(NOTE: The electronic text obtained from The Electronic Bible Society was
not completely corrected. EWTN has corrected all discovered errors.)
ST. AUGUSTIN
LETTERS 173-269 (End of the third division; fourth division).
The third division consists of letters written after the time of the
conference with the Donatists and the rise of the Pelagian heresy in
Africa; i.e., during the last twenty years of his life (A.D. 411-430).
[Translated by The Rev. J. G. Cunningham, M.A., Vicar of St. Mark's West
Hackney; and sometime clerical secretary of the Bishop of London's Fund.]
LETTER CLXXIII. (A.D. 416.)
TO DONATUS, A PRESBYTER OF THE DONATIST PARTY, AUGUSTIN, A BISHOP OF THE
CATHOLIC CHURCH, SENDS GREETING.
1. If you could see the sorrow of my heart and my concern for your
salvation, you would perhaps take pity on your own soul, doing that which
is pleasing to God, by giving heed to the: word which is not ours but His;
and would no longer give to His Scripture only a place in your memory,
while shutting it out from your heart. You are angry because you are being
drawn to salvation, although you have drawn so many of our fellow
Christians to destruction. For what did we order beyond this, that you
should be arrested, brought before the authorities, and guarded, in order
to prevent you from perishing? As to your having sustained bodily injury,
you have yourself to blame for this, as you would not use the horse which
was immediately brought to you, and then dashed yourself violently to the
ground; for, as you well know, your companion, who was brought along with
you, arrived uninjured, not having done any harm to himself as you did.
2. You think, however, that even what we have done to you should not
have been done, because, in your opinion, no man should be compelled to
that which is good. Mark, therefore, the words of the apostle: "If a man
desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work," and yet, in order
to make the office of a bishop be accepted by many men, they are seized
against their will,(2) subjected to importunate persuasion, shut up and
detained in custody, and made to suffer so many things which they dislike,
until a willingness to undertake the good work is found in them. How much
more, then, is it fitting that you should be drawn forcibly away from a
pernicious error, in which you are enemies to your own souls, and brought
to acquaint yourselves with the truth, or to choose it when known, not only
in order to your holding in a safe and advantageous way the honour
belonging to your office, but also in order to preserve you from perishing
miserably! You say that God has given us free will, and that therefore no
man should be compelled even to good. Why, then, are those whom I have
above referred to compelled to that which is good? Take heed, therefore, to
something which you do not wish to consider. The aim towards which a good
will compassionately devotes its efforts is to secure that a bad will be
rightly directed. For who does not know that a man is not condemned on any
other ground than because his bad will deserved it, and that no man is
saved who has not a good will? Nevertheless, it does not follow from this
that those who are loved should be cruelly left to yield themselves with
impunity to their bad will; but in so far as power is given, they ought to
be both prevented from evil and compelled to good.
3. For if a bad will ought to be always left to its own freedom, why
were the disobedient and murmuring Israelites restrained from evil by such
severe chastisements, and compelled to come into the land of promise? If a
bad will ought always to be left to its own freedom, why was Paul not left
to the free use of that most perverted will with which he persecuted the
Church? Why was he thrown to the ground that he might be blinded, and
struck blind that he might be changed, and changed that he might be sent as
:an apostle, and sent that he might suffer for the truth's sake such wrongs
as he had inflicted on others when he was in error? If a bad will ought
always to be left to its own freedom, why is a father instructed in Holy
Scripture not only to correct an obstinate son by words of rebuke, but also
to beat his sides, in order that, being compelled and subdued, he may be
guided to good conduct?(3) For which reason Solomon also says: "Thou shalt
beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell."(1) If a bad
will ought always to be left to its own freedom, why are negligent pastors
reproved? and why is it said to them, "Ye have not brought back the
wandering sheep, ye have not sought the perishing"?(2) You also are sheep
belonging to Christ, you bear the Lord's mark in the sacrament which you
have received, but you are wandering and perishing. Let us not, therefore,
incur your displeasure because we bring back the wandering: and seek the
perishing; for it is better for us! to obey the will of the Lord, who
charges us to compel you to return to His fold, than to yield consent to
the will of the wandering sheep, so as to leave you to perish. Say not,
therefore, what I hear that you are constantly saying, "I wish thus to
wander; I wish thus to perish;" for it is better that we should so far as
is in our power absolutely refuse to allow you to wander and perish.
4. When you threw yourself the other day into a well, in order to bring
death upon yourself, you did so no doubt with your free will. But how cruel
the servants of God would have been if they had left you to the fruits of
this bad will, and had not delivered you from that death! Who would not
have justly blamed them? Who would not have justly denounced them as
inhuman? And yet you, with your own free will, threw yourself into the
water that you might be drowned. They took you against your will out of the
water, that you might not be drowned. You acted according to your own will,
but with a view to your destruction; they dealt with you against your will,
but in order to your preservation. If, therefore, mere bodily safety
behoves to be so guarded that it is the duty of those who love their
neighhour to preserve him even against his own will from harm, how much
more is this! duty binding in regard to that spiritual health i in the loss
of which the consequence to be dreaded is eternal death! At the same time
let me remark, that in that death which you wished to bring upon yourself
you would have died not for time only but for eternity, because even though
force had been used to compel you -- not to accept salvation, not to enter
into the peace of the Church, the unity of Christ's body, the holy
indivisible charity, but -- to suffer some evil things, it would not have
been lawful for you to take away your own life.
5. Consider the divine Scriptures, and examine them to the utmost of
your ability, and see whether this was ever done by any one of the just and
faithful, though subjected to the most grievous evils by persons who were
endeavouring to drive them, not to eternal life, to which you are being
compelled by us, but to eternal death. I have heard that you say that the
Apostle Paul intimated the lawfulness of suicide, when he said, "Though I
give my body to be burned,"(3) supposing that because he was there
enumerating all the good things which are of no avail without charity, such
as the tongues of men and of angels, and all mysteries, and all knowledge,
and all prophecy, and the distribution of one's goods to the poor, he
intended to include among these good things the act of bringing death upon
one. self. But observe carefully and learn in what .sense Scripture says
that any man may give his body to be burned. Certainly not that any man may
throw himself into the fire when he is harassed by a pursuing enemy, but
that, when he is compelled to choose between doing wrong and suffering
wrong, he should refuse to do wrong rather than to suffer wrong, and so
give his body into the power of the executioner, as those three men did who
were being compelled to worship the golden image, while he who was
compelling them threatened them with the burning fiery furnace if they did
not obey. They refused to worship the image: they did not cast themselves
into the fire, and yet of them it is written that they "yielded their
bodies, that they might not serve nor worship any god except their own
God."(4) This is the sense in which the apostle said, "If I give my body to
be burned."
6. Mark also what follows: -- "If I have not charity, it profiteth me
nothing." To that charity you are called; by that charity you are prevented
from perishing: and yet you think, forsooth, that to throw yourself
headlong to destruction, by your own act, will profit you in some measure,
although, even if you suffered death at the hands of another, while you
remain an enemy to charity it would profit you nothing. Nay, more, being in
a state of exclusion from the Church, and severed from the body of unity
and the bond of charity, you would be punished with eternal misery even
though you were burned alive for Christ's name; for this is the apostle's
declaration, "Though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it
profiteth me nothing." Bring your mind back, therefore, to rational
reflection and sober thought; consider carefully whether it is to error and
to impiety that you are being called, and, if you still think so, submit
patiently to any hardship for the truth's sake. If, however, the fact
rather be that you are living in error and in impiety, mad that in the
Church to which you are called truth and piety are found, because there is
Christian unity and the love (charitas) of the Holy Spirit, why do you
labour any longer to be an enemy to yourself?
7. For this end the mercy of the Lord appointed that both we and your
bishops met at Carthage in a conference which had repeated meetings, and
was largely attended, and reasoned together in the most orderly manner in
regard to the grounds of our separation from each other. The proceedings of
that conference were written down; our signatures are attached to the
record: read it, or allow others to read it to you, and then choose which
party you prefer. I have heard that you have said that you could to some
extent discuss the statements in that record with us if we would omit these
words of your bishops: "No case forecloses the investigation of another
case, and no person compromises the position of another person." You wish
us to leave out these words, in which, although they knew it not, the truth
itself spoke by them. You will say, indeed, that here they made a mistake,
and fell through want of consideration into a false opinion. But we affirm
that here they said what was true, and we prove this very easily by a
reference to yourself. For if in regard to these bishops of your own,
chosen by the whole party of Donatus on the understanding that they should
act as representatives, and that all the rest should regard whatever they
did as acceptable and satisfactory, you nevertheless refuse to allow them
to compromise your position by what you think to have been a rash and
mistaken utterance on their part, in this refusal you confirm the truth of
their saying: "No case forecloses the investigation of another case, and no
person compromises the position of another person." And at the same time
you ought to acknowledge, that if you refuse to allow the conjoint
authority of so many of your bishops represented in these seven to
compromise Donatus, presbyter in Mutugenna, it is incomparably less
reasonable that one person, Caecilianus, even had some evil been found in
him, should compromise the position of the whole unity of Christ, the
Church, which is not shut up within the one village of Mutugenna, but
spread abroad throughout the entire world.
8. But, behold, we do what you have desired; we treat with you as if
your bishops had not said: "No case forecloses the investigation of another
case, and no person compromises the position of another person." Discover,
if you can, what they ought, rather than this, to have said in reply, when
there was alleged against them the case and the person of Primianus,(1)
who, notwithstanding his joining the rest of the bishops in passing
sentence of condemnation on those who had passed sentence of condemnation
upon him, nevertheless received back into their former honours those whom
he had condemned and denounced, and chose to acknowledge and accept rather
than despise and repudiate the baptism administered by these men while they
were "dead" (for of them it was said in the notable decree [of the Council
of Bagai], that "the shores were full of dead men"), and by so doing swept
away the argument which you are accustomed to rest on a perverse
interpretation of the words: "Qui baptizatur a mortuo quid ei prodest
lavacrum ejus?"(2) If, therefore, your bishops had not said: "No case
forecloses the investigation of another case, and no person compromises the
position of another person," they would have been compelled to plead guilty
in the case of Primianus; but, in saying this, they declared the Catholic
Church to be, as we mentioned, not guilty in the case of Caecilianus.
9. However, read all the rest and examine it well. Mark whether they
have succeeded in proving any charge of evil brought against Caecilianus
himself, through whose person they attempted to compromise the position of
the Church. Mark whether they have not rather brought forward much that was
in his favour, and confirmed the evidence that his case was a good one, by
a number of extracts which, to the prejudice of their own case, they
produced and read. Read these or let them be read to you. Consider the
whole matter, ponder it carefully, and choose which you should follow:
whether you should, in the peace of Christ, in the unity of the Catholic
Church, in the love of the brethren, be partaker of our joy, or, in the
cause of wicked discord, the Donatist faction and impious schism, continue
to suffer the annoyance caused to you by the measures which out of love to
you we are compelled to take.
10. I hear that you have remarked and often quote the fact recorded in
the gospels, that the seventy disciples went back from the Lord, and that
they had been left to their own choice in this wicked and impious
desertion, and that to the twelve who alone remained the Lord said, "Will
ye also go away?"(3) But you have neglected to remark, that at that time
the Church was only beginning to burst into life from the recently planted
seed, and that there was not yet fulfilled in her the prophecy: "All kings
shall fall down before Him; yea, all nations shall serve Him;"(1) and it is
in proportion to the more enlarged accomplishment of this prophecy that the
Church wields greater power, so that she may not only invite, but even
compel men to embrace what is good. This our Lord intended then to
illustrate, for although He had great power, He chose rather to manifest
His humility. This also He taught, with sufficient plainness, in the
parable of the Feast, in which the master of the house, after He had sent a
message to the invited guests, and they had refused to come, said to his
servants: "Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring
in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind. And the
servant said, Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded, and yet there is
room. And the Lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and
hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled."(2) Mark,
now, how it was said in regard to those who came first, "bring them in;" it
was not said, "compel them to come in," -- by which was signified the
incipient condition of the Church, when it was only growing towards the
position in which it would have strength to compel men to come in.
