Appendix to Augustine's Sermones: Sermones supposititii, Sermones 285-297

each one will scarcely be able to render an account on the day of judgement, what will become of priests, from whom the souls of all are to be required? And therefore, considering our danger, pray for us, that we may so strive continually to provide spiritual pastures for the flocks entrusted to us, that we may deserve to render a good account for them. Consider therefore, dearest brothers, what it is that I wish to suggest to your Charity: if only, through your praying, I may deserve that He who terrifies me should help me. Among his other precepts the blessed Apostle also says this, that a bishop ought to be powerful in sound doctrine to refute the one who contradicts (Tit. 1:9). A great work, but a heavy burden. Yet I shall hope in God that, with you helping by prayer for us, He will deliver us from the snare of the hunters and from the harsh word. For there is no cause which makes a steward of God more sluggish in reproving those who contradict than fear of a harsh word. For while we fear the detractions, mockeries and reproaches of proud men, and while we dread being weighed down by them in earthly property, fearing to lose temporal things, we preach eternal things less than we ought: and while we are afraid of losing something worldly through their wickedness, we neglect to cure the wounds of their sins with spiritual medicines. Hence it is to be feared that, both for ourselves and for those to whom we do not speak out of love for earthly things, we may be compelled to render a hard account on the day of judgement. Let us see therefore what it is to refute those who contradict. Those who contradict are not to be understood in one way only. For very few contradict us by speaking, very many by living badly, etc. I would hear and believe, if what you took from a Jew you gave back to a Christian.

2. Another objection. Perhaps someone also thinks this to himself and says: There are many rich Christians, avaricious or covetous; I commit no sin if I take from them and give to the poor: for from that with which they do no good, I shall be able to have a reward, if I give alms. In this matter too let each one spare his own soul; for a thought of this kind is suggested by the cunning of the devil. For even if he bestows all that he has taken, he rather adds to his sins, he does not lessen them. We have spoken against the one vice of plunder, etc. Have wealth, and there I shall praise covetousness tamed. If therefore, brothers, you attend to these things faithfully and diligently according to your custom, you will be able both to escape the impiety of avarice or covetousness and, in return for works of mercy, to arrive happily at eternal rewards, by the gift of our Lord, etc.

Sermon 288. A rebuke to those who have wives and neither blush nor fear to commit adulteries; or who, before their wives or after their wives, have wished to take concubines in an unhappy union.

1. Four necessary virtues. I ask you, brothers, that we consider more attentively the matter of our salvation, so that we may both escape all those things that are written concerning the future judgement and deserve to arrive happily at that blessedness which has been promised to us. With what strength we can, with the help of God, charity, justice, mercy, and at the same time chastity as well

let us strive to keep with our whole intent, so that by this heavenly and spiritual four-horse chariot we may be carried off to the principal homeland of paradise. Let us go there meanwhile in heart; and when the day of judgement comes, we shall follow in body also, so that in us may be fulfilled what the Apostle said, But our way of life is in the heavens (Phil. 3:20); and this, When Christ your life appears, you also will appear with Him in glory (Col. 3:4). Let us therefore love none of these four virtues less than is fitting. For what does it profit you if you seem to have charity, and are unwilling to have justice? Or how will it be able to help you if you say that you have mercy, and by not having chastity you hold your own self in hatred, according to what is written, He who loves iniquity hates his own soul (Ps. 10:6)?

