“You are of opinion that no one should be compelled to follow righteousness; and yet you…”
You are of opinion that no one should be compelled to follow righteousness; and yet you read that the householder said to his servants, "Whomsoever ye shall find, compel them to come in."
Augustine of Hippo · Letters · NPNF1 I, Letters, Letter XCIII (to Vincentius), 5
Writing to a Donatist bishop in about 408, Augustine sets out the argument from the parable of the wedding feast for using the imperial laws against schism. It is the sentence a thousand years of religious coercion was later built on, and he is the first to make it.
How this is known
These words were matched, word for word, against this project’s own copy of the volume cited.
The project holds the volume this row cites, NPNF series 1 vol. 1, and the build matches these words against its bytes at every rebuild. Letter XCIII is the letter the locator names, and it is one of the 158 in this selection that Augustine wrote rather than received.
Read in Cunningham, NPNF series 1 vol. 1 (1886) · J. G. Cunningham, M.A.
Also by
- Augustine of Hippo every saying recorded of this person, and their page