Commentary on St.

Augustine
Table of Contents:
I. The Confessions

II. City of God

III. St. Augustine on Predestination and Grace

Addenda: Reading list; study questions and answers

"I. The Confessions"

1.1: The number stands for Book 1, chapter 1. This system will be used throughout this commentary.

Here A shows a deep appreciation of something that is nearly lost in most people today, a sense of the majesty of God. There are two poles in our relationship to Him: 1) love, closeness, warmth; 2) sense of majesty, infinite greatness. He is infinite in all respects, including these -- so we cannot have too much. Yet we can get a picture that is sick, because unbalanced. So many today cultivate the aspect of warmth, and almost if not entirely ignore the other. Hence religion means little to many. If someone told you: "Joe Doaks, three blocks from here, loves you," you might well say: "Ho hum. Who is that? Why should I be interested?" Similarly if we do not have much notion of the greatness of God, to hear of His love does not make much of an impression.

This loss of the one pole today is not really accidental. In the March 1, 1967 issue of National Catholic Reporter, Daniel Callahan, a noted "liberal", said on p. 6:"... many find the notion of a total dependence upon God somehow a very disturbing one... . So there is a desperate casting around to find a kind of liturgy which is not only intelligible... but one which seems to express a different kind of relationship between God and man... . many of the liturgical experiments seem to be trying to work in the direction of finding whether one can say and liturgically act out this kind of parallel relationship with God, rather than just being a king-and-lowly-subject kind of relationship." This of course is pride: submission even to God is distasteful.

A year before , Leslie Dewart, a Canadian philosopher, in his The Future of Belief (1966) wrote on p. 200: As christian theism is dehellenized [as we get the Greek influence out of it], the Christian faith may recast the meaning of religion in terms that do not at all imply God's ascendancy over man, or

man's submission to God." And on pp. 203-04: "I think that the christian theism of the future might so conceive God as to find it possible to look back with amusement on the day when it was thought particularly appropriate that the believer should bend his knee in order to worship God."

The Vatican had ordered that vernacular translation of liturgical texts be accurate. But this was not enforced in the English texts. We compare the Literal Latin from the current English text of Eucharistic prayer I:

Literal

Most Clement Father, Bending down we ask and beg you, Remember your men servants (slaves) and women servants (slaves). We beg, Lord, that, being appeased, you accept this offering of our slavery and also that of your whole family. We your servants (slaves) and also your holy people, mindful of the passion of the same Christ, Bending down, we beg you, Almighty God, bid these things to be carried by the hands of your holy angel to your altar on high in heaven in the sight of your Divine Majesty.

Official English

Father, We ask you, Remember... your people Accept this offering from your whole family, We your people and your ministers recall his passion. Almighty God, we pray that your angel may take this sacrifice to your altar.

The only expression of our lowliness that was not removed was the "nobis quoque peccatoribus famulis tuis" "also to us sinners your servants (slaves)". But it was cut down, and put in the middle of the paragraph, to be less prominent.

So Callahan was right. But St. Augustine and other Fathers of the Church understood much better, as the following quotes show:

Arnobius, Against the Nations 1.31: "To understand you we must be silent; and for fallible conjecture to trace you even vaguely, nothing must even be whispered."

Pseudo Dionysius, Mystical Theology 1.2: God is best known by unknowing."

St. Gregory of Nyssa, Life of Moses: "The true vision of the One we seek, the true seeing, consists in this: in not seeing. For the One Sought is beyond all knowledge."

St. Augustine, On Christian Doctrine 1.6. 6: "He must not even be called inexpressible, for when we say that word, we say something."

Behind these puzzling expressions is this: When we use a word to refer to God, and to refer to a creature, the sense in the two cases is part same, part different - but much more different than same.

Plato in his Republic 6. 509B, speaking of the Idea of Good, which he seems to identify with God, said it is "beyond being." Plotinus in his Enneads 6. 8.9 wrote: "The One is other compared to all things."

Near the end of his life, St. Thomas Aquinas had a revelation. He never could bring himself to work on his Summa after that. He said: "Such things have been revealed to me that the things I have written and taught seems light to me." Others filled out his S umma from earlier writings of his.

1.1. Restless is our heart-- A knew from experience of trying to pursue pleasure, that it runs away if one goes after it too much. Every pleasure, even sex, wears down in time - hence NFP, calling for some abstinence, helps to revive it, and helps marriages. Seneca reports that Epicurus himself in view of this principle lived rather frugally. Detachment in general promotes more happiness.

1.2. Call in is Latin in-vocare - to call in. This is really rhetoric, yet with solid truth in it. What does it mean for God tome within us? Spirits do not take up space. We say they are present wherever they produce an a effect. For God to come means He begins to cause an effect He did not produce before. He is greater than heaven and earth. Cf. Aristotle in Physics 8.10 says God does not have size -- cannot have infinite size, there is no such thing, and finite size would not be enough for Him. We would add: Since God is pure actuality He is without limit (potency is limit).

1.4. The word Lord is ambiguous in Latin and Greek and Hebrew. But in context, A means God.

Note the series of seeming contradictions (oxymoron): most merciful and most just, etc. These urge the reader to think. Within the divine nature, mercy and justice are identified. We begin to see this if we note a sinner can go down and down on a bad spiral - he becomes more and more blind (justice) and so is less responsible after a time (mercy). A holy person on the good spiral grows in

comprehension of God -- this is in a sense earned, and is justice. Yet no creature by its own power can generate a claim on God- and so it is basically mercy.

You love but are not disturbed-- A is thinking of human love, which involves emotion, which does move or disturb. But love really is willing good to another for the other's sake - emotion tends to go along with this in the human scene (somatic resonance).

You regret -- This word and anger and many other things are anthropomorphism -- speaking of God as if He had human characteristics. Scripture often does this.

You change works but not plans -- Decisions of will are identified with His essence, which is eternal, immutable, since He has no potency.

You repay debts, owing no one. ---Cf. 5. 9: "You see fit, since your mercy is forever, to even become a debtor by your promises to those to whom you forgive their debts." Hebrew notion of sin is that it is a debt, a disturbance of the objective order.

1, 5. You order me to love you ---Love of anyone but God is to will good to the other for the other's sake. For us to love God is to obey -- He gains nothing from our obedience, but likes it: 1) in His love of all that is right; 2) obeying His commands makes us open to receive His favors, and keeps us from the evils that come from sin, in the very nature of things.

From my hidden faults cleanse me. - This is Ps 19.2, the theme of Hebrew sheggagah - a man violates a command of God without knowing it. When he finds out, must offer a sacrifice:Leviticus 4. Many instances in Scripture OT and NT on this and even modern Eastern liturgy. A probably did not understand. Cf. Gen 12:17, Lk 12:47-48; 1 Cor 4.4; Clement I to Corinth 2.3.

1.6 I know not from where I have come here -- A. understands sex. He does not know origin of individual souls. Sees 4 options: creation of each; traducianism, derived from souls of parents; souls were in a world of spirits first, came in either voluntarily or involuntarily. Wrote Jerome in Ep. 166 (415 AD). Jerome did not know either. A seems inclined to traducianism-- seems to have had a positive notion of original sin, and needed that theory to account for transmission by heredity. Was concerned with Romans 5. 12, which in the poor Latin version read:"In quo omnes peccaverunt- in whom, Adam, all have sinned". We now know orig. sin is a privation, no problem of transmission. Rather, is nontransmission of grace. A says in Ep 166 whatever theory is adopted, it must not oppose the damnation of unbaptized infants. Cf. Teselle, p. 69.

1.9. Wordy arts -- A looks down on rhetoric. Much was artificial in his day, but yet useful. Later he would feel he had to give up teaching rhetoric when he was to be baptized.

A beating -- Cf. Proverbs 3.11 and Heb. 12-5-8. Aristotle, Ethics 10.9 says that lectures on ethics are not enough to make people virtuous. There must be rearing under good laws, as in Sparta.

Weary ways... suffering and grief... for the sons of Adam . --Probably reflects his strong views on original sin.

We found... men who prayed to you... I kept asking you, as a little one... that I might not get a beating in school. -- St. Teresa of Avila, Way of Perfection 1 asked her sisters not to pray for worldly things. She wishes people would entreat God to enable them to trample worldly things under their feet. She does pray for such when asked, but does not think God ever hears such prayers. The world is on fire [Lutheran revolt]. Are we to waste time on things which if God would grant them, might perhaps bring one soul less to heaven? This is not the time to ask God for things of little importance. --- Also, we should not pray for what we can d o ourselves - A should have not been a bad boy, then no beatings.

Psalm 22.2:-- A's interpretation is fanciful: the refusal of his prayer was to avoid teaching him folly. The Hebrew probably means: "I cry by day... and by night there is no silence. [i.e., he prays then too]".

parents laughed at me, but it was not funny -- fascinating comparison to tortures of older persons. But the parallel is not really parallel, for tortures are grave harm, spanking is not.

ruler and creator... but only the ruler of sins - God governs all things, but sin comes by His permission only, not by His creation. The permission is contained in His decision to create the human race, which must be free or is not human.

loving to have my ears tickled by false fables, so they might itch more ardently -- he means it would develop his taste for silly things. The false fables refer to Virgil etc.

free also those who do not yet call on you, so that they may call on you. Normally the first grace is the grace to pray for grace.

1.11. humility -- can also mean lowliness. Christ's

descent to us, "He descended to our pride" is clever, almost oxymoron: pride lifts up or rather thinks it does so, actually it casts down. Humility exalts.

signed with His cross and... salt -- he was made a catechumen. In Africa salt was given to the catechumens throughout the year.

you were already then my guardian -- A shows confidence in Providence -- preoccupied with it in Confessions, as to his personal life-- in City of God, as to the world.

piety -- really means devotedness. But his mother puts baptism off. This was common in 4th century, shifted by 5th century. They dreaded more the unworthy reception of Baptism than risk of missing it by death. Was regarded in practice by many as the completion of the Christian state rather than as initiation into it. Fathers also call Baptism the seal - God seals us as His property, we should never break the seal by any sin. Yet the Fathers did teach infant baptism. See Declaration of Doctrinal Congregation of Oct 20, 1980.

as if it were necessary [inescapable] that I become still more filthy if I lived... . after that bath the guilt of sins... would be greater and more dangerous -- Cf. again the concept of Baptism as the seal. Cf. Shepherd of Hermas, Mandate 4.3.1-6. Clement of Alexandria speaks somewhat like Hermas in Stromata 2.13. Cf. also Quasten II. 33. For certain, the more light one has and the more advantage, the worse are sins if committed.

in the [case of the] health of the body we do not say: Let him, go, he has not yet been healed . --This is true in a way, but the parallel is not parallel: Doctors do not have divine effectiveness as Baptism does.

1.12. they who forced me did not do well. -- Seems to mean they had a motive of vainglory, but God made it turn out well for A, for God can bring good out of evil. Mt. 10:30 shows even the smallest things come under God's permission or command. And nothing can rise from potency to actuality without His movement. --A seems to be sure he knew the elders had bad motives- if he did not really know, this would be rash judgment. Cf. the Portuguese proverb:God can write straight with crooked lines.

so little a boy and so great a sinner -- not the thing but the ill will is meant.

every disordered soul is its own punishment: Some examples: hangover after being drunk-- failed marriages because premarital sex deceives into thinking there is love, when there is not- only

chemistry, for by loose sex they are using each other, not being concerned for the welfare of the other. Yet there is a feeling of warmth etc. : chemistry is the same whether real love is or is not present too. To make it concrete: a boy sees a girl, likes her (and she, him). This starts the somatic resonance to love, the chemical or emotional condition that in human affairs normally goes along with love, and can, if used according to our Father's plan, promote real love. But now we see the possibilities in the very nature of things again: 1) If they violate God's law, it is unlikely real love will develop, though they will think it is there, because of warmth of feeling, but later then will find out; 2)if they do stay with the plan of our Father, love will develop, with happiness in this life and in the life to come, and an opening for great spiritual growth --each one, with such different psychology on the two sides, deferring to, giving in to the other so much. This is splendid for character, for real happiness. Cf. also Tacitus Annals 6. 6: after quoting part of a letter of Tiberius to senate telling of his torments, Tacitus said: His crimes and wickedness had rebounded to torment him. How right was the wisest of men [Socrates, in Plato, Gorgias 479-80) who said that the souls of despots, if we could see them, would show wounds and mutilations, like lash-marks on a body, from the cruelty, lust, malevolence they have. Neither the autocracy of Tiberius nor his isolation on isle of Capri could save him from confessing what was happening to him -- In the opposite direction, the Beatitudes in the Gospel point the way to happiness even in this life. Cf. also ancient Roman ideal of frugality - they thought it meant happiness, and it did help much. Cf. also Wisdom 11.16: "A person is punished by the very things in which he sins." Cf. also Origen, D e principiis 2.10.4.

1.13:Why did he not like Greek literature too? His poor control of Greek was the real reason, which he did not know about, or was he just posing? He may mean to tie it to original sin, which he makes too positive, probably.

a spirit that walks... . Cf. Psalm 78.39: "He remembered that they were but flesh, a wind that passes and comes not again." We recall Herodotus 7.46:Xerxes looks over the Hellespont with his vast fleet, and is elated, but then weeps. Artabanus asks why. Xerxes says: "I felt a sudden pity when I think of the shortness of man's life, and consider that out of all this so numerous a host, not one will be alive when a hundred years have gone by." Artabanus comments that the god who gives us tastes of pleasant times appears envious in his very gift. Emperor Marcus Aurelius, To Himself 2.17: "Human life! Its length is momentary, its substance in constant flux. Its senses dim, its physical organism is perishable, its consciousness is a whirlpool, its destiny is dark... . What can see us through? Philosophy. - But the real answer is the perspective of eternity as in Mt 16. 26: "What profits it a man if he were to gain the whole world and suffer the loss of his soul?"

someone called Aeneas -- A is posing, as if he did not know Aeneas -- he does, and so well. Attitude resembles that of St. Jerome's dream (Epistle 22.30), in which he appeared for judgment, was called a Ciceronian, not a Christian, and resolved to give up pagan literature - later came back to it. This attitude common in the west, and hence even hymns were late in coming in (first by St. Ambrose). Contrast St. Basil's essay on Greek literature: skip the bad, keep the good.

with dry eyes I could bear myself -- but he wept over the imaginary death of Dido, while not weeping for his own wretched spiritual condition - strange reversal!

veils hang -- in so warm a climate, veils might replace doors. A takes it as if it had symbolic meaning, in sarcasm comparing them to curtains before specially holy parts of shrines. Again, his usual improper harshness on teaching rhetoric.

1.14. most sweetly vain - Homer. He contrasts learning language naturally with doing it under duress. We note the force of motive "my heart pressed me." So he says that free curiosity has greater power for learning than fearful necessity. True. But this does not say anything about teaching method, lecture vs. discussion. Someone eager for truth might well prefer lecture, which can cover far more truth, even though the pleasure might be less.

1.17. Allow me, my God, to say something also about my ability, your gifts . Humility does not deny what one really has, but attributes it to God, meaning it at every level of one's being. For one can in a subconscious way snatch self-credit, while the lips say all credit goes to God- probably the case of the pharisee vs publican in the temple. Cf. Epistle 194: "When God crowns your merits, He crowns nothing other than His own gifts." Same idea as 1 Cor 4:7: "What have you that you have not received?"

speak the words of Juno -- Juvenal 7.160ss and Persius 3.47 alluded to weekly school exercises of this type - and admiring relatives of the boys would watch. Some other subjects we know of: Hannibal deliberating whether to march on Rome after Cannae, or Cato deciding not to survive the collapse of the Pompeian cause. Such exercises, in spite of A's comments, do help to sharpen one in getting into the mental framework of another. Juno hates the Trojans since the son of Priam did not accept her bribe in the beauty contest. So she wants to wreck the Trojan ships to keep them from coming to Italy - though she knows she cannot succeeds: the fates have decreed, and they are more powerful than even Jupiter.

What good was it to me that there was more applause for me... it is smoke and wind -- Insofar as it favored vanity, the applause was worse than no good. Insofar as it might stimulate speaking ability, it was good. We note the claim that worldly praise is only smoke and wind, and is often given to the less deserving, and it does not last.

your praises through your Scripture would have supported the vine shoot -He means he could have gotten same training with topics from Scripture. But not so readily. Not many things in Scripture are easily apt for disputation - unless the difficult things, which a young student would not know. Really , it would be good to use both Scripture and other sources. Rhetoric is useful to defend the truth, cf. his On Christian Doctrine IV on rhetoric (edition by Sr. Therese Sullivan, in CUA Dissertation series). Cicero is his chief basis there, but he uses also other sources.

shameful prey for birds - In his commentary on Psalm 8.9 he arbitrarily makes the birds stand for the proud. In context, Psalm 8 praises God:"O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is thy name in all the earth." God has put all things under man's feet: sheep, oxen, beasts of the field, birds, fish... . A is much preoccupied, rightly, with the need of humility. Cf. Against Faustus 20.22:"For those proud and impious spirits are not fed with odors and smoke [in sacrifices] as some vain men think, but by human errors". Cf. City of God 12.2, saying the fallen angels wanted to be their own supreme good, and 10.19:"They are not delighted with odors of bodies but with divine honors."

2.1. I want to recall my past foulness --To recall past sins can help contrition and humility, but recalling sexual sins clearly can be a temptation to more sin. Recalling unemotional sins is safe in general. Care is needed.

2.2 nor did I escape your scourges... ever present, mercifully raging, sprinkling with most bitter unpleasantnesses all my illicit pleasures -- "Mercifully raging" is fine rhetorical oxymoron, seeming contradiction. God did prevent him from finding full satisfaction even in his sex - this was merciful, preparing for bringing him out of it later, in anticipation of his mother's prayers and penances which were not happening yet, but God anticipated them, and prepared extraordinary graces in view of her extraordinary sacrifices.

my own family did not take care to snatch me out by marriage - was living with a mistress. His mother was far from a saint at this point, was concerned only over his career and felt marriage might interfere.

2.3 Madaura - A town about 20 miles south of Thagaste on the border of Numidia and Gaetulia. Apuleius the Platonist was born there.

father --his name was Patrick, a member of the local Curia. Since Emperor Caracalla gave citizenship to all free men in the empire, all cities other than Rome were given the name municipium. By this time, citizenship was not a great prize as it had been formerly. His father was still a pagan, but was to become a catechumen not long after this point. Was baptized late in his life as we learn from 9.9.22.

womanly warnings -- The sort of contempt some teenagers get for the elders. He would be ashamed to follow ideas of his mother. Instead, in the next paragraph, he reports he became ashamed of not being shameful at times- peer pressure. This shows the need of support from others, cf. Mt 5:16:"Let your light shine before men so they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven." --The problem for the teenagers is sparked by deep changes in somatic resonance, which is the parallel bodily condition to things in the mind and will. Since somatic resonance is put into a flux in this way, beliefs wobble, religious beliefs and others.

2.4 he steals for the sake of stealing -- yet the will cannot choose evil as evil, but only under the appearance of good. Three things can attract us: real good, pleasurable good, expedient good. The more we let one of these fill out thoughts, the stronger they attract. So to let a temptation fill thoughts and stay there increases its power, and even though one knows it is a sin, he may choose it as a pleasurable good. So A is wrong when he says there was no cause for his malice but malice this is rhetoric. IN 2.6 he will say he had better fruit, but was just malicious. Again, the remarks just given apply.

2.8. loved fellowship in crime - - peer pressure, not malice was the cause he now says, and is correct. That seemed good to him.

2.9. we were deceiving those who did not think we wold do it" --a pleasure in thinking self smarter when really, he was merely contemptible.

who understands sins? --this is the theme of involuntary sin, sheggagah, which A does not understand. We saw it in 1.5.

3.1. Carthage - He plays on the words carthago, sartago (frying pan). Carthage was founded about 814 BC from Tyre. Virgil makes it shortly after the fall of Troy, legendary date was 1184 BC, real date probably 1250. Phoenicia was a great sea power 1000-800 B.C. Then Tyre came under

Babylonian rule in 6th century, Carthage was free. Other Phoenician settlements were weaker, which gave opportunity to Carthage. Had trade on N. coast of Africa, from Gulf of Syrtis to beyond Gibraltar, and also S and E coasts of Spain as far north as Cape Nao. Also worked Corsica, Sardinia, and most of Sicily. Early commercial treaties with Rome permitted Carthage to hog commerceRome not interested. The treaties came in 508, 348. Carthage became an oligarchic republic. It was advanced in agriculture. Religion required the eldest child of each family be sacrificed, often roasting alive on arms of idol of Moloch.

soul... cast itself outside of me, being eager to be scratched by the touch of things of sense -- by this time, the time of writing, A is imbued with Neoplatonism which said we must return to the One and withdraw from the senses. The Plotinian theory of the soul's relation to the body has two stages: (1) the soul animates the body by forming a portion of matter as an image , an expression or reflection of its inward life, (2) the soul's enslavement to things of the body when it becomes fascinated with the brilliant reflections of the divine it finds in the world, and so, losing sight of itself, it turns to them, and goes forth from itself to be present to the body. -- So we must return, by fleeing sensory things completely. In Soliloquies 1.14.24. Reason says: "There is one thing I can command for you... that these sensory things must be completely shunned, and one must greatly beware while we are in this body that our wings may not be impeded by any of their birdlime -- we need them [wings] whole and perfect to fly from this darkness to that light. She [wisdom] does not even see fit to show herself to those who are enclosed in this cave unless they are such that, breaking through and dissolving it, they can escape into her air. So, when you are such that nothing at all of earthly things delights you, believe me, at the same moment, the same point of time, you will see what you desire."

The mention of cave, wings, birdlime, recalls Plato's image of the cave in Book 7 of Republic. Plato says:Imagine prisoners in an underground cave, chained so they cannot turn around, but face a wall on which shadows are cast of things that move between them and a fire that is behind them. They have been there all their lives, and so think shadows are reality. If one escaped, saw the real world, tried to tell the prisoners about it, they would laugh at him. But the world of Ideas is the real world, much more so than this world which is only a poor shadow of it. To seek the truth we must have as little as possible to do with the things of sense - as Socrates said many times over, e.g., Phaedo 82-83:" Those who really seek wisdom with determination abstain from all bodily desires... . So the soul of the real philosopher... abstains from pleasures and desires and griefs and fears as much as possible... . each pleasure and pain seems to have a nail, and nails the soul to the body

and pins it on and makes it bodily, and so it thinks the things are true which the body says are true." Cf. also Phaedo 65, 66; Republic 485-86, 517, 519, 543.

When the soul is scratched by material things, it is scattered. Now For A. that is the opposite of the unity that is proper to having being or existence. In his The Morals of the Catholic Church & The Morals of the Manicheans 2.6. 8: "The things that tend towards having being, tend to order. To the extent that a thing attains unity, to that extent it has being (it IS). God who supremely is, is perfect unity.

(Plato arrived at this notion of a world of Ideas by noting that sometimes when Socrates questioned a man who at first said he did not know the answer to a problem in philosophy, sometimes later he would come out with it- He did not learn it in this life - so he learned it in a previous life, they thought. What kind of life? Notice what things the men know - what is justice, truth, goodness etc. So in that world they saw the Ideas of justice, truth etc, with no bodies. After death we return to that, but must be reincarnated -- various types of bodies. But if we live several lives as a noble philosopher, we get permission to skip reincarnation, and the soul gets wings and flies away, never to have a body again. So we see why A speaks of wings and flying away, avoiding being held down, caught by the birdlime of the things of sense).

There is a great likeness to Christian doctrine here. We start with Mt 6:21: " Where your treasure is, there is your heart also." In the narrow sense, the treasure would be a box of coins a man would bury under the floor. If he has such a stash, it is like a magnet, it pulls his thoughts and heart to it. He likes to think of it. But we can put our treasure in almost anything: in huge meals, in gourmet meals, in sex, in travel, in study, even in the study of theology. All these things are lower than God Himself, some much more so than others. So that is one factor. The second factor is this: How strongly does a man let himself be pulled by such things? At the least degree, they pull him only to imperfection -- another degree would be occasional venial sin - then habitual venial sin - then occasional mortal sin - then habitual mortal sin. In proportion to these two factors it is that much less easy for thoughts and heart to rise to God, that much less easy to perceive the inspirations God sends us. We supplement this with a modern comparison: We think of a galvanometer - a compass needle on its pivot, with a coil of wire surrounding it. We send a current into the coil and the needle swings, the right direction, the right amount - measuring the current. It will read accurately if there is no competition from outside pulls, such as 33, 000 volt power lines, or much magnetic steel. Then two forces play on the needle - the current in the coil, and the outside pulls. Now if the current in the coil is mild, while the outside pulls are powerful, the current in the coil may have no effect at all on the needle. Now this meter is my mind. Grace comes, and tries to make me see God's will. This

is the current in the coil. But that current is always mild in that it respects my freedom - but the outside pulls, if one lets himself be caught greatly, do not respect freedom, they take it away. So a point can be reached at which grace cannot register at all the thought God wills to send. If grace cannot do the first things, it cannot do the rest of the things. So the man is blind, or, hardened. A himself was such for years, wallowing in sex. When ordinary grace cannot get through, is there any hope of salvation? Grace is necessary for that. No, unless somehow an extraordinary grace is sent, one comparable to a miracle, which can forestall or cancel out this resistance without fully taking away his freedom - it does diminish it inasmuch as the first decision ordinarily about how a grace will or will not have its effect is that of the man -but with the extraordinary grace, the first decision is God's. Yet the human retains enough freedom to second the motion.

It is obvious that the farther down on the scale one goes, to the end at which creatures do not pull him at all, the more sensitive to divine light he will be. He will be able to see the truth - Socrates aimed at this, as we saw, in trying to have as little as possible to do with the things of the body.

Even legitimate pulls can hinder one's sensitivity, even the lawful use of sex in marriage, for it is a powerful pull. We think of the thorns in the parable - the grain came up, the thorns choked it off. The Gospel explains that the thorns are the riches, cares, and pleasures of this life. They are not always bad, they can easily be good - yet they may have two sides, as good things, and as thorns. Hence St. Paul in 1 Cor 7:5 urges married people at times, by mutual consent, to abstain "so they may be free for prayer." Gregory the Great in Epistle 11.64 goes so far as to say that a man sleeping with his wife should not enter the church until he has washed with water. This resembles Leviticus 15:18, but Gregory reinterprets: "This is to be understood spiritually... unless first the fire of concupiscence cools in the soul, he should not think himself worthy... . Only a tranquil mind can occupy itself in contemplation."

So A wrote in his On Order 2.8.25: "Young people eager for wisdom should so live that they abstain from sexual things, from the enticements of the stomach and throat, from immoderate care and adornment of the body, from the empty matters of the shows, from the sluggishness of sleep and laziness, from rivalry, from detraction, from envy, from ambitions for honors and power, even from immoderate desire for praise. Let them believe that the love of money is a most certain poison to all of their hope."

To return to the subject proposed by A: 1)There are two ways to God, which interlock, namely, authority (faith) and reason. (a)Authority alone is poor (He seems to have been thinking of simplistic people he knew).

(b) Reason plus authority, interlocking, so that

(1) Faith or authority is needed to cleanse our heart so we can see, but then it is also needed where we cannot yet take in a thing by reason. Our weakness makes it impossible to bear the light of pure reason all at once. Cf. Sermon 118.1:"If you cannot understand, believe so that you may be able to understand. Faith goes ahead, understanding follows".

3.2. spectacles of the theatre... why is it that man wishes to grieve? - The Latin ludi included many kinds of entertainment. Here A seems to have in mind tragedies on the stage. Plato thought these were unfortunate because (a)they made one rejoice in evil coming to another, (b)any stage play is on the third remove from reality - the most real things are the Ideas (of which we spoke above), second are the things of this earth which imitate the Ideas, third, are the imitations of the imitations, on the stage. --A mistakenly followed Plato here. Aristotle, in His Poetics , says the real reason we enjoy a tragedy is that we get an emotional katharsis, a clean-out, by pity or fear.

3.3. In al these you scourged me. . I dared even... within the walls of the church... to desire and arrange an affair to procure the fruits of death. - We saw above that God injected lack of satisfaction into A's sins, to begin to bring him out. Here he even arranged for sex while he was in the church.

goal of studies... was law... the more praiseworthy the more crafty. Another example of the overly sour attitude A took to rhetoric and law. They could be abused, rhetoric taught, among other things, how to argue dishonestly - but that could help detect fraud by others. The law could be used to defend the innocent.

I was the leading student... . I was proudly glad, and swollen with smoke, though much more restrained... remote by far from the wreckings that the Wreckers did. - He did have very high natural ability. But he was proud, as if it came from himself, so he was swollen with smoke - he says human praise is a smoke without substance, as he will say in City of God 5. 17. The Wreckers were a wild bunch, with whom he went, and even at times lied to say he did worse things than he really did, he was ashamed not to be shameful.

3.4. Came upon a certain Cicero -- as with Aeneas, he minimizes his acquaintance with Cicero. Really, he knew both very well indeed. But in the West for long it was thought undesirable to read pagan authors, as we saw above in the case of St. Jerome. He adds,"whose tongue almost all admire, not so his heart." This is grossly unfair. As far as we can determine - and our information

on that period is very full - Cicero was one of two honest politicians in his own day. -- Cicero's Hortensius (now lost) enkindled in A a desire for philosophy - yet he did not want to seek it in pagan works, the name of Christ was not there. This is a strange inconsistency for one living with a mistress! Yet he from early years had had that attitude of wanting the name of Christ in all things. He got that from his mother, along with a belief in God. But from early years he also had the notion that everything is bodily, including the soul and God, and evil is a positive thing, not the lack of what should be there (a privation). He had no sound moral code, for when people saw him doing evil, they would say: He is not yet baptized.

He understood philosophy (philo - sophia) to mean love of Christ - for the roots of the word mean love, plus wisdom. Then: Christ is the wisdom of the Father ( 1 Cor. 1:24), so philosophy is the love of Christ. This was an unfortunate mistake, for it telescoped theology and philosophy. Both are good, but we should keep the methods distinct. Theology uses revelation, as interpreted by the Church. Philosophy uses reason.

how eager I was to fly away from earthly things to you -- said only in the light of later experience. He did not really consciously desire God then, for he was sinning constantly. The word fly recalls Platonism - cf. comments above on 3.1.

there are those who seduce through philosophy - an echo of Col. 2:8-9. But there St. Paul was answering the false claims of the Gnostics or Jewish apocalyptic speculators - A does not understand the context.

3.5. he turned to Scripture ---He did not find what he wanted for two reasons: 1) the style of the translation he used was poor, and he did not know languages so as to read the original; 2)he was too proud to appreciate Scripture, as he admits here. He says he was swollen with pride-- that means, inflated so as to seem big, but inside was just hot air. Let us recall our comments at 3.1 on the need of purification to understand spiritual things.

3.6. he fell in with men proudly erring... a very birdlime made of a mixture of the syllables of your name - These were the Manichees. They did speak of Jesus, and that s a trap for him, for he wanted that name. Again, let us recall comments on 3.1 about birdlime (used to catch birds).