2. Chastity is rare. Adulterers are many. They are often admonished by the bishop. But they ought also to be rebuked by each one. Otherwise one becomes a partaker of their sins. Those who are rebuked and not corrected are to be reported to the bishop. On account of one wicked man the commonwealth is sometimes punished. And because we know that very few are willing to keep chastity, we admonish you the more attentively about chastity itself, on account of what is written, Neither fornicators, nor the effeminate, nor those who lie with males will possess the kingdom of God: and this, Nor adulterers, nor drunkards will possess the kingdom of God (1 Cor. 6:9–10). But what is worse, there are many who, even though they appear to have wives, at the persuasion of the devil neglect to keep chastity; but, inflamed with the fury of lust, with their own or other people's maidservants, or even with the wives or daughters of strangers, they neither fear nor blush to commit adultery in such a way that they neither fear the Lord nor respect men. But it was right, brothers, that with those who are such, our admonitions, so frequent and of so many years, should have done some good; so that they would not make wounds for themselves out of medicines, nor kill themselves by that whereby they could have brought themselves to life: for the chastisement of the priest, as it will be unto glory for the obedient, so for the disobedient it will be unto punishment. And since those men, as I have already said, neither revere the Lord nor fear men, you who by Christ's inspiration faithfully keep both faith and charity, if ever you learn that any are committing such sacrilegious sins, chastise them once and a second and a third time: and if they refuse to listen to you, neither hold conversation with them, nor invite them back to your feast, nor take food with them at their tables, according to what the Apostle says, With such a one not even to take food (ibid. 5:11); so that even thus they may blush, when they see themselves cursed by the honourable and those who fear God. For if what I suggest is not done, whoever it is who knows that his brother or his neighbour is committing adultery, if he will not reprove him, will be his partner in his sins, according to what is written, If you saw a thief, you ran along with him, and with adulterers you placed your portion (Ps. 49:18); and what the Apostle says, Not only those who do these things, but also those who consent to those who do them (Rom. 1:32). But those who neither reprove adulterers themselves, nor bring the sacrilegious to the notice of the priests, make us suspect that they do not reprove them for this reason, that they themselves also commit such sins. For it is enough for me that I cry out with great grief of mind and with endless groaning. But you, if you wish to be free from your own sins and from those of others, do not spare such men; and if, when you admonish them more privately and more frequently, they refuse to listen, bring this to the notice of our lowliness, according to what is said in the Gospel, Rebuke him between yourself and him alone: if he listens to you, you will have gained your brother; but if he does not listen to you, tell the Church: that is, bring it to the notice of the priest. But if he does not listen to the Church, let him be to you as a heathen and a publican (Matt. 18:15, 17). But what is worse, while those who commit so great an evil are not only not rebuked by some, but are even caressed and received with flattery, they for that reason nourish their sacrileges and crimes, and perpetrate them without any fear or shame. But we ought to fear that which

is written of Achar, who had stolen a golden bar from Jericho, when for the sin of one man the wrath of God raged over all, and the fury of God did not rest from the people until he who had done the evil was crushed at the Lord's command (Josh. 7:2, 11).

3. Men think adulteries are permitted to them: they are no more permitted to them than to women. For since those of whom we are speaking want their wives to be chaste, with what conscience do they commit abominations, and say that what is entirely not permitted to them is permitted to them, as though God had given one set of commandments to men and another to women? Let whoever he is say by what law's permission he commits these crimes, when all adulteries are punished by both divine and human law. Yet this evil is not prohibited for the very reason that it is committed by many. But the less it is restrained by men, the more heavily it is punished by the judgement of God. For what sort of thing is this, that they burst out into such shamelessness as to say that these so cruel evils are permitted to men and not permitted to women? Nor do they consider that men and women have been equally redeemed by the blood of Christ, and have together been washed in the most holy laver, and, approaching the altar of the Lord, receive together the body and blood of the Lord, and that with God there is no distinction of male and female, nor is God a respecter of persons? Therefore what is not permitted to women has likewise never been permitted to men either, nor can it be permitted. But an unhappy custom has crept in, that if a wife is found with her slave she is punished; but if a husband wallows with many maidservants in the sewer of lust, not only is he not punished, but he is even praised by those like him; and, talking among themselves as to who has done this more, they confess it with laughter and most foolish guffawing. But the laughter of these men will be turned into lamentation on the day of judgement, and their jests will be changed into wounds. And this is what those do who neither believe in nor fear the future judgement of God.