Accordingly, because it was right that when the Church had been
strengthened, both in power and in extent, men should be compelled to come
in to the feast of everlasting salvation, it was afterwards added in the
parable, "The servant said, Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded, and
yet there is room. And the Lord said unto the servants, Go out into the
highways and hedges, and compel them to come in." Wherefore, if you were
walking peaceably, absent from this feast of everlasting salvation and of
the holy unity of the Church, we should find you, as it were, in the
"highways;" but since, by multiplied injuries and cruelties, which you
perpetrate on our people, you are, as it were, full of thorns and
roughness, we find you as it were in the "hedges," and we compel you to
come in. The sheep which is compelled is driven whither it would not wish
to go, but after it has entered, it feeds of its own accord in the pastures
to which it was brought. Wherefore restrain your, perverse and rebellious
spirit, that in the true Church of Christ you may find the feast of
salvation.
LETTER CLXXX. (A.D. 416.)
TO OCEANUS, HIS DESERVEDLY BELOVED LORD AND BROTHER, HONOURED AMONG THE
MEMBERS OF CHRIST, AUGUSTIN SENDS GREETING.
1. I received two letters from you at the same time, in one of which
you mention a third, and state that you had sent it before the others. This
letter I do not remember having received, or, rather, I think I may say the
testimony of :my memory is, that I did not receive it; but in regard to
those which I have received, I return you many thanks for your kindness to
me. To these I would have returned an immediate answer, had I not been
hurried away by a constant succession of other matters urgently demanding
attention. Having now found a moment's leisure from these, I have chosen
rather to send some reply, however imperfect, than continue towards a
friend so true and kind a protracted silence, and become more annoying to
you by saying nothing than by saying too much.
2. I already knew the opinion of the holy Jerome as to the origin of
souls, and had read the words which in your letter you have quoted from his
book. The difficulty which perplexes some in regard to this question, "How
God can justly bestow souls on the offspring of persons guilty of
adultery?" does not embarrass me, seeing that not even their own sins, much
less the sins of their parents, can prove prejudicial to persons -- of
virtuous lives, converted to God, and living in faith and piety. The
really difficult question is, if it be true that a new soul created out of
nothing is imparted to each child lot its birth, how can it be that the
innumerable souls of those little ones, in regard to whom God knew with
certainty that before attaining the age of reason, and before being able to
know or understand what is right or wrong, they were to leave the body
without being baptized, are justly given over to eternal death by Him with
whom "there is no unrighteousness!"(3) It is unnecessary to say more on
this subject, since you know what I intend, or rather what I do not at
present intend to say. I think what I have said is enough for a wise man.
If, however, you have either read, or heard from the lips of Jerome, or
received from the Lord when meditating on this difficult question, anything
by which it can be solved, impart it to me, I beseech you, that I may
acknowledge myself under yet greater obligation to you.
3. As to the question whether lying is in any case justifiable and
expedient, it has appeared to you that it ought to be solved by the example
of our Lord's saying, concerning the day and hour of the end of the world,
"Neither doth the Son know it." (4) When I read this, I was charmed with it
as an effort of your ingenuity; but I am by no means of opinion that a
figurative mode of expression can be rightly termed a falsehood. For it is
no falsehood to call a day joyous because it renders men joyous, or a
lupine harsh because by its bitter flavour it imparts harshness to the
countenance of him who tastes it, or to say that God knows something when
He makes man know it (an instance quoted by yourself in these words of God
to Abraham, "Now I know that thou fearest God").(1) These are by no means
false statements, as you yourself readily see. Accordingly, when the
blessed Hilary explained this obscure statement of the Lord, by means of
this obscure kind of figurative language, saying that we ought to
understand Christ to affirm in these words that He knew not that day with
no other meaning than that He, by concealing it, caused others not to know
it, he did not by this explanation of the statement apologize for it as an
excusable falsehood, but he showed that it was not a falsehood, as is
proved by comparing it not only with these common figures of speech, but
also with the metaphor, a mode of expression very familiar to all in daily
conversation. For who will charge the man who says that harvest fields wave
and children bloom with speaking falsely, because he sees not in these
things the waves and the flowers to which these words are literally
applied?
4. Moreover, a man of your talent and learning easily perceives how
different from these metaphorical expressions is the statement of the
apostle, "When I saw that they walked not uprightly, according to the truth
of the gospel, I said unto Peter before them all, If thou, being a Jew,
livest after the manner of the Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, why
compellest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews?"(2) Here there is no
obscurity of figurative language; these are literal words of a plain
statement. Surely, in addressing persons "of whom he travailed in birth
till Christ should be formed in them,"(3) and to whom, in solemnly calling
God to confirm his words, he said: "The things which I write unto you,
behold, before God, I lie not,"(4) the great teacher of the Gentiles
affirmed in the words above quoted either what was true or what was false;
if he said what was false, which God forbid, you see the consequences which
would follow; and Paul's own assertion of his veracity, together with the
example of wondrous humility in the Apostle Peter, may warn you to recoil
from such thoughts.(5)
5. But why say more? This question the venerable Father Jerome and I
have discussed fully in letters(6) which we exchanged, and in his latest
work, published under the name of Critobulus, against Pelagius,(7) he has
maintained the same opinion concerning that transaction and the words of
the apostle which, in accordance with the views of the blessed Cyprian,(8)
I myself have held. In regard to the question as to the origin of souls, I
think there is reasonable ground for inquiry, not as to the giving of souls
to the offspring of adulterous parents, but as to the condemnation (which
God forbid) of those who are innocent. If you have learned anything from a
man of such character and eminence as Jerome which might form a
satisfactory answer to those in perplexity on this subject, I pray you not
to refuse to communicate it to me. In your correspondence, you have
approved Yourself so learned and so affable that it is a privilege to hold
intercourse with you by letter. I ask you not to delay to send a certain
book by the same man of God, which the presbyter Orosius brought and gave
to you to copy, in which the resurrection of the body is treated of by him
in a manner said to merit distinguished praise. We have not asked it
earlier, because we knew that you had both to copy and to revise it; but
for both of these we think we have now given you ample time.
Live to God, and be mindful of us.
[For translation of Letter CLXXXV. to Count Boniface, containing an
exhaustive history of the Donatist schism, see Anti-Donatist Writings.]
LETTER CLXXXVIII. (A.D. 416.)
TO THE LADY JULIANA, WORTHY TO BE HONOURED IN CHRIST WITH THE SERVICE DUE
TO HER RANK, OUR DAUGHTER DESERVEDLY DISTINGUISHED, ALYPIUS AND AUGUSTIN
SEND GREETING IN THE LORD.
CHAP. I. -- 1. Lady, worthy to be honoured in Christ with the service
due to your rank, and daughter deservedly distinguished, it was very
pleasant and agreeable to us that your letter reached us when together at
Hippo, so that we might send this joint reply to you, to express our joy in
hearing of your welfare, and with sincere reciprocation of your love to let
you know of our welfare, in which we are sure that you take an affectionate
interest. We are well aware that you are not ignorant how great Christian
affection we consider due to you, and how much, both before God and among
men, we are interested in you. For though we knew you, at first by letter,
afterwards by personal intercourse, to be pious and Catholic, that is, true
members of the body of Christ, nevertheless, our humble ministry also was
of use to you, for when you had received the word of God from us, "you
received it," as says the apostle, "not as the word of men, but as it is in
truth the word of God."(1) Through the grace and mercy of the Saviour, so
great was the fruit arising from this ministery of ours in your family,
that when preparations for her marriage(2) were already completed, the holy
Demetrias preferred the spiritual embrace of that Husband who is fairer
than the sons of men, and in espousing themselves to whom virgins retain
their virginity, and gain more abundant spiritual fruitfulness. We should
not, however, yet have known how this exhortation of ours had been received
by the faithful and noble maiden, as we departed shortly before she took on
her the vow of chastity, had we not learned from the joyful announcement
and reliable testimony of your letter, that this great gift of God, planted
and watered indeed by means of His servants, but owing its increase to
Himself, had been granted to us as labourers in His vineyard.
2. Since these things are so, no one may charge us with presuming, if,
on the ground of this closer spiritual relation, we manifest our solicitude
for your welfare by warning you to avoid opinions opposed to the grace of
God. For though the apostle commands us in preaching the word to be
"instant in season and out of season,"(3) yet we do not reckon you among
the number of those to whom a word or a letter from us exhorting you
carefully to avoid what is inconsistent with sound doctrine would seem "out
of season." Hence it was that you received our admonition in so kindly a
manner, that, in the letter to which we are now replying, you say, "I thank
you heartily for the pious advice which your Reverence gave me, not to lend
an ear to those men who, by their mischievous writings, often corrupt our
holy faith."
3. In this letter you go on to say, "But your Reverence knows that I
and my household are entirely separated from persons of this description;
and all our family follow so strictly the Catholic faith as never at any
time to have wandered from it, or fallen into any heresy, -- I speak not of
the heresy of sects who have erred in a measure hardly admiring of
expiation, but of those whose errors seem to be trivial." This statement
renders it more and more necessary for us, in writing to you, not to pass
over in silence the conduct of those who are attempting to corrupt even
those who are sound in the faith. We consider your house to be no
insignificant Church of Christ, nor indeed is the error of those men
trivial who think that we have of ourselves whatever righteousness,
temperance, piety, chastity is in us, on the ground that God has so formed
us, that beyond the revelation which He has given He imparts to us no
further aid for performing by our own choice those things which by study we
have ascertained to be our duty; declaring nature and knowledge to be the
grace of God, and the only aid for living righteously and justly. For the
possession, indeed, of a will inclined to what is good, whence proceed the
life of uprightness and that love which so far excels all other gifts that
God Himself is said to be love, and by which alone is fulfilled in us as
far as we fulfil them, the divine law and council, -- for the possession, I
say, of such a will, they hold that we are not indebted to the aid of God,
but affirm that we ourselves of our own will are sufficient for these
things. Let it not appear to you a trifling error that men should wish to
profess themselves Christians, and yet be unwilling to hear the apostle of
Christ, who, having said, "The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts,"
lest any one should think that he had this love through his own free will,
immediately subjoined, "by the Holy Spirit who is given unto us."(4)
Understand, then, how greatly and how fatally that man errs who does not
acknowledge that this is the "great gift of the Saviour,"(5) who, when He
ascended on high, "led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men."(6)
CHAP. II. -- 4. How, then, could we so far conceal our true feelings as
not to warn you, in whom we feel so deep an interest, to beware of such
doctrines, after we had read a certain book addressed to the holy
Demetrias? Whether this book has reached you,(7) and who is its author, we
are desirous to hear in your answer to this. In this book, were it lawful
for such a one to read it, a virgin of Christ would read that her holiness
and all her spiritual riches are to spring from no other source than
herself, and thus, before she attains to the perfection of blessedness, she
would learn, -- which may God forbid! -- to be ungrateful to God. For the
words addressed to her in the said book are these: -- "You have here, then,
those things on account of which you are deservedly, nay more, more
especially to be preferred before others; for your earthly rank and wealth
are understood to be derived from your relatives, not from yourself, but
your spiritual riches no one can have conferred on you but yourself; for
these, then, you are justly to be praised, for these you are deservedly to
be preferred to others, for they can exist only from yourself, and in
yourself."(1)
5. You see, doubtless, how dangerous is the doctrine in these words,
against which you must be on your guard. For the affirmation, indeed, that
these spiritual riches can exist only in yourself, is very well and truly
said: that evidently is food; but the affirmation that they cannot exist
except from you is unmixed poison. Far be it from any virgin of Christ
willingly to listen to statements like these. Every virgin of Christ
understands the innate poverty of the human heart, and therefore declines
to have it adorned otherwise than by the gifts of her Spouse. Let her
rather listen to the apostle when he says: "I have espoused you to one
husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear,
lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so
your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ."(2)
And therefore in regard to these spiritual riches let her listen, not to
him who says: "No one can confer them on you except yourself, and they
cannot exist except from you and in you;" but to him who says: "We have
this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be
of God, and not of us."(3)
6. In regard to that sacred virginal chastity, also, which does not
belong to her from herself, but is the gift of God, bestowed, however, on
her who is believing and willing, let her hear the same truthful and pious
teacher, who when he treats of this subject says: "I would that all men
were even as I myself: but every man hath his proper gift of God, one after
this manner, and another after that."(4) Let her hear also Him who is the
only Spouse, not only of herself, but of the whole Church, thus speaking of
this chastity and purity: "All cannot receive this saying, save they to
whom it is given;"(5) that she may understand that for her possession of
this so great and excellent gift, she ought rather to render thanks to our
God and Lord, than to listen to the words of any one who says that she
possessed it from herself, -- words which we may not designate as those of
a flatterer seeking to please, lest we seem to judge rashly concerning the
hidden thoughts of men, but which are assuredly those of a misguided
eulogist. For "every good gift and every perfect gift," as the Apostle
James says, "is from above, and cometh down from the Father of Lights;"(6)
from this source, therefore, cometh this holy virginity, in which you who
approve of it, and rejoice in it, have been excelled by your daughter, who,
coming after you in birth, has gone before you in conduct; descended from
you in lineage, has risen above you in honour; following you in age, has
gone beyond you in holiness; in whom also that begins to be yours which
could not be in your own person. For she did not contract an earthly
marriage, that she might be, not for herself only, but also for you,
spiritually enriched, in a higher degree than yourself, since you, even
with this addition, are inferior to her, because you contracted the
marriage of which she is the offspring. These things are gifts of God, and
are yours, indeed, but are not from yourselves; for you have this treasure
in earthly bodies, which are still frail as the vessels of the potter, that
the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of you. And be not
surprised because we say that these things are yours, and not from you, for
we speak of "daily bread" as ours, but yet add,(7) "give it to us," test it
should be thought that it was from ourselves.
