Letters 100-155
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EPISTOLA 100
DOMINO EXIMIO MERITOQUE HONORABILI INSIGNITERQUE LAUDABILI FILIO DONATO, AUGUSTINUS, IN DOMINO SALUTEM
DOMINO EXIMIO MERITOQUE HONORABILI INSIGNITERQUE LAUDABILI FILIO DONATO, AUGUSTINUS, IN DOMINO SALUTEM
LETTER 100
To the most excellent lord, deservedly honorable and notably praiseworthy son Donatus, Augustine sends greetings in the Lord
Ep100-155To the most excellent lord, deservedly honorable and notably praiseworthy son Donatus, Augustine sends greetings in the Lord
1. Nollem quidem in his afflictationibus esse Africanam Ecclesiam constitutam, ut terrenae ullius potestatis indigeret auxilio. Sed quia, sicut Apostolus dicit: Non est potestas nisi a Deo; procul dubio, cum per vos sincerissimos Catholicae matris filios eidem subvenitur, auxilium nostrum in nomine Domini est, qui fecit coelum et terram. Quis enim non sentiat in tantis malis non parvam nobis consolationem divinitus missam, cum tu vir talis et Christi nominis amantissimus, proconsularibus es sublimatus insignibus, ut ab sceleratis et sacrilegis ausibus inimicos Ecclesiae bonae tuae voluntati potestas sociata cohiberet, domine eximie meritoque honorabilis insigniterque laudabilis fili? Denique unum solum est quod in tua iustitia pertimescimus, ne forte, quoniam quidquid mali contra christianam societatem ab hominibus impiis ingratisque committitur, profecto gravius est et atrocius quam si in alios talia committantur, tu quoque pro immanitate facinorum, ac non potius pro lenitatis christianae consideratione censeas coercendum; quod te per Iesum Christum ne facias obsecramus. Neque enim vindictam de inimicis in hac terra requirimus, aut vero ad eas angustias animi nos debent coarctare quae patimur, ut obliviscamur quid nobis praeceperit, pro cuius veritate ac nomine patimur: diligimus inimicos nostros et oramus pro eis. Unde ex occasione terribilium iudicum ac legum, ne in aeterni iudicii poenas incidant, corrigi eos cupimus, non necari; nec disciplinam circa eos neglegi volumus, nec suppliciis quibus digni sunt exerceri. Sic igitur eorum peccata compesce, ut sint quos poeniteat peccasse.
1. I would indeed have wished that the African Church were not so situated in these afflictions that it had need of the help of any earthly power. But since, as the Apostle says, there is no authority except from God (Rom 13:1), then beyond doubt, when she is assisted through you, the most sincere sons of our Catholic mother, our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth. For who would not perceive that no small consolation has been sent to us from on high amid such great evils, when a man such as you, most devoted to the name of Christ, has been raised to the insignia of the proconsulship, so that a power allied to your good will might restrain the enemies of the Church from their criminal and sacrilegious attempts, most excellent lord, deservedly honorable and notably praiseworthy son? In the end there is but one thing we dread in your administration of justice: that perhaps, since whatever evil is committed against the Christian community by impious and ungrateful men is surely graver and more atrocious than if such things were committed against others, you too may judge that it should be punished according to the enormity of the crimes, rather than out of regard for Christian gentleness; and we beg you through Jesus Christ not to do this. For we do not seek vengeance upon our enemies on this earth, nor ought the distresses we suffer to constrain our minds so narrowly that we forget what he has commanded us, for whose truth and name we suffer: we love our enemies and pray for them. And so, on the occasion of these dreadful judges and laws, we desire that they be corrected, not killed, lest they fall into the punishments of the eternal judgment; we wish neither that discipline toward them be neglected, nor that they be subjected to the punishments they deserve. Restrain their sins, therefore, in such a way that there may be those who repent of having sinned.
Ep100-155.12. Quaesumus igitur ut cum Ecclesiae causas audis, quamlibet nefariis iniuriis appetitam vel afflictam esse cognoveris, potestatem occidendi te habere obliviscaris, et petitionem nostram non obliviscaris. Non tibi vile sit, neque contemptibile, fili honorabiliter dilectissime, quod vos rogamus ne occidantur, pro quibus Dominum rogamus ut corrigantur. Excepto etiam quod a perpetuo proposito recedere non debemus vincendi in bono malum; illud quoque prudentia tua cogitet, quod causas ecclesiasticas insinuare vobis nemo praeter ecclesiasticos curat. Proinde, si occidendos in his sceleribus homines putaveritis, deterrebitis nos ne per operam nostram ad vestrum iudicium aliquid tale perveniat: quo comperto illi in nostram perniciem licentiore audacia grassabuntur, necessitate nobis impacta et indicta, ut etiam occidi ab eis eligamus, quam eos occidendos vestris iudiciis ingeramus. Hanc admonitionem, petitionem, obsecrationem meam ne, quaeso, aspernanter accipias. Neque enim te arbitror non recolere, magnam me ad te et multo quam nunc es altius sublimatum etiamsi episcopus non essem, fiduciam tamen habere potuisse. Cito interim per edictum Excellentiae tuae noverint haeretici Donatistae, manere leges contra errorem suum latas, quas iam nihil valere arbitrantur et iactant, ne vel sic nobis parcere aliquatenus possint. Plurimum autem labores et pericula nostra, quo fructuosa sint, adiuvabis, si eorum vanissimam et impiae superbiae plenissimam sectam non ita cures imperialibus legibus comprimi, ut sibi vel suis videantur qualescumque molestias pro veritate atque iustitia sustinere: sed eos, cum hoc abs te petitur, rerum certarum manifestissimis documentis apud Acta vel Praestantiae tuae vel minorum iudicum convinci atque instrui patiaris, ut et ipsi qui te iubente attinentur, duram, si fieri potest, flectant in melius voluntatem, et ea caeteris salubriter legant. Onerosior est quippe quam utilior diligentia, quamvis ut magnum deseratur malum, et magnum teneatur bonum, cogi tantum homines, non doceri.
2. We ask, therefore, that when you hear the cases of the Church, however much you find her assailed or afflicted by wicked wrongs, you may forget that you have the power to kill, and not forget our petition. Do not regard it as cheap or contemptible, son honorably and most dearly beloved, that we ask you not to kill those for whom we ask the Lord that they be corrected. Apart from the fact that we must not depart from our settled purpose of overcoming evil with good, let your prudence also consider this: that no one but churchmen takes the trouble to bring ecclesiastical cases before you. And so, if you think that men should be killed for these crimes, you will deter us from letting any such matter come before your tribunal through our agency; and once this is found out, those men will rage against us with bolder audacity to our destruction, a necessity being thrust upon us and laid down for us, so that we should even choose to be killed by them rather than bring them before your courts to be killed. I beg you not to receive this admonition, petition, and entreaty of mine with disdain. For I do not think you fail to recall that I could have had great confidence with you, far higher than you now are, even if I were not a bishop. Meanwhile let the heretical Donatists soon learn, through an edict of Your Excellency, that the laws passed against their error remain in force, laws which they now suppose and boast to be of no effect, so that they may not in this way find any room to spare us. You will greatly help our labors and dangers to bear fruit if you take care not to have their most empty sect, full of impious pride, repressed by the imperial laws in such a way that they seem to themselves or to their own to be enduring some kind of hardship for the sake of truth and justice; but rather, when this is asked of you, allow them to be convicted and instructed by the clearest documents of certain facts in the records, whether of Your Eminence or of the lesser judges, so that those who are detained at your command may, if it can be done, bend their hard will toward something better, and others may read these things to their benefit. For coercion that only compels men without teaching them, though it be aimed at abandoning a great evil and holding fast to a great good, is more burdensome than useful.
Ep100-155.2EPISTOLA 101
DOMINO BEATISSIMO ET VENERABILITER CARISSIMO, ET SINCERITER DESIDERANTISSIMO FRATRI ET COEPISCOPO MEMORIO, AUGUSTINUS, IN DOMINO SALUTEM
DOMINO BEATISSIMO ET VENERABILITER CARISSIMO, ET SINCERITER DESIDERANTISSIMO FRATRI ET COEPISCOPO MEMORIO, AUGUSTINUS, IN DOMINO SALUTEM
LETTER 101
To the most blessed lord, reverently most dear and sincerely most longed-for brother and fellow bishop Memorius, Augustine sends greetings in the Lord
Ep100-155.2To the most blessed lord, reverently most dear and sincerely most longed-for brother and fellow bishop Memorius, Augustine sends greetings in the Lord
1. Nullas iam reddere debui litteras sanctae Caritati tuae sine his libris, quos a me sancti amoris iure violentissimo flagitasti, ut hac saltem obedientia responderem epistolis tuis, quibus me magis onerare quam honorare dignatus es. Quamquam ubi succumbo, quia oneror; ibi etiam, quia diligor, sublevor. Neque enim a quolibet diligor, sublevor, eligor; sed ab eo viro et Domini sacerdote, quem sic acceptum Deo sentio, ut cum animam tuam tam bonam levas ad Dominum, quoniam in illa me habes, leves et me. Debui ergo nunc libros mittere, quos emendaturum me esse promiseram: et ideo non misi, quia non emendavi; non quia nolui, sed quia non potui, curis videlicet multis et multum praevalentibus occupatus. Nimis autem ingratum ac ferreum fuit, ut te qui nos sic amas, hic sanctus frater et collega noster Possidius, in quo nostram non parvam praesentiam reperies, vel non disceret, vel sine litteris nostris disceret. Est enim per nostrum ministerium non litteris illis, quas variarum servi libidinum liberales vocant, sed dominico pane nutritus, quantus ei potuit per nostras angustias dispensari.
1. I ought not now to have sent any letter to your holy Charity without these books, which you demanded of me by the most forceful right of holy love, so that by this obedience at least I might answer your letters, in which you have seen fit to burden me rather than to honor me. And yet where I sink down because I am burdened, there too I am lifted up because I am loved. For I am not loved, lifted up, and chosen by just anyone, but by that man and priest of the Lord whom I perceive to be so acceptable to God that, when you raise your soul, so good a soul, to the Lord, then, since you hold me within it, you raise me too. I ought, then, now to have sent the books that I had promised to revise; and the reason I have not sent them is that I have not revised them, not because I was unwilling but because I was unable, occupied as I am with many cares, and very pressing ones. But it would have been too ungrateful and hard of me if this holy brother and colleague of ours, Possidius, in whom you will find no small part of myself present, were either not to learn from you, or to learn from you without a letter from me. For through our ministry he has been nourished, not on those letters which the slaves of various lusts call liberal, but on the Lord's bread, as much as could be dispensed to him through our straitened means.
Ep100-155.12. Quid enim aliud dicendum est eis, qui cum sint iniqui et impii, liberaliter sibi videntur eruditi, nisi quod in litteris vere liberalibus legimus: Si vos Filius liberaverit, tunc vere liberi eritis ? Per eum namque praestatur ut ipse etiam, quae liberales disciplinae ab eis qui in libertatem vocati non sunt appellantur, quid in se habeant liberale noscatur. Neque enim habent congruum libertati, nisi quod habent congruum veritati: unde ille ipse Filius: Et veritas, inquit, liberabit vos. Non ergo illae innumerabiles et impiae fabulae, quibus vanorum plena sunt carmina poetarum, ullo modo nostrae consonant libertati; non oratorum inflata et expolita mendacia; non denique ipsorum philosophorum garrulae argutiae, qui vel Deum prorsus non cognoverunt vel cum cognovissent Deum, non sicut Deum glorificaverunt, aut gratias egerunt, sed evanuerunt in cogitationibus suis, et obscuratum est insipiens cor eorum, et dicentes se esse sapientes, stulti facti sunt: et immutaverunt gloriam incorrupti Dei in similitudinem imaginis corruptibilis hominis et volucrum atque quadrupedum et serpentium; vel qui istis simulacris non dediti, aut non nimis dediti, coluerunt tamen et servierunt creaturae potius quam Creatori. Absit omnino ut istorum vanitates et insaniae mendaces, ventosae nugae ac superbus error, recte liberales litterae nominentur, hominum scilicet infelicium, qui Dei gratiam per Iesum Christum Dominum nostrum, qua sola liberamur de corpore mortis huius, non cognoverunt, nec in eis ipsis quae vera senserunt. historia sane, cuius scriptores fidem se praecipue narrationibus suis debere profitentur fortassis habeat aliquid cognitione dignum liberis, cum sive bona sive mala hominum, tamen vera narrantur. Quamvis in eis cognoscendis, qui Spiritu sancto non adiuti sunt, rumoresque colligere ipsa humanae infirmitatis conditione compulsi sunt, quemadmodum non fallerentur in plurimis, omnino non video: est tamen in eis aliqua propinquitas libertatis, si voluntatem mentiendi non habent, nec homines fallunt, nisi cum ab hominibus humana infirmitate falluntur.
2. For what else is to be said to those who, though they are unjust and impious, think themselves liberally educated, except what we read in the truly liberal letters: If the Son makes you free, then you will be free indeed (John 8:36)? For it is through him that even what are called the liberal disciplines, by those who are not called into freedom, are known to have whatever of the liberal is in them. For they have nothing that fits freedom except what fits truth; whence that same Son says, And the truth will make you free (John 8:32). Those countless and impious fables, then, with which the songs of empty poets are full, in no way accord with our freedom; nor do the inflated and polished lies of the orators; nor, finally, the garrulous subtleties of the philosophers themselves, who either did not know God at all, or, when they knew God, did not glorify him as God or give thanks, but became futile in their thinking, and their senseless hearts were darkened; and claiming to be wise, they became fools; and they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for the likeness of an image of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and serpents (Rom 1:21-23); or who, though not given over to these images, or not too much given over to them, nevertheless worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator (Rom 1:25). Far be it that the vanities and lying follies of these men, their windy trifles and proud error, should rightly be named liberal letters, the letters, that is, of unhappy men who have not known the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord, by which alone we are freed from the body of this death, not even in those very things which they perceived to be true. History indeed, whose writers profess that they owe trustworthiness above all to their narratives, may perhaps have something worthy of the knowledge of free men, since it relates true things, whether good or evil, of men. Yet in coming to know these things, I do not at all see how those who were not helped by the Holy Spirit, and who were compelled by the very condition of human weakness to gather rumors, could fail to be deceived in very many matters; nevertheless there is in them some nearness to freedom, if they have no will to lie, and do not deceive men except when they are themselves deceived by men through human weakness.
Ep100-155.23. Verum quia in omnibus rerum motibus quid numeri valeant, facilius consideratur in vocibus, eaque consideratio quibusdam quasi gradatis itineribus nititur ad superna intima veritatis, in quibus viis ostendit se sapientia hilariter, et in omni providentia occurrit amantibus: initio nostri otii cum a curis maioribus magisque necessariis vacabat animus, volui per ista, quae a nobis desiderasti, scripta proludere, quando conscripsi de solo rhythmo sex libros, et de melo scribere alios forsitan sex, fateor, disponebam, cum mihi otium futurum sperabam. Sed posteaquam mihi curarum ecclesiasticarum sarcina imposita est, omnes illae deliciae fugere de manibus, ita ut vix nunc ipsum codicem inveniam, quoniam tuam voluntatem, nec petitionem sed iussionem, contemnere nequeo. Quod sane opusculum si potuero mittere, non quidem me tibi obtemperasse, verumtamen te hoc a me tantopere flagitasse poenitebit. Difficillime quippe intelleguntur in eo quinque libri, si non adsit qui non solum disputantium possit separare personas, verum etiam pronuntiando ita sonare morulas syllabarum, ut eis exprimantur sensumque aurium feriant genera numerorum: maxime quia in quibusdam etiam silentiorum dimensa intervalla miscentur, quae omnino sentiri nequeunt, nisi auditorem pronuntiator informet.
3. But because what the numbers are worth in all the movements of things is more easily considered in sounds, and that consideration strives by certain steplike paths, as it were, toward the inmost heights of truth, on which roads wisdom shows herself cheerfully and meets those who love her in all her providence: at the beginning of my leisure, when my mind was free from greater and more necessary cares, I wished by these writings, which you have desired of me, to make a kind of prelude, when I wrote six books on rhythm alone, and was disposing myself, I confess, to write perhaps another six on melody, when I hoped that I would have leisure in the future. But after the burden of ecclesiastical cares was laid upon me, all those delights fled from my hands, so that I can now scarcely find the manuscript itself, since I cannot disregard your wish, indeed not a petition but a command. If I can manage to send this little work, you will indeed regret, not that I obeyed you, but that you demanded it of me so insistently. For the five books in it are most difficult to understand unless there is present someone who can not only distinguish the persons of those disputing, but also so sound out, in delivery, the brief pauses of the syllables that the kinds of measures are expressed by them and strike the sense of the ears, especially because in some places even measured intervals of silence are mingled in, which cannot at all be perceived unless a reciter instructs the hearer.
Ep100-155.34. Sextum sane librum quem emendatum reperi, ubi est omnis fructus caeterorum, non distuli mittere Caritati tuae: fortassis ipse tuam non multum refugiet gravitatem. Nam superiores quinque vix filio nostro et condiacono Iuliano, quoniam et ipse iam nobiscum commilitat, lectione et cognitione digni videbuntur. Quem quidem non audeo dicere, plus amo quam te, quia nec veraciter dico, sed tamen audeo dicere, plus desidero quam te. Mirum videri potest quemadmodum quem pariter amo, amplius desiderem; sed hoc mihi facit spes amplior videndi eum: puto enim quod si ad nos te iubente vel mittente venerit, et hoc faciet quod adolescentem decet, maxime quia nondum curis maioribus detinetur, et teipsum mihi expeditius apportabit. Quibus numeris consistant versus Davidici non scripsi, quia nescio. Neque enim ex hebraea lingua, quam ignoro, potuit etiam numeros interpres exprimere, ne metri necessitate ab interpretandi veritate amplius quam ratio sententiarum sinebat, digredi cogeretur: certis tamen eos constare numeris, credo illis qui eam linguam probe callent. Amavit enim vir ille sanctus musicam piam et in ea studia nos magis ipse quam ullus alius auctor accendit. Habitetis omnes in aeternum in adiutorio Altissimi, qui habitatis unanimes in domo, pater materque fratres filiorum, et cuncti unius Patris filii, memores nostri.
4. The sixth book, however, which I have found revised, and in which lies all the fruit of the rest, I have not put off sending to your Charity: perhaps it will not too much shrink from your seriousness. For the earlier five will scarcely seem worthy of being read and studied by anyone but our son and fellow deacon Julian, since he too now serves alongside us. Of him indeed I do not dare to say that I love him more than you, because I would not be speaking truly; but I do dare to say that I long for him more than for you. It may seem strange how I long more for one whom I love equally; but this comes from a greater hope of seeing him: for I think that if he comes to us at your bidding or sending, he will do what befits a young man, especially since he is not yet held by greater cares, and he will bring you yourself to me more readily. By what numbers David's verses are constituted I have not written, because I do not know. For the translator could not express the numbers from the Hebrew tongue, which I do not know, lest by the necessity of meter he be compelled to depart from the truth of translation more than the sense of the thoughts allowed; yet that they consist of fixed numbers I believe those who know that tongue well. For that holy man loved devout music and kindled us to these studies more than any other author. May you all dwell forever in the help of the Most High, you who dwell of one mind in the house, father and mother, brothers of sons, and all sons of one Father, mindful of us.
Ep100-155.4EPISTOLA 102
SINCERISSIMO FRATRI ET COMPRESBYTERO DEOGRATIAS, AUGUSTINUS, IN DOMINO SALUTEM
SINCERISSIMO FRATRI ET COMPRESBYTERO DEOGRATIAS, AUGUSTINUS, IN DOMINO SALUTEM
LETTER 102
To his most sincere brother and fellow priest Deogratias, Augustine sends greetings in the Lord
Ep100-155.4To his most sincere brother and fellow priest Deogratias, Augustine sends greetings in the Lord
1. Quaestiones tibi propositas mihi delegare maluisti, non, ut opinor, pigritia, sed quod ea quoque ipsa quae nosti, libentius per nos audis, dum nos nimis diligis. At ego propterea malebam a te illas aperiri, quod ille ipse amicus, qui eas proposuit, quantum ex hoc conici datur, quod mihi ad quasdam epistolas non rescripsit, quasi nos verecundatur sequi: viderit quam ob causam. Hoc tamen suspicor, nec suspicio mea vel malevola est vel absurda, cum et optime noveris quantum eum diligam, quantoque mihi dolori sit, quod nondum christianus est; et utique non inconvenienter arbitror eum, quem video mihi rescribere noluisse, nihil sibi a me scribi voluisse. Proinde obsecro te, ut quemadmodum ego tibi parui, atque inter meas arctissimas occupationes, tuam sanctam mihique carissimam voluntatem offendere timui, si non facerem quod petisti, ita tu quoque facias quod peto. Hoc est autem, ut breviter quemadmodum a te, sicut mihi indicasti, postulavit, ad omnia illi respondere non graveris, quod et ante facere potuisti. Scies enim cum legeris, nihil pene a me dictum quod ipse non noveras, aut quod me tacente nosse non poteras. Sed hoc opus meum rogo habeas cum caeteris, quorum studio scis convenire. Tuum vero illud quod flagito, habeat ipse cui hoc potissimum congruit, et caeteri quos non parum ista delectant, quemadmodum dici possunt abs te, inter quos et ipse sum. Vivas semper in Christo nostri memor.
1. You preferred to pass on to me the questions put to you, not, I think, out of laziness, but because you hear even those things you already know more gladly through us, since you love us too much. But I, for my part, preferred that they be opened up by you, because that very friend who put them forward—so far as can be conjectured from the fact that he has not written back to me about certain letters—seems, as it were, too shy to follow us; he will see for what reason. This, however, I suspect, and my suspicion is neither malevolent nor absurd, since you know very well how much I love him and how great a grief it is to me that he is not yet a Christian; and surely I think it not inappropriate to judge that he, whom I see was unwilling to write back to me, did not want anything written to him by me. So I beg you that, just as I obeyed you, and amid my most pressing occupations feared to offend your holy and most dear wish if I did not do what you asked, so you too may do what I ask. This is it: that you not find it burdensome to answer all his questions briefly, in the way that, as you told me, he requested of you—something you could have done even before. For you will see when you read it that almost nothing has been said by me that you did not already know, or that you could not have known though I were silent. But this work of mine I ask you to keep with the rest, with which you know it is fitting to keep it. As for that work I demand of you, let the very man for whom it is most suited have it, and the rest who are not a little delighted by such things, among whom I too am one. May you ever live in Christ, mindful of us.
Ep100-155.12. Movet quosdam, et requirunt de duabus resurrectionibus quae conveniat promissae resurrectioni, utrumnam Christi an Lazari ? "Si Christi, inquiunt, quomodo potest haec convenire resurrectioni natorum ex semine, eius qui nulla seminis conditione natus est? Si autem Lazari resurrectio convenire asseritur, ne haec quidem congruere videtur: siquidem Lazari resurrectio facta sit de corpore nondum tabescente, de eo corpore, quo Lazarus dicebatur; nostra autem multis saeculis post ex confuso eruetur. Deinde si post resurrectionem status beatus futurus est, nulla corporis iniuria, nulla necessitate famis, quid sibi vult cibatum Christum fuisse, et vulnera monstravisse? Sed si propter incredulum fecit, finxit: si autem verum ostendit, ergo in resurrectione accepta futura sunt vulnera".
2. Some are troubled and inquire about the two resurrections, which of them accords with the promised resurrection, that of Christ or that of Lazarus? "If Christ's," they say, "how can it accord with the resurrection of those born from seed, since he was born under no condition of seed? But if the resurrection of Lazarus is asserted to accord with it, not even this seems to fit: for Lazarus's resurrection took place from a body not yet decayed, from that very body which was called Lazarus, whereas ours will be raised many ages later out of confusion. Furthermore, if after the resurrection the state is to be blessed, with no injury to the body, no necessity of hunger, what does it mean that Christ ate and showed his wounds? But if he did so for the sake of an unbeliever, he pretended; and if he showed something true, then wounds will exist in the resurrection that has been received."
Ep100-155.23. Quibus respondetur, ideo non Lazari resurrectionem, sed potius Christi congruere promissae resurrectioni, quia Lazarus ita resurrexit ut iterum moreretur: Christus autem, sicut de illo scriptum est, surgens a mortuis, iam non moritur, et mors illi ultra non dominabitur. Quod etiam promissum est resurrecturis in fine saeculi, et cum illo regnaturis in aeternum. Sic autem non pertinet ad resurrectionem differentia nativitatis Christi et nostrae, quod ille sine virili semine, nos autem ex viro et femina creati sumus, sicut etiam non pertinet ad ipsius mortis differentiam. Non enim propterea illius non vera mors fuit, quia sine virili semine natus est; sicut nec ipsius primi hominis aliter exorta caro quam nostra (quandoquidem ille sine parentibus de terra creatus est, nos vero ex parentibus) aliquid attulit ad differentiam mortis, ut aliter ille moreretur, aliter nos. Sicut autem ad mortis sic nec ad resurrectionis differentiam valet diversa nativitas.
3. To these the answer is that not the resurrection of Lazarus but rather that of Christ accords with the promised resurrection, because Lazarus rose in such a way that he would die again, whereas Christ, as is written of him, being raised from the dead, dies no more, and death will no longer have dominion over him (Rom 6:9). This too is promised to those who will rise at the end of the age and will reign with him forever. But the difference between Christ's nativity and ours has no bearing on the resurrection—that he was born without male seed, while we were created from man and woman—just as it has no bearing on the difference of death itself. For his death was not untrue on account of his having been born without male seed; just as the flesh of the first man, which arose otherwise than ours (since he was created without parents from the earth, while we are from parents), introduced no difference in death, such that he should die in one way and we in another. As the difference of nativity does not affect death, so neither does it affect the resurrection.
Ep100-155.34. Sed ne hoc ipsum quod scriptum est de primo homine, similiter infideles nolint credere, quaerant vel animadvertant, si vel hoc possunt, quam multorum animalium genera sine parentibus ex terra procreentur, quae tamen coeundo pariant etiam ipsa sui similem, prolem nec propter diversitatem nativitatis intersit aliquid ad naturam eorum, quae procreata sunt ex terra, et eorum quae illis coeuntibus orta sunt. Similiter enim vivunt, similiterque moriuntur, quamvis dissimiliter nata sint. Ita non est absurdum, ut similiter resurgant corpora, quae dissimiliter orta sunt. Huiusmodi autem homines non valentes intueri ad quam rem intersit aliquid diversum, et ad quam non intersit, ubi adverterint aliquam distantiam primordiorum, etiam omnia consequentia distare oportere contendunt. Possunt tales putare oleum ex adipibus non debere natare super aquam, sicut illud quod ex oliva est, quoniam longe est utriusque origo dissimilis, quando illud ex ligno, hoc ex carne profluxerit.
4. But lest the unbelievers be likewise unwilling to believe this very thing that is written about the first man, let them ask or observe, if they can manage even this, how many kinds of animals are brought forth from the earth without parents, which nevertheless by mating also bring forth offspring like themselves; nor does anything in their nature differ on account of the diversity of nativity between those that were brought forth from the earth and those that were born from the mating of the former. For they live alike and die alike, though they were born unlike. Thus it is not absurd that bodies should rise alike which arose unlike. But men of this sort, unable to discern in what respect some difference matters and in what it does not, wherever they have noticed some difference in beginnings, contend that all the consequences too must differ. Such men might suppose that oil from animal fat ought not to float upon water, as does the oil that comes from the olive, since the origin of each is very unlike, the one having flowed from wood, the other from flesh.
Ep100-155.45. Quantum autem attinet ad illam differentiam, quod Christi corpus, non dissolutum tabe atque putredine, die tertio resurrexit, nostra vero post longum tempus, ex quadam, quo soluta discesserant, confusione reparabuntur; humanae facultati utrumque impossibile est, divinae autem potestati utrumque facillimum. Ut enim radius oculi nostri, non citius pervenit ad propinquiora, tardius ad longinquiora, sed utraque intervalla parili celeritate contingit; ita cum in ictu oculi, sicut Apostolus dicit, fit resurrectio mortuorum, omnipotentiae Dei et ineffabili nutui tam facile est quaeque recentia, quam diuturno tempore dilapsa cadavera suscitare. Incredibilia sunt haec quibusdam, quia inexperta; cum omnis natura rerum tam sit plena miraculis, ut non quasi facili pervestigatione rationis, sed videndi consuetudine, mira non sint, atque ob hoc, nec consideratione, nec inquisitione digna videantur. Nam ego, et mecum quicumque invisibilia Dei per ea quae facta sunt intellegere moliuntur, aut non minus aut amplius admiramur, in uno seminis tam parvulo grano, omnia quae laudamus in arbore tamquam liciata latuisse, quam mundi huius tam ingentem sinum, quae de corporibus humanis dum dilabuntur assumit, resurrectioni futurae tota et integra redditurum.
5. As for that difference—that Christ's body, not dissolved by decay and rottenness, rose on the third day, whereas ours will be restored after a long time out of a certain confusion into which they had departed once dissolved—both are impossible to human capacity, but both are most easy to the divine power. For just as the ray of our eye does not reach nearer things more quickly and farther things more slowly, but touches both intervals with equal speed, so when, in the twinkling of an eye (1 Cor 15:52), as the Apostle says, the resurrection of the dead takes place, it is as easy for the omnipotence of God and his ineffable command to raise up fresh corpses as those that fell to pieces long ago. These things are incredible to some, because untried; whereas the whole nature of things is so full of marvels that they are not marvels to us—not because of any easy investigation by reason, but because of the habit of seeing them—and for this reason they seem worthy neither of consideration nor of inquiry. For I, and with me whoever strives to understand the invisible things of God through the things that have been made, marvel no less, indeed more, that in one tiny grain of seed all the things we praise in a tree lie hidden, as though woven within, than that the so vast bosom of this world should restore whole and entire, for the future resurrection, what it takes up from human bodies as they fall to pieces.
Ep100-155.56. Quomodo autem contrarium est, et Christum post resurrectionem cibatum, et in resurrectione quae promittitur ciborum indigentiam non futuram; cum et Angelos legamus eiusdemmodi escas eodemque modo sumpsisse, non ficto et inani phantasmate, sed manifestissima veritate; nec tamen necessitate, sed potestate? Aliter enim absorbet terra aquam sitiens, aliter solis radius candens: illa indigentia, iste potentia. Futurae ergo resurrectionis corpus, imperfectae felicitatis erit, si cibos sumere non potuerit; imperfectae felicitatis, si cibis eguerit. Possem hic de commutationibus corporalium qualitatum, et de praepotenti valentia in inferiora corpora corporum superiorum latius disputare; sed breviter mihi respondere propositum est, et talibus ingeniis hoc scribitur, quae admonere suffecerit.
6. But how is it contradictory both that Christ ate after the resurrection and that in the resurrection which is promised there will be no need of food, when we read that the angels too took food of the same kind in the same way, not by a feigned and empty phantasm but by the most manifest truth, and yet not by necessity but by power? For the earth thirstily absorbs water in one way, the burning ray of the sun in another: the one by need, the other by power. The body of the future resurrection, therefore, will be of imperfect happiness if it cannot take food; of imperfect happiness if it needs food. I could here dispute more fully about the changes of bodily qualities and about the preeminent power of higher bodies over lower ones; but my purpose is to answer briefly, and this is written for minds of such a kind that it will be enough to give them a hint.
Ep100-155.67. Sciat sane qui has proposuit quaestiones, Christum post resurrectionem cicatrices, non vulnera demonstrasse dubitantibus, propter quos etiam cibum ac potum sumere voluit, non semel, sed saepius, ne illud non corpus, sed spiritum esse arbitrarentur et sibi non solide, sed imaginaliter apparere. Tunc autem illae falsae cicatrices fuissent, si nulla vulnera praecessissent; et tamen nec ipsae essent, si eas esse noluisset. Voluit autem certae dispensationis gratia, ut eis quos aedificabat in fide non ficta, non aliud pro alio, sed hoc quod crucifixum viderant, resurrexisse monstraret. Quid est ergo quod dicitur. Si propter incredulum fecit, finxit? quasi vero si quisquam vir fortis pro patria dimicans, multa adversa vulnera exciperet, et peritissimo medico, qui haec ita curare valeret ut cicatrices nullae apparerent, ipse potius diceret sic se velle sanari ut magis essent in corpore suo vestigia vulnerum, tamquam tituli gloriarum, ideo ille medicus cicatrices finxisse diceretur, quia cum per artem efficere potuerit ut non essent, certa existente causa per artem effecit potius ut essent: quae uno solo modo, sicut superius dixi, falsae convincerentur, si nulla vulnera sanarentur.
7. Let the one who put forward these questions know well that Christ after the resurrection showed scars, not wounds, to those who doubted; for whose sake he also willed to take food and drink, not once but often, lest they suppose that he was not a body but a spirit, and was appearing to them not solidly but in imagination. Now those scars would have been false if no wounds had preceded them; and yet they would not even have existed had he not willed them to exist. But he willed it, for the sake of a certain dispensation, so that to those whom he was building up in unfeigned faith he might show that what they had seen crucified, and not something else in its place, had risen. What, then, is the meaning of the saying, "If he did it for the sake of an unbeliever, he pretended"? As if, indeed, when some brave man fighting for his country took many wounds in front, and a most skilled physician, who could so heal them that no scars would appear, were told by the man himself that he preferred to be healed in such a way that the traces of his wounds, as titles of glory, might rather remain on his body—as if that physician would then be said to have feigned the scars because, when by his art he could have brought it about that they did not exist, for a definite reason he by his art brought it about rather that they did exist; scars which, as I said above, could be convicted of being false in one way only, namely if no wounds had been healed.
Ep100-155.78. Item alia proposuerunt, quae dicerent de Porphyrio contra Christianos tamquam validiora decerpta. "Si Christus se, inquiunt, salutis viam dicit, gratiam, et veritatem, in seque solo ponit animis sibi credentibus reditum; quid egerunt tot saeculorum homines ante Christum? Ut dimittam, inquit, tempora ante Latium regnatum, ab ipso Latio quasi principium humani nominis sumamus. In ipso Latio ante Albam dii culti sunt. In Alba aeque religiones ritusque valuere templorum. Non paucioribus saeculis ipsa Roma, longo saeculorum tractu sine christiana lege fuit. Quid, inquit, actum de tam innumeris animis, qui omnino in culpa nulla sunt; siquidem is cui credi posset, nondum adventum suum hominibus commodarat? Orbis quoque cum ipsa Roma in ritibus templorum caluit. Quare, inquit: Salvator qui dictus est, sese tot saeculis subduxit? Sed ne, inquit, dicant lege Iudaica vetere hominum curatum genus, longo post tempore lex Iudaeorum apparuit ac viguit angusta Syriae regione, postea vero prorepsit etiam in fines Italos; sed post Caesarem Gaium, aut certe ipso imperante. Quid igitur actum de Romanis animabus vel Latinis, quae gratia nondum advenientis Christi viduatae sunt, usque in Caesarum tempus?"
8. Likewise they put forward other things, which they said were culled from Porphyry against the Christians as being, so to speak, more forceful. "If Christ," they say, "declares himself the way of salvation, grace, and truth, and places in himself alone the return for souls that believe in him, what did the men of so many ages before Christ do? To pass over," he says, "the times before Latium was ruled, let us take, as it were, the beginning of the human name from Latium itself. In Latium itself, before Alba, gods were worshiped. In Alba likewise the religions and rites of the temples held sway. For not fewer ages Rome herself, through a long succession of ages, was without the Christian law. What, then," he says, "became of so countless souls who are in no fault at all, since he in whom one could believe had not yet imparted his coming to men? The world too, along with Rome herself, was fervent in the rites of the temples. Why, then," he says, "did the one who was called the Savior withdraw himself for so many ages? But lest they say that the human race was tended by the old Jewish law, the law of the Jews appeared and flourished long afterward in the narrow region of Syria, and only later crept even to the borders of Italy—but after Caesar Gaius, or at any rate during his reign. What, then, became of the Roman or Latin souls who were bereft of the grace of Christ, who had not yet come, right up to the time of the Caesars?"
Ep100-155.89. Huic propositioni respondetur, ut primo ipsi dicant utrum profuerint hominibus deorum suorum sacra, quae constat certis temporibus instituta. Quae si negant aliquid profuisse ad animarum salutem, nobiscum ea destruunt, et esse inania confitentur. Nos quidem etiam perniciosa monstramus; sed parum non est ut ipsi interim prius inania fateantur. Si vero ea defendunt, et sapienter atque utiliter asserunt instituta; quaero quid actum sit de his qui antequam haec instituta essent, morte obierunt: hac enim utique salute atque utilitate fraudati sunt. Si autem potuerunt alio modo purgari, cur non idem modus perseveravit in posteros? quid opus erat instituere novitias consecrationes, quae antiquitus non fuerunt?
9. To this proposition the answer is that first let them say whether the rites of their own gods, which it is agreed were instituted at definite times, were of profit to men. If they deny that these were of any profit to the salvation of souls, they destroy them along with us and confess that they are empty. We for our part show them to be even pernicious; but it is no small thing that they should meanwhile first confess them to be empty. But if they defend them and assert that they were wisely and usefully instituted, I ask what became of those who died before these things were instituted: for they were surely cheated of this salvation and benefit. But if they could be purified in some other way, why did not that same way continue for their descendants? What need was there to institute novel consecrations which did not exist in antiquity?
Ep100-155.910. Hic si dicunt deos quidem ipsos semper fuisse, et ad liberandos cultores suos pariter ubique valuisse, sed pro varietate rerum temporalium ac terrenarum, quae scirent certis temporibus locisque congruere, in his alias atque alias, alibi atque alibi, aliter atque aliter sibi voluisse serviri; cur hanc quaestionem christianae religioni ingerunt, in qua nobis ipsi pro diis suis aut respondere non possunt, aut si possunt, in eo ipso sibi etiam pro nostra religione respondeant, ita nihil interesse pro diversa temporum locorumque congruentia, quam diversis sacramentis colatur, si quod colitur sanctum est, sicut nihil interest pro diversa linguarum auditorumque congruentia, quam diversis sonis dicatur, si quod dicitur verum est: dum hoc sane intersit, quod linguae sonos, quibus inter se sua sensa communicent, etiam homines pacto quodam societatis sibi instituere possunt; quibus autem sacris divinitati congruerent, voluntatem Dei secuti sunt qui recte sapuerunt. Quae omnino numquam defuit ad salutem iustitiae pietatique mortalium, et si qua in aliis atque in aliis populis, una eademque religione sociatis varie celebrantur, quatenus fiat plurimum refert, quo et humana exhortetur vel toleretur infirmitas, et divina non oppugnetur auctoritas.
10. Here, if they say that the gods themselves indeed always existed and were equally able everywhere to free their worshipers, but that, owing to the variety of temporal and earthly affairs, which they knew to be suited to definite times and places, they willed to be served in these now in one way and now in another, here and there, in this manner and in that—why do they press this question upon the Christian religion, in which, on behalf of their own gods, they themselves either cannot answer us, or, if they can, in that very answer let them answer also on behalf of our religion: that it makes no difference, given the diverse suitability of times and places, with what diverse sacred rites that is worshiped, provided that what is worshiped is holy, just as it makes no difference, given the diverse suitability of tongues and hearers, with what diverse sounds a thing is said, provided that what is said is true—with this difference, to be sure, that the sounds of language, by which men communicate their thoughts to one another, men themselves can establish by a certain compact of society, whereas by what sacred rites they might be in accord with the divinity, those who rightly understood have followed the will of God. And that will was never wanting to the salvation of mortals' righteousness and piety; and if some such rites are variously celebrated among different peoples joined together in one and the same religion, it matters very much how it is done, so that human weakness may be either encouraged or tolerated, and divine authority not opposed.
Ep100-155.1011. Quamobrem cum Christum dicamus Verbum Dei per quod facta sunt omnia, et ideo Filium quia Verbum, nec Verbum dictum atque transactum, sed apud incommutabilem Patrem incommutabile ipsum atque incommutabiliter manens, sub cuius regimine universa creatura spiritalis et corporalis, pro congruentia temporum locorumque administratur, cui moderandae et gubernandae, quid, quando et ubi, circa eam fieri oporteat, sapientia et scientia penes ipsum est; profecto et antequam propagaret Hebraeorum gentem, per quam sui adventus manifestationem congruis sacramentis praefiguraret, et ipsis temporibus Israelitici regni, et deinde cum se in carne de virgine accepta mortalibus mortaliter demonstravit et deinceps usque nunc, cum implet omnia quae per Prophetas ante praedixit, et abhinc usque ad finem saeculi, quo sanctos ab impiis dirempturus est, et sua cuique retributurus, idem ipse est Filius Dei, Patri coaeternus, et incommutabilis Sapientia, per quam creata est universa natura, et cuius participatione omnis rationalis anima fit beata.
11. Therefore, since we call Christ the Word of God through whom all things were made, and Son for that very reason that he is the Word—not a word spoken and gone, but the unchangeable Word abiding unchangeably with the unchangeable Father, under whose governance every creature, spiritual and corporeal, is administered according to the suitability of times and places, and in whom resides the wisdom and knowledge of what, when, and where ought to be done concerning the creature he moderates and governs—surely, both before he propagated the Hebrew nation, through which he would prefigure by suitable sacred rites the manifestation of his coming, and in the very times of the Israelite kingdom, and then when he showed himself mortally to mortals in the flesh he took from the Virgin, and thereafter even until now, when he fulfills all that he foretold through the Prophets, and from now until the end of the age, when he will separate the holy from the impious and render to each his own—he himself is the same Son of God, coeternal with the Father, and the unchangeable Wisdom through whom all nature was created, and by participation in whom every rational soul is made blessed.
Ep100-155.1112. Itaque ab exordio generis humani, quicumque in eum crediderunt, eumque utcumque intellexerunt, et secundum eius praecepta pie et iuste vixerunt, quandolibet et ubilibet fuerint, per eum procul dubio salvi facti sunt. Sicut enim nos in eum credimus et apud Patrem manentem, et qui in carne iam venerit, sic credebant in eum antiqui, et apud Patrem manentem, et in carne venturum. Nec quia pro temporum varietate nunc factum annuntiatur, quod tunc futurum praenuntiabatur, ideo fides ipsa variata, vel salus ipsa diversa est. Nec quia una eademque res, aliis atque aliis sacris et sacramentis vel praedicatur aut prophetatur, ideo alias atque alias res vel alias atque alias salutes oportet intellegi. Quid autem quando fiat quod ad unam eamdemque fidelium et piorum liberationem pertineat, consilium Deo tribuamus nobis obedientiam teneamus. Proinde aliis tunc nominibus et signis, aliis autem nunc, et prius occultius, postea manifestius, et prius a paucioribus, postea a pluribus, una tamen eademque religio vera significatur et observatur.
12. And so from the beginning of the human race, whoever believed in him and understood him in whatever measure, and lived devoutly and justly according to his precepts, whenever and wherever they lived, were beyond doubt saved through him. For just as we believe in him both as abiding with the Father and as having already come in the flesh, so the ancients believed in him both as abiding with the Father and as about to come in the flesh. Nor, because owing to the variety of times what was then foretold as future is now announced as accomplished, is the faith itself therefore varied, or the salvation itself different. Nor, because one and the same thing is preached or prophesied by different sacred rites and sacraments, ought we therefore to understand different things, or different kinds of salvation. But as to when that should be done which pertains to the one and the same liberation of the faithful and the devout, let us ascribe the counsel to God and hold to our own obedience. Accordingly, by some names and signs then, by others now, first more hiddenly, afterward more manifestly, first by fewer, afterward by more, yet one and the same true religion is signified and observed.
Ep100-155.1213. Nec nos eis obicimus quod aliter Numa Pompilius deos colendos Romanis instituit, atque aliter ab eis vel Italis antea colebantur, nec quod Pythagoreis temporibus illa philosophia celebrata est, quae antea vel omnino non erat, vel in paucissimis eadem sentientibus, non tamen eodem ritu viventibus fortasse latitabat: sed utrum illi dii, veri, aut colendi sint, et utrum illa philosophia animarum saluti aliquid prosit; hoc cum eis agimus, hoc in quaestionem vocamus, hoc disputando convellimus. Desinant igitur obiicere nobis quod omni sectae, et omni nomini religionis obici potest. Cum enim non fortuito labi, sed divina providentia tempora ordinari fateantur, quid cuique tempori aptum et opportunum sit, humanum consilium praetergreditur, et illinc dispertitur, unde ipsa providentia rebus consulit.
13. Nor do we object against them that Numa Pompilius established the worship of the gods for the Romans in one way, while they were worshiped in another way earlier by them or by the Italians; nor that in the times of Pythagoras that philosophy was celebrated which earlier either did not exist at all, or perhaps lay hidden among a very few who held the same views, though they did not live by the same rite. Rather, whether those gods are true, or to be worshiped, and whether that philosophy is of any profit to the salvation of souls—this is what we deal with against them, this we call into question, this we tear apart by disputing. Let them therefore cease to object against us what can be objected against every sect and every name of religion. For since they confess that the times are ordered not by chance but by divine providence, what is fitting and opportune for each time surpasses human counsel and is dispensed from that source whence providence itself takes thought for things.
Ep100-155.1314. Si enim dixerint propterea non semper nec ubique fuisse Pythagoricam disciplinam, quia Pythagoras homo fuit, neque hoc in potestate habere potuit; numquid hoc etiam dicere possunt, eo ipso tempore quando fuit, et terrarum locis ubi illa philosophia viguit, omnes qui eum audire potuerunt, etiam credere sectarique voluisse? Ac per hoc magis si tantae potestatis fuisset Pythagoras, ut ubi vellet, et quando vellet, sua dogmata praedicaret, etsi haberet etiam cum ea potestate summam rerum praescientiam, nusquam et numquam appareret, nisi ubi et quando sibi homines credituros esse praenosceret. Proinde, cum Christo non obiciant, quod eius doctrinam non omnes sequuntur; sentiunt enim et ipsi nequaquam hoc recte obici posse, vel philosophorum sapientiae, vel etiam numini deorum suorum; quid respondebunt si excepta illa altitudine sapientiae et scientiae Dei, ubi fortassis aliud divinum consilium longe secretius latet, sine praeiudicio etiam aliarum forte causarum, quae a prudentibus investigari queunt, hoc solum eis brevitatis gratia, in huius quaestionis disputatione dicamus, tunc voluisse hominibus apparere Christum, et apud eos praedicari doctrinam suam, quando sciebat, et ubi sciebat esse qui in eum fuerant credituri? His enim temporibus et his locis, quibus Evangelium eius non est praedicatum, tales omnes in eius praedicatione futuros esse praesciebat, quales non quidem omnes, sed tamen multi in eius corporali praesentia fuerunt, qui in eum nec suscitatis ab eo mortuis credere voluerunt: quales etiam nunc multos videmus, cum tanta manifestatione de illo compleantur praeconia Prophetarum, nolle adhuc credere, et malle humana astutia resistere, quam tam clarae atque perspicuae tamque sublimi et sublimiter diffamatae divinae cedere auctoritati. Quamdiu parvus et infirmus est intellectus hominis, divinae debet cedere veritati. Quid ergo mirum si tam infidelibus plenum orbem terrarum Christus prioribus saeculis noverat, ut eis apparere, vel praedicari merito nollet, quos nec verbis, nec miraculis suis credituros esse praesciebat? Neque enim incredibile est tales fuisse tunc omnes, quales ab eius adventu usque ad hoc tempus, tam multos fuisse et esse miramur.
14. For if they say that the Pythagorean teaching was not always and everywhere present because Pythagoras was a man and could not have this in his power, can they also say that at the very time when he existed, and in the regions where that philosophy flourished, all who could hear him were also willing to believe and follow him? And by this token, all the more, if Pythagoras had been of such great power that he could preach his doctrines where he willed and when he willed, even if along with that power he had also the highest foreknowledge of things, he would nowhere and never appear except where and when he foreknew that men would believe him. Accordingly, since they do not object against Christ that not all follow his teaching—for they themselves perceive that this could in no way rightly be objected, either against the wisdom of the philosophers or even against the divinity of their own gods—what will they answer if, setting aside that height of the wisdom and knowledge of God, where perhaps some far more secret divine counsel lies hidden, and without prejudice even to other possible causes which can be investigated by the prudent, we say to them this one thing only, for brevity's sake, in the discussion of this question: that Christ willed to appear to men and to have his doctrine preached among them then when he knew, and where he knew, that there were those who would believe in him? For at those times and in those places where his Gospel was not preached, he foreknew that all would be, at his preaching, such as not indeed all, but yet many, were in his bodily presence, who were unwilling to believe in him even when he raised the dead; such as we see many even now, who, though the heralds of the Prophets are fulfilled concerning him with so great a manifestation, are still unwilling to believe, and prefer to resist by human cunning rather than to yield to divine authority so clear and conspicuous and so sublime and so sublimely proclaimed. As long as man's understanding is small and weak, it ought to yield to divine truth. What wonder, then, if Christ knew that the world in earlier ages was so full of unbelievers that he rightly willed neither to appear to them nor to have his message preached to them, whom he foreknew would believe neither his words nor his miracles? For it is not incredible that all were then such as we marvel that so many have been and are from his coming until this present time.
Ep100-155.1415. Et tamen ab initio generis humani, alias occultius, alias evidentius, sicut congruere temporibus divinitus visum est, nec prophetari destitit, nec qui in eum crederent defuerunt, ab Adam usque ad Moysen, et in ipso populo Israel, quae speciali quodam mysterio gens prophetica fuit, et in aliis gentibus antequam venisset in carne. Cum enim nonnulli commemorantur in sanctis hebraicis Libris iam ex tempore Abrahae, nec de stirpe carnis eius, nec ex populo Israel, nec ex adventitia societate in populo Israel, qui tamen huius sacramenti participes fuerunt; cur non credamus etiam in caeteris hac atque illac gentibus, alias alios fuisse, quamvis eos commemoratos in eisdem auctoritatibus non legamus? Ita salus religionis huius, per quam solam veram salus vera veraciterque promittitur, nulli umquam defuit qui dignus fuit, et cui defuit, dignus non fuit. Et ab exordio propagationis humanae, usque in finem, quibusdam ad praemium, quibusdam ad iudicium praedicatur. Ac per hoc et quibus omnino annuntiata non est, non credituri praesciebantur; et quibus non credituris tamen annuntiata est, in illorum exemplum demonstrantur: quibus autem credituris annuntiantur, hi regno coelorum et sanctorum Angelorum societati praeparantur.
15. And yet from the beginning of the human race, sometimes more hiddenly, sometimes more evidently, as it seemed by divine appointment to suit the times, he never ceased to be prophesied, nor were there lacking those who believed in him, from Adam until Moses, and among the people of Israel itself, which by a certain special mystery was a prophetic nation, and among other nations before he came in the flesh. For since some are mentioned in the holy Hebrew books, already from the time of Abraham, neither of the stock of his flesh, nor of the people of Israel, nor from any adventitious association with the people of Israel, who nevertheless shared in this sacrament, why should we not believe that among the other nations here and there there were also others, although we do not read of them mentioned in those same authoritative writings? Thus the salvation of this religion, through which alone true salvation is truly and truthfully promised, was never wanting to anyone who was worthy, and to whom it was wanting, he was not worthy. And from the beginning of human propagation until the end, it is preached to some for reward, to some for judgment. And by this, both those to whom it was not announced at all were foreknown as those who would not believe; and those who, not about to believe, nevertheless had it announced to them, are shown as an example to those others; while those who, about to believe, have it announced to them, are prepared for the kingdom of heaven and the fellowship of the holy angels.
Ep100-155.1516. Iam videamus eam, quae sequitur, quaestionem. "Accusant, inquit, ritus sacrorum, hostias, thura, et caetera, quae templorum cultus exercuit; cum idem cultus ab ipsis, inquit, vel a Deo quem colunt exorsus est temporibus priscis, cum inducitur Deus primitiis eguisse".
16. Now let us look at the question that follows. "They accuse," he says, "the rites of the sacred things, the victims, the incense, and the rest that the worship of the temples carried on, although this same worship," he says, "began among them, or with the God whom they worship, in ancient times, when God is brought in as having had need of firstfruits."
Ep100-155.1617. Huic respondetur, quoniam ex illo Scripturarum nostrarum loco haec quaestio proposita agnoscitur, ubi scriptum est Cain ex fructibus terrae. Abel autem ex primitivis ovium obtulisse munus Deo, hinc potius esse intellegendum quam sit res antiqua sacrificium, quod non nisi uni Deo vero offerri oportere veraces et sacrae Litterae monent: non quod illo egeat Deus, cum in eisdem ipsis litteris apertissime sit scriptum: Dixi Domino, Deus meus es tu, quoniam bonorum meorum non eges; sed quod etiam in his, vel acceptandis vel reprobandis vel percipiendis, non nisi hominibus consulat. Nobis enim prodest colere Deum, non ipsi Deo. Cum ergo inspirat et docet quomodo colendus sit, non solum sua nulla indigentia facit, sed nostra maxima utilitate. Significativa sunt autem omnia talia sacrificia, et quarumdam rerum similitudines, quibus admoneri nos oportet ad ea ipsa quorum similitudines sunt, sive scrutanda, sive noscenda, sive recolenda. De qua re, quantum satis est, disserenda, non brevis sermo flagitandus est, quo nunc respondere nobis propositum est: praesertim quia in aliis opusculis nostris, de hac re multa iam diximus. Et qui ante nos Dei eloquia tractaverunt, de similitudinibus sacrificiorum Veteris Testamenti, tamquam umbris figurisque futurorum copiose locuti sunt.
17. To this the answer is that, since this question is recognized to be put forward from that place of our Scriptures where it is written that Cain offered a gift to God from the fruits of the earth, but Abel from the firstlings of his sheep (See Gen 4:3-4), it should rather be understood from this how ancient a thing is sacrifice, which the truthful and sacred Scriptures admonish ought to be offered to none but the one true God: not because God has need of it, since in those same writings it is most plainly written, I said to the Lord, You are my God, for you have no need of my goods (Ps 16:2 (15:2)); but because even in these things, whether in accepting or rejecting or receiving them, he takes thought for none but men. For it profits us to worship God, not God himself. When, therefore, he inspires and teaches how he is to be worshiped, he does so not from any need of his own, but for our greatest benefit. Now all such sacrifices are significative, and are likenesses of certain things by which we ought to be admonished toward those very things of which they are likenesses, whether to be examined, or known, or recalled. On this matter, to be discussed as fully as is sufficient, no brief discourse must be demanded, such as we have now purposed to make in reply; especially since in other little works of ours we have already said much about this matter. And those who before us treated the words of God have spoken copiously about the likenesses of the sacrifices of the Old Testament as shadows and figures of things to come.
Ep100-155.1718. Hoc sane nec in ista brevitate praetereundum est, quod templum, sacerdotium, sacrificium, et alia quaecumque ad haec pertinentia, nisi uni vero Deo deberi nossent dii falsi, hoc est daemones, qui sunt praevaricatores angeli, numquam haec sibi a cultoribus suis, quos decipiunt, expetissent. Verum haec cum exhibentur Deo, secundum eius inspirationem atque doctrinam, vera religio est: cum autem daemonibus, secundum eorum impiam superbiam, noxia superstitio. Quapropter qui christianas Litteras utriusque Testamenti sciunt, non hoc culpant in sacrilegis ritibus Paganorum quod construant templa, et instituant sacerdotia, et faciant sacrificia; sed quod haec idolis et daemoniis exhibeant. Et idola quidem omni sensu carere, quis dubitet? Verumtamen cum his locantur sedibus, honorabili sublimitate, ut a precantibus atque immolantibus attendantur, ipsa similitudine animatorum membrorum atque sensuum, quamvis insensata et exanima, afficiunt infirmos animos, ut vivere ac spirare videantur; accedente praesertim veneratione multitudinis, qua tantus eis cultus impenditur.
18. This much, indeed, must not be passed over even in such brevity: that unless the false gods—that is, the demons, who are prevaricating angels—knew that temple, priesthood, sacrifice, and whatever else pertains to these are owed to the one true God, they would never have demanded these things for themselves from their worshipers, whom they deceive. But when these are rendered to God, according to his inspiration and teaching, it is true religion; whereas when they are rendered to demons, according to their impious pride, it is harmful superstition. Therefore those who know the Christian writings of both Testaments do not blame this in the sacrilegious rites of the pagans, that they build temples and institute priesthoods and make sacrifices, but that they render these to idols and demons. And that idols are devoid of all sense, who would doubt? Yet when they are placed in these seats, with honorable loftiness, so as to be regarded by those who pray and sacrifice, by their very likeness to animate members and senses—though they are senseless and lifeless—they so affect weak minds that they seem to live and breathe; especially with the addition of the veneration of the multitude, by which so great a worship is lavished upon them.
Ep100-155.1819. Quibus morbidis et pestilentiosis affectibus medetur Scriptura divina, quae rem quidem notam, sed tamen salubri remedio admonitionis inculcat, dicens: Oculos habent et non vident, aures habent et non audiunt, et caetera talia. Haec enim verba, quo magis aperta et populariter vera sunt, eo magis incutiunt salubrem pudorem illis qui, cum talibus simulacris divinum cum timore cultum exhibent, eaque viventibus similia venerantes adorantesque contuentur, eisque velut praesentibus preces allegant, victimas immolant, vota persolvunt, sic afficiuntur omnino ut ea sensu carentia putare non audeant. Ne arbitrentur autem isti hoc solum nostros Libros velle sonare, quod huiuscemodi affectus humano cordi ex idolis innascitur, apertissime scriptum est: Quoniam omnes dii gentium daemonia. Unde et apostolica disciplina non solum dicit, quod apud Ioannem legitur: Fratres, cavete a simulacris; verum etiam quod apud Paulum: Quid ergo? dico quod idolis immolatum sit aliquid, aut idolum est aliquid? Sed quae immolant gentes, daemoniis et non Deo immolant: nolo autem vos socios fieri daemoniorum. Unde satis intellegi potest, non tam ipsam immolationem (nam vero Deo prisci sancti immolaverunt), sed quod diis falsis et impiis daemoniis immolatur, reprehendi a vera religione in superstitionibus gentium. Sicut enim veritas hortatur homines fieri socios sanctorum Angelorum; ita seducit impietas ad societatem daemoniorum, cui praeparatur ignis aeternus, sicut regnum aeternum societati sanctorum.
19. These diseased and pestilential affections divine Scripture heals, which inculcates a thing indeed well known, but yet with the salutary remedy of admonition, saying, They have eyes and do not see, they have ears and do not hear (Ps 115:5-6 (113:13-14)), and other such things. For these words, the more open and popularly true they are, the more they strike a salutary shame into those who, while they render divine worship with fear to such images, and gazing on them venerate and adore them as though they were living, address prayers to them as though present, immolate victims, pay their vows, are so affected altogether that they do not dare to think them devoid of sense. But lest these men suppose that our books mean only this, that an affection of this kind is born in the human heart from idols, it is most plainly written: For all the gods of the nations are demons (Ps 96:5 (95:5)). Whence the apostolic teaching not only says what is read in John, Brethren, beware of idols (1 John 5:21), but also what is in Paul: What then? Do I say that anything sacrificed to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? But what the nations sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God; and I do not want you to become partners with demons (1 Cor 10:19-20). Whence it can be sufficiently understood that it is not the immolation itself (for the ancient saints immolated to the true God), but that it is offered to false gods and impious demons, which is reproved by true religion in the superstitions of the nations. For just as truth exhorts men to become partners of the holy angels, so impiety seduces them to the fellowship of demons, for whom eternal fire is prepared, just as an eternal kingdom for the fellowship of the saints.
Ep100-155.1920. Neque illinc excusant impii sua sacrilega sacra et simulacra, quod eleganter interpretantur quid quaeque significent. Omnis quippe illa interpretatio ad creaturam refertur, non ad Creatorem, cui uni debetur servitus religionis illa, quae uno nomine [Greek] graece appellatur. Nec nos dicimus terram, maria, coelum, solem, lunam, stellas, et quasdam non in promptu sitas coelites potestates esse daemonia: sed cum omnis creatura partim corporalis sit, partim vero incorporalis, quam etiam spiritalem vocamus, manifestum est, id quod a nobis pie ac religiose fit, a voluntate animi proficisci, quae creatura spiritalis est, et omni corporali praeponenda. Unde colligitur corporali creaturae non esse sacrificandum. Restat spiritalis, quae vel pia vel impia est: pia scilicet, in hominibus et Angelis iustis, et Deo rite servientibus; impia vero in hominibus et angelis iniquis, quos etiam daemones dicimus. Ac per hoc nec spiritali, quamvis iustae creaturae sacrificandum est. Quoniam quanto magis pia est et subdita Deo, tanto minus se tali honore dignatur, quem scit non deberi nisi Deo. Quanto ergo perniciosius est sacrificare daemoniis, hoc est iniquae spiritali creaturae, quae in hoc proximo et caliginoso coelo habitans, tamquam in aerio carcere suo, prae destinata est supplicio sempiterno! Quamobrem, etiam cum se homines superioribus coelestibus potestatibus, quae non sunt daemonia, sacrificare dicunt et solius nominis interesse arbitrantur, quod illi deos, nos eos Angelos appellamus, non se opponunt eis ludificandis multiplici fallacia, nisi daemones, qui errore delectantur et quodammodo pascuntur humano. Quoniam sancti Angeli non approbant sacrificium, nisi quod ex doctrina verae sapientiae, veraeque religionis offertur uni vero Deo, cui sancta societate deserviunt. Proinde, sicut impia superbia, sive hominum, sive daemonum, sibi hos divinos honores exhiberi vel iubet vel cupit; ita pia humilitas vel hominum, vel Angelorum sanctorum, haec sibi oblata recusavit, et cui deberentur ostendit. Cuius rei manifestissima in sacris Litteris nostris exempla monstrantur.
20. Nor do the impious excuse their sacrilegious rites and images on the ground that they elegantly interpret what each thing signifies. For all that interpretation is referred to the creature, not to the Creator, to whom alone is owed that service of religion which by one name is called in Greek latreia. Nor do we say that the earth, the seas, the sky, the sun, the moon, the stars, and certain heavenly powers not set in plain view are demons; but since every creature is partly corporeal, partly incorporeal—which latter we also call spiritual—it is manifest that what is done by us devoutly and religiously proceeds from the will of the mind, which is a spiritual creature and to be set above every corporeal one. From which it is gathered that one must not sacrifice to a corporeal creature. There remains the spiritual creature, which is either devout or impious: devout, namely, in just men and angels who duly serve God; impious in unjust men and angels, whom we also call demons. And by this, neither must one sacrifice to a spiritual creature, however just. For the more devout it is and subject to God, the less does it deem itself worthy of such honor, which it knows is owed to none but God. How much more pernicious, then, is it to sacrifice to demons—that is, to the unjust spiritual creature, which, dwelling in this nearby and gloomy sky as in its airy prison, is predestined to everlasting punishment! Wherefore, even when men say they sacrifice to the higher heavenly powers, which are not demons, and suppose that only a matter of name is at issue—that they call them gods, we call them angels—they do not set themselves to deceive them by manifold deceit, except the demons, who delight in error and are in a manner fed by human error. For the holy angels approve no sacrifice except what is offered, from the teaching of true wisdom and true religion, to the one true God, whom in holy fellowship they serve. Accordingly, just as impious pride, whether of men or of demons, either commands or desires that these divine honors be rendered to itself, so devout humility, whether of men or of the holy angels, has refused these when offered to itself, and has shown to whom they are owed. Of which thing the most manifest examples are shown in our sacred writings.
Ep100-155.2021. Dispertita autem divinis eloquiis sacrificia pro temporum congruentia, ut alia fierent ante manifestationem Novi Testamenti, quod ex ipsa vera ut unius sacerdotis victima, hoc est, ex effuso Christi sanguine ministratur, et aliud nunc quod huic manifestationi congruum, qui iam declarato nomine christiani appellamur, offerimus, non solum evangelicis, verum etiam propheticis Litteris demonstratur. Mutatio quippe non Dei, non ipsius religionis, sed sacrificiorum et sacramentorum impudenter nunc videretur praedicata, nisi fuisset ante praedicta. Quemadmodum enim unus idemque homo, si Deo mane aliud offerat, aliud vespere, pro congruentia diurni temporis, non Deum mutat, nec religionem, sicut nec salutem qui alio modo mane, alio vespere salutat: ita in universo tractu saeculorum, cum aliud oblatum est ab antiquis sanctis, aliud ab eis qui nunc sunt offertur, non humana praesumptione, sed auctoritate divina, temporibus congrua sacra mysteria celebrantur, non Deus aut religio commutatur.
21. Now that the sacrifices were apportioned by the divine words according to the suitability of the times, so that some were done before the manifestation of the New Testament, which is administered from the very truth as the victim of the one priest—that is, from the shed blood of Christ—and another now, which we offer, suited to this manifestation, we who are now called Christians by a name openly declared: this is shown not only by the evangelical but also by the prophetic writings. For the change—not of God, not of religion itself, but of sacrifices and sacraments—would now seem to be proclaimed shamelessly, had it not been foretold beforehand. For just as one and the same man, if he offers one thing to God in the morning and another in the evening, according to the suitability of the time of day, does not change God or religion—just as neither does he change his salutation who greets in one way in the morning, in another in the evening—so in the whole course of the ages, when one thing was offered by the ancient saints and another is offered by those who are now, not by human presumption but by divine authority, the sacred mysteries suited to the times are celebrated, and neither God nor religion is changed.
Ep100-155.2122. Iam nunc deinde videamus quale sit quod de mensura peccati atque supplicii proposuit, sic Evangelio calumniatus: "Minatur, inquit: Christus sibi non credentibus, aeterna supplicia; et alibi ait: In qua mensura mensi fueritis, remetietur vobis. Satis, inquit, ridicule atque contrarie: nam si ad mensuram redditurus est poenam, et omnis mensura circumscripta est fine temporis, quid sibi volunt minae infiniti supplicii?"
22. Now next let us see what sort of thing it is that he put forward about the measure of sin and punishment, thus calumniating the Gospel: "Christ," he says, "threatens eternal punishments to those who do not believe in him; and elsewhere he says, With what measure you measure, it will be measured back to you (Matt 7:2). Ridiculously enough," he says, "and contradictorily: for if he is going to repay punishment according to measure, and every measure is circumscribed by a limit of time, what is meant by the threats of infinite punishment?"
Ep100-155.2223. Istam quaestionem a qualicumque philosopho esse obiectam atque propositam, difficile est credere: quippe qui ait: Omnis mensura circumscribitur tempore, quasi non soleat nisi temporum esse mensura, sicut horarum et dierum et annorum; vel sicut dicimus brevem syllabam simplum habere temporis, ad syllabam longam. Puto enim modios et rabones, urnas et amphoras, non temporum esse mensuras. Quomodo ergo omnis mensura circumscribitur tempore? Nonne ipsi dicunt, solem istum sempiternum esse? qui tamen quantus sit ad terram, mensuris geometricis perscrutari audent et renuntiare. Quod sive possint, sive non possint, constat eum tamen propriam sui orbis habere mensuram. Quia et si comprehendunt quantus sit, mensuram eius comprehendunt; et si hoc non assequuntur, mensuram eius utique non comprehendunt: nec ideo nulla est, quia homines eam nosse non possunt. Potest igitur aliquid et sempiternum esse, et certam sui modi habere mensuram. Secundum ipsos enim de solis aeternitate locutus sum, ut sua sententia convincantur, atque concedant esse posse aliquid cum mensura sempiternum. Ac sic non ideo putent non esse credendum de supplicio sempiterno quod minatus est Christus, quia idem dixit: In qua mensura mensi fueritis, remetietur vobis.
23. That this question was raised and put forward by any philosopher is hard to believe, since he says, "Every measure is circumscribed by time," as though there were not measures of other things than time, such as of hours and days and years; or as we say that a short syllable has one unit of time in relation to a long syllable. For I suppose that pecks and rabones, jars and amphorae, are not measures of time. How then is every measure circumscribed by time? Do not they themselves say that this sun is everlasting? Yet how great it is in relation to the earth they dare to investigate and report by geometric measures. Whether they can or cannot, it is agreed that it nevertheless has its own proper measure of its orb. For if they comprehend how great it is, they comprehend its measure; and if they do not attain to this, they certainly do not comprehend its measure; nor is it therefore none, because men cannot know it. Something can therefore be both everlasting and have a fixed measure of its own kind. For I have spoken of the eternity of the sun according to them, that they may be convicted by their own opinion, and may concede that something can be everlasting along with measure. And so let them not suppose that the everlasting punishment which Christ threatened is not to be believed, because the same one said, With what measure you measure, it will be measured back to you (Matt 7:2).
Ep100-155.2324. Si enim dixisset: Quod mensi fueritis, hoc metietur vobis; etiam sic non omnino ad eamdem rem ex omni parte necesse esset referre sententiam. Possumus enim recte dicere, Quod plantaveris, hoc decerpes; quamvis nemo plantet pomum sed lignum, decerpat autem pomum magis quam lignum: sed illud dicimus secundum arboris genus, quia non ficum plantat unde nucem decerpat. Ita dici posset, Quod feceris patieris: non ut si stuprum fecerit, stuprum patiatur; sed quod peccato isto fecit legi, hoc ei lex faciat, id est, quia legem talia prohibentem de sua vita abstulit, auferat eum etiam ipsa lex de hominum vita quam regit. Item si dixisset: Quantum mensi fueritis, tantum remetietur vobis; nec sic esset consequens ut omni modo aequales peccatis poenas intellegere deberemus. Neque enim aequalia sunt, verbi gratia, triticum et hordeum; et profecto dici posset, Quantum mensi fueritis, tantum remetietur vobis, hoc est, quantum tritici, tantum hordei. Quod si de doloribus ageretur atque diceretur: Quantum dolorem ingesseritis, tantus ingeretur vobis; fieri posset ut tantus dolor esset, quamvis tempore diuturnior, hoc est mora maior, vi par. Neque enim si de duabus lucernis dicamus, Tantum ignis iste caluit, quantum ille; ideo falsum erit, quia una earum forte citius exstincta est. Non itaque si aliquid secundum aliud tantum est, secundum aliud non est tantum, quia non omni modo tantum est, ideo falsus est modus in quo tantum est.
24. For if he had said, "What you measure, this will be measured to you," even so it would not be altogether necessary to refer the saying to the very same thing in every respect. For we can rightly say, "What you plant, this you will pluck," although no one plants an apple but a tree, and plucks an apple rather than a tree; but we say that according to the kind of tree, because one does not plant a fig from which to pluck a nut. So it could be said, "What you do, you will suffer": not that if one has committed defilement, he should suffer defilement; but that what by this sin he did to the law, the law should do to him—that is, because he removed from his own life a law forbidding such things, the law itself should also remove him from the life of men which it governs. Likewise, if he had said, "As much as you measure, so much will be measured back to you," not even so would it follow that we ought to understand punishments equal in every way to the sins. For, for example, wheat and barley are not equal; and surely it could be said, "As much as you measure, so much will be measured back to you," that is, as much barley as wheat. But if it were a question of pains and it were said, "As much pain as you have inflicted, so much will be inflicted on you," it could happen that the pain were as great, though longer in time—that is, greater in duration—equal in force. For if we say of two lamps, "This fire was as hot as that one," it will not therefore be false because one of them was perhaps put out sooner. And so, if something is as great according to one respect but is not as great according to another, because it is not as great in every way, the respect in which it is as great is not therefore false.
Ep100-155.2425. Cum vero dixerit: In qua mensura mensi fueritis, remetietur vobis, cumque manifestum sit, aliud esse mensuram in qua metitur aliquid, aliud ipsam rem quae metitur; iam fieri potest ut in qua mensura homines mensi essent, verbi gratia, modium tritici, in ea illis metirentur millia modiorum, ut et tam multum interesset in quantitate frumenti, et nihil in mensura: ut taceam de ipsarum rerum diversitate; quia non solum fieri potest ut in qua mensura quis mensus fuerit hordeum, in ea illi metiatur triticum, sed in qua mensura mensus fuerit frumentum, in ea illi metiatur aurum, et frumenti sit unus modius, auri autem, quamplurimi. Ita cum sine comparatione rerum ipsarum, et genus, et quantitas differat, dici tamen rectissime potest: In qua mensura mensus est, in ea illi metitum est. Unde autem hoc dixerit Christus, paulo superius satis elucet: Nolite, inquit, iudicare, ut non iudicemini: in quo enim iudicio iudicaveritis, iudicabimini. Numquid si iniquo iudicio iudicabunt, iniquo iudicabuntur? Absit. Nulla quippe iniquitas apud Deum. Sed ita dictum est: In quo iudicio iudicaveritis, in eo iudicabimini, tamquam diceretur: In qua voluntate benefeceritis, in ipsa liberabimini; vel, in qua voluntate malefeceritis, in ipsa puniemini. Velut si quisquam ad turpem concupiscentiam oculis utens, excaecari iuberetur, recte utique audiret: In quibus oculis peccasti, in eis supplicium meruisti. Iudicio enim quisque animi sui, seu bono seu malo, utitur vel ad benefaciendum vel ad peccandum. Unde non iniquum est ut in quo iudicat in eo iudicetur, hoc est, ut in ipso animi sui iudicio poenas luat, cum ea mala patitur quae male iudicantem animum consequuntur.
25. But when he said, With what measure you measure, it will be measured back to you (Matt 7:2), and since it is manifest that the measure in which something is measured is one thing, and the thing itself which is measured is another, it can now happen that, in the measure in which men have measured—for example, a peck of wheat—thousands of pecks be measured to them, so that there is so much difference in the quantity of grain, and none in the measure; to say nothing of the diversity of the very things, since it can happen not only that, in the measure in which someone has measured barley, wheat be measured to him, but that, in the measure in which he has measured grain, gold be measured to him, and there be one peck of grain, but of gold very many. Thus, when both the kind and the quantity differ without comparison of the things themselves, it can yet most rightly be said: "In the measure in which he measured, in that it was measured to him." Now from what occasion Christ said this is sufficiently clear a little above: Do not judge, he says, that you may not be judged: for with what judgment you have judged, you will be judged (Matt 7:1-2). Surely, if they judge with an unjust judgment, will they be judged with an unjust one? Far be it. For there is no injustice with God. But it was said thus, "With what judgment you have judged, with that you will be judged," as though it were said, "With what will you have done well, in that very will you will be set free"; or, "With what will you have done evil, in that very will you will be punished." Just as if someone, using his eyes for base lust, were commanded to be blinded, he would rightly hear, "With what eyes you sinned, in them you have deserved punishment." For everyone uses the judgment of his own mind, whether good or evil, either for doing well or for sinning. Whence it is not unjust that in what one judges, in that he should be judged—that is, that in the very judgment of his own mind he should pay the penalty, when he suffers those evils which follow upon a mind that judges evilly.
Ep100-155.2526. Alia namque sunt manifesta tormenta quae post futura praeparantur, etiam ipsa ex eodem malae voluntatis cardine attracta: in ipso autem animo, ubi appetitus voluntatis humanorum omnium est mensura factorum, continuo poena sequitur culpam, plerumque maior non sentientis caecitate graviore. Ideo cum dixisset: In quo iudicio iudicaveritis, iudicabimini, secutus adiunxit: Et qua mensura mensi fueritis, metietur vobis. In voluntate quippe propria metietur bonus homo bona facta, et in ea metietur ei beatitudo. Itemque in voluntate propria metietur malus homo mala opera, et in ea metietur ei miseria; quoniam ubi quisque bonus est, cum bene vult, ibi etiam malus cum male vult. Ac per hoc ibi etiam fit vel beatus vel miser, hoc est in ipso suae voluntatis affectu, quae omnium factorum meritorumque mensura est. Ex qualitatibus quippe voluntatum, non ex temporum spatiis, sive recte facta sive peccata metimur. Alioquin maius peccatum haberetur, arborem deicere quam hominem occidere. Illud enim fit longa mora, ictibus multis; hoc uno ictu, brevissimo tempore: pro quo tamen exigui temporis tam grandi peccato, si perpetua deportatione homo puniretur, etiam mitius cum illo actum, quam dignus fuerat, diceretur; quamvis in spatio temporali longitudo poenae cum brevitate facinoris nullo modo sit comparanda. Quid ergo contrarium est, si erunt pariter longa, vel etiam pariter aeterna supplicia, sed aliis alia mitiora, vel acriora; ut quibus tempus aequale est, non sit aequalis asperitas, propter mensuram etiam peccatorum, non in productione temporum, sed in voluntate peccantum?
