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a sample draft for a mediaeval history primary source analysis essay

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a sample draft for a mediaeval history primary source analysis essay. Hopefully, you are familiar with medieval history and already know how to write a historical primary source analysis to take on this task, as the analysis should be placed in the broader context of that period in general:) You will pick one primary source from the book attached below--documents written by people from the middle ages that shed light on some event or characteristic of that time--and analyze how it illustrates the thesis you can make. Essay should be 2-4 pages long, double spaced Times New Roman. Further instructions can be found in the document I attached below. Once a bid is made and we start working on the essay, i will send you more specific instructions of the task, including my own essays with comments so you can have a better idea of what it should be about.

Reading the Middle Ages 2 Reading the Middle Ages Sources from Europe, Byzantium, and the Islamic World Edited by Barbara H. Rosenwein • Third Edition 3 Copyright © University of Toronto Press 2018 utorontopress.com All rights reserved. The use of any part of this publication reproduced, transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, or stored in a retrieval system, without prior written consent of the publisher—or in the case of photocopying, a licence from Access Copyright (the Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency) 320–56 Wellesley Street West, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 2S3—is an infringement of the copyright law. LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA CATALOGUING IN PUBLICATION Reading the Middle Ages: sources from Europe, Byzantium, and the Islamic world / edited by Barbara H. Rosenwein. — Third edition. Includes bibliographical references and index. Issued in print and electronic formats. ISBN 978-1-4426-3674-3 (hardcover).—ISBN 978-1-4426-3673-6 (softcover).— ISBN 978-1-4426-3675-0 (PDF).—ISBN 978-1-4426-3676-7 (HTML) 1. Middle Ages—Sources. I. Rosenwein, Barbara H., editor D113.R38 2018 909.07 C2018-900016-3 C2018-900017-1 We welcome comments and suggestions regarding any aspect of our publications —please feel free to contact us at news@utphighereducation.com or visit our Internet site at www.utorontopress.com. North America 5201 Dufferin Street North York, Ontario, Canada, M3H 5T8 2250 Military Road Tonawanda, New York, USA, 14150 ORDERS PHONE: 1–800–565–9523 ORDERS FAX: 1–800–221–9985 ORDERS E-MAIL: utpbooks@utpress.utoronto.ca UK, Ireland, and continental Europe NBN International Estover Road, Plymouth, PL6 7PY, UK ORDERS PHONE: 44 (0) 1752 202301 ORDERS FAX: 44 (0) 1752 202333 4 ORDERS E-MAIL: enquiries@nbninternational.com Every effort has been made to contact copyright holders; in the event of an error or omission, please notify the publisher. The University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial support for its publishing activities of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund. Printed in Canada. 5 For Frank and Amy 6 Map 0.1 Yet research continues, and it continues to be fruitful, because historians are not passive instruments, and because they read the same old documents with fresh eyes and with new questions in mind. Georges Duby, History Continues 7 Contents Reading through Looking Preface Abbreviations and Symbols Authorized Version of the Bible I PRELUDE: THE ROMAN WORLD TRANSFORMED (c.300–c.600) A Christianized Empire 1.1 Toleration or favoritism? The Edict of Milan (313) 1.2 Law: The Theodosian Code (438) 1.3 Plague: Gregory the Great, Letter to Bishop Dominic of Carthage (600) Heresy and Orthodoxy 1.4 Heretics: Manichaean Texts (before 350?) 1.5 Orthodoxy’s declaration: The Nicene Creed (325) Patristic Thought 1.6 Conversion: Augustine, Confessions (397–401) 1.7 Relating this world to the next: Augustine, The City of God (413–426) 1.8 Monasticism: The Benedictine Rule (c.530–c.560) Saintly Models 1.9 The virginal life: Jerome, Letter 24 (To Marcella) (384) 1.10 The eremitical life: Athanasius, The Life of St. Antony of Egypt (357) 1.11 The active life: Sulpicius Severus, The Life of St. Martin of Tours (397) 1.12 The cult of saints: Gregory of Tours, The Life of Monegundis (580s) Barbarian Kingdoms 1.13 Gothic Italy as Rome’s heir: Cassiodorus, Variae (State Papers) (c.507–536) 1.14 The conversion of the Franks: Bishop Avitus of Vienne, Letter to Clovis (508?) 1.15 Gothic Spain converts: The Third Council of Toledo (589) 8 1.16 Merovingian Gaul’s bishop-historian: Gregory of Tours, Histories (576–594) Timeline for Chapter One II THE EMERGENCE OF SIBLING CULTURES (c.600–c.750) The Resilience of Byzantium 2.1 The Siege of Constantinople: The Easter Chronicle (630) Map 2.1: The Siege of Constantinople 2.2 Purifying practice: The Quinisext Council (691/692) 2.3 The iconoclastic argument: The Synod of 754 The Formation of the Islamic World 2.4 The sacred text: Qur’an Suras 1, 53:1–18, 81, 87, 96, 98 (c.610–622) 2.5 Muslim conquests: John of Nikiu, Chronicle (c.690) Map 2.2: The Muslim Conquest of Egypt 2.6 Umayyad diplomacy: The Treaty of Tudmir (713) 2.7 Administration: Letters to ‘Abd Allah b. As‘ad (c.730–750) 2.8 Praising the caliph: Al-Akhtal, The Tribe Has Departed (c.692) The Impoverished but Inventive West 2.9 The private penitential tradition: Penitential of Finnian (late 6th cent.) 2.10 A royal saint: The Life of Queen Balthild (c.680) 2.11 Reforming the continental Church: Letters to Boniface (723– 726) 2.12 Creating a Roman Christian identity for England: Bede, The Ecclesiastical History of the English People (731) Timeline for Chapter Two III CREATING NEW IDENTITIES (c.750–c.900) The Material Basis of Society 3.1 Manors in the West: Polyptyque of the Church of Saint Mary of Marseille (814–815) 3.2 The Byzantine countryside: Niketas, The Life of Saint Philaretos (821/822) 3.3 The sale of a slave in Italy: A Contract of Sale (725) A Multiplicity of Heroes 3.4 Charlemagne as Roman emperor: Einhard, Life of Charlemagne (825–826?) 3.5 An Abbasid victory in verse: Abu Tammam, The sword gives truer tidings (838) 3.6 Mothers and fathers: Dhuoda, Handbook for Her Son (841– 9 843) 3.7 A Christian hero in northern Iberia: The Chronicle of Alfonso III (early 880s) 3.8 Celebrating local leaders: Abbo of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, Battles of the City of Paris (late 9th cent.) Religion and Politics 3.9 An early view of the Prophet: Muhammad ibn Ishaq, Life of Muhammad (754–767) 3.10 Muhammad’s words in the hadith: Al-Bukhari, On Fasting (9th cent.) 3.11 The pope and the Carolingians: Pope Stephen II, Letters to King Pippin III (755–756) 3.12 Modeling the state on Old Testament Israel: The Admonitio Generalis (789) 3.13 The Slavic conversion: Constantine-Cyril, Prologue to the Gospel (863–867) 3.14 The Bulgarian khan in Byzantine guise: Seal of Boris-Michael (864–889) 3.15 The Bulgarians adopt Christianity: Pope Nicholas I, Letter to Answer the Bulgarians’ Questions (866) Timeline for Chapter Three IV POLITICAL COMMUNITIES REORDERED (c.900–c.1050) Regionalism: Its Advantages and Its Discontents 4.1 Fragmentation in the Islamic world: Al-Tabari, The Defeat of the Zanj Revolt (c.915) 4.2 The powerful in the Byzantine countryside: Romanus I Lecapenus, Novel (934) 4.3 Evanescent centralization in al-Andalus: Ibn ‘Abd Rabbihi, Praise Be to Him (929–940) 4.4 Donating to Cluny: Cluny’s Foundation Charter (910) and various charters of donation (10th–11th cent.) Genealogy 4.1: The Grossi 4.5 Love and complaints in Angoulême: Agreement between Count William of the Aquitainians and Hugh IV of Lusignan (1028) 4.6 The Peace of God at Bourges: Andrew of Fleury, The Miracles of St. Benedict (1040–1043) Byzantium in Ascendance 4.7 Patronage of the arts: “Theophanes Continuatus,” Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus (before 963) 4.8 The toils of war: The Epitaph of Basil II (1025) 10 4.9 Imperial rule under two sisters: Michael Psellus, Zoe and Theodora (before 1063) Scholarship and the Arts across the Islamic World 4.10 Political theory: Al-Farabi, The Perfect State (c.940–942) 4.11 A Jewish poet in al-Andalus: Dunash ben Labrat, There Came a Voice (mid-10th cent.) 4.12 Education: Al-Qabisi, A Treatise Detailing the Circumstances of Students and the Rules Governing Teachers and Students (before 1012) Kingdoms in East Central Europe 4.13 Hungary as heir of Rome: King Stephen, Laws (1000–1038) 4.14 Coming to terms with Catholic Poland: Thietmar of Merseburg, Chronicle (1013–1018) 4.15 Poland’s self-image: Boleslaw’s Coin (992–1000) 4.16 Kievan Rus’: The Russian Primary Chronicle (c.1113, incorporating earlier materials) Northern Europe 4.17 An Ottonian courtier-bishop: Ruotger, Life of Bruno, Archbishop of Cologne (late 960s) 4.18 Law: King Æthelred II, Law Code (1008) 4.19 Christianity comes to Denmark: The Jelling Monument (960s) 4.20 The Vikings as enemies: The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (c.1048?) Map 4.1: Southern England 4.21 The Vikings as heroes: Egil’s Saga (10th cent./13th cent.) Timeline for Chapter Four V NEW CONFIGURATIONS (c.1050–c.1150) The Seljuk Transformation 5.1 The Seljuks as enemies: Abu’l-Fazl Beyhaqi, The Battle of Dandanqan (before 1077) Map 5.1: The Early Seljuk Empire 5.2 Shi‘ites vilified: Nizam al-Mulk, The Book of Policy (1091) A Profit Economy 5.3 Cultivating new lands: Frederick of Hamburg’s Agreement with Colonists from Holland (1106) 5.4 Urban commerce: Ibn ‘Abdun, Regulations for the Market at Seville (early 12th cent.) 5.5 The role of royal patronage: Henry I, Privileges for the Citizens of London (1130–1133) Church Reform 11 5.6 The pope’s challenge: Gregory VII, Admonition to Henry IV (1075) 5.7 The royal response: Henry IV, Letter to Gregory VII (1075) 5.8 The papal view: Gregory VII, Letter to Hermann of Metz (1076) The Clergy in Action 5.9 Dressing for the liturgy: Vesting Prayers (c.1000?) 5.10 Keeping tabs: A Visitation Record (1268) The First Crusade 5.11 Calling the crusade: Robert the Monk, Pope Urban II Preaches the First Crusade (1095) 5.12 Jewish martyrs: Solomon bar Samson, Chronicle (c.1140) 5.13 A Westerner in the Holy Land: Stephen of Blois, Letter to His Wife (March 1098) 5.14 The Muslim view: Ibn al-Qalanisi, The Damascus Chronicle of the Crusades (before 1160) The Norman Conquest of England 5.15 The pro-Norman position: William of Jumièges, The Deeds of the Dukes of the Normans (c.1070) 5.16 The native position: “Florence of Worcester,” Chronicle of Chronicles (early 12th cent.) 5.17 The Conquest depicted: The Bayeux Tapestry (end of the 11th cent.) 5.18 Exploiting the Conquest: Domesday Book (1087) The Twelfth-Century Renaissance 5.19 Logic: Peter Abelard, Glosses on Porphyry (c.1100) 5.20 Medical science: Constantine the African’s translation of Johannitius’s Isagoge (before 1098) Cluniacs and Cistercians 5.21 The Cistercian view: St. Bernard, Apologia (1125) 5.22 The Cluniac view: Peter the Venerable, Miracles (mid-1130s– mid-1150s) Timeline for Chapter Five VI INSTITUTIONALIZING ASPIRATIONS (c.1150–c.1250) Wars Holy and Unholy 6.1 The Northern Crusades: Helmold, The Chronicle of the Slavs (1167–1168) 6.2 Saladin’s jihad: Ibn Shaddad, The Rare and Excellent History of Saladin (1195–1216) 6.3 The Fourth Crusade: Nicetas Choniates, O City of Byzantium 12 (c.1215) Grounding Justice in Royal Law 6.4 English common law: The Assize of Clarendon (1166) 6.5 The legislation of a Spanish king: The Laws of Cuenca (1189– 1193) Local Arrangements 6.6 A Byzantine monastery on Cyprus: Neophytos, Testamentary Rule for the Hermitage of the Holy Cross (1214) 6.7 Doing business: A Genoese societas (1253) 6.8 Women’s work: Guild Regulations of the Parisian Silk Fabric Makers (13th cent.) Bureaucracy at the Papal Curia 6.9 The growth of papal business: Innocent III, Letters (1200– 1202) 6.10 Petitioning the papacy: Register of Thomas of Hereford (1281) 6.11 Mocking the papal bureaucracy: The Gospel According to the Marks of Silver (c.1200) Confrontations 6.12 Henry II and Becket: The Constitutions of Clarendon (1164) 6.13 Emperor and pope: The Diet of Besançon (1157) 6.14 King and nobles: Magna Carta (1215) New Literary Forms 6.15 Byzantine romantic fiction: Niketas Eugenianos, Drosilla and Charikles (c.1156) 6.16 Love and propriety in al-Andalus: Anonymous, The Tale of