{"author":null,"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"e1928f8a86d588b794d9cf11fed1a366798520dc792e1f9c6755e2590ad5cb00","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":["THE WORKS OF AURELIUS AUGUSTINE,","EDITOR'S PREFACE."],"id":"pg45304-paragraph-2","license_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html","note_targets":["Footnote_1_1"],"public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"original-paragraph-unclassified","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":null,"source_ebook":45304,"source_html":"<p>\"Rome having been stormed and sacked by the Goths\r\nunder Alaric their king,<a id=\"FNanchor_1_1\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_1_1\">[1]</a> the worshippers of false\r\ngods, or pagans, as we commonly call them, made an attempt\r\nto attribute this calamity to the Christian religion, and began\r\nto blaspheme the true God with even more than their wonted\r\nbitterness and acerbity. It was this which kindled my zeal\r\nfor the house of God, and prompted me to undertake the\r\ndefence of the city of God against the charges and misrepresentations\r\nof its assailants. This work was in my hands\r\nfor several years, owing to the interruptions occasioned by\r\nmany other affairs which had a prior claim on my attention,\r\nand which I could not defer. However, this great undertaking\r\nwas at last completed in twenty-two books. Of these,\r\nthe first five refute those who fancy that the polytheistic\r\nworship is necessary in order to secure worldly prosperity,\r\nand that all these overwhelming calamities have befallen us\r\nin consequence of its prohibition. In the following five\r\nbooks I address myself to those who admit that such calamities\r\nhave at all times attended, and will at all times attend,\r\nthe human race, and that they constantly recur in forms more\r\nor less disastrous, varying only in the scenes, occasions, and\r\npersons on whom they light, but, while admitting this, maintain\r\nthat the worship of the gods is advantageous for the life\r\nto come. In these ten books, then, I refute these two\r\nopinions, which are as groundless as they are antagonistic to\r\nthe Christian religion.</p>","source_sha256":"d89e9a2b80bb59f394f0fb1bf313b39fab162f06af6642166d62c5912c1195f1","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45304/pg45304-images.html","text_sha256":"69ebb1a8b46ce36d19ed5ec0ad5a4180e099771b1fd968be553b1becbc6065e3","verified":false,"work_id":null}