26. For there are other, manifest torments which are prepared as future, themselves too drawn from the same hinge of the evil will; but in the mind itself, where the appetite of the will is the measure of all human deeds, the penalty follows the fault at once, and for the most part a greater penalty, because of a graver blindness in one who does not feel it. Therefore, when he had said, With what judgment you have judged, you will be judged, he went on to add, and with what measure you measure, it will be measured to you (Matt 7:2). For in his own will the good man measures good deeds, and in it blessedness will be measured to him. And likewise in his own will the evil man measures evil works, and in it misery will be measured to him; since where each is good, when he wills well, there too he is evil when he wills evilly. And by this, there too he becomes either blessed or wretched—that is, in the very affection of his own will, which is the measure of all deeds and merits. For from the qualities of wills, not from spans of time, we measure both right deeds and sins. Otherwise it would be held a greater sin to fell a tree than to kill a man. For the former is done with long delay, by many strokes; the latter by one stroke, in the briefest time: yet for so great a sin of so brief a time, if a man were punished by perpetual exile, it would be said that he was even more leniently dealt with than he deserved; although, in a span of time, the length of the punishment is in no way to be compared with the brevity of the crime. What, then, is contradictory if the punishments will be alike long, or even alike eternal, but some milder, some sharper than others; so that, for those whose time is equal, the severity is not equal, on account of the measure also of the sins, not in the prolongation of time but in the will of those who sin?
Ep100-155.2627. Voluntas quippe ipsa punitur, sive animi supplicio sive corporis; ut quae delectatur in peccatis, ipsa plectatur in poenis, et ut qui iudicat sine misericordia, sine misericordia iudicetur: et in hac quippe sententia, ad hoc solum eadem mensura est, ut quod non praestitit, non ei praestetur; atque ita quod ipse iudicatur aeternum erit, quamvis quod iudicavit, aeternum esse nequiverit. In eadem igitur mensura, quamvis non aeternorum malefactorum, aeterna supplicia remetiuntur; ut quia aeternam voluit habere peccati perfructionem, aeternam vindictae inveniat severitatem. Non autem sinit proposita brevitas responsionis meae, ut colligam omnia, vel certe quamplurima quae de peccatis et de peccatorum poenis sancti Libri habent, atque ex his unam eruam sine ulla ambiguitate sententiam, si tamen id valeam viribus mentis, etiamsi congruum nanciscar otium. Nunc tamen arbitror satis esse monstratum, non esse contrarium aeternitati suppliciorum, quod in eadem mensura redduntur, in qua peccata commissa sunt.
27. For the will itself is punished, whether by the punishment of the mind or of the body, so that what delights in sins may itself be smitten in punishments, and so that he who judges without mercy may be judged without mercy; and in this sentence too, the same measure holds for this alone: that what one did not show, is not shown to him; and thus what he is judged with will be eternal, although what he judged could not be eternal. In the same measure, therefore, though of misdeeds that are not eternal, eternal punishments are measured back; so that, because he willed to have an eternal enjoyment of sin, he may find an eternal severity of vengeance. But the brevity I have set for my reply does not allow me to gather all, or at any rate very many, of the things that the holy books contain about sins and about the punishments of sins, and to draw out from them a single opinion without any ambiguity—if indeed I were able to do so by the powers of my mind, even were I to find suitable leisure. Yet now I think it has been sufficiently shown that it is not contradictory to the eternity of punishments that they are repaid in the same measure in which the sins were committed.
Ep100-155.2728. Post hanc quaestionem, qui eas ex Porphyrio proposuit, hoc adiunxit: "Sane etiam de illo, inquit, me dignaberis instruere, si vere dixit Salomon, Filium Deus non habet."
28. After this question, the one who put them forward from Porphyry added this: "Indeed," he says, "you will also deign to instruct me about this, whether Solomon truly said that God has no Son."
Ep100-155.2829. Cito respondetur: Non solum hoc non dixit, verum etiam dixit quod Deus habeat Filium. Apud eum enim Sapientia loquens ait: Ante omnes colles genuit me. Et quid est Christus, nisi Dei Sapientia? Item quodam loco Proverbiorum: Deus, inquit, docuit me sapientiam, et scientiam sanctorum cognovi. Quis ascendit in coelum, et descendit? quis collegit ventos in sinum? quis convertit aquam in vestimento? quis tenuit fines terrae? quod nomen est ei, aut quod nomen est Filii eius? Horum duorum quae in extremo commemoravi, unum retulit ad Patrem, id est: Quod nomen est ei, propter quod dixerat: Deus docuit me sapientiam: et alterum evidenter ad Filium, cum ait, aut quod nomen est Filii eius, propter caetera, quae de Filio magis intelleguntur, hoc est: Quis ascendit in coelum, et descendit; quod Paulus ita commemorat: Qui descendit, ipse est et qui ascendit super omnes coelos: Quis collegit ventos in sinum? id est, animas credentium in occultum atque secretum; quibus dicitur: Mortui enim estis, et vita vestra abscondita est cum Christo in Deo: Quis convertit aquam in vestimento? ut dici posset: Quotquot in Christum baptizati estis, Christum induistis: Quis tenuit fines terrae? qui dixit discipulis suis: Eritis mihi testes in Ierusalem, et in tota Iudaea, et Samaria, et usque in fines terrae.
29. The answer is quick: not only did he not say this, but he even said that God has a Son. For in him Wisdom speaking says, Before all the hills he begot me (Prov 8:25). And what is Christ but the Wisdom of God? Likewise in a certain place of Proverbs he says, God taught me wisdom, and I knew the knowledge of the saints. Who has ascended into heaven and descended? Who has gathered the winds in his bosom? Who has turned water in a garment? Who has held the ends of the earth? What is his name, or what is the name of his Son? (Prov 30:3-4) Of these two which I recalled at the end, the one he referred to the Father, that is, "What is his name?"—because of what he had said, "God taught me wisdom"; and the other evidently to the Son, when he says, "or what is the name of his Son?"—because of the rest, which are better understood of the Son, that is: "Who has ascended into heaven and descended?"—which Paul thus recalls, He who descended is the same who also ascended above all the heavens (Eph 4:10); "Who has gathered the winds in his bosom?"—that is, the souls of believers into a hidden and secret place; to whom it is said, For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God (Col 3:3); "Who has turned water in a garment?"—so that it could be said, As many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ (Gal 3:27); "Who has held the ends of the earth?"—he who said to his disciples, You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8).
Ep100-155.2930. Postrema quaestio proposita est de Iona, nec ipsa quasi ex Porphyrio, sed tamquam ex irrisione Paganorum; sic enim posita est: Deinde quid sentire, inquit, debemus de Iona, qui dicitur in ventre ceti triduo fuisse; quod [Greek] est et incredibile, transvoratum cum veste hominem, fuisse in corde piscis. Aut si figura est, hanc dignaberis pandere. Deinde quid sibi etiam illud vult supra evomitum Ionam cucurbitam natam: quid causae fuit, ut haec nasceretur? Hoc enim genus quaestionis, multo cachinno a Paganis graviter irrisum animadverti.
30. The last question put forward is about Jonah, and this one not, as it were, from Porphyry, but as though from the mockery of the pagans; for it is put thus: "Then what," he says, "ought we to think about Jonah, who is said to have been in the belly of the whale for three days? This is incredible and beyond belief, that a man swallowed down with his clothing should have been in the heart of a fish. Or if it is a figure, you will deign to disclose it. Then what is also meant by that gourd which grew up over Jonah after he had been vomited out: what was the reason that this should grow? For I have noticed that this kind of question has been gravely derided by the pagans with much loud laughter."
Ep100-155.3031. Ad hoc respondetur, quod aut omnia divina miracula credenda non sint; aut hoc cur non credatur, causa nulla sit. In ipsum autem Christum, quod tertio die resurrexerit, non crederemus, si fides Christianorum cachinnum metueret Paganorum. Cum autem hinc quaestionem non proposuerit amicus noster, Utrum credendum sit, vel Lazarum resuscitatum esse quarto die, vel ipsum Christum tertio die resurrexisse; multum miror hoc quod factum est de Iona, eum pro incredibili posuisse: nisi forte facilius putat mortuum de sepulcro resuscitari, quam vivum in tam vasto ventre belluae potuisse servari. Ut enim omittam commemorare quanta magnitudo belluarum marinarum ab eis qui experti sunt indicetur; venter quem costae illae muniebant, quae Carthagine in publico fixae populo notae sunt, quot homines in spatio suo capere posset, quis non coniciat, quanto hiatu patebat os illud, quod velut ianua speluncae illius fuit? Nisi forte, ut posuit, vestis esset impedimento ne Ionas vorari posset illaesus, quasi per angusta sese coarctaverit, qui per abruptum acris praecipitatus, sic exceptus est, ut prius reciperetur ventre bestiae quam dente laceraretur. Quamquam Scriptura neque nudum neque vestitum in illud antrum deiectum esse dixerit, ut possit intellegi illuc etiam nudus irruisse, si forte opus erat, tamquam ovo corium, ita illi vestem detrahi, quo facilius sorberetur. Sic enim sunt homines de prophetae huius veste solliciti, quasi aut per fenestram parvam repsisse, aut in balneas intrasse dicatur; quo etiamsi necesse esset intrare vestitum, vix molestum esset, non tamen mirum.
31. To this the answer is that either none of the divine miracles is to be believed, or there is no reason why this one should not be believed. As for Christ himself, that he rose on the third day, we would not believe it if the faith of Christians feared the laughter of the pagans. But since our friend did not raise a question on this point—whether it is to be believed either that Lazarus was raised on the fourth day, or that Christ himself rose on the third day—I greatly wonder that he set down as incredible this thing that was done concerning Jonah; unless perhaps he thinks it easier for a dead man to be raised from the tomb than for a living one to have been preserved in so vast a belly of a beast. For, to omit recalling how great a size of sea-beasts is reported by those who have had experience of them, the belly that those ribs fenced in—ribs which are fixed in a public place at Carthage and are known to the people—how many men it could hold in its space, who would not conjecture? With how great a gaping stood open that mouth, which was, as it were, the door of that cave? Unless perhaps, as he put it, his clothing was a hindrance to Jonah's being swallowed unharmed, as though he forced himself through a narrow place—he who, hurled down a steep height of air, was so received that he was taken into the belly of the beast before he was torn by its tooth. Although Scripture did not say that he was cast into that cavern either naked or clothed, so that it can be understood that he rushed in there even naked, if perchance there was need, like a hide from an egg, so to have his clothing drawn off him that he might be swallowed more easily. For men are so anxious about this prophet's clothing as though he were said either to have crept through a small window, or to have entered a bath; into which, even if he had to enter clothed, it would scarcely be troublesome, yet not a marvel.
Ep100-155.3132. Sed habent revera quod non credant in divino miraculo, vaporem ventris quo cibi madescunt, potuisse ita temperari ut vitam hominis conservaret. Quanto incredibilius ergo proponerent tres illos viros, ab impio rege in caminum missos, deambulasse in medio ignis illaesos ? Quapropter si nulla isti divina miracula volunt credere, alia disputatione refellendi sunt. Neque enim debent unum aliquid tamquam incredibile proponere, et in quaestionem vocare, sed omnia quae vel talia, vel etiam mirabiliora narrantur. Et tamen si hoc quod de Iona scriptum est, Apuleius Madaurensis, vel Apollonius Tyaneus fecisse diceretur, quorum multa mira nullo fideli auctore iactitant, quamvis et daemones nonnulla faciant Angelis sanctis similia, non veritate sed specie, non sapientia sed plane fallacia: tamen, si de istis, ut dixi, quos magos vel philosophos laudabiliter nominant, tale aliquid narraretur, non iam in buccis creparet risus, sed typhus. Ita rideant Scripturas nostras: quantum possunt, rideant, dum per singulos dies rariores paucioresque se videant, vel moriendo, vel credendo; dum implentur omnia quae praedixerunt qui hos contra veritatem inaniter pugnaturos, vane latraturos, paulatim defecturos, tanto ante riserunt, nobisque posteris suis, non solum ea legenda dimiserunt, verum experienda promiserunt.
32. But they have, in truth, something they would not believe in the divine miracle—that the vapor of the belly, by which foods are softened, could have been so tempered as to preserve a man's life. How much more incredible, then, would they propose the case of those three men, sent by an impious king into the furnace, who walked unharmed in the midst of the fire? Wherefore, if these men are unwilling to believe any divine miracles, they must be refuted by another kind of disputation. For they ought not to set forth some one thing as incredible and call it into question, but all things that are narrated as such, or even as more marvelous. And yet, if this thing that is written about Jonah were said to have been done by Apuleius of Madaura or Apollonius of Tyana, of whom they boast of many marvels on no trustworthy authority—although demons too do some things similar to those of the holy angels, not in truth but in appearance, not in wisdom but plainly in deceit—nevertheless, if of these men, as I said, whom they laudably name magicians or philosophers, some such thing were narrated, laughter would no longer burst from their cheeks, but rather pride. So let them laugh at our Scriptures; let them laugh as much as they can, while day by day they see themselves rarer and fewer, whether by dying or by believing; while all things are fulfilled which were foretold by those who, so long before, laughed at these men who would vainly fight against the truth, who would bark idly, who would little by little fail, and who left these things to us, their successors, not only to be read but promised them to be experienced.
Ep100-155.3233. Non sane absurde, neque importune requiritur quid ista significent, ut cum hoc expositum fuerit, non tantum gesta, sed etiam propter aliquam significationem conscripta esse credantur. Prius ergo non dubitet Ionam prophetam in alvo ingenti marinae belluae triduo fuisse, qui vult scrutari cur hoc factum sit: non enim frustra factum est, sed tamen factum est. Si enim movent ad fidem quae figurate tantum dicta, non facta sunt; quanto magis movere debent quae figurate non tantum dicta, sed facta sunt? Nam sicut humana consuetudo verbis, ita divina potentia etiam factis loquitur. Et sicut sermoni humano verba nova, vel minus usitata, moderate ac decenter aspersa, splendorem addunt; ita in factis mirabilibus congruenter aliquid significantibus, quodammodo luculentior est divina eloquentia.
33. Not absurdly, indeed, nor out of place, is it asked what these things signify, so that, when this has been expounded, they may be believed to have been written not only as deeds done, but also for the sake of some signification. First, therefore, let him who wishes to investigate why this was done not doubt that the prophet Jonah was for three days in the huge belly of a sea-beast: for it was not done in vain, but yet it was done. For if things that were only said figuratively, and not done, move us to faith, how much more ought things to move us that were not only said figuratively but done? For just as human custom speaks by words, so divine power speaks even by deeds. And just as new or less usual words, sprinkled in moderately and becomingly, add splendor to human speech, so in marvelous deeds that fittingly signify something, the divine eloquence is in a manner more brilliant.
Ep100-155.3334. Proinde quid praefiguraverit quod prophetam bellua illa devoratum, tertio die vivum reddidit, cur a nobis quaeritur, cum hoc Christus exponat? Generatio, inquit, prava et adultera signum quaerit, et signum non dabitur ei, nisi signum Ionae prophetae: sicut enim Ionas fuit in ventre ceti tribus diebus et tribus noctibus; sic erit Filius hominis in corde terrae tribus diebus et tribus noctibus. De ipso autem triduo mortis Domini Christi, quomodo ratio reddatur, cum a parte totum intellegitur, in die primo et novissimo, ut toti tres dies, id est cum suis noctibus computentur, longum est disserere, et in aliis sermonibus iam saepissime dictum est. Sicut ergo Ionas ex navi in alvum ceti, ita Christus ex ligno in sepulcrum vel in mortis profundum. Et sicut ille pro his qui tempestate periclitabantur, ita Christus pro his qui in hoc saeculo fluctuant. Et sicut primo iussum est ut praedicaretur Ninivitis a Iona, sed non ad eos pervenit praedicatio Ionae, nisi posteaquam eum cetus evomuit; ita prophetia praemissa est ad Gentes, sed nisi post resurrectionem Christi non pervenit ad Gentes.
34. Accordingly, why is it asked by us what was prefigured by that beast's rendering the prophet, whom it had devoured, alive on the third day, since Christ expounds this? An evil and adulterous generation, he says, seeks a sign, and no sign will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah: for as Jonah was in the belly of the whale three days and three nights, so will the Son of man be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights (Matt 12:39-40). But concerning the three-day period of the Lord Christ's death, how an account is to be given of it—when the whole is understood from a part, on the first day and the last, so that the three full days, that is, with their nights, may be reckoned—it is long to discuss, and it has already been said very often in other discourses. As, then, Jonah passed from the ship into the belly of the whale, so Christ from the wood into the tomb, or into the deep of death. And as Jonah did so for those who were endangered by the storm, so Christ for those who are tossed in this world. And as it was first commanded that Jonah preach to the Ninevites, but Jonah's preaching did not reach them until after the whale vomited him out, so prophecy was sent ahead to the Gentiles, but it did not reach the Gentiles except after the resurrection of Christ.
Ep100-155.3435. Iamvero quod tabernaculum sibi constituit, et consedit ex adverso civitatis Ninive, quid ei futurum esset exspectans, alterius significationis personam Propheta gestabat. Praefigurabat enim carnalem populum Israel. Nam huic erat et tristitia de salute Ninivitarum, hoc est de redemptione et liberatione Gentium. Unde venit Christus vocare, non iustos, sed peccatores in poenitentiam. Umbraculum ergo cucurbitae super caput eius, promissiones erant Veteris Testamenti, vel ipsa iam munera, in quibus erat utique, sicut dicit Apostolus, umbra futurorum, tamquam ab aestu temporalium malorum in terra promissionis defensaculum praebens. Vermis autem matutinus, quo rodente cucurbita exaruit, idem ipse rursus Christus occurrit, ex cuius ore Evangelio diffamato, cuncta illa quae temporaliter apud Israelitas vel ut umbratili prius significatione viguerunt, evacuata marcescunt. Et nunc ille populus amisso Ierosolymitano regno, et sacerdotio, et sacrificio, quod totum umbra erat futuri, in captiva dispersione magno aestu tribulationis aduritur, sicut Ionas, quod scriptum est, a solis ardore, et dolet graviter; et tamen dolori eius atque umbrae quam diligebat, salus gentium poenitentiumque praeponitur.
35. Now as for the fact that he set up a tabernacle for himself and sat down over against the city of Nineveh, awaiting what would befall it, the Prophet bore the character of another signification. For he prefigured the carnal people Israel. For this people too was sorrowful at the salvation of the Ninevites, that is, at the redemption and liberation of the Gentiles. Whence Christ came to call, not the righteous, but sinners to repentance. The shade of the gourd, then, over his head was the promises of the Old Testament, or those very gifts in which there was, as the Apostle says, a shadow of things to come (Col 2:17), offering, as it were, a defense from the heat of temporal evils in the land of promise. But the morning worm, by whose gnawing the gourd withered, is again Christ himself, from whose mouth, when the Gospel was spread abroad, all those things which flourished temporally among the Israelites, or with a prior shadowy signification, wither away emptied out. And now that people, having lost the kingdom of Jerusalem, and the priesthood, and the sacrifice, which was wholly a shadow of what was to come, is scorched in its captive dispersion by the great heat of tribulation, as Jonah, it is written, was by the burning of the sun, and grieves heavily; and yet the salvation of the Gentiles and of the penitent is set before his grief and the shade which he loved.
Ep100-155.3536. Adhuc cachinnent Pagani, et iam vermem Christum, et hanc interpretationem prophetici sacramenti superbiore garrulitate derideant, dum tamen et ipsos sensim paulatimque consumat. Nam de omnibus talibus Isaias prophetat, per quem nobis dicit Deus: Audite me qui scitis iudicium, populus meus, in quorum corde lex mea est: opprobria hominum nolite metuere, et detractione eorum ne superemini, nec quod vos spernant magni duxeritis. Sicut enim vestimentum, ita per tempus absumentur, et sicut lana a tinea comedentur; iustitia autem mea in aeternum manet. Nos ergo agnoscamus vermem matutinum, quia et in illo psalmo cuius titulus inscribitur: Pro susceptione matutina, hoc se ipse nomine appellare dignatus est: Ego, inquit, sum vermis, et non homo; opprobrium hominum, et abiectio plebis. Hoc opprobrium de illis opprobriis est quae iubemur non metuere per Isaiam dicentem: Opprobria hominum nolite metuere. Ab isto verme tamquam a tinea comeduntur, qui sub eius dente evangelico per singulos dies paucitatem suam deficiendo mirantur. Nos hunc agnoscamus, et pro salute divina, humana opprobria sufferamus. Vermis est propter humilitatem carnis; fortassis etiam propter virginis partum. Nam hoc animal plerumque de carne, vel de quacumque re terrena, sine ullo concubitu nascitur. Matutinus est, quia diluculo resurrexit. Poterat utique illa cucurbita et sine ullo vermiculo arescere. Postremo si habebat Deus ad hoc vermem necessarium, quid opus erat addere matutinum, nisi ut ille vermis agnosceretur, qui cantat pro susceptione matutina: Ego autem sum vermis, et non homo?
36. Let the pagans still cackle, and now deride with prouder garrulity Christ the worm and this interpretation of the prophetic sacrament, while yet that same worm gradually and little by little consumes them too. For of all such things Isaiah prophesies, through whom God says to us: Hear me, you who know judgment, my people, in whose heart is my law: do not fear the reproaches of men, and do not be overcome by their detraction, nor count it a great thing that they despise you. For like a garment, so will they be consumed by time, and like wool they will be eaten by the moth; but my justice abides forever (Isa 51:7-8). Let us, then, recognize the morning worm, because even in that psalm whose title is inscribed For the morning receiving (Ps 22 title (21:1)), he himself deigned to call himself by this name: I, he says, am a worm and not a man, the reproach of men and the outcast of the people (Ps 22:6 (21:7)). This reproach is of those reproaches which we are bidden not to fear, through Isaiah saying, Do not fear the reproaches of men (Isa 51:7). By this worm, as by a moth, are eaten those who under his evangelical tooth marvel day by day at their own dwindling as they fail. Let us recognize him, and for the sake of divine salvation let us endure human reproaches. He is a worm because of the humility of the flesh; perhaps also because of the Virgin's childbearing. For this little creature is for the most part born from flesh, or from any earthly thing, without any intercourse. He is of the morning, because he rose at daybreak. That gourd, surely, could have withered even without any little worm. Finally, if God had a worm necessary for this, what need was there to add "of the morning," unless that that worm might be recognized which sings for the morning receiving: But I am a worm and not a man (Ps 22:6 (21:7))?
Ep100-155.3637. Quid ista prophetia iam ipso rerum effectu et adimpletione lucidius? Si irrisus est vermis iste cum penderet in cruce, sicut in eodem psalmo scriptum est: Locuti sunt labiis, et moverunt caput. Speravit in Deum, eruat eum; salvum faciat eum, quoniam vult eum, cum completa sunt quae ibi praedixit: Foderunt manus meas et pedes, dinumeraverunt omnia ossa mea. Ipsi vero consideraverunt, et conspexerunt me, diviserunt sibi vestimenta mea, et super vestem meam miserunt sortem; quod tanta manifestatione futurum in libro antiquo prophetatur, quanta manifestatione factum in novo Evangelio recitatur: sed si in hac humilitate, ut dicere coeperam, iste vermis irrisus est, numquid adhuc irridendus est cum ea compleri cernimus, quae consequentia psalmus ipse habet: Commemorabuntur et convertentur ad Dominum universi fines terrae, et adorabunt in conspectu eius universae patriae gentium; quoniam Domini est regnum, et ipse dominabitur gentium. Sic commemorati sunt Ninivitae, et conversi sunt ad Dominum. Hanc salutem poenitentiae Gentium tanto ante praefiguratam in Iona, dolebat Israel, sicut nunc dolet umbra nudatus, et aestu sauciatus. Liceat sane cuilibet quamlibet aliter, dum tamen secundum regulam fidei, caetera omnia quae de Iona propheta mysteriis operta sunt, aperire. Illud plane quod in ventre ceti triduo fuit, fas non est aliter intellegere, quam ab ipso coelesti magistro in Evangelio commemoravimus revelatum.
37. What is clearer than this prophecy, now by the very effect and fulfillment of events? If this worm was derided as he hung on the cross, as is written in the same psalm, They spoke with their lips and shook their head: He hoped in God, let him deliver him; let him save him, since he wants him (Ps 22:7-8 (21:8-9)), when those things were fulfilled which he foretold there: They pierced my hands and feet, they numbered all my bones. But they themselves considered and looked upon me, they divided my garments among themselves, and over my clothing they cast lots (Ps 22:16-18 (21:17-19))—which is prophesied as future in the ancient book with as great a manifestation as it is recited as accomplished in the new Gospel—but if in this humility, as I had begun to say, this worm was derided, is he still to be derided when we behold those things fulfilled which the psalm itself has as its sequel: All the ends of the earth will remember and be turned to the Lord, and all the families of the nations will worship in his sight; for the kingdom is the Lord's, and he will rule over the nations (Ps 22:27-28 (21:28-29))? Thus the Ninevites were brought to mind and were turned to the Lord. This salvation of the repentance of the Gentiles, so long before prefigured in Jonah, Israel grieved over, as it now grieves stripped of its shade and wounded by the heat. Let it be permitted to anyone, indeed, to disclose in whatever other way—provided it be according to the rule of faith—all the other things concerning the prophet Jonah which are veiled in mysteries. But that plain fact, that he was for three days in the belly of the whale, it is not lawful to understand otherwise than as we have recalled it revealed by the heavenly Master himself in the Gospel.
Ep100-155.3738. Proposita exposuimus ut potuimus: sed ille qui proposuit, iam sit christianus, ne forte cum exspectat ante Librorum sanctorum finire quaestiones, prius finiat vitam istam, quam transeat a morte ad vitam. Ferri enim potest, quod antequam christianis sacramentis imbuatur, quaerit de resurrectione mortuorum. Concedendum etiam fortassis quod de Christo quaesivit, cur tanto post venerit, vel si quae sunt aliae paucae et magnae quaestiones, quibus caetera inserviunt. Si autem qualis est illa: In qua mensura mensi fueritis, metietur vobis, vel qualis ista de Iona, etiam omnes tales antequam sit christianus finire cogitat, perparum cogitat vel conditionem humanam, vel aetatem iam suam. Sunt enim innumerabiles, quae non sunt finiendae ante fidem ne finiatur vita sine fide. Sed plane retenta iam fide, ad exercendam piam delectationem mentium fidelium studiosissime requirendae, et quod in eis eluxerit, sine typho arrogantiae communicandum: quod autem latuerit, sine salutis dispendio tolerandum.
38. We have expounded what was proposed, as we could; but let the one who proposed them now be a Christian, lest perhaps, while he waits to finish his questions on the sacred books, he first finish this life before he passes from death to life. For it can be borne that, before he is steeped in the Christian sacraments, he inquires about the resurrection of the dead. It may perhaps even be conceded that he inquired about Christ, why he came so late, and if there are any other few and great questions to which the rest are subservient. But if such a question as this, With what measure you measure, it will be measured to you (Matt 7:2), or such a one as this about Jonah—if he thinks to finish all such questions before he is a Christian, he gives very little thought either to the human condition or to his own age now. For there are countless such questions, which are not to be finished before faith, lest life be finished without faith. But once faith has been firmly held, then, for exercising the devout delight of faithful minds, they are to be inquired into most studiously; and what shines forth in them is to be shared without the pride of arrogance; while what remains hidden is to be tolerated without loss of salvation.
Ep100-155.38EPISTOLA 103
DOMINO RECTE AC MERITO SUSCIPIENDO ET OMNIBUS MODIS HONORANDO FRATRI AUGUSTINO, NECTARIUS, IN DOMINO SALUTEM.
DOMINO RECTE AC MERITO SUSCIPIENDO ET OMNIBUS MODIS HONORANDO FRATRI AUGUSTINO, NECTARIUS, IN DOMINO SALUTEM.
LETTER 103
To the rightly and deservedly to-be-received and in all ways to-be-honored lord and brother Augustine, Nectarius sends greetings in the Lord.
Ep100-155.38To the rightly and deservedly to-be-received and in all ways to-be-honored lord and brother Augustine, Nectarius sends greetings in the Lord.
1. Sumptis litteris Eximietatis tuae, quibus idolorum cultum, et templorum cerimonias destruxisti, audire mihi visus sum philosophi vocem, non illius quem in Academiae Lycio memorant, tenebrosis humo angulis residentem, ex profunda quadam cogitatione demersum, reductis ad frontem caput implicuisse genibus, ut aliorum praeclara inventa doctrinae egenus quidam calumniator oppugnet, assertaque praeclare, cum suum nihil defendat, accuset: sed plane excitatus oratione tua ante oculos stetit M. Tullius consularis, qui innumeris civium capitibus conservatis, forensis campi signa victricia stupentibus Graeciae scholis laureatus inferret, tubamque illam canorae vocis et linguae, quam in criminum reos et reipublicae parricidas, spiritu iustae indignationis inflaverat, anhelus inverteret, togamque ipsam rugarum paginis resolutis, palliorum imitatus speciem, retorqueret.
1. Upon receiving the letter of Your Eminence, in which you destroyed the worship of idols and the ceremonies of the temples, I seemed to myself to hear the voice of a philosopher—not of the one whom they remember in the Lyceum of the Academy, sitting in dark corners on the ground, sunk in some deep meditation, his head drawn down to his forehead and buried in his knees, so that some calumniator, destitute of learning, might attack the excellent discoveries of others, and accuse what has been excellently asserted, while he defends nothing of his own. Rather, plainly roused by your discourse, there stood before my eyes Marcus Tullius the consular, who, having preserved the lives of countless citizens, would bear the victorious standards of the public forum, crowned with laurel, into the schools of Greece as they looked on amazed; who, breathless, would turn about that trumpet of his sonorous voice and tongue, which with the breath of just indignation he had blown against those accused of crimes and against the parricides of the republic; and who would twist back even the toga itself, unrolling the pages of its folds, imitating the appearance of the philosophers' cloaks.
Ep100-155.12. Ergo cum nos ad exsuperantissimi Dei cultum religionemque compelleres, libenter audivi; cum coelestem patriam intuendam esse suaderes, gratanter accepi. Non enim illam mihi civitatem dicere videbare, quam muralis aliquis gyrus coercet, nec illam quam philosophorum tractatus mundanam memorans communem omnibus profitetur; sed quam magnus Deus, et bene meritae de eo animae habitant atque incolunt, quam omnes leges diversis viis et tramitibus appetunt, quam loquendo exprimere non possumus, cogitando forsitan invenire possemus. Haec ergo licet principaliter appetenda atque diligenda sit, tamen illam non arbitror deserendam, in qua nati et geniti sumus: quae prima nobis usum lucis huius infudit, quae aluit, quae educavit, et, ut quod ad causam proprie pertinet dicam, de qua bene meritis viris, doctissimi homines ferunt, post obitum corporis in coelo domicilium praeparari, ut promotio quaedam ad supernam praestetur, his hominibus, qui bene de genitalibus urbibus meruerunt; et hi magis cum Deo habitent, qui salutem dedisse, aut consiliis, aut operibus patriae doceantur. Iam illud quod ioculariter dignatus es dicere, urbem nostram non armis, sed flammis incendiisque flagrare, et spinas magis ingenerare quam flores, non est maxima reprehensio, cum sciamus flores ex spinis plerumque generari. Nam et rosas ex spinis gigni quis dubitat, et fruges ipsas aristarum vallo sepiri, ita ut asperis suavia plerumque misceantur.
2. Therefore, when you urged us toward the worship and religion of the most surpassing God, I gladly listened; when you persuaded me that the heavenly fatherland is to be gazed upon, I received it with thanks. For you did not seem to me to be speaking of that city which some circuit of walls confines, nor of that which the discourse of the philosophers, calling it the cosmic city, professes to be common to all; but of that which the great God and the souls that have deserved well of him inhabit and dwell in, which all laws seek by diverse ways and paths, which we cannot express in speech, though perhaps by thinking we might find it. This city, then, although it ought principally to be sought and loved, yet that one in which we were born and begotten, I do not think should be deserted: the city which first poured into us the use of this light, which nourished us, which raised us, and—to say what properly pertains to the matter—of which the most learned men report that for men who have deserved well of it, a dwelling is prepared in heaven after the death of the body, so that a kind of promotion to the heights is granted to those men who have deserved well of the cities that bore them; and that they dwell the more with God who are shown to have given safety, by their counsels or works, to their fatherland. Now as for that which you deigned to say jestingly, that our city blazes not with arms but with flames and fires, and breeds thorns more than flowers, this is no great reproach, since we know that flowers are for the most part bred from thorns. For who doubts that roses too are born from thorns, and that the very grain is hedged with a palisade of awns, so that sweet things are for the most part mingled with rough?
Ep100-155.23. Postremum fuit in litteris Praestantiae tuae non caput aut sanguinem in Ecclesiae postulari vindictam, sed quibus rebus maxime metuunt spoliandos. Ego autem, nisi me opinio fallit, sic arbitror, gravius esse spoliari facultatibus quam occidi. Siquidem quod frequentatum in litteris nosti, mors malorum omnium aufert sensum, egestosa vita aeternam parit calamitatem: gravius est enim male vivere, quam mala morte finire. Hoc etiam operae vestrae indicat ratio, in quibus pauperes sustinetis, morbidos curatione relevatis, medicinam afflictis corporibus adhibetis; id postremo modis omnibus agitis, ut diuturnitatem calamitatis afflicti non sentiant. Quod autem ad modum pertinet peccatorum, nihil interest quale videatur esse peccatum cui indulgentia postulatur. Primum enim si poenitentia et veniam tribuit et purgat admissum, poenitet utique illum qui rogat, qui pedes complectitur, et, si, ut quibusdam philosophis placet, omnia peccata paria sunt, indulgentia omnibus debet esse communis. Petulantius locutus est aliquis, peccavit; convicia aut crimina ingessit, aeque peccavit; aliena quisquam diripuit, inter delicta numeratur; loca profana sacrave violavit, non est ab indulgentia secernendus. Postremo nullus esset veniae locus, nisi peccata praecederent.
3. Finally, it was stated in the letter of Your Eminence that the Church does not demand life or blood in vengeance, but that they are most afraid of being despoiled of those things by which they set most store. But I, unless my opinion deceives me, judge thus: that it is graver to be despoiled of one's goods than to be killed. For that which, as you know, is often repeated in letters—the death of the wicked takes away all sense, but a needy life begets eternal calamity: for it is graver to live badly than to end in a bad death. This too the principle of your work indicates, by which you support the poor, relieve the sick with care, apply medicine to afflicted bodies; you do everything, in short, so that the afflicted may not feel the long duration of calamity. But as for the measure of sins, it makes no difference of what sort the sin appears to be for which indulgence is asked. For first, if repentance both grants pardon and purges the offense, surely he repents who asks, who embraces the feet; and if, as some philosophers hold, all sins are equal, indulgence ought to be common to all. Someone spoke too insolently—he sinned; someone heaped up insults or accusations—he likewise sinned; someone seized what belonged to others—it is counted among offenses; someone violated profane or sacred places—he is not to be set apart from indulgence. Finally, there would be no room for pardon unless sins preceded it.
Ep100-155.34. Nunc quoniam non quantum debui, sed quantum potui, maius ut dicitur, minusve respondi, oro atque obsecro, utinam praesentem possem, ut etiam lacrymas meas pervideres, ut qui sis, quid profitearis, quid agas, etiam atque etiam cogites; intendas quae sit illius species civitatis, ex qua ad supplicium ducendi extrahuntur; quae sit matrum, quae coniugum, quae liberorum, quae parentum lamentatio; quo pudore ad patriam venire possint liberati, sed torti; quos renovat dolores aut gemitus consideratio vulnerum et cicatricum. Et his omnibus pertractatis, Deum primo consideres, hominumque cogites famam, bonitatem amicam potius, familiaremque coniunctionem, et ignoscendo potius laudem, quam vindicando conquiras. Atque haec de his dicta sint, quos verus confessionis suae reatus astringit. Quibus quidem legis contemplatione, quod laudare non desino, veniam tribuistis. Iam illud explicari vix potest quantum crudelitatis sit, innocentes appetere, et eos, quos a crimine constat esse discretos, in iudicium capitis devocare. Quos si purgari contigerit, cogites, quaeso, quanta accusatorum liberabuntur invidia, cum reos sponte dimiserint victi, reliquerint innocentes. Deus summus te custodiat, et legis suae te conservet praesidium atque ornamentum nostrum.
4. Now, since I have answered not as much as I ought, but as much as I could—more or less, as it is said—I beg and beseech you (would that I could do so in your presence, so that you might also see my tears) to consider again and again who you are, what you profess, what you do; to attend to what the appearance of that city is, from which men are dragged out to be led to punishment; what the lamentation is of mothers, of wives, of children, of parents; with what shame those who are set free, but tortured, can come back to their fatherland; what griefs or groans the consideration of wounds and scars renews. And when all these things have been pondered, consider first God, and think of the good repute of men, of goodness which is friendly and of familiar association, and seek to win praise by forgiving rather than by avenging. And let these things be said about those whom the true guilt of their own confession binds. To them indeed, in regard for the law—which I do not cease to praise—you have granted pardon. But how great a cruelty it is can scarcely be set forth, to attack the innocent and to call into a capital trial those whom it is agreed are distinct from the crime. If it happens that they are cleared, consider, I beg, from how great an odium their accusers will be freed, when, defeated, they have voluntarily dismissed the accused and left the innocent alone. May the most high God guard you, and preserve you as the safeguard of his law and our ornament.
Ep100-155.4EPISTOLA 104
DOMINO EXIMIO MERITOQUE HONORABILI AC SUSCIPIENDO FRATRI NECTARIO, AUGUSTINUS, IN DOMINO SALUTEM.
DOMINO EXIMIO MERITOQUE HONORABILI AC SUSCIPIENDO FRATRI NECTARIO, AUGUSTINUS, IN DOMINO SALUTEM.
LETTER 104
To the most excellent lord, deservedly honorable and worthy to be received brother Nectarius, Augustine sends greetings in the Lord.
Ep100-155.4To the most excellent lord, deservedly honorable and worthy to be received brother Nectarius, Augustine sends greetings in the Lord.
1. 1. Legi litteras Benignitatis tuae quibus mihi longe postea respondistis, quam meas ad te perferendas dedi. Nam ego rescripseram, cum adhuc nobiscum esset, neque navigasset sanctus frater, et coepiscopus meus Possidius. His autem quas mei causa illi dignatus es reddere, accepi VI cal. april., post menses ferme octo, quam scripseram. Cur ergo ad te tam sero mea scripta pervenerint, aut ad me tua, prorsus ignoro. Nisi forte modo rescribere prudentiae tuae placuerit, quod facere ante contempseras. Hoc sita est, miror unde sit. An aliquid audisti, quod nos adhuc latet, fratrem meum Possidium adversus cives tuos (quos, pace tua dixerim, multo salubrius diligit ipse quam tu) quo plectantur severius impetrasse. Nam hoc et epistola tua te metuere indicat, cum admones ut mihi ante oculos constituam, qualis illa sit species civitatis, ex qua ad supplicium ducendi extrahuntur; quae sit matrum, quae coniugum, quae liberorum, quae parentum lamentatio; quo pudore ad patriam venire possint liberati, sed torti; quos renovet dolores aut gemitus consideratio vulnerum et cicatricum. Absit ut ista cuiquam inimicorum nostrorum vel per nos, vel per quemquam, quod ingerantur, instemus; sed, ut dixi, si aliquid tale ad te fama pertulit, apertius edissere, ut noverimus vel quid agere ne ista fiant, vel quid haec credentibus respondere debeamus.
1. 1. I have read the letter of Your Kindness in which you answered me long after I gave my own to be delivered to you. For I had written back when the holy brother and my fellow bishop Possidius was still with us and had not yet sailed. But the letter which you deigned to give him for my sake I received on the twenty-seventh of March, almost eight months after I had written. Why, then, my writings reached you so late, or yours reached me, I do not at all know. Unless perhaps it has only now pleased your prudence to write back what before you had disdained to do. If this is the case, I wonder what the reason is. Or have you heard something which is still hidden from us—that my brother Possidius has obtained against your fellow citizens (whom, with your leave I may say, he himself loves far more wholesomely than you do) that they be punished more severely? For your letter too indicates that you fear this, since you admonish me to set before my eyes what the appearance of that city is, from which men are dragged out to be led to punishment; what the lamentation is of mothers, of wives, of children, of parents; with what shame those who are set free, but tortured, can come back to their fatherland; what griefs or groans the consideration of wounds and scars renews. Far be it that we should press, either through ourselves or through anyone, that such things be inflicted on any of our enemies; but, as I said, if some such report has reached you, set it out more plainly, so that we may know either what to do that these things may not happen, or what we ought to answer to those who believe them.
Ep100-155.1.11. 2. Litteras meas potius intuere, quibus te rescribere piguit; illic enim satis expressi animum nostrum: sed, ut opinor, oblitus quid tibi rescripserim, omnino mihi alia longe diversa et dissimilia retulisti Quippe quasi recordatus quod in litteris meis posui. hoc tuis inseruisti quod omnino non posui. Postremum enim fuisse in litteris meis dicis, non caput aut sanguinem in Ecclesiae postulari vindictam, sed rebus, quibus maxime metuunt spoliandos. Deinde ostendens quantum sit hoc mali, adiungis atque contexis, nisi te opinio fallit, arbitrari gravius esse spoliari facultatibus quam occidi. Atque ut apertius exponas de quibus facultatibus dixeris, pergis atque addis, me frequentatum in litteris nosse quod mors malorum omnium adferat sensum, egestosa autem vita aeternam pariat calamitatem. Deinde conclusisti, gravius esse in malis vivere quam mala morte finire.
1. 2. Look rather at my letter, which you were reluctant to answer; for there I expressed our mind sufficiently. But, as I think, having forgotten what I wrote back to you, you reported to me things altogether other, far different and dissimilar. For, as though recalling what I had set down in my letter, you inserted into yours what I did not at all set down. For you say that it was stated last in my letter that the Church does not demand life or blood in vengeance, but the goods of which they are most afraid of being despoiled. Then, showing how great an evil this is, you add and weave in that, unless your opinion deceives you, you judge it graver to be despoiled of one's goods than to be killed. And, to set out more plainly of what goods you spoke, you go on and add that I know, from what is often repeated in letters, that death brings an end of all the wicked's sense, but that a needy life begets eternal calamity. Then you concluded that it is graver to live amid evils than to end in a bad death.
Ep100-155.1.21. 3. Et ego quidem nec in nostris, ad quas me serius fateor animum applicuisse quam vellem, nec in vestris, quas ab ineunte aetate didici, litteris uspiam legisse recolo quod egestosa vita aeternam pariat calamitatem. Nam nec umquam peccatum est laboriosa paupertas, et est aliquanta restrictio et coercitio peccatorum. Ac per hoc non est metuendum ne cuiquam post hanc brevem vitam, hoc ad aeternam valeat animae calamitatem, quod pauper hic vixerit; et in hac ipsa quam in terris degimus, nullo modo ulla calamitas aeterna esse poterit, cum eadem vita aeterna esse non possit, quae nec saltem diuturna est, ad quamlibet aetatem senectutemque pervenerit Hoc enim potius in illis litteris legi, quoniam vita ipsa qua fruimur brevis est, in qua tu arbitraris, et frequentatum in litteris iam mones, aeternam esse posse calamitatem: mortem autem malorum omnium esse finem, habent quidem vestrae litterae, sed nec ipsae omnes; Epicureorum est quippe ista sententia, et si qui alii mortalem animam putant. At illi quos Tullius quasi consulares philosophos appellat. quod eorum magnipendat auctoritatem, quoniam cum extremum diem fungimur, non exstingui animam, sed emigrare censent, et ut merita quoque eius asserunt seu bona, seu mala, vel, ad beatitudinem, vel ad miseriam permanere. Hoc congruit et Litteris sacris, quarum me cupio litteratorem. Malorum ergo finis est mors, sed in eis quorum casta, pia, fidelis, innocens vita, non in eis qui temporalium nugarum et vanitatum cupiditate flagrantes, et cum hic sibi felices videntur. ipsa voluntatis pravitate miseri convincuntur, et post mortem graviores miserias non habere tantum, verum etiam sentire coguntur.
1. 3. And for my part, I do not recall ever having read anywhere—neither in our writings, to which I confess I applied my mind later than I would have wished, nor in yours, which I learned from my earliest years—that a needy life begets eternal calamity. For laborious poverty has never been a sin, and it is somewhat a restraint and check upon sins. And by this, it is not to be feared that, after this brief life, the fact of having lived poor here should avail anyone toward eternal calamity of soul; and in this very life which we spend on earth, no calamity can in any way be eternal, since this life itself cannot be eternal, which is not even long-lasting, to whatever age and old age it may attain. For I rather read this in those writings, that the very life we enjoy is brief—the life in which you suppose, and now, as often repeated in letters, you admonish, that there can be eternal calamity. But that death is the end of all the wicked's evils, your writings indeed contain, but not even all of them; for that is the opinion of the Epicureans, and of any others who think the soul mortal. But those whom Tullius calls, as it were, consular philosophers—because he sets great store by their authority—hold that when we discharge our last day the soul is not extinguished but emigrates, and they assert that its merits too, whether good or evil, remain, whether for blessedness or for misery. This accords also with the sacred writings, of which I desire to be a man of letters. The end of evils, then, is death, but in those whose life is chaste, devout, faithful, innocent—not in those who, burning with desire for temporal trifles and vanities, even when they here seem happy to themselves, are by the very depravity of their will convicted of being wretched, and after death are compelled not only to have graver miseries but even to feel them.
Ep100-155.1.31. 4. Haec ergo cum et vestris quibusdam, quas honorabilius habetis, et nostris omnibus litteris frequententur, o bone dilector etiam terrenae patriae tuae, luxuriosam vitam time civibus tuis, non egestosam: aut si egestosam times, illam potius egestatem mone devitandam, quae magna licet rerum terrenarum prosperitate circumfluat, eis tamen insatiabiliter inhiando, ut vestrorum ipsorum verbis utar auctorum, neque copia neque inopia minuitur. Verumtamen in illis, quibus respondisti litteris meis, inimicos Ecclesiae cives tuos, nec illa egestate dixi emendandos, ubi necessaria naturae desunt, cui succurrit misericordia, de qua nobis etiam praescribendum putasti, quod operum nostrorum hoc indicet ratio, quibus pauperes sustinemus, morbidos curatione relevamus, medicinam afflictis corporibus adhibemus; quamquam et sic egere utilius sit quam ad satiandam nequitiam rebus omnibus abundare. Sed absit ut ego illa coercitione ad hanc aerumnam eos de quibus agimus, redigendos esse censuerim.
1. 4. Since, then, these things are often repeated both in certain of your writings, which you hold in higher honor, and in all of ours, O good lover even of your earthly fatherland, fear for your fellow citizens a life of luxury, not a needy one; or if you fear a needy one, admonish them rather to avoid that neediness which, though it flows around with great prosperity of earthly things, is yet, by gaping insatiably after them—to use the words of your own authors—diminished by neither abundance nor want. Yet in those letters of mine to which you replied, I did not say that the enemies of the Church, your fellow citizens, were to be amended by that neediness in which the necessities of nature are lacking—neediness which mercy relieves, of which you thought it right even to prescribe to us that the principle of our works indicates it, by which we support the poor, relieve the sick with care, apply medicine to afflicted bodies; although even so it is more useful to be in want than to abound in all things for the satisfying of wickedness. But far be it that I should judge that those of whom we treat ought to be reduced by such coercion to this distress.
Ep100-155.1.42. 5. Recense epistolam meam, si tamen dignam habuisti, si non quam relegeres, cum ei fuisset respondendum, saltem quam ita reponeres, ut tibi iubenti, cum volueris proferretur, et attende quid dixerim; hoc profecto invenies, cui te non respondisse, quantum existimo, fatearis. Nam ex epistola illa mea verba nunc insero: "Non praeterita, inquam, vindicando pascere iram nostram studemus, sed misericorditer in futurum consulendo satagimus. Habent homines mali ubi et per Christianos non solum mansuete, verum etiam utiliter salubriterque plectantur. Habent enim quod corpore incolumi vivunt, habent unde vivunt, habent unde male vivunt. Duo prima salva sint, ut quos poeniteat, sint; hoc optamus, hoc, quantum in nobis est, etiam impensa opera instamus. Tertium vero si Dominus voluerit, tamquam putre noxiumque resecare, valde misericorditer puniet". Haec verba mea si recensuisses, cum mihi rescribere dignareris, non solum de morte, sed et de tormentis corporalibus evitandis eorum pro quibus agis, nos invidiosius, quam officiosius rogandos putares; quorum dixi, velle nos in eis salvum esse quod incolumes corpore vivunt. Nec egestosam vitam, ut victu indigeant ab aliis impartito, per nos eis utique formidares; quorum et illud secundum dixi velle nos salvum, quod habent unde vivunt. Tertium vero quod habent unde male vivunt, id est, ut nihil aliud dicam, certe unde falsorum deorum argentea fabrica vere simulacra, pro quibus vel servandis, vel adorandis, vel sacrilego ritu adhuc colendis, usque ad ecclesiae Dei prosiliatur incendium, et religiosissimorum pauperum sustentacula infelici vulgo diripienda praebeantur, sanguisque fundatur, tu qui tuae consulis civitati, quare metuis resecari, ne omnimodo impunitate perniciosa nutriatur et roboretur audacia? Hoc nobis edissere, hoc doce circumspecta disputatione quid mali sit; diligenter attende quod dicimus, ne id quod vobis dicimus, velut specie petendi quodammodo accusatione obliqua obiicere videaris.
2. 5. Review my letter—if indeed you held it worthy, if not as one to be reread when it was to be answered, at least as one to be filed away so that, at your command, it might be produced when you wished—and attend to what I said; this surely you will find: that you have not answered it, as far as I judge, as you yourself will confess. For I now insert my own words from that letter: "We are not eager," I say, "to feed our anger by avenging the past, but we are busy taking thought mercifully for the future. Evil men have ways in which, even through Christians, they may be punished not only gently but even usefully and wholesomely. For they have the fact that they live with bodies unharmed; they have the means by which they live; they have the means by which they live badly. Let the first two be kept safe, so that there may be those who repent; this we desire, this, as far as is in us, we even press for with effort expended. But the third, if the Lord wills, like something rotten and harmful to be cut away, he will punish most mercifully." If you had reviewed these words of mine when you deigned to write back to me, you would think that we ought to be entreated, not concerning the death, but concerning the bodily torments to be avoided of those on whose behalf you act, in a way more spiteful than dutiful; for of these I said that we wished to be kept safe in them the fact that they live unharmed in body. Nor would you at all dread on our part a needy life for them, such that they should lack food shared by others; for of these I also said, as the second thing, that we wished to be kept safe the fact that they have the means by which they live. But the third—that they have the means by which they live badly, that is, to say nothing else, certainly the means by which silver images of false gods are truly fashioned—for the saving or adoring of which, or for worshiping them still with sacrilegious rite, men go so far as to set fire to the church of God, and offer up the supports of the most religious poor to be plundered by the unhappy mob, and blood is shed: why, you who take thought for your city, do you fear that this should be cut away, lest by altogether pernicious impunity audacity be nourished and strengthened? Set this forth to us, teach us by careful disputation what evil there is; attend diligently to what we say, lest, under the guise of petitioning, you seem in a manner to bring against us a charge by an oblique accusation.
Ep100-155.2.52. 6. Sint honesti cives tui, probis moribus, non superfluis facultatibus: non eos volumus ad aratrum Quintii, et ad Fabricii focum per nos illa coercitione perduci. Qua paupertate illi Romanae reipublicae principes non solum non viluerunt civibus suis, sed ob eam fuerunt praecipue cariores, et patriae gubernandis opibus aptiores. Ne illud quidem optamus aut agimus, ut patriae tuae divitibus illius Ruffini bis consulis argenti solum decem pondo remaneant; quod tunc laudabiliter severa censura adhuc resecandum tamquam vitium iudicavit. Tantum nos consuetudo decoloris aetatis nimium marcidas animas mitius contrectare persuadet, ut mansuetudini christianae, quod illis censoribus iustum visum est, nimium videatur: et vides quam multum intersit, utrum iam punienda culpa sit tantum habere, an propter alias gravissimas culpas, ut tantum quis habeat permittere; quod tunc iam fuit peccatum, nunc volumus sit saltem poena peccati. Sed est quod fieri possit et debeat, ut nec usque ad ista progrediatur severitas, nec nimis secura laetetur et debacchetur impunitas, et imitationis exemplum ad gravissimas et occultissimas poenas infelicibus proponatur. Saltem concede ut nimium superfluis suis timeant, qui necessaria nostra incendere ac vastare moliuntur. Liceat et hoc beneficium tribuere inimicis nostris, ut dum metuunt rebus quas noxium non est amittere, quod sibi noxium est non conentur admittere. Neque enim haec dicenda est vindicta peccati, sed tutela consilii; non est hoc irrogare supplicium, sed ab excipiendo supplicio communire.
2. 6. Let your fellow citizens be honorable, of upright character, not of superfluous means: we do not wish them to be led by us, through that coercion, to the plow of Quintius and the hearth of Fabricius. By that poverty those leaders of the Roman republic not only did not become cheap to their fellow citizens, but were on that account especially dearer, and more fit for governing the resources of the fatherland. Nor do we even desire or aim that there remain to the rich men of your fatherland only ten pounds of silver, like that of Rufinus, twice consul; which a praiseworthily severe censorship then judged should be cut away as a fault. Only the custom of a degenerate age persuades us to handle too softly souls too flaccid, so that what seemed just to those censors seems too much to Christian gentleness; and you see how great a difference there is whether it is now a fault to be punished merely to have so much, or whether, on account of other most grave faults, it is to be permitted that one have so much; for what was then a sin, we now wish to be at least the penalty of sin. But there is something that can and ought to be done: that severity not go so far as to those things, nor too secure impunity rejoice and run riot, and that an example for imitation, leading to the gravest and most hidden punishments, be set before the unhappy. At least grant that those who strive to burn and lay waste our necessities should fear for their own superfluities. Let it be permitted to bestow even this benefit on our enemies, that, while they fear for goods which it is not harmful to lose, they may not attempt to admit what is harmful to themselves. For this is not to be called the avenging of sin, but the safeguarding of counsel; this is not to inflict punishment, but to fortify against incurring punishment.
Ep100-155.2.62. 7. Quisque imprudentem cum aliquo sensu doloris privat, ne supervacuis sceleribus assuefactus poenas atrocissimas pendat, puero capillos vellit, ne serpentibus plaudat; atque ita, ubi molesta dilectio est, nullum membrum laeditur, unde autem deterret, salus et vita periclitatur. Non tunc benefici sumus, cum id quod a nobis petitur facimus, sed cum id facimus quod non obsit petentibus. Nam pleraque non dando prosumus, et noceremus si dedissemus. Unde illud proverbium: Nec puero gladium. Tu vero, inquit Tullius, ne unico quidem filio. Quo enim quemquam maxime diligimus, eo minus ei debemus, in quibus magno periculo peccatur, committere. Et de divitiis, ni fallor, cum haec agerer, loquebatur. Proinde quae periculose male utentibus committuntur, salubriter etiam plerumque detrahuntur. Medici cum vident secandam urendamque putredinem, saepe adversus multas lacrymas misericorditer obsurdescunt. Si quoties parvuli, vel etiam grandiusculi veniam peccantes deprecati sumus, toties a parentibus vel magistris accepissemus, quis nostrum tolerandus crevisset? quis aliquid utile didicisset? providenter ista, non crudeliter fiunt. Ne, quaeso, in hac causa nihil aliud intendas, nisi quemadmodum apud nos efficias quod rogaris a tuis: omnia vero diligenter considera. Si praeterita neglegis, quae fieri iam infecta non possunt, aliquantum prospice in posterum; non quid cupiant, qui te rogant, sed quid eis expediat prudenter attende. Non sane fideliter eos amare convincimur, si hoc solum intuemur, ne, non faciendo quod poscunt, minuatur quod amamur ab eis. Et ubi est, quod et vestrae litterae illum laudant patriae rectorem qui populi utilitate magis consulat quam voluntati ?
2. 7. Anyone who deprives an imprudent person, with some sense of pain, lest, accustomed to needless crimes, he pay the most atrocious penalties, plucks the hair of a boy lest he clap his hands at serpents; and so, where love is troublesome, no limb is injured, but where it deters, safety and life are endangered. We are not beneficent then, when we do what is asked of us, but when we do what does not harm those who ask. For in very many cases we profit by not giving, and we would harm if we gave. Whence that proverb: "Not even a sword to a boy." But you, says Tullius, "not even to an only son." For the more we love anyone, the less we ought to entrust to him in matters where there is great danger of sinning. And he was speaking, if I am not mistaken, of riches when he said this. Accordingly, things that are dangerously entrusted to those who misuse them are for the most part also wholesomely withdrawn. Physicians, when they see that the rotten part must be cut and cauterized, often grow mercifully deaf to many tears. If, as often as we as little children, or even as somewhat older boys, begged pardon when sinning, we had as often received it from our parents or teachers, which of us would have grown up to be tolerable? Which of us would have learned anything useful? These things are done providently, not cruelly. Do not, I beg, in this matter intend nothing else than how you may bring it about that we do what is asked of you by your people; but consider everything diligently. If you neglect the past, which cannot now be made undone, look somewhat ahead to the future; attend prudently, not to what those who ask you desire, but to what is expedient for them. We are surely not convicted of loving them faithfully if we look to this alone, lest, by not doing what they demand, we be loved less by them. And where is that which even your writings praise—that ruler of the fatherland who takes thought for the people's benefit rather than for their wish?
Ep100-155.2.73. 8. "Nihil interest, inquis, quale videatur esse peccatum cum indulgentia postulatur". Recte hoc diceres si de puniendis, non de corrigendis hominibus ageretur. Absit enim a corde christiano, ut libidine ulciscendi ad poenam cuiusque rapiatur. Absit ut in dimittendo cuique peccatum, aut non praeveniat preces rogantis, aut certe continuo subsequatur: sed hoc utique ne oderit hominem, ne malum pro malo retribuat, ne nocendi inflammetur ardore, ne vindicta etiam lege debita pasci desideret; non autem ne consulat, ne prospiciat, ne compescat a malis. Fieri enim potest ut vehementius adversando, emendationem quisque neglegat hominis quem gravius odit, et nonnulla molestia reddat coercendo meliorem, quem maxime diligit.
3. 8. "It makes no difference," you say, "of what sort the sin appears to be when indulgence is asked." You would rightly say this if it were a question of punishing men, not of correcting them. For far be it from a Christian heart that it be carried away to anyone's punishment by a lust for vengeance. Far be it that, in remitting anyone's sin, it either fail to forestall the prayers of the one who asks, or at any rate fail at once to follow them; but this surely is the point—that it should not hate the man, should not repay evil for evil, should not be inflamed with the ardor of harming, should not desire to feed even on vengeance owed by law; not, however, that it should not take thought, look ahead, restrain from evils. For it can happen that one who opposes too vehemently neglects the amendment of a man whom he hates too gravely, and that one renders better by some trouble of coercion the man whom he loves most.
Ep100-155.3.83. 9. Nam "et poenitentia, sicut scribis, impetrat veniam, et purgat admissum": sed illa quae in vera religione agitur, quae futurum iudicium Dei cogitat; non illa quae ad horam hominibus, aut exhibetur, aut fingitur, non ut a delicto anima purgetur in aeternum, sed ut interim a praesenti metu molestiae vita cito peritura liberetur. Hinc est quod Christianis confitentibus atque deprecantibus, qui delicto illo fuerant implicati, vel non succurrendo arsurae ecclesiae, vel de sceleratissimis rapinis aliquid auferendo, poenitentiae dolorem fructuosum esse credidimus, eisque ad correctionem sufficere existimavimus, quod inest cordibus eorum fides, qua considerare possent quid de divino iudicio formidare deberent. Quae autem poenitentia sanare potest eos, qui fontem ipsum indulgentiae non solum agnoscere neglegunt, verum etiam irridere ac blasphemare non desinunt? et contra hos tamen inimicitias in corde non retinemus, quod illi patet ac nudum est, cuius et in praesenti et in futura vita et timemus iudicium, et speramus auxilium. Sed arbitramur nos etiam pro ipsis aliquid providere, si homines qui Deum non timent, aliquid timeant, quo non eorum laedatur utilitas, sed vanitas castigetur; ne ab eis Deus ipse quem spernunt, noxia securitate, audacioribus factis gravius offendatur, et ne aliis ad imitandum, eadem ipsa securitas multo perniciosius proponatur. Denique pro quibus abs te rogamur, nos pro illis Deum rogamus uti eos ad se convertat, ut fide mundans corda eorum, veracem ac salubrem agere poenitentiam doceat.
3. 9. For "repentance too, as you write, obtains pardon and purges the offense": but that repentance which is carried on in true religion, which considers the future judgment of God; not that which is exhibited or feigned to men for the hour, not so that the soul may be purged of the offense for eternity, but so that meanwhile a life soon to perish may be freed from the present fear of trouble. Hence it is that, in the case of Christians confessing and entreating, who had been implicated in that offense—whether by not coming to the aid of a church about to be burned, or by carrying off something in most criminal plundering—we have believed the grief of repentance to be fruitful, and have judged it sufficient for their correction that there is in their hearts the faith by which they could consider what they ought to dread concerning the divine judgment. But what repentance can heal those who not only neglect to acknowledge the very fount of indulgence, but do not even cease to mock and blaspheme it? And against these, nevertheless, we hold no enmities in our heart, which is open and bare to him whose judgment we both fear and whose help we hope for, both in the present and in the future life. But we think that we provide something even for them, if men who do not fear God fear something by which their benefit is not harmed but their vanity is chastised; lest God himself, whom they despise, be more gravely offended by them through harmful security, in bolder deeds, and lest the same security be set before others to imitate, much more perniciously. Finally, on behalf of those for whom you ask us, we ask God on their behalf that he turn them to himself, so that, cleansing their hearts by faith, he may teach them to carry out a true and wholesome repentance.
Ep100-155.3.93. 10. Ecce quanto eos, quibus nos arbitraris irasci, pace tua dixerim, ordinatius quam tu, utiliusque diligimus, pro quibus et ad evitanda tanto maiora mala, et ad consequenda tanto maiora bona, deprecamur. Quos etiam tu, si ex Dei coelesti munere non ex hominum terreno more diligeres, sinceriterque mihi rescriberes quod cum te ad exsuperantissimi Dei cultum religionemque compellerem, libenter audieris, non solum haec eis optares, sed eis ad haec ipse praeires. Sic omne apud nos tuae petitionis negotium cum magno et sano gaudio finiretur. Sic illam coelestem patriam, quam cum intuendam esse suaderem, libens te accepisse dixisti, ex huius etiam, quae te carnaliter genuit, vera et pia dilectione promereris; vere consulens tuis non ad vanitatem laetitiae temporalis nec ad impunitatem perniciosissimam sceleris, sed ad gratiam sempiternae felicitatis.
3. 10. See how much more orderly than you—with your leave I may say it—and more usefully we love those with whom you suppose us angry, on whose behalf we entreat both for the avoiding of so much greater evils and for the obtaining of so much greater goods. And if you too loved them from God's heavenly gift, not after the earthly manner of men, and wrote back to me sincerely that, when I urged you toward the worship and religion of the most surpassing God, you gladly listened, you would not only desire these things for them, but would yourself go before them toward these very things. Thus the whole business of your petition would be ended among us with great and sound joy. Thus you would earn that heavenly fatherland, which you said you gladly received when I persuaded you that it was to be gazed upon, by a true and devout love even of this fatherland which bore you in the flesh; truly taking thought for your own, not toward the vanity of temporal gladness, nor toward the most pernicious impunity of crime, but toward the grace of everlasting happiness.
Ep100-155.3.103. 11. Habes expositas in hac causa cogitationes et vota pectoris mei. Quid autem lateat in consilio Dei, fateor, homo sum, nescio: quidquid illud est, id est iustius, atque sapientius, et firmissime stabilitum, incomparabili excellentia prae omnibus mentibus hominum. Verum est quippe quod legitur in Libris nostris: Multae cogitationes sunt in corde viri, consilium autem Domini manet in aeternum. Proinde quid tempus afferat, quid nobis facultatis aut difficultatis oriatur, quid postremo voluntatis ex rerum praesentium, vel correctione, vel spe, subito possit existere, utrum Deus sic indignetur his factis, ut ea, quam petunt, impunitate magis severiusque puniantur, an illo modo quo nobis placet coercendos misericorditer iudicet, an aliqua duriore, sed salubriore eorum praecedente correctione, nec ad hominum, sed ad suam misericordiam veraci conversione quidquid terroris praeparabatur, avertat et convertat in gaudium, iam novit ipse, nos autem ignoramus. Quid ergo hic ante tempus, inter nos ego et Praestantia tua frustra laboremus? Seponamus paululum curam cuius hora non est, et quod semper instat, si placet, agamus. Nudum enim tempus est, quo non deceat et oporteat agere, unde Deo placere possimus; quod in hac vita usque ad eam perfectionem impleri, ut nullum omnino peccatum insit in homine aut non potest, aut forte difficillimum est: unde praecisis omnibus dilationibus, ad illius gratiam confugiendum est, cui verissime dici potest quod carmine adulatorio nescio cui nobili dixit, qui tamen ex Cumaeo, tamquam ex prophetico carmine se accepisse confessus est:
Irrita perpetua solvent formidine terras.
Hoc enim duce, solutis omnibus dimissisque peccatis, hac via ad coelestem patriam pervenitur, cuius habitatione cum eam tibi amandam, quantum potui, commendarem, admodum delectatus es.
Irrita perpetua solvent formidine terras.
Hoc enim duce, solutis omnibus dimissisque peccatis, hac via ad coelestem patriam pervenitur, cuius habitatione cum eam tibi amandam, quantum potui, commendarem, admodum delectatus es.
3. 11. You have, in this matter, the thoughts and wishes of my heart set forth. But what lies hidden in the counsel of God, I confess—I am a man—I do not know: whatever it is, it is more just, and wiser, and most firmly established, with incomparable excellence above all the minds of men. For it is true what is read in our books: Many are the thoughts in the heart of a man, but the counsel of the Lord abides forever (See Prov 19:21). Accordingly, what the times may bring, what facility or difficulty may arise for us, what disposition, finally, may suddenly come to be from the correction or hope of present affairs; whether God is so indignant at these deeds that, by the very impunity they ask, they should be punished more severely, or whether he judges that they should be coerced mercifully in the way that pleases us, or whether, by some harder but more wholesome correction of theirs going before, and by a truthful conversion not to the mercy of men but to his own, he may turn aside whatever of terror was being prepared and turn it into joy—he himself now knows, but we are ignorant. Why, then, should I and Your Eminence labor here in vain, before the time, between ourselves? Let us set aside for a little the care whose hour has not come, and let us, if you please, do what always presses. For there is no time in which it is not fitting and necessary to do that whereby we may please God; and that this be fulfilled in this life to that perfection, so that no sin at all be in a man, is either impossible or perhaps most difficult: whence, all delays being cut off, we must flee to the grace of him to whom can most truly be said what someone said in a flattering poem to I know not what noble man—though he confessed that he had received it from the Cumaean song, as from a prophetic one:
They will free the lands from perpetual dread.
For under this guide, with all sins loosed and dismissed, by this way one comes to the heavenly fatherland, by whose dwelling, when I commended it to you to be loved as much as I could, you were greatly delighted.
Ep100-155.3.11They will free the lands from perpetual dread.
For under this guide, with all sins loosed and dismissed, by this way one comes to the heavenly fatherland, by whose dwelling, when I commended it to you to be loved as much as I could, you were greatly delighted.
4. 12. Sed quia dixisti quod omnes eam leges diversis viis et tramitibus appetant; vereor ne forte, cum putas etiam illam viam, in qua nunc constitutus es, eo tendere, pigrior sis ad eam tenendam quae illuc sola perducit. Sed rursus verbum quod posuisti diligenter attendens, videor mihi tuam non impudenter aperire sententiam: neque enim dixisti, quam omnes leges diversis viis et tramitibus assequuntur, aut ostendunt, aut inveniunt, aut ingrediuntur, aut obtinent, aut aliquid eiusmodi, sed dicendo, appetunt, librato verbo, atque perpenso, non adeptionem significasti, sed adipiscendi cupiditatem. Ita nec illam quae vera est, exclusisti, nec alias quae falsae sunt, admisisti, et illa quippe appetit quae perducit, nec perducit omnis quae hoc appetit; quo quisquis perducitur, sine ulla dubitatione beatus est. Beati autem omnes esse volumus, hoc est, appetimus, nec tamen omnes qui volumus possumus, hoc est, quod appetimus adipiscimur. Ille ergo adipiscitur qui viam tenet non solum qua id appetit, sed qua etiam pervenitur, relinquens alios in itineribus appetendi, sine fine adipiscendi. Quoniam nec error esset si nihil appeteretur, nec si appetita veritas teneretur. Si vero diversas vias ita dixisti, ut non intellegamus adversas, sicut dicimus diversa praecepta, quae tamen omnia bonam aedificent vitam, alia de castitate, alia de patientia, alia de fide, alia de misericordia, et si quae sunt caetera; non solum appetitur viis et tramitibus ita diversis illa patria, verum etiam reperitur. Nam et in Scripturis sanctis et viae leguntur, et via: viae, sicut illud est: Docebo iniquos vias tuas, et impii ad te convertentur; via, sicut illud: Deduc me in via tua, et ambulabo in veritate tua. Non aliae, illae, alia ista; sed omnes una, de quibus alio loco eadem sancta Scriptura dicit: Universae viae Domini misericordia et veritas: quae si diligenter considerentur, copiosum pariunt sermonem, intellectumque suavissimum; quod si opus fuerit, in tempus aliud differam.
4. 12. But because you said that all laws seek that city by diverse ways and paths, I fear lest perhaps, when you think that even the way in which you are now placed tends thither, you may be the more sluggish to hold to the one which alone leads there. But again, attending diligently to the word you used, I seem to myself to disclose your meaning not impudently: for you did not say which all laws "attain" or "show" or "find" or "enter" or "obtain" by diverse ways and paths, or anything of the sort, but, by saying "seek," with a word weighed and pondered, you signified not attainment but the desire of attaining. Thus you neither excluded the one which is true, nor admitted the others which are false; for that one indeed seeks which leads, but not every one which seeks this leads; and whoever is led thither is without any doubt blessed. But we all wish—that is, seek—to be blessed; yet not all of us who wish are able—that is, attain what we seek. He, then, attains who holds the way not only by which he seeks it, but by which one also arrives, leaving others in the journeys of seeking, without end of attaining. For there would be no error if nothing were sought, nor if the truth, once sought, were held. But if you spoke of diverse ways in such a way that we do not understand them as opposed—as we speak of diverse precepts which yet all build up a good life, some about chastity, some about patience, some about faith, some about mercy, and whatever else there is—then that fatherland is not only sought by ways and paths thus diverse, but is even found. For in the holy Scriptures both ways and a way are read of: ways, as is that, I will teach the wicked your ways, and the impious will be turned to you (Ps 51:13 (50:15)); a way, as is that, Lead me in your way, and I will walk in your truth (Ps 86:11 (85:11)). These ways are not one thing, that way another; but all are one, of which in another place the same holy Scripture says, All the ways of the Lord are mercy and truth (Ps 25:10 (24:10)): which, if they be diligently considered, beget a copious discourse and a most pleasant understanding; but this, if there be need, I will defer to another time.
Ep100-155.4.124. 13. Nunc autem, quod satis esse arbitror pro suscepto officio rescribendi Praestantiae tuae, quoniam Christus dixit. Ego sum via. in illo quaerenda est misericordia et veritas; ne si alibi quaesierimus erremus, tenentes appetentem viam, sed non etiam perducentem. Velut si hanc ipsam tenere vellemus, unde quiddam commemorasti, omnia peccata esse paria; nonne ab illa patria veritatis et beatitatis nos longe exsules mitteret? Quid enim absurdius, quid insanius dici potest, quam ut ille qui aliquanto immoderatius riserit, et ille qui patriam truculentius incenderit, peccasse iudicentur aequaliter? Quam quidem tu ex quorumdam philosophorum opinione non diversam viam, quae tamen ducat ad coelestem habitationem, sed plane perversam, quae ducit ad perniciosissimum errorem, non pro tuo sensu, sed pro causa civium tuorum adhibendam putasti; ut sic ignoscamus eis quorum saevientium ignibus arsit Ecclesia, quemadmodum ignosceremus, si ab eis aliquo petulanti convicio appeteremur.
4. 13. But now—what I think is enough for the office of writing back to Your Eminence which I have undertaken—since Christ said, I am the way (John 14:6), in him are mercy and truth to be sought; lest, if we seek them elsewhere, we go astray, holding a way that seeks but does not also lead. As if we wished to hold this very thing of which you made some mention, that all sins are equal: would it not send us far off, exiles from that fatherland of truth and blessedness? For what more absurd, what more insane can be said than that he who laughed somewhat too immoderately and he who set fire to his fatherland more savagely should be judged to have sinned equally? Which way you thought should be applied—from the opinion of certain philosophers—not as a diverse way which yet leads to the heavenly dwelling, but as a plainly perverse one which leads to the most pernicious error, not according to your own sense but for the cause of your fellow citizens; so that we should pardon those by whose raging fires the Church was burned in the same way as we would pardon if we were attacked by them with some insolent insult.
Ep100-155.4.134. 14. Sed quemadmodum id adstruxeris vide: "Et si ut quibusdam, inquis, philosophis placet, omnia peccata paria sunt, indulgentia omnibus debet esse communis". Deinde cum quasi moliris ostendere omnia paria esse peccata, subiungis et dicis: "Petulantius locutus est aliquis, peccavit; convicia aut crimina ingessit, aeque peccavit". Hoc non est docere, sed id quod perverse sentitur, sine ulla documentorum astructione proponere. Ad hoc enim quod dicis, "aeque peccavit", cito respondetur, non aeque peccavit. Exigis fortassis ut probem: quid enim tu quod aeque peccaverit, iam probasti? An illud quod iungis audiendum est? "Aliena quisque diripuit, inter delicta numeratur. Hic etiam tu ipse verecundatus es: puduit enim te dicere quod peccavit aequaliter; sed, inter delicta, inquis, numeratur". Non autem ibi quaestio est utrum et hoc "inter delicta numeretur", sed utrum hoc illi delicto aequalitate iungatur. Aut si propterea sunt paria, quia utraque delicta sunt, mures et elephanti pares erunt, quia utraque sunt animalia; muscae et aquilae, quia utraque volatilia.
4. 14. But see how you established this: "And if, as some philosophers hold," you say, "all sins are equal, indulgence ought to be common to all." Then, as you set yourself, as it were, to show that all sins are equal, you subjoin and say: "Someone spoke too insolently—he sinned; he heaped up insults or accusations—he likewise sinned." This is not to teach, but to propose what is perversely held, without any establishment of proofs. For to this that you say, "he likewise sinned," it is quickly answered: he did not likewise sin. You demand, perhaps, that I prove it: but what have you yet proved, that he sinned equally? Or is that which you join to be heard? "Someone seized what belonged to others—it is counted among offenses." Here even you yourself were abashed: for you were ashamed to say that he sinned equally; but, you say, "it is counted among offenses." But the question there is not whether this too "is counted among offenses," but whether it is joined to that offense in equality. Or if they are equal for the reason that both are offenses, then mice and elephants will be equal, because both are animals; flies and eagles, because both are flying things.
Ep100-155.4.144. 15. Adhuc etiam progrederis et coniectas: "Loca profana sacraque violavit, non est ab indulgentia secernendus". Hic sane de violatis sacris locis ad facinus tuorum civium pervenisti: verum locutioni petulanti, nec tu ipse coaequasti; tantummodo eis petisti indulgentiam, quae recte petitur a Christianis propter abundantem miserationem, non propter peccatorum parilitatem. Ego autem supra posui scriptum in Litteris nostris: Universae viae Domini misericordia et veritas. Consequentur itaque misericordiam, si non oderint veritatem. Quae non quasi aeque peccantibus, ac si petulantius locuti sint; sed de scelere immanissimo atque impio recte poenitentibus christiano iure debetur. Tu vero, vir merito laudabilis, ne quaeso ista paradoxa Stoicorum sectanda doceas Paradoxum tuum, quem tibi optamus vera pietate ac felicitate grandescere. Nam quid generosus adolescens sapere iniquius, et tibi ipsi periculosius potest, quam si convicio in quemlibet extraneum iaculato, non dico parricidium, sed ipsum in patrem convicium coaequaverit?
4. 15. Still further you advance and conjecture: "He violated profane and sacred places—he is not to be set apart from indulgence." Here indeed, from violated sacred places, you have arrived at the crime of your fellow citizens: but you yourself did not equate it even with insolent speech; you only asked indulgence for them, which is rightly asked of Christians on account of abounding compassion, not on account of the parity of sins. But I have set down above what is written in our writings: All the ways of the Lord are mercy and truth (Ps 25:10 (24:10)). They will accordingly obtain mercy, if they do not hate truth. Which mercy is owed by Christian right, not as to those who sin equally, as though they had spoken too insolently, but to those who rightly repent of a most monstrous and impious crime. But you, a man deservedly praiseworthy, do not, I beg, teach that those paradoxes of the Stoics are to be followed—you, our Paradox, whom we wish to grow up for you in true devotion and happiness. For what can a high-born young man think more unjust, and more dangerous to yourself, than if, having hurled an insult at some stranger, he should equate—I do not say parricide, but the very insult against his father?