Bayad and Riyad (early 13th cent.) 6.17 A troubadour love song: Bernart de Ventadorn, When I see the lark (c.1147–after 1172) 6.18 A trobairitz love song: La Comtessa de Dia, I have been in heavy grief (late 12th–early 13th cent.) 6.19 A political song from the south of France: Bertran de Born, Half a sirventés I’ll sing (1190) 6.20 Fabliaux: The Piece of Shit and The Ring That Controlled Erections (13th cent.) 6.21 Romance: Chrétien de Troyes, Lancelot (c.1177–1181) Developments in Religious Sensibilities 6.22 Disciplining and purifying Christendom: Decrees of Lateran IV (1215) 6.23 Devotion through poverty: Peter Waldo in The Chronicle of Laon (1173–1178) 6.24 Devotion through mysticism: Jacques de Vitry, The Life of 13 Mary of Oignies (1213) 6.25 The mendicant movement: St. Francis, A Rule for Hermitages (1217–1221) and The Testament (1226) 6.26 Religious feeling turned violent: Chronicle of Trier (1231) Timeline for Chapter Six VII TENSIONS AND RECONCILIATIONS (c.1250–c.1350) The Mongols and the Mamluks 7.1 A spokesman for Mongol rule: Rashid al-Din, Universal History (before 1318) Genealogy 7.1: The Mongol Khans 7.2 A Mongol reply to the pope: Guyuk Khan, Letter to Pope Innocent IV (1246) 7.3 The Hungarian king bewails the Mongol invasions: Béla IV, Letter to Pope Innocent IV (c.1250) 7.4 An Islamic account of the fall of Acre: Abu’l-Fida, A Short History of Mankind (1318–1319) 7.5 A Christian account of the fall of Acre: “The Templar of Tyre,” Deeds of the Cypriots (before 1343) 7.6 The global economy: Francesco Balducci Pegolotti, The Practice of Trade (c.1340s) Map 7.1: Place Names from Azov to Hangzhou New Formations in Eastern Europe 7.7 Poland as a frontier society: The Henryków Book (c.1268) 7.8 The Lithuanian duke flirts with Christianity: Duke Gediminas, Letter to Pope John XXII (1322) and Letter to the townspeople of Lübeck, Rostock, Stralsund, Greifswald, Stettin, and Gotland (May 26, 1323) 7.9 Pagan Lithuania in Christian Europe: Peter of Dusburg, Chronicle of the Prussian Land (c.1320–1326) 7.10 Bulgaria claims a saint: The Short Life of St. Petka (Paraskeve) of Tarnov (13th cent.) Transformations in the Cities 7.11 The popolo gains power: The Ghibelline Annals of Piacenza (1250) 7.12 The Hanseatic League: Decrees of the League (1260–1264) 7.13 Too big to fail? A Great Bank Petitions the City Council of Siena (1298) Heresies and Persecutions 7.14 Inquisition: Jacques Fournier, Episcopal Register (1318– 1325) 14 7.15 Jews in England: Statute of the Jewry (1275) and Petition of the “Commonalty” of the Jews (shortly after 1275) Rulers and Ruled 7.16 The Spanish Cortes: Alfonso X, Cortes of Valladolid (1258) 7.17 The commons participate: Summons of Representatives of Shires and Towns to Parliament (1295) 7.18 A charismatic ruler: Joinville, The Life of St. Louis (1272) 7.19 The papal challenge: Boniface VIII, Unam sanctam (1302) Modes of Thought, Feeling, and Devotion 7.20 Scholasticism: Thomas Aquinas, On Love (1271) 7.21 The vernacular comes into its own: Dante, Inferno, Canto V (Paolo and Francesca) (1313–1321) 7.22 Medieval drama: Directions for an Annunciation Play (14th cent.) Timeline for Chapter Seven VIII CATASTROPHE AND CREATIVITY (c.1350–c.1500) The Black Death 8.1 The effects of the plague: Giovanni Boccaccio, The Decameron (1348–1351) 8.2 Warding off the plague through processions: Ibn Battuta, Travels (before 1368) 8.3 Warding off the plague through prayer: Archbishop William, Letter to His Official at York (July 1348) 8.4 Blaming the Jews for the Black Death: Heinrich von Diessenhoven, On the Persecution of the Jews (c.1350) The Ottomans 8.5 A Turkish hero: Ashikpashazade, Othman Comes to Power (late 15th cent.) 8.6 Diplomacy: Peace Agreement between the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II and the Signoria of Venice (January 25, 1478) Byzantium: Decline and Fall 8.7 Before the fall: Patriarch Anthony, Letter to the Russian Church (1395) 8.8 The fall bewailed: George Sphrantzes, Chronicle (before 1477) 8.9 Byzantine culture persists: Petitions from the Greek Community at Venice (1470–1511) War and Social Unrest 8.10 Chivalric and non-chivalric models: Froissart, Chronicles (c.1400) 8.11 National feeling: Jeanne d’Arc, Letter to the English (1429) 15 8.12 The woolworkers (ciompi) revolt at Siena: Donato di Neri and his son, Chronicle of Siena (1371) 8.13 The commons revolt: Wat Tyler’s Rebellion (after 1381) Crises and Changes in the Church and Religion 8.14 The conciliarist movement: Jean Gerson, Sermon at the Council of Constance (1415) 8.15 The Hussite program: The Four Articles of Prague (1420) The Renaissance 8.16 Re-evaluating antiquity: Cincius Romanus, Letter to His Most Learned Teacher Franciscus de Fiana (1416) 8.17 A new theory of art: Leon Battista Alberti, On Painting (1435–1436) 8.18 Defending women: Christine de Pisan, The Book of the City of Ladies (1404–1407) Finding a New World 8.19 Mapping the New World: Juan de la Cosa, World Chart (1500) 8.20 Taking Mexico: Hernán Cortés, The Second Letter (1520) Timeline for Chapter Eight Sources Index of Names, Places, and Readings Reading through Looking (for contents see p. xvi) 16 Reading through Looking Following here Introduction Part 1: Material Objects II Plate 1 Seal of Boris-Michael (864–889) Plate 2 Boleslaw’s Coin (992–1000) Plate 3.a The Jelling Monument (960s) Plate 3.b The Jelling Monument reconstructed Plate 4 The Bayeux Tapestry (end of the 11th cent.) Plate 5 Juan de la Cosa, World Chart (1500) Part 2: Weapons and Warfare in the Middle Ages X “Greek Fire” Plate 6 “Greek fire” in the Synopsis historion (end of the 12th cent.) Plate 7 A portable hand-siphon (11th cent.) Siege Warfare Plate 8 Siege warfare in the “Crusader Bible” (c.1244–1254) Plate 9 Great Helm (second half of the 13th cent.) Mongol Arms and Armor Plate 10 Mongol heavy cavalry (c.1306 or c.1314–1315) Plate 11 Mongol armored coat (late 13th cent.) Plate 12 Mongol ceramic bombs (late 13th cent.) The Longbow Plate 13 A miniature of the battle of Crécy (late 15th cent.) Handgonnes and Cannons Plate 14 Handgonne with matchlock (1411) Plate 15 Gunpowder weapons (1442–1443) Plate 16 Small bombard (15th cent.) Selected Readings 17 Preface The major difference between Reading the Middle Ages and other medieval history source books is its systematic incorporation of Islamic and Byzantine materials alongside Western readings. This third edition adds still more readings for those cultures, especially the Islamic world. By organizing the sources topically rather than by region, students and teachers are invited to make comparisons and contrasts within and across cultures. Each source is provided with an introduction followed by one or (usually) two apposite questions. More questions are available on the website for Reading the Middle Ages (www.utphistorymatters.com); those pertaining to sources in the second edition were composed by Bruce Venarde, while questions for the new sources have been created by Riccardo Cristiani. Although this book may be used independently or alongside any textbook, it is particularly designed to complement the fifth edition of A Short History of the Middle Ages. The chapters have the same titles and chronological scope; the readings here should help expand, deepen, sharpen, and modify the knowledge gained there. The sources in Reading the Middle Ages are varied; there are, for example, records of sales, biographies, hagiographies, poems, and histories.1 There are two collections of material sources: “Reading through Looking,” and an entirely new set of illustrations on “Weapons and Warfare” composed by Riccardo Cristiani. Some teachers may wish to assign all the readings in each chapter; others may wish to concentrate on only a few texts from each chapter. It is also easy to organize readings thematically by region, since the index groups together all the sources pertaining to Italy, Spain, France, and so on. The introduction to the first text in this book includes a discussion of how to read a primary source. The same project is repeated in chapter 4, this time with a very different sort of document. It should become clear to users of this book that the kinds of questions one brings to all documents are initially the same, but the answers lead down very different paths that suggest their own new questions and approaches. Each reader’s curiosity, personality, and interests become part of the process; this, even more than the discovery of hitherto unknown sources, is the foundation of new historical thought. 18 This is the place for me to acknowledge—with pleasure and enormous gratitude—the many debts that I have incurred in the preparation of this book. All those who contributed translations for this third edition deserve my first thanks: Phil Booth, Riccardo Cristiani, and Joseph O’Callaghan. Very special thanks go to Dionysios Stathakopoulos and Julia Bray. The former supplied me with numerous—and even annotated— suggestions for readings connected to the Byzantine world, while Julia did the same for medieval Islamic civilizations. It is literally true that the revisions of this book were made possible by these two generous scholars. Maps were ably made by Erik Goosmann, whose expertise in history as well as cartography was invaluable at every step. For special help, I thank University of Toronto Press people with whom I worked: Judith Earnshaw, Natalie Fingerhut, Beate Schwirtlich, and Matthew Jubb at Em Dash Design. Above all, I am grateful to Riccardo Cristiani: for the web questions and the pictorial insert, as mentioned above, but also for his thoughtful and careful reading of the entire manuscript, which led to numerous corrections and clarifications, and his index, which provides the user with numerous reference tools, such as dates for all persons and titles of all readings and their dates. He also helped coordinate all names, places, and facts in this book with those in A Short History. Finally, I thank my husband, Tom, for supporting my work in every way. FOOTNOTES 1 To make the texts translated from the Greek, Slavic languages, and Arabic more accessible, I have left out diacritical marks and non-Latin letters. Users of this book should, however, keep in mind that Arabic terms such as sura and names such as alBukhari should more properly be spelled s?ra and al-Bukh?r?, Slavic names such as Boleslaw are more correctly written Boles?aw, and Greek terms such as lorikion and komes are more accurately l?rikion and kom?s. Return to text. 19 Abbreviations and Symbols Anno Hijra = year 1 of the Islamic calendar, equivalent to 622 CE b. before a date = born b. before a name = son of (ibn, ben) BCE before common era. Interchangeable with BC. See CE below. BEF. On timelines = before bt. daughter of (bint) century (used after an ordinal number, e.g. 6th cent. means “sixth cent. century”) c. circa (used before a date to indicate that it is approximate) common era. Interchangeable with AD. Both reflect Western dating practices, which begin “our” era with the birth of Christ. In CE Reading the Middle Ages, all dates are CE unless otherwise specified or some confusion might arise. d. date of death d. dinar = denarius, penny The standard English version of the Vulgate (Latin) version of the Bible. Ordinarily the books are the same as in the Authorized Version (AV) (see below). The chief differences are that (1) the Douay version accepts some books considered apocryphal in the Douay AV; and (2) the Psalm numbers sometimes differ. The Douay numbers follow the psalm numbering in the Greek Bible, whereas the AV and other Protestant Bibles follow the numbering of the Hebrew text. e.g. exempli gratia = for example floruit (used—when birth and death dates are not known—to mean fl. that a person “flourished” or was active at the time of the date) ibid. in the same place, referring to the reference in the preceding note i.e. that is (from the Latin id est) £ pound (from the first letter of the Latin word libra) MS manuscript pl. plural r. ruled s. shilling = solidus, sous sing. singular AH 20 ... [] Ellipses, indicating that words or passages of the original have been left out. Brackets, indicating words or passages that are not in the original but have been added by the editor to aid in the understanding of a passage. A date such as Boethius (d. 524/526) means that the exact date of his death is not known or disputed, but it is, at least, within the date range of 524 to 526. Authorized Version of the Bible In Reading the Middle Ages, references to the Bible are to the Authorized Version (AV). (Psalms are cited in both AV and Douay versions.) The standard abbreviations for the books of the AV are set out below. The Revised Standard Version of the Bible, which is perhaps the best translation in English, derives from the AV, which is based on the King James Version. Old Testament Genesis / Gen. Exodus / Exod. Leviticus / Lev. Numbers / Num. Deuteronomy / Deut. Joshua / Josh. Judges / Judges Ruth / Ruth 1 Samuel / 1 Sam. 2 Samuel / 2 Sam. 1 Kings / 1 Kings 2 Kings / 2 Kings 1 Chronicles / 1 Chron. 