To Turbantius — fragments in Against Julian — Book 3
Julian of Eclanum (c. 386–c. 455) was bishop of Eclanum in southern Italy until 418, when he was deposed and exiled for refusing to condemn Pelagius. The most learned Pelagian controversialist, he pursued Augustine across a decade of pamphlet war.
None of Julian's works survives directly; what remains is preserved in the long quotations of Augustine, who answered him book by book. Reconstructed from those hostile pages, Julian emerges as a formidable defender of free will, marriage, and the goodness of creation.
This volume gathers the surviving arguments: the six books To Florus with the earlier fragments and letter material, each with its source locator.
© 2026 SaneApps. This translation is free to share and adapt, even commercially, as long as you credit SaneApps. Draft translation, prepared with AI assistance and not yet independently reviewed. Verify against the original before citing.
We could not plead our case before those judges, because no one deliberates well about doubtful matters…§§3.1.2–3.5.11
3.1.2We could not plead our case before those judges, because no one deliberates well about doubtful matters unless they come with a heart free from hatred, anger, and friendship. Those who judged our case were not like that: they began to hate it before they knew it.
If anyone says that human beings have free will or that God creates those who are born, they are called a Pelagian and a Caelestian.
3.1.3The emperor’s reply was in our favor.
3.1.4One man has come forward who wants people to think that the whole battle depends on him.
We are called new heretics because we maintain that every evil defined as sin consists in the will alone, not in nature.
3.1.5The side that substitutes terror in a discussion is suffering from a lack of reasons. It wins no agreement from the wise, but forces blind agreement from the fearful.
3.2.7He has spoken against himself. To defend himself, he said that the new heretics call him and his party condemners of marriage and of God’s work. Then he took that back by saying that God and the devil possess a newborn human being in half shares—or rather, that the devil possesses the whole person, with God completely excluded, as it were, from his entire possession, the human being.
3.3.8The grace of baptism need not be changed according to the circumstances, since it distributes its own gifts according to the capacity of those who come to it. So Christ, who is the redeemer of his own work, continually increases his gifts to his image with generous kindness. Those whom he made good by creating them, he makes better by renewing and adopting them.
3.4.10The care of the body has been entrusted to the soul in such a way that both share in the fruit of the action: either the joys of practiced virtue, or the penalties for recklessness, together with the suffering of the flesh that the soul failed to govern well here.
At the beginning of life, human nature is rich with the gift of innocence.
3.5.11There is no sin in infants, because sin cannot exist without the will, which is absent in them.
Latin · §§3.1.2–3.5.11
§3.1.2
Apud quos propterea - dicis - non potuisse vos agere causam vestram, quia nemode rebus dubiis bene consultat, nisi qui ab odio, ira et amicitia vacuum pectus attulerit; quales non fuisse - dicis - qui de causa vestra iudicaverunt, quia prius eam coeperunt odisse quam nosse
Si quis aut liberum in hominibus arbitrium, aut Deum esse nascentium conditorem dixerit, Pelagianus et Caelestianus vocatur
§3.1.3
pro vobis potius ab Imperatore responsum est
§3.1.4
unum
egressum, qui in se summam proelii sitam optat intellegi
propterea vos novos haereticos dici, quia omne malum quod peccatum definitur, asseritis non in natura, sed in sola voluntate consistere
§3.1.5
Laborare illam partem rationis inopia, quae in disserendo cum terrorem subrogat, nullum a prudentibus impetrat, sed caecum a meticulosis extorquet assensum
§3.2.7
Contra me ipsum locutum me fuisse: qui cum propter meam defensionem dixerim, ab haereticis novis dici nos damnatores esse nuptiarum, operisque divini, postea id abstulerim, dicendo in semis unciis possideri hominem nascentem a Deo et a diabolo, vel potius totum a diabolo possideri, prorsus excluso Deo velut ab universa sua possessione, quod est homo
§3.3.8
gratiam Baptismatis
non pro causis esse mutandam, quod ipsa dona sua pro accidentium capacitate dispensat. Ideoque Christus qui est sui operis redemptor, auget - inquis - circa imaginem suam continua largitate beneficia; et quos fecerat condendo bonos, facit innovando adoptandoque meliores
§3.4.10
Administrationem corporis sic animo esse commissam, ut fructus operis fieret utrique communis, et vel virtutis exercitae gaudia, vel insolentiae poenas cum eius quam hic non bene rexerat, carnis afflictione sentiret
Naturam - dicis - humanam in exordiis nascentium innocentiae dote locupletem
innocentiae
dote locupletem
§3.5.11
ideo in parvulis non esse delictum, quia sine voluntate, quae in eis nulla est, esse non potest
I will not let him escape, but will question him closely and briefly: does he think an action is guilty in…§§3.6.13–3.10.20
3.6.13I will not let him escape, but will question him closely and briefly: does he think an action is guilty in infants, or their nature?
