LETTERS OF ST. AUGUSTIN: LETTERS CCXII TO CCLXIX (INCLUDES FOURTH DIVISION)
LETTER CCXII. (A.D. 423.)
TO QUINTILIANUS, MY LORD MOST BLESSED AND BROTHER AND FELLOW BISHOP DESERVEDLY
VENERABLE, AUGUSTIN SENDS GREETING.
Venerable father, I commend to you in the love of Christ these honourable
servants of God and precious members of Christ, Galla, a widow (who has taken
on herself sacred vows), and her daughter Simplicia, a consecrated virgin, who
is subject to her mother by reason of her age, but above her by reason of her
holiness. We have nourished them as far as we have been able with the word of
God; and by this epistle, as if it were with my own hand, I commit them to you, to
be comforted and aided in every way which their interest or necessity
requires. This duty your Holiness would doubtless have undertaken without any
recommendation from me; for if it is our duty on account of the Jerusalem above, of
which we are all citizens, and in which they desire to have a place of
distinguished holiness, to cherish towards them not only the affection due to
fellow-citizens, but even brotherly love, how much stronger is their claim on you, who
reside in the same country in this earth in which these ladies, for the love of
Christ, renounced the distinctions of this world I also ask you to condescend to
receive with the same love with which I have offered it my official salutation,
and to remember me in your prayers. These ladies carry with them relics of the
most blessed and glorious martyr Stephen: your Holiness knows how to give due
honour to these, as we have done.3
LETTER CCXIII. (SEPTEMBER 26TH, A.D. 426.)
RECORD, PREPARED BY ST. AUGUSTIN, OF THE PROCEEDINGS ON THE OCCASION OF HIS
DESIGNATING ERACLIUS TO SUCCEED HIM IN THE EPISCOPAL CHAIR, AND TO RELIEVE HIM
MEANWHILE IN HIS OLD AGE OF A PART OF HIS RESPONSIBILITIES.
In the Church of Peace in the district of Hippo Regius, on the 26th day of
September in the year of the twelfth consulship of the most renowned
Theodosius, and of the second consulship of Valentinian Augustus: -- Bishop Augustin
having taken his seat along with bedfellow bishops Religianus and Martinianus,
there being present Saturninus, Leporius, Barnabas, Fortunatianus, Rusticus,
Lazarus, and Eraclius, -- presbyters, -- while the clergy and a large congregation
of laymen stood by, -- Bishop Augustin said: --
"The business which I brought before you yesterday, my beloved, as one in
connection with which I wished you to attend, as see you have done in greater
numbers than usual, must be at once disposed of. For while your minds are
anxiously preoccupied with it, you would scarcely listen to me if I were to speak of
any other subject. We all are mortal, and the day which shall be the last of
life on earth is to every man at all times uncertain; but in infancy there is
hope of entering on boyhood, and so our hope goes on, looking forward from boyhood
to youth, from youth to manhood, and from manhood to old age: whether these
hopes may be realized or not is uncertain, but there is in each case something
which may be hoped for. But old age has no other period of this life to look
forward to with expectation: how long old age may in any case be prolonged is
uncertain, but it is certain that no other age destined to take its place lies
beyond. I came to this town -- for such was the will of God -- when I was in the
prime of life. I was young then, but now I am old. I know that churches are wont
to be disturbed after the decease of their bishops by ambitious or contentious
parties, and I feel it to be my duty to take measures to prevent this community
from suffering, in connection with my decease, that which I have often observed
and lamented elsewhere. You are aware, my beloved, that I recently visited the
Church of Milevi; for certain brethren, and especially the servants of God
there, requested me to come, because some disturbance was apprehended after the
death of my brother and fellow bishop Severus, of blessed memory. I went
accordingly, and the Lord was in mercy pleased so to help us that they harmoniously
accepted as bishop the person designated by their former bishop his lifetime; for
when this designation had become known to them, they willingly acquiesced in
the choice which he had made. An omission, however, had occurred by which some
were dissatisfied; for brother Severus, believing that it might be sufficient for
him to mention to the clergy the name of his successor, did not s. peak of the
matter to the people, which gave rise to dissatisfaction in the minds of some.
But why should I say more? By the good pleasure of God, the dissatisfaction
was removed, joy took its place in the minds of all, and he was ordained as
bishop whom Severus had proposed. To obviate all such occasion of complaint in this
case, I now intimate to all here my desire, which I believe to be also the will
of God: I wish to have for my successor the presbyter Eraclius."
The people shouted, "To God be thanks! To Christ be praise" ( this was
repeated twenty-three times). "O Christ, hear us; may Augustin live long!"
(repeated sixteen times). "We will have thee as our father, thee as our bishop"
(repealed eight times).
2. Silence having been obtained, Bishop Augustin said: --
"It is unnecessary for me to say anything in praise of Eraclius; I esteem
his wisdom and spare his modesty; it is enough that you know him: and I declare
that I desire in regard to him what I know you also to desire, and if I had
not known it before, I would have had proof of it today. This, therefore, I
desire; this I ask from the Lord our God in prayers, the warmth of which is not
abated by the chili of age; this I exhort, admonish, and entreat you also to pray
for along with me, --that God may confirm that, which He has wrought in us by
blending and fusing together the minds of all in the peace of Christ. May He who
has sent him to me preserve him! preserve him safe, preserve him blameless,
that as he gives me joy while I live, he may fill my place when I die.
"The notaries of the church are, as you observe, recording what I say, and
recording what you say; both my address and your acclamations are not allowed
to fall to the ground. To speak more plainly, we are making up an
ecclesiastical record of this day's proceedings; for I wish them to be in this way confirmed
so far as pertains to men."
The people shouted thirty-six times, "To God be thanks! To Christ be
praise!" O Christ, hear us; may Augustin live long!" was said thirteen times.
"Thee, our father! thee, our bishop!" was said eight times. "He is worthy and just,"
was said twenty times. "Well deserving, well worthy!" was said five times. "He
is worthy and just!" was said six times.
3. Silence having been obtained, Bishop Augustin said: --
"It is my wish, as I was just now saying, that my desire and your desire
be confirmed, so far as pertains to men, by being placed on an ecclesiastical
record; but so far as pertains to the will of the Almighty, let us all pray, as I
said before, that God would confirm that which He has wrought in us."
The people shouted, saying sixteen times, "We give thanks for your
decision:" then twelve times, "Agreed! Agreed!" and then sixtimes, "Thee,our father!
Eraclius, ourbishop!"
4. Silence having been obtained, Bishop Augustin said : --
"I approve of that of which you also express your approval;1 but I do not
wish that to be done in regard to him which was done in my own case. What was
done many of you know; in fact, all of you, excepting only those who at that
time were not born, or had not attained to the years of understanding. When my
father and bishop, the aged Valerius, of blessed memory, was still living, I was
ordained bishop and occupied the episcopal see along with him which I did not
know to have been forbidden by the Council of Nice; and he was equally ignorant
of the prohibition. I do not wish to have my son here exposed to the same
censure as was incurred in my own case."
The people shouted, saying thirteen times, "To Gad be thanks! To Christ be
praise!"
5. Silence having been obtained, Bishop Augustin said: --
"He shall be as he now is, a presbyter, meanwhile; but afterwards, at such
time as may please God, your bishop. But now I will assuredly begin to do, as
the compassion of Christ may enable me, what I have not hitherto done. You know
what for several years I would have done, had you permitted me. It was agreed
between you and me that no one should intrude on me for five days of each week,
that I might discharge the duty in the study of Scripture which my brethren
and fathers the co-bishops were pleased to assign to me in the two councils of
Numidia and Carthage. The agreement was duly recorded, you gave your consent, you
signified it by acclamations. The record of your consent and of your
acclamations, was read aloud to you. For a short time the agreement was observed by you;
afterwards, it was violated without consideration, and I am not permitted to
have leisure for the work which I wish to do: forenoon and afternoon alike, I am
involved in the affairs of other people demanding my attention. I now beseech
you, and solemnly engage you, for Christ's sake, to suffer me to devolve the
burden of this part of my labours on this young man, I mean on Eraclius, the
presbyter, whom today I designate in the name of Christ as my successor in the
office of bishop."
The people shouted, saying twenty-six times, "We give thanks for your
decision."
6. Silence having been obtained, Bishop Augustin said: --
"I give thanks before the Lord our God for your love and your goodwill;
yes, I give thanks to God for these. Wherefore, henceforth, my brethren, let
everything which was wont to be brought by you to me be brought to him. In any case
in which he may think my advice necessary, I will not refuse it; far be it
from me to withdraw this: nevertheless, let everything be brought to him which
used to be brought to me. Let Eraclius himself, if in any case, perchance, he be
at a loss as to what should be done, either consult me, or claim an assistant in
me, whom he has known as a father. By this arrangement you will, on the one
hand, suffer no disadvantage, and I will at length, for the brief space during
which God may prolong my life, devote the remainder of my days, be they few or
many, not to idleness nor to the indulgence of a love of ease, but, so far as
Eraclius kindly gives me leave, to the study of the sacred Scriptures: this also
will be of service to him, and through him to you likewise. Let no one therefore
grudge me this leisure, for I claim it only in order to do important work.
"I see that I have now transacted with you all the business necessary in
the matter for which I called you together. The last thing I have to ask is,
that as many of you as are able be pleased to subscribe your names to this record.
At this point I require a response from you. Let me have it: show ),our assent
by some acclamations."
The people shouted, saying twenty-five times, "Agreed! agreed!" then
twenty-eight times, "It is worthy, it is just!" then fourteen times, "Agreed!
agreed!" then twenty-five times, "He has long been worthy, he has long been
deserving!" then thirteen times, "We give thanks for your decision!" then eighteen
times, "O Christ, hear us; preserve Eraclius!"
7. Silence having been obtained, Bishop Augustin said: --
"It is well that we are able to transact around His sacrifice those things
which belong to God; and in this hour appointed for our supplications, I
especially exhort you, beloved, to suspend all your occupations and business, and
pour out before the Lord your petitions for this church, and for me, and for the
presbyter Eraclius."
LETTER CCXVIII. (A.D. 426.)
TO PALATINUS, MY WELL-BELOVED LORD AND SON, MOST TENDERLY LONGED FOR, AUGUSTIN
SENDS GREETING.
1. Your life of eminent fortitude and fruitfulness towards the Lord our
God has brought to us great joy. For "you have made choice of instruction from
your youth upwards, that you may still find wisdom even to grey hairs;"1 for
"wisdom is the grey hair unto men, and an unspotted life is old age;"2 which may
the Lord, who knoweth how to give good gifts unto His children, give to you
asking, seeking, knocking.3 Although you have many counsellors and many counsels to
direct you in the path which leads to eternal glory, and although, above all,
you have the grace of Christ, which has so effectually spoken in saving power in
your heart, nevertheless we also, as in duty bound by the love which we owe to
you, offer to you, in hereby reciprocating your salutation, some words of
counsel, designed not to awaken you as one hindered by sloth or sleep, but to
stimulate and quicken you in the race which you are already running.
2. You require wisdom, my son, for stedfastness in this race, as it was
under the influence of wisdom that you entered on it at first. Let this then be
"a part of your wisdom, to know whose gift it is." 4 "Commit thy way unto the
Lord; trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass: and He shall bring forth
thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday."5 "He will
make straight thy path, and guide thy steps in peace." 6 As you despised your
prospects of greatness in this world, lest you should glory in the abundance of
riches which you had begun to covet after the manner of the children of this
world, so now, in taking up the yoke of the Lord and His burden, let not your
confidence be in your own strength; so shall "His yoke be easy, and His burden
light."7 For in the book of Psalms those are alike censured "who trust in their
strength," and "who boast themselves in the multitude of their riches." s Therefore,
as formerly you did not seek glory in riches, but most wisely despised that
which you had begun to desire, so now be on your guard against insidious
temptation to trust in your strength; for you are but man, and "cursed is every one
that trusteth in man." 9 But by all means trust in God with your whole heart, and
He will Himself be your strength, wherein you may trust with piety and
thankfulness, and to Him you may say with humility and boldness, "I will love thee, O
Lord, my strength; 10 because even the love of God, which, when it is perfect,
"casteth out fear,"" is shed abroad in our hearts, not by our strength, that is,
by any human power, but, as the apostle says, "by the Holy Ghost, which is
given unto us."12
3. "Watch, therefore, and pray that you enter not into temptation."13 Such
prayer is indeed in itself an admonition to you that you need the help of the
Lord, and that you ought not to rest upon yourself your hope of living well.
