To Florus 1.17

Writing to the man whose devotion to his books astonishes him, occupied as that man is with the hardships of military service, he reports that Alypius brought him some sheets headed: 'Passages from a book Augustine wrote, against which I have excerpted a few things from some books.' Augustine continues: 'Here I see that the person who sent these writings to Your Eminence wanted to excerpt them from books unknown to me, in order, as I suppose, to obtain a quicker reply and not postpone your urgent request. When I considered what books these might be, I supposed they were those Julian mentions in the letter he sent to Rome, a copy of which reached me at the same time. There he says: “They even say that the marriages now taking place were not instituted by God. This can be read in Augustine's book, which I have just answered in four little books.”' After these words Augustine adds in his own voice: 'I believe these passages were excerpted from those little books. It might therefore have been better for me to devote my attention to refuting and disproving the whole work he set out in four volumes, except that I too was unwilling to delay my reply, just as you did not delay sending the writings that required an answer' (Augustine, On Marriage and Concupiscence 2.2). Here, then, he shows perfectly clearly that he suspects those excerpts were hastily collected from my work. He does not know the complete books, yet dares to say that he could have answered them.