I must be missing something obvious about the use of praeter in this quotation.
Sit igitur in primis positum atque firmatum uirtutem, qua recte uiuitur, ab animi sede membris corporis imperare sanctumque corpus usu fieri sanctae uoluntatis, qua inconcussa ac stabili permanente, quidquid alius de corpore uel in corpore fecerit, quod sine peccato proprio non ualeat euitari, praeter culpam esse patientis.
I’m having trouble finding a dictionary definition for praeter that matches “praeter culpam esse patientis” in the quotation above.
It has to mean, as LCL translates it “no blame”. What am I missing?
“Beyond”?
“Whatever another does…is beyond the fault of the one who suffers it” > “…no blame can be assigned to the one…”.
That looks good, Shenoute; many thanks. After reading your answer, I tried a google search on “praeter culpam”, and turned up instances that IMO confirm your idea.
There is even an on-point dictionary example in Lewis, An Elementary Latin Dictionary, under the word “praesto”. See it here: https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0060%3Aentry%3Dpraesto2
When I got the page, I did a Control-f search, and found the “praeter culpam” example.
After reflecting, I also thought of English-language instances of “beyond”, used in a similar way, for example “beyond belief”.
It’s surprising how a little help can break up the logjam.
