The City of God, Book II

Book II

• The City of God II.1 — Of the Limits Which Must Be Put to the Necessity of Replying to an Adversary. If the feeble mind of man did not presume to resist the clear evidence of truth, but yielded its infirmity to wholesome doctrines, as to a…vatican.va
• The City of God II.2 — Recapitulation of the Contents of the First Book. In the foregoing book, having begun to speak of the city of God, to which I have resolved, Heaven helping me, to consecrate the whole of this work, it was my first…vatican.va
• The City of God II.3 — Chapter 3.—That We Need Only to Read History in Order to See What Calamities the Romans Suffered Before the Religion of Christ Began to Compete with the Worship of the Gods. But remember that, in recounting these…vatican.va
• The City of God II.4 — Chapter 4.—That the Worshippers of the Gods Never Received from Them Any Healthy Moral Precepts, and that in Celebrating Their Worship All Sorts of Impurities Were Practiced. First of all, we would ask why their gods…vatican.va
• The City of God II.5 — Of the Obscenities Practiced in Honor of the Mother of the Gods. In this matter I would prefer to have as my assessors in judgment, not those men who rather take pleasure in these infamous customs than take pains to…vatican.va
• The City of God II.6 — That the Gods of the Pagans Never Inculcated Holiness of Life. This is the reason why those divinities quite neglected the lives and morals of the cities and nations who worshipped them, and threw no dreadful…vatican.va
• The City of God II.7 — Chapter 7.—That the Suggestions of Philosophers are Precluded from Having Any Moral Effect, Because They Have Not the Authority Which Belongs to Divine Instruction, and Because Man’s Natural Bias to Evil Induces Him…vatican.va
• The City of God II.8 — That the Theatrical Exhibitions Publishing the Shameful Actions of the Gods, Propitiated Rather Than Offended Them. Chapter 8.—That the Theatrical Exhibitions Publishing the Shameful Actions of the Gods, Propitiated…vatican.va
• The City of God II.9 — That the Poetical License Which the Greeks, in Obedience to Their Gods, Allowed, Was Restrained by the Ancient Romans. Chapter 9.—That the Poetical License Which the Greeks, in Obedience to Their Gods, Allowed, Was…vatican.va
• The City of God II.10 — That the Devils, in Suffering Either False or True Crimes to Be Laid to Their Charge, Meant to Do Men a Mischief. Chapter 10.—That the Devils, in Suffering Either False or True Crimes to Be Laid to Their Charge,…vatican.va
• The City of God II.11 — Chapter 11.—That the Greeks Admitted Players to Offices of State, on the Ground that Men Who Pleased the Gods Should Not Be Contemptuously Treated by Their Fellows. It was a part of this same reasonableness of the…vatican.va
• The City of God II.12 — Chapter 12.—That the Romans, by Refusing to the Poets the Same License in Respect of Men Which They Allowed Them in the Case of the Gods, Showed a More Delicate Sensitiveness Regarding Themselves than Regarding the…vatican.va
• The City of God II.13 — That the Romans Should Have Understood that Gods Who Desired to Be Worshipped in Licentious Entertainments Were Unworthy of Divine Honor. Chapter 13.—That the Romans Should Have Understood that Gods Who Desired to Be…vatican.va
• The City of God II.14 — That Plato, Who Excluded Poets from a Well-Ordered City, Was Better Than These Gods Who Desire to Be Honoured by Theatrical Plays. Chapter 14.—That Plato, Who Excluded Poets from a Well-Ordered City, Was Better Than…vatican.va
• The City of God II.15 — That It Was Vanity, Not Reason, Which Created Some of the Roman Gods. But is it not manifest that vanity rather than reason regulated the choice of some of their false gods? This Plato, whom they reckon a demigod,…vatican.va
• The City of God II.16 — Chapter 16.—That If the Gods Had Really Possessed Any Regard for Righteousness, the Romans Should Have Received Good Laws from Them, Instead of Having to Borrow Them from Other Nations. Moreover, if the Romans had…vatican.va
• The City of God II.17 — Of the Rape of the Sabine Women, and Other Iniquities Perpetrated in Rome’s Palmiest Days. Chapter 17.—Of the Rape of the Sabine Women, and Other Iniquities Perpetrated in Rome’s Palmiest Days. But possibly we are to…vatican.va
• The City of God II.18 — What the History of Sallust Reveals Regarding the Life of the Romans, Either When Straitened by Anxiety or Relaxed in Security. Chapter 18.—What the History of Sallust Reveals Regarding the Life of the Romans, Either…vatican.va
• The City of God II.19 — Of the Corruption Which Had Grown Upon the Roman Republic Before Christ Abolished the Worship of the Gods. Chapter 19.—Of the Corruption Which Had Grown Upon the Roman Republic Before Christ Abolished the Worship of…vatican.va
• The City of God II.20 — Of the Kind of Happiness and Life Truly Delighted in by Those Who Inveigh Against the Christian Religion. Chapter 20.—Of the Kind of Happiness and Life Truly Delighted in by Those Who Inveigh Against the Christian…vatican.va
• The City of God II.21 — Cicero’s Opinion of the Roman Republic. But if our adversaries do not care how foully and disgracefully the Roman republic be stained by corrupt practices, so long only as it holds together and continues in being,…vatican.va
• The City of God II.22 — That the Roman Gods Never Took Any Steps to Prevent the Republic from Being Ruined by Immorality. Chapter 22.—That the Roman Gods Never Took Any Steps to Prevent the Republic from Being Ruined by Immorality. But what…vatican.va
• The City of God II.23 — That the Vicissitudes of This Life are Dependent Not on the Favor or Hostility of Demons, But on the Will of the True God. Chapter 23.—That the Vicissitudes of This Life are Dependent Not on the Favor or Hostility of…vatican.va
• The City of God II.24 — Of the Deeds of Sylla, in Which the Demons Boasted that He Had Their Help. It is certain that Sylla—whose rule was so cruel that, in comparison with it, the preceding state of things which he came to avenge was…vatican.va
• The City of God II.25 — How Powerfully the Evil Spirits Incite Men to Wicked Actions, by Giving Them the Quasi-Divine Authority of Their Example. Chapter 25.—How Powerfully the Evil Spirits Incite Men to Wicked Actions, by Giving Them the…vatican.va
• The City of God II.26 — That the Demons Gave in Secret Certain Obscure Instructions in Morals, While in Public Their Own Solemnities Inculcated All Wickedness. Chapter 26.—That the Demons Gave in Secret Certain Obscure Instructions in…vatican.va
• The City of God II.27 — Chapter 27.—That the Obscenities of Those Plays Which the Romans Consecrated in Order to Propitiate Their Gods, Contributed Largely to the Overthrow of Public Order. Cicero, a weighty man, and a philosopher in his…vatican.va
• The City of God II.28 — That the Christian Religion is Health-Giving. They, then, are but abandoned and ungrateful wretches, in deep and fast bondage to that malign spirit, who complain and murmur that men are rescued by the name of Christ…vatican.va
• The City of God II.29 — An Exhortation to the Romans to Renounce Paganism. This, rather, is the religion worthy of your desires, O admirable Roman race,—the progeny of your Scævolas and Scipios, of Regulus, and of Fabricius. This rather…vatican.va