2 Chronicles / 2 Chron. Ezra / Ezra Nehemiah / Neh. Esther / Esther 21 Job / Job Psalms / Ps. Proverbs / Prov. Ecclesiastes / Eccles. Song of Solomon / Song of Sol. (This is also often called the Song of Songs) Isaiah / Isa. Jeremiah / Jer. Lamentations / Lam. Ezekiel / Ezek. Daniel / Dan. Hosea / Hos. Joel / Joel Amos / Amos Obadiah / Obad. Jonah / Jon. Micah / Mic. Nahum / Nah. Habakkuk / Hab. Zephaniah / Zeph. Haggai / Hag. Zechariah / Zech. Malachi / Mal. New Testament Matthew / Matt. Mark / Mark Luke / Luke John / John Acts of the Apostles / Acts Romans / Rom. 1 Corinthians / 1 Cor. 2 Corinthians / 2 Cor. Galatians / Gal. Ephesians / Eph. Philippians / Phil. Colossians / Col. 1 Thessalonians / 1 Thess. 2 Thessalonians / 2 Thess. 1 Timothy / 1 Tim. 2 Timothy / 2 Tim. 22 Titus / Titus Philemon / Philem. Hebrews / Heb. James / James 1 Peter / 1 Pet. 2 Peter / 2 Pet. 1 John / 1 John 2 John / 2 John 3 John / 3 John Jude / JudeRevelation / Rev. Apocrypha 1 Esdras / 1 Esd. 2 Esdras / 2 Esd. Tobit (Tobias) / Tob. Judith / Jth. The Rest of Esther / Rest of Esther The Wisdom of Solomon / Wisd. of Sol. Ecclesiasticus / Ecclus. Baruch / Bar. The Song of the Three Holy Children / Song of Three Children Susanna / Sus. Bel and the Dragon / Bel and Dragon Prayer of Manasses / Pr. of Man. 1 Maccabees / 1 Macc. 2 Maccabees / 2 Macc. 23 I PRELUDE: THE ROMAN WORLD TRANSFORMED (c.300–c.600) A CHRISTIANIZED EMPIRE 1.1 TOLERATION OR FAVORITISM? THE EDICT OF MILAN (313). ORIGINAL IN LATIN. No edict (an order issued to governors throughout the empire) was issued at Milan. But Emperors Constantine (r.306–337) and Licinius (r.308–324) met there in 313 and agreed to the provisions of what would be promulgated a few months later—the so-called Edict of Milan. It gave notice that Constantine and Licinius agreed to tolerate Christianity along with other religions and that they determined to restore the properties that the Church had lost under Emperor Diocletian (r.284–305). The current owners of the property might be compensated from the emperors’ private funds if they applied to their “vicar,” an imperial administrator with regional authority. TheEdict of Milan is the first source in this collection. Let us use it to begin a discussion of how to read primary sources. Each primary source calls for its own methodology and approach; there is no one way to handle all of them. Moreover, as the epigraph of this book points out, readers should bring their own special insights to old sources. Nevertheless, it is usually helpful to begin by asking a standard series of questions. Who wrote it, and for what audience was it written? Normally this is fairly easy to answer, but often it is not. In this case, it seems that Emperors Constantine and Licinius conceived of the statement, though civil servants in an imperial writing office drafted and published it. The immediate recipients were provincial governors, each referred to as “your Excellency” in this document; they were expected to publish—that is, publicize—the contents to the public. When was it written? Your editor has given the date 313, which is the year in which the document was issued. At this stage in your 24 historical work, you need not worry about how this date was arrived at. It is more important for you to consider the circumstances and historical events in the context of which this date takes on meaning. In this instance, you should be thinking that the date is pertinent to the history of the Roman Empire; that it comes directly after Constantine won a major battle at the Milvian Bridge in 312; that he attributed his victory to a sign from the Christian God; that immediately thereafter he took over administration of the western portion of the Roman Empire and soon (in 313) allied with Licinius; and that a few months later Licinius became ruler of the eastern half of the Empire. Therefore, you should expect the document to have to do with both imperial authority and religion, which is precisely what you will discover when you read it. Where was it written? In this case “Milan” is not the right answer. In fact, the Edict was issued by Licinius at Nicomedia (today Izmit), in the eastern half of the Empire. But sometimes you will not know so specific an answer, and you must work with what information you have. Why was it written? Often you will find a provisional answer to this question right in the text of the primary source. Ostensibly the Edict was written, as it says, “to give both to Christians and to all others free facility to follow the religion which each may desire.” But you should go beyond this obvious answer to ask what other motives might have been at work, what sorts of negotiations may have been involved in its writing, and who benefited. What is it? In this case, you know that it is called an Edict but is something a bit different. You might choose to call it an “imperial ordinance,” an “official document,” or even a “policy statement.” What does it say? This is the most important question of all. To answer it, you need to analyze the document for its various provisions, taking care to understand them fully and seeking further information (if necessary) about its vocabulary. What are the implications of what it says? This requires you to ask many questions about matters that lie behind the text. Important questions to ask are: What does the document reveal about such institutions as family, power, social classes and groups, religion, and education and literacy in the world that produced it? What are its underlying assumptions about human nature, agency, and goals; about the nature of the divine? Does the source apply to men and women in the same way? 25 How reliable is it? If the document is authentic—if it really is what it purports to be—then at the very least you can know that it was issued by its writer(s). In this case, you can be sure that Constantine and Licinius did indeed want TheEdict of Milan to be promulgated. You may wish to speculate about how much of it was Constantine’s idea and how much Licinius’s by considering what else you know about their religious convictions and political motives. The document certainly tells you about the ideals and intentions that they wanted the world to believe they had. But it alone cannot tell you whether the provisions were carried out. To know that, you need other documents and evidence about the nature of Roman imperial power at the time. One document that may help here is the Creed declared by the Council of Nicaea (p. 11 below), since Constantine presided over that council. Are there complicating factors? Medieval texts were all handwritten, and they were “published”—in the sense of being made public and distributed—in relatively small numbers. In many cases we do not have them in their original state. The Edict of Milan was issued in multiple handwritten copies in Latin, but none of them has survived. We know its contents because it was incorporated into the writings of two Christian apologists:1 Lactantius’s On the Deaths of the Persecutors (written perhaps in 318) and Eusebius’s History of the Church (the first edition of which was published at some time between 303 and 312). Eusebius’s text of the Edict, which he translated and presented in Greek, is not entirely the same as the one given by Lactantius. Scholars think that the one in Lactantius is the original, and that is the one printed here. But you should not be content with that. You should instead ask yourself at least two questions about these intermediary sources: What motives might lead a later source to reproduce a text? What new meanings does the original source take on when it is embedded in a larger document with its own agenda? You might also consider the fact that the Edict was not considered important enough to be drawn upon by the legal experts who compiled TheTheodosian Code (438; see below, p. 4) or the later Codex Justinianus (529). You should ask these sorts of questions of every source you read. Soon you will see how different the answers are for each document, for every one of them poses special challenges. If you like, look ahead to p. 171 to see this point clearly demonstrated in connection with a very different source, al-Tabari, The Defeat of the Zanj Revolt. 26 [Source: Church and State Through the Centuries: A Collection of Historic Documents with Commentaries, trans. and ed. Sidney Z. Ehler and John B. Morrall (Westminster, MD: Newman Press, 1954), pp. 5–6.] We, Constantine and Licinius the Emperors, having met in concord at Milan and having set in order everything which pertains to the common good and public security, are of the opinion that among the various things which we perceived would profit men, or which should be set in order first, was to be found the cultivation of religion; we should therefore give both to Christians and to all others free facility to follow the religion which each may desire, so that by this means whatever divinity is enthroned in heaven may be gracious and favorable to us and to all who have been placed under our authority. Therefore we are of the opinion that the following decision is in accordance with sound and true reasoning: that no one who has given his mental assent to the Christian persuasion or to any other which he feels to be suitable to him should be compelled to deny his conviction, so that the Supreme Godhead (“Summa Divinitas”), whose worship we freely observe, can assist us in all things with his usual favor and benevolence. Wherefore it is necessary for your Excellency to know that it is our pleasure that all restrictions which were previously put forward in official pronouncements concerning the sect of the Christians should be removed, and that each one of them who freely and sincerely carries out the purpose of observing the Christian religion may endeavor to practice its precepts without any fear or danger. We believed that these points should be fully brought to your attention, so that you might know that we have given free and absolute permission to practice their religion to the Christians. Now that you perceive what we have granted to them, your Excellency must also learn that for the sake of peace in our time a similar public and free right to practice their religion or cult is granted to others, so that every person may have free opportunity to worship according to his own wish. This has been done by us to avoid any appearance of disfavor to any one religion. We have decided furthermore to decree the following in respect of the Christians: if those places at which they were accustomed in former times to hold their meetings (concerning which a definite procedure was laid down for your guidance in previous communications) have been at any previous time acquired from our treasury or from any other person, let the persons concerned be willing and swift to restore them to the Christians without financial recompense and without trying to ask a price. Let those who have received such property as a gift restore whatever they have acquired to the Christians in similar manner; if those who have bought such property or received it as a gift seek some recompense from our benevolence, let them 27 apply to the vicar, by whom their cases will be referred to our clemency. You are to consider it your duty that all these things shall be handed over to the Christian body immediately and without delay by your intervention. And since the aforesaid Christians are known to have possessed not only those places at which they are accustomed to assemble, but others also pertaining to the law of their body, that is of the churches, not of private individuals, you are to order in accordance with the law which we have described above the return of all those possessions to the aforesaid Christians, that is to their bodies and assemblies without any further hesitation or argument. Our previous statement is to be borne in mind that those who restore this property without price may, as we have said, expect some compensation from our benevolence. You ought to bring into play your very effective intervention in all these matters concerning the aforesaid Christian body so that there may be a swift fulfillment of our Edict, in which the interests of public quiet have been consulted by our clemency. Let all this be done, so that as we stated above, the divine favor, of which we have experienced so many instances, may continue with us to bless our successors through all time with public well-being. In order that the character of this our perpetual benevolence can reach the knowledge of all, it will be well for you to circulate everywhere, and to bring to the awareness of all, these points which have been written to you as above, so that the enactment of this our benevolence may not be hidden. 