At the very time he was disappointed in Scripture, he came upon the Manichees, founded by Manes, a Persian, executed 277 AD. He promised they would not need to take anything on faith, would prove all. He did not do that at all. (Cf. A. De utilitate credendi 1.2) Manes said there were two

eternal kingdoms, light and darkness, each infinite except in the direction where they bordered on each other. The God of Light rules the one kingdom, but Hyle (matter) rules the other. In the darkness there were five provinces, corresponding to the five evil elements: darkness, evil water, evil wind, evil fire, and smoke. But some natives of the darkness looked up, saw the kingdom of light, got up an army to attack. God saw the five evil elements and forces coming and was terrified! He sent out Primal Man (not same as Adam) who was part of the divine substance, and who had as armor the five good elements. God let him be beaten, imprisoned in matter to prepare the way for a greater victory later - which never came. At request of Primal Man God sent out the Friend of Lights, who evoked the Great Architect, who evoked the Living Spirit - who rescued Primal Man, but the latter had lost some of his light and good elements were mixed with evil. To recover the lost light it was necessary to make a universe. The Living Spirit and his five sons formed ten heavens and eight earths out of the mixture, with everything arranged higher or lower according to the amount of light it had (light particles are parts of God). Four earths are filled with darkness, four with a mixture. So the Sun and Moon are to be adored, and contain holy virtues. The latter can take on either masculine or feminine appearance to attract others. This aroused concupiscence, and the light of the soul which is held captive in matter can be set free. Then the moon, a light ship, can carry it to the sun, dump it there, and come back as a crescent. The large animals and man originated in the realm of darkness. Man came from the den of smoke. When the Third Messenger came, in the third phase of the war, sin was captivated by the beauty of the Exalted One. So Sin made a tree, came forth from it as its fruit. In the fruit was the image of the Exalted One. The light of this image was given to one of the evil princes, Saclas , who was the father of Adam and Eve. So Adam was made in the image of the Exalted One. Man has a body of matter which is evil. He also has two souls, one from God, which is good, the other from the land of darkness. All sins are due to the evil soul. There is a twofold Jesus: 1)the Jesus of the Gospels, but he had no real flesh (flesh is evil) and only seemed to be born and crucified. So the Manichees made little of Easter, but exalted the feast of the Bema, the day on which Manes was killed. 2)the Suffering Jesus - that part of God which is held bound and defiled in demons, animals, and brings forth this suffering Jesus, the life of man, hanging from every tree. At the end will be a final conflagration. All evil plus whatever parts of God have not been liberated, will be bound in a globe of fire. So the greater victory never came.

The Manichees attacked the OT, said misdeeds of some of the chief men proved the book was not of God. There was a hierarchy. There were Twelve Masters plus a chief, 72 Bishops were ordained by the Masters, and priests ordained by the bishops, and also deacons. But they rejected baptism. There were two classes, Elect, and Hearers, Elect did not kill animals or harvest plants or marry.

Hearers did all these, furnished vegetables for the Elect, who then by eating, set free gods, from "the factory of their stomachs" (Confessions 4.1.1).

A began to have doubts in faith: what they said about the moon did not fit with what he read in astronomy. Local officials could not solve, said Faustus would come. A waited 9 years, but Faustus admitted he did not know. So became disillusioned.

3.7 I did not know that other reality - he had no notion of a spirit, thought God and soul were bodily, and evil was a positive thing.

could they be just who had many wives at once and killed men and sacrificed animals -- polygamy was permitted in OT-- about the ban, herem :God ordered them to wipe out Canaanites to avoid danger of falling into idolatry - they did fall. Further, already in Gen 15:16 God said He would wait till the sins of the Amorites reached their fullness. By now they did. As to children: life is a moment to moment gift. God can stop giving at any point - or use a human agent for the same effect. The wrong of murder is that it violates the rights of the Creator.

image of God - By 412 A seems to have thought that the mind's capacity for participation in God meant he is in the image of God - before 412 A thought it means man had the image only so far as he actually participated in the Word through intuition. Real sense: God gave man dominion over creation, just as He Himself has it.

3.10. fig weeps -- plants, insofar as they were bright in color had light particles, particles of God.

3.11. his mother weeps now -- she now sees how wicked A is. For long she refused to live in same house with him- following warning of 2 Thes 3.14. But then the vision made her willing. A tried to distort it, she saw through his distortion.

you permitted me to roll and roll deeper. This on the one hand refers to the basic permission to have free will, given by God. But A in this passage may also have in mind his notion of what he calls a congruous call - a call of grace adapted to the actual need of the man. In his To Simplicianus 2.22: "This remains: that the wills [of men] are chosen. But the will itself, unless something comes which delights and invites the soul, cannot be moved at all. That this come along or not is not in the power of man."Accordingly, earlier in the same work, in 1.14: "who would dare to say that God lacked a way of calling, in which even Esau would apply his mind to faith, and join his will [to that] in which Jacob was justified." Since God did not give Esau such a grace, A thought God did not want Esau to be saved. (A denied that God wills all men to be saved: cf. Wm. Most, New Answers to Old

Questions pp. 228-31 (Hereafter = NAOQ). A thought God really hated Esau, on the basis of a misunderstanding of Rom 9.13. Logically this implies his massa damnata theory, found already (395 AD) in To Simplicianus 1.2.16: "Therefore all men are... one condemned mass of sin, that owes a debt of punishment to the divine and supreme justice. Whether it [the debt] be exacted or be condoned, there is no injustice." In the last years of his life, in his On the Gift of Perseverance 21.55, he referred the reader back to this early work for his true opinion - which he did not change, from 395 to 429. We are not sure that at the time of writing this passage in Confessions (397-401), he had such a view in mind. Probably yes. (For the whole matter, cf. NAOQ, pp. 225-44).

A. thought that by original sin, all men had become a damned and damnable mass ( Massa damnata et damnabilis). God could throw all into hell without waiting for any personal sins. But to show mercy, He blindly picks a small percent to rescue - the rest He lets go to hell. He got this theory from a misunderstanding of Romans 9, especially the lines about the potter. There was no support at all in the text or context for such a view. The Greek Fathers all held an incompatible view, as did nearly all the western Fathers. Cf. NAOQ 210-44.

3.12. I was still unteachable - two forces held him: 1) attachment to novelty, 2)far stronger, his pride, which keeps one from seeing truth since he is so convinced, wrongly, that he has it. Still more, pride is the basic vice, since it implies one is God. When we do good, new being appears -that is, it is created out of nothing. Only God can create.

he had read and even copied out almost all their books - very expensive to buy books then. St. Jerome copied out many books of pagan classics.

it cannot happen that the son of those tears of yours should perish... she received it as if it had sounded forth from the sky -"Ask and you shall receive" applies strictly to requisites for one's own salvation - praying for others can meet with an obstacle on the part of the others. However, extraordinary prayer and penance can call for an extraordinary grace, one that can forestall or even cancel out resistance in the other. A needed that, His mother obtained it. - Her faith caused her to regard the reply of the bishop as something from the sky.

4.1. seduced and seducing, deceived and deceiving ... . There are several pairs of splendid rhetorical contrasts and balances here.

sold a victorious wordiness -- teaching rhetoric need not be low. And A seems to scorn having to take pay for it.

without guile I taught guile - he taught how to argue falsely. But as we said before, this knowledge can be used to detect falsity in others too. Cf. Aristotle, Rhetoric 1.1.12.

slipping in a slippery place - cf. Psalm 35:6.

my faith glowing under much smoke -- Cf. Mt 12.20, quoting Is. 42-1-4.

those who loved vanity and sought a lie -- Cf. Ps. 4.2. Scripture sometimes equates lie with sin, and truth with doing what is right.

once born it forces one to love it --the son was Adeodatus ("given by God"). God made us so we love babies in general and especially our own. Bonding takes place readily. A sees this as part of the providence of the Father.

4.4. no true friendship unless you glue it together - Friendship requires mutual wishing well to the other for the other's sake, exchange of benefits. To love is really to will good to the other for the other's sake. Feelings merely tend to go along with it, in the human situation (They are what psychologists call somatic resonance to love). Cf. our comments on "every disordered soul is its own punishment" in 1.12. True love is based on real goodness-- there are false loves, based on sensory pleasure and/or expediency.

with your love diffused in our hearts - Cf. Rom 5:5: :God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us." - (1)The Holy Spirit IS the substantial love of Father for Son and Son for Father; (2) when we love someone in God, we wish he may be open to what God gives (a) for his benefit, (b) to please God, so God may have the generous pleasure of giving to him, whereby the other will be well-off having the things we wish him. So love of God and of neighbor rightly understood are inseparable.

pressing on the back of your fugitives -- similar to Francis Thompson, The Hound of Heaven. God's goodness is more eager to give to us than we are to receive from Him.

if I wanted to be his friend -- A did not really will good to the "friend", but only what A falsely thought was good. So it was not real love, and so the friendship was not solid.

4.7. you were not something solid... my error was my God - He still thought God was bodily, and did not really know Him - he had just an empty, erroneous concept of God.

where could my heart flee from my heart? -- compare Seneca, Epistle 28.1:"You need to change your soul, not [your place under] the sky -- you ask why that running away does not help you? You are fleeing from yourself."

5. 3. to speculate about the world - Cf. Wisdom 13:9: "If they so far advanced in knowledge that they could speculate about the world, how did they not more quickly find its Lord?"

your know the exalted from afar - the exalted means those who exalt themselves in pride. Cf. Psalm 138:6. A is deeply impressed with the need of humility and returns to the idea many times over. Cf. his Sermon 69.1.2:"First think about the foundation, humility... the greater the structure will be, the deeper one digs the foundation. Cf. 1 Peter 5:5.

they have discovered many things -Greek science after Alexander did some remarkable things:

Aristarchus of Samos c. 310-230 held the earth went around the sun - not generally accepted then.

Seleucus c. 150 BC - -found the cause of tides, supported Aristarchus on heliocentrism.

Hipparchus of Nicea c 185-120 BC . Got the length of the solar year within 6 minutes, 14 seconds. Discovered the precession of equinoxes, but rejected heliocentrism.

Eratosthenes of Cyrene c 275-194 BC -- observed noon day sun at Alexandria and Syene, a difference of 7 degrees 12 minutes. That is about 1/50 of a circumference -- equals 5000 stades (a stade is about 600 Greek feet). He concluded earth is 250, 000 stades around. Thought India could be reached by sailing west.

Herophilus c. 300 BC - dissected cadavers, found the true functions of the brain, sensory and motor nerves. Made nearly accurate description of the circulation of the blood.

Ptolemy c. 150 AD: Ingenious but not correct: Thought the earth is the center and is stationary. All celestial movements are circular at constant speeds. Did not know the distances of the planets. Each day the sphere of the stars rotated once about the earth. Each planet moved at constant speed about a small circle, an epicycle. The center of the epicycle revolved around a larger circle, a deferent (also called eccentric: center not at center of earth). Since this did not account for the movements of planets yet, there was introduced a third circle, the equant, with center neither at center of earth nor center of the deferent. A point on the line from its center to the center of the epicycle moved at constant speed around the equant - the result was variation in speed of the

epicycle around the deferent. This theory was gradually abandoned when Kepler proved orbits are elliptical.

Through impious pride they go away form you and suffer an eclipse of your light - if they could even predict eclipses, they should have found God. -- In spite of the theoretical error of the system of Ptolemy, yet, as a result of long making of records, the astronomer of that days could predict eclipses accurately.

I was ordered to just believe - the Manichean books, even when A saw they were in error. A great contrast to their opening attitude which we saw: they promised to not ask anything on faith, would prove everything.

5, 5. Manes tried to convince people that the Holy Spirit... was personally present to him - Now some original works have been discovered: C. Schmidt, Manichische Handschriften der Staatlichen Museum Berlin Bd. 1, Kephalaia 1 Hlfte, Lieferung 1 10, Stuttgart, 1935-40. In Kephalaia 1.16 Manes speaks of: "... the holy church to which I was sent from the Father... . No one of the Apostles has ever done such... . [When his] disciples had heard all this from him, they were glad. Their mind was enlightened and they said in joy: 'We thank thee... we have... believed that you are the [Paraclete] who [comes] from the Father, the Revealer of all mysteries." So Manes himself seems to have claimed to have been sent from the Father. Did this mean he was the Paraclete? The disciples as quoted here seem to take it that way, and he in the Kephalaia does not correct them on the point. Further, in Kephalaia 67.165-66 Manes says he is like the sun, and the Elect, are the rays, and he will not allow any of the elect to go into darkness, that his wisdom is anointed upon them all. Cf. A, Acta cum Felice Manichaeo 1.9:"We believe this [namely] that he is the Paraclete." A summary of the Kephalaia can be found in Catholic Biblical Quarterly 7 (1945) 206-22 and 306-25.

5. 7. he was not altogether ignorant of his ignorance -- quite a compliment. If one could always know he did not know when he did not know, he would have more infallibility than the Church! Of course A does not say Faustus had that much.

I began to associate -- they shared a common artistic interest in literature.

snare of death. . had begun to loosen the snare -- God can write straight with even crooked lines. So He made use of the snare that Faustus was to begin to loosen the snare in which A was caught. This was due to "the blood of the heart of my mother", her prayers and penances obtained it. Again, an extraordinary weight it the scales is needed to call for an extraordinary grace, which A needed,

for he was hardened. -- We notice too that A now did not know what to believe -- just before he met with the sceptical New Academy in Rome, but was not caught by it: Providence again.

5. 8. Your brought it about -- even though A decided on his own to go to Rome, he sees the hand of God behind it. So A sees in this providence "your most profound depths.

young people [in Rome] studied more quietly - A had been wicked too in Carthage, though not as bad as the Wreckers.

they are the more wretched the more they are allowed to do . Cf. again 1.2:"Every disordered soul is its own punishment." Permissiveness can be lack of love, since love works for the well-being of the other. - We think of Mk 4:11-12: "To you have been given the secrets of the kingdom of God, but for those outside everything is in parables, so that they may indeed see but not perceive, and may indeed hear but not understand: then they might turn again and be forgiven." The three "Synoptics vary in their wording here. Greek hina can be either purpose or result. This is a quote form Is 6:910. In the Hebrew it reads:"Go and tell this people: Hear, but do not understand, and see, but do not to perceive. Make the heart of this people gross." -- In Mark after the Scribes charge Him with casting out devils by the devil, He turns to parables. Interpretation is much debated. We suggest: The parables were so built that someone well-disposed would begin to get something, someone illdisposed would not, and would become more blind and dull. He would begin to go out on a bad spiral, his blindness growing. But someone who would act strongly on faith - which says the things of this life are worth hardly anything compared to eternity-- will go out on a good spiral, his ability to understand spiritual things growing. In both spirals we see God exercising both mercy and justice in one and the same action (reflecting the fact that all His attributes are identified within Him): on the bad spiral the man is getting more and ore blind, which justice calls for; yet there is mercy, for the more understanding one has, the greater the responsibility. On the good spiral, the added light is in a secondary sense due in justice; but in a more basic sense, in that no creature by its own power can generate a claim on God, it is mere mercy.

my hope and my portion - echoes Psalm 142.6.

you knew, my God, why I went... nor did you tell me, nor my mother - A marvels at the way God works again -- He guided the whole matter, without letting either one know. His mother even wept at what was really part of the fulfillment of her prayer.

chapel in honor of St. Cyprian -- he was Bishop of Carthage, martyr in 258. A admired him, called him " the great sword of God" (Sermon 313 on Cyprian).

proved in her the inheritance of Eve -- seems to mean original sin. Some doubt whether A had a clear concept of original sin at this time. Teselle, p. 182: "There is not yet a doctrine of original sin. But Augustine now begins to think of man as being captured by his first sin, and becoming increasingly accustomed and addicted ." Teselle seems not to notice that already in Confessions 5. 9 A wrote of "the bond of original sin in which all die in Adam." The words "all die in Adam is part of a poor translation of Romans 5:12, which speaks of original sin. It was current in A's time. Teselle has to make the words original mean really first sin of the individual. A mortal sin does make one more inclined to further sins. Yet we have seen that A. knew of original sin earlier, in the quote from 5. 9.

5. 9. cross of a phantasm - in Manichaeism there was a twofold Jesus, as we saw. The Jesus of the Gospels, according to them, had no real flesh, so did not really die.

die twice -- the death of body and of soul.

contrite and humble heart -- reflects Ps. 51.19.

sober widow -- the picture is that of 1 Timothy 5:9-10.

the offering at your altar -- daily Mass. She came twice a day. The so-called Apostolic Constitutions (a late forgery, c. 400 AD, circulated as if by Pope Clement I) 2.59 exhorts people to come twice a day. Monica did that.

your mercy is forever - cf. Psalm 118.1, where these words are a refrain.

become a debtor by your promises -- God cannot strictly owe things to creatures, but can owe to Himself to keep His word in the covenant, which gives the same effect. So He becomes a "debtor" to those to whom He forgives debts! The concept that sin is a debt is found widely in Scripture.

son of your handmaid - echoes Psalm 116. 16.

5.10. deceived and deceiving saints - Manichees.

it was not we who sinned - as we saw above (on 3.6), the Manichees held we have two souls, the good soul composed of light and is part of God. But the evil soul comes from the land of darkness

and is responsible for the evil we do. So this was comforting to A ,"it pleased my pride." Later he wrote a special word, On the Two Souls against the Manicheans.

I was that one whole -- there were not really two souls or principles.

the more incurable by the fact that I did not think myself a sinner - the first step in a cure is to recognize one is sick- but he blamed his sins on the evil soul he had.

a guard about my mouth - echoes Psalm 141.3-4.

held on to them more loosely and negligently - no longer could believe the Manichees, yet did not know what he should believe.

Academics... neither did I yet understand their intention - This is the New Academy, founded by Carneades (214-129 BC) who took the Scepticism from Arcesilaus of the Middle Academy (315240). They claimed you cannot know anything for certain - just probability. A seems to think scepticism was just a false front to keep out triflers: cf. Against the Academics 3.17.38 and 3.20.43 and note 53 on the former passage in the Ancient Christian Writers edition. It was common in Hellenistic times to say philosophical sects had secret doctrine. The idea could come from such things as Plato, Phaedo 62b, and especially his Epistles 2.312d, 313c, 314a 7.341c, 344c. Plato himself seems in his Epistles (cf. 2.314 --probably not authentic, but apt to have Plato's thought on this) to have said that he did have a secret doctrine, different from that of his published works. This could help lead to scepticism. Also Plato's belief that our senses are unreliable, because they tell us the present world is the chief thing, would undermine knowledge, for all knowledge begins in the senses. the same host - probably he was staying with Constantius. The latter was converted to the Church c 400 AD, as we learn from A's Against Faustus 5. 5.

you had the shape of human flesh... I could think of nothing other than the mass of bodies - he still had no concept of a spirit. Tertullian, in On the Soul 9, and in On the Flesh of Christ 11, thinks that everything is bodily, even the soul.

evil was some such substance - there are three possible theories abut the nature of evil: 1)it is a mere negative (such as lack of wings on a cat); 2)it is a privative negative (lack of what should be there, such as paws on a cat); 3)it is a thing not the lack of a thing. The Zoroastrians also held this view. A had held it from early life. Cf. also Confessions 3.7.12.

because my reverence forced me to think a good God could have created no evil nature - the basic error of all dualisms. If one thinks evil is positive, and not the lack of something, he will reason: there are good things in this world, so a good God must have made them; but there are evils, so an evil power must have made them. But this reasoning holds only if one thinks evil is positive. If it is merely the lack of something that should be there, then no power is needed to produce a lack.

two masses - the two kingdoms. The Manichees thought each infinite except in the direction where they met -- a childish notion!

defiled with flesh - flesh and all matter was evil in the mind of the Manichees.

5.12. with a perfect hate - A has in mind Psalm 139.22: "Do I not hate them that hate thee, O Lord? ... I hate them with a perfect hatred." A had trouble understanding this - as do many people. In his Enarrationes in Ps 138.22 he wrote: "What is 'perfect hate'? I hated in them their iniquity, I loved what you had made. This is to hate with a perfect hate, in such a way that you do not hate humans because of their vices, nor love the vices because of the humans." But A missed the true sense, which is "with full hatred did I hate them." To help understand this, we turn to Apocalypse 6:9-10. The souls of martyrs under the altar pray: "O sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and make it right for our blood on those who live on the earth." There are two things that seem the same, but are completely different: 1) to will evil to another so it may be evil to him. This is vengeance, hatred, and very immoral. The martyrs do not do that, their hearts are in unison with God; 2)to will that the objective order, out of balance for sin, may be rebalanced. This is supremely moral, God Himself wills it. A help comes from a Jewish Rabbi, Simeon ben Eleazar (c. 170 AD quoting Rabbi Meir, earlier in same century):"He [anyone] has committed a transgression. Woe to him! He has tipped the scale to the side of debt for himself and for the world!" We imagine a two pan scales. The sinner takes from one pan what he has no right to take - the scales are out of balance. The holiness of God, loving all that is right, wants it rebalanced. If the man stole property, he begins to rebalance by giving it back. If he stole a pleasure, he begins to rebalance by giving up a comparable pleasure he could have lawfully had. But these things only begin to rebalance - for even one mortal sin is an infinite imbalance (offense against an Infinite Person). So if the Father willed it - He did not have to - it could be done only by sending a Divine Person to become Man. Such a Divine Person could generate an infinite value to fully rebalance. This the Father did, in the Redemption. Cf. Paul VI, Indulgentiarum doctrina, the new constitution on indulgences of Jan 1, 1967. This is the true explanation of the so-called "cursing Psalms". The psalmist wills that the objective order be rebalanced - as God Himself does. This is right, but there is a danger in it of

sliding over into real hatred, willing evil to another so it may be evil to him - instead of wiling that the objective order be rebalanced. Cf. OFP, chapter 4.

Symmachus -- he was Prefect of the city, Rome, 384-85, and consul 391. In 384 he wrote to Emperor Valentinian (383-92) asking him to restore the statue of Victory (which pagans worshipped) to the senate house. Gratian had taken it out. St. Ambrose wrote against Symmachus in Epistle 18, and won.

Ambrose - this was the year 384. Ambrose had become Bishop of Milan 10 years before. He came from a noble Roman family, son of the Prefect of Gaul. Ambrose was born about 340, became Prefect of Aemilia and Liguria, with headquarters at Milan. When Bishop Auxentius died, Ambrose was elected bishop, when not yet baptized. Ordained Dec. 7, 374. He was advisor to emperors: Gratian (375-83), Valentinian II (383-90) Theodosius the Great (379-95). Theodosius in 390 had ordered a massacre of all in Thessalonica, tried to recall it, but in vain. Ambrose in his Epistle 51 insisted on public penance. Theodosius did it, reluctantly. Ambrose was one of the few clergy who could read Greek easily. Augustine could not.

richness of your grain - echo of Psalm 81.17: "I would feed you with the finest of the wheat, and with honey from the rock would I satisfy you," if only you would listen.

sober drunkenness of wine -- from a hymn by Ambrose, Splendor paternae gloriae: "May Christ be our food, and faith our drink. Let us joyfully drink in the sober drunkenness of the Spirit." Ambrose may be alluding to Eph 5:18 and also Psalm 23:5. Ambrose was the first to successfully write hymns for use in the liturgy in the West (St. Hilary had tried but failed). The East had had hymns from the start, we see some of them in St. Paul's Epistles. But in the West - as we noted in passing before - they disliked anything that seemed like pagan literature - and metrical compositions did. Hymns are powerful for propaganda - what one sings, sinks in more deeply.

Your led me to him, though I did not know it - A again admires the ways of Providence. A thought he went to hear Ambrose out of professional interest, for Ambrose was a fine speaker, and that is what A taught. But the content came in too.

salvation is far from sinners - echo of Psalm 119.155.

5.14. I despaired - he could not yet answer the charges by Manichees that the great figures of the OT were sinners. So he could not join the Church. Ambrose solved these problems by the use of allegory - not a real solution, but it pleased A. In addition, A still had his bad morals, and the false

beliefs that everything is bodily: God, the soul, evil. Neoplatonism would help him see there are spiritual things. Hearing of good example would rescue him from his bad habits.

when I took them literally, I was killed in Confessions 6.4.6 we read: "Joyfully I used to hear Ambrose saying in his sermons to the people, as though he were most diligently teaching a rule: 'The letter kills, but the spirit gives life' - when he opened up in a spiritual sense... those things which, if taken literally, seemed to teach perversity. Ambrose was quoting St. Paul 2 Cor 3:6. The real sense of Paul was this: The old regime, of the law, brings spiritual death, it cannot save, but the new regime of the spirit, faith in Christ, gives life. Neither Ambrose no Augustine understood that.

An example of what A began to think is found in his work On Lying 10.24: "What Jacob did at his mother's urging, to seem to deceive his father, if we pay faithful and diligent attention is not a lie but a mystery... . He did cover his arms with goat skins: if we look for the proximate cause, we will think it a lie; for he did this to be thought to be one who he was not. But if this is referred to that to signify which it was really done---by the goat skins are meant sins, by him who covered himself with them, He was meant who bore not his own but other's sins. So the true meaning can in no way be rightly called a lie." For more examples, Cf. Against Faustus 22.1-98.

Allegorical method goes back to Xenophanes, Pythagoras, Plato, Antisthenes and others, as also the Stoics, to interpret myths and fables to avoid the offense of the literal sense. The first Jew to use it was Aristobulus at Alexandria, in 2nd cent. BC. He used it on Greek poetry and on OT. The Epistle of Aristeas (mid 2nd cent) uses it to defend dietary laws of OT. But especially Philo used it - he felt the literal sense is as a shadow to the body - the allegory shows the true and deeper meaning. The Alexandrian school of Scripture used it much, especially Clement and Origen. Origen in First Principles 4.3.5 said: "Everything has a spiritual meaning, but not everything has a literal meaning." His verbal notion of inspiration, without the help of the approach by genres, impelled him in this direction. Prominent in this school were St. Athanasius and Didymus the Blind, and the Cappadocians.

The opposite school, that of Antioch, was founded by Lucian of Samosata, a priest of Antioch, a martyr in 312. He seems to have shared the view of Paul of Samosata in denying the divinity of Christ, but recanted. The great period of the school is 360-430, especially in Flavian, Diodore of Tarsus, Theodoret of Cyrus and especially st. John Chrysostom. It went into decadence after 430. It substituted moral teaching for mystical, and cultivated Aristotle. Stressed the humanity of Christ.

I now criticized my own despair - In his early On the Happy Life 4 (during his retreat before baptism) he wrote: "But when after shaking them off [the Manichees] especially after crossing the sea, for a long time the Academics held my rudder."

unable to conceive a spiritual substance - finally the Neoplatonists helped him to do this.

I ought to leave the Manichees - We can gather up the scattered texts he has giving his reasons: (1)They gave no spiritual help towards needed asceticism: On the Utility of Believing 1.3; (2) the morality of some of the elect did not match their profession: On the Morals of the Manichees 68-72; (3) they were good at attack, not at defense: On the Utility of Believing 1.2; (4)they claimed that all Scripture opposed to them was interpolated: Confessions 5.11.21; (5) their false astronomy: Confessions 5.3.6; (6) A sect must be mentally poor if their best spokesman is Faustus.

refused to entrust the cure of the sickness of my soul [to philosophers] because they were without the saving name of Christ. Therefore I decided to become a catechumen -- He had turned away from philosophers after reading Hortensius at age 19 for the same reason: lack of name of Christ.

6.1. I was seeking you outside me -- God is within each of us. But A also seems to be thinking of his idea that a person is to the extent that he is unified, not scattered. Please see our comments on 3.1 above. Cf. also Confessions 2.1.1. :"I do this out of love of love [God]... gathering myself from the scattering in which I was torn apart bit by bit, while I turned aside from you, who are One, and became vain toward many things."

depths of the sea - Cf. Ps 69.3: "I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold; I have come into deep waters, and the flood sweeps over me."

the bier of her thought - a fine allusion to the widow of Naim, whose son was on the bier, being carried to burial, but Jesus raised him: Lk 7:12.

the font of water -- seems to refer to Ambrose, who was to give him living water, sound doctrine and later Baptism: cf. John 4:14:"Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never thirst; the water I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."

6.3. temptations against his very excellence -- probably means temptations arising from his high position, for power tends to corrupt. Could also refer to strong temptations to violate celibacy.

dwelt on your bread - seems to mean that Ambrose meditated, ruminated on the divine truths.

crowds of busy men - Possidius, in his life of Augustine, chapters 19-20 tells us that A sometimes acted as a judge in cases all day and got nothing to eat. He used the occasion to teach truth, since even nonCatholics came to him.

his voice and tongue were silent - As late as 3-4 centuries the custom of reading aloud even when alone was general.

no one was forbidden to enter - did not have several rows of secretaries to keep people out or make access difficult.

all the knots of calumnies - A is thinking of the Manichean attacks on the Old Testament, which Ambrose solved for him, even if it was by allegory.

6.6 most bitter difficulties - A sees this as providential, as he had said earlier about lack of complete satisfaction in his sexual sins. God was trying to make him look further.

without whom no things would be - cf. Acts 17:28: "In Him we live and move and have our being.

the praises of the Emperor - a panegyric speech. There were many of these, by rhetors. This probably was on Jan 1, 385, for Valentinian II, then living at Milan. Emperors could swallow great extremes of flattery. How? Let us think of early experiments before sending a man into space. A man was put into a capsule, no light, no sound, no sensations at all. Some could stand it longer than others, but eventually all got hallucinations. The reason: In normal conditions, if a wild imagination comes, we compare it with reality, and easily dismiss it. But when there ar no points to compare, things can go far. An ordinary man, if he gets out of line, will be corrected by friends, out of charity, or enemies, out of hatred. But an Emperor was told only what people thought he would like to hear- -he lost his checkpoints, and came gradually to absorb outrageous flattery. Thus the poet Statius, in a poem on an equestrian statue of Emperor Domitian said it would be better if Domitian were up in the sky - so much a better god than Jupiter! Not only Emperors can meet this sort of trouble -anyone who has a power position such that no one dares to contradict can go much the same way.

were crushing my bones -- echoes Psalm 51.10: "The bones you crushed will rejoice".

6.7. Alypius Born 354 died 430, from Thagaste. Was first a pupil, then a friend of A at Carthage, and a Manichean. Studied law, was counsellor to the Count of the Italian Treasury. Then at Milan with A, a companion in conversion and baptism. On return to Africa, gave self to an ascetic life.

Went East, met St. Jerome at Bethlehem. Back to Africa, became bishop of Thagaste in 394. Was quiet by nature, less emotional than A, but good in friendship, fond of games, but chaste. Cf. A's Epistles 39, 83, 125, 127.

Nebridius - From Carthage. Rich, erudite, wise, fervent in nature like A, eager to find answers to deep questions, subtle in mind. He was the first of the friends to see the vanity of the Manichees and of astrology. He left everything to follow A. to Milan where he taught grammar under Verecundus. Baptized with A, returned to Africa, converted his family. Died c. 391.

correct a wise man Proverbs 9.8: "do not correct a scoffer, or he will hate you; reprove a wise man: he will love you." Leviticus 19:17 (NRSV) said: "You shall reprove your neighbor or you will incur guilt yourself." Some have misunderstood this to meant hat always and in every case one must correct another or incur the same guilt. First, there can be no obligation to do something that will bring harm instead of good, as indicated by Proverbs Most people do not accept correction. But several conditions must be considered before an obligation is present:1)It must be grave matter -no one is obliged to correct all small things; 2) there should be hope of success - otherwise, harm will result;there seldom is hope, unless it is a superior who does the correcting, and even then, the chances are not often good; 3) it should be able to be done without grave difficulty for the corrector: charity does not oblige with a disproportionate burden; 4)there should be a real spiritual need of neighbor, which requires three things (a)certainty that he has committed a sin or intends to do so; (b)that he has not already corrected himself; (c)that there is not someone else equally or more able to do the job, such as a superior of the person. --Here, Alypius shows special quality of character.

burning coals - alludes to Proverbs 25:21-22:If your enemy is hungry give him food; and if he is thirst, give him water to drink; for you will heap coals of fire on his head and the Lord will reward you."This is cited in Rom 12:20 in same sense. St. augustine and Jerome thought it meant making the enemy ashamed in this way.

burn... heal - there is a maxim attributed to Hippocrates: "What cannot be cured by medicine is cured by the knife; what cannot be cured by the knife is cured by fire; what cannot be cured by fire is incurable."

6.8. bold rather than strong in mind -- good psychological description. Our physical side responds to emotional things in spite of our mind: the only remedy is to turn away from them.

6.10. assessor -Roman magistrates were not necessarily trained in laws, and so used the advice of assessors for legal information.

Count of the Italian Treasury - one of the provincial treasuries, subordinate to the Count of the Sacred Largess who presided over the finances of the Western Empire.

not despair - not give in to the New Academy who said we cannot know anything for certain.

