BOOK I Preface MY DEAR MARCELLINUS: This work which I have begun makes good my promise to you. In it I am undertaking nothing less than the task of defending the glorious City of God against those who prefer their own gods to its Founder. …
Category: City Of God
The City of God: Book 1: Chapter Two
BOOK ONE Chapter Two The chronicles are filled with wars waged before Rome was founded, and since it rose and grew to be an empire. Let the pagans read these chronicles, and then adduce one single instance of a city falling into the hands of …
The City of God: Book 1: Chapter Three
BOOK ONE Chapter Three Just think of the kind of gods to whose protection the Romans were content to entrust their city! No more pathetic illusion could be imagined. Yet, the pagans are angry with us because we speak so frankly of their divinities. However, …
The City of God: Book 1: Chapter Four
BOOK ONE Chapter Four As I have already suggested, Troy herself, parent of the Roman people, for all her sanctuaries of the gods, offered to her pious citizens no protection from the fire and sword of the Greeks. On the contrary, ‘in Juno’s sanctuary, …
The City of God: Book 1: Chapter Five
Chapter Five Of that custom, according to Sallust, a historian of outstanding truthfulness, Cato gives a sample in the speech on the conspirators which he delivered in the Senate: ‘Girls and young boys are ravished, children are torn from their parents’ arms, matrons must submit …
The City of God: Book 1: Chapter Six
Chapter 6 There is no need to speak of other warring nations who never gave quarter to the victims they found in the temples of the gods. Let us take a look at the Romans themselves. Let us recall to mind and consider the Romans, …
The City of God: Book 1: Chapter Seven
Chapter 7 All the destruction, slaughter, plundering, burning, and distress visited upon Rome in its latest calamity were but the normal aftermath of war. It was something entirely new that fierce barbarians, by an unprecedented turn of events, showed such clemency that vast basilicas were …
The City of God: Book 1: Chapter Eight
Chapter 8 But, someone will say: ‘How, then, is it that this divine mercy was bestowed on impious and ungrateful man?’ Surely, the answer is that mercy was shown by the One who, day by day, ‘maketh His sun to rise upon the good and …
The City of God: Book 1: Chapter Nine
Chapter 9 What, then, did the Christians suffer in the great devastation of Rome which, if taken in a spirit of faith, would not have served for their greater good? For one thing, if they humbly called to mind the sins for which God in …
The City of God: Book 1: Chapter Ten
Chapter 10 Take all those truths into due and thoughtful consideration and then ask whether there has befallen men of faith and piety any evil which could not work to their good, according to the pregnant saying of St. Paul: ‘We know that to them …