LETTERS OF ST. AUGUSTIN: LETTERS XXIII TO XXXV (BEGINNING OF SECOND DIVISION)
LETTER XXIII (A.D. 392.)
TO MAXIMIN, MY WELL-BELOVED LORD AND BROTHER, WORTHY OF HONOUR, AUGUSTIN,
PRESBYTER OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, SENDS GREETING IN THE LORD.
1. Before entering on the subject on which I have resolved to write to
your Grace, I shall briefly state my reasons for the terms used in the title of
this letter, test these should surprise either yourself or any other person. I
have written "to my lord," because it is written: "Brethren, ye have been called
unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love
serve one another."' Seeing, therefore, that in this duty of writing to you I am
actually by love serving you, I do only what is reasonable in calling you "my
lord," for the sake of that one true Lord who gave us this command. Again, as to
my having written "well-beloved," God knoweth that I not only love you, but
love you as I love myself; for I am well aware that I desire for you the very
blessings which I am fain to make my own. As to my adding the words "worthy of
honour," I did not mean, by adding this, to say that I honour your episcopal
office, for to me you are not a bishop; and this I trust you will take as spoken
with no intention to give offence, but from the conviction that in our mouth Yea
should be Yea, and Nay, Nay: for neither you nor any one who knows us can fail
to know that you are not my bishop, an,d, I am not your presbyter. "Worthy of
honour I therefore willingly call you on this ground, that I know you to be a
man; and I know that man was made in the image and likeness of God, and is placed
in honour by the very order and law of nature, if by understanding the thin s
which he ought to understand he retain his honour. For it is written, Man being
placed in honour did not understand: he is compared to the brutes devoid of
reason, and is made like unto them."' Why then may I not address you as worthy of
honour, inasmuch as you are a man, especially since I dare not despair of your
repentance and salvation so long as you are in this life ? Moreover, as to my
calling you "brother," you are well acquainted with the precept divinely given
to us, according to which we are to say, "Ye are our brethren," even to those
who deny that they are our brethren; and this has much to do with the reason
which has made me resolve to write to you, my brother. Now that the reason for my
making such an introduction to my letter has been given, I bespeak your calm
attention to what follows.
2. When I was in your district, and was with all my power expressing my
abhorrence of the sad and deplorable custom followed by men who, though they
boast of the name of Christians, do not hesitate to rebaptize Christians, there
were not wanting some who said in praise of you, that you do not conform to this
custom. I confess that at first I did not believe them; but afterwards,
considering that it was possible for the fear of God to take possession of a human soul
exercised in meditation upon the life to come, in such a way as to restrain a
man from most manifest wickedness, I believed their statement, rejoicing that
by holding such a resolution you showed yourself averse to complete alienation
from the Catholic Church. I was even on the outlook for an opportunity of
conversing with you, in order that, if it were possible, the small difference which
still remained between us might be taken away, when, behold, a few days ago it
was reported to me that you had rebaptized a deacon of ours belonging to
Mutugenna! I was deeply grieved both for his melancholy fall and for your sin, my
brother, which surprised and disappointed me. For I know what the Catholic Church
is, The nations are Christ's inheritance, and the ends of the earth are His
possession. You also know what the Catholic Church is; or if you do not know it,
apply your attention to discern it, for it may be very easily known by those who
are willing to be taught. Therefore, to rebaptize even a heretic who has
received in baptism the seal of holiness which the practice s of the Christian Church
has transmitted to us, is unquestionably a sin; but to re-baptize a Catholic
is one of the worst of crimes. As I did not, however, believe the report,
because I still retained my favourable impression of you, I went in person to
Mutugenna. The miserable man himself I did not succeed in finding, but I learned from
his parents that he had been made one of your deacons. Nevertheless I still
think so favourably of you, that I will not believe that he has been rebaptized.
3. Wherefore, my beloved brother, I beseech you, by the divine and human
natures of our Lord Jesus Christ, have the kindness to reply to i this letter,
telling me what has been done, and [so to write as knowing that I intend to read
your letter aloud to our brethren in the church. This I have written, lest, by
afterwards doing that which you did not expect me to do, I should give offence
to your Charity, and give you occasion for making a just complaint against me
to our common friends. What can reasonably prevent you from answering this
letter I do not see. For if you do rebaptize, you have nothing to apprehend from
your colleagues when you write that you are doing that which they would command
you to do even if you were unwilling; and if you, moreover, defend this by the
best arguments known to you, as a thing which ought to be done, your colleagues,
so far from being displeased on this account, will praise you. But if you do
not rebaptize, hold fast your Christian liberty, my brother Max;rain; hold it
fast, I implore you: fixing your eye on Christ, fear not the censure, tremble not
before the power of any man. Fleeting is the honour of this world, and
fleeting are all the objects to which earthly ambition aspires. Neither thrones
ascended by flights of steps,' nor canopied pulpits? nor processions and chantings of
crowds of consecrated virgins, shall be admitted as available for the defence
of those who have now these honours, when at the judgment-seat of Christ
conscience shall beg.in to lift its accusing voice, and He who is the Judge of the
consciences of men shall pronounce the final sentence. What is here esteemed an
honour shall then be a burden: what uplifts men here, shall weigh heavily on
them in that day. Those things which meanwhile are done for the Church's welfare
as tokens of respect to us, shall then be vindicated, it may be, by a conscience
void of offence; but they will avail nothing as a screen for a guilty
conscience.
4. If, then, it be indeed the case that, under the promptings of a devout
and pious mind, you abstain from dispensing a second baptism, and rather accept
the baptism of the Catholic Church as the act of the one true Mother, who to
all nations both offers a welcome to her bosom, that they may be regenerated,
and gives a mother's nourishment to them when they are regenerated, and as the
token of admission into Christ's one possession, which reaches to the ends of the
earth; if, I say, you indeed do this, why do you not break forth into a joyful
and independent confession of your sentiments? Why do you hide under a bushel
the lamp which might so profitably shine? Why do you not rend and cast from you
the old sordid livery of your craven-hearted bondage, and go forth clad in the
panoply of Christian boldness, saying, "I know but one baptism consecrated and
sealed with the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost: this
sacrament, wherever I find it, I am bound to acknowledge and approve; I do not
destroy what I discern to be my Lord's; I do not treat with dishonour the banner of
my King"? Even the men who parted the raiment of Christ among them did not
rudely rend in pieces the seamless robe; 3 and they were men who had not then any
faith in Christ's resurrection; nay, they were witnessing His death.' If, then,
persecutors forbore from rending the vesture of Christ when He was hanging
upon the cross, why should Christians destroy the sacrament of His institution now
when He is sitting in heaven upon His throne ? Had I been a Jew in the time of
that ancient people, when there was nothing better that I could be, I would
undoubtedly have received circumcision. That "seal of the righteousness which is
by faith" was of so great importance in that dispensation before it was
abrogated 4 by the Lord's coming, that the angel would have strangled the infant-child
of Moses, had not the child's mother, seizing a stone, circumcised the child,
and by this sacrament averted impending death.s This sacrament also arrested
the waters of the Jordan, and made them flow back towards their source. This
sacrament the Lord Himself received in infancy, although He abrogated it when He
was crucified. For these signs of spiritual blessings were not condemned, but
gave place to others which were more suitable to the later dispensation. For as
circumcision was abolished by the first coming of the Lord, so baptism shall be
abolished by His second coming. For as now, since the liberty of faith has come,
and the yoke of bondage has been removed, no Christian receives circumcision
in the flesh; so then, when the just are reigning with the Lord, and the wicked
have been condemned, no one shall be baptized, but the reality which both
ordinances prefigure--namely, circumcision of the heart and cleansing of the
conscience- shall be eternally abiding. If, therefore, I had been a Jew in the time of
the former dispensation, and there had come to me a Samaritan who was willing
to become a Jew, abandoning the error which the Lord Himself condemned when He
said, "Ye worship ye know not what; we know what we worship, for salvation is
of the Jews; "6 ... if, I say, a Samaritan whom Samaritans had circumcised had
expressed his willingness to become a Jew, there would have been no scope for
the boldness which would have insisted on the repetition of the rite; and instead
of this, we would have been compelled to approve of that which God had
commanded, although it had been done by heretics. But if, in the flesh of a
circumcised man, I could not find place for the repetition of the circumcision, because
there is but one member which is circumcised, much less is place found in the
one heart of man for the 'repetition of the baptism of Christ. Ye, therefore, who
wish to baptize twice, must seek as subjects of such double baptism men who
have double hearts.
5. Publish frankly, therefore, that you are doing what is right, if it be
the case that you do not rebaptize; and write me to that effect, not only
without fear, but with joy. Let no Councils of your party deter you, my brother,
from this step: for if this displease them, they are not worthy to have you among
them; but if it please them, we trust that there shall soon be peace between
you and us, through the mercy of our Lord, who never forsakes those who fear to
displease Him, and who labour to do what is acceptable in His sight; and let not
our honours --a dangerous burden, of which an account must yet be given- be a
hindrance, making it unhappily impossible for our people who believe in Christ,
and who share with one another in daily bread at home, to sit down at the same
table of Christ. Do we not grievously lament that husband and wife do in most
cases, when marriage makes them one flesh, vow mutual fidelity in the name of
Christ, and yet rend asunder Christ's own body by belonging to separate
communions? If, by your moderate measures and wisdom, and by your exercise of that love
which we all owe to Him who shed His blood for us, this schism, which is such
a grievous scandal, causing Satan to triumph and many souls to perish, be taken
out of the way in these parts, who can adequately express how illustrious is
the reward which the Lord prepares for you, in that from you should proceed an
example which, if imitated, as it may so easily be, would bring health to all
His other members, which throughout the whole of Africa are lying now miserably
exhausted? How much t fear lest, since you cannot see my heart, I appear to you
to speak rather in irony than in the sincerity of love! But what more can I do
than present my words before your eye, and my heart before God?
6. Let us put away from between us those vain objections which are wont to
be thrown at each other by the ignorant on either side. Do not on your part
cast up to me the persecutions of Macarius. I, on mine, will not reproach you
with the excesses of the Circumcelliones. If you are not to blame for the latter,
neither am I for the former; they pertain not to us. The: Lord's floor is not
yet purged--it cannot be! without chaff; be it ours to pray, and to do what in
us lies that we may be good grain. I could not pass over in silence the
rebaptizing of our deacon; for I know how much harm my silence Z might do to myself.
For I do not propose to i spend my time in the empty enjoyment of ecclesiastical
dignity; but I propose to act as mindful of this, that to the one Chief
Shepherd I must give account of the sheep committed unto me. If you would rather that
I should not thus write to you, you must, my brother, excuse me on the ground
of my fears; for I do fear greatly, lest, if I were silent and concealed my
sentiments, others might be rebaptized by you. I have resolved, therefore, with
such strength and opportunity as the Lord may grant, so to manage this discussion,
that by our peaceful conferences, all who belong to our communion may know how
far apart from heresy and schism is the position of the Catholic Church, and
with what care they should guard against the destruction which awaits the tares
and the branches cut off from the Lord's vine. If you willingly accede to such
conference with me, by consenting to the public reading of the letters of both,
I shall unspeakably rejoice. If this proposal is displeasing to you, what can
I do, my brother, but read our letters, even without your consent, to the
Catholic congregation, with a view to its instruction ? But if you do not condescend
to write me a reply, I am resolved at least to read my own letter, that, when
your misgivings as to your procedure are known, others may be ashamed to be
rebaptized.