For now you pray, not that you may obtain the riches and honours of this present
world, or any unsubstantial human possession, but that you may not enter into
temptation, a thing which would not be asked in prayer if a man could accomplish
it for himself by his own will. Wherefore we would not pray that we may not
enter into temptation if our own will sufficed for our protection and yet if the
will to avoid temptation were wanting to us, we could not so pray. It may,
therefore, be present with us to will,14 when we have through his own gift been
made wise, but we must pray that we may be able to perform that which we have so
willed. In the fact that you have begun to exercise this true wisdom, you have
reason to give thanks. "For what have you which you have not received? But if
you have received it, beware that you boast not as if you had not received it,"15
that is, as if you could have had it of yourself. Knowing, however, whence you
have received it, ask Him by whose gift it was begun to grant that it may be
perfected. "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling: for it is God
that worketh in you, both to will and to do, of His good pleasure;"16 for "the
will is prepared by God,"17 and "the steps of a good man are ordered by the
Lord, and He delighteth in his way."18 Holy meditation on these things will
preserve you, so that your wisdom shall be piety, that is, that by God's gift you
shall be good, and not ungrateful for the grace of Christ.
4. Your parents, unfeignedly rejoicing with you in the better hope which
in the Lord you have begun to cherish, are longing earnestly for your presence.
But whether you be absent from us or present with us in the body, we desire to
have you with us in the one Spirit by whom love is shed abroad in our hearts,
so that, in whatever place our bodies may sojourn, our spirits may be in no
degree sundered from each other.
We have most thankfully received the cloaks of goat's-hair cloth1 which
you sent to us, in which gift you have yourself anticipated me in admonition as
to the duty of being often engaged in prayer, and of practising humility in our
supplications.
LETTER CCXIX. (A.D. 436.)
TO PROCULUS AND CYLINUS, BRETHREN MOST BELOVED AND HONOURABLE, AND PARTNERS IN
THE SACERDOTAL OFFICE, AUGUSTIN, FLORENTIUS AND SECUNDINUS SEND GREETING IN
THE LORD.
1. When our son Leporius, whom for his obstinacy in error you had justly
and fitly rebuked, came to us after he had been expelled by you, we received him
as one afflicted for his good, whom we should, if possible, deliver from error
and restore to spiritual health. For, as you obeyed in regard to him the
apostolic precept, "Warn the unruly," so it was our part to obey the precept
immediately annexed, "Comfort the feeble-minded, and support the weak." 2 His error
was indeed not unimportant, seeing that he neither approved what is right nor
perceived what is true in some things relating to the only-begotten Son of God, of
whom it is written that, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with
God, and the Word was God," but that when the fulness of time had come, "the
Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us;"3 for he denied that God became man,
regarding it as a doctrine from which it must follow necessarily that the divine
substance in which He is equal to the Father suffered some unworthy change or
corruption, and not seeing that he was thus introducing into the Trinity a
fourth person, which is utterly contrary to the sound doctrine of the Creed and of
Catholic truth. Since, however, dearly beloved and honourable brethren, he had
as a fallible man" been overtaken" in this error, we did our utmost, the Lord
helping us, to instruct him "in the spirit of meekness," especially remembering
that when the "chosen vessel "gave this command to which we refer, he added,
"Considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted," -- test some, perchance, should
so rejoice in the measure of spiritual progress as to imagine that they could
no longer be tempted like other men, -- and joined with it the salutary and
peace-promoting sentence, "Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of
Christ. For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he
deceiveth himself."4
2. This restoration of Leporius we could perhaps in nowise have
accomplished, had you not previously censured and punished those things in him which
required correction. So then the same Lord, our Divine Physician, using His own
instruments and servants, has by you wounded him when he was proud, and by us
healed him when he was penitent, according to his own saying, "I wound, and I
heal." s The same Divine Ruler and Overseer of His own house has by you thrown down
what was defective in the building, and has by us replaced with a well-ordered
structure what he had removed. The same Divine Husbandman has in His careful
diligence by you rooted up what was barren and noxious in His field, and by us
planted what is useful and fruitful. Let us not, therefore, ascribe glory to
ourselves, but to the mercy of Him in whose hand both we and all our words are. And
as we humbly praise the work which you have done as His ministers in the case
of our son aforesaid, so do you rejoice with holy joy in the work performed by
us. Receive, then, with the love of fathers and of brethren, him whom we have
with merciful severity corrected. For although one part of the work was done by
you and another part by us, both parts, being indispensable to our brother's
salvation, were done by the same love. The same God was therefore working in
both, for "God is love."6
3. Wherefore, as he has been welcomed into fellowship by us on the ground
of his repentance, let him be welcomed by you on the ground of his letter? to
which letter we have thought it right to adhibit our signatures attesting its
genuiness. We have not the least doubt that you, in the exercise of Christian
love, will not only hear with pleasure of his amendment, but also make it known to
those to whom his error was a stumbling-block. For those who came with him to
us have also been corrected and restored along with him, as is declared by
their signatures, which have been adhibited to the letter in our presence. It
remains only that you, being made joyful by the salvation of a brother, condescend
to make us joyful in our turn by sending a reply to our communication. Farewell
in the Lord, most beloved and honourable brethren; such is our desire on your
behalf: remember us.
LETTER CCXX. (A.D. 427.)
TO MY LORD BONIFACE,1 MY SON COMMENDED TO THE GUARDIANSHIP AND GUIDANCE OF
DIVINE MERCY, FOR PRESENT AND ETERNAL SALVATION AUGUSTIN SENDS GREETING.
1. Never could I have found a more trustworthy man, nor one who could have
more ready access to your ear when bearing a letter from me, than this servant
and minister of Christ, the deacon Paulus, a man very dear to both of us, whom
the Lord has now brought to me in order that I may have the opportunity of
addressing you, not in reference to your power and the honour which you hold in
this evil world, nor in reference to the preservation of your corruptible and
mortal body, -- because this also is destined to pass away, and how soon no one
can tell, -- but in reference to that salvation which has been promised to us by
Christ, who was here on earth despised and crucified in order that He might
teach us rather to despise than to desire the good things of this world, and to
set our affections and our hope on that world which He has revealed by His
resurrection. For He has risen from the dead, and now "dieth no more; death hath no
more dominion over Him."2
2. I know that you have no lack of friends, who love you so far as life in
this world is concerned, and who in regard to it give you counsels, sometimes
useful, sometimes the reverse; for they are men, and therefore, though they use
their wisdom to the best of their ability in regard to what is present, they
know not what may happen on the morrow. But it is not easy for any one to give
you counsel in reference to God, to prevent the perdition of your soul, not
because you lack friends who would do this, but because it is difficult for them to
find an opportunity of speaking with you on these subjects. For I myself have
often longed for this, and never found place or time in which I might deal with
you as I ought to deal with a man whom I ardently love in Christ. You know
besides in what state you found me at Hippo, when you did me the honor to come to
visit me, -- how I was scarcely able to speak, being prostrated by bodily
weakness. Now, then, my son, hear me when I have this opportunity of addressing you
at least by a letter, -- a rare opportunity, for it was not in my power to send
such communication to you in the midst of your dangers, both because I
apprehended danger to the bearer, and because I was afraid lest my letter should reach
persons into whose hands I was unwilling that it should fall. Wherefore I beg
you to forgive me if you think that I have been more afraid than I should have
been; however this may be, I have stated what I feared.
3. Hear me, therefore; nay, rather hear the Lord our God snaking by me,
His feeble servant. Call to remembrance what manner of man you were while your
former wife, of hallowed memory, still lived, and how under the stroke of her
death, while that event was yet recent, the vanity of this world made you recoil
from it, and how you earnestly desired to enter the service of God. We know and
we can testify what you said as to your state of mind and your desires when you
conversed with us at Tubunae. My brother Alypius and I were alone with you. [I
beseech you, then, to call to remembrance that conversation], for I do not
think that the worldly cares with which you are now engrossed can have such power
over you as to have effaced this wholly from your memory. You were then
desirous to abandon all the public business in which you were engaged, and to withdraw
into sacred retirement, and live like the servants of God who have embraced a
monastic life. And what was it that prevented you from acting according to
these desires? Was it not that you were influenced by considering, on our
representation of the matter, how much service the work which then occupied you might
render to the churches of Christ if you pursued it with this single aim, that
they, protected from all disturbance by barbarian hordes, might live "a quiet and
peaceable life," as the apostle says, "in all godliness and honesty;"3
resolving at the same time for your own part to seek no more from this world than would
suffice for the support of yourself and those dependent on you, wearing as
your girdle the cincture of a perfectly chaste self-restraint, and having
underneath the accoutrements of the soldier the surer and stronger defence of spiritual
armour.
4. At the very time when we were full of joy that you had formed this
resolution, you embarked on a voyage and you married a second wife. Your
embarkation was an act of the obedience due, as the apostle has taught us, to the "higher
powers;" 4 but you would not have married again had you not, abandoning the
continence to which you had devoted yourself, been overcome by concupiscence.
When I learned this, I was, I must confess it, dumb with amazement; but, in my
sorrow, I was in some degree comforted by hearing that you refused to marry her
unless she became a Catholic before the marriage, and yet the heresy of those who
refuse to believe in the true Son of God has so prevailed in your house, that
by these heretics your daughter was baptized. Now, if the report be true (would
to God that it were false!) that even some who were dedicated to God as His
handmaids have been by these heretics re-baptized, with what floods of tears
ought this great calamity to be bewailed by us ! Men are saying, moreover,perhaps
it is an unfounded slander, -- that one wife does not satisfy your passions, and
that you have been defiled by consorting with some other women as concubines.
5. What shall I say regarding these evils -- so patent to all, and so
great in magnitude as well as number -- of which you have been, directly or
indirectly, the cause since the time of your being married? You are a Christian, you
have a conscience, you fear God; consider, then, for yourself some things which
I prefer to leave unsaid, and you will find for how great evils you ought to do
penance; and I believe that it is to afford you an opportunity of doing this
in the way in which it ought to be done, that the Lord is now sparing you and
delivering you from all dangers. But if you will listen to the counsel of
Scripture, I pray you, "make no tarrying to turn to the Lord, and put not off from day
to day."1 You allege, indeed, that you have good reason for what you have
done, and that I cannot be a judge of the sufficiency of that reason, because I
cannot hear both sides of the question; 2 but, whatever be your reason, the nature
of which it is not necessary at present either to investigate or to discuss,
can you, in the presence of God, affirm that you would ever have come into the
embarrassments of your present position had you not loved the good things of
this world, which, being a servant of God, such as we knew you to be formerly, it
was your duty to have utterly despised and esteemed as of no value, --
accepting, indeed, what was offered to you, that you might devote it to pious uses, but
not so coveting that which was denied to you, or was entrusted to your care,
as to be brought on its account into the difficulties of your present position,
in which, while good is loved, evil things are perpetrated, -- few, indeed, by
you, but many because of you, and while things are dreaded which, if hurtful,
are so only for a short time, things are done which are really hurtful for
eternity?
6. To mention one of these things, -- who can help seeing that many
persons follow you for the purpose of defending your power or safety, who, although
they may be all faithful to you, and no treachery is to be apprehended from any
of them, are desirous of obtaining through you certain advantages which they
also covet, not with a godly desire, but from worldly motives? And in this way
you, whose duty it is to curb and check your own passions, are forced to satisfy
those of others. To accomplish this, many things which are displeasing to God
must be done; and yet, after all, these passions are i not thus satisfied, for
they are more easily mortified finally in those who love God, than satisfied
even for a time in those who love the world. Therefore the Divine Scripture says:
"Love not the world, nor the things that are in the world. If any man love the
world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the
lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and pride of life, is not of the
Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof:
but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever, as God abideth for ever."3
Associated, therefore, as you are with such multitudes of armed men, whose
passions must be humoured, and whose cruelty is dreaded, how can the desires of
these men who love the world ever be, I do not say satiated, but even partially
gratified by you, in your anxiety to prevent still greater widespread evils,
unless you do that which God forbids, and in so doing become obnoxious to threatened
judgment? So complete has been the havoc wrought in order to indulge their
passions, that it would be difficult now to find anything for the plunderer to
carry away.
