The Library
1780 works catalogued century by century, from the literature the Bible was written among to the present — each with a note on what it is, why it lasted, and where to read it.
401–500
9 works
c. 405; survives in fragments
Latin
De Natura
Pelagius · c. 354–c. 420
An argument that God would not command what cannot be done, so human beings must be able to keep the commandments — known chiefly from Augustine's line-by-line rebuttal.
c. 405–410
Latin
Pelagius · c. 354–c. 420
A brisk, practical commentary emphasising moral effort and the example of Christ, which circulated widely under other names after its author was condemned.
412
Latin
De Spiritu et Littera
Augustine of Hippo · 354–430
The first sustained answer to Pelagius: the law shows what to do but cannot supply the will to do it, which only grace poured into the heart provides.
413
Latin
Pelagius · c. 354 – c. 420
Written to a Roman heiress of fourteen who had refused a marriage for the veil. Pelagius tells her to begin by measuring the good her own nature is capable of, since God would not command what could not be done, and no one is excused by a weakness they were born with.
415
Latin
Augustine of Hippo · 354–430
A line-by-line answer to Pelagius's On Nature, conceding that human nature was created good and insisting that it is now wounded and cannot heal itself.
c. 410–430; authorship disputed
Latin
Attributed to Fastidius
A demanding call to moral seriousness addressed to a widow, insisting that a Christian who lives like everyone else is a Christian in name only.
419–421
Latin
De Nuptiis et Concupiscentia
Augustine of Hippo · 354 – 430
Marriage is good, its three goods are offspring, fidelity, and the bond — and yet the desire by which children are conceived is itself disordered, and carries the fault forward into every child born. Julian of Eclanum read this and accused Augustine of never having stopped being a Manichaean.
c. 421–422
Latin
Contra Iulianum
Augustine of Hippo · 354 – 430
Julian of Eclanum, a deposed Italian bishop and much the sharper logician, had accused Augustine of making God the author of evil and of importing Mani into the church. Augustine answers by assembling the fathers — Cyprian, Ambrose, Chrysostom, Basil — to show that original sin was taught before he was born.
c. 419–430; survives in Augustine's quotations
Latin
Julian of Eclanum · c. 386 – c. 455
The most formidable of Augustine's opponents, preserved almost entirely inside the books written to destroy him. Julian argues that a God who damns infants for another's act is worse than any human judge, that desire is a natural faculty like hunger, and that Augustine has never stopped hating the body.
9 of 1780 works