7. I shall not, however, do this in the presence of the soldiery, lest any
of you should think that I wish to act in a violent way, rather than as the
interests of peace demand; but only after their departure, that all who hear me
may understand, that I do not propose to compel men to embrace the communion of
any party, but desire the truth to be made known to persons who, in their
search for it, are free from disquieting apprehensions. On our side there shall be
no appeal to men's fear of the civil power i on your side, let there be no
intimidation by a mob of Circumcelliones. Let us attend to the real matter in
debate, and let our arguments appeal to reason and to the authoritative teaching of
the Divine Scriptures, dispassionately and calmly, so far as we are able; let us
ask, seek, and knock, that we may receive and find, and that to us the door
may be opened, and thereby may be achieved, by God's blessing on our united
efforts and prayers, the first towards the entire removal from our district of that
impiety which is such i a disgrace to Africa. If you do not believe that I am
willing to postpone the discussion until after the soldiery have left, you may
delay your answer until they have gone; and if, while they are still here, I
should wish to read my own letter to the people, the production of the letter will
of itself convict me of breaking my word. May the Lord in His mercy prevent me
from acting in a way so contrary to morality, and to the good resolutions with
which, by laying His yoke on me, He has been pleased to inspire me!
8. My bishop would perhaps have preferred to send a letter himself to your
Grace, if he had been here i or my letter would have been written, if not by
his order, at least with his sanction. But in his absence, seeing that the
rebaptizing of this deacon is said to have occurred recently, I have not by delay
allowed the feelings caused by the action to cool down, being moved by the
promptings of the keenest anguish on account of what I regard as really the death of
a brother. This my grief the compensating joy of reconciliation between us and
you may perhaps be appointed to heal, through the help of the mercy and
providence of our Lord. May the Lord our God grant thee a calm and conciliatory
spirit, my dearly beloved lord and brother!
LETTER XXIV.
This letter, written in 394 to Alypius by Paulinus, owes its place in the
collection of Augustin's letters to the notice of the treatises written by
Augustin against the Manichaeans, and its connection with the following letter
addressed by Paulinus to Augustin himself. It is obviously one of those which, in
making a selection of letters, may be safely omitted.
LETTER XXV. (A.D. 394.)
TO AUGUSTIN, OUR LORD AND BROTHER BELOVED AND VENERABLE, FROM PAULINUS AND
THERASIA, SINNERS.
1. The love of Christ which constrains us, and which unites us, though
separated by distance, in the bond of a common faith, has itself! emboldened me to
dismiss my fear and address a letter to you; and it has given you a place in
my inmost heart by means of your writings-so full of the stores of learning, so
sweet with celestial honey, the medicine and the nourishment of my soul. These
I at present have in. five books, which, through the kindness of our i blessed
and venerable Bishop Alypius, I received, 1 not only as a means of my own
instruction, but. for the use of the Church in many towns. These books I am now
reading: in them I take great delight: in them I find food, not that which
perisheth, but that which imparts the substance! of eternal life through our faith,
whereby we are' in our Lord Jesus Christ made members of His body; for the
writings and examples of the' faithful do greatly strengthen that faith which, not
looking at things seen, longs after things not seen with that love which accepts
implicitly all things which are according to the truth of the l omnipotent God.
O true salt of the earth, by which our hearts are preserved from being
corrupted by the errors of the world! O light worthy of your place on the candlestick
of the Church, diffusing widely in the Catholic towns] the brightness of a flame
fed by the oil of the seven-branched lamp of the upper sanctuary, you also
disperse even the thick mists of heresy, and rescue the light of truth from the
confusion of darkness by the beams of your luminous demonstrations.
2. You see, my brother beloved, esteemed, and welcomed in Christ our Lord,
with what intimacy I claim to know you, with what amazement I admire and with
what love I embrace you, seeing that I enjoy daily converse with you by the
medium of your writings, and am fed by the breath of your mouth. For your mouth I
may justly call a pipe conveying living water, and a channel from the eternal
fountain; for Christ has become in you a fountain of "living water springing up
into eternal life."1 Through desire for this my soul thirsted within me, and my
parched ground longed to be flooded with the fulness of your river. Since,
therefore, you have armed me completely by this your Pentateuch against the
Manichaeans, if you have prepared any treatises in defence of the Catholic faith
against other enemies (for our enemy, with his thousand pernicious stratagems, must
be defeated by weapons as various as the artifices by which he assails us), I
beg you to bring these forth from your armoury for me, and not refuse to
furnish me with the "armour of righteousness." For I am oppressed even now in my work
with a heavy burden, being, as a sinner, a veteran in the ranks of sinners,
but an untrained recruit in the service of the King eternal. The wisdom of this
world I have unhappily hitherto regarded with admiration, and, devoting myself
to literature which I now see to be unprofitable, and wisdom which I now reject,
I was in the sight of God foolish and dumb. When I had become old in the
fellowship of my enemies, and had laboured in vain in my thoughts, I lifted mine
eyes to the mountains, looking up to the precepts of the law and to the gifts of
grace, whence my help came from the Lord, who, not requiting me according to
mine iniquity, enlightened my blindness, loosed my bonds, humbled me who had been
sinfully exalted, in order that He might exalt me when graciously humbled.
3. Therefore I follow, with halting pace indeed as yet, the great examples
of the just, if I may through your prayers apprehend that for which I have
been apprehended by the compassion of God. Guide, therefore, this infant creeping
on the ground, and by your steps teach him to walk. For I would not have you
judge of me by the age which began with my natural birth, but by that which began
with my spiritual new birth. For as to the natural life, my age is that which
the cripple, healed by the apostles by the power of their word at the gate
Beautiful, had attained.2 But with respect to the birth of my soul, mine is as yet
the age of those infants who, being sacrificed by the death-blows which were
aimed at Christ, preceded with blood worthy of such honour the offering of the
Lamb, and were the harbingers of the passion of the Lord.1 Therefore, as I am but
a babe in the word of God, and as to spiritual age a sucking child, satisfy my
vehement desire by nourishing me with your words, the breasts of faith, and
wisdom, and love. o If you consider only the office which we both hold, you are
my brother; but if you consider the ripeness of your understanding and other
powers, you are, though my junior in years, a father to me; because the possession
of a venerable wisdom has promoted you, though young, to a maturity of worth,
and to the honour which belongs to those who are old. Foster and strengthen me,
then, for I am, as I have said, but a child in the sacred Scriptures and in
spiritual studies; and seeing that, after long contendings and frequent
shipwreck, I have but little skill, and am even now with difficulty rising above the
waves of this world, do you, who have already found firm footing on the shore,
receive me into the safe refuge of your bosom, that, if it please you, we may
together sail towards the harbour of salvation. Meanwhile, in my efforts to escape
from the dangers of this life and the abyss of sin, support me by your prayers,
as by a plank, that from this world I may escape as one does from a shipwreck,
leaving all behind.
4. I have therefore been at pains to rid myself of all baggage and
garments which might impede my progress, in order that, obedient to the command and
sustained by the help of Christ, I may swim, unhindered by any clothing for the
flesh or care for the morrow, across the sea of this present life, which,
swelling with waves and echoing with the barking of our sins, like the dogs of
Scylla, separates between us and God. I do not boast that I have accomplished this:
even if I might so boast, I would glory only in the Lord, whose it is to
accomplish what it is our part to desire; but my soul is in earnest that the judgments
of the Lord be her chief desire. You can judge how far he is on the way to
efficiently performing the will of God, who is desirous that he may desire to
perform it. Nevertheless, so far as in me lies, I have loved the beauty of His
sanctuary, and, if left to myself, would have chosen to occupy the lowest place in
the Lord's house. But to Him who was pleased to separate me from my mother's
womb, and to draw me away from the friendship of flesh and blood to His grace, it
has seemed good to raise me from the earth and from the gulf of misery, though
destitute of all merit, and to take me from the mire and from the dunghill, to
set me among the princes of His people, and appoint my place in the same rank
with yourself; so that, although you excel me in worth, I should be associated
with you as your equal in office.
5. It is not therefore by my own presumption, but .in accordance with the
pleasure and appointment of the Lord, that I appropriate the honour of which I
own myself unworthy, claiming for myself the bond of brotherhood with you; for
I am persuaded, from the holiness of your character, that you are taught by the
truth "not to mind high things, but to condescend to men of low estate."
Therefore I hope that you will readily and kindly accept the assurance of the love
which in humility we bear to you, and which, I trust, you have already received
through the most blessed priest Alypius, whom (with his permission) we call our
father. For he doubtless has himself given you an example of loving us both
while we are yet strangers, and above our desert; for he has found it possible,
in the spirit of far-reaching and self-diffusing genuine love, to behold us by
affection, and to come in contact with us by writing, even when we were unknown
to him, and severed by a wide interval both of land and sea. He has presented
us with the first proofs of his affection to us, and evidences of your love, in
the above-mentioned gift of books. And as he was greatly concerned that we
should be constrained to ardent love for you, when known to us, not by his
testimony alone, but more fully by the eloquence and the faith seen in your own
writings; so do we believe that he has taken care, with equal zeal, to bring you to
imitate his example in cherishing a very warm love towards us in return. 0
brother in Christ, beloved, venerable, and ardently longed for, we desire that the
grace of God, as it is with you, may abide for ever. We salute, with the utmost
affection of cordial brotherhood, your whole household, and every one who is in
the Lord a companion and imitator of your holiness. We beg you to bless, in
accepting it, one loaf which we have sent to your Charity, in token of our oneness
of heart with you.
LETTER XXVI. (A.D. 395.)
TO LICENTIUS2 FROM AUGUSTIN.
1. I have with difficulty found an opportunity for writing to you: who
would believe it ? Yet Licentius must take my word for it. I do not wish you to
search curiously for the causes and reasons of this; for though they could be
given, your confidence' in me acquits me of obligation to furnish them. Moreover,
I received your letters by messengers who were not available for the carrying
back of my reply. And as to the thing which you asked me to ask, I attended to
it by letter as far as it seemed to me right to bring it forward; but with what
result you may have seen. If I have not yet' succeeded, I will press the matter
more earnestly, either when the result comes to my knowledge, or when you
yourself remind me of it. Thus far I have spoken to you of the things in which we
hear the sound of the chains of this life. I pass from them. Receive now in a
few words the utterance of my heart's anxieties concerning your hope for
eternity, and the question how a way may be opened for you to God.
2. I fear, my dear Licentius, that you, while repeatedly rejecting and
dreading the restraints of wisdom, as if these were bonds, are becoming firmly and
fatally in bondage to mortal things. For wisdom, though at first it restrains
men, and subdues them by some labours in the way of discipline, gives them
presently true freedom, and enriches 'them, when free, with the possession and
enjoyment of itself; and though at first it educates them by the help of temporary
restraints, it folds them afterwards in its eternal embrace, the sweetest and
strongest of all conceivable bonds. I admit, indeed, that these initial
restraints are somewhat hard to bear; but the ultimate restraints of wisdom I cannot
call grievous, because they are most sweet; nor can I call them easy, because
they are most firm: in short, they possess a quality which cannot be described,
but which can be the object of faith, and hope, and love. The bonds of this
world, on the other hand, have a real harshness and a delusive charm, certain pain
and uncertain pleasure, hard toil and troubled rest, an experience full of
misery, and a hope devoid of happiness. And are you submitting neck and hands and
feet to these chains, desiring to be burdened with honours of this kind,
reckoning your labours to be in vain if they are not thus rewarded, and spontaneously
aspiring to become fixed in that to which neither persuasion nor force ought to
have induced you to go? Perhaps you answer, in the words of the slave in
Terence,
"So ho, you are pouring out wise words here."
Receive my words, then, that I may pour them out without wasting them. But if
I sing, while you prefer to dance to another tune, even thus I do not regret my
effort to give advice; for the exercise of singing yields pleasure even when
the song fails to stir to responsive .motion the person for whom it is sung with
loving care. There were in your letters some verbal mistakes which attracted
my attention, but I judge it trifling to discuss these when solicitude about
your actions and your whole life disturbs me.
3. If your verses were marred by defective arrangement, or violated the
laws of prosody, or grated on the ears of the hearer by imperfect rhythm, you
would doubtless be ashamed, and you would lose no time, you would take no rest,
until you arranged, corrected, remodelled, and balanced your composition,
devoting any amount of earnest study and toil to the acquisition and practice of the
art of versification: but when you yourself are marred by disorderly living,
when you violate the laws of God, when your life accords neither with the
honourable desires of friends on your behalf, nor with the light given by your own
learning, do you think this is a trifle to be cast out of sight and out of mind ?