7. But what shall I say of the devastation of Africa at this hour by
hordes of African barbarians, to whom no resistance is offered, while you are
engrossed with such embarrassments in your own circumstances, and are taking no
measures for averting this calamity? Who would ever have believed, who would have
feared, after Boniface had become a Count of the Empire and of Africa, and had
been placed in command in Africa with so large an army and so great authority,
that the same man who formerly, as Tribune, kept all these barbarous tribes in
peace, by storming their strongholds, and menacing them with his small band of
brave confederates, should now have suffered the barbarians to be so bold, to
encroach so far, to destroy and plunder so much, and to turn into deserts such
vast regions once densely peopled? Where were any found that did not predict that,
as soon as you obtained the authority of Count, the African hordes would be
not only checked, but made tributaries to the Roman Empire? And now, how
completely the event has disappointed men's hopes you yourself perceive; in fact, I
need say nothing more on this subject, because your own reflection must suggest
much more than I can put in words.
8. Perhaps you defend yourself by replying that the blame here ought
rather to rest on persons who have injured you, and, instead of justly requiting the
services rendered by you in your office, have returned evil for good. These
matters I am not able to examine and judge. I beseech you rather to contemplate
and inquire into the matter, in which you know that you have to do not with men
at all, but with God; living in Christ as a believer, you are bound to fear
lest you offend Him. For my attention is more engaged by higher causes, believing
that men ought to ascribe Africa's great calamities to their own sins.
Nevertheless, I would not wish you to belong to the number of those wicked and unjust
men whom God uses as instruments in inflicting temporal punishments on whom He
pleases; for He who justly employs their malice to inflict temporal judgments on
others, reserves eternal punishments for the unjust themselves if they be not
reformed. Be it yours to fix your thoughts on God, and to look to Christ, who
has conferred on you so great blessings and endured for you so great sufferings.
Those who desire to belong to His kingdom, and to live for ever happily with!
Him and under Him, love even their enemies do good to them that hate them, and
pray for those from whom they suffer persecution;1 and if, at any time, in the
way of discipline they use irksome severity, yet they never lay aside the
sincerest love. If these benefits, though earthly and transitory, are conferred on
you by the Roman Empire, -- for that empire itself is earthly, not heavenly, and
cannot bestow what it has not in its power, -- if, I say, benefits are
conferred on you, return not evil for good; and if evil be inflicted on you, return
not evil for evil. Which of these two has happened in your case I am unwilling to
discuss, I am unable to judge. I speak to a Christian return not either evil
for good, nor evil for evil.
9. You say to me, perhaps: In circumstances so difficult, what do you wish
me to do ? If you ask counsel of me in a worldly point of view how your safety
in this transitory life may be secured, and the power and wealth belonging to
you at present may be preserved or even increased, I know not what to answer
you, for any counsel regarding things so uncertain as these must partake of the
uncertainty inherent in them. But i if you consult me regarding your relation to
God and the salvation of your soul, and if you fear the word of truth which
says: "What is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own
soul?"2 I have a plain answer to give. I am prepared with advice to which you
may well give heed. But what need is there for my saying anything else than
what I have already said. "Love not the world, neither the things, that are in
the world. If any man love the world, he love of the Father is not in him. For
all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and
the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world
passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth
forever." 3 Here is counsel ! Seize it and act on it. Show that you are a brave man.
Vanquish the desires with which the world is loved. Do penance for the evils of
your past life, when, vanquished by your passions, you were drawn away by
sinful desires. If you receive this counsel, and hold it fast, and act on it, you
will both attain to those blessings which are certain, and occupy yourself in
the midst of these uncertain things without forfeiting the salvation of your soul.
10. But perhaps you again ask of me how you can do these things, entangled
as you are with so great worldly difficulties. Pray earnestly, and say to God,
in the words of the Psalm: "Bring Thou me out of my distresses," 4 for these
distresses terminate when the passions in which they originate are vanquished.
He who has heard your prayer and ours on your behalf, that you might be
delivered from the numerous and great dangers of visible wars in which the body is
exposed to the danger of losing the life which sooner or later must end, but in
which the soul perishes not unless it be held captive by evil passions, -- He, I
say, will hear your prayer that you may, in an invisible and spiritual conflict,
overcome your inward and invisible enemies, that is to say, your passions
themselves, and may so use the world, as not abusing it, so that with its good
things you may do good, not become bad through possessing them. Because these
things are in themselves good, and are not given to men except by Him who has power
over all things in heaven and earth. Lest these gifts of His should be reckoned
bad, they are given also to the good; at the same time, lest they should be
reckoned great, or the supreme good, they are given also to the bad. Further,
these things are taken away from the good for their trial, and from the bad for
their punishment.
11. For who is so ignorant, who so foolish, as not to see that the health
of this mortal body, and the strength of its corruptible members, and victory
over men who are our enemies, and temporal honours and power, and all other mere
earthly advantages are given both to the good and to the bad, and are taken
away both from the good and from the bad alike ? But the salvation of the soul,
along with immortality of the body, and the power of righteousness, and victory
over hostile passions, and glory, and honour, and everlasting peace, are not
given except to the good. Therefore love these things, covet these things, and
seek them by every means in your power. With a view to acquire and retain these
things, give alms, pour forth prayers, practise fasting as far as you can
without injury to your body. But do not love these earthly goods, how much soever
they may abound to you. So use them as to do many good things by them, but not one
evil thing for their sake. For all such things will perish; but good works,
yea, even those good works which are performed by means of the perishable good
things of this world, shall never perish.
12. If you had not now a wife, I would say to you what we said at Tubunae,
that you should live in the holy state of continence, and would add that you
should now do what we prevented you from doing at that time, namely, withdraw
yourself so far as might be possible without: prejudice to the public welfare
from the labours of military service, and take to yourself the leisure which you
then desired for that life in the society of the saints in which the soldiers of
Christ fight in silence, not to kill men, but to "wrestle against
principalities and powers, and spiritual wickedness,"1 that is, the devil and his angels.
For the saints gain their victories over enemies whom they cannot see, and yet
they gain the victory over these unseen enemies by gaining the victory over
things which are the objects of sense. I am, however, prevented from exhorting you
to that mode of life by your having a wife, since without her consent it is not
lawful for you to live under a vow of continence; because, although you did
wrong in marrying again after the declaration which you made at Tubunae, she,
being not aware of this became your wife innocently and without restrictions.
Would that you could persuade her to agree to a vow of continence, that you might
without hindrance render to God what you know to be due to Him! If, however, you
cannot make this agreement with her, guard carefully by all means conjugal
chastity, and pray to God, who will deliver you out of difficulties, that you may
at some future time be able to do what is meanwhile impossible. This, however,
does not affect your obligation to love God and not to love the world, to hold
the faith stedfastly even in the cares of war, if you must still be engaged in
them, and to seek peace; to make the good things of this world serviceable in
good works, and not to do what is evil in labouring to obtain these earthly good
things, -- in all these duties your wife is not, or, if she is, ought not to
be, a hindrance to you.
These things I have written, my dearly beloved son, at the bidding of the
love with which I love you with regard not to this world, but to God; and
because, mindful of the words of Scripture, "Reprove a wise man, and he will love
thee; reprove a fool, and he will hate thee more,"2 I was bound to think of you
as certainly not a fool but a wise man.
LETTER CCXXVII. (A.D. 428 or 429.)
TO THE AGED ALYPIUS, AUGUSTIN SENDS GREETING.
Brother Paulus has arrived here safely: he reports that the pains devoted
to the business which engaged him have been rewarded with success .; the Lord
will grant that with these his trouble in that matter may terminate. He salutes
you warmly, and tells us tidings concerning Gabinianus which give us joy,
namely, that having by God's mercy obtained a prosperous issue in his case, he is
now not only in name a Christian, but in sincerity a very excellent convert to
the faith, and was baptized recently at Easter, having both in his heart and on
his lips the grace which he received. How much I long for him I can never
express; but you know that I love him.
The president of the medical faculty? Dioscorus, has also professed the
Christian faith, having obtained grace at the same time. Hear the manner of his
conversion, for his stubborn neck and his bold tongue could not be subdued
without some miracle. His daughter, the only comfort of his life, was sick, and her
sickness became so serious that her life was, according even to her father's
own admission, despaired of. It is reported, and the truth of the report is
beyond question, for even before brother Paul's return the fact was mentioned to me
by Count Peregrinus, a most respectable and truly Christian man, who was
baptized at the same time with Dioscorus and Gabinianus, -- it is reported, I say,
that the old man, feeling himself at last constrained to implore the compassion
of Christ, bound himself by a vow that he would become a Christian if he saw her
restored to health. She recovered, but he perfidiously drew back from
fulfilling his vow. Nevertheless the hand of the Lord was still stretched forth, for
suddenly he is smitten with blindness, and immediately the cause of this calamity
was impressed upon his mind. He confessed his fault aloud, and vowed again
that if his sight were given back he would perform i what he had vowed. He
recovered his sight, fulfilled his vow, and still the hand of God was stretched forth.
He had not committed the Creed to memory, or perhaps had refused to commit it,
and had excused himself on the plea of inability. God had seen this.
Immediately after all the ceremonies of his reception he is seized with paralysis,
affecting many, indeed almost all his members, and even his tongue. Then, being
warned by a dream, he confesses in writing that it had been told to him that this
had happened because be had not repeated the Creed. After that confession the
use of all his members was restored to him, except the tongue alone; nevertheless
he, being still under this affliction, made manifest by writing that he had,
notwithstanding, learned the Creed, and still retained it in his memory; and so
that frivolous loquacity which, as you know, blemished his natural kindliness,
and made him, when he mocked Christians, exceedingly profane, was altogether
destroyed in him, What shall I say, but, "Let us sing a hymn to the Lord, and
highly exalt Him for ever ! Amen."
LETTER CCXXVIII. (A.D. 428 or 429.)
TO HIS HOLY BROTHER AND CO-BISHOP HONORATUS,1 AUGUSTIN SENDS GREETING IN THE
LORD.
1. I thought that by sending to your Grace a copy of the letter which I
wrote to our brother and co-bishop Quodvultdeus,2 I had earned exemption from the
burden which you have imposed upon me, by asking my advice as to what you
ought to do in the midst of the dangers which have befallen us in these times. For
although I wrote briefly, I think that I did not pass over anything that was
necessary either to be said by me or heard by my questioner in correspondence on
the subject: for I said that, on the one hand, those who desire to remove, if
they can, to fortified places are not to be forbidden to do so; and, on the
other hand, we ought not to break the ties by which the love of Christ has bound us
as ministers not to forsake the churches which it is our duty to serve. The
words which I used in the letter referred to were: "Therefore, however small may
be the congregation of God's people among whom we are, if our ministry is so
necessary to them that it is a clear duty not to withdraw it from them, it
remains for us to say to the Lord, 'Be Thou to us a God of defence, and a strong
fortress.'"3
2. But this counsel does not commend itself to you, because, as you say in
your letter, it does not become us to endeavour to act in opposition to the
preceptor example of the Lord, admonishing us that we should flee from one city
to another. We remember, indeed, the words of the Lord, "When they persecute you
in one city, flee to another;"4 but who can believe that the Lrod wished this
to be done in cases in which the flocks which He purchased with His own blood
are by the desertion of their pastors left without that necessary ministry which
is indispensable to their life? Did Christ do this Himself, when, carried by
His parents, He fled into Egypt in His infancy? No; for He had not then gathered
churches which we could affirm to have been deserted by Him. Or, when the
Apostle Paul was "let down in a basket through a window," to prevent his enemies
from seizing him, and so escaped their hands, s was the church in Damascus
deprived of the necessary labours of Christ's servants? Was not all the service that
was requisite supplied after his departure by other brethren settled in that
city? For the apostle had done this at their request, in order that he might
preserve for the Church's good his life, which the persecutor on that occasion
specially sought to destroy. Let those, therefore, who are servants of Christ, His
ministers in word and sacrament, do what he has commanded or permitted. When
any of them is specially sought for by persecutors, let him by all means flee
from one city to another, provided that the Church is not hereby deserted, but
that others who are not specially sought after remain to supply spiritual food to
their fellow-servants, whom they know to be unable otherwise to maintain
spiritual life. When, however, the danger of all, bishops, clergy, and laity, is
alike, let not those who depend upon the aid of others be deserted by those on whom
they depend. In that case, either let all remove together to fortified places,
or let those who must remain be not deserted by those through whom in things
pertaining to the Church their necessities must be provided for; and so let them
share life in common, or share in common that which the Father of their family
appoints them to suffer.