Ep100-155.4.154. 16. Convenienter itaque apud nos pro civibus tuis agis, ingerendo nobis misericordiam Christianorum, non duritiam Stoicorum: quae causae a te susceptae, non modo nihil suffragatur, verum etiam multum adversatur. Nam ipsam misericordiam, quam si non habeamus, nulla tua petitione, nullis illorum precibus flecti poterimus, in vitio Stoici ponunt, eamque a sapientis animo penitus expellunt, quem prorsus ferreum et inflexibilem volunt. Melius itaque tibi occurreret de tuo Cicerone quod diceres, qui Caesarem laudans: Nulla, inquit, de virtutibus tuis admirabilior, vel gratior misericordia est. Quanto magis debet ea in Ecclesiis praevalere, quando eum sequuntur qui dixit: Ego sum via; et legunt: Universae viae Domini misericordia et veritas. Noli ergo metuere innocentibus ne moliamur exitium, qui nec nocentes volumus ad dignum supplicium pervenire; prohibente nos illa misericordia quam in Christo cum veritate diligimus. Sed qui vitiis nutriendis parcit et fovet, ne contristet peccantium voluntatem, tam non est misericors quam qui non vult cultrum rapere puero, ne audiat plorantem, et non timet ne vulneratum doleat vel exstinctum. Serva ergo tempori opportuno quod apud nos agas, pro his hominibus, in quorum dilectione (da veniam) non solum nos minime praecedis, sed nec adhuc sequeris; et rescribe potius quid te de hac via moveat quam tenemus, et in qua nobiscum ad supernam patriam, qua te delectari novimus et gaudemus, ut gradiaris instamus.
4. 16. Fittingly, then, you plead with us on behalf of your fellow citizens by pressing upon us the mercy of Christians, not the hardness of the Stoics: which hardness in no way favors the cause you have undertaken, but rather greatly opposes it. For that very mercy, which if we did not have, we could be bent by no petition of yours, by no prayers of theirs, the Stoics reckon among vices, and they utterly expel it from the mind of the wise man, whom they want to be wholly iron and inflexible. It would therefore better occur to you to say something from your own Cicero, who, praising Caesar, says: "Of your virtues none is more admirable or more pleasing than mercy." How much more ought it to prevail in the churches, since they follow him who said, I am the way (John 14:6), and read, All the ways of the Lord are mercy and truth (Ps 25:10 (24:10)). Do not, then, fear that we plot destruction for the innocent, we who do not wish even the guilty to come to deserved punishment, being forbidden by that mercy which we love in Christ together with truth. But he who spares and fosters vices to be nourished, lest he sadden the will of sinners, is as little merciful as one who is unwilling to snatch a knife from a boy lest he hear him cry, and does not fear lest he grieve over him wounded or dead. Keep, then, for the opportune time what you would do among us on behalf of these men, in whose love (forgive me) you not only do not at all go before us, but do not even yet follow us; and write back rather what moves you against this way which we hold, and on which we urge that you walk with us toward the heavenly fatherland, by which we know and rejoice that you are delighted.
Ep100-155.4.164. 17. Cives autem carnalis patriae tuae, etsi non omnes, sed quosdam innocentes quidem dixisti; verumtamen, quod relecta illa epistola mea debes advertere, non defendisti. Quorum non flores, sed spinas nos sensisse cum dicerem, respondens ad illud quod scripseras, florentem te cupere patriam relinquere, iocari me putasti. Hoc scilicet in malis tantis libeat! ita est prorsus. Fumant adhuc ruinae incensae ecclesiae, et in ea causa nos iocamur! Et ego quidem quamvis innocentes illic mihi non occurrerent, nisi qui aut absentes fuerunt, aut mala illa perpessi sunt, aut nullis ad prohibendum viribus vel auctoritate valuerunt, tamen nocentiores a minus nocentibus in rescribendo distinxi, aliamque causam posui eorum qui timuerunt offendere potentes inimicos Ecclesiae, aliam eorum qui hoc committi voluerunt: aliam eorum qui commiserunt, aliam eorum qui immiserunt; nihil agi de immissoribus volens, quia hoc sine tormentis corporalibus a proposito nostro abhorrentibus fortasse non potest inveniri. Stoici autem tui omnes aequaliter nocentes esse concedunt, quibus placet omnia paria esse peccata; qui etiam duritiam suam qua misericordiam vituperant, huic sententiae sociantes, nullo modo censent omnibus pariter ignoscendum, sed omnes pariter esse puniendos. Remove ergo illos quam longissime potes a patrocinio causae istius, et opta potius ut tamquam christiani agamus, ut, sicut optamus, nos in Christo eos quibus parcimus, acquiramus, ne perniciosa illis dissolutione parcamus. Deus misericors et verax et felicitate vera donare dignetur.
4. 17. But the citizens of your carnal fatherland, though you said that not all, but some, were indeed innocent—yet, as you ought to notice when that letter of mine is reread, you did not defend them. When I said that we had felt not their flowers but their thorns, answering that which you had written, that you desired to leave your fatherland flourishing, you thought I was jesting. As if, indeed, one could find pleasure amid such great evils! That is exactly so. The ruins of the burned church still smoke, and in that cause we jest! And for my part, although no innocent men occurred to me there except those who were either absent, or suffered those evils, or had no strength or authority to prevent them, yet in writing back I distinguished the more guilty from the less guilty, and set down one case for those who feared to offend the powerful enemies of the Church, another for those who willed this to be committed; one for those who committed it, another for those who instigated it—wishing nothing to be done about the instigators, because this perhaps cannot be discovered without bodily torments which are abhorrent to our purpose. But your Stoics grant that all are equally guilty, those who hold that all sins are equal; who also, joining to this opinion their hardness by which they disparage mercy, in no way reckon that all are equally to be pardoned, but that all are equally to be punished. Remove them, then, as far as you can, from the patronage of this cause, and desire rather that we act as Christians, so that, as we desire, we may win in Christ those whom we spare, and not spare them by a pernicious dissolution. May God, merciful and truthful, deign to bestow this and true happiness.
Ep100-155.4.17EPISTOLA 105
AUGUSTINUS EPISCOPUS CATHOLICUS, DONATISTIS
AUGUSTINUS EPISCOPUS CATHOLICUS, DONATISTIS
LETTER 105
Augustine, the Catholic bishop, to the Donatists
Ep100-155.4.17Augustine, the Catholic bishop, to the Donatists
1. 1. Caritas Christi, cui omnem hominem, quantum ad nostram pertinet voluntatem, lucrari volumus, tacere nobis non permittit. Si propterea nos odistis, quia pacem vobis catholicam praedicamus, nos Domino servimus dicenti: Beati pacifici, quoniam ipsi filii Dei vocabuntur; et in Psalmo scriptum est: Cum iis qui oderunt pacem, eram pacificus; cum loquebar eis, debellabant me gratis. Propterea mandaverunt nobis quidam presbyteri partis vestrae, dicentes: Recedite a plebibus nostris, si non vultis ut interficiamus vos. Quanto iustius eis nos dicimus: Imo vos non recedite, sed accedite pacati ad plebes non nostras, sed illius cuius omnes sumus; aut si non vultis et impacati estis, vos potius recedite a plebibus, pro quibus Christus suum sanguinem fudit: quas ideo vultis vestras facere ne Christi sint, quamvis eas sub eius nomine possidere conemini; tamquam si servus furetur oves de grege domini sui, et quaecumque ex illis nata fuerint, characterem domini sui eis infigat, ne furtum eius possit agnosci. Sic enim fecerunt maiores vestri; separaverunt ab Ecclesia Christi populos habentes baptismum Christi, et quicumque illis accreverunt, baptismo Christi eos baptizaverunt. Sed Dominus et fieres punit, si non se correxerint, et oves ab errore revocat ad gregem, nec in eis suum exterminat characterem.
1. 1. The love of Christ, for whom we wish to win over every man, as far as pertains to our will, does not permit us to be silent. If you hate us for this reason, that we preach Catholic peace to you, we serve the Lord who says, Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God (Matt 5:9); and in the Psalm it is written, With those who hated peace I was peaceable; when I spoke to them, they fought against me without cause (Ps 120:7 (119:7)). For this reason certain priests of your party have given us a command, saying, "Withdraw from our flocks, if you do not want us to kill you." How much more justly do we say to them: No, do not withdraw, but draw near in peace to the flocks—not ours, but his whose we all are; or, if you are unwilling and are at odds, withdraw yourselves rather from the flocks for which Christ shed his blood: which you therefore wish to make your own so that they may not be Christ's, although you try to possess them under his name; just as if a slave were to steal sheep from his master's flock, and were to stamp the mark of his own master upon whatever was born from them, lest his theft could be recognized. For thus did your forefathers: they separated from the Church of Christ peoples having the baptism of Christ, and whoever grew up among them, they baptized with the baptism of Christ. But the Lord both punishes thieves, if they do not correct themselves, and recalls the sheep from error to the flock, nor does he wipe out his own mark in them.
Ep100-155.1.11. 2. Dicitis nos traditores; quod nec maiores vestri in maiores nostros potuerunt, nec vos in nos probare ullo modo poteritis. Quid vobis vultis faciamus, qui quando vobis dicimus ut causam nostram et vestram patienter audiatis, non nostis nisi superbire et insanire? Nam utique ostenderemus vobis, quia potius illi traditores fuerunt, qui Caecilianum et socios eius quasi traditionis crimine damnaverunt. Et dicitis, recedite a plebibus nostris; quas docetis ut vobis credant, et Christo non credant. Vos enim eis dicitis, propter traditores, quos non ostenditis, remansisse Ecclesiam Christi in sola Africa partis Donati: quod non de Lege, non de Propheta, non de Psalmo, non de Apostolo, non de Evangelio, sed de corde vestro, et de parentum vestrorum calumniis recitatis. Christus autem dicit praedicari in nomine suo poenitentiam et remissionem peccatorum, per omnes gentes incipientibus ab Ierusalem: cui Ecclesiae ex ore Christi manifestatae vos non communicatis, et alios in vestram perditionem trahentes, liberari non vultis.
1. 2. You call us traitors; which neither could your forefathers prove against our forefathers, nor can you in any way prove against us. What do you want us to do for you, who, when we tell you to listen patiently to our cause and yours, know nothing but to be proud and to rage? For surely we would show you that they were rather the traitors who condemned Caecilian and his associates, as it were, on the charge of treachery. And you say, "Withdraw from our flocks"; flocks whom you teach to believe you and not to believe Christ. For you tell them that, on account of traitors whom you do not point out, the Church of Christ has remained in Africa alone, in the party of Donatus: which you recite not from the Law, not from the Prophet, not from the Psalm, not from the Apostle, not from the Gospel, but from your own heart and from the calumnies of your parents. But Christ says that repentance and remission of sins are to be preached in his name through all nations, beginning from Jerusalem (See Luke 24:47): with which Church, manifested from the mouth of Christ, you do not communicate, and, dragging others to your perdition, you are unwilling to be set free.
Ep100-155.1.22. 3. Si autem ideo vobis displicemus, quia per Imperatorum iussiones ad unitatem cogimini, hoc vos fecistis, qui ubicumque vellemus praedicare veritatem, ut eam quisque securus audiret et volens eligeret, numquam permisistis per violentias et terrores vestros. Nolite stridere, et perturbare animas vestras; patienter, si fieri potest, considerate quod dicimus, et recolite facta Circumcellionum vestrorum, et clericorum qui duces eorum semper fuerunt, et videbitis quae causa vobis hoc excitaverit. Unde iniuste querimini, quia vobis omnia ista ut iuberentur coegistis. Nam ut longe praeterita et multa non repetamus, saltem recentia facta vestra cogitate. Marcus presbyter Casphalianensis a nemine coactus, propria voluntate catholicus factus est. Quare illum vestri persecuti sunt, et pene occidissent, nisi Dei manus per homines supervenientes violentias eorum compressisset. Restitutus Victorianensis ad catholicam nullo cogente se transtulit. Quare raptus est de domo sua, caesus, in aqua volutatus, buda vestitus, et nescio quot dies in captivitate retentus est, nec libertati proprie fortasse restitutus esset, nisi iam pene propter ipsam causam Proculeianus sibi exhibitionem videret imminere. Marcianus Urgensis catholicam unitatem propria voluntate delegit. Quare subdiaconum eius, cum ipse fugisset, prope usque ad mortem caesum, clerici vestri lapidibus obruerunt, quorum domus pro suo scelere eversae sunt.
2. 3. But if we displease you for this reason, that you are compelled to unity by the commands of the Emperors, you yourselves did this, who never permitted us, wherever we wished to preach the truth—so that each might hear it secure and willing, and choose it—but always hindered us by your violences and terrors. Do not gnash and disturb your souls; consider patiently, if it can be done, what we say, and recall the deeds of your Circumcellions and of the clerics who were always their leaders, and you will see what cause has stirred this up for you. Whence you unjustly complain, because you yourselves compelled all these things to be commanded. For—not to repeat things long past and many—at least think on your recent deeds. Marcus, a priest of Casphalia, compelled by no one, of his own will became a Catholic. Why did your people persecute him and nearly kill him, had not the hand of God, through men coming up, checked their violences? Restitutus of Victoriana transferred himself to the Catholic Church with no one compelling him. Why was he seized from his house, beaten, rolled in water, clothed in reeds, and held in captivity I know not how many days, nor would perhaps have been restored to his own liberty, had not Proculeianus already seen that, on account of that very cause, an arraignment was hanging over him? Marcianus of Urga chose Catholic unity of his own will. Why did your clerics—when he himself had fled—beat his subdeacon nearly to death and overwhelm him with stones, clerics whose houses were overturned for their crime?
Ep100-155.2.32. 4. Quid amplius dicamus? Modo praeconem misistis, qui clamaret Siniti: Quisquis Maximino communicaverit, incendetur domus eius: qui antequam ipse ad Catholicam conversus esset, et nondum de transmarinis remeasset, ad quid aliud presbyterum Siniti miseramus, nisi ut nulli molestus nostros visitaret, et in domo iuris sui positus, pacem catholicam volentibus praedicaret? quem vos inde cum gravi iniuria proiecistis. Quid aliud agebamus, quando unus nostrum Calamensis episcopus Possidius ibat ad fundum Figulinensem, nisi ut nostri, quamvis pauci qui illic erant, visitarentur, et audito verbo Dei ad unitatem Christi qui vellent converterentur? Cui ambulanti viam suam, latronum more insidiati sunt, et quia in eorum insidias cadere non potuit, eum aperta violentia in fundo Livetensi pene vivum cum domo quo fugerat, incenderant, nisi tertio suppositas flammas coloni eiusdem fundi propter periculum suae salutis exstinguerent: et tamen cum Crispinus propter hoc factum in proconsulari iudicio convinceretur haereticus, eiusdem episcopi Possidii intercessu decem libras auri non est exactus. Cui benevolentiae et mansuetudini ingratus, ad imperatores catholicos ausus est appellare. Unde hanc in vos iram Dei, de qua murmuratis, multo importunius et vehementius provocavit.
2. 4. What more shall we say? Just now you sent a herald to cry out at Sinitis: "Whoever communicates with Maximinus, his house will be burned": Maximinus, who, before he himself was converted to the Catholic Church, and had not yet returned from overseas—for what else had we sent the priest of Sinitis, except that, troublesome to none, he might visit our own, and, placed in a house of his own right, preach Catholic peace to the willing? Whom you cast out from there with grave injury. What else were we doing when one of us, Possidius, bishop of Calama, went to the estate of Figulina, except that our people, however few were there, might be visited, and, having heard the word of God, those who wished might be converted to the unity of Christ? Who, as he walked his way, was ambushed in the manner of robbers, and because he could not fall into their ambushes, they had nearly burned him alive by open violence on the estate of Liveta, with the house to which he had fled, had not the tenants of that same estate, for the danger to their own safety, a third time put out the flames laid beneath. And yet, when Crispinus was on this account convicted in the proconsular court as a heretic, by the intercession of that same bishop Possidius the ten pounds of gold were not exacted. Ungrateful to this benevolence and gentleness, he dared to appeal to the Catholic emperors. Whence he provoked upon you this wrath of God, of which you murmur, much more unseasonably and vehemently.
Ep100-155.2.42. 5. Videtis quia vos contra pacem Christi violenter insurgitis, et patimini non pro ipso, sed pro iniquitatibus vestris. Quae est ista dementia, ut cum male vivitis, latronum facta faciatis; et cum iure punimini, gloriam martyrum requiratis? Si ergo vos privata vestra audacia tam violenter cogitis homines aut ire in errorem, aut permanere in errore; quanto magis nos debemus per ordinatissimas potestates, quas Deus secundum suam prophetiam subdidit Christo, resistere furoribus vestris, ut miserae animae de vestra dominatione liberatae, eruantur de vetustissima falsitate, et assuescant in apertissima veritate? Nam quod a nobis nolentes dicitis cogi, multi etiam se cogi volunt; quod nobis antea et postea confitentur, ut vel sic evadant oppressiones vestras.
2. 5. You see that you rise up violently against the peace of Christ, and that you suffer not for him but for your own iniquities. What madness is this, that, when you live badly, you do the deeds of robbers; and when you are rightly punished, you demand the glory of martyrs? If, then, you by your own private audacity so violently compel men either to go into error or to remain in error, how much more ought we, through the most well-ordered powers which God, according to his prophecy, subjected to Christ, to resist your furies, so that wretched souls, freed from your domination, may be rescued from the most ancient falsehood, and grow accustomed to the most open truth? For as to what you say, that men are compelled by us against their will, many even wish to be compelled; which they confess to us both before and after, so that even thus they may escape your oppressions.
Ep100-155.2.52. 6. Et tamen quid est melius, proferre veras Imperatorum iussiones pro unitate, an falsas indulgentias pro perversitate: quod vos fecistis, et mendacio vestro subito totam Africam implestis? In quo facto nihil aliud ostendistis, nisi partem Donati semper de mendacio praesumentem, omni vento iactari et circumferri, sicut scriptum est: Qui fidit in falsis, hic pascit ventos. Sicut enim vera fuit ista indulgentia, sic vera sunt crimina Caeciliani, et traditio Felicis Aptungensis, per quem ordinatus est, et quidquid aliud contra catholicos dicere consuevistis, ut a pace Ecclesiae Christi infelices separetis, et infeliciter separemini. De nulla quidem nos hominis potestate praesumimus, quamvis utique multo sit honestius praesumere de Imperatoribus quam praesumere de Circumcellionibus, praesumere de legibus quam praesumere de seditionibus. Sed meminimus scriptum esse: Maledictus omnis qui spem suam ponit in homine. Unde ergo praesumimus, si vultis nosse, illum cogitate de quo propheta praenuntiavit, dicens: Adorabunt eum omnes reges terrae, et omnes gentes servient illi. Et ideo hac Ecclesiae potestate utimur, quam ei Dominus et promisit et dedit.
2. 6. And yet which is better—to bring forward true commands of the Emperors for unity, or false indulgences for perversity, which you did, and with your lie suddenly filled all Africa? In which deed you showed nothing else than that the party of Donatus, always presuming on a lie, is tossed and carried about by every wind, as it is written, He who trusts in falsehoods feeds on winds (See Prov 10:4 (LXX); Hos 12:1). For just as that indulgence was true, so are the crimes of Caecilian true, and the treachery of Felix of Aptunga, by whom he was ordained, and whatever else you are accustomed to say against Catholics, so that you may separate the unhappy from the peace of the Church of Christ, and be unhappily separated. We presume on the power of no man, although it is surely far more honorable to presume on Emperors than to presume on Circumcellions, to presume on laws than to presume on seditions. But we remember that it is written, Cursed is everyone who places his hope in man (See Jer 17:5). Whence, then, we presume—if you wish to know—think of him of whom the prophet foretold, saying, All the kings of the earth will adore him, and all the nations will serve him (Ps 72:11 (71:11)). And therefore we use this power of the Church, which the Lord both promised and gave to her.
Ep100-155.2.62. 7. Imperatores enim si in errore essent, quod absit, pro errore suo contra veritatem leges darent, per quas iusti et probarentur et coronarentur, non faciendo quod illi iuberent, quia Deus prohiberet. Sicut iusserat Nabuchodonosor ut aurea statua adoraretur; quod qui facere noluerunt, Deo talia prohibenti placuerunt. Quando autem Imperatores veritatem tenent, pro ipsa veritate contra errorem iubent, quod quisquis contempserit, ipse sibi iudicium acquirit. Nam et inter homines poenas luit, et apud Deum frontem non habebit, qui hoc facere noluit, quod ei per cor regis ipsa veritas iussit. Sicut ipse Nabuchodonosor postea miraculo salutis trium puerorum commotus atque mutatus, pro veritate contra errorem edictum proposuit, ut quicumque blasphemarent Deum Sidrach, Misach et Abdenago, in interitum irent, et domus eorum in dispersionem: et non vultis ut tale aliquid contra vos iubeant imperatores Christiani, cum sciant a vobis, in eis quos rebaptizatis, Christum exsufflari? Si iussiones regum non pertinent ad praedicandam religionem et sacrilegia prohibenda, quare ad edictum regis talia iubentis etiam ipsi vos signatis? An ignoratis verba regis esse: Signa et ostenta quae fecit mihi Dominus Deus excelsus, placuit mihi in conspectu meo annuntiare, quam magnum et potens sit regnum eius, regnum sempiternum et potestas eius in saecula saeculorum ? An cum hoc audieritis, non respondetis: Amen; et hoc dicto clara voce ad edictum regis, vos in sancta solemnitate signatis ? Sed modo quia nihil apud Imperatores potestis, nobis inde vultis facere invidiam. Si autem aliquid possetis, quanta faceretis; quando nihil potestis, et non cessatis!
2. 7. For if the Emperors were in error—which God forbid—they would give laws on behalf of their error against the truth, by which the just would be both tested and crowned, by not doing what those Emperors commanded, because God forbade it. As Nebuchadnezzar had commanded that the golden statue be adored; and those who were unwilling to do this pleased God, who forbade such things. But when the Emperors hold the truth, they command on behalf of that very truth against error; and whoever despises this acquires judgment for himself. For he both pays penalties among men, and will have no countenance before God, who was unwilling to do what the very truth, through the heart of the king, commanded him. As Nebuchadnezzar himself afterward, moved and changed by the miracle of the deliverance of the three young men, set forth an edict on behalf of the truth against error, that whoever blasphemed the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego should go to destruction, and their houses to ruin: and do you not wish that the Christian emperors should command some such thing against you, when they know that by you, in those whom you rebaptize, Christ is blown away in derision? If the commands of kings do not pertain to the preaching of religion and the prohibiting of sacrileges, why do you yourselves even sign yourselves at the edict of a king commanding such things? Or do you not know that the words of the king are: The signs and wonders which the Lord the most high God has done for me, it has pleased me to announce in my sight, how great and mighty is his kingdom, an everlasting kingdom, and his power for ages of ages (Dan 3:99-100 (Vg); 4:2-3)? And when you have heard this, do you not answer "Amen"; and, this said with a clear voice at the edict of the king, do you not sign yourselves in holy solemnity? But now, because you can do nothing with the Emperors, you wish to make us odious for it. But if you could do anything, how much would you do; when you can do nothing, even so you do not cease!
Ep100-155.2.72. 8. Scitote quod primi maiores vestri causam Caeciliani ad imperatorem Constantinum detulerunt. Exigite hoc a nobis, probemus vobis; et si non probaverimus, facite de nobis quidquid potueritis. Sed quia Constantinus non est ausus de causa episcopi iudicare, eam discutiendam atque finiendam episcopis delegavit. Quod et factum est in urbe Roma praesidente Melchiade episcopo illius Ecclesiae cum multis collegis suis. Qui cum Caecilianum innocentem pronuntiassent, et Donatum qui schisma Carthagini fecerat, sententia percussissent, iterum vestri ad Imperatorem venerunt, de iudicio episcoporum, in quo victi fuerant, murmurarunt. Quomodo enim potest malus litigator laudare iudices, quibus iudicantibus victus est? Iterum tamen clementissimus Imperator alios iudices episcopos dedit apud Arelatum galliae civitatem, et ab ipsis vestri ad ipsum Imperatorem appellarunt, donec etiam ipse causam cognosceret, et Caecilianum innocentem, illos calumniosos pronuntiaret. Nec sic toties victi quieverunt, sed de Felice Aptungitano, per quem Caecilianus fuerat ordinatus, quotidianis interpellationibus ipsi Imperatori taedium fecerunt, dicentes eum esse traditorem: et ideo Caecilianum episcopum esse non posse, quod a traditore fuerit ordinatus; donec et ipse Felix iussu Imperatoris causa cognita ab Aeliano proconsule innocens probaretur.
2. 8. Know that your first forefathers brought the cause of Caecilian to the emperor Constantine. Demand this proof of us, and we will prove it to you; and if we do not prove it, do with us whatever you can. But because Constantine did not dare to judge the cause of a bishop, he delegated it to bishops to be examined and concluded. And this was done in the city of Rome, Melchiades, bishop of that Church, presiding with many of his colleagues. And when they had pronounced Caecilian innocent, and had struck with their sentence Donatus, who had made the schism at Carthage, again your people came to the Emperor, murmured about the judgment of the bishops, in which they had been defeated. For how can a bad litigant praise the judges by whose judgment he was defeated? Yet again the most merciful Emperor gave other bishops as judges at Arles, a city of Gaul, and from them your people appealed to the Emperor himself, until he too should examine the cause, and pronounce Caecilian innocent and them calumniators. Nor, defeated so often, did they thus rest, but about Felix of Aptunga, by whom Caecilian had been ordained, they wearied the Emperor himself with daily appeals, saying that he was a traitor, and that therefore Caecilian could not be a bishop, since he had been ordained by a traitor; until Felix himself too, by the Emperor's command, his cause examined by the proconsul Aelianus, was proved innocent.
Ep100-155.2.82. 9. Tunc Constantinus prior contra partem Donati severissimam legem dedit. Hunc imitati filii eius, talia praeceperunt. Quibus succedens Iulianus desertor Christi et inimicus, supplicantibus vestris Rogatiano et Pontio, libertatem perditionis parti Donati permisit: denique tunc reddidit basilicas haereticis, quando templa daemoniis, eo modo putans christianum nomen posse perire de terris, si unitati Ecclesiae de qua lapsus fuerat, invideret, et sacrilegas dissensiones liberas esse permitteret. Haec erat eius praedicanda iustitia, quam supplicantes Rogatianus et Pontius laudaverunt, dicentes homini apostatae, quod apud eum sola iustitia haberet locum. Huic successit Iovianus, qui quoniam cito mortuus est, nihil de rebus talibus iussit. Deinde Valentinianus; legite quae contra vos iusserit. Inde Gratianus et Theodosius; legite quando vultis, quae de vobis constituerint. Quid ergo de filiis Theodosii miramini, quasi aliud in hac causa sequi debuerint, quam Constantini iudicium per tot christianos imperatores firmissime custoditum?
2. 9. Then Constantine was the first to give a most severe law against the party of Donatus. His sons, imitating him, ordained such things. Succeeding them, Julian, deserter of Christ and enemy, at the supplication of your Rogatianus and Pontius, permitted the liberty of perdition to the party of Donatus: in short, he then gave back the basilicas to heretics when he gave the temples to demons, thinking that in this way the Christian name could perish from the earth, if he favored the unity of the Church from which he had lapsed with envy, and permitted sacrilegious dissensions to be free. This was that justice of his to be proclaimed, which the supplicating Rogatianus and Pontius praised, saying to the apostate man that with him alone justice had a place. To him succeeded Jovian, who, because he died quickly, commanded nothing about such matters. Then Valentinian; read what he commanded against you. Then Gratian and Theodosius; read, when you will, what they enacted about you. Why, then, do you wonder at the sons of Theodosius, as though they ought to follow in this cause anything other than the judgment of Constantine, most firmly kept through so many Christian emperors?
Ep100-155.2.92. 10. Ad Constantinum autem, sicut diximus, sicut vobis quando vultis, si tamen ignoratis, ostendimus, maiores vestri causam Caeciliani ultro detulerunt. Defunctus est Constantinus, sed iudicium Constantini contra vos vivit, quo vestri causam miserunt, apud quem iudices episcopos reprehenderunt, ad quem a iudicibus episcopis appellaverunt, quem taediosissime de Felice Aptungitano interpellaverunt, a quo toties convicti et confusi redierunt, et a pernicie furoris et animositatis suae non recesserunt; eamque vobis post. eris suis haereditariam reliquerunt, ut tam impudenter de iussionibus christianorum imperatorum faciatis invidiam, cum si vobis liceret, non quidem iam Constantinum christianum, quia veritati favit, contra nos interpellaretis, sed apostatam Iulianum ab inferis excitaretis; quasi vero si aliquid tale contingeret, esset magnum malum nisi vobis. Quae est enim peior mors animae, quam libertas erroris?
2. 10. But to Constantine, as we have said—as we show you whenever you wish, if indeed you are ignorant of it—your forefathers brought the cause of Caecilian of their own accord. Constantine is dead, but the judgment of Constantine lives against you: to whom your people sent their cause, before whom they reproached the bishops who were judges, to whom they appealed from the bishops who were judges, whom they most wearisomely importuned about Felix of Aptunga, from whom, so often convicted and confounded, they returned, and did not withdraw from the ruin of their fury and animosity; and they left it to you, their successors, as a hereditary thing, so impudently to make odious the commands of Christian emperors—when, if it were permitted you, you would now importune against us, not indeed Constantine the Christian, because he favored truth, but you would rouse the apostate Julian from the dead; as though, indeed, if anything of the sort happened, it would be a great evil except to you. For what is a worse death of the soul than the liberty of error?
Ep100-155.2.103. 11. Sed iam tollamus ista omnia de medio; amemus pacem, quam omnis doctus et indoctus intellegit praeponendam esse discordiae, diligamus et teneamus unitatem. Hoc iubent imperatores, quod iubet et Christus; quia cum bonum iubent, per illos non iubet nisi Christus. Et nos etiam per Apostolum obsecrat, ut idipsum dicamus omnes, et non sint in nobis schismata, neque dicamus, Ego quidem sum Pauli, ego autem Apollo, ego vero Cephae, ego autem Christi; sed simul omnes non simus nisi Christi, quia nec divisus est Christus, nec Paulus crucifixus est pro nobis; quanto minus Donatus? nec in nomine Pauli baptizati sumus; quanto minus in Donati? Hoc dicunt et Imperatores, quia christiani catholici sunt, non idolorum servi, sicut vester Iulianus; non haeretici, sicut quidam fuerunt et Ecclesiam catholicam persecuti sunt, quando veri christiani non pro haeretico errore poenas iustissimas sicut vos, sed pro catholica veritate passiones gloriosissimas pertulerunt.
3. 11. But now let us take all these things out of the way; let us love peace, which everyone learned and unlearned understands is to be preferred to discord; let us love and hold unity. This the emperors command, which Christ also commands; for when they command good, it is none but Christ who commands through them. And he beseeches us also through the Apostle, that we all say the same thing, and that there be no schisms among us, and that we not say, I indeed am of Paul, but I of Apollos, and I of Cephas, but I of Christ (1 Cor 1:12); but that all of us together be none but Christ's, since neither is Christ divided, nor was Paul crucified for us (See 1 Cor 1:13); how much less Donatus? Nor were we baptized in the name of Paul; how much less in that of Donatus? This the emperors too say, because they are Catholic Christians, not servants of idols, like your Julian; not heretics, like certain ones who were such and persecuted the Catholic Church, when the true Christians endured, not most just penalties for heretical error, as you do, but most glorious sufferings for Catholic truth.
Ep100-155.3.113. 12. Attendite quam manifestissima veritate per cor regis, quod in manu Dei est, ipse Deus dixerit in ista ipsa lege quam contra vos prolatam dicitis; est autem, si intellegatis, prolata pro vobis. Attendite quid habeant verba principis: "Nam si in eis qui primo initiati sunt, idcirco religio Baptismatis iudicatur infirma, quod ii a quibus accipitur peccatores putentur, toties renovari necesse erit traditum Sacramentum, quoties indignus fuerit inventus collati Baptismatis administrator, et fides nostra non ex nostrae voluntatis arbitrio, neque ex divini muneris gratia, sed ex meritis sacerdotum et clericorum qualitate pendebit". Faciant mille concilia episcopi vestri, huic uni sententiae respondeant, et ad quod volueritis consentimus vobis. Videte enim quam perverse et impie dicatur, quod dicere soletis, quia si bonus sit homo, ipse sanctificat eum quem baptizat; si autem malus sit, et nesciat ille qui baptizatur, tunc Deus sanctificat. Hoc si verum est, optare ergo debent homines, ut a malis ignoratis baptizentur, potius quam a notis bonis, ut magis a Deo quam ab homine possint sanctificari: sed absit a nobis ista dementia. Quare ergo non verum dicimus, et recte sapimus, quia semper Dei est illa gratia et Dei Sacramentum, hominis autem solum ministerium; qui si bonus est, adhaeret Deo, et operatur cum Deo; si autem malus est, operatur per illum Deus visibilem Sacramenti formam, ipse autem donat invisibilem gratiam. Hoc sapiamus omnes, et non sint in nobis schismata.
3. 12. Attend with how most manifest a truth, through the heart of the king, which is in the hand of God, God himself has spoken in this very law which you say was brought forth against you; but it is, if you understand, brought forth for you. Attend to what the words of the prince contain: "For if, in those who were first initiated, the religion of Baptism is for that reason judged weak, that those from whom it is received are thought to be sinners, the Sacrament that has been handed on will have to be renewed as often as the administrator of the conferred Baptism is found unworthy, and our faith will depend not on the choice of our own will, nor on the grace of the divine gift, but on the merits of priests and the quality of clerics." Let your bishops make a thousand councils; let them answer this one sentence, and we agree with you on whatever you wish. For see how perversely and impiously is said what you are accustomed to say, that if the man is good, he himself sanctifies the one he baptizes; but if he is bad, and the one who is baptized does not know it, then God sanctifies. If this is true, then men ought to wish to be baptized by unknown bad men rather than by known good ones, so that they may be sanctified by God rather than by man: but far be this madness from us. Why, then, do we not speak the truth and think rightly—that that grace is always God's and the Sacrament God's, but the man's is only the ministry; who, if he is good, cleaves to God and works with God; but if he is bad, God works the visible form of the Sacrament through him, while he himself gives the invisible grace? This let us all think, and let there be no schisms among us.
Ep100-155.3.124. 13. Concordate nobiscum, fratres; diligimus vos, hoc vobis volumus quod et nobis. Si propterea nos gravius odistis, quia errare vos et perire non permittimus, hoc Deo dicite, quem timemus minantem malis pastoribus, et dicentem: Quod erraverat, non revocastis, et quod perierat, non inquisistis. Hoc vobis per nos Deus ipse facit, sive obsecrando, sive minando, sive corripiendo, sive damnis, sive laboribus, sive per suas occultas admonitiones vel visitationes, sive per potestatum temporalium leges. Intellegite quid vobiscum agatur; perire vos non vult Deus in sacrilega discordia alienatos a matre vestra Catholica. Nihil in nos aliquando probare potuistis; vestri episcopi conventi a nobis, numquam nobiscum pacifice conferre voluerunt, quasi fugientes cum peccatoribus loqui. Quis ferat istam superbiam? quasi Paulus apostolus non contulerit cum peccatoribus et cum valde sacrilegis: legite Actus Apostolorum, et videte. Quasi ipse Dominus non cum Iudaeis, a quibus crucifixus est, sermones de Lege habuerit, eisque congruenter responderit. Postremo diabolus est primus omnium peccatorum, qui converti ad iustitiam numquam poterit, et tamen nec ipse Dominus de Lege dedignatus est ei respondere; ut intellegatis istos ideo nobiscum nolle conferre, quia causam suam perditam norunt.
4. 13. Be of one accord with us, brethren; we love you, we wish for you what we wish for ourselves. If you hate us the more gravely for this, that we do not permit you to err and perish, say this to God, whom we fear threatening the bad shepherds and saying, What had strayed you did not recall, and what had perished you did not seek out (See Ezek 34:4). This God himself does for you through us, whether by entreating, or by threatening, or by rebuking, or by losses, or by labors, or through his hidden admonitions or visitations, or through the laws of the temporal powers. Understand what is being done with you; God does not wish you to perish, estranged from your Catholic mother in sacrilegious discord. You could never prove anything against us; your bishops, when met by us, never wished to confer with us peaceably, as though fleeing to speak with sinners. Who could bear this pride? As though the apostle Paul did not confer with sinners and with the very sacrilegious: read the Acts of the Apostles, and see. As though the Lord himself did not have discourses about the Law with the Jews, by whom he was crucified, and answer them fittingly. Finally, the devil is the first of all sinners, who can never be turned to righteousness, and yet not even the Lord himself disdained to answer him about the Law; that you may understand that they refuse to confer with us for this reason, that they know their cause is lost.
Ep100-155.4.134. 14. Nos ignoramus quid adversus seipsos homines iactent, qui calumniosis dissensionibus gaudent. In Scripturis discimus Christum, in Scripturis discimus Ecclesiam. Has Scripturas communiter habemus, quare non in eis et Christum et Ecclesiam communiter retinemus? Nos ubi agnovimus eum de quo dicit Apostolus: Abrahae dictae sunt promissiones et semini eius; non dicit: Et seminibus, tamquam in multis; sed tamquam in uno, Et semini tuo, quod est Christus; ibi agnovimus Ecclesiam, de qua dicit Deus ad Abraham: In semine tuo benedicentur omnes gentes. Ubi agnovimus Christum in Psalmo de se prophetantem: Dominus dixit ad me, Filius meus es tu; ego hodie genui te; ibi agnovimus Ecclesiam, in eo quod sequitur: Postula a me, et dabo tibi gentes haereditatem tuam, et possessionem tuam terminos terrae. Ubi agnovimus Christum in eo quod scriptum est: Deus deorum Dominus locutus est; ibi agnovimus et Ecclesiam in eo quod sequitur: Et vocavi, terram a solis ortu usque ad occasum. Ubi agnovimus Christum in eo quod scriptum est: Et ipse tamquam sponsus procedens de thalamo suo, exsultavit ut gigas ad currendam viam; ibi agnovimus et Ecclesiam in eo quod paulo superius dicitur: In omnem terram exivit sonus eorum, et in fines orbis terrae verba eorum. In sole posuit tabernaculum suum. Ipsa est Ecclesia in sole posita, hoc est in manifestatione omnibus nota, usque ad terminos terrae. Ubi agnovimus Christum in eo quod scriptum est: Foderunt manus meas, et pedes, dinumeraverunt omnia ossa mea; ipsi vero consideraverunt et aspexerunt me, diviserunt sibi vestimenta mea, et super vestimentum meum miserunt sortem; ibi agnovimus et Ecclesiam in eo quod paulo post in psalmo ipso dicitur: Commemorabuntur et convertentur ad Dominum universi fines terrae, et adorabunt in conspectu eius universae patriae gentium: quoniam Domini est regnum, et ipse dominabitur gentium. Ubi agnovimus Christum in eo quod scriptum est: Exaltare super coelos, Deus; ibi agnovimus et Ecclesiam in eo quod sequitur, et super omnem terram gloria tua. Ubi agnovimus Christum in eo quod scriptum est: Deus, iudicium tuum regi da, et iustitiam tuam filio regis; ibi agnovimus et Ecclesiam in eo quod de illo in psalmo ipso dicitur: Et dominabitur a mari usque ad mare, et a flumine usque ad terminos orbis terrarum. Coram illo procident Aethiopes, et inimici eius terram lingent. Reges Tharsis et insulae munera offerent; reges Arabum et Saba dona adducent; et adorabunt eum omnes reges terrae, omnes gentes servient illi.
4. 14. We do not know what men boast against themselves who rejoice in calumnious dissensions. In the Scriptures we learn Christ, in the Scriptures we learn the Church. These Scriptures we hold in common; why do we not hold in them both Christ and the Church in common? Where we have recognized him of whom the Apostle says, The promises were made to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say, And to seeds, as of many, but as of one, And to your seed, which is Christ (Gal 3:16)—there we have recognized the Church, of which God says to Abraham, In your seed all nations will be blessed (Gen 22:18). Where we have recognized Christ prophesying of himself in the Psalm, The Lord said to me, You are my Son; today I have begotten you (Ps 2:7)—there we have recognized the Church, in that which follows, Ask of me, and I will give you the nations as your inheritance, and the ends of the earth as your possession (Ps 2:8). Where we have recognized Christ in that which is written, The God of gods, the Lord, has spoken—there we have recognized the Church too, in that which follows, and has called the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting (Ps 50:1 (49:1)). Where we have recognized Christ in that which is written, And he, like a bridegroom coming forth from his chamber, has exulted like a giant to run his course (Ps 19:5 (18:6))—there we have recognized the Church too, in that which is said a little above, Their sound went out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world. In the sun he has set his tabernacle (Ps 19:4 (18:5)). This is the Church set in the sun, that is, in a manifestation known to all, to the ends of the earth. Where we have recognized Christ in that which is written, They pierced my hands and feet, they numbered all my bones; but they themselves considered and looked upon me, they divided my garments among themselves, and over my clothing they cast lots (Ps 22:16-18 (21:17-19))—there we have recognized the Church too, in that which is said a little after in the same psalm, All the ends of the earth will remember and be turned to the Lord, and all the families of the nations will worship in his sight; for the kingdom is the Lord's, and he will rule over the nations (Ps 22:27-28 (21:28-29)). Where we have recognized Christ in that which is written, Be exalted above the heavens, O God—there we have recognized the Church too, in that which follows, and over all the earth be your glory (Ps 57:5 (56:6)). Where we have recognized Christ in that which is written, O God, give your judgment to the king, and your justice to the king's son (Ps 72:1 (71:1))—there we have recognized the Church too, in that which is said of him in the same psalm, And he will rule from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the world. Before him the Ethiopians will fall down, and his enemies will lick the earth. The kings of Tarshish and the islands will offer gifts; the kings of the Arabs and of Saba will bring presents; and all the kings of the earth will adore him, all nations will serve him (Ps 72:8-11 (71:8-11)).
Ep100-155.4.144. 15. Ubi agnovimus Christum in eo quod scriptum est, lapidem de monte sine manibus praecisum, fregisse omnia regna terrarum, utique illa quae de culturis daemonum praesumebant; ibi agnovimus et Ecclesiam in eo quod dictum est, lapidem ipsum crevisse, et factum montem magnum, et replevisse omnem terram. Ubi agnovimus Christum in eo quod scriptum est: Praevalebit Dominus adversus eos, et exterminabit omnes deos gentium terrae; ibi agnovimus et Ecclesiam in eo quod illic sequitur: Et adorabunt in conspectu eius unusquisque de loco suo omnes insulae gentium. Ubi agnovimus Christum in eo quod scriptum est: Deus ab Africo veniet, et sanctus de monte umbroso; operiet coelos virtus eius; ibi agnovimus Ecclesiam in eo quod sequitur: Et laudis eius plena est terra. Ab Africo enim posita est Ierusalem, sicut legitur in libro Iesu Nave, unde nomen Christi diffusum est; et ibi est mons umbrosus, mons Oliveti, unde ascendit in coelum ut cooperiret coelos virtus eius, et impleretur Ecclesia per omnem terram laudis eius. Ubi agnovimus Christum in eo quod scriptum est: Sicut ovis ad immolandum ductus est, et sicut agnus coram tondente se fuit sine voce, sic non aperuit os suum, et caetera quae illic de eius passione dicuntur; ibi agnovimus et Ecclesiam in eo quod illic dicitur: Laetare sterilis, quae non paris; erumpe et exclama, quae non parturis; quoniam multi filii desertae, magis quam eius quae habet virum. Dixit enim Dominus: Dilata locum tabernaculi tui, et aulaeas tuas confige, non est quod parcas. Porrige longius funiculos, et palos validos confirma; etiam atque etiam in dexteram atque sinistram extende. Semen enim tuum haereditabit gentes, et civitates, quae desertae erant, inhabitabis. Non est quod metuas, praevalebis enim; nec erubescas quod detestabilis fueris. Confusionem enim in perpetuum oblivisceris, ignominiae viduitatis tuae non eris memor; quoniam ego sum Dominus, qui feci te, Dominus nomen ei: et qui eruit te, ipse Deus Israel universae terrae vocabitur.
4. 15. Where we have recognized Christ in that which is written, that a stone cut from the mountain without hands broke all the kingdoms of the earth—those, namely, which presumed on the worship of demons—there we have recognized the Church too, in that which was said, that the stone itself grew and became a great mountain and filled the whole earth (See Dan 2:34-35). Where we have recognized Christ in that which is written, The Lord will prevail against them, and will destroy all the gods of the nations of the earth—there we have recognized the Church too, in that which there follows, And they will worship in his sight, each one from his own place, all the islands of the nations (Zeph 2:11). Where we have recognized Christ in that which is written, God will come from the south, and the holy one from the shady mountain; his power will cover the heavens—there we have recognized the Church, in that which follows, and the earth is full of his praise (Hab 3:3). For Jerusalem is set to the south, as is read in the book of Joshua son of Nun, whence the name of Christ was spread abroad; and there is the shady mountain, the Mount of Olives, whence he ascended into heaven so that his power might cover the heavens, and the Church be filled with his praise throughout all the earth. Where we have recognized Christ in that which is written, Like a sheep he was led to be slaughtered, and like a lamb before its shearer he was without voice, so he opened not his mouth (Isa 53:7), and the rest which is said there of his passion—there we have recognized the Church too, in that which is said there, Rejoice, O barren one who do not bear; break forth and cry out, you who do not travail; for many are the children of the desolate, more than of her who has a husband. For the Lord has said: Enlarge the place of your tabernacle, and fix your curtains, do not spare. Stretch out your cords farther, and make firm strong stakes; again and again to the right and to the left extend them. For your seed will inherit the nations, and you will inhabit the cities which were desolate. Do not fear, for you will prevail; and do not blush that you were detestable. For you will forget your confusion forever, you will not be mindful of the disgrace of your widowhood; for I am the Lord who made you, the Lord is his name; and he who rescued you, he, the God of Israel, will be called the God of all the earth (Isa 54:1-5).
Ep100-155.4.155. 16. Non novimus quid de traditoribus dicatis, quos numquam convincere, numquam ostendere potuistis. Non dico quia vestri potius in tali crimine detecti et confessi manifestantur: quid ad nos pertinet de sarcinis alienis? nisi ut quos possumus corrigamus, vel correptione vel quacumque disciplina in spiritu mansuetudinis et diligentia charitatis; quos autem corrigere non valemus, etiamsi necessitas cogit pro salute caeterorum ut Dei Sacramenta nobiscum communicent, peccatis tamen eorum non communicemus, quod non fit nisi consentiendo et favendo. Sic enim eos in isto mundo, in quo Ecclesia catholica per omnes gentes diffunditur, quem agrum suum Dominus dicit, tamquam zizania inter triticum, vel in hac unitatis area tamquam paleam permixtam frumento, vel intra retia verbi et Sacramenti tamquam malos pisces cum bonis inclusos, usque ad tempus messis, aut ventilationis aut littoris, toleramus, ne propter illos eradicemus et triticum, aut grana nuda ante tempus de area separata, non in horreum mittenda purgemus, sed volatilibus colligenda proiciamus; aut disruptis per schismata retibus, dum quasi malos pisces cavemus, in mare perniciosae libertatis exeamus. Propter hoc enim his atque aliis similitudinibus Dominus servorum suorum tolerantiam confirmavit, ne dum se boni putant malorum permixtione culpari, per humanas et temerarias dissensiones aut parvulos perdant, aut parvuli pereant. Quod usque adeo coelestis magister cavendum praemonuit, ut etiam de praepositis malis plebem securam faceret, ne propter illos doctrinae salutaris cathedra desereretur, in qua coguntur etiam mali bona dicere. Neque enim sua sunt quae dicunt, sed Dei, qui in cathedra unitatis doctrinam posuit veritatis. Proinde ille verax et ipsa veritas, de praepositis sua mala facientibus, et Dei bona dicentibus ait: Quae dicunt, facite; quae autem faciunt, facere nolite: dicunt enim, et non faciunt. Non utique diceret, Quae faciunt, facere nolite, nisi manifesta essent mala quae faciunt.
5. 16. We do not know what you say about traitors, whom you could never convict, never point out. I do not say that your own people are rather shown to be detected and confessed in such a crime: what does it pertain to us about the burdens of others? Except that we should correct those whom we can, whether by rebuke or by any discipline in the spirit of gentleness and the diligence of love; but those whom we cannot correct, even if necessity compels, for the salvation of the rest, that they share the Sacraments of God with us, yet let us not share in their sins, which happens only by consenting and favoring. For thus, in this world in which the Catholic Church is spread through all nations—which the Lord calls his field—we tolerate them as tares among the wheat, or in this threshing floor of unity as chaff mixed with the grain, or within the nets of the word and Sacrament as bad fish enclosed with the good, until the time of harvest, or of winnowing, or of the shore; lest on their account we uproot the wheat too, or, separating the bare grains from the threshing floor before the time—grains not to be sent into the granary—we cast them out to be gathered by the birds; or, the nets burst by schisms, while we beware, as it were, of the bad fish, we go out into the sea of pernicious liberty. For on this account, by these and other likenesses, the Lord confirmed the tolerance of his servants, lest, while the good think themselves blamed by the admixture of the bad, they either, through human and rash dissensions, lose the little ones, or the little ones perish. And the heavenly Master warned so far that this is to be guarded against that he made the people secure even about bad rulers, lest on their account the chair of wholesome teaching be deserted, in which even the bad are compelled to say good things. For what they say is not their own but God's, who set in the chair of unity the teaching of truth. Accordingly, that truthful one, and truth itself, says of rulers who do their own evil things and say God's good things: Do what they say; but what they do, do not do: for they say and do not do (Matt 23:3). He surely would not say, "What they do, do not do," unless the things they did were manifestly evil.
Ep100-155.5.165. 17. Non ergo propter malos in mala dissensione pereamus: quamvis vestros maiores non exsecratores malorum, sed accusatores innocentium fuisse, si velitis possimus ostendere. Sed quicumque illi et qualescumque fuerint, portent sarcinas suas. Ecce Scripturae communes, ecce ubi novimus Christum, ecce ubi novimus Ecclesiam. Si Christum ipsum tenetis, ipsam Ecclesiam quare non tenetis? Si in ipsum Christum quem legitis, et non videtis, tamen propter veritatem Scripturarum creditis; quare Ecclesiam negatis, quam et legitis et videtis? Haec vobis dicendo et ad hoc bonum pacis et unitatis et charitatis vos compellendo, inimici vobis facti sumus; et mandatis quia occidetis nos qui veritatem vobis dicimus, et in errore vos perire quantum possumus non permittimus. Vindicet nos Deus de vobis, ut ipsum errorem vestrum in vobis occidat, et nobiscum de veritate gaudeatis. Amen.
5. 17. Let us not, then, on account of the bad, perish in bad dissension: although we could show, if you wish, that your forefathers were not execrators of the bad but accusers of the innocent. But whoever and of whatever sort they were, let them bear their own burdens. Behold the Scriptures held in common; behold where we know Christ; behold where we know the Church. If you hold Christ himself, why do you not hold the Church herself? If you believe in Christ himself, whom you read of and do not see, yet on account of the truth of the Scriptures, why do you deny the Church, which you both read of and see? By saying these things to you, and by compelling you to this good of peace and unity and love, we have become enemies to you; and you command that you will kill us, who tell you the truth and do not, as far as we can, permit you to perish in error. May God avenge us upon you, so that he may kill that very error of yours within you, and you may rejoice with us in the truth. Amen.
Ep100-155.5.17EPISTOLA 106
DOMINO FRATRI DILECTO MACROBIO, AUGUSTINUS
DOMINO FRATRI DILECTO MACROBIO, AUGUSTINUS
LETTER 106
To his beloved lord and brother Macrobius, Augustine
Ep100-155.5.17To his beloved lord and brother Macrobius, Augustine
1. Audivi quod quemdam subdiaconum nostrum rebaptizare disponis. Noli: sic Deo vivas, sic Deo placeas, sic Christi Sacramenta non inaniter habeas, sic non in aeternum a Christi corpore separeris. Noli, rogo te, frater, pro teipso te magis rogo; certe paululum attende quod dico. Felicianus Mustitanus Primianum Carthaginensem damnavit, et vicissim ab illo etiam ipse damnatus est. Diu Felicianus in sacrilego Maximiani schismate fuit, multos ibi per suas Ecclesias baptizavit, modo cum Primiano vester episcopus, sed et neminem post eum baptizans. Qua ergo licentia post nos adhuc rebaptizandum putatis? Hanc mihi solve quaestionem, et me baptiza: si hanc autem solvere non potes, parce alienae animae, parce tuae. Aut si me de Feliciano falsum dixisse arguis, exige ut probem; certe si non probavero, tunc fac quod putas. Addo etiam, si non probavero, non sim episcopus communionis meae; si autem probavero, noli esse inimicus salutis tuae. Opto te, domine frater, in pace esse nobiscum.
1. I have heard that you are arranging to rebaptize a certain subdeacon of ours. Do not: so may you live for God, so may you please God, so may you have the Sacraments of Christ not in vain, so may you not be separated from the body of Christ forever. Do not, I beg you, brother; rather I ask it of you for your own sake; at least attend a little to what I say. Felician of Mustis condemned Primian of Carthage, and was in turn condemned by him. For a long time Felician was in the sacrilegious schism of Maximian, and there baptized many through his churches; now he is your bishop along with Primian, but he baptizes no one after him. By what license, then, do you think there should still be rebaptizing after us? Solve this question for me, and baptize me; but if you cannot solve it, spare another's soul, spare your own. Or if you charge that I have spoken falsely about Felician, demand that I prove it; surely if I do not prove it, then do what you think. I add even this: if I do not prove it, may I not be a bishop of my own communion; but if I do prove it, do not be an enemy of your own salvation. I wish, lord brother, that you be at peace with us.
Ep100-155.1EPISTOLA 107
DOMINO BEATISSIMO ET VENERABILI MULTUMQUE DESIDERABILI PATRI AUGUSTINO MAXIMUS ET THEODORUS, IN DOMINO SALUTEM
DOMINO BEATISSIMO ET VENERABILI MULTUMQUE DESIDERABILI PATRI AUGUSTINO MAXIMUS ET THEODORUS, IN DOMINO SALUTEM
LETTER 107
To the most blessed and venerable and much-longed-for father Augustine, Maximus and Theodore send greetings in the Lord
Ep100-155.1To the most blessed and venerable and much-longed-for father Augustine, Maximus and Theodore send greetings in the Lord
1. Ex praecepto Sanctitatis tuae ad episcopum Macrobium perreximus; ad quem cum litteras Beatitudinis tuae perferremus, primo negavit se ne eidem legerentur. Deinde aliquando ex nostra suggestione commotus, easdem sibi voluit recitari quibus relectis ait: "Non possum nisi ad me venientes suscipere, et iisdem fidem quam postulaverint dare." Cum autem a nobis eidem diceretur quid de facto Primiani diceret, dixit se nuper ordinatum patris sui iudicem esse non posse, sed in id quod a prioribus suis acceperit permanere. Quod necesse habuimus his litteris Sanctitati tuae significare. Beatitudinem tuam nobis Dominus custodiat, domine pater.
1. At the command of Your Holiness we went to bishop Macrobius; and when we brought him the letter of Your Beatitude, he at first refused to have it read to him. Then, at length moved by our suggestion, he wished it to be recited to him; and when it had been read, he said: "I cannot but receive those who come to me, and give them the faith they have asked for." But when he was asked by us what he would say about Primian's deed, he said that he, recently ordained, could not be the judge of his own father, but that he remained in what he had received from his predecessors. This we had to make known to Your Holiness by this letter. May the Lord guard Your Beatitude for us, lord father.
Ep100-155.1EPISTOLA 108
DOMINO FRATRI DILECTO MACROBIO, AUGUSTINUS
DOMINO FRATRI DILECTO MACROBIO, AUGUSTINUS
LETTER 108
To his beloved lord and brother Macrobius, Augustine
Ep100-155.1To his beloved lord and brother Macrobius, Augustine
1. 1. Carissimi filii mei, honorabiles viri, cum ad tuam Benevolentiam attulissent litteras meas, quibus admonui rogavique te, ne subdiaconum nostrum rebaptizares, rescripserunt mihi te respondisse: Non possum nisi ad me venientes suscipere, et eis fidem quam postulaverint dare: et tamen si ad te venerit in vestra communione baptizatus, qui diu a vobis separatus fuit, et per ignorantiam se putaverit denuo baptizandum, idque poposcerit, cum quaesieris et cognoveris ubi fuerit baptizatus, suscipis quidem ad te venientem, nec tamen ei das quam postulat fidem, sed doces hominem habere quod petit, nec verba errantis attendis, sed studium adhibes corrigentis. Male ergo dantem quod iam dandum non est, et Sacramentum quod datum est violantem suus error accusat, non petentis excusat. Dic itaque mihi, obsecro te, quomodo non habeat qui petivit abs te, quod iam acceperat per me? Si propter alienam aquam, et alienum fontem, quod solent dicere qui non intellegunt, quia scriptum est: Ab aqua aliena abstine te, et de fonte alieno ne biberis; Felicianus quando separatus est a vobis in parte Maximiani, veritatis adulter, catena sacrilegii, sicut concilii vestri verba indicant, trahebatur. Si secum abstulerat fontem vestrum, quis erat fons in quo, illo separato, vestros baptizatis? Si autem in alieno fonte baptizaverat, quare post eum non rebaptizastis? Simul enim nunc vester episcopus sedet cum Primiano a se damnato et damnatore suo.
1. 1. My dearest sons, honorable men, when they had brought to your Benevolence my letter, in which I admonished and asked you not to rebaptize our subdeacon, wrote back to me that you had answered: "I cannot but receive those who come to me, and give them the faith they have asked for." And yet, if there comes to you one baptized in your communion, who was long separated from you, and through ignorance has thought himself to be baptized anew, and has demanded this—when you have inquired and learned where he was baptized, you do indeed receive him as he comes to you, yet you do not give him the faith he asks, but you teach the man that he has what he asks; and you do not heed the words of one in error, but apply the zeal of one who corrects. His own error, then, accuses one who badly gives what is now not to be given, and violates the Sacrament that has been given; it does not excuse the one who asks. Tell me therefore, I beseech you, how does he not have, who asked of you, what he had already received through me? If it is on account of "another's water" and "another's fountain"—which those who do not understand are accustomed to say, because it is written, Abstain from another's water, and do not drink from another's fountain (See Prov 9:18 (LXX); 5:15)—when Felician was separated from you in the party of Maximian, he was being dragged, an adulterer of truth, in the chain of sacrilege, as the words of your council indicate. If he had carried off your fountain with him, what fountain was there in which, he being separated, you baptized your own? But if he had baptized in another's fountain, why did you not rebaptize after him? For now your bishop sits at once with Primian, who was condemned by him and is his condemner.
Ep100-155.1.11. 2. Sed sicut mihi suis litteris intimarunt nostri, qui in hac causa te viderunt, cum quaererent quid hinc diceres, respondisti te nuper ordinatum, factorum patris tui iudicem esse non posse, sed in eo quod a prioribus tuis acceperis, permanere. Hinc sane dolui necessitatem tuam, cum te existimem, sicut audio, bonae indolis iuvenem. Quid enim te ad hanc responsionem, nisi malae causae necessitas cogit? Sed si attendas, mi frater, si recte cogites, si Deum timeas, in mala causa perseverare nulla necessitas cogit. Haec enim responsio tua non quaestionem tibi a me propositam solvit, sed causam nostram ab omni calumnia vestrae causationis absolvit. Dicis enim te nuper ordinatum factorum patris tui iudicem esse non posse, sed in eo quod a prioribus tuis acceperis permanere. Cur ergo non potius in Ecclesia, quam Scriptura teste incipientem ab Ierusalem, atque per omnes gentes fructificantem atque crescentem a Domino Christo per Apostolos accepimus, permanemus; et de factis nescio quorum patrum, quae ante pene centum annos admissa dicuntur, modo iudicamur? Si enim tu de patre tuo, adhuc in hac vita constituto, non audes iudicare, quem potes interrogare; mihi quare dicitur ut iudicem de mortuo longe antequam natus sum? et christianis gentibus quare dicitur ut iudicent de factis Afrorum traditorum ante tot annos mortuorum, quos nec vivos tot christiani qui tunc vivebant, in terris remotissimis constituti audire vel nosse potuerunt? Qui manentem notum non audes iudicare Primianum, cur mihi antiquum et ignotum iudicandum vis imponere Caecilianum? Si patres tuos non iudicas de factis suis, quare fratres tuos iudicas de factis alienis?
1. 2. But as our people, who saw you in this matter, intimated to me by their letter, when they asked what you said about this, you answered that you, recently ordained, could not be the judge of your father's deeds, but remained in what you had received from your predecessors. Here indeed I grieved at your necessity, since I judge you, as I hear, a young man of good character. For what compels you to this answer, except the necessity of a bad cause? But if you attend, my brother, if you think rightly, if you fear God, no necessity compels you to persevere in a bad cause. For this answer of yours does not solve the question I put to you, but absolves our cause from all calumny of your accusation. For you say that you, recently ordained, cannot be the judge of your father's deeds, but remain in what you have received from your predecessors. Why, then, do we not rather remain in the Church which, as Scripture witnesses, beginning from Jerusalem and bearing fruit and growing through all nations, we received from the Lord Christ through the Apostles; and why are we now judged about the deeds of I know not what fathers, which are said to have been committed almost a hundred years ago? For if you do not dare to judge about your father, still placed in this life, whom you can question, why is it said to me that I should judge about a dead man long before I was born? And why is it said to the Christian nations that they should judge about the deeds of African traitors dead so many years ago, whom not even alive could so many Christians who then lived, placed in most remote lands, hear of or know? You who do not dare to judge Primian, who is living and known, why do you wish to lay upon me the judging of the ancient and unknown Caecilian? If you do not judge your fathers about their own deeds, why do you judge your brothers about the deeds of others?
Ep100-155.1.21. 3. An forte fratres nos negas? Sed melius audimus sanctum Spiritum per prophetam praecipientem: Audite qui pavetis verbum Domini: dicite, Fratres nostri estis, his qui vos oderunt et qui vos detestantur, ut nomen Domini honorificetur, et appareat illis in iucunditate, ipsi autem erubescant. Revera enim si hominibus nomen Domini iucundius esset, quam nomina hominum, numquid Christus clamans: Pacem meam do vobis, divideretur in membris suis per eos qui dicunt: Ego quidem sum Pauli, ego autem Apollo, ego vero Cephae et per hominum nomina dilaniantur? numquid Christus exsufflaretur in baptismo suo, de quo dictum est: Hic est qui baptizat; de quo dictum est: Christus dilexit Ecclesiam suam, et tradidit seipsum pro ea, ut eam sanctificaret, mundans eam lavacro aquae in verbo ? numquid ergo in ipso suo lavacro exsufflaretur, si nomen Domini esset iucundius, cuius est ipse baptismus, quam nomen hominum, de quibus dicitis: Sanctum est quod ille dat, non quod ille?
1. 3. Or do you perhaps deny that we are brothers? But we hear better the Holy Spirit through the prophet commanding: Hear, you who tremble at the word of the Lord: say, You are our brothers, to those who hate you and detest you, so that the name of the Lord may be honored, and may appear to them in gladness, but they themselves may be put to shame (Isa 66:5). For truly, if the name of the Lord were more pleasant to men than the names of men, would Christ, crying out, My peace I give you (John 14:27), be divided in his members by those who say, I indeed am of Paul, but I of Apollos, and I of Cephas (1 Cor 1:12), and be torn apart by the names of men? Would Christ be blown away in derision in his own baptism, of which it is said, This is he who baptizes (John 1:33); of whom it is said, Christ loved his Church and handed himself over for her, that he might sanctify her, cleansing her by the washing of water in the word (Eph 5:25-26)? Would he, then, in his own washing be blown away in derision, if the name of the Lord, whose own that baptism is, were more pleasant than the name of men, of whom you say, "Holy is what that one gives, not what this one gives"?
Ep100-155.1.32. 4. Et tamen collegae tui ubi voluerunt, veritatem potius attenderunt, et non solum baptismum quem dedit Primianus in vestra communione, sed et quem dedit Felicianus in Maximiani sacrilego schismate, propter honoris Domini iucunditatem sanctum esse senserunt; et characterem, non solum quem ipse apud vos acceperat, sed et quem aliis extra nos desertor infixerat, ipso correcto violare non ausi sunt, quia regium cognoverunt. De hoc eorum facto tam bono iudicare non vis, ubi eos deberes laudabiliter imitari, et sequeris iudicium eorum, in quo merentur ab omnibus detestari. Times de Primiano iudicare, ne cogaris audire quod culpes: imo vero iudica, et illic magis poteris invenire quod laudes. Non enim quod male fecit Primianus te volumus memorare, sed quod optime fecit: qui in suscipiendis quos eius damnator in separatione sceleratissima baptizaverat, errorem hominum correxit, non Dei Sacramenta destruxit. Bonum Christi et in hominibus malignis agnovit; malum autem hominum, non violato Christi bono, emendavit. Aut si hoc factum displicet tibi, illud saltem attende, illud pro bono tuo ingenio prudenter adverte, quia unum Primianum non iudicas de factis ipsius Primiani, et orbem christianum iudicas de factis Caeciliani. Times ne te polluat, si noveris quod vindicare non audeas: absolve ergo gentes, quae nec nosse poterant quod accusas.
2. 4. And yet your colleagues, where they wished, heeded truth rather, and judged that not only the baptism which Primian gave in your communion, but also that which Felician gave in the sacrilegious schism of Maximian, was holy, on account of the gladness of the Lord's honor; and the mark, not only which Felician himself had received among you, but also which the deserter had stamped upon others outside us, they did not dare to violate when he was corrected, because they recognized it to be the King's. Of this so good deed of theirs you are unwilling to judge, where you ought praiseworthily to imitate them; and you follow their judgment in that for which they deserve to be detested by all. You fear to judge about Primian, lest you be compelled to hear what you must blame: no, rather, judge, and there you will be the more able to find what to praise. For we do not wish you to recall what Primian did badly, but what he did most excellently: who, in receiving those whom his condemner had baptized in a most criminal separation, corrected the error of men, but did not destroy the Sacraments of God. He recognized the good of Christ even in malignant men; but the evil of men, without violating the good of Christ, he amended. Or if this deed displeases you, attend at least to that, prudently mark it for your own good ability: that you do not judge the one Primian about the deeds of Primian himself, and you judge the Christian world about the deeds of Caecilian. You fear lest it pollute you, if you should know what you dare not avenge: absolve, then, the nations, which could not even know what you accuse.
Ep100-155.2.42. 5. Nec tamen illud unius Primiani factum est: scis, in quantum opinor, et tu, centum ferme episcopi vestri factione damnabili cum Maximiano conspirantes, ausi sunt damnare Primianum; et trecentorum decem Bagaiensi concilio, sicut decreti eius verba personant: "Maximianum fidei aemulum, veritatis adulterum, Ecclesiae matris inimicum, Dathan, Core, et Abiron ministrum, de pacis gremio sententiae fulmen excussit". Hinc alii duodecim, qui eius ordinationi, quando contra Primianum levatus est, interfuerant, non dilata damnatione coniuncti sunt: caeteris autem, ne nimia praecisio fieret, praestituto die, redeundi est concessa dilatio, salvis suis honoribus, si intra terminum temporis remeassent. Nec timuerunt trecenti et decem ad suum collegium revocare tanto Maximiani sacrilegio accusatos, intuentes forte quod scriptum est: Caritas cooperit multitudinem peccatorum. Quibus autem est permissum tempus dilationis, foris a vestra communione baptizaverunt, quoscumque baptizare potuerunt. Neque enim nisi foris fuissent, dilatione concessa invitari poterant ut redirent. Deinde et antequam dilatio finiretur, et posteaquam finita est, illi duodecim cum Maximiano damnati, apud tres aut amplius proconsules accusati sunt, ut e sedibus suis iudiciario vigore pellerentur: inter quos erat Felicianus Mustitanus, de quo nunc ago, et Praetextatus Assuritanus nuper defunctus, in cuius damnati loco alter iam fuerat ordinatus. Quos duos non unus Primianus, sed multi coepiscopi vestri, cum frequentissima numerositate Thamugadensis Optati natalitia celebrarent, post eorum sine dilatione damnationem, post terminatam quae caeteris data fuerat dilationem, post divulgatam forensi etiam strepitu apud tot consules accusationem, in honoribus integris susceperunt, et post eos nullum baptizaverunt. Si huic assertioni resistitur, vel horum aliquid si negatur, periculo episcopatus mei exigar probare quod loquor.
2. 5. Nor yet was it the deed of the one Primian: you know too, in great part, I think, that nearly a hundred of your bishops, conspiring with Maximian in a damnable faction, dared to condemn Primian; and three hundred and ten, in the council of Bagai, as the words of its decree resound, "drove out with the thunderbolt of their sentence from the bosom of peace Maximian, the rival of the faith, the adulterer of truth, the enemy of mother Church, the minister of Dathan, Korah, and Abiram." Hence twelve others, who had been present at his ordination when he was raised up against Primian, were joined to him in condemnation not deferred: but to the rest, lest too great a cutting-off be made, with a day set, a delay for returning was granted, with their honors safe, if they should return within the limit of time. Nor did the three hundred and ten fear to recall to their college men accused of so great a sacrilege of Maximian, looking perhaps to what is written, Love covers a multitude of sins (1 Pet 4:8). But those to whom the time of delay was permitted baptized outside, apart from your communion, whomever they could baptize. For unless they had been outside, they could not have been invited, the delay being granted, to return. Then, both before the delay was ended and after it was ended, those twelve condemned with Maximian were accused before three or more proconsuls, so that they were driven from their seats by judicial force: among whom were Felician of Mustis, of whom I now treat, and Praetextatus of Assuras, recently dead, in whose place, when condemned, another had already been ordained. These two, not the one Primian but many of your fellow bishops—when they were celebrating with most frequent numbers the birthday of Optatus of Thamugadi—after their condemnation without delay, after the ending of the delay which had been given to the rest, after the accusation made public even with forensic din before so many consuls, received in their honors intact, and after them baptized no one. If this assertion is resisted, or if any of these things is denied, let me be required, at the peril of my episcopate, to prove what I say.
Ep100-155.2.52. 6. Finita est causa, frater Macrobi: Deus hoc egit, Deus hoc voluit; occultae illius providentiae fuit ut in causa Maximiani speculum vobis correctionis proponeretur, ut omnis adversum nos, imo adversus Christi Ecclesiam toto orbe crescentem, non dico vestra, ne in te videar contumeliosus, sed certe vestrorum criminosa calumnia finiretur. Nihil enim remansit omnino eorum quae contra nos, tamquam de Scripturis ab hominibus non intellegentibus proferri solent. Nam haec habere in ore consueverunt: Ab aqua aliena abstine te. Sed respondetur: Non est aqua aliena, quamvis sit in alienis; sicut nec aqua illa Maximiani fuit, unde vos non abstinuistis. Item proponitur nobis: Facti sunt mihi sicut aqua mendax, non habens fidem. Sed respondetur: Hoc dictum est de fictis hominibus, non pertinentibus ad Dei Sacramenta, quae nec in mendacibus possunt esse mendacia. Nam utique mendaces fuerunt qui Primianum, sicut ipsi perhibetis, falsis criminibus damnaverunt; nec tamen aqua mendax fuit, in qua separati a vobis, quos potuerunt, baptizaverunt. Nam quando eam in his, quos Felicianus et Praetextatus foris baptizaverunt, suscepistis, et in mendacibus veracem fuisse sensistis. Proponitur nobis: Qui baptizatur a mortuo, quid prodest lavacrum eius? Respondetur: Si hoc de baptismo scriptum est, quo baptizant illi quos tamquam mortuos eiecit Ecclesia, non dixit hoc lavacrum non esse, sed nihil prodesse; quod et nos dicimus. Verumtamen quando cum illo ad Ecclesiam venerit, quod foris oberat, intus proderit; non cum ipse repetitur Baptismus, sed cum corrigitur baptizatus. Sicut Maximianum et socios eius, umquam mortuos a vestra congregatione, communionis lectos loquitur Vagaiense concilium: "Veridica, inquit, unda, in asperos scopulos nonnullorum naufraga proiecta sunt membra. Aegyptiorum quodammodo exemplo pereuntium funeribus plena sunt littora, quibus in ipsa morte maior est poena, quod post extortam aquis ultricibus animam nec ipsam inveniunt sepulturam". Ex hac turba mortuorum, quasi reviviscentes Felicianum et Praetextatum in suis honoribus suscepistis, et ab eis in illa morte baptizatos non rebaptizastis; quia baptismum Christi foris datum per mortuos, mortuis non prodesse, eumdem tamen ipsum prodesse intus reviviscentibus agnovistis. Proponitur nobis: Oleum peccatoris non impinguet caput meum. Respondetur, hoc scriptum de assentatione leni atque fallaci blandi adulatoris intellegi, qua ungitur et crescit eis caput, cum laudantur peccatores in desideriis animae suae, et qui iniqua egerint, benedicuntur. Quod ex priore versu satis apparet; sic enim posita est tota sententia: Emendabit me iustus in misericordia, et arguet me; oleum autem peccatoris non impinguabit caput meum. Malle se dixit veraci misericordis austeritate conteri, quam deceptoria laude fallentis extolli. Sed quomodolibet intellegatis, certe in eis quos in sacrilegio Maximiani Felicianus et Praetextatus baptizaverunt, aut peccatorum oleum suscepistis, aut etiam peccatoribus ministrantibus datum Christi esse oleum cognovistis. Neque enim non erant peccatores, quando de illis in Vagaiensi concilio dicebatur: "Famosi criminis reos, qui funesto opere perditionis, vas sordidum collecta faeculentia glutinarunt, damnatos esse cognoscite".
2. 6. The cause is ended, brother Macrobius: God did this, God willed this; it was of that hidden providence of his that in the cause of Maximian a mirror of correction should be set before you, so that all the criminal calumny against us—no, against the Church of Christ growing throughout the whole world—I do not say yours, lest I seem insulting to you, but at any rate that of your people, should be ended. For nothing at all remained of those things which are accustomed to be brought against us, as it were from the Scriptures, by men who do not understand them. For they have been accustomed to have these in their mouth: Abstain from another's water (See Prov 9:18 (LXX)). But the answer is: It is not another's water, although it is in others; just as neither was that water of Maximian another's, from which you did not abstain. Likewise it is set before us: They have become to me like deceitful water, having no faith (See Jer 15:18). But the answer is: This was said of feigned men, not pertaining to the Sacraments of God, which cannot be deceitful even in deceitful men. For surely those were deceitful who condemned Primian, as you yourselves declare, with false crimes; and yet the water was not deceitful in which, separated from you, they baptized whomever they could. For when you received it in those whom Felician and Praetextatus baptized outside, you perceived that it had been truthful even in deceitful men. It is set before us: Whoever is baptized by a dead man, what does his washing profit him? (See Sir 34:25 (30)) The answer is: If this is written of the baptism with which those baptize whom the Church has cast out as dead, he did not say that this washing does not exist, but that it profits nothing; which we too say. Yet when he comes with it to the Church, what outside was harmful will inside be profitable—not when the Baptism itself is repeated, but when the baptized one is corrected. As the council of Bagai speaks of Maximian and his associates, dead from your congregation, read into communion: "The truthful wave," it says, "has cast forth the shipwrecked members of some upon the harsh rocks. In the manner, as it were, of the Egyptians, the shores are full of the corpses of the perishing, for whom in death itself the punishment is greater, that, after the soul was wrenched out by the avenging waters, they do not find even burial itself." From this throng of the dead, as though coming to life again, you received Felician and Praetextatus in their honors, and those baptized by them in that death you did not rebaptize; because you recognized that the baptism of Christ given outside by dead men profits not the dead, yet that same baptism profits those coming to life again within. It is set before us: Let not the oil of the sinner anoint my head (Ps 141:5 (140:5)). The answer is that this is written to be understood of the smooth and deceptive flattery of a fawning sycophant, by which their head is anointed and grows, when sinners are praised in the desires of their soul, and those who have done unjust things are blessed. Which appears sufficiently from the previous verse; for the whole sentence is set down thus: The just man will amend me in mercy, and will reprove me; but let not the oil of the sinner anoint my head (Ps 141:5 (140:5)). He said that he preferred to be ground down by the truthful austerity of one who is merciful than to be lifted up by the deceptive praise of one who deceives. But however you understand it, certainly in those whom Felician and Praetextatus baptized in the sacrilege of Maximian, you either received the oil of sinners, or recognized that even with sinners ministering, the oil given is Christ's. For they were indeed sinners, when it was said of them in the council of Bagai: "Know that the guilty of a notorious crime, who by the deadly work of perdition glued together a filthy vessel with collected dregs, have been condemned."