If an action, show what they have done. If their nature, show who made it.
3.7.14Human nature is worthy of praise.
They are guilty for the very fact that they exist.
Fruitfulness is to be condemned.
3.7.15Every union of bodies is evil.
Children are born from a union of bodies.
Therefore the children who come from an evil act are evil.
3.7.16The purpose of the sexes is bodily union.
If bodily union is always evil, then the condition of bodies formed as different sexes is also shameful.
Since you will not be able to deny this…
3.8.17God cannot be the author of an evil thing.
Therefore all bodies are credited to an evil author.
3.9.18The good God, through whom everything was made, himself formed the parts of our body.
He who made bodies also distinguished the sexes. He made them different in form in order to join them in action; the difference between their organs supplied the reason for their union.
Therefore the union of bodies comes from the same source as bodies themselves.
Once you have conceded this, however unwillingly, it follows that so many good things—bodies, sexes, unions—cannot have evil fruits.
3.9.19Human beings are made by God for the purpose of being held by the devil under a lawful claim.
3.10.20Perhaps he will say that we must establish from the testimony of Scripture, rather than from syllogisms, that children born from bodily union are to be counted as God’s work.
To state faithfully how these works take place, the prophet came close to risking modesty, because he said: “The two will be one flesh” (Genesis 2:24).
Latin · §§3.6.13–3.10.20
§3.6.13
non me patieris elabi, sed presse interrogabis et breviter: In parvulis actionem ream, an naturam putem
Si actionem - inquis - ostende quid fecerint; si naturam, ostende quis eam fecerit
§3.7.14
naturam hominum esse laudabilem
Ob hoc ipsum reos esse, quia sunt
Fecunditatem esse reprobandam
§3.7.15
Omnis commixtio corporum mala
Filii autem de corporum commixtione nascuntur
Nequam igitur filii, qui de mala operatione procedunt
§3.7.16
Causa sexuum commixtio corporum
Si mala semper commixtio, deformis etiam condicio corporum in sexuum diversitate positorum
Si mala semper commixtio, deformis etiam condicio corporum in sexuum diversitate positorum
Quod cum negare nequiveris
§3.8.17
Rei autem malae Deus auctor esse non potest
Omnia igitur corpora malo reputantur auctori
§3.9.18
Deus - inquis - bonus, per quem facta sunt omnia, ipse corporis nostri membra formavit
Qui autem corpora fecerat, divisit et sexum: divisit in specie, quod in operatione coniungeret; fecitque causam coniunctionum dissimilitudo membrorum
Ab ipso igitur commixtio corporum, a quo est origo corporum
Quod cum ingratis, - inquis - concesseris, sequitur tot rerum bonarum, corporum, sexuum, coniunctionum, malos fructus esse non posse
§3.9.19
homines ad hoc a Deo fieri, ut a diabolo legitimo iure teneantur
§3.10.20
Quod forsitan dicam, Scripturarum, non syllogismorum debere testimonio comprobari, filios de corporum commixtione nascentes, reputari divino operi
Ut exprimeret fidem operum Propheta, prope periculum pudoris accessit, quia dixit: Erunt duo in carne una [n22]
Sexual desire was restored by God’s gift to Abraham and Sarah when old age had worn them out and their…§§3.11.21–3.16.30
3.11.21Sexual desire was restored by God’s gift to Abraham and Sarah when old age had worn them out and their bodies were as good as dead.
Let him say, if he can, that something he sees God sometimes bestow as a gift belongs to the devil’s work.
3.11.23Isaac was conceived without sexual desire or a man’s seed.
3.12.24Even if the devil created human beings, they would be evil through no fault of their own. So they would no longer be evil at all: no one can be anything other than what they were born to be, and it is not just to demand more from someone than they can do.