1.2 LAW: THE THEODOSIAN CODE (438). ORIGINAL IN LATIN. The Theodosian Code, a massive compilation of imperial edicts and letters issued in 438 under the Roman emperor Theodosius II (r.408–450), was meant to serve as an authoritative standard for determining legal cases throughout the Empire. Covering topics as diverse as legal procedure, marriage, the army, and the Church, the Code was immediately adopted by Roman judicial authorities and later was a model for the laws drawn up in Rome’s barbarian successor states. The Code divided its topics into “Books,” which were further subdivided into “Titles.” Under each Title were arranged excerpts from pertinent imperial legislation. These were followed, when the compilers thought necessary, by legal interpretations. The passages below concern marriage and divorce. 1. How and why did the Code attempt to control social and moral behavior, such as that involved in marriage and divorce? 28 2. What sort of rights did women have in a Roman divorce? [Source: The Theodosian Code and Novels and the Sirmondian Constitutions, trans. Clyde Pharr (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1952), pp. 76–77 (slightly modified).] BOOK 3, TITLE 14: MARRIAGES WITH FOREIGNERS 1. EMPERORS VALENTINIAN AND VALENS AUGUSTUSES TO THEODOSIUS, MASTER OF THE HORSE. [368–373] No provincial, of whatever rank or class he may be, shall marry a barbarian wife, nor shall a provincial woman be united with any foreigner. But if there should be any alliances between provincials and foreigners through such marriages and if anything should be disclosed as suspect or criminal among them, it shall be expiated by capital punishment. Interpretation: No Roman shall presume to have a barbarian wife of any nation whatever, nor shall any Roman woman be united in marriage with a barbarian. But if they should do this, they shall know that they are subject to capital punishment. TITLE 16: NOTICES OF DIVORCE 1. EMPEROR CONSTANTINE AUGUSTUS TO ABLAVIUS, PRAETORIAN PREFECT. [331] It is Our1 pleasure that no woman, on account of her own depraved desires, shall be permitted to send a notice of divorce to her husband on trumped up grounds, as, for instance, that he is a drunkard or a gambler or a philanderer, nor indeed shall a husband be permitted to divorce his wife on every sort of pretext. But when a woman sends a notice of divorce, the following criminal charges only shall be investigated, that is, if she should prove that her husband is a homicide, a sorcerer, or a destroyer of tombs, so that the wife may thus earn commendation and at length recover her entire dowry. For if she should send a notice of divorce to her husband on grounds other than these three criminal charges, she must leave everything, even to her last hairpin, in her husband’s home, and as punishment for her supreme self confidence, she shall be deported to an island. In the case of a man also, if he should send a notice of divorce, inquiry shall be made as to the following three criminal charges, namely, if he wishes to divorce her as an adulteress, a sorceress, or a procuress.2 For if he should cast off a wife 29 who is innocent of these crimes, he must restore her entire dowry, and he shall not marry another woman. But if he should do this, his former wife shall be given the right to enter and seize his home by force and to transfer to herself the entire dowry of his later wife in recompense for the outrage inflicted upon her. Interpretation: The right to send notice of divorce is extended to a wife or husband for certain approved reasons and causes; for they are forbidden to dissolve a marriage for a trivial charge. If perchance a woman should say that her husband is either a drunkard or given to licentiousness, she shall not send him notice of divorce on that account. But if perchance she should prove that he is either a homicide, a sorcerer, or a violator of tombs, the husband who is convicted of these crimes appears to be justly divorced, without any fault of the woman; and she may recover her dowry and depart. If the woman should not be able to prove such crimes, she shall be subjected to the following punishment: namely, that she shall forfeit both the dowry which she had given or which had been given on her behalf and the gift3 which she received, and she shall also be liable to exile by relegation.4 But if a man should cast off his wife, he also is not permitted to divorce her for a trivial quarrel, as often happens, unless perhaps he should be able to prove that she is guilty of certain crimes, that is, if he is able to prove that she is an adulteress, a sorceress, or a procuress. But if he cannot prove this, he shall restore her dowry to the woman, and he shall not presume to take another wife. But if perchance he should attempt to do so, the woman who was cast off, though innocent, shall have the right to vindicate [claim] for herself her husband’s home and all his substance. It is recognized that this is ordained in order that if a woman should be unjustly divorced, she is ordered to acquire the dowry of the second wife also. 2. EMPERORS HONORIUS, THEODOSIUS, AND CONSTANTIUS AUGUSTUSES TO PALLADIUS, PRAETORIAN PREFECT. [421] If a woman should serve notice of divorce upon her husband and separate from him and if she should prove no grounds for divorce, the gifts shall be annulled which she had received when betrothed. She shall also be deprived of her dowry, and she shall be sentenced to the punishment of deportation. We deny her not only the right to a union with a subsequent husband, but even the right of postliminium.5 But if a woman who has revolted against her marriage should prove merely flaws of character and ordinary faults, she shall lose her dowry and restore to her husband all gifts, and never at all shall she be associated in marriage with any man. In 30 order that she may not defile her unmarried state with wanton debauchery, We grant to the repudiated husband the right to bring an accusation.6 1. It remains to say that if a woman who withdraws7 should prove serious grounds and a conscience involved in great crimes, she shall obtain possession of her dowry and shall also retain the betrothal bounty, and she shall regain the right to marry after a period of five years from the day of the divorce. For then it will appear that she has done this from loathing of her own husband rather than from a desire for another husband.1 2(1). Certainly if the husband should be the first to give notice of divorce and if he should charge his wife with a grave crime, he shall prosecute the accused woman in accordance with the law, and when he has obtained his revenge, he shall both get possession of her dowry and recover his bounty [gifts] to her, and he shall acquire the unrestricted right to marry another woman immediately. 3. If it is a fault of character and not of criminality, the husband shall recover his gifts but relinquish the dowry, and he shall have the right to marry another woman after a period of two years. 4. But if the husband should wish to dissolve the marriage because of a mere disagreement and should charge the repudiated woman with no vices or sins, he shall lose both his gifts and the dowry and be compelled to live in perpetual celibacy; he shall suffer punishment for his insolent divorce in the sadness of solitude; and the woman shall be granted the right to marry after the termination of a year. Moreover, We order to be preserved the guarantees of the ancient law in regard to the retentions from dowries, on account of children. Interpretation: If a woman should be the first to serve a notice of divorce upon her husband and should not prove the statutory grounds for divorce, she shall forfeit the betrothal bounty, and she shall not recover that which she gave her husband as dowry. In addition, she shall also be sent into exile by relegation, and she shall not have the right to marry or to return to her own.2 Indeed, if she should prove slight faults in her husband, for which she appears to seek a divorce, she shall forfeit her dowry and shall restore the betrothal gifts, and she shall not have the right to marry another man. If, however, after divorcing her husband, she should become involved in adultery, her husband shall have the right to prosecute her even after the divorce. But if a woman who has separated from her husband should prove that he is guilty of grave and definite crimes, she shall both recover her dowry and vindicate that which her husband bestowed upon her as a betrothal bounty, and she shall have the unrestricted right of marriage after five years. 31 Indeed, if the husband should be the first to serve notice of divorce, he shall secure his revenge on grounds approved by law, he shall vindicate the dowry of his repudiated wife, shall recover his betrothal gifts, and shall have the right to marry another woman immediately if he wishes. If indeed there were no definite crimes, but, as often happens, the husband is displeased with the frivolity of his wife’s character, he shall recover his gifts and shall restore to her immediately anything which he has received from her, and after a period of two years he shall have the right to marry another wife. But if no defect of character should be proved but merely mental discord, the innocent woman who is rejected by her husband shall both vindicate the gifts made to her by the man and shall recover her dowry. But he shall remain alone forever and shall not presume to associate himself in marriage with another woman. The woman, however, is permitted to proceed to another marriage after a year if she should so wish. But for the sake of their common children, if there should be any, the Emperor orders those rules to be observed which have been established in the law concerning retentions according to the number of children, which law Paulus sets forth in his Book of Responses under the title, A Wife’s Property.3 ... 1.3 PLAGUE: GREGORY THE GREAT, LETTER TO BISHOP DOMINIC OF CARTHAGE (600). ORIGINAL IN LATIN. The Plague of Justinian lasted from 541 to c.750. Named after the emperor under whom it first appeared, the plague spread across the Mediterranean and beyond, from the Middle East to Europe. Pope Gregory the Great (590–604) was well known for spearheading a drive to convert the English to Christianity (see Bede, below, p. 95), for his commentaries on the Book of Job and other exegetical works, and for his “biography” (in fact the second book of his Dialogues on the holy men of Italy) of Saint Benedict of Nursia (for whose Rule see below, p. 20). Gregory was also a devoted pastor who wrote a Pastoral Rule that served as a handbook for priests throughout the Middle Ages. In his letter to Dominic, who held the important position of bishop of Carthage, Gregory set forth in brief many of the ideas about the purposes of tribulation in this world that earlier had been elaborated in detail by Augustine (see The City of God, below p. 16). To counter the plague at Rome, Gregory organized penitential processions there at the beginning of his papacy and probably again c.602; these were among the “good deeds and tears of penitence” that he mentioned in his letter to Dominic. 32 1. Why would Gregory, based in the city of Rome, be concerned about an African bishop? 