ON LYING.
473 one may tell a lie. But yet what follows, " For assiduity thereof will not profit to good," I know not whether it can countenance the first sentence of these three; except haply so, that while it is a precept for the perfect not only not to lie, but not even to wish; as- siduity of lying is not permitted even to be- ginners. As if, namely, on laying down the rule at no time whatever not merely to lie but so much as to have a wish to lie, and this be- ing gainsaid by examples, in regard that there are some lies which have been even approved by great authority, it should be rejoined that those indeed are lies of beginners, which have, in regard of this life, some kind of duty of mercy; and yet to that degree is every lie evil, and by perfect and spiritual minds in every way to be eschewed, that not even be- ginners are permitted to have assiduous cus- tom thereof. For we have already spoken concerning the Egyptian midwives, that it is in respect of the promise of growth and pro- ficiency to better things that they while lying are spoken of with approval: because it is some step towards loving the true and eternal saving of the soul, when a person doth merci- fully for the saving of any man's albeit mor- tal life even tell a lie.
35. Moreover what is written, " Thou wilt destroy all that speak leasing: " * one saith that no lie is here excepted, but all con- demned. Another saith: Yea verily: but they who speak leasing from the heart, as we disputed above; for that man speaketh truth in his heart, who hateth the necessity of ly- ing, which he understands as a penalty of the mortal life. Another saith: All indeed will God destroy who speak leasing, but not all leasing: for there is some leasing which the Prophet was at that time insinuating, in which none is spared; that is, if refusing to confess each one his sins, he defend them rather, and will not do penance,2 so that not content to work iniquity, he must needs wish to be thought just, and succumb not to the medi- cine of confession: as the very distinction of the words may seem to intimate no other, ' Thou hatest all that work iniquity;"3 but wilt not destroy them if upon repenting they speak the truth in confession, that by doing that truth they may come to the light; as is said in the Gospel according to John, " But he that doeth truth cometh unto the light.4 Thou wilt destroy all who " not only work what Thou hatest, but also " speak leasing;" s in holding out before them false righteousness, and not confessing their sins in peni- tence.
3 Ps. v. 5.
36. For, concerning false witness, which is set down in the ten commands of the Law, it can indeed in no wise be contended that love of truth may at heart be preserved, and false witness brought forth.to him unto whom the witness is borne. For, when it is said to God only, then it is only in the heart that the truth is to be embraced: but when it is said to man, then must we with the mouth also of the body bring forth truth, because man is not an inspector of the heart. But then, touching the witness itself, it is not unreason- ably asked, to whom one is a witness? For not to whomsoever we speak unto are we wit- nesses, but to them to whom it is expedient and due that they by our means should come to know or believe the truth; as is a judge, that he may not err in judging; or he who is taught in doctrine of religion, that he may not err in faith, or by very authority of the teacher waver in doubt. But when the per- son who interrogates thee or wishes to know aught from thee seeks that which concerneth him not, or which is not expedient for him to know, he craveth not a witness, but a be- trayer. Therefore if to him thou tell a lie, from false witness peradventure thou wilt be clear, but from a lie assuredly not. So then with this salvo, that to bear false witness is never lawful, the question is, whether it be lawful sometimes to tell a lie. Or if it be false witness to lie at all, it is to be seen whether it admit of compensation, to wit, that it be said for the sake of avoiding a greater sin: as that which is written, "Honor father and mother,"6 under stress of a preferable duty is disregarded; whence the paying of the last honors of sepulture to a father, is forbidden to that man who by the Lord Him- self is called to preach the kingdom of God.
37. Likewise, touching that which is writ- ten, "A son which receiveth the word shall be far from destruction: but receiving, he receiveth it for himself, and no falsehood proceedeth out of his mouth:"7 some one may say, that what is here set down, "A son which receiveth the word/' is to be taken for no other than the word of God, which is truth. Therefore, "A son receiving the truth shall be far from destruction," refers to that which is written, " Thou wilt destroy all that speak leasing.'' But when it follows, "Re- ceiving he receiveth for himself," what other doth this insinuate than what the Apostle saith, " But let every man prove his own work, and then he shall have glorying in him- 6 Exod. xx. 12.
