← §3.23.52 Read continuously §3.24.54 → Fragments to Turbantius · §3.23.53 · Julian of Eclanum
Direct quotation
When adulterers conceive a child, a human being is born from the power of the seed, not from the…
Click or tap any sentence to jump there. The side buttons skip a paragraph.
When adulterers conceive a child, a human being is born from the power of the seed, not from the shamefulness of the wrongdoing.
The most false part of my position is the statement in which I said: “The goodness of marriage cannot be accused on account of the original evil derived from it.”
If evil is derived from it, it can be accused and cannot be excused.
Every cause of evil is without good.
Latin source witness
Latin Quando adulteri gignunt, nascitur homo de virtute seminum, non de turpitudine flagitiorum
sententiae meae pars falsissima est, qua dixi: Nuptiarum bonum malo originali, quod inde trahitur, non potest accusari
Si malum inde trahitur, accusari potest, excusari non potest
omnem causam mali esse expertem boni
Report a mistake in this passage
About this text Julian wrote in the early 400s, in the fight over Pelagius. This is later than the first three centuries of the church.
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.
Printed text used
Translated from Augustine, Against 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
← §3.23.52 Read continuously §3.24.54 →