6.11. what if death cuts off... consciousness? -It is pitiful to see the great philosophers of antiquity trying to prove to themselves that there was some survival, that there was no annihilation. For example, Socrates after receiving a death sentence, says in Plato, Apology 40: "One of two things -either death is a state of nothingness and utter unconsciousness, or, as men say, there is a change and migration of the soul from this world to another. Now if you suppose that there is no consciousness, but a sleep like the sleep of him who is undisturbed even by dreams, death will be an unspeakable gain. For if a person were to pick the night in which his sleep was undisturbed even by dreams, and were to compare with this the other days and nights of his life, and then were to tell us how many days and nights of his life he had passed in the course of life better or more pleasantly than this one, I think that any man -- I will not say a private man, but even the Great King -- will not find many such days or nights when compared with the others. Now if death be of such a nature, I say that to die is gain; for eternity is then only a single night. But if death is the journey to another place, and there, as men say, all the dead abide: what good, my friends and judges, can be greater than this?" Socrates tries to convince himself annihilation is not to be feared -- but it is the greatest terror, the loss of all existence. For in sleep one exists, and is gaining bodily refreshment. Picture a cutoff point somewhere ahead of you - when you reach it - you stop existing - after thousands of ages will you make it back to existence? No - you simply are not. John Milton, in Paradise Lost, imagines satan just expelled from heaven, finding himself in hell, and saying: At least I still exist. For Plato's attempts to prove survival, see Phaedo 70d-72e; 72e -77d; 78b-80e; 103c - 107a; or his Republic 608 d- 611a, or Phaedrus 245c ff.

so eminent a peak of Christian authority - it is there to make clear what we might not know otherwise. A is thinking probably of the spread of the faith by miracles, of which he speaks in City of God 22, 5.

wife -- he wonders if having a wife will be a hindrance to the search for wisdom. Behind this is the thought we commented on in notes on 3.1.

medicine of your mercy Compare his words in On nature and grace 23.25:" To go into sin, free will was sufficient... to return to righteousness, there is need of a physician, for the person is not in health; he has need of a life-giver, for he is dead. He [Pelagius] said nothing at all about that grace, as if by one's own will he could heal himself since free will by itself could put him in vice."

6.13. she was daily asking you to show her a vision... she did see certain vain fantasies -- His Mother's strong desire set her up for suggestion and even deception of the devil. St. John of the Cross, Ascent of Mt. Carmel 1, 11 2-3 says about visions a soul might b e offered: "We should never rely on them or let them in, but we should always fly from them, without trying to determine whether they be good or evil... . So he who esteems such things is greatly in error, and puts himself in great danger of deception; and at best will have in himself a full impediment to the attainment of spirituality. For... between spiritual things and all these bodily things there exists no kind of proportion at all. And so it may always be supposed that such things as these are more likely to come from the devil than from God." Later, in 3.13.6, he compares these things to fruit and the rind - cast way the rind, may use the fruit, the good effects of the love of God. Also St. Teresa of Avila, Interior Castle 6.9: "I will just warn you that when you hear that God is giving souls these graces, you should never ask or desire Him to lead you on this road. Even if you think it a very good one, one to be prized and respected, there are certain reasons why such a course is not wise." It show slack of humility, leaves door open "to great danger, because the devil needs only to see a door left a bit ajar to enter," and there is danger of auto-suggestion: "When someone has a great desire for something, he convinces himself he is seeing or hearing what he wants." Also it is presumptuous for one to want to choose his own path: only the Lord knows what is best for us. And very heavy trials usually go with these favors. Further,"There are many saintly persons who have never known what it is to get a favor of this sort, and there are others who receive such favors, although they are not saintly. One may even work miracles and be in the state of sin, as we learn from Mt 7.22: "Many will say to me on that day: Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out devils in your name, and do many wonderful works in your name? And then I will say to them: I never knew you:depart from me, you workers of evil."

marriageable age - the legal age was 12, i n Justinian's Institutes 1.10.22. The girl here was only 10.

6.15. natural son - his only illegitimate son, Adeodatus.

more coldly, but more despairingly - In his On the nature of good 20 (399AD) he wrote: "It is better to have a wound in the body with pain, than decay without pain."

7.9. you resist the proud, but give grace to the humble - 1 Peter 5.5.

a certain man - this is probably Manlius Theodorus, consul in 399, a great man in the service of the princes at Milan.

certain Platonic books -- most likely the Enneads of Plotinus. , a great Neoplatonist. The founder of Neoplatonism was Ammonius Saccas, a day laborer in Alexandria, Egypt (c 175-240). Plotinus was born in Egypt in 203 or 204, studied under Ammonius Sacas when he was 28, remained his pupil till around 240. Then he joined the Persian expedition of Emperor Gordian, to learn Persian philosophy. Gordian was assassinated, and Plotinus went to Rome, arriving about at age 40. He opened a school, enjoyed much favor even from Emperor Gallienus. When Plotinus was about 60, Porphyry became his pupil, who later wrote the life of Plotinus. Porphyry tried to arrange the writings of Plotinus in systematic form, into 6 books, each with nine chapters (hence called Enneads, from Greek ennea, 9). Plotinus even took in orphaned children, was ascetic, gentle and affectionate. Porphyry says that Plotinus experienced ecstatic union with God four times in 6 years. Died in 269/70. His last words: "I was waiting for you [the physician Eustochius] before that which is divine in me departs to unite itself with the Divine in the universe." He attacked Gnosticism, was silent on Christianity.

His teaching:

1) God is the One. Enneads. 4.1 (516 b-c):

"Of whom there is no word, nor knowledge, who is even beyond being." (Cf. Plato Republic 409b, speaking of the Good, which he probably identified with God: "In like manner the Good may be said to be not only the author of knowledge to all things known, but of their being and essence, yet the Good is not essence, but far exceeds essence in dignity and power." Neither essence nor being nor life can be predicated of Him - He is beyond these. Enneads 6.8. 9 (743 e):"He is other than all things." This is a strong concept of transcendence. A says in On Order 2.16.44: "that supreme God who is known best by not knowing". This is not pantheism - the One is not identical with the sum of individual things as Parmenides said, for these need a source, which must be distinct and logically prior. So Plotinus even said we cannot ascribe thought or will or activity to Him. Not thought - for that implies a distinction between thinker and object of thought, but He is One. Similarly for will and activity:he is beyond all distinctions whatsoever, is beyond self-consciousness.

He did not create the world, for we cannot ascribe activity to Him, it would impair His unchangeability. So God emanates things. Copleston, History of Philosophy I, 466 says emanate is a metaphor. The Greek is usually rhein or aporrhein. He seems to say every nature should make that which is less perfect than itself, as a seed unfolds itself. He also uses the metaphor of perilampsis, ellampsis, comparing the One to the sun, which illuminates, yet stays undiminished in its own place.

2) Nous, thought, mind - This is the first emanation. It has a twofold object: the one and itself. In the Nous are Ideas not only of classes but of individuals: Enneads 5.7.1ff, though the whole multitude of Ideas is contained indivisibly in Nous. So the Nous is the intelligible world, the kosmos noetos:. Enneads 5.9.9. It is in the Nous then that multiplicity first appears, for the One is above all multiplicity. The Demiurge of Plato and the noesis noeseos [thinking of thinking] of Aristotle thus come together in the Plotinian Nous. Nous in Beauty. A thought the Nous was like the Divine Word [Logos], and so this attracted him.

3) World-soul - it proceeds from Nous. It is incorporeal and indivisible, but forms the link between the supersensual world and the sensual world. Plato had supposed there was just one World-soul Plotinus put in two, higher and lower - the latter is the real soul of the phenomenal world. Plato calls the second soul nature [physis]. The phenomenal world owes all its reality to participation in the Ideas that are in Nous. Since the Ides do not operate in the sensible world, Plotinus put reflections of the Ideas in the World-soul: logoi spermatikoi [seminal reasons] - an adaptation of a Stoic idea. The protoi logoi [primary reasons] are in the higher of the two souls, the derivative logoi are in the lower soul.

4) Individual human souls come from the World-soul, and are subdivided into two elements: a higher one which belongs to the sphere of Nous, and a lower one which is directly connected with the body. The soul preexisted before union with the body [as in Plato]. That union is a fall. It survives death of the body, but without memory of the period of earthly existence. There is transmigration of souls.

5) The material world: Light comes from the centre, passes outwards, grows gradually dimmer, until it shades off into the total darkness which is matter in itself -- matter is a privation [ steresis] of light. In this way matter remotely emanates from the One. Matter is also the antithesis to the One. Inasmuch as it enters into composition of material objects and is so illumined by form, it cannot be said to be total darkness -- but insofar as it stands against the intelligible and represents the ananke [necessity] of Plato's Timaeus, it is unilluminated, is darkness. Plotinus in this way combined Platonic and Aristotelian themes: He saw matter as the substrate [the underlying element

onto which form comes] of form: Enneads 2.4.6: "It is necessary that there me a substrate for bodies, other then them - the change of the elements into one another shows this -- each is of matter and form.

Matter is the principle of evil inasmuch as at its lowest grade, as devoid of quality, as unilluminated privation, it is privation - which is evil. However this is not a dualism, since matter is privation, not a positive substance.

Plotinus did not thereby scorn the world like the Gnostics, but praises the world as the word of the World soul. No cosmos can be better except the intelligible cosmos in the Nous. The material world is the image or exteriorisation of the intelligible. The sensible reproduces the intelligible according to its capacity: Enneads 4.8.6.

The universal harmony and cosmic unity are the rational basis for prophecy and for influencing superhuman powers by magic - we will see this in the City of God 10. 12, in connection with theurgy. In Enneads 4.4.40 Plotinus thinks there are three levels of things: sensory, rational, and beyond reason . Magic does not seem reasonable, but it is beyond reason. PLotinus thought there were star-gods, and also other gods and daimones invisible to man.

6) The ascent: We aim to become like to God, and then to reach union with God. ln the ascent the ethical is subordinate to the intellectual element:

a) First stage: Katharsis, purification, to free man from the dominion of the body and the senses, to rise to the four cardinal virtues, the highest of which is phronesis, prudence. Please recall the notes on the soul in 3.1.

b) Second stage: One should rise above sense perception, turning towards Nous, occupying self with philosophy and science.

c) Third stage: The soul goes beyond discursive thought to union with the Nous, the first beauty [protos kalos]. But the soul retains its self-consciousness.

d) Final stage:Enneads 6.9.9: The soul comes to see both God and himself, himself made radiant and filled with intelligible light, really, grown to be one with that light in its purity, without any heaviness, transfigured to the divinity, really, being god in essence. For that point of time he is enkindled, but when once more he becomes heavy, it is as though the fire is quenched. Such a union is brief in this life, but can be permanent when we are freed from the body. There there will

be "a flight of the alone to the alone." "There is a fatherland for us, from whence we came, and the father is there": Enneads 1.6.8.

certain Platonic books translated from Greek into Latin -translation was by Victorinus Afer, of whom we will see in 8.3.

a certain man swollen with immense pride -- seems to be Amelius, a disciple of Plotinus.

Porphyry of Tyre (232 to after 301 AD). He wrote a life of Plotinus and other works, of which the most famous is the Isagoge, an introduction to the Categories of Aristotle. He wrote 15 books against the Christians, which were burned in 448 under Valentinian III and Theodosius II. Some suspect Porphyry had been a Christian, but dropped, wanted to stop conversion of cultured people to Christianity, and tried to show Christianity is illogical, ignoble, involved in contradictions. He attacked the Bible and Christian interpretations of it. Reminds one of the much later higher criticism. He attacked the divinity of Christ. Plotinus had shown no hostility to Christianity.

Augustine himself: had probably read at least these treatises of Plotinus: On beauty, on providence, on the soul, on the three divine hypostases, and how that which is one and the same can be everywhere. Cf. Teselle pp. 44-45.

However, Neoplatonism did great service for Augustine: it led him to see that God and the soul are spiritual, not bodily, and that evil is a privation, not a substance. But it did nothing to check his long running immorality. In fact, its demands to rise above the senses may have been counterproductive in A.

As we saw St. Ambrose answered the Manichean attacks on the Old Testament. Soon, therefore, A will say openly that all his intellectual difficulties were gone - it was just his immorality that held him back. What really would bring the change was extraordinary grace, working through the heroic examples he heard about.

In the beginning was the Word - A seems to take Nous for the Word. But he noted that Plotinus did not teach the incarnation of course. Porphyry specially attacked it.

7.17. not a fantasm -- as we saw before, Jesus in the Manichean system had no real body - and their idea of God as bodily was just an error: there is no such a god.

by my own weight - compare Confessions 13.9.10: "My weight is my love - by it I am carried wherever I am carried." By weight he really means gravitational force - but did not yet know of gravitation.

fleshy habit - he thinks that when a person lets sin get a hold of him, what began as a single sin becomes a sort of addiction, from which the soul by its own power cannot free itself. Please recall the explanation given on Mt 6:21 in the notes on 3.1.

the body that is corrupted -- cf. Wisdom 9:15: "The corruptible body burdens the soul, and the earthy shelter bears down the mind that has many concerns."

8.2. Simplicianus - he was already an old man when A consulted him. St. Ambrose in Epistle 37.2 speaks of him as his father in the faith, for he had baptized Ambrose. Simplicianus handled A prudently, and encouraged his esteem for Neoplatonism. Simplicianus became Bishop of Milan in 397 when Ambrose died. A wrote a major work, To Simplicianus, to him.

hidden to the wise - cf. Mt 11:25: "I thank you, Father, Lord of Heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise... and revealed them to babes." Humility makes it more possible for one to see spiritual truths. Please recall the comments in notes on 1.4 on the bad spiral and the good spiral.

incline the heavens and come down - echoes Psalm 144.5.

afraid he would be denied by Christ - cf. Mt 10:32: "Everyone who acknowledges me before men, I too will acknowledge him before my Father... . but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny him before my Father who is in Heaven."

his profession in set words -- a form of the Creed. Cf. Romans 10:10: "By the heart one believes, leading to justification; by the mouth moreover a profession [of faith] is made leading to being saved." "Saved" here means entry into the Church, as Victorinus was doing. It does not mean the Protestant "infallible salvation", by taking Christ once as your Savior. There is no such concept in Scripture at all. If there were infallible salvation for that, St. Paul would surely have it, and would not say he had to chastise his body and bring it into subjection, so that when he had preached to others, he might not be rejected himself: 1 Cor 9:27.

drachma is put back -- echoes Lk 15:8.

8.4 be fragrant and sweet, let us love and run -- echo of Canticle of Canticles 1:2-3.

least of the Apostles -- because he had persecuted the Church. He did it in good faith, thinking he was pleasing God. Yet God wants the objective order rebalanced even for unwitting violations. Cf. Leviticus chapter 4. Cf. the comments on "with a perfect hate" in the notes on 5.8, and notes on hidden faults in 1.5.

pride being conquered -- perhaps an illusion to the words of Anchises, father of Aeneas, spoken to Aeneas in the underworld in Vergil's Aeneid 6.851-53:You, O Roman, remember to rule peoples."These will be your arts, to impose the way of peace, to spare those who are subject, and to beat down the proud in war."Aeneas is seeing preexistent souls of Romans. At the time of writing A had considered as possible the preexistence of souls.

provincial -- Sergius Paulus, governor of Cyprus, became a common soldier of Christ, being a Roman consul (Acts 13:12). A often calls laymen provincials, and clerics soldiers, e. g, in Sermon 351.5.

Paul as a mark of so great a victory -- Roman generals after a great victory got an adjectival form of the name of the conquered nation as part of their name, e.g., Scipio Africanus. A speculates how it is that Saul starts to be called Paul at this point in the Acts of the Apostles. Actually, Jews commonly had two names since Romans would find it hard to pronounce some Semitic names. But in his work On the Spirit and the Letter 7.12 he speculates Saul took the name Paul for humility, to show himself little.

8.5. eager to imitate him - A is moved by the example of Victorinus, feels self pulled to be converted too. Later in this section he admits: :For now it was certain"-- all his intellectual difficulties against the faith were gone - but his immorality was not gone.

Emperor Julian - Julian (361-63) returned to paganism, forbade Christians to teach literature. The Classics were sacred books to Julian, and so he felt they should not be expounded by unbelievers in paganism, who might even contaminate them with the Gospel. He also wanted to degrade Christianity by cutting it off from literary culture. Julian wrote a work Against the Galileans. St. Cyril of Alexandria wrote an Apology against Julian. Julian claimed Christianity was a debased Judaism. AS a result, Apollinaris and his father rewrote much of Scripture in classical forms, making comedies, tragedies, epics, and even Platonic dialogues out of Gospel material.

I feared to be loosed - In 8.7 he said that long before that he had even asked chastity of God and said:"Give me chastity and continence, but not now.

I was delighted with your law according to the inner man Resembles Romans 7: 22-23. That passage is often misunderstood. If it meant that he saw what was right, but could not do it, it would be total corruption, as Luther claimed. Really, it is a focused passage We mean this, that St. Paul has two ways of looking at the law, focused and factual. In the focused view it is as if one is looking through a tubs, and so sees only what is inside the circle made by the tube: the law lets one know what morality calls for, but gives no strength - in such a perspective, fall is inevitable. In the factual view we would add: In no relation to the law, grace was offered even before Christ: if one used it, the fall need not happen. Romans 7:7-24 is entirely a focused picture. Chapter 8 is a focused picture that is different: the regime of Christ, which as such, cannot do anything but save.

if that can be given by teaching - Cf. On Christian Doctrine 4.3.4 and Cicero, On the Orator 1.32.146. Both point out that teaching alone cannot make a man eloquent, much ability is also needed.

Verecundus - he let A use his villa at Cassiciacum before baptism.

Anthony - (c. 250-356), spent 20 years in solitude in the Egyptian desert, then gathered disciples and founded settlements which are regarded as the beginnings of monasticism. There is a life of him attributed to St. Athanasius - authorship is debated.

monasteries of which we knew nothing... at Milan - even though A lived at Milan he did not know of these- so an argument from silence is weak.

Trier - also called Treves, in those times it was Augusta Trevirorum. From the time of Diocletian the Emperor often used it as capital of the western part of the empire. St. Athanasius spent his first exile there. This incident probably happened under Emperor Gratian (375-83) who resided chiefly at Trier.

poor in spirit - In Enarrationes in Psalmos 73.24: "Who are the poor in spirit? The humble, who fear the words of God, who confess their sins, who do not presume on their own merits or their own justice." The original Scriptural word was the anawim, the poor who did not have lands or power and were humiliated. After the Babylonian Captivity it came to mean the poor who trusted in God. Ascetic writers use the word to stand for those who are detached from earthly things (in the sense explained above in 3.1 in commenting on Mt 6:21).

a book in which was written the life of Anthony - Since St. Athanasius was in exile in Trier, it may well be his work.

special agents - they seem to have been couriers, commissariat officers and secret police. Cf. Code of Justinian 12.20-23.

friends of the Emperor - title for persons of senatorial or equestrian rank who formed the immediate entourage of the Emperor, and were called into council by him on official matters. Special agents could rise to this.

they take wing - Cf. Plato, Phaedrus 259: "Ten thousand years must elapse before the soul of each one can return to the place from whence she came, for she cannot grow her wings in less;only the soul of a philosopher, guileless and true, or the soul of a lover, who is not devoid of philosophy, may acquire wings in the third of the recurring periods of a thousand years." Cf. the framework for this in notes on 3.1 above. Also ibid: "He who loves the beautiful is called a lover because he partakes of it "[the Idea of Beauty].

8.8. all my bones cried out - cf. Psalm 35.10, as A read it: "All my bones swill say: Lord, who is like to you?"

one does not reach that point by ship or on foot - a clear echo of PLotinus, Enneads 1.6.8: "Let us flee to the fatherland. We have a fatherland from whence we came, and the father is there. . we do not go [there] on foot or on horseback, or in any sea-conveyance.

not only to go, but also to arrive... was nothing other than to will - He did not fully will to go. He notes that in things where the will commands the body, the body will obey if it is physically able but why does the will not obey itself? It does not really fully command, does not really fully will yet. - He was struggling trying to make a decision to become chaste.

8.9. the hiding places of the penalties of man - Actually this should refer to both the effects of original sin, and of long habits of personal sin. A exaggerated the effects of original sin, most probably - Luther thought A meant total corruption. Probably he did not mean that. But he is apt to have meant a damage to our minds and wills taking them down farther than would have been the case with Adam if God had given him only basic humanity without added gifts. Pope John Paul II in General Audience of Oct 8, 1986: "It is human nature so fallen, stripped of the grace that clothed it, injured in its own natural powers and subjected to the dominion of death that is transmitted to all men, and it is in this sense that every man is born in sin... . However, according to the Church's

teaching, it is a case of a relative and not an absolute deterioration, not intrinsic to the human faculties... . not of a loss of their essential capacities even in relation to the knowledge and love of God" [underlines added]. So when it is said that our mind is darkened and will weakened, it is true only in this relative sense: Human nature without anything extra would have many drives, each good in themselves, but yet each going after its own object blindly, with no concern for the other drives or the whole person. God had given Adam and Eve a coordinating gift (often called Gift of Integrity) to make it easy to keep them all in their proper places. Without the coordinating gift, the drives would tend to rebel, and so the struggle and emotion tends to cloud the mind and pull at the will. Before the fall, Adam was naked, but it did not bother him. After it, when God called, he said he hid himself because he was naked - the sex drive had begun to rebel against reason, due to the loss of the coordinating gift. - Cf. also comments above on A's notion of the congruous call in the second note on 3.11.

8.11. thin chain - he means it should not take much to break it and turn to God - but yet that little was holding him. In a very different context, St. John of the Cross, in A scent of Mt. Carmel 1.11.4 asks us to imagine a bird tied to the ground by a thin cord. He says it makes no difference if the cord is thin or thick - the bird can fly only so far up as the cord permits. He means that an attachment to anything even a small thing sets a limit to the spiritual growth of a soul. A of course means the cord of mortal sin, but the idea is similar.

severe mercy - fine oxymoron!

the worse - compare Ovid, Metamorphoses 1.20 (Medea is speaking: "I see the better and approve of it - I follow the worse.

vanity of vanities - cf. Qoheleth (Ecclesiastes) 1.2: "Vanity of vanities, says the preacher, vanity of vanities, and all is vanity."

8.12. not in rioting -- from Romans 13.13-14.

rule of faith - recalls the earlier vision of his Mother.

turned her grief into joy - Psalm 30:12. The measure of her grief was also the measure of her rejoicing.

9.1. where was my free will? -- again an echo of the problem we dwelt on in a note to 3.11.

9.2. harvest holidays - about this time an edict of Theodosius and Valentinian fixed the vacations for imperial tribunals, and probably also for schools. The vintage vacation was for two months: Aug 22 to Oct 15. Cf. Code of Theodosius 2.8.19.

song of the steps -- There are several "gradual" psalms. A probably means here Ps 120:1-4, This Psalm is probably one of the "pilgrim psalms" (120-34) sung by people going to Jerusalem for the great annual feasts. Also possible they were sung by Levites on the 15 steps from the court of women to the court of Israelites in the temple. Could also have been for the returning exiles.

9.4. Cassiciacum - A villa owned by his friend Verecundus where he went for a sort of retreat before baptism, with his mother, Navigius his brother, cousins and some former pupils and Adeodatus his illegitimate son, and Alypius.

Once there was a debate: was he converted in the fall of 386 to Christianity or Neoplatonism -- the works written then were thought to point to Neoplatonism. The claim is generally abandoned today. In this passage he speaks disdainfully of these works as "panting of the school of pride:" He is right about that, he was still proud, very literary, thought blessedness could be had in the present life: Soliloquies 1.7.14.

There are four works, seemingly taken down in shorthand: cf. Against Academics 1.1.4. The works are: 1)Against the Academics; 2)On the Blessed Life; 3)On Order (providence); 4)Soliloquies (on the qualifications needed for pursuit of knowledge; immortality of the soul).

Letters -- Epistles 1, 2, 3, 4 -- to Hermogenianus, Zenobius and two to Nebridius.

bringing low the mountains - echo of Isaiah 40:4:"Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill brought low."

Latin Salvator -- Alypius thought such a word improper in Latin-a misguided notion -- resulted in a very small vocabulary for Latin at that period. In our selections from the City of God, A used only about 2500 words -- a factory man in US today uses 5 to 10 thousand.

cedars --refers to the cedars of Lebanon as a sign of lofty pride. Cf. Psalm 29:5: "The Lord will break the cedars of Lebanon."

pride of the human race - he uses Greek typhum, meaning smoke. Pride darkens a man's mind. Cf. Enarrationes in Ps 18.1.4.

sacraments - here used broadly- it took until 12th century to settle on our present precise meaning for the word.

faith did not let me b e at east over past sins -- did he fail to see that perfect contrition can remit sin even before baptism? Cf. the case of Valentinian II, who was assassinated in Gaul at age 20, while St. Ambrose was on the way to baptize him. St. Ambrose in a sermon on him said: "If martyrs are washed in their own blood, his devotedness and intention washed him."

9.6. when time came for me to give in my name -- near end of Lent, the catechumens gave their names and came for catechesis. In 387 Lent began on March 10. At Milan before baptism he wrote On the Immortality of the Soul.

walking barefoot on the icy soil - this was a strenuous instance of mortification for reparation of sins, and to help tame the disordered appetites within us. Cf. 3.1 for the framework in notes there.

On the Teacher - A dialogue with Adeodatus, written in Thagaste in 389. In his Retractations (a review, not nearly all was retracting things) 1.12 he said: "In it we find there is no teacher to teach men knowledge except God, according to that which is written in the Gospel : One is your teacher, Christ." This was Mt 23.10. This is the much debated Illumination theory of Augustine. What he means is debated: (1)The Divine Word is the giver of forms to the intellect, it supplies intelligible species or forms to the mind on the occasion of sensation (this view came from the followers of the Arab commentator on Aristotle, Avicenna); (2) all intelligibles are known 'in God' through an immediate vision of God Himself; (3)the Thomistic view:illumination is the creation of the human mind with its ability to confer intelligibility upon the contents of sensation; (4)view of St. Bonaventure: A was not concerned primarily with the origin of ideas in man, but with the validity of our judgments and the regulating authority under which our minds act." Cf. Teselle 105, or Vernon Bourke, Augustine's Quest of Wisdom pp. 116-17.

quickly did you take his life - Adeodatus went back to Thagaste, joined the monastic community of his father, including Alypius, and Evodius. Adeodatus probably died in 389 or 390.

concern for past life left us - even though sins can be remitted before Baptism by perfect contrition, which is not too difficult, yet there is greater assurance with the sacrament, and further, Baptism removes all liability to temporal punishment for sins committed before Baptism.

9.10. the Selfsame -- this is from a fanciful interpretation by A of Psalm 4.9, in the Latin: "In pace in idipsum dormiam et requiescam, quoniam tu, Domine, singulariter in spe constituisti me" That

would mean, as A saw it:"I will sleep and rest in the One who is always the same [God], for you, Lord have singularly put me in peace." the true sense is debated. Possibilities: "at once" or "both". He speaks more on this in Confessions 9.4.11.

we walked step by step - in our meditation, we went from one step to another from physical nature, higher and higher by steps, up to the thought of God. This is a Neoplatonic path to enlightenment. Wordsworth gives a similar thought:

... in such strength

of usurpation, when the light of sense

goes out, but with a flash that has revealed

the invisible world, doth greatness make above... .

Our destiny, our being's heart and home

is with infinitude and only there.

Is this really infused contemplation? Definitely no, though some commentators think it is the same as what St. John of the Cross and St. Bonaventure describe. Real infused contemplation does not come by human effort at the time it arrives (cf. on this Wm. Most, Our Father's Plan, chapters 21 & 22). Still less is it like the ascent in Plato, Symposium - which begins with the foulness of homosexual feelings, rises to contemplate the Idea (in Plato's sense) of Beauty. Plato's thought there, though put in the mouth of Socrates, is really Plato himself. Socrates himself avoided homosexuality ( cf. his refusal of homosexual acts with Alcibiades as reported near the end of the Symposium), and instead said the one who seeks for truth must have as little as possible to do with the things of the body. Cf. comments on "soul cast itself outside of me" in notes on 3.1. Cf. Teselle 113 -- thinks A means to claim an immediate vision of God such as Plotinus claimed in Enneads 1.6.7 - but not the same as what medieval theologians would call infused contemplation.

to have been and to be are not found in it... it is eternal - this means that in God there is no past, and no future - He possesses all at once, simultaneously. This is much like the concept of eternity given by Boethius, very unlike that of Aristotle, for whom eternity is simply time with no beginning and no end, including constant change.

first fruits of the spirit - echo of Romans 8.23. We now, if in the state of grace, have the Holy Spirit dwelling within us -- in heaven that will also be true, but then we shall know Him directly.

where a word has a beginning and an end - contrast with the eternal Word, without beginning or end, without change. Compare Wisdom 7:27.

if for any man there grew silent... - a close echo of Plotinus Enneads 5.1.2: "Let there be silent for it [the soul]

not only the body that surrounds it or the wave of the body, but also everything that is about. Let the earth be silent, let the sea and the air and the heaven itself, still better, be silent."

passed beyond itself, not thinking of itself - Cf. Enneads 3.8.9: "It is necessary that the mind, as much as is possible, go behind [itself] and as much as is possible, leave itself... if it wills to see that being." this reminds os\us of the words of Dionysius (on p. 2 of these notes) that God is best known by "Unknowing".

riddle of a likeness: echo of 2 Cor 13:12: "We know God now darkly, through a glass."

when will this be? - A wonders if most souls that are just can reach the vision of God even before the general resurrection ("when we shall all rise"). Many in the patristic age thought only martyrs could have that vision before the resurrection: St. Justin, Dialogue 5; St. Irenaeus, Against Heresies 5.31.2, Tertullian On the Soul 55.3, Lactantius, Institutes 7.21, Aphraates, Demonstration 8.20, St. Cyril of Alexandria, Against the Anthropomorphites 15 - and Augustine himself in Retractations 1.13.2.

became cheap -- when one realizes, the things of this life seem worth nothing compared to eternal things. Cf. St. Paul, Philippians 3:7-8.

9.12. we did not think it proper - There is really a tendency to Stoicism in A's attitude on her death. He seems to say, in effect: we should not weep, for she has gone to a better world. But he did not notice that Jesus Himself allowed Himself to weep at the tomb of Lazarus, not a relative, just a good friend. Jesus wanted to teach us that we should not be Stoics.

A tendency to Stoicism appears in some other saints, e.g., Clement of Alexandria speaks of Jesus as apathes, without feelings (Stromata 6.9.71.2). St. Hilary of Poitiers (On the Trinity 10.23) spoke similarly.

And in saying she went to a better world, A ignores what he knows, that there is a purgatory, as we read in Enchiridion 69: "That there should be some such fire even after this life is not incredible, and it can be inquired into and either be discovered or left hidden whether some of the faithful may be saved, some more slowly, and some more quickly in the greater or lesser degrees in which they loved the good things [of this world] that perish - through a certain purgatorial fire. Cf. also ibid. 109. In City of God 18.3. he explains Mt 12:32 as referring to purgatory.

And in 9.13 he will ask prayers for her soul - written 10-15 years after her death!

He shows a more balanced attitude later, in Epistle 263.2. Cf. also Sermones 173.2.2.: "The human heart is capable of not grieving over a deceased dear one, but it is better, when it grieves, that the human heart be healed, than that by not grieving it becomes inhuman.

unfeigned faith - an echo of 1 Tim 1.5.

sacrifice of our ransom - The Mass. We gather it was the custom at Rome to offer Mass at the graveside. The Council of Carthage in 397 in canon 29 provides that if the mourners are not fasting, there is to be no Mass, only prayers -- seems to reflect a strict rule on Eucharistic fast, and a feeling all must communicate.

