City of God
Augustine of Hippo (354–430)
First published 426
Augustine's De civitate Dei, staged here in the public-domain NPNF English translation by Marcus Dods.
Book 1
Caput I: Preface, Explaining His Design in Undertaking This Work.
Caput I: Of the Adversaries of the Name of Christ, Whom the Barbarians for Christ’s Sake Spared When They Stormed the City.
Caput II: That It is Quite Contrary to the Usage of War, that the Victors Should Spare the Vanquished for the Sake of Their Gods.
Caput III: That the Romans Did Not Show Their Usual Sagacity When They Trusted that They Would Be Benefited by the Gods Who Had Been Unable to Defend Troy.
Caput IV: Of the Asylum of Juno in Troy, Which Saved No One from the Greeks; And of the Churches of the Apostles, Which Protected from the Barbarians All Who Fled to Them.
Caput V: Cæsar’s Statement Regarding the Universal Custom of an Enemy When Sacking a City.
Caput VI: That Not Even the Romans, When They Took Cities, Spared the Conquered in Their Temples.
Caput VII: That the Cruelties Which Occurred in the Sack of Rome Were in Accordance with the Custom of War, Whereas the Acts of Clemency Resulted from the Influence of Christ’s Name.
Caput VIII: Of the Advantages and Disadvantages Which Often Indiscriminately Accrue to Good and Wicked Men.
Caput IX: Of the Reasons for Administering Correction to Bad and Good Together.
Caput X: That the Saints Lose Nothing in Losing Temporal Goods.
Caput XI: Of the End of This Life, Whether It is Material that It Be Long Delayed.
Caput XII: Of the Burial of the Dead: that the Denial of It to Christians Does Them No Injury.
Caput XIII: Reasons for Burying the Bodies of the Saints.
Caput XIV: Of the Captivity of the Saints, and that Divine Consolation Never Failed Them Therein.
Caput XV: Of Regulus, in Whom We Have an Example of the Voluntary Endurance of Captivity for the Sake of Religion; Which Yet Did Not Profit Him, Though He Was a Worshipper of the Gods.
Caput XVI: Of the Violation of the Consecrated and Other Christian Virgins, to Which They Were Subjected in Captivity and to Which Their Own Will Gave No Consent; And Whether This Contaminated Their Souls.
Caput XVII: Of Suicide Committed Through Fear of Punishment or Dishonor.
Caput XVIII: Of the Violence Which May Be Done to the Body by Another’s Lust, While the Mind Remains Inviolate.
Caput XIX: Of Lucretia, Who Put an End to Her Life Because of the Outrage Done Her.
Caput XX: That Christians Have No Authority for Committing Suicide in Any Circumstances Whatever.
Caput XXI: Of the Cases in Which We May Put Men to Death Without Incurring the Guilt of Murder.
Caput XXII: That Suicide Can Never Be Prompted by Magnanimity.
Caput XXIII: What We are to Think of the Example of Cato, Who Slew Himself Because Unable to Endure Cæsar’s Victory.
Caput XXIV: That in that Virtue in Which Regulus Excels Cato, Christians are Pre-Eminently Distinguished.
Caput XXV: That We Should Not Endeavor By Sin to Obviate Sin.
Caput XXVI: That in Certain Peculiar Cases the Examples of the Saints are Not to Be Followed.
Caput XXVII: Whether Voluntary Death Should Be Sought in Order to Avoid Sin.
Caput XXVIII: By What Judgment of God the Enemy Was Permitted to Indulge His Lust on the Bodies of Continent Christians.
Caput XXIX: What the Servants of Christ Should Say in Reply to the Unbelievers Who Cast in Their Teeth that Christ Did Not Rescue Them from the Fury of Their Enemies.
Caput XXX: That Those Who Complain of Christianity Really Desire to Live Without Restraint in Shameful Luxury.
Caput XXXI: By What Steps the Passion for Governing Increased Among the Romans.
Caput XXXII: Of the Establishment of Scenic Entertainments.
Caput XXXIII: That the Overthrow of Rome Has Not Corrected the Vices of the Romans.
Caput XXXIV: Of God’s Clemency in Moderating the Ruin of the City.
Caput XXXV: Of the Sons of the Church Who are Hidden Among the Wicked, and of False Christians Within the Church.
Caput XXXVI: What Subjects are to Be Handled in the Following Discourse.
Book 2
Caput I: Of the Limits Which Must Be Put to the Necessity of Replying to an Adversary.
Caput II: Recapitulation of the Contents of the First Book.
Caput III: That We Need Only to Read History in Order to See What Calamities the Romans Suffered Before the Religion of Christ Began to Compete with the Worship of the Gods.
Caput IV: That the Worshippers of the Gods Never Received from Them Any Healthy Moral Precepts, and that in Celebrating Their Worship All Sorts of Impurities Were Practiced.
Caput V: Of the Obscenities Practiced in Honor of the Mother of the Gods.
Caput VI: That the Gods of the Pagans Never Inculcated Holiness of Life.
Caput VII: That the Suggestions of Philosophers are Precluded from Having Any Moral Effect, Because They Have Not the Authority Which Belongs to Divine Instruction, and Because Man’s Natural Bias to Evil Induces Him Rather to Follow the Examples of the Gods Than to Obey the Precepts of Men.
Caput VIII: That the Theatrical Exhibitions Publishing the Shameful Actions of the Gods, Propitiated Rather Than Offended Them.
Caput IX: That the Poetical License Which the Greeks, in Obedience to Their Gods, Allowed, Was Restrained by the Ancient Romans.
Caput X: That the Devils, in Suffering Either False or True Crimes to Be Laid to Their Charge, Meant to Do Men a Mischief.
Caput XI: That the Greeks Admitted Players to Offices of State, on the Ground that Men Who Pleased the Gods Should Not Be Contemptuously Treated by Their Fellows.
Caput XII: That the Romans, by Refusing to the Poets the Same License in Respect of Men Which They Allowed Them in the Case of the Gods, Showed a More Delicate Sensitiveness Regarding Themselves than Regarding the Gods.
Caput XIII: That the Romans Should Have Understood that Gods Who Desired to Be Worshipped in Licentious Entertainments Were Unworthy of Divine Honor.
Caput XIV: That Plato, Who Excluded Poets from a Well-Ordered City, Was Better Than These Gods Who Desire to Be Honoured by Theatrical Plays.
Caput XV: That It Was Vanity, Not Reason, Which Created Some of the Roman Gods.
Caput XVI: That If the Gods Had Really Possessed Any Regard for Righteousness, the Romans Should Have Received Good Laws from Them, Instead of Having to Borrow Them from Other Nations.
Caput XVII: Of the Rape of the Sabine Women, and Other Iniquities Perpetrated in Rome’s Palmiest Days.
Caput XVIII: What the History of Sallust Reveals Regarding the Life of the Romans, Either When Straitened by Anxiety or Relaxed in Security.
Caput XIX: Of the Corruption Which Had Grown Upon the Roman Republic Before Christ Abolished the Worship of the Gods.
Caput XX: Of the Kind of Happiness and Life Truly Delighted in by Those Who Inveigh Against the Christian Religion.
Caput XXI: Cicero’s Opinion of the Roman Republic.
Caput XXII: That the Roman Gods Never Took Any Steps to Prevent the Republic from Being Ruined by Immorality.
Caput XXIII: That the Vicissitudes of This Life are Dependent Not on the Favor or Hostility of Demons, But on the Will of the True God.
Caput XXIV: Of the Deeds of Sylla, in Which the Demons Boasted that He Had Their Help.
Caput XXV: How Powerfully the Evil Spirits Incite Men to Wicked Actions, by Giving Them the Quasi-Divine Authority of Their Example.
Caput XXVI: That the Demons Gave in Secret Certain Obscure Instructions in Morals, While in Public Their Own Solemnities Inculcated All Wickedness.
Caput XXVII: That the Obscenities of Those Plays Which the Romans Consecrated in Order to Propitiate Their Gods, Contributed Largely to the Overthrow of Public Order.
Caput XXVIII: That the Christian Religion is Health-Giving.
Caput XXIX: An Exhortation to the Romans to Renounce Paganism.
Book 3
Caput I: Of the Ills Which Alone the Wicked Fear, and Which the World Continually Suffered, Even When the Gods Were Worshipped.
Caput II: Whether the Gods, Whom the Greeks and Romans Worshipped in Common, Were Justified in Permitting the Destruction of Ilium.
Caput III: That the Gods Could Not Be Offended by the Adultery of Paris, This Crime Being So Common Among Themselves.
Caput IV: Of Varro’s Opinion, that It is Useful for Men to Feign Themselves the Offspring of the Gods.
Caput V: That It is Not Credible that the Gods Should Have Punished the Adultery of Paris, Seeing They Showed No Indignation at the Adultery of the Mother of Romulus.
Caput VI: That the Gods Exacted No Penalty for the Fratricidal Act of Romulus.
Caput VII: Of the Destruction of Ilium by Fimbria, a Lieutenant of Marius.
Caput VIII: Whether Rome Ought to Have Been Entrusted to the Trojan Gods.
Caput IX: Whether It is Credible that the Peace During the Reign of Numa Was Brought About by the Gods.
Caput X: Whether It Was Desirable that The Roman Empire Should Be Increased by Such a Furious Succession of Wars, When It Might Have Been Quiet and Safe by Following in the Peaceful Ways of Numa.
Caput XI: Of the Statue of Apollo at Cumæ, Whose Tears are Supposed to Have Portended Disaster to the Greeks, Whom the God Was Unable to Succor.