3.13.26Its general kind lies in the fire of life; its particular form in the movement of the sexual organs; its proper measure in marital intercourse; its excess in the lack of restraint involved in sexual immorality.
3.13.27Sexual desire’s origin is therefore rightly defined as lying in the fire of life. Once this has been established, bodily desire must be attributed to the one through whom bodily life came into being.
So this appetite is not blameworthy in its general kind, its particular form, or its proper measure, but in its excess. Its kind and form belong to the Creator’s work; its measure to the choice of honorable conduct; its excess to the fault of the will.
3.14.28Sexual desire is interrupted by bodily weakness.
In married people it is exercised honorably; in those who abstain it is restrained by virtue.
The fourth thing—the excess of that pleasure—is committed by the sexually unrestrained. Since it arises from recklessness, not from nature, it is rightly condemned.
3.15.29Marital chastity is indignant that some have committed what is forbidden, and marvels that others have renounced even what is permitted. Assigned the territory at the furthest boundary, it condemns the savagery of those who rush beyond it and reveres the radiance of those who shine above it. With modest hands it both tends those burning with desire and praises those who do not need such a remedy.
3.16.30On careful examination, marriage cannot win approval if it is praised only by comparison with evil.
Latin · §§3.11.21–3.16.30
§3.11.21
hanc fuisse redditam Dei munere Abrahae et Sarrae senio confectis emortuisque corporibus
ut asseram si possum, ad opus diaboli pertinere, quod Deum videam interdum conferre pro munere
§3.11.23
Isaac sine concupiscentia carnis vel semine viri fuisse procreatum
§3.12.24
Etiamsi diabolus crearet homines, nulla culpa sua mali essent; et ideo iam nec mali essent, quia esse quisquam nisi quod natus est, non potest, nec ab eo iustum est aliquid amplius flagitare quam potest
§3.13.26
huius genus esse
in igne vitali, speciem in motu genitali, modum in opere coniugali, excessum in intemperantia fornicandi
§3.13.27
Merito igitur - inquis - concupiscentiae origo definitur in igne vitali, quo collecto necesse est ut ei reputetur concupiscentia carnalis, per quem constitit vita carnalis
Huius itaque appetitus non in genere suo, non in specie, non in modo culpa est, sed in excessu: quia genus eius et species ad conditoris operam pertinent, modus eius ad arbitrium honestatis, excessus ad vitium voluntatis
§3.14.28
intercipi debilitate libidinem
Aut in coniugibus - inquis - cum honestate exercetur, aut in castis virtute frenatur
In coniugibus cum honestate exercetur
Quartum - inquis - a lascivientibus perpetratur, id est, illius voluptatis excessus, et quia de insolentia, non de natura contingit - inquis - iure damnatur
§3.15.29
quae illos illicita commisisse indignatur, hos etiam licita contempsisse miratur; ultimi limitis sortita regionem, ultra se proruentium exsecrata barbariem, supra se micantium venerata fulgorem, quae verecundis manibus et confovet aestuantes, et laudat tali remedio non egentes
§3.16.30
Examinate non posse placere connubium, si mali comparatione laudatur
The event was prophetic of what has now been shown in the region of Africa: neither the husband nor the…§§3.17.31–3.20.39
3.17.31The event was prophetic of what has now been shown in the region of Africa: neither the husband nor the chastity of the beautiful and holy woman who represented the church was safe, and she was kept unharmed there by God’s action.
We must pray to this God, most blessed brother Turbantius, dearest fellow priest, that in this time too, by equally mighty acts, he will not delay in rescuing the catholic church—the mature, fruitful, chaste, and beautiful bride of his Son—from violation by the Manichaeans who carry on their raids in Africa or from Africa.
3.17.33But from this digression, into which the force of grief carried me, I return to what I had begun.
He who made the first human being from dust forms everyone from seed.
The defense of natural sin is strangled in these snares.
3.18.34Married people conceived without bodily warmth.
God did not make the human being; or he made the human being for the devil; or the devil made the human being.
Isaac too was formed from that same pleasure of sexual desire.
The hand of divine providence is at work even in the sexual organs of sinners.