7 Prov. xxix. 27. Lat. Not in the Hebrew, but LXX. xxiv. 23. \6yov 4>vka.fjo6ixsvQs tubs a7riuAeia? €kto<; e<TTat Se^o/jcepo? Se eSe'£<XTO (lvtov. MifSer' \|/ei)6os oltt'o y\u}ao"q<; ^a<riAeu>s AeyeV^tu, Kai ov6ev iptv&os ano •yAuicr(n)S auToC ov firj eftAfjj.
474 THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN.
self and not in another?" ' For he that re- ceiveth the word, that is, truth, not for him- self, but for men-pleasing, keepeth it not when he sees they can be pleased by a lie. But whoso receiveth it for himself, no false- hood proceedeth out of his mouth: because even when the way to please men is to lie, that man lieth not, who receiving the truth not thereby to please them but to please God, hath received it for himself. Therefore there is no reason why it should be said here, He will destroy all who speak leasing, but not all leasing: because all lies, universally, are cut off in this saying, "And no falsehood pro- ceedeth out of his mouth." But another saith, it is to be so taken as the Apostle Paul took our Lord's saying, " But I say unto you, Swear not at all." 2 For here also all swear- ing is cut off; but from the mouth of the heart, that it should never be done with ap- probation of the will, but through necessity of the weakness of another; that is, " from the evil" of another, when it shows that he cannot otherwise be got to believe what is said, unless faith -be wrought by an oath; or, from that "evil" of our own, that while as yet involved in the skins of this mortality we are not able to show our heart: • which thing were we able to do, of swearing there were no need. Though moreover in this whole sentence, if the saying, "A son receiving the word shall be far from destruc- tion,'' be said of none other than that Truth,3, by Whom all things were made, which re- maineth ever incommutable; then, because the doctrine of Religion strives to bring men to the contemplation of this Truth, it may seem that the saying, "And no falsehood proceedeth out of his mouth," is said to this purpose, that he speaketh no falsehood that pertaineth to doctrine. Which sort of lie is upon no compensation whatever to be gone into, and is utterly and before all to be eschewed. Or if the saying, "No false- hood," is absurdly taken if it be not referred to every lie, the saying, " From his mouth," should, as was argued above, be taken to mean the mouth of the heart, in the opinion of him who accounts that sometimes one may tell a lie.
38. Certain it is, albeit all this disputation go from side to side, some asserting that it is never right to lie, and to this effect reciting divine testimonies: others gainsaying, and even in the midst of the very words of the divine testimonies seeking place for a lie; yet no man can say, that he finds this either in example or in word of the Scriptures, that 3 Or " of Him who is Truth itself."
34- any lie should seem a thing to be loved, or not had in hatred; howbeit sometimes by tell- ing a lie thou must do that thou hatest, that what is more greatly to be detested may be avoided. But then here it is that people err; they put the precious beneath the vile. For when thou hast granted that some evil is to be admitted, that another and more grievous may not be admitted; not by the rule of truth, but by his own cupidity and custom doth each measure the evil, accounting that to be the more grievous, which himself more greatly dreads, not which is in reality more greatly to be fled from. All this fault is en- gendered by perversity of loving.. For being there are two lives of ours; the one eternal, which is promised of God; the other tem- poral, in which we now are: when a man shall have begun to love this temporal more than that eternal, for the sake of this which he loveth he thinks all things right to be done; and there are not any, in his estimation, more grievous sins than those which do injury to this life, and either take away from it any commodity unjustly and unlawfully, or by inflicting of death take it utterly away. And so thieves, and robbers, and ruffians, and tor- turers, and slayers, are more hated of them than lascivious, drunken, luxurious men, if these molest no man. For they do not un- derstand or at all care, that these do wrong to God; not indeed to any inconvenience of Him, but to their own pernicious hurt; seeing they corrupt His gifts bestowed upon them, even His temporal gifts, and by their very corruptions turn away from eternal gifts: above all, if they have already begun to be the Temple of God; which to all Christians the Apostle saith thus: " Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? Whoso shall corrupt God's temple, God will corrupt him. For the temple of God is holy: which temple are ye."4 39. And all these sins, truly, whether such whereby an injury is done to men in the com- forts of this life, or whereby men corrupt themselves and hurt none against his will: all these sins, then, even though they seem to mean well by this temporal life to the pro- curing of any delight or profit, (for no man commits any of these things with any other purpose and end;) yet in regard of that life which is forever and ever, they do entangle and in all ways hinder. But there are some of these that hinder the doers only, others likewise those on whom they are done. For as to the things which people keep safe for the sake of utility to this life, when these are ON LYING.