As if, forsooth, you thought yourself of less value than the sound of your own
voice, and esteemed it a smaller matter to displease God by ill-ordered life,
than to provoke the censure of grammarians by ill-ordered syllables.
4. You write thus: "Oh that the morning light of other days could with its
gladdening chariot bring back to me bright hours that are gone, which we spent
together in the heart of Italy and among the high mountains, when proving the
generous leisure and pure privileges which belong to the good ! Neither stern
winter with its frozen snow, nor the rude blasts of Zephyrs and 'raging of
Boreas, could deter me from following your footsteps with eager tread. You have only
to express your wish." '
Woe be to me if I do not express this wish, nay, if I do not compel and
command, or beseech and implore you to follow me. If, however, your ear is shut
against my voice, let it be open to your own voice, and give heed to your own
poem: listen to yourself, O friend, most unyielding, unreasonable, and
unimpressible. What care I for your tongue of gold, while your heart is of iron? How
shall I, not in verses, but in lamentations, sufficiently bewail these verses of
yours, in which I discover what a soul, what a mind that is which I am not
permitted to seize and present as an offering to our God ? You are waiting for me to
express the wish that you should become good, and enjoy rest and happiness: as
if any day could shine more pleasantly on me than that in which I shall enjoy
in God your gifted mind, or as if you did not know how I hunger and thirst for
you, or as if you did not in this poem itself confess this. Return to the mind
in which you wrote these things; say to me now again, "You have only to express
your wish." Here then is my wish, if my expression of it be enough to move you
to comply: Give yourself to me- give yourself to my Lord, who is the Lord of us
both and who has endowed you with your faculties: for what am I but through
Him your servant, and under Him your fellow-servant?
5. Nay, has not He given expression to His will? Hear the gospel: it
declares, "Jesus stood and cried.' ....Come unto me, all ye that labour and are
heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for
I am meek and lowly in heart: so shall ye find rest to your souls. For my yoke
is easy, and my burden is light."2 If these words are not heard, or are heard
only with the ear, do you, Licentius, expect Augustin to issue his command to
his fellow-servant, and not rather complain that the will of his Lord is
despised, when He orders, nay invites, and as it were entreats all who labour to seek
rest in Him ? But to your strong and proud neck, forsooth, the yoke of the world
seems easier than the yoke of Christ; yet consider, in regard to the yoke
which He imposes, by whom and with what recompense it is imposed. Go to Campania,
learn in the case of Paulinus, that eminent and holy servant of God, how great
worldly honours he shook off, without hesitation, from neck truly noble because
humble, in order that he might place it, as he has done, beneath the yoke of
Christ; and now, with his mind at rest, he meekly rejoices in Him as the guide of
his way. Go, learn with what wealth of mind he offers to Him the sacrifice of
praise, rendering unto Him all the good which he has received from Him, test,
by failing to store all that he has in Him from whom he received it, he should
lose it all.
6. Why are you so excited? why so wavering? why do you turn your ear away
from us, and lend it to the imaginations of fatal pleasures ? They are false,
they perish, and they lead to perdition. They are false, Licentius. "May the
truth," as you desire, "be made plain to us by demonstration, may it flow more
clear than Eridanus." The truth alone declares what is true: Christ is the truth;
let us come to Him that we may be released from labour. That He may heal us,
let us take His yoke upon us, and learn of Him who is meek and lowly in heart,
and we shall find rest unto our souls: for His yoke is easy, and His burden is
light. The devil desires to wear you as an ornament. Now, if you found in the
earth a golden chalice, you would give it to the Church of God. But you have
received' from God talents that are spiritually valuable as gold; and do you devote
these to the service of your lusts, and surrender yourself to Satan ? Do it
not, I entreat you. May you at some time perceive with what a sad and sorrowful
heart I have written these things; and I pray you, have pity on me if you have
ceased to be precious in your own eyes.
LETTER XXVII. (A.D. 395.)
TO MY LORD, HOLY AND VENERABLE, AND WORTHY OF HIGHEST PRAISE IN CHRIST, MY
BROTHER PAULINUS, AUGUSTIN SENDS GREETING IN THE LORD.
1. O excellent man and excellent brother, there was a time when you were
unknown to my mind; and I charge my mind to bear patiently your being still
unknown to my eyes, but it almost--nay, altogether--refuses to obey. Does it indeed
bear this patiently ? If so, why then does a longing for your presence rack my
inmost soul ? For if I were suffering bodily infirmities, and these did not
interrupt the serenity 'of my mind, I might be justly said to bear them
patiently; but when I cannot bear with equanimity the privation of not seeing you, it
would be intolerable were I to call my state of mind patience. Nevertheless, it
would perhaps be still more intolerable if I were to be found patient while
absent from you, seeing that you are such an one as you are. It is well, therefore,
that I am unsatisfied under a privation which is such that, if I were
satisfied under it, every one would justly be dissatisfied with me. What has befallen
me is strange, yet true: I grieve because I do not see you, and my grief itself
comforts me; for I neither admire nor covet a fortitude easily consoled under
the absence of good men such ins you are. For do we not long for the heavenly
Jerusalem? and the more impatiently we long for it, do we not the more patiently
submit to all things for its sake? Who can so withhold himself from joy in
seeing you, as to feel no pain when you are. no longer seen ? I at least can do
neither; and seeing that if I could, it could only be by trampling on right and
natural feeling, I rejoice that I cannot, and in this rejoicing I find some
consolation. It is therefore not the removal, but the contemplation, of this sorrow
that consoles me. Blame me not, I beseech you, with that devout seriousness of
spirit which so eminently distinguishes you; say not that I do wrong to grieve
because of my not yet knowing you, when you have disclosed to my sight your
mind, which is the inner man. For if, when sojourning in any place, or in the city
to which you belong, I had come to know you as my brother and friend, and as
one so eminent as a Christian, so noble as a man, how could you think that it
would be no disappointment to me if I were not permitted to know your dwelling?
How, then, can I but mourn because I have not yet seen your face and form, the
dwelling-place of that mind which I have come to know as if it were my own?
2. For I have read your letter, which flows with milk and honey, which
exhibits the simplicity of heart wherewith, under the guidance of piety, you seek
the Lord, and which brings glory and honour to Him. The brethren have read it
also, and find unwearied and ineffable satisfaction in those abundant and
excellent gifts with which God has endowed you. As many as have read it carry it away
with them, because, while they read, it carries them away. Words cannot
express how sweet is the savour of Christ which your letter breathes. How strong is
the wish to be more fully acquainted with you which that letter awakens by
presenting you to our sight ! for it at once permits us to discern and prompts us to
desire you. For the more effectually that it makes us in a certain sense
realize your presence, the more does it render us impatient under your absence. All
love you as seen therein, and wish to be loved by you. Praise and thanksgiving
are offered to God, by whose grace you are what you are. In your letter, Christ
is awakened that He may be pleased to calm the winds and the waves for you,
directing your steps towards His perfect stedfastness.1 In it the reader beholds
a wife2 who does not bring her husband to effeminacy, but by union to him is
brought herself to share the strength of his nature; and unto her in you, as
completely one with you, and bound to you by spiritual ties which owe their
strength to their purity, we desire to return our salutations with the respect due to
your Holiness. In it, the cedars of Lebanon, levelled to the ground, and
fashioned by the skilful craft of love into the form of the Ark, cleave the waves of
this world, fearless of decay. In it, glory is scorned that it may be secured,
and the world given up that it may be gained. In it, the little ones, yea, the
mightier sons of Babylon, the sins of turbulence and pride, are dashed against
the rock.
3. These and other such most delightful and hallowed spectacles are
presented to the readers of your letter, -- that letter which exhibits a true faith,
a good hope, a pure love. How it breathes to us your thirst, your longing and
fainting for the courts of the Lord ! With what holy love it is inspired ! How
it overflows with the abundant treasure of a true heart! What thanksgivings it
renders to God ! What blessings it procures from Him! Is it elegance or fervour,
light or life-giving power, which shines most in your letter? For how can it
at once soothe us and animate us ? how can it combine fertilizing rains with the
brightness of a cloudless sky ? How is this ? I ask; or how shall I repay you,
except by giving myself to be wholly yours in Him whose you wholly are? If
this be little, it is at least all I have to give. But you have made me think it
not little, by your deigning to honour me in that letter with such praises, that
when I requite you by giving myself to you, I would be chargeable if I counted
the gift a small one, with refusing to believe your testimony. I am ashamed,
indeed, to believe so much good spoken of myself, but I am yet more unwilling to
refuse to believe you. I have one way of escape from the dilemma: I shall not
credit your estimate of my character, because I do not recognise myself in the
portrait you have drawn; but I shall believe myself to be beloved by you,
because I perceive and feel this beyond all doubt. Thus I shall be found neither
rash in judging of myself, nor ungrateful for your esteem. Moreover, when I offer
myself to you, it is not a small offering; for I offer one whom you very warmly
love, and one who, though he is not what you suppose him to be, is
nevertheless one for whom you are praying that he may become such. And your prayers I now
beg the more earnestly, lest, thinking me to be already what I am not, you
should be less solicitous for the supply of that which I lack.
4. The bearer of this letter 3 to your Excellency and most eminent Charity
is one of my dearest friends, and most intimately known to me from early
years. His name is mentioned in the treatise De Religione, which your Holiness, as
you indicate in your letter, has read with very great pleasure, doubtless
because it was made more acceptable to you by the recommendation of so good a man as
he who sent it to you.4 I would not wish you, however, to give credence to the
statements which, perchance, one who is so intimately my friend may have made
in praise of me. For I have often observed, that, without intending to say what
was untrue, he was, by the bias of friendship, mistaken in his opinion
concerning me, and that he thought me to be already possessed of many things, for the
gift of which my heart earnestly waited on the Lord. And if he did such things
in my presence, who may not conjecture that out of the fulness of his heart he
may utter many things more excellent than true concerning me when absent ? He
will submit to your esteemed attention, and review all my treatises; for I am not
aware of having written anything, either addressed to those who are beyond the
pale of the Church, or to the brethren, which is not in his possession. But
when you are reading these, my holy Paulinus, let not those things which Truth
has spoken by my weak instrumentality, so carry you away as to prevent your
carefully observing what I myself have spoken, lest, while you drink in with
eagerness the things good and true which have been given to me as a servant, you
should forget to pray for the pardon of my errors and mistakes. For in all that
shall, if observed, justly displease you, I myself am seen; but in all which in my
books is justly approved by you, through the gift of the Holy Spirit bestowed
on you, He is to be loved, He is to be praised, with whom is the fountain of
life, and in whose light we shall see light,1 not darkly as we do here, but face
to face? When, in reading over my writings, I discover in them anything which is
due to the working of the old leaven in me, I blame myself for it with true
sorrow; but if anything which I have spoken is, by God's gift, from the
unleavened bread of sincerity and truth, I rejoice therein with trembling. For what have
we that we have not received ? Yet it may be said, his portion is better whom
God has endowed with larger and more numerous gifts, than his on whom smaller
and fewer have been conferred. True; but, on the other hand, it is better to
have a small gift, and to render to Him due thanks for it, than, having a large
gift, to wish to claim the merit of it as our own. Pray for me, my brother, that
I may make such acknowledgments sincerely, and that my heart may not be at
variance with my tongue. Pray, I beseech you, that, not coveting praise to myself,
but rendering praise to the Lord, I may worship Him; and I shall be safe from
mine enemies.
