To Florus 2.126
What necessity, then, was there for so many blasphemies, if even the necessity you embraced did not exist? Although it had no real weight, it at least seemed like a plank you were holding amid so great a shipwreck. Now, though late, your defeated arms have let it go. To make the matter clear by repetition: all sorts of fools thought you should be tolerated as a Manichaean lest Christ’s grace seem not to have one effect in everyone. Yet without any compulsion from us, the progress of your own explanation has now led you to this: you say that the apostle’s statement, ‘But grace is from many offenses to justification’ (Romans 5:16), can be fulfilled in older people but cannot be fulfilled in infants. In infants there is something else, smaller, thinner, poorer—something which, although you invent it, you confess the apostle never said.
Latin
Quae ergo tot blasphemiarum necessitas fuit, si nec ista, quam amplexabaris, fuit? Quae quidem nihil habens momenti, tamen velut quaedam tabula videbatur, quam in tanto naufragio contineres, quam victis remisisti, sero licet, lacertis. Ut enim res repetitione clarescat: ideo Manichaeus credebaris ab ineptis quibusque tolerandus, ne gratiae Christi non in omnibus una efficientia videretur, ad hoc tu nunc sine adactu nostro expositionis tuae processibus intulisti dicens Apostoli sententiam, quae ait: Gratia autem ex multis delictis in iustificationem [n170] , in hominibus quidem maioris aetatis posse, in parvulis vero non posse compleri, sed esse in parvulis aliud brevius exilius egentius, quod licet tu excogites, tamen nequaquam dixisse Apostolum confiteris.
About this text
Julian’s six preserved books to Florus, quoted section by section in Augustine’s unfinished reply. Augustine’s refutations are omitted. Latin of Julian’s words is on each section.
Julian’s own books do not survive as a separate manuscript. English follows his words as Augustine quotes them in the Unfinished Work Against Julian. Augustine’s replies are omitted. We do not restore a Julian text independent of Augustine.
Witnesses
- Copy-text Augustine, Unfinished Work Against Julian (Latin · Julian’s words as quoted, Books 1–6)
- Checked print Augustinus.it Latin of the Unfinished Work (Latin · Same work)
- Checked print Migne PL 45 (Latin · Hard cases)
This is an AI-assisted study translation. Source fidelity and completeness have not been independently certified. Open Latin on each section (or the Latin source witness link) for the source text. This is not a complete critical edition.