475 taken away by injurious persons, they alone sin and are hindered from eternal life who do this, not they to whom they do it. There- fore, even if a person consent to the taking of them from him, either that he may not do some evil, or that he may not in these very things suffer some greater inconvenience; not only does he not sin, but in the one case he acts bravely and laudably, in the other use- fully and unblameably. But as to those things which are kept for the sake of sanctity and religion, when injurious persons wish to violate these, it is right, if the condition be proposed and the means given, to redeem them even by sins of lesser moment, yet not by wrongs to other men. And then do these things thenceforth cease to be sins, which are undertaken in order to the avoidance of greater sins. For as in things useful, for in- stance in pecuniary or any other corporal commodity, that is not called a loss which is parted with in order to a greater gain; so in things holy, that is not called sin which is admitted lest a worse be admitted. Or if that is called loss, which one foregoes that he may not forego more; let this also be called sin, while however the necessity of under- taking it in order to the eschewing of a greater is no more to be doubted, than that, in order to avoid a greater loss, it is right to suffer a smaller one.
40. Now the things which are to be kept safe for sanctity's sake are these: pudicity of body, and chastity of soul,1 and verity of doc- trine. Pudicity of body, without consent and permission of the soul, doth no man violate. For, whatever against our will and without our empowering the same is by greater force done upon our body, is no lewdness. How- beit, of permitting there may be some reason, but of consenting, none. For we consent, when we approve and wish: but we permit even not willing, because of some greater turpitude to be eschewed. Consent, truly, to corporal lewdness violates also chastity of mind. For the mind's 2 chastity consists in a good will and sincere love, which is not cor- rupted, unless when we love and desire that which Truth teaches ought not to be loved and desired. We have therefore to guard the sincerity of love toward God and our neigh- bor; for in this is chastity of mind sanctified: and we must endeavor with all the strength in our power, and with pious supplication, that, when the pudicity of our body is sought to be violated, not even that outermost sense of the soul,3 which is entangled with the flesh, may be touched with any delight; but if it 1 Animee.
2 Animi.
4 Animee.
cannot this, at least the mind and thought4 in not consenting may have its chastity pre- served entire. Now what we have to guard in chastity of mind,5 is, as pertaining to the love of our neighbor, innocence and benevo- lence; as pertaining to the love of God, piety. Innocence is that we hurt no man; benevo- lence, that we also do good to whom we can; piety, that we worship God. But as for verity of doctrine, of religion and piety, that is not violated unless by a lie; whereas the highest and inmost Verity Itself, Whose that doctrine is, can in no wise be violated: which Truth to attain unto, and in It on every wise to re- main, and to It thoroughly to cleave, will not be permitted, but when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality. But, because all piety in this life is practice by which we tend to that life, which practice hath a guid- ance afforded unto it from that doctrine, which in human words and signs6 of corporal sacraments doth insinuate and intimate Truth herself: for this cause this also, which by ly- ing is possible to be corrupted, is most of all to be kept incorrupt; that so, if aught in that chastity of mind be violated, it may have that wherefrom it may be repaired. ' For once corrupt authority of doctrine, and there can- be none either course or recourse to chastity of mind.
