{"author":null,"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"bcfe45c50a0d5bc7626088a8db1bff097b201219f86189bd32d0413fc74e6e50","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 FIRST."],"id":"pg45304-paragraph-65","license_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html","note_targets":["Footnote_72_72"],"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>But if they say that M. Regulus, even while a prisoner\r\nand enduring these bodily torments, might yet enjoy the\r\nblessedness of a virtuous soul,<a id=\"FNanchor_72_72\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_72_72\">[72]</a> then let them recognise that\r\ntrue virtue by which a city also may be blessed. For the\r\nblessedness of a community and of an individual flow from\r\nthe same source; for a community is nothing else than a\r\nharmonious collection of individuals. So that I am not concerned\r\nmeantime to discuss what kind of virtue Regulus\r\npossessed: enough, that by his very noble example they are\r\nforced to own that the gods are to be worshipped not for the\r\nsake of bodily comforts or external advantages; for he preferred\r\nto lose all such things rather than offend the gods by\r\nwhom he had sworn. But what can we make of men who\r\nglory in having such a citizen, but dread having a city like\r\nhim? If they do not dread this, then let them acknowledge\r\nthat some such calamity as befell Regulus may also befall a\r\ncommunity, though they be worshipping their gods as diligently\r\nas he; and let them no longer throw the blame of\r\ntheir misfortunes on Christianity. But as our present concern\r\nis with those Christians who were taken prisoners, let\r\nthose who take occasion from this calamity to revile our most\r\nwholesome religion in a fashion not less imprudent than impudent,\r\nconsider this and hold their peace; for if it was no\r\nreproach to their gods that a most punctilious worshipper of\r\ntheirs should, for the sake of keeping his oath to them, be\r\ndeprived of his native land without hope of finding another,\r\nand fall into the hands of his enemies, and be put to death\r\nby a long-drawn and exquisite torture, much less ought the<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_25\">[Pg 25]</a></span>\r\nChristian name to be charged with the captivity of those who\r\nbelieve in its power, since they, in confident expectation of a\r\nheavenly country, know that they are pilgrims even in their\r\nown homes.</p>","source_sha256":"d89e9a2b80bb59f394f0fb1bf313b39fab162f06af6642166d62c5912c1195f1","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45304/pg45304-images.html","text_sha256":"b92876e69fc87e62bab637f6054b000b5bff25ac675c29a69a6eddae0e48d931","verified":false,"work_id":null}