2. In what ways did Gregory consider the plague to be a “positive” event? [Source: Gregorii Magni Registrum epistularum libri VIII-XIV 10.20, ed. Dag Norberg, Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina 140A (Turnhout: Brepols, 1982), pp. 850–51. Translated by Carole Straw.] Gregory to Dominic, Bishop of Carthage We already know how great a plague has invaded Africa;1 and since not even Italy is free from the attack of this scourge, the groans of our grief are doubled. But amidst these evils and other innumerable calamities, dearest brother,2 our heart would fail in tribulation without hope unless the Lord’s voice had forearmed our frailty. For long ago, the trumpet of the Gospel text resounded for the faithful, foreshadowing the impending end of the world: pestilence, wars and many other things that up to now, as you know, we awaited in fear, and will come. But since we suffer these things that we foreknow, surely we ought not to be afflicted by them as if they were unknown to us. For often even the kind of death is a consolation, considering other ways of dying. How many mutilations and cruelties have we seen for which only death was the remedy, when life was torture? When the choice of a death was offered David, did he not decide that his people should die at the hand of God, rejecting famine and the sword?3 You realize from this how much grace there is for those who die from a divine blow, when they die in the way that was offered as a gift to the holy prophet. And so, let us give thanks in every adversity to our Creator and, trusting in his mercy, let us endure everything with patience, for we suffer even less than we deserve. And since we are scourged in this life so that we may by no means be left without the consolation of eternal life, it is necessary that the more we know the nearness of the judgment to come— as these signs declare—the more we should safeguard the accounts we must render to his examination, through the zeal of good deeds and tears of penitence. In this way, by means of the favor of His grace, such great blows do not become for us the beginning of damnation, but the blessing of purification. But since the nature of our weakness is that we cannot help but grieve for those dying, let this teaching of your fraternity be a comfort to those in tribulation. Let it inculcate into them the stability of the promised good things [of Heaven], so that, strengthened by the most certain hope, they learn not to grieve for the loss of passing things, in comparison to the gift to come. Let your word prevent them (as we believe 33 it does) more and more from perpetrating wicked deeds, let it set forth in full the reward of the good and the punishment of evil so that those who love good the less should at least thoroughly fear wrongdoing and restrain themselves from what must be punished. For those who live among the scourges, to commit deeds worthy of scourges is a special form of pride against the punisher, and it is to irritate all the more the anger of the one who lashes.4 And it is the first kind of madness not to want someone justly to cease his evil deeds, and unjustly to wish that God would check his punishment. But since we need divine assistance in these things, let us, beloved brother, with joined prayers beseech the clemency of almighty God that he may allow us to accomplish things worthily, and may goad the hearts of the people mercifully to do these things, so that as we conform our actions wholesomely in fear of God, we may merit to be rescued from the evils assailing us and to reach to heavenly joys, led by his grace, without which we can do nothing. HERESY AND ORTHODOXY 1.4 HERETICS: MANICHAEAN TEXTS (BEFORE 350?). ORIGINAL IN COPTIC. The Manichaeans were founded by Mani (216–277), a Persian prince who early in life joined an ascetic group devoted to spreading the message of Christ. In 240, when he was 24 years old, driven by visions and revelations, he left that group to found a new religion with its own rituals and texts. Spread through active missionizing, especially in India and Egypt, Mani’s teachings were enormously popular. At its height, it had followers both in the east and west and engaged (and argued) with Zoroastrianism, Christianity, Taoism, Buddhism, and, later, Islam. Styling himself the “apostle of Jesus Christ,” Mani considered his religion to be the ultimate one, subsuming and fulfilling all the others. In the late Roman Empire, Manichaeism was a lively rival of the Roman brand of Christianity, attracting even the young Augustine (for whom see two readings below, pp. 12 and 16). Although in detail very elaborate and complex, Mani’s teachings must here be summed up briefly. The universe had two principles: light (which was good and equivalent to life) and darkness (which was evil and equivalent to death). Originally, these two were separate; then (in our own historical time) they mingled; finally, at the end of time, light (along with goodness and life) will triumph. Human beings represent a mingling: their materiality, carnality and sexuality is 34 death; their soul is divine and is life itself. The task of this period of history is to liberate and save the soul. The Manichaean “elect” delighted in knowing about the many emanations of the divine, in practicing lives of strict asceticism, and in anticipating their triumphant entry into eternal life. Habitual sinners could expect eternal death; ordinary believers could look forward to rebirth in new bodies—with a new chance at election. The two documents presented here witness to the Manichaean message. The first, Psalm 223, was probably originally composed in Aramaic, perhaps just after Mani’s death. It seems to have circulated in a variety of formats alongside other psalms composed by different authors. Although the version here comes from a finely produced Coptic Manichaean Psalm book dating from the late 4th or early 5th century, it is probably safe to assume that the psalm itself comes from before 350. The second document, “The Chapters of the Teacher”—the kephalaia —was probably written around the same time as the psalms, perhaps also in Aramaic. Purporting to report the very words of Mani, it was no doubt very much reworked in the form that we have it. Chapter 79, given here, probably reflects the beliefs and practices of the elect in the 4th century. 1. Imagine and describe the audience that might have read or listened to these texts. 2. How might these texts have appealed to people living in the newly Christianized Roman Empire? [Source: Manichaean Texts from the Roman Empire, ed. Iain Gardner and Samuel N.C. Lieu (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), pp. 176–79, 240 (notes added).] [PSALM] 223 Let us worship the Spirit of the Paraclete.1 Let us bless our lord Jesus who has sent to us the Spirit of truth. He came and separated us from the error of the world, he brought us a mirror, we looked, we saw the all in it. 5 35 When the Holy Spirit came he revealed to us the way of truth and taught us that there are two natures, that of light and that of darkness, separate one from the other from the beginning. The kingdom of light, on the one hand consisted in five 10 greatnesses, and they are the Father and his twelve aeons and the aeons of the aeons, the living air, the land of light; the Great Spirit breathing in them, nourishing them with its light. However, the kingdom of darkness consists of five storehouses, 15 which are smoke and fire and wind and water and darkness; their counsel creeping in them, moving them and raising them to make war with one another. Now, as they were making war with one another they dared 20 to make an attempt upon the land of light, thinking that they would be able to conquer it. Yet they know not that which they have thought to do they will bring down upon their own heads. And there was a multitude of angels in the land of the light, having the power to go forth to subdue the enemy 25 36 of the Father, whom it pleased that by his word that he would send, he should subdue the rebels who desired to exalt themselves above that which was more exalted than they. Like unto a shepherd that shall see a lion coming to destroy his sheep-fold: for he uses guile and takes 30 a lamb and sets it as a snare that he may catch him by it; for by a single lamb he saves his sheep-fold. After these things he heals the lamb that has been wounded by the lion. This too is the way of the Father, who sent his 35 strong son; and he produced from himself his virgin equipped with five powers, that she might fight against the five abysses of the dark. When the watcher stood by the border of the light, he showed to them his virgin who 40 is his soul; they bestirred themselves in their abyss, desiring to exalt themselves over her, they opened their mouth desiring to swallow her. He held fast her crown, he spread her over them, like nets over fishes, he made her rain down upon them 45 like purified clouds of water, she thrust herself 37 within them like piercing lightning. She crept in their inward parts, she bound them all, they not knowing it. When the First Man had perfected his war, the Father sent his second son. 50 He came and helped his brother out of the abyss; he established this whole universe out of the mixture that took place of the light and the darkness. He spread out all the powers of the abyss to ten heavens and eight earths, he shut them up in this universe 55 for a season; while he made it a prison for all the powers of darkness, it is also a place of purification for the soul that was swallowed in them. The sun and moon he founded, he set them on high, to purify the soul. Daily they take up the refined part 60 to the heights, but the dregs however they scrape down to the abyss, what is mixed they convey above and below. This entire universe stands firm for a season, there being a great building which is being built outside this 65 world. So soon as that Builder shall finish, 38 the whole universe will be dissolved and set on fire that the fire may smelt it away. All life, the relic of light wheresoever it be, he will gather to himself and of it depict a Statue. 70 And the counsel of death too, all the darkness, he will gather together and paint its very self for a [bond (?)]1 for the ruler. In an instant the Living Spirit will come ... ... he will succor the light. However, the counsel of death 75 and the darkness he will shut up in the tomb that was established for it, that it might be bound in it for ever. There is no other means to bind the enemy save this means; for he will not be received to the light because he is a stranger to it; nor again can he be left in his land of darkness, that he may 80 not wage a war greater than the first. A new aeon will be built in the place of this universe that shall dissolve, that in it the powers of the light may reign, because they have performed and fulfilled the will of the Father entire, they have subdued the hated one, they have 85 ... over him for ever. 39 This is the knowledge of Mani, let us worship him and bless him. Blessed is he every one that believes in him, for he it is who may live with all the righteous. Glory and victory to our lord Mani, the Spirit of 90 truth that comes from the Father, who has unveiled for us the beginning, the middle and the end. Victory to the soul of the blessed Maria, Theona, Pshai, Jmnoute.2 THE CHAPTERS OF THE TEACHER (KEPHALAIA) 79: “CONCERNING THE FASTING OF THE SAINTS” Once more the enlightener speaks to his disciples: “The fasting that the saints fast by is profitable for four great works. The first work: Shall the holy man punish his body by fasting, he subdues the entire ruling-power that exists in him. The second: This soul that comes in to him in the administration of his food, day by day; it shall be made holy, cleansed, purified, and washed from the adulteration of the darkness that is mixed in with it. The third: That person shall make every deed a holy one; the mystery of the children of light in whom there is neither corruption nor ... the food, nor [do they] wound it. Rather, they are holy, there is nothing in them that defiles, as they live in peace. The fourth: They make a ... the Cross, they restrain their hands from the hand [that harms and] ... not destroy the living soul. The fasting is profitable to the saints for these four great works should they persist; that is if they are constant in them daily, and cause the body to make its members to fast with a holy fast. ... [The Catechumens of the] faith. They who have not strength to fast daily should make their fast on the lord’s day. They too make a contribution to the works and the fasting of the saints by their faith and their alms.” 40 1.5 ORTHODOXY’S DECLARATION: THE NICENE CREED (325). ORIGINAL IN GREEK. A dispute between Bishop Alexander of Alexandria and Arius, an Alexandrian priest, concerning the relationship between the Father and the Son (Jesus Christ) within the Godhead had such far-flung repercussions that Emperor Constantine (r.306–337) called the Council of Nicaea (325), the first “ecumenical” (universal) council, to adjudicate the matter. We do not know precisely what Arius taught, but he clearly subordinated the Son to the Father. The council declared that the Son was of the “same substance” (homousios) as the Father and thus not subordinate, a formulation that Arius could not accept. Although Arius was excommunicated, some of his supporters remained in high positions. When Constantius II (r.337–361) came to the imperial throne, he favored the position that the Orthodox called “Arian” and supported Ulfila, whose missionary work among the Goths led to their adoption of “Arianism.” Although—or perhaps because—the Goths were allowed into the empire in 376, the Council of Constantinople, held in 381, affirmed the ban on Arianism, in effect branding as heretics the Goths and other barbarian tribes who adopted the Arian position. 