4. They are mortal sins. Sometimes even to know one's wife is not without sin. With a free conscience I both cry out and solemnly declare that whoever, having a wife, has committed adulteries, unless lengthy penance and abundant almsgiving come to his aid and he ceases from the sin itself, and if, as tends to happen, he dies suddenly, will perish for ever, nor will the Christian name profit him: because not only has he not done what Christ commanded, but he has even perpetrated what Christ forbade. For since even to know one's wife, apart from the desire for children, is a sin, what can they think of themselves or what hope can they promise themselves who, having marriages, prepare for themselves through adultery that by which they may descend into hell, and are unwilling to hear the Apostle saying, The time is short; it remains that those also who have wives be as though not having them (1 Cor. 7:29); and that saying, That each one may know how to possess his vessel in honour and sanctification, not in the passion of desire, like the Gentiles who have no hope (1 Thess. 4:4–5)? Consider that those who make use of their wives apart from the desire for children cannot be without sin unless they give constant alms. And if this is said of lawful matrimony, what do you think will become, on the day of judgement, of those who presume to commit adulteries, whether public or hidden, without any regard for the fear of God; of whom it is written, Sinners and adulterers the Lord will judge (Heb. 13:4); and that saying of the Apostle which has already been quoted above, Nor shall adulterers possess the kingdom of God? What does it profit you, unhappy man, whoever you are, that you are called a Christian, if by the sin of adultery you have deserved to be shut out of the kingdom of God?

5. Concubinage is very frequent. It is not thought a sin. It is a sin worse than adultery. The custom at Rome concerning those marrying who are not virgins. And this I ask, dearest brothers, and I admonish your Charity, that whoever are about to take wives should keep their virginity until the wedding: because just as there is no one who wishes to take a bride who has been violated, so no one ought to corrupt himself before the wedding by adulterous intercourse. But, what is worse, there are many who take concubines to themselves before they take wives: and because it is a great multitude, to excommunicate all

the bishop cannot, but with groaning and many sighs he tolerates it and waits, in case perhaps the kind and merciful Lord may grant them a fruitful penance through which they may be able to come to pardon. And because this evil has been brought into custom, so that it is thought not to be a sin: behold, before God and His angels I declare that whoever takes a concubine to himself, whether before a wife or after a wife, commits adultery; and from this it is a worse adultery, because, although it is by no means permitted publicly, he commits it without any shame as though by law. Further, we recognize from this too that it is no light sin, that whatever children these women conceive are born not free but slaves. Hence, even after receiving their freedom, they are permitted by no law and by no order to receive their father's inheritance. Consider also whether it can be without sin when the honour of noble blood is so humbled that slaves are born of most noble men. For it is so grave a sin that in the city of Rome whoever wishes to take a wife, if he knows that he is not a virgin, does not at all presume to come to receive the nuptial blessing. See also how hard it is that he does not deserve to receive the blessing together with her whom he desires to marry.

6. The sermon as a mirror. But when we have put these things forward, I fear that there may be some who would rather be angry with us than with themselves. For our sermon is set before your Charity as a mirror: and therefore, just as a matron, when she looks into a mirror, corrects in herself rather what she has seen crooked, and does not break the mirror; so also each of you, whenever he recognizes his own foulness in some preaching, ought rightly to correct himself rather than wish to be angry with the preacher, as though with the mirror. So also those who receive some wounds wish rather to heal the wounds than to despise the remedies. Lest, then, anyone sin doubly from this too, if he should wish to be angry against spiritual remedies, let him receive what is said not only patiently but also gladly: because he is already known to be turning away from evil in some part who is willing gladly to accept wholesome correction; and to the one whom his own evils displease, the things that are good are already pleasing, and so the more he separates himself from vices, the nearer he will draw to virtues. May He Himself deign to grant this, Who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns for ages of ages. Amen.

