I have spoken against myself. To defend myself, I said that the new heretics call us condemners of…

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I have spoken against myself. To defend myself, I said that the new heretics call us condemners of marriage and of God’s work. Then I took that back by saying that God and the devil possess a newborn human being in half shares—or rather, that the devil possesses the whole person, with God completely excluded, as it were, from his entire possession, the human being.

Latin source witness

Latin

Contra me ipsum locutum me fuisse: qui cum propter meam defensionem dixerim, ab haereticis novis dici nos damnatores esse nuptiarum, operisque divini, postea id abstulerim, dicendo in semis unciis possideri hominem nascentem a Deo et a diabolo, vel potius totum a diabolo possideri, prorsus excluso Deo velut ab universa sua possessione, quod est homo

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About this text

Julian’s earlier work To Turbantius, in four books, survives only in the excerpts Augustine quotes in his six-book reply, Against Julian. The excerpts are grouped here by those six books. Latin source text 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 Julian’s words as Augustine excerpts them in Against Julian. This is not a recovered complete To Turbantius.

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Translated from Augustine, Against Julian (Latin · Excerpts arranged by Augustine’s books)

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.

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