Ep100-155.2.63. 7. Ista de Baptismo dixisse suffecerit. Causa vero separationis vestrae his solet non intellectis testimoniis colorari. Scriptum est: Ne communices peccatis alienis. Sed respondetur, eum communicare peccatis alienis, qui consentit malis factis; non eum, qui cum ipse sit triticum, simul tamen cum palea, quamdiu area trituratur, divinis communicat Sacramentis. Scriptum est enim: Exite inde, et immundum ne tetigeritis; et: Qui tetigerit pollutum, pollutus est; sed consensione voluntatis, qua deceptus est homo primus, non conversatione corporis, qua et Iudas osculatus est Christum. Pisces quippe illi, de quibus in Evangelio Dominus loquitur, boni et mali intra eadem retia, quibus congregationis coaptat unitatem, usque ad finem saeculi, quod littoris nomine praefiguratur pariter natant corporibus mixti, sed moribus separati. Scriptum est enim: Modicum fermentum totam massam corrumpit, sed eorum qui consentiunt mala facientibus, non eorum qui secundum prophetam Ezechielem, gemunt, et moerent ob iniquitates populi Dei, quae fiunt in medio eorum.
3. 7. Let it suffice to have said these things about Baptism. But the cause of your separation is accustomed to be colored by these testimonies when they are not understood. It is written, Do not share in the sins of others (See 1 Tim 5:22). But the answer is that he shares in the sins of others who consents to evil deeds; not he who, while he himself is wheat, yet shares in the divine Sacraments together with the chaff so long as the threshing floor is being threshed. For it is written, Go out from there, and do not touch the unclean thing (Isa 52:11); and, He who touches the polluted thing is polluted (See Hag 2:14); but by the consent of the will, by which the first man was deceived, not by the contact of the body, by which Judas too kissed Christ. For those fish of which the Lord speaks in the Gospel, good and bad, within the same nets, by which he fits together the unity of the congregation, swim alike until the end of the age, which is prefigured by the name of the shore—mixed in body, but separated in character. For it is written, A little leaven corrupts the whole lump (1 Cor 5:6; Gal 5:9); but the leaven of those who consent to those who do evil, not of those who, according to the prophet Ezekiel, groan and mourn over the iniquities of the people of God which are done in their midst (See Ezek 9:4).
Ep100-155.3.73. 8. Istam malorum permixtionem gemit et Daniel: tres quoque viri gemuerunt; ille hoc in oratione, illi in fornace testantur: nec tamen se ab unitate populi, cuius peccata confitebantur, corporali disiunctione separaverunt. Prophetae omnes in eumdem populum in quo erant, quae et quanta dixerunt! nec sibi tamen alterum populum in quo essent, discessione corporali vel segregatione quaesierunt. Ipsi Apostoli permixtum sibi diabolum Iudam usque in finem, quo se ipse etiam laqueo perdidit, sine ulla sui contaminatione tolerarunt, ita ut diceret eis Dominus, propter illius inter eos praesentiam: Et vos mundi estis, sed non omnes. Nec ob illius immunditiam, tamquam fermento in eis dissimilium morum massa corrupta est. Nec recte affirmari potest quod eos illius latebat nequitia, nisi forte qua fuerat etiam Dominum traditurus: nam ipsi de illo scripserunt quod fur erat, et omnia quae mittebantur de dominicis loculis auferebat. Non eis quisquam calumniabatur illo testimonio: Videbatis furem, et concurrebatis cum eo: et factis enim malorum, non Sacramentorum communione, sed eorumdem factorum consensione concurritur. Apostolus Paulus quantum de falsis fratribus conqueritur ! quorum tamen corporali permixtione non maculabatur, cordis puri diversitate seiunctus. Nam a quibusdam quos invidos noverat, gaudet Christum pariter praedicari; et utique invidia diabolicum vitium est.
3. 8. Daniel too groans over this admixture of the bad; the three young men also groaned: the one attests this in prayer, the others in the furnace; and yet they did not separate themselves by bodily disjunction from the unity of the people whose sins they confessed. What and how great things all the prophets said against the very people among whom they were! And yet they did not seek for themselves, by bodily departure or segregation, another people among whom to be. The Apostles themselves tolerated the devil Judas mixed among them until the end, when he even destroyed himself by the noose, without any contamination of themselves; so that the Lord said to them, on account of his presence among them, And you are clean, but not all (John 13:10). Nor, on account of his uncleanness, as by leaven, was the lump of the unlike characters among them corrupted. Nor can it rightly be affirmed that his wickedness was hidden from them, except perhaps that by which he was even going to betray the Lord: for they themselves wrote of him that he was a thief, and carried off all that was put into the Lord's purse. No one calumniated them with that testimony, You saw a thief, and you ran along with him (Ps 50:18 (49:18)): for one runs along with the deeds of the bad not by the communion of the Sacraments, but by consent to those same deeds. How much the apostle Paul complains of false brethren! Yet he was not stained by bodily admixture with them, being separated by the diversity of a pure heart. For he rejoices that Christ is preached equally by certain men whom he knew to be envious; and surely envy is a diabolical vice.
Ep100-155.3.83. 9. Postremo episcopus Cyprianus, iam Ecclesia copiosius dilatata, vicinior temporibus nostris, cuius auctoritate aliquando repetitionem Baptismi confirmare conamini, cum illud concilium, vel illa scripta, si vere ipsius sunt, et non, sicut aliqui putant, sub eius nomine conscripta atque conficta, contineant quantum dilexerit unitatem, quomodo in ea tolerandos, etiam contra quos ipse sentiebat, apertissima exhortatione consuluerit, ne pacis vinculum rumperetur: id potissimum attendens, quia si quis alterutris, quibus aliud videtur quam veritas habet, humanus error irrepserit, fraterna concordia custodita caritas etiam cooperit multitudinem peccatorum. Hanc ille sic tenuit, sic amavit, ut si quid aliter quam res est, de Baptismi sacramento sapuerat, id quoque Deus illi revelaret, sicut Apostolus fratribus in caritate ambulantibus dicit: Quotquot ergo perfecti, hoc sapiamus; et si quid aliter sapitis, id quoque vobis Deus revelabit. Verumtamen in quod pervenimus, in eo ambulemus. Huc accedit quoniam fructuosum sarmentum, si aliquid habebat adhuc purgandum, gloriosa martyrii falce purgatum est: non quia pro Christi nomine occisus est, sed quia pro Christi nomine in gremio unitatis occisus est. Nam ipse scripsit, et fidentissime asserit, eos qui extra unitatem, etiamsi pro illo nomine moriantur, occidi posse, non posse coronari. Tantum valet sive ad delenda, sive ad confirmanda peccata, vel custodita, vel violata caritas unitatis.
3. 9. Finally bishop Cyprian, the Church now more copiously spread abroad, nearer to our times—on whose authority you sometimes try to confirm the repetition of Baptism—since that council, or those writings (if they are truly his, and not, as some suppose, composed and fabricated under his name), contain how greatly he loved unity, how by a most open exhortation he counseled that men were to be tolerated within it, even those against whom he himself held an opinion, lest the bond of peace be broken: attending above all to this, that if any human error has crept into one or the other of those to whom something seems other than the truth holds, brotherly concord being kept, love also covers a multitude of sins (1 Pet 4:8). This he so held, so loved, that if he had thought anything otherwise than the matter stands concerning the sacrament of Baptism, God would reveal even that to him, as the Apostle says to brethren walking in love: As many of us, then, as are perfect, let us think this; and if you think anything otherwise, God will reveal this too to you. Nevertheless, in that which we have attained, let us walk (Phil 3:15-16). Add to this that the fruitful branch, if it still had anything to be pruned, was pruned by the glorious sickle of martyrdom: not because he was killed for the name of Christ, but because he was killed for the name of Christ in the bosom of unity. For he himself wrote, and most confidently asserts, that those who are outside unity, even if they die for that name, can be killed but cannot be crowned. So much avails, whether for blotting out or for confirming sins, the love of unity, whether kept or violated.
Ep100-155.3.93. 10. Ipse ergo ille Cyprianus, cum per impiorum Gentilium persecutionem vastata Ecclesia multos plangeret lapsos, malis hoc moribus tribuens eorum, qui in ipsa Ecclesia damnabili conversatione vivebant, de collegarum suorum moribus gemit, nec suum gemitum silentio tegit; sed dicit eos in tantam cupiditatem fuisse progressos, ut esurientibus, etiam in Ecclesia fratribus, habere argentum largiter vellent, fundos insidiosis fraudibus raperent, usuris multiplicantibus fenus augerent. Puto istorum avaritia, fundis, et fenore Cyprianum non fuisse maculatum; nec tamen ab eis se corporali segregatione, sed vitae dissimilitudine fuisse disiunctum. Cum eis altare tetigit; sed immundam illorum vitam ille non tetigit, quando sic culpavit atque redarguit. Placentia quippe ista attinguntur, displicentia repelluntur. Ideoque illi optimo episcopo, nec censura, qua peccata coerceret, nec cautela defuit, qua unitatis vinculum custodiret. Legitur eius in quadam epistola quam scripsit ad presbyterum Maximum, de hac re clara et aperta sententia, qua omnino praecepit, propheticam regulam tenens, nullo modo Ecclesiae deseri debere unitatem, propter malorum permixtionem. "Nam etsi videntur, inquit, in Ecclesia esse zizania, non tamen impediri debet fides aut caritas nostra, ut quoniam esse zizania in Ecclesia cernimus, nos de Ecclesia recedamus. Tantummodo nobis laborandum est, ut frumentum esse possimus".
3. 10. That same Cyprian, then, when, the Church laid waste by the persecution of the impious Gentiles, he lamented many who had lapsed, attributing this to the bad characters of those who lived in the Church itself in damnable conduct, groans over the characters of his own colleagues, and does not cover his groan with silence; but he says that they had advanced into such great covetousness that, while even brethren in the Church were hungry, they wished to have silver lavishly, seized estates by insidious frauds, increased their interest by multiplying usuries. I suppose that Cyprian was not stained by the avarice, estates, and interest of these men; nor yet did he separate himself from them by bodily segregation, but by the dissimilarity of his life. With them he touched the altar; but he did not touch their unclean life, when he so blamed and refuted it. For things that please are touched, things that displease are repelled. And therefore that most excellent bishop lacked neither the censure by which he might restrain sins, nor the caution by which he might keep the bond of unity. There is read in a certain letter of his which he wrote to the priest Maximus a clear and open opinion on this matter, by which he altogether commanded, holding the prophetic rule, that the unity of the Church must in no way be deserted on account of the admixture of the bad. "For although," he says, "tares seem to be in the Church, yet our faith or love ought not to be hindered, so that, because we perceive tares to be in the Church, we ourselves withdraw from the Church. We must only labor that we may be able to be wheat."
Ep100-155.3.103. 11. Istam charitatis legem ex ore Christi Domini promulgatam; ipsius enim sunt istae similitudines, et de zizaniis usque ad tempus messis in unitate agri per mundum, et de malis piscibus usque ad tempus littoris intra eadem retia tolerandis; hanc ergo charitatis legem si maiores vestri mente retinerent, si cum Dei timore cogitarent, non propter Caecilianum, et nescio quos Afros, sive, ut putatis, revera criminosos, sive, quod magis credendum est, calumniis appetitos, se ab Ecclesia, quam descripsit ipse Cyprianus, per omnes gentes radios suos porrigere, et ramos suos per omnem terram copia ubertatis extendere, non, inquam, se a tot gentibus christianis, quae omnino nescierunt qui, vel quid, vel quibus obiciebant, nefaria separatione discinderent; quod non fit, nisi aut simultate privata potius quam utilitate communi, aut illo vitio quod consequenter Cyprianus ipse connumerat, vitandumque commemorat. Nam cum praecepisset propter zizania quae in Ecclesia cernuntur, non esse Ecclesiam deserendam, sequitur et adiungit: "Nobis tantummodo laborandum est ut frumentum esse possimus, ut cum coeperit frumentum dominicis horreis condi, fructum pro opere et labore nostro capiamus. Apostolus in Epistola sua dicit: "In domo autem magna non solum sunt vasa aurea et argentea, sed et lignea et fictilia; et quaedam quidem honorata, quaedam inhonorata: nos operam demus, et quantum possumus laboremus ut vas aureum vel argenteum simus. Caeterum fictilia vasa confringere Domino soli concessum est, cui et virga ferrea data est. Esse non potest maior domino suo servus; nec quisquam sibi, quod soli Filio Pater tribuit, vindicarit, ut se putet, aut ad aream ventilandam et purgandam, palam et ventilabrum iam ferre posse, aut a frumento universa zizania humano iudicio separare. Superba est ista praesumptio, et sacrilega obstinatio, quam sibi furor pravus assumit, et dum sibi semper amplius aliquid quam mitis iustitia deposcit, assumunt, de Ecclesia pereunt; et dum se insolenter extollunt, ipso suo tumore caecati, veritatis lumen amittunt".
3. 11. This law of love was promulgated from the mouth of the Lord Christ; for these likenesses are his—both about the tares to be tolerated in the unity of the field throughout the world until the time of harvest, and about the bad fish to be tolerated within the same nets until the time of the shore. This law of love, then, if your forefathers had retained it in mind, if they had pondered it with the fear of God, they would not, on account of Caecilian and I know not what Africans—whether, as you suppose, truly criminal, or, what is rather to be believed, assailed by calumnies—have cut themselves off by a wicked separation from the Church which Cyprian himself described as stretching forth its rays through all nations, and extending its branches through all the earth in abundance of fruitfulness; they would not, I say, have torn themselves away from so many Christian nations, which altogether did not know who, or what, or against whom they objected. This is not done except either from private rancor rather than common benefit, or by that vice which Cyprian himself consequently numbers and mentions as to be avoided. For when he had commanded that, on account of the tares which are perceived in the Church, the Church is not to be deserted, he goes on and adds: "We must only labor that we may be able to be wheat, so that, when the wheat begins to be stored in the Lord's granaries, we may receive fruit for our work and labor. The Apostle in his Letter says: But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and earthenware; and some indeed honored, some unhonored (2 Tim 2:20). Let us give our effort, and labor as much as we can, that we may be a vessel of gold or silver. But to break the earthenware vessels is granted to the Lord alone, to whom also an iron rod has been given. A servant cannot be greater than his lord; nor let anyone claim for himself what the Father granted to the Son alone, so as to think himself able either to bear the winnowing-shovel and fan for winnowing and cleansing the threshing floor, or to separate all the tares from the wheat by human judgment. This is a proud presumption and a sacrilegious obstinacy, which a depraved fury assumes for itself; and while they always claim for themselves something more than gentle justice demands, they perish from the Church; and while they insolently exalt themselves, blinded by their very swelling, they lose the light of truth."
Ep100-155.3.113. 12. Quid hac Cypriani attestatione clarius; quid veracius? Vides quanta evangelica et apostolica luce praefulgeat; vides eos, qui velut offensi pro sua iustitia iniquitatibus alienis, Ecclesiae deserunt unitatem, ipsos esse potius iniquissimos. Vides foris esse zizania, eos qui noluerunt in unitate agri Domini zizania tolerare. Vides foris esse paleam, eos qui noluerunt in unitate domus magnae talia tolerare. Vides quam veraciter scriptum est: Filius malus ipse se iustum dicit; exitum autem suum non abluit: exitum scilicet quo exit de Ecclesia, non purgat, non excusat, non defendit, non purum et sine crimine ostendit; hoc est enim, non abluit; quia si non seipsum iustum diceret, sed vere ac legitime iustus esset, non bonos propter malos impiissime desereret, sed malos propter bonos patientissime sustineret, donec ipse Dominus, sive per se, sive per Angelos suos, a tritico zizania, a frumentis paleas, a vasis misericordiae vasa irae, et haedos ab ovibus, pisces malos a bonis in fine saeculi separaret.
3. 12. What is clearer than this attestation of Cyprian; what more truthful? You see with how great an evangelical and apostolic light it shines forth; you see that those who, as though offended for their own justice by the iniquities of others, desert the unity of the Church, are themselves rather the most iniquitous. You see that they are the tares who are outside, those who were unwilling to tolerate tares in the unity of the Lord's field. You see that they are the chaff who are outside, those who were unwilling to tolerate such things in the unity of the great house. You see how truthfully it is written, The evil son calls himself just; but he does not wash his going-out (See Prov 30:12): that is, the going-out by which he goes out from the Church he does not purify, does not excuse, does not defend, does not show pure and without crime—this is what "he does not wash" means; for if he did not call himself just, but were truly and legitimately just, he would not most impiously desert the good on account of the bad, but would most patiently endure the bad on account of the good, until the Lord himself, whether through himself or through his angels, should separate the tares from the wheat, the chaff from the grain, the vessels of wrath from the vessels of mercy, and the goats from the sheep, the bad fish from the good, at the end of the age.
Ep100-155.3.124. 13. Sed si testimonia illa Scripturarum, quae maiores vestri ad dividendum populum Dei, vel intellegenda, vel proferenda crediderunt, aliter quam divinorum eloquiorum sensus postulat, accipere conamini, iam desinite: attendite illud speculum quod ad vos admonendos, Deus misericordissima, si sapitis, provisione constituit. Causam dico Feliciani: "Fidei aemulum, veritatis adulterum, Ecclesiae matris", sicut in Vagaiensi concilio conclamatum est, "inimicum, Dathan, Core, et Abiron ministrum"; de quo amplius addiderunt quod eum aperta terra non absorbuit, sed ad maius supplicium superis reservasse. "Raptus enim, inquiunt, poenam suam compendio lucraverat funeris; usuras nunc graviores colligit funeris, cum mortuis interest vivus". Quaero enim utrum istum tunc immundum mortuum tetigerunt illi qui cum eo conspirantes, Primiani innocentiam damnaverunt. Si enim tetigerunt, utique pollutum tangendo polluti sunt. Cur ergo in eiusdem communione, atque a vestra separatis, tamquam innocentibus "dilatio redeundi conceditur, ut integri honoris ac fidei regressi habeant fundamenta", et qui tamquam ordinationi Maximiani non interfuerint, mereantur audire quod "eos sacrilegi surculi non polluerunt plantaria", in eadem parte positos, in eodem schismate colligatos, a vobis divisos, illis sociatos, simul in Africa constitutos, notissimos, amicissimos, coniunctissimos, qui etsi non praesentes eum ordinaverunt, propter eum tamen et absentem Primianum damnaverunt; et inquinasse dicitur surculus Caeciliani orbis terrarum populos christianos numerosissimos, remotissimos, ignotissimos, cuius non dico causam, sed multi nec nomen nosse potuerunt? Non communicant peccatis alienis, qui peccatum Maximiani non solum scierunt, sed et contra Primianum levando erexerunt: et communicant peccatis alienis, qui Caecilianum episcopum factum, aut in longinquis gentibus nescierunt, aut in propinquioribus tantummodo audierunt, aut in ipsa Africa factum simpliciter, et pacifice cognoverunt, aut in ipsa Carthagine contra neminem levaverunt! Nec cum fure concurrebant, qui communicabant ei de quo dicit Nummasius advocatus, loquens pro praesente Restituto episcopo vestro, quod "per occultum sacrilegii propemodum furtum, episcopalis nominis invaserit principatum"; nec cum adultero portionem suam ponebant, qui communicabant veritatis adultero; nec modico fermento tota eorum massa corrumpebatur, cum ei faverent, cum in eius parte, non quasi nescientes, a vobis praecisi, remanerent, sed a vobis contra vos praecidendam erigendamque curarent; deinde vos ipsi, qui eos ad redeundum sic invitastis, ut Maximiano tanta societate coniunctos, impollutos a sacrilegii surculo diceretis, quod Praetextatum quoque et Felicianum salvis eorum honoribus suscepistis, quod cum eis pacifice concordetis (quod hodieque Felicianum vobiscum consedentem videtis) nulla communione peccatorum alienorum maculati, nullo contactu immunditiae coinquinati, nullius estis malignitatis fermento corrupti: et orbi christiano per haec testimonia alienum crimen obicitur, unitatis divisio a separatione funesta defenditur, a praeciso ramo, tamquam immundus ramus, qui in verae matris radice manserit, accusatur!
4. 13. But if you try to take those testimonies of the Scriptures, which your forefathers believed should be understood or brought forward for dividing the people of God, otherwise than the sense of the divine words demands, now cease; attend to that mirror which God, by a most merciful provision—if you are wise—has set up for your admonition. I mean the cause of Felician: "the rival of the faith, the adulterer of truth, the enemy of mother Church," as was proclaimed in the council of Bagai, "the minister of Dathan, Korah, and Abiram"; about whom they added further that the open earth did not swallow him, but reserved him for the greater punishment of those above. "For carried off," they say, "he had gained his punishment by the shortcut of death; now he gathers heavier interest of death, since, alive, he is among the dead." For I ask whether those who, conspiring with him, condemned the innocence of Primian, then touched that unclean dead man. For if they touched him, surely by touching the polluted thing they were polluted. Why, then, in the communion of the same man, and to men separated from yours as though innocent, is "a delay for returning granted, so that, returning, they may have the foundations of unimpaired honor and faith," and why do those who, as though they were not present at the ordination of Maximian, deserve to hear that "the seedlings of the sacrilegious shoot did not pollute them"—men placed in the same party, bound together in the same schism, divided from you, allied to those men, set together in Africa, most well known, most friendly, most closely joined, who, though not present, ordained him, yet on his account condemned even the absent Primian? And the shoot of Caecilian is said to have defiled the most numerous, most remote, most unknown Christian peoples of the whole world, whose cause—I do not say cause, but many could not even know his name? They do not share in the sins of others, who not only knew the sin of Maximian, but even erected him by raising him up against Primian: and they share in the sins of others, who either, among far-off nations, did not know that Caecilian was made bishop, or, among nearer ones, only heard of it, or knew it done in Africa itself simply and peaceably, or in Carthage itself raised him up against no one! Nor did they run along with a thief, who communicated with him of whom the advocate Nummasius says, speaking on behalf of your bishop Restitutus then present, that "by the hidden, well-nigh theft of sacrilege, he invaded the primacy of the episcopal name"; nor did they set their portion with an adulterer, who communicated with the adulterer of truth; nor was their whole lump corrupted by a little leaven, when they favored him, when they remained in his party—not as though, unknowing, cut off by you, but taking care that he be cut off by you against yourselves and erected; and then you yourselves, who so invited them to return that you said those joined to Maximian by so great a fellowship were unpolluted by the sacrilegious shoot, because you received Praetextatus also and Felician with their honors safe, because you are at peace with them (since even today you see Felician sitting with you)—you are stained by no communion of the sins of others, defiled by no contact of uncleanness, corrupted by the leaven of no one's malignity: and to the Christian world, by these testimonies, the crime of another is objected, the division of unity is defended from a deadly separation, and by a cut-off branch, as an unclean branch, the one that has remained in the root of the true mother is accused!
Ep100-155.4.135. 14. Quid illud, quod soletis de sustentatis persecutionibus gloriari? Si martyres non facit causa, sed poena; cum diceretur: Beati qui persecutionem patiuntur, frustra est additum, propter iustitiam. Nonne vos etiam in huius tituli gloria Maximianistae facillime vincunt, qui persecutionem non solum postea vobiscum, sed prius et a vobis pertulerunt? Advocati accusantis Maximianum, vestro collega praesente Restituto, qui in locum Salvii Membressitani, cum caeteris illis undecim sine dilatione damnati, antequam ipse dies dilationis transiret, iam fuerat ordinatus, verba sunt quae iam paulo ante commemoravi. Titianus etiam die ipso dilationis transacto, Felicianum et Praetextatum de tota ipsa contra Primianum conspiratione verbis gravissimis accusavit. Concilium etiam Vagaiense non semel Gestis proconsularibus, ac deinde municipalibus allegatum est, excitata iudicia, impetratae minacissimae iussiones, postulatum atque praeceptum est, ad coercitionem resistentes perducerentur, impertitum officium, concessa auxilia civitatum, per quae id quod iudicatum est, impleretur. Quid ergo nobiscum de imperata persecutione confligitis, qui vobiscum ista non aequo iure divisimus? Cum enim non semper qui persecutionem sustinet, perveniat ad passionem; sic inter nos composuerunt clerici et Circumcelliones vestri, ut vos persecutionem, nos passionem sustineremus. Sed, ut dixi, cum Maximianistis de ista laude certate, qui contra vos recitant Gesta forensia, ubi eos per iudices persecutionibus agitastis: sed plane cum quibusdam eorum tali coercitione correctis postea concordastis; unde nec nostra est desperanda concordia, si Deus adiuvare, et vobis pacificam mentem inspirare dignetur. Nam et illud, quod contra nos a vestra parte magis ore maledico quam veridico solet dici: Veloces pedes eorum ad effundendum sanguinem, nos potius ista in tantis latrociniis Circumcellionum, clericorumque vestrorum experti sumus, qui corporibus humanis caede atrocissima laniatis, tot loca nostrorum sanguine cruentarunt: quorum duces, quando te ingrediente in hanc patriam, cum suis cuneis deduxerunt, Deo laudes inter cantica conclamantes, quasi voces, velut tuba praeliorum in suis omnibus latrociniis habuerunt. Alio tamen die concussi ac stimulati aculeis verborum tuorum, quae in eos per punicum interpretem honesta et ingenua libertatis indignatione iaculatus es, factis eorum irritatus potius quam delectatus obsequiis, se de media congregatione, sicut ab eis qui aderant narrantibus audire potuimus, furibundis motibus rapuerunt, nec post eorum pedes veloces ad effundendum sanguinem, ulla aqua pavimenta salsavistis - quod post nostros clerici tui putaverunt esse faciendum.
5. 14. What of that in which you are accustomed to glory, the persecutions you have endured? If it is not the cause but the penalty that makes martyrs, then when it was said, Blessed are they who suffer persecution, it was added in vain, for justice's sake (Matt 5:10). Do not even the Maximianists most easily surpass you in the glory of this title, who endured persecution not only afterward with you, but earlier and from you? The words of the advocate accusing Maximian, in the presence of your colleague Restitutus—who had already been ordained in the place of Salvius of Membressa, condemned with those other eleven without delay, before the very day of the delay had passed—are the words I recalled a little before. Titianus too, on the very day the delay was over, accused Felician and Praetextatus with most grave words of the whole conspiracy against Primian. The council of Bagai too was more than once alleged in the proconsular records, and then in the municipal ones; tribunals were stirred up, most threatening commands obtained, it was demanded and decreed that those resisting be brought to coercion, the office was lent, the aids of the cities granted, by which what was judged might be fulfilled. Why, then, do you contend with us about commanded persecution, you who did not divide these things with us on equal terms? For since one who endures persecution does not always come to suffering, your clerics and Circumcellions so arranged between us that you should endure persecution, we suffering. But, as I said, contend about that glory with the Maximianists, who recite against you the forensic records, where you harried them with persecutions through the judges: but plainly, with certain of them corrected by such coercion, you afterward were reconciled; whence neither is our concord to be despaired of, if God deign to help, and to inspire in you a peaceable mind. For even that which is accustomed to be said against us by your party, more with a slanderous than a truthful mouth—Their feet are swift to shed blood (Ps 14:3 (13:3); Rom 3:15; Isa 59:7)—we rather have experienced in the so great brigandages of your Circumcellions and clerics, who, mangling human bodies with most atrocious slaughter, have stained so many of our places with blood: whose leaders, when at your entry into this country they led you with their bands, shouting "Praise to God!" amid their songs, had these, as it were, as voices, as the trumpet of battles in all their brigandages. Yet on another day, struck and goaded by the stings of your words, which you hurled against them through a Punic interpreter with an honorable and noble indignation of liberty, irritated rather than delighted by their compliances, they snatched themselves, as we could hear from those present who narrated it, with raging movements from the midst of the congregation; nor, after their feet swift to shed blood, did you salt the pavements with any water—which after our men your clerics thought should be done.
Ep100-155.5.145. 15. Sed, ut dicere coeperam, hoc de Scripturis testimonium, quod in nos soletis magis conviciando quam probando iactare: Veloces pedes eorum ad effundendum sanguinem, etiam in Felicianum et Praetextatum impetu vehementi, grandiloqua illa sententia concilii Vagaiensis evomuit. Nam cum de Maximiano, quae visa sunt dicenda, dixissent: "Nec solum hunc, inquiunt, sceleris sui mors iusta condemnat; trahit et ad consortium criminis plurimos catena sacrilegii, de quibus scriptum est": Venenum aspidum sub labiis eorum, quorum os maledictione et amaritudine plenum est. Veloces pedes eorum ad effundendum sanguinem", etc. Quibus dictis, ut deinde ostenderent qui essent, quos traheret ad consortium criminis catena sacrilegii, eosque cum Maximiano simili severitate damnarent: "Famosi ergo, inquiunt, criminis reos Victorianum Carcavianensem", ad quem adiungunt alios undecim, inter quos Felicianum Mustitanum, et Praetextatum Assuritanum. Post haec in eos dicta, facta est cum eis tanta concordia, ut nihil eorum minueretur honoribus; nullus ab eis ablutus, post abluentium pedes veloces ad effundendum sanguinem, rursus abluendus iudicaretur. Cur ergo de nostra concordia desperandum est? Deus diaboli averterit invidiam, et pax Christi vincat in cordibus nostris: ac, sicut idem Apostolus dicit: donemus nobismetipsis, si quis adversus aliquem habet querelam, sicut et Deus in Christo donavit nobis, ut, quod iam dixi et saepe dicendum est, caritas cooperiat multitudinem peccatorum.
5. 15. But, as I had begun to say, this testimony from the Scriptures, which you are accustomed to fling at us more by reviling than by proving—Their feet are swift to shed blood (Ps 14:3 (13:3))—that grandiloquent sentence of the council of Vagai vomited out even against Felician and Praetextatus with a vehement rush. For when they had said of Maximian what seemed should be said: "Nor does a just death," they say, "condemn him alone for his crime; the chain of sacrilege drags very many also to fellowship in the crime, of whom it is written: The venom of asps under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood (Ps 140:3 (139:4); 10:7 (9:28); 14:3 (13:3))," and so on. Which said, in order then to show who they were whom the chain of sacrilege dragged to fellowship in the crime, and to condemn them with Maximian by like severity: "Therefore the guilty," they say, "of a notorious crime, Victorianus of Carcabia"—to whom they add eleven others, among whom Felician of Mustis and Praetextatus of Assuras. After these things were said against them, so great a concord was made with them that nothing of their honors was diminished; no one washed by them, after the feet of the washers swift to shed blood, was judged to be washed again. Why, then, is our concord to be despaired of? May God turn aside the envy of the devil, and may the peace of Christ conquer in our hearts: and, as the same Apostle says, let us forgive one another, if anyone has a complaint against another, just as God in Christ has forgiven us (See Col 3:13; Eph 4:32), so that, as I have already said and must often say, love may cover a multitude of sins.
Ep100-155.5.156. 16. Verum tu, frater, cum quo nunc ago, et de quo in Christo, sicut ipse novit, gaudere desidero, si partis Donati defensionem in hac Maximiani causa velis per ingenii tui et eloquii facultatem suscipere, nec mendaciter agere, quoniam recens est memoria ipsius, hominibus in quos haec gesta sunt, adhuc in corpore constitutis, tot etiam proconsularibus et municipalibus Gestis, ubi adversus vos semper catholica Ecclesia commonita est: ut nec illud de aqua aliena, et de aqua mendacii, et lavacro mortui, et si qua alia sunt huiusmodi, sicut soletis, intellegenda fatearis; sed eo potius modo, ut baptismus Christi ad participationem salutis aeternae datus Ecclesiae, nec extra Ecclesiam iudicetur extraneus, nec in alienis deputetur alienus, sed extraneis et alienis valeat ad perniciem, suis autem et propriis ad salutem; atque in illis, cum ad pacem Ecclesiae convertuntur, error emendetur, non Sacramentum errorem puniendo destruatur, utque id quod oberat foris perverso, intus incipiat prodesse correcto: nec illa rursus de non communicando peccatis alienis, de separatione a malis, de non tangendo immundo atque polluto, de cavenda modici fermenti corruptione, et caetera talia, sicut soletis accepturus es, ne vos in Maximiani causa inexplicabiliter implicetis. Sed ita sapiens hoc asseres, hoc tenebis, quod sana doctrina commendat, quod vera regula exemplis propheticis atque apostolicis probat, malos esse potius tolerandos, ne deserantur boni, quam bonos deserendos, ut separentur mali. Tantum ut ab imitatione, a consensione, a vitae ac morum similitudine reprobi seiungantur, simul crescentes, simul in tribulatione permixti, simul intra retia congregati usque ad tempus messis, ventilationis, et littoris. De persecutione autem, quidquid ad expellendos et sedibus perturbandos Maximianistas a vestris per iudices actum est, quomodo defensurus es, nisi hoc prudentiores vestros corrigendi animo, non nocendi moderato terrore fecisse: si qui autem humanum modum excesserunt, sicut in his quae Salvium Membressitanum esse perpessum civitas ipsa testatur, non praescribere caeteris, tamquam palea cum frumentis in una Sacramentorum communione constitutis, vitae autem dissimilitudine separatis?
6. 16. But you, brother, with whom I now treat, and over whom in Christ, as he himself knows, I desire to rejoice—if you wish to undertake the defense of the party of Donatus in this cause of Maximian by the faculty of your talent and eloquence, and not to act mendaciously, since the memory of it is recent, the men against whom these things were done being still placed in the body, with so many proconsular and municipal records too, where the Catholic Church has always been warned against you: so that you will confess that neither that about "another's water," and about "the water of falsehood," and "the washing of a dead man," and whatever else there is of this kind, is to be understood as you are accustomed; but rather in this way, that the baptism of Christ, given to the Church for participation in eternal salvation, is to be judged neither foreign outside the Church, nor reckoned alien among aliens, but avails to perdition for the foreign and alien, and to salvation for its own and proper; and in those men, when they are converted to the peace of the Church, the error is amended, the Sacrament not destroyed by punishing the error, and that what was harmful outside to the perverse begins to profit inside the corrected man: nor again will you take that about "not communicating in the sins of others," about "separation from the bad," about "not touching the unclean and polluted thing," about "guarding against the corruption of a little leaven," and other such things, as you are accustomed, lest you involve yourselves inextricably in the cause of Maximian. But, being wise, you will assert this, you will hold this, which sound doctrine commends, which the true rule proves by prophetic and apostolic examples: that the bad are rather to be tolerated, lest the good be deserted, than the good to be deserted, that the bad be separated. Only let the reprobate be sundered from imitation, from consent, from likeness of life and character, growing together, mixed together in tribulation, gathered together within the nets until the time of harvest, of winnowing, and of the shore. But about persecution—whatever was done by your people through the judges to expel the Maximianists and disturb them from their seats—how will you defend it, except that your more prudent men did this with the mind of correcting, not of harming, by a moderate terror; but if any exceeded the human measure, as in those things which the very city attests Salvius of Membressa suffered, that they do not prescribe to the rest, as chaff set with the wheat in one communion of the Sacraments, but separated by dissimilarity of life?
Ep100-155.6.166. 17. Quae cum ita sint, amplector istam defensionem tuam. Ista quippe erit, si verax erit; et veritate vincetur, si ista non erit. Amplector, inquam, defensionem tuam; sed hanc esse cernis et meam. Cur non ergo in unitate areae dominicae simul frumentum esse laboremus, simul paleam toleramus? cur non, obsecro te, quae causa, cui bono, ob quam utilitatem, dic mihi? Fugitur unitas, ut Agni unici sanguine populi comparati, adversus invicem studiis contrariis inflammentur, et dividantur oves, quasi nostrae inter nos, patrisfamilias illius qui servo dixit: Pasce oves meas, non, Pasce oves tuas; et de quibus dictum est: Ut sit unus grex, et unus pastor: qui clamat in Evangelio: In hoc scient omnes quia discipuli mei estis, si veram dilectionem habueritis in vobis; et: Sinite crescere utraque usque ad messem, ne forte cum vultis colligere zizania, eradicetis simul et triticum. Fugitur unitas, ut huc maritus, illuc uxor conveniat: dicat ille, Mecum tene unitatem, quia ego sum vir tuus; respondeat illa, Ibi morior, ubi est pater meus: ut in uno lecto dividant Christum, quos detestamur si dividant lectum. Fugitur unitas, ut propinqui, et cives, et amici, et hospites, et quicumque sibi humana necessitudine colligati, utrique Christiani, in conviviis ineundis, in matrimoniis tradendis et accipiendis, in emendo ac vendendo, in pactis et placitis, in salutationibus, in consensionibus, in collocutionibus, in omnibus suis rebus negotiisque concordes sint, et ad Dei altare discordes. Qui enim quantamlibet aliunde conceptam, illic deberent finire discordiam, et secundum praeceptum Domini, prius reconciliari fratribus suis, et tunc offerre munus altaris, alibi concordes, ibi discordant.
6. 17. Since these things are so, I embrace this defense of yours. For it will be this, if it is truthful; and it will be conquered by truth, if it is not this. I embrace, I say, your defense; but you perceive that this is mine too. Why, then, do we not labor to be wheat together in the unity of the Lord's threshing floor, and tolerate the chaff together? Why not, I beseech you—what cause, for whose good, for what benefit? Tell me. Unity is fled, so that peoples purchased by the blood of the one Lamb are inflamed against one another by contrary zeals, and the sheep are divided, as though ours among ourselves—the sheep of that householder who said to the servant, Feed my sheep (John 21:17), not "Feed your sheep"; and of whom it is said, That there may be one flock and one shepherd (John 10:16); who cries out in the Gospel, By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you have true love among you (See John 13:35); and, Let both grow until the harvest, lest perhaps, when you wish to gather the tares, you uproot the wheat together with them (Matt 13:30, 29). Unity is fled, so that here the husband, there the wife resorts: let him say, "Hold unity with me, for I am your husband"; let her answer, "There I die, where my father is": so that in one bed they divide Christ, whom we detest if they divide the bed. Unity is fled, so that kinsmen, and fellow citizens, and friends, and guests, and whoever are bound to one another by human relationship, both Christians, may be in agreement in entering banquets, in giving and receiving in marriage, in buying and selling, in pacts and agreements, in greetings, in consents, in conversations, in all their affairs and dealings, and at the altar of God be at discord. For those who, however great a discord conceived elsewhere, ought there to end it, and, according to the precept of the Lord, first be reconciled to their brethren, and then offer the gift at the altar, are elsewhere in agreement, there at discord.
Ep100-155.6.176. 18. Fugitur unitas, ut nos adversus vestrorum (nolo enim vestras dicere) improbitates quaeramus publicas leges, et adversus ipsas leges armentur Circumcelliones, quas eo ipso furore contemnant, quo in vos eas cum furerent excitarunt. Fugitur unitas, ut contra possessores suos rusticana erigatur audacia, et fugitivi servi contra apostolicam disciplinam, non solum a dominis alienentur, verum etiam dominis comminentur; nec solum comminentur, sed et violentissimis aggressionibus depraedentur, auctoribus et ducibus, et in ipso scelere principibus agonisticis confessoribus vestris, qui ad "Deo laudes" ornant honorem vestrum, qui ad "Deo laudes" fundunt sanguinem alienum, ut vos propter hominum invidiam collectis vestris, atque discursis promittatis praedas eis, a quibus ablatae sunt, reddituros. Nec tamen et hoc velitis, ut valeatis implere, ne illorum audaciam, quam sibi putaverunt vestri presbyteri necessariam nimium cogamini offendere. Iactant enim praecedentia circa vos merita sua, demonstrantes, et enumerantes ante istam legem, qua gaudetis vobis redditam libertatem, quod loca et basilicas per eos presbyteri vestri vastatis nostris fugatisque tenuerunt, ut si in eos volueritis esse severi, beneficiis eorum appareatis ingrati.
6. 18. Unity is fled, so that against the wickednesses of your people (for I do not wish to say "yours") we seek public laws, and against those very laws the Circumcellions are armed—laws which they despise with the very fury with which, raging, they stirred them up against you. Unity is fled, so that against their own owners rustic audacity is erected, and fugitive slaves, against apostolic discipline, are not only alienated from their masters, but even threaten their masters; nor only threaten, but also plunder by most violent assaults, with your "agonistic confessors" as authors and leaders, and in the crime itself as chiefs—who at "Praise to God!" adorn your honor, who at "Praise to God!" shed the blood of others, so that you, on account of the odium of men, when your people are gathered and dispersed, promise that you will restore the plunder to those from whom it was taken. And yet you do not even wish this, that you should be able to fulfill it, lest you be forced too much to offend the audacity of those whom your priests thought necessary to themselves. For they boast of their preceding merits toward you, demonstrating and enumerating, before that law by which you rejoice that liberty was restored to you, that your priests held, through them, the places and basilicas laid waste, our people put to flight; so that, if you should wish to be severe against them, you would appear ungrateful for their benefits.
Ep100-155.6.186. 19. Fugitur unitas, ut quicumque apud nos ferre detrectaverint disciplinam, ad illos fugiant defendendi, ut vobis offerantur rebaptizandi. Sicut iste de agro subdiaconus Rusticianus, cuius causa haec ad te scribere magno sum dolore ac timore compulsus, propter reprobos et perversos mores excommunicatus a presbytero suo, multorum etiam in illa regione debitor factus, et contra ecclesiasticum vigorem, et contra creditores suos, aliud praesidium non quaesivit, nisi ut abs te iterum plagaretur, et ab ipsis quasi mundissimus amaretur. Iam talem diaconum nostrum, et ipsum a suo presbytero excommunicatum, decessor tuus rebaptizavit, et vestrum diaconum fecit, qui non post multos dies, eorumdem perditorum sicut desideravit commixtus audaciae, et in nocturna aggressione, in medio latrocinio atque incendio suo, subvenientis multitudinis concursu, peremptus est. Hi sunt fructus divisionis huius quam sanare non vultis, sic fugiendo unitatem, quemadmodum fuerat ipsa divisio fugienda; quae per seipsam foeda est, et damnabilis Deo, etsi propter ipsam haec et alia tam horrenda et nefanda non fierent.
6. 19. Unity is fled, so that whoever among us refuse to bear discipline flee to them to be defended, that they may be offered to you to be rebaptized. Like that subdeacon from the estate, Rusticianus, on whose account I have been compelled to write these things to you with great grief and fear: who, on account of his reprobate and perverse character, was excommunicated by his priest, and, having become also the debtor of many in that region, against the ecclesiastical authority and against his creditors sought no other refuge than that he might be flogged anew by you, and be loved by those men as though most clean. Already such a deacon of ours, himself too excommunicated by his priest, your predecessor rebaptized, and made your deacon, who not many days afterward, mixed, as he desired, with the audacity of those same lost men, was slain in a nocturnal assault, in the midst of his own brigandage and arson, by the rush of a relieving multitude. These are the fruits of this division which you are unwilling to heal, fleeing unity in the same way as the division itself ought to have been fled; which is in itself foul, and damnable to God, even if on its account these and other so horrible and wicked things were not done.
Ep100-155.6.197. 20. Agnoscamus ergo, frater, pacem Christi, pariterque teneamus, et quantum Deus donat, simul boni esse studeamus, et simul malos salva unitate, quanta possumus disciplina emendemus, et propter ipsam unitatem, quanta possumus patientia toleremus: ne, sicut Christus admonuit, cum volumus ante tempus colligere zizania, quae beatus Cyprianus non extra, sed in Ecclesia videri cernique testatus est, eradicemus simul et triticum. Neque enim revera vos habetis propria quaedam privilegia sanctitatis, ut nos polluant mali nostri, et vos non polluant mali vestri; ut nos antiqua contaminet, quam nescimus, timiditas traditorum, et vos non contaminet praesens, quam videtis, audacia perditorum. Agnoscamus arcam illam quae praefiguravit Ecclesiam: simul illic munda animalia simus; nec in ea nobiscum etiam immunda portari usque in finem diluvii recusemus. Simul in arca fuerunt, sed non simul Domino in odorem sacrificii de immundis obtulit Noe. Nec ideo tamen a mundis aliquibus arca ante tempus propter immunda deserta est. Corvus tantum deseruit, et se ante tempus ab illius arcae communione separavit; sed de binis immundis, non de septenis mundis fuit: huius separationis immunditiam detestemur. Nam quicumque talibus moribus laudabiles sunt, facit eos sola separatio ista damnabiles: quia filius malus ipse se iustum dicit, exitum autem suum non abluit; quamvis insolenter elatus et ipse suo tumore caecatus audeat dicere, quod Propheta praevidens detestatus est: Noli me tangere, quoniam mundus sum. Quisquis ergo ante tempus velut propter quorumdam immunditiam, congregationem huius deserit unitatis, tamquam arcam in diluvio, munda atque immunda portantem, ostendit se potius hoc esse quod fugit. Hoc voluit Dominus, ut et in hac civitate plebs tua per os cuiusdam.....
7. 20. Let us recognize, then, brother, the peace of Christ, and hold it together, and, as far as God grants, let us strive together to be good, and together amend the bad, unity being safe, by as much discipline as we can, and on account of that very unity tolerate them with as much patience as we can: lest, as Christ admonished, when we wish to gather before the time the tares which the blessed Cyprian attested are seen and perceived not outside but in the Church, we uproot the wheat together with them. For you do not in truth have certain privileges of holiness peculiar to yourselves, such that our bad men pollute us and your bad men do not pollute you; such that the ancient timidity of traitors, which we do not know, contaminates us, and the present audacity of lost men, which you see, does not contaminate you. Let us recognize that ark which prefigured the Church: let us be clean animals there together; and let us not refuse that even the unclean be carried in it with us until the end of the flood. They were in the ark together, but Noah did not offer them together to the Lord in the odor of sacrifice from among the unclean. Nor yet was the ark for that reason deserted before the time by any of the clean on account of the unclean. The raven alone deserted it, and separated itself before the time from the communion of that ark; but it was of the pairs of the unclean, not of the sevens of the clean: let us detest the uncleanness of this separation. For whoever are praiseworthy in such characters, this separation alone makes them damnable: because the evil son calls himself just, but does not wash his going-out; though, insolently puffed up and himself blinded by his swelling, he dares to say what the Prophet, foreseeing it, detested: Do not touch me, for I am clean (See Isa 65:5). Whoever, then, before the time, as though on account of the uncleanness of certain men, deserts the congregation of this unity, like the ark in the flood carrying the clean and unclean, shows himself rather to be that which he flees. The Lord willed this, that in this city too your people, through the mouth of a certain...
Ep100-155.7.20EPISTOLA 109
VENERABILI AC DESIDERABILI ET TOTO SINU CARITATIS AMPLECTANDO EPISCOPO AUGUSTINO, SEVERUS.
VENERABILI AC DESIDERABILI ET TOTO SINU CARITATIS AMPLECTANDO EPISCOPO AUGUSTINO, SEVERUS.
LETTER 109
To the venerable and longed-for bishop Augustine, to be embraced with the whole bosom of love, Severus.
Ep100-155.7.20To the venerable and longed-for bishop Augustine, to be embraced with the whole bosom of love, Severus.
1. Deo gratias, frater Augustine, cuius donum est quidquid in nobis bonorum gaudiorum est. Fateor, bene mihi tecum est; multum te lego: mirum dicam, sed verum plane, quam mihi absens solet esse praesentia, tam praesens facta est absentia tui. Nullae se nobis interponunt turbulentae actiones temporalium rerum. Ago quantum possum, etsi non tantum possum quantum volo: quid ego dicam, quantum volo? Nosti optime quam avarus sim tui: nec tamen murmuro, quia non tantum ago quantum volo, quoniam rursus non minus ago quantum possum. Deo ergo gratias, frater dulcissime, bene mihi tecum est, gaudeo tecum arctius coniunctus; et ut ita dicam, unissime quantum potest adhaerens tibi, redundantiam uberum tuorum suscipiens vires comparo, si possim idoneus effici ad ea concutienda et exprimenda, ut quidquid secretius et interius, clausum custodiunt remotis pellibus quas adhuc lactenti sugendas inserunt, ipsa mihi viscera si possibile est, dignentur effundere. Viscera, inquam, mihi ut refundantur cupio: viscera tua, viscera pinguia sagina coelesti, et condita omni dulcedine spiritali; viscera tua, viscera pura, viscera simplicia, nisi quod duplici sunt vinculo redimita geminae charitatis; viscera tua, viscera perfusa lumine veritatis, et refulgentia veritatem. Horum me manationi vel resultationi subicio, quo nox mea in lumine tuo deficiat, ut in diei claritate simul ambulare possimus. O vere artificiosa apis Dei, construens favos divini nectaris plenos, manantes misericordiam et veritatem, per quos discurrens deliciatur anima mea, et vitali pastu quidquid in se minus invenit, aut imbecillum sentit, resarcire et suffulcire molitur.
1. Thanks be to God, brother Augustine, whose gift is whatever of good joys is in us. I confess, it is well with me when I am with you; I read you much: I will say something marvelous, but plainly true—as your presence is wont to be absent to me, so your absence has been made present. No turbulent dealings of temporal affairs interpose themselves between us. I act as much as I can, though I cannot as much as I will: what shall I say—"as much as I will"? You know very well how greedy I am for you; nor yet do I murmur because I do not act as much as I will, since again I act no less than I can. Thanks be to God, then, sweetest brother, it is well with me when I am with you; I rejoice to be more closely joined with you; and, so to say, clinging to you as one as much as I can, receiving the overflow of your fullness, I gather strength, in the hope that I may be made fit to shake and press out those things, so that whatever more secret and inward you keep enclosed, with the skins removed which you insert to be sucked by one still at the breast, your very inmost parts, if it is possible, may deign to pour out for me. Your inmost parts, I say, I desire to be poured back into me: your inmost parts, parts rich with heavenly fattening, and seasoned with all spiritual sweetness; your inmost parts, pure parts, simple parts, except that they are bound with the double bond of twin love; your inmost parts, parts suffused with the light of truth, and reflecting truth. To the flowing or rebounding of these I subject myself, that my night may fail in your light, so that we may be able to walk together in the brightness of day. O truly skillful bee of God, building combs full of divine nectar, dripping mercy and truth, running through which my soul takes delight, and strives to repair and prop up by vital pasture whatever it finds in itself lacking, or feels to be weak.
Ep100-155.12. Benedicitur Dominus per praeconium oris tui, et fidele ministerium: quod sic concinere et respondere facis canenti tibi Domino, ut quidquid de eius plenitudine ad nos usque redundat, iucundius efficiatur et gratius per tuum elegantem famulatum, et succinctam munditiam, et fidele ac castum simplexque ministerium: quod ita resplendere facis per argutias tuas et vigilantiam tuam, ut perstringat oculos, et in se rapiat; nisi tu idem innuas Dominum, ut quidquid in te delectabile lucet, referentes nos ad illum, ipsius esse agnoscamus de cuius bonitate tam bonus es, et de cuius puritate et simplicitate ac pulchritudine purus, simplex et pulcher es; et illi agentes gratias de bono tuo, dono suo dignetur nos tibi adiungere, vel quoquo modo subiungere, ut plenius subiciamur illi, cuius te ductu ac moderatione talem gaudemus, ut et tibi contingat gaudere de nobis: quod non diffido ore, si tuis me orationibus adiuves, cuius imitatione nonnihil iam profeci, ut talis esse desiderem. Vides quid facias, quod sic bonus es, quam nos rapias in amorem proximi, qui nobis primus ad dilectionem Dei et ultimus gradus est, et quasi limes quo sibi uterque annectitur Dei et proximi; in quo nos, ut dixi, quasi limite stantes amborum calore tangimur, et amborum flagramus amore. Sed quantum nos iste ignis exusserit et purgaverit proximi, tantum nos in illum puriorem Dei ire compellit. In quo iam nullus nobis amandi modus imponitur, quando ipse ibi modus est sine modo amare. Non ergo verendum est ne plus amemus Dominum nostrum, sed ne minus, timendum.
2. The Lord is blessed through the proclamation of your mouth and your faithful ministry: for you make it so to sound together and respond to the Lord who sings to you, that whatever of his fullness overflows down to us is made more pleasant and more welcome through your elegant service, and your trim cleanness, and your faithful and chaste and simple ministry: which you make so to shine forth through your acuteness and your vigilance that it dazzles the eyes and snatches them to itself; unless you yourself signal toward the Lord, so that whatever delightful thing shines in you, we, referring it to him, may recognize to be his, of whose goodness you are so good, and of whose purity and simplicity and beauty you are pure, simple, and beautiful; and, giving thanks to him for your good, may he by his gift deign to join us to you, or in whatever way to subjoin us, that we may be more fully subjected to him, under whose leading and moderation we rejoice that you are such, so that it may fall to you also to rejoice over us: which I do not despair of, if you aid me with your prayers—you by imitation of whom I have already profited somewhat, so as to desire to be such. You see what you do, that you are so good, how you snatch us into the love of our neighbor, which to us is the first and last step toward the love of God, and as it were the boundary by which each, of God and of neighbor, is annexed to the other; on which, as I said, standing as on a boundary, we are touched by the heat of both, and burn with the love of both. But the more this fire of our neighbor has burned and purified us, the more it compels us to go into that purer love of God. In which now no measure of loving is imposed on us, since there the very measure is to love without measure. It is not, then, to be feared lest we love our Lord more, but to be feared lest we love him less.
Ep100-155.23. Haec epistola superior, quae tibi me quasi abstersa tristitia felicitate actionum, de liberali otio quod tecum mihi agere licuit in hoc rure posito (nam ita licere potuit) laetiorem offert, antequam sane venerabilis episcopus nos visitare dignaretur, quasi meta illorum gaudiorum scripta est, et quod vere mirer, eodem die venit quo scripta est. Quid hoc est, quaeso, anima mea, nisi forte quod nos delectat; tamen etsi honestum est, non tamen satis utile, quia in parte est? Interim licet universo hanc ipsam partem, id est nos ipsos, quantum pro peccatis nostris nobis cedit materia, id est nos ipsi cedimus, nobis elimatiores et compaginabiliores, si tamen admittis hoc verbum, aptare moliamur. Habes epistolam non pro tua magnitudine, sed pro mea parvitate longiorem, qua te provocaverim, ut iam non pro mea parvitate, sed pro tua magnitudine mihi epistola mittatur. Quae tamen quantacumque erit, mihi longa non erit, cui totum tempus breve est ad te legendum. Rescribe mihi quando, aut ubi occurrere debeam, propter illam causam qua me iussisti occurrere. Quod si est integra, et non forte aliud melius placuit, tunc occurram; sin minus, rogo te, nolo me a cursu revoces meo: illa enim sola visa est, quam praeponerem mihi. Fratres omnes qui nobis in Domino conservi sunt, et desidero multum, et saluto.
3. This foregoing letter, which—my sadness, as it were, wiped away by the happiness of my doings—offers you me more joyful, from the liberal leisure which it was permitted me to spend with you, set in this countryside (for so it could be permitted), was written, before the truly venerable bishop deigned to visit us, as a kind of goal of those joys; and what I truly wonder at, it came on the very day it was written. What is this, I beg, my soul, except perhaps that it delights us; yet, though it is honorable, it is not yet sufficiently useful, because it is in part? Meanwhile, though it be permitted to the whole, let us strive to fit this very part—that is, ourselves, as far as material yields to us for our sins, that is, as far as we ourselves yield—more polished and more compactible to ourselves, if indeed you admit this word. You have a letter not according to your greatness, but according to my smallness, somewhat longer, by which I may provoke you, so that now, not according to my smallness but according to your greatness, a letter may be sent to me. Which, however great it will be, will not be long to me, for whom all time is short for reading you. Write back to me when, or where, I ought to meet you, on account of that cause for which you bade me meet you. But if it is undisturbed, and perhaps nothing else better has pleased, then I will come; if not, I beg you, do not call me back from my course: for that alone has seemed something which I would prefer to myself. All the brothers who are our fellow servants in the Lord I both greatly long for and greet.
Ep100-155.3EPISTOLA 110
DOMINO BEATISSIMO ATQUE DULCISSIMO, VENERABILI NIMIUMQUE DESIDERABILI FRATRI ET CONSACERDOTI SEVERO, ET QUI TECUM SUNT FRATRIBUS, AUGUSTINUS ET QUI MECUM SUNT FRATRES, IN DOMINO SALUTEM.
DOMINO BEATISSIMO ATQUE DULCISSIMO, VENERABILI NIMIUMQUE DESIDERABILI FRATRI ET CONSACERDOTI SEVERO, ET QUI TECUM SUNT FRATRIBUS, AUGUSTINUS ET QUI MECUM SUNT FRATRES, IN DOMINO SALUTEM.
LETTER 110
To the most blessed and sweetest lord, the venerable and exceedingly longed-for brother and fellow priest Severus, and to the brothers who are with you, Augustine and the brothers who are with me send greetings in the Lord.
Ep100-155.3To the most blessed and sweetest lord, the venerable and exceedingly longed-for brother and fellow priest Severus, and to the brothers who are with you, Augustine and the brothers who are with me send greetings in the Lord.
1. Epistola mea, quam pervexit carissimus filius et condiaconus noster Timotheus, iam parata erat profecturo, quando filii nostri Quodvultdeus et Gaudentius ad nos venerunt cum litteris tuis. Inde factum est ut continuo proficiscens, non afferret responsionem meam, quoniam post illorum adventum quantulumcumque apud nos immoratus est, et profecturus per horas singulas videbatur. Sed etsi per eum respondissem, adhuc debitor forem. Nam et nunc quod videor respondisse debitor sum, non dico charitatis, quam tanto magis debemus quanto amplius impenderimus, cuius nos perpetuos debitores ostendit Apostolus dicens: Nemini quidquam debeatis, nisi ut invicem diligatis; sed ipsius epistolae tuae: quando enim sufficiam tuae suavitati, tantaeque aviditati animi tui, quam mihi lecta nuntiavit? Rem quidem mihi in te notissimam insinuavit; verumtamen etsi non mihi rei novae insinuatrix, nova tamen rescriptorum exactrix fuit.
1. My letter, which our dearest son and fellow deacon Timothy carried, was already prepared for him as he was about to set out, when our sons Quodvultdeus and Gaudentius came to us with your letter. Hence it happened that, setting out at once, he did not bring my reply, since after their arrival he stayed with us but a very little while, and seemed at every hour about to depart. But even if I had replied through him, I would still be a debtor. For even now, when I seem to have replied, I am a debtor—I do not say of love, which we owe the more the more we have spent it, of which the Apostle shows us perpetual debtors, saying, Owe no one anything, except to love one another (Rom 13:8)—but of your very letter: for when shall I suffice for your sweetness, and so great an avidity of your mind, which, when read, it announced to me? It indeed intimated to me a thing in you most well known; yet, though no intimater to me of a new thing, it was nevertheless a new exactor of a reply.
Ep100-155.12. Miraris fortasse cur me huius debiti persolutorem imparem dicam, cum tu de me tam multum sentias, qui me tamquam anima mea noveris: sed hoc ipsum est quod mihi magnam difficultatem fecit respondendi litteris tuis, quia et quantus mihi videaris parco dicere propter verecundiam tuam, et utique minus dicendo, cum tu in me tantam laudem contuleris, quid nisi debitor remanebo? Quod non curarem, si ea quae de me ad me locutus es, non ex caritate sincerissima dicta scirem, sed adulatione inimica amicitiae. Hoc quippe modo nec debitor fierem, quia talia rependere non deberem: sed quanto magis novi quam fideli animo loqueris, tanto magis video quanto debito graver.
2. You wonder perhaps why I call myself unequal to the discharge of this debt, since you feel so much about me, you who have known me as my own soul: but this very thing is what has made for me great difficulty in answering your letter, because I am sparing to say how great you seem to me, on account of your modesty; and surely, by saying less, when you have conferred on me so great praise, what shall I remain but a debtor? Which I would not care about, if I did not know that those things you spoke about me to me were said from a most sincere love, and not from a flattery hostile to friendship. For in this way I would not become a debtor, because I would not owe to repay such things: but the more I know with how faithful a mind you speak, the more I see by how great a debt I am weighed down.
Ep100-155.23. Vide autem quid mihi contigit, ut me quodammodo ipse laudaverim, qui me a te fideliter laudatum dixerim. Sed quid aliud dicerem, quam id quod de te admonui. quem nosti. Ecce mihi novam feci quaestionem quam tu non proposuisti, et eam fortassis exspectas ut solvam: ita mihi parum erat quod debitor eram, nisi etiam me ampliore debito ipse cumularem; quamquam hoc facile sit ostendere, et, si non ostendam, facile tibi videre, et vera infideliter dici posse, et non vera fideliter. Qui enim sic credit ut loquitur, etsi non vera loquitur, fideliter loquitur; qui autem non credit quae loquitur, etsi vera loquitur, infideliter loquitur. Numquid ergo dubito quod ea de me credas quae scripsisti? Quae cum in me non agnosco, potuisti fideliter de me non vera dicere.
3. But see what has befallen me, that in a manner I have praised myself, I who have said that I was faithfully praised by you. But what else should I say than that of which I admonished concerning you, whom you know? Behold, I have made for myself a new question which you did not propose, and which perhaps you await that I should solve: so little was it that I was a debtor, unless I also heaped myself up with a larger debt; although this is easy to show, and, if I do not show it, easy for you to see, that both true things can be said unfaithfully, and untrue things faithfully. For he who believes as he speaks, even if he does not speak true things, speaks faithfully; but he who does not believe what he speaks, even if he speaks true things, speaks unfaithfully. Do I then doubt that you believe of me the things you wrote? Which, since I do not recognize them in myself, you could faithfully say untrue things about me.
Ep100-155.34. Sed nolo te vel benevolentia sic falli; cui benevolentiae debitor sum, quia et tam fideliter, et tam benevole ea quae vera sunt, possum de te dicere, nisi, ut supra dixi, verecundiae tuae parcerem. Ego autem quando laudor a germanissimo et familiarissimo animae meae, velut a meipso lauder, sic habeo. Quod cernis quam molestum sit, etiam vera si dicantur. Quanto potius quia etiam cum sis altera anima mea, imo una sit anima tua et mea, sic in me falleris putando mihi adesse quae desunt, quomodo et de se ipse unus homo falli potest? Quod non tantum ideo nolo, ne quem diligo tu fallaris, verum etiam ne minus ores ut sim quod iam me esse credis: nec in eo sum tibi debitor, ut eadem progressu benevolentiae credam et loquar de te bona, quae adhuc et tu tibi deesse cognoscis, sed ut animo tam quidem benevolo ea tantum dicam bona tua, dona Dei, de quibus in te certus sum. Quod non ideo non facio ne fallar in eis, sed ne tu a me laudatus, ipse te laudasse videaris; et propter illam iustitiae regulam, qua mihi fieri nolo. Quod si fieri debet, eligo esse debitor, quamdiu puto non esse faciendum; si autem fieri non debet, nec debitor sum.
4. But I do not wish you to be so deceived even by benevolence; to which benevolence I am a debtor, because I too could, both so faithfully and so benevolently, say about you the things that are true, except that, as I said above, I would spare your modesty. But when I am praised by the most genuine and most familiar of my soul, I hold it as though I were praised by myself. Which you perceive how troublesome it is, even if true things be said. How much more, since, even though you are another soul of mine—nay, though your soul and mine are one—you are so deceived about me, supposing that there are present in me things which are lacking, in the way that one man can be deceived even about himself? Which I do not wish, not only lest you whom I love be deceived, but also lest you pray less that I may be what you already believe me to be: nor in this am I a debtor to you, that, with the same advance of benevolence, I should believe and speak good things about you which you yourself still recognize to be lacking in you, but that, with a mind indeed so benevolent, I should say only those good things of yours, gifts of God, of which I am certain in you. Which I do not on this account fail to do, lest I be deceived about them, but lest you, praised by me, should seem to have praised yourself; and on account of that rule of justice by which I do not wish done to me what I would not wish. But if it ought to be done, I choose to be a debtor, as long as I think it ought not to be done; but if it ought not to be done, neither am I a debtor.
Ep100-155.45. Sed novi quod mihi ad haec respondere possis: ita ista loqueris quasi prolixam epistolam tuam de laudibus meis desideraverim. Absit ut hoc de te credam; sed epistola tua, nolo dicere quam veris, vel quam non veris, plena tamen laudibus meis, hoc de me ut reprehenderem, etiam te nolente, flagitavit. Nam si quid aliud volebas ut scriberem, largitorem me desiderabas, non redditorem. Porro iustitiae ordo sic habet, ut debitum prius reddamus; tum deinde cui reddimus, si hoc placet, aliquid et donemus. Quamquam etiam talia qualia desiderasti ut scriberem, si diligentius praecepta dominica cogitemus, reddimus potius quam donamus, si nemini quidquam debendum est, nisi ut invicem diligamus. Ipsa quippe dilectio exigit debitum, ut fraternae caritati servientes, eum qui se adiuvari recte velit, in quo possumus, adiuvemus. Sed, mi frater, et tu credo quod noveris quanta sint in manibus meis, quibus ob diversas curas quas nostrae servitutis necessitas habet, vix mihi paucissimae guttae temporis stillantur, quas aliis rebus si impendero, contra officium meum mihi facere videor.
5. But I know what you can answer me to these things: you speak thus as though I had desired your lengthy letter about my praises. Far be it that I should believe this of you; but your letter, full—I will not say of how true, or how untrue—yet full of my praises, demanded this of me, that I should reprehend this in myself, even with you unwilling. For if you wished me to write something else, you desired me a bestower, not a repayer. Now the order of justice holds thus, that we first repay the debt; then afterward, to the one to whom we repay, if it so please, we may also give something. Although even such things as you desired me to write, if we more diligently ponder the Lord's precepts, we repay rather than give, if nothing is to be owed to anyone except to love one another. For love itself exacts the debt, that, serving brotherly charity, we help, in what we can, him who rightly wishes to be helped. But, my brother, I believe that you too know how great are the things in my hands, by which, on account of the various cares which the necessity of our service has, scarcely the fewest drops of time are dripped to me, which, if I spend them on other matters, I seem to myself to act against my office.
Ep100-155.56. Quod enim vis, ut ad te prolixam epistolam scribam, et hoc quidem debeo, fateor; debeo prorsus hoc tam dulci, tam sincerae, tam merae voluntati tuae. Sed quia bonus es amator iustitiae, inde te admoneo ut de illa quam diligis, hoc a me libentius audias. Cernis prius esse quod et tibi et aliis, quam quod tibi tantummodo debeo; et tempus ad omnia mihi non sufficit, quando nec ad illa quae priora sunt. Unde omnes carissimi et familiarissimi mei, quorum in nomine Christi inter primos mihi es, rem facient officii sui, si non solum alia mihi scribenda ipsi non imponant, verum etiam caeteros quanta possunt auctoritate et sancta benignitate prohibeant; ne videar ego durus cum a singulis petita non dedero, dum ea volo magis reddere quae omnibus debeo. Denique cum sicut speramus et promissum tenemus, ad nos venerit Venerabilitas tua, scies quibus operibus litterarum et quantum occupatus sim, et instantius facies quod rogavi, ut et alios quos potueris, mihi aliquid aliud scribendum volentes iniungere, a me demoliaris. Dominus Deus noster impleat cordis tui tam grandem et tam sanctum sinum quem ipse fecit, domine beatissime.
6. For as to what you wish, that I write you a lengthy letter, this indeed I owe, I confess; I owe it altogether to your so sweet, so sincere, so pure will. But because you are a good lover of justice, I admonish you from that very justice which you love to hear this from me the more gladly. You perceive that what I owe both to you and to others comes before what I owe to you alone; and time does not suffice me for all things, when not even for those which are prior. Whence all my dearest and most familiar friends, among whom in the name of Christ you are among the first to me, will do the duty of their office if they not only do not themselves impose other things to be written by me, but also forbid the rest, with as much authority and holy kindness as they can; lest I seem hard, when I do not give what is asked by individuals, while I wish rather to repay those things which I owe to all. Finally, when, as we hope and hold by promise, Your Venerableness comes to us, you will know with what works of letters, and how much, I am occupied, and will more insistently do what I have asked, that you also demolish from me others, whom you can, who wish to enjoin upon me something else to be written. May the Lord our God fill the so great and so holy bosom of your heart, which he himself has made, most blessed lord.
Ep100-155.6EPISTOLA 111
DOMINO DILECTISSIMO ET DESIDERANTISSIMO FRATRI ET COMPRESBYTERO VICTORIANO, AUGUSTINUS, IN DOMINO SALUTEM.
DOMINO DILECTISSIMO ET DESIDERANTISSIMO FRATRI ET COMPRESBYTERO VICTORIANO, AUGUSTINUS, IN DOMINO SALUTEM.
LETTER 111
To the most beloved and most longed-for lord, brother and fellow priest Victorianus, Augustine sends greetings in the Lord.
Ep100-155.6To the most beloved and most longed-for lord, brother and fellow priest Victorianus, Augustine sends greetings in the Lord.
1. Litterae tuae impleverunt grandi dolore cor nostrum, quibus petisti ut prolixo opere aliqua responderem; cum talibus malis magis prolixi gemitus et fletus, quam prolixi libri debeantur. Totus quippe mundus tantis affligitur cladibus, ut pene pars nulla terrarum sit, ubi non talia, qualia scripsisti, committantur atque plangantur. Nam ante parvum tempus, etiam in illis solitudinibus Aegypti, ubi monasteria separata ab omni strepitu, quasi secura delegerant, a barbaris interfecti sunt fratres. Iamvero quae modo in regionibus Italiae, quae in Galliis nefaria perpetrata sint, etiam vos latere non arbitror; de Hispanis quoque tot provinciis, quae ab his malis diu videbantur intactae, coeperunt iam talia nuntiari. Sed quid longe imus? Ecce in regione nostra Hipponensi, quoniam eam barbari non attigerunt, clericorum donatistarum et Circumcellionum latrocinia sic vastant ecclesias, ut barbarorum fortasse facta mitiora sint. Quis enim barbarus excogitare potuit quod isti, ut in oculos clericorum nostrorum calcem et acetum mitterent, quorum membra etiam caetera plagis horrendis vulneribusque sauciarunt? Depraedantur etiam domos aliquas et incendunt, fructus aridos diripiunt, humidos fundunt, et talia caeteris comminando, multos etiam rebaptizari compellunt. Pridie quam ista ad te dictavi, ex uno loco per huiusmodi terrores quadraginta et octo animae mihi rebaptizatae nuntiatae sunt.
1. Your letter has filled our heart with great grief, by which you asked that I answer something in a lengthy work; whereas for such evils lengthy groans and weeping are owed rather than lengthy books. For the whole world is afflicted with such great disasters that there is scarcely any part of the lands where such things as you wrote of are not committed and lamented. For a little while ago, even in those solitudes of Egypt, where monasteries separated from all din had chosen, as it were, security, the brethren were killed by barbarians. And now what wicked things have lately been perpetrated in the regions of Italy, what in Gaul, I do not think are hidden even from you; from the so many provinces of Spain too, which long seemed untouched by these evils, such things have already begun to be reported. But why do we go far? Behold, in our own region of Hippo, since the barbarians have not reached it, the brigandages of the Donatist clerics and Circumcellions so lay waste the churches that the deeds of the barbarians are perhaps milder. For what barbarian could have devised what these men did, to put lime and vinegar into the eyes of our clerics, whose other limbs too they have wounded with horrible blows and injuries? They also plunder and burn some houses, seize the dry crops, pour out the moist, and, threatening such things to the rest, even compel many to be rebaptized. The day before I dictated this to you, from one place, through terrors of this kind, forty-eight souls were reported to me as rebaptized.
Ep100-155.12. Plangenda sunt haec, non miranda, et exclamandum ad Deum, ut non secundum merita nostra. sed secundum misericordiam suam a tantis malis liberet nos. Nam quid utique sperandum fuit generi humano, cum haec et in Prophetis et in Evangelio tanto ante praedicta sint? Non itaque debemus tam nobis ipsis esse contrarii, ut credamus quando leguntur, et queramur quando complentur: sed potius et illi qui increduli fuerant, cum haec in sanctis Libris conscripta legerent vel audirent, nunc saltem credere debent cum compleri iam vident; ut de his tum magnis pressuris tamquam in torculari Domini Dei nostri, sicut amurca infidelium murmurantium et blasphemantium fluit, ita oleum quoque fidelium confitentium et orantium exprimi et liquari non cesset. Illis enim qui contra christianam fidem querelas impias iactare non quiescunt, dicentes quod antequam ista doctrina per mundum praedicaretur, tanta mala non patiebatur genus humanum, facile est ex Evangelio respondere; Dominus enim dicit: Servus nesciens voluntatem domini sui, et faciens digna plagis, vapulabit paucas; servus autem sciens voluntatem domini sui, et faciens digna plagis, vapulabit multas. Quid ergo mirum, si christianis temporibus iste mundus, tamquam servus iam sciens voluntatem Domini sui, et faciens digna plagis, vapulat multas? Attendunt quanta celeritate Evangelium praedicatur, et non attendunt quanta perversitate contemnitur. Servi autem Dei humiles et sancti, qui dupliciter mala temporalia patiuntur, quia et ab ipsis impiis, et cum ipsis patiuntur, habent consolationes suas, et spem futuri saeculi; unde dicit Apostolus: Non sunt condignae passiones huius temporis ad futuram gloriam, quae revelabitur in nobis.
2. These things are to be lamented, not wondered at, and we must cry out to God that he free us from such great evils, not according to our merits but according to his mercy. For what indeed was to be hoped for the human race, when these things were foretold so long before, both in the Prophets and in the Gospel? We ought not, then, to be so contrary to ourselves that we believe when they are read, and complain when they are fulfilled: but rather even those who were unbelieving, when they read or heard these things written in the holy Books, ought now at least to believe when they see them already fulfilled; so that from these now great pressures, as in the winepress of the Lord our God, just as the dregs of the unbelievers murmuring and blaspheming flow off, so the oil too of the faithful confessing and praying may not cease to be pressed out and made to flow. For to those who do not cease to fling impious complaints against the Christian faith, saying that before this doctrine was preached through the world the human race did not suffer such great evils, it is easy to answer from the Gospel; for the Lord says, The servant who does not know his master's will, and does what deserves blows, will be beaten with few; but the servant who knows his master's will, and does what deserves blows, will be beaten with many (Luke 12:48, 47). What wonder, then, if in Christian times this world, like a servant now knowing his Lord's will and doing what deserves blows, is beaten with many? They attend to how great a swiftness the Gospel is preached, and do not attend to how great a perversity it is despised. But the humble and holy servants of God, who suffer temporal evils in a twofold way, because they suffer both from the impious and with the impious, have their consolations, and the hope of the age to come; whence the Apostle says, The sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared with the future glory which will be revealed in us (Rom 8:18).
Ep100-155.23. Proinde, carissime, etiam illis quorum verba dicis te ferre non posse, quoniam dicunt: Si nos peccatores ista meruimus, quare et servi Dei barbarorum ferro perempti sunt, et ancillae Dei captivae ductae sunt? humiliter et veraciter et pie responde: Quantamlibet enim iustitiam servemus, quantamlibet Domino obedientiam exhibeamus, numquid meliores esse possumus illis tribus viris, qui in caminum ignis ardentis pro conservanda lege Dei proiecti sunt? Et tamen lege quid illic dicat Azarias, unus ex tribus qui aperiens os suum in medio ignis, dixit: Benedictus es, Domine Deus patrum nostrorum, et laudabilis; et gloriosum nomen tuum in saecula: quoniam iustus es in omnibus quae fecisti nobis, et omnia opera tua vera, et rectae viae tuae, et omnia iudicia tua veritas, et iudicia veritatis fecisti per omnia quae intulisti nobis, et civitati sanctae patrum nostrorum Ierusalem; quoniam in veritate et iudicio intulisti nobis omnia haec, propter peccata nostra; quoniam peccavimus, et Legi tuae non paruimus, et mandatis tuis non obaudivimus, ut bene nobis esset; et omnia quae intulisti nobis, in iudicio vero intulisti. Et tradidisti nos in manus iniquorum inimicissimorum transfugarum, et regi iniusto et pessimo ultra universam terram. Et nunc non est ut possimus aperire os: vere confusio et opprobrium facti sumus servis tuis, et eis qui te colunt. Ne tradideris nos in perpetuum propter nomen tuum, Domine, et ne despexeris testamentum tuum, et ne abstuleris misericordiam tuam a nobis, propter Abraham qui a te dilectus est, et propter Isaac servum tuum, et Israel sanctum tuum, quibus locutus es multiplicaturum te semen eorum ut astra coeli et arenam maris: quoniam, Domine, minimi facti sumus prae omnibus nationibus, et sumus humiles hodie in terra propter peccata nostra. Vides certe, frater, quales viri, quam sancti, quam fortes in medio tribulationis, ubi tamen eis parcebatur, et eos urere ipsa flamma verebatur, peccata sua confitebantur, pro quibus se digne et iuste humiliari noverant, nec tacebant.
