{"author":null,"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"9650a06f70e141f3ce051da1dd4d33d69ba183c68a228420f3e5872be7e1b4bb","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,","BOOK SECOND.","ARGUMENT."],"id":"pg45304-paragraph-120","license_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html","note_targets":[],"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>In the foregoing book, having begun to speak of the city\r\nof God, to which I have resolved, Heaven helping me, to consecrate\r\nthe whole of this work, it was my first endeavour\r\nto reply to those who attribute the wars by which the world\r\nis being devastated, and specially the recent sack of Rome\r\nby the barbarians, to the religion of Christ, which prohibits\r\nthe offering of abominable sacrifices to devils. I have\r\nshown that they ought rather to attribute it to Christ, that\r\nfor His name's sake the barbarians, in contravention of all\r\ncustom and law of war, threw open as sanctuaries the largest\r\nchurches, and in many instances showed such reverence to\r\nChrist, that not only His genuine servants, but even those who\r\nin their terror feigned themselves to be so, were exempted from\r\nall those hardships which by the custom of war may lawfully\r\nbe inflicted. Then out of this there arose the question, why\r\nwicked and ungrateful men were permitted to share in these\r\nbenefits; and why, too, the hardships and calamities of war\r\nwere inflicted on the godly as well as on the ungodly. And in\r\ngiving a suitably full answer to this large question, I occupied\r\nsome considerable space, partly that I might relieve the\r\nanxieties which disturb many when they observe that the\r\nblessings of God, and the common and daily human casualties,<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_50\">[Pg 50]</a></span>\r\nfall to the lot of bad men and good without distinction; but\r\nmainly that I might minister some consolation to those holy\r\nand chaste women who were outraged by the enemy, in such\r\na way as to shock their modesty, though not to sully their\r\npurity, and that I might preserve them from being ashamed\r\nof life, though they have no guilt to be ashamed of. And\r\nthen I briefly spoke against those who with a most shameless\r\nwantonness insult over those poor Christians who were subjected\r\nto those calamities, and especially over those broken-hearted\r\nand humiliated, though chaste and holy women; these\r\nfellows themselves being most depraved and unmanly profligates,\r\nquite degenerate from the genuine Romans, whose\r\nfamous deeds are abundantly recorded in history, and everywhere\r\ncelebrated, but who have found in their descendants the\r\ngreatest enemies of their glory. In truth, Rome, which was\r\nfounded and increased by the labours of these ancient heroes,\r\nwas more shamefully ruined by their descendants, while its\r\nwalls were still standing, than it is now by the razing of them.\r\nFor in this ruin there fell stones and timbers; but in the ruin\r\nthose profligates effected, there fell, not the mural, but the\r\nmoral bulwarks and ornaments of the city, and their hearts\r\nburned with passions more destructive than the flames which\r\nconsumed their houses. Thus I brought my first book to a\r\nclose. And now I go on to speak of those calamities which\r\nthat city itself, or its subject provinces, have suffered since\r\nits foundation; all of which they would equally have attributed\r\nto the Christian religion, if at that early period the\r\ndoctrine of the gospel against their false and deceiving gods\r\nhad been as largely and freely proclaimed as now.</p>","source_sha256":"d89e9a2b80bb59f394f0fb1bf313b39fab162f06af6642166d62c5912c1195f1","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45304/pg45304-images.html","text_sha256":"b13742ceb80badddae66f91d3d2461b9fa25bdd1942ab8311460671b0d292a3e","verified":false,"work_id":null}