The Confessions
Classic translation
5th c. · Asceticism & Spirituality · English translation, 1890
Source edition: Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series I (ed. Philip Schaff, 1886–90)
Cover art: Saint Augustine in His Study — Vittore Carpaccio (Italian, c. 1465–1525/26) (Wikimedia Commons (Scuola di San Giorgio degli Schiavoni, Venice), Public domain)
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Contents
- The Confessions
- Translator’s Preface
- The Opinion of St. Augustin Concerning His Confessions
- Commencing with the invocation of God, Augustin relates in detail the beginning…
- Introduction
- 1. He Proclaims the Greatness of God, Whom He Desires to Seek and Invoke, Being…
- 2. That the God Whom We Invoke is in Us, and We in Him
- 3. Everywhere God Wholly Filleth All Things, But Neither Heaven Nor Earth…
- 4. The Majesty of God is Supreme, and His Virtues Inexplicable
- 5. He Seeks Rest in God, and Pardon of His Sins
- 6. He Describes His Infancy, and Lauds the Protection and Eternal Providence of…
- 7. He Shows by Example that Even Infancy is Prone to Sin
- 8. That When a Boy He Learned to Speak, Not by Any Set Method, But from the…
- 9. Concerning the Hatred of Learning, the Love of Play, and the Fear of Being…
- 10. Through a Love of Ball-Playing and Shows, He Neglects His Studies and the…
- 11. Seized by Disease, His Mother Being Troubled, He Earnestly Demands Baptism…
- 12. Being Compelled, He Gave His Attention to Learning; But Fully Acknowledges…
- 13. He Delighted in Latin Studies and the Empty Fables of the Poets, But Hated…
- 14. Why He Despised Greek Literature, and Easily Learned Latin
- 15. He Entreats God, that Whatever Useful Things He Learned as a Boy May Be…
- 16. He Disapproves of the Mode of Educating Youth, and He Points Out Why…
- 17. He Continues on the Unhappy Method of Training Youth in Literary Subjects
- 18. Men Desire to Observe the Rules of Learning, But Neglect the Eternal Rules…
- He advances to puberty, and indeed to the early part of the sixteenth year of…
- Introduction
- 1. He Deplores the Wickedness of His Youth
- 2. Stricken with Exceeding Grief, He Remembers the Dissolute Passions in Which…
- 3. Concerning His Father, a Freeman of Thagaste, the Assister of His Son’s…
- 4. He Commits Theft with His Companions, Not Urged on by Poverty, But from a…
- 5. Concerning the Motives to Sin, Which are Not in the Love of Evil, But in the…
- 6. Why He Delighted in that Theft, When All Things Which Under the Appearance…
- 7. He Gives Thanks to God for the Remission of His Sins, and Reminds Every One…
- 8. In His Theft He Loved the Company of His Fellow-Sinners
- 9. It Was a Pleasure to Him Also to Laugh When Seriously Deceiving Others
- 10. With God There is True Rest and Life Unchanging
- Of the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth years of his age, passed at…
- Introduction
- 1. Deluded by an Insane Love, He, Though Foul and Dishonourable, Desires to Be…
- 2. In Public Spectacles He is Moved by an Empty Compassion. He is Attacked by a…
- 3. Not Even When at Church Does He Suppress His Desires. In the School of…
- 4. In the Nineteenth Year of His Age (His Father Having Died Two Years Before)…
- 5. He Rejects the Sacred Scriptures as Too Simple, and as Not to Be Compared…
- 6. Deceived by His Own Fault, He Falls into the Errors of the Manichæans, Who…
- 7. He Attacks the Doctrine of the Manichæans Concerning Evil, God, and the…
- 8. He Argues Against the Same as to the Reason of Offences
- 9. That the Judgment of God and Men as to Human Acts of Violence, is Different
- 10. He Reproves the Triflings of the Manichæans as to the Fruits of the Earth
- 11. He Refers to the Tears, and the Memorable Dream Concerning Her Son, Granted…
- 12. The Excellent Answer of the Bishop When Referred to by His Mother as to the…
- Then follows a period of nine years from the nineteenth year of his age, during…
- Introduction
- 1. Concerning that Most Unhappy Time in Which He, Being Deceived, Deceived…
- 2. He Teaches Rhetoric, the Only Thing He Loved, and Scorns the Soothsayer, Who…
- 3. Not Even the Most Experienced Men Could Persuade Him of the Vanity of…
- 4. Sorely Distressed by Weeping at the Death of His Friend, He Provides…
- 5. Why Weeping is Pleasant to the Wretched
- 6. His Friend Being Snatched Away by Death, He Imagines that He Remains Only as…