, 41. There resulteth then from all these this sentence, that a lie which doth not violate the doctrine of piety, nor piety itself, nor inno- cence, nor benevolence, may on behalf of pudicity of body be admitted. And yet if any man should propose to himself so to love truth, not only that which consists in con- templation, but also in uttering the true thing, which each in its own kind of things is true, and no otherwise to bring forth with the mouth of the body his thought than in the mind it is conceived and beheld; so that he should prize the beauty of truth-telling hon- esty, not only above gold and silver and jewels and pleasant lands, but above this temporal life itself altogether and every good thing of the body, I know not whether any could wisely say that that man errs. And if he should prefer this and prize it more than all that himself hath of such things; rightly also would he prefer it to the temporal things of other men, whom by his innocence and benevolence he was bound to keep and to help. For he would love perfect faith, not only of believing aright those things which by an excellent authority and worthy of faith should to himself be spoken, but also of faith- 4 Mentis.
5 Animi.
6 Signaculis.
4/6 THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN.
fully uttering what himself should judge right to be spoken, and should speak. For faith hath its name in the Latin tongue, from that the thing is done which is said:1 and thus it is manifest that one doth not exhibit when telling a lie. And even if this faith be less violated, when one lies in such sort that he is believed to no inconvenience and no per- nicious hurt, with added intention moreover of guarding either one's life or corporal purity; yet violated it is, and a thing is vio- lated which ought to be kept safe in chastity and sanctity of mind. Whence we are con- strained, not by opinion of men, which for the most part is in error, but by truth itself, truth which is eminent above all, and alone is most invincible, to prefer even to purity of body, perfect faith. For chastity of mind is, love well ordered, which does not place the greater below the smaller. Now it is less, whatever in the body than whatever in the mind can be violated. For assuredly when for corporal chasteness a man tells a lie, he sees indeed that his body is threatened with corruption, not from his own, but from an- other's lust, but is cautious lest by permitting at least, he be a party. That permission, however, where is it but in the mind? So then, even corporal chasteness cannot be cor- rupted but in the mind; which not consent- ing nor permitting, it can by no means be rightly said that corporal chasteness is vio- lated, whatever in the body be perpetrated by another's lust. Whence it is gathered, that much more must the chastity of the mind be preserved in the mind, in the which is the guardianship of the pudicity of the body. Wherefore, what in us lies, both the one and the other must by holy manners and con- versation be walled and hedged round, lest from another quarter it be violated. But when both cannot be, which is to be slighted in comparison of which, who doth not see? when he seeth which to which is to be pre- ferred, the mind to the body, or the body to the mind; and which is more to be shunned among sins, the permitting of another's deed, or the committing of the deed thyself.
42. It clearly appears then, all being dis- cussed, that those testimonies of Scripture have none other meaning than that we must never at all tell a lie: seeing that not any ex- amples of lies, worthy of imitation, are found in the manners and. actions of the Saints, as regards those Scriptures which are referred tc no figurative signification, such as is the history in the Acts of the Apostles. For all those sayings of our Lord in the Gospel, 1 " Fides, quia fit quod diciiur.1' which to more ignorant minds seem lies, are figurative significations. And as to what the Apostle says: "lam made all things to all men, that I might gain all;"2 the right un- derstanding is, that he did this not by lying, but by sympathy; so that he dealt with them in liberating them with so great charity, as if he were himself in that evil from which he wished to make them whole. There must therefore be no lying in the doctrine of piety: it is a heinous wickedness, and the first sort of detestable lie. There must be no lying of the second sort; because no man must have a wrong done to him. There must be no ly- ing of the third sort; because we are not to consult any man's good to the injury of an- other. There must be no lying of the fourth sort, that is, for the lust of lying, which of itself is vicious. There must be no lying of the fifth sort, because not even the truth itself is to be uttered with the aim of men-pleasing, how much less a lie, which of itself, as a lie, is a foul thing? There must be no lying of the sixth sort; for it is not right that even the truth of testimony be corrupted for any man's temporal convenience and safety. But unto eternal salvation none is to be led by aid of a lie. For not by the ill manners of them that convert him is he to be converted to good manners: because if it is meet to be done towards him, himself also ought when converted to do it* toward others; and so is he converted not to good, but to ill manners, seeing that is held out to be imitated by him when converted, which was done unto him in converting him. Neither in the seventh sort must there be any lying; for it is meet that not any man's commodity or temporal wel- fare be preferred to the perfecting of faith. Not even if any man is so ill moved by our right deeds as to become worse in his mind, and far more remote from piety, are right deeds therefore to be foregone: since what we are chiefly to hold is that whereunto we ought to call and invite them whom as our own selves we love; and with most courageous mind we must drink in that apostolic sen- tence: " To some we are a savor of life unto life, to others a savor of death unto death; and who is sufficient for these things? " 3 Nor in the eighth sort must there be lying: be- cause both among good things chastity of mind is greater than pudicity of body; and among evil things, that which ourselves do, than that which we suffer to be done. In these eight kinds, however, a man sins less when he tells a lie, in proportion as he emerges to the eighth: more, in proportion as he di- Cor.