Sermon 289. On Chastity.

1. Age does not excuse the incontinence of the young. Whenever, dearest brethren, we commend chastity as is fitting and expedient, perhaps young men and those still in the green age say: We are young men, we are not able to be continent. To them we both can and ought to reply: perhaps they cannot keep chastity for this reason, that they eat more than is expedient, and take more wine than is proper, they are unwilling to avoid familiarity with women, and they neither fear nor blush to keep their suspect company. Let those who are such hear the Apostle saying: Flee fornication (1 Cor. 6:18); and that saying, Be not drunk with wine, in which is lust (Eph. 5:18): and that of Solomon, Wine and women make the wise fall away, and reprove the prudent (Sir. 19:2). But let those who say that they cannot keep chastity answer us whether they have wives or not. If they have, why do they not heed that which the Truth says in the Gospel, All things whatever you wish that men should do

to you, do you also likewise to them (Matt. 7:12): and why do they not keep faith with their wives, which they desire to be kept towards themselves by them? For since man (vir) has received his name from virtue (virtus), and woman (mulier) from softness (mollities), that is, frailty, why does each one want his wife to be victorious against that most cruel beast, lust, when he himself falls conquered at the first blow of lust?

2. The law of justice condemns them, if they are married; nay, even if they are not yet married. At this point perhaps those who are not yet joined to wives say that they can excuse themselves, because they have no marriages in which they ought to keep faith, and that for this reason they cannot be continent. To those who try to put forward this false and wretched excuse it both can and ought to be answered most justly that no one ought to avoid unlawful things more than he who rejects the things that were lawful. Since it is lawful to take a wife, and against the authority of all the Scriptures it is never lawful to commit adultery, why do you not, with the grace of God, take what is lawful, and why do you, with offence to God, presume to do what is not lawful? I should like to know, however, whether those who have no wives, and who, before they are joined in marriage, neither fear nor blush to commit adulteries, would wish their betrothed, before they come to the wedding, to be violated by some adulterers? For since there is no one who would accept this patiently, why does each man not keep faith with his betrothed, which he desires to be kept towards himself by her? Why does he wish to take a virgin as wife, when he himself is corrupted? Why does he desire to be joined to a living wife, when through adultery he himself is already dead in soul, according to that which is written: The soul that has sinned, it shall die (Ezek. 18:20)? and that which the Apostle terribly cries out: Fornicators God will judge (Heb. 13:4); and that: Neither shall adulterers possess the kingdom of God (1 Cor. 6:9); and again: All those committing adultery, and adulterers, their body is like an oven (Hos. 7:4)?

3. Fornication is thought to be lawful for men, not for women. Both sexes are bound by the same laws. But perhaps some think that it is not lawful for women to fornicate before marriage, but that it is lawful for men. These evils, which deserve punishment and are exceedingly grave, are, what is worse, committed by many men without any fear of the Lord, for this reason: because they have been so brought into custom by most people, and are reckoned so cheap or light, that they are no longer even thought to be among grave crimes. For in the Catholic faith whatever is not lawful for women is altogether not lawful for men either. For by one price, that is, by the precious blood of Christ, both men and women alike are redeemed; they are called into one faith, and gathered in the one body of the Church; together they receive the sacraments of Baptism, together they approach the altar to receive the body and blood of Christ, together the commandments have been given to both sexes. Since these things are so, with what face or with what conscience do men alone believe that they commit with impunity what it is not lawful for men and women alike to do? But let those who presume to do this know for certain that if they do not quickly amend themselves, and fruitful penance does not come to their aid, and they are thus suddenly snatched from this light, eternal flame will torment them without any remedy.