- 7. Troubled by Restlessness and Grief, He Leaves His Country a Second Time for…
- 8. That His Grief Ceased by Time, and the Consolation of Friends
- 9. That the Love of a Human Being, However Constant in Loving and Returning…
- 10. That All Things Exist that They May Perish, and that We are Not Safe Unless…
- 11. That Portions of the World are Not to Be Loved; But that God, Their Author…
- 12. Love is Not Condemned, But Love in God, in Whom There is Rest Through Jesus…
- 13. Love Originates from Grace and Beauty Enticing Us
- 14. Concerning the Books Which He Wrote ‘On the Fair and Fit,’ Dedicated to…
- 15. While Writing, Being Blinded by Corporeal Images, He Failed to Recognise…
- 16. He Very Easily Understood the Liberal Arts and the Categories of Aristotle…
- He describes the twenty-ninth year of his age, in which, having discovered the…
- Introduction
- 1. That It Becomes the Soul to Praise God, and to Confess Unto Him
- 2. On the Vanity of Those Who Wished to Escape the Omnipotent God
- 3. Having Heard Faustus, the Most Learned Bishop of the Manichæans, He Discerns…
- 4. That the Knowledge of Terrestrial and Celestial Things Does Not Give…
- 5. Of Manichæus Pertinaciously Teaching False Doctrines, and Proudly Arrogating…
- 6. Faustus Was Indeed an Elegant Speaker, But Knew Nothing of the Liberal…
- 7. Clearly Seeing the Fallacies of the Manichæans, He Retires from Them, Being…
- 8. He Sets Out for Rome, His Mother in Vain Lamenting It
- 9. Being Attacked by Fever, He is in Great Danger
- 10. When He Had Left the Manichæans, He Retained His Depraved Opinions…
- 11. Helpidius Disputed Well Against the Manichæans as to the Authenticity of…
- 12. Professing Rhetoric at Rome, He Discovers the Fraud of His Scholars
- 13. He is Sent to Milan, that He, About to Teach Rhetoric, May Be Known by…
- 14. Having Heard the Bishop, He Perceives the Force of the Catholic Faith, Yet…
- Attaining his thirtieth year, he, under the admonition of the discourses of…
- Introduction
- 1. His Mother Having Followed Him to Milan, Declares that She Will Not Die…
- 2. She, on the Prohibition of Ambrose, Abstains from Honouring the Memory of…
- 3. As Ambrose Was Occupied with Business and Study, Augustin Could Seldom…
- 4. He Recognises the Falsity of His Own Opinions, and Commits to Memory the…
- 5. Faith is the Basis of Human Life; Man Cannot Discover that Truth Which Holy…
- 6. On the Source and Cause of True Joy,—The Example of the Joyous Beggar Being…
- 7. He Leads to Reformation His Friend Alypius, Seized with Madness for the…
- 8. The Same When at Rome, Being Led by Others into the Amphitheatre, is…
- 9. Innocent Alypius, Being Apprehended as a Thief, is Set at Liberty by the…
- 10. The Wonderful Integrity of Alypius in Judgment. The Lasting Friendship of…
- 11. Being Troubled by His Grievous Errors, He Meditates Entering on a New Life
- 12. Discussion with Alypius Concerning a Life of Celibacy
- 13. Being Urged by His Mother to Take a Wife, He Sought a Maiden that Was…
- 14. The Design of Establishing a Common Household with His Friends is Speedily…
- 15. He Dismisses One Mistress, and Chooses Another
- 16. The Fear of Death and Judgment Called Him, Believing in the Immortality of…
- He recalls the beginning of his youth, i.e. the thirty-first year of his age…
- Introduction
- 1. He Regarded Not God Indeed Under the Form of a Human Body, But as a…
- 2. The Disputation of Nebridius Against the Manichæans, on the Question…
- 3. That the Cause of Evil is the Free Judgment of the Will
- 4. That God is Not Corruptible, Who, If He Were, Would Not Be God at All
- 5. Questions Concerning the Origin of Evil in Regard to God, Who, Since He is…
- 6. He Refutes the Divinations of the Astrologers, Deduced from the…
- 7. He is Severely Exercised as to the Origin of Evil
- 8. By God’s Assistance He by Degrees Arrives at the Truth
- 9. He Compares the Doctrine of the Platonists Concerning the Λόγος With the…
- 10. Divine Things are the More Clearly Manifested to Him Who Withdraws into the…
- 11. That Creatures are Mutable and God Alone Immutable
- 12. Whatever Things the Good God Has Created are Very Good
- 13. It is Meet to Praise the Creator for the Good Things Which are Made in…
- 14. Being Displeased with Some Part Of God’s Creation, He Conceives of Two…
- 15. Whatever Is, Owes Its Being to God