3. Accordingly, dearest one, even to those whose words you say you cannot bear, since they say, "If we sinners have deserved these things, why have the servants of God too been slain by the sword of the barbarians, and the handmaids of God been led captive?"—answer humbly and truthfully and devoutly: For however great a justice we keep, however great an obedience we show to the Lord, can we be better than those three men who were cast into the furnace of burning fire for keeping the law of God? And yet read what Azariah, one of the three, says there, who, opening his mouth in the midst of the fire, said: Blessed are you, O Lord, God of our fathers, and praiseworthy; and glorious is your name forever: for you are just in all that you have done to us, and all your works are true, and your ways right, and all your judgments truth. And you have executed true judgments in all that you have brought upon us, and upon the holy city of our fathers, Jerusalem; for in truth and judgment you have brought all these things upon us, because of our sins. For we have sinned, and have not obeyed your Law, and have not heeded your commandments, that it might be well with us; and all that you have brought upon us, you have brought in true judgment. And you have delivered us into the hands of the wicked, of our most hateful enemies, of transgressors, and to a king unjust and most wicked above all the earth. And now there is no way for us to open our mouth: we have become a confusion and a reproach to your servants, and to those who worship you. Do not deliver us up forever for your name's sake, O Lord, and do not despise your covenant, and do not take away your mercy from us, for the sake of Abraham who was beloved by you, and for the sake of Isaac your servant, and Israel your holy one, to whom you spoke that you would multiply their seed like the stars of heaven and the sand of the sea: for, O Lord, we have become the least of all nations, and are humbled this day in the earth, because of our sins (Dan 3:26-37 (Vg)). You certainly see, brother, what sort of men, how holy, how strong in the midst of tribulation—where nevertheless they were spared, and the flame itself feared to burn them—confessed their sins, for which they knew they were worthily and justly humbled, and did not keep silent.
Ep100-155.34. Numquid etiam meliores esse possumus ipso Daniele, de quo per Ezechielem prophetam dicit Deus ad principem Tyri: Numquid tu sapientior quam Daniel? Et qui ponitur unus in tribus iustis quos dicit Deus solos se liberaturum; ostendens utique in illis tres quasdam formas iustorum, quos ita se liberaturum dicit, ut nec filios suos secum liberent. sed ipsi soli liberentur, Noe. Daniel, et Iob ? Lege tamen etiam precem Danielis, et vide quemadmodum in captivitate positus peccata, non tantum populi sui, verum etiam sua confiteatur, et pro his dicat per iustitiam Dei se ad illam captivitatis poenam et opprobria pervenisse. Sic enim scriptum est: Et dedi faciem meam ad Dominum Deum, ut quaererem preces et obsecrationes in ieiunationibus et sacco, et precatus sum Dominum Deum meum, et confessus sum, et dixi: Domine Deus magne et mirabilis, et qui servas testamentum tuum, et misericordiam diligentibus te et servantibus praecepta tua, peccavimus, adversus Legem fecimus, impie egimus, et recessimus, et declinavimus a praeceptis tuis, et a iudiciis tuis, et non exaudivimus servos tuos Prophetas, qui loquebantur in nomine tuo ad reges nostros, et ad omnem populum terrae. Tibi, Domine, iustitia, nobis autem confusio faciei, sicut dies hic viro Iuda, et habitantibus Ierusalem, et omni Israel, qui proximi sunt, et qui longe sunt in omni terra, in qua eos disseminasti ibi, propter contumaciam eorum, quia improbaverunt te, Domine. Nobis autem confusio faciei, regibus nostris, et principibus nostris, et patribus nostris, qui peccavimus. Tibi Domino Deo nostro miserationes et propitiationes, quoniam recessimus, et non audivimus vocem Domini Dei nostri, ut essemus in praeceptis legis huius quam dedit in conspectu nostro in manu servorum eius Prophetarum. Et omnis Israel peccaverunt adversus legem tuam, et declinaverunt ne audirent vocem tuam: et supervenit nobis maledictio et iusiurandum, quod scriptum est in lege Moysi servi Dei, quoniam peccavimus, et statuit sermones suos, quos locutus est ad nos et ad iudices nostros, qui iudicabunt nos, superducere in nos mala magna, quae numquam facta sunt sub omni coelo secundum ea quae facta sunt in Ierusalem. Sicut scriptum est in Lege Moysi, omnia mala haec venerunt ad nos, et non rogavimus Dominum Deum nostrum, ut averteret a nobis delicta nostra, et ut intellegeremus omnem veritatem tuam. Et vigilavit Dominus Deus ad omnem sanctum suum, et perduxit ea quae fecit ad nos, quoniam iustus Dominus Deus noster in omni mundo suo quem fecit, et non audivimus vocem eius. Et nunc, Domine Deus noster, qui eduxisti populum tuum de terra Aegypti in manu forti, et fecisti tibi nomen sicut dies hic, delicta adversus legem tuam fecimus. Domine, in omni misericordia tua avertatur impetus tuus, et ira tua a civitate tua Ierusalem, et monte sancto tuo. Propter peccata enim nostra et iniquitates patrum nostrorum, Ierusalem et populus tuus in confusionem venit omnibus qui circum nos sunt. Et nunc exaudi, Deus noster, preces servi tui et orationem eius, et ostende nobis faciem tuam ad sanctificationem tuam quae deserta est. Propter te inclina, Domine Deus meus, aurem tuam, et exaudi; aperi oculos tuos, et vide interitum nostrum et civitatis tuae Ierusalem, super quam invocatum est nomen tuum super eam, quoniam non in nostra iustitia iactavimus precem nostram in conspectu tuo, sed ad misericordiam tuam quae magna est. Exaudi Domine, propitiare Domine, intende Domine, et ne tardaveris propter te, Deus meus; quoniam nomen tuum invocatum est in civitate tua, super civitatem tuam et populum tuum. Et adhuc me loquente et orante et enumerante peccata mea et peccata populi mei. Vide quemadmodum sua peccata prius dixit, et postea populi sui. Et hanc Dei commendat iustitiam, et hanc Dei laudem dicit, quia non iniuste, sed pro peccatis eorum flagellat etiam ipsos sanctos suos. Si ergo ista dicunt qui excellentissima sanctitate ignes et leones circa se innoxios habuerunt, quid nos oportet dicere in humilitate nostra, qui tam longe illis impares sumus, quantamcumque iustitiam servare videamur?
4. Can we be even better than Daniel himself, of whom God says through the prophet Ezekiel to the prince of Tyre, Are you wiser than Daniel? (Ezek 28:3) And who is set as one among three just men whom God says he alone will free; showing surely in those three certain forms of the just, whom he says he will so free that they do not free even their own sons with them, but they alone are freed—Noah, Daniel, and Job (Ezek 14:14)? Yet read also the prayer of Daniel, and see how, placed in captivity, he confesses the sins not only of his people but also his own, and says that for these, through the justice of God, he came to that punishment and reproach of captivity. For thus it is written: And I set my face toward the Lord God, to seek prayers and supplications in fastings and sackcloth; and I prayed to the Lord my God, and confessed, and said: O Lord, great and wonderful God, who keep your covenant and mercy to those who love you and keep your precepts, we have sinned, we have acted against the Law, we have done impiously, and have departed and turned aside from your precepts and from your judgments, and have not heeded your servants the Prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings and to all the people of the land. To you, O Lord, justice, but to us confusion of face, as on this day, to the man of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to all Israel, those who are near and those who are far off in all the land in which you have scattered them there, on account of their contumacy, because they reproved you, O Lord. But to us confusion of face, to our kings, and to our princes, and to our fathers, who have sinned. To you, O Lord our God, mercies and propitiations, because we have departed, and have not heard the voice of the Lord our God, to walk in the precepts of this law which he gave in our sight by the hand of his servants the Prophets. And all Israel have sinned against your law, and have turned aside not to hear your voice: and the curse and the oath came upon us, which is written in the law of Moses the servant of God, because we have sinned; and he has established his words which he spoke to us and to our judges who judge us, to bring upon us great evils, such as have never been done under all heaven, according to those that were done in Jerusalem. As it is written in the law of Moses, all these evils have come upon us, and we have not entreated the Lord our God, that he turn from us our offenses, and that we might understand all your truth. And the Lord God was watchful over all his holy work, and brought upon us the things he did, because the Lord our God is just in all his work which he has made, and we have not heard his voice. And now, O Lord our God, who brought your people out of the land of Egypt with a strong hand, and made yourself a name as on this day, we have sinned against your law. O Lord, in all your mercy let your impulse and your wrath be turned away from your city Jerusalem, and your holy mountain. For on account of our sins and the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and your people have come into confusion to all who are around us. And now hear, O our God, the prayers of your servant and his supplication, and show us your face toward your sanctuary which is deserted. For your own sake incline your ear, O Lord my God, and hear; open your eyes, and see our destruction and that of your city Jerusalem, over which your name has been invoked, because not in our own justice have we cast our prayer in your sight, but to your mercy which is great. Hear, O Lord; be merciful, O Lord; attend, O Lord, and do not delay, for your own sake, my God; for your name has been invoked over your city and your people. And while I was still speaking and praying and enumerating my sins and the sins of my people (Dan 9:3-20). See how he first told his own sins, and afterward those of his people. And he commends this justice of God, and speaks this praise of God: that not unjustly, but for their sins, he scourges even his own holy ones. If, then, those say these things who by their most excellent holiness had the fires and the lions harmless about them, what ought we to say in our humility, who are so far unequal to them, however great a justice we may seem to keep?
Ep100-155.45. Sed ne aliquis existimet illos Dei servos, quos dicis a barbaris interfectos, sic illam mortem evadere debuisse, quomodo tres illi viri ab ignibus, et Daniel a leonibus liberatus est; sciat illa propterea facta miracula, ut eos verum Deum colere crederent reges, a quibus in illa supplicia tradebantur. Hoc enim erat in occulto iudicio et misericordia Dei, ut illis regibus eo modo consuleret ad salutem. Antiocho autem regi, qui Machabaeos poenis crudelibus interemit, noluit ita consulere, sed eorum gloriosissimis passionibus cor duri regis acriori severitate punivit. Lege tamen, etiam unus illorum, qui sexto loco patiebatur, quid dicat. Ita enim scriptum est: Et post hunc sextum applicuerunt. Cumque hic tormentis excruciatus moreretur, dixit: Noli te seducere propter nos; haec patimur peccantes in Deum nostrum, et facta sunt haec digna nobis. Tu autem noli te putare impunitum futurum, qui adversus Deum et Legem eius legibus tuis pugnare voluisti. Vides etiam isti quam humiliter et veraciter sapiant, qui pro peccatis suis se flagellari a Domino confitentur: de quo scriptum est: Quem enim diligit Dominus corripit; flagellat autem omnem filium quem recipit: unde et Apostolus: Si enim nosmetipsos iudicaremus, a Domino non utique iudicaremur. Cum iudicamur autem a Domino corripimur, ne cum hoc mundo damnemur.
5. But lest anyone suppose that those servants of God whom you say were slain by the barbarians ought to have escaped that death in the way that those three men were freed from the fires, and Daniel from the lions, let him know that those miracles were done for this reason, that the kings, by whom they were handed over to those punishments, might believe that they worshiped the true God. For this was in the hidden judgment and mercy of God, that he might in that way take thought for the salvation of those kings. But for king Antiochus, who slew the Maccabees with cruel punishments, he was unwilling so to take thought; rather, by their most glorious sufferings he punished the heart of the hard king with a sharper severity. Yet read what one of them too, who was suffering in the sixth place, says. For thus it is written: And after him they brought forward the sixth. And when, tormented, he was dying, he said: Do not deceive yourself on our account; we suffer these things for sinning against our God, and these things have become worthy of us. But do not think that you will go unpunished, you who have willed to fight by your laws against God and his Law (See 2 Macc 7:18-19). You see that even these understand how humbly and truthfully, who confess that they are scourged by the Lord for their sins: of which it is written, For whom the Lord loves he reproves; and he scourges every son whom he receives (Heb 12:6; Prov 3:12); whence also the Apostle: For if we judged ourselves, we would surely not be judged by the Lord. But when we are judged, we are reproved by the Lord, lest we be condemned with this world (1 Cor 11:31-32).
Ep100-155.56. Haec fideliter lege, fideliter praedica, et quantum potes cave, et cavendum doce, ne adversus Deum in his tentationibus et tribulationibus murmuretur. Bonos dicis Dei servos et fideles et sanctos, gladio barbarorum peremptos. Quid autem interest, utrum eos febris an ferrum de corpore solverit? Non qua occasione exeant, sed quales ad se exeant Dominus attendit in servis suis, nisi quod maiorem habet poenam languor diuturnus quam citissimus exitus: et tamen etiam ipsum languorem diuturnum et horrendum legimus, qualem passus est Iob ille, cuius certe iustitiae Deus ipse qui falli non potest, tale perhibet testimonium.
6. Read these things faithfully, preach them faithfully, and, as far as you can, beware, and teach men to beware, lest there be murmuring against God in these temptations and tribulations. You say that good and faithful and holy servants of God were slain by the sword of the barbarians. But what difference does it make whether a fever or the sword released them from the body? The Lord does not attend, in his servants, by what occasion they go out, but of what sort they go out to him; except that a long-lasting languor has greater penalty than a most swift departure: and yet we read even of long-lasting and horrible languor itself, such as that Job suffered, of whose justice surely God himself, who cannot be deceived, bears such a testimony.
Ep100-155.67. Gravissima sane et multum dolenda est illa captivitas feminarum castarum atque sanctarum, sed non est captivus earum Deus, nec captivas deserit suas, si novit suas. Nam et illi sancti quorum passiones et confessiones de Scripturis sanctis commemoravi, ab hostibus ducti atque in captivitate positi, illa dixerunt quae conscripta legerentur a nobis, ut disceremus captivos Dei servos non deseri a Domino suo. Unde autem scimus quid etiam per istas omnipotens et misericors Deus in ipsa terra barbarica fieri velit mirabilium suorum? Tantum non cessetis pro illis ingemiscere ad Deum, et quaerere quantum potestis, et quantum ipse permittit, cum tempus et facultatem dederit, quid de illis factum sit, vel quae vestra possint habere solatia. Nam de Sitifensi ante paucos annos Severi episcopi neptis sanctimonialis a barbaris ducta est, et per mirabilem Dei misericordiam cum honore magno suis parentibus restituta est. Domus enim illa barbarorum ubi captiva ingressa est, subita coepit dominorum infirmitate iactari, ita ut omnes ipsi barbari, tres nisi fallor, vel amplius fratres, periculosissima infirmitate laborarent. Quorum mater animadvertit puellam Deo deditam, et credidit quod eius orationibus sui filii possent ab imminentis iam mortis periculo liberari; petivit ut oraret pro eis, pollicens quod, si salvi facti essent, eam suis parentibus redderent. Ieiunavit illa et oravit, et exaudita continuo est. Ad hoc enim factum erat, quantum exitus docuit. Ita illi tam repentino Dei beneficio salute percepta, mirantes eam et honorantes, quod eorum mater promiserat impleverunt.
7. Most grave indeed, and much to be lamented, is that captivity of chaste and holy women; but their God is not captive, nor does he desert his captive women, if he knows them as his own. For even those holy ones whose sufferings and confessions I have recalled from the holy Scriptures, led by enemies and placed in captivity, said those things which we read written down, that we might learn that the captive servants of God are not deserted by their Lord. But whence do we know what the omnipotent and merciful God may will to be done of his marvels even through these women, in that very barbarian land? Only do not cease to groan to God for them, and to inquire, as far as you can, and as far as he himself permits, when he has given time and opportunity, what has been done about them, or what consolations you may be able to have. For from Sitifis, a few years ago, a consecrated virgin, the niece of bishop Severus, was led away by the barbarians, and through the marvelous mercy of God was restored to her parents with great honor. For that house of the barbarians which she entered as a captive began to be tossed by a sudden infirmity of its masters, so that all the barbarians themselves—three brothers, if I am not mistaken, or more—labored under a most dangerous infirmity. Their mother noticed the girl devoted to God, and believed that by her prayers her sons could be freed from the danger of death now imminent; she asked that she pray for them, promising that, if they were made well, they would restore her to her parents. She fasted and prayed, and was at once heard. For to this it had been done, as the outcome taught. So they, having received health by so sudden a benefit of God, marveling at her and honoring her, fulfilled what their mother had promised.
Ep100-155.78. Ora ergo Deum pro eis, et roga ut etiam ipsas doceat talia dicere, qualia supra memoratus sanctus Azarias, inter caetera in oratione et confessione sua fudit ad Deum. Sic enim sunt illae in terra captivitatis suae, quomodo erant illi in ea terra, ubi nec sacrificare more suo poterant Domino, sicut nec istae possunt, vel ferre oblationem ad altare Dei, vel invenire ibi sacerdotem per quem offerant Deo. Donet ergo eis Dominus ut ei dicant, quod Azarias dixit in consequentibus precum suarum: Non est in hoc tempore princeps et propheta et dux, non holocausta, neque oblatio, neque supplicationes, nec locus ad sacrificandum in conspectu tuo, et invenire misericordiam; sed in anima contrita et spiritu humilitatis accipiamur. Sicut in holocaustomatibus arietum et taurorum, et in multitudine agnorum pinguium, sic fiat sacrificium nostrum in conspectu tuo hodie perficere subsequentes te, quoniam non erit confusio iis qui in te confidunt. Et nunc sequimur toto corde et timemus te, et quaerimus faciem tuam, Domine; ne confundas nos, sed fac nobiscum secundum mansuetudinem tuam, et secundum multitudinem misericordiae tuae, et libera nos secundum mirabilia tua, et da gloriam nomini tuo, Domine, et revereantur omnes, qui ostendunt servis tuis mala, et confundantur ab omnipotentia, et virtus eorum conteratur, et sciant quoniam tu es Dominus Deus solus et gloriosus in universo orbe terrae.
8. Pray to God, then, for them, and ask that he teach even these women to say such things as the above-mentioned holy Azariah, among other things, poured out to God in his prayer and confession. For they are in the land of their captivity in the same way as those men were in that land, where they could neither sacrifice to the Lord after their manner, as neither can these women, nor bring an offering to the altar of God, nor find there a priest through whom to offer to God. May the Lord, then, grant them to say to him what Azariah said in the sequel of his prayers: There is at this time no prince, or prophet, or leader, no holocausts, nor offering, nor supplications, nor place to sacrifice in your sight, and to find mercy; but in a contrite soul and a spirit of humility may we be received. As in holocausts of rams and bulls, and in a multitude of fat lambs, so let our sacrifice be in your sight this day, that it may be accomplished, following after you; for there will be no confusion for those who trust in you. And now we follow you with our whole heart, and we fear you, and we seek your face, O Lord; do not put us to confusion, but deal with us according to your gentleness, and according to the multitude of your mercy, and deliver us according to your marvels, and give glory to your name, O Lord; and let all be put to shame who show evils to your servants, and be confounded by your omnipotence, and let their strength be ground down, and let them know that you are the Lord God alone, and glorious over the whole earth (Dan 3:38-45 (Vg)).
Ep100-155.89. Haec illis dicentibus, et ad Deum ingemiscentibus, omnino suis aderit qui suis adesse consuevit, et aut nihil earum castissimis membris libidine hostili perpetrari permittet; aut si permittet, non imputabit. Cum enim animus nulla consensionis turpitudine maculatur, etiam carnem suam defendit a crimine: et quidquid in ea nec commisit, nec permisit libido patientis, solius erit culpa facientis; omnisque illa violentia non pro corruptionis turpitudine, sed pro passionis vulnere deputabitur. Tantum enim in mente valet integritas castitatis, ut illa inviolata, nec in corpore possit pudicitia violari, cuius membra potuerint superari. Haec epistola pro tuo desiderio brevis, pro meis tamen occupationibus multum prolixa, et propter perlatoris festinationem nimis accelerata sufficiat caritati tuae. Multo uberius vos Dominus consolabitur, si Scripturas eius intentissime legeritis.
9. When these women say these things and groan to God, he who is wont to be present to his own will altogether be present to his own, and will either permit nothing to be perpetrated against their most chaste members by hostile lust; or, if he permits it, will not impute it. For when the mind is stained by no foulness of consent, it defends even its own flesh from crime: and whatever in it the lust of the one who suffers neither committed nor permitted will be the fault of the doer alone; and all that violence will be reckoned, not as the foulness of corruption, but as the wound of suffering. For so much does the integrity of chastity avail in the mind that, it remaining inviolate, chastity cannot be violated even in the body whose members could be overcome. Let this letter, brief for your desire, yet for my occupations much too lengthy, and on account of the haste of the bearer too greatly hurried, suffice for your charity. The Lord will console you much more abundantly, if you read his Scriptures most intently.
Ep100-155.9EPISTOLA 112
DOMINO EXIMIO, ET SINCERISSIMA DILECTIONE HONORABILI FRATRI DONATO, AUGUSTINUS, IN DOMINO SALUTEM.
DOMINO EXIMIO, ET SINCERISSIMA DILECTIONE HONORABILI FRATRI DONATO, AUGUSTINUS, IN DOMINO SALUTEM.
LETTER 112
To the most excellent lord, and by most sincere love honorable brother Donatus, Augustine sends greetings in the Lord.
Ep100-155.9To the most excellent lord, and by most sincere love honorable brother Donatus, Augustine sends greetings in the Lord.
1. Quod te administrantem multum desiderans, etiam cum Tibilim venisses, videre non potui, credo propterea factum esse, ut animo tuo curis publicis expedito potius fruerer, quam ut illa salutatio, me apud te otioso, et te negotioso, neutri nostrum, quantum satis esset, desiderium temperaret: recolens quippe honestatem ab ineunte aetate indolis tuae, abundanter idoneum tuum pectus existimo cui se Christus largissime infundat, ut fructus ei afferas aeterna et coelesti gloria quam temporali et terreno praeconio digniores.
1. That, much desiring you while you held office, I could not see you even when you had come to Tibilis, I believe was done for this reason, that I might enjoy your mind freed from public cares rather than that that greeting—with me at leisure before you, and you busy—should temper the desire of neither of us as much as would suffice: for, recalling the honorableness of your character from your earliest age, I judge your breast abundantly fit for Christ to pour himself into most lavishly, so that you may bear him fruits worthier of eternal and heavenly glory than of temporal and earthly acclaim.
Ep100-155.12. A multis enim, imo prorsus ab omnibus quos vel percontari, vel ultro etiam praedicantes audire potui, castitatem virtutemque administrationis tuae constanter omnino laudantibus atque praeferentibus, et sine ullo scrupulo dissonae varietatis accepi, et eo certius quo ignorabant necessitudinem nostram, et utrum te vel tenuiter nossem penitus nesciebant praedicatores tui, ne magis eos auribus meis se dedisse, quam vera de te spargere crederem. Ibi enim est a vanitate remota laudatio, ubi etiam vituperatio ab offensione secura est. Verumtamen, o frater eximie, et sincerissima dilectione honorabilis, non nunc docendus es, sed fortasse admonendus, omnem istam gloriam famamque popularem non in ore vulgi esse laetabilem, sed in rebus ipsis: quae etiamsi vulgo displiceant, proprio tamen fulgore ac pondere, non imperitorum commendatione pretiosae sunt; magisque miserandus est qui talia improbat, quam ille qui de talibus improbatur iudicandus miser. Cum vero placent, et sibi debita laude populariter quoque praedicantur, nec sic quidem ipsae maiores melioresque fiunt alieno iudicio; quoniam integrantur intima veritate, et solius conscientiae robore solidantur. Unde magis hominibus recte existimantibus, quam ei de quo vulgus bene existimat, aliquid ex eo felicitatis accidit.
2. For from many—nay, indeed from all whom I could either question, or even hear of their own accord proclaiming it—praising and preferring the chastity and virtue of your administration altogether constantly, and without any scruple of dissonant variety, I received it, and the more surely in that they did not know our connection, and your proclaimers were wholly ignorant whether I knew you even slightly, lest I should believe that they had given themselves to my ears rather than scattered true things about you. For there praise is removed from vanity, where even blame is secure from offense. Yet, O excellent brother, and by most sincere love honorable, you are not now to be taught, but perhaps to be admonished, that all that popular glory and fame is to be rejoiced in not in the mouth of the crowd, but in the things themselves: which, even if they displease the crowd, are nonetheless precious by their own splendor and weight, not by the commendation of the unskilled; and he who disapproves such things is rather to be pitied than the one who is disapproved concerning such things to be judged wretched. But when they please, and are also popularly proclaimed with their due praise, not even so do those things themselves become greater and better by another's judgment; since they are made whole by inmost truth, and are made solid by the strength of conscience alone. Whence something of happiness accrues from it rather to men judging rightly than to him of whom the crowd thinks well.
Ep100-155.23. Quae cum optime noveris, vir bone, intuere, ut coepisti, fortissima cordis acie Dominum nostrum Iesum Christum, et ab omni inani fastu omnino detumescens, assurge in illum qui non ventose allevat conversos ad se, sed certis fidei passibus innitentes atque ascendentes collocat in sempiterno fastigio coelestis atque angelicae dignitatis. Per quem te obsecro ut rescribas mihi, tuosque omnes quos in Sinitensi vel Hipponensi habes, ad catholicae Ecclesiae communionem comiter et benigne adhorteris. In cuius gremio etiam patrem tuum laudabilem et egregium virum abs te genitum esse cognovi; quem ut debito meritis eius a me officio salutes peto, et nos visere non graveris. Quod etiam propter rem tuam, quam hic habes, meliorem apud Deum faciendam, non impudenter exposco. Dei misericordia te circumplectatur, et ab omni iniquitate conservet.
3. Since you know these things very well, good man, gaze, as you have begun, with the strongest keenness of heart upon our Lord Jesus Christ, and, altogether subsiding from all empty pride, rise up to him who does not windily lift up those converted to him, but, as they lean and ascend by the sure steps of faith, places them on the everlasting summit of heavenly and angelic dignity. Through whom I beseech you to write back to me, and to exhort all your people whom you have in Sinitis or Hippo, kindly and benignly, to the communion of the Catholic Church. In whose bosom I have learned that your father too, a praiseworthy and distinguished man, begot you; whom I ask that you greet on my behalf with the office due to his merits, and that you not find it burdensome to visit us. Which I also, not impudently, demand on account of your own affairs, which you have here, to be made better before God. May the mercy of God enfold you, and preserve you from all iniquity.
Ep100-155.3EPISTOLA 113
DOMINO DILECTISSIMO, MERITOQUE HONORABILI ET SUSCIPIENDO FRATRI CRESCONIO, AUGUSTINUS, IN DOMINO SALUTEM.
DOMINO DILECTISSIMO, MERITOQUE HONORABILI ET SUSCIPIENDO FRATRI CRESCONIO, AUGUSTINUS, IN DOMINO SALUTEM.
LETTER 113
To the most beloved lord, and deservedly honorable and worthy to be received brother Cresconius, Augustine sends greetings in the Lord.
Ep100-155.3To the most beloved lord, and deservedly honorable and worthy to be received brother Cresconius, Augustine sends greetings in the Lord.
1. Si ab ista causa dissimulavero, de qua tuae religioni ecce iterum scribo; non solum Eximietas tua, sed etiam ipse, quisquis ille est, in cuius causa Faventius sic raptus est, merito me culpabit, et recte reprehendet: iudicans utique, si etiam ipse ad auxilium Ecclesiae confugisset, si ei simile aliquid accidisset, ita me fuisse ab eius necessitate et tribulatione dissimulaturum. Deinde, si hominum existimatio contemnenda est, ipsi Domino Deo nostro quid dicam, et quam rationem reddam, si quantum possum non egero pro eius salute, qui se Ecclesiae, cui servio, tuendum adiuvandumque commisit, domine dilectissime et venerabilis fili? Rogo itaque Benignitatem tuam, quoniam difficile et incredibile est, ut non iam vel noveris vel nosse possis in qua causa detentus sit, hoc interim apud apparitorem qui eum tenet, petitionem meam adiuvare digneris, ut faciat quod Imperatoris leget praecipitur: ut eum apud Acta municipalia interrogari faciat, utrum sibi velit dies triginta concedi, quibus agat sub moderata custodia in ea civitate in qua detentus est, ut sua ordinet, sumptusque provideat. Quorum dierum spatio, tua nobis annuente benevolentia, si eius causam amica disceptatione finire potuerimus, gratulabimur: si autem non potuerimus, inveniet eum exitus iudiciorum qui placuerit Deo, secundum causae ipsius meritum vel Domini omnipotentissimi voluntatem.
1. If I should dissemble about this cause, concerning which, behold, I again write to your religion, not only Your Eminence, but also the man himself, whoever he is, in whose cause Faventius has been thus carried off, will deservedly blame me and rightly reprehend me: judging surely that, if he himself too had fled for refuge to the help of the Church, if something similar had befallen him, I would have so dissembled about his necessity and tribulation. Then, if the esteem of men is to be despised, what shall I say to the Lord our God himself, and what account shall I render, if I do not act, as far as I can, for the safety of him who committed himself to be protected and helped by the Church which I serve, most beloved lord and venerable son? I ask, therefore, your Benignity—since it is difficult and incredible that you do not now either know or are able to know in what cause he is detained—meanwhile to deign to aid my petition with the apparitor who holds him, that he do what is prescribed by the Emperor's law: that he have him questioned before the municipal records, whether he wishes thirty days to be granted him, in which he may act under moderate custody in that city in which he is detained, so as to set his affairs in order and provide for his expenses. In the space of which days, with your benevolence granting it to us, if we are able to end his cause by friendly negotiation, we shall be glad: but if we are not able, the outcome of the trials which has pleased God will find him, according to the merit of the cause itself or the will of the most omnipotent Lord.
Ep100-155.1EPISTOLA 114
DOMINO DILECTISSIMO FILIO FLORENTINO, AUGUSTINUS, IN DOMINO SALUTEM.
DOMINO DILECTISSIMO FILIO FLORENTINO, AUGUSTINUS, IN DOMINO SALUTEM.
LETTER 114
To the most beloved lord and son Florentinus, Augustine sends greetings in the Lord.
Ep100-155.1To the most beloved lord and son Florentinus, Augustine sends greetings in the Lord.
1. Cuius potestatis iussione Faventium rapueris, ipse videris: hoc autem scio, quod omnis potestas sub imperio constituta, imperatoris sui legibus servit. Quamvis ergo iam per fratrem et compresbyterum meum Coelestinum miserim legem, quam quidem et antequam mitterem, ignorare utique non deberes, qua concessum est eis qui praecipiuntur ab aliqua potestate iudiciis exhiberi, ut ad Gesta municipalia perducantur, atque illic interrogentur utrum velint triginta dies in ea civitate ubi tenentur, agere sub moderata custodia, ad parandos sibi fructus, vel rem suam, sicut necesse fuerit, ordinandam; quae lex, sicut mihi memoratus presbyter renuntiavit, tuae religioni recitata est: tamen etiam nunc eam cum his litteris identidem misi; non terrens, sed rogans, et pro homine humane, et episcopali misericordia, quantum ipsa permittit humanitas et pietas, intercedens, domine fili, ut et hoc existimationi tuae et petitioni meae praestare digneris, et quod lex Imperatoris iubet, cuius reipublicae militas, meo quoque interventu et deprecatione accedente facere non graveris.
1. By the command of what authority you have carried off Faventius, you yourself shall see; but this I know, that every authority set under an empire serves the laws of its own emperor. Although, then, I have already sent, through my brother and fellow priest Caelestinus, the law—which indeed, even before I sent it, you ought surely not to have been ignorant of—by which it is granted to those who are ordered to be produced before the courts by some authority, that they be brought to the municipal records, and there be questioned whether they wish to spend thirty days, in the city where they are held, under moderate custody, to prepare for themselves their crops, or to set their affairs in order, as may be necessary; which law, as the aforesaid priest reported to me, was recited to your religion: yet even now I have again sent it with this letter; not terrifying, but asking, and interceding for a man humanely, and with episcopal mercy, as far as humanity and piety themselves permit, lord son, that you deign to grant both to your own esteem and to my petition, and that what the law of the Emperor commands, in whose republic you serve, you not find it burdensome to do, with my intervention and entreaty also added.
Ep100-155.1EPISTOLA 115
DOMINO BEATISSIMO ET VENERABILITER CARISSIMO FRATRI ET CONSACERDOTI FORTUNATO, ET QUI TECUM SUNT FRATRIBUS, AUGUSTINUS, IN DOMINO SALUTEM.
DOMINO BEATISSIMO ET VENERABILITER CARISSIMO FRATRI ET CONSACERDOTI FORTUNATO, ET QUI TECUM SUNT FRATRIBUS, AUGUSTINUS, IN DOMINO SALUTEM.
LETTER 115
To the most blessed and reverently most dear lord, brother and fellow priest Fortunatus, and to the brothers who are with you, Augustine sends greetings in the Lord.
Ep100-155.1To the most blessed and reverently most dear lord, brother and fellow priest Fortunatus, and to the brothers who are with you, Augustine sends greetings in the Lord.
1. Faventium bene novit Sanctitas tua, qui Paratianensis saltus conductor fuit. Is, cum ab eiusdem possessionis domino nescio quid sibi metueret, ad Hipponensem confugit ecclesiam; et ibi erat, ut confugientes solent, exspectans quomodo per intercessionem nostram sua negotia terminaret. Qui, ut saepe fit, per dies singulos minus minusque sollicitus, et quasi adversario cessante securus, cum ab amico suo de coena egrederetur, subito raptus est a Florentino quodam, ut dicunt: Comitis Officiali, per armatorum manum, quanta eis ad hoc factum sufficere visa est. Quod cum mihi nuntiatum, et adhuc a quo vel a quibus raptus fuerit ignoraretur, suspicio tamen esset de illo, quem metuens se per ecclesiam tuebatur; continuo misi ad tribunum, qui custodiendo littori constitutus est. Misit militares: nemo potuit reperiri. Sed mane cognovimus et in qua domo fuerit, et quod post galli cantum cum illo abscesserit, qui eum tenuerat. Etiam illuc misi quo dicebatur abductus: ubi memoratus Officialis inventus, concedere presbytero quem miseram, noluit ut eum saltem videret. Alio die misi litteras, petens ut ei concederetur quod iussit in causis talibus Imperator, id est ut Actis municipalibus interrogarentur qui praecepti fuerint exhibendi, utrum velint in ea civitate sub custodia moderata triginta dies agere, ut rem suam ordinent vel praeparent sumptus: id utique existimans quod per dies ipsos possemus fortasse causam eius amica disceptatione finire. Iam vero cum illo Officiali profectus ductus est: sed metus est ne forte ad Consularis perductus officium, mali aliquid patiatur. Habet enim causam cum homine pecuniosissimo, quamvis iudicis integritas fama clarissima praedicetur. Ne quid tamen apud Officium pecunia praevaleat, peto Sanctitatem tuam, domine dilectissime et venerabilis frater, ut honorabili nobisque carissimo Consulari digneris tradere litteras meas, et has ei legere; quia bis eamdem causam insinuare necessarium non esse arbitratus sum; et eius causae differat audientiam, quoniam nescio utrum in ea nocens an innocens sit. Et quod circa eumdem leges non servatae sunt, ut sic raperetur, neque ut ab Imperatore praeceptum est, ad Acta municipalia perduceretur interrogandus, utrum beneficium dilationis vellet accipere, non contemnat; ut per hoc possimus cum eius adversario rem finire.
1. Your Holiness knows well Faventius, who was the leaseholder of the Paratiana estate. He, fearing I know not what for himself from the owner of that same property, fled for refuge to the church of Hippo; and there he was, as those who flee for refuge are accustomed, waiting how, through our intercession, he might settle his affairs. As often happens, day by day less and less anxious, and as it were secure, his adversary having ceased, when he was coming out from a supper with his friend, he was suddenly carried off by a certain Florentinus, an official of the Count, as they say, by a band of armed men, as great as seemed to them sufficient for this deed. When this was announced to me, and it was still unknown by whom he had been carried off, yet there was suspicion about the man whom, fearing, he was protecting himself by means of the church, I at once sent to the tribune who is set over the guarding of the shore. He sent soldiers: no one could be found. But in the morning we learned both in what house he had been, and that after cockcrow he had departed with the man who had held him. I sent there too, where he was said to have been led away: where the aforesaid official, found, was unwilling to grant to the priest whom I had sent even that he might see him. The next day I sent a letter, asking that there be granted him what the Emperor commanded in such cases—that is, that those who have been ordered to be produced be questioned before the municipal records, whether they wish to spend thirty days under moderate custody in that city, to set their affairs in order or prepare their expenses: thinking surely that during those days we might perhaps be able to end his cause by friendly negotiation. But by now he has been led off, having set out with that official: and there is fear lest perhaps, brought to the office of the Consular, he suffer something bad. For he has a case with a most moneyed man, although the integrity of the judge is proclaimed by most illustrious fame. Lest, nevertheless, money should anywhere prevail in the office, I ask Your Holiness, most beloved lord and venerable brother, that you deign to hand my letter to the honorable and to us most dear Consular, and read it to him; for I judged it not necessary to set forth the same cause twice; and that he defer the hearing of his case, since I do not know whether he is guilty or innocent in it. And as to the fact that the laws were not kept concerning him, that he was carried off in this way, nor, as the Emperor commanded, brought to the municipal records to be questioned whether he wished to accept the benefit of the delay—let him not despise this; so that through it we may be able to end the matter with his adversary.
Ep100-155.1EPISTOLA 116
DOMINO EXIMIO ET MERITO INSIGNI, HONORABILITERQUE CARISSIMO FILIO GENEROSO, AUGUSTINUS, IN DOMINO SALUTEM.
DOMINO EXIMIO ET MERITO INSIGNI, HONORABILITERQUE CARISSIMO FILIO GENEROSO, AUGUSTINUS, IN DOMINO SALUTEM.
LETTER 116
To the most excellent lord, deservedly distinguished and honorably most dear son Generosus, Augustine sends greetings in the Lord.
Ep100-155.1To the most excellent lord, deservedly distinguished and honorably most dear son Generosus, Augustine sends greetings in the Lord.
1. Laus et praedicatio administrationis tuae et fama praeclara cum me pro dilectione quam tuis meritis benevolentiaeque debemus, plurimum delectaret, numquam adhuc in aliquo beneficio postulando Eximietati tuae mea intercessio extitit onerosa, domine dilectissime et venerabilis fili. Sed nunc quid in civitate in qua Ecclesiae Dei servio, factum sit, cum ex litteris quas ad venerabilem fratrem et coepiscopum meum Fortunatum dedi, cognoverit Praestantia tua qua fuerim necessitate compulsus ut petitionem meam ingererem occupationibus tuis, tua benignitas pervidebit. Et profecto facies quod non solum integrum, verum etiam christianum iudicem decet, eo circa nos animo, de quo in nomine Christi utique fuerat praesumendum.
1. Although the praise and proclamation of your administration and your illustrious fame greatly delighted me, for the love which we owe to your merits and benevolence, never until now, in asking some benefit, has my intercession been burdensome to Your Eminence, most beloved lord and venerable son. But now, what has been done in the city in which I serve the Church of God—when Your Eminence has learned from the letter which I gave to my venerable brother and fellow bishop Fortunatus by what necessity I was compelled to thrust my petition upon your occupations—your benignity will perceive. And surely you will do what befits not only an upright but also a Christian judge, with that mind toward us which surely ought to have been presumed in the name of Christ.
Ep100-155.1EPISTOLA 117
LETTER 117
Ep100-155.11. Prooemiari apud te non solum superfluum est, sed etiam molestum, qui rem, non verba desideras. Ideoque simpliciter audi. Senex Alypius rogatus a me, saepius pollicitus erat, tecum respondere dialogorum pauculis interrogatiunculis; et quoniam in Mauritania dicitur hodieque esse, peto viribus omnibus et rogo, ut tu solus respondere digneris, quod etiam praesente ipso fratre tuo, sine dubio facturus eras. Non est pecunia, non est aurum, quod pro quovis daturus eras procul dubio, si haberes; nunc vero sine labore loqueris quod requiro. Possem te plus et per multos caros tuos exorare; sed novi animum tuum, qui non rogari desiderat, sed omnibus praestare, si tantum absit quod dedecet, quod in hac re penitus nihil est dedecoris: tamen quodcumque est, peto praestes navigaturo. Nosti quam mihi molestissimum est oneri esse, non dico Sinceritati tuae, sed cuipiam. Solus autem Deus novit quomodo nimia necessitate impulsus hoc feci. Vobis enim salvis et favente Deo navigaturus sum: et mores hominum non ignoratis, qui proclives sunt ad vituperandum, et quam, si interrogatus quis non responderit, indoctus et hebes putabitur vides. Ergo, obsecro te, ad omnia sine cunctatione responde; ne me tristem dimittas. Sic videam parentes meos; quia propter hoc solum Cerdonem misi, et ipsum exspecto solum. Frater Zenobius, Magister memoriae factus est, et misit nobis evectionem cum annonis. Si ego dignus non sum ut respondeas interrogatiunculis meis, saltem timeantur annonae. Incolumem te summa Divinitas longa nobis tueatur aetate. Papas plurimum Dignationem tuam salutat.
1. To make a preface with you is not only superfluous but even troublesome, you who desire the matter, not words. And so hear me simply. Old Alypius, asked by me, had more than once promised to answer, with you, a few little questions of the dialogues; and since you are said to be even today in Mauretania, I ask with all my strength and beg that you alone deign to answer what, even in the presence of your own brother, you were without doubt going to do. It is not money, it is not gold, which you would without doubt give for anyone, if you had it; but now, without labor, you speak what I require. I could entreat you more, and through many dear to you; but I know your mind, which does not desire to be asked, but to grant to all, provided only that what is unseemly be absent—of which in this matter there is utterly nothing unseemly: yet, whatever it is, I ask that you grant it to one about to sail. You know how most troublesome it is to me to be a burden, I do not say to your Sincerity, but to anyone. But God alone knows how, impelled by extreme necessity, I have done this. For, you being safe and God favoring, I am about to sail: and you are not ignorant of the characters of men, who are prone to disparage, and how, if anyone questioned does not answer, he will be thought unlearned and dull, you see. Therefore, I beseech you, answer everything without hesitation; do not send me away sad. So may I see my parents; for on account of this alone I have sent Cerdo, and await him alone. Brother Zenobius has been made Master of Records, and has sent us a travel-warrant with provisions. If I am not worthy that you should answer my little questions, let the provisions at least be feared. May the supreme Divinity preserve you safe for us to a long age. Papas greets your Dignation most warmly.
Ep100-155.1EPISTOLA 118
LETTER 118
Ep100-155.11. 1. Tu me innumerabilium quaestionum turba repente circumvallandum, vel potius obruendum putasti, etiamsi vacantem otiosumque credidisti: quando enim ego in quolibet otio, tot rerum nodos tam festinanti, et ut scribis, iam pene proficiscenti possem dissolvere? Numero enim rerum ipsarum impedirer, etiamsi nodi faciles ad solvendum forent. Tanta sunt autem perplexitate involuti, et tenacitate constricti, ut etiamsi pauci essent, otiosissimum me occupantes, magna mora temporis fatigarent intentionem, atque attererent ungues meos. Ego autem vellem te abripere de medio deliciosarum inquisitionum tuarum, et constipare inter curas meas, ut vel disceres non esse inaniter curiosus, vel curiositatem tuam cibandam atque nutriendam imponere non auderes eis, quorum inter curas vel maxima cura est reprimere ac refrenare curiosos. Quanto enim melius, quantoque fructuosius, si in dandis ad te ullis litteris tempus atque opera impenditur, ad hoc potius impenditur, ut resecentur vanae atque fallaces cupiditates tuae, quae tanto magis cavendae sunt, quanto facilius decipiunt, nescio qua umbra honestatis et liberalium studiorum nomine velatae atque palliatae; quam ut nostro ministerio, atque, ut ita dixerim, satellitio, in dominatum, quo tam bonam tuam mentem premant, vehementius excitentur?
1. 1. You thought that I should suddenly be hemmed in, or rather overwhelmed, by a throng of innumerable questions, even though you believed me free and at leisure: for when could I, in any leisure, untie so many knots of so many matters for one so hurried and, as you write, now almost setting out? For I would be hindered by the very number of the matters, even if the knots were easy to untie. But they are wrapped in such great perplexity, and bound with such tenacity, that even if they were few, occupying me though most at leisure, they would weary my attention by a great delay of time, and wear down my nails. But I would rather snatch you away from the midst of your delightful inquiries, and pack you in among my cares, so that you might either learn not to be emptily curious, or might not dare to lay the feeding and nourishing of your curiosity upon those among whose cares the greatest care is to repress and rein in the curious. For how much better, and how much more fruitful, if any time and effort is spent in writing you any letter, that it rather be spent on this, that your empty and deceptive desires be cut away—desires the more to be guarded against the more easily they deceive, veiled and cloaked by I know not what shadow of honorableness and the name of liberal studies—than that they be more vehemently roused by our ministry and, so to say, our attendance, into a dominion by which they may oppress your so good mind?
Ep100-155.1.11. 2. Ecce enim tot dialogi lecti, si ad videndum finem et capessendum omnium actionum tuarum nihil te adiuverunt, quid prosunt, dic mihi? Nam ubi finem constitueris totius huius flagrantissimi studii tui, et tibi infructuosi, et nobis molesti, epistola tua satis indicas. Cum enim de solvendis quaestionibus quas misisti, apud me per litteras satageres, ita scripsisti: Possem te, inquis, plus et per multos caros tuos exorare; sed novi animum tuum, qui non rogare desiderat, sed omnibus praestare, si tantum absit quod dedecet, quod in hac re penitus nihil est dedecoris: tamen quodcumque est, peto praestes navigaturo. In his verbis epistolae tuae recte quidem de me existimas, quod omnibus praestare desiderem, si absit quod dedecet; sed in hac re nihil esse dedecoris, non mihi videtur. Non enim decora facies rerum attingit sensum meum, cum cogito episcopum ecclesiasticis curis circumstrepentibus districtum atque distentum, repente quasi obsurdescentem cohibere se ab his omnibus, et dialogorum Tullianorum quaestiunculas uni scholastico exponere. Quod quantum dedeceat, quamquam tuorum studiorum raptus ardore prorsus nolis attendere, tu etiam sentis tamen. Quid enim aliud indicat, quod cum dixisses in hac re penitus nihil esse dedecoris, statim adiunxisti: Tamen quodcumque est, peto praestes navigaturo. Hoc enim sonat videri tibi quidem nihil in hac re esse dedecoris, tamen quodcumque est dedecoris, petere te ut praestem navigaturo. Sed quid est, quaeso te, quod addidisti, navigaturo? An ego, nisi navigaturus esses, praestare tibi aliquid dedecoris non deberem? Nimirum putas quod aqua marina dedecus abluatur. Quod si ita esset, meum certe qui navigaturus non sum, inexpiatum remaneret.
1. 2. For behold, so many dialogues read—if they have helped you nothing toward seeing the end and grasping the purpose of all your actions, what do they profit, tell me? For where you have set the end of all this most burning zeal of yours, both fruitless for you and troublesome for us, your letter sufficiently indicates. For when you were busying yourself with me by letter about solving the questions you sent, you wrote thus: "I could," you say, "entreat you more, and through many dear to you; but I know your mind, which does not desire to ask, but to grant to all, provided only that what is unseemly be absent—of which in this matter there is utterly nothing unseemly: yet, whatever it is, I ask that you grant it to one about to sail." In these words of your letter you think rightly of me, that I desire to grant to all, provided what is unseemly be absent; but that in this matter there is nothing unseemly does not seem so to me. For the comely face of things does not touch my sense, when I think of a bishop, distracted and stretched by the din of ecclesiastical cares, suddenly, as though growing deaf, holding himself off from all these things, and expounding the little questions of the Tullian dialogues to one schoolman. How unseemly this is—although, snatched by the ardor of your studies, you altogether refuse to attend—you yet feel nonetheless. For what else does it indicate that, when you had said there was in this matter utterly nothing unseemly, you at once added: "Yet, whatever it is, I ask that you grant it to one about to sail"? For this sounds as though it seems to you indeed that there is nothing unseemly in this matter, yet that, whatever of unseemliness there is, you ask that I grant it to one about to sail. But what is it, I ask you, that you added, "to one about to sail"? Or, unless you were about to sail, ought I not to grant you anything unseemly? Doubtless you think that the unseemliness is washed off by seawater. But if it were so, mine surely, who am not about to sail, would remain unexpiated.
Ep100-155.1.21. 3. Scribis etiam nosse me quam tibi molestissimum sit oneri esse cuipiam, et attestaris solum Deum nosse quod nimia necessitate impulsus hoc feceris. Hic sane cum epistolam tuam legerem, satis adverti animum cognoscere necessitatem tuam, cum ecce mihi affers et dicis: Mores hominum non ignoratis, qui proclives sunt ad vituperandum, et quam, si interrogatus quis non responderit, indoctus et hebes putabitur. Hoc loco vero exarsi ad rescribendum tibi: hoc enim languore animi tui penetrasti mihi pectus, et irrupisti in curas meas, ut dissimulare non possem, quantum me Deus adiuvaret, mederi tibi; non ut de tuis quaestionibus enodandis explicandisque cogitarem, sed ut felicitatem tuam pendentem ex linguis hominum atque nutantem a tam infelici retinaculo abrumperem, et cuidam sedi omnino inconcussae stabilique religarem. Tunc, o Dioscore, nec Persium tuum respicis insultantem tibi contorto versiculo, sed plane puerile caput, si sensus adsit, idoneo colapho contundentem atque coercentem:
Scire tuum nihil est, nisi te scire hoc sciat alter?
Tot, ut superius dixi, legisti dialogos, tot philosophorum altercationibus cor inseruisti. Dic mihi quis eorum finem actionum suarum constituerit in fama vulgi, aut in lingua hominum vel bonorum atque sapientium. Tu autem, et quod magis pudendum est, iam navigaturus, satis praeclare te in Africa profecisse testaris, cum aliam ob causam te oneri non esse asseris negotiosissimis, et in alia longe distantia intentis episcopis, ut tibi exponant Ciceronem, nisi quia times homines proclives ad vituperandum, ne interrogatus ab eis, si non responderis, indoctus et hebes puteris! O rem dignam vigiliis et lucubrationibus episcoporum!
Scire tuum nihil est, nisi te scire hoc sciat alter?
Tot, ut superius dixi, legisti dialogos, tot philosophorum altercationibus cor inseruisti. Dic mihi quis eorum finem actionum suarum constituerit in fama vulgi, aut in lingua hominum vel bonorum atque sapientium. Tu autem, et quod magis pudendum est, iam navigaturus, satis praeclare te in Africa profecisse testaris, cum aliam ob causam te oneri non esse asseris negotiosissimis, et in alia longe distantia intentis episcopis, ut tibi exponant Ciceronem, nisi quia times homines proclives ad vituperandum, ne interrogatus ab eis, si non responderis, indoctus et hebes puteris! O rem dignam vigiliis et lucubrationibus episcoporum!
1. 3. You write also that I know how most troublesome it is to you to be a burden to anyone, and you attest that God alone knows that, impelled by extreme necessity, you did this. Here indeed, when I read your letter, I noticed well enough that my mind recognized your necessity, when behold you bring to me and say: "You are not ignorant of the characters of men, who are prone to disparage, and how, if anyone questioned does not answer, he will be thought unlearned and dull." At this point indeed I was inflamed to write back to you: for by this languor of your soul you have penetrated my breast, and broken into my cares, so that I could not dissemble that I should—as much as God would help me—heal you; not so as to think about untangling and unfolding your questions, but so as to break your happiness, hanging from the tongues of men and tottering, away from so unhappy a moorline, and bind it to a seat altogether unshaken and stable. Then, O Dioscorus, you do not even regard your Persius, mocking you with his twisted little verse—nay, plainly pounding and curbing your boyish head, if sense be present, with a fitting cuff:
Is your knowing nothing, unless another knows that you know it?
So many dialogues, as I said above, you have read; into the disputes of so many philosophers you have thrust your heart. Tell me which of them set the end of his actions in the fame of the crowd, or in the tongue of men, even of the good and the wise. But you, and—what is more to be ashamed of—now about to sail, testify well enough that you have made splendid progress in Africa, when you assert that you are a burden to bishops most busy, and intent on far different matters, for no other cause than that they expound Cicero to you, except that you fear men prone to disparage, lest, questioned by them, if you do not answer, you be thought unlearned and dull! O matter worthy of the vigils and lucubrations of bishops!
Ep100-155.1.3Is your knowing nothing, unless another knows that you know it?
So many dialogues, as I said above, you have read; into the disputes of so many philosophers you have thrust your heart. Tell me which of them set the end of his actions in the fame of the crowd, or in the tongue of men, even of the good and the wise. But you, and—what is more to be ashamed of—now about to sail, testify well enough that you have made splendid progress in Africa, when you assert that you are a burden to bishops most busy, and intent on far different matters, for no other cause than that they expound Cicero to you, except that you fear men prone to disparage, lest, questioned by them, if you do not answer, you be thought unlearned and dull! O matter worthy of the vigils and lucubrations of bishops!
1. 4. Non mihi videris aliunde dies noctesque cogitare, nisi ut in studiis tuis atque doctrina lauderis ab hominibus. Quod etsi semper ad certa et recta tendentibus periculosum esse iudicavi, nunc tamen in te maxime experior. Non enim aliunde quam ex eadem pernicie non vidisti qua tandem re possemus moveri, ut tibi quod petebas daremus. Quam enim perverse tu ipse non ob aliud ad ea discenda quae interrogas raperis, nisi ut lauderis, aut non vitupereris ab hominibus; tam perverse etiam nos putas in tua petitione talibus causis allegatis moveri. Et utinam possemus efficere ut tu quoque tam inani atque fallaci humanae laudis bono minime movereris, cum tibi nos indicaremus, non ad praestandum tibi quod petis, quoniam haec de te scribis, sed ad te corrigendum moveri! "Mores hominum, inquis, proclives sunt ad vituperandum". Quid deinde? "Si interrogatus quis non responderit, inquis, indoctus et hebes putabitur". Ecce ego te interrogo non de Ciceronis libris aliquid, cuius sensum fortasse legentes indagare non possunt, sed de epistola ipsa tua, et de sententia verborum tuorum. Quaero enim cur non dixeris, Qui non responderit, indoctus et hebes manifestabitur, sed potius dixeris: "Indoctus et hebes putabitur"; nisi quia satis etiam ipse intellegis, eum qui talia non responderit, non esse indoctum et hebetem, sed putari. At ego te admoneo, eum qui talium putatorum linguis tamquam falcibus concidi timet, lignum esse aridum, et ideo non putari tantum indoctum et hebetem, sed vere esse atque convinci.
1. 4. You do not seem to me to think, day and night, of anything else than that you may be praised by men for your studies and learning. Which, though I have always judged it dangerous for those tending toward fixed and right things, yet now I most of all experience in you. For from no other source than from this same ruin did you fail to see by what thing at last we could be moved to give you what you asked. For as perversely as you yourself are snatched to learn the things you ask for no other reason than that you may be praised, or not disparaged, by men, so perversely do you also suppose that we, in your petition, are moved by such causes alleged. And would that we could bring it about that you too should be least of all moved by so empty and deceptive a good as human praise, when we indicated to you that we are moved, not to grant you what you ask—since you write these things of yourself—but to correct you! "The characters of men," you say, "are prone to disparage." What next? "If anyone questioned does not answer," you say, "he will be thought unlearned and dull." Behold, I question you, not about something from Cicero's books, whose sense perhaps those reading cannot track down, but about your very letter, and about the meaning of your words. For I ask why you did not say, "He who does not answer will be shown to be unlearned and dull," but rather said, "He will be thought unlearned and dull"; except that you yourself understand well enough that he who does not answer such things is not unlearned and dull, but is thought so. But I admonish you that he who fears to be cut down by the tongues of such thinkers, as by sickles, is dry wood, and therefore not only is thought unlearned and dull, but truly is and is convicted to be so.
Ep100-155.1.41. 5. Fortasse dixeris: Sed cum hebes animo non sim, et praecipue non esse studeam, nolo hebes animo vel putari. Recte; sed quo fine nolis, id quaero. Quod enim in illis quaestionibus aperiendis tibi et explicandis, nec nobis oneri esse dubitasti, hanc causam et hunc finem esse dixisti, et tam necessarium, ut eam nimiam necessitatem appellares, ne scilicet de his interrogatus neque respondens, ab hominibus ad vituperandum proclivibus, hebes indoctusque puteris. Ego autem quaero, hoccine totum sit cur a nobis ista desideres, an etiam indoctus et hebes putari propter aliud aliquid nolis. Si hoc totum est, cernis, ut arbitror, hunc esse finem tam vehementis intentionis tuae, qua nobis quoque oneri es, ut fateris. Quid autem a Dioscoro potest nobis esse oneri, nisi quod ipsum Dioscorum etiam nescientem onerat? quod non sentiet, nisi cum surgere voluerit; atque utinam non sic alligentur haec onera, ut frustra etiam humeros conetur excutere! Quod non ideo dico, quia istae discuntur quaestiones, sed quia tali fine discuntur. Hunc enim finem iam certe sentis esse nugatorium, inanem, ventosum. Habet et tumorem, sub quo etiam tabes gignitur, et popula mentis ad non videndam opulentiam veritatis offunditur. Crede, sic est, mi Dioscore, ita te fruar in ipsa voluntate, et in ipsa, cuius umbra averteris, dignitate veritatis. Unde enim tibi, nisi vel hoc modo, de hac re fidem faciam, non invenio. Non enim vides eam, aut ullo modo quamdiu linguis humanis ruinosa gaudia construis, potes eam videre.
1. 5. Perhaps you will say: But since I am not dull in mind, and especially strive not to be, I do not wish to be even thought dull in mind. Rightly; but to what end you do not wish it, this I ask. For in opening up and unfolding those questions for you, which you did not hesitate to be a burden even to us, you said that this was the cause and this the end, and so necessary that you called it extreme necessity, namely lest, questioned about these things and not answering, you be thought dull and unlearned by men prone to disparage. But I ask whether this is the whole of why you desire these things from us, or whether you are unwilling to be thought unlearned and dull on account of something else. If this is the whole, you perceive, I think, that this is the end of your so vehement intention, by which you are a burden even to us, as you confess: to be thought neither dull nor unlearned by men prone to disparage. But what can be a burden to us from Dioscorus, except what burdens Dioscorus himself even unknowing? Which he will not feel, except when he wishes to rise; and would that these burdens were not so bound on that he tries even in vain to shake them off his shoulders! Which I do not say because these questions are learned, but because they are learned with such an end. For this end you now surely feel to be trifling, empty, windy. It has too a swelling, beneath which even a rot is engendered, and a pustule of the mind is spread over against not seeing the opulence of truth. Believe me, it is so, my Dioscorus; so may I enjoy you in your very will, and in that very dignity of truth, from whose shadow you turn away. For whence shall I make you trust me about this matter, except in this way, I do not find. For you do not see it, nor can you in any way see it, so long as you build ruinous joys on human tongues.
Ep100-155.1.51. 6. Si autem ibi non finis est harum actionum atque intentionis tuae, sed propter aliud aliquid indoctus et hebes non vis putari; quaero quid illud sit? Si propterea ne angustior tibi aditus ad acquirendas temporales divitias, uxorem impetrandam, honores capessendos, et caetera huiusmodi, praecipiti fluxu transcurrentia, atque in se lapsos in imum rapientia; neque ad hunc finem tibi servire nos decet, imo decet etiam hinc te amovere. Non enim sic te prohibemus in incerto famae finem ponere, ut tamquam de Mincio in Eridanum emigres; quo te ipse fortasse Mincius etiam non emigrantem impingeret. Cum enim non satiaverit avidum spiritum vanitas laudis humanae, quia nihil ad cibandum affert nisi inane et inflatum, cogit eam ipsa aviditas referre in aliud, quasi uberius atque fructuosius; quod nihilominus si temporali lapsu praeterfluit, ita est quasi fluvius ducat in fluvium, ut non sit finis miseriae, quamdiu finis officiorum nostrorum in re instabili collocatur. In aliquo igitur firmo atque incommutabili bono te figere volumus constantissimae intentionis domum, et securissimam requiem omnis bonae atque honestae actionis tuae. An forte istam ipsam terrenam felicitatem quam commemoravi, si prosperi rumoris aura, aut etiam flatibus vela pandendo ad eam potueris pervenire, hanc etiam cogitas referre in aliud certum, et verum et plenum bonum? At mihi non videtur, atque omnino ipsa veritas negat, vel tantis ad se anfractibus, quae tam proxima est, vel tantis sumptibus, quae tam gratuita est, perveniri.
1. 6. But if there is not the end of these actions and of your intention, but you are unwilling to be thought unlearned and dull on account of something else, I ask what that is. If it is lest the approach be too narrow for you to acquire temporal riches, to obtain a wife, to grasp honors, and other such things, which rush past in a headlong flux and snatch into the depths those who have fallen into them—neither does it befit us to serve you toward this end; rather it befits us even to remove you from it. For we do not so forbid you to set your end in the uncertainty of fame that you should, as it were, migrate from the Mincius into the Eridanus; whither perhaps the Mincius itself would dash you even were you not migrating. For since the vanity of human praise does not satisfy the avid spirit—because it brings nothing for feeding but the empty and the inflated—that very avidity compels the spirit to refer it to something else, as though richer and more fruitful; which nonetheless, if it flows past in a temporal lapse, is just as if a river led into a river, so that there is no end of misery, as long as the end of our duties is placed in an unstable thing. We wish, therefore, to fix in some firm and unchangeable good the house of your most constant intention, and the most secure rest of all your good and honorable action. Or do you perhaps think to refer even that earthly happiness which I have mentioned, if by a breeze of prosperous rumor, or even by spreading sails to its blasts, you could reach it—to refer this too to something else, a fixed and true and full good? But it does not seem so to me, and truth itself altogether denies that it is reached either by so great windings, which is so very near, or by so great expenses, which is so freely given.
Ep100-155.1.61. 7. An ipsa humana laude, tamquam instrumento utendum existimas, ut aditum per hanc praepares ad animos hominum, persuadendi vera atque salubria; et caves ne te, cum indoctum atque hebetem putaverint, indignum arbitrentur cui aurem vel intentissimam vel patientissimam praebeant, sive ad recte facta quemquam exhorteris, sive malitiam atque nequitiam peccantis obiurges? Hunc tu finem iustitiae ac beneficentiae, si in illis interrogandis quaestionibus cogitasti, nos de te male meruimus, quibus in epistola tua, non id potius quo moveremur, posuisti, ut aut libenter daremus quod petebas, aut ideo non daremus, quia causa quaelibet alia fortasse prohiberet, non tamen quia tuae vanae cupiditati, non solum servire, verum etiam non resistere puderet. Quanto enim melius atque salubrius, quaeso te, ipsas veritatis regulas, multo certius et brevius per seipsas accipis, quibus falsa omnia possis ipse refellere, ne quod falsum et pudendum est, si multorum annosas et decrepitas falsitates studio iactantiori quam prudentiori didiceris, doctum atque intellegentem te esse arbitreris; quod iam non existimo tibi videri. Non enim frustra tam diu tam vera Dioscoro diximus: ex quo in hac epistola gradimur.
1. 7. Or do you think that human praise itself is to be used as an instrument, to prepare through it an approach to the minds of men for persuading them of true and wholesome things; and do you beware lest, when they have thought you unlearned and dull, they judge you unworthy to whom they should lend even the most intent or most patient ear, whether you exhort anyone to right deeds, or rebuke the malice and wickedness of one who sins? If you thought of this end of justice and beneficence in asking those questions, we have deserved ill of you, since in your letter you set forth, not rather that by which we might be moved, so as either gladly to give what you asked, or to refuse it because some other cause perhaps forbade, yet not because we were ashamed not only to serve, but even not to resist, your empty desire. For how much better and more wholesome, I ask you, do you receive the very rules of truth, much more certainly and briefly, through themselves, by which you may yourself refute all false things, lest you suppose yourself learned and intelligent in something false and shameful, if you have learned the year-laden and decrepit falsehoods of many men with a zeal more boastful than prudent—which I no longer think seems so to you. For not in vain have we said so long such true things to Dioscorus, from which point we have proceeded in this letter.
Ep100-155.1.72. 8. Quapropter iam illud videamus, cum te istarum rerum ignorantia nequaquam indoctum atque hebetem iudices, sed ipsius potius veritatis, ut quisquis de his rebus scripsit vel scripserit, aut ea sint quae iam certus tenes, aut si falsa sunt, securus ignores, neque de diversitate cognoscenda sententiarum alienarum, ne quasi indoctus et hebes remaneas, inani sollicitudine macereris. Cum ergo haec ita sint, etiam illud, si placet, videamus, utrum aliorum falsa existimatio, qui sunt, ut scribis, ad vituperandum proclives, ita ut si te ista ignorare persenserint, indoctum atque hebetem, falso quidem, sed tamen putent, sic te movere debeat ut etiam ab episcopis tibi haec exponi non incongruenter petas; quandoquidem eo fine iam te ista cupere credimus, quo illis consulas ad persuadendam veritatem, vitamque eorum corrigendam, qui te, si in illis Ciceronis libris indoctum hebetemque putaverint, indignum habebunt a quo aliquid utilis salubrisque scientiae sibi accipiendum esse arbitrentur. Quod non ita est, mihi crede.
2. 8. Wherefore let us now see this: that you judge yourself by no means unlearned and dull through ignorance of these matters, but rather of truth itself, so that, whoever has written or shall write about these things, either they are things you now hold for certain, or, if they are false, you securely are ignorant of them, and are not worn down by empty anxiety about coming to know the diversity of others' opinions, lest you remain as it were unlearned and dull. Since, then, these things are so, let us also, if you please, see this: whether the false estimation of others, who are, as you write, prone to disparage—so that, if they perceive that you are ignorant of these things, they think you unlearned and dull, falsely indeed, yet think it—ought so to move you that you not incongruously ask that these things be expounded to you even by bishops; since we now believe that you desire these things to this end, that you may take thought for those men, to persuade them of truth and correct their life, who, if they think you unlearned and dull in those books of Cicero, will hold you unworthy from whom they should think any useful and wholesome knowledge is to be received by them. But it is not so, believe me.
Ep100-155.2.82. 9. Primum quia esse aliquos in illis terris, ubi imperitus minimeque acutus videri times, qui te de istis quaestionibus quidquam interrogent, omnino non video: quandoquidem hic, quo ad ea discenda venisti, et Romae expertus es quam neglegenter habeantur, et ob hoc neque doceantur neque discantur; et in Africa usque adeo de his interrogatorem pateris neminem, ut nec teipsum quis patiatur invenias, eaque inopia episcopis exponenda ea mittere cogaris: quasi vero episcopi isti, etiamsi adolescentes, eodem quo tu raperis animi ardore, vel potius errore, quasi aliquid magnum haec discere curarunt, usque ad canos episcopales, et usque ad cathedras ecclesiasticas, ea sibi in memoria durare paterentur; aut si ipsi vellent, non illa, etiam de invitorum cordibus, curae maiores gravioresque secluderent; aut si aliqua ex eis in animis eorum nimia consuetudine remanerent, non etiam ipsa oblivione sepeliri mallent recordata, quam ad inepta respondere quaesita, cum in ipsa etiam scholari levitate et rhetoricis cathedris, ita obmutuisse atque obtorpuisse videantur, ut a Carthagine Hipponem, quo exponi possint, mittenda existimentur; ubi tam insolita atque omnino peregrina sunt, ut si vellem respondendi cura inspicere aliquid, volens videre quomodo ad sententiam quae mihi exponenda esset, desuper veniatur, aut ab ea deinceps quae contexeretur oratio, codicem prorsus invenire non possem. Illi autem Carthaginenses rhetores, si huic tuo studio defuerunt, non modo a me non reprehenduntur, sed etiam approbantur, si forte iam recolunt, non Romanorum fororum, sed Graecorum gymnasiorum ista solere esse certamina. Tu vero cum et in gymnasia cogitationem iniecisti, et ea quoque ipsa invenisti talibus rebus nuda atque frigida, ubi has curas tuas deponeres, christianorum tibi basilica Hipponensis occurrit, quia in ea nunc sedet episcopus qui aliquando ista pueris vendidit. Sed nec te volo esse adhuc puerum; et me iam esse puerilium rerum, sicut non venditorem, ita nec largitorem decet. Quae cum ita sint, id est, cum duae tantae urbes, latinarum litterarum artifices, Roma atque Carthago, nec taedio tibi sint, ut a te ista perquirant, nec taedia tua curent, ut te ista perquirentem exaudiant; miror tantum quantum dici non potest, vereri te, tam boni ingenii iuvenem, ne in Graecis atque Orientalibus urbibus quemquam de his rebus molestum interrogatorem feras. Facilius quippe corniculas in Africa audieris, quam in illis partibus hoc genus vocis.
2. 9. First, because that there are any in those lands, where you fear to seem unskilled and least acute, who would ask you anything about these questions, I do not at all see: since here, whither you came to learn these things, and at Rome, you have experienced how negligently they are held, and on this account are neither taught nor learned; and in Africa you so far suffer no one to question you about these things that you do not even find anyone to suffer you yourself, and for that lack you are compelled to send them to bishops to be expounded—as though, indeed, those bishops, even when young men, snatched by the same ardor of mind, or rather error, as you, took care to learn these things as though something great, and suffered them to endure in their memory right up to their episcopal gray hairs and ecclesiastical chairs; or, if they themselves wished, the greater and graver cares would not shut these things out even from the hearts of the unwilling; or, if any of them remained in their minds through too great habit, they would not rather wish even those things recollected to be buried in oblivion than to answer inept inquiries—since even in their very scholastic levity and rhetorical chairs they seem so to have grown dumb and torpid that they are thought fit to be sent from Carthage to Hippo, that they may be expounded; where they are so unusual and altogether foreign that, if I wished, for the sake of answering, to look into something, wishing to see how one comes from above to the sentence which was to be expounded to me, or how the discourse that follows is woven from it, I could not find the manuscript at all. But those Carthaginian rhetors, if they failed this zeal of yours, are not only not reprehended by me, but even approved, if perhaps they now recall that these used to be the contests, not of Roman forums, but of Greek gymnasia. But you, when you have cast your thought even into the gymnasia, and have found even these bare and cold of such matters, where to lay down these cares of yours, the Christian basilica of Hippo occurred to you, because in it now sits a bishop who once sold these things to boys. But I do not wish you to be still a boy; and it befits me, now, neither to be a seller of boyish things, nor a bestower of them. Since these things are so—that is, since two so great cities, craftsmen of Latin letters, Rome and Carthage, are neither a weariness to you, so as to seek these things from you, nor care for your wearinesses, so as to hear you out seeking these things—I marvel beyond what can be said that you, a young man of so good a talent, fear lest in Greek and Eastern cities you should bear anyone a troublesome questioner about these matters. For more easily would you hear little crows in Africa than this kind of voice in those parts.
Ep100-155.2.92. 10. Deinde si fallor, et quisquam ibi forte huiusmodi quaestionum tanto utique odiosior, quanto in illis locis ineptior percontator extiterit; nonne magis caves ne multo facilius existant, qui te graeci homines in Graecia constitutum, et graeca imbutum primitus lingua, de ipsis philosophorum libris aliqua interrogent, quae Cicero in suis litteris non posuit? Quod si acciderit, quid responsurus es? potius te ista in latinorum auctorum libris, quam in graecorum nosse voluisse? Qua responsione primo Graeciae facies iniuriam, et nosti quam illi homines hoc non ferant. Deinde iam exulcerati et irati, quam cito te, quod nimis non vis, et habetem iudicabunt, qui graecorum philosophorum dogmata, vel potius dogmatum particulas quasdam discerptas atque dispersas in latinis dialogis, quam in ipsorum auctorum libris graecis tota atque contexta discere maluisti; et indoctum, qui cum tam multa in tua lingua nescias, earum rerum frustra in aliena colligere ambisti. An forte illud respondebis, non te graecos de his rebus libros contempsisse, sed prius latinos curasse cognoscere, nunc autem velle te in latinis doctum, iam graeca quaerere? Si hoc non pudet hominem graecum latina puerum didicisse, nunc velle discere graeca barbatum, pudebitne tandem in ipsis latinis ignorare aliqua, quae quam multi latini docti tecum nesciant, vel hoc ipso sentis, quod te nobis magna necessitate dicis onerosum, in tanta doctorum multitudine apud Carthaginem constitutus?
2. 10. Then, if I am mistaken, and someone there perhaps arises as a questioner of questions of this kind—the more odious, the more inept a questioner he is in those places—do you not rather beware lest there much more easily arise those who, Greek men, would ask you, placed in Greece and first imbued with the Greek tongue, something from the very books of the philosophers which Cicero did not set down in his writings? And if this happen, what will you answer? That you preferred to know these things in the books of Latin authors rather than of Greek ones? By which answer you will first do injury to Greece, and you know how those men do not bear this. Then, now exasperated and angry, how quickly they will judge you—what you very much do not wish—both dull, who preferred to learn the doctrines of the Greek philosophers, or rather certain little particles of doctrines torn apart and scattered in Latin dialogues, rather than whole and woven in the Greek books of the authors themselves; and unlearned, who, when you are ignorant of so many things in your own tongue, sought in vain to gather such things in another. Or will you perhaps answer that you did not despise the Greek books about these matters, but first took care to learn the Latin, and now, wishing to be learned in Latin, seek the Greek? If a Greek man is not ashamed to have learned Latin as a boy, and now to wish to learn Greek when bearded, will he be ashamed, at last, to be ignorant of some things even in Latin itself—things which how many learned Latins are ignorant of along with you, you feel even by this very thing, that you say you are a burden to us by great necessity, placed amid so great a multitude of the learned at Carthage?
Ep100-155.2.102. 11. Postremo fac te de omnibus quae a nobis quaeris, interrogatum respondere potuisse. Ecce iam doctissimus atque acutissimus diceris, ecce iam te laudibus in coelum graeculus flatus attollit; tu tantum memento gravitatis tuae, et illam mereri laudem quo fine volueris, ut scilicet eos leviter levia ista miratos, et benevolentissime atque avidissime iam in tua ora suspensos, gravissimum aliquid et saluberrimum doceas: idipsum quidquid est gravissimum et saluberrimum, utrum teneas, et recte tradere noveris, vellem cognoscere. Ridiculum est enim cum propterea superflua multa didiceris, ut tibi aures hominum ad necessaria praeparentur, ipsa necessaria non tenere, quibus excipiendis eas per superflua praeparaveris; et dum occuparis ut discas unde facias intentos, nolle discere quod infundatur intentis. Sed si hoc te scire iam dicis, idque ipsum christianam doctrinam esse respondes, quam te omnibus praeponere novimus, et in ea sola esse praesumere spem salutis aeternae, non opus est ei cognitione dialogorum Ciceronis, et collectione emendicatarum discordantium sententiarum alienarum procurari auditores. Moribus tuis intenti fiant, qui abs te aliquid tale accepturi sunt. Nolo prius aliquid doceas quod dediscendum est, ut vera doceas.
2. 11. Finally, grant that you were able to answer, questioned about all that you ask of us. Behold, now you are called most learned and most acute; behold, now a Greek breeze lifts you with praises to heaven; only remember your seriousness, and to what end you wished to deserve that praise, namely that those who lightly marveled at these light things, and now most benevolently and most avidly hang upon your lips, you might teach something most serious and most wholesome: that very thing, whatever it is, most serious and most wholesome—whether you hold it, and know how to hand it on rightly—I would wish to learn. For it is ridiculous, when you have learned much superfluous matter for this reason, that the ears of men be prepared for you for the necessary things, not to hold the necessary things themselves, for receiving which you prepared those ears through superfluous things; and, while you are occupied in learning whence to make men attentive, to be unwilling to learn what is to be poured into the attentive. But if you now say that you know this, and answer that this very thing is Christian doctrine, which we know you place before all things, and in which alone you presume to have the hope of eternal salvation, it has no need of the knowledge of Cicero's dialogues, and of a collection of begged, discordant opinions of others, to procure hearers. Let those who are about to receive something of the sort from you be made attentive by your character. I do not wish you first to teach something that must be unlearned, in order to teach true things.
Ep100-155.2.112. 12. Nam si alienarum sententiarum dissidentium et repugnantium cognitio aliquid adiuvat insinuatorem christianae veritatis, ut noverit quomodo adversantes destruat falsitates, ad hoc dumtaxat, ne quis contra disserens, nonnisi in refellendis tuis figat oculum, sua vero sedulo occultet. Nam cognitio veritatis omnia falsa, si modo proferantur, etiam quae prius inaudita erant, et diiudicare et subvertere idonea est. Sed ut non solum aperta feriantur, sed etiam abscondita eruantur, si alienos opus est cognoscere errores, erige oculos auresque, oro te, et vide atque ausculta utrum aliquis adversus nos de Anaximene et de Anaxagora proferat aliquid; quando iam ne ipsorum quidem multo recentiorum, multumque loquacium Stoicorum aut Epicureorum cineres caleant, unde aliqua contra fidem christianam scintilla excitetur: sed circuli atque conventicula partim fugacia, partim etiam audacter prompta, vel Donatistarum, vel Maximianensium, vel Manichaeorum, vel etiam ad quorum greges turbamque venturus es Arianorum, Eunomianorum, Macedonianorum, Cataphrygarum, caeterarumque pestium innumerabiliter perstrepant; quorum omnium errores si cognoscere piget, quid nobis est, propter defensionem christianae religionis, quaerere quid senserit Anaximenes, et olim sopitas lites inani curiositate recoquere, cum quorumdam etiam haereticorum, qui nomine christiano gloriari voluerunt, ut Marcionitarum et Sabellianorum, multorumque praeterea, iam dissensiones quaestionesque sileantur? Tamen si opus est, ut dixi, veritati adversantes praenoscere aliquas, et pertractatas habere sententias; de haereticis potius, qui se christianos vocant, quam de Anaxagora et Democrito nobis cogitandum fuit.
