To Florus 5.45
But just as truth has exposed and overthrown you both, so consideration of our duty requires us to explain what made this now-disarmed question obscure. Everything that occurs is said to arise either from necessity or from possibility. By ‘necessary’ here I mean not what we ordinarily call useful, but what is compelled by stronger causes. We therefore call necessary not what lies within the will’s authority, but what is subject to a force requiring its existence. We call possible what undergoes no necessity on either side, either to exist or not to exist, but in definite ways can exist and can fail to exist. Let our reader hold firmly to what we mean here by necessary and possible.
To begin with great examples: God’s making the world arose from possibility, not necessity. That is, his almighty power made it possible to create what he formed, but not necessary. No one compelled him to make it; he made it because he willed to, and certainly would not have made it had he not willed to. Yet what belonged to the maker as a possibility became a necessity in the work. The world, commanded to exist by the Almighty, did not have the possibility both of existing and not existing: it was compelled to exist, since the Almighty commanded its being.
Latin
Verum ut ambos vos veritas detexit, et proruit; ita a nobis consideratio nostri reposcit officii, ut quid sit hoc quod obscuritatem huic quaestioni, quae iam exarmata est, fecerat, explicemus. Omnia quae fiunt, aut a necessario, aut a possibili dicuntur existere. Necessarium autem hic dico, non quod solemus utile nuncupare, sed quod maioribus fuerit causis coactum. Necessarium ergo vocamus, non quod in iure sit voluntatis, sed quod patiatur existendi vim. Possibile autem dicimus, quod nec existendi, nec non existendi in alteram partem experiatur necessitatem, sed certis modis et possit esse, et possit non esse. Teneat ergo lector noster, quid hic necessarium, quid possibile nuncupemus. Et ut a grandibus inchoemus exemplis, ut Deus faceret mundum, a possibili venit, non a necessario; id est, omnipotentiae eius possibile fuit creare quae condidit, necessarium tamen non fuit, videlicet non est ab aliquo coactus ut faceret, sed fecit quia voluit, quod non fecisset profecto si noluisset. At hoc quod auctori adfuit a possibili, in opere a necessario factum est, id est, non fuit mundo possibile esse et non esse, qui esse ab Omnipotente iubebatur, sed cogebatur existere, cui Omnipotens mandabat essentiam.
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.