4. Concubinage. It was never lawful. It is more wicked than adultery. And what sort of thing is this, that many men do not blush to take concubines for themselves before marriage, whom they dismiss after some years, and so afterwards take lawful wives? For they plan among themselves first to acquire, out of many false accusations and robberies, both unjust riches and wicked gains, and afterwards, against reason, to take wives more noble than they themselves are, or richer. Behold with how many evils they bind themselves, who desire unhappily to serve not only lust, but also avarice or greed. Wherefore before God and the Angels I testify and declare that [God] has always forbidden these evils, and that they have never been pleasing to Him: because especially in Christian times to have concubines never

was permitted, will never be permitted. But what is worse, many men do this by the law of the forum, not by the law of heaven; not at the bidding of justice, but under the dominion of lust. For since the Apostle says to those who have marriages, The time is short, and it remains that those who have wives be as though they had none (1 Cor. 7:29); and that other word, Abstain for a time, that you may give yourselves to prayer (ibid., 5): how does he permit the having of adulterous concubines, who commanded that chastity be kept even by those placed in marriages? For which reason again and again I cry out with a free voice that he who presumes to take a concubine to himself before lawful marriage commits a worse sin than he who commits adultery: for he who commits adultery still wishes to do so grave an evil secretly, but in public he either fears or is ashamed to commit it; whereas he who chooses to have a concubine publicly thinks that, with a most shameless brow, he may freely commit an execrable thing while the whole people looks on.

5. It is committed by many. And for that reason it is not punished with excommunication. He who is not a virgin does not deserve the nuptial blessing. But perhaps those who are not stained with this sin say: Why are those who do this not suspended from communion? For so great a crime is for this reason not punished at all by the priests, because it is committed by many. For if one or two or four or five presumed to do these evils, they both could and should be not only suspended from communion, but also separated from the conversation and table of the Christian people, according to that word of the Apostle, With such a one not even to take food (ibid., 14): yet the multitude of sinners, as has already been said, prevents the priests of the Lord from making distinctions among them. Nevertheless good priests do what they can, and with perfect charity they strive to pray and sigh continually, and they pour forth groans and roarings; so that those in whose case, because of their boundless multitude, they cannot exercise severity or ecclesiastical discipline, they may at some time be able to rouse to penance by admonishing them or praying for them. Wherefore again and again I both ask and solemnly charge that he who wishes to take a wife, just as he desires to find her a virgin, so he himself should be a virgin until the wedding: for if he has not been, he will not deserve to receive the blessing together with his bride; and there is fulfilled in him what is written, He did not want blessing, and it shall be put far from him (1 Cor. 7:29). Now see, if the remedy of penance does not come to his aid, what will become of him, or to what sentence he will have to be subjected at the future judgement, who already in this world was not worthy to receive the blessing with his bride.

6. Adulterers lack faith. And attend to this too, brethren: if those who have no wives and either take concubines to themselves or commit adulteries are in so grave a danger, what do those unhappy men think of themselves who, perhaps having marriages, commit adultery, and with insane fury or cruel unhappiness despair of the judgement of God; who neither dread the torments of hell nor desire the eternal rewards? For if they had faith, they would surely believe God, and would fear the coming judgement with trembling. For it is proved that they believe men and do not believe God, in that publicly, where men see, they fear adulteries, and secretly, where God sees, they do not fear them at all. If they had any spark of faith whatever, then just as they do not permit their servants to sin in their presence, so neither would they presume to commit adultery in the sight of their Lord. But of such the Holy Spirit cries out through the prophet, The fool, he says, has said in his heart, There is no God (Ps. 13:1). For it is certain that he does not believe God exists who, in darkness and in hiding, does in God's presence those things which he is greatly afraid to do publicly in the presence of men: the unhappy man does not know that the face of the Lord is upon those who do evil, to destroy their memory from the earth (Ps. 33:17).

7. Those whom business separates from their wives for a long time excuse themselves. Thereby they condemn themselves. But perhaps someone says: See, separated from my wife for so many months or years because business compels it or the king commands it, how can I keep chastity? To whom it can most justly be answered that he should return to his wife. But when I say this to a merchant, he can say to me that if he gives up his business,