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1 Written in the year 388. In his Retractations (i. 7) Augustin says: "When I was at Rome after my baptism, and could not bear in silence the vaunting of the Manichaeans about their pretended and misleading continence or abstinence, in which, to deceive the inexperienced, they claim superiority over true Christians, to whom they are not to be compared, I wrote two books, one on the morals of the Catholic Church, the other on the morals of the Manichaeans."
2 [This is commonly supposed to have been the first work of any importance written by the Author against Manichaeism. What he here refers to it is not easy to conjecture.-A. H. N.]
3 [Augustin's transition from his fine Platonizing discussion of virtue, the chief good, etc., to the patriarchs, the law, and the prophets is very fine rhetorically and apologetically.-A. H. N.]
6 [The most satisfactory feature of Augustin's apology for the Old Testament Scriptures is his demonstration of the substantial agreement of the Old Testament with undisputed portions of the New Testament.-A. H. N.]
8 Rom. viii. 36; cf. Ps. xliv. 22.
9 Retract. i. 7, § 2:-"In the book on the morals of the Catholic Church, where I have quoted the words, `For Thy sake we are in suffering all day long, we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter, 0' the inaccuracy of my manuscript misled me; for my recollection of the Scriptures was defective from my not being at that time familiar with them. For the reading of the other manuscripts has a different meaning: not, we suffer, but we suffer death, or, in one word we are killed. That this is the true reading is shown by the Greek text of the Septuagint, from which the Old Testament was translated into Latin. I have indeed made a good many remarks on the words, `For thy sake we suffer, 0' and the things said are not wrong in themselves; but, as regards the harmony of the Old and New Testaments, this case certainly does not prove it. The error originated in the way mentioned above, and this harmony is afterwards abundantly proved from other passages."
10 [Augustin's virtus takes the place of the Greek duua/meij and the Vulgate virtutes. It is not quite certain what meaning he attached to the expression. He seems to waver between the idea of power and that of virtue in the ethical sense, and finally settles down to the use of the term in the latter sense. That this does not accord with the meaning of the Apostle is evident.-A. H. N.]
12 [I. e. only by the use of the mental faculty of which God Himself is the Creator and Author; not by any independently existing power "of the same nature with Him who created it."-A. H. N.]
19 [It would be difficult to find in Christian literature a more beautiful and satisfactory exposition of love to God. The Neo-Platonic influence is manifest, but it is Neo-Platonism thoroughly Christianized.-A. H. N.].
22 [Augustin seems to make no distinction between Apocryphal and Canonical books. The book of Wisdom was evidently a favorite with him, doubtless on account of its decided Platonic quality.-A. H. N.].
24 Retract. i. 7, § 3:-"The quotation from the book of Wisdom is from my manuscript, where the reading is, `Wisdom teaches sobriety, justice, and virtue. 0' From these words I have made some remarks true in themselves, but occasioned by a false reading. It is perfectly true that wisdom teaches truth of contemplation, as I have explained sobriety; and excellence of action, which is the meaning I give to justice and virtue. And the reading in better manuscripts has the same meaning: `It teaches sobriety, and wisdom, and justice, and virtue. 0' These are the names given by the Latin translator to the four virtues which philosophers usually speak about. Sobriety is for temperance, wisdom for prudence, virtue for fortitude, and justice only has its own name. It was long after that we found these virtues called by their proper names in the Greek text of this book of Wisdom.".