7. Wherefore obey the precept of Scripture, "Pray without ceasing. In
everything give thanks;"(8) for you pray in order that you may have
constantly and increasingly these gifts, you render thanks because you have
them not of yourself. For who separates you from that mass of death and
perdition derived from Adam? Is it not He "who came to seek and to save
that which was lost?"(9) Was, then, a man, indeed, on hearing the apostle's
question, "Who maketh thee to differ?" to reply, "My own good will, my
faith, my righteousness," and to disregard what immediately follows? "What
hast thou that thou didst not receive? Now, if thou didst receive it, why
dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it?"(10) We are unwilling,
then, yea, utterly unwilling, that a consecrated virgin, when she hears or
reads these words: "Your spiritual riches no one can have conferred on you;
for these you are justly to be praised, for these you are deservedly to be
preferred to others, for they can exist only from yourself, and in
yourself," should thus boast of her riches as if she had not received them.
Let her say, indeed, "In me are Thy vows, O God, I will render praises unto
Thee;"(11) but since they are in her, not from her, let her remember also
to say, "Lord, by Thy will Thou hast furnished strength to my beauty,"(12)
because, though it be from her, inasmuch as it is the acting of her own
will, without which we cannot do what is good, yet we are not to say, as he
said, that it is "only from her." For our own will, unless it be aided by
the grace of God, cannot alone be even in name good will, for, says the
apostle, "it is God who worketh in us, both to will, and to do according to
good will,"(1) -- not, as these persons think, merely by revealing
knowledge, that we may know what we ought to do, but also by inspiring
Christian love, that we may also by choice perform the things which by
study we have learned.
8. For doubtless the value of the gift of continence was known to him
who said," I perceived that no man can be continent unless God bestowed the
gift." He not only knew then how great a benefit it was, and how eagerly it
ought to be coveted, but also that, unless God gave it, it could not exist;
for wisdom had taught him this for he says, "This also was a point of
wisdom, to know whose gift it was; and the knowledge did not suffice him,
but he says, "I went to the Lord and made my supplication to Him."(2) God
then aids us in this matter, not only by making us know what is to be done,
but also by making us do through love what we already know through
learning. No one, therefore, can possess, not only knowledge, but also
continence, unless God give it to him. Whence it was that when he had
knowledge he prayed that he might have continence, that it might be in him,
because he knew that it was not from him; or if on account of the freedom
of his will it was in a certain sense from himself, yet it was not from
himself alone, because no one can be continent unless God bestow on him the
gift. But he whose opinions I am censuring, in speaking of spiritual
riches, among which is doubtless that bright and beautiful gift of
continence, does not say that they may exist in you, and from yourself, but
says that they can exist only from you, and in you, in such a way that, as
a virgin of Christ has these things nowhere else than in herself, so it can
be believed possible for her to have them from no other source than from
herself, and in this way (which may a merciful God avert from her heart!)
she shall so boast as if she had not received them!
CHAP. III. -- 9. We indeed hold such an opinion concerning the training
of this holy virgin, and the Christian humility in which she was nourished
and brought up, as to be assured that when she read these words, if she did
read, them, she would break out into lamentations, and humbly smite her
breast, and perhaps burst into tears, and pray in faith to the Lord to
whose service she was dedicated and by whom she was sanctified, pleading
with Him that these were not her own words, but another's, and asking that
her faith might not be such as to believe that she had anything whereof to
glory in herself and not in the Lord. For her glory is in herself, not in
the words of another, as the apostle says: "Let every man prove his own
work, and then shall he have glory (rejoicing) in himself alone, and not in
another."(3) But God forbid that her glory should be in herself, and not in
Him to whom the Psalmist says, "Thou art my glory, and the lifter up of
mine head."(4) For her glory is then profitably in herself, when God, who
is in her, is Himself her glory, from whom she has every good, by which she
is good, and shall have all things by which she shall be made better, in as
far as she may become better in this life, and by which she shall be made
perfect when rendered so by divine grace, not by human praise. "For her
soul shall be praised in the Lord,"(5) "who satisfieth her desire with good
things,"(6) because He Himself has inspired this desire, that His virgin
should not boast of any good, as if she had not received it.
10. Inform us, then, in reply to this letter, whether we have judged
truly in supposing these to be your daughter's sentiments. For we know well
that you and all your family are, and have been, worshippers of the
indivisible Trinity. But human error insinuates itself in other forms than
in erroneous opinions concerning the indivisible Trinity. There are other
subjects also, in regard to which men fall into very dangerous errors. As,
for example, that of which we have spoken in this letter at greater length,
perhaps, than might have sufficed to a person of your stedfast and pure
wisdom. And yet we know not to whom, except to God, and therefore to the
Trinity, wrong is done by the man who denies that the good that comes from
God is from God; which evil may God avert from you, as we believe He does!
May God altogether forbid that the book out of which we have thought it our
duty to extract some words, that they might be more easily understood,
should produce any such impression, we do not say on your mind, or on that
of the holy virgin your daughter, but on the mind of the least deserving of
your male or female servants.
11. But if you study more carefully even those words in which the
writer appears to speak in favour of grace or the aid of God, you will find
them so ambiguous that they may have reference either to nature or to
knowledge, or to forgiveness of sins. For even in regard to that which they
are forced to acknowledge, that we ought to pray that we may not enter into
temptation, they may consider that the words mean that we are so far helped
to it that, by our praying and knocking, the knowledge of the truth is so
revealed to us that we may learn what it is our duty to do, not so far as
that our will receives strength, whereby we may do that which we learn to
be our duty; and as to their saying that it is by the grace or help of God
that the Lord Christ has been set before us as an example of holy living,
they interpret this so as to teach the same doctrine, affirming, namely,
that we learn by His example how we ought to live, but denying that we are
so aided as to do through love what we know by learning.
12. Find in this book, if you can, anything in which, excepting nature
and the freedom of the will (which pertains to the same nature), and the
remission of sin and the revealing of doctrine, any such aid of God is
acknowledged as that which he acknowledges who said: "When I perceived that
no man can be continent unless God bestow the gift, and that this also is a
point of wisdom to know whose gift it is, I went to the Lord, and made my
supplication to Him."(1) For he did not desire to receive, in answer to his
prayer, the nature in which he was made; nor was he solicitous to obtain
the natural freedom of the will with which he was made; nor did he crave
the remission of sins, seeing that he prayed rather for continence, that he
might not sin; nor did he desire to know what he ought to do, seeing that
he already confessed that he knew whose gift this continence was; but he
wished to receive from the Spirit of wisdom such strength of will, such
ardour of love, as should suffice for fully practising the great virtue of
continence. If, therefore, you succeed in finding any such statement in
that book, we will heartily thank you if, in your answer, you deign to
inform us of it.
13. It is impossible for us to tell how greatly we desire to find in
the writings of these men, whose works are read by very many for their
pungency and eloquence, the open confession of that grace which the apostle
vehemently commends, who says that "God has given to every man the measure
of faith,"(2) "without which it is impossible to please God,"(3) "by which
the just live,"(4) "which worketh by love,"(5) before which and without
which no works of any man are in any respect to be reckoned good, since
"whatsoever is not of faith is sin."(6) He affirms that God distributes to
every man,(7) and that we receive divine assistance to live piously and
justly, not only by the revelation of that knowledge which without charity
"puffeth up,"(8) but by our being inspired with that "love which is the
fulfilling of the law,"(9) and which so edifies our heart that knowledge
does not puff it up. But hitherto I have failed to find any such statements
in the writings of these men.
14. But especially we should wish that these sentiments should be found
in that book from which we have quoted the words in which the author,
praising a virgin of Christ as if no one except herself could confer on her
spiritual riches, and as if these could not exist except from herself, does
not wish her to glory in the Lord, but to glory as if she had not received
them. In this book, though it contain neither his name nor your own
honoured name, he nevertheless mentions that a request had been made to him
by the mother of the virgin to write to her. In a certain epistle of his,
however, to which he openly attaches his name, and does not conceal the
name of the sacred virgin, the same Pelagius says that he had written to
her, and endeavours to prove, by appealing to the said work, that he most
openly confessed the grace of God, which he is alleged to have passed over
in silence, or denied. But we beg you to condescend to inform us, in your
reply, whether that be the very book in which he has inserted these words
about spiritual riches, and whether it has reached your Holiness.
LETTER CLXXXIX. (A.D. 418.)
TO BONIFACE,(10) MY NOBLE LORD AND JUSTLY DISTINGUISHED AND HONOURABLE SON,
AUGUSTIN SENDS GREETING IN THE LORD.
1. I had already written a reply to your Charity, but while I was
waiting for an opportunity of forwarding the letter, my beloved son Faustus
arrived here on his way to your Excellency. After he had received the
letter which I had intended to be carried by him to your Benevolence, he
stated to me that you were very desirous that I should write you something
which might build you up unto the eternal salvation of which you have hope
in Christ Jesus our Lord. And, although I was busily occupied at the time,
he insisted, with an earnestness corresponding to the love which, as you
know, he bears to you, that I should do this without delay. To meet his
convenience, therefore, as he was in haste to depart, I thought it better
to write, though necessarily without much time for reflection, rather than
put off the gratification of your pious desire, my noble lord and justly
distinguished and honourable son.
2. All is contained in these brief sentences: "Love the Lord thy God
with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength: and
love thy neighbour as thyself;"(1) for these are the words in which the
Lord, when on earth, gave an epitome of religion, saying in the gospel, "On
these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." Daily advance,
then, in this love, both by praying and by well-doing, that through the
help of Him, who enjoined it on you, and whose gift it is, it may be
nourished and increased, until, being perfected, it render you perfect.
"For this is the love which," as the apostle says, "is shed abroad in our
hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us."(2) This is "the
fulfilling of the law;"(3) this is the same love by which faith works, of
which he says again, "Neither circumcision availeth anything, nor
uncircumcision; but faith, which worketh by love."(4)
3. In this love, then, all our holy fathers, patriarchs, prophets, and
apostles pleased God. In this all true martyrs contended against the devil
even to the shedding of blood, and because in them it neither waxed cold
nor failed, they became conquerors. In this all true believers daily make
progress, seeking to acquire not an earthly kingdom, but the kingdom of
heaven; not a temporal, but an eternal inheritance; not gold and silver,
but the incorruptible riches of the angels; not the good things of this
life, which are enjoyed with trembling, and which no one can take with him
when he dies, but the vision of God, whose grace and power of imparting
felicity transcend all beauty of form in bodies not only on earth but also
in heaven, transcend all spiritual loveliness in men, however just and
holy, transcend all the glory of the angels and powers of the world above,
transcend not only all that language can express, but all that thought can
imagine concerning Him. And let us not despair of the fulfilment of such a
great promise because it is exceeding great, but rather believe that we
shall receive it because He who has promised it is exceeding great, as the
blessed Apostle John says: "Now are we the sons of God; and it doth not yet
appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall
be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is."(5)
4. Do not think that it is impossible for any one to please God while
engaged in active military service. Among such persons was the holy David,
to whom God gave so great a testimony; among them also were many righteous
men of that time; among them was also that centurion who said to the Lord:
"I am not worthy that Thou shouldest come under my roof, but speak the word
only, and my servant shall be healed: for I am a man under authority,
having soldiers under me: and I say to this man, Go, and he goeth; and to
another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it;"
and concerning whom the Lord said: "Verily, I say unto you, I have not
found so great faith, no, not in Israel."(6) Among them was that Cornelius
to whom an angel said: "Cornelius, thine alms are accepted, and thy prayers
are heard,"(7) when he directed him to send to the blessed Apostle Peter,
and to hear from him what he ought to do, to which apostle he sent a devout
soldier, requesting him to come to him. Among them were also the soldiers
who, when they had come to be baptized by John, -- the sacred forerunner of
the Lord, and the friend of the Bridegroom, of whom the Lord says: "Among
them that are born of women there hath not arisen a greater than John the
Baptist,"(8) -- and had inquired of him what they should do, received the
answer, "Do violence to no man, neither accuse any falsely; and be content
with your wages."(9) Certainly he did not prohibit them to serve as
soldiers when he commanded them to be content with their pay for the
service.
