For, in Holy Scripture, the King and Founder of the City of which I have undertaken to speak revealed to His people the judgment of divine law: ‘God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble.’4 Unfortunately the swollen spirit of human pride claims for itself this high prerogative, which belongs to God alone, and longs and loves to hear repeated in its own praise the line: ‘To be merciful to the conquered and beat the haughty down.’5 Its loftiness is above the pinnacles of earthly greatness which are shaken by the shifting winds of time-not by reason of hu-man arrogance, but only by the grace of God. I know, of course, what ingenuity and force of arguments are needed to convince proud men of the power of humility. The task, I realize, is a high and hard one, but God will help me.3 69), were meant as a refutation of the pagan position that polytheism is necessary for social prosperity and that the prohibi-tion of pagan worship ‘is the source of many calamities.’īe turned into judgment,’2 but which, one day, is to be the reward of excellence in a final victory and a perfect peace. Augustine began in 412 ( and finished in 415) the first five Books which, as he tells us in his Retractations (chap.

Eager for the conversion of the pagan but well-disposed imperial pro-consul, Volusianus, he sought the help of Augustine and was thus the occasion for the correspondence between the proconsul and the saint which still survives and throws much light on the begin-nings of the City of God. Augustine, was appointed by the Emperor Honoring (395–423) as a Commissioner to deal with the dispute between Catholics and Donatists in North Africa.

I shall consider it both in its temporal stage here below (where it journeys as a pilgrim among sinners and lives by faith) and as solidly established in its eternal abode-that blessed goal for which we patiently hope ‘until justiceġ Marcellinus, fervent Christian and, until his death in Septem-ber, 413, close friend of St.

In it I am undertaking noth-ing less than the task of defending the glorious City of God against those who prefer their own gods to its Founder. M y dear marcellinus:1 This work which I have begun makes good my promise to you. By Saint Augustine, Augustine of Hippo Staff Penguin Books, Limited ISBN: 9780140448948Ĭhristianity Did Not Cause the Fall of Rome

City of god by augustine of hippo