3. But if it shall happen that all suffer, whether some suffer less, and
others more, or all suffer equally, it is easy to see who among them are
suffering for the sake of others: they are obviously those who, although they might
have freed themselves from such evils by flight, have chosen to remain rather
than abandon others to whom they are necessary. By such conduct especially is
proved the love commended by the Apostle John in the words: "Christ laid down His
life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren." 6 For those
who betake themselves to flight, or are prevented from doing so only by
circumstances thwarting their design, if they be seized and made to suffer, endure this
suffering only for themselves;not for their brethren; but those who are
involved in suffering because of their resolving not to abandon others, whose
Christian welfare depended on them, are unquestionably "laying down their lives for
the! brethren."
4. For this reason, the saying which we have heard attributed to a certain
bishop, namely: "If the Lord has commanded us to flee, in those persecutions
in which we may reap the fruit of martyrdom, how much more ought we to escape by
flight, if we can, from barren sufferings inflicted by the hostile incursions
of barbarians !" is a saying true and worthy of acceptation, but applicable
only to those who are not confined by the obligations of ecclesiastical office.
For the man who, having it in his power to escape from the violence of the enemy,
chooses not to flee from it, lest in so doing he should abandon the ministry
of Christ, without which men can neither become Christians nor live as such,
assuredly finds a greater reward of his love, than the man who, fleeing not for
his brethren's sake but for his own, is seized by persecutors, and, refusing to
deny Christ, suffers martyrdom.
5. What, then, shall we say to the position which you thus state in your
former epistle: -- "I do not see what good we can do to ourselves or to the
people by continuing to remain in the churches, except to see before our eyes men
slain, women outraged, churches burned, ourselves expiring amid torments applied
in order to extort from us what we do not possess"? God is powerful to hear
the prayers of His children and to avert those things which they fear; and we
ought not, on account of evils that are uncertain, to make up our minds absolutely
to the desertion of that ministry, without which the people must certainly
suffer ruin, not in the affairs of this life, but of that other life which ought
to be cared for with incomparably greater diligence and solicitude. For if those
evils which are apprehended, as possibly visiting the places in which we are,
were certain, all those for whose sake it was our duty to remain would take
flight before us, and would thus exempt us from the neccessity of remaining; for
no one says that ministers are under obligation to remain in any place where
none remain to whom their ministry is necessary. In this way some holy bishops
fled from Spain when their congregations had, before their flight, been
annihilated, the members having either fled, or died by the sword, or perished in the
siege of their towns, or gone into captivity: but many more of the bishops of that
country remained in the midst of these abounding dangers, because those for
whose sakes they remained were still remaining there. And if some have abandoned
their flocks, this is what we say ought not to be done, for they were not
taught to do so by divine authority, but were, through human infirmity, either
deceived by an error or overcome by fear.
6. [We maintain, as one alternative, that they were deceived by an error,]
for why do they think that indiscriminate compliance must be given to the
precept in which they read of fleeing from one city to another, and not shrink with
abhorrence from the character of the "hireling," who "seeth the wolf coming,
and fleeth, because he careth not for the sheep"?1 Why do they not honour
equally both of these true sayings of the Lord, the one in which flight is permitted
or enjoined, the other in which it is rebuked and censured, by taking pains so
to understand them as to find that they are, as is indeed the case, not opposed
to each other? And how is their reconciliation to be found, unless that which
I have above proved be borne in mind, that under pressure of persecution we who
are ministers of Christ ought to flee from the places in which we are only in
one or other of two cases, namely, either that there is no congregation to
which we may minister, or that there is a congregation, but that the ministry
necessary for it can be supplied by others who have not the same reason for flight
as makes it imperative on us ? Of which we have one example, as already
mentioned, in the Apostle Paul escaping by being let down from the wall in a basket,
when he was personally sought by the persecutor, there being others on the spot
who had not the same necessity for flight, whose remaining would prevent the
Church from being destitute of the service of ministers. Another example we have
in the holy Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria, who fled when the Emperor
Constantius wished to seize him specially, the Catholic people who remained in
Alexandria not being abandoned by the other servants of God. But when the people remain
and the servants of God flee, and their service is withdrawn, what is this but
the guilty flight of the "hireling" who careth not for the sheep? For the wolf
will come, -- not man, but the devil, who has very often perverted to apostasy
believers to whom the daily ministry of the Lord's body was wanting; and so,
not "through thy knowledge," but through thine ignorance, "shall the weak
brother perish for whom Christ died."2
7. As for those, however, who flee not because they are deceived by an
error, but,because they have been overcome by fear, why do they not rather, by the
compassion and help of the Lord bestowed on them, bravely fight against their
fear, lest evils incomparably heavier and much more to be dreaded befall them?
This victory over fear is won wherever the flame of the love of God, without
the smoke of worldliness, burns in the heart. For love says, "Who is weak, and I
am not weak ? who is offended, and I burn not?"1 But love is from God. Let us,
therefore, beseech Him who requires it of us to bestow it on us, and under its
influence let us fear more lest the sheep of Christ should be slaughtered by
the sword of spiritual wickedness reaching the heart, than lest they should fall
under the sword that can only harm that body in which men are destined at any
rate, at some time, and in some way or other, to die. Let us fear more lest the
purity of faith should perish through the taint of corruption in the inner man,
than lest our women should be subjected by violence to outrage; for if
chastity is preserved in the spirit, it is not destroyed by such violence, since it is
not destroyed even in the body when there is no base consent of the sufferer
to the sin, but only a submission without the consent of the will to that which
another does. Let us fear more lest the spark of life in "living stones" be
quenched through our absence, than lest the stones and timbers of our earthly
buildings be burned in our presence. Let us fear more lest the members of Christ's
body should die for want of spiritual food, than lest the members of our own
bodies, being overpowered by the violence of enemies, should be racked with
torture. Not because these are things which we ought not to avoid when this is in
our power, but because we ought to prefer to suffer them when they cannot be
avoided without impiety, unless, perchance, any one be found to maintain that that
servant is not guilty of impiety who withdraws the service necessary to piety
at the very time when it is peculiarly necessary.
8. Do we forget how, when these dangers have reached their extremity, and
there is no possibility of escaping from them by flight, an extraordinary crowd
of persons, of both sexes and of all ages, is wont to assemble in the church,
-- some urgently asking baptism, others reconciliation, others even the doing
of penance, and all calling for consolation and strengthening through the
administration of sacraments? If the ministers of God be not at their posts at such a
time, how great perdition overtakes those who depart from this life either not
regenerated or not loosed from their sins !2 How deep also is the sorrow of
their believing kindred, who shall not have these lost ones with them in the
blissful rest of eternal life ! In fine, how loud are the cries of all, and the
indignant imprecations of not a few, because of the want of ordinances and the
absence of those who should have dispensed them! See what the fear of temporal
calamities may effect, and of how great a multitude of eternal calamities it may
be the procuring cause. But if the ministers be at their posts, through the
strength which God bestows upon them, all are aided,-- some are baptized, others
reconciled to the Church. None are defrauded of the communion of the Lord's body;
all are consoled, edified, and exhorted to ask of God, who is able to do so,
to avert all things which are feared, -- prepared for both alternatives, so that
"if the cup may not pass" from them, His will may be done who cannot will
anything that is evil.
9. Assuredly you now see (what, according to your letter, you did not see
before) how great advantage the Christian people may obtain if, in the presence
of calamity, the presence of the servants of Christ be not withdrawn from
them. You see, also, how much harm is done by their absence, when "they seek their
own, not the things that are Jesus Christ's,"4 and are destitute of that
charity of which it is said, "it seeketh not her own,"5 and fail to imitate him who
said, "I seek not mine own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be
saved,"6 and who, moreover, would not have fled from the insidious attacks of the
imperial persecutor, had he not wished to save himself for the sake of others to
whom he was necessary; on which account he says, "I am in a strait betwixt
two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better:
nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you."7
10. Here, perhaps, some one may say that the servants of God ought to
save their lives by flight when such evils are impending, in order that they may
reserve themselves for the benefit of the Church in more peaceful times. This is
rightly done by some, when others are not wanting by whom the service of the
Church may be supplied, and the work is not deserted by all, as we have stated
above that Athanasius did; for the whole Catholic world knows how necessary it
was to the Church that he should do so, and how useful was the prolonged life of
the man who by his word and loving service defended her against the Arian
heretics. But this ought by no means to be done when the danger is common to all;
and the thing to be dreaded above all is, lest any one should be supposed to do
this not from a desire to secure the welfare of others, but from fear of losing
his own life, and should therefore do more harm by the example of deserting
the post of duty than all the good that he could do by the preservation of his
life for future service. Finally, observe how the holy David acquiesced in the
urgent petition of his people, that he should not expose himself to the dangers
of battle, and, as it is said in the narrative, "quench the light of Israel,"1
but was not himself the first to propose it; for had he been so, he would have
made many imitate the cowardice which they might have attributed to him,
supposing that he had been prompted to this not through regard to the advantage of
others, but under the agitation of fear as to his own life.
11. Another question which we must not regard as unworthy of notice is
suggested here. For if the interests of the Church are not to be lost sight of,
and if these make it necessary that when any great calamity is impending some
ministers should flee, in order that they may survive to minister to those whom
they may find remaining after the calamity is passed, -- the question arises,
what is to be done when it appears that, unless some flee, all must perish
together? what if the fury of the destroyer were so restricted as to attack none but
the ministers of the Church ? What shall we reply ? Is the Church to be deprived
of the service of her ministers because of fleeing from their work through
fear lest she should be more unhappily deprived of their service because of their
dying in the midst of their work ? Of course, if the laity are exempted from
the persecution, it is in their power to shelter and conceal their bishops and
clergy in some way, as He shall help them under whose dominion all things are,
and who, by His wondrous power, can preserve even one who does not flee from
danger. But the reason for our inquiring what is the path of our duty in such
circumstances is, that we may not be chargeable with tempting the Lord by expecting
divine miraculous interposition on every occasion.
There is, indeed, a difference in the severity of the tempest of calamity
when the danger is common to both laity and clergy, as the perils of stormy
weather are common to both merchants and sailors on board of the same ship. But
far be it from us to esteem this ship of ours so lightly as to admit that it
would be right for the crew, and especially for the pilot, to abandon her in the
hour of peril, although they might have it in their power to escape by leaping
into a small boat, or even swimming ashore. For in the case of those in regard to
whom we fear lest through our deserting our work they should perish, the evil
which we fear is not temporal death, which is sure to come at one time or
other, but eternal death, which may come or may not come, according as we neglect or
adopt measures whereby it may be averted. Moreover, when the lives of both
laity and clergy are exposed to common danger, what reason have we for thinking
that in every place which the enemy may invade all the clergy are likely to be
put to death, and not that all the laity shall also die, in which event the
clergy, and those to whom they are necessary, would pass from this life at the same
time ? Or why may we not hope that, as some of the laity are likely to survive,
some of the clergy may also be spared, by whom the necessary ordinances may be
dispensed to them?
12. Oh that in such circumstances the question debated among the servants
of God were which of their number should remain, that the Church might not be
left destitute by all fleeing from danger, and which of their number should
flee, that the Church might not left destitute by all perishing in the danger. Such
a contest will arise among the brethren who are all alike glowing with love
and satisfying the claims of love. And if it were in any case impossible
otherwise to terminate the debate, it appears to me that the persons who are to remain
and who are to flee should be chosen by lot. For those who say that they, in
preference to others, ought to flee, will appear to be chargeable either with
cowardice, as persons unwilling to face impending danger, or with arrogance, as
esteeming their own lives more necessary to be preserved for the good of the
Church than those of other men. Again, perhaps, those who are better will be the
first to choose to lay down their lives for the brethren; and so preservation by
flight will be given to men whose life is less valuable because their skill in
counselling and ruling the Church is less; yet these, if they be pious and
wise, will resist the desires of men in regard to whom they see, on the one hand,
that it is more important for the Church that they should live, and on the other
hand, that they would rather lose their lives than flee from danger. In this
case, as it is written, "the lot causeth contentions to cease, and parteth
between the mighty;" for, in difficulties of this kind, God judges better than men,
whether it please Him to call the better among His servants to the reward of
suffering, and to spare the weak, or to make the weak stronger to endure trials,
and then to withdraw them from this life, as persons whose lives could not be
so serviceable to the Church as the lives of the others who are stronger than
they. If such an appeal to the lot be made, it will be, I admit, an unusual
proceeding, but if it is done in any case, who will dare to find fault with it? Who
but the ignorant or the prejudiced will hesitate to praise with the approbation
which it deserves? If, however, the use of the lot is not adopted because
there is no precedent for such an appeal, let it by all means be secured that the
Church be not, through the flight of any one, left destitute of that ministry
which is more especially necessary and due to her in the midst of such great
dangers. Let no one hold himself in such esteem because of apparent superiority in
any grace as to say that he is more worthy of life than others, and therefore
more entitled to seek safety in flight. For whoever thinks this is too
self-satisfied, and whoever utters this must make all dissatisfied with him.