1. What are the implications of making the Son of God of one substance with the Father? 2. What are points of comparison (the similarities and the differences) between Orthodox Christian beliefs as set forth in the Nicene Creed and those of the Manichaeans as espoused in Psalm 223? [Source: John N.D. Kelly, Early Christian Doctrines, 2nd ed. (New York: Harper and Row, 1958), p. 232.] We believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of all things, visible and invisible; And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begotten from the Father, only-begotten, that is, from the substance of the Father, God from God, light from light, true God from true God, begotten not made, of one substance [homousios] with the Father, through Whom all things came into being, things in heaven and things on earth, Who because of us men and because of our salvation came down and became incarnate, becoming man, suffered and rose again on the third day, ascended to the heavens, and will come to judge the living and the dead; And in the Holy Spirit. But as for those who say, There was when He 41 was not, and, Before being born He was not, and that He came into existence out of nothing, or who assert that the Son of God is from a different hypostasis or substance, or is created, or is subject to alteration or change—these the Catholic Church anathematizes.1 PATRISTIC THOUGHT 1.6 CONVERSION: AUGUSTINE, CONFESSIONS (397–401). ORIGINAL IN LATIN. The man who would become bishop of Hippo (today Annaba, in Algeria) in 396 and the preeminent Church Father in the West by the time he died, Augustine (354–430) was the son of a pagan father, Patricius, and a Christian mother, Monica. Educated in rhetoric at schools near his home in Roman North Africa, he seemed headed for a prestigious professional career in law. He threw himself with passion into various modes of life, all (until the last one) recounted with regret in his autobiographical Confessions. Involved in a long-term relationship with a woman he never named, he had a son, Adeodatus (meaning: “given by God”). Around the same time, he was attracted to Manichaeism (see above, p. 8) and, after reading Cicero’s Hortensius, decided to devote himself to philosophy. At that point, he quit studying to become a lawyer and began to teach. All the while his mother prayed that he would convert to the Roman Church, and once Theodosius I became emperor (r.379–395) and made Christianity the official religion, there was yet another good reason to make the conversion. But Augustine did not do so right away. He had first to become disillusioned with the Manichaeans and to hear the sermons of Bishop Ambrose of Milan, which taught him how to understand the Bible spiritually. The excerpt that follows from Book 7, Chapters 5–7 and 12 of his Confessions begins around this time, when a Christian named Simplicianus told Augustine about a rhetorician and teacher, Victorinus, who had had the courage to give up his career to follow Christ. 1. What were Augustine’s two wills and which one won in the end? 2. Why doesn’t Augustine consider his conversion to be his own achievement? [Source: The Confessions of St. Augustine, trans. Rex Warner (New York: Mentor, 1963), pp. 167–74, 181–83 (notes added).] 5. When this man of yours, Simplicianus, told me all this about 42 Victorinus,1 I was on fire to be like him, and this, of course, was why he had told me the story. He told me this too—that in the time of the Emperor Julian (r.361–363), when a law was passed forbidding Christians to teach literature and rhetoric, Victorinus had obeyed the law, preferring to give up his talking-shop rather than your Word, by which you make even the tongues of infants eloquent. In this I thought that he was not only brave but lucky, because he had got the chance of giving all his time to you. This was just what I longed for myself, but I was held back, and I was held back not by fetters put on me by someone else, but by the iron bondage of my own will. The enemy [i.e., the Devil] held my will and made a chain out of it and bound me with it. From a perverse will came lust, and slavery to lust became a habit, and the habit, being constantly yielded to, became a necessity. These were like links, hanging each to each (which is why I called it a chain), and they held me fast in a hard slavery. And the new will which I was beginning to have and which urged me to worship you in freedom and to enjoy you, God, the only certain joy, was not yet strong enough to overpower the old will which by its oldness had grown hard in me. So my two wills, one old, one new, one carnal, one spiritual, were in conflict, and they wasted my soul by their discord. In this way my personal experience enabled me to understand what I had read—that “the flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh.”1 I, no doubt, was on both sides, but I was more myself when I was on the side which I approved of for myself than when I was on the side of which I disapproved. For it was no longer really I myself who was on this second side, since there to a great extent I was rather suffering things against my will than doing them voluntarily. Yet it was my own fault that habit fought back so strongly against me; for I had come willingly where I now did not will to be. And who has any right to complain when just punishment overtakes the sinner? Nor did I have any longer the excuse which I used to think I had when I said that the reason why I had not yet forsaken the world and given myself up to your service was because I could not see the truth clearly. Now I could see it perfectly clearly. But I was still tied down to earth and refused to take my place in your army. And I was just as frightened of being freed from all my hampering baggage as I ought to have been frightened of being hampered. The pack of this world was a kind of pleasant weight upon me, as happens in sleep, and the thoughts in which I meditated on you were like the efforts of someone who tries to get up but is so overcome with drowsiness that he sinks back again into sleep. Of course no one wants to sleep forever, and everyone in his senses would agree that it is better to be awake; yet all the 43 same, when we feel a sort of lethargy in our limbs, we often put off the moment of shaking off sleep, and, even though it is time to get up, we gladly take a little longer in bed, conscious though we may be that we should not be doing so. In just the same way I was quite certain that it was better to give myself up to your charity rather than to give in to my own desires; but, though the former course was a conviction to which I gave my assent, the latter was a pleasure to which I gave my consent. For I had no answer to make to you when you called me; “Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.”2 And, while you showed me wherever I looked that what you said was true, I, convinced by the truth, could still find nothing at all to say except lazy words spoken half asleep: “A minute,” “just a minute,” “just a little time longer.” But there was no limit to the minutes, and the little time longer went a long way. It was in vain that “I delighted in Thy law according to the inner man, when another law in my members rebelled against the law of my mind, and led me captive under the law of sin which was in my members.”3 For the law of sin is the strong force of habit, which drags the mind along and controls it even against its will—though deservedly, since the habit was voluntarily adopted. “Who then should deliver me this wretched from the body of this death, by Thy grace only, through Jesus Christ our Lord?”4 6. Now, Lord, my helper and my redeemer, I shall tell and confess to your name how it was that you freed me from the bondage of my desire for sex, in which I was so closely fettered, and from my slavery to the affairs of this world. I was leading my usual life; my anxiety was growing greater and greater, and every day I sighed to you. I went often to your Church, whenever I had time to spare from all that business under the weight of which I was groaning. Alypius5 was with me. He was free from his official legal work after a third term as assessor and was now waiting to sell his legal advice to anyone who came along, just as I was selling the ability to make speeches—if such an ability can be imparted by teaching. Nebridius, as an act of friendship to us, had consented to teach under Verecundus, a great friend of us all, a citizen and elementary schoolmaster of Milan. He had been very eager to have Nebridius on his staff and indeed had claimed it as something due from our friendship that one of us should come and give him the help and support which he badly needed. Nebridius was not influenced by any desire for profit; he could have done better for himself by teaching literature, if he had wanted. But he was the kindest and best of friends, and, being always ready to help others, would not turn down our request. He conducted himself very carefully in his work, being unwilling 44 to become known in what are regarded by the world as “distinguished circles,” and avoiding everything which could disturb his peace of mind; for he wanted to have his mind free and at leisure for as many hours as possible so as to pursue wisdom, to read about it, or to hear about it. One day, when Alypius and I were at home (Nebridius, for some reason which I cannot remember, was away) we were visited by a man called Ponticianus who, coming from Africa, was a fellow countryman of ours and who held an important appointment at the emperor’s court. He had something or other which he wanted to ask us, and we sat down to talk. In front of us was a table for playing games on, and he happened to notice a book lying on the table. He took it, opened it, and found that it was the apostle Paul. He was quite surprised at this, since he had imagined it would be one of the books over which I wearied myself out in the course of my profession. Next he began to smile and, looking closely at me, told me that he was not only surprised but pleased at his unexpected discovery that I had this book and only this book at my side. For he was a Christian, and baptized. He often knelt before you, our God, in Church, praying long and frequently to you. I told him that I gave the greatest attention to these works of Scripture, and then, on his initiative, a conversation began about the Egyptian monk Antony, whose name was very well known among your servants, although Alypius and I up to this time had never heard of him. When Ponticianus discovered this he talked all the more about him, since he wanted us in our ignorance, at which he was much surprised, to learn more about such a great man. And we were amazed as we heard of these wonderful works of yours which had been witnessed by so many people, had been done in the true faith and the Catholic Church, and all so recently—indeed practically in our own times. All of us were full of wonder, Alypius and I at the importance of what we were hearing, Ponticianus at the fact that we had never heard the story before. He went on to speak of the communities living in monasteries, of their way of life which was full of the sweet fragrance of you, and of the fruitful deserts in the wilderness, about which we knew nothing. There was actually a monastery in