De Sobrietate Et Castitate [Incertus]

A single book on sobriety and chastity, of uncertain authorship. Chapter One. Three vices to be avoided. The praise of sobriety. The evils of drunkenness. The use of wine. For what it is useful. Why it is forbidden to priests. The disadvantages of drunkenness. By what passages of Scripture this vice is condemned. Drunkenness is thrust upon mourners at funerals by friends. Drunkenness is harmful to both body and soul. Since the changeable mind of mortals takes delight at times in good intentions and at other times in evil ones, many, whether through repentance for evils they turn to good deeds, or through sloth of mind they are precipitated from good to evil, they give rise to subjects for debate for those who weigh morals; once these are recognized, the corrected may rejoice, while the unchangeable in their own habits are confounded. For you will find it more difficult to find seekers of good than deserters of evil, because for very many and almost all mortals, those things which foster the flesh are sweeter than those which restrain from vices. And since the advantages of study in the matter of honesty are to be suggested by us, we warn that one who wishes to serve in such a purpose ought not to be sluggish, drowsy, and drunken: because unless someone has turned away from these three vices, he can never be secure or safe; indeed, he will always be liable to all dangers, and even to death itself. For fortitude overcomes the enemy, vigilance obstructs those laying snares, but sobriety makes the heart of a man prepared.

Therefore our Lord God, with paternal affection through his Prophets and Apostles, has commanded us to abstain completely from all vices, and especially from drunkenness, which is the whirlpool of all vices. Concerning the evil of this vice, we wish to set forth a few things for the reader, whom we urge to apply an attentive mind to our discourse and to grant pardon to our speech, even if it is less brilliant than the hearing of eloquent men demands. For we urge that hearers should pay attention to the meaning of what is said, and not look for the rouge of frothy speech or artificial eloquence. Hence, first, on account of the title or ornament of the little book, let us set forth, as far as we are able, the fruits and goods of sobriety; and afterwards, let us publish the unseemly troubles of drunkenness. For sobriety is the chastity of sense and mind, the protection of all limbs and of the body, the defense of chastity and modesty, close to shame, the servant of friendship and peace, always joined to honesty, the fugitive from all crimes and vices, tenacious of right judgment, the inseparable wisdom of memory and recollection, the guardian of secrets, the veil of hidden things, capable of readings and teachings, the disciple and likewise the mistress of studies and good arts, the follower of talents to be grasped, always eager for good reputation, creating wholesome and useful things in thoughts, the singular aid of virtue, arranging everything with reason, always thrusting itself forward in an assembly of honorable men.

Sobriety flees from rashness, declines all dangers, complies with mutual duties, detests pride, governs home and family with moderation, preserves faith to those who entrust themselves to it, and, to speak summarily and briefly, the perseverance of sobriety is an inestimable fortitude of the mind: all virtues, and all titles of praise always covet it, because without it they cannot be adorned or please. On the other hand, drunkenness begins from an injury to the soul, and is the mother of all disgraces, the material of faults, the root of crimes, the origin of all vices, the disturbance of the head, the subversion of sense, the tempest of the tongue, the gale of the body, the shipwreck of chastity. Drunkenness is a loss of time, a voluntary madness, an ignominious languor, a debilitation of sound mind, a ugliness of morals, a disgrace of life, an infamy of honesty, a corruption of the soul. Drunkenness, as we daily observe, shakes many of the great families, and, deprived of the care of governance, makes them sell for a paltry coin what was well and long gathered by their parents and grandparents and acquired at great price. Drunkenness in both sexes always seeks out all evils, and commits unspeakable acts. Drunkenness takes away the fear of God, removes the future judgment of God from the heart of those who have it. Drunkenness, says the Apostle, denies the heavenly kingdoms to those who aspire to them (1 Cor. 6:10).

