the Latin: so from now on 1 will render it only by "jealousy," though this does not have quite
438 The Literal Meaning of Genesis see, of understanding that everything that is, insofar as it is a substance, is not only good but also unable to exist at all, unless it comes from that true God from whom every good comes, while a bad will is one that is inordinately disposed to prefer lower goods to higher ones; and that thus it came to pass that a spirit of the rational creation, delighting in its own power as surpassing that of al 1 other crea tures, became swollen with pride and thereby fell from the bliss of the spiritual paradise, and was eaten up by jealousy.
All the same, there is in such a spirit this goodness that it has life and gives life to a body, whether an airy one, like the spirits of the devil himself and the demons, or an earthy one like the soul of any human being, even an evil and crooked one. Thus it is, that while these heretics will not have anything that God made sinning by its own will, they say that the substance of God himselfwas first of necessity and then of its own will irremediably corrupted and distorted. But of these people's raving lunacy and their error I have already had much to say else where.13
14, 1 8. In this work, however, our task is to inquire, in the light of holy scrip ture, what has to be said about the devil. ln the first place, whether it was from the very beginning of creation that delighting in his own power he withdrew from that fellowship and charity which is bliss for the angels who enjoy God, or whether he himselftoo was for some time in the holy company ofangels, equally just and enjoying equal bliss. Several authors say, you see, that what brought about his fall from the supernal regions was his jealous grudging of the man being made to the image of God. But against that is the fact that jealousy or envy14 comes after pride, not before it; jealousy after all does not cause pride, but pride does cause jealousy.
Since pride, then, is the love of one's own superiority, while jealousy is the hatred of another's good fortune, it is easy to see which comes from which. l mean, anyone in love with his own superiority will be jealous of his peers because they are treated as his equals, and of his inferiors in case they should become his equals, and of his superiors because he is not treated as their equal. Thus it is pride that makes peoplejealous, notjealousy that makes them proud.
1 3. 1n tracts all written before he became a bishop. They were replies to the teaching of Manichee leaders, Fortunatus, Adimantus, Secundinus, and especially their leading evangelist in Africa, Faustus. There are also the "Acts" of a public debate he held with a Manichee called Felix, and a book, perhaps the earliest of them, which he wrote against a letter ofManes, the founder of the sect, called the Epistola Fundamenti, 'The Letter of Foundation." 14. Invidia. "Envy" is the obvious translation; but it has a much narrower range of meaning than the Latin: so from now on 1 will render it only by "jealousy," though this does not have quite such a bad press in English as the vice—the capital vice—signified by invidia.