Caput XII: That the Romans Added a Vast Number of Gods to Those Introduced by Numa, and that Their Numbers Helped Them Not at All.
Caput XIII: By What Right or Agreement The Romans Obtained Their First Wives.
Caput XIV: Of the Wickedness of the War Waged by the Romans Against the Albans, and of the Victories Won by the Lust of Power.
Caput XV: What Manner of Life and Death the Roman Kings Had.
Caput XVI: Of the First Roman Consuls, the One of Whom Drove the Other from the Country, and Shortly After Perished at Rome by the Hand of a Wounded Enemy, and So Ended a Career of Unnatural Murders.
Caput XVII: Of the Disasters Which Vexed the Roman Republic After the Inauguration of the Consulship, and of the Non-Intervention of the Gods of Rome.
Caput XVIII: The Disasters Suffered by the Romans in the Punic Wars, Which Were Not Mitigated by the Protection of the Gods.
Caput XIX: Of the Calamity of the Second Punic War, Which Consumed the Strength of Both Parties.
Caput XX: Of the Destruction of the Saguntines, Who Received No Help from the Roman Gods, Though Perishing on Account of Their Fidelity to Rome.
Caput XXI: Of the Ingratitude of Rome to Scipio, Its Deliverer, and of Its Manners During the Period Which Sallust Describes as the Best.
Caput XXII: Of the Edict of Mithridates, Commanding that All Roman Citizens Found in Asia Should Be Slain.
Caput XXIII: Of the Internal Disasters Which Vexed the Roman Republic, and Followed a Portentous Madness Which Seized All the Domestic Animals.
Caput XXIV: Of the Civil Dissension Occasioned by the Sedition of the Gracchi.
Caput XXV: Of the Temple of Concord, Which Was Erected by a Decree of the Senate on the Scene of These Seditions and Massacres.
Caput XXVI: Of the Various Kinds of Wars Which Followed the Building of the Temple of Concord.
Caput XXVII: Of the Civil War Between Marius and Sylla.
Caput XXVIII: Of the Victory of Sylla, the Avenger of the Cruelties of Marius.
Caput XXIX: A Comparison of the Disasters Which Rome Experienced During the Gothic and Gallic Invasions, with Those Occasioned by the Authors of the Civil Wars.
Caput XXX: Of the Connection of the Wars Which with Great Severity and Frequency Followed One Another Before the Advent of Christ.
Caput XXXI: That It is Effrontery to Impute the Present Troubles to Christ and the Prohibition of Polytheistic Worship Since Even When the Gods Were Worshipped Such Calamities Befell the People.
Book 4
Caput I: Of the Things Which Have Been Discussed in the First Book.
Caput II: Of Those Things Which are Contained in Books Second and Third.
Caput III: Whether the Great Extent of the Empire, Which Has Been Acquired Only by Wars, is to Be Reckoned Among the Good Things Either of the Wise or the Happy.
Caput IV: How Like Kingdoms Without Justice are to Robberies.
Caput V: Of the Runaway Gladiators Whose Power Became Like that of Royal Dignity.
Caput VI: Concerning the Covetousness of Ninus, Who Was the First Who Made War on His Neighbors, that He Might Rule More Widely.
Caput VII: Whether Earthly Kingdoms in Their Rise and Fall Have Been Either Aided or Deserted by the Help of the Gods.
Caput VIII: Which of the Gods Can the Romans Suppose Presided Over the Increase and Preservation of Their Empire, When They Have Believed that Even the Care of Single Things Could Scarcely Be Committed to Single Gods.
Caput IX: Whether the Great Extent and Long Duration of the Roman Empire Should Be Ascribed to Jove, Whom His Worshippers Believe to Be the Chief God.
Caput X: What Opinions Those Have Followed Who Have Set Divers Gods Over Divers Parts of the World.
Caput XI: Concerning the Many Gods Whom the Pagan Doctors Defend as Being One and the Same Jove.
Caput XII: Concerning the Opinion of Those Who Have Thought that God is the Soul of the World, and the World is the Body of God.
Caput XIII: Concerning Those Who Assert that Only Rational Animals are Parts of the One God.
Caput XIV: The Enlargement of Kingdoms is Unsuitably Ascribed to Jove; For If, as They Will Have It, Victoria is a Goddess, She Alone Would Suffice for This Business.
Caput XV: Whether It is Suitable for Good Men to Wish to Rule More Widely.
Caput XVI: What Was the Reason Why the Romans, in Detailing Separate Gods for All Things and All Movements of the Mind, Chose to Have the Temple of Quiet Outside the Gates.
Caput XVII: Whether, If the Highest Power Belongs to Jove, Victoria Also Ought to Be Worshipped.
Caput XVIII: With What Reason They Who Think Felicity and Fortune Goddesses Have Distinguished Them.
Caput XIX: Concerning Fortuna Muliebris.
Caput XX: Concerning Virtue and Faith, Which the Pagans Have Honored with Temples and Sacred Rites, Passing by Other Good Qualities, Which Ought Likewise to Have Been Worshipped, If Deity Was Rightly Attributed to These.
Caput XXI: That Although Not Understanding Them to Be the Gifts of God, They Ought at Least to Have Been Content with Virtue and Felicity.
Caput XXII: Concerning the Knowledge of the Worship Due to the Gods, Which Varro Glories in Having Himself Conferred on the Romans.
Caput XXIII: Concerning Felicity, Whom the Romans, Who Venerate Many Gods, for a Long Time Did Not Worship with Divine Honor, Though She Alone Would Have Sufficed Instead of All.
Caput XXIV: The Reasons by Which the Pagans Attempt to Defend Their Worshipping Among the Gods the Divine Gifts Themselves.
Caput XXV: Concerning the One God Only to Be Worshipped, Who, Although His Name is Unknown, is Yet Deemed to Be the Giver of Felicity.
Caput XXVI: Of the Scenic Plays, the Celebration of Which the Gods Have Exacted from Their Worshippers.
Caput XXVII: Concerning the Three Kinds of Gods About Which the Pontiff Scævola Has Discoursed.
Caput XXVIII: Whether the Worship of the Gods Has Been of Service to the Romans in Obtaining and Extending the Empire.
Caput XXIX: Of the Falsity of the Augury by Which the Strength and Stability of the Roman Empire Was Considered to Be Indicated.
Caput XXX: What Kind of Things Even Their Worshippers Have Owned They Have Thought About the Gods of the Nations.
Caput XXXI: Concerning the Opinions of Varro, Who, While Reprobating the Popular Belief, Thought that Their Worship Should Be Confined to One God, Though He Was Unable to Discover the True God.
Caput XXXII: In What Interest the Princes of the Nations Wished False Religions to Continue Among the People Subject to Them.
Caput XXXIII: That the Times of All Kings and Kingdoms are Ordained by the Judgment and Power of the True God.
Caput XXXIV: Concerning the Kingdom of the Jews, Which Was Founded by the One and True God, and Preserved by Him as Long as They Remained in the True Religion.
Book 5
Caput I: Preface
Caput I: That the Cause of the Roman Empire, and of All Kingdoms, is Neither Fortuitous Nor Consists in the Position of the Stars.
Caput II: On the Difference in the Health of Twins.
Caput III: Concerning the Arguments Which Nigidius the Mathematician Drew from the Potter’s Wheel, in the Question About the Birth of Twins.
Caput IV: Concerning the Twins Esau and Jacob, Who Were Very Unlike Each Other Both in Their Character and Actions.
Caput V: In What Manner the Mathematicians are Convicted of Professing a Vain Science.
Caput VI: Concerning Twins of Different Sexes.
Caput VII: Concerning the Choosing of a Day for Marriage, or for Planting, or Sowing.
Caput VIII: Concerning Those Who Call by the Name of Fate, Not the Position of the Stars, But the Connection of Causes Which Depends on the Will of God.
Caput IX: Concerning the Foreknowledge of God and the Free Will of Man, in Opposition to the Definition of Cicero.
Caput X: Whether Our Wills are Ruled by Necessity.
Caput XI: Concerning the Universal Providence of God in the Laws of Which All Things are Comprehended.
Caput XII: By What Virtues the Ancient Romans Merited that the True God, Although They Did Not Worship Him, Should Enlarge Their Empire.
Caput XIII: Concerning the Love of Praise, Which, Though It is a Vice, is Reckoned a Virtue, Because by It Greater Vice is Restrained.
Caput XIV: Concerning the Eradication of the Love of Human Praise, Because All the Glory of the Righteous is in God.
Caput XV: Concerning the Temporal Reward Which God Granted to the Virtues of the Romans.
Caput XVI: Concerning the Reward of the Holy Citizens of the Celestial City, to Whom the Example of the Virtues of the Romans are Useful.
Caput XVII: To What Profit the Romans Carried on Wars, and How Much They Contributed to the Well-Being of Those Whom They Conquered.
Caput XVIII: How Far Christians Ought to Be from Boasting, If They Have Done Anything for the Love of the Eternal Country, When the Romans Did Such Great Things for Human Glory and a Terrestrial City.
Caput XIX: Concerning the Difference Between True Glory and the Desire of Domination.
Caput XX: That It is as Shameful for the Virtues to Serve Human Glory as Bodily Pleasure.
Caput XXI: That the Roman Dominion Was Granted by Him from Whom is All Power, and by Whose Providence All Things are Ruled.
Caput XXII: The Durations and Issues of War Depend on the Will of God.
Caput XXIII: Concerning the War in Which Radagaisus, King of the Goths, a Worshipper of Demons, Was Conquered in One Day, with All His Mighty Forces.
Caput XXIV: What Was the Happiness of the Christian Emperors, and How Far It Was True Happiness.