Drunkenness steals the hours from the inebriated, filches their days, does not remember what has been entrusted to it, and does not behold with mind or eyes what is placed before it; from a servant, moreover, it not only takes away trust, but also renders him useless for the duty of service and of fraud; and other evils which cannot be comprehended. And since by some the use of wine is not moderated, but rather excess is sought after, a very grave loss of health and life, of reputation and fame, is incurred. For the gift of wine has been provided for bodily sustenance, but it is utterly forbidden to those who abuse it, and the discipline of sobriety is ordained to be preserved. Indeed, in many aspects of mortal life, wine is necessary: it restores a weak stomach, repairs failing strength, warms one chilled by cold, heals when poured into wounds, works health when joined with antidotes and various medicines, removes sadness, erases all languors of the soul, pours in joy, and makes guests engage in honorable conversation; but if taken a little too much, it turns in a certain way into poison for the drinker. For this reason we read that abstinence from wine was commanded by the Lord to priests and Levites first, because it was necessary that

they would first undertake to observe the measure of sobriety, who were to hand on divine precepts to other mortals not by words but by deeds, and to fulfill them with the morals of chastity and sanctity, as the book of Leviticus says: "And the Lord said to Aaron, 'You and your sons shall not drink wine nor anything that can inebriate, and when you enter the tabernacle of the testimony, lest you die: for this is an everlasting commandment in your generations'" (Leviticus 10:9). The prophet Ezekiel likewise says: "And every priest shall drink no wine when he begins to enter the inner court" (Ezekiel 44:21). Moreover, very many secular authors have published precepts of sobriety in numerous books; we do not bring forward their assertions against the vices of drunkenness, because human things ought to be confirmed by divine, not divine things by human testimonies. Therefore sobriety ought to contend with priestly zeal by appropriate observance: because whoever approaches the altar of divine majesty not sober will suffer the destruction of an untimely death. For whoever, endowed with this priestly honor, is near to drunkenness, is near to vengeance. And against those who are close to God, if they are drunk, the vengeances that rage are not far off. Therefore, whoever is established as a priest by divine gift and approaches the celebration of the sacrament drunk has no delay in meeting death. For excess is always contrary to each thing: and in whichever sex excess is applied, it creates a vice.

For whatever is immoderate and undisciplined is close to falling into ruin; because where there is no measure, there is total danger: whatever thing lacks moderation rushes headlong into destruction. Thus, while anyone immoderate, midway through the banquet, having lost the reins of modesty, is laid low by mad drunkenness, he looks back at the reeling guests whom he could not see when they were whole, or pours forth superfluous words in a long speech and composes vain utterances, shouting badly while sounding good to himself, lies back supine with downcast face, vomiting and utterly unaware of himself, providing a spectacle for the banquet; and while he achieves nothing sound, with no other compulsion than wine, he lays bare the secrets of his heart and betrays the confidences entrusted to him by friends into the open. Moreover, he is found ready to perpetrate all manner of deeds of cruelty or shame, he over whom no reason of a sober mind, but drunkenness, holds sway. Amid the cups he takes up unjust quarrels, and without any standing causes stirs up a bitter brawl: because by interjecting vain words, he cannot tolerate the sound utterances of others, and rises up in insult against the guests and the crimes of his neighbors.

I thought it necessary to warn you, reader, so that you may willingly accept these things. Therefore read carefully the epistle of the apostle Peter to the Gentiles, Paul's to the Romans, the first to the Corinthians, to the Ephesians, to the Thessalonians, to Titus. Moreover, to guard against drunkenness, hear our Lord Jesus Christ saying in the Gospel: "Take heed," he says, "lest your hearts be burdened by that surfeit and drunkenness" (Luke 21:34). And the Lord is angry with the servant, whom he threatens to strike with many blows at his coming. Therefore abstain from such deeds or actions, restrain your madness, and know yourselves to be human, and cast away such great shamefulness from yourselves, and avoid the crimes of drunkenness with all your might. Note this rustic but sound saying: wine is a medicine; taken beyond what is just, it is known to be poison. Therefore cast away such great shamefulness from yourselves, and avoid the crimes of drunkenness with all your might. The nature of wine was created for cheerfulness, not for drunkenness (Sirach 31:35), through whose moderation thirst is quenched, yet not so that one drinks to the point of drunkenness. Flee surfeit, saying or doing those things of which the sober would not be ashamed. Flee the surfeit that is forced upon the grieving by consoling friends or relatives at funerals. For the grief of a lost loved one cannot be tempered by any excess of wine.

