Prolegomena: St. Augustin’s Life and Work
Chapter 2. A Sketch of the Life of St. Augustin
Chapter 3. Estimate of St. Augustin
Chief Events in the Life of St. Augustin
The Opinion of St. Augustin Concerning His Confessions
Book I. Commencing with the invocation of God, Augustin relates in detail the beginning of his life, his infancy and boyhood, up to his fifteenth year; at which age he acknowledges that he was more inclined to all youthful pleasures and vices than to the study of letters.
Chapter II. That the God Whom We Invoke is in Us, and We in Him.
Chapter III. Everywhere God Wholly Filleth All Things, But Neither Heaven Nor Earth Containeth Him.
Chapter IV. The Majesty of God is Supreme, and His Virtues Inexplicable.
Chapter V. He Seeks Rest in God, and Pardon of His Sins.
Chapter VI. He Describes His Infancy, and Lauds the Protection and Eternal Providence of God.
Chapter VII. He Shows by Example that Even Infancy is Prone to Sin.
Chapter XIV. Why He Despised Greek Literature, and Easily Learned Latin.
Chapter XVII. He Continues on the Unhappy Method of Training Youth in Literary Subjects.
Book II. He advances to puberty, and indeed to the early part of the sixteenth year of his age, in which, having abandoned his studies, he indulged in lustful pleasures, and, with his companions, committed theft.
Chapter I. He Deplores the Wickedness of His Youth.
Chapter VIII. In His Theft He Loved the Company of His Fellow-Sinners.
Chapter IX. It Was a Pleasure to Him Also to Laugh When Seriously Deceiving Others.
Book III. Of the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth years of his age, passed at Carthage, when, having completed his course of studies, he is caught in the snares of a licentious passion, and falls into the errors of the Manichæans.
Chapter VIII. He Argues Against the Same as to the Reason of Offences.
Chapter IX. That the Judgment of God and Men as to Human Acts of Violence, is Different.
Chapter X. He Reproves the Triflings of the Manichæans as to the Fruits of the Earth.
Book IV. Then follows a period of nine years from the nineteenth year of his age, during which having lost a friend, he followed the Manichæans—and wrote books on the fair and fit, and published a work on the liberal arts, and the categories of Aristotle.
Chapter V. Why Weeping is Pleasant to the Wretched.
Chapter VI. His Friend Being Snatched Away by Death, He Imagines that He Remains Only as Half.
Chapter VII. Troubled by Restlessness and Grief, He Leaves His Country a Second Time for Carthage.
Chapter VIII. That His Grief Ceased by Time, and the Consolation of Friends.
Chapter XIII. Love Originates from Grace and Beauty Enticing Us.
Chapter XIV. Concerning the Books Which He Wrote ‘On the Fair and Fit,’ Dedicated to Hierius.
Book V. He describes the twenty-ninth year of his age, in which, having discovered the fallacies of the Manichæans, he professed rhetoric at Rome and Milan. Having heard Ambrose, he begins to come to himself.
Chapter I. That It Becomes the Soul to Praise God, and to Confess Unto Him.
Chapter II. On the Vanity of Those Who Wished to Escape the Omnipotent God.
Chapter VI. Faustus Was Indeed an Elegant Speaker, But Knew Nothing of the Liberal Sciences.
Chapter VIII. He Sets Out for Rome, His Mother in Vain Lamenting It.
Chapter IX. Being Attacked by Fever, He is in Great Danger.
Chapter XII. Professing Rhetoric at Rome, He Discovers the Fraud of His Scholars.
Chapter XIII. He is Sent to Milan, that He, About to Teach Rhetoric, May Be Known by Ambrose.
Book VI. Attaining his thirtieth year, he, under the admonition of the discourses of Ambrose, discovered more and more the truth of the Catholic doctrine, and deliberates as to the better regulation of his life.
Chapter II. She, on the Prohibition of Ambrose, Abstains from Honouring the Memory of the Martyrs.
Chapter VI. On the Source and Cause of True Joy,—The Example of the Joyous Beggar Being Adduced.
Chapter XI. Being Troubled by His Grievous Errors, He Meditates Entering on a New Life.
Chapter XII. Discussion with Alypius Concerning a Life of Celibacy.
Chapter XIV. The Design of Establishing a Common Household with His Friends is Speedily Hindered.
Book VII. He recalls the beginning of his youth, i.e. the thirty-first year of his age, in which very grave errors as to the nature of God and the origin of evil being distinguished, and the Sacred Books more accurately known, he at length arrives at a clear knowledge of God, not yet rightly apprehending Jesus Christ.
Chapter III. That the Cause of Evil is the Free Judgment of the Will.
Chapter IV. That God is Not Corruptible, Who, If He Were, Would Not Be God at All.