Her remains rested at Ostia until 1430 when Pope Martin V caused them to be moved to Rome and placed in the church of St. Augustine. Today, under the high altar of the church of San Pietro in Ciel d'Oro in Pavia is a silver casket which many believe contain the remains of St. Augustine. Cf. Bourke, p. 298.

Ambrose - Before him, St. Hilary of Poitiers tried, without success, to introduce hymns into the western liturgy - they were too classical. St. Ambrose did succeed, and his hymns were very popular, so that there are many today under his name , which may be by admirers of his. Eastern liturgy had hymns from the beginning. The west felt a bit guilty about dealing with any of the forms of classical literature, which they had abandoned.

9.13. dies in Adam -- echoes 1 Cor 15:22.

I do not dare to say that ever since her baptism -- seems imply she never went to Confession. That sacrament, for the most part at least, was used for the great sins (murder, adultery, apostasy), which she would not have committed. Yet there is evidence the sacrament was used for some other kinds of serious sins: cf. Shepherd of Hermas, Mandate 4.1; Tertullian, On Penance 4; On Modesty

18.8; 19.24-26; 18.3; 19.24-26. St. Cyprian Epistle 10; On the Lapsed 28;Origen, On Leviticus 15; On Psalm 37.6. Homily 2; St. Gregory of Nyssa, Epistula Canonica. There is also a bit of evidence for the existence of a private use of the Sacrament of Penance, cf. Tertullian, On Penance 3-4, and Paul F . Palmer,"Jean Morin and the Problem of Private Penance" in Theological Studies 6 (1945). pp. 319-51, and 7 (1946) pp. 281-303. (Public penance did not mean public confession- but the penance performed was public, and so long and difficult, so all would know the person had done something serious. The church in that age understood more than today the need of a lot of penance for sin, and the need especially of a lot in cases were someone might have become hard, such as apostasy - needed to induce real change of heart. But it did not see the possible use of the Sacrament for spiritual growth, as some see the fact today. There is a gradual growth, over the centuries, of the Church's deepening understanding of the deposit of faith).

without mercy - If we recall the need for rebalance of the objective order, as illustrated by Paul VI and Simeon ben Eleazar (in note on "with perfect hate" at 5.12) we can see that if a person has ever committed just one mortal sin, he can never by his own power, even with a lifetime of penance, rebalance the scales -- so without the mercy paid for by the sufferings of Jesus and His Mother, there could be no forgiveness, for as the words of consecration at Mass recall,"it will be shed for all, so that sins may be forgiven." God is losing money, as it were, on practically all. Cf. A's Enarrationes in Psalmos 129.3:"If there were not propitiation with you, if you willed to be merely a judge, and did not will to be merciful, you would observe all our iniquities, and would seek them out- who could sustain it?

whoever recounts to you his own merits - cf. Epistle 194.5.19: "When God crowns our merits, He crowns nothing other than His own gifts."

those who glory -- from 2 Cor 10.17. There are two levels. On the fundamental level, where we consider what good we have produced by ourselves, and have not received it from God - we have nothing at all. Cf. the quote above from Epistle 194, also and 1 Cor 4.7:

"What have you that you have not received." So on that level we deserve no esteem at all, in fact, less, for by sin we have sunk still lower. But on the secondary level, where we consider what we have as gifts of God - we are magnificent: adopted children of God, sharing in the divine nature. Any earthly dignity compared to this is nothing.

she forgave debts - the correct word in the Our Father should be:"forgive us our debts". Sin is a debt, which the Holiness of God wants to have paid. Cf. again the first note on 5.12 above.

do not enter into judgment - echo of Psalm 143.2.

let mercy be exalted - echo of James 2:13: "Judgment without mercy to him who has not done mercy; mercy however superexalts judgment". Cf. also Wisdom 6:5: "Terribly and quickly shall He come against you, because judgement is severe for the exalted. The lowly can be pardoned out of mercy , but the mighty shall be mightily tested." [speaking to kings].

you will have mercy - A. does not recognize the context. This is from Romans 9:16 where the word mercy has a different sense, namely the special favor of full membership in the People of God. God gives that without regard to merits. Most likely He considers those who need more, and gives them more.

Cf. OFP, pp. 112-16.

the handwriting - cf. Col. 2:14: "Destroying the handwriting that was against us, He took it out of the midst and affixed it to the cross."The price of redemption rebalanced the objective order. Cf. again the matter of the first note on 5.12

lion and dragon - cf. Psalm 91:13: You will walk on the asp and the viper, you will trample the lion and the dragon." A. comments (On John 1.1):"the lion, referring to open anger, the dragon, referring to hidden snares."

owing nothing, paid for us - again, the concept of the redemption as the rebalance of the objective order. A sinner takes from one pan of the scales what he has no right to - to rebalance, Jesus who owed nothing, gave up much more than all sinners had taken.

might gain him for you - the conversion of her husband. Cf. 1 Peter 3:21: "Similarly, let wives be subject to their husbands, so those who do not believe the Word, may be gained through the way of living of the women without a word." There is an interesting play on the sense of word here - it could mean the divine Word, or could mean preaching, or it could mean words from the wife urging conversion. The general sense is clear: the wife has better hope by her way of life than from much urging of conversion. On the relation of husband and wife , Pius XI, in his Encyclical on marriage, has the proper picture, of course: "This order includes both the primacy of the husband in relation to the wife and children, and the ready and willing obedience, as the

Apostle commands [here the Pope cites Ephesians 5:22-23]. This obedience does not deny or take away the freedom which fully belongs to the woman, both in view of her dignity as a human person,

and in view of her most noble position as wife and mother and companion. Nor does it direct her to obey every request of her husband, if not in harmony with right reason, or with the dignity due to a wife, nor, finally, does it imply the wife should be on a level with those who are legally minors."

the Catholic mother... eternal Jerusalem - cf. Enarrationes in Psalmos 149.5:"But the true Sion and the true Jerusalem... is eternal in the heavens, which is our mother. She begot us, she is the Church of the holy ones; she nourished us, partly being in pilgrimage, partly remaining in heaven."

pilgrimage - Cf. Hebrews 13:14:"We have not here a lasting city, but we look for one to come.": Cf. also First Epistle of Clement 1: "The Church of God which is in exile in Rome, to the Church of God in exile in Corinth".

"II. City of God"

Introduction: In 410 AD Alaric and the Goths took and sacked Rome. It was the first time in nearly a thousand years (since 390 BC). It was a shock to both pagans and Christians who considered the city eternal. St. Jerome wrote, Epistle 60. 17: "We sense that God has long been offended, and we do not appease Him. By our sins the barbarians are strong, by our vices the Roman army is overcome...."

Pagans were a minority by this time, but they raised the cry: This could not have happened had the old gods been worshipped rightly. Emperor Gratian in 382 had been the first Emperor to refuse to accept the insignia of the pagan Pontifex Maximus, and he withdrew financial assistance to pagan cults, and removed the statue of Victory from the Senate. A year before, Theodosius in the East had forbidden divination. In 392 Theodosius officially closed pagan temples, and in the next year, forbade even private worship of pagan gods.

Charges for calamities against Christians were nothing new, as we see, for example, in Cyprian To Demetrianus (251/52), and in Minucius Felix, Tertullian and St. Ambrose. At the instance of his friend Marcellinus, A undertook the first part of this work. But even before finishing the first book, if not before starting, A realized that more than an ad hoc answer was needed. In 1. 35 we meet a promise to write,"about the rise and course and due ends" of the two cities. He saw a foundation must be laid for a completely new way of looking at the history of the world. So in 413-26 he wrote this work. Some think it his greatest. It did have immense influence in the East for a thousand years.

In 11. 1 A says that the inspiration for the two cities came from Scripture. Yet some claimed he was imitating Plato's Republic. But that cannot be, for Plato's plan is an unrealized ideal, and further, a plan for an earthly city, with its goal in this world, while the City of God has its goal only in the world to come. Nor does Plato have two cities.

Nor can we compare it to Manicheism - the kingdom of darkness is evil by nature, while the earthly city is not evil by nature, but by a love that treats things as an end in themselves.

In general, each city includes both men and angels, good and bad. Yet there is a problem, which A seems never to have faced, namely: are the members of the City of God the same as the members of the Church? or the predestined? In 16. 2 he speaks of "His Church, which is the City of God." Yet in 18. 33 A recognized that the pagan Sibyl was a member of the City of God, and so was Job (18. 47).

The plan of the work is very orderly - unusual for Augustine. There are two large divisions:

I. books 1-10 answer pagan charges. 1-5 say the gods are no good for this life; 6-10 say they are no good for the future life.

II. The Two Cities:

a) Their origins: 11-14

b) The course through history : 15-18

c) Their final ends: 19-22

1. 3 Horace. This is a quite from his Epistles 1. 2. 69-70.

Juno - She was hostile to the Trojans because Paris, son of Priam, King of Troy, had refused to throw the decision to her in a beauty contest. We note the amorality of pagan gods. She never got over her anger. After the fall of Troy, several shiploads of refugees set out, under the leadership of Anchises, father of Aeneas, and later of Aeneas. Juno got the king of the winds to wreck the ships near Carthage, then being built. Aeneas went to Carthage, fell for Dido. , leader of the colony. But later, because he knew the fates called - and he was always, pius, devoted or dutiful - he moved on to Italy. Dido built a funeral pyre, lit it, jumped in as his ships were sailing out. The Aeneid was a glorification of the eternal destiny of Rome.

Panthus - From Virgil 2. 319-21. The scene is the burning of Troy, taken by means of the wooden horse trick. Panthus was a priest of Apollo at Troy, son of Othrys.

Troy - From Virgil 2. 292, spoken by the spirit of the great warrior Hector (who had run around the walls of the city three times, pursued by Achilles, who killed him). The spirit of Hector gives the sacred statues to Aeneas - they need protection, are not able to give any!

not good divinities -- a play on Latin numina bona... omina mala -not good divinities, but a bad forecast.

conquered under conquered defenders - fine argumentation, by focusing of ideas, putting key words close for contrast.

perversity of their morals -- In Livy 23. 45 Marcellus exhorts his men: "Even those who face you have lost their sap in luxury and Campanian vice - worn out by a winter of drinking and whoring and every other excess." Tacitus, Histories 2. 69 said that strength was corrupted by luxury, in contrast to ancient discipline and the precepts of our ancestors, with whom Rome stood better by manliness than by money. Polybius 6. 57 said that when a state gets rich and powerful,"the manner of life of its citizens will get to be more extravagant and... the competition for office... will become more fierce than it should be. And... this state of things... will turn out to be the beginning of deterioration."

even such men were spared because of Christ - they took refuge in Christian churches, and the invaders recognized the right of sanctuary there.

1. 8. causes His sun to rise - Mt 5. 45.

scorning the riches - Romans 2. 4 ff.

render to each according to his works - this is Romans 2. 6. citing Psalm 62. 12. The background is covenant. If we ask why God gives good things under covenant, the most basic reason is only mercy (parallel to justification by faith, without earning it); on the secondary level, i.e., given the fact that He freely made a covenant, i f humans fulfill the condition, He owes it to Himself to reward them.

He wanted these temporal goods and evils to be common - A is speculating on the motives of God, and the far-reaching scope of His providence, as he did in Confessions.

great difference how one uses - A is giving the right attitude: things of this world are not of much account, as we see since even the bad get them. So let us use them to get eternal goods.

wicked man is punished by this sort of failure - the very weakness that lets him be corrupted by success (his attachment) is what makes him vulnerable to be punished by losing such things. We recall Confessions 1. 12: every disordered soul is its only punishment.

if at the present time He punished every sin -- again the careful figuring of motives of Providence.

this service would make them greedy. Cf. St. Francis de Sales commenting on the danger of loving the consolations of God rather than the God of consolations.

2. 4 - the theme of this book is that the gods gave no moral guidance.

true God rightly neglected -- not totally, but yet the forces of nature take their course - a disordered soul is its only penalty. Cf. Romans 1. 21 ff:"For although they knew God, they did not honor Him as God, or give thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their senseless minds were darkened... . Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to dishonor their bodies among themselves." This the downward spiral. Cf. Isaiah 29. 14.

help their worshippers to live well by some laws -- God gives commands not because obedience helps Him, but for two reasons: 1)He loves what is objectively good - and that says creatures should obey the Creator; 2)He wants to give good to us, His commands tell us how to be open and able to receive, and at same time, steer us away from the evils that are found in the very nature of things. Cf. 1 Cor 6. 12.

took care of the sacred rites of their gods - Romans were scrupulous in their observance. If an omen came, the priests were infallible in telling how to avert it. If it did not work, they must not have done the rites precisely enough.

threaten penalties... promise rewards - the general Roman religion did not include sanctions by the gods for most things. Jupiter was a big adulterer and a liar. There was a large disconnection of religion and morality, and the gods were thought to be amoral.

2. 7. Romans not original in philosophy. Thus their best ethics, the De officiis of Cicero was largely borrowed from Greek Panaetius. Cf. De officiis 1. 2. 6 and Epistle to Atticus 12. 52. 3, speaking of his philosophical works: "They are copies... I only add words, and I have plenty of them." Seneca

was just a Stoic, Lucretius a copier of Democritus and the Epicureans etc. Cicero was really an eclectic.

Greece a Roman province - in 146 B.C. Greece was made a protectorate under the governor of Macedonia. Augustus set up Greece as the senatorial province of Achaia (there is some debate - this is most probable opinion).

discoveries of men - Stoic ethics were no too bad, based on the four cardinal virtues. Aristotle's was weak: he lacked the right basis, trying to use the (golden) mean.

in the nature of things - What was right or wrong by nature, in natural law. Aristotle in Ethics 2. 6 said there are some things that are always wrong: murder, theft, adultery. Cf. Romans 2:14-16.

in the rules of reasoning - rules of logic, especially as found in Aristotle's logic.

divinely helped - There are two modes of divine help: 1)ordinary in which human faculties are rather active under divine movement, that of the First Cause; 2) in which human faculties do little and God does most of it while the human is largely passive - in inspiration, natural or supernatural.

resisted their pride - Cf. 1 Peter 5:5: "God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble." This is a favorite theme with A. Cf. Sermo 69. 1. 2: "Think first of the foundation, humility - the greater will be the building, the more deeply one digs the foundation. Cf. also below 14. 13.

rising from humility to the heights - A likes this paradox, but it is true.

divine honors for such men - Greeks and Romans did divinize men, but not in the sense of considering them transcendent beings.

Galli castrate themselves - Rhea, mother of Jupiter, Neptune and other gods, was worshipped in horrid rites under various names, especially Cybele and the Great Mother. Her priests at Rome were called Galli, named after the stream Gallus in Phyrgia whose waters were said to make men mad.

Persius - a satirist 34-62 AD. This is satire 3. 37. Cato was Censor (234-149). Many pagans worried about the examples of the gods: Aristophanes, Clouds 1082: "You, a mortal, how could you be greater than a god?" Theocritus Idylls 8. 59-60; Menander Hero, Fragment 2, W. Jaeger, Paideia II. 212 ff.

2. 21. what is left? - quotes from Cicero's De re publica on various forms of government. About 1/3 is now extant. This is from Book 5.

Ennius - 239-169 BC, father of Latin hexameter epic, quoted by Cicero earlier in the same book.

2. 22 most learned authors - A is thinking especially of Cicero, just quoted, and Sallust, to be cited in 3. 17 below. Rome declined in morals at the end of 2nd Punic War, and went down faster in middle of 2nd century.

games... ludi - the word is ambiguous, but even things like track meets were considered religious.

Gracchi -- Tiberius and Gaius, tribunes 133 and 123-21. Killed as a result of senate's opposition to their agrarian reforms, and their excesses.

Marius, Cinna, Carbo - Marius in the war against Jugurtha schemed to get command for himself and did, became consul for 107, and the Tribal Assembly appointed him, encroaching on the Senate. Marius almost gave up draftees, took volunteers with no property qualifications, made large promises of extra land and money, on his own. So the army was mostly loyal to him.

His quaestor was Sulla, from a decayed patrician family. Sulla risked his life to go to Bocchus, king of Mauretania, father in law of Jugurtha, and got him to betray Jugurtha. This ended the war. Marius returned in triumph in 105, found he had been elected consul in his absence.

Marius not got command from the Assembly for war against the Cimbri, who had defeated old type armies. Was elected consul 104, 103, 102, 101. Beat the Cimbri.

Then to get consulship for 6th time he allied with Saturninus and Glaucia (a tribune and a praetor). All won. S. & G put through a repeat of some of the worse features of the Gracchi. Senate tried to block, got tribunes to veto. Saturninus used violence - veterans of Marius. Marius was alarmed and broke with S & G. They ran for tribune and consul for 99. G had his chief rival murdered. Public opinion was aroused, senate asked Marius to restore order. S & G were put in a public building to keep safe, but enemies tore off the roof and stoned them. Marius went into political eclipse.

Sulla elected consul for 88 and got command against Mithridates. Marius was 68, schemed to get the command for himself. Equestrians backed him, and a tribune, Sulpicius Rufus. A reign of terror followed. After Sulla left for the East, the Assembly gave the command to Marius. Sulla denied the legality of the act, marched on Rome, both Sulpicius and Marius were outlawed. Marius escaped to

Mauretania, but soon returned to Italy, where Cinna , consul for 87, had taken up arms against the Sullan party. Cinna had been driven out of Rome but entered it with Marius. Marius and Cinna named selves consuls for 86 without an election. On 18th day of his term, Marius died of pleurisy at age 71.

In 85 war in the East was over, and Sulla planned to return. Cinna and Carbo were consuls of 85, and raised an army to oppose him, and illegally prolonged their term for 84. The army mutinied at Brundisium in spring of 83. Pompey joined Sulla. Civil war came. Sulla won in 82, held very bloody proscriptions. About 4700 were murdered. Murder and confiscation all over Italy. So Sulla settled 150, 000 veterans on land. Sulla made dictator for unlimited term late in 82. Many laws passed: Tribunes lost right to initiate laws in assembly, veto was limited. Sulla resigned in 79, died in 78.

Sallust - In his Jugurtha 95 and Catiline 11.

Virgil, Aeneid 2. 351-52. Spoken by Aeneas, seeing Troy is going to fall.

burned by Gauls - traditional date is 390, probably really 387. All but the Capitoline was taken geese aroused Manlius at approach of Gauls at night and he saved Capitoline.

solemnity to geese - Sacred geese were still kept at Cicero's time, at public expense: cf. his Pro Roscio Amerino 20, 56-57.

great authors - Cicero especially, and also Sallust.

3. 1. gods gave no help against physical evils.

the only evils they are unwilling to endure - they did not mind moral evils, objected to physical evils.

3. 17. Sallust says - this is a fragment from book 1 of his lost Histories. this is high moralizing-- odd from a man twice charged with extortion. And yet he is right in what he says here.

another truer state - he has in mind the City of God - there are two cities.

Where were they? - repeated many times, like a refrain, very effective device.

consul Valerius - according to Livy 3. 15-18 he was consul in 460 BC with Gaius Claudius, was killed while defending the temple of Jupiter against an army of about 2500 exiles and slaves led by the Sabine Appius Herdonius. Then the gods were still worshipped!

best and greatest king - echo of the words Jupiter optimus maximus.

legates to return - Livy 3. 31-32 says legates were sent to

Athens to study Greek laws. Most scholars now reject or doubt the tale. It is believed the laws, at least largely native, were codified about middle of 5th century BC. Further, Rome showed great talent for laws, Athens was the reverse. Polybius 6. 44:"The Athenian populace is always more or less like a ship without commander."

Spurius Maelius - during a famine, middle of 5th century BC, he brought grain from Etruria and either gave it away or sold it cheap. Was accused of wanting to be king, told to appear before the aged Dictator Quintius Cincinnatus. He refused. Servilius, Magister Equitum, slew him in the forum. Details of this as also of Spurius Cassius and Marcus Manlius are traditional and cannot be checked. For sure, there was social unrest and fear of kings. Probably the substance is true. Cf. Livy 4. 1215.

Veii - a town not far from Rome. War for nearly 11 years starting in 402 (traditional date is 407). Then for first time pay was given to soldiers.

Furius Camillus - Tradition says he conquered the Veii, Fidenates and Faliscans, was charged with unfair distribution of booty of Veii, forced into exile, but recalled to defeat the Gauls when they sacked Rome in 387.

3. 30. civil wars --worst probably was that of Caesar and Pompey, father in law vs son in law, in 4948 BC. A is probably thinking of Lucan 1. 1-2, which he had quoted in 3. 12:

"We sing of wars through the Emathian (Thessalian) fields, that were more than civil wars, and right given to crime."

Marius & Sulla - see notes above on 2. 22.

Sertorius - He had served under Marius against the Teutons. Later in 88 fought on side or Marius and Cinna. In 83 went to Spain, defeated Sulla's general Paccianus. Was assassinated in 72 BC.

Catiline -- formed a conspiracy to take over Rome in 62, fell in battle against Anthony in 62. Cicero gained fame for exposing the conspiracy. Sertorius was proscribed by Sulla - Catiline nourished.

Lepidus - consul in 78BC. Urged repeal of many of laws of Sulla. In next year fought against Catulus the other consul, no success. Was defeated in battle by Catulus and Pompey in 77, fled to Sardinia where he died.

Pompey and Caesar -- war in 49-48 BC. Pompey lost, fled to Egypt, killed while trying to land there.

he did not have the same - Pompey was already famous when Caesar was just beginning his rise. Sulla said (in Plutarch, Life of Caesar) there was many a Marius in young Caesar.

Civil wars of Augustus - After death of Caesar, civil wars between on one side, Octavian, later called Augustus, Anthony and Lepidus, on other side, Brutus and Cassius. Octavius was made Caesar's heir at age 18, with no experience. He got the advice of Cicero, paid Caesar's bequests with his own money.

Octavian met Anthony and Lepidus, they agreed in 43 to make a Second Triumvirate, giving selves supreme powers, declaring proscriptions - including Cicero.

Octavian and Anthony beat Cassius and Brutus at Philippi in 42. Anthony claimed the East, fought the Parthians in 40-38, married Cleopatra in 33. Lepidus got Africa, but was soon forced into retirement.

Octavian got Italy, Gaul, Spain. Fought the friends of Anthony and Sextus Pompey, defeated all. He won the people by professing republican principles. Persuaded senate to declare war on Cleopatra by publishing a will attributed to Anthony in which Anthony left the East to Cleopatra and their heirs.

Octavian beat Anthony and Cleopatra at Actium in 31. They fled to Alexandria, committed suicide. Octavian took Egypt, went back to Rome in 29.

clement - Caesar famed for his clemency. He forgave even bitter enemies. At the final battle of Pharsalus he shouted to his men: "Spare your fellow Romans" and then allowed them to save one enemy soldier each, whoever he might be. Suetonius ( Julius 75) says not a single Pompeian was killed at Pharsalus once the fighting had ended, except Afranius and Faustus and young Lucius Caesar. It is though that not even these three were killed at his instance. Eventually towards the

end of his career, Caesar invited back to Italy all exiles whom he had not yet pardoned, permitting them to hold high office. He went so far as to restore the statues of Sulla and Pompey which the city crowds had thrown down and smashed.

other Caesar - Octavian, who was made Caesar's heir.

4. 3. temple of Janus - It was almost always open, closed only in time of peace. Tradition said it was closed in time of King Numa, then in 235 BC end of First Punic War, in 31 BC, 25 BC and one unknown date, by Augustus.

4. 28. Stage plays depicted misdeeds of the gods.

would have given so great a gift to the Greeks - Romans let the gods be insulted, but forbade citizens to be so treated in the plays. Greeks allowed citizens to be attacked (up[ to about end of 5th century BC). Gods, at least the greater ones, did not appear on the Greek stage.

stage actors not disgraced - in Greece, to be in a play was a religious act. But Romans put some civil disabilities on actors.

4. 33. order of time - God is not in time. Cf. 11. 6.

in servitude - pagans believed in fates to whom even Jupiter was subject. In Virgil, Aeneid 10. 46973 Pallas in battle against Turnus prays to Hercules. But Jupiter explains he cannot help: "Under the high walls of Troy, so many sons of gods fell; in fact, along with them fell Sarpedon, my offspring. His fates call Turnus, and he has come to the end of the time assigned him". Cf. also Aeneid 1. 18 on Juno favoring Carthage.

spiritual men even then understood - he means that some reinterpreted the material promises of Sinai in a more spiritual sense as time went on. Most scholars now think Jews did not know of retribution in future life until 2nd century B.C. Then it appears in Wisdom 3. 1 "The souls of the just are in the hand of God." Also 4. 7: "The just man though he die early shall be at rest."

There is a strong tendency to say to say Jews up to that time did not believe in survival after death. But this is error, for they firmly held to necromancy. Argument rests on claim the Jews held a unitary view of man, and that nefesh does not mean soul. But they saw two things: 1)Man seems to be a unit; 2)there is survival, as shown by belief in necromancy. They held both, did not know how to put these two together until 2nd cent. B.C.

4. 34 as the waves came back on themselves - there seem to be two images in Exodus. 14. 21 speaks of the Lord driving the sea back by a strong east wind all night, and made the sea dry land but in v 29 there was a wall of water. The writer probably had two traditions, did not know which was true, so stated both, but did not affirm both. (Cf. concept of literary genre here).

if they had not sinned against Him - In 1 Kings 9. 6-9 God tells Solomon after the building of the temple: "But if you turn aside from following me, you or your children, and do not keep my commandments and my statues which I have given you, but go and serve other gods and worship them, I will then cut off Israel from the land that I have given them; and the house that I have consecrated for my name I will cast out of my sight, and Israel will become a proverb among all people. And this house will become a mass of ruins: everyone who passes by will be surprised and will whisper, and they will say: Why has the Lord done in this way to this land and this house? They will reply: Because the forsook the Lord their God who brought their ancestors out of the land of Egypt and took other gods, and worshiped them and served them; therefore the Lord has brought all this evil upon them." Cf. also Dt. 29:22-29 and Jer 22:5-9.

5. 1. force of the position of the stars - astrology. A once believed in it. In Confessions 7. 6. 8-10 we learn that it was at Milan that he got rid of it. Vindicianus, a wise old physician in Carthage had tried to get A away from it. But in Milan Firminus, a well educated man, consulted A on the outcome of some business, and seemed to expect A to use astrology. The father of Firminus made a test when Firminus was born. He observed that one of his servants had a child at the very time, and so by astrology, the two children should have had the same fate. But in time, Firminus became rich and in honor while the slave boy continued in his low state. A repudiated his belief in astrology from that day onward.

what does this opinion bring about... ? if the stars run all, why pray to any god?

5. 12. greedy for praise... from Sallust, Catiline 7. A means that God wanted to reward Roman virtues, which were great up to 265 BC but they were all vitiated by pride. So He could not give them a supernatural reward, but gave them an empire. Pride can counterfeit all virtues, even humility. Cf Mt 6. 6:"They have received their reward."

from the beginning there were injustices - a long struggle was needed for plebeians to get civil rights, until 287 BC, the Lex Hortensia. - But A does not understand compartment psychology. The ancient Romans were indeed very virtuous in general, but unjust to the lower class. Yet they were

unaware of that, it seems, for it is not rare for a person to have two areas in life, in each of which he follows different principles. And, as said, their virtues were vitiated by pride.

secession - Livy 2. 32-33 says the plebeians seceded to the Mons Sacer in 494, returned only when they had gained creation of two tribunes. Diodorus 11. 68 gives a different account - four tribunes in 471 BC. Modern scholars are more inclined to believe Diodorus.

only as long as - Tradition said Tarquin the Proud, the last king, was cast out by about 509, and a war with Etruscans and Veii followed, ending with the battle of Lake Regillus c. 484 BC. We can probably accept the general substance of the tradition: Livy 1. 60 to 2. 20.

second Punic war - 218-201 BC. Stages in struggle for rights: 1) tribunes, at time of secession.

2) Terentilius Harsa, tribune in 462, threatened to limit the imperium (power) of consuls. In 454 a commission was sent to Greece to study law. On return a board of 10 set up in 451 wrote 10 tables of Laws. In 450 another commission, began to rule harshly. Plebeians seceded again, the board of 10 was abolished. Valerius and Horatius were consuls in 449. The story is suspicious on most points. But laws had not been written and the formulae of legal actions were still the secret of the patricians. There were Law of Twelve Tables all right. 3)Valero-Horatian laws of 449 condemned anyone aiming at establishing a magistracy not restricted by appeal. Tribunes and aediles became sacrosanct. Livy claims (3. 55) that a resolution of the Council of the Plebeians was made binding on all. But it is unclear, for Livy says the same thing was enacted in 339 and in 287 - could have fallen into disuse in between by patrician resistance, or there may have been restrictions before 287.

4) The Canuleian Law legalized marriage of a patrician and a plebeian.

5) In 444 it was proposed to open the consulate to plebeians. Tradition says the senate then abolished office of consul, substituted Tribunes of Soldiers with Consular Power - but it is obscure, hard to know what to believe.

6) In 421 quaestors were raised to four and opened to plebeians, but the first plebeian got it in 409.

7) In 376 Licinius and Sextius, tribunes, proposed restoring consulate and making one a plebeian. A struggle for 10 years follows. In 367 the Sextio-Licianian laws opened consulate to plebs. First really got it in 366.

8) A plebeian became dictator in 356 and censor in 351. 9)Publilian Laws of 339 provided one censor must be plebeian - and the patrum auctoritas (meaning is vague, approval of some aristocrats) must be given in advance to laws proposed by a magistrate in the Centuriate Assembly, and plebiscites were binding on all.

10) At least by the Hortensian Law of 287 all Assemblies were free of the patrum auctoritas.

no one is born - a play on words in Latin: nullus oritur, quia nullus moritur.

on pilgrimage --alludes to Hebrews 13:14: "We have not here a lasting city."

enrich the public treasury - in early Rome, private fortunes were small, public treasury rich.

5. 17. did the Romans do any harm? -- provincial administration had become very corrupt in the later republic period, improved greatly in the empire period. Italy itself began to drop to the level of the provinces under Trajan. By the time of Diocletian, Rome itself had few and small privilege.

society of citizenship -- was extended slowly at first. The Antonine Constitution of Caracalla in 212 seems to have given it to all free men.

many senators - The senatorial class in the provinces had since Constantine grown to huge dimensions... it had long ceased to have any connection with the exercise of senatorial functions. Many of its members had never seen Rome.

that the better should be the more honored -- often honor goes to the less deserving, A thinks. Even then, honor is smoke without substances. Where is Caesar now? and the crowds that cheered for him?

asylum of Romulus - Livy 1. 8 says Romulus opened Rome as a refuge for all who cared to come needed population for the new city -- free men, slaves, adventurers etc. It is not likely Romans would just invent such a story, not very wonderful ancestry!

6. 1. single duties - there was even a god for the hinge on the door (Cardo), and for the boundary of the fields (Terminus) not to menton Pavor (Fear) and Pallor (paleness).

learned men - A is thinking of Marcus Terentius Varro (116-27BC) whose ideas he refutes at length esp. in books 6-7. Varro wrote probably 74 works, total of about 620 books. Was teacher of Cicero. Only two now extant, De Re Rustica, and De Lingua Latina (parts only). A attacks his Antiquities 41,

books. The first 25 are on human affairs, the last 16 on divine affairs. Of the 16, only the last 3 are on the gods themselves. In the first of the last 3, he treats the certain gods, in the second, the uncertain gods, and last, the select gods.

Varro also spoke of 3 kinds of theology: 1)civil - official state worship; 2)mythical -- that of the poets, and 3) natural -his own sort of allegorical explanations of the stories about the gods - for intelligent people in Rome by about 100 BC stopped believing these stories, yet they were in state worship, and so Romans wanted to keep them. (In Greece belief stopped about 400 BC). This was a sort of great renewal - keep the shell, change the content.

In book 6 A shows Varro rejected mythical theology openly, and implied rejection of civil, but did not dare to speak clearly - though Seneca did. A refutes mythical and civil in book 6, and attacks natural at various points in book 6, but esp. in book 7 where he takes up each of the select gods for a devastating condemnation.

