ABSTRACT
For St. Augustine the consequences of original sin are always the underlying human problem, and affect civil affairs as they do all areas of experience. He came to favor religious persecution, he had left behind his quasi-messianic, "Eusebian" idealism about Christian emperors. Its place was taken, however, not only by pessimism but also by a more serviceable kind of optimism based on experience. In his ninety-third letter the case for religious coercion by the state rests partly on the notion that spiritually weak people, when assailed by an unjust regime, are vulnerable to its mischievous spiritual effect. Although Augustine makes clear in the City of God that salvation does not necessarily depend on our living under any particular kind of government, he also makes clear that civilizations can be immoral and that their moral condition is of spiritual importance. Augustine's change of mind in favor of persecuting the Donatists illustrates the distinction.