Chapter VI. He Refutes the Divinations of the Astrologers, Deduced from the Constellations.
Chapter VII. He is Severely Exercised as to the Origin of Evil.
Chapter VIII. By God’s Assistance He by Degrees Arrives at the Truth.
Chapter XI. That Creatures are Mutable and God Alone Immutable.
Chapter XII. Whatever Things the Good God Has Created are Very Good.
Chapter XV. Whatever Is, Owes Its Being to God.
Chapter XVI. Evil Arises Not from a Substance, But from the Perversion of the Will.
Chapter XVII. Above His Changeable Mind, He Discovers the Unchangeable Author of Truth.
Chapter XVIII. Jesus Christ, the Mediator, is the Only Way of Safety.
Chapter XIX. He Does Not Yet Fully Understand the Saying of John, that ‘The Word Was Made Flesh.’
Chapter XX. He Rejoices that He Proceeded from Plato to the Holy Scriptures, and Not the Reverse.
Chapter XXI. What He Found in the Sacred Books Which are Not to Be Found in Plato.
Book VIII. He finally describes the thirty-second year of his age, the most memorable of his whole life, in which, being instructed by Simplicianus concerning the conversion of others, and the manner of acting, he is, after a severe struggle, renewed in his whole mind, and is converted unto God.
Chapter V. Of the Causes Which Alienate Us from God.
Chapter VI. Pontitianus’ Account of Antony, the Founder of Monachism, and of Some Who Imitated Him.
Chapter IX. That the Mind Commandeth the Mind, But It Willeth Not Entirely.
Book IX. He speaks of his design of forsaking the profession of rhetoric; of the death of his friends, Nebridius and Verecundus; of having received baptism in the thirty-third year of his age; and of the virtues and death of his mother, Monica.
Chapter II. As His Lungs Were Affected, He Meditates Withdrawing Himself from Public Favour.
Chapter VI. He is Baptized at Milan with Alypius and His Son Adeodatus. The Book ‘De Magistro.’
Chapter X. A Conversation He Had with His Mother Concerning the Kingdom of Heaven.
Chapter XI. His Mother, Attacked by Fever, Dies at Ostia.
Chapter XII. How He Mourned His Dead Mother.
Chapter XIII. He Entreats God for Her Sins, and Admonishes His Readers to Remember Her Piously.
Book X. Having manifested what he was and what he is, he shows the great fruit of his confession; and being about to examine by what method God and the happy life may be found, he enlarges on the nature and power of memory. Then he examines his own acts, thoughts and affections, viewed under the threefold division of temptation; and commemorates the Lord, the one mediator of God and men.
Chapter III. He Who Confesseth Rightly Unto God Best Knoweth Himself.
Chapter IV. That in His Confessions He May Do Good, He Considers Others.
Chapter V. That Man Knoweth Not Himself Wholly.
Chapter VII. That God is to Be Found Neither from the Powers of the Body Nor of the Soul.
Chapter VIII. Of the Nature and the Amazing Power of Memory.
Chapter XI. What It is to Learn and to Think.
Chapter XII. On the Recollection of Things Mathematical.
Chapter XIII. Memory Retains All Things.
Chapter XV. In Memory There are Also Images of Things Which are Absent.
Chapter XVI. The Privation of Memory is Forgetfulness.
Chapter XVII. God Cannot Be Attained Unto by the Power of Memory, Which Beasts and Birds Possess.
Chapter XVIII. A Thing When Lost Could Not Be Found Unless It Were Retained in the Memory.
Chapter XIX. What It is to Remember.
Chapter XX. We Should Not Seek for God and the Happy Life Unless We Had Known It.
Chapter XXI. How a Happy Life May Be Retained in the Memory.
Chapter XXII. A Happy Life is to Rejoice in God, and for God.
Chapter XXIII. All Wish to Rejoice in the Truth.
Chapter XXIV. He Who Finds Truth, Finds God.
Chapter XXV. He is Glad that God Dwells in His Memory.
Chapter XXVI. God Everywhere Answers Those Who Take Counsel of Him.
Chapter XXVII. He Grieves that He Was So Long Without God.
Chapter XXVIII. On the Misery of Human Life.
Chapter XXIX. All Hope is in the Mercy of God.
Chapter XXX. Of the Perverse Images of Dreams, Which He Wishes to Have Taken Away.
Chapter XXXII. Of the Charms of Perfumes Which are More Easily Overcome.
Chapter XXXV. Another Kind of Temptation is Curiosity, Which is Stimulated by the Lust of the Eyes.
Chapter XXXVI. A Third Kind is ‘Pride’ Which is Pleasing to Man, Not to God.
Chapter XXXVII. He is Forcibly Goaded on by the Love of Praise.
Chapter XXXVIII. Vain-Glory is the Highest Danger.
