Fisherman's Friend

A Treatise on the Soul and its Origin

edited by Philip Schaff · NPNF I

NPNF1-05. St. Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings

Contents (120 chapters)

Book I

Treatise on the Soul and Its Origin

  1. 1. Renatus Had Done Him a Kindness by Sending Him the Books Which Had Been Addressed to Him.
  2. 2. He Receives with a Kindly and Patient Feeling the Books of a Young and Inexperienced Man Who Wrote Against Him in a Tone of Arrogance. Vincentius Victor Converted from the Sect of the Rogatians.
  3. 3. The Eloquence of Vincentius, Its Dangers and Its Tolerableness.
  4. 4. The Errors Contained in the Books of Vincentius Victor. He Says that the Soul Comes from God, But Was Not Made Either Out of Nothing or Out of Any Created Thing.
  5. 5. Another of Victor’s Errors, that the Soul is Corporeal.
  6. 6. Another Error Out of His Second Book, to the Effect, that the Soul Deserved to Be Polluted by the Body.
  7. 7. Victor Entangles Himself in an Exceedingly Difficult Question. God’s Foreknowledge is No Cause of Sin.
  8. 8. Victor’s Erroneous Opinion, that the Soul Deserved to Become Sinful.
  9. 9. Victor Utterly Unable to Explain How the Sinless Soul Deserved to Be Made Sinful.
  10. 10. Another Error of Victor’s, that Infants Dying Unbaptized May Attain to the Kingdom of Heaven. Another, that the Sacrifice of the Body of Christ Must Be Offered for Infants Who Die Before They are Baptized.
  11. 11. Martyrdom for Christ Supplies the Place of Baptism. The Faith of the Thief Who Was Crucified Along with Christ Taken as Martyrdom and Hence for Baptism.
  12. 12. Dinocrates, Brother of the Martyr St. Perpetua, is Said to Have Been Delivered from the State of Condemnation by the Prayers of the Saint.
  13. 13. The Sacrifice of the Body and Blood of Christ Will Not Avail for Unbaptized Persons, and Can Not Be Offered for the Majority of Those Who Die Unbaptized.
  14. 14. Victor’s Dilemma: He Must Either Say All Infants are Saved, or Else God Slays the Innocent.
  15. 15. God Does Not Judge Any One for What He Might Have Done If His Life Had Been Prolonged, But Simply for the Deeds He Actually Commits.
  16. 16. Difficulty in the Opinion Which Maintains that Souls are Not by Propagation.
  17. 17. He Shows that the Passages of Scripture Adduced by Victor Do Not Prove that Souls are Made by God in Such a Way as Not to Be Derived by Propagation: First Passage.
  18. 18. By ‘Breath’ Is Signified Sometimes the Holy Spirit.
  19. 19. The Meaning of ‘Breath’ In Scripture.
  20. 20. Other Ways of Taking the Passage.
  21. 21. The Second Passage Quoted by Victor.
  22. 22. Victor’s Third Quotation.
  23. 23. His Fourth Quotation.
  24. 24. Whether or No the Soul is Derived by Natural Descent (Ex Traduce), His Cited Passages Fail to Show.
  25. 25. Just as the Mother Knows Not Whence Comes Her Child Within Her, So We Know Not Whence Comes the Soul.
  26. 26. The Fifth Passage of Scripture Quoted by Victor.
  27. 27. Augustin Did Not Venture to Define Anything About the Propagation of the Soul.
  28. 28. A Natural Figure of Speech Must Not Be Literally Pressed.
  29. 29. The Sixth Passage of Scripture Quoted by Victor.
  30. 30. The Danger of Arguing from Silence.
  31. 31. The Argument of the Apollinarians to Prove that Christ Was Without the Human Soul of This Same Sort.
  32. 32. The Self-Contradiction of Victor as to the Origin of the Soul.
  33. 33. Augustin Has No Objection to the Opinion About the Propagation of Souls Being Refuted, and that About Their Insufflation Being Maintained.
  34. 34. The Mistakes Which Must Be Avoided by Those Who Say that Men’s Souls are Not Derived from Their Parents, But are Afresh Inbreathed by God in Every Instance.
  35. 35. Conclusion.