Milan outside the walls of the city. It was full of good brothers and was under the care of Ambrose, but we had not even heard of this. So Ponticianus went on speaking and we sat quiet, listening to him eagerly. In the course of his talk he told us how once, when the emperor was at Trier and busy with holding the chariot races in the Circus, he himself with three friends had gone for a walk in the afternoon through the gardens near the city walls. It happened that they walked in two groups, one of the three going one way with him, and the others going another way by themselves. These other two, as they strolled along, 45 happened to come to a small house which was inhabited by some of your servants, “poor in spirit, of whom is the kingdom of heaven,”1 and there they found a book in which was written an account of the life of Antony. One of the two friends began to read it. He became full of wonder and excitement, and, as he read, he began to think of how he himself could lead a life like this and, abandoning his profession in this world, give his service to you. For these two men were both officials in the emperor’s civil service. Suddenly, then, he was filled with a holy love; he felt a sober shame, and, angry with himself, he looked toward his friend and said: “Tell me now; in all this hard work which we do, what are we aiming at? What is it that we want? Why is it that we are state officials? Can we have any higher hope at court than to become friends of the emperor? And is not that a position difficult to hold and full of danger? Indeed does one not have to go through danger after danger simply to reach a place that is more dangerous still? And how long will it take to get there? But, if I want, I can be the friend of God now, this moment.” After saying this, he turned back to the book, troubled and perplexed by the new life to which he was giving birth. So he read on, and his heart, where you saw it, was changed, and, as soon appeared, his mind shook off the burden of the world. While he was reading and the waves in his heart rose and fell, there were times when he cried out against himself, and then he distinguished the better course and chose it for his own. Now he was yours, and he said to his friend: “I have now broken away from all our hopes and ambitions and have decided to serve God, and I am entering on this service now, this moment, in this place. You may not like to imitate me in this, but you must not oppose me.” The other replied that he would stay with him and be his comrade in so great a service and for so great a reward. Both of them were now yours; they were building their own fortress at the right cost—namely, the forsaking of all that they had and the following of you. At this point Ponticianus and his companion, who had been walking in a different part of the garden, looking for their friends, came and found them in this place. When they found them, they suggested that they should go back, as it was now nearly sunset. The others however told them of the decision which they had reached and what they proposed to do; they described how the whole thing had started and how their resolution was now fixed, and they begged their friends, if they would not now join them, not to interfere with their purpose. Ponticianus and his friends, while not changing from their former ways, did (as Ponticianus told us) weep for themselves and, devoutly and sincerely congratulating the others, asked 46 them to remember them in their prayers; then, with their own hearts still down on the earth, they went off to the palace. But the other two, with their hearts fixed on heaven, remained there in the cottage. Each of these two was engaged to be married, and when the girls to whom they were engaged heard what had happened, they also dedicated their virginity to you. 7. This was what Ponticianus told us. But you, Lord, while he was speaking, were turning me around so that I could see myself; You took me from behind my own back, which was where I had put myself during the time when I did not want to be observed by myself, and you set me in front of my own face so that I could see how foul a sight I was—crooked, filthy, spotted, and ulcerous. I saw and I was horrified, and I had nowhere to go to escape from myself. If I tried to look away from myself, Ponticianus still went on with his story, and again you were setting me in front of myself, forcing me to look into my own face, so that I might see my sin and hate it. I did know it, but I pretended that I did not. I had been pushing the whole idea away from me and forgetting it. But now the more ardent was the love I felt for those two men of whom I was hearing and of how healthfully they had been moved to give themselves up entirely to you to be cured, the more bitter was the hatred I felt for myself when I compared myself with them. Many years (at least twelve) of my own life had gone by since the time when I was nineteen and was reading Cicero’s Hortensius and had been fired with an enthusiasm for wisdom. Yet I was still putting off the moment when, despising this world’s happiness, I should give all my time to the search for that of which not only the finding but merely the seeking must be preferred to the discovered treasures and kingdoms of men or to all the pleasures of the body easily and abundantly available. But I, wretched young man that I was—even more wretched at the beginning of my youth —had begged you for chastity and had said: “Make me chaste and continent, but not yet.” I was afraid that you might hear me too soon and cure me too soon from the disease of a lust which I preferred to be satisfied rather than extinguished. And I had gone along evil ways, following a sacrilegious superstition—not because I was convinced by it, but simply preferring it to the other doctrines into which I never inquired in a religious spirit, but merely attacked them in a spirit of spite. I had thought that the reason why I was putting off from day to day the time when I should despise all worldly hopes and follow you alone was because I could see no certainty toward which I could direct my course. But now the day had come when in my own eyes I was stripped naked and 47 my conscience cried out against me: “Can you not hear me? Was it not this that you used to say, that you would not throw off the burden of vanity for a truth that was uncertain? Well, look. Now the truth is certain, and you are still weighed down by your burden. Yet these others, who have not been so worn out in the search and not been meditating the matter for ten years or more, have had the weight taken from their backs and have been given wings to fly.” So I was being gnawed at inside, and as Ponticianus went on with his story I was lost and overwhelmed in a terrible kind of shame. When the story was over and the business about which he had come had been settled he went away, and I retired into myself. Nor did I leave anything unsaid against myself. With every scourge of condemnation I lashed my soul on to follow me now that I was trying to follow you. And my soul hung back; it refused to follow, and it could give no excuse for its refusal. All the arguments had been used already and had been shown to be false. There remained a mute shrinking; for it feared like death to be restrained from the flux of a habit by which it was melting away into death. ... 12. And now from my hidden depths my searching thought had dragged up and set before the sight of my heart the whole mass of my misery. Then a huge storm rose up within me bringing with it a huge downpour of tears. So that I might pour out all these tears and speak the words that came with them I rose up from Alypius (solitude seemed better for the business of weeping) and went further away so that I might not be embarrassed even by his presence. This was how I felt and he realized it. No doubt I had said something or other, and he could feel the weight of my tears in the sound of my voice. And so I rose to my feet, and he, in a state of utter amazement, remained in the place where we had been sitting. I flung myself down on the ground somehow under a fig tree and gave free rein to my tears; they streamed and flooded from my eyes, an “acceptable sacrifice to Thee.”1 And I kept saying to you, not perhaps in these words, but with this sense: “And Thou, O Lord, how long? How long, Lord; wilt Thou be angry forever? Remember not our former iniquities.”1 For I felt that it was these which were holding me fast. And in my misery I would exclaim: “How long, how long this ‘tomorrow and tomorrow’? Why not now? Why not finish this very hour with my uncleanness?” So I spoke, weeping in the bitter contrition of my heart. Suddenly a voice reaches my ears from a nearby house. It is the voice of a boy or a girl (I don’t know which) and in a kind of singsong the words are constantly repeated: “Take it and read it. Take it and read it.” At once my face 48 changed, and I began to think carefully of whether the singing of words like these came into any kind of game which children play, and I could not remember that I had ever heard anything like it before. I checked the force of my tears and rose to my feet, being quite certain that I must interpret this as a divine command to me to open the book and read the first passage which I should come upon. For I had heard this about Antony: he had happened to come in when the Gospel was being read, and as though the words read were spoken directly to himself, had received the admonition: “Go, sell all that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come and follow me.”2 And by such an oracle he had been immediately converted to you. So I went eagerly back to the place where Alypius was sitting, since it was there that I had left the book of the Apostle when I rose to my feet. I snatched up the book, opened it, and read in silence the passage upon which my eyes first fell: “Not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying: but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh in concupiscence.”3 I had no wish to read further; there was no need to. For immediately I had reached the end of this sentence it was as though my heart was filled with a light of confidence and all the shadows of my doubt were swept away. Before shutting the book I put my finger or some other marker in the place and told Alypius what had happened. By now my face was perfectly calm. And Alypius in his turn told me what had been going on in himself, and which I knew nothing about. He asked to see the passage which I had read. I showed him and he went on further than the part I had read, nor did I know the words which followed. They were these: “Him that is weak in the faith, receive.”4 He applied this to himself and told me so. He was strengthened by the admonition; calmly and unhesitatingly he joined me in a purpose and a resolution so good, and so right for his character, which had always been very much better than mine. The next thing we do is to go inside and tell my mother. How happy she is! We describe to her how it all took place, and there is no limit to her joy and triumph. Now she was praising you, “Who art able to do above that which we ask or think”;5 for she saw that with regard to me you had given her so much more than she used to ask for when she wept so pitifully before you. For you converted me to you in such a way that I no longer sought a wife nor any other worldly hope. I was now standing on that rule of faith, just as you had shown me to her in a vision so many years before. And so you had changed her mourning into joy, a joy much 49 richer than she had desired and much dearer and purer than that which she looked for by having grandchildren of my flesh. 1.7 RELATING THIS WORLD TO THE NEXT: AUGUSTINE, THE CITY OF GOD (413–426). ORIGINAL IN LATIN. As a young man, St. Augustine (354–430) wanted to be an orator and teacher—that is, a rhetorician—but his restless quest for life’s meaning led him to make a dramatic conversion, chronicled in his Confessions (above, p. 12). Later, as bishop of Hippo in North Africa (r.395–430), he became the most influential churchman of his day and for centuries to come, especially in the Roman Catholic West. Counted among the Church Fathers, Augustine formulated many of the key themes of Western Christianity until at least the twelfth century. Perhaps the most enduring of his works was The City of God, which, by postulating two cities—the City of God and the City of Man—permitted Augustine to explore the mingling of the sacred with the secular realms, the uses of adversity in the world, the vision of Heaven as a place of total peace, and the idea that the life of man on earth is a pilgrimage—a holy trek—from home (the here-and-now) to a longed-for place of succor (the City of God). In spite of these universal and timeless themes, the book was written in response to a very specific historical event: the sack of Rome by the Visigoths under their leader Alaric in 410. 