Index rerum quae in tertio tomo (PL 34-35) continentur

INDEX OF THE MATTERS CONTAINED IN THIS THIRD VOLUME.

PREFACE TO THE THIRD TOME. 9-10

ADMONITION ON THE BOOKS ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 13-14

OF ST AURELIUS AUGUSTINE, BISHOP OF HIPPO, FOUR BOOKS ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 15-16

PROLOGUE. Ibid.

BOOK I. — At the beginning a division of the whole work is made, by which the student of the Scriptures is instructed both for searching out their sense and for expounding it. Next, having noted the distinction into things and signs among the matters on which teaching is to be given, the treatment of things is undertaken in this former book. Further, that there are some things which may be enjoyed, others which may only be used; and that to God alone must one cleave in enjoyment, and that we are advanced towards Him by the incarnation of His Word and by the things done by Him in time, and by the keys handed to the Church; but that among the things which come into use there are some on which love is rightly spent, but as referred to God. These things explained, it is taught that the fullness and end of the whole of sacred Scripture is a twofold charity, of God for His own sake and of one's neighbour for God's sake. 19-20

CHAPTER I. The treatment of Scripture rests on discovery and on expression; and it is to be undertaken with God's help. Ibid.

II. What things are, what signs are. Ibid.

III. The division of things. Ibid.

IV. What it is to enjoy and to use. Ibid.

V. God the Trinity, the thing to be enjoyed. 21

VI. In what way God is ineffable. Ibid.

VII. All understand God as that than which there is nothing better. 22

VIII. God, since He is unchangeable wisdom, is to be set before all things. Ibid.

IX. All know that unchangeable wisdom is to be preferred to changeable. 23

X. The mind must be purified in order to see God. Ibid.

XI. Wisdom incarnate is the example for purifying the mind. Ibid.

XII. How the Wisdom of God came to us. Ibid.

XIII. The Word was made flesh. 24

XIV. How the Wisdom of God healed man. Ibid.

XV. By the resurrection and ascension of Christ faith is upheld; it is roused by the judgement. Ibid.

XVI. The Church, the body and spouse of Christ, is purified by Him through healing afflictions. 25

XVII. Christ, by forgiving sins, opened the way to the homeland. Ibid.

XVIII. The keys handed to the Church. Ibid.

XIX. The death and resurrection of body and soul. Ibid.

XX. Who are reborn not to life but to punishments. 26

XXI. Again on the resurrection of the body. Ibid.

XXII. God alone is to be enjoyed. Ibid.

XXIII. Man needs no precept to love himself and his own body. Perverse love of self. 27

XXIV. No one hates his own flesh, not even those who rise up against it. Ibid.

XXV. Even if something is loved more than the body, the body is not therefore held in hatred. 28

XXVI. A precept has been given about loving God and one's neighbour, and indeed oneself. 29

XXVII. The order of love. Ibid.

XXVIII. Whom to help, when you cannot help all, or two. 30

XXIX. We must wish and work that all may love God. Ibid.

XXX. All men, and the Angels themselves, are our neighbours. Ibid.

XXXI. God does not enjoy us, but uses us. 32

XXXII. How God uses man. Ibid.

XXXIII. How it is fitting to enjoy a man. Ibid.

XXXIV. Christ the first way to God. 33

XXXV. The fullness and end of Scripture: the love of God and of neighbour. 34

XXXVI. An interpretation of Scripture, though faulty, is not lying nor harmfully deceptive, provided it is useful for building up charity. Yet the interpreter who is thus mistaken is to be corrected. Ibid.