3.18.35“And how will God judge the world? For if God’s truth has abounded through my lie to his glory, why am I still judged as a sinner?” (Romans 3:6–7)
By these words the apostle shows that God would have lost the authority to judge if he had not kept within proper bounds in commanding.
The apostle said this to restrain those who maintained that the sins of mortals increase God’s praise, and that he therefore commanded impossible things in order to provide himself with an occasion for mercy. This judgment of the apostle shows that human beings are rightly judged because they failed to do what was possible. They would be judged unjustly if they had failed to do things they were commanded to do but could not do.
3.19.36Complete ignorance should be understood to be called righteousness, because God said to Abimelech, who was about to lie with Sarah without knowing that she was another man’s wife: “I too knew that you did this with a clean heart” (Genesis 20:6). Thus the condition of those who are born is not harmed by the will of those who conceive them. Even if that will were evil, it would not come within the children’s knowledge in any way.
Infants are born neither righteous nor unrighteous; their own actions will make them so. Infancy is simply rich with the gift of innocence.
A human being is therefore born full of innocence, but capable of virtue, and will deserve praise or blame according to the purpose subsequently chosen.
3.19.37[Through Abraham’s prayer, sexual desire was restored to the women, for it is written:] “God had closed every womb in Abimelech’s household because of Sarah, Abraham’s wife” (Genesis 20:18).
3.20.39Why would God look for righteous people in Sodom (Genesis 18:23–32), if nature made them the way they were?
Latin · §§3.17.31–3.20.39
§3.17.31
Factum fuisse propheticum, quod nunc ostensum est in regione Africae; pulchrae et sanctae mulieris, quae Ecclesiae formam tenebat, tutum non esse vel coniugem, vel pudorem, et quia ibi divinitus intacta servata est
Orandus est hic Deus, frater beatissime Turbanti, consacerdos dilectissime, ut paribus etiam hac tempestate virtutibus Ecclesiam catholicam, Filii sui sponsam, maturam, fecundam, castam, decoram, a Manichaeorum constupratione, in Africa vel ex Africa latrocinantium, eruere non moretur
Multo magis a Baptismate prohiberi non debet infans, qui recens natus nihil peccavit, nisi quod secundum Adam carnaliter natus, contagium mortis antiquae prima nativitate contraxit, ut ei remittantur non propria, sed aliena peccata
§3.17.32
Poenus disputator
§3.17.33
Sed ab hoc digressu, quo te impetus
doloris
abstulerat, ad ea quae institueras
ille, qui primum hominem fecit ex pulvere, omnes fabricetur ex semine
ullis laqueis tuis peccati naturalis suffocatur assertio
§3.18.34
coniuges sine corporum calore generaverint
hominem Deus non fecerit, aut diabolo fecerit, aut diabolus fecerit
ex eadem concupiscentiae voluptate concretum etiam Isaac
Peccatorum quoque genitalibus manum divinae providentiae interesse
§3.18.35
Per haec sua verba Apostolum ostendere, amisisse Deum auctoritatem iudicandi, si modum non tenuit imperandi
ad hoc ista dixit Apostolus, ut sese cohiberent, qui asserebant laudi Dei proficere peccata mortalium, eumque ideo impossibilia praecepisse, ut miserendi sibi materiam praepararet: et per hanc apostolicam sententiam - sicut existimas - demonstratur, propterea recte iudicari homines, quia praecepta possibilia non fecerunt; iniuste autem iudicarentur, si ea non fecissent, quae impossibilia iuberentur
§3.19.36
Ex hoc intellegi debere perfectam ignorantiam iustitiam nominari, quia dixit Deus ad Abimelech, qui cum Sarra fuerat concubiturus, ignorans quod uxor esset aliena: Et ego sciebam quia in corde mundo fecisti hoc [n49] . Et ideo nascentium statum, generantium voluntate non laedi: quia etsi mala esset - inquis - tamen ad illorum nullo genere scientiam perveniret
Nec iustos nasci parvulos, nec iniustos, quod futuri sunt actibus suis; sed tantummodo infantiam innocentiae dote locupletem?