Caput XXV: Concerning the Prosperity Which God Granted to the Christian Emperor Constantine.
Caput XXVI: On the Faith and Piety of Theodosius Augustus.
Book 6
Caput I: Preface
Caput I: Of Those Who Maintain that They Worship the Gods Not for the Sake of Temporal But Eternal Advantages.
Caput II: What We are to Believe that Varro Thought Concerning the Gods of the Nations, Whose Various Kinds and Sacred Rites He Has Shown to Be Such that He Would Have Acted More Reverently Towards Them Had He Been Altogether Silent Concerning Them.
Caput III: Varro’s Distribution of His Book Which He Composed Concerning the Antiquities of Human and Divine Things.
Caput IV: That from the Disputation of Varro, It Follows that the Worshippers of the Gods Regard Human Things as More Ancient Than Divine Things.
Caput V: Concerning the Three Kinds of Theology According to Varro, Namely, One Fabulous, the Other Natural, the Third Civil.
Caput VI: Concerning the Mythic, that Is, the Fabulous, Theology, and the Civil, Against Varro.
Caput VII: Concerning the Likeness and Agreement of the Fabulous and Civil Theologies.
Caput VIII: Concerning the Interpretations, Consisting of Natural Explanations, Which the Pagan Teachers Attempt to Show for Their Gods.
Caput IX: Concerning the Special Offices of the Gods.
Caput X: Concerning the Liberty of Seneca, Who More Vehemently Censured the Civil Theology Than Varro Did the Fabulous.
Caput XI: What Seneca Thought Concerning the Jews.
Caput XII: That When Once the Vanity of the Gods of the Nations Has Been Exposed, It Cannot Be Doubted that They are Unable to Bestow Eternal Life on Any One, When They Cannot Afford Help Even with Respect to the Things Of this Temporal Life.
Book 7
Caput I: Preface
Caput I: Whether, Since It is Evident that Deity is Not to Be Found in the Civil Theology, We are to Believe that It is to Be Found in the Select Gods.
Caput II: Who are the Select Gods, and Whether They are Held to Be Exempt from the Offices of the Commoner Gods.
Caput III: How There is No Reason Which Can Be Shown for the Selection of Certain Gods, When the Administration of More Exalted Offices is Assigned to Many Inferior Gods.
Caput IV: The Inferior Gods, Whose Names are Not Associated with Infamy, Have Been Better Dealt with Than the Select Gods, Whose Infamies are Celebrated.
Caput V: Concerning the More Secret Doctrine of the Pagans, and Concerning the Physical Interpretations.
Caput VI: Concerning the Opinion of Varro, that God is the Soul of the World, Which Nevertheless, in Its Various Parts, Has Many Souls Whose Nature is Divine.
Caput VII: Whether It is Reasonable to Separate Janus and Terminus as Two Distinct Deities.
Caput VIII: For What Reason the Worshippers of Janus Have Made His Image with Two Faces, When They Would Sometimes Have It Be Seen with Four.
Caput IX: Concerning the Power of Jupiter, and a Comparison of Jupiter with Janus.
Caput X: Whether the Distinction Between Janus and Jupiter is a Proper One.
Caput XI: Concerning the Surnames of Jupiter, Which are Referred Not to Many Gods, But to One and the Same God.
Caput XII: That Jupiter is Also Called Pecunia.
Caput XIII: That When It is Expounded What Saturn Is, What Genius Is, It Comes to This, that Both of Them are Shown to Be Jupiter.
Caput XIV: Concerning the Offices of Mercury and Mars.
Caput XV: Concerning Certain Stars Which the Pagans Have Called by the Names of Their Gods.
Caput XVI: Concerning Apollo and Diana, and the Other Select Gods Whom They Would Have to Be Parts of the World.
Caput XVII: That Even Varro Himself Pronounced His Own Opinions Regarding the Gods Ambiguous.
Caput XVIII: A More Credible Cause of the Rise of Pagan Error.
Caput XIX: Concerning the Interpretations Which Compose the Reason of the Worship of Saturn.
Caput XX: Concerning the Rites of Eleusinian Ceres.
Caput XXI: Concerning the Shamefulness of the Rites Which are Celebrated in Honor of Liber.
Caput XXII: Concerning Neptune, and Salacia and Venilia.
Caput XXIII: Concerning the Earth, Which Varro Affirms to Be a Goddess, Because that Soul of the World Which He Thinks to Be God Pervades Also This Lowest Part of His Body, and Imparts to It a Divine Force.
Caput XXIV: Concerning the Surnames of Tellus and Their Significations, Which, Although They Indicate Many Properties, Ought Not to Have Established the Opinion that There is a Corresponding Number of Gods.
Caput XXV: The Interpretation of the Mutilation of Atys Which the Doctrine of the Greek Sages Set Forth.
Caput XXVI: Concerning the Abomination of the Sacred Rites of the Great Mother.
Caput XXVII: Concerning the Figments of the Physical Theologists, Who Neither Worship the True Divinity, Nor Perform the Worship Wherewith the True Divinity Should Be Served.
Caput XXVIII: That the Doctrine of Varro Concerning Theology is in No Part Consistent with Itself.
Caput XXIX: That All Things Which the Physical Theologists Have Referred to the World and Its Parts, They Ought to Have Referred to the One True God.
Caput XXX: How Piety Distinguishes the Creator from the Creatures, So That, Instead of One God, There are Not Worshipped as Many Gods as There are Works of the One Author.
Caput XXXI: What Benefits God Gives to the Followers of the Truth to Enjoy Over and Above His General Bounty.
Caput XXXII: That at No Time in the Past Was the Mystery of Christ’s Redemption Awanting, But Was at All Times Declared, Though in Various Forms.
Caput XXXIII: That Only Through the Christian Religion Could the Deceit of Malign Spirits, Who Rejoice in the Errors of Men, Have Been Manifested.
Caput XXXIV: Concerning the Books of Numa Pompilius, Which the Senate Ordered to Be Burned, in Order that the Causes of Sacred Rights Therein Assigned Should Not Become Known.
Caput XXXV: Concerning the Hydromancy Through Which Numa Was Befooled by Certain Images of Demons Seen in the Water.
Book 8
Caput I: That the Question of Natural Theology is to Be Discussed with Those Philosophers Who Sought a More Excellent Wisdom.
Caput II: Concerning the Two Schools of Philosophers, that Is, the Italic and Ionic, and Their Founders.
Caput III: Of the Socratic Philosophy.
Caput IV: Concerning Plato, the Chief Among the Disciples of Socrates, and His Threefold Division of Philosophy.
Caput V: That It is Especially with the Platonists that We Must Carry on Our Disputations on Matters of Theology, Their Opinions Being Preferable to Those of All Other Philosophers.
Caput VI: Concerning the Meaning of the Platonists in that Part of Philosophy Called Physical.
Caput VII: How Much the Platonists are to Be Held as Excelling Other Philosophers in Logic, i.e. Rational Philosophy.
Caput VIII: That the Platonists Hold the First Rank in Moral Philosophy Also.
Caput IX: Concerning that Philosophy Which Has Come Nearest to the Christian Faith.
Caput X: That the Excellency of the Christian Religion is Above All the Science of Philosophers.
Caput XI: How Plato Has Been Able to Approach So Nearly to Christian Knowledge.
Caput XII: That Even the Platonists, Though They Say These Things Concerning the One True God, Nevertheless Thought that Sacred Rites Were to Be Performed in Honor of Many Gods.
Caput XIII: Concerning the Opinion of Plato, According to Which He Defined the Gods as Beings Entirely Good and the Friends of Virtue.
Caput XIV: Of the Opinion of Those Who Have Said that Rational Souls are of Three Kinds, to Wit, Those of the Celestial Gods, Those of the Aerial Demons, and Those of Terrestrial Men.
Caput XV: That the Demons are Not Better Than Men Because of Their Aerial Bodies, or on Account of Their Superior Place of Abode.
Caput XVI: What Apuleius the Platonist Thought Concerning the Manners and Actions of Demons.
Caput XVII: Whether It is Proper that Men Should Worship Those Spirits from Whose Vices It is Necessary that They Be Freed.
Caput XVIII: What Kind of Religion that is Which Teaches that Men Ought to Employ the Advocacy of Demons in Order to Be Recommended to the Favor of the Good Gods.
Caput XIX: Of the Impiety of the Magic Art, Which is Dependent on the Assistance of Malign Spirits.
Caput XX: Whether We are to Believe that the Good Gods are More Willing to Have Intercourse with Demons Than with Men.
Caput XXI: Whether the Gods Use the Demons as Messengers and Interpreters, and Whether They are Deceived by Them Willingly, or Without Their Own Knowledge.
Caput XXII: That We Must, Notwithstanding the Opinion of Apuleius, Reject the Worship of Demons.
Caput XXIII: What Hermes Trismegistus Thought Concerning Idolatry, and from What Source He Knew that the Superstitions of Egypt Were to Be Abolished.
Caput XXIV: How Hermes Openly Confessed the Error of His Forefathers, the Coming Destruction of Which He Nevertheless Bewailed.
Caput XXV: Concerning Those Things Which May Be Common to the Holy Angels and to Men.
Caput XXVI: That All the Religion of the Pagans Has Reference to Dead Men.
Caput XXVII: Concerning the Nature of the Honor Which the Christians Pay to Their Martyrs.
Book 9
Caput I: The Point at Which the Discussion Has Arrived, and What Remains to Be Handled.
Caput II: Whether Among the Demons, Inferior to the Gods, There are Any Good Spirits Under Whose Guardianship the Human Soul Might Reach True Blessedness.