3 2 Cor. n. 16.
ON LYING.
477 verges to the first. But whoso shall think there is any sort of lie that is not sin, will de- ceive himself foully, while he deems himself honest as a deceiver of other men.
43. So great blindness, moreover, hath oc- cupied men's minds, that to them it is too little if we pronounce some lies not to be sins; but they must needs pronounce it to be sin in some things if we refuse to lie: and to such a pass have they been brought by defending lying, that even that first kind which is of all the most abominably wicked they pronounce to have been used by the Apostle Paul. For in the Epistle to the Galatians, written as it was, like the rest, for doctrine of religion and piety, they say that he has told a lie, in the passage where he says concerning Peter and Barnabas, " When I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the Gos- pel." * For, while they wish to defend Peter from error, and from that pravity of way into 1 Gal. ii. 14.
1 Gal. ii. 14.
which he had fallen; the very way of religion in which is salvation for all men, they by breaking and mincing the authority of the Scriptures do endeavor themselves to over- throw. In which they do not see that it is not only lying, but perjury that they lay to the charge of the Apostle in the very doctrine of piety, that is, in an Epistle in which he preaches the Gospel; seeing that he there saith, before he relates that matter, " What I write unto you, behold, before God, I lie not."2 But it is time that we set bounds to this disputation: in the consideration and treatment whereof altogether there is nothing more meet to be, before all else, borne in mind and made our prayer, than that which the same Apostle saith: "God is faithful, Who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able to bear, but will with the tempta- tion make also a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it."3 Gal. i. 20.
3 1 Cor. x. 13.
ST. AUGUSTIN: TO CONSENTIUS: AGAINST LYING.
[CONTRA MENDACIUM.]
TRANSLATED BY THE REV. H. BROWNE, M.A., OF CORPUS CHRISTI COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE, LATE PRINCIPAL OF THE DIOCESAN COLLEGE. CHICHESTER.
TO CONSENTIUS: AGAINST LYING.
[CONTRA MENDACIUM.]
From the Retractations, Book II. Chap. 60.
" Then x also I wrote a Book against Lying, the occasion of which work was this. In order to discover the Priscillianist heretics, who think it right to conceal their heresy not only by denial and lies, but even by perjury, it seemed to certain Catholics that they ought to pretend themselves Priscillianists, in order that they might penetrate their lurking places. In prohibition of which thing, I composed this book. It begins: Malta mihi lege?ida mis- t'sti."
1. A great deal for me to read hast thou sent, my dearest brother Consentius: a great deal for me to read: to the which while I am preparing an answer, and am drawn off first by one, then by another, more urgent occupa- tion, the year has measured out its course, and has thrust me into such straits, that I must answer in what sort I may, lest the time for sailing being now favorable, and the bearer desirous to return, I should too long detain him. Having therefore unrolled and read through all that Leonas, servant of God, brought me from thee, both soon after I re- ceived it, and afterwards when about to dic- tate this reply, and having weighed it with all the consideration in my power, I am greatly delighted with thy eloquence, and memory of the holy Scripture, and cleverness of wit, and the resentment with which thou bitest negligent Catholics, and the zeal with which thou gnashest against even latent heretics. But I am not persuaded that it is right to unearth them out of their hiding places by our telling lies. For to what end do we take such pains in tracking them out and running them down, but that having taken