To Florus 2.104

But your opinion will not carry such weight among the wise that, although you are ‘the source and cause of these evils’ (Virgil, Aeneid 11.361), you can withdraw from the middle of the contest by putting the apostle in the way. You suppose that he should take the blows for you, although he is precisely the teacher and leader who arms us against you. To understand, then, what you can consistently say: if you and I agreed that the apostle confirmed the Manichaeans’ doctrine of natural sin, you could confidently place him in the path of someone aiming at your head. As it is, however, the Teacher of the Gentiles’ dignity remains inviolable for me. I will not permit your interpretation to injure his words, which, according to the rule of reason set out above, I maintain are opposed to a foolish, filthy, and impious doctrine. I prove that he said nothing in favor of natural sin. With what shamelessness, then, do you insist that he answer me in your place, when he is not being questioned because his wisdom is not doubted? Or how do you shout that I refuse to hear from the apostle what I detest in you precisely through the sound understanding the apostle has handed down to us?