To Florus 6.17
See, by contrast, how real our struggle is against you and Mani, whose downfall always entangles you, and how swift our triumph over him. We immediately draw the plow of our first definition around everything he vomited out to defame God’s work. We force him to explain what he thinks sin is. It plainly is nothing other than a will seeking what justice forbids and from which it is free to abstain. Once this is established, all the thornbushes of objection that pricked bodily existence are, as the writer says, shown torn out by the roots. [Literary echo: Cicero, On Ends, Book 2.]
As for the feeling of fear and the sensation of pain, through which he thought a storm arose to shipwreck humans, they are shown not merely to compel no evil, but, when checked by a good will, to assist and carry forward justice. Who would fear judgment without fear’s warning? Who would benefit from repentant groans without the cleansing of pain and inward distress? Finally, what power would a judge’s severity have unless it punished voluntary sins by the suffering of inflicted torment?
All these things testify that sin is nothing other than a free will despising justice’s commands. Justice can stand only by reckoning as sin what it knows could freely have been avoided. Consequently, no law can count natural things as faults, and no one takes on guilt for a crime he did not himself commit while able to avoid it. This argument’s power destroys both Mani and the advocate of inherited sin, who, with all the eyes of understanding gouged out, tries to attach an act of will to reproductive seed.
Latin
At contra vide quam adversus te et Manichaeum, cuius te semper ruina convolvit, verus sit nobis conflictus, et de eo celer triumphus. Omnia illa, quae in vituperationem divini operis evomuit, primae statim definitionis aratro circumscribimus; cogimusque ut explicet, quid putet esse peccatum, quod claret nihil esse aliud, quam voluntatem appetentem quod iustitia vetat, et unde liberum est abstinere. Quo constituto, omnes illi oblocutionum rubi, qui concretionem corporum pupugerant, et ut ille ait, eradicitus monstrantur evulsi [n87] . Iam vero affectus timoris et sensus doloris, per quos in naufragia hominum cieri tempestatem putavit, non solum nullius mali coactores, sed cum repagulum bonae voluntatis nacti sunt, adiutores et pervectores iustitiae perdocentur. Quis enim formidaret iudicium, nisi timoris admonitu? Quis paenitentiae gemitibus iuvaretur, nisi doloris et internae aegritudinis expiatu? Quid postremo severitas iudicantis valeret, nisi voluntaria peccata illati cruciatus aerumna puniret? Quorum omnium testimonio apparet, nihil aliud esse peccatum, quam voluntatem liberam despicientem praecepta iustitiae; aliterque non stare iustitiam, quam si illud imputet in peccatum, cuius noverit fuisse liberam cautionem; ac per hoc nulla lege, ea quae naturalia sunt, in culpam posse reputari; nec quemquam suscipere crimen, quod non ipse commiserit, cum vitare possit. Qua potentia Manichaeus et Traducianus consumitur, qui effossis totius intellegentiae oculis, rem voluntatis conatur seminibus admovere.
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.