2. 12. For if the knowledge of others' dissenting and conflicting opinions helps in any way one who introduces Christian truth, so that he may know how to destroy the opposing falsehoods—it helps only to this, lest one disputing against him fix his eye only on refuting your statements, while he diligently hides his own. For the knowledge of truth is fit both to discern and to overturn all false things, provided they be brought forward, even those that were before unheard. But so that not only open things be struck, but even hidden ones dug out, if there is need to know the errors of others, raise your eyes and ears, I pray you, and see and listen whether anyone brings forward against us anything about Anaximenes and Anaxagoras; when not even the ashes of the Stoics or Epicureans themselves—much more recent and much more talkative—are warm, from which any spark might be roused against the Christian faith: but circles and conventicles, partly fugitive, partly even boldly forward, of the Donatists, or the Maximianists, or the Manichees, or even of the Arians, Eunomians, Macedonians, Cataphrygians, and the other plagues to whose flocks and throng you are coming, resound innumerably; and if it irks you to know the errors of all these, what is it to us, for the defense of the Christian religion, to ask what Anaximenes thought, and to cook up again, with empty curiosity, quarrels long since put to sleep, when even the dissensions and questions of certain heretics who wished to glory in the Christian name—as the Marcionites and Sabellians, and many others besides—are now silenced? Yet if there is need, as I said, to foreknow some who are opposed to truth, and to have their opinions thoroughly handled, we ought rather to have thought about the heretics who call themselves Christians than about Anaxagoras and Democritus.
Ep100-155.2.123. 13. Ille autem quisquis abs te quaesiverit quae tu a nobis quaeris, audiat quod ea doctius et prudentius nescias. Si enim Themistocles non curavit quod est habitus indoctior, cum canere nervis in epulis recusasset, ubi cum se nescire illa dixisset, atque ei dictum esset, Quid igitur nosti? respondit: Rempublicam ex parva magnam facere: dubitandum est tibi dicere te ista nescire, cum ei qui rogarit quid noveris, respondere possis, nosse te quomodo etiam sine istis homo esse possit beatus? Quod si adhuc non tenes, tam perverse ista conquiris, quam perverse si aliquo corporis periculoso morbo gravareris, delicias et tenerrimas vestes potius quam medicamenta medicosque conquireres. Non enim ullo modo differenda est ista cognitio, aut ulla huic a te, praesertim iam in hac aetate, vel discendi ordine praeferenda est. Vide autem quam facile posses hoc scire, si velles. Qui enim quaerit quomodo ad beatam vitam perveniat, nihil aliud profecto quaerit, nisi ubi sit finis boni, hoc est ubi constitutum sit, non prava opinione atque temeraria, sed certa atque inconcussa veritate, summum hominis bonum: quod a quolibet ubi constituatur non invenitur, nisi aut in corpore, aut in animo, aut in Deo, aut in duobus aliquibus horum, aut certe in omnibus. Quod si didiceris, neque summum bonum, nec aliquam partem summi boni omnino esse in corpore, duo restabunt, animus et Deus, quorum vel in uno vel in ambobus sit. Si autem adieceris et didiceris hoc idem de animo quod de corpore, quid aliud iam nisi Deus occurret, in quo summum hominis bonum constitutum sit; non quo alia bona non sint, sed summum id dicitur, quo cuncta referuntur. Eo enim fruendo quisque beatus est, propter quod caetera vult habere, cum illud iam non propter aliud, sed propter seipsum diligatur. Et ideo finis ibi dicitur, quia iam quo excurrat, et quo referatur, non invenitur. Ibi requies appetendi, ibi fruendi securitas, ibi tranquillissimum gaudium optimae voluntatis.
3. 13. But whoever shall ask of you what you ask of us, let him hear that you are more learnedly and prudently ignorant of these things. For if Themistocles did not care that he was held more unlearned, when he had refused to sing to the lyre at a banquet, where, when he had said that he did not know how to do that, and it was said to him, "What then do you know?" he answered, "To make a republic great from small": should you hesitate to say that you are ignorant of these things, when to him who asks what you know you can answer that you know how a man can be blessed even without these things? But if you do not yet hold this, you seek these things as perversely as if, weighed down by some dangerous disease of the body, you sought delicacies and the most delicate garments rather than medicines and physicians. For this knowledge must in no way be deferred, nor must any be preferred by you to it, especially now at this age, even in the order of learning. But see how easily you could know this, if you wished. For he who asks how he may come to the blessed life asks surely nothing else than where the end of good is, that is, where the highest good of man is established—not by a depraved and rash opinion, but by a sure and unshaken truth: which, wherever it be established by anyone, is not found except either in the body, or in the mind, or in God, or in some two of these, or at any rate in all. But if you learn that neither the highest good, nor any part of the highest good, is at all in the body, two will remain, the mind and God, in one or both of which it is. But if you add and learn this same thing about the mind as about the body, what else now will occur but God, in whom the highest good of man is established? Not that there are not other goods, but that is called highest to which all are referred. For each is blessed by enjoying that for whose sake he wishes to have the rest, when that is now loved not for the sake of another, but for its own sake. And therefore it is there called the end, because now whither it may run out, and to what it may be referred, is not found. There is the rest of seeking, there the security of enjoying, there the most tranquil joy of the best will.
Ep100-155.3.133. 14. Da igitur qui cito videat, non corpus esse animi bonum, sed animum potius esse corporis bonum; recedetur iam ab inquirendo utrum summum illud bonum, vel aliqua eius pars sit in corpore. Quod enim stultissime negatur, melior est animus corpore. Item stultissime negatur meliorem esse eum qui dat beatam vitam, vel partem aliquam beatae vitae, quam eum qui accipit. Non igitur accipit animus a corpore vel summum bonum, vel partem aliquam summi boni. Hoc qui non vident caecati sunt dulcedine carnalium voluptatum, quam ex indigentia sanitatis venire non intuentur. Sanitas autem perfecta corporis, illa extrema totius hominis immortalitas erit. Tam potenti enim natura Deus fecit animam, ut ex eius plenissima beatitudine quae in fine temporum sanctis promittitur, redundet etiam in inferiorem naturam, quod est corpus, non beatitudo quae fruentis et intellegentis est propria, sed plenitudo sanitatis, id est incorruptionis vigor. Quod qui non vident, ut dixi, bellant inquietis altercationibus, varie pro suo quisque captu, in corpore constituentes summum hominis bonum, et carnalium seditiosorum turbas concitant; inter quos Epicurei apud indoctam multitudinem excellentiore auctoritate viguerunt.
3. 14. Grant, then, one who quickly sees that the body is not the good of the mind, but rather the mind is the good of the body; and one will now withdraw from inquiring whether that highest good, or some part of it, is in the body. For—what is most foolishly denied—the mind is better than the body. Likewise it is most foolishly denied that he who gives the blessed life, or some part of the blessed life, is better than he who receives it. The mind, therefore, does not receive from the body either the highest good or any part of the highest good. Those who do not see this are blinded by the sweetness of carnal pleasures, which they do not perceive to come from a lack of health. But the perfect health of the body will be that final immortality of the whole man. For God made the soul of so powerful a nature that, from its most full blessedness, which is promised to the holy at the end of time, there overflows even into the lower nature, which is the body, not the blessedness which is proper to one enjoying and understanding, but the fullness of health, that is, the vigor of incorruption. Those who do not see this, as I said, war in restless altercations, each variously according to his grasp, setting in the body the highest good of man, and stirring up throngs of carnal seditious men; among whom the Epicureans, with the unlearned multitude, flourished with more eminent authority.
Ep100-155.3.143. 15. Da item qui cito videat animum quoque ipsum, non suo bono beatum esse, cum beatus est, alioquin numquam esset miser; et recedetur a quaerendo utrum in animo sit summum illud atque, ut ita dixerim, beatificum bonum, vel aliqua pars eius. Nam cum seipso sibi quasi suo bono animus gaudet, superbus est. Cum vero perspicit se esse mutabilem, vel hoc uno saltem quod de stulto sapiens efficitur, sapientiamque esse incommutabilem cernit, simul oportet cernat esse illam supra suam naturam, eiusque participatione atque illustratione se uberius et certius gaudere quam seipso. Ita cessans atque detumescens a iactatione atque inflatione propria, inhaerere Deo, atque ab illo incommutabili refici et reformari nititur, a quo esse iam capit non solum omnem speciem rerum omnium, sive quae sensu corporis, sive quae intellegentia mentis attinguntur, sed etiam ipsam capacitatem formationis ante formationem, cum vel informe aliquid dicitur, quod formari potest. Itaque tanto minus se esse stabilem sentit, quanto minus haeret Deo qui summe est: et ideo illum summe esse, quia nulla mutabilitate proficit seu deficit; sibi autem illam commutationem expedire qua proficit, ut perfecte illi cohaereat, eam vero commutationem quae in defectu est, esse vitiosam; omnem autem defectum ad interitum vergere, quo utrum aliqua res perveniat tametsi non appareat, tamen apparere omnibus eo ducere interitum ut non sit quod erat. Unde colligit non ob aliud res deficere, vel posse deficere, nisi quod ex nihilo factae sunt: ut quod in eis est quod sunt et manent, et pro defectibus etiam suis ad universitatis complexum ordinantur, ad eius bonitatem omnipotentiamque pertineat, qui summe est et conditor, qui potens est etiam ex nihilo, non tantum aliquid, sed etiam magnum aliquid facere: primum autem peccatum, hoc est primum voluntarium defectum, esse gaudere ad propriam potestatem; ad minus enim gaudet, quam si ad potestatem Dei gaudeat, quae utique maior est. Hoc non videntes, et potentias intuentes animi humani, magnamque pulchritudinem factorum atque dictorum, etiamsi in corpore puduit ponere summum bonum, in ipso tamen animo ponentes, infra utique posuerunt, quam ubi sincerissima ratione ponendum est. Inter hos qui ita sentiunt apud graecos philosophos, et numero et disputandi subtilitate Stoici praevaluerunt, qui tamen in naturalibus corporea omnia esse arbitrantes, magis a carne quam a corpore animum avertere potuerunt.
3. 15. Grant likewise one who quickly sees that the mind itself too is not blessed by its own good, when it is blessed, otherwise it would never be wretched; and one will withdraw from asking whether in the mind is that highest and, so to say, beatific good, or some part of it. For when the mind rejoices in itself as in its own good, it is proud. But when it perceives that it is changeable—even by this one thing at least, that it is made wise from foolish—and discerns that wisdom is unchangeable, it ought at the same time to discern that wisdom is above its own nature, and that by participation in it and by its illumination it rejoices more richly and more surely than in itself. Thus, ceasing and subsiding from its own boasting and inflation, it strives to cleave to God, and to be remade and reformed by that unchangeable one, from whom it now takes its being—not only every form of all things, whether those reached by the sense of the body or those reached by the understanding of the mind, but even the very capacity for formation before formation, when something is called even formless which can be formed. And so it feels itself to be the less stable the less it cleaves to God, who supremely is: and therefore that he supremely is, because by no changeableness does he progress or fall away; but that for itself that change is expedient by which it progresses, so as perfectly to cleave to him, while that change which is in falling away is vicious; but that every falling away tends toward perishing, whither, although it does not appear whether any thing arrives, yet it appears to all that perishing leads to this, that what was should not be. Whence it gathers that things fall away, or can fall away, for no other reason than that they were made from nothing: so that what is in them that they are and abide, and that even for their defects they are ordered to the embrace of the universe, pertains to the goodness and omnipotence of him who supremely is and is the Founder, who is powerful even from nothing to make not only something, but even something great: but that the first sin, that is, the first voluntary falling-away, is to rejoice toward one's own power; for it rejoices in something less than if it rejoiced toward the power of God, which is surely greater. Not seeing this, and gazing at the powers of the human mind, and the great beauty of deeds and words, even though they were ashamed to set the highest good in the body, yet, setting it in the mind itself, they set it surely lower than where it must be set by the sincerest reason. Among those who think thus, among the Greek philosophers, the Stoics prevailed both in number and in subtlety of disputing; who yet, judging in natural matters all things to be corporeal, could turn the mind away from the flesh rather than from the body.
Ep100-155.3.153. 16. Inter eos autem qui fruendum Deo, a quo et nos et omnia facta sunt, unum atque summum bonum nostrum esse dicunt, apud illos eminuerunt Platonici, qui non immerito ad officium suum pertinere arbitrati sunt, Stoicis, et Epicureis maxime et prope solis omnino resistere. Iidem quippe Academici qui Platonici, quod docet auditorum ipsa successio. Arcesilas enim qui primus occultata sententia sua, nihil aliud istos quam refellere statuit, quaere cui successerit, Polemonem invenies; quaere cui Polemon, Xenocratem: Xenocrati autem discipulo Academiam scholam suam reliquit Plato. Quantum igitur pertinet ad quaestionem de summo hominis bono, remove personas hominum, atque ipsam disceptationem constitue; profecto reperies duos errores inter se adversa fronte collidi: unum constituentem in corpore, alium constituentem in animo summum bonum. Rationem autem veritatis, qua summum bonum nostrum Deus esse intellegitur, utrique resistere, sed non prius docentem vera quam prava dedocentem. Idipsum rursum adiunctis personis constitue, reperies Epicureos et Stoicos inter se acerrime dimicantes; eorum vero litem conantes diiudicare Platonicos, occultantes sententiam veritatis, et illorum vanam in falsitate fiduciam convincentes et redarguentes.
3. 16. But among those who say that the enjoyment of God, by whom both we and all things were made, is our one and highest good, the Platonists stood out, who not without merit judged that it pertained to their office to resist the Stoics and Epicureans especially, and almost them alone. For the same Academics are Platonists, as the very succession of hearers teaches. For Arcesilas, who, his own opinion hidden, first established to do nothing but refute these men—ask whom he succeeded, you will find Polemo; ask whom Polemo, Xenocrates; and to his disciple Xenocrates Plato left his school, the Academy. As far, then, as pertains to the question of the highest good of man, remove the persons of men, and set up the dispute itself; you will surely find two errors colliding with each other front to front: one setting the highest good in the body, the other setting it in the mind. But the reasoning of truth, by which our highest good is understood to be God, resists both, yet not teaching true things before unteaching depraved ones. Set this up again with the persons joined, you will find the Epicureans and Stoics fighting most fiercely among themselves; but the Platonists trying to adjudicate their quarrel, hiding the opinion of truth, and convicting and refuting the empty confidence of those men in falsehood.
Ep100-155.3.163. 17. Sed non sicut illi errorum suorum, ita Platonici verae rationis personam implere potuerunt. Omnibus enim defuit divinae humilitatis exemplum, quod opportunissimo tempore per Dominum nostrum Iesum Christum illustratum est; cui uni exemplo in cuiusvis animo ferociter arrogantis, omnis superbia cedit et frangitur et emoritur. Ideoque non valentes illi auctoritate turbas terrenarum rerum dilectione caecatas ad invisibilium fidem ducere, cum eas viderent Epicureis maxime contentionibus commoveri, non solum ad hauriendam, quo ultro ferebantur, sed etiam ad defensitandam corporis voluptatem, ut in ea summum bonum hominis constitueretur; eos autem qui adversus hanc voluptatem virtutis laude moverentur, minus difficulter eam contemplari in animis hominum, unde facta bona, de quibus utcumque poterant iudicare, procederent: simul videbant si eis conarentur insinuare aliquam rem divinam et super omnia incommutabilem, quae nullo attingeretur corporis sensu, sed sola mente intellegeretur, quae tamen etiam naturam ipsius mentis excederet, eumque esse Deum propositum animo humano ad fruendum, purgato ab omni labe humanarum cupiditatum, in quo uno acquiesceret omnis beatitudinis appetitus, et in quo nobis uno bonorum omnium finis esset, non eos intellecturos, et repugnantibus vel Epicureis vel Stoicis multo quam sibi facilius palmam daturos, ita ut vera salubrisque sententia, quod perniciosissimum est generi humano, imperitorum populorum irrisione sordesceret: et hoc in moralibus.
3. 17. But the Platonists could not fulfill the person of true reasoning as those men fulfilled that of their errors. For all lacked the example of divine humility, which at the most opportune time was made manifest through our Lord Jesus Christ; to which one example, in the mind of anyone fiercely arrogant, all pride yields and is broken and dies. And therefore those men, not able by authority to lead the throngs, blinded by the love of earthly things, to faith in invisible things—since they saw them stirred up especially by Epicurean contentions, not only to drink in (whither they were carried of their own accord) but even to keep defending the pleasure of the body, so that in it the highest good of man might be established; but those who were moved against this pleasure by the praise of virtue to contemplate it somewhat less difficultly in the minds of men, whence the good deeds proceeded about which they could in some way judge—they saw at the same time that if they tried to introduce to these men any divine thing, and unchangeable above all things, which is touched by no sense of the body, but understood by the mind alone, which nevertheless exceeds even the nature of the mind itself, and that this is God, set before the human mind to enjoy, purified from every stain of human desires, in whom alone all longing for blessedness might rest, and in whom alone is for us the end of all goods—that they would not understand, and would, with the Epicureans or Stoics resisting, much more easily than to themselves give them the palm, so that the true and wholesome opinion would grow squalid by the mockery of unskilled peoples—a thing most pernicious for the human race: and this in moral matters.
Ep100-155.3.173. 18. In naturalibus autem quaestionibus, si isti dicerent effectricem omnium naturarum esse incorpoream Sapientiam, illi autem a corpore nusquam discederent, cum alii atomis, alii quatuor elementis, in quibus ad efficienda omnia ignis praevaleret, principia rerum darent; quis non videret stultorum abundantiam corpori deditam, cum in corpoream potentiam conditricem rerum nequaquam valeret intueri, in quorum potius suffragium raperetur?
3. 18. But in natural questions, if these men said that the maker of all natures is an incorporeal Wisdom, while those others nowhere departed from body—since some gave atoms, some the four elements, in which fire prevailed for making all things, as the principles of things—who would not see that an abundance of fools, given over to the body, since it was by no means able to gaze upon an incorporeal power as the founder of things, would rather be snatched into the support of those men?
Ep100-155.3.183. 19. Restabat pars rationalium quaestionum. Nosti enim quidquid propter adipiscendam sapientiam quaeritur, aut de moribus, aut de natura, aut de ratione quaestionem habere. Cum ergo Epicurei numquam sensus corporis falli dicerent, Stoici autem falli aliquando concederent, utrique tamen regulam comprehendendae veritatis in sensibus ponerent; quis istis contradicentibus audiret Platonicos? Quis non modo in sapientium, sed omnino in hominum numero habendos putaret, si ab eis prompte diceretur, non solum esse aliquid quod neque tactu corporis, neque olfactu vel gustatu, neque his auribus aut oculis percipi possit, neque omnino talium rerum, quae ita sentirentur, aliqua imaginatione cogitari; sed id solum vere esse, atque id solum posse percipi, quia incommutabile et sempiternum est; percipi autem sola intellegentia, qua una veritas, quomodo attingi potest, attingitur?
3. 19. There remained the part of rational questions. For you know that whatever is inquired for acquiring wisdom has its question either about morals, or about nature, or about reasoning. Since, then, the Epicureans said that the senses of the body are never deceived, while the Stoics granted that they are sometimes deceived, yet both set the rule of comprehending truth in the senses; who, with these contradicting, would hear the Platonists? Who would think they should be held, not only in the number of the wise, but at all in the number of men, if it were promptly said by them that there is not only something which can be perceived neither by the touch of the body, nor by smell or taste, nor by these ears or eyes, nor at all be thought by any imagination of such things as are so sensed; but that this alone truly is, and this alone can be perceived, because it is unchangeable and everlasting; and that it is perceived by the understanding alone, by which alone truth, in the way it can be reached, is reached?
Ep100-155.3.193. 20. Cum ergo talia sentirent Platonici, quae neque docerent carni deditos homines, neque tanta essent auctoritate apud populos, ut credenda persuaderent, donec ad eum habitum perduceretur animus quo ista capiuntur, elegerunt occultare sententiam suam, et contra eos disserere, qui verum se invenisse iactarent, cum inventionem ipsam veri in carnis sensibus ponerent. Et eorum quidem consilium quale fuerit quid attinet quaerere? divinum certe vel divina aliqua auctoritate praeditum non fuit. Tantum illud attende, quoniam Plato a Cicerone multis modis apertissime ostenditur, in sapientia non humana, sed plane divina, unde humana quodammodo accenderetur, in illa utique sapientia prorsus immutabili, atque eodem modo semper se habente veritate, constituisse et finem boni, et causas rerum, et ratiocinandi fiduciam: oppugnatos autem esse nomine Epicureorum et Stoicorum a Platonicis eos, qui in corporis vel in animi natura ponerent et finem boni, et causas rerum, et ratiocinandi fiduciam; eo rem successione temporum esse devolutam, ut christianae iam aetatis exordio, cum rerum invisibilium atque aeternarum fides per visibilia miracula salubriter praedicaretur hominibus, qui nec videre nec cogitare aliquid praeter corpora poterant, beato apostolo Paulo, qui eamdem finem Gentibus praeseminabat, iidem ipsi Epicurei et Stoici, in Actibus Apostolorum contradixisse inveniantur.
3. 20. Since, then, the Platonists held such things, which they could neither teach men given over to the flesh, nor were they of such great authority among peoples as to persuade them to be believed—until the mind should be brought to that disposition by which these things are grasped—they chose to hide their opinion, and to dispute against those who boasted that they had found the true, while they set the very finding of the true in the senses of the flesh. And of what sort their counsel was, what does it matter to ask? It certainly was not divine, nor endowed with any divine authority. Only attend to this: that Plato is shown by Cicero, in many ways most plainly, to have established the end of good, and the causes of things, and confidence in reasoning, in a wisdom not human but plainly divine, from which the human is in a manner kindled—in that wisdom, that is, altogether unchangeable, and in a truth always holding itself in the same way; but that those who set the end of good, and the causes of things, and confidence in reasoning in the nature of body or of mind were assailed under the name of Epicureans and Stoics by the Platonists; and that the matter rolled down by the succession of times to this, that now at the beginning of the Christian age, when faith in invisible and eternal things was wholesomely preached through visible miracles to men who could neither see nor think anything but bodies, the same Epicureans and Stoics are found, in the Acts of the Apostles, to have contradicted the blessed apostle Paul, who was sowing beforehand among the Gentiles this same end.
Ep100-155.3.203. 21. Qua in re satis mihi videtur demonstratum esse errores Gentium, sive de moribus, sive de natura rerum, sive de ratione investigandae veritatis, qui quamvis essent multi atque multiplices, in his tamen maxime duabus sectis eminebant, expugnantibus doctis et tanta disserendi subtilitate atque copia subvertentibus, durasse tamen usque in tempora christiana. Quos iam certe nostra aetate sic obmutuisse conspicimus, ut vix iam in scholis rhetorum commemoretur tantum quae fuerint illorum sententiae: certamina tamen etiam de loquacissimis Graecorum gymnasiis eradicata atque compressa sunt, ita ut si qua nunc erroris secta contra veritatem, hoc est, contra Ecclesiam Christi emerserit, nisi nomine cooperta christiano, ad pugnandum prosilire non audeat. Ex quo intellegitur ipsos quoque Platonicae gentis philosophos, paucis mutatis quae christiana improbat disciplina, invictissimo uni regi Christo pias cervices oportere submittere, et intellegere Verbum Dei homine indutum, qui iussit, et creditum est quod illi vel proferre metuebant.
3. 21. In which matter it seems to me sufficiently demonstrated that the errors of the Gentiles, whether about morals, or about the nature of things, or about the method of investigating truth—which, though they were many and manifold, yet stood out especially in these two sects—although the learned assailed them, and overturned them with such great subtlety and copiousness of disputing, nevertheless endured until Christian times. Which we now certainly behold in our age so to have grown dumb that scarcely now in the schools of the rhetors is it even mentioned what their opinions were: yet the contests were rooted out and suppressed even from the most talkative gymnasia of the Greeks, so that if now any sect of error against the truth, that is, against the Church of Christ, has emerged, it does not dare to leap forth to fight unless covered with the Christian name. From which it is understood that even the philosophers themselves of the Platonic stock ought, with a few things changed which Christian teaching disapproves, to submit their devout necks to the one most invincible king Christ, and to understand that the Word of God clothed with a man—who commanded, and it was believed—is what they feared even to bring forth.
Ep100-155.3.213. 22. Huic te, mi Dioscore, ut tota pietate subdas velim, nec aliam tibi ad capessendam et obtinendam veritatem viam munias, quam quae munita est ab illo qui gressuum nostrorum tamquam Deus vidit infirmitatem. Ea est autem prima, humilitas; secunda, humilitas; tertia, humilitas: et quoties interrogares hoc dicerem; non quo alia non sint praecepta, quae dicantur, sed nisi humilitas omnia quaecumque bene facimus et praecesserit et comitetur et consecuta fuerit, et proposita quam intueamur, et apposita cui adhaereamus, et imposita qua reprimamur, iam nobis de aliquo bono facto gaudentibus totum extorquet de manu superbia. Vitia quippe caetera in peccatis, superbia vero etiam in recte factis timenda est, ne illa quae laudabiliter facta sunt, ipsius laudis cupiditate amittantur. Itaque sicut rhetor ille nobilissimus cum interrogatus esset quid ei primum videretur in eloquentiae praeceptis observari oportere, Pronuntiationem dicitur respondisse; cum quaereretur quid secundo, eamdem pronuntiationem; quid tertio, nihil aliud quam pronuntiationem dixisse: ita si interrogares, et quoties interrogares de praeceptis christianae religionis, nihil me aliud respondere nisi humilitatem liberet, etsi forte alia dicere necessitas cogeret.
3. 22. To him, my Dioscorus, I would have you submit yourself with all devotion, and build for yourself no other way to grasp and obtain truth than that which was built by him who, as God, saw the weakness of our steps. And that way is, first, humility; second, humility; third, humility: and as often as you would ask, this I would say; not that there are not other precepts which may be said, but that unless humility both precede and accompany and follow all the good things we do—and be set before us that we may gaze on it, and set beside us that we may cleave to it, and laid upon us that we may be checked by it—when we are now rejoicing over some good deed, pride wrenches the whole of it out of our hand. For the other vices are to be feared in sins, but pride is to be feared even in right deeds, lest those things which were done praiseworthily be lost through desire of the praise itself. And so, just as that most noble rhetor, when he was asked what seemed to him should first be observed in the precepts of eloquence, is said to have answered "Delivery"; when it was asked what second, the same delivery; what third, he said nothing else than delivery: so if you would ask, and as often as you would ask, about the precepts of the Christian religion, it would please me to answer nothing else than humility, though perhaps necessity might compel me to say other things.
Ep100-155.3.224. 23. Huic humilitati saluberrimae, quam Dominus noster Iesus Christus ut doceret humiliatus est; huic, inquam, maxime adversatur quaedam, ut ita dicam, imperitissima scientia, dum nos scire gaudemus quid Anaximenes, quid Anaxagoras, quid Pythagoras, quid Democritus senserint, et caetera huiusmodi, ut docti eruditique videamur, cum hoc a vera doctrina et eruditione longe absit. Qui enim didicerit Deum non distendi aut diffundi per locos, neque finitos neque infinitos, quasi in aliqua parte maior sit, in aliqua minor, sed totum ubique esse praesentem, sicut veritatem cuius nemo sobrie dicit partem esse in isto loco, et partem in illo, quoniam veritas utique Deus est; nequaquam eum movebit quod de infinito aere sensit, quicumque sensit quod ipse Deus esset. Quid ad illum, si nesciat quam dicant isti corporis formam; eam quippe dicunt quae undique finita sit: et utrum refellendi causa tamquam Academicus, Anaximeni Cicero obiecerit formam et pulchritudinem Deum habere oportere, quasi corpoream speciem cogitans, quia ille corporeum Deum esse dixerat, aer enim corpus est; an ipse sentiebat esse formam, et pulchritudinem incorpoream veritati, qua ipse animus informatur, et per quam omnia sapientis facta pulchra esse iudicamus, ut non tantum refellendi gratia, sed etiam verissime dixerit quod Deum pulcherrima specie deceat esse, quia nihil est pulchrius ipsa intellegibili atque incommutabili veritate? Quod autem ait ille gigni aerem, quem tamen Deum esse censebat, nullo modo movet hunc virum qui intellegit, non sicut aer gignitur, id est aliqua causa ut sit efficitur, cum omnino Deus non sit, ita genitum esse Verbum Dei, Deum apud Deum, sed longe alio modo, quem nemo, nisi cui ipse Deus inspirarit, intellegit. Illum autem etiam in ipsis corporalibus desipere quis non videat, cum aerem gigni dicat, et Deum velit; eum autem a quo aer gignitur, non enim a nullo gigni potest, non dicat Deum? Cum autem dicitur aer esse semper in motu, nequaquam conturbabit hominem, ut propterea illum Deum putet, qui novit omnis corporis motum inferiorem esse quam est motus animi; motum autem animi longe pigriorem, quam est motus summae atque incommutabilis Sapientiae.
4. 23. To this most wholesome humility, which our Lord Jesus Christ, in order to teach it, was humbled—to this, I say, there is especially opposed a certain, so to say, most unskilled knowledge, while we rejoice to know what Anaximenes, what Anaxagoras, what Pythagoras, what Democritus thought, and other such things, that we may seem learned and erudite, when this is far from true doctrine and erudition. For he who has learned that God is not stretched out or diffused through places, neither finite nor infinite, as though in some part he were greater, in some smaller, but is wholly present everywhere—just as truth, of which no one soberly says that part is in this place and part in that, since truth surely is God—will in no way be moved by what whoever thought that the air itself was God thought about the infinite air. What is it to him if he does not know what those men call the form of a body? For they call that which is on all sides finite: and whether, for the sake of refuting, as an Academic, Cicero objected to Anaximenes that God ought to have form and beauty, thinking, as it were, of a corporeal appearance, because he had said that God is corporeal—for air is a body—or whether he himself held that there is an incorporeal form and beauty to truth, by which the mind itself is informed, and through which we judge all the deeds of the wise man to be beautiful, so that he said not only for the sake of refuting, but even most truly, that it befits God to be of a most beautiful appearance, because nothing is more beautiful than that intelligible and unchangeable truth itself? But as for what that man says, that the air, which nevertheless he held to be God, is begotten, it in no way moves the man who understands that the Word of God, God with God, was not begotten as the air is begotten—that is, brought about by some cause that it might be, when it is in no way God—but in a far other way, which no one understands except him to whom God himself has given inspiration. But who does not see that that man is foolish even in corporeal matters themselves, when he says that the air is begotten, and wills it to be God; but does not say that he by whom the air is begotten—for it cannot be begotten by nothing—is God? But when it is said that the air is always in motion, it will in no way disturb the man so that he therefore think it to be God, who knows that the motion of every body is lower than is the motion of the mind; but the motion of the mind far slower than is the motion of the highest and unchangeable Wisdom.
Ep100-155.4.234. 24. Item Anaxagoras, sive quilibet, si mentem dicit ipsam veritatem atque sapientiam, quid mihi est de verbo cum homine contendere? Manifestum est enim omnium rerum descriptionem et modum ab illa fieri, eamque non incongrue dici infinitam, non per spatia locorum, sed per potentiam, quae cogitatione humana comprehendi non potest; neque quod informe aliquid sit ipsa sapientia, hoc enim corporum est, ut quaecumque infinita fuerint, sint et informia. Cicero autem studio refellendi, quantum videtur, propter adversarios corporaliter sentientes negat infinito aliquid iungi posse, quia ex ea parte qua quidquam adiungitur, necesse est esse in corporibus aliquem finem. Ideo ait non eum vidisse, neque motum sensui iunctum et continentem, id est continua copulatione adhaerentem, infinito, id est infinitae rei, ullum esse posse, quasi de corporibus ageret, quibus nihil iungi nisi per fines locorum potest. Sic autem addidit: Neque sensum omnino, quo non tota natura pulsa sentiret; quasi ille dixisset mentem illam ordinatricem et moderatricem rerum omnium habere sensum, qualem habet anima per corpus. Nam manifestum est totam sentire animam, cum per corpus aliquid sentit: nam totam utique non latet, quidquid illud est quod sentitur. Ad hoc autem dixit totam naturam sentire, ut illi quasi auferret quod ait mentem infinitam. Quomodo enim tota sentit, si infinita est? Sensus enim corporis ab aliquo loco incipit, nec percurrit totum, nisi ad cuius finem pervenerit; quod in infinito dici non potest. Sed neque ille de sensu corporis aliquid dixerat. Et aliter dicitur totum quod incorporeum est, quia sine finibus locorum intellegitur, ut et totum et infinitum dici possit: totum propter integritatem; infinitum, quia locorum finibus non ambitur.
4. 24. Likewise Anaxagoras, or anyone, if he says that mind is truth itself and wisdom, what is it to me to contend with a man about a word? For it is manifest that the description and measure of all things is made by it, and that it is not incongruously called infinite—not through spaces of places, but through power, which cannot be comprehended by human thought; nor that wisdom itself is anything formless, for this is proper to bodies, that whatever things are infinite are also formless. But Cicero, in his zeal for refuting—as it seems, on account of adversaries who thought corporeally—denies that anything can be joined to the infinite, because on that part where anything is joined, there must necessarily be in bodies some end. Therefore he says that Anaxagoras did not see that there could be any motion joined and continent to sense—that is, adhering by a continuous coupling—to the infinite, that is, to an infinite thing; as though he were dealing with bodies, to which nothing can be joined except through the ends of places. And he so added: "Nor sense at all, by which the whole nature, struck, would feel"; as though Anaxagoras had said that that mind, the orderer and moderator of all things, has sense such as the soul has through the body. For it is manifest that the whole soul feels, when it feels something through the body: for from the whole, surely, nothing is hidden, whatever it is that is felt. But for this reason he said that the whole nature feels, in order, as it were, to take away from it what he said, that the mind is infinite. For how does the whole feel, if it is infinite? For the sense of the body begins from some place, nor does it run through the whole, except to whose end it has come; which cannot be said of the infinite. But neither had Anaxagoras said anything about the sense of the body. And in another way that is called whole which is incorporeal, because it is understood without the ends of places, so that it can be called both whole and infinite: whole on account of its integrity; infinite, because it is not encompassed by the ends of places.
Ep100-155.4.244. 25. Deinde, inquit, si mentem ipsam quasi animal aliquod esse voluit, erit aliquid interius ex quo illud animal nominetur; ut mens ista quasi corpus sit, et habeat intus animam unde animal appelletur. Vide quemadmodum corporali consuetudine loquitur, quomodo solent videri animalia, propter sensum crassum, ut opinor, eorum contra quos disserit: et tamen dixit rem quae illos, si evigilare possent, satis admoneret, omne quod sicut corpus vivum animo occurrit, magis animam habere et esse animal, quam animam esse cogitari oportere. Hoc est enim quod ait: Erit aliquid interius, ex quo illud animal nominetur. Sed adiungit: Quid autem interius mente? Non ergo potest mens habere interiorem animam ut sit animal, quia ipsa est interior. Ergo corpus habeat extrinsecus, cui sit interior, ut sit animal. Hoc est enim quod ait: Cingitur igitur corpore externo; quasi Anaxagoras dixerit, nisi animalis alicuius esset, mentem esse non posse. Si mentem ipsam summam sapientiam esse sentiebat, quae nullius quasi animantis propria est, quia omnibus animis se frui valentibus veritas communiter praesto est. Et ideo vide quam urbane concludat: Quod quoniam non placet, inquit, hoc est non placet Anaxagorae, ut illa mens, quam dicit Deum, cingatur corpore externo, quo animal esse possit, aperta simplexque mens nulla re adiuncta qua sentire possit, id est nullo corpore adiuncto per quod sentire possit, fugere intellegentiae nostrae vim et notionem videtur.
4. 25. "Then," he says, "if he wished mind itself to be, as it were, some living being, there will be something more inward from which that living being is named"; so that this mind would be, as it were, a body, and have within a soul whence it would be called a living being. See how he speaks by corporeal habit, as living beings are wont to be seen, on account of the gross sense, I suppose, of those against whom he disputes: and yet he said a thing which, if they could awaken, would sufficiently admonish them, that everything which, like a living body, presents itself to the mind ought rather to be thought to have a soul and to be a living being, than to be a soul. For this is what he says: "There will be something more inward, from which that living being is named." But he adds: "But what is more inward than mind?" The mind, therefore, cannot have a more inward soul so as to be a living being, because it is itself the more inward. Therefore let it have a body outwardly, to which it is the more inward, so as to be a living being. For this is what he says: "It is girt, therefore, by an outer body"; as though Anaxagoras had said that, unless it were of some living being, mind could not be. If he held that mind itself is the highest wisdom, which is proper to no living being, as it were, because truth is in common present to all souls able to enjoy it. And therefore see how urbanely he concludes: "Since this does not please"—that is, does not please Anaxagoras, that that mind, which he calls God, be girt by an outer body, by which it might be able to be a living being—"an open and simple mind, with no thing joined by which it can feel"—that is, with no body joined through which it can feel—"seems to flee the force and notion of our understanding."
Ep100-155.4.254. 26. Nihil verius quam fugere hoc vim et notionem intellegentiae Stoicorum et Epicureorum, qui nisi corporalia cogitare non possunt. Quod autem ait, nostrae, humanae intellegi voluit; et bene non ait: Fugit; sed: Fugere videtur. Hoc enim illis videtur, neminem hoc posse intellegere, et ideo nihil tale esse arbitrantur: sed quorumdam intellegentiam, quantum homini datum est, non fugit esse apertam simplicemque sapientiam atque veritatem, quae nullius animantis sit propria, sed qua communiter omnis, quae id potest anima, sapiens et verax efficitur. Quam si sensit esse Anaxagoras, eamque Deum esse vidit, mentemque appellavit, non solum nomen Anaxagorae, quod propter litteratam vetustatem, omnes, ut militariter loquar, litteriones libenter sufflant, nos doctos et sapientes non facit, sed ne ipsa quidem eius cognitio, qua id verum esse cognovit. Non enim mihi propterea veritas cara esse debet, quia non latuit Anaxagoram, sed quia veritas est, etiamsi nullus eam cognovisset illorum.
4. 26. Nothing is truer than that this flees the force and notion of the understanding of the Stoics and Epicureans, who can think nothing but corporeal things. But as for what he says, "our"—he wished it understood as human; and well he does not say "It flees," but "It seems to flee." For to them it seems that no one can understand this, and therefore they judge that there is nothing of the sort: but it does not flee the understanding of certain men, as far as is granted to man, that there is an open and simple wisdom and truth, which is proper to no living being, but by which in common every soul that can do so is made wise and truthful. Which if Anaxagoras perceived, and saw it to be God, and called it mind, not only does the name of Anaxagoras—which, on account of his lettered antiquity, all the petty letter-men, to speak soldier-fashion, gladly puff up—not make us learned and wise, but not even the very knowledge of him by which he knew this to be true. For truth ought not to be dear to me for the reason that it was not hidden from Anaxagoras, but because it is truth, even if none of those men had known it.
Ep100-155.4.264. 27. Si igitur nec eius hominis qui verum forsitan vidit, cognitio nos inflare debet, ut ea quasi docti esse videamur, sed nec ipsius veri solida res, qua vere docti esse possumus; quanto minus eorum hominum qui falsa senserunt, nomina et dogmata nostram possunt adiuvare doctrinam, et latentia cognita facere? cum si homines simus, magis nos contristari deceat tot et tam nobilitatorum hominum erroribus, si eos audire contigerit, quam haec propterea studiose quaerere, ut inter eos qui illa nesciunt, iactatione inanissima ventilemur. Quanto enim melius ne audissem quidem nomen Democriti, quam cum dolore cogitarem, nescio quem suis temporibus magnum putatum, qui deos esse arbitraretur imagines, quae de solidis corporibus fluerent, solidaeque ipsae non essent, easque hac atque hac motu proprio circumeundo atque illabendo in animos hominum facere ut vis divina cogitetur; cum profecto illud corpus, unde imago flueret, quanto solidius est, tanto praestantius quoque esse iudicetur? Ideoque fluctuavit eius, sicut isti dicunt, nutavitque sententia, ut aliquando naturam quamdam de qua fluerent imagines Deum esse diceret, qui tamen cogitari non posset, nisi per eas imagines quas fundit ac emittit, id est quae de illa natura, quam nescio quam corpoream et sempiternam, ac etiam per hoc divinam putat, quasi vaporis similitudine continua velut emanatione ferrentur, et venirent atque intrarent in animos nostros, ut Deum vel deos cogitare possemus. Nullam enim aliam causam cuiuslibet cogitationis nostrae opinantur isti, nisi cum ab his corporibus quae cogitamus, veniunt atque intrant imagines in animos nostros: quasi non multa ac prope innumerabilia cogitentur incorporaliter atque intellegibiliter ab eis qui talia cogitare noverunt, sicut ipsa sapientia et veritas. Quam si isti non cogitant, miror quomodo de illa utcumque disputent: si autem cogitant, vellem mihi dicerent, vel de quo corpore, vel qualis in eorum animos veniat imago veritatis.
4. 27. If, then, neither the knowledge of that man who perhaps saw the truth ought to puff us up, so that we may seem learned by it, but neither the solid reality of the truth itself, by which we can be truly learned, how much less can the names and doctrines of those men who thought false things help our learning, and make hidden things known? Since, if we are men, it would befit us to be saddened by the errors of so many and so ennobled men, if it should fall to us to hear them, rather than studiously to seek these things for this reason, that among those who are ignorant of them we may be fanned about with most empty boasting. For how much better it would have been had I not even heard the name of Democritus, than that I should with grief think of one held great in his times—I know not who—who held that the gods are images which flow off from solid bodies, and are not themselves solid, and that these, going round here and there by their own motion and gliding into the minds of men, cause a divine power to be thought of; when surely that body, from which the image flows, is judged to be as much more excellent as it is more solid? And therefore his opinion wavered, as these men say, and tottered, so that sometimes he said that a certain nature, from which the images flow, is God—which nevertheless could not be thought of except through those images which it pours forth and emits, that is, which are borne from that nature (which he thinks to be I know not how corporeal and everlasting, and even by this divine), as it were by a continuous emanation like the likeness of a vapor, and come and enter into our minds, that we might be able to think of God or the gods. For these men suppose no other cause of any thought of ours than when, from those bodies which we think of, images come and enter into our minds: as though many and almost innumerable things were not thought incorporeally and intelligibly by those who have known how to think such things, like wisdom and truth themselves. Which if these men do not think of, I wonder how they dispute about it at all: but if they do think of it, I would wish them to tell me from what body, or of what sort, the image of truth comes into their minds.
Ep100-155.4.274. 28. Quamquam Democritus etiam hoc distare in naturalibus quaestionibus ab Epicuro dicitur, quod iste sentit inesse concursioni atomorum vim quamdam animalem et spirabilem: qua vi eum credo et imagines ipsas divinitate praeditas dicere, non omnes omnium rerum, sed deorum, et principia mentis esse in universis, quibus divinitatem tribuit, et animantes imagines, quae vel prodesse nobis soleant vel nocere. Epicurus vero neque aliquid in principiis rerum ponit praeter atomos, id est corpuscula quaedam tam minuta, ut iam dividi nequeant, neque sentiri, aut visu, aut tactu possint; quorum corpusculorum concursu fortuito, et mundos innumerabiles, et animantia, et ipsas animas fieri dicit, et deos quos humana forma non in aliquo mundo, sed extra mundos, atque inter mundos constituit: et non vult omnino aliquid praeter corpora cogitare; quae tamen ut cogitet, imagines dicit ab ipsis rebus quas atomis formari putat, defluere, atque in animum introire subtiliores quam sunt illae imagines quae ad oculos veniunt. Nam et videndi causam hanc esse dicit, ingentes quasdam imagines, ita ut universum mundum complectantur extrinsecus. Intellegis autem iam, ut arbitror, quas isti opinentur imagines.
4. 28. Although Democritus too is said in natural questions to differ from Epicurus in this, that the latter holds that there is in the concourse of atoms a certain animal and breathing force: by which force I believe he says that the images themselves too are endowed with divinity—not all images of all things, but of the gods—and that there are principles of mind in the universe, to which he attributes divinity, and animate images, which are wont either to profit us or to harm us. But Epicurus neither sets anything in the principles of things besides atoms—that is, certain little bodies so minute that they can neither be divided, nor be sensed by sight or touch—by the fortuitous concourse of which little bodies he says that both innumerable worlds, and living beings, and souls themselves come to be, and the gods, whom he sets in human form, not in any world, but outside the worlds and between the worlds: and he wills to think nothing at all besides bodies; which nevertheless, in order to think them, he says that images flow off from the very things which he supposes to be formed of atoms, and enter into the mind, subtler than are those images which come to the eyes. For he says that this too is the cause of seeing—certain huge images, such that they embrace the whole world from outside. But you understand now, I think, what images these men suppose.
Ep100-155.4.284. 29. Miror non admonuisse Democritum vel hoc ipso falsa esse quae dicit, quia venientes tam magnae imagines in tam brevem animum nostrum, si corporeus, ut illi volunt, tam parvo corpore includitur, totae illum tangere non possunt. A magno enim corpore cum parvum corpus attingitur, a toto simul attingi nullo pacto potest: quomodo igitur totae simul cogitantur, si in tantum cogitantur, in quantum venientes atque intrantes animum attingunt, quae nec totae intrare possunt per tam parvum corpus, nec totae tam parvum animum attingere? Memento me secundum illos haec dicere; non enim ego talem animum sentio: aut si incorporeum Democritus animum existimat, Epicurus quidem solus ista ratione urgeri potest; sed etiam ille quare non vidit, non opus esse nec fieri posse ut incorporeus animus adventu atque contactu corporearum imaginum cogitet? De visu certe oculorum ambo pariter redarguuntur; tam enim breves oculos, tam grandia imaginum corpora tota attingere nullo modo possunt.
4. 29. I wonder that it did not admonish Democritus, by this very thing, that the things he says are false, because such great images coming into our so small mind—if it is corporeal, as they will, and enclosed in so small a body—cannot wholly touch it. For when a small body is touched by a great body, it can in no way be touched at once by the whole: how, then, are they thought of wholly at once, if they are thought of insofar as, coming and entering, they touch the mind—images which can neither enter wholly through so small a body, nor wholly touch so small a mind? Remember that I say these things according to them; for I do not hold the mind to be such: or, if Democritus judges the mind to be incorporeal, Epicurus alone indeed can be pressed by this reasoning; but even he, why did he not see that there is no need, nor can it happen, that an incorporeal mind should think by the arrival and contact of corporeal images? About the sight of the eyes, certainly, both are alike refuted; for so small eyes can in no way wholly touch the so great bodies of the images.
Ep100-155.4.294. 30. Cum autem quaeritur ab eis quare una imago videatur corporis alicuius, a quo innumerabiliter imagines fluunt; respondent, eo ipso quo frequenter fluunt et transeunt imagines, quasi quadam earum constipatione et densitate fieri ut ex multis una videatur. Quam vanitatem Cicero ita refellit, ut eo ipso neget aeternum deum eorum posse cogitari, quo innumerabiliter fluentibus et labentibus imaginibus cogitatur. Et quoniam innumerabilitate atomorum suppeditante, dicunt fieri formas deorum sempiternas, cum ita discedant quaedam corpuscula de divino corpore ut alia succedant, et dissolvi illam naturam eadem successione non sinant: Omnia ergo, inquit, aeterna essent, quia nulli deest ista innumerabilitas atomorum, quae perpetuas ruinas subinde suppleat. Deinde quomodo non vereatur iste deus ne intereat, cum sine ulla intermissione pulsetur, agiteturque atomorum incursione sempiterna? pulsari enim dicit illud corpus quod irruentibus atomis feriatur, et agitari quod penetretur: deinde cum ex ipso imagines, de quibus iam satis dictum est, semper affluant, quomodo potest de immortalitate confidere?
4. 30. But when it is asked of them why one image of some body is seen, from which images flow innumerably, they answer that, by the very fact that the images flow and pass frequently, it happens, as it were by a certain crowding and density of them, that from many one is seen. Which vanity Cicero so refutes that by that very thing he denies that their eternal god can be thought of, since he is thought of by images flowing and gliding innumerably. And since, with the innumerability of atoms supplying, they say that the everlasting forms of the gods come to be, when certain little bodies so depart from the divine body that others succeed, and the same succession does not allow that nature to be dissolved: "All things, then," he says, "would be eternal, because to none is lacking that innumerability of atoms which from time to time supplies the perpetual ruins." Then, how does that god of theirs not fear lest he perish, when he is struck without any intermission, and agitated by the everlasting incursion of atoms? For he says that that body is struck which is hit by atoms rushing in, and is agitated which is penetrated: then, when from it images, about which enough has now been said, always flow, how can he be confident of immortality?
Ep100-155.4.304. 31. In quibus omnibus deliramentis haec opinantium, illud praecipue dolendum est, quod non sufficit ea narrari, ut nulla cuiusquam disputatione adversante respuantur; sed acutissimorum hominum ingenia id etiam negotium susceperunt, ut copiose ista refellerent, quae statim dicta etiam a tardissimis derideri abicique debuerunt. Si enim concesseris esse atomos, si concesseris etiam concursu fortuito seipsas pellere et agitare; num et illud eis fas est concedere, ut inter se atomi fortuito concurrentes, rem aliquam ita conficiant, ut eam forma modificent, figura determinent, aequalitate pollant, colore illustrent, anima vegetent? quae omnia nullo modo nisi arte divinae providentiae fieri videt, quisquis magis mente quam oculis amat videre, idque ab eo expetit a quo factus est. Nam nec ipsas atomos esse ullo modo concedendum est; quod, omissa subtilitate quae de divisione corporum a doctis traditur, vide quam facile secundum ipsorum opinionem possit ostendi. Certe enim ipsi dicunt omnia quae sint naturae, nihil esse aliud quam corpora et inane, quaeque his accidant; quod credo motum et pulsum dicere et consequentes formas. Dicant ergo in quo genere ponant imagines, quas de corporibus solidioribus affluere putant, ipsas minime solidas, ita ut tactu nisi oculorum cum videmus, et animi cum cogitamus, sentiri non possint, si et ipsa corpora sunt. Nam ita censent, ut exire a corpore et venire ad oculos, vel ad animum possint, quem nihilominus dicunt esse corporeum. Quaero utrum etiam ab ipsis atomis affluant imagines? Si affluunt, quomodo iam sunt atomi, a quibus aliqua corpora separantur? si non affluunt, aut potest aliquid sine imaginibus cogitari, quod vehementer nolunt; aut unde norunt atomos, quas nec cogitare potuerunt? Sed iam pudet me ista refellere, cum eos non puduerit ista sentire. Cum vero ausi sint etiam defendere, non iam eorum, sed ipsius generis humani me pudet, cuius aures haec ferre potuerunt.
4. 31. In all which ravings of those who hold these opinions, this above all is to be lamented, that it does not suffice for them to be narrated, so that they may be rejected without any disputation of anyone opposing; but the talents of most acute men undertook even this task, copiously to refute these things, which, as soon as said, ought to have been derided and cast away even by the dullest. For if you grant that there are atoms, if you grant even that by a fortuitous concourse they strike and agitate one another; is it lawful to grant them even this, that atoms, fortuitously meeting among themselves, so make some thing that they modify it by form, determine it by figure, polish it by equality, illuminate it by color, enliven it by soul? All which whoever loves to see by the mind rather than by the eyes sees can in no way come to be except by the art of divine providence, and seeks it from him by whom he was made. For neither must it be granted in any way that atoms themselves exist; which—the subtlety being passed over which is handed down by the learned about the division of bodies—see how easily it can be shown according to their own opinion. For they themselves certainly say that all things that are natures are nothing else than bodies and the void, and the things that happen to these; which I believe means motion and impact and the resulting forms. Let them say, then, in what genus they set the images which they suppose to flow off from more solid bodies, themselves least solid, so that they cannot be sensed except by the touch of the eyes when we see, and of the mind when we think, if they too are bodies. For they so judge, that they can go out from a body and come to the eyes, or to the mind, which nonetheless they say is corporeal. I ask whether images flow off even from the atoms themselves. If they flow off, how are they now atoms, from which some bodies are separated? If they do not flow off, either something can be thought of without images—which they vehemently refuse—or whence do they know the atoms, which they could not even think of? But now I am ashamed to refute these things, since they were not ashamed to hold them. But since they have dared even to defend them, I am ashamed, no longer of them, but of the human race itself, whose ears could bear these things.
Ep100-155.4.315. 32. Cum igitur tanta sit caecitas mentium per illuviem peccatorum amoremque carnis, ut etiam ista sententiarum portenta, otia doctorum conterere disputando potuerint, dubitabis tu, Dioscore, vel quisquam vigilanti ingenio praeditus, ullo modo ad sequendam veritatem melius consuli potuisse generi humano, quam ut homo ab ipsa Veritate susceptus ineffabiliter atque mirabiliter, et ipsius in terris personam gerens, recta praecipiendo, et divina faciendo, salubriter credi persuaderet quod nondum prudenter posset intellegi? Huius nos gloriae servimus, huic te immobiliter atque constanter credere hortamur, per quem factum est, ut non pauci, sed populi etiam, qui non possunt ista diiudicare ratione, fide credant, donec salutaribus praeceptis adminiculati, evadant ab his perplexitatibus in auras purissimae atque sincerissimae veritatis. Cuius auctoritati tanto devotius obtemperari oportet, quanto videmus nullum iam errorem se audere extollere, ad congregandas sibi turbas imperitorum, qui non christiani nominis velamenta conquirat: eos autem solos ex veteribus, praeter christianum nomen in conventiunculis suis aliquanto frequentius perdurare, qui Scripturas eas tenent, per quas annuntiatum esse ipsum Dominum Iesum Christum, se intellegere et videre dissimulant. Porro illi qui cum in unitate atque communione catholica non sint, christiano tamen nomine gloriantur, coguntur adversari credentibus, et audent imperitos quasi ratione traducere, quando maxime cum ista medicina Dominus venerit, ut fidem populis imperaret. Sed hoc facere coguntur, ut dixi, quia iacere se abiectissime sentiunt, si eorum auctoritas cum auctoritate catholica conferatur. Conantur ergo auctoritatem stabilissimam fundatissimae Ecclesiae quasi rationis nomine et pollicitatione superare. Omnium enim haereticorum quasi regularis est ista temeritas. Sed ille fidei imperator clementissimus, et per conventus celeberrimos populorum atque gentium, sedesque ipsas Apostolorum arce auctoritatis munivit Ecclesiam, et per pauciores pie doctos et vere spiritales viros, copiosissimis apparatibus etiam invictissimae rationis armavit. Verum illa rectissima disciplina est, in arcem fidei quam maxime recipi infirmos, ut pro eis iam tutissime positis, fortissima ratione pugnetur.
5. 32. Since, then, so great is the blindness of minds, through the filth of sins and the love of the flesh, that even these monstrosities of opinions could wear out the leisures of the learned by disputing, will you, Dioscorus, or anyone endowed with a wakeful talent, doubt that the human race could in no way be better counseled toward following truth than that a man, taken up ineffably and marvelously by Truth itself, and bearing his person on earth, should, by prescribing right things and doing divine things, wholesomely persuade men to believe what could not yet be prudently understood? We serve the glory of this one; we exhort you to believe immovably and constantly in this one, through whom it has come about that not a few, but even peoples, who cannot adjudicate these things by reason, believe by faith, until, propped up by saving precepts, they escape from these perplexities into the air of the purest and sincerest truth. To whose authority it befits us to be obedient the more devoutly the more we see that no error now dares to lift itself up, to gather to itself throngs of the unskilled, that does not seek the veils of the Christian name: but that of the ancients those alone, apart from the Christian name, endure somewhat more frequently in their little assemblies who hold those Scriptures through which the Lord Jesus Christ himself was announced—and pretend that they understand and see. Moreover those who, though they are not in Catholic unity and communion, yet glory in the Christian name, are compelled to oppose believers, and dare, as it were by reason, to lead the unskilled astray, when most of all the Lord came with this medicine, that he might command faith to peoples. But they are compelled to do this, as I said, because they feel that they lie most abjectly cast down, if their authority be compared with the Catholic authority. They try, therefore, to surpass the most stable authority of the most firmly founded Church, as it were under the name and promise of reason. For of all heretics this temerity is, as it were, the rule. But that most merciful commander of faith both fortified the Church, by the most thronged assemblies of peoples and nations, and the very seats of the Apostles, with the citadel of authority, and, through fewer devoutly learned and truly spiritual men, armed it with the most copious equipment even of most invincible reason. But the most right discipline is, that into the citadel of faith the weak be received as much as possible, so that, on their behalf, now most safely placed, the fight may be waged with the strongest reason.
Ep100-155.5.325. 33. Platonici vero, qui falsorum philosophorum erroribus illo tempore circumlatrantibus, non habentes divinam personam qua imperarent fidem, sententiam suam tegere quaerendam, quam polluendam proferre maluerunt, cum iam Christi nomen terrenis regnis admirantibus perturbatisque crebresceret, emergere coeperant, ad proferendum atque aperiendum quid Plato sensisset. Tunc Plotini schola Romae floruit, habuitque condiscipulos, multos acutissimos et solertissimos viros. Sed aliqui eorum magicarum artium curiositate depravati sunt, aliqui Dominum Iesum Christum ipsius veritatis atque sapientiae incommutabilis, quam conabantur attingere, cognoscentes gestare personam, in eius militiam transierunt. Itaque totum culmen auctoritatis lumenque rationis in illo uno salutari nomine atque in una eius Ecclesia, recreando atque reformando humano generi constitutum est.
5. 33. But the Platonists—who, with the errors of false philosophers barking around them at that time, having no divine person by which to command faith, preferred to seek how to cover their opinion rather than to bring it forth to be defiled—when now the name of Christ was growing frequent, the earthly kingdoms marveling and being disturbed, had begun to emerge, to bring forth and disclose what Plato had thought. Then the school of Plotinus flourished at Rome, and had as fellow disciples many most acute and skillful men. But some of them were depraved by curiosity for magic arts; some, recognizing that the Lord Jesus Christ bears the person of that very truth and unchangeable wisdom which they were trying to reach, crossed over into his service. And so the whole summit of authority and the light of reason was established in that one saving name and in his one Church, for recreating and reforming the human race.
Ep100-155.5.335. 34. Haec me tibi diutissime in hac epistola locutum, etsi alia forte tu malles, omnino non poenitet. Probabis enim haec magis, quanto magis in veritate proficies; et tunc probabis consilium meum, quod nunc utilitati studiorum tuorum minus obsecutum putas. Quamquam etiam illis ipsis quaestionibus tuis. non solum quibusdam in hac epistola, sed etiam caeteris pene omnibus in ipsis membranis, in quibus eas misisti ut potui breviter annotando responderim. In quibus si me parum, aut aliud quam volebas egisse arbitraris, non recte cogitas, mi Dioscore, a quo nunc ista quaesieris. Oratoris autem librorumque de Oratore omnes quaestiones praetermisi. Nescio quis enim nugator mihi esse visus sum, si eas exponendas persequerer. Nam de caeteris possem etiam decenter interrogari, si mihi quisquam res ipsas, non de libris Ciceronis, sed per seipsas tractandas dissolvendasque proferret. In illis autem res ipsae nunc nostrae professioni minus congruunt. Haec autem omnia non facerem, nisi me post aegritudinem, in qua eram cum homo tuus venisset, aliquantum ab Hippone removissem. Quibus item diebus perturbatione valetudinis febribusque repetitus sum. Inde factum est ut tardius quam possent tibi haec mitterentur. Quae quomodo acceperis, rescripta flagito.
5. 34. That I have spoken to you so very long in this letter—although perhaps you would prefer other things—I do not at all regret. For you will approve these things the more, the more you progress in truth; and then you will approve my counsel, which now you think has complied too little with the usefulness of your studies. Although even to those very questions of yours I have replied—not only to certain ones in this letter, but to nearly all the rest in the very pages on which you sent them—by annotating briefly, as I could. In which, if you judge that I have done too little, or otherwise than you wished, you do not think rightly, my Dioscorus, of whom you have now asked these things. But all the questions of the Orator and of the books On the Orator I have passed over. For I seemed to myself to be I know not what trifler, if I pursued them to be expounded. For about the rest I could even fittingly be questioned, if anyone should bring me the things themselves to be handled and solved, not from the books of Cicero, but through themselves. But in those, the things themselves now agree too little with our profession. But I would not do all these things, had I not, after the sickness in which I was when your man came, removed myself somewhat from Hippo. In which same days I was again attacked by a disturbance of health and fevers. Hence it came about that these things were sent to you later than they could have been. How you have received them, I demand to be written back.
Ep100-155.5.34EPISTOLA 119
DOMINO SANCTO AC BEATISSIMO PAPAE AUGUSTINO, CONSENTIUS.
DOMINO SANCTO AC BEATISSIMO PAPAE AUGUSTINO, CONSENTIUS.
LETTER 119
To the holy and most blessed lord pope Augustine, Consentius.
Ep100-155.5.34To the holy and most blessed lord pope Augustine, Consentius.
1. Iam quidem sancto, mihique cunctis animi virtutibus admirando, fratri tuo Alipio episcopo genus petitionis meae brevi sermone suggesseram, sperans precum mearum ut apud te esse adiutor dignaretur. Sed quia praesentiam mihi tuam ea, quae ad villam ire compulit, causa fraudavit, malui litteris precem inserere, quam exspectationem animi fluctuare; maxime cum id quod postulo, si mihi concedi oportere perspexeris, adiuvare sensum tuum altissima mysteria perscrutantem, loci ipsius, ut arbitror, in quo nunc consistis, valeat solitudo. Ego igitur cum apud memetipsum prorsus definierim, veritatem rei divinae ex fide magis quam ex ratione percipi oportere; si enim fides sanctae Ecclesiae ex disputationis ratione, non ex credulitatis pietate apprehenderetur, nemo praeter philosophos atque oratores beatitudinem possideret. Sed quia placuit Deo, qui infirma mundi huius elegit ut confundat fortia, per stultitiam praedicationis salvare credentes, non tam ratio requirenda de Deo, quam auctoritas est sequenda sanctorum. Nam profecto neque Ariani, qui Filium, quem genitum confitemur, minorem putant, in hac impietate persisterent, neque Macedoniani Spiritum sanctum, quem neque genitum neque ingenitum credimus, quantum in ipsis est a divinitatis arce detruderent, si Scripturis sanctis magis quam suis ratiocinationibus accommodare fidem mallent.
1. I had already suggested in a brief discourse the kind of my petition to your brother, the holy bishop Alypius—admirable to me in all the virtues of his mind—hoping that he would deign to be a helper of my prayers with you. But because the cause which compelled him to go to the country estate cheated me of your presence, I preferred to insert my prayer in a letter rather than to let the expectation of my mind waver; especially since what I ask, if you perceive that it ought to be granted me, the solitude of the very place in which you now are set may be able to aid your mind as it searches into the deepest mysteries. I, then, since I have altogether determined with myself that the truth of a divine matter ought to be perceived from faith rather than from reason—for if the faith of the holy Church were apprehended from the reasoning of disputation, and not from the piety of believing, no one but philosophers and orators would possess blessedness. But because it pleased God, who chose the weak things of this world to confound the strong, to save believers through the foolishness of preaching, not so much is reason to be sought about God as the authority of the saints is to be followed. For surely neither would the Arians, who think the Son, whom we confess to be begotten, lesser, persist in this impiety, nor would the Macedonians thrust the Holy Spirit, whom we believe to be neither begotten nor unbegotten, from the citadel of divinity as far as in them lies, if they preferred to accommodate their faith to the holy Scriptures rather than to their own reasonings.
Ep100-155.12. Tamen tu, vir admirabilis, si tibi ille Pater noster, solus conscius secretorum, qui habet clavem David, serenissimi cordis obtutu coelorum machinam penetrare concessit, et revelata, ut scriptum est, facie gloriam Domini speculari, in quantum tibi ille qui huiusmodi cogitationem dedit, promendi dederit facultatem, enuntia nobis aliquam ineffabilis substantiae portionem, et imaginem similitudinis eius ipso adiuvante exprimere, in quantum potes, verbis enitere; quoniam nisi tu tantae rei dux ac magister adfueris, velut lippientibus oculis prospicere in eam tanti luminis repercussa fulgore cogitatio nostra formidat. Intra ergo in illam, quae nostros arcet intuitus, mysteriorum Dei obscurissimam nubem; quaestiunculas in quibus absolvendis me errare cognosco, qui auctoritatem Sanctitatis tuae fide magis sequi volo, quam rationis corde conceptae falsa imagine depravari, primum in memetipso, dehinc in libris corrige.
2. Yet you, admirable man, if that Father of ours, the sole knower of secrets, who has the key of David, has granted you to penetrate the machine of the heavens with the gaze of a most serene heart, and, as it is written, with unveiled face to behold the glory of the Lord—as far as he who gave you a thought of this kind has given you the faculty of bringing it forth—announce to us some portion of that ineffable substance, and strive, with his help, to express, as far as you can, in words an image of his likeness; since, unless you are present as leader and master of so great a matter, our thought, as with bleary eyes, dreads to look upon it, struck back by the flashing of so great a light. Enter, then, into that most obscure cloud of the mysteries of God, which keeps off our gaze; the little questions in solving which I know I go astray—I who wish to follow the authority of Your Holiness by faith rather than to be depraved by the false image of a reason conceived in the heart—correct first in me, then in your books.
Ep100-155.23. Ego siquidem in circumspecta admodum simplicitate audiens credensque Dominum Iesum Christum lumen esse de lumine, sicut scriptum est: Bene nuntiate diem de die, salutare eius.; et in Sapientia Salomonis: Candor est enim lucis aeternae; credebam Deum, quod licet credere ut dignum est non valebam, tamen esse inaestimabilis cuiusdam lucis infinitam magnitudinem, cuius nec qualitatem aestimare, nec quantitatem metiri, nec speciem fingere, quamquam sublime cogitans mens humana sufficeret; tamen esse illud quiddam, quidquid est, cui adsit incomparabilis forma, inaestimabilis pulchritudo, quam etiam carnalibus oculis saltem Christus aspiciat. Cum ergo circa finem primi libri, sicut procul dubio meminisse dignaris, cupiens comprobare Dominum Iesum Christum, id est hominem assumptum, ita divinam possidere potentiam, ut materia carnis humanae quam susceperat, permaneret, quam in illis visceribus nihil aliud quam infirmitatem perisse docuissem, illius mihi nodus quaestionis obiectus est. Si, inquit, homo ille quem assumpsit Christus, in Deum versus est, ergo localis esse non debuit: cur ergo post resurrectionem dixit: Noli me tangere, nondum enim ascendi ad Patrem meum ?
3. For I, hearing and believing in a very circumspect simplicity that the Lord Jesus Christ is light from light, as it is written, Proclaim well day from day, his salvation (See Ps 96:2 (95:2)); and in the Wisdom of Solomon, For she is the brightness of eternal light (Wis 7:26); I believed God—what, though it is lawful to believe as is worthy, I was not able to do—yet to be the infinite magnitude of a certain inestimable light, whose quality the human mind, however sublimely thinking, could neither estimate, nor measure its quantity, nor feign its appearance; yet to be that certain thing, whatever it is, to which there is present an incomparable form, an inestimable beauty, which even with carnal eyes at least Christ beholds. When, then, about the end of the first book—as you doubtless deign to remember—wishing to prove that the Lord Jesus Christ, that is, the assumed man, so possesses divine power that the matter of human flesh which he had taken up remained (which in those vitals I had taught that nothing but weakness had perished), the knot of that question was cast against me. "If," he says, "that man whom Christ assumed was turned into God, then he ought not to have been local: why then did he say after the resurrection, Do not touch me, for I have not yet ascended to my Father (John 20:17)?"
Ep100-155.34. Ego igitur elaborans approbare ubique esse Christum virtute, non opere; divinitate, non carne; de unitate Dei et personarum trinitate huiusmodi verba conscripsi: Deus, inquam, unus est, et personae tres sunt. Deus indiscretus est, personae discretae sunt. Deus intra omnia, trans omnia est, ultima includit, media implet, summa transcendit, ultra universa et per universa diffunditur: personae autem sibi constantes, proprietate secernuntur, non confusione miscentur. Deus ergo unus est, et ubique est; quia et alius praeter illum non est, et locus non est vacuus ubi esse alius possit. Plena sunt Deo omnia, et praeter Deum nihil est. Ipse est in Patre, ipse in Filio, ipse in Spiritu sancto: ac per hoc, Pater, et Filius, et Spiritus sanctus non plures dii, sed ipse unus est Deus; et non est ipse Pater qui est Filius, nec Filius qui est Spiritus sanctus. Pater in Filio est, Filius in Patre, in utroque Spiritus sanctus; quia in tribus numero, non ordine, id est personis, non virtute discretis, unus atque indivisibilis habitat Deus. Omnia quae Patris sunt, Filii sunt; et quae Filii sunt, Patris sunt; et quae utriusque sunt, Spiritus sancti sunt: quia non quasi aequalem, sed eamdem, id est unicam, non separatam possident substantiam Deitatis; et ideo vel maiestate, vel aetate, alter alterum non praecedit, quia dividi quod plenum est non potest, nec est in plenitudine aliquid, quod possit plenitudinem separare, et maiorem uni, minorem alteri facere portionem. In personis autem non ita est; quia Patris persona non est Filii, nec Filii persona eadem est Spiritus sancti. Una virtus est, quam trina possidet virtus; una substantia est, in qua tria sunt quae subsistunt. Pater ergo, et Filius, et Spiritus sanctus maiestate ubique sunt, quia unum sunt; personis tantum apud se sunt, quia tres sunt. Et reliqua huiusmodi texens, rem eousque deduxi, ut praesentes quidem et ubique esse personas, sed illam, quae supra coelos, trans maria, ultra inferos, una atque eadem est maiestate, firmarem. Ex quo intellegi debere monstrabam, hominem quem Christus assumpsit, in Deum quidem versum susceptam non amisisse naturam, non tamen quasi quartam credi posse personam.
4. I, then, laboring to prove that Christ is everywhere by power, not by work; by divinity, not by flesh; wrote words of this kind about the unity of God and the trinity of persons: "God," I say, "is one, and the persons are three. God is undivided, the persons are distinct. God is within all things, beyond all things; he encloses the last, fills the middle, transcends the highest; beyond the universe and through the universe he is diffused: but the persons, consistent in themselves, are distinguished by property, not mingled by confusion. God, then, is one, and is everywhere; because there is no other besides him, and there is no place empty where another could be. All things are full of God, and besides God there is nothing. He himself is in the Father, he himself in the Son, he himself in the Holy Spirit: and through this, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit are not several gods, but he himself is the one God; and he who is the Father is not the same as he who is the Son, nor the Son the same as the Holy Spirit. The Father is in the Son, the Son in the Father, in both the Holy Spirit; because in three distinct in number, not in order—that is, in persons, not in power—one and indivisible God dwells. All things that are the Father's are the Son's; and the things that are the Son's are the Father's; and the things that are of both are the Holy Spirit's: because they possess the substance of the Godhead not as equal, but as the same—that is, as the one, not separated; and therefore neither in majesty nor in age does one precede another, because what is full cannot be divided, nor is there in fullness anything that could separate the fullness, and make a greater portion for one, a lesser for another. But in the persons it is not so; because the person of the Father is not that of the Son, nor is the person of the Son the same as that of the Holy Spirit. There is one power, which a threefold power possesses; there is one substance, in which are three that subsist. The Father, then, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit are everywhere by majesty, because they are one; in persons only they are with themselves, because they are three." And weaving the rest of this kind, I led the matter to this, that I should affirm the persons to be present and everywhere, but that the divinity, which is above the heavens, beyond the seas, beyond the depths, is one and the same in majesty. From which I showed it ought to be understood that the man whom Christ assumed, though turned into God, did not lose the assumed nature, yet could not be believed to be, as it were, a fourth person.
Ep100-155.45. Sed tu, vir, cui coelum, ut arbitror, ipsum subtilitate cogitationum intrare concessum est; verax etenim est qui ait; Beati mundo corde, quoniam ipsi Deum videbunt; super omnia sidera ad ipsam contemplationem altitudinem mundi cordis attollis, ais non tamquam aliquod corpus debere cogitari Deum. Nam etiamsi quispiam animo lucem millies quam huius solis clariorem intensioremque confingat, nullam illic Dei similitudinem comprehendi posse, quia corpus est omne quod cerni potest: sed sicut iustitiam vel pietatem corpoream cogitare non possumus, nisi aliqua forte nobis feminea corpora gentili vanitate fingamus; ita et Deum sine aliqua phantasiae simulatione in quantum possumus cogitandum. Mihi autem, qui subtilitatem disputationis tepido percipere admodum corde vix possum, videbatur nihil vivum secundum substantiam inesse iustitiae: ideoque non possum adhuc Deum, id est, viventem naturam, iustitiae similem cogitare; quia iustitia non in se, sed in nobis vivit; imo potius nos secundum iustitiam vivimus, ipsa vero iustitia per se nequaquam vivit, nisi forte non huius humanae aequitatis, sed illa quae Deus est, sola asseratur esse iustitia.
5. But you, a man to whom, I think, heaven itself has been granted to enter by the subtlety of your thoughts—for truthful is he who says, Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God (Matt 5:8)—above all the stars you lift the height of a pure heart to that very contemplation; you say that God ought not to be thought of as any body. For even if anyone should feign in his mind a light a thousand times brighter and more intense than this sun's, no likeness of God can be comprehended there, because everything that can be seen is a body: but just as we cannot think of justice or piety as corporeal—unless perhaps we feign for ourselves some feminine bodies by gentile vanity—so God too is to be thought of, as far as we can, without any feigning of fancy. But to me, who, with a lukewarm heart, can scarcely at all perceive the subtlety of the disputation, it seemed that nothing living, according to substance, is in justice: and therefore I cannot yet think of God—that is, a living nature—as like justice; because justice lives not in itself, but in us; nay rather we live according to justice, but justice itself in no way lives by itself, unless perhaps it be asserted that that alone is justice which is not of this human equity, but which is God.
Ep100-155.56. Unde confirmari me ex omnibus non solum praesentibus verbis, sed etiam pleniori epistola velim. Neque enim fas est ut nostri tantum pedes ab ista in qua multi ingredimur, erroris via, te monente revocentur. Cum enim multi in illis in quibus habitamus insulis, dum recto ad viam pergunt aggere, in tramitem tortuosi huius erroris incurrerint, eritne aliquis illic Augustinus, cuius auctoritati cedant, cuius doctrinae credant, cuius ingenio superentur? An forte ex illo paternitatis affectu mavis me occulta commonitione dirigere, quam velut comitem pravi itineris increpare? Sed mihi pro utilitate animae, magis quam pro saeculi laude currere cupienti, non est inutilis, ac proinde etiam non amara coargutio tua; maxime cum et mihi et caeteris vitam simul laudemque paritura sit. Nemo siquidem tam iniustus esse, ut arbitror, potest, qui me ex eo quod aliquando devia sum secutus, stultitiae denotare malit quam ex eo quod recta delegerim, prudenter iudicare cunctetur. Neque enim stulti aestimandi sunt, quos Paulus apostolus, ne in incertum currerent admonebat dicens: Sic currite ut comprehendatis: quapropter via ista quam currimus, non solum relinquenda nobis, verum etiam intercludenda atque praecidenda est, ne forte etiam eos fallaci dilectionis simulatione frustretur. Tu enim non editorum iam a me librorum lector, sed probandorum emendator, ni fallor, electus es. Nam in illa epistola, quam in illis meis libellis velut praefatiunculam praetuli, huiusmodi verba conscripta sunt: "Placuit, inquam, fluctuantem fidei nostrae cymbam beati Augustini episcopi stabilire sententia." Cur ergo, vir doctrinae huius quae in Christo est, culmen, arguere palam corrigendum de caetero filium dubitas, cum sententiae tuae anchora nisi morsum altius presserit, nos certius stabilire non possit? Non enim levis aut culpata quaestio, in qua non solum nihil profecit, verum etiam sicut, a te fortissime dictum est, idololatriae crimen caecitas nostrae cogitationis incurrit. Hanc a te caute prudenterque discuti vellem, ut doctrinae tuae ingeniique serenitas ita nebulam nostrae mentis abstergat, ut quod nunc cogitare non possumus, intellegentiae a te lumine declaratum, oculis cordis videre valeamus. Incolumis ac beatus in aeternum, mei memor coelestia regna possideas, domine sancte ac beatissime papa.