Book II

  1. 36. Depraved Eloquence an Injurious Accomplishment.
  2. 37. He Asks What the Great Knowledge is that Victor Imparts.
  3. 38. The Difference Between the Senses of the Body and Soul.
  4. 39. To Believe the Soul is a Part of God is Blasphemy.
  5. 40. In What Sense Created Beings are Out of God.
  6. 41. Shall God’s Nature Be Mutable, Sinful, Impious, Even Eternally Damned.
  7. 42. To Think the Soul Corporeal an Error.
  8. 43. The Thirst of the Rich Man in Hell Does Not Prove the Soul to Be Corporeal.
  9. 44. How Could the Incorporeal God Breathe Out of Himself a Corporeal Substance?
  10. 45. Children May Be Found of Like or of Unlike Dispositions with Their Parents.
  11. 46. Victor Implies that the Soul Had a ‘State’ And ‘Merit’ Before Incarnation.
  12. 47. How Did the Soul Deserve to Be Incarnated?
  13. 48. Victor Teaches that God Thwarts His Own Predestination.
  14. 49. Victor Sends Those Infants Who Die Unbaptized to Paradise and the Heavenly Mansions, But Not to the Kingdom of Heaven.
  15. 50. Victor ‘Decides’ That Oblations Should Be Offered Up for Those Who Die Unbaptized.
  16. 51. Victor Promises to the Unbaptized Paradise After Their Death, and the Kingdom of Heaven After Their Resurrection, Although He Admits that This Opposes Christ’s Statement.
  17. 52. Disobedient Compassion and Compassionate Disobedience Reprobated. Martyrdom in Lieu of Baptism.
  18. 53. Victor’s Dilemma and Fall.
  19. 54. Victor Relies on Ambiguous Scriptures.
  20. 55. Victor Quotes Scriptures for Their Silence, and Neglects the Biblical Usage.
  21. 56. Victor’s Perplexity and Failure.
  22. 57. Peter’s Responsibility in the Case of Victor.
  23. 58. Who They are that are Not Injured by Reading Injurious Books.

Book III

  1. 59. Augustin’s Purpose in Writing.
  2. 60. Why Victor Assumed the Name of Vincentius. The Names of Evil Men Ought Never to Be Assumed by Other Persons.
  3. 61. He Enumerates the Errors Which He Desires to Have Amended in the Books of Vincentius Victor. The First Error.
  4. 62. Victor’s Simile to Show that God Can Create by Breathing Without Impartation of His Substance.
  5. 63. Examination of Victor’s Simile: Does Man Give Out Nothing by Breathing?
  6. 64. The Simile Reformed in Accordance with Truth.
  7. 65. Victor Apparently Gives the Creative Breath to Man Also.
  8. 66. Victor’s Second Error. (See Above in Book I. 26 [XVI.].)
  9. 67. His Third Error. (See Above in Book II. 11 [VII.].)
  10. 68. His Fourth Error. (See Above in Book I. 6 [VI.] and Book II. 11 [VII.].)
  11. 69. His Fifth Error. (See Above in Book I. 8 [VIII.] and Book II. 12 [VIII.].)
  12. 70. His Sixth Error. (See Above in Book I. 10-12 [IX., X.], and in Book II. 13, 14 [IX., X.].)
  13. 71. His Seventh Error. (See Above in Book II. 13 [IX.].)
  14. 72. His Eighth Error. (See Above in Book II. 13 [IX.].)
  15. 73. His Ninth Error. (See Above in Book II. 14 [X.].)
  16. 74. God Rules Everywhere: and Yet the ‘Kingdom of Heaven’ May Not Be Everywhere.
  17. 75. Where the Kingdom of God May Be Understood to Be.
  18. 76. His Tenth Error. (See Above in Book I. 13 [XI.] and Book II. 15 [XI.]).
  19. 77. His Eleventh Error. (See Above in Book I. 15 [XII.] and Book II. 16.)
  20. 78. Augustin Calls on Victor to Correct His Errors. (See Above in Book II. 22 [XVI.].)
  21. 79. Augustin Compliments Victor’s Talents and Diligence.
  22. 80. A Summary Recapitulation of the Errors of Victor.
  23. 81. Obstinacy Makes the Heretic.

