Testimonia

{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p>Some have advanced the opinion that there are both good\r\nand bad gods; but some, thinking more respectfully of\r\nthe gods have attributed to them so much honour and praise\r\nas to preclude the supposition of any god being wicked. But\r\nthose who have maintained that there are wicked gods as well\r\nas good ones have included the demons under the name\r\n\"gods,\" and sometimes, though more rarely, have called the\r\ngods demons; so that they admit that Jupiter, whom they\r\nmake the king and head of all the rest, is called a demon by\r\nHomer.<a id=\"FNanchor_329_329\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_329_329\">[329]</a> Those, on the other hand, who maintain that the\r\ngods are all good, and far more excellent than the men who\r\nare justly called good, are moved by the actions of the demons,\r\nwhich they can neither deny nor impute to the gods whose\r\ngoodness they affirm, to distinguish between gods and demons;\r\nso that, whenever they find anything offensive in the deeds or\r\nsentiments by which unseen spirits manifest their power, they\r\nbelieve this to proceed not from the gods, but from the demons.\r\nAt the same time they believe that, as no god can hold direct\r\nintercourse with men, these demons hold the position of mediators,\r\nascending with prayers, and returning with gifts. This\r\nis the opinion of the Platonists, the ablest and most esteemed\r\nof their philosophers, with whom we therefore chose to debate\r\nthis question,—whether the worship of a number of gods is of<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_354\">[Pg 354]</a></span>\r\nany service towards obtaining blessedness in the future life.\r\nAnd this is the reason why, in the preceding book, we have\r\ninquired how the demons, who take pleasure in such things\r\nas good and wise men loathe and execrate, in the sacrilegious\r\nand immoral fictions which the poets have written, not of men,\r\nbut of the gods themselves, and in the wicked and criminal\r\nviolence of magical arts, can be regarded as more nearly related\r\nand more friendly to the gods than men are, and can mediate\r\nbetween good men and the good gods; and it has been demonstrated\r\nthat this is absolutely impossible.</p>","headings":["THE WORKS OF AURELIUS AUGUSTINE,","BOOK NINTH.","ARGUMENT."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg45304-paragraph-626"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"1c7842ed13c268bc0a8d4ab9b9cb4221ccac51ad921543c538baf1cb15eb0b5e","edition_title":"The City of God, Volume I","edition_translators":["Marcus Dods","George Wilson (Book IV)","J. J. Smith (Books V-VIII)"],"edition_year":1871,"explicit_reference_candidates":[],"headings":[],"id":"pg45304-Footnote_329_329","license_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html","public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"original-editor-translator-note","review_required":["work and recension attribution","original-work chronology","Bible reference numbering and citation kind","English edition rights and attribution"],"review_status":"needs_review","rights_evidence":"Provider catalog reports public domain in the USA. Original transcription title leaves state T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh, 1871; printed translator allocation retained. Gutenberg credits Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries without an exact scan identifier. Full provider license preserved with acquired original; republication and per-work metadata remain unreviewed.","source_anchor":"Footnote_329_329","source_ebook":45304,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a id=\"Footnote_329_329\"></a><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_329_329\"><span class=\"label\">[329]</span></a> See Plutarch, on the Cessation of Oracles.</p></div>","source_sha256":"d89e9a2b80bb59f394f0fb1bf313b39fab162f06af6642166d62c5912c1195f1","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45304/pg45304-images.html#Footnote_329_329","text_sha256":"00a1f6c3a74cde6cf1d5c16302802c5607a00224c2bd26a1231212c8d84c3b18","verified":false,"work_id":null}

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