5. There is yet another thing which may move you to love more warmly the
brother who bears my letter; for he is a kinsman of the venerable and truly
blessed bishop Alypius, whom you love with your whole heart, and justly: for
whoever thinks highly of that man, thinks highly of the great mercy and wonderful
gifts which God has bestowed on him. Accordingly, when he had read your request,
desiring him to write for you a sketch of his history, and, while willing to do,
it because of your kindness, was yet unwilling to do it because of his
humility, I, seeing him unable to decide between the respective claims of love and
humility, transferred the burden from his shoulders to my own, for he enjoined me
by letter to do so. I shall therefore, with God's help, soon place in your
heart Alypius just as he is: for this I chiefly feared, that he would be afraid to
declare all that God has conferred on him, lest (since what he writes would be
read by others besides you) he should seem to any who are less competent to
discriminate to be commending not God's goodness bestowed on men, but his own
merits; and that thus you, who know what construction to put on such statements,
would, through his regard for the infirmity of others, be deprived of that which
to you as a brother ought to be imparted. This I would have done already, and
you would already be reading my description of him, had not my brother suddenly
resolved to set out earlier than we expected. For him I bespeak a welcome from
your heart and from your lips as kindly as if your acquaintance with him was
not beginning now, but of as long standing as my own. For if he does not shrink
from laying himself open to your heart, he will be in great measure, if not
completely, healed by your lips; for I desire him to be often made to hear the
words of those who cherish for their friends a higher love than that which is of
this world.
6. Even if Romanianus had not been going to visit your Charity, I had
resolved to recommend to you by letter his son [Licentius], dear to me as my own
(whose name you will find also in some of my books), in order that he may be
encouraged, exhorted, and instructed, not so much by the sound of your voice, as by
the example of your spiritual strength. I desire earnestly, that while his
life is yet in the green blade, the tares may be turned into wheat, and he may
believe those who know by experience the dangers to which he is eager to expose
himself. From the poem of my young friend, and my letter to him, your most
benevolent and considerate wisdom may perceive my grief, fear, and care on his
account. I am not without hope that, by the Lord's favour, I may through your means
be set free from such disquietude regarding him.
As you are now about to read much that I have written, your love will be
much more gratefully esteemed by me, if, moved by compassion, and judging
impartially, you correct and reprove whatever displeases you. For you are not one
whose oil anointing my head would make me .afraid.3
The brethren, not those only who dwell with u's, and those who, dwelling
elsewhere, serve God in the same way as we do, but almost all who are in Christ
our warm friends, send you salutations, along with the expression of their
veneration and affectionate longing for you as a brother, as a saint, and as a
man.4 I dare not ask; but if you have any leisure from ecclesiastical duties, you
may see for what favour all Africa, with myself, is thirsting.
LETTER XXVIII. (A.D. 394 OR 395.)
TO JEROME, THE MOST BELOVED LORD, AND BROTHER AND FELLOW-PRESBYTER, WORTHY OF
BEING HONOURED AND EMBRACED WITH THE SINCEREST AFFECTIONATE DEVOTION, AUGUSTIN
SENDS GREETING.1
CHAP. I.- 1. Never was the face of any one more familiar to another, than the
peaceful, happy, and truly noble diligence of your studies in the Lord has become to
me. For although I long greatly to be acquainted with you, I feel that already my
knowledge of you is deficient in respect of nothing but a very small part of
you, -- namely, your personal appearance; and even as to this, I cannot deny
that since my most blessed brother Alypius (now invested with the office of
bishop, of which he was then truly worthy) has seen you, and has on his return been
seen by me, it has been almost completely imprinted on my mind by his report of
you; nay, I may say that before his return, when he saw you there, I was seeing
you myself with his eyes. For any one who knows us may say of him and me, that
in body only, and not in mind, we are two, so great is the union of heart, so
firm the intimate friendship subsisting between us; though in merit we are not
alike, for his is far above mine. Seeing, therefore, that you love me, both of
old through the communion of spirit by which we are knit to each other, and
more recently through what you know of me from the mouth of my friend, I feel that
it is not presumptuous in me (as it would be in one wholly unknown to you) to
recommend to your brotherly esteem the brother Profuturus, in whom we trust
that the happy omen of his name (Good-speed) may be fulfilled through our efforts
furthered after this by your aid; although, perhaps, it may be presumptuous on
this ground, that he is so great a man, that it would be much more fitting that
I should be commended to you by him, than he by me. I ought perhaps to write
no more, if I were willing to content myself with the style of a formal letter
of introduction; but my mind overflows into conference with you, concerning the
studies with which we are occupied in Christ Jesus our Lord, who is pleased to
furnish us largely through your love with many benefits, and some helps by the
way, in the path which He has pointed out to His' followers.
CHAP. II.--2. We therefore, and with us all that are devoted to study in the African
churches, beseech you not to refuse to devote care and labour to the translation
of the books of those who have written in the Greek language most able
commentaries on our Scriptures. You may thus put us also in possession of these men,
and especially of that one whose name you seem to have singular pleasure in
sounding forth in your writings [Origen]. But I beseech you not to devote your
labour to the work of translating into Latin the sacred canonical books, unless you
follow the method in which you have translated Job, viz. with the addition of
notes, to let it be seen plainly what differences there are between this version
of yours and that of the LXX., whose authority is worthy of highest esteem.
For my own part, I cannot sufficiently express my wonder that anything should at
this date be found in the Hebrew Mss. which escaped so many translators
perfectly acquainted with the language. I say nothing of the LXX., regarding whose
harmony in mind and spirit, surpassing that which is found in even one man, I dare
not in any way pronounce a decided opinion, except that in my judgment, beyond
question, very high authority must in this work of translation be conceded to
them. I am more perplexed by those translators who, though enjoying the
advantage of labouring after the LXX. had completed their work, and although well
acquainted, as it is reported, with the force of Hebrew words and phrases, and with
Hebrew syntax, have not only failed to agree among themselves, but have left
man), things which, even after so long a time, still remain to be discovered and
brought to light. Now these things were either obscure or plain: if they were
obscure, it is believed that you are as likely to have been mistaken as the
others; if they were plain, it is not believed that they [the LXX.3 could possibly
have been mistaken. Having stated the grounds of my perplexity, I appeal to
your kindness to give me an answer regarding this matter.
CHAP. III.-- 3. I have been reading also some writings, ascribed to you, on the Epistles
of the Apostle Paul. In reading your exposition of the Epistle to the
Galatians, that passage came to my hand in which the Apostle Peter is called back from
a course of dangerous dissimulation. To find there the defence of falsehood
undertaken, whether by you, a man of such weight, or by any author (if it is the
writing of another), :causes me, I must confess, great sorrow, until at least
those things which decide my opinion in the matter are refuted, if indeed they
admit of refutation. For it seems to me that most disastrous consequences must
follow upon our believing that anything false is found in the sacred books: that
is to say, that the men by whom the Scripture has been given to us, and
committed to writing, did put down in these books anything false. It is one question
whether it may be at any time the duty of a good man to deceive; but it is
another question whether it can have been the duty of a writer of Holy Scripture to
deceive: nay, it is not another question -- it is no question at all. For if
you once admit into such a high sanctuary of authority 'one false statement as
made in the way of duty,1 there will not be left a single sentence of those books
which, if appearing to any one difficult in practice or hard to believe, may
not by the same fatal rule be explained away, as a statement in which,
intentionally, and under a sense of duty, the author declared what was not true.
4. For if the Apostle Paul did not speak the truth when, finding fault
with the Apostle Peter, he said: "If thou, being a Jew, livest after the manner of
Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, why compellest thou the Gentiles to live as
do the Jews?" -- if, indeed, Peter seemed to him to be doing what was right,
and if, notwithstanding, he, in order to soothe troublesome opponents, both said
and wrote that Peter did what was wrong;2-- if we say thus, what then shall be
our answer when perverse men such as he himself prophetically described arise,
forbidding marriage,3 if they defend themselves by saying that, in all which
the same apostle wrote in confirmation of the lawfulness of marriage? he was, on
account of men who, through love for their wives, might become troublesome
opponents, declaring what was false,-- saying these things, forsooth, not because
he believed them, but because their opposition might thus be averted? It is
unnecessary to quote many parallel examples. For even things which pertain to the
praises of God might be represented as piously intended falsehoods, written in
order that love for Him might be enkindled in men who were slow of heart; and
thus nowhere in the sacred books shall the authority of pure truth stand sure. Do
we not observe the great care with which the same apostle commends the truth
to us, when he says: "And if Christ be not risen, then is our: preaching vain,
and your faith is also vain: yea, I and we are found false witnesses of God;
because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ; whom He raised not up,
if so be that the dead rise not." 5 If any one said to him, I "Why are you so
shocked by this falsehood, when the thing which you have said, even if it were
false, tends very greatly to the glory of God ?" would he not, abhorring the
madness of such a man, with every word and sign which could express his feelings,
open clearly the secret ' depths of his own heart, protesting that to speak :
well of a falsehood uttered on behalf of God, was a crime not less, perhaps
even greater, than to speak ill of the truth concerning Him? We must therefore be
careful to secure, in order to our knowledge of the divine Scriptures, the
guidance only of such a man as is imbued with a high reverence for the sacred
books, and a profound persuasion of their truth, preventing him from flattering
himself in any part of them with the hypothesis of a statement being made not
because it was true, but because it was expedient, and making him rather pass by
what he does not understand, than set up his own feelings above that truth. For,
truly, when he pronounces anything to be untrue, he demands that he be believed
in preference, and endeavours to shake our confidence in the authority of the
divine Scriptures.
5. For my part, I would devote all the strength which the Lord grants me,
to show that every one of those texts which are wont to be quoted in defence of
the expediency of falsehood ought to be otherwise understood, in order that
everywhere the sure truth of these passages themselves may be consistently
maintained. For as statements adduced in evidence must not be false, neither ought
they to favour falsehood. This, however, I leave to your own judgment. For if you
apply more thorough attention to the passage, perhaps you will see it much
more readily than I have done. To this more careful study that piety will move
you, by which you discern that the authority of the divine Scriptures becomes
unsettled (so that every one may believe what he wishes, and reject what he does
not wish) if this be once admitted, that the men by whom these things have been
delivered unto us, could in their writings state some things which were not
true, from considerations of duty;s unless, perchance, you propose to furnish us
with certain rules by which we may know when a falsehood might or might not
become a duty. If this can be done, I beg you to set forth these rules with
reasonings which may be neither equivocal nor precarious; and I beseech you by our
Lord, in whom Truth was incarnate, not to consider me burdensome or presumptuous in
making this request. For a mistake of mine which is in the interest of truth
cannot deserve great blame, if indeed it deserves blame at all, when it is
possible for you to use truth in the interest of falsehood without doing wrong.
CHAP. IV. -- 6. Of many other things I would wish to discourse with your most ingenuous
heart, and to take counsel with you concerning Christian studies; but this
desire could not be satisfied within the limits of any letter. I may do this more
fully by means of the brother bearing this letter, whom I rejoice in sending to
share and profit by your sweet and useful conversation. Nevertheless, although
I do not reckon myself superior in any respect to him, even he may take less
from you than I would desire; and he will excuse my saying so, for I confess
myself to hay, more room for receiving from you than he has. I see his mind to be
already more fully stored, in which unquestionably he excels me. Therefore,
when he returns, as I trust he may happily do by God's blessing, and when I become
a sharer in all with which his heart has been richly furnished by you, there
will still be a consciousness of void unsatisfied in me, and a longing for
personal fellowship with you. Hence of the two I shall be the poorer, and he the
richer, then as now. This brother carries with him some of my writings, which if
you condescend to read, I implore you to review them with candid and brotherly
strictness. For the words of Scripture, "The righteous shall correct me in
compassion, and reprove me; but the oil of the sinner shall i not anoint my head,"1
I understand to mean that he is the truer friend who by his censure heals me,
than the one who by flattery anoints my head. I find the greatest difficulty in
exercising a right judgment when I read over what I have written, being either
too cautious or too rash. For I sometimes see my own faults, but I prefer to
hear them reproved by those who are better able to judge than I am; lest after I
have, perhaps justly, charged myself with error, I begin again to flatter
myself, and think that my censure has arisen from an undue mistrust of my own
judgment.
LETTER XXIX. (A.D. 395.)
A LETTER FROM THE PRESBYTER OF THE DISTRICT OF HIPPO TO ALYPIUS THE BISHOP OF
THAGASTE, CONCERNING THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE BIRTH OF LEONTIUS,2 FORMERLY BISHOP
OF HIPPO.
