A Type Of Murder

Petilianus dixit: Falsidicos et mendaces sic identidem obiurgat:  Filii diaboli estis, et ab initio enim ille accusator fuit, et in veritate non stetit. Augustinus respondit: Non solemus legere: Ille accusator fuit; sed: Ille homicida fuit. Quaerimus autem unde fuerit diabolus homicida ab initio; et invenimus, quod primum hominem occiderit, non gladium stringendo, aut aliquam vim corporaliter inferendo; sed persuadendo peccatum, et a paradisi felicitate deiiciendo. Quod tunc paradisus, hoc nunc Ecclesia. Diaboli ergo filii sunt, qui homines ab Ecclesia seducendo interficiunt. Sicut autem per verba Dei novimus ubi sit plantatus paradisus, sic per verba Christi ubi sit Ecclesia didicimus: Per omnes, inquit, gentes, incipiens ab Ierusalem. Ab isto universo ad partem quamlibet quisquis separat hominem, ille diaboli filius et homicida convincitur. Sanctus Augustinus Hipponensi, Contra Litteras Petiliani Donatistae, Liber II, Caput XIII Source: Migne PL 24.266

Petilianus said: Again and again the Lord reproaches false speakers and liars: 'You are the children of the devil, for he also was a slanderer from the beginning, and did not remain in the truth.' Augustine answered: We are not accustomed to say, 'He was a slanderer,' but 'He was a murderer.' 1 But we ask how it was that the devil was a murderer from the beginning; and we find that he killed the first man, not by drawing a blade, or by bringing upon him any physical violence, but by persuading him to sin, and so casting him out from the happiness of Paradise. What then was Paradise is now the Church. Therefore they are the sons of the devil who kill men by seducing them from the Church. But as by the words of God we know how things were in Paradise, so now by the words of Christ we have learned where the Church is: 'Throughout all nations,' He says, 'beginning at Jerusalem.' 2 Because of this whoever separates a man from that complete whole to place him in any single part, is proved to be a son of the devil and a murderer. Saint Augustine of Hippo, Against Petilianus The Donatist, Book 2, Chapter 13 1 John 8.44 2 Lk 24.47