Certainly, if evil is derived from marriage, marriages can be condemned and cannot be excused. You place…

Click or tap any sentence to jump there. The side buttons skip a paragraph.

Certainly, if evil is derived from marriage, marriages can be condemned and cannot be excused. You place their work and fruit under the devil’s authority, because every cause of evil is without good. The person born from marriage is attributed to seed, however, not to crimes. The cause of the seed lies in the constitution of bodies. Whoever misuses those bodies damages the merit of what is good, not its kind. It is therefore perfectly clear that good is not the cause of evil.

If, then, original evil is derived even from marriage, the marital union is the cause of evil, and that through which and from which an evil fruit appeared must itself be evil. As the Lord says in the Gospel: “A tree is known by its fruits” (Matthew 12:33; compare Matthew 7:16–20). Why do you think anyone should listen to you when you say that marriage is good, yet declare that nothing but evil comes from it? Marriage, then, is clearly guilty if original sin is derived from it, and it cannot be defended unless its fruit is shown to be innocent. But marriages are defended and pronounced good; their fruit is therefore shown to be innocent.

Latin source witness

Latin

Ad haec adiungit et dicit: "Prorsus autem si malum de nuptiis trahitur, accusari possunt, excusari non possunt, et in diaboli iure opus earum fructumque constituis, quia omnis causa mali expers boni est. Homo autem - inquit - qui de nuptiis nascitur, non criminibus, sed seminibus imputatur. Seminum vero causa in conditione corporum est, quibus corporibus qui male utitur boni meritum, non genus sauciat. Liquido igitur - inquit - claret bonum non esse causam mali. Si ergo - inquit -trahitur et de nuptiis originale malum, causa mali conventio nuptiarum et necesse est malum esse, per quod et ex quo malus fructus adparuit, dicente Domino in Evangelio: Ex fructibus suis arbor agnoscitur 80. Quomodo - inquit - tu audiendus putaris, qui dicis bonum esse coniugium, de quo nihil aliud quam malum prodire definis? Constat igitur rea esse coniugia, si peccatum inde originale deducitur, nec posse defendi, nisi fructus eorum innocens adprobetur. Defenduntur autem et bona pronuntiantur; fructus igitur adprobatur innocuus".

Report a mistake in this passage

About this text

Intermediary extracts Augustine answered in Book Two — compiler framing labeled where needed. Latin context is on each section when recovered.

Julian of Eclanum (c. 386–c. 455) was bishop of Eclanum in southern Italy until 418, when he was deposed and exiled for refusing to condemn Pelagius. The most learned Pelagian controversialist, he pursued Augustine across a decade of pamphlet war.

None of Julian's works survives directly; what remains is preserved in the long quotations of Augustine, who answered him book by book. Reconstructed from those hostile pages, Julian emerges as a formidable defender of free will, marriage, and the goodness of creation.

English follows the extracts Augustine answered in On Marriage and Concupiscence II. Compiler framing is labeled where needed.

Printed text used

Translated from Augustine, On Marriage and Concupiscence II (Latin · Extracts of Julian)

We have not yet re-checked this work against its source. We made this study translation with AI help. No scholar has yet certified it as faithful and complete. Open Latin on any section, or the Latin source link, to see the source text. It is not a critical edition.

Report a mistake