Caput III: What Apuleius Attributes to the Demons, to Whom, Though He Does Not Deny Them Reason, He Does Not Ascribe Virtue.
Caput IV: The Opinion of the Peripatetics and Stoics About Mental Emotions.
Caput V: That the Passions Which Assail the Souls of Christians Do Not Seduce Them to Vice, But Exercise Their Virtue.
Caput VI: Of the Passions Which, According to Apuleius, Agitate the Demons Who Are Supposed by Him to Mediate Between Gods and Men.
Caput VII: That the Platonists Maintain that the Poets Wrong the Gods by Representing Them as Distracted by Party Feeling, to Which the Demons and Not the Gods, are Subject.
Caput VIII: How Apuleius Defines the Gods Who Dwell in Heaven, the Demons Who Occupy the Air, and Men Who Inhabit Earth.
Caput IX: Whether the Intercession of the Demons Can Secure for Men the Friendship of the Celestial Gods.
Caput X: That, According to Plotinus, Men, Whose Body is Mortal, are Less Wretched Than Demons, Whose Body is Eternal.
Caput XI: Of the Opinion of the Platonists, that the Souls of Men Become Demons When Disembodied.
Caput XII: Of the Three Opposite Qualities by Which the Platonists Distinguish Between the Nature of Men and that of Demons.
Caput XIII: How the Demons Can Mediate Between Gods and Men If They Have Nothing in Common with Both, Being Neither Blessed Like the Gods, Nor Miserable Like Men.
Caput XIV: Whether Men, Though Mortal, Can Enjoy True Blessedness.
Caput XV: Of the Man Christ Jesus, the Mediator Between God and Men.
Caput XVI: Whether It is Reasonable in the Platonists to Determine that the Celestial Gods Decline Contact with Earthly Things and Intercourse with Men, Who Therefore Require the Intercession of the Demons.
Caput XVII: That to Obtain the Blessed Life, Which Consists in Partaking of the Supreme Good, Man Needs Such Mediation as is Furnished Not by a Demon, But by Christ Alone.
Caput XVIII: That the Deceitful Demons, While Promising to Conduct Men to God by Their Intercession, Mean to Turn Them from the Path of Truth.
Caput XIX: That Even Among Their Own Worshippers the Name ‘Demon’ Has Never a Good Signification.
Caput XX: Of the Kind of Knowledge Which Puffs Up the Demons.
Caput XXI: To What Extent the Lord Was Pleased to Make Himself Known to the Demons.
Caput XXII: The Difference Between the Knowledge of the Holy Angels and that of the Demons.
Caput XXIII: That the Name of Gods is Falsely Given to the Gods of the Gentiles, Though Scripture Applies It Both to the Holy Angels and Just Men.
Book 10
Caput I: That the Platonists Themselves Have Determined that God Alone Can Confer Happiness Either on Angels or Men, But that It Yet Remains a Question Whether Those Spirits Whom They Direct Us to Worship, that We May Obtain Happiness, Wish Sacrifice to Be Offered to Themselves, or to the One God Only.
Caput II: The Opinion of Plotinus the Platonist Regarding Enlightenment from Above.
Caput III: That the Platonists, Though Knowing Something of the Creator of the Universe, Have Misunderstood the True Worship of God, by Giving Divine Honor to Angels, Good or Bad.
Caput IV: That Sacrifice is Due to the True God Only.
Caput V: Of the Sacrifices Which God Does Not Require, But Wished to Be Observed for the Exhibition of Those Things Which He Does Require.
Caput VI: Of the True and Perfect Sacrifice.
Caput VII: Of the Love of the Holy Angels, Which Prompts Them to Desire that We Worship the One True God, and Not Themselves.
Caput VIII: Of the Miracles Which God Has Condescended to Adhibit Through the Ministry of Angels, to His Promises for the Confirmation of the Faith of the Godly.
Caput IX: Of the Illicit Arts Connected with Demonolatry, and of Which the Platonist Porphyry Adopts Some, and Discards Others.
Caput X: Concerning Theurgy, Which Promises a Delusive Purification of the Soul by the Invocation of Demons.
Caput XI: Of Porphyry’s Epistle to Anebo, in Which He Asks for Information About the Differences Among Demons.
Caput XII: Of the Miracles Wrought by the True God Through the Ministry of the Holy Angels.
Caput XIII: Of the Invisible God, Who Has Often Made Himself Visible, Not as He Really Is, But as the Beholders Could Bear the Sight.
Caput XIV: That the One God is to Be Worshipped Not Only for the Sake of Eternal Blessings, But Also in Connection with Temporal Prosperity, Because All Things are Regulated by His Providence.
Caput XV: Of the Ministry of the Holy Angels, by Which They Fulfill the Providence of God.
Caput XVI: Whether Those Angels Who Demand that We Pay Them Divine Honor, or Those Who Teach Us to Render Holy Service, Not to Themselves, But to God, are to Be Trusted About the Way to Life Eternal.
Caput XVII: Concerning the Ark of the Covenant, and the Miraculous Signs Whereby God Authenticated the Law and the Promise.
Caput XVIII: Against Those Who Deny that the Books of the Church are to Be Believed About the Miracles Whereby the People of God Were Educated.
Caput XIX: On the Reasonableness of Offering, as the True Religion Teaches, a Visible Sacrifice to the One True and Invisible God.
Caput XX: Of the Supreme and True Sacrifice Which Was Effected by the Mediator Between God and Men.
Caput XXI: Of the Power Delegated to Demons for the Trial and Glorification of the Saints, Who Conquer Not by Propitiating the Spirits of the Air, But by Abiding in God.
Caput XXII: Whence the Saints Derive Power Against Demons and True Purification of Heart.
Caput XXIII: Of the Principles Which, According to the Platonists, Regulate the Purification of the Soul.
Caput XXIV: Of the One Only True Principle Which Alone Purifies and Renews Human Nature.
Caput XXV: That All the Saints, Both Under the Law and Before It, Were Justified by Faith in the Mystery of Christ’s Incarnation.
Caput XXVI: Of Porphyry’s Weakness in Wavering Between the Confession of the True God and the Worship of Demons.
Caput XXVII: Of the Impiety of Porphyry, Which is Worse Than Even the Mistake of Apuleius.
Caput XXVIII: How It is that Porphyry Has Been So Blind as Not to Recognize the True Wisdom—Christ.
Caput XXIX: Of the Incarnation of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Which the Platonists in Their Impiety Blush to Acknowledge.
Caput XXX: Porphyry’s Emendations and Modifications of Platonism.
Caput XXXI: Against the Arguments on Which the Platonists Ground Their Assertion that the Human Soul is Co-Eternal with God.
Caput XXXII: Of the Universal Way of the Soul’s Deliverance, Which Porphyry Did Not Find Because He Did Not Rightly Seek It, and Which the Grace of Christ Has Alone Thrown Open.
Book 11
Caput I: Of This Part of the Work, Wherein We Begin to Explain the Origin and End of the Two Cities.
Caput II: Of the Knowledge of God, to Which No Man Can Attain Save Through the Mediator Between God and Men, the Man Christ Jesus.
Caput III: Of the Authority of the Canonical Scriptures Composed by the Divine Spirit.
Caput IV: That the World is Neither Without Beginning, Nor Yet Created by a New Decree of God, by Which He Afterwards Willed What He Had Not Before Willed.
Caput V: That We Ought Not to Seek to Comprehend the Infinite Ages of Time Before the World, Nor the Infinite Realms of Space.
Caput VI: That the World and Time Had Both One Beginning, and the One Did Not Anticipate the Other.
Caput VII: Of the Nature of the First Days, Which are Said to Have Had Morning and Evening, Before There Was a Sun.
Caput VIII: What We are to Understand of God’s Resting on the Seventh Day, After the Six Days’ Work.
Caput IX: What the Scriptures Teach Us to Believe Concerning the Creation of the Angels.
Caput X: Of the Simple and Unchangeable Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, One God, in Whom Substance and Quality are Identical.
Caput XI: Whether the Angels that Fell Partook of the Blessedness Which the Holy Angels Have Always Enjoyed from the Time of Their Creation.
Caput XII: A Comparison of the Blessedness of the Righteous, Who Have Not Yet Received the Divine Reward, with that of Our First Parents in Paradise.
Caput XIII: Whether All the Angels Were So Created in One Common State of Felicity, that Those Who Fell Were Not Aware that They Would Fall, and that Those Who Stood Received Assurance of Their Own Perseverance After the Ruin of the Fallen.
Caput XIV: An Explanation of What is Said of the Devil, that He Did Not Abide in the Truth, Because the Truth Was Not in Him.
Caput XV: How We are to Understand the Words, ‘The Devil Sinneth from the Beginning.’
Caput XVI: Of the Ranks and Differences of the Creatures, Estimated by Their Utility, or According to the Natural Gradations of Being.
Caput XVII: That the Flaw of Wickedness is Not Nature, But Contrary to Nature, and Has Its Origin, Not in the Creator, But in the Will.
Caput XVIII: Of the Beauty of the Universe, Which Becomes, by God’s Ordinance, More Brilliant by the Opposition of Contraries.
Caput XIX: What, Seemingly, We are to Understand by the Words, ‘God Divided the Light from the Darkness.’
Caput XX: Of the Words Which Follow the Separation of Light and Darkness, ‘And God Saw the Light that It Was Good.’
Caput XXI: Of God’s Eternal and Unchangeable Knowledge and Will, Whereby All He Has Made Pleased Him in the Eternal Design as Well as in the Actual Result.
