Saint Augustine in His Study (detail), Sandro Botticelli

Augustine of Hippo, On Man's Perfection in Righteousness Chapter 14: The Thirteenth Breviate

Sandro Botticelli, Saint Augustine in His Study (detail), c. 1480 · Ognissanti, Florence · Public domainSandro Botticelli, Saint Augustine in His Study (detail), c. 1480, Ognissanti, Florence

SectionAugustine of HippoPublic domain

XIII. “The next question we have to ask,” says he, “is this: If man cannot be without sin, whose fault is it,—man’s own, or some one’s else? If man’s own, in what way is it his fault if he is not that which he is unable to be?” We reply, that it is man’s fault that he is not without sin on this account, because it has by man’s sole will come to pass that he has come into such a necessity as cannot be overcome by man’s sole will.

Reproduced in full. Translation: Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 5 (Schaff, 1887), public domain (Public domain).

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