1. In the absence of brother Macharius, I have not been able to write
anything definite concerning a matter about which I could not feel otherwise than
anxious: it is said, however, that he will soon return, and whatever can be with
God's help done in the matter shall be done. Although also our brethren,
citizens of your town, who were with us, might sufficiently assure you of our
solicitude on their behalf when the), returned, nevertheless+ the thing which the
Lord has granted to me is one worthy to be the subject of that epistolary
intercourse which ministers so much to the comfort of us both; it is, moreover, a thing
in the obtaining of which I believe that I have been greatly assisted by your
own solicitude regarding it, seeing that it could not but constrain you to
intercession on our behalf.
2. Therefore let me not fail to relate to your Charity what has taken
place; so that, as you joined us in pouring out prayers for this mercy before it
was obtained, you may now join us in rendering thanks for it after it has been
received. When I was informed after your departure that some were becoming openly
violent, and declaring that they could not submit to the prohibition
(intimated while you were here) of that feast which they call Laetitia, vainly
attempting to disguise their revels under a fair name, it happened most opportunely for
me, by the hidden fore-ordination of the Almighty God, that on the fourth holy
day that chapter of the Gospel fell to be expounded in ordinary course, in
which the words occur: "Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye
your pearls before swine." 3 I discoursed therefore concerning dogs and swine
in such a way as to compel those who clamour with obstinate barking against the
divine precepts, and who are given up to the abominations of carnal pleasures,
to blush for shame; and followed it up by saying, that they might plainly see
how criminal it was to do, under the name of religion, within the walls of the
church, that which, if it were practised by them in their own houses, would make
it necessary for them to be debarred from that which is holy, and from the
privileges which are the pearls of the Church.
3. Although these words were well received, nevertheless, as few had
attended the meeting, all had not been done which so great an emergency required.
When, however, this discourse was, according to the ability and zeal of each,
made known abroad by those who had heard it, it found many opponents. But when the
morning of Quadragesima came round, and a great multitude had assembled at the
hour of exposition of Scripture, that passage in the Gospel was read in which
our Lord said, concerning those sellers who were driven out of the temple, and
the tables of the money-changers which He had overthrown, that the house of His
Father had been made a den of thieves instead of a house l of prayer.4 After
awakening their attention by bringing forward the subject of immoderate
indulgence in wine, I myself also read this chapter, land added to it an argument to
prove with how much greater anger and vehemence our Lord 'would cast forth
drunken revels, which are everywhere disgraceful, from that temple from which He thus
drove out merchandise lawful elsewhere, especially when the things sold were
those required for the sacrifices appointed in that dispensation; and I asked
them whether they regarded a place occupied by men selling what was necessary, or
one used by men drinking to excess, as bearing the greater resemblance to a
den of thieves.
4. Moreover, as passages of Scripture which I had prepared were held ready
to be put into my hands, I went on to say that the Jewish nation, with all its
lack of spirituality in religion, never held feasts, even temperate feasts,
much less feasts 'disgraced by intemperance, in their temple, in which at that
time the body and blood of the Lord were not yet offered, and that in history
they are not found to have been excited by wine on any public occasion bearing the
name of worship, except when they held a feast before the idol which they had
made.1 While I said these things I took the manuscript from the attendant, and
read that whole passage. Reminding them of the words of the apostle, who says,
in order to distinguish Christians from the obdurate Jews, that they are his
epistle written, not on tables of stone, but on the fleshly tables of the heart,2
I asked further, with the deepest sorrow, how it was that, although Moses the
servant of God broke both the tables of stone because of these rulers of
Israel, I could not break the hearts of those who, though men of the New Testament
dispensation, were desiring in their celebration of saints' days to repeat often
the public perpetration of excesses ,of which the people of the Old Testament
economy were guilty only once, and that in an act of idolatry.
5. Having then given back the manuscript of Exodus, I proceeded to
enlarge, so far as my time permitted, on the crime of drunkenness, and took up the
writings of the Apostle Paul, and showed among what sins it is classed by him,
.reading the text, "If any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or
covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an
one (ye ought) not even to eat;" 3 pathetically reminding them how great is
our danger in eating with those who are guilty of intemperance even in their own
houses. I read also what is added, a little further on, in the same epistle:
"Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor
effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor
drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And
such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are
justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God." 4 After
reading these, I charged them to consider how believers could hear these words,
"but ye are washed," if they still tolerated in their own hearts--that is, in
God's inner temple--the abominations of such lusts as these against which the
kingdom of heaven is shut. Then I went on to that passage: "When ye come together
into one place, this is not to eat the Lord's supper: for in eating, every one
taketh before other his own supper; and one is hungry, and another is drunken.
What! have ye not houses to eat and to drink in, or despise ye the church of God
?" s After reading which, I more especially begged them to remark that not
even innocent and temperate feasts were permitted in the church: for the apostle
said not, "Have ye not houses of your own in which to be drunken ? "--as if it
was drunkenness alone which was unlawful in the church; but, "Have ye not houses
to eat and to drink in?" --things lawful in themselves, but not lawful in the
church, inasmuch as men have their own houses in which they may be recruited by
necessary food: whereas now, by the corruption of the times and the relaxation
of morals, we have been brought so low, that, no longer insisting upon
sobriety in the houses of men, all that we venture to demand is, that the realm of
tolerated excess be restricted to their own homes.
6. I reminded them also of a passage in the Gospel which I had expounded
the day before, m which it is said of the false prophets: "Ye shall know them by
their fruits." 6 I also bade them remember that in that place our works are
signified by the word fruits. Then I asked among what kind of fruits drunkenness
was named, and read that passage in the Epistle to the Galatians: "Now the
works of the flesh are manifest, which are these: adultery, fornication,
uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath,
strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murder, drunkenness, revellings, and such
like; of the which I tell you before, as I have told you in time past, that
they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God." 7 After these
words, I asked how, when God has commanded that Christians be known by their
fruits,' we could be known as Christians by this fruit of drunkenness ? I added
also, that we must read what follows there: "But the fruit of the Spirit is love,
joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness,
temperance."s And I pied with them to consider how shameful and lamentable it would be, if,
not content with living at home in the practice of these works of the flesh,
they even wished by them, forsooth, to honour the church, and to fill the whole
area of so large a place of worship, if they were permitted, with crowds of
revellers and drunkards: and yet would not present to God those fruits of the
Spirit which, by the authority of Scripture, and by my groans, they were called to
yield, and by the offering of which they would most suitably celebrate the
saints' days.
7. This being finished, I returned the manuscript; and being asked to
speak,' I set before I their eyes with all my might, as the danger itself
constrained me, and as the Lord was pleased to give strength, the danger shared by them
who were committed to my care, and by me, who must give account to the Chief
Shepherd, and implored them by His humiliation, by the unparalleled insults, the
buffetings and spitting on the face which He endured, by His pierced hands and
crown of thorns, and by His cross and blood, to have pity on me at least, if
they were displeased with themselves, and to consider the inexpressible love
cherished towards me by] the aged and venerable Valerius, who had not scrupled to
assign to me for their sakes the perilous burden of expounding to them the word
of truth, and had often told them that in my coming here his prayers were
answered; not rejoicing, surely, that I had come to share or to behold the death of
our hearers, but rejoicing that I had come to share his labours for the eternal
life. In conclusion, I told them that I was resolved to trust in Him who
cannot lie, and who has given us a promise by the mouth of the prophet, saying of
our Lord Jesus Christ, "If His children forsake my law, and walk not in my
judgments ) if they break my statutes, and keep not my commandments j then will I
visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes:
nevertheless my loving-kindness will 12 not utterly take from Him." 2 I declared,
therefore, that I put my trust in Him, that if they despised the weighty words which
had now been read and spoken to them, He would visit them with the rod and
with stripes, and not leave them to be condemned with the world. In this appeal I
put forth all the power in thought and utterance which, in an emergency j.. so
great and hazardous, our Saviour and Ruler was pleased to supply. I did not
move them' to weep by first weeping myself; but while these things were being
spoken, I own that, moved by the tears which they began to shed, I myself could not
refrain from following their example. And when we had thus wept together, I
concluded my sermon with full persuasion that they would be restrained by it
from the abuses denounced.
8. Next morning, however, when the day dawned, which so many were
accustomed to devote to excess in eating and drinking, I received notice that some,
even of those who were present when I preached, had not yet desisted from
complaint, and that so great was the power of detestable custom with them, that, using
no other argument, they asked, "Wherefore is this now prohibited? Were they not
Christians who in former times did not interfere with this practice?" On
hearing this, I knew not what more powerful means for influencing them I could
devise; but resolved, in the event of their judging it proper to persevere, that
after reading in : Ezekiel's prophecy that the watchman has delivered his own soul
if he has given warning, even though the persons warned refuse to give heed to
him, I would shake my garments and depart. But then the Lord showed me that He
leaves us not alone, and taught me how He encourages us to trust Him; for
before the time at which I had to ascend the pulpit,3 the very persons of whose
complaint against interference with long-established custom I had heard came to
me. Receiving them kindly, I by a few words brought them round to a right
opinion; and when it came to the time for my discourse, having laid aside the lecture
which I had prepared as now unnecessary, I said a few things concerning the
question mentioned above, "Wherefore now prohibit this custom?" saying that to
those who might propose it the briefest and best answer would be this: "Let us now
at last put down what ought to have been earlier prohibited."
9. Lest, however, any slight should seem to be put by us on those who,
before our time, either tolerated or did not dare to put down such manifest
excesses of an undisciplined multitude, I explained to them the circumstances out of
which this custom seems to have necessarily risen in the Church, --namely, that
when, in the peace which came after such numerous and violent persecutions,
crowds of heathen who wished to assume the Christian religion were kept back,
because, having been accustomed to celebrate the feasts connected with their
worship of idols in revelling and drunkenness, they could not easily refrain from
pleasures so hurtful and so habitual, it had seemed good to our ancestors, making
for the time a concession to this infirmity, to permit them to celebrate,
instead of the festivals which they renounced, other feasts in honour of the holy
martyrs, which were observed, not as before with a profane design, but with
similar self-indulgence. I added that now upon them, as persons bound together in
the name of Christ, and submissive to the yoke of His august authority, the
wholesome restraints of sobriety were laid -- restraints with which the honour and
fear due to Him who appointed them should move them to comply -and that
therefore the time had now come in which all who did not dare to cast off the
Christian profession should begin to walk according to Christ's will; and being now
confirmed Christians, should reject those concessions i to infirmity which were
made only for a time in order to their becoming such.
10. I then exhorted them to imitate the example of the churches beyond the
sea, in some of which these practices had never been tolerated, while in
others they had been already put down by the people complying with the counsel of
good ecclesiastical rulers; and as the examples of daily excess in the use of
wine in the church of the blessed Apostle Peter were brought forward in defence of
the practice, I said in the first place, that I had heard that these excesses
had been often forbidden, but because the place was at a distance from the
bishop's control, and because in such a city the multitude of carnally-minded
persons was great, the foreigners especially, of whom there is a constant influx,
clinging to that practice with an obstinacy proportioned to their ignorance, the
suppression of so great an evil had not yet been possible. If, however, I
continued, we would honour the Apostle Peter, we ought to hear his words, and look
much more to the epistles by which his mind is made known to us, than to the
place of worship, by which it is not made known; and immediately taking the'
manuscript, I read his own words: "Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in
the flesh arm yourselves likewise with the same mind for he that hath suffered
in the flesh hath ceased from sin; that he no longer should live the rest of
his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God. For the time
past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when
we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings,
and abominable idolatries."' After this, when I saw that all were with one
consent turning to a right mind, and renouncing the custom against which I had
protested, I exhorted them to assemble at noon for the reading of God's word and
singing of psalms; stating that we had resolved thus to celebrate the festival in a
way much more accordant with purity and piety; and that, by the number of
worshippers who should assemble for this purpose, it would plainly appear who were
guided by reason, and who were the slaves of appetite. With these words the
discourse concluded.
