THE BOOK OF SAINT AU-

RELIUS AUGUSTINE, BISHOP

OF HIPPO, ON THE

SPIRIT AND THE LETTER, TO

MARCELLINUS.

THAT MANY THINGS ARE

possible which are known never to

have been done. Chapter I.

A square woodcut decorative initial 'L' contains a profile portrait of a bearded man wearing a laurel wreath, likely representing St. Augustine, facing right.

Having read the short works original: "opusculis"; referring to his previous books On the Merits and Remission of Sins that I recently composed for you, my dearest son Marcellinus, concerning the baptism of infants and the perfection of human righteousness term: righteousness (iustitia); in this context, it refers to a state of being "right" or sinless before God—namely, that no one in this life has either achieved it or is expected to achieve it, except for the one Mediator original: "mediatore"; referring to Jesus Christ as the bridge between God and humanity, who suffered human trials in the likeness of sinful flesh A reference to Romans 8:3, implying Christ took on a human body but not human sin without any sin at all—you wrote back to say that you were troubled. You were moved because, in the second of those two books, I stated that it is possible for a person to be without sin if their will is not lacking and they are supported by divine aid; and yet, I also stated that except for the One in whom all shall be made alive, there has been no one, and there will be no one, who possessed such perfection while living this life. For it seems absurd to you to say that something is possible for which there is no example. This is so even though, as I believe, you do not doubt that it has never actually happened that a camel passed through the eye of a needle, and yet [He] who...