Caput XXII: Of Those Who Do Not Approve of Certain Things Which are a Part of This Good Creation of a Good Creator, and Who Think that There is Some Natural Evil.
Caput XXIII: Of the Error in Which the Doctrine of Origen is Involved.
Caput XXIV: Of the Divine Trinity, and the Indications of Its Presence Scattered Everywhere Among Its Works.
Caput XXV: Of the Division of Philosophy into Three Parts.
Caput XXVI: Of the Image of the Supreme Trinity, Which We Find in Some Sort in Human Nature Even in Its Present State.
Caput XXVII: Of Existence, and Knowledge of It, and the Love of Both.
Caput XXVIII: Whether We Ought to Love the Love Itself with Which We Love Our Existence and Our Knowledge of It, that So We May More Nearly Resemble the Image of the Divine Trinity.
Caput XXIX: Of the Knowledge by Which the Holy Angels Know God in His Essence, and by Which They See the Causes of His Works in the Art of the Worker, Before They See Them in the Works of the Artist.
Caput XXX: Of the Perfection of the Number Six, Which is the First of the Numbers Which is Composed of Its Aliquot Parts.
Caput XXXI: Of the Seventh Day, in Which Completeness and Repose are Celebrated.
Caput XXXII: Of the Opinion that the Angels Were Created Before the World.
Caput XXXIII: Of the Two Different and Dissimilar Communities of Angels, Which are Not Inappropriately Signified by the Names Light and Darkness.
Caput XXXIV: Of the Idea that the Angels Were Meant Where the Separation of the Waters by the Firmament is Spoken Of, and of that Other Idea that the Waters Were Not Created.
Book 12
Caput I: That the Nature of the Angels, Both Good and Bad, is One and the Same.
Caput II: That There is No Entity Contrary to the Divine, Because Nonentity Seems to Be that Which is Wholly Opposite to Him Who Supremely and Always is.
Caput III: That the Enemies of God are So, Not by Nature, But by Will, Which, as It Injures Them, Injures a Good Nature; For If Vice Does Not Injure, It is Not Vice.
Caput IV: Of the Nature of Irrational and Lifeless Creatures, Which in Their Own Kind and Order Do Not Mar the Beauty of the Universe.
Caput V: That in All Natures, of Every Kind and Rank, God is Glorified.
Caput VI: What the Cause of the Blessedness of the Good Angels Is, and What the Cause of the Misery of the Wicked.
Caput VII: That We Ought Not to Expect to Find Any Efficient Cause of the Evil Will.
Caput VIII: Of the Misdirected Love Whereby the Will Fell Away from the Immutable to the Mutable Good.
Caput IX: Whether the Angels, Besides Receiving from God Their Nature, Received from Him Also Their Good Will by the Holy Spirit Imbuing Them with Love.
Caput X: Of the Falseness of the History Which Allots Many Thousand Years to the World’s Past.
Caput XI: Of Those Who Suppose that This World Indeed is Not Eternal, But that Either There are Numberless Worlds, or that One and the Same World is Perpetually Resolved into Its Elements, and Renewed at the Conclusion of Fixed Cycles.
Caput XII: How These Persons are to Be Answered, Who Find Fault with the Creation of Man on the Score of Its Recent Date.
Caput XIII: Of the Revolution of the Ages, Which Some Philosophers Believe Will Bring All Things Round Again, After a Certain Fixed Cycle, to the Same Order and Form as at First.
Caput XIV: Of the Creation of the Human Race in Time, and How This Was Effected Without Any New Design or Change of Purpose on God’s Part.
Caput XV: Whether We are to Believe that God, as He Has Always Been Sovereign Lord, Has Always Had Creatures Over Whom He Exercised His Sovereignty; And in What Sense We Can Say that the Creature Has Always Been, and Yet Cannot Say It is Co-Eternal.
Caput XVI: How We are to Understand God’s Promise of Life Eternal, Which Was Uttered Before the ‘Eternal Times.’
Caput XVII: What Defence is Made by Sound Faith Regarding God’s Unchangeable Counsel and Will, Against the Reasonings of Those Who Hold that the Works of God are Eternally Repeated in Revolving Cycles that Restore All Things as They Were.
Caput XVIII: Against Those Who Assert that Things that are Infinite Cannot Be Comprehended by the Knowledge of God.
Caput XIX: Of Worlds Without End, or Ages of Ages.
Caput XX: Of the Impiety of Those Who Assert that the Souls Which Enjoy True and Perfect Blessedness, Must Yet Again and Again in These Periodic Revolutions Return to Labor and Misery.
Caput XXI: That There Was Created at First But One Individual, and that the Human Race Was Created in Him.
Caput XXII: That God Foreknew that the First Man Would Sin, and that He at the Same Time Foresaw How Large a Multitude of Godly Persons Would by His Grace Be Translated to the Fellowship of the Angels.
Caput XXIII: Of the Nature of the Human Soul Created in the Image of God.
Caput XXIV: Whether the Angels Can Be Said to Be the Creators of Any, Even the Least Creature.
Caput XXV: That God Alone is the Creator of Every Kind of Creature, Whatever Its Nature or Form.
Caput XXVI: Of that Opinion of the Platonists, that the Angels Were Themselves Indeed Created by God, But that Afterwards They Created Man’s Body.
Caput XXVII: That the Whole Plenitude of the Human Race Was Embraced in the First Man, and that God There Saw the Portion of It Which Was to Be Honored and Rewarded, and that Which Was to Be Condemned and Punished.
Book 13
Caput I: Of the Fall of the First Man, Through Which Mortality Has Been Contracted.
Caput II: Of that Death Which Can Affect an Immortal Soul, and of that to Which the Body is Subject.
Caput III: Whether Death, Which by the Sin of Our First Parents Has Passed Upon All Men, is the Punishment of Sin, Even to the Good.
Caput IV: Why Death, the Punishment of Sin, is Not Withheld from Those Who by the Grace of Regeneration are Absolved from Sin.
Caput V: As the Wicked Make an Ill Use of the Law, Which is Good, So the Good Make a Good Use of Death, Which is an Ill.
Caput VI: Of the Evil of Death in General, Considered as the Separation of Soul and Body.
Caput VII: Of the Death Which the Unbaptized Suffer for the Confession of Christ.
Caput VIII: That the Saints, by Suffering the First Death for the Truth’s Sake, are Freed from the Second.
Caput IX: Whether We Should Say that The Moment of Death, in Which Sensation Ceases, Occurs in the Experience of the Dying or in that of the Dead.
Caput X: Of the Life of Mortals, Which is Rather to Be Called Death Than Life.
Caput XI: Whether One Can Both Be Living and Dead at the Same Time.
Caput XII: What Death God Intended, When He Threatened Our First Parents with Death If They Should Disobey His Commandment.
Caput XIII: What Was the First Punishment of the Transgression of Our First Parents.
Caput XIV: In What State Man Was Made by God, and into What Estate He Fell by the Choice of His Own Will.
Caput XV: That Adam in His Sin Forsook God Ere God Forsook Him, and that His Falling Away From God Was the First Death of the Soul.
Caput XVI: Concerning the Philosophers Who Think that the Separation of Soul and Body is Not Penal, Though Plato Represents the Supreme Deity as Promising to the Inferior Gods that They Shall Never Be Dismissed from Their Bodies.
Caput XVII: Against Those Who Affirm that Earthly Bodies Cannot Be Made Incorruptible and Eternal.
Caput XVIII: Of Earthly Bodies, Which the Philosophers Affirm Cannot Be in Heavenly Places, Because Whatever is of Earth is by Its Natural Weight Attracted to Earth.
Caput XIX: Against the Opinion of Those Who Do Not Believe that the Primitive Men Would Have Been Immortal If They Had Not Sinned.
Caput XX: That the Flesh Now Resting in Peace Shall Be Raised to a Perfection Not Enjoyed by the Flesh of Our First Parents.
Caput XXI: Of Paradise, that It Can Be Understood in a Spiritual Sense Without Sacrificing the Historic Truth of the Narrative Regarding The Real Place.
Caput XXII: That the Bodies of the Saints Shall After the Resurrection Be Spiritual, and Yet Flesh Shall Not Be Changed into Spirit.
Caput XXIII: What We are to Understand by the Animal and Spiritual Body; Or of Those Who Die in Adam, And of Those Who are Made Alive in Christ.
Caput XXIV: How We Must Understand that Breathing of God by Which ‘The First Man Was Made a Living Soul,’ And that Also by Which the Lord Conveyed His Spirit to His Disciples When He Said, ‘Receive Ye the Holy Ghost.’
Book 14
Caput I: That the Disobedience of the First Man Would Have Plunged All Men into the Endless Misery of the Second Death, Had Not the Grace of God Rescued Many.
Caput II: Of Carnal Life, Which is to Be Understood Not Only of Living in Bodily Indulgence, But Also of Living in the Vices of the Inner Man.
Caput III: That the Sin is Caused Not by the Flesh, But by the Soul, and that the Corruption Contracted from Sin is Not Sin But Sin’s Punishment.
Caput IV: What It is to Live According to Man, and What to Live According to God.
Caput V: That the Opinion of the Platonists Regarding the Nature of Body and Soul is Not So Censurable as that of the Manichæans, But that Even It is Objectionable, Because It Ascribes the Origin of Vices to the Nature of The Flesh.
Caput VI: Of the Character of the Human Will Which Makes the Affections of the Soul Right or Wrong.
Caput VII: That the Words Love and Regard (Amor and Dilectio) are in Scripture Used Indifferently of Good and Evil Affection.
