Testimonia

{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p>Cicero the augur laughs at auguries, and reproves men for\r\nregulating the purposes of life by the cries of crows and jackdaws.<a id=\"FNanchor_177_177\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_177_177\">[177]</a>\r\nBut it will be said that an academic philosopher, who\r\nargues that all things are uncertain, is unworthy to have any\r\nauthority in these matters. In the second book of his <i>De\r\nNatura Deorum</i>,<a id=\"FNanchor_178_178\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_178_178\">[178]</a> he introduces Lucilius Balbus, who, after\r\nshowing that superstitions have their origin in physical and\r\nphilosophical truths, expresses his indignation at the setting up<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_171\">[Pg 171]</a></span>\r\nof images and fabulous notions, speaking thus: \"Do you not\r\ntherefore see that from true and useful physical discoveries the\r\nreason may be drawn away to fabulous and imaginary gods?\r\nThis gives birth to false opinions and turbulent errors, and\r\nsuperstitions well-nigh old-wifeish. For both the forms of\r\nthe gods, and their ages, and clothing, and ornaments, are\r\nmade familiar to us; their genealogies, too, their marriages,\r\nkinships, and all things about them, are debased to the likeness\r\nof human weakness. They are even introduced as having\r\nperturbed minds; for we have accounts of the lusts, cares,\r\nand angers of the gods. Nor, indeed, as the fables go, have\r\nthe gods been without their wars and battles. And that not\r\nonly when, as in Homer, some gods on either side have defended\r\ntwo opposing armies, but they have even carried on\r\nwars on their own account, as with the Titans or with the\r\nGiants. Such things it is quite absurd either to say or to\r\nbelieve: they are utterly frivolous and groundless.\" Behold,\r\nnow, what is confessed by those who defend the gods of the\r\nnations. Afterwards he goes on to say that some things\r\nbelong to superstition, but others to religion, which he thinks\r\ngood to teach according to the Stoics. \"For not only the\r\nphilosophers,\" he says, \"but also our forefathers, have made a\r\ndistinction between superstition and religion. For those,\" he\r\nsays, \"who spent whole days in prayer, and offered sacrifice,\r\nthat their children might outlive them, are called superstitious.\"<a id=\"FNanchor_179_179\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_179_179\">[179]</a>\r\nWho does not see that he is trying, while he fears\r\nthe public prejudice, to praise the religion of the ancients, and\r\nthat he wishes to disjoin it from superstition, but cannot find\r\nout how to do so? For if those who prayed and sacrificed\r\nall day were called superstitious by the ancients, were those\r\nalso called so who instituted (what he blames) the images of\r\nthe gods of diverse age and distinct clothing, and invented the\r\ngenealogies of gods, their marriages, and kinships? When,\r\ntherefore, these things are found fault with as superstitious,\r\nhe implicates in that fault the ancients who instituted and\r\nworshipped such images. Nay, he implicates himself, who,\r\nwith whatever eloquence he may strive to extricate himself<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_172\">[Pg 172]</a></span>\r\nand be free, was yet under the necessity of venerating these\r\nimages; nor dared he so much as whisper in a discourse to the\r\npeople what in this disputation he plainly sounds forth. Let\r\nus Christians, therefore, give thanks to the Lord our God,—not\r\nto heaven and earth, as that author argues, but to Him who\r\nhas made heaven and earth; because these superstitions, which\r\nthat Balbus, like a babbler,<a id=\"FNanchor_180_180\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_180_180\">[180]</a> scarcely reprehends, He, by the\r\nmost deep lowliness of Christ, by the preaching of the apostles,\r\nby the faith of the martyrs dying for the truth and living\r\nwith the truth, has overthrown, not only in the hearts of the\r\nreligious, but even in the temples of the superstitious, by their\r\nown free service.</p>","headings":["THE WORKS OF AURELIUS AUGUSTINE,","BOOK FOURTH.","ARGUMENT."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg45304-paragraph-333"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"40e916e90ea01141c59808fe9dbf4a0cbf06ed4dd89e944762c1188d04d47186","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_178_178","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_178_178","source_ebook":45304,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a id=\"Footnote_178_178\"></a><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_178_178\"><span class=\"label\">[178]</span></a> Cic. <i>De Nat. Deorum</i>, lib. ii. c. 28.</p></div>","source_sha256":"d89e9a2b80bb59f394f0fb1bf313b39fab162f06af6642166d62c5912c1195f1","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45304/pg45304-images.html#Footnote_178_178","text_sha256":"98b5f11ca0dd43e253542b3804a9d822ace60b4f7f6d95a5a62eb23dd1752d44","verified":false,"work_id":null}

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