To Florus 1.64
If you read my work, then, you will stop wondering why I returned to words of yours that I had quoted earlier. I had promised to prove from your writings that, caught between the impiety you had drunk in and the hatred it aroused that you feared, you had said both what catholics and what Manichaeans usually maintain. Here, then, is the sequence of words I placed next to your opening statement, which you now, with a false accuser's effrontery, have lied about my altering: “I know I have made a great promise: to prove from my opponent's words both that those who deny that human beings are God's work are rightly condemned, and that this man himself, who acknowledges them to be God's work, does nothing except establish that whatever comes from the fruitfulness of marriage is the devil's property. In this way the Manichaeans' opinion will be destroyed even by the principles of its own defense. But the whole opening of his book has made this plain. For he says that human beings born from marriage, that is, from males and females, are God's work. By this statement he overturns everything he was about to argue and agrees with us that those who dare to deny it are impious. One part is therefore already settled; it remains for me to show that he builds up what he had just attacked.” (John 3:3–5)
After saying this, I returned to the part of your opening statement where you had said: “We say that those born from such a union inherit original sin, and we do not deny that, whatever parents they are born from, they remain under the devil unless they are reborn in Christ (compare John 3:3–5) and, rescued through his grace from the power of darkness, are transferred into the kingdom of him who did not wish to be born from that same union of the two sexes” (Augustine, On Marriage and Concupiscence 1.1). Why, then, do you think you can be cleared of Manichaean error because you dared to insert a statement with which you were struggling with all the powers of your mind? This does not defend your error; it testifies to your extraordinary foolishness. You imagine, like Calliphon, that your speech can bring virtue and vice, justice and injustice, into an alliance. As for the apostle's words, “Who rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son” (Colossians 1:13), read the fourth book of my work, and then you will learn what the Teacher of the Nations meant.
Latin
Si igitur legas opus meum, desines mirari, cur ad verba tua, quae supra posueram, reverterim. Promiseram quippe me de scriptis tuis probaturum, quoniam tu inter impietatem quam biberas, et eius invidiam quam time s, pariter utrumque dixisses, et quod a Catholicis, et quod a Manichaeis asseri solet. Est itaque ibi talis ordo verborum admotus tuo capiti, quod nunc fronte sycophantae interpolatum fuisse mentitus es. Scio me magna pollicitum, id est, ut de adversarii sermonibus approbarem et eos, qui homines opus Dei negant, iure damnari, et istum ipsum, qui hoc confitetur, nihil aliud agere, quam ut peculium diaboli confirmet esse quidquid de nuptiarum fecunditate procedit. Hoc enim genere, patrocinii sui quoque legibus, Manichaeorum opinio destruetur. Verum id tota libri eius exordia publicarunt. Ait enim opus esse divinum homines, qui ex nuptiis, id est, ex maribus nascuntur et feminis; qua sententia omne quod erat acturus evertit, nobisque assentitur dicentibus esse impios, qui haec audeant denegare. Absoluta igitur iam una pars est: superest ut ostendam id eum, quod nuper impugnarat, astruere. Quibus dictis partem tui capitis retractavi, in qua dixeras: Eos, qui de tali commixtione nascuntur, dicimus trahere originale peccatum, eosque de parentibus qualibuscumque nascantur, non negamus adhuc esse sub diabolo, nisi renascantur in Christo, et per eius gratiam de potestate eruti tenebrarum, in regnum illius qui ex eadem sexus utriusque commixtione nasci noluit, transferantur [n117] . Cur ergo putes hinc te excusari posse ab errore Manichaeorum, quia ausus es sententiam, cum qua omnibus ingenii tui viribus luctabaris, inserere; cum hoc non patrocinium erroris tui, sed testimonium sit stultitiae singularis, qui putas Calliphontis more virtutem et vitia, iustitiam et iniquitatem oratione tua posse in foedera convenire? Quod autem ait Apostolus: Qui eruit nos de potestate tenebrarum, et transtulit in regnum Filii dilectionis suae [n118] ; lege quartum operis mei librum, et tunc tibi quid Magister Gentium senserit, innotescet.
About this text
Julian’s six preserved books to Florus, quoted section by section in Augustine’s unfinished reply. Augustine’s refutations are omitted. Latin of Julian’s words is on each section.
Julian’s own books do not survive as a separate manuscript. English follows his words as Augustine quotes them in the Unfinished Work Against Julian. Augustine’s replies are omitted. We do not restore a Julian text independent of Augustine.
Witnesses
- Copy-text Augustine, Unfinished Work Against Julian (Latin · Julian’s words as quoted, Books 1–6)
- Checked print Augustinus.it Latin of the Unfinished Work (Latin · Same work)
- Checked print Migne PL 45 (Latin · Hard cases)
This is an AI-assisted study translation. Source fidelity and completeness have not been independently certified. Open Latin on each section (or the Latin source witness link) for the source text. This is not a complete critical edition.