- 16. Evil Arises Not from a Substance, But from the Perversion of the Will
- 17. Above His Changeable Mind, He Discovers the Unchangeable Author of Truth
- 18. Jesus Christ, the Mediator, is the Only Way of Safety
- 19. He Does Not Yet Fully Understand the Saying of John, that ‘The Word Was…
- 20. He Rejoices that He Proceeded from Plato to the Holy Scriptures, and Not…
- 21. What He Found in the Sacred Books Which are Not to Be Found in Plato
- He finally describes the thirty-second year of his age, the most memorable of…
- Introduction
- 1. He, Now Given to Divine Things, and Yet Entangled by the Lusts of Love…
- 2. The Pious Old Man Rejoices that He Read Plato and the Scriptures, and Tells…
- 3. That God and the Angels Rejoice More on the Return of One Sinner Than of…
- 4. He Shows by the Example of Victorinus that There is More Joy in the…
- 5. Of the Causes Which Alienate Us from God
- 6. Pontitianus’ Account of Antony, the Founder of Monachism, and of Some Who…
- 7. He Deplores His Wretchedness, that Having Been Born Thirty-Two Years, He Had…
- 8. The Conversation with Alypius Being Ended, He Retires to the Garden, Whither…
- 9. That the Mind Commandeth the Mind, But It Willeth Not Entirely
- 10. He Refutes the Opinion of the Manichæans as to Two Kinds of Minds,—One Good…
- 11. In What Manner the Spirit Struggled with the Flesh, that It Might Be Freed…
- 12. Having Prayed to God, He Pours Forth a Shower of Tears, And, Admonished by…
- He speaks of his design of forsaking the profession of rhetoric; of the death…
- Introduction
- 1. He Praises God, the Author of Safety, and Jesus Christ, the Redeemer…
- 2. As His Lungs Were Affected, He Meditates Withdrawing Himself from Public…
- 3. He Retires to the Villa of His Friend Verecundus, Who Was Not Yet a…
- 4. In the Country He Gives His Attention to Literature, and Explains the Fourth…
- 5. At the Recommendation of Ambrose, He Reads the Prophecies of Isaiah, But…
- 6. He is Baptized at Milan with Alypius and His Son Adeodatus. The Book ‘De…
- 7. Of the Church Hymns Instituted at Milan; Of the Ambrosian Persecution Raised…
- 8. Of the Conversion of Evodius, and the Death of His Mother When Returning…
- 9. He Describes the Praiseworthy Habits of His Mother; Her Kindness Towards Her…
- 10. A Conversation He Had with His Mother Concerning the Kingdom of Heaven
- 11. His Mother, Attacked by Fever, Dies at Ostia
- 12. How He Mourned His Dead Mother
- 13. He Entreats God for Her Sins, and Admonishes His Readers to Remember Her…
- Having manifested what he was and what he is, he shows the great fruit of his…
- Introduction
- 1. In God Alone is the Hope and Joy of Man
- 2. That All Things are Manifest to God. That Confession Unto Him is Not Made by…
- 3. He Who Confesseth Rightly Unto God Best Knoweth Himself
- 4. That in His Confessions He May Do Good, He Considers Others
- 5. That Man Knoweth Not Himself Wholly
- 6. The Love of God, in His Nature Superior to All Creatures, is Acquired by the…
- 7. That God is to Be Found Neither from the Powers of the Body Nor of the Soul
- 8. Of the Nature and the Amazing Power of Memory
- 9. Not Only Things, But Also Literature and Images, are Taken from the Memory…
- 10. Literature is Not Introduced to the Memory Through the Senses, But is…
- 11. What It is to Learn and to Think
- 12. On the Recollection of Things Mathematical
- Chapter 13.—Memory Retains All Things
- 14. Concerning the Manner in Which Joy and Sadness May Be Brought Back to the…
- 15. In Memory There are Also Images of Things Which are Absent
- 16. The Privation of Memory is Forgetfulness
- 17. God Cannot Be Attained Unto by the Power of Memory, Which Beasts and Birds…
- 18. A Thing When Lost Could Not Be Found Unless It Were Retained in the Memory
- 19. What It is to Remember
- 20. We Should Not Seek for God and the Happy Life Unless We Had Known It
- 21. How a Happy Life May Be Retained in the Memory
- 22. A Happy Life is to Rejoice in God, and for God
- 23. All Wish to Rejoice in the Truth
- 24. He Who Finds Truth, Finds God
- 25. He is Glad that God Dwells in His Memory
- 26. God Everywhere Answers Those Who Take Counsel of Him
- 27. He Grieves that He Was So Long Without God
- 28. On the Misery of Human Life
- 29. All Hope is in the Mercy of God
- 30. Of the Perverse Images of Dreams, Which He Wishes to Have Taken Away