13. There are some who think that bishops and clergy may, by not fleeing
but remaining in such dangers, cause the people to be misled, because, when they
see those who are set over them remaining, this makes them not flee from
danger. It is easy for them, however, to obviate this objection, and the reproach of
misleading others, by addressing their congregations, and saying: "Let not the
fact that we are not fleeing from this place be the occasion of misleading
you, for we remain here not for our own sakes but for yours, that we may continue
to minister to you whatever we know to be necessary to your salvation, which is
in Christ; therefore, if you choose to flee, you thereby set us also at
liberty from the obligations by which we are bound to remain." This, I think, ought
to be said, when it seems to be truly advantageous to remove to places of
greater security. If, after such words have been spoken in their hearing, either all
or some shall say: "We are at His disposal from whose anger none can escape
whithersoever they may go, and whose mercy may be found wherever their lot is cast
by those who, whether hindered by known insuperable difficulties, or unwilling
to toil after unknown refuges, in which perils may be only changed not
finished, prefer not to go away elsewhere," -- most assuredly those who thus resolve
to remain ought not to be left destitute of the service of Christian ministers.
If, on the other hand after hearing their bishops and clergy speak as above,
the people prefer to leave the place, to remain behind them is not now the duty
of those who were only remaining for their sakes, because none are left there on
whose account it would still be their duty to remain.
14. Whoever, therefore, flees from danger in circumstances in which the
Church is not deprived, through his flight, of necessary service, is doing that
which the Lord has commanded or permitted. But the minister who flees when the
consequence of his flight is the withdrawal from Christ's flock of that
nourishment by which its spiritual life is sustained, is an "hireling who seeth the
wolf coming, and fleeth because he careth not for the sheep."
With love, which I know to be sincere, I have now written what I believe
to be true on this question, because you asked my opinion, my dearly beloved
brother; but I have not enjoined you to follow my advice, if you can find any
better than mine. Be that as it may, we cannot find anything better for us to do in
these dangers than continually beseech the Lord our God to have compassion on
us. And as to the matter about which I have written, namely, that ministers
should not desert the churches of God, some wise and holy men have by the gift of
God been enabled both to will and to do this thing, and have not in the least
degree faltered in the determined prosecution of their purpose, even though
exposed to the attacks of slanderers.
LETTER CCXXIX. (A.D. 429.)
TO DARIUS,1 HIS DESERVEDLY ILLUSTRIOUS AND VERY POWERFUL LORD AND DEAR SON
CHRIST, AUGUSTIN SENDS GREETING IN THE LORD.
1. Your character and rank I have learned from my holy brothers and
co-bishops, Urbanus and Novatus. The former of these became acquainted with you near
Carthage, in the town of Hilari, and more recently in the town of Sicca; the
latter at Sitifis. Through them it has come to pass that I cannot regard you as
unknown to me. For though my bodily weakness and the chill of age do not permit
me to converse with you personally, it cannot on this account be said that I
have not seen you; for the conversation of Urbanus, when he kindly visited me,
and the letters of Novatus, so described to me the features, not of your face but
of your mind, that I have seen you, and have seen you with all the more
pleasure, because l have seen not the outward appearance but the inner man. These
features of your character are joyfully seen both by us, and through the mercy of
God by yourself also, as in a mirror in the holy Gospel, in which it is written
in words uttered by Him who is truth: "Blessed are the peacemakers: for they
shall be called the children of God."2
2. Those warriors are indeed great and worthy of singular honour, not only
for their consummate bravery, but also (which is a higher praise) for their
eminent fidelity, by whose labours and dangers, along with the blessing of divine
protection and aid, enemies previously unsubdued are conquered, and peace
obtained for the State, and the provinces reduced to subjection. But it is a higher
glory still to stay war itself with a word, than to slay men with the sword,
and to procure or maintain peace by peace, not by war. For those who fight, if
they are good men, doubtless seek for peace; nevertheless it is through blood.
Your mission, however, is to prevent the shedding of blood. Yours, therefore, is
the privilege of averting that calamity which others are under the necessity
of producing. Therefore, my deservedly illustrious and very powerful lord and
very dear son in Christ, rejoice in this singularly great and real blessing
vouchsafed to you, and enjoy it in God, to whom you owe that you are what you are,
and that you undertook the accomplishment of such a work. May God "strengthen
that which He hath wrought for us through you."1 Accept this our salutation, and
deign to reply. From the letter of my brother Novatus, I see that he has taken
pains that your learned Excellency should become acquainted with me also
through my works. If, then, you have read what he has given you, I also shall have
become known to your inward perception. As far as I can judge, they will not
greatly displease you if you have read them in a loving rather than a critical
spirit. It is not much to ask, but it will be a great favour, if for this letter
and my works you send us one letter in reply. I salute with due affection the
pledge of peace,2 which through the favour of our Lord and God you have happily
received.
LETTER CCXXXI. (A.D. 429.)
TO DARIUS, HIS SON, AND A MEMBER OF CHRIST, AUGUSTIN, A SERVANT OF CHRIST AND
OF THE MEMBERS OF CHRIST, SENDS GREETING IN THE LORD.
1. You requested an answer from me as a proof that I had gladly received
your letter. Behold, then, I write again; and yet I cannot express the pleasure
I felt, either by this answer or by any other, whether I write briefly or at
the utmost length, for neither by few words nor by many is it possible for me to
express to you what words can never express. I, indeed, am not eloquent, though
ready in speech; but I could by no means allow any man, however eloquent, even
though he could see as well into my mind as I do myself, to do that which is
beyond my own power, viz. to describe in a letter, however able and however
long, the effect which your epistle had on my mind. It remains, then, for me so to
express to you what you wished to know, that you may understand as being in my
words that which they do not express. What, then, shall I say? That I was
delighted with your letter, exceedingly delighted ; -- the repetition of this word
is not a mere repetition, but, as it were, a perpetual affirmation; because it
was impossible to be always saying it, therefore it has been at least once
repeated, for in this way perhaps my feelings may be expressed.
2. If some one inquire here what after all delighted me so exceedingly in
your letter, -- "Was it its eloquence?" I will answer, No; and he, perhaps,
will reply, "Was it, then, the praises bestowed on yourself?" but again I will
reply, No; and I shall reply thus not because these things are not in that letter,
for the eloquence in it is so great that it is very clearly evident that you
are naturally endowed with the highest talents, and that you have been most
carefully educated; and your letter is undeniably full of my praises. Some one then
may say, "Do not these things delight you?" Yes, truly, for "my heart is not,"
as the poet says, "of horn,"4 so that I should either not observe these things
or observe them without delight. These things do delight; but what have these
things to do with that with which I said I was highly delighted? Your eloquence
delights me since it is at once genial in sentiment and dignified in
expression; and though assuredly I am not delighted with all sorts of praise from all
sorts of persons, but only with such praises as you have thought me worthy of,
and only coming from those who are such as you are -- that is, from persons who,
for Christ's sake, love His servants, I cannot deny that I am delighted with
the praises bestowed upon me in your letter.
3. Thoughtful and experienced men will be at no loss as to the opinion
which they should form of Themistocles (if I remember the name rightly), who,
having refused at a banquet to play on the lyre, a thing which the distinguished
and learned men of Greece were accustomed to do, and having been on that account
regarded as uneducated, was asked, when he expressed his contempt for that sort
of amusement, "What, then, does it delight you to hear?" and is reported to
have answered: "My own praises." Thoughtful and experienced men will readily see
with what design and in what sense these words must have been used by him, or
must be understood by them, if they are to believe that he uttered them; for he
was in the affairs of this world a most remarkable man, as may be illustrated
by the answer which he gave when he was further pressed with the question:
"What, then, do you know? "I know," he replied, "how to make a small republic
great." As to the thirst for praise spoken of by Ennius in the words: "All men
greatly desire to be praised," I am of opinion that it is partly to be approved of,
partly guarded against. For as, on the one hand, we should vehemently desire the
truth, which is undoubtedly to be eagerly sought after as alone worthy of
praise, even though it be not praised: so, on the other hand, we must carefully
shun the vanity which readily insinuates itself along with praise from men: and
this vanity is present in the mind when either the things which are worthy of
praise are not reckoned worth having unless the man be praised for them by his
fellow-men, or things on account of possessing which any man wishes to be much
praised are deserving either of small praise, or it may be of severe censure.
Hence Horace, a more careful observer than Ennius, says: "Is fame your passion?
Wisdom's powerful charm if thrice read over shall its power disarm."1
4. Thus the poet thought that the malady arising from the love of human
praise, which was thoroughly attacked with his satire, was to he charmed away by
words of healing power. The great Teacher has accordingly taught us by His
apostle, that we ought not to do good with a view to be praised by men, that is, we
ought not to make the praises of men the motive for our well-doing; and yet,
for the sake of men themselves, He teaches us to seek their approbation. For
when good men are praised, the praise does not benefit those on whom it is
bestowed, but those who bestowed it. For to the good, so far as they are themselves
concerned, it is enough that they are good; but those are to be congratulated
whose interest it is to imitate the good when the good are praised by them, since
they thus show that the persons whom they sincerely praise are persons whose
conduct they appreciate. The apostle says in a certain place, "If I yet pleased
men, I should not be the servant of Christ;"2 and the same apostle says in
another place, "I please all men in all things," and adds the reason, "Not seeking
mine own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved."3 Behold what
he sought in the praise of men, as it is declared in these words: "Finally, my
brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever
things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely,
whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any
praise, think on these things. Those things, which ye have both learned, and
received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you."4
All the other things which I have named above, he summed up under the name of
Virtue, saying, "If there be any virtue;" but the definition which he subjoined,
"Whatsoever things are of good report," he followed up by another suitable
word, "If there be any praise." What the apostle says, then, in the first of these
passages, "If I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ," is to
be understood as if he said, If the good things which I do were done by me
with human praise as my motive, if I were puffed up with the love of praise, I
should not be the servant of Christ. The apostle, then, wished to please all men,
and rejoiced in pleasing them, not that he might himself be inflated with their
praises, but that he being praised might build them up in Christ. Why, then,
should it not delight me to be praised by you, since you are too good a man to
speak insincerely, and you bestow your praise on things which you love, and
which it is profitable and wholesome to love, even though they be not in me ? This,
moreover, does not benefit you alone, but also me. For if they are not in me,
it is good for me that I am put to the blush, and am made to burn with desire
to possess them. And in regard to anything in your praise which I recognise as
in my possession, I rejoice that I possess it, and that such things are loved by
you, and that I am loved for their sake. And in regard to those things which I
do not recognise as belonging to me, I not only desire to obtain them, that I
may possess them for myself, but also that those who love me sincerely may not
always be mistaken in praising me for them.
5. Behold how many things I have said, and still I have not yet spoken of
that in your letter which delighted me more than your eloquence, and far more
than the praises you bestowed on me. What do you think, O excellent man, that
this can be ? It is that I have acquired the friendship of so distinguished a man
as you are, and that without having even seen you; if, indeed, I ought to
speak of one as unseen whose soul I have seen in his own letters, though I have not
seen his body. In which letters I rest my opinion concerning you on my own
knowledge, and not, as formerly, on the testimony of my brethren. For what your
character was I had already heard, but how you stood affected to me I knew not
until now. From this, your friendship to me, I doubt not that even the praises
bestowed on me, which give me pleasure for a reason about which I have already
said enough, will much more abundantly benefit the Church of Christ, since the
fact that you possess, and study, and love, and commend my labours in defence of
the gospel against the remnant of impious idolaters, secures for me a wider
influence in these writings in proportion to the high position which you occupy;
for, illustrious yourself, you insensibly shed a lustre upon them. You, being
celebrated, give celebrity to them, and wherever you shall see that the
circulation of them might do good, you will not suffer them to remain altogether
unknown. If you ask me how I know this, my reply is, that such is the impression
concerning you produced on me by reading your letters. Herein you will now see how
great delight your letter could impart to me, for if your opinion of me be
favourable, you are aware how great delight is given to me by gain to the cause of
Christ. Moreover, when you tell me concerning yourself that, although, as you
say, you belong to a family which not for one or two generations, but even to
remote ancestors, has been known as able to accept the doctrine of Christ, you
have nevertheless been aided by my writings against the Gentile rites so to
understand these as you never had done before, can I esteem it a small matter how
great benefit our writings, commended and circulated by you, may confer upon
others, and to how many and how illustrious persons your testimony may bring them,
and how easily and profitably through these persons they may reach others? Or,
reflecting on this, can the joy diffused in my heart be small or moderate in
degree?