Chapter XXXIX. Of the Vice of Those Who, While Pleasing Themselves, Displease God.
Chapter XL. The Only Safe Resting-Place for the Soul is to Be Found in God.
Chapter XLI. Having Conquered His Triple Desire, He Arrives at Salvation.
Book XI. The design of his confessions being declared, he seeks from God the knowledge of the Holy Scriptures, and begins to expound the words of Genesis I. I, concerning the creation of the world. The questions of rash disputers being refuted, ‘What did God before he created the world?’ That he might the better overcome his opponents, he adds a copious disquisition concerning time.
Chapter I. By Confession He Desires to Stimulate Towards God His Own Love and That of His Readers.
Chapter II. He Begs of God that Through the Holy Scriptures He May Be Led to Truth.
Chapter III. He Begins from the Creation of the World—Not Understanding the Hebrew Text.
Chapter IV. Heaven and Earth Cry Out that They Have Been Created by God.
Chapter V. God Created the World Not from Any Certain Matter, But in His Own Word.
Chapter VI. He Did Not, However, Create It by a Sounding and Passing Word.
Chapter VII. By His Co-Eternal Word He Speaks, and All Things are Done.
Chapter IX. Wisdom and the Beginning.
Chapter X. The Rashness of Those Who Inquire What God Did Before He Created Heaven and Earth.
Chapter XII. What God Did Before the Creation of the World.
Chapter XIII. Before the Times Created by God, Times Were Not.
Chapter XIV. Neither Time Past Nor Future, But the Present Only, Really is.
Chapter XV. There is Only a Moment of Present Time.
Chapter XVI. Time Can Only Be Perceived or Measured While It is Passing.
Chapter XVII. Nevertheless There is Time Past and Future.
Chapter XVIII. Past and Future Times Cannot Be Thought of But as Present.
Chapter XIX. We are Ignorant in What Manner God Teaches Future Things.
Chapter XX. In What Manner Time May Properly Be Designated.
Chapter XXI. How Time May Be Measured.
Chapter XXII. He Prays God that He Would Explain This Most Entangled Enigma.
Chapter XXIII. That Time is a Certain Extension.
Chapter XXIV. That Time is Not a Motion of a Body Which We Measure by Time.
Chapter XXV. He Calls on God to Enlighten His Mind.
Chapter XXVI. We Measure Longer Events by Shorter in Time.
Chapter XXVII. Times are Measured in Proportion as They Pass by.
Chapter XXVIII. Time in the Human Mind, Which Expects, Considers, and Remembers.
Chapter XXX. Again He Refutes the Empty Question, ‘What Did God Before the Creation of the World?’
Chapter XXXI. How the Knowledge of God Differs from that of Man.
Book XII. He continues his explanation of the first Chapter of Genesis according to the Septuagint, and by its assistance he argues, especially, concerning the double heaven, and the formless matter out of which the whole world may have been created; afterwards of the interpretations of others not disallowed, and sets forth at great length the sense of the Holy Scripture.
Chapter I. The Discovery of Truth is Difficult, But God Has Promised that He Who Seeks Shall Find.
Chapter II. Of the Double Heaven,—The Visible, and the Heaven of Heavens.
Chapter III. Of the Darkness Upon the Deep, and of the Invisible and Formless Earth.
Chapter IV. From the Formlessness of Matter, the Beautiful World Has Arisen.
Chapter V. What May Have Been the Form of Matter.
Chapter VI. He Confesses that at One Time He Himself Thought Erroneously of Matter.
Chapter VII. Out of Nothing God Made Heaven and Earth.
Chapter XI. What May Be Discovered to Him by God.
Chapter XII. From the Formless Earth God Created Another Heaven and a Visible and Formed Earth.
Chapter XIV. Of the Depth of the Sacred Scripture, and Its Enemies.
Chapter XV. He Argues Against Adversaries Concerning the Heaven of Heavens.
Chapter XVI. He Wishes to Have No Intercourse with Those Who Deny Divine Truth.
Chapter XVII. He Mentions Five Explanations of the Words of Genesis I. I.
Chapter XVIII. What Error is Harmless in Sacred Scripture.
Chapter XIX. He Enumerates the Things Concerning Which All Agree.
Chapter XX. Of the Words, ‘In the Beginning,’ Variously Understood.
Chapter XXI. Of the Explanation of the Words, ‘The Earth Was Invisible.’
Chapter XXII. He Discusses Whether Matter Was from Eternity, or Was Made by God.
Chapter XXIII. Two Kinds of Disagreements in the Books to Be Explained.
Chapter XXVI. What He Might Have Asked of God Had He Been Enjoined to Write the Book of Genesis.
Chapter XXVII. The Style of Speaking in the Book of Genesis is Simple and Clear.
Chapter XXIX. Concerning the Opinion of Those Who Explain It ‘At First He Made.’