1. What does Augustine mean when he says that the City of God exists as “a stranger among the ungodly, living by faith”? 2. What are the evils of human society in Augustine’s view, and why does he say that nevertheless the “life of the saints” is “social”? [Source: Augustine, Concerning the City of God against the Pagans, trans. Henry Bettenson (New York: Penguin, 1972), pp. 5–7, 13–17, 858–59, 881, 891–92.] BOOK 1 PREFACE. THE PURPOSE AND ARGUMENT OF THIS WORK Here, my dear Marcellinus,1 is the fulfilment of my promise, a book in which I have taken upon myself the task of defending the glorious City of God against those who prefer their own gods to the Founder of that City. I treat of it both as it exists in this world of time, a stranger among the 50 ungodly, living by faith,2 and as it stands in the security of its everlasting seat. This security it now awaits in steadfast patience, until “justice returns to judgment,”3 but it is to attain it hereafter in virtue of its ascendancy over its enemies, when the final victory is won and peace established. The task is long and arduous; but God is our helper.4 I know how great is the effort needed to convince the proud of the power and excellence of humility, an excellence which makes it soar above all the summits of this world, which sway in their temporal instability, overtopping them all with an eminence not arrogated by human pride, but granted by divine grace. For the King and Founder of this City which is our subject has revealed in the Scripture of his people this statement of the divine Law, “God resists the proud, but he gives grace to the humble.”5 This is God’s prerogative; but man’s arrogant spirit in its swelling pride has claimed it as its own, and delights to hear this verse quoted in its own praise: “To spare the conquered, and beat down the proud.”6 Therefore I cannot refrain from speaking about the city of this world, a city which aims at dominion, which holds nations in enslavement, but is itself dominated by that very lust of domination. I must consider this city as far as the scheme of this work demands and as occasion serves. 1. THE ENEMIES OF CHRISTIANITY WERE SPARED BY THE BARBARIANS AT THE SACK OF ROME, OUT OF RESPECT FOR CHRIST From this world’s city there arise enemies against whom the City of God has to be defended, though many of these correct their godless errors and become useful citizens of that City. But many are inflamed with hate against it and feel no gratitude for the benefits offered by its Redeemer. The benefits are unmistakable; those enemies would not today be able to utter a word against the City if, when fleeing from the sword of their enemy, they had not found, in the City’s holy places, the safety on which they now congratulate themselves.1 The barbarians spared them for Christ’s sake; and now these Romans assail Christ’s name. The sacred places of the martyrs and the basilicas of the apostles bear witness to this, for in the sack of Rome they afforded shelter to fugitives, both Christian and pagan. The bloodthirsty enemy raged thus far, but here the frenzy of butchery was checked; to these refuges the merciful among the enemy conveyed those whom they had spared outside, to save them from encountering foes who had no such pity. Even men who elsewhere raged with all the savagery an enemy can show, arrived at places where practices 51 generally allowed by laws of war were forbidden and their monstrous passion for violence was brought to a sudden halt; their lust for taking captives was subdued. In this way many escaped who now complain of this Christian era, and hold Christ responsible for the disasters which their city endured. But they do not make Christ responsible for the benefits they received out of respect for Christ, to which they owed their lives. They attribute their deliverance to their own destiny; whereas if they had any right judgment they ought rather to attribute the harsh cruelty they suffered at the hands of their enemies to the providence of God. For God’s providence constantly uses war to correct and chasten the corrupt morals of mankind, as it also uses such afflictions to train men in a righteous and laudable way of life, removing to a better state those whose life is approved, or else keeping them in this world for further service. Moreover, they should give credit to this Christian era for the fact that these savage barbarians showed mercy beyond the custom of war— whether they so acted in general in honor of the name of Christ, or in places specially dedicated to Christ’s name, buildings of such size and capacity as to give mercy a wider range. For this clemency our detractors ought rather to give thanks to God; they should have recourse to his name in all sincerity so as to escape the penalty of everlasting fire, seeing that so many of them assumed his name dishonestly, to escape the penalty of immediate destruction. Among those whom you see insulting Christ’s servants with such wanton insolence there are very many who came unscathed through that terrible time of massacre only by passing themselves off as Christ’s servants. And now with ungrateful pride and impious madness they oppose his name in the perversity of their hearts, so that they may incur the punishment of eternal darkness; but then they took refuge in that name, though with deceitful lips, so that they might continue to enjoy this transitory light.... 8. BLESSINGS AND DISASTERS OFTEN SHARED BY GOOD AND BAD No doubt this question will be asked, “Why does the divine mercy extend even to the godless and ungrateful?” The only explanation is that it is the mercy of one “who makes his sun rise on the good and on the bad, and sends rain alike on the righteous and the unrighteous.”2 Some of the wicked are brought to penitence by considering these facts, and amend their impiety, while others, in the words of the Apostle, “despise the riches of God’s goodness and forbearance, in the hardness and impenitence of their hearts, and lay up for themselves a store of wrath in the day of God’s 52 anger and of the revelation of the just judgment of God, who will repay every man according to his actions.”3 Yet the patience of God still invites the wicked to penitence, just as God’s chastisement trains the good in patient endurance. God’s mercy embraces the good for their cherishing, just as his severity chastens the wicked for their punishment. God, in his providence, decided to prepare future blessings for the righteous, which the unrighteous will not enjoy, and sorrows for the ungodly, with which the good will not be tormented. But he has willed that these temporal goods and temporal evils should befall good and bad alike, so that the good things should not be too eagerly coveted, when it is seen that the wicked also enjoy them, and that the evils should not be discreditably shunned, when it is apparent that the good are often afflicted with them. The most important question is this: What use is made of the things thought to be blessings, and of the things reputed evil? The good man is not exalted by this world’s goods; nor is he overwhelmed by this world’s ills. The bad man is punished by misfortune of this kind just because he is corrupted by good fortune.... BOOK 19 5. SOCIAL LIFE; ITS VALUE AND ITS DANGERS The philosophies hold the view that the life of the wise man should be social; and in this we support them much more heartily. For here we are, with the nineteenth book in hand on the subject of the City of God; and how could that City have made its first start, how could it have advanced along its course, how could it attain its appointed goal, if the life of the saints were not social? And yet, who would be capable of listing the number and the gravity of the ills which abound in human society amid the distresses of our mortal condition? Who would be competent to assess them? Our philosophers should listen to a character in one of their own comedies, voicing a sentiment with which all mankind agrees: I married a wife; and misery I found! Children were born; and they increased my cares.1 Again, think of the disorders of love, as listed in another quotation from Terence: Wrongs and suspicions, enmities and war— 53 Then, peace again.2 Have they not everywhere filled up the story of human experience? Are they not of frequent occurrence, even in the honorable love of friends? The story of mankind is full of them at every point; for in that story we are aware of wrongs, suspicions, enmities and war—undoubted evils, these. And even peace is a doubtful good, since we do not know the hearts of those with whom we wish to maintain peace, and even if we could know them today, we should not know what they might be like tomorrow. In fact, who are, in general, more friendly, or at any rate ought to be, than those within the walls of the same home? And yet, is anyone perfectly serene in that situation, when such grievous ills have so often arisen from the secret treachery of people within those walls? And the bitterness of these ills matches the sweetness of the peace that was reckoned genuine, when it was in fact only a very clever pretense. This explains why some words of Cicero come so close to our hearts that we cannot but sigh when we read: No treachery is more insidious than that which is hidden under a pretense of loyalty, or under the name of kinship. For against an open adversary you could be on your guard and thus easily avoid him; but this hidden evil, within the house and family, not only arises before you are aware but even overwhelms you before you can catch sight of it and investigate it.3 Hence also that inspired utterance, “A man’s enemies are those of his own household,”4 is heard with deep sorrow of heart. For even if anyone is strong enough to bear these ills with equanimity, or watchful enough to guard with foresight and discretion against the contrivances of pretended friendship, nevertheless he cannot but feel grievous anguish, if he himself is a good man, at the wickedness of the traitors, when by experience he knows their utter viciousness, whether they were always evil and their goodness was a sham, or whether they suffered a change from good-nature to the malice that they now display. If, then, safety is not to be found in the home, the common refuge from the evils that befall mankind, what shall we say of the city? The larger the city, the more is its forum filled with civil lawsuits and criminal trials, even if that city be at peace, free from the alarms or—what is more frequent—the bloodshed, of sedition and civil war. It is true that cities are at times exempt from those occurrences; they 54 are never free from the danger of them.... 20. THE FELLOW-CITIZENS OF THE SAINTS ARE IN THIS LIFE MADE HAPPY BY HOPE We see, then, that the Supreme Good, of the City of God is everlasting and perfect peace, which is not the peace through which men pass in their mortality, in their journey from birth, to death, but that peace in which they remain in their immortal state, experiencing no adversity at all. In view of this, can anyone deny that this is the supremely blessed life, or that the present life on earth, however full it may be of the greatest possible blessings of soul and body and of external circumstances, is, in comparison, most miserable? For all that, if anyone accepts the present life in such a spirit that he uses it with the end in view of that other life on which he has set his heart with all his ardor and for which he hopes with all his confidence, such a man may without absurdity be called happy even now, though rather by future hope than in present reality. Present reality without that hope is, to be sure, a false happiness, in fact, an utter misery. For the present does not bring into play the true goods of the mind; since no wisdom is true wisdom if it does not direct its attention, in all its prudent decisions, its resolute actions, its self-control and its just dealings with others, towards that ultimate state in...