Chap. XXVII.—Of the Creation, Sin, and Punishment of Man; And of Angels, Both Good and Bad.

One subject remains, and that the last: that, since it usually happens, as we read in histories, that the gods appear to have displayed their majesty by auguries, by dreams, by oracles, and also by the punishments of those who had committed sacrilege, I may show what cause produced this effect, so that no one even now may fall into the same snares into which those of old fell. When God, according to His excellent majesty, had framed the world out of nothing, and had decked the heaven with lights, and had filled the earth and the sea with living creatures, then He formed man out of clay, and fashioned him after the resemblance of His own likeness, and breathed into him that he might live,1460    Inspiravit ad vitam.   and placed him in a garden1461    Paradiso.   which He had planted with every kind of fruit-bearing tree, and commanded him not to eat of one tree in which He had placed the knowledge of good and evil, warning him that it would come to pass, that if he did so he would lose his life, but that if he observed the command of God he would remain immortal. Then the serpent, who was one of the servants of God, envying man because he was made immortal, enticed him by stratagem to transgress the command and law of God. And in this manner he did indeed receive the knowledge of good and evil, but he lost the life which God had given him to be for ever.  

Therefore He drove out the sinner from the sacred place, and banished him into this world, that he might seek sustenance by labour, that he might according to his deserts undergo difficulties and troubles; and He surrounded the garden itself with a fence of fire, that none of men even till the day of judgment might attempt secretly1462    Irrepere.   to enter into that place of perpetual blessedness. Then death came upon man according to the sentence of God; and yet his life, though it had begun to be temporary, had as its boundary a thousand years, and that was the extent of human life even to the deluge. For after the flood the life of men was gradually shortened, and was reduced to a hundred and twenty years. But that serpent, who from his deeds received the name of devil, that is, accuser or informer, did not cease to persecute the seed of man, whom he had deceived from the beginning. At length he urged him who was first born in this world, under the impulse of envy, to the murder of his brother, that of the two men who were first born he might destroy the one, and make the other a parricide.1463    Parricidam. The word first means the murderer of a parent or near relative; then simply a murderer.   Nor did he cease upon this from infusing the venom of malice into the breasts of men through each generation, from corrupting and depraving them; in short, from overwhelming them with such crimes, that an instance of justice was now rare, but men lived after the manner of the beasts.  

But when God saw this, He sent His angels to instruct the race of men, and to protect them from all evil. He gave these a command to abstain from earthly things, lest, being polluted by any taint, they should be deprived of the honour of angels. But that wily accuser, while they tarried among men, allured these also to pleasures, so that they might defile themselves with women. Then, being condemned by the sentence of God, and cast forth on account of their sins, they lost both the name and substance of angels. Thus, having become ministers of the devil, that they might have a solace of their ruin, they betook themselves to the ruining of men, for whose protection they had come.1464    [This is a curious enlargement of the idea as taught elsewhere. See vol. ii. p. 142, this series.]    

CAPUT XXVII. (Div. Inst. lib. II, c. 13.) De hominis creatione, peccato et poena; ac de angelis, tum bonis, tum malis.

Unum et ultimum restat, ut, quoniam plerumque accidit, sicut in historiis legimus, ut majestatem suam dii ostendisse videantur per auguria, per somnia, per oracula, tum etiam poenis eorum, qui sacrilegia commiserant, doceam quae ratio id effecerit, ne quis 1034B etiamnunc in eosdem laqueos incidat, in quos illi veteres inciderunt. Cum Deus pro virtute majestatis suae mundum de nihilo condidisset, coelumque luminibus adornasset, terram vero et mare complesset animalibus, tum hominem de limo ad imaginem similitudinis suae figuratum inspiravit ad vitam, posuitque eum in paradiso, quem conseverat omni genere fructiferi ligni, et praecepit ei, ne una ex arbore, in qua posuerat ei scientiam boni malique, gustaret, fore interminatus, ut vitam perderet, si fecisset; si vero mandatum servaret, immortalis permaneret. Tum serpens, qui erat unus ex Dei ministris, invidens homini quod esset immortalis effectus, illexit eum dolo, ut mandatum Dei legemque transcenderet. Et hoc modo scientiam quidem boni ac mali accepit; sed vitam, 1034C quam perpetuam Deus tribuerat, amisit.

Ejecit ergo peccatorem de sancto loco, et in hunc orbem relegavit, ut victum quaereret per laborem, ut difficultates et aerumnas pro merito sustineret; ipsumque paradisum vallo igneo circumfudit, ne quis hominum ad diem usque judicii ad locum illum perpetuae beatitudinis conaretur irrepere. Tum secuta est hominem mors ex Dei sententia; et tamen vita ejus, licet temporalis esse coepisset, in mille annis terminum sumpsit, et id fuit humanae vitae spatium usque ad cataclysmi tempus. Nam post diluvium paulatim vita hominum breviata, et ad annos centum viginti redacta est. Serpens vero ille, qui de factis diabolus, id est, criminator sive delator nomen accepit, non destitit semen hominis, quem a principio deceperat, 1034D persequi. Denique eum, qui primus in hoc orbe generatus est, inspirato livore, in caedem fratris armavit, ut de duobus primogenitis hominibus alterum extingueret, alterum faceret parricidam. Nec quievit deinceps, quominus per singulas generationes 1035A pectoribus hominum malitiae virus infunderet, eos 1035A corrumperet, depravaret, tantis denique sceleribus obrueret, ut justitiae jam rarum esset exemplum, et viverent homines ritu belluarum.

Quod Deus cum videret, angelos suos misit, ut vitam hominum excolerent, eosque ab omni malo tuerentur. His mandatum dedit, ut se terrenis abstinerent, ne qua labe maculati, honore angelico mulctarentur. Sed eos quoque idem ille subdolus criminator, dum inter homines commorantur, illexit ad voluptates ut se cum mulieribus inquinarent. Tum damnati sententia Dei, et ob peccata projecti, et nomen angelorum, et substantiam perdiderunt. Ita diaboli satellites facti, ut haberent solatium perditionis suae, ad perdendos homines se converterunt, quos ut tuerentur 1035B advenerant.