Caput VIII: Of the Three Perturbations, Which the Stoics Admitted in the Soul of the Wise Man to the Exclusion of Grief or Sadness, Which the Manly Mind Ought Not to Experience.
Caput IX: Of the Perturbations of the Soul Which Appear as Right Affections in the Life of the Righteous.
Caput X: Whether It is to Be Believed that Our First Parents in Paradise, Before They Sinned, Were Free from All Perturbation.
Caput XI: Of the Fall of the First Man, in Whom Nature Was Created Good, and Can Be Restored Only by Its Author.
Caput XII: Of the Nature of Man’s First Sin.
Caput XIII: That in Adam’s Sin an Evil Will Preceded the Evil Act.
Caput XIV: Of the Pride in the Sin, Which Was Worse Than the Sin Itself.
Caput XV: Of the Justice of the Punishment with Which Our First Parents Were Visited for Their Disobedience.
Caput XVI: Of the Evil of Lust,—A Word Which, Though Applicable to Many Vices, is Specially Appropriated to Sexual Uncleanness.
Caput XVII: Of the Nakedness of Our First Parents, Which They Saw After Their Base and Shameful Sin.
Caput XVIII: Of the Shame Which Attends All Sexual Intercourse.
Caput XIX: That It is Now Necessary, as It Was Not Before Man Sinned, to Bridle Anger and Lust by the Restraining Influence of Wisdom.
Caput XX: Of the Foolish Beastliness of the Cynics.
Caput XXI: That Man’s Transgression Did Not Annul the Blessing of Fecundity Pronounced Upon Man Before He Sinned But Infected It with the Disease of Lust.
Caput XXII: Of the Conjugal Union as It Was Originally Instituted and Blessed by God.
Caput XXIII: Whether Generation Should Have Taken Place Even in Paradise Had Man Not Sinned, or Whether There Should Have Been Any Contention There Between Chastity and Lust.
Caput XXIV: That If Men Had Remained Innocent and Obedient in Paradise, the Generative Organs Should Have Been in Subjection to the Will as the Other Members are.
Caput XXV: Of True Blessedness, Which This Present Life Cannot Enjoy.
Caput XXVI: That We are to Believe that in Paradise Our First Parents Begat Offspring Without Blushing.
Caput XXVII: Of the Angels and Men Who Sinned, and that Their Wickedness Did Not Disturb the Order of God’s Providence.
Caput XXVIII: Of the Nature of the Two Cities, the Earthly and the Heavenly.
Book 15
Caput I: Of the Two Lines of the Human Race Which from First to Last Divide It.
Caput II: Of the Children of the Flesh and the Children of the Promise.
Caput III: That Sarah’s Barrenness was Made Productive by God’s Grace.
Caput IV: Of the Conflict and Peace of the Earthly City.
Caput V: Of the Fratricidal Act of the Founder of the Earthly City, and the Corresponding Crime of the Founder of Rome.
Caput VI: Of the Weaknesses Which Even the Citizens of the City of God Suffer During This Earthly Pilgrimage in Punishment of Sin, and of Which They are Healed by God’s Care.
Caput VII: Of the Cause of Cain’s Crime and His Obstinacy, Which Not Even the Word of God Could Subdue.
Caput VIII: What Cain’s Reason Was for Building a City So Early in the History of the Human Race.
Caput IX: Of the Long Life and Greater Stature of the Antediluvians.
Caput X: Of the Different Computation of the Ages of the Antediluvians, Given by the Hebrew Manuscripts and by Our Own.
Caput XI: Of Methuselah’s Age, Which Seems to Extend Fourteen Years Beyond the Deluge.
Caput XII: Of the Opinion of Those Who Do Not Believe that in These Primitive Times Men Lived So Long as is Stated.
Caput XIII: Whether, in Computing Years, We Ought to Follow the Hebrew or the Septuagint.
Caput XIV: That the Years in Those Ancient Times Were of the Same Length as Our Own.
Caput XV: Whether It is Credible that the Men of the Primitive Age Abstained from Sexual Intercourse Until that Date at Which It is Recorded that They Begat Children.
Caput XVI: Of Marriage Between Blood-Relations, in Regard to Which the Present Law Could Not Bind the Men of the Earliest Ages.
Caput XVII: Of the Two Fathers and Leaders Who Sprang from One Progenitor.
Caput XVIII: The Significance of Abel, Seth, and Enos to Christ and His Body the Church.
Caput XIX: The Significance Of Enoch’s Translation.
Caput XX: How It is that Cain’s Line Terminates in the Eighth Generation, While Noah, Though Descended from the Same Father, Adam, is Found to Be the Tenth from Him.
Caput XXI: Why It is That, as Soon as Cain’s Son Enoch Has Been Named, the Genealogy is Forthwith Continued as Far as the Deluge, While After the Mention of Enos, Seth’s Son, the Narrative Returns Again to the Creation of Man.
Caput XXII: Of the Fall of the Sons of God Who Were Captivated by the Daughters of Men, Whereby All, with the Exception of Eight Persons, Deservedly Perished in the Deluge.
Caput XXIII: Whether We are to Believe that Angels, Who are of a Spiritual Substance, Fell in Love with the Beauty of Women, and Sought Them in Marriage, and that from This Connection Giants Were Born.
Caput XXIV: How We are to Understand This Which the Lord Said to Those Who Were to Perish in the Flood: ‘Their Days Shall Be 120 Years.’
Caput XXV: Of the Anger of God, Which Does Not Inflame His Mind, Nor Disturb His Unchangeable Tranquillity.
Caput XXVI: That the Ark Which Noah Was Ordered to Make Figures In Every Respect Christ and the Church.
Caput XXVII: Of the Ark and the Deluge, and that We Cannot Agree with Those Who Receive the Bare History, But Reject the Allegorical Interpretation, Nor with Those Who Maintain the Figurative and Not the Historical Meaning.
Book 16
Caput I: Whether, After the Deluge, from Noah to Abraham, Any Families Can Be Found Who Lived According to God.
Caput II: What Was Prophetically Prefigured in the Sons of Noah.
Caput III: Of the Generations of the Three Sons of Noah
Caput IV: Of the Diversity of Languages, and of the Founding of Babylon.
Caput V: Of God’s Coming Down to Confound the Languages of the Builders of the City.
Caput VI: What We are to Understand by God’s Speaking to the Angels.
Caput VII: Whether Even the Remotest Islands Received Their Fauna from the Animals Which Were Preserved, Through the Deluge, in the Ark.
Caput VIII: Whether Certain Monstrous Races of Men are Derived from the Stock of Adam or Noah’s Sons.
Caput IX: Whether We are to Believe in the Antipodes.
Caput X: Of the Genealogy of Shem, in Whose Line the City of God is Preserved Till the Time of Abraham.
Caput XI: That the Original Language in Use Among Men Was that Which Was Afterwards Called Hebrew, from Heber, in Whose Family It Was Preserved When the Confusion of Tongues Occurred.
Caput XII: Of the Era in Abraham’s Life from Which a New Period in the Holy Succession Begins.
Caput XIII: Why, in the Account of Terah’s Emigration, on His Forsaking the Chaldeans and Passing Over into Mesopotamia, No Mention is Made of His Son Nahor.
Caput XIV: Of the Years of Terah, Who Completed His Lifetime in Haran.
Caput XV: Of the Time of the Migration of Abraham, When, According to the Commandment of God, He Went Out from Haran.
Caput XVI: Of the Order and Nature of the Promises of God Which Were Made to Abraham.
Caput XVII: Of the Three Most Famous Kingdoms of the Nations, of Which One, that is the Assyrian, Was Already Very Eminent When Abraham Was Born.
Caput XVIII: Of the Repeated Address of God to Abraham, in Which He Promised the Land of Canaan to Him and to His Seed.
Caput XIX: Of the Divine Preservation of Sarah’s Chastity in Egypt, When Abraham Had Called Her Not His Wife But His Sister.
Caput XX: Of the Parting of Lot and Abraham, Which They Agreed to Without Breach of Charity.
Caput XXI: Of the Third Promise of God, by Which He Assured the Land of Canaan to Abraham and His Seed in Perpetuity.
Caput XXII: Of Abraham’s Overcoming the Enemies of Sodom, When He Delivered Lot from Captivity and Was Blessed by Melchizedek the Priest.
Caput XXIII: Of the Word of the Lord to Abraham, by Which It Was Promised to Him that His Posterity Should Be Multiplied According to the Multitude of the Stars; On Believing Which He Was Declared Justified While Yet in Uncircumcision.
Caput XXIV: Of the Meaning of the Sacrifice Abraham Was Commanded to Offer When He Supplicated to Be Taught About Those Things He Had Believed.
Caput XXV: Of Sarah’s Handmaid, Hagar, Whom She Herself Wished to Be Abraham’s Concubine.
Caput XXVI: Of God’s Attestation to Abraham, by Which He Assures Him, When Now Old, of a Son by the Barren Sarah, and Appoints Him the Father of the Nations, and Seals His Faith in the Promise by the Sacrament of Circumcision.
Caput XXVII: Of the Male, Who Was to Lose His Soul If He Was Not Circumcised on the Eighth Day, Because He Had Broken God’s Covenant.
Caput XXVIII: Of the Change of Name in Abraham and Sarah, Who Received the Gift of Fecundity When They Were Incapable of Regeneration Owing to the Barrenness of One, and the Old Age of Both.
Caput XXIX: Of the Three Men or Angels, in Whom the Lord is Related to Have Appeared to Abraham at the Oak of Mamre.
