Translation Hide
The City of God

Chapter 1.--That the Cause of the Roman Empire, and of All Kingdoms, is Neither Fortuitous Nor Consists in the Position of the Stars. ¹

The cause, then, of the greatness of the Roman empire is neither fortuitous nor fatal, according to the judgment or opinion of those who call those things fortuitous which either have no causes, or such causes as do not proceed from some intelligible order, and those things fatal which happen independently of the will of God and man, by the necessity of a certain order. In a word, human kingdoms are established by divine providence. And if any one attributes their existence to fate, because he calls the will or the power of God itself by the name of fate, let him keep his opinion, but correct his language. For why does he not say at first what he will say afterwards, when some one shall put the question to him, What he means by fate? For when men hear that word, according to the ordinary use of the language, they simply understand by it the virtue of that particular position of the stars which may exist at the time when any one is born or conceived, which some separate altogether from the will of God, whilst others affirm that this also is dependent on that will. But those who are of opinion that, apart from the will of God, the stars determine what we shall do, or what good things we shall possess, or what evils we shall suffer, must be refused a hearing by all, not only by those who hold the true religion, but by those who wish to be the worshippers of any gods whatsoever, even false gods. For what does this opinion really amount to but this, that no god whatever is to be worshipped or prayed to? Against these, however, our present disputation is not intended to be directed, but against those who, in defence of those whom they think to be gods, oppose the Christian religion. They, however, who make the position of the stars depend on the divine will, and in a manner decree what character each man shall have, and what good or evil shall happen to him, if they think that these same stars have that power conferred upon them by the supreme power of God, in order that they may determine these things according to their will, do a great injury to the celestial sphere, in whose most brilliant senate, and most splendid senate-house, as it were, they suppose that wicked deeds are decreed to be done,--such deeds as that, if any terrestrial state should decree them, it would be condemned to overthrow by the decree of the whole human race. What judgment, then, is left to God concerning the deeds of men, who is Lord both of the stars and of men, when to these deeds a celestial necessity is attributed? Or, if they do not say that the stars, though they have indeed received a certain power from God, who is supreme, determine those things according to their own discretion, but simply that His commands are fulfilled by them instrumentally in the application and enforcing of such necessities, are we thus to think concerning God even what it seemed unworthy that we should think concerning the will of the stars? But, if the stars are said rather to signify these things than to effect them, so that that position of the stars is, as it were, a kind of speech predicting, not causing future things,--for this has been the opinion of men of no ordinary learning,--certainly the mathematicians are not wont so to speak saying, for example, Mars in such or such a position signifies a homicide, but makes a homicide. But, nevertheless, though we grant that they do not speak as they ought, and that we ought to accept as the proper form of speech that employed by the philosophers in predicting those things which they think they discover in the position of the stars, how comes it that they have never been able to assign any cause why, in the life of twins, in their actions, in the events which befall them, in their professions, arts, honors, and other things pertaining to human life, also in their very death, there is often so great a difference, that, as far as these things are concerned, many entire strangers are more like them than they are like each other, though separated at birth by the smallest interval of time, but at conception generated by the same act of copulation, and at the same moment?

Edition Hide
De civitate Dei (CCSL)

Caput I: Causam Romani imperii omniumque regnorum nec fortuitam esse nec in stellarum positione consistere.

Causa ergo magnitudinis imperii Romani nec fortuita est nec fatalis secundum eorum sententiam siue opinionem, qui ea dicunt esse fortuita, quae uel nullas causas habent uel non ex aliquo rationabili ordine uenientes, et ea fatalia, quae praeter dei et hominum uoluntatem cuiusdam ordinis necessitate contingunt. prorsus diuina prouidentia regna constituuntur humana. quae si propterea quisquam fato tribuit, quia ipsam dei uoluntatem uel potestatem fati nomine appellat, sententiam teneat, linguam corrigat. cur enim non hoc primum dicit, quod postea dicturus est, cum ab illo quisquam quaesierit quid dixerit fatum? nam id homines quando audiunt, usitata loquendi consuetudine non intellegunt nisi uim positionis siderum, qualis est quando quis nascitur siue concipitur; quod aliqui alienant a dei uoluntate, aliqui ex illa etiam hoc pendere confirmant. sed illi, qui sine dei uoluntate decernere opinantur sidera quid agamus uel quid bonorum habeamus malorumue patiamur, ab auribus omnium repellendi sunt, non solum eorum qui ueram religionem tenent sed qui deorum qualiumcumque, licet falsorum, uolunt esse cultores. haec enim opinio quid agit aliud, nisi ut nullus omnino colatur aut rogetur deus? contra quos modo nobis disputatio non est instituta, sed contra hos qui pro defensione eorum, quos deos putant, Christianae religioni aduersantur. illi uero, qui positionem stellarum quodammodo decernentium qualis quisque sit et quid ei proueniat boni quidue mali accidat ex dei uoluntate suspendunt, si easdem stellas putant habere hanc potestatem traditam sibi a summa illius potestate, ut uolentes ista decernant: magnam caelo faciunt iniuriam, in cuius uelut clarissimo senatu ac splendidissima curia opinantur scelera facienda decerni, qualia si aliqua terrena ciuitas decreuisset, genere humano decernente fuerat euertenda. quale deinde iudicium de hominum factis deo relinquitur, quibus caelestis necessitas adhibetur, cum dominus ille sit et siderum et hominum? aut si non dicunt stellas, accepta quidem potestate a summo deo, arbitrio suo ista decernere, sed in talibus necessitatibus ingerendis illius omnino iussa conplere: ita ne de ipso deo sentiendum est, quod indignissimum uisum est de stellarum uoluntate sentire? quodsi dicuntur stellae significare potius ista quam facere, ut quasi locutio quaedam sit illa positio praedicens futura, non agens - non enim mediocriter doctorum hominum fuit ista sententia - : non quidem ita solent loqui mathematici, ut uerbi gratia dicant: Mars ita positus homicidam significat, sed: homicidam facit.; uerumtamen ut concedamus non eos ut debent loqui et a philosophis accipere oportere sermonis regulam ad ea praenuntianda, quae in siderum positione reperire se putant: quid fit, quod nihil umquam dicere potuerunt, cur in uita geminorum, in actionibus, in euentis, in professionibus, artibus, honoribus ceteris que rebus ad humanam uitam pertinentibus atque in ipsa morte sit plerumque tanta diuersitas, ut similiores eis sint, quantum ad haec adtinet, multi extranei quam ipsi inter se gemini perexiguo temporis interuallo in nascendo separati, in conceptu autem per unum concubitum uno etiam momento seminati?