A REVISION

OF THE FIRST LETTER

OF THE MOST LEARNED DR. GEORGE MORLEY,

to Jan van Vliet.

SECTION I.

Dr. Morley, p. 3, v. 4: Erasmus says he can neither affirm nor deny that Augustine is the author of this book. Bellarmine is also doubtful, because neither Possidius, the most diligent collector of Augustine's works, mentions it in his index, nor is it cited by Bede.

To me, however, it seems clear from this observation of Bellarmine that Augustine was not the author of this book; for otherwise it would not have escaped Possidius, the most diligent collector of Augustine's works.

Response: If you had said that it could be probabilistically inferred from the silence of Possidius that the book is not Augustine's, I would not have contentiously disagreed with your sentiment. But while you say it is clear, those who know that negative arguments based on authority are weak will not agree with you. Who, moreover, does not know this? And indeed, it is known that Possidius omitted some of Augustine's undoubtedly authentic works: such is the book On the Destruction of the City. Likewise the Treatise on the passage: I am who I am. And Bellarmine, in his Observation on tome 6 of the works of Augustine, explicitly says that Possidius did not reduce individual treatises into the Index, who nevertheless deserves the praise of diligence for having collected so many; even if some escaped him: thus, reapers can be called diligent, indeed most diligent, even if they left some ears of grain behind, giving place to the gleaning. The works of God are indeed always perfect; in the works of men, something human is always found, something incomplete,