- 31. About to Speak of the Temptations of the Lust of the Flesh, He First…
- 32. Of the Charms of Perfumes Which are More Easily Overcome
- 33. He Overcame the Pleasures of the Ear, Although in the Church He Frequently…
- 34. Of the Very Dangerous Allurements of the Eyes; On Account of Beauty of…
- 35. Another Kind of Temptation is Curiosity, Which is Stimulated by the Lust of…
- 36. A Third Kind is ‘Pride’ Which is Pleasing to Man, Not to God
- 37. He is Forcibly Goaded on by the Love of Praise
- 38. Vain-Glory is the Highest Danger
- 39. Of the Vice of Those Who, While Pleasing Themselves, Displease God
- 40. The Only Safe Resting-Place for the Soul is to Be Found in God
- 41. Having Conquered His Triple Desire, He Arrives at Salvation
- 42. In What Manner Many Sought the Mediator
- 43. That Jesus Christ, at the Same Time God and Man, is the True and Most…
- The design of his confessions being declared, he seeks from God the knowledge…
- Introduction
- 1. By Confession He Desires to Stimulate Towards God His Own Love and That of…
- 2. He Begs of God that Through the Holy Scriptures He May Be Led to Truth
- 3. He Begins from the Creation of the World—Not Understanding the Hebrew Text
- 4. Heaven and Earth Cry Out that They Have Been Created by God
- 5. God Created the World Not from Any Certain Matter, But in His Own Word
- 6. He Did Not, However, Create It by a Sounding and Passing Word
- 7. By His Co-Eternal Word He Speaks, and All Things are Done
- 8. That Word Itself is the Beginning of All Things, in the Which We are…
- Chapter 9.—Wisdom and the Beginning
- 10. The Rashness of Those Who Inquire What God Did Before He Created Heaven and…
- 11. They Who Ask This Have Not as Yet Known the Eternity of God, Which is…
- 12. What God Did Before the Creation of the World
- 13. Before the Times Created by God, Times Were Not
- 14. Neither Time Past Nor Future, But the Present Only, Really is
- 15. There is Only a Moment of Present Time
- 16. Time Can Only Be Perceived or Measured While It is Passing
- 17. Nevertheless There is Time Past and Future
- 18. Past and Future Times Cannot Be Thought of But as Present
- 19. We are Ignorant in What Manner God Teaches Future Things
- 20. In What Manner Time May Properly Be Designated
- 21. How Time May Be Measured
- 22. He Prays God that He Would Explain This Most Entangled Enigma
- 23. That Time is a Certain Extension
- 24. That Time is Not a Motion of a Body Which We Measure by Time
- 25. He Calls on God to Enlighten His Mind
- 26. We Measure Longer Events by Shorter in Time
- 27. Times are Measured in Proportion as They Pass by
- 28. Time in the Human Mind, Which Expects, Considers, and Remembers
- 29. That Human Life is a Distraction But that Through the Mercy of God He Was…
- 30. Again He Refutes the Empty Question, ‘What Did God Before the Creation of…
- 31. How the Knowledge of God Differs from that of Man
- He continues his explanation of the first Chapter of Genesis according to the…
- Introduction
- 1. The Discovery of Truth is Difficult, But God Has Promised that He Who Seeks…
- 2. Of the Double Heaven,—The Visible, and the Heaven of Heavens
- 3. Of the Darkness Upon the Deep, and of the Invisible and Formless Earth
- 4. From the Formlessness of Matter, the Beautiful World Has Arisen
- 5. What May Have Been the Form of Matter
- 6. He Confesses that at One Time He Himself Thought Erroneously of Matter
- 7. Out of Nothing God Made Heaven and Earth
- 8. Heaven and Earth Were Made ‘In the Beginning;’ Afterwards the World, During…
- 9. That the Heaven of Heavens Was an Intellectual Creature, But that the Earth…
- 10. He Begs of God that He May Live in the True Light, and May Be Instructed as…
- 11. What May Be Discovered to Him by God
- 12. From the Formless Earth God Created Another Heaven and a Visible and Formed…
- 13. Of the Intellectual Heaven and Formless Earth, Out of Which, on Another…
- 14. Of the Depth of the Sacred Scripture, and Its Enemies
- 15. He Argues Against Adversaries Concerning the Heaven of Heavens
- 16. He Wishes to Have No Intercourse with Those Who Deny Divine Truth
- 17. He Mentions Five Explanations of the Words of Genesis I. I
- 18. What Error is Harmless in Sacred Scripture
- 19. He Enumerates the Things Concerning Which All Agree
- 20. Of the Words, ‘In the Beginning,’ Variously Understood
- 21. Of the Explanation of the Words, ‘The Earth Was Invisible.’