Caput XXX: Of Lot’s Deliverance from Sodom, and Its Consumption by Fire from Heaven; And of Abimelech, Whose Lust Could Not Harm Sarah’s Chastity.
Caput XXXI: Of Isaac, Who Was Born According to the Promise, Whose Name Was Given on Account of the Laughter of Both Parents.
Caput XXXII: Of Abraham’s Obedience and Faith, Which Were Proved by the Offering Up, of His Son in Sacrifice, and of Sarah’s Death.
Caput XXXIII: Of Rebecca, the Grand-Daughter of Nahor, Whom Isaac Took to Wife.
Caput XXXIV: What is Meant by Abraham’s Marrying Keturah After Sarah’s Death.
Caput XXXV: What Was Indicated by the Divine Answer About the Twins Still Shut Up in the Womb of Rebecca Their Mother.
Caput XXXVI: Of the Oracle and Blessing Which Isaac Received, Just as His Father Did, Being Beloved for His Sake.
Caput XXXVII: Of the Things Mystically Prefigured in Esau and Jacob.
Caput XXXVIII: Of Jacob’s Mission to Mesopotamia to Get a Wife, and of the Vision Which He Saw in a Dream by the Way, and of His Getting Four Women When He Sought One Wife.
Caput XXXIX: The Reason Why Jacob Was Also Called Israel.
Caput XL: How It is Said that Jacob Went into Egypt with Seventy-Five Souls, When Most of Those Who are Mentioned Were Born at a Later Period.
Caput XLI: Of the Blessing Which Jacob Promised in Judah His Son.
Caput XLII: Of the Sons of Joseph, Whom Jacob Blessed, Prophetically Changing His Hands.
Caput XLIII: Of the Times of Moses and Joshua the Son of Nun, of the Judges, and Thereafter of the Kings, of Whom Saul Was the First, But David is to Be Regarded as the Chief, Both by the Oath and by Merit.
Book 17
Caput I: Of the Prophetic Age.
Caput II: At What Time the Promise of God Was Fulfilled Concerning the Land of Canaan, Which Even Carnal Israel Got in Possession.
Caput III: Of the Three-Fold Meaning of the Prophecies, Which are to Be Referred Now to the Earthly, Now to the Heavenly Jerusalem, and Now Again to Both.
Caput IV: About the Prefigured Change of the Israelitic Kingdom and Priesthood, and About the Things Hannah the Mother of Samuel Prophesied, Personating the Church.
Caput V: Of Those Things Which a Man of God Spake by the Spirit to Eli the Priest, Signifying that the Priesthood Which Had Been Appointed According to Aaron Was to Be Taken Away.
Caput VI: Of the Jewish Priesthood and Kingdom, Which, Although Promised to Be Established for Ever, Did Not Continue; So that Other Things are to Be Understood to Which Eternity is Assured.
Caput VII: Of the Disruption of the Kingdom of Israel, by Which the Perpetual Division of the Spiritual from the Carnal Israel Was Prefigured.
Caput VIII: Of the Promises Made to David in His Son, Which are in No Wise Fulfilled in Solomon, But Most Fully in Christ.
Caput IX: How Like the Prophecy About Christ in the 89th Psalm is to the Things Promised in Nathan’s Prophecy in the Books of Samuel.
Caput X: How Different the Acts in the Kingdom of the Earthly Jerusalem are from Those Which God Had Promised, So that the Truth of the Promise Should Be Understood to Pertain to the Glory of the Other King and Kingdom.
Caput XI: Of the Substance of the People of God, Which Through His Assumption of Flesh is in Christ, Who Alone Had Power to Deliver His Own Soul from Hell.
Caput XII: To Whose Person the Entreaty for the Promises is to Be Understood to Belong, When He Says in the Psalm, ‘Where are Thine Ancient Compassions, Lord?’ Etc.
Caput XIII: Whether the Truth of This Promised Peace Can Be Ascribed to Those Times Passed Away Under Solomon.
Caput XIV: Of David’s Concern in the Writing of the Psalms.
Caput XV: Whether All the Things Prophesied in the Psalms Concerning Christ and His Church Should Be Taken Up in the Text of This Work.
Caput XVI: Of the Things Pertaining to Christ and the Church, Said Either Openly or Tropically in the 45th Psalm.
Caput XVII: Of Those Things in the 110th Psalm Which Relate to the Priesthood of Christ, and in the 22d to His Passion.
Caput XVIII: Of the 3d, 41st, 15th, and 68th Psalms, in Which the Death and Resurrection of the Lord are Prophesied.
Caput XIX: Of the 69th Psalm, in Which the Obstinate Unbelief of the Jews is Declared.
Caput XX: Of David’s Reign and Merit; And of His Son Solomon, and that Prophecy Relating to Christ Which is Found Either in Those Books Which are Joined to Those Written by Him, or in Those Which are Indubitably His.
Caput XXI: Of the Kings After Solomon, Both in Judah and Israel.
Caput XXII: Of Jeroboam, Who Profaned the People Put Under Him by the Impiety of Idolatry, Amid Which, However, God Did Not Cease to Inspire the Prophets, and to Guard Many from the Crime of Idolatry.
Caput XXIII: Of the Varying Condition of Both the Hebrew Kingdoms, Until the People of Both Were at Different Times Led into Captivity, Judah Being Afterwards Recalled into His Kingdom, Which Finally Passed into the Power of the Romans.
Caput XXIV: Of the Prophets, Who Either Were the Last Among the Jews, or Whom the Gospel History Reports About the Time of Christ’s Nativity.
Book 18
Caput I: Of Those Things Down to the Times of the Saviour Which Have Been Discussed in the Seventeen Books.
Caput II: Of the Kings and Times of the Earthly City Which Were Synchronous with the Times of the Saints, Reckoning from the Rise of Abraham.
Caput III: What Kings Reigned in Assyria and Sicyon When, According to the Promise, Isaac Was Born to Abraham in His Hundredth Year, and When the Twins Esau and Jacob Were Born of Rebecca to Isaac in His Sixtieth Year.
Caput IV: Of the Times of Jacob and His Son Joseph.
Caput V: Of Apis King of Argos, Whom the Egyptians Called Serapis, and Worshipped with Divine Honors.
Caput VI: Who Were Kings of Argos, and of Assyria, When Jacob Died in Egypt.
Caput VII: Who Were Kings When Joseph Died in Egypt.
Caput VIII: Who Were Kings When Moses Was Born, and What Gods Began to Be Worshipped Then.
Caput IX: When the City of Athens Was Founded, and What Reason Varro Assigns for Its Name.
Caput X: What Varro Reports About the Term Areopagus, and About Deucalion’s Flood.
Caput XI: When Moses Led the People Out of Egypt; And Who Were Kings When His Successor Joshua the Son of Nun Died.
Caput XII: Of the Rituals of False Gods Instituted by the Kings of Greece in the Period from Israel’s Exodus from Egypt Down to the Death of Joshua the Son of Nun.
Caput XIII: What Fables Were Invented at the Time When Judges Began to Rule the Hebrews.
Caput XIV: Of the Theological Poets.
Caput XV: Of the Fall of the Kingdom of Argos, When Picus the Son of Saturn First Received His Father’s Kingdom of Laurentum.
Caput XVI: Of Diomede, Who After the Destruction of Troy Was Placed Among the Gods, While His Companions are Said to Have Been Changed into Birds.
Caput XVII: What Varro Says of the Incredible Transformations of Men.
Caput XVIII: What We Should Believe Concerning the Transformations Which Seem to Happen to Men Through the Art of Demons.
Caput XIX: That Æneas Came into Italy When Abdon the Judge Ruled Over the Hebrews.
Caput XX: Of the Succession of the Line of Kings Among the Israelites After the Times of the Judges.
Caput XXI: Of the Kings of Latium, the First and Twelfth of Whom, Æneas and Aventinus, Were Made Gods.
Caput XXII: That Rome Was Founded When the Assyrian Kingdom Perished, at Which Time Hezekiah Reigned in Judah.
Caput XXIII: Of the Erythræan Sibyl, Who is Known to Have Sung Many Things About Christ More Plainly Than the Other Sibyls.
Caput XXIV: That the Seven Sages Flourished in the Reign of Romulus, When the Ten Tribes Which Were Called Israel Were Led into Captivity by the Chaldeans, and Romulus, When Dead, Had Divine Honors Conferred on Him.
Caput XXV: What Philosophers Were Famous When Tarquinius Priscus Reigned Over the Romans, and Zedekiah Over the Hebrews, When Jerusalem Was Taken and the Temple Overthrown.
Caput XXVI: That at the Time When the Captivity of the Jews Was Brought to an End, on the Completion of Seventy Years, the Romans Also Were Freed from Kingly Rule.
Caput XXVII: Of the Times of the Prophets Whose Oracles are Contained in Books and Who Sang Many Things About the Call of the Gentiles at the Time When the Roman Kingdom Began and the Assyrian Came to an End.
Caput XXVIII: Of the Things Pertaining to the Gospel of Christ Which Hosea and Amos Prohesied.
Caput XXIX: What Things are Predicted by Isaiah Concerning Christ and the Church.
Caput XXX: What Micah, Jonah, and Joel Prophesied in Accordance with the New Testament.
Caput XXXI: Of the Predictions Concerning the Salvation of the World in Christ, in Obadiah, Nahum, and Habakkuk.
Caput XXXII: Of the Prophecy that is Contained in the Prayer and Song of Habakkuk.
Caput XXXIII: What Jeremiah and Zephaniah Have, by the Prophetic Spirit, Spoken Before Concerning Christ and the Calling of the Nations.
Caput XXXIV: Of the Prophecy of Daniel and Ezekiel, Other Two of the Greater Prophets.