XXXVII. There is much danger in this faulty interpretation. 35

XXXVIII. Charity abides for ever. Ibid.

XXXIX. A man furnished with faith, hope and charity does not need the Scriptures. 36

XL. What kind of reader Scripture requires. Ibid.

BOOK II. — Augustine now begins his discourse on the signs and words of sacred Scripture, and shows that its genuine sense is for the most part not grasped for this reason, that those signs are either unknown or ambiguous. Therefore, having first set out the canon of the divine books, he goes on to declare skill in which languages above all, and which disciplines and sciences, contribute to removing that ignorance of signs. Here, as occasion offers, he discusses briefly but deeply the superstitious arts and teachings that are to be rejected. He also declares, near the beginning and at the end of the book, how he who is to devote his effort to the study of the Scriptures ought to be disposed in mind. 35-36

CHAPTER I. What a sign is, and of how many kinds. Ibid.

II. Which kind of signs is to be treated here. 37

III. Among signs, words hold the first place. Ibid.

IV. Whence letters came. 38

V. The diversity of languages. Ibid.

VI. To what end the obscurity of Scripture in tropes and figures is useful. Ibid.

VII. The steps to wisdom: the first, fear; the second, piety; the third, knowledge; the fourth, fortitude; the fifth, counsel; the sixth, purification of heart; the seventh step or end, wisdom. 39

VIII. The canonical books. 40

IX. In what way one should devote oneself to the study of Scripture. 42

X. Scripture happens not to be understood because of unknown or ambiguous signs. Ibid.

XI. That ignorance of signs may be removed, knowledge of languages is necessary, and above all of Greek and Hebrew. Ibid.

XII. The diversity of translations is useful. How the error of translators arises from the ambiguity of words. 43

XIII. Whence a fault of translation can be corrected. 44

XIV. Whence the [sense of an] unknown word and unknown expression is to be drawn out. 45

XV. The Itala Latin version is commended, and the Greek of the Seventy Translators. 46

XVI. For figurative signs to be understood, knowledge both of languages and of things helps. Ibid.

XVII. The origin of the fable of the nine Muses. 49

XVIII. If the profane have said anything well, it is not to be spurned. Ibid.

XIX. Two kinds of teaching found among the heathen. 50

XX. Of the sciences which men have instituted, some are full of superstitions. A witty saying of Cato. Ibid.

XXI. The superstition of the astrologers. 51

XXII. Observation of the stars to learn the course of a life is vain. Ibid.

XXIII. Why the science of the casters of nativities is to be rejected. 52

XXIV. Fellowship and compact with demons in the superstitious use of things. 53

XXV. Among human institutions that are not superstitious, some are superfluous, some convenient and necessary. 54

XXVI. Which institutions of men are to be shunned, and which embraced. 55

XXVII. Some of the sciences which men did not institute help towards the understanding of the Scriptures. Ibid.

XXVIII. How far history helps. Ibid.

XXIX. How far knowledge of animals, plants, etc., and especially of the stars, conduces to the understanding of the Scriptures. 56

XXX. What the mechanical arts contribute to the same. 57

XXXI. What dialectic helps. Sophisms. Ibid.

XXXII. The truth of logical connections was not instituted by men, but only observed. 58

XXXIII. In false propositions the inferences can be valid, and in true ones invalid. 59

XXXIV. It is one thing to know the laws of inference, another the truth of propositions. Ibid.

XXXV. The science of defining and dividing is not false, even if it is applied to false things. What the false is. 60

XXXVI. The precepts of eloquence are true, although false things are sometimes urged by them. Ibid.

XXXVII. What is the usefulness of rhetoric and dialectic. Ibid.

XXXVIII. The science of numbers was found out by men not from human institution but from the nature of things. 61

XXXIX. To which of the disciplines noted above, and with what mind, effort is to be given. Human laws. 62

XL. If anything has been rightly said by the heathen, it is to be converted to our use. 63

XLI. What kind of soul the study of holy Scripture requires. The properties of hyssop. 64

XLII. Comparison of holy Scripture with profane [literature]. Ibid.

Book Three. — Having treated in the preceding book of removing ignorance of signs, the holy Doctor now passes to the consideration of the ambiguity which occurs both in proper and in figurative signs. In proper signs, indeed, it arises from the punctuation of words, from their pronunciation, and from a doubtful meaning; and he shows that this kind of ambiguity is resolved by the context of the discourse, by comparing the translators, or by inspecting the language from which the Scripture was translated. In figurative signs, however, ambiguity occurs when the expression itself is not set down in the Scriptures according to the literal sense; on this matter he argues at greater length, and hands down rules by which it may be discerned whether a manner of speaking is figurative, and, if it is figurative, in what way it ought to be explained. At the end he weighs one by one the seven rules of Tichonius himself. 65-66