Bacchus for water... wine from Lymphs - good for a laugh in comedies, for the patrons were reversed. A uses the name Liber for Bacchus here.

daemones - we keep the word in Latin here, since English would be demons -- not what Plato really had in mind, though A charges Platonists did. The daemones are intermediates between gods and men, having a fine body, and a soul. Much about them in books, 8, 9, 10.

life... vine - a play on words in Latin: vitam... vitem.

eternal life -Romans did not pray to them for eternal life. But A is making the point here that just as in books 1-5 they were seen to be useless for this life, so they are even more useless for eternal life.

6. 2. Cicero... one eager for words -- a dig. In Confessions 3. 4. 7, as we saw, A spoke of "a book of a certain Cicero, whose tongue almost all admire, but not so his heart." Yet the book A had, Hortensius, influenced A greatly. A here is being a bit mean.

6. 10. urban theology - same as civil. Mythical is same as theatrical.

Seneca - c 4BC to c 65 AD. A moderate Stoic, often quoted by the Fathers of the Church, since he has many maxims quite Christian. St. Paul at Corinth (Acts 18. 12) was brought before Gallio, brother of Seneca, fared well. Some thought Gallio told Seneca and S became Christian -- so

someone faked (or did it as a school exercise) letters between St. Paul and Seneca. St. Jerome mentions the letters in On Illustrious Men 12.

writings... way of life - he could write against false gods, but dared not refuse to worship them.

gods above and below moon -- later Platonists said the daemones were above and below moon.

a god without a body - Plato said, rightly, that God has no body, cf. Laws 897 C where God is called "the best soul." Plato may also have identified God with the Idea of Good. Cf. W. Jaeger, Paideia II. p. 285.

without a soul - Strato of Lampsacus was head of the Peripatetic school 287-69. Taught a gross materialism - no spiritual beings at all - probably inspired by atomism of Democritus. Cf. Copleston, History of Philosophy I. 425-26.

Titus Tatius - Legend made him king of the Sabines, who shared royal power with Romulus. Cf. Cicero, Republic 2. 7. 13.

Tullus Hostilius - legendary 3rd king of Rome. Livy 1. 27 says he vowed temples to Pavor (fear) and Pallor (paleness) in battle against Albans when he was frightened. Worshipped as causing fear and paleness in the enemy.

sewer goddess... Cluacina. Tatius found a statue of a goddess in the sewer (cloaca) and, not knowing its name, called it Cluacina. Livy (1. 38) claims a sewer was built by Tarquinius after the time of Titus Tatius. A probably got the story from Lactantius Institutes 1. 20: "Tatius consecrated an image of Cloacina, which had been found in the great sewer." The whole chapter has much on odd Roman divinities.

woodpecker -Picus was son of Saturn, grandfather of Latinus, changed by Circe into a woodpecker, a prophetic divinity.

Tiberinus - the river god.

7, 3. select gods - in the last book of Antiquities, Varro listed twenty select gods: Janus, Jupiter, Saturn, Genius, Mercury, Apollo, Mars, Vulcan, Neptune, Sol, Orcus, Liber, Tellus, Ceres, Juno, Luna, Diana, Minerva, Venus and Vesta.

A shows they were selected:

not for outstanding assignments, but because better known.

not for nobility, but by chance - but, Fortune was left out.

not for virtue, not for rational happiness - Venus was selected, Virtue was not.

not because more seek the item: Minerva( craftsmanship) was selected, but not Pecunia (money).

not selected by wise men - virtue not selected, Venus was.

not by the mob - Pecunia (money) not selected.

Fortune had bad fortune- no reason at all for the selections.

Sallust - in Catiline 8.

7. 4. Janus - god of beginnings and endings -- so made with 2 or even 4 faces.

Saturn fleeing - Saturn had eaten most of the gods. Jupiter was away. When he got back, he made Saturn disgorge them, and expelled him. Cf. Virgil 8. 319-58. There was an old tradition that there were remains of an old city on the Janiculum, and also on the Capitoline (Saturnia). Cf. Varro, De lingua Latina 5. 7. 42 and Ovid, Fasti 1. 235-46.

facey -Latin is frontosior. A seems to have coined it for a joke here.

7. 17. authority of ancestors - The tendency then was to think that what was older is better. Today we have the opposite. Both are wrong - one should check everything. Cf. Tatian, To the Greeks 29 saying he happened on "certain barbaric [not Greek] writings too old to be compared with the opinions of the Greeks.", i.e., better because older.

Xenophanes of Colophon - flourished in the 2nd half of 6th century BC. Has been considered - prob. not rightly - as founder of Eleatic school of pantheistic monism. He taught all things are matters of opinion. What he said was just opinion which was like to the truth. He also worried about bad affects on morals of examples of the gods: cf. comments on Persius in note on 2. 7.

8. 5. Plato -On his world of Ideas, see note on Confessions 3. 1. A as it were baptized the notion by turning it into the world of exemplary causes in the mind of God, that is, before God creates, He has in his mind an idea of what He wills - then He says; Let it be. For A's views, see his On diverse

Questions 83. 46 1-2 and City of God 7. 28 and 19. 3. Also his work On the true religion 36. 66. In On Genesis literally 2. 6. 10 - 7. 15 he has three states: (1)the Idea of the thing in the Word of God; (2)the knowledge the angels have of the thing, (3)its finite actuality.

In his Retractations 1. 1. 4 he said: "The praise by which I extolled Plato or the Platonics or the Academic philosophers, so much that it was not right to do for impious men - this rightly displeases me." This is rather harsh to call them impious. Plato's idea of God was very close to ours, except that He was not a Creator. In Plato's Theatetus 176 we read: "Therefore we should fly away from earth to heaven as soon as we can; and to fly away is to become like God, so far as it is possible; and to become like Him is to become holy, just and wise... . God is never in any way unrighteous, He is perfect righteousness; and he of us who is most righteous is most like Him." With A's harsh words contrast St. Justin Martyr, Apology 1. 46:"We have been taught that Christ is the first born of God, and we have declared that He is the Divine Word, of whom every race of man were partakers, and those who lived according to the Word are Christians, even though they have been thought to be atheists, as among the Greeks, Socrates and Heraclitus and men like them."

Plato probably held that the Idea of Good is God. Cf. Republic 7. 2317:"The Idea of Good appears last of all, and is seen only with effort. When it is seen, it is also inferred to be the universal author of all things beautiful and right, the parent of light and of the Lord of Light in this visible world, and the immediate source of reason and truth in the intellectual world."

participation - this is the really Platonic way of expressing our relation to God and the Ideas.

8. 10. two kinds of philosphers - the Italic seem to mean the Pythagoreans. The Ionic: Thales, Anaximander , Anaximenes, Diogenes, Anaxagoras, Archelaus, Socrates and Plato.

according to the elements of this world - from Colossians 1. 8. The elements could be either spirit powers spoken of by Gnostics and Jewish apocalyptic speculators or prechristian religion.

for what is known -- from Romans 1. 19-20: "For what is known about God is manifest to them. For God has manifested to them. For His invisibly things, from the creation of the world are seen, being understood by those things that have been made, as also His eternal power and divinity, so that they [atheists] are inexcusable."

since, knowing God... From Romans 2. 21-23.

8. 14. living things - A is here following the usage of Apuleius, De Deo Socratis . Apuleius was a noted rhetorician and Platonist of the 2nd cent. AD. Worked elements of Platonism into old pagan polytheism.

daemones - Plato himself uses the word in two different senses: (1)created gods to whom tasks on earth are assigned by the Supreme God. (2)Spirits of deceased men of the Golden Class (a meaning fond in Hesiod). A tends to identify the daemones of Apuleius with devils: cf. 9. 19. A is not sure if they have bodies or not: 21. 10. The Fathers in general are not in agreement on the question of bodies for devils or angels. St. Justin, Apol. 2. 5:Then angels transgressed this appointment and were captivated by love of women and begot children who are those that are called demons." And his Dialogue 57:"It is evident to us that they have food in the heavens... for concerning the sustenance of manna... Scripture says that they ate angels' food." (Alluding to Ps. 78. 25.

gods are superior to men and daemones - Plato believed in one Supreme God, then gods (who have bodies: Timaeus 41), then daemones, then humans. Plato thought even the stars were rational and divine: Timaeus 40.

immortality of body - he means daemones. As to the gods, plato said in Timaeus 41 that the Supreme God addressed them and said they could die, having a body, but he would not permit it. After that, he told them to fashion the mortal bodies of men and of lower animals, saying that he himself would furnish the immortal principle, the soul. He then made souls, put one into each star, revealed their future life on the planets when they would have mortal bodies. Those who live well will return to the original star; those who live badly will take a lower form at their next birth.

prohibiting - Cf. Plato, Republic at start of book ten, 595:"All poetical imitations are ruinous to the way hearers understand, and the knowledge of their real nature is the only remedy for them." Reason: This world is a poor imitation of the world of Ideas, and the poetical imitations imitate a poor imitation: Republic 597-98: "the imitator... is far form the truth." He seemed to soften this view in Laws II. 653-59.

8. 15. snakes... said to put off - we notice that A does not flatly accept the legend.

8. 16. A here is giving a critique of a passage form Apuleius, De Deo Socratis 13: "Daemones are living beings as to genus, as to mind, they are rational, as to soul, they are passive, as to body, they are aerial, as to time, eternal. Of these five things that I have mentioned, three are the same with us, the fourth is proper to them, the last one they have in common with the immortal gods.

But they differ from the immortal gods in passion. Hence I have not absurdly called them passive, because they are subject to the same disturbances of soul as we are. - In this way he would explain the adulteries of Jupiter.

The "god of Socrates" is mentioned in Plato, Apology 31: "You have heard me tell at various times and places of an oracle or sign which comes to me, and is the divinity that Meletus ridicules in his indictment. This sign, which is a sort of voice, first began to come to me when I was a child; it always forbids, but never commands me to do anything which I am going to do. This is what keep me from being a politician."

8. 18. no god associates with men-- From Plato, Symposium 203. Apuleius had quoted this line of Plato in his On the god of Socrates 4. Cf. Aristotle, Ethics 8. 7: "It is true that we cannot fix a precise limit in such cases [of distance between friends], up to which two men can still be friends;the gap may go on widening and the friendship still remain. But when one becomes very remote, as the god is remote from man, friendship can continue no longer." No wonder St. Paul said in 1 Cor 1. 23 that Christ crucified was nonsense to the Greeks, and a scandal to the Jews. The very incarnation was shocking - and worse, that He accepted such a death. Dt. 21. 23 says any one who died on the wood is cursed. Cf. Gal 3. 13: Christ became a curse for us.

they -Apuleius-- perhaps A has not read this part of Plato.

a thousand arts of doing harm. In Aeneid 7. 337-38 Juno speaks to Allecto the Fury, to incite her against the Trojans: "You have a thousand names, a thousand arts for doing harm." Juno is still angry that her bribe was rejected.

we have against them Plato -- cf. comment on prohibiting above.

his words - Apuleius, On the God of Socrates, cap. 12.

the poets - Apuleius in cap 11 had given a few examples: Minerva in Iliad aiding the Greeks against Achilles, and Juturna in Aeneid aiding her brother.

9. 3. gods, daemones - a loose usage. More commonly there are four levels in Plato's thought:Supreme God, created gods, daemones, humans.

lower parts of their souls - A did not believe in quantitative parts of souls, but did distinguish several levels of operation of the soul. Cf. De quantitate animae 33. 70-76 (PL 32. 1073-77).

inveterate in evil and incurable - this makes clear A equates them with devils. Because of the clarity of intellect (not hindered by union with a material brain) angels cannot reconsider and change. So the devils are fixed in evil.

9. 15. not weakening - R. Bultmann, New Testament and Mythology, p. 11:"The kenosis of the preexistent Son (Phil 2. 6ff) is incompatible with the miracle narratives as proof of his messianic claims.". Bultmann is in sad error:God cannot stop being God. But Jesus gave up the use of divine privileges for His own comfort, but would use them for others, in healings etc.

cannot be mediators -- Only Jesus has both divine and human natures and so by that is mediator. But this does not exclude the use of secondary mediators, whose very ability to act comes from the necessary Mediator. Cf. Summa 3. 26. 1. The principle of I. 19. 5. c -- that God in His love of order wills to have one thing in place to serve as a reason or title for giving a second thing, even though the title does not move Him -shows that in love of good order God can be pleased to multiply titles for His gifts to us. Within that framework, in the objective redemption (work of once for all earning title to all forgiveness and grace) He is pleased to add the title generated by Blessed Mother - this is taught by 17 texts from Popes and Vatican II. Within subjective redemption (work of giving out all forgiveness and grace) He is pleased to again employ her, plus all the other Saints. --All these things are the effect of His love of good order, and His love of us (making titles richer for us).

He destroyed those proud immortals - not in sense of ending their being or stopping their use of their natural powers altogether, but in that He rebalanced the objective order damaged by sin, to make possible the grant of forgiveness and grace within good order (cf. Rom 3. 31).

9. 19. Cornelius Labeo. Prob. late 3d century. Disputed if he was a Neoplatonist. He surely knew the lore of pagan religion (cf. DCD 2. 11) and considered Plato a semigod (2. 14). Disputed whether or not Labeo himself engaged in antiChristian polemic. In calling him a demon worshipper A need not mean Labeo intended to worship satan as such - which many do today - but that as a matter of fact the demons are behind idol worship and honor to daemones: cf. 1 Cor. 10. 20.

prefer to call them daemones - Greek daemon does not have the bad connotation of English demon -- hence our reason for keeping the Greek word. On the existence of angels: (1)In early OT texts e.g., Judges 6. 11-24 we see an alternation between God and the messenger of God speaking. So someone could suspect the latter phrase was only a literary variation. (2)But in later OT and all NT they are clearly separate supernatural beings - though it took time for Fathers to learn they have no bodies. We should understand Scripture as the first readers would have done, and so we know there

are angels. (3)Vatican II, Lumen gentium 12 says that if the whole Church has ever accepted something as revealed, the belief is infallible. Pius XII in Humani generis: DS 3891 teaches their existence.

you have a demon - Jews used these words to insult Christ: Mt 11. 18; Jn 8. 48.

9. 23 - remote from human contact -- cf. note on 8. 18. Plato, Symposium 203: "No god associates with men."

10. 7. by whose participation - a sharing in the divine nature, expressed by the Platonic word participation. In his commentary on the Epistle of John, A says (Epistola Ioannis ad Parthos 2. 2. 14):"Do you love the earth? you will be earthy. Do you love God?W hat should I say? You will be god. I do not dare to say it on my own, let us hear the Scriptures: 'I said, you are gods, and all sons of the Most High. '" The quote is Ps 82. 6 -- the "gods" are human judges, elohim. 2 Peter 1. 4. speaks of us as "sharers in the divine nature." This means that sanctifying grace is really a transformation of the soul, making is basically capable of the direct vision of God in the next life. In it there is no image -no image could represent God -- so He Himself takes the place of such an image: cf. DS 1000 and Summa Suppl. 92. 1. Premises for this are found, not developed in A On the Trinity 9. 11. 16 and Epistle 147, esp. par 53.

by whose eternity they are firm - seems to mean they share in His immutability. So heaven (or hell) does not just go on and on - rather the soul simply IS inexpressibly filled and happy, or the opposite.

whose sacrifice in 10. 19 A speaks more about sacrifice: the gift, or outward sign, which is visible, represents and expresses the interior attitude of the giver, chiefly obedience to the will of God.

glorious things - Psalm 87. 3. It speaks of the earthly Jerusalem - A mistakes it for his own concept of City of God.

in pilgrimage - the thought of Hebrews 13. 14: "We have not here a lasting city... ."

curia... care - A is guessing at etymology, and is quite wrong. Things that seem obvious are frequently false, while things that seem unrelated are often related.

he who sacrifices - Exodus 22. 19.

10. 12. theurgy - the word means "working on the gods". It really was magic, trying to compel a god. Plato had distinguished things of sense and of reason. Plotinus added a third class of things beyond reason. So magic rites seem not according to reason, but, he meant, they are beyond reason. Cf. Enneads 4. 4. 40-44,

to adhere to Him... only beatific good - cf. Plato Theatetus 176, cited in notes on 8. 1 above.

marvels through angels - A thinks that God does not do miracles directly, but through angels. Cf. Book III of On the Trinity.

those who say --that God does not work visible miracles - this means Apuleius and other Platonists, who say the supreme and even the inferior gods have no contact with human affairs. Daemones serve as mediators and do miracles. Cf. Apuleius On the god of Socrates 7 and Plotinus, Enneads 2. 5. 6.

miracles of visible natures have become commonplace -Cf. On John 6. 1: "Because His miracles by which He rules the whole world had become commonplace by constant experience... He reserved to Himself certain things which He would do at suitable times, beyond the usual course and order of nature, so that they for whom the daily things had become commonplace might be amazed in seeing not greater but unusual things." We see that he wiped out the line between the ordinary and the extraordinary. He did this also when he said in Sermo 142. 1. 1: "That so many men, who were not, are born daily, is a greater miracle than that a few rose [from the dead] who had existed [before]. It is true, greater power is seen in the former than in the latter. But the former is done in accord with natural laws, the latter is done beyond them. He similarly erased the line between ordinary and extraordinary in regard to graces: Cf. W. Most, New Answers to Old Questions p. 227. These things drove him to deny the universal salvific will of God. Cf. ibid 227-31.

man is a greater miracle -A had trouble explaining how man is a unity of soul and body - arising from Plato's concept of man as a soul imprisoned in a body. Thus in On the morals of the Church 1. 27. 52:"Man then, as he appears to man, is a rational soul using a mortal and earthly body." But in On the Trinity 5. 7. 11: "Man is a rational substance consisting of soul and body." On the problem of how the body can affect the soul, so that the soul knows what goes on in the body: De quantitate animae 23. 41: "What happens to the body does not escape the notice of the soul."

when He moves things in time He is not moved - God's decrees are eternal, and He does not change in making them. Yet He can order things to take place at a certain point on the time scale.

10. 16. lacking this but endowed with any other goods - Cf. Enneads 1. 6. 7:"The one who attains this [vision of God] is blessed, seeing a blessed vision; but he is unfortunate really who does not attain it. For not the one who fails to attain money or beautiful bodies or power or rule or a kingdom, but [he who fails to attain] this one thing is unfortunate."

theurgists or rather, destruction-workers - a play on words: theurgi vel potius periurgi.

by reason - by noting who are guilty of pride -the worst vice of all.

10. 19, they who think -- this is a result of the idea that no god associated with men and that daemones are mediators. Cf. Apuleius On the dogma of Plato 23: "We say that the wise man is the follower and imitator of God". Also Porphyry, Epistle to Marcella 19:"Neither tears nor prayers move God. Nor do sacrifices honor God... but a godly mind... is joined to God." These lines of Apuleius and Porphyry are true, but they forget that what A is going to say in a moment: that external sacrifices are a sign of interior dispositions and even promote them.

these things... are signified by The OT major prophets spoke against empty externalism. Hosea 6. 6:"It is obedience to the covenant [hesed] that I desire, more than sacrifice." Amos 5. 5 and 21 ff: "I hate, I despise your feasts and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and cereal offerings, I will not accept them, and the peace offerings of your fatted beasts I will not look upon... But let justice [ mishpat] roll down like waters and righteousness [sedaqah] like an overflowing stream." Isa 29. 13: "This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me."

the higher powers - A seems to mean choirs of angels. Cf. his To Orosius 11. 14. Many have thought St. Paul in Col. 1. 16 and Eph 1. 21 etc. spoke of choirs of angels - really, Paul was using the words of his opponents, and he thinks the powers are evil spirits.

examples in the holy letters . Extremely loose reference! Cf. Judges 13. 16 and Apoc. 22. 8-9.

Paul and Barnabas - Acts 14. 7-17.

Porphyry - in his Letter to "Anebo, which A describes, but does not quote in 10. 11.

10. 20. the form of a slave - alludes to Phil 2. 7.

daily - local custom varied, but at some places there was daily Mass. Cf. Epistle 54. 2. 2.

sacrament -- this word did not become precise until the 12th century.

the body - the Church is the Mystical Body of Christ. On the altar He offers Himself-- that is, He presents again His obedience to the Father. Really, His obedient attitude is continuous since His death, for death makes permanent the attitude of will in which one leaves this world. So on the part of Christ, only the outward sign is multiplied in the Mass. Yet the Members of Christ are called on to join their acts of obedience since the last Mass to His (and to pledge future obedience too). Thus the members as it were get practice in obeying, and so learn to offer themselves as A says.

St. Paul teaches we are saved and made holy if and to the extent that we are members of Christ and like Hum. LG 3 said: "... by His obedience He brought about redemption." Paul VI, on Oct 5, 1966 in General Audience said: "... obedience... is first of all a penetration and acceptance of the mystery of Christ, who saved us by means of obedience. It is a continuation and imitation of this fundamental act of His: His acceptance of the will of the Father. It is an understanding of the principle which dominates the entire plan of Incarnation and Redemption. Thus obedience becomes assimilation into Christ, who is the Divine Obedient One." What a mockery when priests think they need to disobey liturgical law to make the Mass meaningful -using disobedience to celebrate His obedience!

signs of this true sacrifice - he means prefigurations, prophecies by action rather than by word. Much on this sort of thing in 16:2, 26, 32.

11. 1 City of God: Here begins the second major division, that on the two cities. A misunderstands OT many times taking what refers to the earthly Jerusalem as meaning the City of God. Cf. Psalm 87:3; 47:2, 3, 9; 46:5.

God of gods - A seems to think it means a great God over subordinate gods. But it is a Hebraism, meaning the God par excellence. Similar is king of kings, Hebrew of the Hebrews etc.

light which is common to all -- participation in Him who IS, is the source of being, full light etc. In contrast, the devils, seeking to be their own source, moved away from the real source of being, and had only "needy power", though they retained what power is natural to spirits - but no more.

pious and holy gods - using words loosely, like the Neoplatonists. Perhaps using the term as it is found in John 10: 34-35 - where the OT cited really means human judges [ elohim].

origin, course in time, due ends - this is an outline of the books to come - 4 books for each division.

mixed - like the cockle in the parable.

11. 6. time and eternity - Plato, Timaeus 37-38 had called time the image of eternity, noting that time involved change, and so has present, past, and future, while eternity has no change , and so has only present. A had read Cicero's translation of Timaeus: see DCD 13. 6. Plotinus, Enneads 3. 7, esp 7. 11 developed Plato's idea. A believes time exists only if a changeable creature exists, and eternity has no change. A metaphorically calls time a stretching of the soul ( Confessions 11. 26) extending back to take in past, forward to take in future, and so in a way unifies them, and so imitates eternity.

There is a third kind of duration, aevum of which A had at best only confused ideas. Cf. 11. 9 where he treats the creation of angels. On aevum see Summa 1. 10. 3-5. For a history of theories of time cf. New Scholasticism 21 (Jan, 1947) pp. 1-70 and J. F. Callahan, Four Views of Time in Ancient Philosophy, Cambridge Ma. 1948.

there would have been no times - Manichees asked what God did in time before He made the world: On Genesis against the Manichees 1. 2. 3. A answers there was no time before a changeable creature existed. Plotinus used arguments similar to those of the Manichees to prove the eternity of the world: Enneads 2. 1. 4. Philosophy cannot prove a beginning, since God always has the power to create. But such a world would be eternal only in a loose sense, since including change. Cf. Confessions 12. 11. 12 and Summa 1. 10. 3.

great mystery - A has a problem: if God rested after 6 days, h ow can new beings appear? See 11. 9 below.

11. 9. never away - Not that they had the beatific vision before their trial - that would make them immune to sin.

whether or in what order - Genesis does not mention creation of angels - not within its scope. A would have done better had he had the concept of aevum.

God rested -- Again, A takes it too tightly. It is just part of the framework of the literary genre of the passage, which does not mean God does not create any more. He does create each individual soul. A avoided this by the idea of rationes seminales, in last paragraph of this section.

A is not fully fundamentalistic. He knows that when God made man, He did not take clay into physical hands: Cf. Literal commentary on Genesis 6. 12. But A also notices Sirach 18. 1 which, as

A read it (close to LXX), said: "He who lives forever, created all things at once ( simul)." He held the knowledge of the angels transcends temporal succession. The angels have evening knowledge, of things in themselves, and also the knowledge of them in the vision of God, which is morning knowledge: cf. Literal Commentary on Genesis 4. 14. 41ff.

when the stars were made - Job 38. 7. A ignores the poetic genre.

whatever inhered in it radically - The notion of rationes seminales is found early in Greek philosophy - well developed in Stoics and Plotinus. In A they seem to mean powers, both active and passive, placed in inorganic matter by God. They are found in two of the four elements, earth and water. Their activity is elicited by external natural conditions, in accord with natural laws, without the need of a special act of God each time. The rationes were determined in advance by God for each species of all future beings. They are the counterparts of the ideal rationes in the mind of God. Cf. J. McKeough, The Meaning of the Rationes Seminales in Saint Augustine, Washington, 1926.

not first day, but one day - A does not know Hebrew has only one kind of numeral.

12. 1. not from different natures - that would be Manichean. Evil is only a privation of good.

pride of self -- fallen angels wanted to be the source of their own happiness.

rational or intellectual creature -humans learn things step by step - angels know things directly in the First Cause, and so need no such process. Further, their intellect is not limited by link to a material brain as ours is. Cf. Literal Commentary on Genesis 2. 18. 17-19 and 4. 32. 49.

12. 15. A indulges in a fanciful interpretation of Psalm 11(12) esp. last 2 verses, as he read them: "You Lord will keep us and guard us from this generation forever. The wicked walk in a circle: according to your depth you have multiplied the sons of men."

these circles - A probably had in mind cyclic theories. Many philosophers taught the world would not be totally destroyed, but purified. Such was the idea of Plato, Timaeus 22 - cf. Statesman 269 and Laws 677. Plato also taught a cycle of rebirths for the individual though the philosopher could eventually escape rebirth: cf. Phaedrus 247-49, Phaedo 70 ff and 114. There was also a cyclic aspect to the Platonic Great World Year, which does not seem to be in A's mind here: cf. T imaeus 38-39.

Other philosphers taught an unending cycle of destructions and restorations of the whole world. Prob. earliest is Anaximander (c. 610-545). Aristotle, On the Heavens 1. 10 279B says it was held by Empedocles and Heraclitus. It is also found in the Stoics, cf. Diogenes Laertius, Zeno 8. 137, and even in Origen, First Principles 3. 5. 3. (See note on 21. 23 "pardon to the devil").

A says the theory tries to escape the difficulty of how God, who is unchangeable , made the world in time. Cf. DCD 12, esp. caps. 12-14, 18, 21 and Confessions 11. 10. 12-14. A gave his solution in DCD 11. 6. He gives a different treatment to the Psalm in Enarrationes in Ps. 11. 8-9.

For the cyclic idea among primitives cf. Mircea Eliade, The Myth of the Eternal Return.

no eternity of liberation - cyclic theories even mean an end to heaven - all goes back to the starting line again.

12. 22. without any newness in His will - all His decisions are eternal, even if their carrying-out may be within time.

nature in between - man has a spiritual soul in common with angels, material body in common with animals.

without death - a preternatural gift. More on this in 13. 1-2.

He made her from him - John Paul II, in his audience of Nov 7, 1979 explained it thus, within the genre of "myth" [not meaning fairy tale, but an ancient story to bring out some things that really happened]: "It can be said that the language in question is a mythical one... . man ( 'adam) falls into 'sleep' in order to wake up 'male' and 'female' . ... Perhaps therefore the analogy of sleep indicates here not so much a passing from consciousness to subconsciousness, as a specific return to nonbeing... that is, to the moment preceding the creation, in order that, through God's creative initiative, solitary 'man' may emerge from it in his double unity as male and female."

13. 1. not like the angels - A believes Adam had the ability not to die (posse non mori) before the fall, while the angels had the inability of dying (non posse mori). Risen bodies at the end will have the non posse mori. Cf. DCD 22. 30. For Adam depended on the tree of life, and his body was animal, and hence in itself mortal: DCD 13. 20. An angel, even if (as A seems to think at times) he might have a body, would be immortal by the gift of God. In the background may be Plato, Timaeus 41, where the great God tells the inferior gods they will be immortal by His will, even though made up of body and soul.

13. 2. a certain kind of death - cf. DCD 19. 26: "... just as the life of the flesh is the soul, so the blessed life of man is God."

second death - The term comes from Apoc. 20. 14-15 - it means hell. First death is a)separation of soul and body; b) desertion of soul by God. Second death - punishment of soul and of risen body.

13. 4. - If anyone wonders - The Pelagians raised the difficulty, said Adam would have died even if he had not sinned. Cf. A On heresies 88.

another work -On the merits and remission of sin 2. 30. 49.

faith would be weakened - in faith we believe what we cannot see -if physical immortality followed on Baptism, we would see without doubt.

the greater ages - time of persecution.

13. 13. formerly the same Before the fall, they were naked, and also after it. But before it did not bother them - so an implication: they lost a gift that made it easy to keep the drives in proper order. This was the coordinating gift, or gift of integrity.

reciprocal penalty - the disobedience of the body is penalty for the disobedience of the soul.

flesh began to desire against the spirit - Gal 5. 17.

vitiated nature - If God had given only basic humanity, there would be in it many drives, each operating blindly and mechanically, without regard to the other drives/needs or the whole person. By sin they lost the coordinating gift mentioned above, and the gift of grace. Sin took humanity not down to total corruption, as Luther thought, but only back to where they would have been if they had only level one, basic humanity. Without the coordinating gift, emotions can tend to cloud the mind and pull on the will: hence it is said that the mind is darkened and the will weakened - but only in a relative sense. John Paul II, General Audience of Oct 8, 1966: ". . according to the Church's teaching, it is a case of a relative and not an absolute deterioration, not intrinsic to the human faculties... not of a loss of their essential capacities even in relation to the knowledge and love of God." Compare the note on 3. 11 on Confessions, on "you permitted me to roll deeper".

14. 4. lives according to man - The expression is from 1 Cor 3. 3. It means living according to merely human standards, which are not high enough. Above in 1 Cor 2. 14 St. Paul had spoken of the natural man, in contrast to the spiritual man who follows the Spirit.

A probably means living according to the Idea God has for us to conform to. Cf. On 88 Various questions q. 46. 1-2. He as it were baptized Plato's world of Ideas, changing it into the ideas in the mind of God, logically present for each thing before He ordered it to be. In so far as a creature matches this idea, it has being - to go away from it is to go away from the source of being. Cf. On the morals of the Catholic church 2. 6. 8: "Those things which tend to being tend to order. When they have attained it, they attain being itself... things that are not simple [without parts] by harmony of parts imitate unity... So whatever is corrupted, tends towards nonbeing."

stand in the truth - Scripture tends to equate truth with goodness, and sin with lie. Cf. John 8. 44 and Rom 1. 25. Things that match God's idea (explained above) are what we would call in English, "true to form".

but if the truth - Rom 3. 7 and 3. 4.

not so living as to be able to BE - cf. above on conforming to the Ideas in the mind of God, and also, Literal Commentary on Genesis 4. 12. 22: "The power of the Creator and His strength that holds everything is the cause of existence for every creature... . For it is not like the case of a builder who departs when he has built, and even though he stops and goes away his work stands --not so. The world will not be able to stand for a flick of the eye if God takes away His power from it." And also ibid. 1. 5. 10: "If it turns away from unchangeable Wisdom, it lives stupidly and miserably - that is its lack of form. For it is formed by turning to the unchangeable light of Wisdom, the Word of God. For by whom it exists in some way and lives, it is turned to Him so that it may live wisely and blessedly."

that is a lie... it is ill with us - Cf. Psalm 4. 3. Sin promises happiness, but instead, every disordered soul is its own penalty - Confessions 1. 12.

