The City of God stands as Augustine's masterwork of theological defense and construction, written over thirteen years in response to accusations that Christianity brought ruin upon Rome. This first volume contains the first ten books of sustained refutation—demolishing pagan claims that traditional worship secured either temporal prosperity or eternal happiness—followed by the beginning of his positive vision in Books Eleven through Thirteen, where he traces the origin of two societal orders to the primordial division among the angels. What emerges is not merely an apology for Christianity but a philosophy of history that subordinate the fate of empires to the hidden providence of the one true God, whose sovereignty extends from creation through the fall to the final judgment.
Augustine considers the objection that suicide might be justified to prevent future sin, either one’s own or another’s. He argues that this reasoning, if valid, would justify suicide immediately after baptism, when all past sins are forgiven, to avoid the possibility of future sin. But this is plainly absurd. No one should commit a certain and present evil to avoid an uncertain and future one. If a woman fears she might consent to violation under pressure, she should trust in God’s grace to preserve her will, not take her own life. The motions of the flesh that occur without the will’s consent are not imputed as sin, whether one is awake or asleep. Augustine acknowledges that some women in times of persecution have drowned themselves to escape violation and are venerated as martyrs, but he refuses to judge their case, leaving it to God who knows the secrets of the heart. For the general rule, he maintains that suicide is never lawful except by direct divine command, which must be clearly attested.
Augustine then addresses the question of why God permitted these outrages to befall continent Christian women. He suggests that God may have allowed them to cure pride or to prevent pride from arising. Some women may have been unduly puffed up by their continence and desirous of human praise; the loss of that which wins human applause may have been necessary to teach them humility. Others, though not yet proud, might have become so had they not been humbled by suffering. In either case, the loss is not of chastity but of the occasion for pride. God, who delights in the purity of his saints, would not have permitted these disasters if they could destroy the sanctity he had bestowed. The women who suffer can be assured that their chastity remains intact, for it is preserved by the steadfastness of their will and the grace of God.
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