Homo igitur innocentia quidem plenus, sed virtutis capax nascitur, aut laudem, aut reprehensionem ex proposito accedente, meriturus
§3.19.37
Miror tamen quod isto exemplo a te commemorato, quod non potes, conaris efficere; et non ibi vides quod non vis audire. Conaris enim ut credatur, orante Abraham, libido reddita esse mulieribus, quia scriptum est: Concluserat Deus aforis omnem vulvam in domo Abimelech, propter Sarram uxorem Abrahae [n51] . Hanc enim conclusionem sic vis intellegi, tamquam libido fuerit illis feminis Deo indignante detracta; cum magis indicetur his verbis, aliqua valetudine vulva conclusa, ut aut impraegnanda concumbere femina, aut parere impraegnata non posset; et non attendisti, homo qui non vis iudicio divino quemquam, non suis, sed alienis plecti posse peccatis, quomodo fieri potuerit ut Abimelech peccaret, quamvis nec ipse adulterino corde peccaverit, et Deus quantulum cum que peccatum eius in mulieribus ad eum pertinentibus vindicaret. Vides contagionem transire peccati de viro in feminas, quibus miscebatur, vel quibus dominabatur; et in prolem de parentibus non vis, ex quorum seminibus propagatur. Considera igitur, quam sit inscrutabilis altitudo iudiciorum sapientiae et scientiae Dei [n52] ; et garrire desine contra originalis secreta peccati.
§3.20.39
Qua ratione quaereret iustos in Sodomis Deus [n53] , si illos tales natura faciebat?
The apostle praised sexual desire by calling the use of a woman natural, when he said that some men…§§3.20.40–3.23.53
3.20.40The apostle praised sexual desire by calling the use of a woman natural, when he said that some men “abandoned the natural use of the woman and burned in their desire for one another” (Romans 1:27).
3.20.41The people of Sodom also sinned in their use of the created goods of bread and wine.
3.21.42I will give a brief reminder, so that what has been argued throughout the book may remain in the reader’s heart.
Whoever keeps natural desire within its proper measure uses a good thing well. Whoever does not keep within its measure uses a good thing badly. Whoever, out of love for holy virginity, has renounced even that proper measure does better by not using a good thing. Confident of their health and strength, they have rejected remedies so that they may engage in glorious contests.
3.21.47He is like the drug seller who promised an animal that would eat itself.
Marriage is both a great good and a great evil.
3.21.48He follows Epicurus’s paths and cuts every rein by which desires are restrained.
3.22.51Where is the original evil?
Why is a human being whom God made under the devil?
What does the devil recognize there as his own, if he created neither what was made nor that from which it was made?
Among so many good things, where does the evil in infants come from?
3.23.52A human being is not guilty if born from sexual immorality, but is not innocent if born from marriage.
He charges all parents’ sins to all their children.
3.23.53When adulterers conceive a child, a human being is born from the power of the seed, not from the shamefulness of the wrongdoing.
The most false part of his position is the statement: “The goodness of marriage cannot be accused on account of the original evil derived from it.”
If evil is derived from it, it can be accused and cannot be excused.
Every cause of evil is without good.
Latin · §§3.20.40–3.23.53
§3.20.40
Apostolum ex hoc laudasse libidinem, quia usum feminae dixit esse naturalem, ubi ait, quosdam relicto naturali usu feminae, exarsisse in appetitum suum in invicem [n54]
§3.20.41
Etiam Sodomitas et in panis ac vini peccasse creatura
§3.21.42
Breviter admonere te - dicis - ut lectoris pectori haereat, quod toto libro abs te gestum est
Concupiscentiae naturalis qui modum tenet - inquis - bono bene utitur; qui modum non tenet, bono male utitur; qui autem etiam ipsum modum sanctae virginitatis amore contempserit bono melius non utitur; confidentia quippe suae salutis - inquis - et roboris, contempsit remedia, ut gloriosa posset exercere certamina
Sanctam virginitatem confidentia suae salutis et roboris contempsisse remedia, ut gloriosa posset exercere certamina
quae verecundis manibus et confovet aestuantes, et laudat tali remedio non egentes
Quando ego istam concupiscentiam morbum esse dico, quare tu negas, qui tamen ei necessarium remedium confiteris? Si agnoscis remedium, agnosce morbum: si negas morbum, nega remedium. Rogo, cede aliquando etiam per os tuum tibi loquenti veritati: nemo providet remedium sanitati
§3.21.47
sum pharmacopolae similis - ut dicis - qui promittebat bestiam, quae se ipsam comesset
nuptias et magnum bonum et magnum malum
§3.21.48
Epicuri vias gradientem habenas omnes, quibus cupiditates frenantur, incidere
§3.22.51
ubi sit originale malum
unde sit homo sub diabolo, quem Deus fecit?
