{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p>We know, too, that some men are differently constituted\r\nfrom others, and have some rare and remarkable faculty of\r\ndoing with their body what other men can by no effort do,\r\nand, indeed, scarcely believe when they hear of others doing.\r\nThere are persons who can move their ears, either one at a\r\ntime, or both together. There are some who, without moving\r\nthe head, can bring the hair down upon the forehead, and\r\nmove the whole scalp backwards and forwards at pleasure.\r\nSome, by lightly pressing their stomach, bring up an incredible\r\nquantity and variety of things they have swallowed, and produce\r\nwhatever they please, quite whole, as if out of a bag.\r\nSome so accurately mimic the voices of birds and beasts and\r\nother men, that, unless they are seen, the difference cannot be\r\ntold. Some have such command of their bowels, that they\r\ncan break wind continuously at pleasure, so as to produce\r\nthe effect of singing. I myself have known a man who was\r\naccustomed to sweat whenever he wished. It is well known\r\nthat some weep when they please, and shed a flood of tears.\r\nBut far more incredible is that which some of our brethren\r\nsaw quite recently. There was a presbyter called Restitutus,\r\nin the parish of the Calamensian<a id=\"FNanchor_121_121\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_121_121\">[121]</a> Church, who, as often as he\r\npleased (and he was asked to do this by those who desired to<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_43\">[Pg 43]</a></span>\r\nwitness so remarkable a phenomenon), on some one imitating\r\nthe wailings of mourners, became so insensible, and lay in a\r\nstate so like death, that not only had he no feeling when they\r\npinched and pricked him, but even when fire was applied to\r\nhim, and he was burned by it, he had no sense of pain except\r\nafterwards from the wound. And that his body remained\r\nmotionless, not by reason of his self-command, but because\r\nhe was insensible, was proved by the fact that he breathed\r\nno more than a dead man; and yet he said that, when any one\r\nspoke with more than ordinary distinctness, he heard the voice,\r\nbut as if it were a long way off. Seeing, then, that even in\r\nthis mortal and miserable life the body serves some men by\r\nmany remarkable movements and moods beyond the ordinary\r\ncourse of nature, what reason is there for doubting that, before\r\nman was involved by his sin in this weak and corruptible\r\ncondition, his members might have served his will for the\r\npropagation of offspring without lust? Man has been given\r\nover to himself because he abandoned God, while he sought\r\nto be self-satisfying; and disobeying God, he could not obey\r\neven himself. Hence it is that he is involved in the obvious\r\nmisery of being unable to live as he wishes. For if he lived\r\nas he wished, he would think himself blessed; but he could\r\nnot be so if he lived wickedly.</p>","headings":["THE CITY OF GOD.","BOOK FOURTEENTH.[1]","ARGUMENT."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg45305-paragraph-85"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"063f031ec7c462c8a2b77cd6c988a9a57cf91ee59ec9e5877a1e0f3cd4179475","edition_title":"The City of God, Volume II","edition_translators":["Marcus Dods","George Wilson (Books XVII-XVIII)"],"edition_year":1871,"explicit_reference_candidates":[],"headings":[],"id":"pg45305-Footnote_121_121","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_121_121","source_ebook":45305,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a id=\"Footnote_121_121\"></a><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_121_121\"><span class=\"label\">[121]</span></a> The position of Calama is described by Augustine as between Constantine\r\nand Hippo, but nearer Hippo.—<i>Contra Lit. Petil.</i> ii. 228. A full description\r\nof it is given in Poujoulat's <i>Histoire de S. Augustin</i>, i. 340, who says it was one of the most important towns of Numidia, eighteen leagues south of Hippo,\r\nand represented by the modern Ghelma. It is to its bishop, Possidius, we owe\r\nthe contemporary <i>Life of Augustine</i>.</p></div>","source_sha256":"7e0ced9e70512f3cf050b53c9d548e36b70d468d875153869f95d8aff5bbb530","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45305/pg45305-images.html#Footnote_121_121","text_sha256":"e8b7db336b6c9ab9bbced9fcdda8eb891be8f23a911994e2687caf2375c3716e","verified":false,"work_id":null}