5. They occupy indeed a higher place before God who, abandoning all
these secular employments, serve Him with the strictest chastity; but
"every one," as the apostle says, "hath his proper gift of God, one after
this manner, and another after that."(10) Some, then, in praying for you,
fight against your invisible enemies; you, in fighting for them, contend
against the barbarians, their visible enemies. Would that one faith existed
in all, for then there would be less weary struggling, and the devil with
his angels would be more easily conquered; but since it is necessary in
this life that the citizens of the kingdom of heaven should be subjected to
temptations among erring and impious men, that they may be exercised, and
"tried as gold in the furnace,"(1) we ought not before the appointed time
to desire to live with those alone who are holy and righteous, so that, by
patience, we may deserve to receive this blessedness in its proper time.
6. Think, then, of this first of all, when you are arming for the
battle, that even your bodily strength is a gift of God; for, considering
this, you will not employ the gift of God against God. For, when faith is
pledged, it is to be kept even with the enemy against whom the war is
waged, how much more with the friend for whom the battle is fought! Peace
should be the object of your desire; war should be waged only as a
necessity, and waged only that God may by it deliver men from the necessity
and preserve them in peace. For peace is not sought in order to the
kindling of war, but war is waged in order that peace may be obtained.
Therefore, even in waging war, cherish the spirit of a peacemaker, that, by
conquering those whom you attack, you may lead them back to the advantages
of peace; for our Lord says: "Blessed are the peacemakers; for they shall
be called the children of God."(2) If, however, peace among men be so sweet
as procuring temporal safety, how much sweeter is that peace with God which
procures for men the eternal felicity of the angels! Let necessity,
therefore, and not your will, slay the enemy who fights against you. As
violence is used towards him who rebels and resists, so mercy is due to the
vanquished or the captive, especially in the case in which future troubling
of the peace is not to be feared.
7. Let the manner of your life be adorned by chastity, sobriety, and
moderation; for it is exceedingly disgraceful that lust should subdue him
whom man finds invincible, and that wine should overpower him whom the
sword assails in vain. As to worldly riches, if you do not possess them,
let them not be sought after on earth by doing evil; and if you possess
them, let them by good works be laid up in heaven. The manly and Christian
spirit ought neither to be elated by the accession, nor crushed by the loss
of this world's treasures. Let us rather think of what the Lord says:
"Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also;"(3) and certainly,
when we hear the exhortation to lift up our hearts, it is our duty to give
unfeignedly the response which you know that we are accustomed to give.(4)
8. In these things, indeed, I know that you are very careful, and the
good report which I hear of you fills me with great delight, and moves me
to congratulate you on account of it in the Lord. This letter, therefore,
may serve rather as a mirror in which you may see what you are, than as a
directory from which to learn what you ought to be: nevertheless, whatever
you may discover, either from this letter or from the Holy Scriptures, to
be still wanting to you in regard to a holy life, persevere in urgently
seeking it both by effort and by prayer; and for the things which you have,
give thanks to God as the Fountain of goodness, whence you have received
them; in every good action let the glory be given to God, and humility be
exercised by you, for, as it is written, "Every good gift and every perfect
gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights."(5) But
however much you may advance in the love of God and of your neighbour, and
in true piety, do not imagine, as long as you are in this life, that you
are without sin, for concerning this we read in Holy Scripture: "Is not the
life of man upon earth a life of temptation?"(6) Wherefore, since always,
as long as you are in this body, it is necessary for you to say in prayer,
as the Lord taught us: "Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our
debtors,"(7) remember quickly to forgive, if any one shall do you wrong and
shall ask pardon from you, that you may be able to pray sincerely, and may
prevail in seeking pardon for your own sins.
These things, my beloved friend, I have written to you in haste, as the
anxiety of the bearer to depart urged me not to detain him; but I thank God
that I have in some measure complied with your pious wish. May the mercy of
God ever protect you, my noble lord and justly distinguished son.
LETTER CXCI. (A.D. 418.)
TO MY VENERABLE LORD AND PIOUS BROTHER AND CO-PRESBYTER SIXTUS,(8) WORTHY
OF BEING RECEIVED IN THE LOVE OF CHRIST, AUGUSTIN SENDS GREETING IN THE
LORD.
1. Since the arrival of the letter which, in my absence, your Grace
forwarded by our holy brother the presbyter Firmus, and which I read on my
return to Hippo, but not until after the bearer had departed, the present
is my first opportunity of sending to you any reply, and it is with great
pleasure that I entrust it to our very dearly beloved son, the acolyte
Albinus. Your letter, addressed to Alypius and myself jointly, came at a
time when we were not together, and this is the reason why you will now
receive a letter from each of us, instead of one from both, in reply. For
the bearer of this letter has just gone, meanwhile, from me to visit my
venerable brother and co-bishop Alypius, who will write a reply for himself
to your Holiness, and he has carried with him your letter, which I had
already perused. As to the great joy with which that letter filled my
heart, why should a man attempt to say what it is impossible to express?
Indeed, I do not think that you yourself have any adequate idea of the
amount of good done by your sending that letter to us; but take our word
for it, for as you bear witness to your feelings, so do we bear witness to
ours, declaring how profoundly we have been moved by the perfectly
transparent soundness of the views declared in that letter. For if, when
you sent a very short letter on the same subject to the most blessed aged
Aurelius, by the acolyte Leo, we transcribed it with joyful alacrity, and
read it with enthusiastic interest to all who were within our reach, as an
exposition of your sentiments, both in regard to that most fatal dogma [of
Pelagius], and in regard to the grace of God freely given by Him to small
and great, to which that dogma is diametrically opposed; how great, think
you, is the joy with which we have read this more extended statement in
your writing, how great the zeal with which we take care that it be read by
all to whom we have been able already or may yet be able to make it known!
For what could be read or heard with greater satisfaction than so clear a
defence of the grace of God against its enemies, from the mouth of one who
was before this proudly claimed by these enemies as a mighty supporter of
their cause?(1) Or is there anything for which we ought to give more
abundant thanksgivings to God, than that His grace is so ably defended by
those to whom it is given, against those to whom it is not given, or by
whom, when given, it is not accepted, because in the secret and just
judgment of God the disposition to accept it is not given to them?
2. Wherefore, my venerable lord, and holy brother worthy of being
received in the love of Christ, although you render a most excellent
service when you thus write on this subject to brethren before whom the
adversaries are wont to boast themselves of your being their friend,
nevertheless, there remains upon you the yet greater duty of seeing not
only that those be punished with wholesome severity who dare to prate more
openly their declaration of that error, most dangerously hostile to the
Christian name, but also that with pastoral vigilance, on behalf of the
weaker and simpler sheep of the Lord, most strenuous precautions be used
against those who more covertly, indeed, and timidly, but perseveringly,
and in whispers, as it were, teach this error, "creeping into houses," as
the apostle says, and doing with practised impiety all those other things
which are mentioned immediately afterwards in that passage.(2) Nor ought
those to be overlooked who under the restraint of fear hide their
sentiments under the most profound silence, yet have not ceased to cherish
the same perverse opinions as before. For some of their party might be
known to you before that pestilence was denounced by the most explicit
condemnation of the apostolic see, whom you perceive to have now become
suddenly silent; nor can it be ascertained whether they have been really
cured of it, otherwise than through their not only forbearing from the
utterance of these false dogmas, but also defending the truths which are
opposed to their former errors with the same zeal as they used to show on
the other side. These are, however, to be more gently dealt with; for what
need is there for causing further terror to those whom their silence itself
proves to be sufficiently terrified already? At the same time, though they
should not be frightened, they should be taught; and in my opinion they may
more easily, while their fear of severity assists the teacher of the truth,
be so taught that by the Lord's help, after they have learned to understand
and love His grace, they may speak out as antagonists of the error which
meanwhile they dare not confess.
LETTER CXCII. (A.D. 418.)
TO MY VENERABLE LORD AND HIGHLY ESTEEMED AND HOLY BROTHER, CAELESTINE,(3)
AUGUSTIN SENDS GREETING IN THE LORD.
1. I was at a considerable distance from home when the letter of your
Holiness addressed to me at Hippo arrived by the hands of the clerk
Projectus. When I had returned home, and, having read your letter, felt
myself to be owing you a reply, I was still waiting for some means of
communicating with you, when, lo! a most desirable opportunity presented
itself in the departure of our very dear brother the acolyte Albinus, who
leaves us immediately. Rejoicing, therefore, in your health, which is most
earnestly desired by me, I return to your Holiness the salutation which I
was owing. But I always owe you love, the only debt which, even when it has
been paid, holds him who has paid it a debtor still. For it is given when
it is paid, but it is owing even after it has been given, for there is no
time at which it ceases to be due. Nor when it is given is it lost, but it
is rather multiplied by giving it; for in possessing it, not in parting
with it, it is given. And since it cannot be given unless it is possessed,
so neither can it be possessed unless it is given; nay, at the very time
when it is given by a man it increases in that man, and, according to the
number of persons to whom it is given, the amount of it which is gained
becomes greater. Moreover, how can that be denied to friends which is due
even to enemies? To enemies, however, this debt is paid with caution,
whereas to friends it is repaid with confidence. Nevertheless, it uses
every effort to secure that it receives back what it gives, even in the
case of those to whom it renders good for evil. For we wish to have as a
friend the man whom, as an enemy, we truly love, for we do not sincerely
love him unless we wish him to be good, which he cannot be until he be
delivered from the sin of cherished enmities.
2. Love, therefore, is not paid away in the same manner as money; for,
whereas money is diminished, love is increased by paying it away. They
differ also in this, -- that we give evidence of greater goodwill to the
man to whom we may have given money if we do not seek to have it returned;
but no one can be a true donor of love unless he lovingly insist on its
repayment. For money, when it is received, accrues to him to whom it is
given, but forsakes him by whom it is given; love, on the contrary, even
when it is not repaid, nevertheless increases with the man who insists on
its repayment by the person whom he loves; and not only so, but the person
by whom it is returned to him does not begin to possess it till he pays it
back again.
Wherefore, my lord and brother, I willingly give to you, and joyfully
receive from you, the love which we owe to each other. The love which I
receive I still claim, and the love which I give I still owe. For we ought
to obey with docility the precept of the One Master, whose disciples we
both profess to be, when He says to us by His apostle: "Owe no man
anything, but to love one another."(1)
LETTER CXCV. (A.D. 418.)
TO HIS HOLY LORD AND MOST BLESSED FATHER,(2) AUGUSTIN, JEROME SENDS
GREETING.
At all times I have esteemed your Blessedness with becoming reverence
and honour, and have loved the Lord and Saviour dwelling in you. But now we
add, if possible, something to that which has already reached a climax, and
we heap up what was already full, so that we do not suffer a single hour to
pass without the mention of your name, because you have, with the ardour of
unshaken faith, stood your ground against opposing storms, and preferred,
so far as this was in your power, to be delivered from Sodom, though you
should come forth alone, rather than linger behind with those who are
doomed to perish. Your wisdom apprehends what I mean to say. Go on and
prosper! You are renowned throughout the whole world; Catholics revere and
look up to you as the restorer of the ancient faith, and -- which is a
token of yet more illustrious glory -- all heretics abhor you. They
persecute me also with equal hatred, seeking by imprecation to take away
the life which they cannot reach with the sword. May the mercy of Christ
the Lord preserve you in safety and mindful of me, my venerable lord and
most blessed father."(3)
LETTER CCI. (A.D. 419.) THE EMPERORS HONORIUS AUGUSTUS AND THEODOSIUS
AUGUSTUS TO BISHOP AURELIUS SEND GREETING.