6. Since, then, I cannot in words express how great delight I have
received from your letter, I have spoken of the reason why it delight me, and may that
which I am unable adequately to utter on this subject I leave to you to
conjecture. Accept, then, my son -- accept, O excellent man, Christian not by outward
profession merely, but by Christian love -- accept, I say, the books
containing my "Confessions," which you desired to have. In these behold me, that you may
not praise me beyond what I am; in these believe what is said of me, not by
others, but by myself; in these contemplate me, and see what I have been in
myself, by myself; and if anything in me please you, join me, because of it, in
praising Him to whom, and not to myself, I desire praise to be given. For "He hath
made us, and not we ourselves;"1 indeed, we had destroyed ourselves, but He who
made us has made us anew. When, however, you find me in these books, pray for
me that I may not fail, but be perfected. Pray, my son; pray. I feel what I
say; I know what I ask. Let it not seem to you a thing unbecoming, and, as it
were, beyond your merits. You will defraud me of a great help if you do not do so.
Let not only you yourself, but all also who by your testimony shall come to
love me, pray for me. Tell them that I have entreated this, and if you think
highly of us, consider that we command what we have asked; in any case, whether as
granting a request or obeying a command, pray for us. Read the Divine
Scriptures, and you will find that the apostles themselves, the leaden of Christ,s flock,
requested this from their sons, or enjoined it on their hearers. I certainly,
since you ask it of me, will do this for you as far as I can. He sees this who
is the Hearer of prayer, and who saw that I prayed for you before you asked me;
but let this proof of love be reciprocated by you. We are placed over you; you
are the flock of God. Consider and see that our dangers are greater than
yours, and pray for us, for this becomes both us and you, that we may give a good
account of you to the Chief Shepherd and Head over us all, and may escape both
from the trials of this world and its allurements, which are still more
dangerous, except when the peace of this world has the effect for which the apostle has
directed us to pray, "That we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all
godliness and honesty."2 For if godliness and honesty be wanting, what is a quiet and
peaceful exemption from the evils of the world but an occasion either of
inviting men to enter, or assisting men to follow, a course of self-indulgence and
perdition? Do you, then, ask for us what we ask for you, that we may lead a
quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. Let us ask this for each
other wherever you are and wherever we are, for He whose we are is everywhere
present.
7. I have sent you also other books which you did not ask, that I might
not rigidly restrict myself to what you asked: -- my works on Faith in Things
Unseen, on Patience, on Continence, on Providence, and a large work on Faith,
Hope, and Charity. If, while you are in Africa, you shall read all these, either
send your opinion of them to me, or let it be sent to some place whence it may be
sent us by my lord and brother Aurelius, though wherever you shall be we hope
to have letters from you; and do you expect letters from us as long as we are
able. I most gratefully received the things you sent to me, in which you
deigned to aid me both in regard to my bodily health,3 since you desire me to be free
from the hindrance of sickness in devoting my time to God, and in regard to my
library, that I may have the means to procure new books and repair the old.
May God recompense you, both in the present life and in that to come, with those
favours which He has prepared for such as He has willed you to be. I request
you now to salute again for me, as before, the pledge of peace entrusted to you,
very dear to both of us.
FOURTH DIVISION.
[Hitherto the order followed in the arrangement of the letters has been
the chronological. It being impossible to ascertain definitely the date of
composition of thirty-nine of the letters, these have been placed by the Benedictine
editors in the fourth division, and in it they are arranged under two principal
divisions, the first embracing some controversial letters, and the second a
number of those which were occasioned either by Augustin's interest in the
welfare of individuals, or by the claims of official duty.]
LETTER CCXXXII.
TO THE PEOPLE OF MADAURA, MY LORDS WORTHY OF PRAISE, AND BRETHREN MOST
BELOVED, AUGUSTIN SENDS GREETING, IN REPLY TO THE LETTER RECEIVED BY THE HANDS OF
BROTHER FLORENTINUS.
1. If, perchance, such a letter as I have received was sent to me by those
among you who are Catholic Christians, the only thing at which I am surprised
is, that it was sent in the name of the municipality, and not in their own
name. If, however, it has pleased all or almost all of your men of rank to send a
letter to me, I am surprised at the title "Father" and the "salutation in the
Lord" addressed to me by you, of whom I know certainly, and with much regret,
that you regard with superstitious veneration those idols against which your
temples are more easily shut than your hearts; or, I should rather say, those idols
which are not more truly shut up in your temples than in your hearts.1 Can it
be that you are at last, after wise reflection, seriously thinking of that
salvation which is in the Lord, in whose name you have chosen to salute me? For if
it be not so, I ask you, my lords worthy of all praise, and brethren most
beloved, in what have I injured, in what have I offended your benevolence, that you
should think it fight to treat me with ridicule rather than with respect in the
salutation prefixed to your letter?
2. For when I read the words, "To Father Augustin, eternal salvation in
the Lord," I was suddenly elated with such fulness of hope, that I believed you
either already converted to the Lord Himself, and to that eternal salvation of
which He is the author, or desirous, through our, ministry, to be so converted.
But when I read the rest of the letter my heart was chilled. I inquired,
however, from the bearer of the letter, whether you were already Christians or were
desirous to be so. After I learned from his answer that you were in no way
changed, I was deeply grieved that you thought it right not only to reject the name
of Christ, to whom you already see the whole world submitting, but even to
insult His name in my person; for I could not think of any other Lord than Christ
the Lord in whom a bishop could be addressed by you as a father, and if there
had been any doubt as to the meaning to be attached to your words, it would have
been removed by the closing sentence of your letter, where you say plainly, "We
desire that, for many years, your lordship may always, in the midst of your
clergy, be glad in God and His Christ." After reading and pondering all these
things, what could I (or, indeed, could any man) think but that these words were
written either as the genuine expression of the mind of the writers, or with an
intention to deceive ? If you write these things as the genuine expression of
your mind, who has barred your way to the truth? Who has strewn it with thorns?
What enemy has placed masses of rock across your path ? In fine, if you are
desiring to come in, who has shut the door of our places of worship against you,
so that you are unwilling to enjoy the same salvation with us in the same Lord
in whose name you salute us? But if you write these things deceitfully and
mockingly, do you, then, in the very act of imposing on me the care of your affairs,
presume to insult, with the language of feigned adulation, the name of Him
through whom alone I can do anything, instead of honouring Him with the veneration
which is due to Him?
3. Be assured, dearest brethren, that it is with inexpressible trembling
of heart on your account that I write this letter to you, for I know how much
greater in the judgment of God must be your guilt and your doom if I shall have
said these things to you in vain. In regard to everything in the history of the
human race which our forefathers observed and handed down to us, and not less
in regard to everything connected with the seeking and holding of true religion
which we now see and put on record for those who come after us, the Divine
Scriptures have not been silent; so far from this, all things come to pass exactly
according to the predictions of Scripture. You cannot deny that you see the
Jewish people torn from the abodes of their ancestry, dispersed and scattered over
almost every country: now, the origin of that people, their gradual increase,
their losing of the kingdom, their dispersion through all the world, have
happened exactly as foretold. You cannot deny that you see that the word of the
Lord, and the law coming forth from that people through Christ, who was
miraculously born among their nation, has taken and retained possession of the faith of
all nations: now we read of all these announced beforehand as we see them. You
cannot deny that you see what we call heresies and schisms, that is, many cut off
from the root of the Christian society, which by means of the Apostolic Sees,
and the successions of bishops, is spread abroad in an indisputably world-wide
diffusion, claiming the name of Christians, and as withering branches boasting
of the mere appearance of being derived from the true vine: all this has been
foreseen, predicted, and described in ScriptUre. You cannot deny that you see
some temples of the idols fallen into ruin through neglect, others thrown down by
violence, others closed, and some applied to other purposes; you see the idols
themselves either broken to pieces, or burnt, or shut up, or destroyed, and
the same powers of this world, who in defence of idols persecuted Christians, now
vanquished and subdued by Christians, who did not fight for the truth but died
for it, and directing their attacks and their laws against the very idols in
defence of which they put Christians to death, and the highest dignitary of the
noblest empire laying aside his crown and kneeling as a! suppliant at the tomb
of the fisherman Peter.
4. The Divine Scriptures, which have now come into the hands of all,
testified long before: that all these things would come to pass. We rejoice that
all these things have happened, with a faith which is strong in proportion to the
discovery thereby made of the greatness of the authority with which they are
declared in the sacred Scriptures. Seeing, then, that all these things have come
to pass as foretold, are we, I ask, to suppose that the judgment of God, which
we read of in the same Scriptures as appointed to separate finally between the
believing and the unbelieving, is the only event in regard to which the
prophecy is to fail ? Yea, certainly, as all these events have come, it shall also
come. Nor shall there be a man of our time who shall be able in that day to plead
anything in defence of his unbelief. For the name of Christ is on the lips of
every man: it is invoked by the just man in doing justice, by the perjurer in
the act of deceiving, by the king to confirm his rule, by the soldier to nerve
himself for battle, by the husband to establish his authority, by the wife to
confess her submission, by the father to enforce his command, by the son to
declare his obedience, by the master in supporting his right to govern, by the slave
in performing his duty, by the humble in quickening piety, by the proud in
stimulating ambition, by the rich man when he gives, and by the poor when he
receives an alms, by the drunkard at his wine-cup, by the beggar at the gate, by the
good man in keeping his word, by the wicked man in violating his promises: all
frequently use the name of Christ, the Christian with genuine reverence, the
Pagan with reigned respect; and they shall undoubtedly give to that same Being
whom they invoke an account both of the spirit and of the language in which they
repeat His name.
5. There is One invisible, from whom, as the Creator and First Cause, all
things seen by us derive their being: He is supreme, eternal, unchangeable, and
comprehensible by none save Himself alone. There is One by whom the supreme
Majesty utters and reveals Himself, namely, the Word, not inferior to Him by whom
it is begotten and uttered, by which Word He who begets it is manifested.
There is One who is holiness, the sanctifier of all that becomes holy, who is the
inseparable and undivided mutual communion between this unchangeable Word by
whom that First Cause is revealed, and that First Cause who reveals Himself by the
Word which is His equal. But who is able with perfectly calm and pure mind to
contemplate this whole Essence (whom I have endeavoured to describe without
giving His name, instead of giving His name without describing Him), and to draw
blessedness from that contemplation, and by sinking, as it were, in the rapture
of such meditation, to become oblivious of self, and to press on to that the
sight of which is beyond our sphere of perception; in other words, to be clothed
with immortality, and obtain that eternal salvation which you were pleased to
desire on my behalf in your greeting? Who, I say, is able to do this but the man
who, confessing his sins, shall have levelled with the dust all the vain
risings of pride, and prostrated himself in meekness and humility to receive God as
his Teacher?
6. Since, therefore, it is necessary that we be first brought down from
vain self-sufficiency to lowliness of spirit, that rising thence .we may attain
to real exaltation, it was not possible that this spirit could be produced in us
by any method at once more glorious and more gentle (subduing our haughtiness
by persuasion instead of violence) than that the Word by whom the Father
reveals Himself to angels, who is His Power and Wisdom, who could not be discerned by
the human heart so long as it was blinded by love for the things which are
seen, should condescend . to assume out nature, and so to exercise and manifest
His personality when incarnate as to make men more afraid of being elated by the
pride of man, than of being brought low after the example of God. Therefore the
Christ who is preached throughout the whole world is not Christ adorned with
an earthly crown, nor Christ rich in earthly treasures, nor Christ illustrious
for earthly prosperity, but Christ crucified. This was ridiculed, at first, by
whole nations of proud men, and is still ridiculed by a remnant among the
nations, but it was the object of faith at first to a few and now to whole nations,
because when Christ crucified was preached at that time, notwithstanding the
ridicule of the nations, to the few who believed, the lame received power to walk,
the dumb to speak, the deaf to hear, the blind to see, and the dead were
restored to life. Thus, at length, the pride of this world was convinced that, even
among the things of this world, there is nothing more powerful than the
humility of God,1 so that beneath the shield of a divine example that humility, which
it is most profitable for men to practise, might find defence against the
contemptuous assaults of pride.
