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St. Augustine
Enchiridion
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CHAPTER VII - Disputed Questions about the Limits of Knowledge and Certainty in Various Matters


20. I do not rightly know whether errors of this sort should be called sins - when one thinks
well of a wicked man, not knowing what his character really is, or when, instead of our physical
perception, similar perceptions occur which we experience in the spirit (such as the illusion of the
apostle Peter when he thought he was seeing a vision but was actually being liberated from
fetters and chains by the angel
36) Or in perceptual illusions when we think something is smooth
which is actually rough, or something sweet which is bitter, something fragrant which is putrid,
that a noise is thunder when it is actually a wagon passing by, when one takes this man for that,
or when two men look alike, as happens in the case of twins - whence our poet speaks of "a
pleasant error for parents"
37 - I say I do not know whether these and other such errors should
be called sins. Nor am I at the moment trying to deal with that knottiest of questions which
baffled the most acute men of the Academy, whether a wise man ought ever to affirm anything
positively lest he be involved in the error of affirming as true what may be false, since all
questions, as they assert, are either mysterious [occulta] or uncertain. On these points I wrote
three books in the early stages of my conversion because my further progress was being blocked
by objections like this which stood at the very threshold of my understanding.
38 It was
necessary to overcome the despair of being unable to attain to truth, which is what their
arguments seemed to lead one to. Among them every error is deemed a sin, and this can be
warded off only by a systematic suspension of positive assent. Indeed they say it is an error if
someone believes in what is uncertain. For them, however, nothing is certain in human
experience, because of the deceitful likeness of falsehood to the truth, so that even if what
appears to be true turns out to be true indeed, they will still dispute it with the most acute and
even shameless arguments.
Among us, on the other hand, "the righteous man lives by faith."
39 Now, if you take away
positive affirmation,
40 you take away faith, for without positive affirmation nothing is
believed. And there are truths about things unseen, and unless they are believed, we cannot
attain to the happy life, which is nothing less than life eternal. It is a question whether we ought
to argue with those who profess themselves ignorant not only about the eternity yet to come but
also about their present existence, for they [the Academics] even argue that they do not know
what they cannot help knowing. For no one can "not know" that he himself is alive. If he is not
alive, he cannot "not know" about it or anything else at all, because either to know or to "not
know" implies a living subject. But, in such a case, by not positively affirming that they are alive,
the skeptics ward off the appearance of error in themselves, yet they do make errors simply by
showing themselves alive; one cannot err who is not alive. That we live is therefore not only
true, but it is altogether certain as well. And there are many things that are thus true and certain
concerning which, if we withhold positive assent, this ought not to be regarded as a higher
wisdom but actually a sort of dementia.

21. In those things which do not concern our attainment of the Kingdom of God, it does not
matter whether they are believed in or not, or whether they are true or are supposed to be true or
false. To err in such questions, to mistake one thing for another, is not to be judged as a sin or, if
it is, as a small and light one. In sum, whatever kind or how much of an error these miscues may
be, it does not involve the way that leads to God, which is the faith of Christ which works
through love. This way of life was not abandoned in that error so dear to parents concerning the
twins.
41 Nor did the apostle Peter deviate from this way when he thought he saw a vision and
so mistook one thing for something else. In his case, he did not discover the actual situation
until after the angel, by whom he was freed, had departed from him. Nor did the patriarch Jacob
deviate from this way when he believed that his son, who was in fact alive, had been devoured by
a wild beast. We may err through false impressions of this kind, with our faith in God still safe,
nor do we thus leave the way that leads us to him. Nevertheless, such mistakes, even if they are
not sins, must still be listed among the evils of this life, which is so readily subject to vanity that
we judge the false for true, reject the true for the false, and hold as uncertain what is actually
certain. For even if these mistakes do not affect that faith by which we move forward to affirm
truth and eternal beatitude, yet they are not unrelated to the misery in which we still exist.
Actually, of course, we would be deceived in nothing at all, either in our souls or our physical
senses, if we were already enjoying that true and perfected happiness.

22. Every lie, then,
must be called a sin, because every man ought to speak what is in his heart - not only when he
himself knows the truth, but even when he errs and is deceived, as a man may be. This is so
whether it be true or is only supposed to be true when it is not. But a man who lies says the
opposite of what is in his heart, with the deliberate intent to deceive. Now clearly, language, in
its proper function, was developed not as a means whereby men could deceive one another, but
as a medium through which a man could communicate his thought to others. Wherefore to use
language in order to deceive, and not as it was designed to be used, is a sin.
Nor should we suppose that there is any such thing as a lie that is not a sin, just because we
suppose that we can sometimes help somebody by lying. For we could also do this by stealing, as
when a secret theft from a rich man who does not feel the loss is openly given to a pauper who
greatly appreciates the gain. Yet no one would say that such a theft was not a sin. Or again, we
could also "help" by committing adultery, if someone appeared to be dying for love if we would
not consent to her desire and who, if she lived, might be purified by repentance. But it cannot be
denied that such an adultery would be a sin. If, then, we hold chastity in such high regard,
wherein has truth offended us so that although chastity must not be violated by adultery, even for
the sake of some other good, yet truth may be violated by lying? That men have made progress
toward the good, when they will not lie save for the sake of human values, is not to be denied.
But what is rightly praised in such a forward step, and perhaps even rewarded, is their good will
and not their deceit. The deceit may be pardoned, but certainly ought not to be praised,
especially among the heirs of the New Covenant to whom it has been said, "Let your speech be
yes, yes; no, no: for what is more than this comes from evil."
42 Yet because of what this evil
does, never ceasing to subvert this mortality of ours, even the joint heirs of Christ themselves
pray, "Forgive us our debts."
43





36 Cf. Acts 12:9.



37 Virgil, Aeneid, X, 392.



38 This refers to one of the first of the Cassiciacum dialogues, Contra Academicos. The gist of Augustine's refutation of skepticism is in III, 23ff. Throughout his whole career he continued to maintain this position: that certain knowledge begins with self - knowledge. Cf. Confessions, Bk. V, Ch. X, 19; see also City of God, XI, xxvii.



39 Hab. 2:4; Rom. 1:17.



40 A direct contrast between suspensus assenso - the watchword of the Academics - and assensio, the badge of Christian certitude.



41 See above, VII, 90.



42 Matt. 5:37.



43 Matt. 6:12.





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