6. Whence I would wish to be confirmed by all means, not only by present words, but even by a fuller letter. For it is not right that only my own feet be recalled, at your admonition, from this way of error in which many of us walk. For since many in those islands in which we dwell, while they proceed by the right causeway to the way, run into the path of this tortuous error, will there be any Augustine there, to whose authority they may yield, whose teaching they may believe, by whose talent they may be overcome? Or do you perhaps, from that paternal affection, prefer to direct me by a hidden admonition rather than to rebuke me as a companion of a crooked journey? But to me, desiring to run for the benefit of my soul rather than for the praise of the world, your refutation is not useless, and therefore not even bitter; especially since it will procure for me and for the rest at once both life and praise. For no one, I think, can be so unjust as to prefer to brand me with folly for the fact that I once followed devious ways, rather than to hesitate to judge me prudent for the fact that I have chosen right ones. For neither are those to be esteemed fools whom the apostle Paul admonished, lest they run into uncertainty, saying, So run that you may obtain (1 Cor 9:24): wherefore this way which we run must not only be abandoned by us, but even barred and cut off, lest perhaps it cheat even those by the deceptive pretense of love. For you have been chosen, if I am not mistaken, not now as a reader of books already published by me, but as the emender of books to be approved. For in that letter which I set as a kind of little preface before those little books of mine, words of this kind are written: "It has pleased me," I say, "to stabilize the wavering skiff of our faith by the opinion of the blessed bishop Augustine." Why then, O man, the summit of this teaching which is in Christ, do you hesitate openly to convict a son to be corrected hereafter, since the anchor of your opinion, unless it presses its bite deeper, cannot more surely stabilize us? For it is no light or blameworthy question, in which the blindness of our thought not only has profited nothing, but even—as was most strongly said by you—has incurred the crime of idolatry. This I would wish to be discussed by you cautiously and prudently, so that the serenity of your teaching and talent may so wipe away the mist of our mind that what we now cannot think of, declared by the light of your understanding, we may be able to see with the eyes of the heart. Safe and blessed forever, mindful of me, may you possess the heavenly kingdom, holy and most blessed lord pope.
Ep100-155.6EPISTOLA 120
FRATRI DILECTISSIMO ET IN CHRISTI VISCERIBUS HONORANDO CONSENTIO, AUGUSTINUS, IN DOMINO SALUTEM.
FRATRI DILECTISSIMO ET IN CHRISTI VISCERIBUS HONORANDO CONSENTIO, AUGUSTINUS, IN DOMINO SALUTEM.
LETTER 120
To his most beloved brother, and to be honored in the bowels of Christ, Consentius, Augustine sends greetings in the Lord.
Ep100-155.6To his most beloved brother, and to be honored in the bowels of Christ, Consentius, Augustine sends greetings in the Lord.
1. 1. Ego propterea ut ad nos venires rogavi, quoniam in libris tuis valde sum tuo delectatus ingenio. Proinde volui ut quaedam nostra opuscula, quae arbitratus sum tibi esse necessaria, non procul a nobis positus, sed potius apud nos legeres, ut ea quae forte minus intellexisses, non difficulter praesens interrogares, atque ex nostra sermocinatione mutuoque colloquio, quantum Dominus et nobis promere, et tibi capere tribuisset, quid in libris tuis emendandum esset, ipse cognosceres, ipse emendares. Eius quippe es facultatis, ut possis ea quae senseris explicare; eius porro probitatis et humilitatis, ut merearis vera sentire. Et nunc in eadem sum, quae nec tibi debet displicere, sententia; unde te nuper admonui ut in his quae a nobis elaborata apud te legis, signa facias ad ea loca quae te movent, et cum his ad me venias, et de singulis quaeras. Nondum quae fecisti exhortor ut facias. Recte quippe verecundareris, ac te pigeret id agere, si vel semel voluisses, et me difficilem repperisses. Illud quoque dixeram, cum a te audissem quod mendosissimis fatigareris codicibus, ut in nostris legeres, quos emendatiores posses caeteris invenire.
1. 1. I asked you to come to us for this reason, that in your books I was much delighted by your talent. Accordingly I wished that you should read certain little works of ours, which I judged necessary for you, placed not far from us, but rather with us, so that those things which you perhaps understood too little you might, being present, not difficultly ask about, and from our conversation and mutual colloquy—as much as the Lord granted both us to bring forth and you to grasp—you yourself might know what was to be emended in your books, you yourself might emend it. For you are of such ability that you can unfold the things you have thought; and further of such probity and humility that you deserve to think true things. And now I am of the same opinion, which ought not to displease you either; whence I lately admonished you that, in those things elaborated by us which you read with you, you make signs at those places which move you, and come to me with them, and ask about each. I do not yet exhort you to do what you have done. For you would rightly be ashamed, and it would irk you to do this, if you had wished it even once and had found me difficult. I had also said—when I had heard from you that you were wearied by most faulty manuscripts—that you should read in ours, which you could find more emended than the rest.
Ep100-155.1.11. 2. Quod autem petis, ut quaestionem Trinitatis, hoc est de unitate divinitatis et discretione personarum, caute prudenterque discutiam, ut doctrinae meae, sicut dicis, ingeniique serenitas, ita nebulam vestrae mentis abstergat, ut quod nunc cogitare non potestis, intellegentiae a me lumine declaratum oculis quodammodo videre possitis: vide prius utrum ista petitio cum tua superiori definitione concordet. Superius quippe in eadem ipsa epistola, in qua hoc petis, apud temetipsum definisse te dicis, ex fide veritatem magis quam ex ratione percipi oportere. "Si enim fides, inquis, sanctae Ecclesiae ex disputationis ratione, et non ex credulitatis pietate apprehenderetur, nemo praeter philosophos atque oratores beatitudinem possideret. Sed quia placuit, inquis: Deo, qui infirma huius mundi elegit ut confunderet fortia, per stultitiam praedicationi salvos facere credentes, non tam ratio requirenda, quam auctoritas est sequenda sanctorum". Vide ergo secundum haec verba tua, ne potius debeas, maxime de hac re, in qua praecipue fides nostra consistit, solam sanctorum auctoritatem sequi, nec eius intellegentiae a me quaerere rationem. Neque enim cum coepero te in tanti huius secreti intellegentiam utcumque introducere (quod nisi Deus intus adiuverit, omnino non potero), aliud disserendo facturus sum, quam rationem ut potero redditurus: quam si a me, vel a quolibet doctore non irrationabiliter flagitas, ut quod credis intellegas, corrige definitionem tuam, non ut fidem respuas, sed ut ea quae fidei firmitate iam tenes, etiam rationis luce conspicias.
1. 2. But as for what you ask, that I discuss the question of the Trinity—that is, of the unity of the Godhead and the distinction of persons—cautiously and prudently, so that the serenity of my teaching and talent, as you say, may so wipe away the mist of your mind that what you now cannot think of, declared by the light of my understanding, you may in some way be able to see with the eyes: see first whether this petition agrees with your earlier definition. For earlier in the same letter in which you ask this, you say that you have determined with yourself that the truth ought to be perceived from faith rather than from reason. "For if the faith of the holy Church," you say, "were apprehended from the reasoning of disputation, and not from the piety of believing, no one but philosophers and orators would possess blessedness. But because it pleased God," you say, "who chose the weak things of this world to confound the strong, to make believers safe through the foolishness of preaching, not so much is reason to be sought as the authority of the saints is to be followed." See, then, according to these words of yours, whether you ought not rather—especially in this matter, in which our faith chiefly consists—to follow the authority of the saints alone, and not to seek of me the reason of that understanding. For when I shall have begun to introduce you in some way into the understanding of so great a secret (which, unless God help within, I shall not at all be able to do), I shall do nothing else, by discoursing, than render a reason as I can: which if you not unreasonably demand of me, or of any teacher, that you may understand what you believe, correct your definition—not so as to reject faith, but so that the things you already hold by the firmness of faith you may also behold by the light of reason.
Ep100-155.1.21. 3. Absit namque ut hoc in nobis Deus oderit, in quo nos reliquis animantibus excellentiores creavit. Absit, inquam, ut ideo credamus, ne rationem accipiamus sive quaeramus; cum etiam credere non possemus, nisi rationales animas haberemus. Ut ergo in quibusdam rebus ad doctrinam salutarem pertinentibus, quas ratione nondum percipere valemus, sed aliquando valebimus, fides praecedat rationem, qua cor mundetur, ut magnae rationis capiat et perferat lucem, hoc utique rationis est. Et ideo rationabiliter dictum est per prophetam: Nisi credideritis, non intellegetis. Ubi procul dubio discrevit haec duo, deditque consilium quo prius credamus, ut id quod credimus intellegere valeamus. Proinde ut fides praecedat rationem, rationabiliter iussum est. Nam si hoc praeceptum rationabile non est, ergo irrationabile est: absit. Si igitur rationabile est ut ad magna quaedam, quae capi nondum possunt, fides praecedat rationem, procul dubio quantulacumque ratio quae hoc persuadet, etiam ipsa antecedit fidem.
1. 3. For far be it that God should hate in us that in which he created us more excellent than the rest of living beings. Far be it, I say, that we should believe in such a way as not to receive or seek a reason; since we could not even believe, unless we had rational souls. That, therefore, in certain matters pertaining to saving doctrine, which we cannot yet perceive by reason but at some time shall be able, faith should precede reason, by which the heart is cleansed so as to receive and bear the light of great reason—this surely is of reason. And therefore it was reasonably said through the prophet, Unless you believe, you will not understand (Isa 7:9 (LXX)). Where without doubt he distinguished these two, and gave counsel by which we should first believe, that we may be able to understand what we believe. Accordingly, that faith should precede reason was reasonably commanded. For if this precept is not reasonable, then it is unreasonable: far be it. If, then, it is reasonable that, toward certain great things which cannot yet be grasped, faith should precede reason, without doubt the small reason which persuades this also precedes faith.
Ep100-155.1.31. 4. Propterea monet apostolus Petrus, paratos nos esse debere ad responsionem omni poscenti nos rationem de fide et spe nostra: quoniam si a me infidelis rationem poscit fidei et spei meae, et video quod antequam credat capere non potest, hanc ipsam ei reddo rationem in qua, si fieri potest, videat quam praepostere ante fidem poscat rationem earum rerum quas capere non potest. Si autem iam fidelis rationem poscat, ut quod credit intellegat, capacitas eius intuenda est, ut secundum eam ratione reddita, sumat fidei suae quantam potest intellegentiam; maiorem, si plus capit; minorem, si minus: dum tamen quousque ad plenitudinem cognitionis perfectionemque perveniat, ab itinere fidei non recedat. Hinc est quod dicit Apostolus: Et tamen si quid aliter sapitis, id quoque vobis Deus revelabit; verumtamen in quod pervenimus, in eo ambulemus. Iam ergo si fideles sumus, ad fidei viam pervenimus, quam si non dimiserimus, non solum ad tantam intellegentiam rerum incorporearum et incommutabilium, quanta in hac vita capi non ab omnibus potest, verum etiam ad summitatem contemplationis, quam dicit Apostolus, facie ad faciem, sine dubitatione perveniemus. Nam quidam etiam minimi, et tamen in via fidei perseverantissime gradientes, ad illam beatissimam contemplationem perveniunt: quidam vero quid sit natura invisibilis, incommutabilis, incorporea, utcumque iam scientes, et viam quae ducit ad tantae beatitudinis mansionem, quoniam stulta illis videtur, quod est Christus crucifixus, tenere recusantes, ad quietis ipsius penetrale, cuius iam luce mens eorum velut in longinqua radiante perstringitur, pervenire non possunt.
1. 4. Therefore the apostle Peter admonishes that we ought to be ready to answer everyone who asks of us a reason for our faith and hope: since, if an unbeliever asks of me a reason for my faith and hope, and I see that before he believes he cannot grasp it, I render him this very reason in which, if it can be, he may see how preposterously he asks, before faith, a reason for those things which he cannot grasp. But if one already faithful asks a reason, that he may understand what he believes, his capacity is to be regarded, so that, a reason being rendered according to it, he may take of his faith as much understanding as he can: greater, if he grasps more; lesser, if less: provided, however, that until he comes to the fullness and perfection of knowledge, he not withdraw from the way of faith. Hence it is that the Apostle says, And yet, if you think anything otherwise, God will reveal this too to you; nevertheless, in that which we have attained, let us walk (Phil 3:15-16). If, then, we are faithful, we have come to the way of faith, which if we do not abandon, we shall without doubt come not only to so great an understanding of incorporeal and unchangeable things as cannot in this life be grasped by all, but even to the summit of contemplation, which the Apostle calls face to face (1 Cor 13:12). For some even of the least, yet walking most perseveringly in the way of faith, come to that most blessed contemplation: but some, knowing in some way what the invisible, unchangeable, incorporeal nature is, yet refusing to hold the way which leads to the dwelling of so great a blessedness—because it seems foolishness to them, which is Christ crucified—cannot come to the inner sanctuary of that very rest, by whose light, as if radiating from afar, their mind is already struck.
Ep100-155.1.41. 5. Sunt autem quaedam, quae cum audierimus, non eis accommodamus fidem, et ratione nobis reddita vera esse cognoscimus, quae credere non valemus. Et universa Dei miracula ideo ab infidelibus non creduntur, quia eorum ratio non videtur. Et revera sunt de quibus ratio reddi non potest, non tamen non est: quid enim est in rerum natura, quod irrationabiliter fecerit Deus? Sed quorumdam mirabilium operum eius, etiam expedit tantisper occultam esse rationem, ne apud animos fastidio languidos, eiusdem rationis cognitione vilescant. Sunt enim, et multi sunt qui plus tenentur admiratione rerum quam cognitione causarum, ubi miracula mira esse desistunt, et opus est eos ad invisibilium fidem visibilibus mirabilibus excitari, ut caritate purgati, eo perveniant ubi familiaritate veritatis mirari desistant. Nam et in theatris homines funambulum mirantur, musicis delectantur: in illo stupet difficultas; in his retinet pascitque iucunditas.
1. 5. But there are certain things which, when we have heard them, we do not give them faith, and, a reason being rendered to us, we know them to be true which we were not able to believe. And all the miracles of God are for this reason not believed by unbelievers, because their reason is not seen. And in truth there are things of which a reason cannot be rendered—yet there is one: for what is there in the nature of things that God has made unreasonably? But of certain of his marvelous works it is even expedient that the reason be hidden for a while, lest, among minds languid with disdain, they grow cheap by the knowledge of that same reason. For there are, and many there are, who are held more by the admiration of things than by the knowledge of causes, where marvels cease to be marvelous, and there is need that they be roused to faith in invisible things by visible marvels, so that, purified by love, they may come where, by familiarity with truth, they cease to marvel. For in theaters too men marvel at a ropewalker, are delighted by musicians: in the one the difficulty astonishes; in the others the pleasantness holds and feeds them.
Ep100-155.1.51. 6. Haec dixerim, ut fidem tuam ad amorem intellegentiae cohorter, ad quam ratio vera perducit, et cui fides animum praeparat. Nam illa quae persuasit, in ea Trinitate quae est Deus, Filium Patri non esse coaeternum, vel alterius esse substantiae, atque aliqua parte dissimilem, et eo modo inferiorem Spiritum sanctum; itemque illa quae persuasit, Patrem et Filium unius eiusdemque, Spiritum vero sanctum alterius esse substantiae, non ideo quia ratio est, sed quia falsa ratio est, cavenda et detestanda dicenda est. Nam si ratio vera esset, non utique errasset. Quapropter sicut non ideo debes omnem vitare sermonem, quia est et sermo falsus; ita non debes omnem vitare rationem, quia est et falsa ratio. Hoc et de sapientia dixerim. Neque enim propterea sapientia vitanda est, quia est et falsa sapientia, cui stultitia est Christus crucifixus, qui est Dei Virtus, et Dei Sapientia: et ideo per hanc stultitiam praedicationis placuit Deo salvos facere credentes, quoniam quod stultum est Dei, sapientius est hominibus. Hoc quibusdam philosophorum et oratorum, non veram viam, sed veri similem sectantibus, et in ea seipsos aliosque fallentibus, persuaderi non potuit; quibusdam vero eorum potuit. Et quibus potuit, neque scandalum est Christus crucifixus, neque stultitia; in iis enim sunt, quibus vocatis Iudaeis et Graecis, Dei Virtus est et Dei Sapientia. In qua via, id est in cuius Christi crucifixi fide, qui eius rectitudinem per Dei gratiam comprehendere potuerunt, etsi philosophi appellati sunt, sive oratores, profecto humili pietate confessi sunt, sibi longe excellentius in ea fuisse praevios piscatores, non solum credendi firmissimo robore, verum etiam intellegendi certissima veritate. Cum enim didicissent, ad hoc electa stulta esse mundi et infirma, ut fortia et sapientia confunderentur, seque cognovissent fallaciter sapere, et imbecilliter praevalere; confusi salubriter, facti sunt stulti et infirmi, ut per stultum et infirmum Dei, quod sapientius et fortius est hominibus, inter electa stulta et infirma fierent veraciter sapientes et efficaciter fortes.
1. 6. I have said these things to exhort your faith to the love of understanding, to which true reason leads, and for which faith prepares the mind. For that reason which persuaded that, in that Trinity which is God, the Son is not coeternal with the Father, or is of another substance, and in some part dissimilar, and in that way the Holy Spirit inferior; and likewise that which persuaded that the Father and the Son are of one and the same substance, but the Holy Spirit of another—must be said to be guarded against and detested, not because it is reason, but because it is false reason. For if it were true reason, it surely would not have erred. Wherefore, just as you ought not to avoid all speech because there is also false speech, so you ought not to avoid all reason because there is also false reason. This I would say also of wisdom. For wisdom is not to be avoided because there is also a false wisdom, to which Christ crucified is foolishness, who is the Power of God and the Wisdom of God: and therefore through this foolishness of preaching it pleased God to make believers safe, since what is foolish of God is wiser than men. This could not be persuaded to certain of the philosophers and orators, who follow not the true way but one resembling the true, and in it deceive themselves and others; but to certain of them it could. And to those to whom it could, Christ crucified is neither a scandal nor foolishness; for they are among those to whom, called Jews and Greeks, he is the Power of God and the Wisdom of God. In which way—that is, in the faith of which Christ crucified—those who were able through the grace of God to comprehend its rightness, even if they were called philosophers or orators, surely confessed with humble piety that fishermen had gone before them far more excellently in it, not only by the most firm strength of believing, but even by the most certain truth of understanding. For when they had learned that the foolish and weak things of the world were chosen for this, that the strong and wise things might be confounded, and had recognized that they themselves were fallaciously wise and weakly prevailed; confounded wholesomely, they were made foolish and weak, so that through the foolish and weak thing of God, which is wiser and stronger than men, they might, among the chosen foolish and weak things, become truly wise and effectively strong.
Ep100-155.1.62. 7. Cui autem nisi verissimae rationi fidelis pietas erubescit, ut quamdam idololatriam, quam in corde nostro ex consuetudine visibilium constituere conatur humanae cogitationis infirmitas, non dubitemus evertere; nec audeamus credere ita esse Trinitatem, quam invisibilem et incorpoream atque incommutabilem colimus, quasi tres quasdam viventes moles, licet maximas et pulcherrimas, suorum tamen locorum spatiis propriis terminatas, et sibimet in suis locis contigua propinquitate cohaerentes, sive una earum sic in medio constituta, ut duas dirimat sibi ex lateribus singulis iunctas, sive in modum trigoni duas caeteras unaquaeque contingat, ut nulla ab aliqua separetur; earumque trium tantarum ac talium personarum, licet in grandi valde, molibus tamen a summo et imo et circumquaque terminatarum, unam esse divinitatem aliquam quartam, nec talem qualis est aliqua ex illis, sed communem omnibus tamquam numen omnium, et in omnibus et in singulis totum, per quam unam divinitatem dicatur eadem Trinitas unus Deus; eiusque tres personas nusquam esse nisi in coelis, illam vero divinitatem nusquam non esse, sed ubique praesentem: ac per hoc recte quidem dici, Deum et in coelo esse et in terra, propter illam divinitatem quae ubique sit tribusque communis; non autem recte dici, Patrem esse in terra vel Filium vel Spiritum sanctum, cum huic Trinitati sedes non nisi in coelo sit. Istam cogitationis carnalis compositionem vanumque figmentum ubi vera ratio labefactare incipit, continuo illo intus adiuvante atque illuminante, qui cum talibus idolis in corde nostro habitare non vult, ita ista confingere atque a fide nostra quodammodo excutere festinamus, ut ne pulverem quidem ullum talium phantasmatum illic remanere patiamur.
2. 7. But before what, if not before most true reason, does faithful piety blush, so that we should not doubt to overturn a certain idolatry which the weakness of human thought tries to establish in our heart from the habit of visible things; nor dare to believe that the Trinity, which we worship as invisible and incorporeal and unchangeable, is, as it were, three living masses, however great and beautiful, yet bounded by the proper spaces of their own places, and cohering to one another in their places by contiguous nearness—whether one of them so set in the middle as to part the two joined to it on its single sides, or each in the manner of a triangle touching the other two, so that none is separated from any; and that of those three so great and such persons, bounded—though in a very large mass—from above and below and round about, there is one divinity, a kind of fourth thing, not such as is any one of them, but common to all, as it were the numen of all, and whole in all and in each, through which one divinity that same Trinity is called one God; and that its three persons are nowhere but in the heavens, but that that divinity is nowhere not, but everywhere present: and through this it is rightly said indeed that God is both in heaven and on earth, on account of that divinity which is everywhere and common to the three; but not rightly said that the Father is on earth, or the Son, or the Holy Spirit, since for this Trinity there is no seat but in heaven. This composition of carnal thought and empty figment, where true reason begins to shake it, with him helping and illuminating within who does not wish to dwell with such idols in our heart, we so hasten to feign such things and in a manner shake them out of our faith that we do not allow even any dust of such phantasms to remain there.
Ep100-155.2.72. 8. Quamobrem nisi rationem disputationis, qua forinsecus admoniti, ipsa intrinsecus veritate lucente, haec falsa esse perspicimus, fides in corde nostro antecessisset, quae nos indueret pietate, nonne incassum quae vera sunt audiremus? Ac per hoc quoniam id quod ad eam pertinebat fides egit, ideo subsequens ratio aliquid eorum quae inquirebat invenit. Falsae itaque rationi, non solum ratio vera, qua id quod credimus intellegimus, verum etiam fides ipsa rerum nondum intellectarum sine dubio praeferenda est. Melius est enim quamvis nondum visum, credere quod verum est, quam putare te verum videre quod falsum est. Habet namque fides oculos suos, quibus quodammodo videt verum esse quod nondum videt, et quibus certissime videt, nondum se videre quod credit. Porro autem qui vera ratione iam quod tantummodo credebat intellegit, profecto praeponendus est ei qui cupit adhuc intellegere quod credit; si autem nec cupit, et ea quae intellegenda sunt, credenda tantummodo existimat, cui rei fides prosit ignorat: nam pia fides sine spe et sine caritate esse non vult. Sic igitur homo fidelis debet credere quod nondum videt, ut visionem et speret et amet.
2. 8. Wherefore, unless the reason of disputation—by which, admonished from without, with truth itself shining within, we perceive these things to be false—had been preceded in our heart by faith, which would clothe us with piety, would we not hear in vain the things that are true? And through this, since faith did what pertained to it, therefore reason following found something of the things it was inquiring. To false reason, then, not only is true reason to be preferred—by which we understand what we believe—but even faith itself, of things not yet understood, is without doubt to be preferred. For it is better to believe what is true, though not yet seen, than to suppose you see the true which is false. For faith has its own eyes, by which in a manner it sees that to be true which it does not yet see, and by which it most certainly sees that it does not yet see what it believes. Moreover, he who by true reason now understands what he only believed is surely to be preferred to him who still desires to understand what he believes; but if he does not even desire it, and thinks that the things which are to be understood are only to be believed, he is ignorant of what use faith is to him: for devout faith does not wish to be without hope and without love. So, then, the faithful man ought to believe what he does not yet see in such a way that he both hopes for and loves the vision.
Ep100-155.2.82. 9. Et visibilium quidem rerum praeteritarum, quae temporaliter transierunt, sola fides est, quoniam non adhuc videnda sperantur, sed facta et transacta creduntur; sicut est illud, quod Christus semel pro peccatis nostris mortuus est et resurrexit, nec iam moritur, et mors ei ultra non dominabitur. Ea vero quae nondum sunt, sed futura sunt, sicut nostrorum spiritalium corporum resurrectio, ita creduntur ut etiam videnda sperentur; sed ostendi modo nullo possunt modo. Quae vero ita sunt ut neque praetereant, neque futura sint, sed aeterna permaneant, partim sunt invisibilia, sicut iustitia, sicut sapientia; partim visibilia, sicut Christi immortale iam corpus: sed invisibilia intellecta conspiciuntur, ac per hoc et ipsa modo quodam sibi congruo videntur; et cum videntur, multo certiora sunt quam ea quae corporis sensus attingit, sed ideo dicuntur invisibilia, quia oculis istis mortalibus videri omnino non possunt. At illa quae visibilia sunt permanentia, possunt, si ostendantur, etiam his mortalibus oculis conspici; sicut se Discipulis post resurrectionem Dominus ostendit, sicut etiam post ascensionem apostolo Paulo, et Stephano diacono.
2. 9. And of past visible things, which have passed away temporally, there is faith alone, since they are not hoped to be still seen, but are believed to have happened and passed; as is that, that Christ died once for our sins and rose again, and dies no more, and death will no longer have dominion over him (See Rom 6:9-10). But those things which are not yet, but are future, like the resurrection of our spiritual bodies, are so believed that they are also hoped to be seen; but they can in no way be shown now. But those things which are so that they neither pass away nor are future, but remain eternal, are partly invisible, like justice, like wisdom; partly visible, like Christ's body, now immortal: but invisible things are beheld when understood, and through this they too are in a manner congruous to themselves seen; and when they are seen, they are much more certain than those things which the sense of the body reaches, but they are called invisible because they can in no way be seen with these mortal eyes. But those things which are visible and permanent can, if they be shown, be beheld even with these mortal eyes; as the Lord showed himself to the Disciples after the resurrection, as also after the ascension to the apostle Paul and to the deacon Stephen.
Ep100-155.2.92. 10. Proinde ista visibilia permanentia ita credimus, ut etiamsi non demonstrentur, speremus ea nos quandoque visuros; nec ea conemur ratione vel intellectu comprehendere, nisi ut ea, quia visibilia sunt, ab invisibilibus distinctius cogitemus: et cum cogitatione qualia sint imaginamur, satis utique novimus ea nobis nota non esse. Nam et Antiochiam cogito incognitam, sed non sicut Carthaginem cognitam. Illam quippe visionem cogitatio mea fingit, hanc recolit; nequaquam tamen dubito, sive quod de illa testibus multis, sive quod de ista meis aspectibus credidi. Iustitiam vero et sapientiam et quidquid eiusmodi est, non aliter imaginamur, aliter contuemur; sed haec invisibilia simplici mentis atque rationis intentione intellecta conspicimus, sine ullis formis et molibus corporalibus, sine ullis lineamentis figurisque membrorum, sine ullis localibus sive finitis sive spatiis infinitis. Ipsumque lumen, quo cuncta ista discernimus, in quo nobis satis apparet quid credamus incognitum, quid cognitum teneamus, quam formam corporis recordemur, quam cogitatione fingamus, quid corporis sensus attingat, quid imaginetur animus simile corpori, quid certum et omnium corporum dissimillimum intellegentia contempletur: hoc ergo lumen ubi haec cuncta diiudicantur, non utique, sicut huius solis et cuiusque corporei luminis fulgor, per localia spatia circumquaque diffunditur, mentemque nostram quasi visibili candore illustrat, sed invisibiliter et ineffabiliter, et tamen intellegibiliter lucet, tamque nobis certum est, quam nobis efficit certa quae secundum ipsum cuncta conspicimus.
2. 10. Accordingly, these visible and permanent things we so believe that, even if they are not demonstrated, we hope that we shall at some time see them; nor do we try to comprehend them by reason or understanding, except so that, because they are visible, we may think of them more distinctly from invisible things: and when in thought we imagine of what sort they are, we surely know well enough that they are not known to us. For I think of Antioch, unknown to me, but not as of Carthage, which is known. For that vision my thought feigns; this it recalls; yet I in no way doubt either what I believed about the one from many witnesses, or what I believed about the other from my own sight. But justice and wisdom and whatever is of this kind we do not imagine in one way and behold in another; but these invisible things, understood by the simple intention of mind and reason, we behold without any corporeal forms and masses, without any lineaments and figures of members, without any local places, whether finite or infinite spaces. And that very light by which we discern all these things—in which it sufficiently appears to us what we believe unknown, what we hold as known, what form of body we recall, what we feign in thought, what the sense of the body reaches, what the mind imagines as like a body, what the understanding contemplates as certain and most unlike all bodies—this light, then, where all these things are adjudicated, is not, like the brightness of this sun and of any corporeal light, diffused round about through local spaces, and does not illuminate our mind as with a visible brightness, but shines invisibly and ineffably, and yet intelligibly, and is as certain to us as it makes certain to us the things which according to it we all behold.
Ep100-155.2.102. 11. Cum igitur tria sint rerum genera quae videntur; unum corporalium, sicut hoc coelum et haec terra, et quidquid in eis corporeus sensus cernit et tangit; alterum simile corporalibus, sicut sunt ea quae spiritu cogitata imaginamur, sive recordata vel oblita quasi corpora contuemur, unde sunt etiam visiones quae vel in somnis, vel in aliquo mentis excessu, his quasi localibus quantitatibus ingeruntur; tertium ab utroque discretum, quod neque sit corpus, neque ullam habeat similitudinem corporis, sicut est sapientia, quae mente intellecta conspicitur, et in cuius luce de his omnibus veraciter iudicatur: in quo istorum genere credendum est esse istam quam nosse volumus, Trinitatem? Profecto aut in aliquo, aut in nullo. Si in aliquo, eo utique quod est aliis duobus praestantius, sicut est sapientia; quod si donum eius in nobis est, et minus est quam illa summa et incommutabilis, quae Dei Sapientia dicitur, puto quod non debemus dono suo inferius cogitare donantem: si autem aliquis splendor eius in nobis est, quae nostra sapientia dicitur, quantumcumque eius per speculum et in aenigmate capere possumus, oportet eam et ab omnibus corporibus, et ab omnibus corporum similitudinibus secernamus.
2. 11. Since, then, there are three kinds of things that are seen—one of corporeal things, like this sky and this earth, and whatever the corporeal sense in them perceives and touches; a second like corporeal things, like those which, thought by the spirit, we imagine, or, recalled or forgotten, we behold as bodies, whence are also the visions which, whether in sleep or in some excess of mind, are presented to us with these, as it were, local quantities; a third distinct from both, which is neither a body nor has any likeness of a body, like wisdom, which is beheld when understood by the mind, and in whose light all these things are truly judged—in which of these kinds is that Trinity, which we wish to know, to be believed to be? Surely either in some one, or in none. If in some one, surely in that which is more excellent than the other two, like wisdom; but if its gift in us, which is called our wisdom, is less than that highest and unchangeable, which is called the Wisdom of God, I think we ought not to think the giver lower than his gift: but if some splendor of it is in us, however much of it we can grasp through a glass and in a riddle, we ought to set it apart both from all bodies and from all likenesses of bodies.
Ep100-155.2.112. 12. Si autem in nullo istorum genere putanda est ista Trinitas, et sic est invisibilis, ut nec mente videatur; multo minus de illa huiusmodi opinionem habere debemus, ut eam rebus corporalibus vel corporalium rerum imaginibus similem esse credamus. Non enim corpora pulchritudine molis aut magnitudine superat, sed dissimilitudine ac disparilitate naturae: et si discreta est a comparatione bonorum animi nostri, qualia sunt sapientia, iustitia, caritas, castitas, et caetera talia, quae profecto mole corporis non pendimus, nec eorum quasi corporeas formas cogitatione figuramus, sed ea quando recte intellegimus, sine aliqua corpulentia vel similitudine corpulentiae in luce mentis aspicimus; quanto est ab omnium qualitatum et quantitatum corporalium comparatione discretior? Non eam tamen a nostro intellectu omnino abhorrere Apostolus testis est, ubi ait: Invisibilia enim eius a constitutione mundi, per ea quae facta sunt intellecta conspiciuntur; sempiterna quoque eius virtus ac divinitas. Ac per hoc cum eadem Trinitas fecerit et corpus et animam, sine dubitatione est utroque praestantior. Anima itaque considerata, maxime humana et rationalis atque intellectualis, quae ad eius imaginem facta est, si cogitationes nostras et intellegentias non evicerit, sed eius quod habet praecipuum, id est ipsam mentem atque intellegentiam mente atque intellegentia potuerimus apprehendere, non erit fortassis absurdum, ut eam ad suum quoque Creatorem intellegendum, ipso adiuvante meditemur attollere. Si autem in seipsa deficit, sibique succumbit, pia fide contenta sit quamdiu peregrinatur a Domino, donec fiat in homine quod promissum est, faciente illo qui potens est, sicut ait Apostolus, facere supra quam petimus aut intellegimus.
2. 12. But if this Trinity is to be thought to be in none of these kinds, and is so invisible that it is not even seen by the mind, much less ought we to hold of it an opinion of this kind, that we believe it to be like corporeal things or the images of corporeal things. For it surpasses bodies not by the beauty of mass or by magnitude, but by the dissimilarity and disparity of nature: and if it is distinct from comparison with the goods of our mind, such as are wisdom, justice, love, chastity, and other such things, which surely we do not weigh by the mass of a body, nor figure in thought their corporeal forms, but when we rightly understand them, we see them without any corpulence or likeness of corpulence in the light of the mind—how much more distinct is it from comparison with all corporeal qualities and quantities? Yet that it is not altogether foreign to our understanding, the Apostle is witness, where he says, For his invisible things, from the creation of the world, are beheld, being understood through the things that have been made; his everlasting power also and divinity (Rom 1:20). And through this, since the same Trinity made both body and soul, it is without doubt more excellent than both. The soul therefore, considered—especially the human and rational and intellectual, which was made to its image—if it does not overcome our thoughts and understandings, but we are able to apprehend by mind and understanding that which it has as its chief part, that is, the very mind and understanding, it will perhaps not be absurd that we should meditate, with his help, to lift it up to understanding even its Creator. But if it fails in itself and succumbs to itself, let it be content with devout faith while it journeys away from the Lord, until what is promised be done in man by him who is able, as the Apostle says, to do above what we ask or understand.
Ep100-155.2.123. 13. Quae cum ita sint, interim volo ut legas ea quae ad istam quaestionem pertinentia iam multa conscripsimus; illa etiam quae in manibus habemus, et propter magnitudinem tam difficilis quaestionis, nondum possumus explicare. Nunc vero tene inconcussa fide, Patrem et Filium et Spiritum sanctum esse Trinitatem, et tamen unum Deum; non quod sit eorum communis quasi quarta divinitas, sed quod sit ipsa ineffabiliter inseparabilis Trinitas, Patremque solum genuisse Filium, Filiumque solum a Patre genitum, Spiritum vero sanctum et Patris et Filii esse Spiritum. Et quidquid tibi, cum ista cogitas, corporeae similitudinis occurrerit, abige, abnue, nega, respue, abice, fuge. Non enim parva est inchoatio cognitionis Dei, si antequam possimus nosse quid sit, incipiamus iam nosse quid non sit. Intellectum vero valde ama; quia et ipsae Scripturae sanctae, quae magnarum rerum ante intellegentiam suadent fidem, nisi eas recte intellegas, utiles tibi esse non possunt. Omnes enim haeretici, qui eas in auctoritate recipiunt, ipsas sibi videntur sectari, cum suos potius sectentur errores; ac per hoc non quod eas contemnant, sed quod eas non intellegant, haeretici sunt.
3. 13. Since these things are so, meanwhile I wish that you read the many things we have already written pertaining to this question; also those which we have in hand, and, on account of the magnitude of so difficult a question, cannot yet unfold. But for now hold by unshaken faith that the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are the Trinity, and yet one God; not that there is, as it were, a common fourth divinity of them, but that the Trinity itself is ineffably inseparable, and that the Father alone begot the Son, and the Son alone was begotten by the Father, but the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of both the Father and the Son. And whatever corporeal likeness occurs to you when you think of these things, drive off, refuse, deny, spit out, cast away, flee. For it is no small beginning of the knowledge of God if, before we can know what he is, we begin already to know what he is not. But love understanding greatly; because even the holy Scriptures themselves, which persuade faith before the understanding of great matters, cannot be useful to you unless you understand them rightly. For all heretics who receive them in authority seem to themselves to follow them, when they rather follow their own errors; and through this they are heretics, not because they despise them, but because they do not understand them.
Ep100-155.3.133. 14. Tu autem, carissime, ora fortiter et fideliter ut det tibi Dominus intellectum, ac sic ea quae forinsecus adhibet diligentia praeceptoris sive doctoris, possint esse fructuosa; quoniam neque qui plantat est aliquid, neque qui rigat, sed qui incrementum dat Deus: cui dicimus: Pater noster qui es in coelis; non quia ibi est, et hic non est, qui praesentia incorporea ubique est totus, sed quia in eis habitare dicitur, quorum pietati adest, et hi maxime in coelis sunt, ubi etiam nostra conversatio est, si nos os nostrum veraciter sursum cor habere respondeat. Nam etsi carnaliter acceperimus quod scriptum est: Coelum mihi sedes est, terra autem scabellum pedum meorum; et ibi et hic cum esse credere debemus: quamvis non totum ibi, quia hic essent pedes; nec totum hic, quia ibi essent superiores corporis partes. Quam cogitationem carnalem, rursum illud nobis excutere, quod de illo scriptum est, potest: Qui coelum mensus est palmo, et terram pugillo. Quis enim sedeat in spatio palmi sui, aut in tanto loco pedes ponat, quantum eius pugnus apprehendit? Nisi forte in tantum caro vana progreditur, ut ei parum sit humana membra substantiae Dei tribuere, si ea non etiam monstruosa confingat, ubi palmus lumbis, et pugillus ambabus palmis coniunctis sit latior. Sed haec dicuntur, ut cum sibi non conveniunt quae carnaliter audimus, eis ipsis admoniti, ineffabiliter spiritalia cogitemus.
3. 14. But you, dearest one, pray strongly and faithfully that the Lord give you understanding, and so the diligence of a preceptor or teacher which he applies from without may be fruitful; since neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase (1 Cor 3:7): to whom we say, Our Father who are in heaven (Matt 6:9); not because he is there and is not here, who by incorporeal presence is everywhere whole, but because he is said to dwell in those to whose piety he is present, and these are most of all in the heavens, where our conversation too is, if our mouth answers truly that we have our heart on high. For even if we have taken carnally what is written, Heaven is my seat, and the earth is my footstool (Isa 66:1), we ought to believe him to be both there and here: although not the whole there, because the feet would be here; nor the whole here, because the upper parts of the body would be there. Which carnal thought that which is written of him can again shake out of us: Who has measured the heaven with the span, and the earth with the fist (See Isa 40:12). For who would sit in the space of his span, or set his feet in so great a place as his fist grasps? Unless perhaps vain flesh advances so far that it is too little for it to attribute human members to the substance of God, if it does not even feign monstrous ones, where the span is broader than the loins, and the fist than both palms joined. But these things are said so that, when the things we hear carnally do not agree with one another, we may, admonished by them, think ineffably of spiritual things.
Ep100-155.3.143. 15. Unde etiamsi corpus Domini, quod de sepulcro excitatum levavit in coelum, nonnisi specie humana membrisque cogitamus, non tamen ita putandum est sedere ad dexteram Patris, ut ei Pater ad sinistram sedere videatur. In illa quippe beatitudine, quae omnem superat humanum intellectum, sola dextera est, et eadem dextera, eiusdem beatitudinis nomen est. Proinde nec illud quod post resurrectionem suam dixit Mariae: Noli me tangere, nondum enim ascendi ad Patrem meum, tam absurde accipiendum est, ut existimemus eum, cum ascendisset, voluisse a feminis tangi, qui se tangendum viris antequam ascenderet praebuit. Sed Mariae profecto, in qua figurata Ecclesia est, quando illud dixit, intellegi voluit tunc ascendisse ad Patrem, cum illum Patri cognovit aequalem; et tali fide illum salubriter tetigit, ne si hoc solum eum esse crederet quod in carne apparuerat, non bene tangeret. Sic eum Photinus haereticus tetigit, qui hominem tantummodo Christum credidit.
3. 15. Whence even if we think of the body of the Lord, which, raised from the tomb, he lifted into heaven, only in human appearance and members, yet it is not to be thought that he so sits at the right hand of the Father that the Father seems to him to sit at the left. For in that blessedness which surpasses all human understanding there is only a right hand, and the same right hand is the name of that same blessedness. Accordingly, neither is that which he said to Mary after his resurrection, Do not touch me, for I have not yet ascended to my Father (John 20:17), to be taken so absurdly that we should suppose he wished, when he had ascended, to be touched by women, who offered himself to be touched by men before he ascended. But surely to Mary—in whom the Church is figured—when he said that, he wished it to be understood that he had then ascended to the Father when she knew him to be equal to the Father; and by such faith she wholesomely touched him, lest, if she believed him to be only that which had appeared in the flesh, she should not touch him well. So Photinus the heretic touched him, who believed Christ to be a man only.
Ep100-155.3.153. 16. Et si forte aliud in his verbis Domini aptius meliusque intellegi potest, opinio tamen qua putatur substantia Patris esse in coelo, secundum quod Pater una in Trinitate persona est, divinitas vero non in coelo tantum, sed ubique est: quasi aliud sit Pater, aliud divinitas eius quae illi communis est cum Filio et cum Spiritu sancto; ut ipsa Trinitas, tamquam locis corporalibus et tamquam corporea sit, divinitas vero una trium personarum ubique sit praesens, et ipsa sola tamquam incorporea ubique sit tota: sine dubitatione respuenda. Si enim qualitas eorum esset (quod absit, ut in Patre, aut Filio, aut Spiritu sancto aliud sit qualitas, aliud substantia), tamen si eorum qualitas esse posset, utique amplius alicubi quam in sua substantia esse non posset: si autem substantia est, et alia est quam sunt ipsi, alia substantia est; quod nihilominus falsissime creditur.
3. 16. And if perhaps something else can be more fitly and better understood in these words of the Lord, yet the opinion by which it is supposed that the substance of the Father is in heaven—according to which the Father is one person in the Trinity—but the divinity not in heaven only, but everywhere: as though the Father were one thing, his divinity (which is common to him with the Son and the Holy Spirit) another; so that the Trinity itself were as if in corporeal places and as if corporeal, but the one divinity of the three persons were present everywhere, and it alone, as if incorporeal, were everywhere whole—this is without doubt to be spat out. For if it were their quality (which God forbid, that in the Father or the Son or the Holy Spirit quality be one thing, substance another)—yet if it could be their quality, surely it could not be more anywhere than in its own substance: but if it is a substance, and is other than they themselves are, it is another substance; which is nonetheless believed most falsely.
Ep100-155.3.163. 17. Sed si forte minus intellegis inter substantiam et qualitatem quid intersit; hoc certe facilius advertis, quod et divinitas Trinitatis (quae putatur alia esse quam est ipsa Trinitas, et propter hanc dici non tres deos, sed unum Deum, quoniam ipsa est tribus una communis) aut substantia est, aut non est substantia. Si substantia est, et alia est quam Pater, aut Filius, aut Spiritus sanctus, aut eadem simul Trinitas: procul dubio alia substantia est: hoc autem veritas refellit et respuit. Si autem non est substantia ista divinitas, et ipsa est Deus, quia ipsa est ubique tota, non illa Trinitas; ergo Deus non est substantia: quis hoc catholicus dixerit? Item si non est substantia ista divinitas, et secundum hanc est Trinitas unus Deus, quod haec una est in tribus; non debuit dici Pater et Filius et Spiritus sanctus unius substantiae, sed unius divinitatis quae non est substantia. Agnoscis autem in fide catholica quoniam hoc est verum, hoc est confirmatum quod Pater et Filius et Spiritus sanctus, ideo cum sit Trinitas, unus est Deus; quia inseparabiliter sunt unius eiusdemque substantiae, vel (si hoc melius dicitur), essentiae. Nam nonnulli nostri et maxime Graeci, Trinitatem quae Deus est, magis essentiam, quam unam substantiam esse dixerunt; aliquid inter haec duo nomina interesse arbitrantes, vel intellegentes: unde nunc disputare non est opus; quod etsi divinitatem istam, quae aliud existimatur esse quam ipsa Trinitas, non substantiam sed essentiam dixerimus, eadem falsitas consequetur. Si enim alia est quam ipsa Trinitas, altera erit essentia: quod absit ut catholicus sentiat. Restat itaque ut ita credamus unius esse substantiae Trinitatem, ut ipsa essentia non aliud sit quam ipsa Trinitas. Ad quam videndam quantumlibet in hac vita proficiamus, per speculum erit et in aenigmate quod videbimus. Cum vero, quod in resurrectione promittitur, spiritale corpus habere coeperimus, sive illam mente, sive mirabili modo, quoniam ineffabilis est spiritalis corporis gratia, etiam corpore videamus; non tamen per locorum intervalla, nec in parte minorem, in parte maiorem, quoniam non est corpus, et ubique tota est, pro nostra capacitate videbimus.
3. 17. But if perhaps you understand too little what difference there is between substance and quality, this at least you notice more easily, that the divinity of the Trinity too (which is supposed to be other than the Trinity itself, and on account of which it is said that there are not three gods, but one God, since it is the one common to the three) either is a substance, or is not a substance. If it is a substance, and is other than the Father, or the Son, or the Holy Spirit, or the Trinity itself together: it is without doubt another substance: but this truth refutes and spits out. But if this divinity is not a substance, and it is itself God, because it is everywhere whole, not that Trinity; then God is not a substance: who, a Catholic, would say this? Likewise, if this divinity is not a substance, and according to it the Trinity is one God, because this is one in the three; the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit ought not to have been said to be of one substance, but of one divinity which is not a substance. But you recognize, in the Catholic faith, that this is true, this is confirmed, that the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, therefore, though they are a Trinity, are one God; because they are inseparably of one and the same substance, or (if this is better said) essence. For some of our people, and especially the Greeks, have said that the Trinity which is God is rather an essence than one substance; thinking, or understanding, that there is some difference between these two names: whereof there is no need to dispute now; for even if we should call that divinity, which is judged to be other than the Trinity itself, not a substance but an essence, the same falsehood will follow. For if it is other than the Trinity itself, there will be another essence: which God forbid that a Catholic should hold. It remains, then, that we so believe the Trinity to be of one substance that the essence itself is nothing other than the Trinity itself. To see which, however much we progress in this life, what we shall see will be through a glass and in a riddle. But when we have begun to have a spiritual body—which is promised in the resurrection—whether we see it with the mind, or in a marvelous way even with the body (since the grace of a spiritual body is ineffable), yet not through intervals of places, nor lesser in part, greater in part, since it is not a body, and is everywhere whole, we shall see it according to our capacity.
Ep100-155.3.174. 18. Quod vero posuisti in epistola tua, videri tibi, vel potius quod videbatur tibi, nihil vivum secundum substantiam inesse iustitiae, ideoque te non posse adhuc Deum, id est viventem naturam, iustitiae similem cogitare: quia iustitia, sicut dicis, non in se, sed in nobis vivit; imo nos potius secundum illam vivimus, ipsa vero per se iustitia nequaquam vivit: ad hoc ut tibi ipse respondeas, illud intuere, utrum recte dici possit vitam ipsam non vivere, qua fit ut vivat quidquid non falso dicimus vivere. Puto enim absurdum tibi videri, ut per vitam vivatur, et vita non vivat. Porro si vita ipsa praecipue vivit, qua vivit omne quod vivit, recole, obsecro, quas dicat Scriptura divina animas mortuas; profecto invenies iniustas, impias, infideles. Nam licet per illas vivant corpora impiorum, de quibus dictum est quod mortui sepeliant mortuos suos, et ibi intellegantur etiam iniquae animae non esse sine aliqua vita; neque enim aliter ex eis possent corpora vivere, nisi qualicumque vita, qua omnino animae carere non possunt, unde immortales merito vocantur: non tamen ob aliud amissa iustitia dicuntur mortuae, nisi quia et animarum, licet immortaliter qualicumque vita viventium, verior et maior vita iustitia est, tamquam vita vitarum, quae cum sint in corporibus, etiam ipsa corpora viva sunt, quae per seipsa vivere nequeunt. Quapropter si animae non possunt, nisi etiam in seipsis utcumque vivere, quia ex eis vivunt et corpora, a quibus deserta moriuntur; quanto magis vera iustitia etiam in seipsa vivere intellegenda est, ex qua sic vivunt animae, ut hac amissa mortuae nuncupentur, quamvis quantulacumque vita non desinant vivere!
4. 18. But as for what you set down in your letter—that it seemed to you, or rather that it was seeming to you, that nothing living, according to substance, is in justice, and therefore that you cannot yet think of God, that is, a living nature, as like justice: because justice, as you say, lives not in itself, but in us; nay rather we live according to it, but justice itself in no way lives by itself—to answer yourself in this, look at whether it can rightly be said that life itself does not live, by which it comes about that whatever we not falsely say to live lives. For I think it seems absurd to you that there should be living by life, and life does not live. Moreover, if life itself especially lives, by which lives everything that lives, recall, I beg, which souls divine Scripture says are dead; surely you will find the unjust, the impious, the unbelieving. For although through them the bodies of the impious live—of whom it is said that the dead bury their dead (Matt 8:22), and there even the iniquitous souls are understood not to be without some life; for otherwise their bodies could not live except by some life or other, of which souls cannot at all be lacking, whence they are rightly called immortal—yet they are called dead, justice being lost, for no other reason than that, of souls too (though living immortally by some life or other), a truer and greater life is justice, as it were the life of lives, which, since they are in bodies, even those bodies are alive, which cannot live by themselves. Wherefore, if souls cannot but live in some way even in themselves, because from them the bodies too live, which, deserted by them, die; how much more is true justice to be understood to live even in itself, from which souls so live that, this being lost, they are called dead, although by some little life they do not cease to live!
Ep100-155.4.184. 19. Ea porro iustitia quae vivit in seipsa, procul dubio Deus est, atque incommutabiliter vivit. Sicut autem haec cum sit in seipsa vita, etiam nobis fit vita, cum eius efficimur utcumque participes: ita cum in seipsa sit iustitia, etiam nobis fit iustitia, cum ei cohaerendo iuste vivimus; et tanto magis minusve iusti sumus, quanto magis illi minusve cohaeremus. Unde scriptum est de unigenito Filio Dei, cum sit utique Patris Sapientia atque Iustitia, et semper in seipsa sit, quod factus sit nobis a Deo sapientia et iustitia, et sanctificatio et redemptio; ut quemadmodum scriptum est: Qui gloriatur, in Domino glorietur. Quod quidem et ipse vidisti, addendo atque dicendo: Nisi forte non haec humanae aequitatis, sed illa quae Deus est, sola esse asseratur iustitia. Est plane ille summus Deus vera iustitia, vel ille verus Deus summa iustitia; quam profecto esurire et sitire, ea nostra est in hac peregrinatione iustitia, et qua postea saturari, ea nostra est in aeternitate plena iustitia. Non ergo Deum nostrae iustitiae similem cogitemus, sed cogitemus nos potius tanto similiores Deo, quanto esse poterimus eius participatione iustiores.
4. 19. Moreover, that justice which lives in itself is without doubt God, and lives unchangeably. But just as this, since it is in itself life, is made also our life when we are made in some way partakers of it, so, since it is in itself justice, it is made also our justice when, cleaving to it, we live justly; and we are just the more or less the more or less we cleave to it. Whence it is written of the only-begotten Son of God—since he is surely the Wisdom and Justice of the Father, and always is in himself—that he was made for us by God wisdom and justice, and sanctification and redemption; that, as it is written, He who glories, let him glory in the Lord (1 Cor 1:30-31). Which indeed you too saw, by adding and saying: "Unless perhaps it be asserted that that alone is justice which is not of this human equity, but which is God." That highest God is plainly true justice, or that true God highest justice; to hunger and thirst for which is our justice in this pilgrimage, and to be afterward satisfied with which is our full justice in eternity. Let us not, then, think God like our justice, but let us rather think ourselves the more like God the more, by participation in him, we shall be able to be more just.
Ep100-155.4.194. 20. Si ergo cavendum est ne iustitiae nostrae similem putemus Deum, quoniam lumen quod illuminat, incomparabiliter excellentius est illo quod illuminatur; quanto magis caveri oportet, ne aliquid inferius et quodammodo decoloratius eum esse credamus, quam est nostra iustitia! Quid est autem aliud iustitia, cum in nobis est, vel quaelibet virtus qua recte sapienterque vivitur, quam interioris hominis pulchritudo? Et certe secundum hanc pulchritudinem magis quam secundum corpus, facti sumus ad imaginem Dei: unde nobis dicitur: Nolite conformari huic saeculo, sed reformamini in novitate mentis vestrae, ad probandum vos quae sit voluntas Dei, quod bonum et beneplacitum et perfectum. Si ergo non in mole neque in distantibus per loca sua partibus, sicut corpora sive cernuntur sive cogitantur, sed in virtute intellegibili, qualis est iustitia, mentem dicimus, seu novimus, seu volumus pulchram, et secundum hanc pulchritudinem reformamur ad imaginem Dei: profecto ipsius Dei qui nos formavit et reformat ad imaginem suam, non in aliqua mole corporea suspicanda est pulchritudo; eoque iustorum mentibus credendus est incomparabiliter pulchrior, quo est incomparabiliter iustior. Haec Dilectionem tuam, quantum ad usitatum epistolarum modum attinet, prolixius forsitan quam exspectabas; quantum autem ad tam magnae rei quaestionem, breviter admonuisse suffecerit: non ut satis sit eruditioni tuae, sed ut aliis quoque lectis vel auditis diligenter instructus, ipse uberius tua secus dicta redarguas; quod est utique tanto melius, quanto fit humilius et fidelius.
4. 20. If, then, it is to be guarded against that we think God like our justice, since the light which illuminates is incomparably more excellent than that which is illuminated; how much more must it be guarded against that we believe him to be something lower and in a manner more discolored than is our justice! But what else is justice, when it is in us, or any virtue by which one lives rightly and wisely, than the beauty of the inner man? And surely according to this beauty rather than according to the body we were made to the image of God: whence it is said to us, Do not be conformed to this world, but be reformed in the newness of your mind, to prove what is the will of God, what is good and well-pleasing and perfect (Rom 12:2). If, then, not in mass nor in parts distant by their places, as bodies are either perceived or thought, but in an intelligible virtue, such as justice, we say, or know, or wish the mind to be beautiful, and according to this beauty we are reformed to the image of God: surely the beauty of God himself, who formed us and reforms us to his image, is not to be suspected to be in any corporeal mass; and he is to be believed incomparably more beautiful than the minds of the just by as much as he is incomparably more just. These things, as far as pertains to the usual measure of letters, are perhaps more lengthy to your Love than you expected; but as far as pertains to the question of so great a matter, let it suffice to have admonished briefly: not so that it be enough for your erudition, but so that, diligently instructed by reading or hearing others too, you may yourself more richly refute the things ill said by you; which is surely the better the more humbly and faithfully it is done.
Ep100-155.4.20EPISTOLA 121
LETTER 121
Ep100-155.4.201. 1. De paucis quae nunc iam ad navem currente litterarum perlatore, et mihi in ipsius festinatione properanti in mentem venerunt, ne sine corollario mihi rescribas, aliqua proponam: quae si forte lucida sunt, et mihi videntur obscura, nemo prudentum filiorum, qui forte de nostris in hora lectiunculae huius circa te steterint, de insipientia mea rideat, sed potius benevolentia fraternae charitatis faveat instruendo, ut efficiar videntium particeps et ex doctrina tua illuminatis mentibus considerantium mirabilia de lege Domini.
1. 1. Of the few things which have now come into my mind, the bearer of the letter running to the ship, and I myself hurrying in his haste, I shall set forth some, so that you may not write back to me without a little garland to crown it: which, if perhaps they are clear, and seem obscure to me, let no one of your prudent sons, who perhaps of our people may be standing about you in the hour of this little reading, laugh at my unwisdom, but rather let him favor it with the benevolence of brotherly love by instructing me, that I may be made a partaker of those who see, and, from your teaching, with minds illuminated, of those who consider the marvels of the law of the Lord.
Ep100-155.1.11. 2. Dic ergo mihi, benedicte doctor Israel, quid sit quod dicitur in psalmo decimoquinto: Sanctis qui in terra sunt eius, mirificavit omnes voluntates suas inter illos. Multiplicatae sunt enim infirmitates eorum; postea acceleraverunt. Quos ait sanctos, qui in terra sunt sancti? Num illos Iudaeos, qui filii carnis Abrahae, et non filii repromissionis excluduntur a semine quod in Isaac vocatum est, ideo sanctos in terra, quia sancti genere carnali, vita autem sensuque terreni sunt, qui terrena sapiunt, et carnali observantia in vetustate litterae consenescunt; non renascentes in novam creaturam, quia non receperunt eum, per quem vetera transierunt, et facta sunt nova ? Sic enim forte eos in hoc psalmo sanctos appellat, quomodo et in Evangelio iustos, ubi dicit, Non veni vocare iustos, sed peccatores; id est illos iustos, qui in sanctitate generis et littera Legis gloriantur: quibus dicitur: Nolite gloriari in patre Abraham; quia potens est Deus de lapidibus istis excitare filios Abrahae. Quorum forma in illo Pharisaeo proponitur, qui iustitias suas tamquam nescienti Domino recolens, praedicabat in templo; non orans ut exaudiretur, sed exigens quasi debitum meriti pro operibus bonis quidem, sed ingratis Deo, quia quod iustitia aedificaverat, superbia destruebat: nec idipsum silentio, sed voce clamabat, ut appareret eum non divinis auribus loqui, quia et ab hominibus vellet audiri; atque ideo non placuit Deo, quia placebat sibi: Quoniam dissipavit Dominus ossa hominum sibi placentium. Confusi sunt," inquit, "quia sprevit illos, qui cor humile et contribulatum non spernit.
1. 2. Tell me, then, blessed teacher of Israel, what it is that is said in the fifteenth psalm: To the saints who are in his land he made all his wills marvelous among them. For their infirmities were multiplied; afterward they made haste (See Ps 16:3-4 (15:3-4)). Whom does he call saints, the saints who are in the land? Surely not those Jews who, being sons of Abraham's flesh and not sons of the promise, are excluded from the seed which was called in Isaac, saints in the land for this reason, that they are holy by carnal stock, but in life and sense earthly, who relish earthly things, and grow old in the oldness of the letter by carnal observance; not reborn into a new creature, because they did not receive him through whom the old things passed away and all things were made new? For perhaps he so calls them saints in this psalm in the way that in the Gospel he calls them just, where he says, I came not to call the just, but sinners (Matt 9:13); that is, those just men who glory in the holiness of stock and in the letter of the Law: to whom it is said, Do not glory in your father Abraham; for God is able to raise up from these stones sons to Abraham (See Matt 3:9). Whose figure is set forth in that Pharisee who, recounting his own justices to the Lord as though he did not know them, proclaimed them in the temple; not praying that he might be heard, but exacting them as a debt of merit for his deeds, good indeed, but ungrateful to God, because what justice had built, pride was destroying: and that not in silence, but with a voice he cried out, so that it might appear that he spoke not to the divine ears, because he wished also to be heard by men; and therefore he did not please God, because he pleased himself: For the Lord has scattered the bones of those who please themselves. They have been put to confusion, he says, because he has spurned them (Ps 53:5 (52:6))—he who does not spurn a humble and contrite heart.
Ep100-155.1.21. 3. Denique et in ipsa Evangelii parabola, qua Pharisaei et Publicani persona confertur, evidenter ostendit ipse Dominus quid in homine suscipiat, quid repellat, sicut scriptum est quia Deus superbis resistit, humilibus autem dat gratiam. Ideo protestatur magis iustificatum abiisse e templo Publicanum de confessione peccatorum suorum, quam Pharisaeum de imputatione iustitiarum suarum. Merito autem ille laudator sui, repudiatus abscessit a facie Dei, qui cum ipso nomine peritiam Legis praeferret, oblitus fuerat in propheta dicentem Dominum: Super quem habitabo, nisi super humilem, et quietum, et trementem sermones meos? Ille autem in corde contrito sui accusator accipitur, et obtinet veniam de confessis peccatis propter gratiam humilitatis, sancto illo Pharisaeo (quales Iudaei sancti sunt), reportante sarcinam peccatorum de iactantia sanctitatis. Ipsius nimirum sunt forma Iudaei illi, de quibus Apostolus ait quod suum iustitiam statuere cupientes, quae ex Lege est, iustitiae Dei non sunt subiecti, quae est ex fide, quae reputata est patri nostro Abraham ad iustitiam, non ex operibus, quia secundum omnipotentiam Dei credidit Deo: apud quem ille vere iustus est qui ex fide vivit; nec sanctus in terra est, sed in coelo, quia non carne, sed spiritu ambulat; cuius conversatio in coelis est; non gloriantis in circumcisione carnis, sed in circumcisione cordis, quae non littera, sed spiritu agitur invisibiliter; unde laus eius non ex hominibus est, sed ex Deo.
1. 3. Finally, in the very Gospel parable in which the person of the Pharisee and of the Publican is compared, the Lord himself evidently shows what he receives in a man, what he rejects, as it is written that God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble (Jas 4:6; 1 Pet 5:5). Therefore he attests that the Publican went away from the temple more justified for the confession of his sins than the Pharisee for the imputation of his justices. But deservedly that praiser of himself, repudiated, departed from the face of God—who, though by his very name he displayed expertness in the Law, had forgotten the Lord saying in the prophet, Upon whom shall I dwell, but upon the humble, and quiet, and trembling at my words? (Isa 66:2) But the other, his own accuser in a contrite heart, is received, and obtains pardon for his confessed sins on account of the grace of humility, that holy Pharisee (such as the Jewish saints are) carrying back the burden of his sins from the boasting of his holiness. Of him surely are the figure those Jews of whom the Apostle says that, desiring to establish their own justice, which is of the Law, they have not been subject to the justice of God (Rom 10:3), which is of faith, which was reputed to our father Abraham for justice, not from works, because according to the omnipotence of God he believed God: with whom he is truly just who lives from faith; nor is he a saint in the land, but in heaven, because he walks not in the flesh but in the spirit; whose conversation is in the heavens; not glorying in the circumcision of the flesh, but in the circumcision of the heart, which is done invisibly not by the letter but by the spirit; whence his praise is not from men, but from God.
Ep100-155.1.31. 4. Deinde quod iungit in eodem versiculo: Miras fecit voluntates suas inter illos, credo ex eo dicit, quod ipsis primum lucernam Legis accendit, et praecepta vivendi dedit. Notas, enim, inquit, fecit vias suas Moysi, et filiis Israel voluntates suas. Deinde ipsum pietatis suae sacramentum in ipsis operatus est, natus in carne ex virgine Deus in gente ipsorum, et de carne ipsorum factus ex semine David homo: deinde virtutes sanitatum, quas in ipsis et coram ipsis perfecit. Qui per haec non modo creditus non est, sed et blasphematus est ab eis, cum dicerent: Hic homo si a Deo esset, non curaret sabbatis; et: Non eiecit daemonia nisi in Beelzebub principe daemoniorum. Propter hanc mentem obdurata impietate caecatam, multiplicatae sunt infirmitates et tenebrae eorum.
1. 4. Then, what he joins in the same verse, He made his wills marvelous among them, I believe he says from this, that he first kindled for them the lamp of the Law and gave them the precepts of living. For he made known, he says, his ways to Moses, and his wills to the sons of Israel (Ps 103:7 (102:7)). Then he worked in them the very sacrament of his piety, God being born in the flesh from a virgin among their nation, and from their flesh made man from the seed of David: then the virtues of healings, which he accomplished in them and before them. Who, through these, was not only not believed, but even blasphemed by them, when they said, This man, if he were from God, would not heal on the sabbath (See John 9:16); and, He does not cast out demons except by Beelzebub, the prince of demons (Matt 12:24). On account of this mind, blinded by hardened impiety, their infirmities and darknesses were multiplied.
Ep100-155.1.41. 5. Sed quid est quod ait: Postea acceleraverunt ? Utrum in poenitentiam, sicut illi in Actibus Apostolorum, qui beati Petri praedicatione compuncti, crediderunt in eum quem crucifixerant, et festinantes tanto expiari peccato, ad donum gratiae cucurrerunt ? an vero quia virtutes animae ex fide et caritate Dei roborantur, illis impiis utroque vacuis multiplicatae sunt infirmitates animae ex impietate scelerum mortiferis languoribus occupatae? Christus etenim lumen et vita credentium est, et sanitas sub pennis eius: unde non mirum si et tenebrae et infirmitates eorum multiplicatae sunt in interitum, qui vitam et lucem non receperunt, neque sub pennis eius manere voluerunt; quos, ut ipse flens in Evangelio suo protestatur, saepe voluit congregare sub alas suas, sicut gallina congregat pullos suos, et noluerunt. Multiplicatis ergo infirmitatibus quo acceleraverunt? Forte in crucem Domini conclamandam, et invito Pilato nefariis vocibus extorquendam, ut adimplerent mensuram patrum suorum, ut isti Dominum Prophetarum occiderent, quorum patres ipsos Prophetas interfecerunt, a quibus hic mundi Salvator esse venturus nuntiabatur. Postea acceleraverunt: veloces enim pedes eorum ad effundendum sanguinem. Contritio et infelicitas in viis eorum, et viam pacis non cognoverunt, id est Christum qui dicit: Ego sum via.
1. 5. But what is it that he says, Afterward they made haste? Whether to repentance, like those in the Acts of the Apostles who, pricked by the preaching of blessed Peter, believed in him whom they had crucified, and, hastening to be cleansed of so great a sin, ran to the gift of grace? Or rather, because the virtues of the soul are strengthened by faith and the love of God, for those impious men, void of both, the infirmities of the soul were multiplied, occupied by the deadly languors of the impiety of crimes? For Christ is the light and life of believers, and there is healing under his wings: whence it is no wonder if both the darknesses and the infirmities of those were multiplied to destruction, who did not receive the life and the light, nor wished to remain under his wings; whom, as he himself weeping attests in his Gospel, he often wished to gather under his wings, as a hen gathers her chicks, and they would not. Their infirmities being multiplied, then, whither did they make haste? Perhaps to clamor for the cross of the Lord, and, Pilate being unwilling, to extort it by their wicked voices, so that they might fill up the measure of their fathers, so that these might kill the Lord of the Prophets, whose fathers killed the Prophets themselves, by whom it was announced that this Savior of the world would come. Afterward they made haste: for their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and unhappiness are in their ways, and the way of peace they have not known (Ps 14:3 (13:3); Rom 3:15-17; Isa 59:7-8)—that is, Christ, who says, I am the way (John 14:6).
Ep100-155.1.51. 6. In consequenti psalmo illud mihi exponi desidero, quid dicat: De absconditis tuis adimpletus est venter eorum. Saturati sunt porcina, vel sicut in quibusdam psalteriis scriptum audio, saturati sunt filiis, et reliquerunt quae superfuerunt parvulis suis.
1. 6. In the following psalm I desire this to be expounded to me, what it says: From your hidden things their belly was filled. They were sated with swine's flesh, or, as I hear it written in some psalters, they were sated with sons, and left what was over to their little ones (See Ps 17:14 (16:14)).
Ep100-155.1.61. 7. Rursus in alio psalmo admirari soleo, Filium ad Patrem loqui intellegens, in psalmo quinquagesimo octavo, ubi de Iudaeis inimicis, de quibus supra dixerat: Ecce ipsi loquentur in ore suo, et gladius in labiis eorum, paulo infra dicit: Ne occideris eos, nequando obliviscantur Legis tuae. Disperge illos in virtute tua, et destrue eos, Domine. Quod in his usque in hodiernum diem videmus impleri: destructi sunt enim a veteri sua gloria, sine templo et sine sacrificiis, ac sine Prophetis in omnium gentium dispersione viventes. Sed quid miramur quod iam per Prophetam pro eis non occidendis rogabat, pro quibus et sub ipso tempore passionis iam ad crucem eum ducentibus precabatur, dicens: Pater, dimitte eis; non enim sciunt quid faciunt ? Verum quod adiecit: Ne umquam obliviscantur Legis tuae, tamquam propter hoc necessaria esset etiam sine fide Evangelii vita eorum, obscurum mihi fateor. Quid enim his ad salutem, quae sola fide quaeritur, prodest in Legis memoria et meditatione versari; nisi forte propter honorem Legis ipsius, vel generis Abraham, ut etiam in parte terrena carnalis seminis eius, quae videtur secundum arenam maris computari, Legis antiquae littera perseveret, ne forte aliqui legendo Legem illuminentur ad fidem Christi, qui et Legis et Prophetarum finis est, et in omnibus eorum libris praefiguratus ac prophetatus elucet? aut quia ex ipsis impiis eorum generatio ventura est electorum, qui de singulis tribubus electi, in duodenis milibus designantur; quibus ipsa revelatio beati Ioannis ex voce Angeli praenuntiantis hoc testimonium perhibet, quia comitatui regis aeterni familiarius adhaerebunt penitus immaculati, et humanae coniunctionis expertes? de quibus specialiter ait: Sequuntur Agnum quocumque ierit, quia cum mulieribus se non coinquinaverunt; virgines enim sunt.
1. 7. Again in another psalm I am wont to marvel, understanding the Son to speak to the Father, in the fifty-eighth psalm, where, about the enemy Jews, of whom he had said above, Behold, they themselves will speak with their mouth, and a sword is in their lips (Ps 59:7 (58:8)), he says a little below, Do not kill them, lest at any time they forget your Law. Scatter them in your power, and bring them down, O Lord (Ps 59:11 (58:12)). Which we see fulfilled in them even to this day: for they are brought down from their ancient glory, living without temple and without sacrifices, and without Prophets, in the dispersion of all nations. But why do we marvel that he was already asking through the prophet that they not be killed, on whose behalf, even at the very time of the passion, while they were leading him to the cross, he prayed, saying, Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they do (Luke 23:34)? But as for what he added, lest at any time they forget your Law—as though for this reason their life were necessary even without the faith of the Gospel—I confess this is obscure to me. For what does it profit them toward salvation, which is sought by faith alone, to be occupied in the memory and meditation of the Law; unless perhaps for the honor of the Law itself, or of the stock of Abraham, so that even in the earthly part of his carnal seed, which seems to be reckoned according to the sand of the sea, the letter of the ancient Law may persevere, lest perhaps some, by reading the Law, be enlightened to the faith of Christ, who is the end both of the Law and of the Prophets, and shines forth prefigured and prophesied in all their books? Or because from those impious men themselves a generation of the elect is to come, who, chosen from the single tribes, are designated by twelves of thousands; to whom the very revelation of blessed John, by the voice of the Angel foretelling it, bears this testimony, that they will cleave more familiarly to the train of the eternal king, being utterly immaculate and free of human conjunction? Of whom he says specially, They follow the Lamb wherever he goes, because they did not defile themselves with women; for they are virgins (Rev 14:4).
Ep100-155.1.71. 8. In sexagesimo septimo praeter alia illud mihi obscurissimum est quod ait: Verumtamen Deus conquassavit capita inimicorum suorum, verticem capilli perambulantium in delictis suis; quid sit verticem capilli perambulare in delictis. Non enim dixit: Verticem capitis, sed, verticem capilli, qui sine sensu est. An repletum peccatis hominem vult ostendere? Scriptum est: Omne cor in dolore, a pedibus usque ad caput. Et paulo infra quod ait: Lingua canum tuorum ex inimicis ab ipso. A quo ipso? et numquid canes Dei dici possunt Gentiles, quos ipse in Evangelio canes nominat ? aut ne forte ipsos canes Dei dicat, quales aestimari possunt, si qui in nomine christiano gentiliter vivant; quorum pars cum infidelibus ponitur, quia Deum quem verbis colunt, factis negant?
1. 8. In the sixty-seventh, besides other things, this is most obscure to me, what it says: But God has shattered the heads of his enemies, the hairy crown of those walking in their offenses (Ps 68:21 (67:22)); what it is to walk in offenses with a hairy crown. For he did not say "the crown of the head," but "the crown of the hair," which is without sense. Or does he wish to show a man filled with sins? It is written, Every heart in grief, from the feet to the head (See Isa 1:5-6). And a little below, what he says, That the tongue of your dogs may be from the enemies, from him (See Ps 68:23 (67:24)). From which "him"? And can the Gentiles be called the dogs of God, whom he himself in the Gospel names dogs? Or does he perhaps call those the dogs of God who can be so esteemed, if any live in a gentile manner under the Christian name; whose part is set with the unbelievers, because the God whom they worship with words they deny by deeds?
Ep100-155.1.82. 9. Haec interim de Psalmis, nunc et de Apostolo quodcumque proponam. Dicit ad Ephesios, quod in alia Epistola dixerat de gradibus vel ordinibus dispositionum Dei, operante Spiritu sancto divisiones gratiarum: Et quosdam quidem dedit apostolos, quosdam autem prophetas, alios vero Evangelistas, alios autem pastores et doctores ad consummationem sanctorum, et reliqua. Hoc opto distinguas mihi in hac diversitate nominum, quae sit cuique nomini officiorum vel gratiarum proprietas? quid proprium sit Apostolorum, quid Prophetarum, quid Evangelistarum, quid Pastorum, quidve Doctorum. In omnibus enim his diversis nominibus simile et prope unum doctrinae officium video fuisse tractatum. Hos autem Prophetas quos post Apostolos posuit, non puto illos esse qui ordine temporum ante Apostolos fuerunt, sed illos quibus iam sub Apostolis per gratiam donabatur, aut interpretatio Scripturarum et inspectio mentium, aut praedictio temporis secuturi; ut Agabus cernebat, qui et famem instantem praedixit et quae beatus Paulus in Ierosolymis passurus esset, et verbo denuntiavit, et signo zonae eius ostendit. Inter Pastores specialiter et Doctores quid intersit dignoscere volo, quia praepositis Ecclesiae utrumque nomen adscribi solet.
2. 9. These things meanwhile about the Psalms; now I shall set forth something also about the Apostle. He says to the Ephesians what he had said in another Letter about the grades or orders of the dispositions of God, the Holy Spirit working the divisions of graces: And some indeed he gave as apostles, but some as prophets, others as evangelists, but others as pastors and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints (Eph 4:11-12), and the rest. This I wish you to distinguish for me in this diversity of names: what is the property of offices or graces proper to each name? What is proper to Apostles, what to Prophets, what to Evangelists, what to Pastors, or what to Teachers? For in all these different names I see that a similar and almost one office of teaching was carried on. But these Prophets, whom he set after the Apostles, I do not think are those who in order of times were before the Apostles, but those to whom now, under the Apostles, was given through grace either the interpretation of Scriptures and the inspection of minds, or the prediction of time to come; as Agabus discerned, who both foretold the imminent famine and what the blessed Paul would suffer in Jerusalem, and both announced it by word and showed it by the sign of his girdle. Between Pastors specially and Teachers I wish to discern what difference there is, because both names are wont to be ascribed to the rulers of the Church.
Ep100-155.2.92. 10. Item quod ait ad Timotheum: Obsecro igitur primum omnium fieri obsecrationes, orationes, postulationes, gratiarum actiones pro omnibus hominibus, quaeso exponas mihi, quod discrimen sit in hac diversitate verborum, cum omnia mihi quae gerenda dixit, orationis officio convenire videantur.
2. 10. Likewise, what he says to Timothy: I beseech, then, first of all, that supplications, prayers, petitions, thanksgivings be made for all men (1 Tim 2:1), I ask you to expound to me, what distinction there is in this diversity of words, since all the things he said are to be done seem to me to fit the office of prayer.
Ep100-155.2.102. 11. Item quod ad Romanos ait, interrogo et rogo ut edisseras mihi; multum enim caecutire me fateor in hac Apostoli sententia de Iudaeis quod ait: Secundum Evangelium quidem inimici propter vos; secundum electionem autem carissimi propter patres: quomodo iidem et inimici propter nos, qui credidimus ex Gentibus, tamquam non potuerint Gentes credere, nisi Iudaei non credidissent; aut ipse unus omnium creator Deus, qui omnes homines salvos fieri vult, et ad agnitionem veritatis venire, capax non fuerit acquisitionis utriusque, nisi alterum pro altero possideret: deinde carissimi propter patres? Quomodo aut unde carissimi, si non credant, et inimici Deo esse persistant? Nonne, inquit, qui oderant te, Deus, oderam illos, et super inimicos tuos tabescebam; perfecto odio oderam illos? Certe hoc puto paterna vox loquitur ad Filium per prophetam in eodem psalmo, ubi supra de parte credentium dixerat: Mihi autem nimis honorificati sunt amici tui, Deus; nimis confortatus est principatus eorum. Quid autem illis prodest ad salutem, quae nonnisi per fidem et gratiam Christi capitur, si propter patres carissimi Deo sint? cui bono diliguntur quos necesse est propter hoc damnari, quod propter suam infidelitatem a Prophetarum et patriarcharum parentum fide discrepantes, inimici sunt Evangelio Christi? Si ergo carissimi Deo, quomodo peribunt? et si non credunt, quomodo non peribunt? Si propter patres sine suo merito diliguntur, quomodo et propter patres non salvabuntur; sed etsi fuerint Noe, Daniel, et Iob in medio eorum, filios impios non salvabunt, soli salvi erunt ?