Chapter XXX. In the Great Diversity of Opinions, It Becomes All to Unite Charity and Divine Truth.
Chapter XXXI. Moses is Supposed to Have Perceived Whatever of Truth Can Be Discovered in His Words.
Book XIII. Of the goodness of God explained in the creation of things, and of the Trinity as found in the first words of Genesis. The story concerning the origin of the world (Gen. I.) is allegorically explained, and he applies it to those things which God works for sanctified and blessed man. Finally, he makes an end of this work, having implored eternal rest from God.
Chapter I. He Calls Upon God, and Proposes to Himself to Worship Him.
Chapter II. All Creatures Subsist from the Plenitude of Divine Goodness.
Chapter III. Genesis I. 3,—Of ‘Light,’—He Understands as It is Seen in the Spiritual Creature
Chapter V. He Recognises the Trinity in the First Two Verses of Genesis.
Chapter VI. Why the Holy Ghost Should Have Been Mentioned After the Mention of Heaven and Earth.
Chapter VII. That the Holy Spirit Brings Us to God.
Chapter VIII. That Nothing Whatever, Short of God, Can Yield to the Rational Creature a Happy Rest.
Chapter IX. Why the Holy Spirit Was Only ‘Borne Over’ The Waters.
Chapter X. That Nothing Arose Save by the Gift of God.
Chapter XIII. That the Renewal of Man is Not Completed in This World.
Chapter XV. Allegorical Explanation of the Firmament and Upper Works, Ver. 6.
Chapter XVI. That No One But the Unchangeable Light Knows Himself.
Chapter XVII. Allegorical Explanation of the Sea and the Fruit-Bearing Earth—Verses 9 and 11.
Chapter XVIII. Of the Lights and Stars of Heaven—Of Day and Night, Ver. 14.
Chapter XIX. All Men Should Become Lights in the Firmament of Heaven.
Chapter XXII. He Explains the Divine Image (Ver. 26) of the Renewal of the Mind.
Chapter XXIII. That to Have Power Over All Things (Ver. 26) is to Judge Spiritually of All.
Chapter XXV. He Explains the Fruits of the Earth (Ver. 29) of Works of Mercy.
Chapter XXXI. We Do Not See ‘That It Was Good’ But Through the Spirit of God Which is in Us.
Chapter XXXII. Of the Particular Works of God, More Especially of Man.
Chapter XXXIII. The World Was Created by God Out of Nothing.
Chapter XXXV. He Prays God for that Peace of Rest Which Hath No Evening.
Chapter XXXVII. Of Rest in God Who Ever Worketh, and Yet is Ever at Rest.
Division 1. Letters of St. Augustin
Letter V. Nebridius to Augustin
Letter VI. Nebridius to Augustin
Letter VIII. Nebridius to Augustin
Letter XVI. Maximus to Augustin
Letter XXI. To Bishop Valerius
Letter XXII. To Bishop Aurelius
Letter XXIV. to Alypius by Paulinus
Letter XXV. from Paulinus and Therasia
Letter XXX. From Paulinus and Therasia
Letter XXXI. To Paulinus and Therasia
Letter XXXII. From Paulinus to Romanianus and Licentius
Letter XXXIII. To Proculeianus
Letter XXXVII. To Simplicianus
Letter XLII. To Paulinus and Therasia
Letter XLIII. To Glorius, Eleusius, etc.
Letter XLIV. To Eleusius, Glorius, and the Two Felixes
Letter XLV. to Paulinus and Therasia
Letter L. To the Magistrates of Suffectum
Letter LXXVI. To the Donatists
Letter LXXVII. To Felix and Hilarinus
Letter LXXVIII. To the Clergy, etc., of the Church of Hippo
Letter LXXIX. A Challenge to a Manichæan Teacher
Letter XCIV. From Paulinus and Therasia
Letter XCV. To Paulinus and Therasia
Letter XCIX. To the Very Devout Italica
Letter CXXII. To His Well-Beloved Brethren the Clergy, etc.
Letter CXXIV. To Albina, Pinianus, and Melania
Letter CXXXIII. To Marcellinus
Letter CXXXVI. From Marcellinus
Letter CXXXVIII. To Marcellinus
Letter CXLIV. To the Inhabitants of Cirta
Letter CXLVIII. To Fortunatianus
Letter CL. To Proba and Juliana
Letter CLXV. To Marcellinus and Anapsychia
Letter CCI. Honorius Augustus and Theodosius Augustus to Bishop Aurelius
Letter CCII. Jerome to Alypius and Augustin
Letter CCX. To Felicitas, Rusticus, etc.
Letter CCXIII. Augustin Designates his Successor
Letter CCXIX. To Proculus and Cylinus
The Confessions of St. Augustin: Index of Subjects