14. 9. emotions - the Stoics said reason was the only good, and so emotions cannot be tolerated, we must uproot them. They made three seeming exceptions: rational elation, rational disinclination, and rational desire . Cf. Diogenes Laertius 7. 116 and DCD 14. 8

Greek Stoics tried to be absolute about this, the Romans moderated it. Cicero, On Friendship 13. 48: "if grief occurs in the soul of the wise man - and it surely does, unless we think humanity has been uprooted from his soul.

of what sort they are going to be - There will be no sorrow, only complete joy, and the body will be fully subject to the spirit, so that the flesh will no more lust against the spirit.

they are so proud - pride can mimic all virtues, even humility, and can suppress emotions.

14. 13. self-exaltation -pride really claims to be God, for it claims to be able to produce some good by its own power alone - that would be creation. But only God can create.

You cast them down - Psalm 73. 18, as A read it: "You cast them down when they were being lifted up." Translation is debated.

especially proclaimed in its king - Cf. Mt 11. 29: "Learn from me, for I am meek and humble of Heart." Christ could have proclaimed Himself the model of any or all virtues - He specially mentioned humility, since as we saw above, on self-exaltation, pride implies a claim to be God.

as Sacred Scripture says -- Cf. Sirach 10. 13:"The beginning of all sin is pride."

like gods... they could have been that. - They already had a share in the divine nature, but cast it away by the sin of seeking what they already had! Cf. 2 Peter 1. 4.

14. 15. spiritual even in the flesh - after resurrection, the spirit will completely dominate the body: cf. 1 Cor 14. 55. Yet the body will be flesh even though St. Paul speaks of it as a spiritual body. Had he meant it was not flesh he would have had no need to write chapter 15 of 1 Cor against the Corinthians who objected to a physical resurrection, but would not mind a spiritual one.

by justice of God was given over to himself - the thought of "every disordered soul is its own penalty. Cf. Confessions 1. 12 nd Romans chapter 1.

a thing of no difficulty - in two ways: 1)the thing ordered was not heavy in itself. 2)there were no disorderly emotions, instead they had the coordinating gift.

second man -Christ. The language is from 1 Cor 15. 47 about the New Adam.

obedient unto death - cf. Phil 1. 8. In contrast, Adam was disobedient even to death!

14. 27. to each his own things - this is Cicero's definition of justice, from De officiis 1. 7. 20-21.

why should God not make use? - A's reasoning is weak and incomplete here. When God decided to create our race, He had to give free will - or it would not be the human race. That opened the door to great evils, and to great goods . Similarly in creating the angels. But God gives us a guardian angel to compensate for the difficulty from satan.

hardened - an angel cannot look back and see things differently and so repent - his mind has absolute clarity at the time of sinning, and so can never go back on it. Our spiritual intellect is limited by its link to the material brain.

if he trusted in the help of God - A believes rightly that even the ability to trust comes from God's grace, which is offered to all.

who would dare to believe it was not in God's power -implies again the idea of congruous call. Cf. note on Confessions 3. 11: "you permitted me to roll".

14. 48. two loves - Cf. Confessions 13. 9. 10:"My love is my weight, by which I am carried wherever I am carried." The idea is similar to a gravitational pull.

glories in the Lord - from 1 Cor. 10. 17. There are two levels: on the most basic level, any bit of good I am and have and do comes from God: cf. 1 Cor 4. 7:"What have you that you have not received?" Coming entirely from my own power there is only sin. But on the secondary level, where I look at what God has given me, I am an adopted son of God, sharing in the divine nature: 2 Peter 1. 4.

goods of body or soul or both - A probably has in mind the many alternatives listed in DCD 19. 4.

did not honor Him - long allusion to Rom 1. 21-23.

that God may be all in all - echo of 12 Cor 15. 28.

15. 5. first founder of an earthly city - Cain in Gen 4. 1-17 founds a city, names it for his son Enoch. A thinks of it as the type [prophecy in action rather than in words] or start of the City of the World.

in founding that city - A is accepting the legend of the founding of Rome by Romulus and Remus, as in Livy 1. 1-8 - Romulus killed Remus, yet for long the Romans called Romulus a god. Later they came to reject this: cf. Cicero, De officiis 3. 10 and Horace, Epode 7. 17-20. The traditional Roman

date was 753 BC - whatever is right that is not, for archaeology shows no such change at or near that point.

a certain poet - Lucan, Pharsalia 1. 95.

diabolical envy - To envy is to seriously wish another may lack a good, not that it may be ill with him (that would be hate) but so my good and honor may not be diminished. Differs from aemulation: wanting to have the same myself, without depriving the other.

15. 7. bad division - an external sacrifice should express interior dispositions. It seems Cain did not have the good interior, instead, wanted to use God to help himself.

He can be bought - Plato, Republic I. 364 ss tells of pagans who thought they could bind the gods to do their will - compare theurgy and magic. Cf. A. On Christian Doctrine 1. 4. 4.

15. 8. Scripture - Genesis 4. 17: Cain build a city, names it for his son Enoch. A knew the lists in Genesis were not complete, included enough to show the line of descent of the two cities. WE now know that ancient genealogies were not just family trees, but were to bring out other things: Cf. R. Wilson, in Biblical Archaeologist, Winter, 1979, 42. pp. 11-22.

and he begot - the words come frequently in Genesis, and indicate very long lives. The numbers could be symbolic. Cf. the Sumerian king lists , which give 8 kings with a total reign of 241, 200 years before the deluge, and after the flood, first dynasty of Kish had 23 kings, total 24, 510 year. J. Walton,"The Antediluvian Section of the Sumerian KIng List and Genesis 5" in Biblical Archeologist, fall, 1981, pp. 207-08 suggests perhaps a scribe got high numbers by confusing decimal and sexagesimal systems of notation.

flood - large silt layers have been found in Sumeria, but they show a local, not widespread flood:cf. J. Finegan, Light from the Ancient Past, Princeton, 1974, 2d ed. 27-36. It is not necessary to hold that the flood was universal.

15. 18 - Here A tries to show a prophetic significance of the meaning of the names of Abel, Seth and Enos as types, based on his understanding of Hebrew names: Abel =grief; Seth = resurrection; Enos = man. Various etymologies are found in antiquity. St. Jerome in his B ook on the Hebrew Names (PL 23. 817, 828, 822) gives among other meanings, those used here by A. This work of Jerome's is not highly esteemed today- but we are uncertain too.

and a son was born - Genesis 4. 16. The Vulgate does not have "hoped" but "began"."hoped" reflects the LXX.

we are saved by hope - Romans 8. 24-25."Apostle" always means St. Paul.

mystery - Latin has sacramentum - word used loosely up to 12th century for hundreds of things. Today the word is being used loosely again by many.

election of grace -- predestination to full membership in the People of God. But A and the Fathers in general confuse predestination to that and predestination to heaven.

Apostle... another prophet - St. Paul in Rom 10. 13 citing Joel 2. 32.

saved - the word has 3 meanings in Scripture: 1) rescue form temporal evils; 2) enter the Church; 3) reach heaven. The second sense is meant here. The meaning of infallible salvation used by fundamentalists has no intellectual basis at all, is not even mentioned in Kittel, Theological Dictionary of the NT, s. v. , saved, salvation.

cursed Jer 17. 5.

other city which is not dedicated in this time - A means the city of God, which has no city in this world, is on pilgrimage. He takes Cain to mean possession, and Enoch to mean dedication. Cain's city was dedicated in this world.

15. 26. Scripture says - Genesis 6. 9.

reality - Manichees said Christ did not have a real body. Cf. Against the Epistle of Manichaeus 8. 9 and Confessions 5. 9. 16. As a result the Manichees did not make much of Easter, but did of the feast of Bema, day on which Manes was really killed. They put a chair on a platform, bema, representing his teaching.

length - A tries to show the proportions are the same for the ark and for a human body.

cubits -- measure from elbow to tip of fingers- and so varies in size with individuals. In Israel was prob. about 17, 1/2 inches. The dimensions would give 450, 000 cubic cubits, a large space.

A sees the hand of God's providence in many things, in Confessions. Cf. Wisdom 8. 1: "Wisdom reaches from end to end mightily and arranges everything smoothly". And Wisdom 11. 21: "You

have arranged everything in measure and number and weight. Cf. W. Most,"The Scriptural Basis for St. Augustine's Arithmology" in CBQ 13 (1951) pp. 284-95.

16. 2. hidden - A means that the fulfillment made things clear, speaking of the prophetic blessing and curse of Noah on his sons: Genesis 9. 20-27.

from whose seed - in the line of human descent, Christ is traced to Sem and beyond:Lk 3:23-28.

named - A takes Sem to mean named (Shem).

Song of Songs - Canticle of Canticles 1. 2.

the learned son - cf. Proverbs 10. 4 according to the LXX 10. 4, not according to the Vulgate. From Qumran it seems that text of the OT was not firmly fixed at once, so that the LXX is a reliable but different text.

occasion for learning - A again is admiring Providence. Really, heresies have often been the occasion for clarifications.

16. 4. Babylon, confusion -- Genesis 11. 9 says Babylon means confusion. This was a popular etymology taking, Babel for Hebrew balal, confuse, instead of Babylonian Bab-ilu, gate of God. The writer may have made a pun to ridicule the Babylonian word. Cf. Genesis 11. 1-9.

the history of the gentiles - Pliny, Natural History 6. 30. 121; Herodotus 1. 178-83; Aristotle, Politics 3. 3. 1276a.

Nebroth - another form of Nemrod. Cf. Gen 10. 9-10.

up to the sky - cf. skyscraper. Much anthropomorphism here: God comes down. Temple towers were common in Babylonia.

frog and locust - Cf. Exodus, chapters 8 and 10 for this usage.

against the Lord Gen 10. 9. The sense is really "before the Lord" A must have used an old translation that had contra from Greek enantion - which can mean either against or before.

16. 26. son of promise -- The Mother of Isaac had been sterile, he was born by a promise of God. The son of Agar did not come by way of promise, merely natural course. So the case of Isaac stands

for grace, which is needed to bring forth children to the City of God. There are other cases of special intervention, e. g, Anna mother of Samuel and mother of John the Baptist.

16. 32. congratulated - cf. James 1. 12: "Blessed is the man who suffers temptation, for when he has been proved, he will receive the crown of life."

obey not argue -- Abraham might have pointed out God's promise that he would be father of a great nation by Isaac, and have asked which thing to do. But Abraham went ahead in strong faith, walking in the dark. A thinks Abraham expected a resurrection - possible, not necessarily so. Hebrews 11. 17-19 thinks Abraham expected resurrection, but Hebrews is homiletic genre, where some looseness is common.

your seed shall be called - line of People of God to descend through Isaac, not Ishmael: Gen 21. 1213.

Apostle... That is - Romans 9. 8.

Apostle... He did not spare -Rom 8. 32.

16. 41. Judah your brothers -A is following a text of Gen 49. 8-12 older than the Vulgate.

from germination -- A does not explain the words here, but in Against Faustus 12. 42 A uses it to stress the reality of the birth and hence of the humanity of Christ - Manichees denied reality of His body.

a prince will not be lacking... until the things come -A's translation of the last part is incorrect, as are many versions today. Unfortunately they neglect Jewish tradition especially as found in the Targums (ancient Aramaic versions of OT, mostly free, with fill-ins showing how they understood it). With the Targums we translate: "the scepter will not depart from Judah, until Shiloh comes" - that is, the Messiah. Not only the Targums but other rabbinic sources, both Midrashic and Talmudic (e.g., Genesis Rabbah 98:8 and Sanhedrin 98b) take the passage as Messianic. A major Jewish scholar today, Jacob Neusner in Messiah in Context, p. 242) said: "It is difficult to imagine how Gen 49:10 can have been read as other than a messianic prediction." Strange that Catholic scholars have trouble here when even a Jew can see it! It was fulfilled graphically - there was always some sort of leader from Judah until 41 BC when Rome imposed Herod on them, who was half Arab, half Idumean, and surely not of the tribe of Judah. Had the Jews not been so sadly unfaithful so many times, probably a fine line of Davidic kings would have come down to that time.

he will bind his colt to the vine - A does not explain this here. In Against Faustus 12. 42: "'He tied his colt to the vine' that is, His people, in sackcloth preaching and crying out: 'Do penance, for the kingdom of heaven has drawn near'. We know that the people of the Gentiles, compared to the colt of an ass, were subject to Him, and on which He also sat, leading it into Jerusalem, that is, into the vision of peace, teaching the meek his ways."

lion - Cf. Apoc 5. 5:"Behold the lion conquers, of the tribe of Judah, the root of David."

I have power - John 10. 18.

destroy this temple - John 2. 19.

and bowing - John 19. 30.

sacrament - here used in both broad and strict sense (Baptism).

inebriating chalice - from Psalm 23. 5 as A read it: "You have made my head rich with oil, and my inebriating chalice - how excellent it is."

the milk - alludes to 1 Cor 3:2: "I have give you milk to drink, not solid food... for you are still fleshy." (Corinthians were still immature).

17. 3. signs and words - A gives an extensive treatment of the rules for interpretation of Scripture in the first three books of On Christian Doctrine. In 1. 2. 2 he explains sign . It includes anything that signifies something: actions, things, persons, words.

partly-- There are three kinds of prophecies: 1) some refer to blood descendants of Abraham; 2) some refer to City of God, in heaven or on earth, 3)some refer partly to each.

A good example of the technique is in 17. 7: when a prophecy which seem to refer directly to descendants of Abraham does not fit in all respects, we see its fullness applies to the City of God.

17. 4. Saul's rejection - there were two incidents. In 1 Sam 13. 8-14 Samuel is slow in coming, Saul offers sacrifice. Samuel tells him the Lord has rejected him as king, his dynasty will not continue. In 1 Sam 15. 22-29. Samuel orders Saul to wipe out Amalek because of what they did to Israel when Israel was coming from Egypt. But Saul keeps livestock and the king, saying he will use the animals for sacrifice. Samuel says Saul is rejected:

To obey is better than sacrifice.

This might be a case of variant traditions - writer found both accounts of how Saul was rejected, did not know which to pick, let reader see both, without asserting either was true. Or, there would be a second disobedience and then a confirmation of the rejection. On variant traditions cf. W. Most, Free From All Error, chapter 15.

We note that David too sinned, and his dynasty was not rejected, but confirmed. So we distinguish the interior economy -things leading to final salvation from the external - positions and favors in the external order. In the internal, God offers graces abundantly to all, forgives readily. In the external He acts differently, for His own reasons in each case, for salvation is not at stake.

On the ban (herem): Basically it was death penalty for grave sins. As to children etc. - God's gift of life is moment to moment - He could just stop giving - or use a human agency for the same purpose.

rejection of Heli -In 1 Samuel 2. 25-36, Heli's sons had been evil, taking part of offerings before they were offered. Heli did not correct them: God punished both Heli and his sons.

Anna at first sterile - this stands for grace, as we saw above in the case of Isaac.

17. 7. A had quoted earlier in chapter 7 the prophecy of Samuel about Saul - using the LXX text, which differs from the Vulgate. Here is A's text (after Saul had disobeyed, as in 1 Sam 15):

"The Lord has torn the kingship of Israel from your hand today, and will give it to your good neighbor who is better than you, and Israel will be divided into two: and He will not change or regret, for He is not like man, t hat He should regret. Man threatens and does not keep with it."

A takes "into two" to stand for two classes of Israelites, accepting or rejecting Christ. The original prophecy referred to the division of Saul's kingdom. Yet A is right in that the definitive division did not come until later.

The handmaid and the free woman are Hagar and Sara. Cf. Gal 4. 21-31.

cast out the handmaid - Sara speaks in Genesis 21. 10.

sin of Solomon - he fell into paganism under influence of foreign wives. God told Solomon He would divide the kingdom after death of Solomon - one tribe to Rehoboam his son, ten tribes to Jeroboam

cf. 2 Kings 11. 1-13. The story of the split is in 1 Kings chapter 12: people were punished by getting a foolish king.

exile by the Chaldeans - in 587 BC Jerusalem was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar II: cf. 2 Kings 25. 1 ff. Cyrus of Persia let them return in 539. Before the Jews had been agricultural - in exile they turned to business. Many did well, did not care to return. Samaria had fallen to Sargon in 721, end of Northern Kingdom and exile.

now Hebrew people is not divided - A means that the prophecy cannot refer to Jews as a race after Christ, since they are not divided into two nations, but merely scattered. So the division is into those who do or do not adhere to Christ. This division, A says, is eternal: God will not repent. A would not deny that St. Paul foretold the conversion of Jews to Christ at the end.

17. 8. - this so great a promise --refers to 2 Sam 7. 8-16 - compare Psalm 71 (72). Nathan in 2 Sam foretold a descendant of David who was to build a temple. A notes Solomon only partly fits he built a temple -b ut was not faithful, and so it must refer to Christ. 2 Sam 7. 12 says that the descendant would come after the death of David - but Solomon began to rule before the death of David. So it could not entirely fit Solomon. Must refer to Christ.

full of foreign women - cf. 1 Kings 11. 1-10.

once wise - God had appeared to Solomon, offered any gift. S asked for wisdom: 1 Kings 3. 5-14. This did not take away his freedom, and so he could and did fall into sin.

in his own person gave a shadowy prophecy - he was a type.

Ps. 71(72) 8: - "And he will rule from sea to sea, and from the river even to the bounds of the earth."

Solomon began to reign -- the story is in 1 Kings 1. 28-40.

and it will happen - 2 Sam 7. 12.

17. 13. so great a good - peace. Alludes to the prophecy of Nathan quoted at the end of chapter 12 from 2 Sam 7. 10-11, as a read it:"And I will make a place for my people Israel, and will plant it, and it will dwell by itself. And it will not be concerned any more, and the son of iniquity will no

longer go on to humiliate it, as from the beginning, from the days in which I established judges over my people Israel."

Solomon... 40 years - 1 Kings 11. 42.

Aod --Judges 3. 30:"And the land was at rest for 80 years."

this name means "seeing God"- St. Jerome disagrees with this etymology, but mentions it since he admits many have stated it, in Book of Hebrew Names. In his Book of Hebrew Questions on Genesis 32, he says the real sense is "a prince with God." Today there is no agreement on the real etymology.

18. 22. another Babylon -- A thinks Babylon was the capital of the city of this world, and Rome was the successor. Cf. DCD 18. 2.

it pleased God - we recall DCD 5, chapters 12, 13, 16, 17: A thinks God gave an empire to Rome as a reward for natural virtues- could not give a supernatural reward, since Rome's virtues were marred by pride.

already there were strong peoples - when Rome rose, in contrast to the time when Assyria rose - A thinks opposition to Assyria was not great - cf. next note -

not much more than 1000 years passed before Ninus -- we do not know if the flood was universal, nor do we know its date . There is the further question of the literary genre of that passage in Genesis - probably historical. A is following especially St. Jerome's translation of the Chronicle of Eusebius, and Varro, esp. his On the nation of the Roman people (as we see from 18. 2 & 8). Jerome repeats the legend that the Assyrian empire was founded by Ninus, who conquered all Asia but India. That tale is found in Greek and Latin writers - the only ones to use the name Ninus. There is no trace of Ninus in the Assyrian records. Diodorus Siculus, 2. 1 tells the legend most fully, and says (2. 2. 2) he is following chiefly Ctesias, a Greek who spent 17 years at the Persian court, returning to Greece about 398 BC. Ctesias had a bad reputation in ancient times. Plutarch said he filled his books with "a great farrago of nonsense." It is probable that the name and the story of Ninus is an aetiological legend, i.e., invented to explain the name Nineveh.

Assyria had a brief period of power under Tiglath Pileser I c. 1115 - 1077. The real period of supremacy of Assyria starts under Tiglath Pileser III, 745-27, and lasted until the fall of Nineveh in 612 B.C.

18. 27. these days... the age of the prophets Osee (Hosea), Amos, Isaiah, Micah, Jonah and Joel. Hosea: 760-22; Amos fl. 760; Isaiah 740-700; Micah 740 - 687. Dates for Joel and JOnah heavily debated.

A says he learned for Scripture that the first four of these prophets belonged to the times of Kings Ozias (Uzziah), Joathan) Jotham), Achaz and Ezechias (Hezekiah) of Juda. They fill most of the 8th century, and overlap into the seventh. A found dates for Jonah and Joel in the Chronicle of Eusebius, translated by Jerome.

Assyrian kingdom failed -Nineveh fell in 612. B. c. Rome then was small and under kings.

Abraham - his date is very uncertain. Perhaps 18th century BC.

blessing of all nations - cf. Gen 12. 3.

18. 28. It will be -- Hosea (Osee) 1. 10 (Hebrew number: 2. 1). It originally referred to the restoration from the exile.

even the apostles - could be translated,"the apostles too". Cf. Romans 9. 25-30. St. Paul may be using the text loosely in rabbinic style - or is it multiple fulfillment? Cf. W. Most, Free From All Error, chapter 5.

spiritually among the sons of Abraham - cf. Rom 4. 16:

Abraham , for he is the father of us all." We are sons by imitating his faith, says St. Paul. Mere physical descent from him will not save anyone. Cf. Gal. 3. 9. A explains this in DCD 16. 23.

and the sons of Juda - Hosea 1. 11 (In Hebrew is 2. 2). A takes it to refer to the Messiah. The Targum Jonathan seems to do that too, especially in view of the Targum on 3. 5.

He will heal us after 2 days - in the original, it meant the restoration. A applies it to the resurrection of Jesus.

18. 45. temple had been restored - it was rebuilt in 520-16 BC, on a more modest scale than that of Solomon. Was razed by Herod in 20 BC, and a anew one built on the site.

great will be the glory - Haggai (Aggaeus) 2. 6. Physically it was not greater - but the coming of Christ to it made it such.

And I will move all nations - Haggai 2. 6. Before the quoted words, "Yet a little while and I will once more shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land. And I will shake all nations, and the desired one (hemdat) shall come, and I will fill this house with glory says the Lord of hosts". There is debate about the translation: desired one (Messiah) vs. desired things (treasures). Trouble comes from the fact that hemdat is singular, but its verb is plural. However, such irregularities are common enough in OT Hebrew. The singular version, referring to the Messiah, comes form Jerome, who got it from the Rabbis, who considered the line messianic. Even taking it as plural, it would seem to be messianic - the treasures of the nations will come into Jerusalem at the time of the Messiah.

Date of the prophecy was 520 BC - a little while!

had no prophets -- Some think parts of Zechariah are later than Haggai, but not much. Also a problem for Malachi and later parts of Isaiah - if one holds the view that there were three authors to Isaiah, a thing that is possible, but not proved.

merited - the word is often used loosely, almost without meaning, in patristic works. Yet it could have strict sense here -they deserved such an evil king.

Herod - by birth was half Idumean, half Arab, not from tribe of Judah.

a prince will not be lacking -- cf. the note on 16. 41 on this text.

18. 47. canon -list of inspired books.

there were men in other nations below he mentions Job . In DCD 18. 23 he mentions prophecies of the Sibyl of the last judgment and of the passion. He seems to think they would qualify here too. But the Sibylline text A knew seems to have been interpolated by Christians.

But it is important to notice: A recognizes that some are members of the city of God who did not externally belong to it. He speaks of them as men "who pertained to the true Israelites." This has a bearing on the teaching "No salvation outside the Church." On it, cf. W. Most, Our Father's Plan, appendix.

after rejection of his elder brother. - Esau was not chosen as part of the People of God, in Romans 9. A wrongly thinks it refers to eternal reprobation. On this see W. Most, New Answers to Old Questions.

from the race of Idumea -- The OT says the land of Uz. If historical, would probably be located in the borderland between Edom and Arabia. But the genre of Job is not likely to be historical.

he is so praised - cf. Job 1. 8:"Have you not considered my servant Job, that there is not another like him on the earth?"

18. 49. in this wicked age - cf. 1 John 5. 19 and Eph 5. 16. The age is wicked since it does not run on the principles of Christ.

reprobates - destined for eternal ruin.

in the net -- cf. Mt 13. 47-50.

shore - the Last Judgment.

God will be all in all - Cf. 1 Cor 15. 28.

18. 51. temples deserted - A series of restrictive laws against paganism had come, culminating in the prohibition of even private pagan worship, by Theodosius in 392 AD.

heretics in his Book on Heresies , A lists 88 heresies.

fearful discipline - A did approve of the use of force by the state against heretics who caused civil disturbances, such as the Circumcellions who were armed fanatic bands, sponsored by the Donatists, who used violence to enforce their will. Cf A's Epistle 93.

18. 54. made for itself false gods -- Many pagan authors speak of humans being made gods, e. g, Callimachus, Hymn to Zeus which alludes to the Cretan story that Zeus was a prince who was slain by a wild boar and buried in Crete. In lines 8-9: "For the Cretans even built a tomb for you, O Lord, you did not die, f or you are forever." Cf. Cicero, Tusculan Disputations 1. 12. 28 to 13. 29, especially: "If I tried to examine the old things and dig it out of those things which the Greek writers handed down, the very great gods of the nations, as they are considered, will be found to have gone from us into the sky." The idea was especially developed by Euhemerus, a Sicilian Greek, fl. c. 300 BC, in his Sacred History, early translated by Ennius into Latin.

19. 4. each of these... ultimate good and evil -= In the first 3 chapters of book 19, A explained Varro's classification from his lost work On Philosophy of 288 possible answers to the question of what is the supreme good and the supreme evil. Varro and other pagans thought the supreme goal

attainable in this life. The Stoics, Epicureans and Cynics also thought this. So did A early, esp. in his On the happy life.

just man lives by faith - Habakkuk 2. 4 and Gal. 3. 11.

even right living is not of ourselves -- it is not in our unaided power. Cf. DCD 14. 27.

pleasure... lack of disturbance - A explains in chapter 1 : "... or pleasure, by which the sense of the body is moved in an enjoyable way, or repose by which it comes about that one suffers no bodily discomfort, or both, which however, Epicurus called by the one name of pleasure."

prima naturae - The Stoics seem to have originated the term: the objects of the fundamental natural drives or instincts, as found even in an infant. The object chiefly aimed at was life and integrity of being, and things needed for this. Yet the Stoics were not clear on things. For a list, see Diogenes Laertius, Zeno 7. 104-07 which says that when an infant, a natural-born Stoics, is born, he instinctively chooses things according to nature. When reason awakens, he looks on the order and harmony resulting, and so then by reason he chooses what he did by instinct before. So virtue is not among the prima naturae , but comes in later, when teaching introduces it. The things so chosen are not good, they are indifferent, but because it is reasonable to choose them, they are relatively choiceworthy: proegmena. -- The Stoics of course were denying their own basic principles here: something indifferent is not even relatively choiceworthy. Stoics held all is indifferent except to live habitually according to reason for reason's sake. If that were true, no one could make a rational choice, which requires making a mental list of the good and bad points of various options proposed. There are no good and bad points if all is indifferent except the one thing.

Antiochus of Ascalon (died c 68 BC), the Academic whom Varro claims to follow, said the Stoics had stolen from the Academy. His doctrine was similar but he did not make virtue the only good. Cicero in his De finibus is confused on prima naturae - at times following Antiochus, at times the Stoics, at times his own ideas. A's treatment is inexact.

temperance - Cicero did not seem to think temperantia was an adequate translation for Greek sophrosyne, and so used other words with it: moderatio, modestia, frugalitas. Cf. his Tusculan Disputations 3. 8. 16.

In this section, A is working through the four cardinal virtues: prudence, justice, temperance, fortitude.

flesh desires against the spirit - Gal. 5. 17.

prudence -- it chooses the right means for carrying out acts of the other virtues.

to each his own -- a definition of justice.

the less the soul conceives God in its thought - thought of God and of eternity helps keep us straight. Please recall the note on the two spirals in Confessions 1. 4. It is a psychological principle that the more a thing fills the field of consciousness the more powerfully it attracts - advertisers use this to attract even in annoying commercials.

he is forced to kill himself - Stoics said that everything is indifferent except to live habitually according to reason for reason's sake. So it is indifferent if we are dead or alive. Cf. Cicero, De finibus 3. 18. 60: "In him in whom there are more things which are according to nature, his duty is to stay in life; but in him in whom there are or are foreseen as going to be more things contrary, his duty is to get out of life." That meant suicide. A laughs: Stoicism set out to find the supreme goal, one that would give complete satisfaction, one that a man could get without help of man or god. Now it finds that one can be so far from the goal that he should kill himself. Cato at Utica, seeing Caesar would rule the world, worked out this balance, and killed himself. Stoics considered him a sort of hero. - On the things contrary to nature or according to it, cf. note on prima naturae above on 19. 4.

wise man - The Stoics said one either did or did not live perfectly according to reason for reason's sake. If one did, he was the wise man - perfect in everything, perfect shoemaker even if he never made shoes etc. If not perfect, one was a fool -no middle ground. No Roman Stoic ever dared to say he was such. The Romans tempered the Greek rigidity, for if they did not, they would have to say their great national heroes were all fools. Cf. Cicero, De finibus 3. 7. 26: "Since then this is the goal, to live according to nature and to live fittingly, it necessarily follows that all wise men always live happily, completely, fortunately, and are hindered by nothing, are held back by nothing, lack nothing."

19. 10. their deceptions - of the devil, who even "transforms himself into an angel of light" as St. Paul said in 2 Cor 12. 14 - that is, he takes on the appearance of good to deceive souls.

evil days - see again 1 John 5. 19 and Eph 5. 16.

seems like simply misery - if one gets the right contrast of time and eternity, things of this world seem as nothing in comparison.

virtue uses well even the evils - Cf. Romans 8. 28: "For those who love God, all things work together for good." All can be used as a means of likeness to Christ, that is, all but sin.

19. 12. -no one unwilling to have peace - our wills are such that they cannot go after evil as evil, but only evil that has the appearance of good.

19. 13. well-ordered balance of parts - Cf. A's belief that a thing is or has being in so far as it is one. Cf. On the morals of the Catholic Church 2. 6. 8: "Those things that tend toward being, tend toward order. When they have attained it, they attain being itself, in so far as a creature can attain it. Things ... which are not simple, by harmony of their parts imitate unity. So whatever is corrupted, tends towards non being.

its own place again, an echo of justice, which gives to each its own. Peace is based on justice, giving right place to all.

19. 20. blessed even now, but in hope - A once thought, in On the happy life, that he could reach the blessed life even in this life. He took that view back in Retractations 1. 2.

true wisdom - a dig at the Stoics "wise man".

prudently discerns - A works in the four cardinal virtues.

20. 2 by what judgment of God - we do not know the details, of course, but we know the broad principles, from St. Paul: One is saved and made holy if and to the extent that he is a member of Christ and like Him - the more like Christ in this life, the more like Him in the next. And Romans 8. 28: "For those who love God, all things work together for good." The only thing that cannot be turned into gold for eternity is sin.

an early death - cf. Wisdom 4. 7-14: "The just man even if he dies early shall be at rest. For honorable age come not with time... . Rather, understanding is the hoary crown, and an unsullied life is the same as reaching old age. The one who pleased God was loved; he who lived among sinners was transported, taken away, so that wickedness might not pervert his mind or sully his soul. For the witchery of trifling things obscures what is right... . Having become perfect in a little

while, he reached the fullness of a long career; for his soul pleased the Lord, therefore He hastened to take him out of the midst of wickedness."

man is made like vanity - Psalm 144. 4.

judgments - Cf. Romans 11. 33: "O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How incomprehensible are His judgments, and unsearchable His ways." Paul was referring, not to predestination to heaven or hell, as some have thought, but to full membership in the people of God.