7. O men of Madaura, my brethren, nay, my fathers,2 I beseech you to awake
at last: this opportunity of writing to you God has given to me. So far as I
could, I rendered my service and help in the business of brother Florentinus, by
whom, as God willed it, you wrote to me; but the business was of such a
nature, that even without my assistance it might have been easily transacted, for
almost all the men of his family, who reside at Hippo, know Florentinus, and
deeply regret his bereavement. But the letter was sent by you to me, that, having
occasion to reply, it might not seem presumptuous on my part, when the
opportunity was afforded me by yourselves, to say something concerning Christ to the
worshippers of idols. But I beseech you, if you have not taken His name in vain in
that epistle, suffer not these things which I write to you to be in vain; but
if in using His name you wished to mock me, fear Him whom the world formerly in
its pride scorned as a condemned criminal, and whom the same world now,
subjected to His sway, awaits as its Judge. For the desire of my heart for you,
expressed as far as in my power by this letter, shall witness against you at the
judgment-seat of Him who shall establish for ever those who believe in Him and
confound the unbelieving. May the one true God deliver you wholly from the vanity
of this world, and turn you to Himself, my lords worthy of all praise and
brethren most beloved.
LETTER CCXXXVII.
This letter was addressed to Ceretius, a bishop, who had sent to Augustin
certain apocryphal writings, on which the Spanish heretical sect called
Priscillianists 3 rounded some of their doctrines. Ceretius had especially directed
his attention to a hymn which they alleged to have been composed by the Lord
Jesus Christ, and given by Him to His disciples on that night on which He was
betrayed, when they sang an" hymn" before going out to the Mount of Olives. The
length of tile letter precludes its insertion here, but we believe it will interest
many to read the few lines of this otherwise long-forgotten hymn, which
Augustin has here preserved. They are as follows :--
"Salvare volo et salvari volo;
Solvere volo et solvi volo;
Ornate volo et ornari volo;
Generari volo;
Cantare volo, saltate cuncti:
Plangere volo, tundite vos omnes:
Lucerna sum tibi, ille qui me vides;
Janua sum tibi, quicunque me pulsas;
Qui rides quod ago, tace opera mea;
Verbo illusi cuncta et non sum illusus in totum."
The reader who ponders these extracts, and remembers the occasion on which the
hymn is alleged to have been composed, will agree with us that Augustin
employs a very unnecessary fulness of argument in devoting several paragraphs to
demolish the claims advanced on its behalf as a revelation more profound and sacred
than anything contained in the canonical Scriptures. Augustin also brings
against the Priscillianists the charge of justifying perjury when it might be of
service in concealing their real opinions, and quotes a line in which, as he had
heard from some who once belonged to that sect, the lawfulness of such
deceitful conduct was taught:--
"Jura, perjura, secretum prodere noli."
LETTER CCXLV.
TO POSSIDIUS,4 MY MOST BELOVED LORD AND VENERABLE BROTHER AND PARTNER IN THE
SACERDOTAL OFFICE, AND TO THE BRETHREN WHO ARE WITH HIM, AUGUSTIN AND THE
BRETHREN WHO ARE WITH HIM SEND GREETING IN THE LORD.
1. It requires more consideration to decide what to do with those who
refuse to obey you, than to discover how to show them that things which they do are
unlawful. Meanwhile, however, the letter of your Holiness has come upon me
when I am exceedingly pressed with business, and the very hasty departure of the
bearer has made it necessary for me to write you in reply, but has not given me
time to answer as I ought to have done in regard to the matters on which you
have consulted me. Let me say, however, in regard to ornaments of gold and costly
dress, that I would not have you come to a precipitate decision in the way of
forbidding their use, except in the case of those who, neither being married
nor intending to marry, are bound to consider only how they may please God. But
those who belong to the world have also to consider how they may in these things
please their wives if they be husbands, their husbands if they be wives;1 with
this limitation, that it is not becoming even in married women to uncover
their hair, since the apostle commands women to keep their heads covered.2 As to
the use of pigments by women in colouring the face, in order to have a ruddier or
a fairer complexion, this is a dishonest artifice, by which I am sure that
even their own husbands do not wish to be deceived; and it is only for their own
husbands that women ought to be permitted to adorn themselves, according to the
toleration, not the injunction, of Scripture. For the true adorning, especially
of Christian men and women, consists not only in the absence of all deceitful
painting of the complexion, but in the possession not of magnificent golden
ornaments or rich apparel, but of a blameless life.
2. As for the accursed superstition of wearing amulets (among which the
earrings worn by men at the top of the ear on one side are to be reckoned), it is
practised with the view not of pleasing men, but of doing homage to devils.
But who can expect to find in Scripture express prohibition of every form of
wicked superstition, seeing that the apostle says generally, "I would not that ye
should have fellowship with devils,"3 and again, "What concord hath Christ with
Belial?" 4 unless, perchance, the fact that he named Belial, while he forbade
in general terms fellowship with devils, leaves it open for Christians to
sacrifice to Neptune, because we nowhere read an express prohibition of the worship
of Neptune ! Meanwhile, let those unhappy people be admonished that, if they
persist in disobedience to salutary precepts, they must at least forbear from
defending their impieties, and thereby involving themselves in greater guilt. But
why should we argue at all with them if they are afraid to take off their
earrings, and are not afraid to receive the body of Christ while wearing the badge of
the devil?
As to ordaining a man who was baptized in the Donatist sect, I cannot take
the responsibility of recommending you to do this; it is one thing for you to
do it if you are left without alternative, it is another thing for me to advise
that you should do it.
LETTER CCXLVI.
TO LAMPADIUS, AUGUSTIN SENDS GREETING,
1. On the subject of Fate and Fortune, by which, as I perceived when I was
with you, and as I now know in a more gratifying and more reliable way by your
own letter, your mind is seriously disturbed, I ought to write you a
considerable volume; the Lord will enable me to explain it in the manner which He knows
to be best fitted to preserve your faith. For it is no small evil that when men
embrace perverse opinions they are not only drawn by the allurement of
pleasure to commit sin, but are also turned aside to vindicate their sin rather than
seek to have it healed by acknowledging that they have done wrong.
2. Let me, therefore, briefly remind you of one thing bearing on the
question which you certainly know, that all laws and all means of discipline,
commendations, censures, exhortations, threatenings, rewards, punishments, and all
other things by which mankind are managed and ruled, are utterly subverted and
overthrown, and found to be absolutely devoid of justice, unless the will is the
cause of the sins which a man commits. How much more legitimate and right,
therefore, is it for us to reject the absurdities of astrologers [mathematici],
than to submit to the alternative necessity of condemning and rejecting the laws
proceeding from divine authority, or even the means needful for governing our
own families. In this the astrologers themselves ignore their own doctrine as to
Fate and Fortune, for when any one of them, after selling to moneyed simpletons
his silly prognostications of Fate, calls back his thoughts from the ivory
tablets to the management and care of his own house, he reproves his wife, not
with words only, but with blows, if he finds her, I do not say jesting rather
forwardly, but even looking too much out of the window. Nevertheless, if she were
to expostulate in such a case, saying: "Why beat me ? beat Venus, rather, if you
can, since it is under that planet's influence that I am compelled to do what
you complain of,"-- he would certainly apply his energies not to invent some of
the absurd jargon by which he cajoles the public, but to inflict some of the
just correction by which he maintains his authority at home.
3. When, therefore, any one, upon being reproved, affirms that Fate is the
cause of the action, and insists that therefore he is not to be blamed,
because he says that under the compulsion of Fate he did the action which is
censured, let him come back to apply this to his own case, let him observe this
principle in managing his own affairs: let him not chastise a dishonest servant; let
him not complain of a disrespectful son; let him not utter threats against a
mischievous neighbour. For in doing which of these things would he act justly, if
all from whom he suffers such wrong are impelled to Commit it by Fate, not by
any fault of their own? If, however, from the fight inherent in himself, and the
duty incumbent on him as the head of a family towards all whom for the time he
has under his control, he exhorts them to do good, deters them from doing
evil, commands them to obey his will, honours those who yield implicit obedience,
inflicts punishment on those who set him at naught, gives thanks to those who do
him good, and hates those who are ungrateful, -- shall I wait to prove the
absurdity of the astrologers calculations of Fate, when I find him proclaiming,
not by words but by deeds, things so conclusive against his pretensions that he
seems to destroy almost with his own hands every hair on the heads of the
astrologers?
If your eager desire is not satisfied with these few sentences, and
demands a book which will take longer time to read on this subject, you must wait
patiently until I get some respite from other duties; and you must pray to God
that He may be pleased to allow both leisure and capacity to write, so as to set
your mind at rest on this matter. I will, however, do this with more willing
readiness, if your Charity does not grudge to remind me of it by frequent letters,
and to show me in your reply what you think of this letter.
LETTER CCL.
TO HIS BELOVED LORD AND VENERABLE BROTHER AND PARTNER IN THE PRIESTLY OFFICE,
AUXILIUS,1 AUGUSTIN SENDS GREETING IN THE LORD.
1. Our son Classicianus, a man of rank, has addressed to me a letter
complaining bitterly that he has suffered excommunication wrongfully at the hand of
your Holiness. His account of the matter is, that he came to the church with a
small escort suitable to his official authority, and begged of you that you
would not, to the detriment of their own spiritual welfare, extend the privilege
of the sanctuary to men who, after violating an oath which they had taken on the
Gospel, were seeking in the house of faith itself assistance and protection in
their crime of breaking faith; that thereafter the men themselves, reflecting
on the sin which they had committed, went forth from the church, not under
violent compulsion, but of their own accord; and that because of this transaction
your Holiness was so displeased with him, that with the usual forms of
ecclesiastical procedure you smote him and all his household with a sentence of
excommunication.
On reading this letter from him, being very much troubled, the thoughts of
my heart being agitated like the waves of a stormy sea, I felt it impossible
to forbear from writing to you, to beg that if you have thoroughly examined your
judgment I in this matter, and have proved it by irrefragable reasoning or
Scripture testimonies, you will have the kindness to teach me also the grounds on
which it is just that a son should be anathematized for the sin of his father,
or a wife for the sin of her husband, or a servant for the sin of his master,
or how it is just that even the child as yet unborn should lie under an
anathema, and be debarred, even though death were imminent, from the deliverance
provided in the layer of regeneration, if he happen to be born in a family at the
time when the whole household is under the ban of excommunication. For this is not
one of those judgments merely affecting the body, in which, as we read in
Scripture, some despisers of God were slain with all their households, though these
had not been sharers in their impiety. In those cases, indeed, as a warning to
the survivors, death was inflicted on booties which, as mortal, were destined
at some time to die; but a spiritual judgment, founded on what is written,
"That which ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven,"2 -- is binding on
souls, concerning which it is said, "As the soul of the father is mine, so also
the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth it shall die."3
2. It may be that you have heard that other priests of great reputation
have in some cases included the household of a transgressor in the anathema
pronounced on him; but these could, perchance, if they were required, give a good
reason for so doing. For my own part, although I have been most grievously
troubled by the cruel excesses with which some men have vexed the Church, I have
never ventured to do as you have done, for this reason, that if any one were to
challenge me to justify such an act, I could give no satisfactory reply. But if,
perchance, the Lord has revealed to you that it may be justly done, I by no
means despise your youth and your inexperience, as having been but recently
elevated to high office in the Church. Behold, though far advanced in life, I am ready
to learn from one who is but young; and notwithstanding the number of years
for which I have been a bishop, I am ready to learn from one who has not yet been
a twelvemonth in the same office, if he undertakes to teach me how we can
justify our conduct, either before men or before God, if we inflict a spiritual
punishment on innocent souls because of another person's crime, in which they are
not involved in the same way as they are involved in the original sin of Adam,
in whom "all have sinned." For although the son of Classicianus derived through
his father, from our first parent, guilt which behoved to be washed away by
the sacred waters of baptism, who hesitates for a moment to say that he is in no
way responsible for any sin which his father may have committed, since he was
born, without his participation? What shall I say of his wife? What of so many
souls in the entire household? -- of which if even one, in consequence of the
severity which included the whole household in the excommunication, should perish
through departing from the body without baptism, the loss thus occasioned
would be an incomparably greater calamity than the bodily death of an innumerable
multitude, even though they were innocent men, dragged from the courts of the
sanctuary and murdered. If, therefore, you are able to give a good reason for
this, I trust that you will in your reply communicate it to me, that I also may be
able to do the same; but if you cannot, what right have you to do, under the
promptings of inconsiderate excitement, an act for which, if you were asked to
give a satisfactory reason, you could find none?