Chapter One. Summary of the preceding books, and the aim of the following one. Ibid.

II. How ambiguity arising from the division of words is to be removed. Ibid.

III. By what method ambiguity arising from pronunciation is cleared up. How an inquiry and a question differ. 67

IV. By what method ambiguity of expression is cleared up. 68

V. To take the figurative expressions of Scripture literally is a wretched servitude. Ibid.

VI. The servitude of the Jews under useful signs. 69

VII. The servitude of the gentiles under useless signs. 70

VIII. The Jews were freed from the servitude of signs in one way, the gentiles in another. Ibid.

IX. Who is oppressed by the servitude of signs, and who is not. Baptism, the Eucharist. Ibid.

X. How it may be discerned whether a manner of speaking is figurative. A general rule. Charity. Cupidity. Vice. Crime. Usefulness. Beneficence. 71

XI. A rule concerning those things which smack of cruelty and are nevertheless related in the person of God or of the saints. 72

XII. A rule concerning words and deeds, shameful as it were in the judgement of the unskilled, which are attributed to God or to holy men. Deeds are judged from their circumstances. Ibid.

XIII. Continuation of the same argument. 74

XIV. The error of those who hold that there is no justice in itself. Ibid.

XV. The rule to be observed in figurative expressions. Ibid.

XVI. A rule concerning preceptive expressions. Ibid.

XVII. Some things are commanded to all in common, others to individuals separately. 73

XVIII. One must consider at what time something was commanded or permitted. Ibid.

XIX. The wicked judge others by their own character. 75

XX. In any way of life whatever, the good are like themselves. Ibid.

XXI. David, although he fell into adultery, was far from the intemperance of the lustful. 77

XXII. A rule concerning passages of Scripture where certain deeds of good men are praised which are contrary to present-day morals. 78

XXIII. A rule concerning passages where the sins of great men are related. Ibid.

XXIV. Before all else the kind of expression must be considered. Ibid.

XXV. The same word does not signify the same thing everywhere. Ibid.

XXVI. Obscure things are to be explained from clearer passages. 79

XXVII. Nothing forbids the same passage from being understood in various ways. 80

XXVIII. An uncertain passage is made clear more safely through other passages of Scripture than through reasoning. Ibid.

XXIX. Knowledge of tropes is necessary. Ibid.

XXX. The rules of Tichonius the Donatist are weighed. 81

XXXI. The first rule of Tichonius. 82

XXXII. The second rule of Tichonius. Ibid.

XXXIII. The third rule of Tichonius. The book On the Spirit and the Letter. 83

XXXIV. The fourth rule of Tichonius. Ibid.

XXXV. The fifth rule of Tichonius. 86

XXXVI. The sixth rule of Tichonius. Ibid.

XXXVII. The seventh rule of Tichonius. 88

Book Four. — Thus far concerning the investigation of the sense of Scripture; now at last it treats of setting it forth. And indeed Augustine does not wish the precepts of the rhetorical art to pertain to the purpose of this book; but nevertheless he pursues with the greatest diligence the duties of the Christian orator: to whom he proposes for imitation the authors of the sacred writings and the doctors of the Church, by far the most outstanding in wisdom of speech, nay and in eloquence, adding from their writings examples of style in the various kinds of speaking. Finally he exhorts the preacher himself above all to give his effort to prayer, and that what he teaches others in words, he should altogether make good in life and conduct. 89-90

Chapter I. To hand down the precepts of rhetoric is not the purpose of this work. Ibid.