1. It had been indeed long ago decreed that Pelagius and Celestius, the
authors of an execrable heresy, should, as pestilent corruptors of the
Catholic truth, be expelled from the city of Rome, lest they should, by
their baneful influence, pervert the minds of the ignorant. In this our
clemency followed up the judgment of your Holiness, according to which it
is beyond all question that they were unanimously condemned after an
impartial examination of their opinions. Their obstinate persistence in the
offence having, however, made it necessary to issue the decree a second
time, we have enacted further by a recent edict, that if any one, knowing
that they are concealing themselves in any part of the provinces, shall
delay either to drive them out or to inform on them, he, as an accomplice,
shall be liable to the punishment prescribed.
2. To secure, however, the combined efforts of the Christian zeal of
all men for the destruction of this preposterous heresy, it will be proper,
most dearly beloved father, that the authority of your Holiness be applied
to the correction of certain bishops, who either support the evil
reasonings of these men by their silent consent, or abstain from assailing
them with open opposition. Let your Reverence, then, by suitable writings,
cause all bishops to be admonished (as soon as they shall know, by the
order of your Holiness, that this order is laid upon them) that whoever
shall, through impious obstinacy, neglect to vindicate the purity of their
doctrine by subscribing the condemnation of the persons before mentioned,
shall, after being punished by the loss of their episcopal office, be cut
off by excommunication and banished for life from their sees. For as, by a
sincere confession of the truth, we ourselves, in obedience to the Council
of Nice, worship God as the Creator of all things, and as the Fountain of
our imperial sovereignty, your Holiness will not suffer the members of this
odious sect, inventing, to the injury of religion, notions new and strange,
to hide in writings privately circulated an error condemned by public
authority. For, most beloved and loving father, the guilt of heresy is in
no degree less grievous in those who either by dissimulation lend the error
their secret support, or by abstaining from denouncing it extend to it a
fatal approbation.
(In another hand.) May the Divinity preserve you in safety for many
years!
Given at Ravenna, on the 9th day of June, in the Consulship of Monaxius
and Plinta.
A letter, in the same terms, was also sent to the holy Bishop Augustin.
LETTER CCII. (A.D. 419.)
TO THE BISHOPS ALYPIUS AND AUGUSTIN, MY LORDS TRULY HOLY, AND DESERVEDLY
LOVED AND REVERENCED, JEROME SENDS GREETING IN CHRIST.(1)
CHAP. I. -- 1. The holy presbyter Innocentius, who is the bearer of
this letter, did not last year take with him a letter from me to your
Eminences, as he had no expectation of returning to Africa. We thank God,
however, that it so happened, as it afforded you an opportunity of
overcoming [evil with good in requiting] our silence by your letter. Every
opportunity of writing to you, revered fathers, is most acceptable to me. I
call God to witness that, if it were possible, I would take the wings of a
dove and fly to be folded in your embrace. Loving you, indeed, as I have
always done, from a deep sense of your worth, but now especially because
your co-operation and your leadership have succeeded in strangling the
heresy of Celestius, a heresy which has so poisoned the hearts of many,
that, though they felt they were vanquished and condemned, yet they did not
lay aside their venomous sentiments, and, as the only thing that remained
in their power, hated us by whom they imagined that they had lost the
liberty of teaching heretical doctrines.
CHAP. II. -- 2. As to your inquiry whether I have written in opposition
to the books of Annianus, this pretended deacon(2) of Celedae, who is amply
provided for in order that he may furnish frivolous accounts of the
blasphemies of others, know that I received these books, sent in loose
sheets by our holy brother, the presbyter Eusebius, not long ago. Since
then I have suffered so much through the attacks of disease, and through
the falling asleep of your distinguished and holy daughter Eustochium, that
I almost thought of passing over these writings with silent contempt. For
he flounders from beginning to end in the same mud, and, with the exception
of some jingling phrases which are not original, says nothing he had not
said before. Nevertheless, I have gained much in the fact, that in
attempting to answer my letter he has declared his opinions with less
reserve, and has published to all men his blasphemies; for every error
which he disowned in the wretched synod of Diospolis he in this treatise
openly avows. It is indeed no great thing to answer his superlatively silly
puerilities, but if the Lord spare me, and I have a sufficient staff of
amanuenses, I will in a few brief lucubrations answer him, not to refute a
defunct heresy, but to silence his ignorance and blasphemy by arguments:
and this your Holiness could do better than I, as you would relieve me from
the necessity of praising my own works in writing to the heretic. Our holy
daughters Albina and Melania, and our son Pinianus, salute you cordially. I
give to our holy presbyter Innocentius this short letter to convey to you
from the holy place Bethlehem. Your niece Paula piteously entreats you to
remember her, and salutes you warmly. May the mercy of our Lord Jesus
Christ preserve you safe and mindful of me, my lords truly holy, and
fathers deservedly loved and reverenced.
LETTER CCIII. (A.D. 420.)
TO MY NOBLE LORD AND MOST EXCELLENT AND LOVING SON, LARGUS, AUGUSTIN SENDS
GREETING IN THE LORD.
I received the letter of your Excellency, in which you ask me to write
to you. This assuredly you would not have done unless you had esteemed
acceptable and pleasant that which you suppose me capable of writing to
you. In other words, I assume that, having desired the vanities of this
life when you had not tried them, now, after the trial has been made, you
despise them, because in them the pleasure is deceitful, the labour
fruitless, the anxiety perpetual, the elevation dangerous. Men seek them at
first through imprudence, and give them up at last with disappointment and
remorse. This is true of all the things which, in the cares of this mortal
life, are coveted with more eagerness than wisdom by the uneasy solicitude
of the men of the world. But it is wholly otherwise with the hope of the
pious: very different is the fruit of their labours, very different the
reward of their dangers. Fear and grief, and labour and danger are
unavoidable, so long as we live in this world; but the great question is,
for what cause, with what expectation, with what aim a man endures these
things. When, indeed, I contemplate the lovers of this world, I know not at
what time wisdom can most opportunely attempt their moral improvement; for
when they have apparent prosperity, they reject disdainfully her salutary
admonitions, and regard them as old wives fables; when, again, they are in
adversity, they think rather of escaping merely from present suffering than
of obtaining the real remedy by which they may be made whole, and may
arrive at that place where they shall be altogether exempt from suffering.
Occasionally, however, some open their ears and hearts to the truth, --
rarely in prosperity, more frequently in adversity. These are indeed the
few, for such it is predicted that they shall be. Among these I desire you
to be, because I love you truly, my noble lord and most excellent and
loving son. Let this counsel be my answer to your letter, because though I
am unwilling that you should henceforth suffer such things as you have
endured, yet I would grieve still more if you were found to have suffered
these things without any change for the better in your life.
LETTER CCVIII. (A.D. 423.)
TO THE LADY FELICIA, HIS DAUGHTER IN THE FAITH, AND WORTHY OF HONOUR AMONG
THE MEMBERS OF CHRIST, AUGUSTIN SENDS GREETING IN THE LORD.
1. I do not doubt, when I consider both your faith and the weakness or
wickedness of others, that your mind has been disturbed, for even a holy
apostle, full of compassionate love, confesses a similar experience,
saying, "Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is offended, and I burn
not?"(1) Wherefore, as I myself share your pain, and am solicitous for your
welfare in Christ, I have thought it my duty to address this letter, partly
consolatory, partly hortatory, to your Holiness, because in the body of our
Lord Jesus Christ, in which all His members are one, you are very closely
related to us, being loved as an honourable member in that body, and
partaking with us of life in His Holy Spirit.
2. I exhort you, therefore, not to be too much troubled by those
offences which for this very reason were foretold as destined to come, that
when they came we might remember that they had been foretold, and not be
greatly disconcerted by them. For the Lord Himself in His gospel foretold
them, saying, "Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be
that offences come; but woe unto that man by whom the offence cometh!"(2)
These are the men of whom the apostle said, "They seek their own, not the
things that are Jesus Christ's."(3) There are, therefore, some who hold the
honourable office of shepherds in order that they may provide for the flock
of Christ; others occupy that position that they may enjoy the temporal
honours and secular advantages connected with the office. It must needs
happen that these two kinds of pastors, some dying, others succeeding them,
should continue in the Catholic Church even to the end of time, and the
judgment of the Lord. If, then, in the times of the apostles there were men
such that Paul, grieved by their conduct, enumerates among his trials,
"perils among false brethren,"(4) and yet he did not haughtily cast them
out, but patiently bore with them, how much more must such arise in our
times, since the Lord most plainly says concerning this age which is
drawing to a close, "that because iniquity shall abound the love of many
shall wax cold."(5) The word which follows, however, ought to console and
exhort us, for He adds, "He that shall endure to the end, the same shall be
saved."
3. Moreover, as there are good shepherds and bad shepherds, so also in
flocks there are good and bad. The good are represented by the name of
sheep, but the bad are called goats: they feed, nevertheless, side by side
in the same pastures, until the Chief Shepherd, who is called the One
Shepherd, shall come and separate them one from another according to His
promise, "as a shepherd divideth the sheep from the goats." On us He has
laid the duty of gathering the flock; to Himself He has reserved the work
of final separation, because it pertains properly to Him who cannot err.
For those presumptuous servants, who have lightly ventured to separate
before the time which the Lord has reserved in His own hand, have, instead
of separating others, only been separated themselves from Catholic unity;
for how could those have a clean flock who have by schism become unclean?
4. In order, therefore, that we may remain in the unity of the faith,
and not, stumbling at the offences occasioned by the chaff, desert the
threshing-floor of the Lord, but rather remain as wheat till the final
winnowing,(1) and by the love which imparts stability to us bear with the
beaten straw our great Shepherd in the gospel admonishes us concerning the
good shepherds, that we should not, on account of their good works. place
our hope in them, but glorify our heavenly Father for making them such; and
concerning the bad shepherds (whom He designed to point out under the name
of Scribes and Pharisees), He reminds us that they teach that which is good
though they do that which is evil.(1)
5. Concerning the good shepherds He thus speaks: "Ye are the light of
the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Neither do men
light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it
giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before
men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in
heaven."(2) Concerning the bad shepherds He admonishes the sheep in these
words: "The Scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat: all, therefore,
whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do. not ye after
their works: for they say, and do not."(3) When these are listened to, the
sheep of Christ, even through evil teachers, hear His voice, and do not
forsake the unity of His flock, because the good which they hear them teach
belongs not to the shepherds but to HIm, and therefore the sheep are safely
fed, since even under bad shepherds they are nourished in the Lord's
pastures. They do not, however, imitate the actions of the bad shepherds,
because such actions belong not to the world but to the shepherds
themselves. In regard, however, to those whom they see to be good
shepherds, they not only hear the good things which they teach, but also
imitate the good actions which they perform. Of this number was the
apostle, who said: "Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ."(4)
He was a light kindled by the Eternal Light, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself,
and was placed on a candlestick because He gloried in His cross, concerning
which he said: "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our
Lord Jesus Christ."(5) Moreover, since he sought not his own things, but
the things which are Jesus Christ's, whilst he exhorts to the imitation of
his own life those whom he had "begotten through the gospel,"(6) he yet
severely reproved those who, by the names of apostles, introduced schisms,
and he chides those who said, "I am of Paul; was Paul crucified for you? or
were ye baptized in the name of Paul?"(7)
6. Hence we understand both that the good shepherds are those who seek
not their own, but the things of Jesus Christ, and that the good sheep,
though imitating the works of the good shepherds by whose ministry they
have been gathered together, do not place their hope in them, but rather in
the Lord, by Whose blood they are redeemed; so that when they may happen to
be placed under bad shepherds, preaching Christ's doctrine and doing their
own evil works, they will do what they teach, but will not do what they do,
and will not, on account of these sons of wickedness, forsake the pastures
of the one true Church. For there are both good and bad in the Catholic
Church, which, unlike the Donatist sect, is extended and spread abroad, not
in Africa only, but through all nations; as the apostle expresses it,
"bringing forth fruit, and increasing in the whole world." (8) But those
who are separated from the Church, as long as they are opposed to it cannot
be good; although an apparently praiseworthy conversation seems to prove
some of them to be good, their separation from the Church itself renders
them bad, according to the saying of the Lord: "He that is not with me is
against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth."(9)
7. Therefore, my daughter, worthy of all welcome and honour among the
members of Christ, I exhort you to hold faithfully that which the Lord has
committed to you, and love with all your heart Him and His Church who
suffered you not, by joining yourself with the lost, to lose the recompense
of your virginity, or perish with them. For if you should depart out of
this world separated from the unity of the body of Christ, it will avail
you nothing to have preserved inviolate your virginity. But God, who is
rich in mercy, has done in regard to you that which is written in the
gospel: when the invited guests excused themselves to the master of the
feast, he said to the servants, "Go ye, therefore, into the highways and
hedges, and as many as ye shall find compel them to come in."(10) Although,
however, you owe sincerest affection to those good servants of His through
whose instrumentality you were compelled to come in, yet it is your duty,
nevertheless, to place your hope on Him who prepared the banquet, by whom
also you have been persuaded to come to eternal and blessed life.