3. What I have said hitherto applies to the case even on the supposition
that our son Classicianus has done something which might appear to demand most
righteously at your hands the punishment of excommunication. But if the letter
which he sent to me contained the truth, there was no reason why even he himself
(even though his household had been exempted from the stroke) should have been
so punished. As to this, however, I do not interfere with your Holiness; I
only beseech you to pardon him when he asks forgiveness, if he acknowledges his
fault; and if, on the other hand, you, upon reflection, acknowledge that he did
nothing wrong, since in fact the right rather lay on his side who earnestly
demanded that in the house of faith, faith should be sacredly kept, and that it
should not be broken in the place where the sinfulness of such breach of faith is
taught from] day to day, do, in this event, what a man of, piety ought to do,--
that is to say, if to you as a man anything has happened such as was confessed
by one who was truly a man of God in the words of the psalm, "Mine eye was
discomposed by anger,"1 fail not to cry to the Lord, as] he did, "Have pity on me,
O Lord, for I am weak,"2 so that He may stretch forth His right hand to you,
rebuking the storm of your passion, and making your mind calm that you may see
and may perform what is just; for, as it is written, "the wrath of man worketh
not the righteousness of God."3 And think not that, because we are bishops, it
is impossible for unjust passionate resentment to gain secretly upon us; let us
rather remember that, because we are men, your life in the midst of
temptation's snares is, beset with the greatest possible dangers. Cancel, therefore, the
ecclesiastical sentence which, perhaps under the influence of unusual
excitement, you have passed; and let the mutual love which, even from the time when you
were a catechumen, has united him and you, be restored again; let strife be
banished and peace invited to return, lest this man who is your friend be lost to
you, and the devil who is your enemy rejoice over you both. Mighty is the mercy
of our God; it may be that His compassion shall hear even my prayer, imploring
of Him that my sorrow on your account may not be increased, but that rather
what I have begun to suffer may be removed; and may your youth, not despising my
old age, be encouraged and made full of joy by His grace! Farewell!
[Annexed to this letter is a fragment of a letter written at the same time to
Classicianus; it is as follows: --
To restrain those who for the offence of one soul bind a transgressor's
entire household, that is, a large number of souls, under one sentence of
excommunication, and especially to prevent any one from departing this life unbaptized
in consequence of such an anathema, -- also to decide the question whether
persons ought not to be driven forth even from a church, who seek a refuge there
in order that they may break the faith pledged to sureties, I desire with the
Lord's help to use the necessary measures in our Council, and, if it be
necessary, to write to the Apostolic See; that, by a unanimous authoritative decision of
all, we may have the course which ought to be followed in these cases
determined and established. One thing I say deliberately as an unquestionable truth,
that if any believer has been wrongfully excommunicated, the sentence will do
harm rather to him who pronounces it than to him who suffers this wrong. For it is
by the Holy Spirit dwelling in holy persons that any one is loosed or bound,
and He inflicts unmerited punishment upon no one; for by Him the love which
worketh not evil is shed abroad Ln our hearts.4]
LETTER CCLIV.
TO BENENATUS, MY MOST BLESSED LORD, MY ESTEEMED AND AMIABLE BROTHER AND
PARTNER IN THE PRIESTLY OFFICE, AND TO THE BRETHREN WHO ARE WITH HIM, AUGUSTIN AND
THE BRETHREN WHO ARE WITH HIM SEND GREETING IN THE LORD.
The maiden1 about whom your Holiness wrote to me is at present disposed to
think, that if she were of full age she would refuse every proposal of
marriage. She is, however, so young, that even if she were disposed to marriage, she
ought not yet to be either given or betrothed to any one. Besides this, my lord
Benenatus, brother revered and beloved, it must be remembered that God takes
her under guardianship in His Church with the design of protecting her against
wicked men; placing her, therefore, under my care not so as that she can be given
by me to whomsoever I might choose, but so as that she cannot be taken away
against my will by any person who would be an unsuitable partner. The proposal
which you have been pleased mention is one which, if she were disposed and
prepared to marry, would not displease me; but whether she will marry any one,--
although for my own part, I would much prefer that she carried out what she now
talks of,-- I do not in the meantime know, for she is at an age in which her
declaration that she wishes to be a nun is to be received rather as the flippant
utterance of one talking heedlessly, than as the deliberate promise of one making
a solemn vow. Moreover, she has an aunt by the mother's side married to our
honourable brother Felix, with whom I have. conferred in regard to this
matter,--for I neither could, nor indeed should have avoided consulting him,--and he has
not been reluctant to entertain the proposal, but has, on the contrary,
expressed his satisfaction; but he expressed not unreasonably his regret that nothing
had been written to him on the subject, although his relationship entitled him
to be apprised of it. For, perhaps, the mother of the maiden will also come
forward, though in the meantime she does not make herself known, and to a mother's
wishes in regard to the giving away of a daughter, nature gives in my opinion
the precedence above all others, unless the maiden herself be already old
enough to have legitimately a stronger claim to choose for herself what she pleases.
I wish your Honour also to understand, that if the final and entire authority
in the matter of her marriage were committed to me, and she herself, being of
age and willing to marry, were to entrust herself to me under God as my Judge to
give her to whomsoever I thought best, -- I declare, and I declare the truth,
in saying that the proposal which you mention pleases me meanwhile, but because
of God being my Judge I cannot pledge myself to reject on her behalf a better
offer if it were made; but whether any such proposal shall at any future time
be made is wholly uncertain. Your Holiness perceives, therefore, how many
important considerations concur to make it impossible for her to be, in the meantime,
definitely promised to any One.
LETTER CCLXIII.
TO THE EMINENTLY RELIGIOUS LADY AND HOLY DAUGHTER SAPIDA, AUGUSTIN SENDS
GREETING IN THE LORD.
1. The gift prepared by the just and pious industry of your own hands, and
kindly presented by you to me, I have accepted, lest I should increase the
grief of one who needs, as I perceive, much rather to be comforted by me;
especially because you expressed yourself as esteeming it no small consolation to you
if I would wear this tunic, which you had made for that holy servant of God your
brother, since he, having departed from the land of the dying, is raised above
the need of the things which perish in the using. I have, therefore, complied
with your desire, and whatever be the kind and degree of consolation which you
may feel this to yield, I have not refused it to your affection for your
brother.· The tunic which you sent I have accordingly accepted, and have already
begun to wear it before writing this to you. Be therefore of good cheer; but apply
yourself, I beseech you, to far better and far greater consolations, in order
that the cloud which, through human weakness, gathers darkness closely round
your heart, may be dissipated by the words of divine authority; and, at all times,
so live that you may live with your brother, since he has so died that he
lives still.
2. It is indeed a cause for tears that your brother, who loved you, and
who honoured you especially for your pious life, and your profession as a
consecrated virgin, is no more before your eyes, as hitherto, going in and out in the
assiduous discharge of his ecclesiastical duties as a deacon. of the church of
Carthage, and that you shall no more hear from his lips the honourable
testimony which, with kindly, pious, and becoming affection, he was wont to render to
the holiness of a sister so dear to him. When these things are pondered, and are
regretfully desired1 with all the vehemence of long-cherished affection, the
heart is pierced, and, like blood from; the pierced heart, tears flow apace. But
let your heart rise heavenward, and your eyes will cease to weep.2 The things
over the loss of which you mourn have indeed passed away, for they were in
their nature temporary, but their loss does not involve the annihilation of that
love with which Timotheus loved [his sister] Sapida, and loves her still: it
abides in its own treasury, and is hidden with Christ in God. Does the miser lose
his gold when he stores it in a secret place? Does he not then become, so far as
lies in his power, more confidently assured that the gold is in his possession
when he keeps it in some safer hiding-place,where it is hidden even from his
eyes? Earthly covetousness believes that it has found a safer guardianship for
its loved treasures when it no longer sees them; and shall heavenly love sorrow
as if it had lost for ever that which it has only sent before it to the garner
of the upper world? O Sapida, give yourself wholly to your high calling, and
set your affections s on things above, where, at the right hand of God, Christ
sitteth, who condescended for us to die, that we, though we were dead, might
live, and to secure that no man should fear death as if it were destined to destroy
him, and that no one of those for whom the Life died should after death be
mourned for as if he had lost life. Take to yourself these and other similar
divine consolations, before which human sorrow may blush and flee away.
3. There is nothing in the sorrow of mortals over their dearly beloved
dead which merits displeasure; but the sorrow of believers ought not to be
prolonged. If, therefore, you have been grieved till now, let this grief suffice, and
sorrow not as do the heathen, "who have no hope."4 For when the Apostle Paul
said this, he did not prohibit sorrow altogether, but only such sorrow as the
heathen manifest who have no hope. For even Martha and Mary, pious sisters, and
believers, wept for their brother Lazarus, of whom they knew that he would rise
again, though they knew not that he was at that time to be restored to life; and
the Lord Himself wept for that same Lazarus, whom He was going to bring back
from death;5 wherein doubtless He by His example permitted, though He did not by
any precept enjoin, the shedding of tears over the graves even of those
regarding whom we believe that they shall rise again to the true life. Nor is it
without good reason that Scripture saith in the book of Ecclesiasticus: "Let tears
fall down over the dead, and begin to lament as if thou hadst suffered great
harm thyself;" but adds, a little further on, this counsel, "and then comfort
thyself for thy heaviness. For of heaviness cometh death, and the heaviness of the
heart breaketh strength."6
4. Your brother, my daughter, is alive as to the soul, is asleep as to the
body: "Shall not he who sleeps also rise again from sleep?"7 God, who has
already received his spirit, shall again give back to him his body, which He did
not take away to annihilate, but only took aside to restore. There is therefore
no reason for protracted sorrow, since there is a much stronger reason for
everlasting joy. For even the mortal part of your brother, which has been buried in
the earth, shall not be for ever lost to you; --that part in which he was
visibly present with you, through which also he addressed you and conversed with
you, by which he spoke with a voice not less thoroughly known to your ear than was
his countenance when presented to your eyes, so that, wherever the sound of
his voice was heard, even though he was not seen, he used to be at once
recognised by you. These things are indeed withdrawn so as to be no longer perceived by
the senses of the living, that the absence of the dead may make surviving
friends mourn for them. But seeing that even the bodies of the dead shall not perish
(as not even a hair of the head shall perish),8 but shall, after being laid
aside for a time, be received again never more to be laid aside, but fixed
finally in the higher condition of existence into which they shall have been changed,
certainly there is more cause for l thankfulness in the sure hope for an
immeasurable eternity, than for sorrow in the transient experience of a very short
span of time. This hope the heathen do not possess, because they know not the
Scriptures nor the power of God,1 who is able to restore what was lost, to
quicken what was dead, to renew what has been subjected to corruption, to re-unite
things which have been severed from each other, and to preserve thenceforward for
evermore what was originally corruptible and shortlived. These things He has
promised, who has, by the fulfilment of other promises, given our faith good
ground to believe that these also shall be fulfilled. Let your faith often
discourse now to you on these things, because your hope shall not be disappointed,
though your love may be now for a season interrupted in its exercise; ponder these
things; in them find more solid and abundant consolation. For if the fact that
I now wear (because he could not) the garment which you had woven for your
brother yields some comfort to you, how much more full and satisfactory the
comfort which you should find in considering that he for whom this was prepared, and
who then did not require an imperishable garment, shall be clothed with
incorruption and immortality!
LETTER CCLXIX.
TO NOBILIUS, MY MOST BLESSED AND VENERABLE BROTHER AND PARTNER IN THE PRIESTLY
OFFICE, AUGUSTIN SENDS GREETING.
So important is the solemnity at which your brotherly affection invites me
to be present, that my heart's desire would carry my poor body to you, were it
not that infirmity renders this impossible. I might have come if it had not
been winter; I might have braved the winter if I had been young: for in the
latter case tile warmth of youth would have borne uncomplainingly the cold of the
season; in the former case the warmth of summer would have met with gentleness
the chili languor of old age. For the present, my lord most blessed, my holy and
venerable partner in the priestly office, I cannot undertake in winter so long
a journey, carrying with me as I must the frigid feebleness of very many years.
I reciprocate the salutation due to your worth, on behalf of my own welfare I
ask an interest in gout prayers, and I myself beseech the Lord God to grant
that the prosperity of peace may follow the dedication of so great an edifice to
His sacred service.2