You, however, O unharmed man, daily, under the compulsion of wine, desire to vomit; and you fill yourself so much that many could be cheerfully delighted and soberly satisfied. Do you not consider it shameful for a man to inflict more upon himself than he can hold, nor to know the measure of his own stomach? Do you not consider that one bound by drunkenness cannot be in his own power? Why do you make excesses in drinking, unless to grow insolent for the worse through the provocation of wine? From this unhappiness of drinking arises a disgraceful contest between those provoked and those provoking, and the shame of the victor is worse. For from this, the limbs of many refuse food, and, given over to wine, they wither with premature weakness and raw old age, and, still green in age, are shaken with tremulous trembling. Hence, lungs putrefy from the daily burning of wine, and through the mouths, like those of the dead, they send forth foul breath. In such as these, therefore, there is no reason, no counsel for conducting life, no memory of deeds or readings, no foresight of arts or industry: so that one whom the setting of the sun sees reclining at lunch, and whom an unexpected day overtakes feasting through the night, while, in continuous madness, sleeping or drinking day and night while reclining, is daily buried while still placed in this life.

CHAPTER II. The Lord’s virgins are instructed in rules. Funeral vigils. But what shall I now say, or what shall I pass over in silence? If, therefore, any of those women upon whom I have burdened the male sex with the masses of crimes mentioned above should fall into this drunkenness, nothing is to be kept silent; rather, it is to be labored that such women may be corrected by this divine admonition, and that sobriety, through fear of reproof, may restrain them from drunkenness. But since, in admonishing men, we began the little work of this booklet with priests and levites or ministers, it is fitting and proper that, in admonishing the female sex, we take our beginning with the Lord’s holy virgins: so that every rank or sex may generally be held inexcusable from this admonition. The Lord’s virgin ought to recognize what precepts it is fitting for her to follow, or from how many vices she ought to abstain, if she wishes both, while placed in the world, to be with God, and after the dissolution of this life, to reign with the same in heavenly glory. The Lord’s virgin ought first to avoid public spectacles, and to shun the frequenting of streets, and, placed at home, to devote herself to wool-working or to divine reading. The Lord’s virgin, sitting or standing in a gathering of laywomen, should not, by scurrilous or lewd words or songs of theirs, make any of your presence known; but rather flee, close your eyes and ears: lest, deprived of the fear of God, you admit diabolical thoughts to your senses, by which you might soon perish.

A virgin of the Lord should proceed neither with ornament of the head, nor with elaborate hairstyle, nor with eyes raised or cheerful, but with eyes cast down to the ground and with a modest countenance: lest, hardened into servile loves, even if she herself does not perish, she become a cause of perdition for others. For the desire of the eyes, which brings about the death of the soul, the evangelical voice proclaims to us (Matthew 5:29). A virgin of the Lord ought to abstain completely from every shameless word or laugh, and to adorn her whole life with silence and discipline. A virgin of the Lord who has stained her face with some rouge for the sake of the splendor of her cheeks will dread the sentence promised in the prophet Isaiah concerning the daughters of Zion (Isaiah 3:16-17). A virgin of the Lord, as the Apostle teaches about widows, cannot be judged chaste if she is garrulous in speech, verbose in loquacity, or superfluous in curiosity (1 Timothy 5:15); rather, she inflames others more to lust, like a prostitute. A virgin of the Lord, trust yourself to no man of any age without the presence of very grave women, in a private dwelling or conversation: and when you sit alone in your chamber with the doors closed beneath you, do not easily open your door to any man knocking, lest you fall into the most shameful suspicion or into the shipwreck of your modesty. A virgin of the Lord ought not to approach the feasts in which men recline, lest she be believed to have offered herself like a harlot to her corrupters.

A virgin of the Lord should avoid the company and conversation of a woman who teaches badly and leads a miserable life, or who is ever troubled by an ill reputation: because the apostle Paul teaches that good morals are corrupted by evil conversations (1 Cor. 15:33). A virgin of the Lord ought to devote herself to fasts and abstinence, and to persist in prayers day and night, if she desires both to escape the snares and traps of the insidious devil and to attain the promised rewards of virginity. A virgin of the Lord should flee exceedingly any brother whom an evil reputation marks as to be avoided, and, as much as she can, should keep her approaches away from him or from his banquets. A virgin of the Lord should not be unaware that from convivial conversation the vices of lust grow, and from there one comes to the sins of fornication. A virgin of the Lord, to conclude briefly, ought to be abstinent from all enticements of gluttony, and should be content with a spare diet and drink, and always adorned with honest silence. It is a gift of God for a virgin of the Lord to know not how to be angry, to know rather how to restrain wrath, to be kind to all, not to nod with the eyes, not to fashion the tongue with deceit and malice, neither to listen to nor betray the secrets of another's house, to flee avarice and cupidity, not to deny deposits entrusted to her, not to have money at interest, to forgive a sister's fault from the heart, to cause scandal to no one, to offer consolation to the afflicted.

