 24.--What Was the Happiness of the Christian Emperors, and How Far It Was True Happiness.
Chapter 25.--Concerning the Prosperity Which God Granted to the Christian Emperor Constantine.
Chapter 26.--On the Faith and Piety of Theodosius Augustus.
Book VI.
Preface.
Chapter 1.--Of Those Who Maintain that They Worship the Gods Not for the Sake of Temporal But Eternal Advantages.
Chapter 2.--What We are to Believe that Varro Thought Concerning the Gods of the Nations, Whose Various Kinds and Sacred Rites He Has Shown to Be Such that He Would Have Acted More Reverently Towards Them Had He Been Altogether Silent Concerning Them.
Chapter 3.--Varro's Distribution of His Book Which He Composed Concerning the Antiquities of Human and Divine Things.
Chapter 4.--That from the Disputation of Varro, It Follows that the Worshippers of the Gods Regard Human Things as More Ancient Than Divine Things.
Chapter 5.--Concerning the Three Kinds of Theology According to Varro, Namely, One Fabulous, the Other NaturaLinks
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