20. 7. two resurrections in DCD 20. 6 A interprets the first as the resurrection from sin, and the second as the bodily resurrection. The reign with Christ on earth is for all the time from His ascension to His return, in which the just are kings in not being slaves to sin.

ridiculous fables - false ideas of a 1000 yrs reign on earth prob. go back to Jewish rabbis, who, comparing Psalm 90. 4 ("a thousand years before your eyes are like yesterday,") with the 7th day of God's rest in Genesis, built a millennium theory. Some Christian writers, even some Fathers, fell into similar errors. Three forms: 1)Gross extreme -life would be coarse unrestrained sensual pleasure. Eusebius 3. 28 says Cerinthus, late 1st century, held this. Seems the Ebionites, Marcionites and some Apollinarians taught the same. 2)Moderate sensory pleasure - Material but not immoral pleasure. Seems held by Papias. Eusebius 7. 14 says Lactantius held it ( Institutes 7. 24). 3)Mild - Spiritual joys. Tertullian Against Marcion 3. 24; St. Irenaeus, Against Heresies 5. 32. l ( but elsewhere Irenaeus interprets the 1000 yrs in an orthodox sense): Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching; St. Justin, Dialogue 80-81; St. Methodius of Olympus, Commodianus, Victorinus of Pettau, Quintius Julius Hilarion, and Augustine himself once held it: Sermon 259. 2. There were many opponents, e.g., Origen, First Principles 2. 11. 2; Dionysius of Alexandria (Eusebius 3. 28); Jerome (On Mt. 3. 19) and Augustine.

short time - beast gets power for 42 months, 3, 1/2 years: Apoc. 13. 5. Cf. also Apoc. 11. 2: Gentiles will crush the holy city for 42 months - the witnesses will prophesy for 1260 days. 42 months was the length of the persecution of Antiochus IV. It is also a symbolic number, half of 7. cf. also Daniel 7. 25. In Apoc 12. 14 the woman flees for 3, 1/2 years. St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Catecheses 15. 12 says Antichrist will reign 3, 1/2 years.

one day like 1000 years: 2 Peter 3. 8 and Psalm 90. 4.

in the 6th 12000 - It need not follow that A thought the whole span of history was just 6000 years. Cf. Jerome's figures on time elapsed since creation in Chronicle : PL 27. 507-08. A seems to mean 6 ages of the world, a s he says in DCD 22. 30. There the ages are not 1000 years each, for A follows Jerome. He admits in 22. 30 that the length of the last age is uncertain.

the perfect number -it is 1000. In the following passage A explains why 1000 is especially fitting. He liked numbers, saw in them the hand of Providence. Cf. Wisdom 11. 21 and 8. 1. He thought rational beings can share fully in wisdom, irrational things do not, so they share in number, and number makes them approach unity. Cf. Wm. Most in CBQ 13. 1951, pp. 285-95.

20. 9. those who did not adore - Apoc. 20. 4.

wicked beast -the dragon gives the first beast great power, Apoc 13. 2. The dragon is the prince of this world (cf. Jn 12. 31) and can give power to whom he wills: cf. Lk 4. 5-6. The first beast in Apoc 13 and 17 is the Roman Empire. There is a second beast in 13. 11. It is likely that the first beast was a type of the political Antichrist, the second a type of the religious Antichrist. The second beast makes people worship the first beast - prob. refers to the cult of the Emperors of Rome. Dragon gives the 2nd beast power to work miracle.

As to 666 - there are several possibilities: It may be that if 777 stands for all good, then if we take something away at all points, it becomes 666, symbol of all evil.

A seems to make the beast the wicked city = Rome as capital of the City of this World.

cockle -- In the parable of Mt 13. 24-30; 36-43.

do not bear the yoke - cf. 2 Cor 6. 14.

20. 21. above - refers to Is 29. 19 and 66. 12-16 cited in first part of this chapter 21.

new sky and a new earth - Is 64. 17-19. Cf. Romans 8. 19-23. The world will not be destroyed at the end, but renewed and purified.

with a certain beneficial labor - A thinks God makes Scripture difficult so we may have to work more and so profit more: On Christian Doctrine 2. 6. 7-8. Pius XII, in Divino afflante Spiritu 1943, quoted A with approval: EB 563.

In addition, those who are well disposed will understand more and more, those who are wicked will become less and less apt to understand. Cf. Isaiah 29. 14.

before this point - A had been commenting on Is 66. 12-16 and now, after inserting 65. 17-19 intends to return to commenting on 66. 12-16.

21. 5. marvels - A means natural marvels. He had listed many in chapter 4 and in first part of chapter 5, before our passage. He shows caution unusual for his age. In 21. 7 he says he does not rashly believe all the wonders he has listed. In 21. 4. he reports and experiment he made to see if peacock meat was really incorruptible as reported. And he sees through the shallowness of many "scientific" explanations of his day, which are really only putting a label on something:21. 7. His chief sources are probably Pliny the Elder, Natural History , and Solinus.

a salt - found near Agrigentum, Sicily. Said to melt in fire and crackle in water - opposite to ordinary salt: Pliny 31. 41.

a fountain - Pliny 5. 5 reports one in the territory of the Garamantes, a tribe in central Africa. Lucretius 6. 840-905 tries to explain such things as this.

a stone - It is called pyritis, said to be found in Persia:Pliny 37. 73.

a stone which if once set on fire Was called Asbestos, said to be of gray-iron color, found in Arcadia:Pliny 37. 54.

the Omnipotent does things - we notice that (1) A rubs out the line between miracle and ordinary: cf. above on DCD 10. 12. (2) P. A. M Dirac, "The Evolution of the Physicist's Picture of Nature" in, Scientific American 208 (1963) 53: "It seems to be one of the fundamental features of nature that fundamental physical laws are described in terms of mathematical theory of great beauty and power, needing quite a high standard of mathematics for one to understand it... . Our feeble attempts at mathematics enable us to understand a bit of the universe." Dirac was a major physicists of this time. Cf. Science News, June 20, 1981, pp. 394-99.

21. 7. the world itself is a greater marvel - again, A tends to blur lines of miracle and ordinary.

those persons - Prob. means chiefly the Neoplatonists, who hoped eventually to be free from the body forever. Plotinus seems to accept Plato on reincarnation: Enneads 3. 4. 2. In DCD 10 we see Plotinus did hold reincarnation, but Porphyry did not.

the whole reason - A points out that what may pass for a scientific explanation may be just a description or a label, and not really explain anything. E. g. , to explain a rainbow as refraction is superficial: how and why does refraction operate?

21. 8. Venus - Cf. I. Velikovsky, Worlds in Collision (1950) who thought Venus was once an asteroid or the like, which strayed into the solar system, came close to earth, changed to a planet. His ideas were strongly rejected by scientists, but today some of them are gaining acceptance. There are, as we see below, some remarkable reports.

In Kronus 6. 1. Fall 1980 we read of Chinese observations (pp. 71-73). Besides, The Soochow Astronomical Chart (Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Press, 1945) reports an 8 centuries old inscription in stone speaks of past irregularities in the sky: "Once T'ai - P'ai [Venus] suddenly ran into Lang Hsing [Wolf Star, Sirius] though it is more than 40 degrees south of the Yellow Road [ecliptic]. Also on p. 72: "Among the Babylonian astronomical texts, the so called Dilbat tablet links the planet Venus with various fixed stars; it says that 'the Bow Star [Sirius] is Dilbat [Venus] in the month of Abu." Seems to mean Venus approached Sirius in the month of Abu.

Castor - prob. a contemporary of Varro, author of a chronological table of oriental, Greek and Roman history.

Ogyges -Pausanias 9. 5. 1 says he was a king in Boeotia (the usual story). A Scholion on Lycophron 1206 says he was king of Thebes in Egypt. Eusebius, Praeparatio Evangelica 10. 10. 7 says the deluge came in his time.

21. 10. fire of hell - A here proposes an ingenious explanation. St. Thomas accepted it, in Contra gentiles 4. 90 and in Summa Supplement 70. 3. The Church has taught that there is a penalty of sense, but has not defined its nature. A statement of the S. Congregation for Doctrine, Letter on Certain Questions Concerning Eschatology of May 17, 1979 says: "She [the Church] believes that there will be eternal punishment for the sinner, who will be deprived of the sight of God, and that this punishment will have a repercussion on the whole being of the sinner."

put within bodily members - A never solved the problem of union of soul and body. Plato spoke of man as a soul imprisoned in a body as a punishment.

21. 11. -only so long as his crime took to commit - to kill takes a quick pull of the trigger ridiculous to think punishment should last only that long.

repayment of evil -- the rebalancing of the objective order. This is different from revenge - which is willing evil to him as evil to him. Cf. note on 5. 12 of Confessions with a perfect hate.

21. 23. pardon to the devil - The views of the early Christian writer Origen are not fully clear because in controversies over his ideas, his originals were largely destroyed, and so we depend on a Latin version by Rufinus , whom we know deliberately softened some things. It is certain that Origen taught the preexistence of souls before this life: all were in one world, and according to diverse merits, some became stars in the sky, some angels, some devils, some humans. After death there is heaven and hell, but humans will eventually get out of hell after long ages and go to heaven. He at least seems too imply that even the devils will be saved. For his principle is this, from Psalm 110. 1:"Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool." So all enemies must be reconciled to Christ - it will take longer for some than for others, but all will have that (cf. First principles 1. 6. 1). But this universal restoration is not final, it is a passing phase, for before this world there were other worlds, and after this, there will be still others ( First principles 3. 5. 3).

Apocalypse - 20. 9-10.

no temporal end - cf. note above on 11. 6. ."time and eternity">

21. 25. those -Jovinian, contemporary of Augustine, taught that anyone baptized with the spirit as well as with water is infallibly saved, and so need not do any good works. Cf. St. Jerome, Against Jovinian book 2, esp. 2. 37:

"If you [Jovinian] had not come, the drunkards... could not have entered paradise. Cf. also A, On Heresies 82. A says this heresy soon died out.

no middle place - he means after the Last Judgment. He does teach purgatory. Cf. Enchiridion 69.

22. 5. not noble but lowly the Apostles were mostly uneducated.

a man lame etc. - Cf. Acts 3. 1-10; 4. 22; 19. 12; 5. 15; 5. 12; 9. 36-41.

Cicero -in his lost Consolation - but Cicero quotes himself in Tusculan Disputations 1. 27. 66.

he found this - Similar language is found in Plato, Laws 898-98, but Plato is speaking of the world soul. In Phaedrus 245 Plato uses similar language of the human soul.

experience of our times - we are not sure which event he means, perhaps in the siege of Rome by Alaric.

God can recall what has fled -Over the centuries a few have tried to say that since the soul is the form (Aristotelian sense) of the body, the identity of the soul, plus any matter, is sufficient: Aeneas Gazensis, Petrus de Alvernia, Durandus, John of Naples, Billot, Van der Meersch, Michel Hugueny , Vandenberghe. The Church has never pronounced for or against the theory. Cf. L. Arand, St. Augustine, Faith, Hope and Charity in Ancient Christian Writers series, pp. 84-86 and notes, esp. note 293.

For certain, we can say that in a normal life span, anyone has matter for many bodies, since metabolism is constantly tearing down and rebuilding.

body - the Fathers were uncertain on whether angels had bodies. Cf. A's Retractations 1. 26. and also DCD 21. 10.

22. 30. that - heaven.

God rested - the whole paragraph is a remarkable linking ot Scriptural texts and illusions.

being a rest - Psalm 46. 11 as A read it said: "Be at rest and see that I am God."

that which we wanted - the tempter had promised Eve: "You will be like gods": Gen 3. 5. Here in a grand sweep A connects the final end of the City of God with the beginning of the human race. What the devil derisively promised, Adam and Eve already had (2 Pet. 1. 4), but they threw it away in seeking it! In heaven, the City of God will regain it, though even now there is a beginning of that: 2 Pet 1. 4, being divine by participation, being filled with God, whom they see face to face (1 Cor `13. 12). In that vision there is no image (cf. DS 1000), for no image can represent God, but the souls will see God in the way He knows Himself, within infinite streams of knowledge and love. The divinity joins itself directly to the human intellect or soul, replacing an image. Cf. A's On the Trinity 9. 11. 16, and Epistle 147, esp. par 53, and Confessions 13. 15. 18, which speaks of the angels' vision of God: they do not need the written word, nor is their book ever closed- for God is that book. Cf. also DCD 9. 29.

failed in his wrath - echo of Ps 90. 9 as A read it:"We have failed in your wrath."

He will be all in all - 12 Cor 15. 28.

His rather than ours Cf. Epistle 194. 5. 19: "When God crowns our merits, He crowns nothing other than His own gifts." Cf. 2 Cor 3. 5 and Phil. 2. 13.

sabbath - Heaven is the sabbath, eternal rest.

you shall do no servile work - Deut. 5. 14 and Lev 23. 25.

And I gave my sabbaths - Ezek 20. 12.

seventh age - we note the inequality of the ages, and so see A does not have a theory of 6000 years before the end: "not in equality of length of time."

Matthew... 14 generations - Cf. Mt 1. 1-17. 14 is the numerical value of the word David. Cf. note on 15. 8 on genealogies.

it is not for you to know - Acts 1. 7. Cf. also Mt. 24. 36. On the parallel text of Mk 13. 32 which says not even the Son knows, cf Wm. Most, The Consciousness of Christ, p. 123-24, quoting Pope Gregory the Great, who explained that Jesus knew the day in His humanity, but not from His humanity.

"III. St. Augustine on Predestination and Grace"

A) On predestination

Augustine is called the Doctor of Grace, and rightly, for he made some great advances in that area of theology. At the same time, he made some regrettable errors. We will examine both.

Definitions: Predestination means an arrangement by Divine Providence to see that someone gets either a)to heaven or; b)full membership in the Church. (We speak of full membership because there is also a substantial membership, without external adherence. Cf. Vatican II, On Ecumenism 3, and On the Church 16, and Wm. Most, Our Father's Plan, appendix.

Reprobation means the opposite decision, but may be negative -- merely allowing a soul to fall into ruin - or positive - positive condemnation.

The Fathers and most theologians for centuries after that time failed to make this distinction, and so spoke of both as if they were on the same principles, e. g, in commenting on the parable of the

banquet in the Gospel, which really refers to full membership in the Church (by the Jews) they took it to refer to predestination to heaven: Augustine, On 88 Different Questions 68. 5.

God's principles in determining predestination: Some theologians, e.g., the "Thomists" said God decides predestination to heaven, or reprobation to hell, before considering merits and demerits (it really means without considering- for there is no time in God). Others, e.g., the Molinists, said God decides after looking, that is, with consideration of merits and demerits.

All theologians up to recently have thought that if God decrees predestination without looking, He must decree negative reprobation the same way: a person is one or the other, two sides of the same coin. Actually, it is possible, as we shall see, to pull this dilemma apart and say He predestines without merits, reprobates because of demerits.

To say with the Thomists that He reprobates, even negatively, without looking, denies His universal salvific will (1 Tim 2. 4), for if we imagine Joe Doaks is one who is thus reprobated, God cannot do that and at the same time say He wills all men to be saved, for the all would include Joe Doaks. The founder of the Thomist system, D. Baez admitted that - cf. W. Most, New Answers to Old Questions (hereafter NAOQ) 55. St. Augustine's view is basically the same as a that of the Thomists.

To say with the Molinists that He predestines in view of merits involves a vicious circle, for our merits are His gifts. Cf. Augustine, Epistle 194: "When He crowns your merits, He crowns nothing other than His own gifts". This is the same as 1 Cor 4. 7.

Factors predisposing St. Augustine to his position:

1) Tendency to allegorical interpretations: He first learned from St. Ambrose (Confessions 6. 4. 6) to use allegory to solve the Manichean attacks on the OT. Actually most of the Fathers worked by allegory. In A's case allegory, plus the fact that he failed to see that Romans 8. 29ff really was speaking of predestination to full membership in the Church, not to heaven /hell, led him to an unfortunate reading of Romans. As we said, the whole passage speaks of predestination to full membership in the Church. In chapter 9, St. Paul asks: Why did not the racial Jews get into the kingdom of Christ, the Church? He starts with ABraham, the father of their race, and sees two sons, Isaac and Ishmael, and finds St. Paul saying God chose Isaac, not Ishmael, to be a full member, not because of merits (St. Paul does not say what the positive reason was). But A thought Paul was speaking of predestination to heaven/hell. And A thought Paul, in speaking of the next generation

(Esau and Jacob), meant God hated Esau in 9. 13 without looking at his demerits, and so destined him for hell. Then in 9. 19-22 A saw Paul's use of the comparison of the potter, who freely decided what kind of a vessel to make - honorable or dishonorable - out of the same gob of clay, and A by allegory thought the gob of clay meant the whole human race, made into a massa damnata et damnabilis (damned and damnable glob) by original sin: God could throw all into hell even without any personal sins, just because of original sin.

2) Denial of universal salvific will: A was predisposed to deny it is universal because:

(a) In the natural order, he rubbed out the line between the ordinary and the miraculous , e. g, On John's Gospel 6. 1: "Because... His miracles, by which He rules the whole world... had become commonplace by constant experience... He reserved to Himself certain things which He would perform at opportune times, beyond the usual course and order of nature, so that they for whom the daily things had become commonplace might be amazed in seeing not greater but unusual things."

(b) He did the same with the line between the ordinary and the miraculous in the supernatural order - with much more serious effects. Thus in Sermon 141. 1. 1:"... who would dare to say that God lacked a way of calling, in which even Esau would apply his mind to faith, and join his will [to that] in which Jacob was justified." The framework is that of Romans 9, of which we spoke above. A thought Paul spoke of reprobation to hell, and that God really hated Esau without even looking at his demerits. But if we for the sake of argument leave that aside and consider it within the mistaken framework A thought was there - we would still say: Yes, God had a grace that would have converted Esau, but if God gave Esau ordinary graces with which Esau could have been converted, we cannot say God did not want Esau to be saved. But, not seeing this distinction, A thought that since God did not use an extraordinary grace on Esau, God did not want Esau to be saved - He hated Esau. Of course He did not. A did not know that Hebrew lacks the degrees of comparison (good, better, best etc. ) and so has different ways of saying such things. Where we would say: He loved one more, the other less, Hebrew could say: He loved one, hated the other. - Them whole matter implies the problem of the "congruous call" which we saw in the note on Confessions 3. 11, on "you permitted me to roll". Cf. also the text from Enchiridion 103 cited below in his comments on the salvific will.

(c) Actual texts on the salvific will: The above predispositions drove him to deny that God really wills all men to be saved. Therefore he interpreted 1 Tim 2. 4 in several ways, not one of them at all valid, but all denying the plain sense of the text. (1) Enchiridion 103 :"When we hear and read in

Sacred Scripture that He wills all men to be saved... we must... so understand [it]... as if it were said that no man is saved except whom He wants [to be saved]. Or certainly it was so said... not that there is no man whom He is unwilling to have saved, He who was unwilling to perform the wonders of miracles among those whom He says would have done penance if He had done them; but in such a way that we understand 'all men' to mean the whole human race, distributed into various categories: kings, private citizens, nobles, ordinary men, lofty, lowly, learned, unlearned...." COMMENT: It is sad to see A say that God is positively unwilling to save some. Those who would have done penance in sackcloth and ashes if they had seen miracles were the people of Tyre and Sidon (Mt 11:21-22). But if God gave them ordinary graces, as He surely did, they still could be saved - A suffers from having rubbed out the line between miracles and ordinary graces, as we saw above. (2)On correction and grace 14. 44: "And that which is written, that 'He wills all men to be saved, ' and yet not all are saved, can be understood in many ways, of which we have mentioned some in other works, but I shall give one here. It is said in such a way... that all the predestined are meant; for the whole human race is in them." (3) Ibid. 15. 47: "that 'God wills all men to be saved' can be understood also in this way; that He causes us to wish [that all be saved]... ." (4) Epistle 217. 6. 19: "... and so that which is said, that 'God wills all men to be saved' although He is unwilling that so many be saved, is said for this reason: that all who are saved, are not saved except by His will."

The massa damnata theory:

a) Explicit texts: (1) To Simplicianus 1. 2. 16: "Therefore all men are ... one condemned mass [massa damnata] of sin, that owes a debt of punishment to the divine and supreme justice. Whether it [the debt] be exacted, or whether it be condoned, there is no injustice." (2) Enchiridion 27: "... the whole condemned mass of the human race lay in evils, or even rolled about in them, and was precipitated from evils into evils... ." (3) City of God 21. 12: "Hence there is a condemned mass of the whole human race... so that no one would be freed form this just and due punishment except by mercy and undue grace; and so the human race is divided [into two parts] so that in some it may be shown what merciful grace can do, in others, what just vengeance can do... . In it [punishment] there are many more than in [mercy] so that in this way there may be shown what is due to all." (4) On nature and grace 4: "This grace of Christ, without which neither infants nor older persons can be saved, is not given by merits, but gratuitously. Hence those who are not liberated by it [grace] whether because they have not yet been able to hear, or whether they did not want to obey, or even since because of age they could not hear, [and] did not receive the bath of rebirth by which they would be saved, are justly damned: for they are not without sin, either what they

contracted by origin, or what they added by bad morals." Therefore he means that unbaptized babies are damned. (5) Epistle 166. 6. 16: "But when we come to the punishment of little ones, believe me, I am caught in great difficulty, nor can I find at all what I should answer." (6) Enchiridion 93: "The punishment of those will be the mildest who have added nothing beyond the sin which they contracted by origin."

b) God does not consider foreseen merits: (1) On the predestination of the saints 17. 34: "Let us, then, understand the call by which the elect are made [elect]: [they are] not [persons] who are chosen because they have believed, but [they are persons] who are chosen so that they may believe. For even the Lord Himself made this [call] sufficiently clear when He said: 'You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you. '[COMMENT: In context He spoke to the Apostles about being chosen as Apostles, not about predestination]... . This is the unshakable truth of predestination and grace. For what else does that mean, that the Apostle says, 'As he chose us in Him before the foundation of the world. ' [COMMENT: Text refers to predestination to full membership in the Church, not to heaven or hell]. For surely if it was said [that they were chosen] because God foresaw that they would believe, [and] not because He Himself was going to make them believers the Son speaks against that sort of foreknowledge, saying: 'You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, ' So they were chosen before the foundation of the world by that call by which God fulfilled that which He had predestined. 'For those whom He predestined, them also He called... . ' [COMMENT Refers to full membership in the Church] Therefore God chose the faithful, not because they already were [faithful] but that they might be [faithful]. So by choosing, He makes them rich in faith , just as [He makes them] heirs of the kingdom." [COMMENT: Every Scripture text is misused, by being taken out of context. So his reasoning proves nothing at all]. (2) Enchiridion 99:"For grace alone distinguishes the redeemed from the lost, whom a common cause from [their] beginning had joined into one mass of perdition... ." (3) Epistle 194. 8. 35:"It is, moreover, marvelous into what precipices they hurl themselves, in their fear of the nets of truth, when they are pressed by these difficulties. 'It was for this reason' they say 'that He hated one of those not yet born [Esau] and loved the other [Jacob] because He foresaw their future works. ' Who would not be surprised that this most keen thought would be lacking to the Apostle? ... . This, then, was the place for him to say what these persons think: "For God foresaw their future works', when he said that 'the elder would serve the lesser'. But the Apostle did not say this, but instead, so no one would dare to boast of the merits of his works, he wanted what he did say to be able to teach the grace and glory of God."

Implications of a contrary theory: A never explicitly contradicted the massa damnata, yet in at last six places he implied a contradiction, by ruling out reprobation without considering demerits.

The dates of the following passages run all over his writing career, namely, in the order in which we will cite them: (1)between 388 and 398; (2)426; (3)411; (4)398; (5) 413-18; (6)399.

Yet he held his massa damnata at least from 395 to 429, that is, over nearly all the span of his writing period. For in 429, the year before his death, in On the Gift of Perseverance 21. 55 he refers the reader back to To Simplicianus in which he expressed, in 1. 2. 16, the same theory.

1) On 88 Different Questions 68. 4:"For not all who were called wanted to come to that dinner, which as the Lord says in the Gospel, was prepared, nor would they who came have been able to come if they had not been called. And so neither should they who came attribute it to themselves, for they came being called; nor should those who were unwilling to come attribute it to anyone but themselves, for, in order that they might come, they were called in free will."

COMMENTS: The parable of the dinner referred really not to predestination to heaven, but to the fact that the Jews were called to the Messianic kingdom, but most of them did not come. Yet this passage does reveal A's attitude, since he thinks it refers to predestination to heaven. He distinguishes positive and negative. On the positive, those who came could not have come without a call. On the negative, the basic reason for not coming was not in anyone but themselves. Now if he had been doing his thinking in the massa damnata framework, the reason would have been that God first deserted them, and then they refused. We contrast that with the text of Enchiridion 99 which we saw above: "Grace alone distinguishes the redeemed from the lost... ."

2) On correction and grace 13. 42: "Those, then, who do not belong to that most certain and most happy number [of the predestined] are judged most justly according to their merits. For they either lie under the sin which they contracted originally by generation... . . Or they receive the grace of God, but are temporary, and do not persevere; they desert and are deserted. For they were let go in their free will, not receiving the gift of perseverance, by a just and hidden judgment of God."

COMMENT: There are two cases here. In the second case, the persons have obtained remission of original sin, but they do not persevere. The reason is "they desert and are deserted." But in the massa damnata framework he would have said: God deserts them, and then they desert Him.

3) On merits and remission of sins 2. 17. 26: "Men are not willing to do what is right either because the fact that it is right is hidden from them, or because it does not please them. It is from the grace

of God, which helps the will of man, that that which was hidden becomes known, and that which did not please becomes sweet. The reason why they are not helped [ by grace] is in themselves, not in God, whether they are predestined to damnation because of the wickedness of their pride, or whether they are to be judged and emended, contrary to that pride, if they are sons of mercy." COMMENT: In the massa damnata framework he would have said that the reason they were not helped was in God, who deserted them.

4) The Debate with Felix the Manichean 2. 8: "Felix said: You call Manes cruel for saying these things. What do we say about Christ, who said: Go into eternal fire? Augustine said: He said this to sinners. Felix said: These sinners, why were they not purified? Augustine said: Because they did not will [it]. Felix said: Because they did not will it - did you say that? Augustine said Yes, I said it: Because they did not will it." COMMENT: The Manicheans said that at the end, what particles of light (particles of God) will not have been separated from matter, will be bound in a ball of fire forever. A brought that up to Felix. Felix tries to say Christ does the same. A replies the sinners were not purified because they did not will it. Felix is surprised, and repeats his question. A repeats too. In the massa damnata framework the answer would have been: Because God deserted them - their unwillingness would follow on that.

5) Tracts on the Gospel of John 53. 6: "'They were not able to believe' since Isaiah the prophet predicted it; and the prophet predicted it because God had foreseen that this would happen. But if I am asked why they were not able, I quickly reply: Because they did not want to. For God foresaw their evil will, and He from whom the future things cannot be hidden, announced it in advance through the prophet. But, you say, the prophet speaks of another cause, not of their will. What cause do you say the prophet speaks of? 'Because God gave them a spirit of compunction, eyes so that they did not see, and ears so that they did not hear, and He blinded their eyes and hardened their heart. ' I reply that their will merited even this." COMMENT: Again, if A were speaking in the massa damnata framework, he would have said the opposite to what he actually said for he said they were not above to believe "because they did not want to" and "their will merited even" the hardening. (He is using John 12. 39 in reference to Isaiah 6. 10)

6) On instructing the ignorant 52: "The merciful God, wanting to deliver men, if they are not enemies to Him and do not resist the mercy of their Creator, sent His only-begotten Son." COMMENT: Again, the basic condition for failure seems to be in men, not in God.

The Greek Fathers on negative reprobation without demerits: Absolutely all the Greek Fathers who wrote on the point, without exception, reject the idea that the first cause of men's eternal loss is

God's desertion of them: St. Justin the Martyr, St. Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, St. Cyril of Jerusalem, St. Gregory of Nazianzus, St. Gregory of Nyssa, St. John Chrysostom, St. Cyril of Alexandria, Theodoret, and St. John Damascene.

The Latin Fathers on negative reprobation without demerits: Again, all the Fathers before Augustine reject the idea, as the Greek Fathers do: St. Jerome, St. Ambrose, St. Hilary of Poitiers. After Augustine, it is often said that St. Prosper of Aquitaine was the great defender of Augustine's ideas. But those who say that did not read carefully in St. Prosper. Here are his thoughts: (1) Responses to the chapters of objections of the Gauls 3: "... for this reason they were not predestined, because they were foreseen as going to be such as a result of voluntary transgression... . Therefore, just as good works are to be attributed to God who inspires them, so evil works are to be attributed to those who sin. For they were not deserted by God so that they deserted God; but they deserted and were deserted... and as a result... they were not predestined... by Him who foresaw them as going to be such." St. Prosper taught the same ibid 7. 85: 'He foresaw that they would fall by their very own will, and for this reason He did not separate them from the sons of perdition by predestination." Similarly in his Responses to the chapters of objections of the Vincentians 12: "... because they were foreseen as going to fall, they were not predestined."

We conclude that St. Prosper was very faithful to the implications in the 6 passages of Augustine we saw above, but that he contradicted the massa damnata theory.

Conclusions on the work of St. Augustine on Predestination: He made a very unfortunate mistake in the massa damnata theory, as we have seen. Yet he did imply a correction of that mistake in the 6 passages we saw. But especially, he made great progress over all other Fathers on predestination in that he saw clearly that it does not depend on merits. Some of the others seemed to say it does. If it does not depend on merits, then he found no way to simultaneously say that reprobation did depend on demerits for as we said at the outset of this section, all theologians have taken it for granted that both predestination and reprobation must be on the same basis, i.e., either both without consideration of merits and demerits, or both with that consideration.

At the end of this section we will show how it is possible to put the two positions together, that is, predestination not based on merits, reprobation based on demerits.

B) On human interaction with grace

Our total dependence on grace for all good: Here is a great advance by Augustine. For many others, especially the Greek Fathers, were not strong on this total dependence.

1) On the grace of Christ 25. 26:"For God not only has given [us] our ability, and aids it, but also, He 'works both the will and the performance, [Phil. 2. 13] 'not that we do not will, or that we do not act, but that without His help we neither will nor do any good."

2) On grace and free will 16. 32: "It is certain that we will when we will; but He brings it about that we will good... . It is certain that we act when we act, but He brings it about that we act, giving most efficacious power to our will."

3) Ibid 6. 15: "If then your merits are gifts of God, God does not crown your merits as merits of yours, but as gifts of His."

4) Epistle 194. 5. 19:"What then is the merit of a man before receiving grace, in accordance with which he receives grace? Since it is only grace that makes every good merit of ours, and since when God crowns our merits, He crowns nothing other than His own gifts."

5) Unfinished work against Julian 2. 217: "[Grace] grants that the delight of sin may be conquered by the delight of what is right."

6) Tracts on Gospel of John 26. 4: "But if the poet could say, 'His own pleasure draws each one' [Virgil, Eclog. 2] - not necessity, but pleasure, not obligation, but delight - how much more strongly should we say that a man is drawn to Christ , who is delighted with truth, delighted with beatitude, delighted with justice, delighted with eternal life - all of which Christ is?"

COMMENTS: Texts 5 and 6 refer to his theory of the delectatio victrix, the victorious delight: If God gives us more delight in what is good than temptation offers, then we are drawn to good. The problem is that this speaks only of a final cause, of a goal, which attracts. There is a certain truth in this, but it does not mention the efficient cause that moves a will - though the first 4 texts may imply that.

The position of St. Thomas Aquinas on Predestination. Let us imagine a man standing on the circumference of a circle, and finding two points from which he thinks he can project a line to hit the center, the right answer. Thomas saw two starting points, namely, 1 Tim 2. 4, which he began to follow in Contra Gentiles 3. 159 -63, and Augustine's interpretation of Romans 8. 29 ff. He saw that the answers would clash, and so he never clearly projected either line fully and definitely. For

example, in Contra gentiles 3. 159: "They alone are deprived of grace who set up in themselves an impediment to grace." Similarly in his Commentary on Romans, chapter 9, lessons 2 & 3: "... foresight of sins can be some reason for reprobation on the part of penalty... . in as much that is, as God proposed to punish the wicked for sins, which they have of themselves, not from God, but He proposes to reward the just because of merits which they do not have of themselves. Hosea 13. 9:" Your ruin is from yourself Israel, only in me is your help." - These passages do not fit with massa damnata, but with the implications we found in 6 texts of Augustine. On the other hand, in Contra gentiles 163: "... others, deserted by the help of grace, fail to reach the ultimate end... . those to whom He planned from eternity that He would not give grace, He is said to have reprobated or to have hated, according to what is said in Malachi 1:2, 3: 'I have loved Jacob, but hated Esau". ' Also, in the Commentary on Romans he said: "... those whom God frees through His grace, He frees out of mercy alone, and so He is merciful to certain ones whom he delivers; but to certain ones He is just, whom He does not deliver."