corrupted by serving those who slander, nor to consent to another who detracts, but to abstain entirely from detraction. A virgin of the Lord ought to stand in silence in church and conduct no business; hear the Apostle speaking: "Women should be silent in church; it is shameful for women to speak in church." Again he says: "Women should learn in silence." Again: "I do not permit women to teach" (1 Cor. 14:34-35; 1 Tim. 2:11-12). Therefore, if it is shameful for women to teach or to speak in church, how much more so for virgins, whom the care and profession of chastity promised to God bind, so that they may rather imitate the unlearned in good works? A virgin of the Lord should speak nothing perverse, scurrilous, or feigned, and should utterly eradicate all lying from her mouth. For the Lord destroys those who speak lies, as David in the fifth psalm and his son in the book of Wisdom teach (Ps. 5:7; Wis. 1:11). A virgin of the Lord, as much faith as she ought to show in all things, should so much beware of swearing; concerning those things she has done for the sake of confirming the truth, she should not pay oaths. Nor should she swear at all or entirely (Matt. 5:34), recognizing the Lord warning in the Gospels. A virgin of the Lord should beware of committing thefts and frauds, or giving false testimony, or consenting to those who do such things, because the blessed Paul rebukes those who commit them (1 Cor. 6:8; Rom. 1:32).

A virgin of the Lord should decline to attend matronal banquets, where men mingle, lest she bring with her the sin of lust among men speaking over their cups. A virgin of the Lord, against all sounds produced by musical art, against all secular songs, against all things which delight the ears sweetly, close your ears and your heart: lest the diabolical melody cut off the love of Christ from her heart. A virgin of the Lord, from the movements and bendings of dancers, of cymbal-players or tympanists, and of all masculine entertainments, as much as you can, avert your face: lest, struck by the sudden dart of love of any one of them, you begin to perish grievously. A virgin of the Lord should lack not only pride and quarrelsomeness, but also, as much as she can, should withdraw far from the proud and the quarrelsome: For God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble, Solomon cries out in Proverbs (Prov. 29:24). A virgin of the Lord ought not to exalt herself by boastfulness of speech, nor by riches, nor by nobility of birth; but she ought to remain in humility and poverty of spirit, acceptable to Christ, as long as she lives. For in the judgment of God, not such things, but one's own deeds will be weighed, from which each will receive reward as they have acted, not as they were born. A virgin of the Lord ought to shun funeral vigils or other gatherings which occur in private houses, where especially people of mixed sex without discrimination assemble.

A virgin of the Lord who, according to her own means, offers nothing, cannot be called or believed to be a handmaid of God. But, to speak briefly, a virgin of the Lord who strives to keep the custody of her chastity promised to her Lord ought not to sin at all, either in notable gait, or in soft gesture or word, or in idleness of speech, or in body, or in mind. Chapter III. The crimes of drunkenness in virgins or women. The evils of drunkenness are generally discussed. Why the author began from priests. And since what has been said for the admonition of sacred virgins, we believe can suffice, from which precepts it is also fitting for servants of God or all laypeople to observe: we must now come to enumerating the crimes of drunkenness, and teach that drunkenness surpasses all vices. First, drunkenness does not allow virgins themselves to fulfill the promises of chastity; because it has always been hostile to holy promises in both sexes: and therefore drunkenness cannot be a companion to modesty, because chastity was never an ally of drunkenness. Sobriety in women casts the gaze down to the ground: drunkenness, however, having lost modesty, raises shameless faces. For sobriety, with utmost trepidation, utters a blameless word, and one close to silence: drunkenness makes a woman's speech and face shameless. For drunkenness elicits and wrenches out an unspeakable, shameless voice from all who are in that state, and.

into whom an excess of wine has crept through greed can have no modesty of silence; from that drunkenness follows a weakness of the limbs. And so it happens that, just as a ship is shattered upon a rock by the waves of a very violent sea, so the body and mind of a woman, dashed by a great storm of wine, is dissolved in all her limbs. For she who naturally cannot fix her footsteps firmly when walking, how will she be able to walk when struck by a huge storm of wine, with a tottering step and nodding, always with twisted eyes, lying on her back, or with bent neck, a maidservant guiding the mistress because of her own drunkenness? There, soundness and care of the home or governance of the family are absent, the tongue stammers, deprived of the function of speech, or, wishing to burst forth into voice, is not only not understood but is even laughed at by those listening. Moreover, she is alienated in mind and wholly unaware of herself, whose headdress falls to one side and shows her half-naked neck to onlookers, and she is blushed at from every side by those who see her, and she does not know what is done at home. Without doubt, modesty is endangered in her, and every secret that sobriety guards in women is made public by drunkenness. When she has been seized by the dizziness of wine and laid low on the bed, she sees all things running around her: the ceilings of the house at the bottom, and the bottom she thinks is stretched out at the top, and she is received as if buried in sleep.

