To Florus 4.56
When he says that abstinence from foods will be taught, an intelligent reader understands that he is not accusing Christian restraint or announcing the possible appearance of people who prescribe the ordeal of fasting (compare 1 Timothy 4:1–4). Rather, he shows that people would arise who said that all the animals God created for mortals’ food were polluted by the devil’s evil because they were born through desire and sexual union. He then expressed the consequence: foods must be renounced if their reproduction is believed devilish. That is why you remove this slander against bodily union from animals, so that your pretense can survive. Yet you say that human beings, made in God’s image, belong to the demon’s jurisdiction because of this very desire in those who beget them (compare Genesis 1:26–27). Both you and Manichaeus therefore have one reason for disparaging substances and transferring them to the devil. But he condemns every animal because of this feeling experienced in a natural act; you condemn not all, but—what is uglier—the better ones. You acquit pigs, dogs, and donkeys to appear to avoid the Manichaeans. But for the very same reason as Manichaeus you condemn all human beings, who were made in God’s image. Placing natural evil nowhere except in God’s image, you declaim against us as accuser of the saints and defender of donkeys (1 Timothy 4:1–4) (Genesis 1:26–27).
Latin
Nam hoc quod ait, abstinere a cibis docendum fore, non utique apud prudentem arguit Christianorum parcitatem, aut denuntiat posse existere homines qui inediae discrimen indicant; sed ostendit, quoniam cum exorirentur, qui dicerent animalia omnia victibus a Deo creata mortalium, quia de concupiscentia et commixtione sexus nascerentur, diabolico malo esse polluta, quid consequeretur expressit, videlicet renuntiandum esse alimentis, si eorum propagatio diabolica crederetur. Unde et tu hanc infamationem commixtionis corporum ab animalibus removes, ut subsistat ratio simulandi. Homines tamen qui ad imaginem Dei facti sunt, propter hanc ipsam concupiscentiam generantium, dicis ad ius daemonis pertinere. Ambo igitur, tu et Manichaeus unam habetis causam substantiarum vituperandarum et transcribendarum diabolo; sed ille propter hanc affectionem quae sentitur in naturali opere, universas damnat animantes; tu autem non omnes, sed quod est foedius, meliores. Absolvis enim sues, canes, et asinos, ut Manichaeos vitare videaris; sed damnas, propter hoc idem quod Manichaeus, omnes homines qui ad imaginem Dei facti sunt; ac nusquam malum naturale constituens nisi in imagine Dei, concionaris contra nos, accusator sanctorum et patronus asinorum.