Committing to Him your heart, your vow, and your sacred virginity, and your
faith, hope, and charity, you will not be moved by offences, which shall
abound even to the end; but, by the unshaken strength of piety, shall be
safe and shall triumph in the Lord, continuing in the unity of His body
even to the end. Let me know, by your answer, with what sentiments you
regard my anxiety for you, to which I have to the best of my ability given
expression in this letter. May the grace and mercy of God ever protect you!
LETTER CCIX. (A.D. 423.)
TO CAELESTINE,(1) MY LORD MOST BLESSED, AND HOLY FATHER VENERATED WITH ALL
DUE AFFECTION, AUGUSTIN SENDS GREETING IN THE LORD.
1. First of all I congratulate you that our Lord God has, as we have
heard, established you in the illustrious chair which you occupy without
any division among His people. In the next place, I lay before your
Holiness the state of affairs with us, that not only by your prayers, but
with your council and aid you may help us. For I write to you at this time
under deep affliction, because, while wishing to benefit certain members of
Christ in our neighbourhood, I brought on them a great calamity by my want
of prudence and caution.
2. Bordering on the district of Hippo, there is a small town,(2) named
Fussala: formerly there was no bishop there, but, along with the contiguous
district, it was included in the parish of Hippo. That part of the country
had few Catholics; the error of the Donatists held under its miserable
influence all the other congregations located in the midst of a large
population, so that in the town of Fussala itself there was not one
Catholic. In the mercy of God, all these places were brought to attach
themselves to the unity of the Church; with how much toil, and how many
dangers it would take long to tell, -- how the presbyters originally
appointed by us to gather these people into the fold were robbed, beaten,
maimed, deprived of their eyesight, and even put to death; whose
sufferings, however, were not useless and unfruitful, seeing that by them
the re-establishment of unity was achieved. But as Fussala is forty miles
distant from Hippo, and I saw that in governing its people, and gathering
together the remnant, however small, of persons of both sexes, who, not
threatening others, but fleeing for their own safety, were scattered here
and there, my work would be extended farther than it ought, and that I
could not give the attention which I clearly perceived to be necessary, I
arranged that a bishop should be ordained and appointed there.
3. With a view to the carrying out of this, I sought for a person who
might be suitable to the locality and people, and at the same time
acquainted with the Punic language; and I had in my mind a presbyter fitted
for the office. Having applied by letter to the holy senior bishop who was
then Primate of Numidia, I obtained his consent to come from a great
distance to ordain this presbyter. After his coming, when all our minds
were intent on an affair of so great consequence, at the last moment, the
person whom I believed to be ready to be ordained disappointed us by
absolutely refusing to accept the office. Then I myself, who, as the event
showed, ought rather to have postponed than precipitated a matter .so
perilous, being unwilling that the very venerable and holy old man, who had
come with so much fatigue to us, should return home without accomplishing
the business for which he had journeyed so far, offered to the people,
without their seeking him, a young man, Antonius, who was then with me. He
had been from childhood brought up in a monastery by us, but, beyond
officiating as a reader, he had no experience of the labours pertaining to
the various degrees of rank in the clerical office. The unhappy people, not
knowing what was to follow, submissively trusting me, accepted him on my
suggestion. What need I say more? The deed was done; he entered on his
office as their bishop.
4. What shall I do? I am unwilling to accuse before your venerable
Dignity one whom I brought into the fold, and nourished with care; and I am
unwilling to forsake those in seeking whose ingathering to the Church I
have travailed, amid fears and anxieties; and how to do justice to both I
cannot discover. The matter has come to such a painful crisis, that those
who, in compliance with my wishes, had, in the belief that they were
consulting their own interests, chosen him for their bishop, are now
bringing charges against him before me. When the most serious of these,
namely, charges of gross immorality, which were brought forward not by
those whose bishop he was, but by certain other individuals, were found to
be utterly unsupported by evidence, and he seemed to us fully acquitted of
the crimes laid most ungenerously to his charge, he was on this account
regarded, both by ourselves and by others, with such sympathy that the
things complained of by the people of Fussala and the surrounding
district,-- such as intolerable tyranny and spoliation, and extortion, and
oppression of various kinds,-- by no means seemed so grievous that for one,
or for all of them taken together, we should deem it necessary to deprive
him of the office of bishop; it seemed to us enough to insist that he
should restore what might be proved to have been taken away unjustly.
5. In fine, we so mixed clemency with severity in our sentence, that
while reserving to him his office of bishop, we did not leave altogether
unpunished offences which behoved neither to be repeated again by himself,
nor held forth to the imitation of others. We therefore, in correcting him,
reserved to the young man the rank of his office unimpaired, but at the
same time, as a punishment, we took away his power, appointing that he
should not any longer rule over those with whom he had dealt in such a
manner that with just resentment they could not submit to his authority,
and might perhaps manifest their impatient indignation by breaking forth
into some deeds of violence fraught with danger both to themselves and to
him. That this was the state of feeling evidently appeared when the bishops
dealt with them concerning Antonius, although at present that conspicuous
man Color, of whose powerful interference against him he complained,
possesses no power, either in Africa or elsewhere.
6. But why should I detain you with further particulars? I beseech you
to assist us in this laborious matter, blessed lord and holy father,
venerated for your piety, and revered with due affection; and command all
the documents which have been forwarded to be read aloud to you. Observe in
what manner Antonius discharged his duties as bishop; how, when debarred.
from communion until full restitution should be made to the men of Fussala,
he submitted to our sentence, and has now set apart a sum out of which to
pay what may after inquiry be deemed just for compensation, in order that
the privilege of communion might be restored to him; with what crafty
reasoning he prevailed on our aged primate, a most venerable man, to
believe all his statements, and to recommend him as altogether blameless to
the venerable Pope Boniface. But why should I rehearse all the rest, seeing
that the venerable old man, aforesaid must have reported the entire matter
to your Holiness ?
7. In the numerous minutes of procedure in which our judgment regarding
him is recorded, I should have feared that we might appear to you to have
passed a sentence less severe than we ought to have done, did I not know
that you are so prone to mercy that you will deem it your duty to spare not
us only, because we spared him, but also the man himself. But what we did,
whether in kindness or laxity, he attempts to turn to account, and use as a
legal objection to our sentence. He boldly protests: "Either I ought to sit
in my own episcopal chair, or ought not to be a bishop at all," as if he
were now sitting in any seat but his own. For, on this very account, those
places were set apart and assigned to him in which he had previously been
bishop, that he might not be said to be unlawfully translated to another
see, contrary to the statutes of the Fathers;(1) or is it to be maintained
that one ought to be so rigid an advocate, either for severity or for
lenity, as to insist, either that no punishment be inflicted on those who
seem not to deserve deposition from the office of bishop, or that the
sentence of deposition be pronounced on all who seem to deserve any
punishment ?
8. There are cases on record, in which the Apostolic See, either
pronouncing judgment or confirming the judgment of others, sanctioned
decisions by which persons, for certain offences, were neither deposed from
their episcopal office nor left altogether unpunished. I shall not bring
forward those which occurred at a period very remote from our own time; I
shall mention recent instances. Let Priscus, a bishop of the province of
Caesarea, protest boldly: "Either the office of primate should be open to
me, as to other bishops, or I ought not to remain a bishop." Let Victor,
another bishop of the same province, with whom, when involved in the same
sentence as Priscus, no bishop beyond his own diocese holds communion, let
him, I say, protest with similar confidence: "Either I ought to have
communion everywhere, or I ought not to have it in my own district." Let
Laurentius, a third bishop of the same province, speak, and in the precise
words of this man he may exclaim: "Either I ought to sit in the chair to
which I have been ordained, or I ought not to be a bishop." But who can
find fault with these judgments, except one who does not consider that,
neither on the one hand ought all offences to be left unpunished, nor on
the other ought all to be punished in one way.
9. Since, then, the most blessed Pope Boniface, speaking of Bishop
Antonius, has in his epistle, with the vigilant caution becoming a pastor,
inserted in his judgment the additional clause, "if he has faithfully
narrated the facts of the case to us," receive now the facts of the case,
which in his statement to you he passed over in silence, and also the
transactions which took place after the letter of that man of blessed
memory had been read in Africa, and in the mercy of Christ extend your aid
to men imploring it more earnestly than he does from whose turbulence they
desire to be freed. For either from himself, or at least from very frequent
rumors, threats are held out that the courts of justiciary, and the public
authorities, and the violence of the military, are to carry into force the
decision of the Apostolic See; the effect of which is that these unhappy
men, being now Catholic Christians, dread greater evils from a Catholic
bishop than those which, when they were heretics, they dreaded from the
laws of Catholic emperors. Do not permit these things to be done, I implore
you, by the blood of Christ, by the memory of the Apostle Peter, who has
warned those placed over Chistian people against violently "lording it over
their brethren."(1) I commend to the gracious love of your Holiness the
Catholics of Fussala, my children in Christ, and also Bishop Antonius, my
son in Christ, for I love both, and I commend both to you. I do not blame
the people of Fussala for bringing to your ears their just complaint
against me for imposing on them a man whom I had not proved, and who was in
age at least not yet established, by whom they have been so afflicted; nor
do I wish any wrong done to Antonius, whose evil covetousness I oppose with
a determination proportioned to my sincere affection for him. Let your
compassion be extended to both, -- to them, so that they may not suffer
evil; to him, so that he may not do evil: to them, so that they may not
hate the Catholic Church, if they find no aid in defence against a Catholic
bishop extended to them by Catholic bishops, and especially by the
Apostolic See itself; to him, on the other hand, so that he may not involve
himself in such grievous wickedness as to alienate from Christ those whom
against their will he endeavours to make his own.
10. As for myself, I must acknowledge to your Holiness, that in the
danger which threatens both, I am so racked with anxiety and grief that I
think of retiring from the responsibilities of the episcopal office, and
abandoning myself to demonstrations of sorrow corresponding to the
greatness of my error, if I shall see (through the conduct of him in favour
of whose election to the bishopric I imprudently gave my vote) the Church
of God laid waste, and (which may God forbid) even perish, involving in its
destruction the man by whom it was laid waste. Recollecting what the
apostle says: "If we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged."(2) I
will judge myself, that He may spare me who is hereafter to judge the quick
and the dead. If, however, you succeed in restoring the members of Christ
in that district from their deadly fear and grief, and in comforting my old
age by the administration of justice tempered with mercy, He who brings
deliverance to us through you in this tribulation, and who has established
you in the seat which you occupy, shall recompense unto you good for good,
both in this life and in that which is to come.
LETTER CCX. (A.D. 423.)
TO THE MOST BELOVED AND MOST HOLY MOTHER FELICITAS,(3) AND BROTHER
RUSTICUS, AND TO THE SISTERS WHO ARE WITH THEM, AUGUSTIN AND THOSE WHO ARE
WITH HIM SEND GREETING IN THE LORD.