Book IV

Book IV.

  1. 82. The Personal Character of This Book.
  2. 83. The Points Which Victor Thought Blameworthy in Augustin.
  3. 84. How Much Do We Know of the Nature of the Body?
  4. 85. Is the Question of Breath One that Concerns the Soul, or Body, or What?
  5. 86. God Alone Can Teach Whence Souls Come.
  6. 87. Questions About the Nature of the Body are Sufficiently Mysterious, and Yet Not Higher Than Those of the Soul.
  7. 88. We Often Need More Teaching as to What is Most Intimately Ours Than as to What is Further from Us.
  8. 89. We Have No Memory of Our Creation.
  9. 90. Our Ignorance of Ourselves Illustrated by the Remarkable Memory of One Simplicius.
  10. 91. The Fidelity of Memory; The Unsearchable Treasure of Memory; The Powers of a Man’s Understanding Sufficiently Understood by None.
  11. 92. The Apostle Peter Told No Lie, When He Said He Was Ready to Lay Down His Life for the Lord, But Only Was Ignorant of His Will.
  12. 93. The Apostle Paul Could Know the Third Heaven and Paradise, But Not Whether He Was in the Body or Not.
  13. 94. In What Sense the Holy Ghost is Said to Make Intercession for Us.
  14. 95. It is More Excellent to Know That the Flesh Will Rise Again and Live for Evermore, Than to Learn Whatever Scientific Men Have Been Able to Teach Us Concerning Its Nature.
  15. 96. We Must Not Be Wise Above What is Written.
  16. 97. Ignorance is Better Than Error. Predestination to Eternal Life, and Predestination to Eternal Death.
  17. 98. A Twofold Question to Be Treated Concerning the Soul; Is It ‘Body’? and is It ‘Spirit’? What Body is.
  18. 99. The First Question, Whether the Soul is Corporeal; Breath and Wind, Nothing Else Than Air in Motion.
  19. 100. Whether the Soul is a Spirit.
  20. 101. The Body Does Not Receive God’s Image.
  21. 102. Recognition and Form Belong to Souls as Well as Bodies.
  22. 103. Names Do Not Imply Corporeity.
  23. 104. Figurative Speech Must Not Be Taken Literally.
  24. 105. Abraham’s Bosom—What It Means.
  25. 106. The Disembodied Soul May Think of Itself Under a Bodily Form.
  26. 107. St. Perpetua Seemed to Herself, in Some Dreams, to Have Been Turned into a Man, and Then Have Wrestled with a Certain Egyptian.
  27. 108. Is the Soul Wounded When the Body is Wounded?
  28. 109. Is the Soul Deformed by the Body’s Imperfections?
  29. 110. Does the Soul Take the Body’s Clothes Also Away with It?
  30. 111. Is Corporeity Necessary for Recognition?
  31. 112. Modes of Knowledge in the Soul Distinguished.
  32. 113. Inconsistency of Giving the Soul All the Parts of Sex and Yet No Sex.
  33. 114. The Phenix After Death Coming to Life Again.
  34. 115. Prophetic Visions.
  35. 116. Do Angels Appear to Men in Real Bodies?
  36. 117. He Passes on to the Second Question About the Soul, Whether It is Called Spirit.
  37. 118. Wide and Narrow Sense of the Word 'Spirit.'
  38. 119. Victor’s Chief Errors Again Pointed Out.
  39. 120. Concluding Admonition.

Source: CCEL