Augustine’s literary-fame analogy for the canonical books
That the early Church doctors put their chief force here when they defended the authority of the canonical books from the Church's authority is plain from Augustine.
In books 32 and 33 against Faustus the Manichee, when Faustus asks how Augustine knows those letters are the apostles', Augustine answers: from the same kind of public knowledge by which Faustus knows other letters are Mani's, by which everyone knows certain books are Varro's, Plato's, or Aristotle's, and by which later ages would know the books Augustine was then writing were his.
After heaping up more such examples he concludes: That being so, who is blinded by such madness — unless overturned by consenting to the malice and deceit of lying demons — who would say the apostles' Church, so faithful and so numerous in brotherly concord, could not have deserved to hand their writings faithfully to later ages, when they have kept their chairs by most certain succession down to the bishops now sitting, and when even ordinary men's writings, inside or outside the Church, fare so well?
Latin
XL. Et certe in eo vim praecipue fecisse priscos Ecclesiae Doctores, quum ex authoritate Ecclesiae librorum Canonicorum authoritatem tutati sunt, patet ex Augustino, qui libr. 32. & 33. adversus Faustum Manichaeum, Quaerenti Fausto unde sciret Apostolorum esse istas literas, respondet inde se scire, unde sciebat Faustus literas illas alias esse Manichaei, & unde sciebant omnes libros quosdam esse Varronis, Platonis & Aristotelis, & unde scitura erat posteritas libros quos tunc scribebat Augustinus, esse Augustini. Et postquam plura ejusmodi exempla explicuit & accumulavit, tandem concludit in haec verba, Quae cum ita sint, quis tandem tanto furore caecatur, nisi daemoniorum mendaciloquorum malitia atque fallacia consentiendo subversus sit, qui dicat hoc mereri non potuisse Apostolorum Ecclesiam, tam fidam, tam numerosam fratrum concordiam, ut eorum scripta fideliter ad posteros trajicerent, cum eorum cathedras usque ad praesentes Episcopos certissima successione servaverint, cum hoc qualiumcunque hominum scriptis, sive extra Ecclesiam, sive in ipsa Ecclesia, tam feliciter proveniat.
About this text
Louis Le Blanc de Beaulieu - Sedan Theological Theses, newly rendered from the 1675 London Latin. Covers De Theologia through Angelorum & Hominum Sanctorum Cultu Romana I-LXXVII and Pars Secunda (Reformata) I-XL. Not the collected folio.
English follows locked Pitt Latin through Imaginum CLOSED + Sanctorum Cultu Romana CLOSED + Pars Secunda Reformata I-XL. 1675 PDF ~384-390 (book ~370-376); Vision OCR + pdftotext + tess. No modern English. This slice densifies Sanctorum Pars Secunda I-XL. Next: Pars Secunda XLI–fin (~CI). Claim stays claimed (book densify not done).
Catalogue & scope
ESTC R17887; Wing L802. IA bub_gb_eOkHAW4G0-wC (+ EEBO 1675 for gap leaves). Densify through Sanctorum Cultu Romana I-LXXVII + Pars Secunda Reformata I-XL (Pars Secunda not closed; not whole folio).
Witnesses
- Copy-text Locked Latin, De Theologia I-XLIII (Pitt 1675) (Latin)
- Checked print Internet Archive PDF of the 1675 Pitt folio (Latin)
- Checked print pdftotext of De Theologia pages (Latin)
- Checked print Internet Archive DjVu OCR of the 1675 Pitt folio (Latin)
- Copy-text Locked Latin, De Fide I-XXII (Pitt 1675) (Latin)
- Copy-text Locked Latin, De Authoritate Scripturae Pars I I-XLVII + Pars II I-XXXV + Pars III I-VIII (Pitt 1675) (Latin)
- Copy-text Locked Latin, De Scripturae plenitudine densify (Pitt 1675) (Latin)
This is an AI-assisted study translation. Source fidelity and completeness have not been independently certified. Open Latin on each section (or the Latin source witness link) for the source text. This is not a complete critical edition.