1. Good is the Lord, and to every place extends His mercy, which
comforts us by your love to us in Him. How much He loves those It who
believe and hope in Him, and who both love Him and love one another, and
what blessings He keeps in store for them hereafter, He proves most
remarkably in this, that on the unbelieving, the abandoned, and the
perverse, whom He threatens with eternal fire, if they persevere in their
evil disposition to the end, He does in this life bestow so many benefits,
making "His sun to rise on the evil and on the good," "on the just and on
the unjust,"(4) words in which, for the sake of brevity, some instances are
mentioned that many more may be suggested to reflection; for who can reckon
up how many gracious benefits the wicked receive in this life from Him whom
they despise? Amongst these, this is one of great value, that by the
experience of the occasional afflictions, which like good physician He
mingles the pleasures of this life, He admonishes them, if only they will
give heed, to flee from the wrath to come, and while they are in the way,
that is, in this life, to agree with the word of God, which they have made
an adversary to themselves by their wicked lives. What, then, is not
bestowed in mercy on men by the Lord God, since even affliction sent by Him
is a blessing? For prosperity is a gift of God when He comforts, adversity
a gift of God when He warns; and if He bestows these things, as I have
said, even on the wicked, what does He prepare for those who bear with one
another? Into this number you rejoice that through His grace you have been
gathered, "forbearing one another in love; endeavouring to keep the unity
of the Spirit in the bond of peace."(5) For there shall not be awanting
occasion for your bearing one with another till God shall have so purified
you, that, death being "swallowed up in victory,"(1) "God shall be all in
all."(2)
2. We ought never, indeed, to take pleasure in quarrels; but however
averse we may be to them, they occasionally either arise from love, or put
it to the test. For how difficult is it to find any one willing to be
reproved; and where is the wise man of whom it is said, "Rebuke a wise man,
and he will love thee"?(3) But are we on that account not to reprove and
find fault with a brother, to prevent him from going down through false
security to death? For it is a common and frequent experience, that when a
brother is found fault with he is mortified at the time, and resists and
contradicts his friend, but afterwards reconsiders the matter in silence
alone with God, where he is not afraid of giving offence to men by
submitting to correction, but is afraid of offending God by refusing to be
reformed, and thenceforward refrains from doing that for which he has been
justly reproved; and in proportion as he hates his sin, he loves the
brother whom he feels to have been the enemy of his sin. But if he belong
to the number of those of whom it is said, "Reprove not a scorner lest he
hate thee,"(3) the quarrel does not arise from love on the part of the
reproved, but it exercises and tests the love of the reprover; for he does
not return hatred for hatred, but the love which constrains him to find
fault endures unmoved, even when he who is found fault with requites it
with hatred. But if the reprover renders evil for evil to the man who takes
offence at being reproved, he was not worthy to reprove another, but
evidently deserves to be himself reproved. Act upon these principles, so
that either quarrels may not arise, or, if they do arise, may quickly
terminate in peace. Be more earnest to dwell in concord than to vanquish
each other in controversy. For as vinegar corrodes a vessel if it remain
long in it, so anger corrodes the heart if it is cherished till the morrow.
These things, therefore, observe, and the God of peace shall be with you.
Pray also unitedly for us, that we may cheerfully practise the good advices
which we give to you.
LETTER CCXI. (A.D. 423.)
IN THIS LETTER AUGUSTIN REBUKES THE NUNS OF THE MONASTERY IN WHICH HIS
SISTER HAD BEEN PRIORESS, FOR CERTAIN TURBULENT MANIFESTATIONS OF
DISSATISFACTION WITH HER SUCCESSOR, AND LAYS DOWN GENERAL RULES FOR THEIR
GUIDANCE.(4)
1. As severity is ready to punish the faults which it may discover, so
charity is reluctant to discover the faults which it must punish. This was
the reason of my not acceding to your request for a visit from me, at a
time when, if I had come, I must have come not to rejoice in your harmony,
but to add more vehemence to your strife. For how could I have treated your
behaviour with indifference, or have allowed it to pass unpunished, if so
great a tumult had arisen among you in my presence, as that which, when I
was absent, assailed my ears with the din of your voices, although my eyes
did not witness your disorder? For perhaps your rising against authority
would have been even more violent in my presence, since I must have refused
the concessions which you demanded,-- concessions involving, to your own
disadvantage, some most dangerous precedents, subversive of sound
discipline; and I must thus have found you such as I did not desire, and
must have myself been found by you such as you did not desire.
2. The apostle, writing to the Corinthians, says: "Moreover, I call God
for a record upon my soul, that to spare you I came not as yet to Corinth.
Not for that we have dominion over your faith, but are helpers of your
joy."(5) I also say the same to you; to spare you I have not come to you. I
have also spared myself, that I might not have sorrow upon sorrow, and have
chosen not to see you face to face, but to pour out my heart to God on your
behalf, and to plead the cause of your great danger not in words before
you, but in tears before God; entreating Him that He may not turn into
grief the joy wherewith I am wont to rejoice in you, and that amid the
great offences with which this world everywhere abounds, I may be comforted
at times by thinking of your number, your pure affection, your holy
conversation, and the abundant grace of God which is given to you, so that
you not only have renounced matrimony, but have chosen to dwell with one
accord in fellowship under the same roof, that you may have one soul and
one heart in God.
3. When I reflect on these good things, these gifts of God in you, my
heart, amid the many storms by which it is agitated through evils
elsewhere, is wont to find perfect rest. "Ye did run well; who did hinder
you, that ye should not obey the truth? This persuasion cometh not of Him
that calleth you." (6) "A little leaven "--(7) I am unwilling to complete
the sentence, for I rather desire, entreat, and exhort that the leaven
itself be transformed into something better, lest it change the whole lump
for the worse, as it has already almost done. If, therefore, you have begun
to put forth again the buddings of a sound discernment as to your duty,
pray that you enter not into temptation, nor fall again into strifes,
emulations, animosities, divisions, evil speaking, seditions, whisperings.
For we have not laboured as we have done in planting and watering the
garden of the Lord among you, that we may reap these thorns from you. If,
however, your weakness be still disturbed by turbulence, pray that you may
be delivered from this temptation. As for the troublers of your peace, if
such there be still among you, they shall, unless they amend their conduct,
bear their judgment, whoever they be.
4. Consider how evil a thing it is, that at the very time when we
rejoice in the return of the Donatists to our unity, we have to lament
internal discord within our monastery. Be stedfast in observing your good
vows, and you will not desire to change for another the prioress whose care
of the monastery has been for so many years unwearied, under whom also you
have both increased in numbers and advanced in age, and who has given you
the place in her heart which a mother gives to her own children. All of you
when you came to the monastery found her there, either discharging
satisfactorily the duties of assistant to the late holy prioress, my
sister, or, after her own accession to that office, giving you a welcome to
the sisterhood. Under her you spent your noviciate, under her you took the
veil, under her your number has been multiplied, and yet you are riotously
demanding that she should be replaced by another, whereas, if the proposal
to put another in her place had come from us, it would have been seemly for
you to have mourned over such a proposal. For she is one whom you know
well; to her you came at first, and under her you have for so many years
advanced in age and in numbers. No official previously unknown to you has
been appointed, excepting the prior; if it be on his account that you seek
a change, and if through aversion to him you thus rebel against your
mother, why do you not rather petition for his removal? If, however, you
recoil from this suggestion, for I know how you reverence and love him in
Christ, why do you not all the more for his sake reverence and love her?
For the first measures of the recently appointed prior in presiding over
you are so hindered by your disorderly behaviour, that he is himself
disposed to leave you, rather than be subjected on your account to the
dishonour and odium which must arise from the report going abroad, that you
would not have sought another prioress unless you had be un to have him as
your prior. May God therefore calm and compose your minds: let not the work
of the devil prevail in you, but may the peace of Christ gain the victory
in your hearts; and do not rush headlong to death, either through vexation
of spirit, because what you desire is refused, or through shame, because of
having desired what you ought not to have desired, but rather by repentance
resume the conscientious discharge of duty; and imitate not the repentance
of Judas the traitor, but the tears of Peter the shepherd.
5. The rules which we lay down to be observed by you as persons settled
in a monastery are these: --
First of all, in order to fulfil the end for which you have been
gathered into one community, dwell in the house with oneness of spirit, and
let your hearts and minds be one in God. Also call not anything the
property of any one, but let all things be common property, and let
distribution of food and raiment be made to each of you by the prioress, --
not equally to all, because you are not all equally strong, but to every
one according to her need. For you read in the Acts of the Apostles: "They
had all things common: and distribution was made to every man according as
he had need."(1) Let those who had any worldly goods when they entered the
monastery cheerfully desire that these become common property. Let those
who had no worldly goods not ask within the monastery for luxuries which
they could not have while they were outside of its walls; nevertheless, let
the comforts which the infirmity of any of them may require be given to
such, though their poverty before coming in to the monastery may have been
such that they could not have procured for themselves the bare necessaries
of life; and let them in such case be careful not to reckon it the chief
happiness of their present lot that they have found within the monastery
food and raiment, such as was elsewhere beyond their reach.
6. Let them, moreover, not hold their heads high because they are
associated on terms of equality with persons whom they durst not have
approached in the outer world; but let them rather lift their hearts on
high, and not seek after earthly possessions, lest, if the rich be made
lowly but the poor puffed up with vanity in our monasteries, these
institutions become useful only to the rich, and hurtful to the poor. On
the other hand, however, let not those who seemed to hold some position in
the world regard with contempt their sisters, who in coming into this
sacred fellowship have left a condition of poverty; let them be careful to
glory rather in the fellowship of their poor sisters, than in the rank of
their wealthy parents. And let them not lift themselves up above the rest
because of their having, perchance, contributed something from their own
resources to the maintenance of the community, lest they find in their
riches more occasion for pride, because they divide them with others in a
monastery, than they might have found if they had spent them in their own
enjoyment in the world. For every other kind of sin finds scope in evil
works, so that by it they are done, but pride lurks even in good works, so
that by it they are undone; and what avails it to lavish money on the poor,
and become poor oneself, if the unhappy soul is rendered more proud by
despising riches than it had been by possessing them? Live, then, all of
you, in unanimity and concord, and in each other give honour to that God
whose temples you have been made.
7. Be regular (instate) in prayers at the appointed hours and times. In
the oratory let no one do anything else than the duty for which the place
was made, and from which it has received its name; so that if any of you,
having leisure, wish to pray at other hours than those appointed, they may
not be hindered by others using the place for any other purpose. In the
psalms and hymns used in your prayers to God, let that be pondered in the
heart which is uttered by the voice; chant nothing but what you find
prescribed to be chanted; whatever is not so prescribed is not to be
chanted.
8. Keep the flesh under by fastings and by abstinence from meat and
drink, so far as health allows. When any one is not able to fast, let her
not, unless she be ill, take any nourishment except at the customary hour
of repast. From the lime of your coming to table until you rise from it,
listen without noise and wrangling to whatever may be in course read to
you; let not your mouths alone be exercised in receiving food, let your
ears be also occupied in receiving the word of God.
9. If those who are weak in consequence of their early training are
treated somewhat differently in regard to food, this ought not to be
vexatious or seem unjust to others whom a different training has made more
robust. And let them not esteem these weaker ones more favoured than
themselves, because they receive a fare somewhat less frugal than their
own, but rather congratulate themselves on enjoying a vigour of
constitution which the others do not possess. And if to those who have
entered the monastery after a more delicate upbringing at home, there be
given any food, clothing, couch, or covering which to others who are
stronger, and in that respect more favourably circumstanced, is not given,
the sisters to whom these indulgences are not given ought to consider how
great a descent the others have made from their style of living in the
world to that which they now have, although they may not have been able to
come altogether down to the severe simplicity of others who have a more
hardy constitution. And when those who were originally more wealthy see
others receiving -- not as mark of higher honour, but out of consideration
for infirmity -- more largely than they do themselves, they ought not to be
disturbed by fear of any such detestable perversion of monastic discipline
as this, that the poor are to be trained to luxury in a monastery in which
the wealthy are, so far as they can bear it, trained to hardships. For, of
course, as those who are ill must take less food, otherwise they would
increase their disease, so after illness, those who are convalescent must,
in order to their more rapid recovery, be so nursed -- even though they may
have come from the lowest poverty to the monastery -- as if their recent
illness had conferred on them the same claim for special treatment as their
former style of tiring confers upon those who, before entering the i
monastery, were rich. So soon, however, as they regain their wonted health,
let them return to their own happier mode of living, which, as involving
fewer wants, is more suitable for those who are servants of God; and let
not inclination detain them when they are strong in that amount of ease to
which necessity had raised them when they were weak. Let those regard
themselves as truly richer who are endowed with greater strength to bear
hardships. For it is better to have fewer wants than to have larger
resources.
