Against Julian

Description

The Julian mentioned in the title is Julian of Eclanum who was born at Eclanum in Italy in 380 and died in Sicily ca. 455. After the death of his wife, Julian joined the clergy of his native diocese and eventually succeeded his father as bishop. With a mastery of Greek and Latin Julian combined a great store of theological learning which, however, was tainted with Pelagian errors. Because of his support of Pelagius Julian himself was condemned, deposed and expelled from Italy. In his authentic work, four books to Turbantius, three letters, and eight books to Florus, Julian's heterodox teachings reduced grace to a simple, protective, divine assistance and practically denied that the taint of Adam's sin passed on to the human race. In Against Julian Augustine stresses in the first two books the traditional teachings of the Church found in the Fathers and contrasts their teaching with the rationalism of the Pelagians. Thereupon he refutes the error of the Pelagians that grace is given according to merits. To refute the Pelagian error concerning concupiscence Augustine explains the Pauline teaching "that each one may know how to possess his vessel." In the concluding book we find a detailed explanation of the practice of infant baptism. This section is a valuable witness to the ritual of baptism as it was conferred in the age of the Fathers. BOOK I Augustine proposes to defend the doctrine of original sin set forth in Book I of De nuptiis et concupiscentia, against Bishop Julian, who had attacked it in four volumes and who had called its defenders Manichae~ns. Such a charge would fall, therefore, upon the most famous of the Fathers, Greek and Latin, as Augustine shows by citing their own testimony, with particular explanation of passages from Basil and John Chrysostom which Julian believes favor his view. Actually, it is certain rash statements of Julian that strongly support the Manichaean heresy. BOOK 2 Augustine refutes the five arguments of the Pelagians against original sin from the pronouncements of earlier famous Church authorities: the ten il} ustrious bishops-Irenaeus, Reticius, Olympius, Hilary, Gregory Nazianzen, Ambrose, Basil, John of Constantinople, Innocent, and Jerome. BOOK 3 Augustine answers Book of Julian so that it becomes clear that, although the true and good God is the Creator of men, and marriage is good and is instituted by God, yet the concupiscence by which the flesh lusts against the spirit is evil. Conju"g al modesty uses this evil well, and more holy continence does better by not using it at all. This evil is not in us from another substance which God did not make, as the Manichaeans say, but arose and is transmitted through the disobedience of Adam, and is expiated and healed through the obedience of Christ. Everyone born incurs a deserved punishment in bondage to this evil; the reborn is released from it by a gratuitous grace. He shows from Julian'S own words that lust is evil, for Julian acknowledges remedies against it, wants it to be restrained by reason, and says that glorious combats are fought against it by the continent. BOOK 4 Augustine considers each argument in this reply to julian's Book 2, omitting only those statements that have no bearing on the question. He proves two things: that the virtues of unbelievers are not true virtues; and that concupiscence is evil. Through his opponent's very argument he also proves this from the words of the Gentiles. He shows how grace is not given according to merits, yet may not be attributed to fate; and how we are to understand the words of the Apostle that God wishes all men to be saved. BOOK 5 In dealing with Julian'S Book 3, Augustine shows first why Christians despise the new heresy which rejects original sin. Concupiscence does not deserve praise merely because man's disobedience is punished through it; it is a fault and, even in those who do not consent to its wicked activities, it is always evil. He shows how we should understand the words of the Apostle: 'That each one may know how to possess his vessel: and so forth. There is true marriage without union of bodies, as was the marriage of Mary and Joseph. Julian'S attempt to argue by Aristotelean Categories against the sin derived from our first parents is without avail. Augustine shows how the flesh of Christ differs from the flesh of other men. Catholics by no means favor the Manichaeans when they acknowledge original sin and the evil of lust; this is true, instead, of the Pelagians when they say: 'Sins do not arise from that which is free from sin.' BOOK 6 Augustine answers Book 4 of JulIan, as well as his cavilings and calumnies against De nuptiis. That man is born with sin is shown from the baptism of infants, from the rite of exorcism and exsufflation in the baptism of infants, from the words of the Apostle to the Romans and the Corinthians. The aptness of the illustration of the olive and the oleaster shows how from regenerated and just parents are born children who must be regenerated. Original sin was voluntary in the first parents; in us it is another's sin by the ownership of action, but it is our sin by the contagion of offspring. It is because of this sin that the human race from infancy is afflicted by these great miseries, and that infants who die without the grace of regeneration are excluded from the kingdom of God. Sanctification is now conferred through baptism on both soul and body, yet the corruption of the body, which also presses down the soul itself, is not removed in this life. He shows how concupiscence remains in act, passes in guilt; and he gives the Catholic interpretation of the Apostle Paul which Julian expounded in an incorrect sense.