The couches, however, which are disfigured by the insults of children, are mocked by all the women or maidservants, not in secret, but with visible laughter at the drunkenness of such a mistress. Thus, as time passes and the vice of drunkenness persists, all fear flies from her heart: she thinks neither of the corruption nor of the terror or authority of her often-reproaching husband. Hence, the daily neglected house, through the passage of time, is so deprived of its daily adornment that the husband always longs for death, whose labor and governance under such a mistress is daily diminished and falls into ruin. There is no one with whom he can discuss anything concerning the care of the house, so that something might be arranged for the better: because, of course, she shows only the name of wife, not the character. With her arranging nothing, the husband’s daily care is worn out not without sadness: for just as oxen yoked in a vehicle, if one ceases to strain under the burden, the effort will break the other. Therefore, by the drunkenness of the mistress, with the keys of the places removed, everything is attempted: the fullness of the cellars is daily emptied by servile thefts, and the whole house resounds with the clamors of the undisciplined household. The care of wool-working, moreover, becomes either negligent, or nonexistent, or abominable. For to such a mistress, a maidservant will be dearer and more lovable who has handed her a larger cup than one who has assigned a full day’s task before evening.

For she takes delight in dishes with various and diverse colors in the wine, not in the tunics; and she seeks not the making of garments, but the measured portion of wine brought to her. Not for the sake of preserving chastity does she set up the looms for weaving, she who once lost the use of the loom from the house through drunkenness; and the looms which she took away from the idle maidservants, she gave to the spiders to weave. When she takes food, she barely touches half an ounce of bread while eating, and then she gulps down the drink, and for that reason she seeks poultices for her relishes. As long as she has been awake, she drinks; or if she has fallen asleep, thirst interrupts her sleep. But why do I still linger? If I wished to recount all the vices of drunkenness, time would fail me before I finished, since the Holy Spirit cries out through the greater words of Solomon in Ecclesiasticus, saying, "A drunken woman is great wrath, and her insult and shame will not be hidden." And concerning both sexes, "Wine," he says, "destroys many." And again: "Drunkenness absorbs prudence." And again: "Much wine drunk produces irritations and angers and many faults. Bitterness of soul is much wine drunk" (Ecclus. 26:11; 31:50 and 39).

Therefore, to bring this book to a close, I will touch upon everything briefly. For chastity has been submerged by wine; and very many crowds have been deceived by corrupters. Many virgins, also under the influence of wine, forgetful of the marriage bed, have handed over their modesty to adulterers, and have conspired with paramours for the death of their husbands. Very many, driven by wine, have polluted themselves headlong in indecent gatherings: and from fathers or mothers, from sons or daughters, from brothers or sisters, from sons-in-law or daughters-in-law, through unspeakable, as has been said, intercourse, they have begotten children for themselves. For through drunkenness very many men and women have fallen away from a holy and pious purpose, and, forgetful of themselves, have remained ignoble with lost honors: and, fugitives from their ancestral seats, they have ended their lives not where they began them. Through this indeed wine, the strong have been struck down by the weak, and very many have been laid low into death by a woman's blow: and invincible armies, with wine dominating, have been destroyed and subjected to the yoke of servitude. Countless numbers, long refusing the yoke of domination, drunkenness has reduced to another's will. By the habit of wine, very many have been turned into madness; and, during the madness of their mind, separated from human society, they have for the most part been consumed by a wild beast's tooth. Very many, by the immoderate excess of wine, have been rendered from rich to poor and needy. An infinite number, driven by wine, have committed unjust and impious homicides.

