On the Soul and its Origin, Book II

Book II

• On the Soul and its Origin II.1 — Depraved Eloquence an Injurious Accomplishment. There have reached me the two books of Vincentius Victor, which he addressed in writing to your Holiness; they have been forwarded to me by our brother Renatus, a…vatican.va
• On the Soul and its Origin II.2 — He Asks What the Great Knowledge is that Victor Imparts. Therefore, brother greatly beloved, I desire to know what you learned of him, in order that, if I have already possessed the knowledge, I may participate in…vatican.va
• On the Soul and its Origin II.3 — The Difference Between the Senses of the Body and Soul. Again, I wonder whether this man taught you the difference between the bodily senses and the sensibilities of the soul; and whether you, who were a person of…vatican.va
• On the Soul and its Origin II.4 — To Believe the Soul is a Part of God is Blasphemy. And if you happened to suppose, before receiving the instruction from this teacher, which you are rejoicing to have received, that the human soul is a portion of…vatican.va
• On the Soul and its Origin II.5 — In What Sense Created Beings are Out of God. Now, just because I do not suppose that you, a member of the catholic Church, ever believed the human soul to be a portion of God, or that the soul’s nature is in any…vatican.va
• On the Soul and its Origin II.6 — Shall God’s Nature Be Mutable, Sinful, Impious, Even Eternally Damned. All this, however, I am saying to a catholic: advising with him rather than teaching him. For I do not suppose that these things are new to you;…vatican.va
• On the Soul and its Origin II.7 — To Think the Soul Corporeal an Error. But if you say to me, He has not taught me this; nor have I by any means given my assent to this erroneous opinion of his, however much I was enchanted by the sweetness of his…vatican.va
• On the Soul and its Origin II.8 — The Thirst of the Rich Man in Hell Does Not Prove the Soul to Be Corporeal. Now with regard to the point, which with perfect propriety and great soundness of view he believes, that souls after quitting the body are…vatican.va
• On the Soul and its Origin II.9 — How Could the Incorporeal God Breathe Out of Himself a Corporeal Substance?. In that he believes God to be truly incorporeal, I congratulate him that herein, at all events, he has kept himself uninfluenced by the…vatican.va
• On the Soul and its Origin II.10 — Children May Be Found of Like or of Unlike Dispositions with Their Parents. Chapter 10 [VI.]—Children May Be Found of Like or of Unlike Dispositions with Their Parents. Then, again, how ineptly he labours to free the…vatican.va
• On the Soul and its Origin II.11 — Victor Implies that the Soul Had a ‘State’ And ‘Merit’ Before Incarnation. Chapter 11 [VII.]—Victor Implies that the Soul Had a “State” And “Merit” Before Incarnation. Would you hesitate yourself to reprobate what he…vatican.va
• On the Soul and its Origin II.12 — How Did the Soul Deserve to Be Incarnated?. Chapter 12 [VIII.]—How Did the Soul Deserve to Be Incarnated? He also says some time afterwards: “The soul therefore, if it deserved to be sinful, although it could not…vatican.va
• On the Soul and its Origin II.13 — Victor Teaches that God Thwarts His Own Predestination. Let us now go on to plainer matters. For while he was confined within these great straits, as to how souls can be held bound by the chain of original sin, when…vatican.va
• On the Soul and its Origin II.14 — Victor Sends Those Infants Who Die Unbaptized to Paradise and the Heavenly Mansions, But Not to the Kingdom of Heaven. Chapter 14 [X.]—Victor Sends Those Infants Who Die Unbaptized to Paradise and the Heavenly…vatican.va
• On the Soul and its Origin II.15 — Victor ‘Decides’ That Oblations Should Be Offered Up for Those Who Die Unbaptized. Chapter 15 [XI.]—Victor “Decides” That Oblations Should Be Offered Up for Those Who Die Unbaptized. Still he chafes with indecision,…vatican.va
• On the Soul and its Origin II.16 — Chapter 16 [XII.]—Victor Promises to the Unbaptized Paradise After Their Death, and the Kingdom of Heaven After Their Resurrection, Although He Admits that This Opposes Christ’s Statement. But your friend, in…vatican.va
• On the Soul and its Origin II.17 — Disobedient Compassion and Compassionate Disobedience Reprobated. Martyrdom in Lieu of Baptism. Chapter 17.—Disobedient Compassion and Compassionate Disobedience Reprobated. Martyrdom in Lieu of Baptism. The…vatican.va
• On the Soul and its Origin II.18 — Victor’s Dilemma and Fall. For he is hemmed in within terrible straits by those who make the natural inquiry: “Why has God visited on the soul so unjust a punishment as to have willed to relegate it into a body of…vatican.va
• On the Soul and its Origin II.19 — Victor Relies on Ambiguous Scriptures. The passages of Scripture, indeed, which he has adduced in the attempt to prove from them that God did not derive human souls by propagation from the primitive soul, but as in…vatican.va
• On the Soul and its Origin II.20 — Victor Quotes Scriptures for Their Silence, and Neglects the Biblical Usage. As for the passage which affirms that “God hath made of one blood all nations of men,” and that in which Adam says, “This is now bone of my…vatican.va
• On the Soul and its Origin II.21 — Victor’s Perplexity and Failure. For these reasons I fail thus far to discover what this instructor has taught you, and what grounds you have for the gratitude you have lavished upon him. For the question remains…vatican.va
• On the Soul and its Origin II.22 — Peter’s Responsibility in the Case of Victor. Far be it from you, my brother, that such views should be pleasant to you, or that you should either feel pleasure in having acquired them, or presume ever to teach them.…vatican.va
• On the Soul and its Origin II.23 — Who They are that are Not Injured by Reading Injurious Books. Forasmuch, then, as he has both commenced and terminated his books with such safeguards, and has placed on your shoulders the religious burden of their…vatican.va