11. In the afternoon a greater number assembled than in the forenoon, and
there was reading and praise alternately up to the hour at which I went out in
company with the bishop; and after our coming two psalms were read. Then the
old man [Valerius] constrained me by his express command to say something to the
people; from which I would rather have been excused, as I was longing for the
close of the anxieties of the day. I delivered a short discourse in order to
express our gratitude to God. And as we heard the noise of the feasting, which was
going on as usual in the church of the heretics, who still prolonged their
revelry while we were so differently engaged, I remarked that the beauty of day is
enhanced by contrast with the night, and that when anything black is near, the
purity of white is the more pleasing; and that, in like manner, our meeting
for a spiritual feast might perhaps have been somewhat less sweet to us, but for
the contrast of the carnal excesses in which the others indulged; and I
exhorted them to desire eagerly such feasts as we then enjoyed, if they had taste}d
the goodness of the Lord. At the same time, I said that those may well be afraid
who seek anything which shall one day be destroyed as the chief object of their
desire, seeing that every one shares the portion of that which he worships; a
warning expressly given by the apostle to such, when he says of them their "god
is their belly," 2 inasmuch as he has elsewhere said, "Meats for the belly,
and the belly for meats; but God shall destroy both it and them." 3 I added that
it is our duty to seek that which is imperishable, which, far removed from
carnal affections, is obtained through sanctification of the spirit; and when those
things which the Lord was pleased to suggest to me had been spoken on this
subject as the occasion required, the daily evening exercises of worship were
performed; and when with the bishop I retired from the church, the brethren said a
hymn there, a considerable multitude remaining in the church, and engaging in
praise 4 even till daylight failed.
12. I have thus related as concisely as I could that which I am sure you
longed to hear. Pray that God may be pleased to protect our efforts from giving
offence or provoking odium in any way. In the tranquil prosperity which you
enjoy we do with lively warmth of affection participate in no small measure, when
tidings so frequently reach us of the gifts possessed by the highly spiritual
church of Thagaste. The ship bringing our brethren has not yet arrived. At
Hasna, where our brother Argentius is presbyter, the Circumcelliones, entering our
church, demolished the altar. The case is now in process of trial; and we
earnestly ask your prayers that it may be decided in a peaceful way and as becomes
the Catholic Church, so as to silence the tongues of turbulent heretics. I have
sent. a letter to the As;arch.'
Brethren most blessed, may ye persevere in the Lord, and remember us. Amen.
LETTER XXX. (A.D. 396.)
This letter of Paulinus was written before receiving a reply to his former
letter, No. 27, p. 248.
TO AUGUSTIN, OUR LORD AND HOLY AND BELOVED BROTHER, PAULINUS AND THERASIA,
SINNERS, SEND GREETING.
1. My beloved brother in Christ the Lord, having through your holy and
pious works come to know you without your knowledge, and to see you though absent
long ago, my mind embraced you with unreserved affection, and I hastened to
secure the gratification of hearing you through familiar brotherly exchange of
letters. I believe also that by the Lord's hand and favour my letter has reached
you; but as the youth whom, before winter, we had sent to salute you and others
equally loved in God's name, has not returned, we could no longer either put
off what we feel to be our duty, or restrain the vehemence of our desire to hear
from you. If, then, my former letter has been found worthy to reach you, this
is the second; if, however, it was not so fortunate as to come to your hand,
accept this as the first.
2. But, my brother, judging all things as a spiritual man, do not estimate
our love to you by the duty which we render, or the frequency of our letters.
For the Lord, who everywhere, as one and the same, worketh His love in His own,
is witness that, from the time when, by the kindness of the venerable bishops
Aurelius and Alypius, we came to know you through your writings against the
Manichaeans, love for you has taken such a place in us, that we seemed not so much
to be acquiring a new friendship as reviving an old affection. Now at length
we address you in writing; and though we are novices in expressing, we are not
novices in feeling love to you; and by communion of the spirit, which is the
inner man, we are as it were acquainted with you. Nor is it strange that though
distant we are near, though unknown we are well known to each other; for we are
members of one body, having one Head, enjoying the effusion of the same grace,
living by the same , bread, walking in the same way, and dwelling in the same
home. In short, in all that makes up our being,- in the whole faith and hope by
which we stand in the present life, or labour for that which is to come, --we
are both in the spirit and in the body of Christ so united, that if we fell from
this union we would cease to be.
3. How small a thing, therefore, is that which our bodily separation
denies to us!--for it is nothing more than one of those fruits that gratify the
eyes, which are occupied only with the things I of time. And yet, perhaps, we
should not number this pleasure which in the body we enjoy l among the blessings
which are only in time the portion of spiritual men, to whose bodies the
resurrection will impart immortality; as we, though in ourselves unworthy, are bold to
expect, through the merit of Christ and the mercy of God the Father. Wherefore
I pray that the grace of God by our Lord Jesus Christ may grant unto us this
favour too, that we may yet see your face. Not only would this bring great
gratification to our desires; but by it illumination would be brought to our minds,
and our poverty would be enriched by your abundance. This indeed you may grant
to us even while we are absent from you, especially on the present occasion,
through our sons Romanus and Agilis, beloved and most dear to us in the Lord (whom
as our second selves we commend to you), when they return to us in the Lord's
name, after fulfilling the labour of love in which they are engaged; in which
work we beg that they may especially enjoy the goodwill of your Charity. For you
know what high rewards the Most High promises to the brother who gives his
brother help. If you are pleased to impart to me any gift of the grace that has
been bestowed on you, you may safely do it through them; for, believe me, they
are of one heart and of one mind with us in the Lord. May the grace of God always
abide as it is with you, O brother beloved, venerable, most dear, and longed
for in Christ the Lord! Salute on our behalf all the saints in Christ who are
with you, for doubtless such attach themselves to your fellowship; commend us to
them all, that they may, along with yourself, remember us in prayer.
SECOND DIVISION.
LETTERS WHICH WERE WRITTEN BY AUGUSTIN AFTER HIS BECOMING BISHOP OF HIPPO, AND
BEFORE THE CONFERENCE HELD WITH THE DONATISTS AT CARTHAGE, AND THE DISCOVERY
OF THE HERESY OF PELAGIUS IN AFRICA (A.D. 396-410).
LETTER XXXI. (A.D. 396.)
TO BROTHER PAULINUS AND TO SISTER THERASIA, MOST BELOVED AND SINCERE, TRULY
MOST BLESSED AND MOST EMINENT FOR THE VERY ABUNDANT GRACE OF GOD BESTOWED ON THEM
AUGUSTIN SENDS GREETING IN THE LORD.
1. ALTHOUGH in my longing to be without delay near you in one sense, while
still remote in another, I wished much that what I wrote in answer to your
former letter (if, indeed, any letter of mine deserves to be called an answer to
yours) should go with all possible expedition to your Grace,1 my delay has
brought me the advantage of a second letter from you. The Lord is Good, who often
withholds what we desire, that He may add to it what we would prefer. For it is
one pleasure to me that you will write me on receiving my letter, and it is
another that, through not receiving it at once, you have written now. The joy which
I have felt in reading this letter would have been lost to me if my letter to
your Holiness had been quickly conveyed to you, as I intended and earnestly
desired. But now, to have this letter, and to expect a reply to my own, multiplies
my satisfaction. The blame of the delay cannot be laid to my charge; and the
LOrd, in His more abundant kindness, has done that which He judged to be more
conducive to my happiness.
2. We welcomed with great gladness in the Lord the holy brothers Romanus
and Agilis, i who were, so to speak, an additional letter from you, capable of
hearing and answering our voices, whereby most agreeably your presence was in
part enjoyed by us, although only to make us long the more eagerly to see you. It
would be at all times and in every way impossible for you to give, and
unreasonable for us to ask, as much information from you concerning yourself by letter
as we received from them by word of mouth. There was manifest also in them
(what no paper could convey) such delight in telling us of you, that by their very
countenance and eyes while they spoke, we could with unspeakable joy read you
written on their hearts. Moreover, a sheet of paper, of whatever kind it be,
and however excellent the things written upon it may be, enjoys no benefit itself
from what it contains, though it may be unfolded with great benefit to others;
but, in reading this letter of yours--namely, the minds of these brethren-when
conversing with them, we found that the blessedness of those upon whom you had
written was manifestly proportioned to the fulness with which they had been
written upon by you. In order, therefore, to attain to the same blessedness, we
transcribed in our own hearts what was written in theirs, by most eager
questioning as to everything concerning you.
3. Notwithstanding all this, it is with deep regret that we consent to
their so soon leaving us, even to return to you. For observe, I beseech you, the
conflicting emotions by which we are agitated. Our obligation to let them go
without delay was increased according to the vehemence of their desire to obey
you; but the greater the vehemence of this desire in them, the more completely did
they set you forth as almost present with us, because they let us see how
tender your affections are. Therefore our reluctance to let them go increased with
our sense of the reasonableness of their urgency to be permitted to go. Oh
insupportable trial, were it not that by such partings we are not, after all,
separated from each other, --were it not that we are "members of one body, having
one Head, enjoying the effusion of the same grace, living by the same bread,
walking in the same way, and dwelling in the same home!''2 You recognise these
words, I suppose, as quoted from your own letter; and why should not I also use
them ? Why should they be yours any more than mine, seeing that, inasmuch as they
are true, they proceed from communion with the same head ? And in so far as
they contain something that has been specially given to you, I have so loved them
the more on that account, that they have taken possession of the way leading
through my breast, and would suffer no words to pass from my heart to my tongue
until they went first, with the priority which is due to them as yours. My
brother and sister, holy and beloved in God, members of the same body with us, who
could doubt that we are animated by one spirit, except those who are strangers
to that affection by which we are bound to each other ?
4. Yet I am curious to know whether you bear with more patience and ease
than I do this bodily separation. If it be so, I do not, I confess, take any
pleasure in your fortitude in this respect, unless perhaps because of its
reasonableness, seeing that I confess myself much less worthy of your affectionate
longing than you are of mine. At all events, if I found in myself a power of
bearing your absence patiently, this would displease me, because it would make me
relax my efforts to see you; and what could be more absurd than to be made
indolent by power of endurance? But I beg to acquaint your Charity with the
ecclesiastical duties by which I am kept at home, inasmuch as the blessed father Valerius
(who with me salutes you, and thirsts for you with a vehemence of which you
will hear from our brethren), not content with having me as his presbyter, has
insisted upon adding the greater burden of sharing the episcopate with him. This
office I was afraid to decline, being persuaded, through the love of Valerius
and the importunity of the people, that it was the Lord's will, and being
precluded from excusing myself on other grounds by some precedents of similar
appointments. The yoke of Christ, it is true, is in itself easy, and His burden light
;1 yet, through my perversity and infirmity, I may find the yoke vexatious and
the burden heavy in some degree; and I cannot tell how much more easy and light
my yoke and burden would become if I were comforted by a visit from you, who
live, as I am informed, more disengaged and free from such cares? I therefore
feel warranted in asking, nay, demanding and imploring you to condescend to come
over into Africa, which is more oppressed with thirst for men such as you are
than even by the well-known aridity of her soil.3
5. God knoweth that I long for your visiting this country, not merely to
gratify my own desire, nor merely on account of those who through me, or by
public report, have heard of your pious resolution;4 I long for it for the sake of
others also who either have not heard, or, hearing, have not believed the fame
of your piety, but who might be constrained to love excellence of which they
could then be no longer in ignorance or doubt. For although the perseverance and
purity of your compassionate benevolence is good, more is required of you;
namely, "Let your light so shine before men, that they may behold your good works,
and may glorify your Father which is in heaven."5 The fishermen of Galilee
found pleasure not only in leaving their ships and their nets at the Lord's
command, but also in declaring that they had left all and followed Him.6 And truly he
despises all who despises not only all that he was able, but also all that he
was desirous to possess. What may have .been desired is seen only by the eyes of
God; what was actually possessed is seen also by the eyes of men. Moreover,
when things trivial and earthly are loved by us, we are somehow more firmly
wedded to what we have than to what we desire to have. For whence was it that he who
sought from the Lord counsel as to the way of eternal life, went away
sorrowful upon hearing that, if he would be perfect, he must sell all, and distribute
to the poor, and have treasure in heaven, unless because, as the Gospel tells
us, he had great possessions? 7 For it is one thing to forbear from appropriating
what is wanting to us; it is another thing to rend away that which has become
a part of ourselves: the former action is like declining food, the latter is
like cutting off a limb. How great and how full of wonder is the joy with which
Christian charity beholds in our day a sacrifice cheerfully made in obedience to
the Gospel of Christ, which that rich man grieved and refused to make at the
bidding of Christ Himself!