Very many cities, long besieged and not captured, have been laid open by enemies and consumed by fires, their guards buried in sleep and wine. There are also many other unspeakable and countless evils, by which through the vices of drunkenness this world has long been frequently troubled, and is now troubled: if I wished to bring forth from the Lord's or secular books individual examples and the persons through whom these deeds were done, the enormity of the book would bring disgust to the readers. Nevertheless, in this work we have begun both the reproach and the admonition of priests and Levites, lest we seem to make clerics or ministers of God immune from this infection, by which we confound all given to this vice with the Lord's correction: to whom it is more fitting, that those who teach the people to abstain from various faults should take care with cautious observation not to fall into any vice or fault, and the Apostle rebukes them with a just reproach, saying, "Do you think, O man, who judges those who do such things, and you do them, that you will escape the judgment of God?" Likewise: "You who teach another, do you not teach yourself; you who abhor idols, commit sacrilege" (Rom. 2:5 and 22): and other things, by which he argues against those who do not abstain from the vices they forbid; and in what they judge others, they condemn themselves.

Therefore, we urge all clerics and laypersons established in various dignities of this kind to read this little book more frequently: so that when someone, with good morals and sobriety, has made progress pleasing to God, he may always rejoice in our correction in the Lord God, giving thanks to God through our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom is honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. ADMONITION ON THE BOOK ON TRUE AND FALSE PENANCE. Almost this entire book, under the name of Augustine, has been transferred into the Decreta by Gratian and into the Sentences by Peter Lombard. Later, Peter of Blois in his books on Confession and on Penance, Vincent of Beauvais in the Speculum Morale, book 3, part 10, distinction 2, Thomas Aquinas in the Summa Theologica, and others thereafter cited it and attributed it to Augustine. Nevertheless, Trithemius considers it spurious in his book On Ecclesiastical Writers, because, he says, Augustine himself is cited in the chapter. Martin of Navarre objects in his volume, Commentary on the Distinction on Penance, and says it should rather be thought that that part, in which Augustine is cited, migrated into the text from an annotation written in the margin by some learned man, and that therefore the excellent book of Augustine, attributed to him by so many, should not be denied. The conjecture of Navarre is supported by old books we have inspected, which at that place at least omit the name of Augustine: but nevertheless, both the sense demands it, and Gratian actually reads it.

Indeed, whatever is finally determined about this passage, other arguments abound on all sides, which cry out that this work is not by Augustine. Bernard Vindingus collected some of these in his *Criticus Augustinianus*, and set them against a certain, as he says, recent and otherwise not bad theologian, who maintained that in style and doctrine the whole work was Augustinian, and so foolishly denied that this had been denied to him by Erasmus and other leaders. Namely: phrases alien to Augustine: ch. "Naaman lost his leprosy through water." Ch. "Peter denied the Lord, and excommunicated from himself the friends of Christ." In the same ch. 4 and 6, and: "To promise punishment." Ch. "To be anxious toward God." Ibidem: "Let him confess to a better than he can." Ch. "It is necessary that the sinner bear fruit in penance." In expounding the Scriptures, the author is shown to have neither Augustine's skill nor agreement with him. For ch.: "He promised indulgence to all," he declares by other promises: "Whoever has confessed to me before men," that is, every sinner, however much and however often, of whatever order, even if he were a priest; "I will also confess him before my Father." Ch.: "He healed the whole man on the Sabbath, because he freed both the body from infirmity and the soul from every contagion." Ch. ii: "In Peter and John and James and the father and mother of the girl (Luke VIII, 51) are figuratively contained the priests of the Church.

We are taught by the tears of a widowed mother, of Martha and Mary, and of the crowd of Jews, he says, that for those who sin publicly, not their own merit but that of the Church suffices. etc. Chapter: All this variety must be confessed, if he sinned in a sacred place, or in one to which he owed the excellence of faith, such as the houses of lords and of many others; if at a time appointed for prayer, or on a feast of the saints, and during a time of fasting, etc. If because he falls into avarice, he also diminished chastity. Moreover, it is insinuated in the chapter that every good person was held in the underworld before the coming of Christ, with Augustine, in his *De Genesi ad Litteram*, chapters and 54, dissenting from this or at least being uncertain; and the Acts of Saint Andrew are mentioned in the chapter, a work that, according to the learned, was published long after Augustine. We have emended the book according to the manuscripts of the Augustinians of the great convent of Paris, the Cistercian manuscript, the Vatican manuscript, and also the collections of Gratian and Lombard. In the manuscripts it is entitled *On True and False Penitence*; omitted: *To the Devoted of Christ*. And at the end of these it reads: *Here ends On Confession*.