New Solutions from New Answers to Old Questions

A) On predestination

Within God there are no real distinctions, no time. But one thing can b e logically previous to another. So we can see three logical steps in His decrees on predestination:

(1)He wills all to be saved: 1 Tim 2. 4. Since this is the same as saying HE loves us, we know it is sincere, and extremely strong, for He went so far as the terrible death of His Son to make salvation open to us. Romans 5:8: "God proved His love for us."

(2)He looks to see who resists His grace gravely and persistently. By persistently we mean so much as to make salvation impossible, for it is only grace that can save a man. With regrets, with consideration of these demerits, He decrees reprobation.

(3)All who have not been reprobated in step 2 are positively predestined, not because of merits, which have not yet made their appearance, nor even, strictly, because of the lack of such resistance. No, the reason is that He, in step 1, had wanted this: these souls are not blocking it.

Therefore we see that predestination is without merit, as A wanted it, but reprobation is because of demerits, which A saw only implicitly in the set of 6 texts we examined.

The same result comes from an analysis of the most basic comparison of the Gospels: God is our Father. In an ordinarily good human family, (1)the Father (and Mother too) want all the children to turn out well. (2)the children do not have to earn the love and care - they get that because the parents are good, not because they are good. This is parallel to predestination without merit. (3)Yet the children could earn punishment, and if bad enough long enough, could earn disinheritance, which is parallel to reprobation because of demerits.

The result is like Romans 3:26: "The wages [what we earn] of sin is death, the free gift of God [what we do not earn] is eternal life.

B) On human interaction with grace

We must keep in mind all the data of Scripture. St. Paul in makes two kinds of statements, and we must keep both: (1) 1 Cor 3. 5: "Not that we are sufficient to think anything of ourselves as from ourselves; our sufficiency is from God. Phil. 2. 13: "It is God who works [produces] in you both the will and the doing." We see our total dependence on God, of which A spoke well: we cannot get a good thought, or make a good decision, or carry it out by our own unaided power. (2) 2 Cor 6. 1:"We urge you not to receive the grace of God in vain."So we can, in some way, determine the outcome of a grace coming. All the exhortations of Scripture to repent, to turn to God, imply the same.

So we visualize the picture: (1) A grace comes to me, and without help from me it causes two effects: (a) it puts into my mind the good thought of what God wants me to do (cf. 2 Cor 3. 5); it makes me favorably disposed, though I do not yet make a decision. (2)At this juncture where I could reject, if I merely make no decision against the grace, then grace moves into phase two and two things happen together: it works in me both the will and the doing (Phil. 2. 13) and at the same time I cooperate by power being received from the grace at the same moment.

The same process can be expressed with Aristotelian terms: The First Cause sends to me a movement. Without my help it actualizes the potency of my mind to see something as good, and actualizes the potency of my will not as far as a decision, but only as far as a favorable attitude. If I do not reject, then phase two comes, in which the movement from the First Cause actualizes the potency of my will to make the good decision, while at the same time, I cooperate in that actualization by power being received at the same instant from the movement.

How does rejection operate: We recall that the movement actualizes the potency of my will to be favorable. But, when that is in place, if I see it, and it displeases me, then the actualization collapses back to potency. On that condition, God actualizes the potency of my will to reject.

So when I do good, my contribution at the critical point which determines the outcome is a metaphysical zero, the absence of a bad decision. I would need the power of creation, to do more. But this is in accord with St. Paul in 1 Cor 4. 7: "What have you that you have not received." That is, any bit of good that I am or have or do, is simply His gift to me. - It fits with A's Epistle 194: "When God crowns your merits, He crowns nothing other than His own gifts."

This proposal is very similar to what St. Thomas proposes in Contra Gentiles 159.

"Addenda: Reading list; study questions and answers"

Phil 527: The Philosophy of St. Augustine, Selected Readings

Required:

Wm. G. Most, The Philosphy of St. Augustine, Selected Readings (NDI office)

Supplementary

G. Bonner, St. Augustine of Hippo: Life and Controversies

V. Bourke, Augustine's Quest of Wisdom

F. Cayr, Manual of Patrology

E. Gilson, The Christian Philosophy of St. Augustine

K. Jaspers, Plato and Augustine

J. O'Meara, The Young Augustine: The Growth of St. Augustine's Mind up to His Conversion

J. Quasten, Patrology

E. Te Selle, Augustine the Theologian

F. Moriones, Enchiridion Theologicum Sancti Augustini

Study Questions: The Confessions

1. When and where was A. born?

2. Names of his Father and Mother?

3. When was A. baptized? Why at that time?

*4. What are the two poles in our response to God?

*5. A. says God repays debts though owing no one? How can He owe? How can He pay without owing?

*6. A. says to God: You ORDER me to love you. -- How can one order love?

*7. What does Ps. 18 mean by our hidden faults?

8. A. says of his birth: I know not from where I have come here. What does he not know?

*9. What does A. mean by wordy arts?

10. What did A. pray for especially in early school?

*11. A. says God is ruler of sins. What sense?

12. A. says he was seasoned with salt. In what sense?

13. A. speaks of the piety of his Mother. What is the sense?

14. Which in A.s family was not Christian?

*15. What did people mean when they said about A.: He is not yet baptized?

16. A. says: It was well for me ... yet they who forced me did not do well, but it turned out well for me. Sense?

17. How can A. says of himself as a school boy: So small a boy, so large a sinner?

*18. In what way is every disordered soul its own punishment? Give examples.

19. What does A. mean by a spirit that walks and does not return?

20. Who was the someone called Aeneas?

21. What writer does A. say was sweetly vain, yet bitter to him?

22. A. says he did not distinguish the serenity of love from the mist of lust. What is love?

23. A. says: My soul ... cast itself outside of me. What is the background?

24. What does it mean to say the soul goes forth?

25. Around the time of his conversion, what would A. say is the way to salvation?

26. Around the time of his conversion, what did A. think of the possibility of seeing God?

27. What is the role of the liberal arts in seeing God?

28. Why did A. chiefly object to the theater?

*29. What turned A. to the love of philosophy? What did he mean by philosophy?

*30. Describe the beliefs of the Manichees. When did A. fall in to Manicheeism?

31. What factor chiefly attracted A. to the Manichees at first?

*32. When he was 19, what did A. think was the nature of evil?

33. According to the Manichees, why do figs weep if plucked?

34. What special assurances did Monica get of the future conversion of A.? From whom?

35. What led his Mother to be willing to live in the same house with him?

36. In Confessions 3.11, A. says God let him roll ever deeper? In his view, what was lacking to him?

*37. Why did a formerly Manichee Bishop tell Monica that A. was unteachable?

38. Why did A. feel guilty about teaching rhetoric? Was he right?

39. Why did A. move from Thagaste to Carthage?

40. Who was Faustus? What dealings did A. have with him?

*41. What led A. to question his Manichee faith?

42. Who was not altogether ignorant of being ignorant? What would one have if he had that in all respects?

43. Why did A. leave Carthage for Rome?

*44. They are the more wretched, the more they are allowed to do -- A. said this about whom?

45. Whom did A. deceive when he left Carthage for Rome?

*46. A. says to God: You are willing to become a debtor to those to whom you forgive their debts. How does this work out?

47. A. said: It was not we who sinned, in the Manichee view. How did it work?

*48. What philosophers did A. meet in Rome, but, oddly, did not join? Why was it odd?

49. While at Rome, of what nature did A. think God and the soul were?

50. What caused A. to want to leave teaching at Rome?

51. What led A. to listen to sermons of Ambrose?

*52. Ambrose said: That letter kills, the spirit gives life. What did Ambrose mean? What did the text originally mean? From where?

53. Who solved for A. the Manichean objections against the Old Testament? How?

*54. What kind of Scriptural interpretation did A. hear from Ambrose? What school used that kind? What school used a different kind?

55. Whom did A. find was reading silently? Why did this surprise A.?

*56. How did God keep A. from going farther into evil at Milan?

57. Whom was A. tempted to envy when he was worried over a major speech?

58. Who was Alypius?

59. Who fell into cruel pleasure at gladiator fights? How did it happen?

*60. Why was A. hesitant to marry in his 30th year?

*61. How did it happen that A.s Mother when he was 30 saw some false vision?

62. When A. was 30, he says his heart was cut, torn, and trailed blood? From what?

*63. Explain Neoplatonism? What did it do for Augustine? What did it not do?

64. What books did A. read when he was about 30?

*65. What did the Neoplatonists call God? Chief writer of theirs? Why did their system seem to A. to be like the Christian logos?

66. What philosopher enabled A. to get a concept of God and soul as spirits?

67. Who was probably the Neoplatonic author A. read at Milan?

*68. How did A. first learn that evil is not a substance? What is evil?

*69. What had Victorinus done that helped A.? What penalty did V. suffer?

70. For what is Simplicianus noted?

*71. Early in Book 8 of Confessions, A. says he had no more intellectual difficulties against Christianity? Why did he not join them?

*72. What brought on the interior struggle before A.s conversion? Describe it. How did he account for his wills inability to act?

73. Who told A. about St. Anthony and the monasteries near Milan? how did A. react to this, and to the hermits in Germany?

74. Who prayed: Give me chastity, but not now?

*75. Where is the place A. says one does not go on foot?

76. How does A. explain the interior struggle before his conversion?

77. What was a child singing when A. was in a struggle in the garden?

78. What book did A. pick up in his struggle in the garden? What did he read in it?

79. Where did A. retire to prepare for baptism?

*80. What comment did A. make later about the works he wrote during his preparation for baptism? Name 3 of these works. Which was against the skeptics?

81. From what was A. cured by prayer while in his retreat before baptism?

*82. Who walked without shoes on the icy soil of Italy? Why did he do it?

83. What is the theory that A. explains in his De Magistro (On the Teacher)?

84. Who were the two who died not long after baptism with A.?

*85. What unusual experience did A. have after his baptism, at Ostia? Who shared it with him? What was its nature?

*86. A. with his Mother at Ostia remarked: When will this be? What did he mean by that?

87. Not long before her death, A.s Mother made a remark which surprised him. What was it? Why was he surprised?

88. A.s reaction after the death of his Mother is probably affected by a certain philosophy, which one?

*89. Describe the death of A.s Mother, his reactions, and probable implications.

90. What fault did A. fear he may have committed after death of his Mother?

91. Did A. believe in purgatory? What remark did he make after his Mothers death that implies it?

*92. What does A. have to say about merits? Does he believe there are merits?

93. What was the special final request his Mother made before her death?

94. What special word did A. use to refer to sin? Scriptural roots?

Study Questions: City of God

101. Outline the thought of the City of God? What are the two cities? Their relation to the Church? to the predestined?

*102. What was the first and most direct reply A. gave to the claim that Alaric could not have taken Rome had the old gods been still worshipped? when was it captured? when had that happened in the past?

103. How did Christ save pagans during that sack of Rome?

*104. Which pagan authors said that states are ruined by moral decay?

*105. Why, according to A., did God let both good and bad suffer in the sack of Rome? What makes it possible, according to A for a bad man to be punished by evils in this life?

106. What does A. say pagan gods should have done for their worshippers in moral matters?

107. What does A. say made the rules of philosophers of not much use for Rome?

108. What argument does A. draw from the actions of Marius and Sulla?

*109. Why, according to A., did the true God resist the efforts of pagan philosophers?

110. Which pagan priests sometimes castrated themselves in their rites?

111. Which are the only kind of evils pagans are unwilling to suffer according to A.?

112. Where did Roman legend say a delegation went to borrow laws? What do we think of the story?

113. Was Rome ever captured in the times before Christ? By whom? When?

114. Name some of the pagans who waged civil wars in Rome.

115. Who does A say gets the least harm from bad rulers? The most harm?

*116. To whom does A. say the pagan gods would have given an empire if they had had the power?

*117. Why according to A. did the true God give an empire to Rome?

118. To what did pagans believe their gods were subject?

119. Which divinity did Virgil say wanted to make Carthage greater than Rome?

120. To what did Gods promises in the Old Testament seem to refer? To what does A. think spiritual men even then understood they referred? True?

*121. How does A. answer the claim of pagans that God must lack power since He could not save the Jews from Rome?

122. What was the attitude of A. to astrology? Had he ever believed in it?

123. What is the chief factor in the growth of Rome, according to A.?

124. What is the dominant trait of pagan Roman character, according to A.?

*125. Pride can counterfeit many virtues? Which can it not counterfeit?

126. What does A. think of the effect of Roman rule on conquered peoples?

*127. What does A. say is smoke without substance?

128. To what in earliest Rome does A compare the City of God?

129. Who in Rome would be apt to pray to Bacchus for water?

*130. What did Varro do about pagan theology? Why? What was A.s attitude to him?

*131. What are the three kinds of theology according to Varro? What are the select and non-select gods?

132. Who was the greatest theologian of pagan Rome? What did he do with pagan myths? Why?

133. What was another name or description for "natural theology? of Varro?

134. Who does A. say dedicated a sewer goddess?

135. Who, according to A., should logically be chief among the select gods? Why?

136. Which god was the most facey according to A.? Why?

137. Which god received the title Pecunia? Why, according to Varro?

138. What does A. say was the final position of Varro on the gods?

*139. Which philosophers among the pagans does A. chiefly admire? What did they say about God? About worshipping Him?

*140. What are daemones according to the Platonists? According to A.? Relation to the Olympian gods? where do they live, according to Apuleius?

141. How do daemones act in regard to human passions, according to Apuleius?

*142. Which of these do the Platonists say will associate with men and listen to them: supreme god? inferior gods? daemones?

143. Who is the chief Platonist whom A. quotes in regard to the daemones?

*144. What does A. say is required of a mediator? Apply to angels.

*145. When the Psalms speak of a City of God, to what do they really refer? To what did A. think they referred?

146. What was theurgy? what did it attempt?

147. What argument did Platonists use to show God does not work miracles?

*148. A. says man is the greatest miracle. What logical consequence does this statement have?

149. What beings call for sacrifice to themselves?

*150. Explain A.s theory of sacrifice. What are the two parts and their relative importance. How does this view show why the Old Testament prophets objected to Jewish sacrifices?

151. What does A. mean by pious and holy gods?

*152. What kinds of duration does A. know besides time? What kind does he miss? Why was the world made only after so long a time?

*153. What problem did A. see in the fact that God creates things today? How did he try to solve it?

*154. What is Fundamentalism? Was A. a Fundamentalist? Why?

155. How can God make things in time without a change in His will?

156. What does A mean by the death of the soul?

*157. Death is the effect of original sin. Baptism removes original sin. Why then are not the baptized made immortal?

*158. Why were Adam and Eve ashamed after sinning?

*159. A. says: The penalty of disobedience was disobedience. Explain.

*160. A. says human nature was vitiated by original sin. In what sense?

161. What does it mean to live according to man?

*162. In what sense is sinning a lie? In what sense is it an approach to nothing?

163. Which philosophers wanted to avoid all emotion?

164. What is self-exaltation?

165. What virtue does A. say is especially proclaimed in Christ?

166. A. says Adam if he had not sinned would have been spiritual even in the flesh. Sense?

*167. Who was disobedient even to death. Why the expression?

*168. What does A. say is needed so we can trust in Gods help?

169. Who was the first founder of the earthly city?

170. Why did God not accept the sacrifice of Cain?

*171. Genesis says Cain built a city when there were only a few person on earth. How does A. explain?

172. What is a type? Of what was the Ark of type?

173. What meaning does A. see in the name Babylon? How did Babylon show its pride?

174. What does the birth of Isaac signify?

175. What does A. find most remarkable in Abraham? Compare to St. Pauls idea.

176. A. says Isaac was a likeness of who or what?

177. To what three things can Old Testament prophecies refer? Give an example.

*178. What sign does dying Jacob give for the coming of Christ?

179. What did sterile Anna, later fertile, stand for?

180. What Jewish king received a gift of wisdom, but fell into idolatry?

181. Who built the first Jewish temple? what did his name mean?

*182. Why did Solomon begin to rule before the death of David?

183. What does A. call Rome?

184. What did God provide at the time of the rise of Rome?

*185. Why did Aggaeus (Haggai) say the glory of the new temple would be greater than that of the old?

186. Does A. think any non-Jews were members of the City of God? Who?

187. What pagan thought pagan gods were just idealized men?

188. What are the four cardinal virtues? Who originated the classification?

189. Which philosophers thought it could be a duty to kill oneself?

*190. What is peace? Relation to justice? What kind of man is unwilling to have peace? Peace has same basis as what else in A.s thought?

191. Can a person be blessed in this life?

192. When will Gods judgment be clear?

*193. Who in Scripture speaks of two resurrections? What is the first one?

194. What is chiliasm? Did A. ever hold it?

195. What does A. think the Beast in the Apocalypse stands for? Is he right?

196. How does A. argue to prove the possibility of hell? How does he explain how fire can affect spirits?

*197. A. says the world is a greater marvel than all things in it. What is the logical effect of the statement?

198. What great sign in the sky does A. say ancient writers reported?

199. Does A. think angels and devils have bodies?

200. What problem does A. have to meet form the Gospel? With what measure you shall measure, it shall be measured again to you?

201. Who taught hell is not everlasting?

202. Who in ancient times taught salvation without works? What does St. Paul say on this point?

203. How does A. try to prove the Apostles must have worked miracles?

204. How does A. link the start with the end of the human race?

205. Does A. say men can become gods? In what sense?

206. In what sense can men become the Sabbath?

Study Questions: St. Augustine on Predestination and Grace

207. What is predestination in general? What two kinds are there? Of which kinds does Scripture speak explicitly? Did the Fathers see this distinction? What is negative reprobation?

208. What is the chief objection to predestination without considering merits? What is the chief objection to predestination with considering merits? Which position did A hold on predestination? on reprobation?

209. What is Massa Damnata? What was its source?

210. What was the view of the Greek Fathers on negative reprobation without considering demerits? Of the Western Fathers before A.? Of St. Prosper of Aquitaine?

219. What did A. say of 1 Tim.2.4? Why? What relation does this have to his rubbing out the line between ordinary and extraordinary?

220. Did A. ever by implication contradict negative reprobation without considering demerits? Give an example.

221. What did A. say of the source of our merits in general? What relation to Phil.2.13?

222. What was A.s theory of the delectatio victrix? What element does it fail to account for?

223. If we take A.s theory of predestination without merits, and add his implicit approval of no reprobation without demerits, how could we make these elements fit together?

224. What did A. say of Gods attitude to Esau? His attitude to Tyre and Sidon?

Answers to Study Questions on St. Augustine

4. The two poles: 1) Love, closeness, warmth 2) Sense of majesty, greatness, transcendence. A. greatly stresses the second of these, much neglected today, in 1. 1.

5. God repays debts when He keeps His promises in covenant and other promises. He can owe only in the secondary sense, i. e, given fact He has made a covenant: "If you do this, I will do that". But He pays without owing because in basic sense, no creature can establish a claim on Him: all is unmerited generosity.

6. Love of creatures is: To will good to another for other's sake. But we cannot wish God well off. We give Him pleasure when we obey: 1) This makes us open to receive His generosity, and steers us away from the penalties built into the nature of things 2) It fulfills demands of the objective order of goodness, which His Holiness loves.

7. Ps 18 means Hebrew sheggagah, unwitting violation of God's law, for which a make- up is needed: cf. Lev. 4. A. would not understand that concept.

9. Wordy arts mean rhetoric.

11. God is ruler of sins in that He brings good out of evil.

15. They meant: let him sin, it all comes out in the wash: Baptism.

18. There are penalties built into nature of things, e. g, a hangover after a drunk; a loveless marriage after much premarital sex often happens, since they are not really willing good to each other: they are using each other, putting each other into danger of eternal misery, instead of willing good to each other.

29. Reading Cicero's Hortensius turned him to love of philosophy. The roots of philosophy mean love of wisdom. He reasoned: Christ is the Wisdom of the Father. Philosophy is love of Christ. (error)

30. There are two eternal kingdoms, light and darkness. Infinite in extent except where they border on each other. Denizens of darkness got up a military expedition to get some light. Good god was frightened, sent out Primal Man(not same as Adam) to fight, let him be captured to prepare way for a greater victory later on- which never came. As a result, this world was made, a mixture of light and darkness. Particles of light are particles of God. When set free e. g, by the Elect Manichees eating crops, the particles are picked up by moon. When it is full it dumps in the sun, comes back as a crescent. Two classes of Manichees: Elect, who should keep all rules: plant and harvest nothing since plants, having light in them, can feel, not marry. Hearers, who did these things anyway. Had a hierarchy similar to ours. Matter is evil. Evil is a substance. We have two wills, good and evil. The told A. they would prove everything, no need of faith. They failed. He fell in age 19.

32. At 19 he thought evil was a positive thing, a substance (it really is a privation, lack of what should be there). He had had this belief since childhood. Manichees said same. (Got out of it by help of Neoplatonists later).

37. Was unteachable because too proud.

41. He read astronomy books, which gave different account of phases of moon.

44. His bad gang with which he went when young were the more wretched, since penalties in nature of things hit them.

46. See answer to #5.

48. He met New Academy in Rome, who were sceptics. At that time he did not believe Manicheism, did not know what to think.

52. Text was 2 Cor 3. 6. Ambrose meant: must use allegorical sense, not literal sense. Real meaning was that the Law brings death (for in a focused view - leaving out fact grace was available even before Christ - it makes heavy demands, gives no strength, so we fall). Spirit is the regime of faith, which brings life.

54. Ambrose used allegorical interpreatation, from school of Alexandria. School of Antioch tried to find what sacred writer really meant to say.

56. God sprinkled bitterness into his illicit pleasures.

60. He was afraid it might hinder his search for truth.

61. She saw false visions by autosuggestions: wanting to see them.

63. Neoplatonism says God is the One: All comes from him by emanations: Nous (mind, which A. thought was same as divine Logos, the Word), then World Soul, then individual souls. Matter is last stage, emanations all petered out. So our senses deceive us, should pull inside, return by mystical contemplation to unity with the One. Evil is privation. He learned that. It did not help his bad morals.

65. They called God the One. Chief writer was Plotinus- also Porphyry.

68. From Neoplatonists. Evil is privation.

69. Heroic example of Victorinus - gave up career to be Christian-- moved A. by example. He also had translated Plotinus from Greek.

71. His bad morals held him back.

72, Hearing of examples of Victorinus, St. Anthony of Egypt, monks near Milan, two imperial officials who left all to be hermits.

75. To conversion. Language comes from Plotinus Enneads.

80. Said they still reeked of the school of pride. He wrote: Soliloquies, Against Academics (Sceptics), On Order, On the Happy Life.

82. Alypius: for penance and to tame his disorderly emotions.

85. A kind of contemplation. It was not infused contemplation, nor same as that in Plato, Symposium.

86. He meant when would they reach the vision of God. He thought that would probably be differed until end of time, except for matryrs. Many held that view then.

88. Affected by Stoicism: wrong to show feeling, and should think: she has gone to a better place.

89. He held back tears the rest of the day, fell into them next morning. He felt guilty, did not understand even Jesus wept at tomb of Lazarus.

92. Epistle 194: "When God crowns your merits, He crowns nothing other than His own gifts." Very true.

102, The fleeing Trojans who paved way for Rome had depended on fallen gods, whom they had to rescue from burning Troy, not vice versa.

104. Ennius, first hexameter poet, and Cicero, greatest orator, in his De Re publica.

105. To show that present goods and evils are not the ultimate since both good and bad get both. Good can profit from the evils, wicked are punished.

109. God resisted them because of their pride.

116. The would have given it to Greeks, since they treated gods better in stage plays than the Romans did. Greeks ridiculed both gods and men. Romans only men.

117. The Romans had many great natural virtues, but all was vitiated since their motive was pride. So He could not give a supernatural reward, wanted to give something, gave Empire.

121. He says God had threatened them with defeat if they were unfaithful. They were.

125. Pride can counterfeit all virtues, even humility: one can act humble to be praised for it.

127. Human honor he says is a smoke without substance. It is part of his work against pride and for humility.

130. Romans had come to disbelieve old myths. He reinterpreted the myths in his "natural theology." A. opposed Varro greatly.

131. Civil theology or urban theology (of the gods the state worships); Mythical Theology that of the poets and stage, natural theology: his reinterpretation. Varromade a list of select and nonselect gods. A. showed there was no basis for the selection, not even Fortune, since Fortune was not selected.

139. Plato is the best, he says. He liked Plato's saying that we should love and imitate God.

140. Plato's picture of universe: 1) God, supremely good 2) gods, made of matter finer than clouds and spirit, too lofty to deal with us; 3) daimones, have flesh but highest quality, and soul. They like impure stage plays. Probably same as Olympic gods. 4) Humans. Apuleius says they live in the air, some above, some below the moon.

142. Only daimones listen to us, they take our prayers up, bring granted requests down. But they are morally foul: so it is ridiculous that gods listen to them, not to decent humans.

144. Mediator should be in between God and men having both divine and human nature. So angels cannot be mediators. This is a very strict sense. In broader sense there are secondary mediators.

145. When Psalms speak of City of God they mean Jerusalem. A. did not understand that, thought they meant a City of God in his new concept, a society of good angels and good men.

148. He says man is a greater miracle than anything done by man. He has rubbed out the line between ordinary and extraordinary- result will be unfortunate in regard to theology of grace, as we shall see. Thinks if God did not work miracles for e.g., Tyre and Sidon, He did not want them to be saved. Miracles are extraordinary. If He does ample in ordinary order He does will their salvation. This mistake led A. to deny God wills all to be saved, contrary to 1 Tim 2. 4.

150. A sacrifice includes an outward sign and inward dispositions, which sign expresses. All the value comes from the interior. When prophets objected to OY sacrifices, they meant there was only exetrnalism, no interior dispositions. Isaiah 29. 13: "This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me." At Last Supper, external sign was seeming separation of body and blood. Interior, His obedience to Father. On Friday, actual separation, interior same. In Mass, same as Last supper, His obedience is continued since death makes permanent attitude of heart toward God.

153. Genesis says God rested on seventh day, so how can He work by creating things today? A. solved by theory of rationes seminales, sort of seeds planted in matter, to open at suitable times.

154. Fundamentalists ignore the literary genre of Scripture (patterns of writing. Key question: What did the Sacred Writer assert via his pattern?). In writing on Genesis, A. knew that God does not have hands, and so rejects crude interpretation of the clay figure which God breathed on. Also understood that Cain could build a city even though few humans were mentioned - Scripture gives only enough, he says, to show line of descent of the two cities. But in asking on what day God created angels, A. is close to fundamentalism.

157. A. says if Baptism made us immortal, people would not need faith - could see for selves - and would be baptized for the wrong reason.

158. Before the fall they were naked, as after. But before it did not bother them, for they had a coordinating gift (same as Gift of Integrity) that made it easy to keep all drives each in their proper place. Losing it, sex rebelled.

159. The penalty of disobedience to God was the disobedience of their lower nature to them, as in. 158. Also disobedience of lower nature to them.

160. He means damaged by original sin. How much damage? Luther thought he meant totally corrupted, so as to be unable to keep out of mortal sin all the time. A. did not mean that. There are two other positions. First we notice God gave Adam three kinds of gifts: 1) basic human nature which would include many drives, each working on its own without regard to the others. So, without

a coordinating gift - or mortification, there would be disorder. 2) preternatural gifts: the coordinating gift (Gift of Integrity) and freedom from death 3) life of grace. Adam lost all but #1. so the correct position is that his sin took us only down to that level. Some would say there was a bit larger loss than even that. This last view is not permittedin Catholic theology.

162. Sin is a lie: 1) it promises more than it delivers 2) it moves away from God, the source of our being, and so logically heads us toward non-being, and away from the divinely set pattern to which we should conform. We are not "true to form".

167. Adam was disobedient even to death. An echo of Christ's obedience even to death in Phil 2. 8.

168. God's help, grace, is needed to make us able to trust in Him. So our dependence is total.

171. A. says the purpose of Scripture is only to give enough to show the line of descent of the two cities, the City of God, and the City of this world.

178. When there is no longer a ruler from the tribe of Judah, it is time for Christ. This came in 41 BC. when Rome appointed Herod Tetrarch, later in 37 got title of King. He was not of tribe of Judah, by birth was half Idumean, half Arab.

182. He began to rule before death of David to show the prophecy was not fulfilled in him, but in Christ. Refers to 2 Samuel 7. 12.

185. The prophecy of Haggai 2. 9 that the new temple would be more glorious was not fulfilled by the material building, which was inferior, but yet Christ came to the temple, which made it greater.

190. Peace is the tranquility of order. Since it gives to each thing its own place, it is based on justice, the virtue that inclines us to give to each what is coming to him. No one does not want peace, but the wicked want their own sort of order. In A. 's thought a thing has being to the extent that it tends to order: and so imitates unity. Cf. The Morals of the Catholic Church and the Morals of the Manicheans 2. 6. 8.

193. Apocalypse 20 speaks of two resurrections. A. says the first is that from sin. The second is the general physical resurrection. In between the holy ones reign on earth for 1000 years - i.e., they are masters of selves, not slaves to sin. 1000 yrs. stands for all time from ascension to parousia.

197. This is a rubbing out of the line between the ordinary and the extraordinary. The results were sad: see answer to # 148.

207. Predestination in general is an arrangement of Providence to see that this person gets: 1) to heaven or hell - or 2) to see that this person gets full membership in the People of God. Scripture speaks directly only of the second. Negative reprobation is letting a soul go to hell. A. and the Fathers in general missed the distinction of the two kinds of predestination.

208. There is no solid objection to predestination without merits. Predestination with considering merits would be a vicious circle, for our merits are gifts of God as A. says in Epistle 194, and St. Paul in 1 Cor 4. 7.

A. held predestination without merits, reprobation also without considering demerits. The latter is incompatible with God's will that all be saved: 1 Tim 2. 4.

209. A. believed, by allegorical interpretation of Romans 9. 20-24 that our whole race became a "damned and damnable mass" by original sin. God could send all to hell without waiting for personal sin. But He blindly decrees to rescue a small percent to show mercy; to desert the rest to show justice. There is nothing at all in Scripture to support his view. It contradicts 1 Tim 2. 4:God wills all to be saved.

210. The Greek Fathers and Latin Fathers before A. all rejected negative reprobation without demerits. St. Prosper of Aquitaine did the same, though considered a great defender of A. He said that first the sinner deserts God, only then does God desert the sinner.

220. Six times he contradicted by implication negative reprobation without demerits. One case is the parable of the banquet to which all are invited, few come. He says those who did not come have only themselves to blame. In massa damnata the desertion by God would come first.

221. Ep. 194:"When God crowns your merits, He crowns nothing other than His own gifts." Phil 2. 13 says we cannot even make a good act of will unless God so moves us.

223. Three logical moments in God's decrees: 1)He wills all to be saved, really and strongly 2) He looks to see who rejects His graces gravely and so persistently that they could not be saved: He lets them go. Negative reprobation in view of demerits.

224. A. thought God really hated Esau, destined him to hell without looking a demerits. He misunderstood Malachi as cited by St. Paul. A. did not know Hebrew and Aramaic lack degrees of comparison. So to hate often means to love less. He thought because Christ did not work miracles in Tyre and Sidon He did not want them to be saved: A's trouble was rubbing out line of ordinary and extraordinary. If God gives ample ordinary graces, He does will them to be saved.