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In the foregoing book, having begun to speak of the city of God, to
which I have resolved, Heaven helping me, to consecrate the whole of
this work, it was my first endeavor to reply to those who attribute the
wars by which the world is being devastated, and especially the recent
sack of Rome by the barbarians, to the religion of Christ, which
prohibits the offering of abominable sacrifices to devils. I have
shown that they ought rather to attribute it to Christ, that for His
name's sake the barbarians, in contravention of all custom and law of
war, threw open as sanctuaries the largest churches, and in many
instances showed such reverence to Christ, that not only His genuine
servants, but even those who in their terror feigned themselves to be
so, were exempted from all those hardships which by the custom of war
may lawfully be inflicted. Then out of this there arose the question,
why wicked and ungrateful men were permitted to share in these
benefits; and why, too, the hardships and calamities of war were
inflicted on the godly as well as on the ungodly. And in giving a
suitably full answer to this large question, I occupied some
considerable space, partly that I might relieve the anxieties which
disturb many when they observe that the blessings of God, and the
common and daily human casualties, fall to the lot of bad men and good
without distinction; but mainly that I might minister some consolation
to those holy and chaste women who were outraged by the enemy. in such
a way as to shock their modesty, though not to sully their purity, and
that I might preserve them from being ashamed of life, though they
have no guilt to be ashamed of. And then I briefly spoke against
those who with a most shameless wantonness insult over those poor
Christians who were subjected to those calamities, and especially over
those broken-hearted and humiliated, though chaste and holy women;
these fellows themselves being most depraved and unmanly profligates,
quite degenerate from the genuine Romans, whose famous deeds are
abundantly recorded in history, and everywhere celebrated, but who
have found in their descendants the greatest enemies of their glory.
In truth, Rome, which was founded and increased by the labors of
these ancient heroes, was more shamefully ruined by their descendants,
while its walls were still standing, than it is now by the razing of
them. For in this ruin there fell stones and timbers; but in the ruin
those profligates effected, there fell, not the mural, but the moral
bulwarks and ornaments of the city, and their hearts burned with
passions more destructive than the flames which consumed their houses.
Thus I brought my first book to a close. And now I go on to speak
of those calamities which that city itself, or its subject provinces,
have suffered since its foundation; all of which they would equally
have attributed to the Christian religion, if at that early period the
doctrine of the gospel against their false and deceiving gods had been
as largely and freely proclaimed as now.
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