Quid ibi cognoscit - inquis - diabolus suum, si nec quod factum, nec unde factum est, ipse condidit?
inter tot bona, unde sit in parvulis malum
§3.23.52
Hominem, si de fornicatione nascatur, reum non esse; si de coniugio, innocentem non esse
quia peccata omnium parentum omnibus filiis imputarem
exerces gloriosa certamina
§3.23.53
Quando adulteri gignunt, nascitur homo de virtute seminum, non de turpitudine flagitiorum
sententiae meae pars falsissima est, qua dixi: Nuptiarum bonum malo originali, quod inde trahitur, non potest accusari
Si malum inde trahitur, accusari potest, excusari non potest
omnem causam mali esse expertem boni
A thing does not escape punishment when other things incur guilt by sharing in it. If original evil is…§§3.24.54–3.26.61
3.24.54A thing does not escape punishment when other things incur guilt by sharing in it.
If original evil is derived from marriage too, the marital union is a cause of evil.
3.24.55Through what is sin found in infants?
Parents who, through their union, supplied the cause of sin are rightly liable to condemnation. By their work they brought it about that the devil gained the power to rule over human beings.
The origin of those who are born comes from the devil, because the origin of sin, without which no human being is born, is said to come from the devil.
3.24.56Where is the crack among so many defenses of innocence through which sin could enter?
The devil’s work is not allowed to pass through God’s work.
If nature comes from God, original evil cannot be in it.
3.25.57Marriage was instituted differently before Adam’s sin: it could exist without sexual desire, without bodily movement, and without the need for the sexes.
3.25.58He declares that the infants who have filled the world, for whom Christ died, are the devil’s work, born from a disease, and guilty from their beginning.
3.26.59If, before sin, God created that from which human beings would be born, while the devil supplied what would stir their parents, holiness is certainly to be ascribed to those born, and guilt to those who conceive them.
3.26.60Infants belong to the good of fruitfulness, which God’s blessing established before the disease of desire, not to the disease of desire itself, if that arose afterward when people sinned. Therefore holiness must be ascribed to those born, and guilt to those who conceive them.
3.26.61The apostle was portraying a Jewish person living under the law when he said: “I know that good does not dwell in me, that is, in my flesh” (Romans 7:18); “It is not I who do it, but sin that dwells in me” (Romans 7:17); “Evil lies close beside me” (Romans 7:21); and “I see another law in my members, fighting against the law of my mind” (Romans 7:23).
Latin · §§3.24.54–3.26.61
§3.24.54
Non evadit - inquis - res illa supplicium, cuius participatione etiam alia trahunt reatum
Si trahitur - inquis - et de nuptiis originale malum, causa mali est conventio nuptiarum
§3.24.55
per quid peccatum inveniatur in parvulis
Parentes - inquis - qui conventu suo causam fecere peccato, iure damnabiles; quorum labore actum est ut ad dominatum exercendum in homines diabolus perveniret
a diabolo ducitur origo nascentium
quia dicitur a diabolo esse origo peccati, sine quo nullus nascitur hominum
§3.24.56
Rimam - quaeris - inter tot innocentiae praesidia, qua potuerit intrare peccatum
Quia per opus Dei opus diaboli transire non sinitur
Si natura per Deum est, non potest in ea esse originale malum
§3.25.57
Aliam fuisse nuptiarum institutionem ante peccatum Adae, quae sine concupiscentia, sine motu corporum, sine necessitate sexuum esse potuissent
§3.25.58
eos parvulos qui mundum impleverunt, pro quibus Christus mortuus est, diaboli opus, et de morbo natos, et ab exordio reos definiam
§3.26.59
Si ante peccatum - inquis - per Deum creatum est unde homines nascerentur, per diabolum autem unde parentes commoverentur; adscribitur sine dubio sanctitas nascentibus, et culpa generantibus
Parentes commoverentur
Fieret sine isto morbo seminatio filiorum in corpore vitae illius, sine quo nunc fieri non potest in corpore mortis huius
§3.26.60
