{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p>Let not your life, then, be a burden to you, ye faithful servants\r\nof Christ, though your chastity was made the sport\r\nof your enemies. You have a grand and true consolation, if\r\nyou maintain a good conscience, and know that you did not\r\nconsent to the sins of those who were permitted to commit\r\nsinful outrage upon you. And if you should ask why this\r\npermission was granted, indeed it is a deep providence of the\r\nCreator and Governor of the world; and \"unsearchable are His\r\njudgments, and His ways past finding out.\"<a id=\"FNanchor_77_77\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_77_77\">[77]</a> Nevertheless,<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_40\">[Pg 40]</a></span>\r\nfaithfully interrogate your own souls, whether ye have not\r\nbeen unduly puffed up by your integrity, and continence, and\r\nchastity; and whether ye have not been so desirous of the\r\nhuman praise that is accorded to these virtues, that ye have\r\nenvied some who possessed them. I, for my part, do not\r\nknow your hearts, and therefore I make no accusation; I do\r\nnot even hear what your hearts answer when you question\r\nthem. And yet, if they answer that it is as I have supposed\r\nit might be, do not marvel that you have lost that by which\r\nyou can win men's praise, and retain that which cannot be\r\nexhibited to men. If you did not consent to sin, it was\r\nbecause God added His aid to His grace that it might not\r\nbe lost, and because shame before men succeeded to human\r\nglory that it might not be loved. But in both respects even\r\nthe fainthearted among you have a consolation, approved by\r\nthe one experience, chastened by the other; justified by the\r\none, corrected by the other. As to those whose hearts, when\r\ninterrogated, reply that they have never been proud of the\r\nvirtue of virginity, widowhood, or matrimonial chastity, but,\r\ncondescending to those of low estate, rejoiced with trembling\r\nin these gifts of God, and that they have never envied any\r\none the like excellences of sanctity and purity, but rose\r\nsuperior to human applause, which is wont to be abundant in\r\nproportion to the rarity of the virtue applauded, and rather\r\ndesired that their own number be increased, than that by the\r\nsmallness of their numbers each of them should be conspicuous;—even\r\nsuch faithful women, I say, must not complain\r\nthat permission was given to the barbarians so grossly to\r\noutrage them; nor must they allow themselves to believe that\r\nGod overlooked their character when He permitted acts which\r\nno one with impunity commits. For some most flagrant and\r\nwicked desires are allowed free play at present by the secret\r\njudgment of God, and are reserved to the public and final\r\njudgment. Moreover, it is possible that those Christian\r\nwomen, who are unconscious of any undue pride on account\r\nof their virtuous chastity, whereby they sinlessly suffered the\r\nviolence of their captors, had yet some lurking infirmity which\r\nmight have betrayed them into a proud and contemptuous\r\nbearing, had they not been subjected to the humiliation that<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_41\">[Pg 41]</a></span>\r\nbefell them in the taking of the city. As, therefore, some\r\nmen were removed by death, that no wickedness might change\r\ntheir disposition, so these women were outraged lest prosperity\r\nshould corrupt their modesty. Neither those women, then,\r\nwho were already puffed up by the circumstance that they\r\nwere still virgins, nor those who might have been so puffed\r\nup had they not been exposed to the violence of the enemy,\r\nlost their chastity, but rather gained humility: the former\r\nwere saved from pride already cherished, the latter from pride\r\nthat would shortly have grown upon them.</p>","headings":["THE WORKS OF AURELIUS AUGUSTINE,","BOOK FIRST."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg45304-paragraph-97"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"84d44c3294bfed5d7a26f3169ba49107b9bed05d6d183171bb10d8eb275247b1","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":[{"book":"ROM","chapter":11,"kind":"unreviewed","source_notation":"Rom. xi. 33","verse":33,"verse_end":33}],"headings":[],"id":"pg45304-Footnote_77_77","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_77_77","source_ebook":45304,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a id=\"Footnote_77_77\"></a><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_77_77\"><span class=\"label\">[77]</span></a> Rom. xi. 33.</p></div>","source_sha256":"d89e9a2b80bb59f394f0fb1bf313b39fab162f06af6642166d62c5912c1195f1","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45304/pg45304-images.html#Footnote_77_77","text_sha256":"bed1c3cf6943824b733e9aae0c8cfb2040b43a8d9bb52a0a26d7a8cc10ed7782","verified":false,"work_id":null}