10. Let your apparel be in no wise conspicuous; and aspire to please
others by your behaviour rather than by your attire. Let your head-dresses
not be so thin as to let the nets below them be seen. Let your hair be worn
wholly covered, and let it neither be carelessly dishevelled nor too
scrupulously arranged when you go beyond the monastery. When you go
anywhere, walk together; when you come to the place to which you were
going, stand together. In walking, in standing, in deportment, and in all
your movements let nothing be done which might attract the improper desires
of any one, but rather let all be in keeping with your sacred character.
Though a passing glance be directed towards any man, let your eyes look
fixedly at none; for when you are walking you are not forbidden to see men,
but you must neither let your desires go out to them, nor wish to be the
objects of desire on their part. For it is not only by touch that a woman
awakens in any man or cherishes towards him such desire, this may be done
by inward feelings and by looks. And say not that you have chaste minds
though you may have wanton eyes, for a wanton eye is the index of a wanton
heart. And when wanton hearts exchange signals with each other in looks,
though the tongue is silent, and are, by the force of sensual passion,
pleased by the reciprocation of inflamed desire, their purity of character
is gone, though their bodies are not defiled by any act of uncleanness. Nor
let her who fixes her eyes upon one of the other sex, and takes pleasure in
his eye being fixed on her, imagine that the act is not observed by others;
she is seen assuredly by those by whom she supposes herself not to be
remarked. But even though she should elude notice, and be seen by no human
eye, what shall she do with that Witness above us from whom nothing can be
concealed? Is He to be regarded as not seeing because His eye rests on all
things with a long-suffering proportioned to His wisdom? Let every holy
woman guard herself from desiring sinfully to please man by cherishing a
fear of displeasing God; let her check the desire of sinfully looking upon
man by remembering that God's eye is looking upon all things. For in this
very matter we are exhorted to cherish fear of God by the words of
Scripture:-- " He that looks with a fixed eye is an abomination to the
Lord."(1) When, therefore, you are together in the church, or in any other
place where men also are present, guard your chastity by watching over one
another, and God, who dwelleth in you, will thus guard you by means of
yourselves.
11. And if you perceive in any one of your number this frowardness of
eye, warn her at once, so that the evil which has begun may not go on, but
be checked immediately. But if, after this admonition, you see her repeat
the offence, or do the same thing on any other subsequent day, whoever may
have had the opportunity of seeing this must now report her as one who has
been wounded and requires to be healed, but not without pointing her out to
another, and perhaps a third sister, so that she may be convicted by the
testimony of two or three witnesses,(2) and may be reprimanded with
necessary severity. And do not think that in thus informing upon one
another you are guilty of malevolence. For the truth rather is, that you
are not guiltless if by keeping silence you allow sisters to perish, whom
you may correct by giving information of their hulls. For if your sister
had a wound on her person which she wished to conceal through fear of the
surgeon's lance, would it not be cruel if you kept silence about it, and
true compassion if you made it known? How much more, then, are you bound to
make known her sin, that she may not suffer more fatally from a neglected
spiritual wound. But before she is pointed out to others as witnesses by
whom she may be convicted if she deny the charge, the offender ought to be
brought before the prioress, if after admonition she has refused to be
corrected, so that by her being in this way more privately rebuked, the
fault which she has committed may not become known to all the others. If,
however, she then deny the charge, then others must be employed to observe
her conduct after the denial, so that now before the whole sisterhood she
may not be accused by one witness, but convicted by two or three. When
convicted of the fault, it is her duty to submit to the corrective
discipline which may be appointed by the prioress or the prior. If she
refuse to submit to this, and does not go away from you of her own accord,
let her be expelled from your society. For this is not done cruelly but
mercifully, to protect very many from perishing through infection of the
plague with which one has been stricken. Moreover, what I have now said in
regard to abstaining from wanton looks should be carefully observed, with
due love for the persons and hatred of the sin, in observing, forbidding,
reporting, proving, and punishing of all other faults. But if any one among
you has gone on into so great sin as to receive secretly from any man
letters or gifts of any description, let her be pardoned and prayed for if
she confess this of her own accord. If, however, she is found out and is
convicted of such conduct, let her be more severely punished, according to
the sentence of the prioress, or of the prior, or even of the bishop.
12. Keep your clothes in one place, under the care of one or two, or as
many as may be required to shake them so as to keep them from being injured
by moths; and as your food is supplied from one storeroom, let your clothes
be provided from one wardrobe. And whatever may be brought out to you as
wearing apparel suitable for the season, regard it, if possible, as a
matter of no importance whether each of you receives the very same article
of clothing which she had formerly laid aside, or one receive what another
formerly wore, provided only that what is necessary be denied to no one.
But if contentions and murmurings are occasioned among you by this, and
some one of you complains that she has received some article of dress
inferior to that which she formerly wore, and thinks it beneath her to be
so clothed as her other sister was, by this prove your own selves, and
judge how far deficient you must be in the inner holy dress of the heart,
when you quarrel with each other about the clothing of the body.
Nevertheless, if your infirmity is indulged by the concession that you are
to receive again the identical article which you had laid aside, let
whatever you put past be nevertheless, kept in one place, and in charge of
the ordinary keepers of the wardrobe; it being, of course, understood that
no one is to work in making any article of clothing or for the couch, or
any girdle, veil, or head-dress, for her own private comfort, but that all
your works be done for the common good of all, with greater zeal and more
cheerful perseverance than if you were each working for your individual
interest. For the love concerning which it is written, "Charity seeketh not
her own,"(1) is to be understood as that which prefers the common good to
personal advantage, not personal advantage to the common good. Therefore
the more fully that you give to the common good a preference above your
personal and private interests, the more fully will you be sensible of
progress in securing that, in regard to all those things which supply wants
destined soon to pass away, the charity which abides may hold a conspicuous
and influential place. An obvious corollary from these rules is, that when
persons of either sex bring to their own daughters in the monastery, or to
inmates belonging to them by any other relationship, presents of clothing
or of other articles which are to be regarded as necessary, such gifts are
not to be received privately, but must be under the control of the
prioress, that, being added to the common stock, they may be placed at the
service of any inmate to whom they may be necessary. If any one conceal any
gift bestowed on her, let sentence be passed on her as guilty of theft.
13. Let your clothes be washed, whether by yourselves or by
washerwomen, at such intervals as are approved by the prioress, lest the
indulgence of undue solicitude about spotless raiment produce inward stains
upon your souls. Let the washing of the body and the use of baths be not
constant, but at the usual interval assigned to it, i.e. once in a month.
In the case, however, of illness rendering necessary the washing of the
person, let it not be unduly delayed; let it be done on the physician's
recommendation without complaint; and even though the patient be reluctant,
she must do at the order of the prioress what health demands. If, however,
a patient desires the bath, and it happen to be not for her good, her
desire must not be yielded to, for sometimes it is supposed to be
beneficial because it gives pleasure, although in reality it may be doing
harm. Finally, if a handmaid of God suffers from any hidden pain of body,
let her statement as to her suffering be believed without hesitation; but
if there be any uncertainty whether that which she finds agreeable be
really of use in curing her pain, let the physician be consulted. To the
baths, or to any place whither it may be necessary to go, let no fewer than
three go at any time. Moreover, the sister requiring to go anywhere is not
to go with those whom she may choose herself, but with those whom the
prioress may order. The care of the sick, and of those who require
attention as convalescents, and of those who, without any feverish
symptoms, are labouring under debility, ought to be committed to some one
of your number, who shall procure for them from the storeroom what she
shall see to be necessary for each. Moreover, let those who have charge,
whether in the storeroom, or in the wardrobe, or in the library, render
service to their sisters without murmuring. Let manuscripts be applied for
at a fixed hour every day, and let none who ask them at other hours receive
them. But at whatever time clothes and shoes may be required by one in need
of these, let not those in charge of this department delay supplying the
want.
14. Quarrels should be unknown among you, or at least, if they arise,
they should as quickly as possible be ended, lest anger grow into hatred,
and convert "a mote into a beam," (2) and make the soul chargeable with
murder. For the saying of Scripture: "He that hateth his brother is a
murderer,"(3) does not concern men only, but women also are bound by this
law through its being enjoined on the other sex, which was prior in the
order of creation. Let her, whoever she be, that shall have injured another
by taunt or abusive language, or false accusation, remember to remedy the
wrong by apology as promptly as possible, and let her who was injured grant
forgiveness without further disputation. If the injury has been mutual, the
duty of both parties will be mutual forgiveness, because of your prayers,
which, as they are more frequent, ought to be all the more sacred in your
esteem. But the sister who is prompt in asking another whom she confesses
that she has wronged to grant her forgiveness is, though she may be more
frequently betrayed by a hasty temper, better than another who, though less
irascible, is with more difficulty persuaded to ask forgiveness. Let not
her who refuses to forgive her sister expect to receive answers to prayer:
as for any sister who never will ask forgiveness, or does not do it from
the heart, it is no advantage to such an one to be in a monastery, even
though, perchance, she may not be expelled. Wherefore abstain from hard
words; but if they have escaped your lips, be not slow to bring words of
healing from the same lips by which the wounds were inflicted. When,
however, the necessity of discipline compels you to use hard words in
restraining the younger inmates, even though you feel that in these you
have gone too far, it is not imperative on you to ask their forgiveness,
lest while undue humility is observed by you towards those who ought to be
subject to you, the authority necessary for governing them be impaired; but
pardon must nevertheless be sought from the Lord of all, who knows with
what goodwill you love even those whom you reprove it may be with undue
severity. The love which you bear to each other must be not carnal, but
spiritual: for those things which are practised by immodest women in
shameful frolic and sporting with one another ought not even to be done by
those of your sex who are married, or are intending to marry, and much more
ought not to be done by widows or chaste virgins dedicated to be hand-maids
of Christ by a holy vow.
15. Obey the prioress as a mother, giving her all due honour, that God
may not be offended by your forgetting what you owe to her: still more is
it incumbent on you to obey the presbyter who has charge of you all. To the
prioress most specially belongs the responsibility of seeing that all these
rules be observed, and that if any rule has been neglected, the offence be
not passed over, but carefully corrected and punished; it being, of course,
open to her to refer to the presbyter any matter that goes beyond her
province or power. But let her count herself happy not in exercising the
power which rules, but in practising the love which serves. In honour in
the sight of men let her be raised above you, but in fear in the sight of
God let her be as it were beneath your feet. Let her show herself before
all a "pattern of good works."(1) Let her "warn the unruly, comfort the
feeble-minded, support the weak, be patient toward all."(2) Let her
cheerfully observe and cautiously impose rules. And, though both are
necessary, let her be more anxious to be loved than to be feared by you;
always reflecting that for you she must give account to God. For this
reason yield obedience to her out of compassion not for yourselves only but
also for her, because, as she occupies a higher position among you, her
danger is proportionately greater than your own.
16. The Lord grant that you may yield loving submission to all these
rules, as persons enamoured of spiritual beauty, and diffusing a sweet
savour of Christ by means of a good conversation, not as bondwomen under
the law, but as established in freedom under grace. That you may, however,
examine yourselves by this treatise as by a mirror, and may not through
forgetfulness neglect anything, let it be read over by you once a week; and
in so far as you find yourselves practising the things written here, give
thanks for this to God, the Giver of all good; in so far, however, as any
of you finds herself to be in some particular defective, let her lament the
past and be on her guard in the time to come, praying both that her debt
may be forgiven, and that she may not be led into temptation.
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:(4) --
Bishop Augustin having taken his seat along with his fellow 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(1) 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."(8) 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,"(11) 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 cloth(1)
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."(5) 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,(7) 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,(3) 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 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 Lord 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,(5) 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(3) 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;"(2) 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.(3) 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 leaders 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 THELETTER 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 in 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 maiden(1) 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.(2) 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 desired(1) 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(3) 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)
Taken from "The Early Church Fathers and Other Works" originally published
by Wm. B. Eerdmans Pub. Co. in English in Edinburgh, Scotland, beginning in
1867. (LNPF I/I, Schaff). The digital version is by The Electronic Bible
Society, P.O. Box 701356, Dallas, TX 75370, 214-407-WORD.
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