- 22. He Discusses Whether Matter Was from Eternity, or Was Made by God
- 23. Two Kinds of Disagreements in the Books to Be Explained
- 24. Out of the Many True Things, It is Not Asserted Confidently that Moses…
- 25. It Behoves Interpreters, When Disagreeing Concerning Obscure Places, to…
- 26. What He Might Have Asked of God Had He Been Enjoined to Write the Book of…
- 27. The Style of Speaking in the Book of Genesis is Simple and Clear
- 28. The Words, ‘In the Beginning,’ And, ‘The Heaven and the Earth,’ Are…
- 29. Concerning the Opinion of Those Who Explain It ‘At First He Made.’
- 30. In the Great Diversity of Opinions, It Becomes All to Unite Charity and…
- 31. Moses is Supposed to Have Perceived Whatever of Truth Can Be Discovered in…
- 32. First, the Sense of the Writer is to Be Discovered, Then that is to Be…
- Of the goodness of God explained in the creation of things, and of the Trinity…
- Introduction
- 1. He Calls Upon God, and Proposes to Himself to Worship Him
- 2. All Creatures Subsist from the Plenitude of Divine Goodness
- 3. Genesis I. 3,—Of ‘Light,’—He Understands as It is Seen in the Spiritual…
- 4. All Things Have Been Created by the Grace of God, and are Not of Him as…
- 5. He Recognises the Trinity in the First Two Verses of Genesis
- 6. Why the Holy Ghost Should Have Been Mentioned After the Mention of Heaven…
- 7. That the Holy Spirit Brings Us to God
- 8. That Nothing Whatever, Short of God, Can Yield to the Rational Creature a…
- 9. Why the Holy Spirit Was Only ‘Borne Over’ The Waters
- 10. That Nothing Arose Save by the Gift of God
- 11. That the Symbols of the Trinity in Man, to Be, to Know, and to Will, are…
- 12. Allegorical Explanation of Genesis, Chap. 1., Concerning the Origin of the…
- 13. That the Renewal of Man is Not Completed in This World
- 14. That Out of the Children of the Night and of the Darkness, Children of the…
- 15. Allegorical Explanation of the Firmament and Upper Works, Ver. 6
- 16. That No One But the Unchangeable Light Knows Himself
- 17. Allegorical Explanation of the Sea and the Fruit-Bearing Earth—Verses 9 and…
- 18. Of the Lights and Stars of Heaven—Of Day and Night, Ver. 14
- 19. All Men Should Become Lights in the Firmament of Heaven
- 20. Concerning Reptiles and Flying Creatures (Ver. 20),—The Sacrament of…
- 21. Concerning the Living Soul, Birds, and Fishes (Ver. 24)—The Sacrament of…
- 22. He Explains the Divine Image (Ver. 26) of the Renewal of the Mind
- 23. That to Have Power Over All Things (Ver. 26) is to Judge Spiritually of All
- 24. Why God Has Blessed Men, Fishes, Flying Creatures, and Not Herbs and the…
- 25. He Explains the Fruits of the Earth (Ver. 29) of Works of Mercy
- 26. In the Confessing of Benefits, Computation is Made Not as to The ‘Gift,’…
- 27. Many are Ignorant as to This, and Ask for Miracles, Which are Signified…
- 28. He Proceeds to the Last Verse, ‘All Things are Very Good,’—That Is, the…
- 29. Although It is Said Eight Times that ‘God Saw that It Was Good,’ Yet Time…
- 30. He Refutes the Opinions of the Manichæans and the Gnostics Concerning the…
- 31. We Do Not See ‘That It Was Good’ But Through the Spirit of God Which is in…
- 32. Of the Particular Works of God, More Especially of Man
- 33. The World Was Created by God Out of Nothing
- 34. He Briefly Repeats the Allegorical Interpretation of Genesis (Ch. I.), and…
- 35. He Prays God for that Peace of Rest Which Hath No Evening
- 36. The Seventh Day, Without Evening and Setting, the Image of Eternal Life and…
- 37. Of Rest in God Who Ever Worketh, and Yet is Ever at Rest
- 38. Of the Difference Between the Knowledge of God and of Men, and of the…