6. Although language fails to express that which my heart has conceived
and labours to utter, nevertheless, since you perceive with your discernment and
piety that the glory of this is not yours, that is to say, not of man, but the
glory of the Lord in you (for you yourselves are most carefully on your guard
against your Adversary, and most devoutly strive to be found as learners of
Christ, meek and lowly in heart; and, indeed, it were better with humility to
retain than with pride to renounce this world's wealth); -- since, I say, you are
aware that the glory here is not yours, but the Lord's, you see how weak and
inadequate are the things which I have spoken. For I have been speaking of the
praises of Christ, a theme transcending the tongue of angels. We long to see this
glory of Christ brought near to the eyes of our people; that in you, united in
the bonds of wedlock, there may be given to both sexes an example of the way in
which pride must be trodden under foot, and perfection hopefully pursued. I
know not any way in which you could give greater proof of your benevolence, than
in resolving to be not less willing to permit your worth to be seen, than you
are zealous to acquire and retain it.
7. I recommend to your kindness and charity this boy Vetustinus, whose
case might draw forth the sympathy even of those who are not religious: the causes
of his affliction and of his leaving his country you will hear from his own
lips. As to his pious resolution -- his promise, namely, to devote himself to the
service of God -- it will be more decisively known after some time has
elapsed, when his strength has been confirmed, and his present fear is removed.
Perceiving the warmth of your love for me, and encouraged thereby to believe that you
will not grudge the labour of reading what I have written, I send to your
Holiness and Charity three books: would that the size of the volumes were an index
of the completeness of the discussion of so great a subject; for the question
of free-will is handled in them! I know that these books, or at least some of
them, are not in the possession of our brother Romanianus; but almost everything
which I have been able for the benefit of any readers to write is, as I have
intimated, accessible to your perusal through him, because of your love to me,
although I did not charge him to carry them to you. For he already had them all,
and was carrying them with him: moreover, it was by him that my answer to your
first letter was sent. I suppose that your Holiness has already discovered, by
that spiritual sagacity which the Lord has given you, how much that man bears
in his soul of what is good, and how far he still comes short through infirmity.
In the letter sent through him you have, as I trust, read with what anxiety I
commended himself and his son to your sympathy and love, as well as how close
is the bond by which they are united to me. May the Lord build them up by. your
means! This must be asked from Him rather than from you, for I know how much it
is already your desire.
8. I have heard from the brethren that you are writing a treatise against
the Pagans: if we have any claim on your heart, send it at once to us to read.
For your heart is such an oracle of divine truth, that we expect from it
answers which shall satisfactorily and clearly decide the most prolix debates. I
understand that your Holiness has the books of the most blessed father1 Ambrose, of
which I long greatly to see those which, with much care and at great length,
he has written against some most ignorant and pretentious men, who affirm that
our Lord was instructed by the writings of Plato?
9. Our most blessed brother Severus, formerly of our community, now
president a of the church in Milevis, and well known by the brethren in that city,
joins me in respectful salutation to your Holiness. The brethren also who are
with me serving the Lord salute you as warmly as they long to see you: they long
for you as much as they love you; and they love you as your eminent goodness
merits. The loaf which we send you will become more rich as a blessing through the
love with which your kindness receives it. May the Lord keep you for ever from
this generation? my brother and sister most beloved and sincere, truly
benevolent, and most eminently endowed with abundant grace from the Lord.
LETTER XXXII.
This letter from Paulinus to Romanianus and Licentius expresses the
satisfaction with which he heard of the promotion of Augustin to the episcopate, and
conveys both in prose and in verse excellent counsels to Licentius: it is one
which in this selection may without loss be omitted.
LETTER XXXIII. (A.D. 396.)
TO PROCULEIANUS, MY LORD, HONOURABLE AND MOST BELOVED, AUGUSTIN SENDS GREETING.
1. The titles prefixed to this letter I need not defend or explain at any
length to you, though they may give offence to the vain prejudices of ignorant
men. For I rightly address you as lord, seeing that we are both seeking to
deliver each other from error, although to some it may seem uncertain which of us
is in error before the matter has been fully debated; and therefore we are
mutually serving one another, if we sincerely labour that we may both be delivered
from the perversity of discord. That I labour to do this with a sincere heart,
and with the fear and trembling of Christian humility, is not perhaps to most
men manifest, but is seen by Him to whom all hearts are open. What I without
hesitation esteem honourable in you, you readily perceive. For I do not esteem
worthy of any honour the error of schism, from which I desire to have all men
delivered, so far as is within my power; but yourself I do not for a moment hesitate
to regard as worthy of honour, chiefly because you are knit to me in the bonds
of a common humanity, and because there are conspicuous in you some
indications of a more gentle disposition, by which I am encouraged to hope that you may
readily embrace the truth when it has been demonstrated to you. As for my love
to you, I owe not less than He commanded who so loved us as to bear the shame of
the cross for our sakes.
2. Be not, however, surprised that I have so long forborne from addressing
your Benevolence; for I did not think that your views were such as were with
great joy declared to me by brother Evodius, whose testimony I cannot but
believe. For he tells me that, when you met accidentally : at the same house, and
conversation began between you concerning our hope, that is to say, the
inheritance of Christ, you were kindly pleased to say that you were willing to have a
conference with me in the presence of good men. I am truly glad that you have
condescended to make this proposal: and I can in no wise forego so important an
opportunity, given by your kindness, of using whatever strength the Lord may be
pleased to give me in considering and debating with you what has been the cause,
or source, or reason of a division so lamentable and deplorable in that Church
of Christ to which He said: "Peace I give you, my peace I leave unto you."1
3. I heard from the brother aforesaid that you had complained of his
having said something in answer to you in an insulting manner; but, I pray you, do
not regard it as an insult, for I am sure it did not proceed from an overbearing
spirit, as I know my brother well. But if, in disputing in defence of his own
faith and the Church's love, he spoke perchance with a degree of warmth
something which you regarded as wounding your dignity, that deserves to be called, not
contumacy, but boldness. For he desired to debate and discuss the question,
not to be merely submitting to you and flattering you. For such flattery is the
oil of the sinner, with which the prophet does not desire to have his head
anointed; for he saith: "The righteous shall correct me in compassion, and rebuke
me; but the oil of the sinner shall not anoint my head."2 For he prefers to be
corrected by the stem compassion of the righteous, rather than to be commended
with the soothing oil of flattery. Hence also the saying of the prophet: "They
who pronounce you happy cause you to err." Therefore also it is commonly and
justly said of a man whom false compliments have made proud, "his head has grown;"4
for it has been increased by the oil of the sinner, that is, not of one
correcting with stern truth, hut of one commending with smooth flattery. Do not,
however, suppose me to mean by this, that I wish it to be understood that you have
been corrected by brother Evodius, as by a righteous man; for I fear lest you
should think that anything is spoken by me also in an! insulting manner, against
which I desire to the utmost of my power to be on guard. But He: is righteous
who hath said, "I am the truth." s When, therefore, any true word has been
uttered, though it may be somewhat rudely, by the mouth of any man, we are
corrected not by the speaker, who may perhaps be not less a sinner than ourselves, but
by the truth itself, that is to say, by Christ who is righteous, lest the
unction of smooth but pernicious flattery, which is the oil of the sinner, should
anoint our head. Although, therefore, brother Evodius, through undue
excitement+in defending the communion to which he belongs, may have said something too
vehemently through strong feeling, you ought to excuse him on the ground of his
age, and of the importance of the matter in his estimation.
4. I beseech you, however, to remember what you have been pleased to
promise; namely, to investigate amicably with me a matter of so great importance,
and so closely pertaining to the common salvation, in the presence of such
spectators as you may choose (provided only that our words are not uttered so as to
be lost, but are taken down with the pen; so that we may conduct the discussion
in a more calm and orderly manner, and anything spoken by us which escapes the
memory may be recalled by reading the notes taken). Or, if you prefer it, we
may discuss the matter without the interference of any third party, by means of
letters or conference and reading, wherever you please, lest perchance some
hearers, unwisely zealous, should be more concerned with the expectation of a
conflict between us, than the thought of our mutual profit by the discussion. Let
the people, however, be afterwards informed through us of the debate, when it is
concluded; or, if you prefer to have the matter discussed by letters exchanged,
let these letters be read to the two congregations, in order that they may yet
come to be no longer divided, but one. In fact, I willingly accede to whatever
terms you wish, or prescribe, or prefer. And as to the sentiments of my most
blessed and venerable father Valerius, who is at present from home, I undertake
with fullest confidence that he will hear of this with great joy; for I know
how much he loves peace, and how free he is from being influenced by any paltry
regard for vain parade of dignity.
5. I ask you, what have we to do with the dissensions of a past
generation? Let it suffice that the wounds which the bitterness of proud men inflicted on
our members have remained until now; for we have, through the lapse of time,
ceased to feel the pain to remove which the physician's help is usually sought.
You see how great and miserable is the calamity by which the peace of Christian
homes and families is broken. Husbands and wives, agreeing together at the
family hearth, are divided at the altar of Christ. By Him they pledge themselves
to be at peace between themselves, yet in Him they cannot be at peace. Children
have the same home, but not the same house of God, with their own parents. They
desire to be secure of the earthly inheritance of those with whom they wrangle
concerning the inheritance of Christ. Servants and masters divide their common
Lord, who took on Him the form of a servant that He might deliver all from
bondage. Your party honours us, and our party honours you. Your members appeal to
us by our episcopal insignia,1 and our members show the same respect to you. We
receive the words of all, we desire to give offence to none. Why then, finding
cause of offence in none besides, do we find it in Christ, whose members we
rend asunder? When we may be serviceable to men that are desirous of terminating
through our help disputes concerning secular affairs, they address us as saints
and servants of God, in order that they may have their questions as to
property disposed of by us: let us at length, unsolicited, take up a matter which
concerns both our own salvation and theirs. It is not about gold or silver, or
land, or cattle,matters concerning which we are daily saluted with lowly respect,
in order that we may bring disputes to a peaceful termination, -- but it is
concerning our Head Himself that this dissension, so unworthy and pernicious,
exists between us. However low they bow their heads who salute us in the hope that
we may make them agree together in regard to the things of this world, our Head
stooped from heaven even to the cross, and yet we do not agree together in Him.
6. I beg and beseech you, if there be in you that brotherly feeling for
which some give you credit, let your goodness be approved sincere, and not
feigned with a view to passing honours, by this, that your bowels of compassion be
moved, so that you consent to have this matter discussed; joining with me in
persevering prayer, and in peaceful discussion of every point. Let not the respect
paid by the unhappy people to our dignities be found, in the judgment of God,
aggravating our condemnation; rather let them be recalled along with us, through
our unfeigned love, from errors and dissensions, and guided into the ways of
truth and peace.
My lord, honourable and most beloved, I pray that you may be blessed in
the sight of God.
LETTER XXXIV. (A.D. 396.)
TO EUSEBIUS, MY EXCELLENT LORD AND BROTHER, WORTHY OF AFFECTION AND ESTEEM,
AUGUSTIN SENDS GREETING.