Caput XXXV: Of the Prophecy of the Three Prophets, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi.
Caput XXXVI: About Esdras and the Books of the Maccabees.
Caput XXXVII: That Prophetic Records are Found Which are More Ancient Than Any Fountain of the Gentile Philosophy.
Caput XXXVIII: That the Ecclesiastical Canon Has Not Admitted Certain Writings on Account of Their Too Great Antiquity, Lest Through Them False Things Should Be Inserted Instead of True.
Caput XXXIX: About the Hebrew Written Characters Which that Language Always Possessed.
Caput XL: About the Most Mendacious Vanity of the Egyptians, in Which They Ascribe to Their Science an Antiquity of a Hundred Thousand Years.
Caput XLI: About the Discord of Philosophic Opinion, and the Concord of the Scriptures that are Held as Canonical by the Church.
Caput XLII: By What Dispensation of God’s Providence the Sacred Scriptures of the Old Testament Were Translated Out of Hebrew into Greek, that They Might Be Made Known to All the Nations.
Caput XLIII: Of the Authority of the Septuagint Translation, Which, Saving the Honor of the Hebrew Original, is to Be Preferred to All Translations.
Caput XLIV: How the Threat of the Destruction of the Ninevites is to Be Understood Which in the Hebrew Extends to Forty Days, While in the Septuagint It is Contracted to Three.
Caput XLV: That the Jews Ceased to Have Prophets After the Rebuilding of the Temple, and from that Time Until the Birth of Christ Were Afflicted with Continual Adversity, to Prove that the Building of Another Temple Had Been Promised by Prophetic Voices.
Caput XLVI: Of the Birth of Our Saviour, Whereby the Word Was Made Flesh; And of the Dispersion of the Jews Among All Nations, as Had Been Prophesied.
Caput XLVII: Whether Before Christian Times There Were Any Outside of the Israelite Race Who Belonged to the Fellowship of the Heavenly City.
Caput XLVIII: That Haggai’s Prophecy, in Which He Said that the Glory of the House of God Would Be Greater Than that of the First Had Been, Was Really Fulfilled, Not in the Rebuilding of the Temple, But in the Church of Christ.
Caput XLIX: Of the Indiscriminate Increase of the Church, Wherein Many Reprobate are in This World Mixed with the Elect.
Caput L: Of the Preaching of the Gospel, Which is Made More Famous and Powerful by the Sufferings of Its Preachers.
Caput LI: That the Catholic Faith May Be Confirmed Even by the Dissensions of the Heretics.
Caput LII: Whether We Should Believe What Some Think, That, as the Ten Persecutions Which are Past Have Been Fulfilled, There Remains No Other Beyond the Eleventh, Which Must Happen in the Very Time of Antichrist.
Caput LIII: Of the Hidden Time of the Final Persecution.
Caput LIV: Of the Very Foolish Lie of the Pagans, in Feigning that the Christian Religion Was Not to Last Beyond Three Hundred and Sixty-Five Years.
Book 19
Caput I: That Varro Has Made Out that Two Hundred and Eighty-Eight Different Sects of Philosophy Might Be Formed by the Various Opinions Regarding the Supreme Good.
Caput II: How Varro, by Removing All the Differences Which Do Not Form Sects, But are Merely Secondary Questions, Reaches Three Definitions of the Chief Good, of Which We Must Choose One.
Caput III: Which of the Three Leading Opinions Regarding the Chief Good Should Be Preferred, According to Varro, Who Follows Antiochus and the Old Academy.
Caput IV: What the Christians Believe Regarding the Supreme Good and Evil, in Opposition to the Philosophers, Who Have Maintained that the Supreme Good is in Themselves.
Caput V: Of the Social Life, Which, Though Most Desirable, is Frequently Disturbed by Many Distresses.
Caput VI: Of the Error of Human Judgments When the Truth is Hidden.
Caput VII: Of the Diversity of Languages, by Which the Intercourse of Men is Prevented; And of the Misery of Wars, Even of Those Called Just.
Caput VIII: That the Friendship of Good Men Cannot Be Securely Rested In, So Long as the Dangers of This Life Force Us to Be Anxious.
Caput IX: Of the Friendship of the Holy Angels, Which Men Cannot Be Sure of in This Life, Owing to the Deceit of the Demons Who Hold in Bondage the Worshippers of a Plurality of Gods.
Caput X: The Reward Prepared for the Saints After They Have Endured the Trial of This Life.
Caput XI: Of the Happiness of the Eternal Peace, Which Constitutes the End or True Perfection of the Saints.
Caput XII: That Even the Fierceness of War and All the Disquietude of Men Make Towards This One End of Peace, Which Every Nature Desires.
Caput XIII: Of the Universal Peace Which the Law of Nature Preserves Through All Disturbances, and by Which Every One Reaches His Desert in a Way Regulated by the Just Judge.
Caput XIV: Of the Order and Law Which Obtain in Heaven and Earth, Whereby It Comes to Pass that Human Society Is Served by Those Who Rule It.
Caput XV: Of the Liberty Proper to Man’s Nature, and the Servitude Introduced by Sin,—A Servitude in Which the Man Whose Will is Wicked is the Slave of His Own Lust, Though He is Free So Far as Regards Other Men.
Caput XVI: Of Equitable Rule.
Caput XVII: What Produces Peace, and What Discord, Between the Heavenly and Earthly Cities.
Caput XVIII: How Different the Uncertainty of the New Academy is from the Certainty of the Christian Faith.
Caput XIX: Of the Dress and Habits of the Christian People.
Caput XX: That the Saints are in This Life Blessed in Hope.
Caput XXI: Whether There Ever Was a Roman Republic Answering to the Definitions of Scipio in Cicero’s Dialogue.
This, then, is the place where I should fulfill the promise gave in the second book of this work, and explain, as briefly and clearly as possible, that if we are to accept the definitions laid down by Scipio in Cicero’s De Republica, there never was a Roman republic; for he briefly defines a republic as the weal of the people. And if this definition be true, there never was a Roman republic, for the people’s weal was never attained among the Romans. For the people, according to his definition, is an assemblage associated by a common acknowledgment of right and by a community of interests. And what he means by a common acknowledgment of right he explains at large, showing that a republic cannot be administered without justice. Where, therefore, there is no true justice there can be no right. For that which is done by right is justly done, and what is unjustly done cannot be done by right. For the unjust inventions of men are neither to be considered nor spoken of as rights; for even they themselves say that right is that which flows from the fountain of justice, and deny the definition which is commonly given by those who misconceive the matter, that right is that which is useful to the stronger party. Thus, where there is not true justice there can be no assemblage of men associated by a common acknowledgment of right, and therefore there can be no people, as defined by Scipio or Cicero; and if no people, then no weal of the people, but only of some promiscuous multitude unworthy of the name of people. Consequently, if the republic is the weal of the people, and there is no people if it be not associated by a common acknowledgment of right, and if there is no right where there is no justice, then most certainly it follows that there is no republic where there is no justice. Further, justice is that virtue which gives every one his due. Where, then, is the justice of man, when he deserts the true God and yields himself to impure demons? Is this to give every one his due? Or is he who keeps back a piece of ground from the purchaser, and gives it to a man who has no right to it, unjust, while he who keeps back himself from the God who made him, and serves wicked spirits, is just?
This same book, De Republica, advocates the cause of justice against injustice with great force and keenness. The pleading for injustice against justice was first heard, and it was asserted that without injustice a republic could neither increase nor even subsist, for it was laid down as an absolutely unassailable position that it is unjust for some men to rule and some to serve; and yet the imperial city to which the republic belongs cannot rule her provinces without having recourse to this injustice. It was replied in behalf of justice, that this ruling of the provinces is just, because servitude may be advantageous to the provincials, and is so when rightly administered,—that is to say, when lawless men are prevented from doing harm. And further, as they became worse and worse so long as they were free, they will improve by subjection. To confirm this reasoning, there is added an eminent example drawn from nature: for “why,” it is asked, “does God rule man, the soul the body, the reason the passions and other vicious parts of the soul?” This example leaves no doubt that, to some, servitude is useful; and, indeed, to serve God is useful to all. And it is when the soul serves God that it exercises a right control over the body; and in the soul itself the reason must be subject to God if it is to govern as it ought the passions and other vices. Hence, when a man does not serve God, what justice can we ascribe to him, since in this case his soul cannot exercise a just control over the body, nor his reason over his vices? And if there is no justice in such an individual, certainly there can be none in a community composed of such persons. Here, therefore, there is not that common acknowledgment of right which makes an assemblage of men a people whose affairs we call a republic. And why need I speak of the advantageousness, the common participation in which, according to the definition, makes a people? For although, if you choose to regard the matter attentively, you will see that there is nothing advantageous to those who live godlessly, as every one lives who does not serve God but demons, whose wickedness you may measure by their desire to receive the worship of men though they are most impure spirits, yet what I have said of the common acknowledgment of right is enough to demonstrate that, according to the above definition, there can be no people, and therefore no republic, where there is no justice. For if they assert that in their republic the Romans did not serve unclean spirits, but good and holy gods, must we therefore again reply to this evasion, though already we have said enough, and more than enough, to expose it? He must be an uncommonly stupid, or a shamelessly contentious person, who has read through the foregoing books to this point, and can yet question whether the Romans served wicked and impure demons. But, not to speak of their character, it is written in the law of the true God, “He that sacrificeth unto any god save unto the Lord only, he shall be utterly destroyed.” He, therefore, who uttered so menacing a commandment decreed that no worship should be given either to good or bad gods.