Ad bonum fecunditatis parvulos pertinere, quae Dei benedictione ante morbum libidinis instituta est; non ad ipsum libidinis morbum, si postea peccantibus accidit; atque ideo sanctitatem adscribendam esse nascentibus, et generantibus culpam
§3.26.61
Non enim, sicut tu argumentaris: "Iudaeum sub lege positum describebat Apostolus dicentem: Scio quia non habitat in me, hoc est in carne mea, bonum; et: Non ego operor illud, sed quod habitat in me, peccatum; et: Mihi malum adiacet; et: Video aliam legem in membris meis, repugnantem legi mentis meae [n75] ; sed describebat humanam in hac corruptibili carne naturam, non opere Dei cum vitio primitus institutam, sed ex voluntatis arbitrio veniente primorum hominum vitio sauciatam. Cuius enim vox est: Infelix ego homo, quis me liberabit de corpore mortis huius? Gratia Dei per Iesum Christum Dominum nostrum [n76] ? Numquid Iudaei? Absit; sed sine dubitatione Christiani. Eius ergo voces sunt etiam illae superiores, ex quibus haec consequenter expressa est. Ipse enim dixit: Gratia Dei me liberabit de corpore mortis huius per Iesum Christum Dominum nostrum; qui dicebat: Video aliam legem in membris meis, repugnantem legi mentis meae [n77] .
In agreement with the holy Scriptures and the surest reason, we defend the absence of evil in nature in…§§3.26.64–3.26.65
3.26.64In agreement with the holy Scriptures and the surest reason, we defend the absence of evil in nature in order to encourage people to strive for virtue. We insist that no height of virtue is so difficult that, with God’s help, a faithful mind cannot reach it. We therefore say that there is no necessity of evil in the flesh, so that everyone, created in a praiseworthy way, may be ashamed to live shamefully. In this way, praise of their inborn nobility brings a sense of shame to bear against disgraceful laziness.
There is no doubt that the overthrow of holiness, the pollution of chastity, and the ruin of morals fit his teachings—indeed, are inherent in them. He will not deny it: he turns the filth of bad conduct into an accusation against nature in order to remove sinners’ fear, and consoles their obscenities by insulting the apostles and all the saints. For he recalls that the apostle Paul, that golden vessel, often said: “I do not do the good that I want, but I do the evil that I hate” (Romans 7:15, 19), and similar things.
3.26.65The whole purpose of his thinking is to swear allegiance to vices so as to wage war on virtues, and to strive with every trick and every fury for the destruction of God’s city. He frightens those resisting shameful conduct by making them despair of attaining chastity. He falsely claims that obscene desire has such strength that reason cannot govern and restrain it, and that even the army of the apostles did not resist it.
Latin · §§3.26.64–3.26.65
§3.26.64
Haec enim quae a impudentibus impudenter laudatur, pudenda concupiscentia
tamquam Scripturis sanctis et rationi certissimae congruentes, eo proposito non esse in natura malum defendatis, ut ad virtutum studia homines incitetis; inculcantes nullum culmen ita arduum esse virtutis, ut non ad illud adiuvante Deo mens queat fidelis evadere; atque ob hoc dicatis non esse in carne mali necessitatem, ut erubescat unusquisque laudabiliter conditus, deformiter vivere, ac sic pudor turpi occurrat ignaviae de commendatione nobilitatis ingenitae
quod dubium non sit eversionem sanctitatis, contaminationem pudicitiae, morum labem nostris convenire, immo inesse dogmatibus: neque id esse me negaturum, qui ideo - sicut dicis - in naturae invidiam malae conversationis sordes refundo, ut peccantibus metum demam; quorum obscenitates, Apostolorum et sanctorum omnium consolor iniuriis, eo quod vas aureum apostolum Paulum saepe dixisse commemorem: Non enim quod volo bonum, hoc ago; sed quod odi malum, illud facio [n90]
§3.26.65
quod non sit alia mei sensus intentio, quam ad inferendum virtutibus bellum in vitiorum sacramenta iurare, et ad excidium civitatis Dei, omni astu, omni furore conniti, adipiscendae castitatis desperatione repugnantes turpitudini territare, mentiri me tantas obscenae libidinis vires, ut eam ratio regere ac frenare non possit, cui nec Apostolorum legio repugnaverit