1. God, to whom the secrets of the heart man are open, knoweth that it is
because of my love for Christian peace that I am so deeply moved by the profane
deeds of those who basely and impiously persevere in dissenting from it. He
knoweth also that this feeling of mine is one tending towards peace, and that my
desire is, not that any one should against his will be coerced into the
Catholic communion, but that to all who are in error the truth may be openly declared,
and being by God's help clearly exhibited through my ministry, may so commend
itself as to make them embrace and follow it.
2. Passing many other things unnoticed, what could be more worthy of
detestation than what has just happened? A young man is reproved by his bishop for
frequently beating his mother like a madman, and not restraining his impious
hands from wounding her who bore him, even on those days on which the sternness of
law shows mercy to the most guilty criminals? He then threatens his mother
that he would pass to the party of the Donatists, and that he would kill her whom
he is accustomed to beat with incredible ferocity. He utters these threats,
then passes over to the Donatists, and is rebaptized while filled with wicked
rage, and is arrayed in white vestments while he is burning to shed his mother's
blood. He is placed in a prominent and conspicuous position within the railing in
the church; and to the eyes of sorrowful and indignant beholders, he who is
purposing matricide is exhibited as a regenerate man.
3. I appeal to you, as a man of most mature judgment, can these things
find favour in your eyes? I do not believe this of you: I know your wisdom. A
mother is wounded by her son in the members of that body which bore and nursed the
ungrateful wretch; and when the Church, his spiritual mother, interferes, she
too is wounded in those sacraments by which, to the same ungrateful son, she
ministered life and nourishment. Do you not seem to hear the young man gnashing
his teeth in rage for a parent's blood, and saying, "What shall I do to the
Church which forbids my wounding my mother? I have found out what to do: let the
Church herself be wounded by such blows as she can suffer; let that be done in me
which may cause her members pain. Let me go to those who know how to despise
the grace with which she gave me spiritual birth, and to mar the form which in
her womb I received. Let me vex both my natural and my spiritual mother with
cruel tortures: let the one who was the second to give me birth be the first to
give me burial; for her sorrow let me seek spiritual death, and for the other's
death let me prolong my natural life." Oh, Eusebius! I appeal to you as an
honourable man, what else may we expect than that now he shall feel himself, as a
Donatist, so armed as to have no fear in assailing that unhappy woman, decrepit
with age and helpless in her widowhood, from wounding whom he was restrained
while he remained a Catholic? For what else had he purposed in his passionate heart
when he said to his mother, "I will pass over to the party of Donatus, and I
will drink your blood?" Behold, arrayed in white vestments, but with conscience
crimson with blood, he has fulfilled his threat in part; the other part
remains, viz. that he drink his mother's blood. If, therefore, these things find
favour in your eyes, let him be urged by those who are now his clergy and his
sanctifiers to fulfil within eight days the remaining portion of his vow.
4. The Lord's right hand indeed is strong, so that He may keep back this
man's rage from that unhappy and desolate widow, and, by means known unto His
own wisdom, may deter him from his impious design; but could I do otherwise than
utter my feelings when my heart was pierced with such grief? Shall they do such
things, and am I to be commanded to hold my peace? When He commands me by the
mouth of the apostle saying that those who teach what they ought not must be
rebuked by the bishop,1 shall I be silent through dread of their displeasure? The
Lord deliver me from such folly! As to my desire for having such an impious
crime recorded in our public registers, it was desired by me chiefly for this
end, that no one who may hear me bewailing these proceedings, especially in other
towns where it may be expedient for me to do so, may think that I am inventing
a falsehood, and the rather, because in Hippo itself it is already affirmed
that Proculeianus did not issue the order which was in the official report
ascribed to him.
5. In what more temperate way could we dispose of this important matter
than through the mediation of such a man as you, invested with most illustrious
rank, and possessing calmness as well as great prudence and goodwill? I beg,
therefore, as I have already done by our brethren, good and honourable men, whom I
sent to your Excellency, that you will condescend to inquire whether it is the
case that the presbyter Victor did not receive from his bishop the order which
the public official records reported; or whether, since Victor himself has
said otherwise, they have in their records laid a thing falsely to his charge,
though they belong to the same communion with him. Or, if he consents to our
calmly discussing the whole question of our differences, in order that the error
which is already manifest may become yet more so, I willingly embrace the
opportunity. For I have heard that he proposed that without popular tumult, in the
presence only of ten esteemed and honourable men from each party, we should
investigate what is the truth in this matter according to the Scriptures. As to
another proposal which some have reported to me as made by him, that I should rather
go to Constantina,2 because in that town his party was more numerous; or that I
should go to Milevis, because there, as they say, they are soon to hold a
council; -- these things are absurd, for my special charge does not extend beyond
the Church of Hippo. The whole importance of this question to me, in the first
place, is as it affects Proculeianus and myself; and if, perchance, he thinks
himself not a match for me, let him implore the aid of any one whom he pleases as
his colleague in the debate. For in other towns we interfere with the affairs
of the Church only so far as is permitted or enjoined by our brethren bearing
the same priestly office with us, the bishops of these towns.
6. And yet I cannot comprehend what there is in me, a novice, that should
make him, who calls himself a bishop of so many years' standing, unwilling and
afraid to enter into discussion with me. If it be my acquaintance with liberal
studies, which perhaps he did not pursue at all, or at least not so much as I
have done, what has this to do with the question in debate, which is to be
decided by the Holy Scriptures or by ecclesiastical or public documents, with which
he has for so many years been conversant, that he ought to be more skilled in
them than I am? Once more, I have here my brother and colleague Samsucius,
bishop of the Church of Turris,3 who has not learned any of those branches of
culture of which he is said to be afraid: let him attend in my place, and let the
debate be between them. I will ask him, and, as I trust in the name of Christ, he
will readily consent to take my place in this matter; and the Lord will, I
trust, give aid to him when contending for the truth: for although unpolished in
language, he is well instructed in the true faith. There is therefore no reason
for his referring me to others whom I do not know, instead of letting us settle
between ourselves that which concerns ourselves. However, as I have said, I
will not decline meeting them if he himself asks their assistance.
LETTER XXXV. (A.D. 396.)
(Another letter to Eusebius on the same subject.)
TO EUSEBIUS, MY EXCELLENT LORD AND BROTHER, WORTHY OF AFFECTION AND ESTEEM,
AUGUSTIN SENDS GREETING.
1. I did not impose upon you, by importunate exhortation or entreaty in
spite of your reluctance, the duty, as you call it, of arbitrating between
bishops. Even if I had desired to move you to this, I might perhaps have easily shown
how competent you are to judge between us in a cause so clear and simple; nay,
I might show how you are already doing this, inasmuch as you, who are afraid
of the office of judge, do not hesitate to pronounce sentence in favour of one
of the parties before you have heard both. But of this, as I have said, I do not
meanwhile say anything. For I had asked nothing else from your honourable
good-nature, -- and I beseech you to be pleased to remark it in this letter, if you
did not in the former, -- than that you should ask Proculeianus whether he
himself said to his presbyter Victor that which the public registers have by
official report ascribed to him, or whether those who were sent have written in the
public registers not what they heard from Victor, but a falsehood; and further,
what his opinion is as to our discussing the whole question between us. I
think that he is not constituted judge between parties, who is only requested by
the one to put a question to the other, and condescend to write what reply he has
received. This also I now again ask you not to refuse to do, because, as I
know by experiment, he does not wish to receive a letter from me, otherwise I
would not employ your Excellency's mediation. Since, therefore, he does not wish
this, what could I do less likely to give offence, than to apply through you, so
good a man and such a friend of his, for an answer concerning a matter about
which the burden of my responsibility forbids me to hold my peace? Moreover, you
say (because the son's beating of his mother is disapproved by your sound
judgment), "If Proculeianus had known this, he would have debarred that man from
communion with his party." I answer in a sentence, "He knows it now, let him now
debar him."
2. Let me mention another thing. A man who was formerly a subdeacon of the
church at Spana, Primus by name, when, having been forbidden such intercourse
with nuns as contravened the laws of the Church,1 he treated with contempt the
established and wise regulations, was deprived of his clerical office, -- this
man also, being provoked by the divinely warranted discipline, went over to the
other party, and was by them rebaptized. Two nuns also, who were settled in
the same lands of the Catholic Church with him, either taken by him to the other
party, or following him, were likewise rebaptized: and now, among bands of
Circumcelliones and troops of homeless women, who have declined matrimony that they
may avoid restraint, he proudly boasts himself in excesses of detestable
revelry, rejoicing that he now has without hindrance the utmost freedom in that
misconduct from which in the Catholic Church he was restrained. Perhaps
Proculeianus knows nothing about this case either. Let it therefore through you, as a man
of grave and dispassionate spirit, be made known to him; and let him order that
man to be dismissed from his communion, who has chosen it for no other reason
than that he had, on account of insubordination and dissolute habits, forfeited
his clerical office in the Catholic Church.
3. For my own part, if it please the Lord, I purpose to adhere to this
rule, that whoever, after being deposed among them by a sentence of discipline,
shall express a desire to pass over into the Catholic Church, must be received on
condition of submitting to give the same proofs of penitence as those which,
perhaps, they would have constrained him to give if he had remained among them.
But consider, I beseech you, how worthy of abhorrence is their procedure in
regard to those whom we check by ecclesiastical censures for unholy living,
persuading them first to come to a second baptism, in order to their being qualified
for which they declare themselves to be pagans (and how much blood of martyrs
has been poured out rather than that such a declaration should proceed from the
mouth of a Christian!); and thereafter, as if renewed and sanctified, but in
truth more hardened in sin, to defy with the impiety of new madness, under the
guise of new grace, that discipline to which they could not submit. If, however,
I am wrong in attempting to obtain the correction of these abuses through your
benevolent interposition, let no one find fault with my causing them to be made
known to Proculeianus by the public registers, -- a means of notification
which in this Roman city cannot, I believe, be refused to me. For, since the Lord
commands us to speak and proclaim the truth, and in teaching to rebuke what is
wrong, and to labour in season and out of season, as I can prove by the words of
the Lord and of the apostles? let no man think that I am to be persuaded to be
silent concerning these things. If they meditate any bold measures of violence
or outrage, the Lord, who has subdued under His yoke all earthly kingdoms in
the bosom of His Church spread abroad through the whole world, will not fail to
defend her from wrong.
4. The daughter of one of the cultivators of the property of the Church
here, who had been one of our catechumens, had been, against the will of her
parents, drawn away by the other party, and after being baptized among them, had
assumed the profession of a nun. Now her father wished to compel her by severe
treatment to return to the Catholic Church; but I was unwilling that this woman,
whose mind was so perverted, should be received by us unless with her own will,
and choosing, in the free exercise of judgment, that which is better: and when
the countryman began to attempt to compel his daughter by blows to submit to
his authority, I immediately forbade his using any such means. Notwithstanding,
after all, when I was passing through the Spanian district, a presbyter of
Proculeianus, standing in a field belonging to an excellent Catholic woman, shouted
after me with a most insolent voice that I was a Traditor and a persecutor;
and he hurled the same reproach against that woman, belonging to our communion,
on whose property he was standing. But when I heard his words, I not only
refrained from pursuing the quarrel, but also held back the numerous company which
surrounded me. Yet if I say, Let us inquire and ascertain who are or have been
indeed Traditors and persecutors, they reply, "We will not debate, but we will
rebaptize. Leave us to prey upon your flocks with crafty cruelty, like wolves;
and if you are good shepherds, bear it in silence." For what else has
Proculeianus commanded but this, if indeed the order is justly ascribed to him: "If thou
art a Christian,". said he, "leave this to the judgment of God; whatever we do,
hold thou thy peace." The same presbyter, moreover, dared to utter a threat
against a countryman who is overseer of one of the farms belonging to the Church.
5. I pray you to inform Proculeianus of all these things. Let him repress
the madness of his clergy, which, honoured Eusebius, I have! felt constrained
to report to you. Be pleased to write to me, not your own opinion concerning
them all, lest you should think that the responsibility of a judge is laid upon
you by me, but the answer which they give to my questions. May the mercy of God
preserve you from harm, my excellent lord and brother, most worthy of affection
and esteem.