II. It is fitting that the Christian teacher should use the faculty of rhetoric. Ibid.

III. At what age and in what way the precepts of rhetoric can be learned. Ibid.

IV. The duty of the Christian teacher. 91

V. It matters more that the Christian orator speak wisely than that he speak eloquently. From what source he may be able to attain this. Ibid.

VI. Wisdom joined with eloquence in the sacred authors. 92

VII. He shows finely, with examples adduced, that in the sacred Scriptures there is genuine eloquence, which clings to wisdom as an inseparable companion. Examples are given from the Epistles of Paul and from the prophet Amos. Another example of sacred eloquence from Amos 6:1. 93

VIII. The obscurity of the sacred authors, although eloquent, is not to be imitated by Christian teachers. 98

IX. Before whom and in what way things difficult to understand are to be treated. 99

X. Zeal for clarity in speaking. Ibid.

XI. Why one who strives to teach must speak clearly, yet not unpleasingly. 100

XII. It belongs to the orator to teach, to delight, to move, from Cicero, On the Orator. In what way he ought to accomplish these three things. 101

XIII. Minds are finally to be moved by speaking. Ibid.

XIV. Pleasantness of diction is to be sought according to the nature of the subject. 102

XV. God must be prayed to by the ecclesiastical author before the sermon. 103

XVI. Precepts of teaching are not given superfluously by man, even though it is God Who makes teachers. Ibid.

XVII. The threefold kind of speaking pertains to teaching, delighting and moving. 104

XVIII. The ecclesiastical orator is always engaged with great subject matter. 105

XIX. One kind of speaking is to be used at one time, another at another. 106

XX. Examples from the sacred Scriptures: first, of the subdued style; then, of the moderate; lastly, of the grand: these three from the Epistles of Paul. 107

XXI. Examples of this threefold kind of diction are taken from ecclesiastical teachers, namely Cyprian and Ambrose. 111

XXII. Diction is to be varied with all the kinds. 114

XXIII. How the kinds of diction are to be intermingled. 115

XXIV. What the lofty kind of speaking accomplishes. Ibid.

XXV. To what end the moderate kind of speaking ought to be directed. 116

XXVI. In each kind of speaking the orator ought to aim at being heard with understanding, willingly and obediently. 117

XXVII. He whose life corresponds to his speech is heard more obediently. 118

XXVIII. One must be devoted to truth rather than to words. What it is to contend about words. 119

XXIX. The preacher is not to be blamed who takes from a more skilled man a written discourse to deliver to the people. Ibid.

XXX. Let the preacher send a prayer to God before [his sermon]. 120

XXXI. He excuses the length of the book. 121

ADMONITION ON THE BOOK ON TRUE RELIGION. 121-122

OF ST AURELIUS AUGUSTINE, BISHOP OF HIPPO, ON TRUE RELIGION, ONE BOOK, in which, after it is first stated that true religion is not found among the pagans, nor in any sect except in the Catholic Church, the history of the divine economy towards human salvation (which indeed is the head and foundation of the Christian religion) is then so set forth that the errors of the Manichaeans, especially concerning the two natures, or concerning the origin and nature of evil, are refuted. It treats of the twofold way by which God provides for men, calling to salvation by authority those who believe, by reason those who understand. For man, supported by reason, is raised from lower things up to God; indeed he is admonished to pursue Him by the very vices, on whose threefold kind Augustine here undertakes a lengthy discourse; and finally he concludes that the one true God, that is, the Trinity, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, is to be worshipped with true religion. Ibid.

Chapter I. The philosophers taught one thing about religion in the schools, and professed another in the temples. Ibid.

II. What Socrates thought about the gods. This world held to be God. 123

III. The true Christian religion, which has persuaded men of what Plato did not believe they could be persuaded of. Ibid.

IV. The philosophers who cling wholly to sensible things are to be despised. 126

V. In which sects true religion [is found]. The divine gift, the Holy Spirit. Ibid.

VI. True religion [is] in the Catholic Church alone, which makes use of all who err for its own advancement. The good [are] sometimes expelled from the Church by the seditious. 127

VII. The religion of the Catholic Church is to be embraced. What it professes. 128

VIII. What we first believed led by authority, we afterwards understand by reason. Heretics are of benefit to the Church. 129

IX. The error of the Manichaeans concerning two principles and two souls. Ibid.

X. Being about to narrate the history of the divine economy towards our salvation, he shows first whence error in religion arises, and how perfect religion is restored with God's help. 130

XI. All life [is] from God. The death of the soul [is] wickedness. 131

XII. The fall and the restoration of the whole man. 132

XIII. The difference of the angels. 133

XIV. Sin [comes] from free will. Ibid.

XV. By the very punishment of sin we are taught to come to our senses again. 134

XVI. By the Word made flesh provision was made for man more beneficently. Ibid.

XVII. The method of teaching in the true religion is the best possible, whether the Old or the New Testament be considered. 136

XVIII. Why creatures [are] mutable. 137

XIX. Things that can be corrupted are good, but not the highest goods. Ibid.

XX. Whence [comes] the vice of the soul. 138

XXI. The soul is led astray while it pursues the fleeting beauties of bodies. 139

XXII. The ordering of transient things displeases the impious alone. 140

XXIII. Every substance [is] good. Ibid.

XXIV. Provision is made for man's salvation by a twofold way, authority and reason; and first the aid of authority is treated, up to chapter 29. 141

XXV. On the authority of which men or books one should believe concerning the worship of God. 142

XXVI. Divine providence towards our salvation [extends] to the six ages of the old and the new man. 143

XXVII. The course of each man in the whole human race. 144

XXVIII. What things are to be handed on, to whom, and in what manner. Ibid.

XXIX. On the other aid to salvation, namely reason; how with it as guide man is carried up to God: it is first found to surpass the senses. 145

XXX. But more excellent than reason is the immutable light, namely the truth according to which it judges. Ibid.

XXXI. God is that highest law, according to which reason judges, but which it is not permitted to judge. 147

XXXII. In bodies there is a trace of unity, but unity itself is perceived only by the mind. 148

XXXIII. It is not bodies, nor the sense of the body, but the judgement that lies. One who lies and one who deceives differ. 149

XXXIV. How fabricated phantasms are to be judged. 150

XXXV. One must be at leisure that God may be known. 151

XXXVI. The Word of God is truth itself, because He wholly fulfils that principle from which whatever is one is one. Falsity [comes] not from things, but from sins. Ibid.

XXXVII. The impiety of manifold idolatry arose from love of the creature. 152

XXXVIII. Another kind of idolatry, by which the sinner serves a threefold desire. 153

XXXIX. The soul is admonished by its very vices to seek again the first beauty: which is shown first of the vice of pleasure, up to chapter 43. 154

XL. On the beauty of bodies and the pleasure of the flesh, and on the punishment of sinners. 155

XLI. There is beauty in the punishment of the sinning soul. 156

XLII. The pleasure of the flesh admonishes us to seek indivisible numbers. Whether such are present in any vital motion. 157

XLIII. In man [there is] a power of judging the proportion of bodies and of times. What measure of order [there is] in everlasting truth. 158

XLIV. The Son [is] the image of God, after which certain things were made. 159

XLV. The weakness of pleasure thrusts us on towards higher things. On the vice of pride, up to chap. 49: how through it we are admonished to embrace virtue. Ibid.

XLVI. He is unconquered who loves only that which cannot be snatched from the one who loves it, that is, God with his whole heart, and his neighbour as himself. 160

XLVII. True love of neighbour, and he who bestows it is unconquered. 162

XLVIII. What perfect justice is. 163

XLIX. Next, on curiosity, how by this vice we are admonished