2. 11. Likewise, what he says to the Romans I ask and beg that you set forth to me; for I confess that I am much in the dark in this opinion of the Apostle about the Jews, where he says: According to the Gospel indeed they are enemies for your sake; but according to election they are most dear for the sake of the fathers (Rom 11:28): how are the same both enemies for our sake, who have believed from the Gentiles—as though the Gentiles could not have believed unless the Jews had not believed; or as though the one creator God of all, who wishes all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth, were not capable of the acquisition of both, unless he possessed the one in place of the other—then most dear for the sake of the fathers? How, or whence, most dear, if they do not believe, and persist in being enemies to God? Did I not hate those who hated you, O God, and pine away over your enemies? With a perfect hatred I hated them (Ps 139:21-22 (138:21-22)). Certainly, I think, this is the Father's voice speaking to the Son through the prophet in the same psalm, where above, about the part of believers, he had said, But to me your friends are exceedingly honored, O God; their principality is exceedingly strengthened (Ps 139:17 (138:17)). But what does it profit them toward salvation—which is grasped only through faith and the grace of Christ—if they are most dear to God for the sake of the fathers? For whose good are those loved whom it is necessary to condemn for this, that, dissenting through their unbelief from the faith of their parents the Prophets and patriarchs, they are enemies to the Gospel of Christ? If, then, most dear to God, how will they perish? And if they do not believe, how will they not perish? If for the sake of the fathers they are loved without their own merit, how will they not also for the sake of the fathers be saved; but even if Noah, Daniel, and Job were in the midst of them, they will not save their impious sons, but they alone will be saved?
Ep100-155.2.112. 12. Adhuc aliud obscurius mihi erue de profundo, et in vadum profer. In Epistola Colossensium omnino intellegere non possum quod ait: Nemo vos seducat, volens in humilitate et religione angelorum, quae non vidit ambulans, frustra inflatus sensu carnis suae, et non tenens caput; de quibus angelis dicit: si de inimicis et malis, quae illorum religio, aut quae humilitas, et quis sit magister seductionis huius, qui per obtentum nescio cuius angelicae religionis, quasi visa et comperta doceat quae non vidit? Sine dubio haeretici, qui doctrinas daemoniorum et sequuntur et promunt, conceptis ab eorum spiritu adinventionibus, quae non viderunt phantasmata, quasi visa fingentes, et pestiferis disputationibus in corda male credula seminantes, hi sunt qui non tenent caput, id est Christum fontem veritatis, cuius doctrinae quidquid adversatur, insanum est. Et hi caeci duces caecorum, de quibus "dici puto: Me dereliquerunt fontem aquae vivae, et foderunt sibi lacus contritos, qui non tenent aquam.
2. 12. Still draw out for me another, more obscure thing from the deep, and bring it to the shallows. In the Letter to the Colossians I cannot understand at all what he says: Let no one seduce you, willing in humility and the religion of angels, walking in things he has not seen, vainly puffed up by the sense of his flesh, and not holding the head (Col 2:18-19); of what angels does he speak? If of the enemies and the bad, what is their religion, or what is their humility, and who is the master of this seduction, who, under the pretext of I know not what angelic religion, as though things seen and ascertained, teaches things he has not seen? Without doubt the heretics, who both follow and bring forth the doctrines of demons, with inventions conceived from their spirit—phantasms which they have not seen, feigning them as though seen, and sowing them by pestilent disputations into hearts ill-disposed to believe—these are they who do not hold the head, that is, Christ the fount of truth, whose doctrine whatever opposes is insane. And these are blind leaders of the blind, of whom I think it is said: They have forsaken me, the fount of living water, and have dug for themselves broken cisterns, which hold no water (Jer 2:13).
Ep100-155.2.122. 13. Deinde in subsequenti capite adiecit: Ne tetigeritis, neque gustaveritis, neque contrectaveritis, quae sunt omnia in interitum ipso usu secundum praecepta et doctrinas hominum, rationem quidem habentia sapientiae in superstitione et humilitate, ad non parcendum corpori, non in honore aliquo ad saturitatem carnis. Quae sunt ista, quibus et rationem sapientiae inesse testatur magister veritatis, et tamen ipsam veritatem religionis inesse abnegat? Anne forte de talibus loquitur, de quibus ad Timotheum dicit: Habentes autem speciem pietatis, virtutem eius abnegantes ? Rogo ergo specialiter haec capitula duo de Colossensium Epistola per singula mihi verba dissolvas, quia laudabilibus exsecranda permiscuit. Quid est enim tam laudabile, quam ratio sapientiae, et quid tam exsecrabile. quam superstitio erroris? Humilitas quoque et Deo placita, et maxime in vera religione laudabilis, cum ratione sapientiae ipsis datur, de quorum doctrinis et actibus dicitur nobis: Ne tetigeritis, neque gustaveritis, quae sunt in interitum, quia non sunt ex Deo: et omne quod non est ex fide, peccatum est. Deus autem dissipavit consilia sapientium, qui Deo stulti sunt per prudentiam carnis, quae non potest legi Dei esse subiecta: scit enim cogitationes hominum, quoniam vanae sunt. Qualem humilitatem, qualemque rationem sapientiae superstitioni ex hominum doctrinis venienti inesse dicat, requiro. Et quod ait: Ad non parcendum corpori, non in honore aliquo ad saturitatem carnis; prorsus haec parum intellego, quia in eadem sententia magna mihi videtur esse discretio: arbitror enim eum de abstinentia qualibet ficta vel inutili, qualis solet ab haereticis affectari, hoc dicere: ad non parcendum corpori; quod autem adiecit: non in honore aliquo, quia sancti operis speciem, non in fide veritatis exercentes, nullius gloriae honore vel fructu agunt, quod in magna erroris perversi reprehensione conficiunt, transfigurantes se in ministros iustitiae. Sed quod adiecit, ad saturitatem carnis, contrarium mihi videtur illi quod dicit: ad non parcendum corpori: videtur enim mihi ille non parcere corpori, qui carnem ieiuniis domat, sicut Apostolus dicit: Lividum facio corpus meum, et in servitutem redigo; a quo opere saturitas carnis aliena est: nisi forte et ipsam saturandae carnis curam, quae maxime observantiam religionis praetendentibus probrosa est, non parcere corpori dixit, secundum illud honestatis praeceptum, quod alibi dicit, ut unusquisque suum vas honorifice possidere noverit, ut hostiam vivam, placentem Deo suum corpus exhibeat, non in saturitatem carnis, quia distensio corporis animae sobrietatem necat, et inimica est castitati.
2. 13. Then in the following chapter he added: Do not touch, nor taste, nor handle, which are all unto destruction by the very use, according to the precepts and doctrines of men, having indeed a show of wisdom in superstition and humility, and in not sparing the body, not in any honor unto the satisfying of the flesh (Col 2:21-23). What are these things, in which the master of truth attests that there is even a show of wisdom, and yet denies that the very truth of religion is in them? Or does he perhaps speak of such men as those of whom he says to Timothy, having indeed an appearance of piety, but denying its power (2 Tim 3:5)? I ask, then, specially that you resolve for me these two chapters of the Letter to the Colossians word by word, because he has mingled execrable things with praiseworthy ones. For what is so praiseworthy as a show of wisdom, and what so execrable as the superstition of error? Humility too, both pleasing to God and especially praiseworthy in true religion, is given with a show of wisdom to those of whose doctrines and acts it is said to us, Do not touch, nor taste, which are unto destruction (See Col 2:21-22), because they are not of God: and everything that is not of faith is sin (Rom 14:23). But God has scattered the counsels of the wise, who are foolish to God through the prudence of the flesh, which cannot be subject to the law of God: for he knows the thoughts of men, that they are vain. What sort of humility, and what sort of show of wisdom, he says is in a superstition coming from the doctrines of men, I inquire. And as for what he says, in not sparing the body, not in any honor unto the satisfying of the flesh—these things I understand too little, because in the same sentence there seems to me to be a great distinction: for I think he says this about any feigned or useless abstinence, such as is wont to be affected by heretics, "in not sparing the body"; but what he added, "not in any honor," because, exercising the appearance of a holy work, not in the faith of truth, they act with the honor or fruit of no glory, which they accomplish in great reproach of perverse error, transfiguring themselves into ministers of justice. But what he added, "unto the satisfying of the flesh," seems to me contrary to that which he says, "in not sparing the body": for he seems to me not to spare the body who tames the flesh by fastings, as the Apostle says, I make my body livid, and reduce it to servitude (1 Cor 9:27); from which work the satisfying of the flesh is foreign: unless perhaps he called even the very care of satisfying the flesh, which is most shameful for those who profess the observance of religion, "not to spare the body," according to that precept of honorableness which elsewhere he gives, that each one know how to possess his own vessel honorably, that he present his body as a living victim pleasing to God, not unto the satisfying of the flesh, because the distension of the body kills the sobriety of the soul, and is hostile to chastity.
Ep100-155.2.133. 14. Restat ut aliquid et de evangelicis locis suggeram Beatitudini tuae: non quidem quanta legenti per otium occurrere solent (nec enim nunc vacabit dispersa per libros quaerere, aut in reminiscendis memoriam ventilare), sed vel pauca, quae ad horam dictationis huius in mentem veniunt, sciscitabor. De resurrectionis forma non grandem, sed plenam fidei instructione epistolam, qua secundae consultationi meae, dum Carthagini exhiemarem rescripseras, si habes relatam in schedis, rogo ut mittas, aut certe retexas eam mihi; quod tibi facile est. Nam etsi scripta non exstat, quia forte brevis epistola, ut tumultuaria tibi inter libros tuos haberi spreta sit, renova eam mihi eodem sensu promptam de thesauro cordis tui, et mitte ad me inter alia responsa quae reddes mihi, ut spero, praestante mihi ac tibi commeatum dierum Christo, ut ea, quo labor tuus in me fructificet, accipiam, secundum haec capitula Scripturarum, de quibus te, qui vides quasi per Deum, interrogavi, ut audiam quid in te vel ex te mihi loquatur Deus.
3. 14. It remains that I suggest something also about Gospel passages to your Beatitude: not indeed as many as are wont to occur to me reading at leisure (for there is now no leisure to seek things scattered through the books, or to fan the memory in recalling them), but at least a few which come into mind at the hour of this dictation, I shall inquire about. About the form of the resurrection, that letter—not large, but full of the instruction of faith—by which you replied to my second consultation while I was wintering at Carthage, if you have it copied in your papers, I ask that you send it, or at least reweave it for me; which is easy for you. For even if the writing does not survive, because perhaps, as a brief letter, it was disdained to be kept as a hasty thing among your books, renew it for me, ready in the same sense from the treasure of your heart, and send it to me among the other answers which you will render me, as I hope—Christ granting a passage of days to me and to you—so that I may receive those things whereby your labor may bear fruit in me, according to these chapters of the Scriptures, about which I have questioned you, who see as though through God, that I may hear what God speaks to me in you or from you.
Ep100-155.3.143. 15. Hoc autem rogo lucere mihi facias, quo modo vel qua ratione Dominus post resurrectionem vel mulieribus, quae primae ad sepulcrum venerunt, vel postea illis duobus in via, deinde Discipulis suis, et non agnitus sit, et agnitus. In eodem enim corpore resurrexit, in quo et passus est. Et quomodo non eadem erat eiusdem corporis forma quae fuerat? aut si eadem erat, quomodo non agnoscebatur ab his qui eam noverant? Illud vero sacramenti esse credo, quod qui in via ambulantibus non fuerat agnitus, in fractione panis revelatus est. Idipsum tamen tuo sensu volo tenere, non meo.
3. 15. But I ask that you make this shine for me: in what way, or by what reason, the Lord after the resurrection was both not recognized and recognized—whether by the women who first came to the sepulcher, or afterward by those two on the way, then by his Disciples. For he rose in the same body in which he also suffered. And how was the form of the same body not the same which it had been? Or, if it was the same, how was it not recognized by those who had known it? But that, I believe, is of a sacrament, that he who had not been recognized by those walking on the way was revealed in the breaking of bread. Yet this same thing I wish to hold by your sense, not my own.
Ep100-155.3.153. 16. Et quod ad Mariam ait: Noli me tangere, nondum enim ascendi ad Patrem: si cominus stantem non sinebatur attingere, quomodo eum tangeret cum ascendisset ad Patrem, nisi forte fidei profectu et mentis ascensu, qua Deus homini fit longinquus aut proximus, et illa dubitaverit de Christo, quem hortulanum putaverat? Ideo fortassis audire meruit: Noli me tangere. Indigna enim iudicabatur ut tangeret manu Christum, quem necdum fide apprehenderat, nec intellexerat Deum, cum hortulanum putasset, de quo paulo ante ab Angelis audierat: Quid quaeritis viventem cum mortuis? Noli ergo me tangere, quia tibi nondum ascendi ad Patrem, qui adhuc tantum homo videor; postea me tanges, cum ad agnoscendum me credendo conscenderis.
3. 16. And as for what he said to Mary, Do not touch me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father (John 20:17): if she was not permitted to touch him standing near, how would she touch him when he had ascended to the Father, unless perhaps by the progress of faith and the ascent of mind, by which God becomes far or near to a man? And had she doubted about Christ, whom she had thought to be a gardener? Therefore perhaps she deserved to hear, "Do not touch me." For she was judged unworthy to touch Christ with her hand, whom she had not yet apprehended by faith, nor understood to be God, when she had thought him a gardener, about whom a little before she had heard from the Angels, Why do you seek the living among the dead? (Luke 24:5) "Do not, then, touch me, because to you I have not yet ascended to the Father, I who still seem to be only a man; afterward you will touch me, when you have ascended, by believing, to recognizing me."
Ep100-155.3.163. 17. De illis etiam beatissimi Simeonis verbis quid sentias, edissere mihi, ut sequar sensum tuum: quibus cum ad videndum ex oraculo Dei Christum agente Spiritu venisset in templum, et acceptum sinu benedixisset infantem Dominum, ait ad Mariam: Ecce hic positus est in ruinam et resurrectionem multorum in Israel, et in signum cui contradicetur; et tuam ipsius animam pertransibit gladius, ut revelentur multorum cordium cogitationes. Numquid de passione Mariae, quae nusquam scripta est, hoc prophetasse credendus est? an vero de materno eius affectu, quo postea in tempore passionis assistens cruci, qua hoc erat fixum quod ipsa pepererat, maternorum viscerum dolore confixa est; et animam illius, illa quae eius secundum carnem filium ipsa spectante confoderat, crucis rhomphaea penetrabat? Video enim et in Psalmis de Ioseph ita dictum esse: Humiliaverunt in compedibus pedes eius; ferrum pertransiit animam eius, sicut in Evangelio dixit Simeon: Et tuam ipsius animam pertransibit gladius. Non ait: Carnem, sed "animam", in qua pietatis affectio continetur, et doloris aculeus quasi gladius operatur; cum aut aliqua carnis suae iniuria afficitur; ut Ioseph, qui non mortis, sed iniuriarum pertulit passiones, in servum venditus, et in reum vinculatus, et carceri datus: aut cum affectionis internae tristitia vel dolore cruciatur; ut in Maria, quam utique ad crucem Domini, in quo tunc sui tantum corporis filium cogitabat, materna mens duxerat, ut cum eum vidisset mortuum, humana infirmitate lugeret, sepeliendumque colligeret, nihil sibi de ipsius resurrectione praesumens, quia subsecuturae admirationis fidem in oculis posita passionis poena caecabat. Quamvis eamdem adstantem cruci suae Dominus non morientis infirmitate trepidans consolatus sit, sed ipsam, qua obibat volens, in potestate habens mortem, plena virtute viventis, et constantia resurrecturi de cruce admonet, dicens de beato apostolo Ioanne. "Mulier, ecce filius tuus;" itemque illi ibidem consistenti. Ecce mater tua. Iam scilicet ab humana fragilitate qua erat natus ex femina, per crucis mortem demigrans in aeternitatem Dei, ut esset in gloria Dei Patris, delegat homini iura pietatis humanae, et ex discipulis suis adolescentiorem eligit, ut convenienter assignet virgini apostolo virginem matrem, duo pariter in eadem sententia docens: formam pietatis relinquens nobis, cum est de matre sollicitus, ut quam relinquebat corpore, non relinqueret cura, sed nec corpore relicturus, quia quem videbat morientem, mox erat visura redivivum; et illud quod ad fidem omnium pertineret, salutiferum pietatis suae sacramentum arcana di vini ratione consilii sub hac voce consignans, ut alii matrem delegaret pro matre habendam, et vice sua consolandam, atque illi vicissim novum filium vice corporis sui traderet, imo, ut ita dixerim, gigneret: quo ostenderet eam praeter se, qui ex ea virgine natus esset, nec habuisse filium, nec habere; quia nec Salvator tantopere curam de solatio habuisset eius, si illi unicus non fuisset.
3. 17. About those words too of most blessed Simeon, set forth to me what you think, that I may follow your sense: when, having come into the temple by the working of the Spirit to see Christ from the oracle of God, and having taken the infant Lord into his bosom and blessed him, he said to Mary, Behold, this one is set for the ruin and resurrection of many in Israel, and for a sign that will be contradicted; and a sword will pass through your own soul, that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed (Luke 2:34-35). Is he to be believed to have prophesied this about the passion of Mary, which is nowhere written? Or rather about her maternal affection, by which afterward, at the time of the passion, standing by the cross on which was fixed that which she herself had borne, she was pierced through with the grief of maternal vitals; and the spear of the cross penetrated her soul—the soul of her who, looking on, had had her son according to the flesh pierced through? For I see that in the Psalms too it is said of Joseph, They humbled his feet in fetters; iron passed through his soul (Ps 105:18 (104:18)), just as in the Gospel Simeon said, And a sword will pass through your own soul (Luke 2:35). He did not say "flesh," but "soul," in which the affection of piety is contained, and the sting of grief works as a sword; whether one is afflicted with some injury of one's flesh, like Joseph, who suffered not the sufferings of death but of injuries, sold into a slave, and bound as a guilty man, and given to prison; or whether one is tortured by the sadness or grief of inner affection, like Mary, whom surely the maternal mind had led to the cross of the Lord—on which she then thought only of the son of her own body—so that, when she had seen him dead, she should, by human weakness, mourn, and gather him to be buried, presuming nothing for herself about his resurrection, because the penalty of the passion set before her eyes blinded the faith of the wonder that was to follow. Although the Lord, standing by his cross, consoled her—not trembling with the weakness of one dying, but, holding in his power the death by which he died willingly, full of the strength of one living, and of the constancy of one about to rise, admonishes her from the cross, saying of the blessed apostle John, Woman, behold your son; and likewise to him standing there, Behold your mother (John 19:26-27). Now indeed, departing from the human frailty by which he was born of a woman, through the death of the cross into the eternity of God, that he might be in the glory of God the Father, he assigns to a man the rights of human piety, and from his disciples chooses the younger, so as fittingly to assign a virgin mother to a virgin apostle, teaching two things at once in the same sentence: leaving us a model of piety, when he is solicitous about his mother, that her whom he was leaving in body he might not leave in care—and yet not about to leave her in body either, because him whom she saw dying she was soon to see alive again; and that other thing which pertained to the faith of all, sealing the saving sacrament of his piety, by the secret reason of the divine counsel, under this voice, so that to one he assigned a mother to be had in place of a mother, and to be consoled in his stead, and to her in turn handed over a new son in place of his own body—nay, so to say, begot one: by which he showed that she, besides him who was born of her, a virgin, had had and had no son; because the Savior would not have had so great a care of her consolation, had he not been her only one.
Ep100-155.3.173. 18. Sed redeamus ad verba Simeonis, in quorum clausula intellectum meum caligare fateor: Et tuam, inquit, animam pertransibit framea vel gladius, ut revelentur multorum cordium cogitationes. Secundum litteram hoc mihi penitus obscurum est; quia nec Mariam beatissimam usquam legimus occisam, ut de corporali gladio sanctus ille ei futuram passionem prophetasse videatur. Sed et quod subiecit: Ut revelentur multorum cordium cogitationes. Scrutans enim, inquit, corda et renes Deus. Et de futuro iudicio Apostolus ait, quia tunc manifestabit Deus operta cordium et occulta tenebrarum. Itidem Apostolus, spiritaliter exprimens arma coelestia, quibus in interiori nostro debeamus armari, gladium spiritus dicit verbum Dei; de quo ad Hebraeos ait, Vivus est sermo Dei, et efficax, et penetrabilior omni gladio ancipiti; pertingens, inquit, usque ad divisionem animae et spiritus, et reliqua quae nosti. Quid ergo mirum, si istius verbi ignita vis, et ancipitis gladii penetrabilior acies, ei sancti Ioseph olim, et postea beatae Mariae animam pertransivit? Nam neque in illius neque in huius corpore ferrum transisse cognovimus. Atque ut magis pateat ibi Prophetam ferrum pro verbi gladio posuisse, statim subsequente versiculo ait: Sermo Domini ignivit illum. Sermo enim Dei et ignis et gladius est, Verbo ipso Deo utrumque dicente de se: Ignem enim, inquit, veni mittere in terram; et quid volo nisi ut iam accendatur? Item alibi dicit: Non veni pacem mittere, sed gladium. Vides eum unam vim doctrinae suae diverso ignis et gladii nomine designasse. Aut quomodo Mariae illata per gladium passio vel tribulatio perstaret? Itaque hoc scire cupio, quid ad Mariam pertineret, ut revelarentur multorum cordium cogitationes; aut ubi apparuit quia ex eo quod animam eius, sive carnalis in ferro, sive spiritalis gladius in verbo Dei pertransivit, exinde multorum cordium cogitationes revelatae sunt. Expone ergo hanc maxime de verbis Simeonis clausulam mihi, quia lucere non dubito sanctae animae tuae, quae de interioris oculi puritate meruit illuminationem Spiritus sancti, per quem scrutari et inspicere possit etiam alta Dei. Deus misereatur mei per orationes tuas, et illuminet vultum suum super me per lucernam verbi tui, sancte domine, beatissime frater in Domino Christo unanime, magister meus in fide veritatis, et susceptor meus in visceribus charitatis Christi.
3. 18. But let us return to the words of Simeon, in whose close I confess my understanding grows dark: And a sword, he says, will pass through your soul, that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed (Luke 2:35). According to the letter this is utterly obscure to me; because we nowhere read that most blessed Mary was killed, so that that holy man should seem to have prophesied to her a future suffering by a corporeal sword. But also what he subjoined, "that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed." For God searches the hearts and reins (Ps 7:9 (7:10)). And about the future judgment the Apostle says that then God will make manifest the hidden things of hearts and the secrets of darkness (1 Cor 4:5). Likewise the Apostle, spiritually expressing the heavenly arms with which we ought to be armed in our inner self, calls the sword of the spirit the word of God; of which to the Hebrews he says, The word of God is living and effective, and more penetrating than any two-edged sword; reaching, he says, even to the division of soul and spirit (Heb 4:12), and the rest which you know. What wonder, then, if the fiery force of this word, and the more penetrating edge of the two-edged sword, passed through the soul of holy Joseph once, and afterward of blessed Mary? For we have learned that iron passed through neither his nor her body. And so that it may be the more plain that the Prophet there set "iron" for the sword of the word, immediately in the following verse he says, The word of the Lord set him on fire (Ps 105:19 (104:19)). For the word of God is both fire and sword, the Word himself, God, saying both of himself: I came, he says, to send fire on the earth; and what do I will but that it already be kindled? (Luke 12:49) Likewise elsewhere he says, I came not to send peace, but a sword (Matt 10:34). You see that he designated one force of his teaching by the diverse names of fire and sword. Or how would the suffering or tribulation brought upon Mary by a sword endure? And so I desire to know this: what it would pertain to Mary that the thoughts of many hearts should be revealed; or where it appeared that, from the fact that a sword—whether a carnal one in iron, or a spiritual one in the word of God—passed through her soul, thereupon the thoughts of many hearts were revealed. Expound, then, this close of the words of Simeon especially to me, because I do not doubt that it shines for your holy soul, which from the purity of the inner eye has deserved the illumination of the Holy Spirit, through whom it can search and inspect even the deep things of God. May God have mercy on me through your prayers, and illuminate his countenance over me through the lamp of your word, holy lord, most blessed brother of one soul in the Lord Christ, my master in the faith of truth, and my receiver in the bowels of the love of Christ.
Ep100-155.3.18EPISTOLA 122
DILECTISSIMIS FRATRIBUS CONCLERICIS ET UNIVERSAE PLEBI, AUGUSTINUS, IN DOMINO SALUTEM.
DILECTISSIMIS FRATRIBUS CONCLERICIS ET UNIVERSAE PLEBI, AUGUSTINUS, IN DOMINO SALUTEM.
LETTER 122
To his most beloved brothers, his fellow clerics and the whole people, Augustine sends greetings in the Lord.
Ep100-155.3.18To his most beloved brothers, his fellow clerics and the whole people, Augustine sends greetings in the Lord.
1. In primis peto caritatem vestram, et per Christum obsecro, ne vos mea contristet absentia corporalis. Nam spiritu et cordis affectu puto vos non dubitare nullo modo me a vobis posse discedere; quamvis me amplius contristet, quam forte vos ipsos, quod infirmitas mea sufficere non potest omnibus curis, quas de me exigunt membra Christi, quibus me et timor eius et caritas servire compellit. Illud enim noverit Dilectio vestra, numquam me absentem fuisse licentiosa libertate, sed necessaria servitute, quae saepe sanctos fratres et collegas meos, etiam labores marinos et transmarinos compulit sustinere; a quibus me semper non indevotio mentis, sed minus idonea valetudo corporis excusavit. Proinde, dilectissimi fratres, sic agite, ut, quod ait Apostolus, sive adveniens et videns vos, sive absens, audiam de vobis, quia statis in uno spiritu, uno animo collaborantes fidei evangelicae. Si vos aliqua molestia temporalis exagitat, ipsa vos magis admonere debet quemadmodum de illa vita cogitare debeatis, ubi sine aliquo labore vivatis, evadentes non molestas angustias temporis parvi, sed horrendas poenas ignis aeterni. Nam si modo tanta cura, tanta intentione, tanto labore agitis, ne in aliquos cruciatus transitorios incidatis; quantum vos oportet esse sollicitos, ut sempiternas miserias fugiatis! Et si mors sic timetur, quae finit temporalem laborem; quomodo timenda est quae mittit in aeternum dolorem! Et si deliciae seculi huius, breves et sordidae, sic amantur; quanto vehementius futuri seculi gaudia pura et infinita quaerenda sunt! Ista cogitantes nolite esse pigri in operibus bonis, ut ad vestri seminis messem suo tempore veniatis.
1. First of all I ask your love, and beseech you through Christ, that my bodily absence not sadden you. For in spirit and the affection of the heart I think you do not doubt that I can in no way depart from you; although it saddens me more, perhaps, than it does you yourselves, that my weakness cannot suffice for all the cares which the members of Christ demand of me, whom both his fear and his love compel me to serve. For let your Love know this: that I was never absent by licentious liberty, but by necessary servitude, which has often compelled my holy brothers and colleagues to endure even labors by sea and overseas; from which a not undevout mind, but a less fit health of body, has always excused me. Accordingly, dearest brothers, so act that, as the Apostle says, whether coming and seeing you, or absent, I may hear of you that you stand in one spirit, laboring together with one mind for the evangelical faith. If any temporal trouble harasses you, that itself ought rather to admonish you how you ought to think about that life where you may live without any labor, escaping not the troublesome straits of a small time, but the horrible penalties of eternal fire. For if now with so great care, so great intention, so great labor you act lest you fall into some transitory torments; how solicitous ought you to be to flee everlasting miseries! And if death is so feared, which ends temporal labor, how is that to be feared which sends into eternal grief! And if the delights of this world, brief and squalid, are so loved, how much more vehemently are the pure and infinite joys of the world to come to be sought! Thinking of these things, do not be slothful in good works, that you may come, in its time, to the harvest of your seed.
Ep100-155.12. Nuntiatum enim est mihi quod morem vestrum de vestiendis pauperibus fueritis obliti; ad quam misericordiam cum praesens essem vos exhortatus sum, et nunc exhortor, ne vos vincat et pigros faciat contritio huius mundi, cui talia videtis accidere qualia Dominus et Redemptor noster, qui mentiri non potest, ventura praedixit. Non solum ergo non debetis minus facere opera misericordiae, sed etiam debetis amplius quam soletis. Sicut enim ad loca munitiora festinantius migrant, qui ruinam domus vident contritis parietibus imminere; sic corda christiana quanto magis sentiunt mundi huius ruinam crebrescentibus tribulationibus propinquare, tanto magis debent bona quae in terra recondere disponebant, in thesaurum coelestem impigra celeritate transferre, ut si aliquis humanus casus acciderit, gaudeat qui de loco ruinoso emigravit: si autem nihil tale fuerit subsecutum, non contristetur qui quandoque moriturus, immortali Domino, ad quem venturus est, bona propria commendavit. Itaque, fratres mei dilectissimi, ex eo quod quisque habet, secundum suas vires quas ipse novit, facite quod soletis, alacriore animo quam soletis, et inter omnes seculi huius molestias apostolicam exhortationem corde retinete, ubi ait: Dominus in proximo est; nihil solliciti fueritis. Talia mihi de vobis nuntientur, quibus noverim, non propter meam praesentiam, sed propter Dei praeceptum, qui numquam est absens, vos solere facere quod multis annis me praesente, et aliquando etiam me absente fecistis. Dominus vos in pace conservet; et, dilectissimi fratres, orate pro nobis.
2. For it has been announced to me that you have forgotten your custom of clothing the poor; to which mercy, when I was present, I exhorted you, and now I exhort you, lest the affliction of this world conquer you and make you slothful—the world to which you see such things befalling as our Lord and Redeemer, who cannot lie, foretold would come. Not only, then, ought you not to do works of mercy less, but you ought to do them even more than you are wont. For just as those who see the ruin of a house threatening, its walls broken, migrate more hastily to safer places, so Christian hearts, the more they feel the ruin of this world drawing near with crowding tribulations, the more ought they to transfer to the heavenly treasure, with unwearied swiftness, the goods which they had arranged to store up on earth; so that, if some human mischance happen, he may rejoice who migrated from a ruinous place: but if nothing of the sort follow, he may not be saddened who, about to die at some time, has commended his own goods to the immortal Lord, to whom he is to come. And so, my most beloved brothers, from what each one has, according to his own powers which he himself knows, do what you are wont, with a more cheerful mind than you are wont, and amid all the troubles of this world keep in your heart the apostolic exhortation, where he says, The Lord is near; be not solicitous about anything (Phil 4:5-6). Let such things be announced to me about you, by which I may know that you are wont to do—not on account of my presence, but on account of the precept of God, who is never absent—what for many years in my presence, and sometimes even in my absence, you have done. May the Lord keep you in peace; and, most beloved brothers, pray for us.
Ep100-155.2EPISTOLA 123
LETTER 123
Ep100-155.21. Multi utroque claudicant pede, et ne fractis quidem cervicibus inclinantur, habentes affectum erroris pristini, cum praedicandi eamdem non habeant libertatem. Sancti fratres qui cum nostra sunt parvitate, praecipue sanctae ac venerabiles filiae tuae suppliciter te salutant. Fratres tuos, dominum meum Alypium, et dominum meum Evodium, ut meo nomine salutes, precor coronam tuam. Capta Ierusalem tenetur a Nabuchodonosor, nec Ieremiae vult audire consilia; quin potius Aegyptum desiderat, ut moriatur in Taphnes, et ibi servitute pereat sempiterna.
1. Many limp on both feet, and are not bowed even when their necks are broken, holding the affection of their former error, though they do not have the same liberty of preaching it. The holy brothers who are with our littleness, and especially your holy and venerable daughters, supplicantly greet you. Your brothers, my lord Alypius and my lord Evodius, I beg your crown to greet in my name. Jerusalem, captured, is held by Nebuchadnezzar, nor will it hear the counsels of Jeremiah; nay rather it desires Egypt, that it may die in Tahpanhes, and there perish in everlasting servitude.
Ep100-155.1EPISTOLA 124
DOMINIS IN DOMINO INSIGNIBUS, ET SANCTITATE CARISSIMIS AC DESIDERATISSIMIS FRATRIBUS, ALBINAE, PINIANO, ET MELANIAE, AUGUSTINUS, IN DOMINO SALUTEM.
DOMINIS IN DOMINO INSIGNIBUS, ET SANCTITATE CARISSIMIS AC DESIDERATISSIMIS FRATRIBUS, ALBINAE, PINIANO, ET MELANIAE, AUGUSTINUS, IN DOMINO SALUTEM.
LETTER 124
To the lords distinguished in the Lord, and in holiness most dear and most longed-for brothers, Albina, Pinian, and Melania, Augustine sends greetings in the Lord.
Ep100-155.1To the lords distinguished in the Lord, and in holiness most dear and most longed-for brothers, Albina, Pinian, and Melania, Augustine sends greetings in the Lord.
1. Cum habitu valetudinis vel natura frigus ferre non possim, numquam tamen maiores aestus, quam ista hieme tam horrenda, perpeti potui, quod ad vos, ad quos volatu maria transeunda fuerant, tam in proximo constitutos, tam de longinquo visendi nos gratia venientes, non dicam pergere, sed volare non potui. Et forte Sanctitas vestra eamdem hiemalem asperitatem poenae meae tantum causam putaverit; absit, carissimi. Quid enim grave ac molestum, vel etiam periculosum habent imbres isti, quod non mihi subeundum ac ferendum fuit, ut ad vos venirem, tanta in tantis malis nostris solatia, in hac generatione tortuosa ac perversa, tam ardenter accensa de summo lumine lumina, suscepta humilitate sublimia, et contempta claritate clariora? Simul etiam fruerer carnalis patriae meae tam spiritali felicitate, quae vos etiam praesentes habere meruit: de quibus absentibus, cum id quod nati estis, et quod gratia Christi facti estis, audiret, quamvis caritate crederet, tamen, ne non crederetur, narrare forsitan verebatur.
1. Although by the condition of my health, or by nature, I cannot bear cold, yet I have never been able to endure greater heats than in this so horrible winter, because to you—to whom seas were to be crossed by flight—set so near, coming from so far away for the sake of visiting us, I could not, I will not say go, but fly. And perhaps your Holiness will think the same wintry harshness to be the only cause of my penalty; far be it, dearest ones. For what grave and troublesome thing, or even dangerous, do these rains have, that I should not have undergone and borne it, to come to you—so great consolations amid our so great evils, in this tortuous and perverse generation, lights so ardently kindled from the highest Light, sublime by accepted humility, more illustrious by despised brightness? At the same time too I would enjoy the so spiritual happiness of my carnal fatherland, which has deserved to have even you present: about whom, absent, when it heard what you were born and what you were made by the grace of Christ, although it believed by love, yet, lest it not be believed, perhaps feared to narrate it.
Ep100-155.12. Dicam igitur quare non venerim, et quibus malis a tanto bono impeditus sim; ut non solum a vobis veniam, sed etiam vestris orationibus, ab illo qui in vobis quod ei vivitis operatur, merear misericordiam. Populus Hipponensis, cui me Dominus servum dedit, cum ex magna et pene ex omni parte ita infirmus sit, ut pressura etiam levioris tribulationis possit graviter aegrotare, nunc tam magna tribulatione caeditur, ut etiamsi non sic esset infirmus, vix eam cum aliqua salute animi sustineret. Eum autem modo cum regressus sum, periculosissime scandalizatum comperi de absentia mea: vestris autem, de quorum spiritali robore gaudemus in Domino, sanis utique faucibus sapit quomodo dictum sit: Quis infirmatur, et ego non infirmor? quis scandalizatur, et ego non uror?. Praesertim quoniam multi sunt hic, qui detrahendo nobis, caeterorum animos a quibus diligi videmur, adversus nos perturbare conantur, ut locum in eis diabolo faciant. Cum autem irascuntur nobis de quorum salute satagimus, magnum illis consilium vindicandi, est libido moriendi, non in corpore, sed in corde, ubi funus occulte prius suo putore sentitur, quam nostra cogitatione prospicitur. Huic meae sollicitudini procul dubio libenter ignoscitis; praesertim quoniam si succenseretis, et velletis ulcisci, nihil fortasse gravius inveniretis quam id quod patior, cum vos Thagastae non video. Spero autem vestris adiutus orationibus, quod mihi ad vos ubicumque in Africa fueritis, venire quantocius concedetur, cum hoc quo nunc detentus sum, praeterierit; si haec civitas in qua laboramus, digna non est, quia nec ego audeo dignam putare, quae nobiscum de vestra praesentia collaetetur.
2. I shall say, then, why I have not come, and by what evils I have been hindered from so great a good; so that not only from you I may obtain pardon, but even by your prayers may deserve mercy from him who works in you that for which you live to him. The people of Hippo, to whom the Lord gave me as a servant, since in great and almost in every part they are so weak that by the pressure even of a lighter tribulation they can grievously sicken, are now beaten by so great a tribulation that, even if they were not so weak, they could scarcely bear it with any soundness of mind. And just now, when I returned, I found them most dangerously scandalized about my absence: but to your people, of whose spiritual strength we rejoice in the Lord, with sound throats surely it tastes how it was said, Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is scandalized, and I am not on fire? (2 Cor 11:29) Especially since there are many here who, by detracting from us, try to disturb against us the minds of others by whom we seem to be loved, that they may make in them a place for the devil. But when they grow angry at us, about whose salvation we are busy, their great counsel of avenging is a lust of dying—not in body, but in heart, where the corpse is secretly felt by its own stench before it is foreseen by our thought. To this solicitude of mine you without doubt gladly grant pardon; especially since, if you were angry and wished to avenge yourselves, you would perhaps find nothing graver than that which I suffer, when I do not see you at Thagaste. But I hope, aided by your prayers, that it will be granted me to come to you, wherever in Africa you are, as soon as possible, when this by which I am now detained has passed; if this city in which we labor is not worthy—because I do not dare to think it worthy—to rejoice together with us over your presence.
Ep100-155.2EPISTOLA 125
DOMINO BEATISSIMO ET VENERABILITER CARISSIMO FRATRI ET CONSACERDOTI ALYPIO, ET QUI TECUM SUNT FRATRIBUS, AUGUSTINUS, ET QUI MECUM SUNT FRATRES, IN DOMINO SALUTEM.
DOMINO BEATISSIMO ET VENERABILITER CARISSIMO FRATRI ET CONSACERDOTI ALYPIO, ET QUI TECUM SUNT FRATRIBUS, AUGUSTINUS, ET QUI MECUM SUNT FRATRES, IN DOMINO SALUTEM.
LETTER 125
To the most blessed and reverently most dear lord, brother and fellow priest Alypius, and to the brothers who are with you, Augustine and the brothers who are with me send greetings in the Lord.
Ep100-155.2To the most blessed and reverently most dear lord, brother and fellow priest Alypius, and to the brothers who are with you, Augustine and the brothers who are with me send greetings in the Lord.
1. Dolemus quidem graviter, nec fieri potest ut parvipendamus quod in iniurias Sanctitatis tuae populus Hipponensis tanta clamavit; sed multo gravius dolendum est, frater bone, talia de nobis existimari, quam illa clamari. Quando enim nos credimur cupiditate pecuniae, non dilectione iustitiae servos Dei velle retinere, nonne optandum est ut qui hoc credunt, occultum cordis sui voce testentur, ac sic aliqua, si fieri potest, tanto maiora remedia requirantur, quam ut taciti pereant perniciosis suspicionibus venenati? Quapropter magis satagendum est, unde etiam priusquam hoc fieret locuti sumus, quomodo persuadeatur hominibus, quibus nos ad exemplum bonorum operum praebere praecipimur, falsum esse quod suspicantur, quam quomodo arguendi sint, qui suspiciones suas vocibus verbisque declarant.
1. We grieve indeed grievously, nor can it be that we make light of the fact that the people of Hippo cried out so much to the injury of Your Holiness; but much more grievously is it to be grieved, good brother, that such things are thought about us than that those things are cried out. For when we are believed to wish to retain the servants of God by desire of money, not by love of justice, is it not to be wished that those who believe this should testify the secret of their heart by their voice, and so that some remedies—if it can be—so much the greater may be sought, rather than that they perish in silence, poisoned by pernicious suspicions? Wherefore we must rather be busy—whence we spoke even before this happened—about how it may be persuaded to men, to whom we are commanded to offer ourselves as an example of good works, that what they suspect is false, than about how those are to be reproved who declare their suspicions by voices and words.
Ep100-155.12. Proinde ego sanctae Albinae non succenseo, nec arguendam iudico, sed a tali suspicione sanandam. Quae, quia non in meam personam eadem verba direxit, sed tamquam de Hipponensibus questa est, quod aperuerint cupiditatem suam, se non clericatus, sed pecuniae causa hominem divitem, atque huiusmodi pecuniae contemptorem et largitorem apud se tenere voluisse; tamen quod de nobis senserit, pene clamavit: nec ipsa tantum, verum etiam sancti filii eius, qui hoc etiam ipsa die in abside dixerunt. Hos ergo, ut dixi, magis sanandos ab huiusmodi suspicionibus, quam propter has arguendos existimo. Ubi enim nobis a spinis talibus securitas et requies praeparari vel praeberi potest, si adversus nos in tam sanctis nobisque carissimis cordibus nostris pullulare potuere? De te quippe imperitum vulgus hoc sensit; de nobis, lumina Ecclesiae: unde quid magis dolendum sit, vides. Utrumque autem non accusandum censeo, sed sanandum: homines enim sunt, et de hominibus talia, licet falsa, non tamen incredibilia suspicantur. Nam utique non usque adeo desipiunt tales homines, ut credant populum suam desiderare pecuniam; praesertim iam experti quod nihil ex ea populus Thagastensis accepit: sic ergo et Hipponensis. Verum omnis haec invidia non nisi in clericos aestuat, maximeque in episcopos, quorum videtur praeminere dominatus, qui uti fruique rebus Ecclesiae tamquam possessores et domini existimantur. Ad istam cupiditatem tam noxiam atque mortiferam, si fieri potest, mi Alypi, non aedificentur per nos infirmi. Recordare quid locuti fuerimus, antequam ista tentatio, quae plus ad hoc cogit, accideret. Ex hoc potius conferendo, adiuvante Domino, providere conemur; nec nobis sufficiat nostra conscientia, quia non talis causa est ubi debeat sola sufficere. Si enim servi Dei non reprobi sumus, si aliquid viget in nobis illius igniculi quo caritas non quaerit quae sua sunt; providere utique debemus bona, non solum coram Deo, sed etiam coram hominibus, ne tranquillam aquam bibentes in nostra conscientia, pedibus incautis agere convincamur, ut oves dominicae turbidam bibant.
2. Accordingly I am not angry with holy Albina, nor do I judge her to be reproved, but to be healed of such a suspicion. She, because she did not direct the same words against my person, but as though she complained about the people of Hippo, that they had laid open their covetousness, that they had wished to keep with them a rich man, and one of this kind a despiser and bestower of money—not for the sake of the clergy, but of the money—yet what she felt about us she well-nigh cried out: nor she only, but even her holy sons, who said this too on that very day in the apse. These, then, as I said, I judge to be healed of suspicions of this kind, rather than to be reproved on account of them. For where can security and rest from such thorns be prepared or afforded us, if against us they could sprout in hearts so holy and most dear to us? For of you the unskilled crowd thought this; of us, the lights of the Church: whence you see which is the more to be grieved. But neither, I judge, is to be accused, but to be healed: for they are men, and they suspect such things—false, indeed, yet not incredible—of men. For surely such men are not so foolish as to believe that the people desire their money; especially having already experienced that the people of Thagaste received nothing of it: so therefore neither the people of Hippo. But all this odium boils only against the clerics, and most of all against the bishops, whose dominion seems to be preeminent, who are esteemed to use and enjoy the goods of the Church as possessors and lords. To this so harmful and deadly covetousness, if it can be, my Alypius, let not the weak be built up through us. Remember what we spoke before this temptation, which compels more to this, happened. From this rather, by conferring, with the Lord helping, let us try to provide; and let not our own conscience suffice for us, because the cause is not such that it ought to suffice alone. For if we are not reprobate servants of God, if there is alive in us anything of that little fire by which love does not seek the things that are its own; we ought surely to provide good things, not only before God, but also before men, lest, drinking tranquil water in our conscience, we be convicted of acting with incautious feet, so that the Lord's sheep drink the troubled.
Ep100-155.23. Nam quod scripsisti, de genere iurationis violenter extortae, ut inter nos requiramus, obsecro te ne res lucidissimas disputatio nostra faciat obscuras. Si enim certa mors intentaretur, ut aliquid illicitum ac nefarium servus Dei se iuraret esse facturum, mori malle quam iurare debuerat, ne iurationem scelere impleret. Nunc vero cum tantummodo populi perseverantissimus clamor, ad nullum nefas hominem cogeret, sed ad id quod si fieret, licite fieret; cumque metueretur quidem ne aliqui perditi, qui multitudini etiam bonorum plerumque miscentur, occasione seditionis et quasi iustae indignationis inventa, in aliquam vim sceleratam rapinarum cupiditate prorumperent, sed tamen illud quod metuebatur esset incertum; quis censeat propter incerta, non dico damna et quaslibet iniurias corporales, sed propter ipsam mortem cavendam, certum periurium debere committi? Nescio quis ille Regulus nihil in Scripturis sanctis de impietate falsae iurationis audierat, nihil de Zacariae falce didicerat, et nimirum Carthaginensibus non per sacramenta Christi, sed per daemonum inquinamenta iuraverat; et tamen certissimos cruciatus et horrendi exempli mortem, non ut iuraret necessitate pertimuit, sed libera voluntate quia iuraverat, ne peieraret excepit. Et Romana tunc illa censura noluit habere, non in numero sanctorum, sed in numero senatorum, nec in coelesti gloria, sed in terrestri curia, non solum eos qui metu mortis crudeliumque poenarum apertissime peierare, quam ad immanes hostes remeare maluerant; sed etiam illum qui reatu periurii se putaverat absolutum, quia post iurationem ficta nescio qua necessitate redierat. Ita non attenderunt, qui eum senatu pepulerunt, quid ipse iurando cogitasset, sed quid ab illo quibus iuraverat exspectarent. Nec legerant quod nos usquequaque cantamus: Qui iurat proximo suo, et non decipit. Solemus haec, quamvis in hominibus a Christi gratia et nomine alienis, cum ingenti admiratione laudare; et adhuc in Libris divinis inquirendum putamus, utrum aliquando licite peieremus, ubi nobis, ne iurandi facilitate in periurium prolabamur, etiam praeceptum est ne iuremus!
3. But as for what you wrote, that we should inquire among ourselves about the kind of oath violently extorted, I beg you that our disputation not make most lucid things obscure. For if certain death were threatened so that a servant of God should swear that he would do something unlawful and wicked, he ought to prefer to die rather than to swear, lest he fulfill the oath by a crime. But now, since only the most persevering clamor of the people compelled the man to no wickedness, but to that which, if it were done, would be lawfully done; and since it was indeed feared lest some lost men—who for the most part are mixed even into a multitude of the good—having found an occasion of sedition and, as it were, just indignation, should break out into some criminal violence by the lust of plundering, yet that which was feared was uncertain; who would judge that, on account of uncertain things—I do not say losses and any bodily injuries, but on account of the very death to be avoided—a certain perjury ought to be committed? That certain Regulus, I know not who, had heard nothing in the holy Scriptures about the impiety of false swearing, had learned nothing about the sickle of Zechariah, and surely had sworn to the Carthaginians not by the sacraments of Christ but by the defilements of demons; and yet most certain torments and a death of horrid example he did not dread, of necessity, so as to swear, but by free will, because he had sworn, took upon himself, lest he forswear. And that Roman censorship of the time was unwilling to have—not in the number of the saints, but in the number of senators; not in heavenly glory, but in the earthly senate-house—not only those who, by fear of death and cruel punishments, had preferred most openly to forswear rather than to return to the savage enemies, but even him who had thought himself absolved of the guilt of perjury because, after the oath, he had returned by some feigned necessity. Thus those who drove him from the senate did not attend to what he himself had thought in swearing, but to what those to whom he had sworn expected of him. Nor had they read what we everywhere sing: He who swears to his neighbor and does not deceive him (Ps 15:4 (14:4)). We are wont to praise these things, though in men foreign to the grace and name of Christ, with great admiration; and do we still think it must be inquired in the divine Books whether we may ever lawfully forswear—where, lest by the facility of swearing we slip into perjury, it has even been commanded us that we not swear!
Ep100-155.34. Illud sane rectissime dici non ambigo, non secundum verba iurantis, sed secundum exspectationem illius cui iuratur, quam novit ille qui iurat, fidem iurationis impleri. Nam verba difficillime comprehendunt, maxime breviter, sententiam cuius a iurante fides exigitur. Unde periuri sunt, qui servatis verbis, exspectationem eorum quibus iuratum est deceperunt; et periuri non sunt, qui etiam verbis non servatis, illud quod ab eis cum iurarent exspectatum est, impleverunt. Proinde quia Hipponenses sanctum Pinianum non sicut damnatum, sed sicut carissimum inhabitatorem suae civitatis habere voluerunt, etsi verbis eius non satis comprehendi potuit, usque adeo tamen in promptu est quid ab illo exspectaverint, ut quod nunc post iurationem absens est, neminem moveat eorum qui audire potuerunt, certa eum causa profecturum esse, cum voluntate redeundi. Ac per hoc periurus nec erit, nec ab eis putabitur, nisi eorum exspectationem deceperit: non autem decipiet, nisi aut voluntatem mutaverit apud eos habitandi, aut aliquando discesserit sine dispositione redeundi; quod absit ab eius moribus et fide, quam Christo et Ecclesiae debitam servat. Nam, ut omittam quod mecum nosti, quam sit tremendum de periurio divinum iudicium; illud certe scio, nulli nos deinceps succensere debere qui nobis iurantibus non crediderit, si talis viri periurium non modo aequo animo ferendum, verum etiam defendendum putabimus. Quod et a nobis et ab illo avertat illius misericordia, qui eruit a tentatione sperantes in se. Sicut ergo in commonitorio rescripsisti, impleat promissum quo ita se promisit ab Hippone non recessurum, quemadmodum ego vel ipsi Hipponenses non recedimus, quibus tamen et abeundi et redeundi facultas est libera: nisi quod his qui iuratione non detinentur, etiam omnino et migrandi et non redeundi sine periurii reatu potestas est.
4. This indeed I do not doubt is most rightly said, that the faith of an oath is fulfilled not according to the words of the one swearing, but according to the expectation of him to whom it is sworn, which the one swearing knows. For words most difficultly comprehend, especially briefly, the sense of which faith is exacted from the one swearing. Whence those are perjurers who, keeping the words, deceived the expectation of those to whom it was sworn; and those are not perjurers who, even the words not being kept, fulfilled that which was expected of them when they swore. Accordingly, because the people of Hippo wished to have holy Pinian not as one condemned, but as a most dear inhabitant of their city, even if it could not be sufficiently comprehended by his words, yet it is so far in plain view what they expected of him, that the fact that he is now absent after the oath moves none of those who could hear, but he will set out for a certain cause, with the will of returning. And through this he will neither be a perjurer, nor be thought one by them, unless he deceives their expectation: but he will not deceive it, unless he either changes the will of dwelling among them, or at some time departs without the disposition of returning; which be far from his character and the faith which he keeps owed to Christ and the Church. For—to omit what you know with me, how dreadful the divine judgment is about perjury—this at least I know, that we ought henceforth to be angry with no one who does not believe us when we swear, if we shall think that the perjury of such a man is not only to be borne with an even mind, but even to be defended. Which may his mercy turn away both from us and from him, who rescues from temptation those who hope in him. As, then, you wrote back in the memorandum, let him fulfill the promise by which he so promised that he would not depart from Hippo, in the way that I, or the people of Hippo themselves, do not depart—who yet have free faculty both of going away and of returning: except that those who are not held by an oath have the power even altogether of migrating and not returning without the guilt of perjury.
Ep100-155.45. Clericos sane nostros vel fratres in monasterio constitutos, participes vel hortatores fuisse contumeliarum tuarum, utrum probari possit, ignoro. Nam cum hoc quaesissem, dictum est unum tantummodo Carthaginensium de monasterio clamasse cum populo, cum illum presbyterum peterent, non cum in te indigna iactarent. Adiunxi huic epistolae ipsius promissionis exemplum, ex chartula eadem translatum, quam ipse subscripsit, et me inspiciente emendatum.
5. Whether it can be proved that our clerics, or the brothers set in the monastery, were partakers or instigators of the insults against you, I do not know. For when I had inquired about this, it was said that only one of the Carthaginians from the monastery cried out with the people, when they were asking for that priest, not when they were flinging unworthy things against you. I have joined to this letter a copy of his very promise, transcribed from the same little paper which he himself subscribed, and which was emended in my sight.
Ep100-155.5EPISTOLA 126
DOMINAE SANCTAE AC VENERABILI FAMULAE DEI ALBINAE, AUGUSTINUS, IN DOMINO SALUTEM
DOMINAE SANCTAE AC VENERABILI FAMULAE DEI ALBINAE, AUGUSTINUS, IN DOMINO SALUTEM
LETTER 126
To the holy and venerable lady, the handmaid of God Albina, Augustine sends greetings in the Lord.
Ep100-155.5To the holy and venerable lady, the handmaid of God Albina, Augustine sends greetings in the Lord.
1. Dolorem animi tui, quem te scribis explicare non posse, consolari aequum est, non augere; ut si fieri potest, sanemus suspiciones tuas, non ut eis pro nostra causa succensendo, venerandum cor tuum et Deo dicatum amplius perturbemus. Sancto fratri nostro, filio tuo Piniano, nullus ab Hipponensibus metus mortis ingestus est, etiamsi forte ipse tale aliquid timuit. Nam et nos metuebamus ne ab aliquibus perditis, qui saepe multitudini occulta conspiratione miscentur, in violentam prorumperetur audaciam, occasione seditionis inventa quam velut iusta indignatione concitarent. Sed, sicut post audire potuimus, nihil tale a quoquam dictum est vel molitum: sed vere in fratrem meum Alypium multa contumeliosa et indigna clamabant, a quo tam ingenti reatu utinam per illius orationes mereantur absolvi. Ego autem post primos eorum clamores, cum eis dixissem de illo invito non ordinando qua iam promissione detinerer, atque adiecissem quod si mea fide violata illum haberent presbyterum, me episcopum non haberent, ad nostra subsellia, relicta turba redieram. Tum illi aliquantulum inopinata mea responsione cunctati atque turbati, velut flamma vento paululum pressa, deinde coeperunt multo ardentius excitari, existimantes fieri posse ut vel mihi extorqueretur illud non servare promissum, vel me tenente promissi fidem, ab alio episcopo ordinaretur. Dicebam ego quibus poteram, qui ad nos in absidem honoratiores et graviores ascenderant, nec a promissi fide me posse dimoveri, nec ab alio episcopo in ecclesia mihi tradita, nisi me interrogato ac permittente, posse ordinari; quod si permitterem, a fide nihilominus deviarem. Addebam etiam, nihil eos velle, si ordinaretur invitus, nisi ut ordinatus abscederet. Illi hoc posse fieri non credebant. Multitudo vero pro gradibus constituta, horrendo et perseverantissimo clamorum fremitu in eadem voluntate persistens, incertos animi consiliique faciebat. Tunc illa in fratrem meum indigna clamabantur, tunc a nobis graviora timebantur.
1. The grief of your mind, which you write you cannot unfold, it is fitting to console, not to increase; so that, if it can be, we may heal your suspicions, not, by being angry at them for our own cause, the more disturb your venerable heart, which is dedicated to God. To our holy brother, your son Pinian, no fear of death was inflicted by the people of Hippo, even if perhaps he himself feared something of the sort. For we too feared lest by some lost men—who often mingle with a multitude by hidden conspiracy—there should break out a violent audacity, an occasion of sedition being found which they would stir up as though by just indignation. But, as we could afterward hear, nothing of the sort was said or attempted by anyone: but truly against my brother Alypius they cried out many insulting and unworthy things, from which so great a guilt would that they might deserve, through his prayers, to be absolved. But I, after their first clamors, when I had said to them about not ordaining him against his will, by what promise I was now detained, and had added that, if, my faith being violated, they had him as priest, they would not have me as bishop, returned to our benches, leaving the crowd. Then they, somewhat hesitant and disturbed by my unexpected answer—like a flame a little pressed by the wind—then began to be roused much more ardently, thinking it could happen that either it might be extorted from me not to keep that promise, or, with me keeping the faith of the promise, he might be ordained by another bishop. I was saying to those I could—who had come up to us into the apse, the more honorable and graver men—that I could neither be moved from the faith of the promise, nor could he be ordained by another bishop in the church handed over to me, unless I were questioned and gave permission; and that if I should permit it, I would nonetheless deviate from faith. I added too that they wished nothing, if he were ordained against his will, except that, once ordained, he should depart. They did not believe this could happen. But the multitude, set before the steps, persisting in the same will with a horrible and most persevering roar of clamors, made us uncertain of mind and counsel. Then those unworthy things were cried out against my brother; then graver things were feared from us.
Ep100-155.12. Sed quamvis tanto motu populi et tanta perturbatione Ecclesiae permoverer, nec aliud constipationi illi dixissem, nisi eum me invitum ordinare non posse; nec sic tamen adductus sum, quia et hoc promiseram non me fuisse facturum, ut aliquid ei de suscipiendo presbyterio suaderem: quod si persuadere potuissem, non iam ordinaretur invitus. Servavi utriusque promissionis fidem, non solum illius quam iam populo patefeceram; verum etiam illius in qua uno teste, quantum ad homines attinet, detinebar. Servavi, inquam, fidem promissionis, non iurationis, in tanto periculo; quod licet falso, sicut postea comperimus, metuebatur, omnibus tamen, si quod esset, communiter impendebat: et erat metus ipse communis, ac propter ecclesiam in qua eramus maxime metuens, abscedere cogitabam. Sed metuendum fuit ne magis me absente tale aliquid faceret et reverentia minor, et dolor ardentior. Deinde si cum fratre Alypio discederem per populum constipatum, cavendum fuit ne quisquam in eum manum mittere auderet: si autem sine illo, quae frons esset existimationis, si quid ei fortassis accideret, et viderer eum propterea deseruisse, ut furenti populo traderetur?
2. But although I was moved by so great a stirring of the people and so great a disturbance of the Church, and had said nothing else to that throng than that I could not ordain him against his will; yet not even so was I brought—because I had promised this too, that I would not do it—to persuade him anything about taking up the priesthood: which if I could have persuaded, he would no longer be ordained against his will. I kept the faith of both promises, not only of that which I had already laid open to the people, but even of that in which, with one witness, as far as pertains to men, I was held. I kept, I say, the faith of the promise, not of an oath, in so great a danger; which, though falsely, as we afterward learned, was feared, yet, if it existed, hung in common over all: and the fear itself was common, and, fearing most of all on account of the church in which we were, I was thinking of departing. But it had to be feared lest, more in my absence, he should do something of the sort, both with less reverence and with more ardent grief. Then, if I departed with brother Alypius through the throng of people, it had to be guarded against lest anyone dare to lay hand on him: but if without him, what countenance of esteem would there be, if perhaps something happened to him, and I should seem to have deserted him for this reason, that he might be handed over to a raging people?
Ep100-155.23. Inter hos aestus meos gravemque maerorem, et nullius consilii respirationem, ecce repente atque inopinate sanctus filius noster Pinianus mittit ad me servum Dei, qui mihi diceret, eum se velle populo iurare, quod si esset ordinatus invitus, ex Africa omnino discederet; credo, existimans eos, quandoquidem peierare non posset, non iam ulterius infructuosa perseverantia clamaturos, ad expellendum hinc hominem, quem saltem deberemus habere vicinum. Mihi autem, quia videbatur vehementiorem eorum dolorem post hanc iurationem fuisse metuendum, apud me tacitus habui; et quia simul petierat ut ad eum venirem, non distuli. Cum mihi dixisset hoc ipsum, continuo et illud adiunxit eidem iurationi, quod mihi, dum ad eum pergo, per alium Dei servum mandaverat, de praesentia scilicet sua, si ei clericatus sarcinam nolenti nullus imponeret. Hic ego in tantis angustiis quasi aura spirante recreatus, nihil ei respondi; sed ad fratrem Alypium gradu concitatiore perrexi, eique quid dixerit dixi. At ille, ut existimo, devitans ne quid se auctore fieret, unde vos putabat offendi: "Hinc me, inquit, nemo consulat". Quo audito, ad populum tumultuantem perrexi, factoque silentio, quid promissum esset cum promissione etiam iurationis aperui. Illi vero qui solum eius presbyterium cogitabant atque cupiebant, non ita ut putabam quod oblatum fuerat acceperunt; sed inter se aliquantulum mussitantes, petiverunt ut adderetur eidem promissioni atque iurationi, ut si quando illi ad suscipiendum clericatum consentire placuisset, non nisi in ipsa Hipponensi ecclesia consentiret. Retuli ad eum; sine dubitatione annuit. Renuntiavi illis, laetati sunt; et mox iurationem pollicitam poposcerunt.
3. Amid these heats of mine and grave mourning, and the breathing-space of no counsel, behold, suddenly and unexpectedly our holy son Pinian sends to me a servant of God, to tell me that he wished to swear to the people that, if he were ordained against his will, he would altogether depart from Africa; thinking, I believe, that they, since he could not forswear, would no longer cry out with fruitless perseverance to expel from here a man whom we ought at least to have as a neighbor. But to me, because it seemed that their more vehement grief after this oath was to be feared, I held it silently with myself; and because he had at the same time asked that I come to him, I did not delay. When he had said this very thing to me, he at once joined to that oath this also, which, while I was going to him, he had charged me through another servant of God—namely about his presence, if no one should lay the burden of the clergy upon him unwilling. Here I, in such straits, as though refreshed by a breathing breeze, answered him nothing; but to brother Alypius I went with a more hurried step, and told him what he had said. But he, as I think, avoiding lest anything be done with himself as author whence he thought you would be offended, said, "Let no one consult me about this." Which heard, I went to the tumultuous people, and, silence being made, I laid open what had been promised, with the promise of an oath also. But they, who thought of and desired only his priesthood, did not, as I supposed, accept what had been offered; but, muttering a little among themselves, asked that there be added to the same promise and oath, that if at any time it should please him to consent to take up the clergy, he should consent only in the Hippo church itself. I reported it to him; without hesitation he assented. I announced it to them; they were glad; and soon they demanded the promised oath.
Ep100-155.34. Reverti ad filium nostrum, eumque inveni fluctuantem quibusnam verbis comprehendi posset illa cum iuratione promissio, propter necessitates irruentes, quae possent eum ut abscederet cogere. Simul etiam quid timeret ostendit, ne quis irruisset hostilis incursus, qui esset discessione vitandus. Volebat addi sancta Melania, et aeris morbidi causationem; sed illius responsione reprehensa est. Ego autem dixi, gravem ab illo et non contemnendam causam necessitatis ingestam, quae cives etiam emigrare compelleret: sed si haec populo dicerentur, timendum esse ne male nos ominari videremur; si autem sub generali necessitatis nomine fieret excusatio, non nisi fraudulentam necessitatem putari. Placuit tamen ut de hac re populi animum experiremur; et nihil aliud quam id quod putaveramus invenimus. Nam cum eius verba a diacono dicta recitarentur, et omnia placuissent; ubi nomen interpositae necessitatis insonuit, continuo reclamatum est, promissioque displicuit, tumultu recrudescente, et nihil aliud quam fraude secum agi populo existimante. Quod cum sanctus filius noster vidisset, iussit inde auferri nomen necessitatis, rursumque ad laetitiam populus remeavit.
4. I returned to our son, and found him wavering by what words that promise with an oath could be comprehended, on account of the necessities rushing upon him which could compel him to depart. At the same time too he showed what he feared, lest some hostile incursion should rush in, which was to be avoided by departure. Holy Melania wished there to be added the pretext of unhealthy air too; but she was rebuked by his answer. But I said that a grave cause of necessity, and not to be despised, had been brought forward by him, which would compel even citizens to emigrate: but that if these things were said to the people, it had to be feared lest we should seem to bode ill; and that if the excuse were made under the general name of necessity, it would be thought nothing but a fraudulent necessity. Yet it pleased us to test the mind of the people about this matter; and we found nothing else than what we had supposed. For when his words were recited, said by the deacon, and all had pleased, when the name of the interposed necessity sounded, at once there was an outcry, and the promise displeased, the tumult breaking out afresh, and the people thinking nothing else than that it was being dealt with them by fraud. When our holy son saw this, he ordered the name of necessity to be removed from there, and again the people returned to gladness.
Ep100-155.45. Et cum lassitudinem excusarem, sine me ad plebem accedere noluit; simul accessimus. Dixit ei quae a diacono audita erant se mandasse, se iurasse, eaque se esse facturum, continuoque omnia eo tenore quo dictaverat, prosecutus est. Responsum est, Deo gratias, et petitum ut totum scriptum subscriberetur. Dimisimus catechumenos, continuoque scriptum subscripsit. Deinde peti coepimus nos episcopi, non vocibus populi, sed tamen a populo per honestos fideles, ut nos quoque subscriberemus. At ubi coepi subscribere, sancta Melania contradixit. Miratus sum quare tam sero, quasi promissionem illam et iurationem nos, non subscribendo, facere possemus infectam: sed tamen obtemperavi; ac sic remansit mea non plena subscriptio, nec ultra nobis quisquam ut subscriberemus putavit instandum.
5. And when I excused myself by weariness, he was unwilling to go to the people without me; we went together. He told them that he had charged what had been heard from the deacon, that he had sworn, and that he would do these things, and at once pursued everything in the same tenor in which he had dictated it. The answer was, "Thanks be to God," and it was asked that the whole writing be subscribed. We dismissed the catechumens, and at once he subscribed the writing. Then we bishops began to be asked, not by the voices of the people, but yet by the people through honorable faithful men, that we too should subscribe. But when I began to subscribe, holy Melania objected. I marveled why so late, as though we could make that promise and oath undone by not subscribing: but yet I complied; and so my subscription remained incomplete, nor did anyone think we should be further pressed to subscribe.
Ep100-155.56. Qui autem alio die posteaquam ipsum discessisse didicerunt, fuerint motus vel linguae hominum, quantum satis arbitratus sum, Sanctitati vestrae per commonitorium intimare curavi. Quisquis itaque vobis contraria his quae narravi, forte narravit, aut mentitur, aut fallitur. Quaedam enim quae mihi ad curam non pertinere visa sunt, praetermisisse me sentio; nulla tamen falsa dixisse. Proinde sanctus filius noster Pinianus, quod me praesente ac permittente iuraverit, verum est: quod autem me praecipiente iuraverit, falsum est. Scit ipse, sciunt servi Dei quos ad me misit, primo sanctus Barnabas, deinde Timasius, per quem etiam de promissione praesentiae suae mihi mandavit. Ipse quoque populus ad presbyterium, non ad iusiurandum clamando cogebat: sed oblatum sibi non respuit, ea spe quo posset in eodem apud nos habitante voluntas fieri, quo consentiret ad ordinationem, ne sicut iuraverat, si invitus ordinaretur, abscederet. Ac per hoc et illi propter opus Dei clamaverunt (neque enim sanctificatio presbyterii non est opus Dei); et quod postea de promissa praesentia gratulati non sunt, nisi adderetur quod si quando ad suscipiendum clericatum consentire vellet, nonnisi in Hipponensi ecclesia consentiret, satis in promptu est quod etiam de ipsa eius apud se habitatione speraverint, ideoque ab illo operis Dei desiderio non recesserunt.
6. But what stirrings, or tongues of men, there were the next day, after they learned that he had departed, I have taken care, as far as I judged sufficient, to intimate to Your Holiness by a memorandum. Whoever, then, has perhaps narrated to you things contrary to what I have narrated, either lies or is deceived. For I feel that I have passed over certain things which seemed to me not to pertain to the matter; yet I have said nothing false. Accordingly, that our holy son Pinian swore in my presence and with my permission is true: but that he swore at my command is false. He himself knows it; the servants of God whom he sent to me know it—first holy Barnabas, then Timasius, through whom too he charged me about the promise of his presence. The people themselves too compelled, by clamoring, to the priesthood, not to the oath: but they did not reject what was offered to them, in the hope that, with him dwelling among us, the will could be brought about by which he would consent to ordination, lest, as he had sworn, he should depart if ordained against his will. And through this both they clamored on account of the work of God (for the sanctification of the priesthood is not other than the work of God); and the fact that they afterward were not glad about the promised presence unless there were added that, if at any time he should wish to consent to take up the clergy, he would consent only in the Hippo church—this is sufficiently in plain view, that they hoped even for his very dwelling among them, and therefore they did not withdraw from that desire of the work of God.
Ep100-155.67. Quomodo ergo dicis hoc eos fecisse turpissimo appetitu pecuniae? Primo quia ad plebem quae clamabat, omnino non pertinet: sicut enim plebs Thagastensis de his quae contulistis Ecclesiae Thagastensi, non habet nisi gaudium boni operis vestri; sic et Hipponensis et cuiuslibet alterius loci, ubi de mammona iniquitatis Domini praecepta fecistis, vel estis ubicumque facturi. Non ergo populus ut de tanto viro Ecclesiae consuleret suae ardentissime flagitans, suum pecuniarium quaesivit commodum a vobis; sed vestrum pecuniae contemptum dilexit in vobis. Nam si in me dilexerunt, quod audierant paucis agellulis paternis contemptis, ad Dei liberam servitutem me fuisse conversum, neque in hoc inviderunt Ecclesiae Thagastensi, quae carnalis patria mea est; sed cum illa clericatum mihi non imposuisset, quando potuerunt, habendum invaserunt: quanto flagrantius in nostro Piniano amare potuerunt tantam mundi huius cupiditatem, tantas opes, tantam spem, tanta conversione superatam atque calcatam! Ego quippe secundum multorum sensum comparantium semetipsos sibimetipsis, non divitias dimisisse, sed ad divitias videor venisse. Vix enim vigesima particula res mea paterna existimari potest, in comparatione praediorum Ecclesiae, quae nunc ut dominus existimor possidere. In qualibet autem, maxime Africanarum Ecclesiarum, hic noster, non dico presbyter, sed episcopus sit, comparatus pristinis opibus suis, etiamsi animo dominantis egerit, pauperrimus erit. Multo ergo liquidius et securius in hoc amatur christiana paupertas, in quo nulla rerum ampliorum potest putari cupiditas. Hoc accendit animos populi, hoc in illam violentiam perseverantissimi clamoris erexit. Non eos turpis cupiditatis insuper accusemus, sed magis bonum quod ipsi non habent, saltem in aliis diligere sine crimine permittamus. Nam etsi fuerint illi multitudini permixti inopes vel mendici, qui simul clamabant, et de vestra venerabili redundantia indigentiae suae supplementum sperabant; nec ista, ut arbitror, cupiditas turpis est.
7. How then do you say that they did this from a most shameful appetite for money? First, because it in no way pertains to the people who clamored: for just as the people of Thagaste have nothing but joy of your good work from the things you bestowed on the church of Thagaste, so too the people of Hippo and of any other place where, from the mammon of iniquity, you have done the Lord's precepts, or are anywhere going to do them. Not, then, did the people, demanding most ardently that they might take counsel for their church about so great a man, seek their own pecuniary advantage from you; but they loved in you your contempt of money. For if they loved in me what they had heard, that, despising a few little paternal fields, I had been converted to the free service of God, and did not in this envy the church of Thagaste, which is my carnal fatherland; but, since it had not imposed the clergy on me, they, when they could, invaded the holding of me: how much more ardently could they love in our Pinian so great a desire for this world, so great wealth, so great hope, overcome and trodden under by so great a conversion! For I, according to the sense of many who compare themselves with themselves, seem not to have given up riches, but to have come to riches. For scarcely can my paternal property be esteemed a twentieth part, in comparison with the estates of the Church, which I am now esteemed to possess as lord. But in any church—especially of the African churches—let this one of ours be, I do not say priest, but bishop, compared with his former wealth: even if he acts with the mind of one lording it, he will be most poor. Much more clearly, then, and more securely, is Christian poverty loved in him in whom no desire of larger things can be supposed. This kindled the minds of the people, this raised them to that violence of most persevering clamor. Let us not over and above accuse them of shameful covetousness, but rather permit them, without crime, at least to love in others the good which they themselves do not have. For even if there were mixed into that multitude needy ones or beggars who clamored together, and hoped from your venerable abundance a supplement for their own indigence, neither is this covetousness, I think, shameful.
Ep100-155.78. Restat ergo ut iste pecuniae turpissimus appetitus ex obliquo in clericos, et maxime in episcopum dirigatur. Nos enim rebus Ecclesiae dominari existimamur, nos opibus frui. Postremo quidquid de istis nos accepimus, nos vel adhuc possidemus, vel ut placuit erogavimus; nihil inde populo extra clericatum vel extra monasterium constituto, nisi paucissimis indigentibus largiti sumus. Non ergo dico quia vel in nos maxime a vobis dici ista debuerunt, verumtamen in nos solos credibiliter dici potuerunt. Quid ergo faciemus? qua nos, si apud inimicos non possumus, saltem apud vos ratione purgamus? Res haec animi est, intus est, procul ab oculis secreta mortalium, Deo tantummodo nota est. Quid ergo restat, nisi Deum testari cui nota est? Cum ergo de nobis ista sentitis, non praecipitis (quod multo melius est, et quod mihi in epistola tua tamquam culpabile obiciendum putasti), sed omnino cogitis ut iuremus; non intentato metu mortis carnis nostrae, quod populus Hipponensis fecisse putatus est, sed intentato metu mortis existimationis nostrae, quae propter infirmos quibus nos praebere ad exemplum bonorum operum qualicumque conversatione conamur, etiam vitae carnis huius utique praeponenda est.
8. It remains, then, that this most shameful appetite for money is directed obliquely against the clerics, and most of all against the bishop. For we are esteemed to lord it over the goods of the Church, we to enjoy its wealth. Finally, whatever of these things we have received, we either still possess, or, as it pleased, have disbursed; nothing of it to the people set outside the clergy or outside the monastery, except to a very few needy ones, have we lavished. I do not say, then, that these things ought to have been said by you even chiefly against us; nevertheless, against us alone they could credibly be said. What then shall we do? By what reason do we clear ourselves, if not with our enemies, at least with you? This is a matter of the mind, it is within, far from the eyes, hidden from mortals, known to God alone. What then remains, but to call God to witness, to whom it is known? When, then, you think these things of us, you do not command (which is much better, and which in your letter you thought should be objected to me as blameworthy), but altogether compel us to swear; not by threatening the fear of the death of our flesh, which the people of Hippo were thought to have done, but by threatening the fear of the death of our esteem, which, on account of the weak to whom we try to offer ourselves by whatever conduct as an example of good works, is surely to be preferred even to the life of this flesh.
Ep100-155.89. Verumtamen vobis nos ita cogentibus ut iuremus, non succensemus, sicut vos Hipponensibus succensetis. Creditis enim tamquam homines de hominibus, etsi ea quae in nobis non sunt, non tamen ea quae in nobis esse non possunt. Sananda ista in vobis, non accusanda sunt; et nostra purganda vobis est fama, si est Domino purgata conscientia. Qui fortasse praestabit, sicut antequam accidisset ista tentatio, ego et frater meus Alypius collocuti sumus, ut non solum vobis carissimis commembris nostris, verum etiam ipsis inimicissimis notissimum fiat, nulla nos cupiditate pecuniae in rebus ecclesiasticis sordidari. Quod donec fiat, si Dominus donabit ut fiat, ecce nunc interim quod cogimur facimus, ne vestri cordis medicinam in quantamlibet moram temporis differamus. Deus testis est, istam omnem rerum ecclesiasticarum procurationem, quarum credimur amare dominatum, propter servitutem quam debeo caritati fratrum et timori Dei, tolerare me, non amare; ita ut ea, si salvo officio possim, carere desiderem. Nec aliud me de fratre meo Alypio sentire, ipse Deus testis est. Tamen et de illo aliter sentiendo populus, et, quod est gravius, Hipponensis, in tantas est illius praecipitatus iniurias: et de nobis vos sancti Dei et pleni visceribus misericordiae talia credendo, nomine eiusdem populi, qui ad causam huiuscemodi cupiditatis omnino non pertinet, nos tangere atque admonere voluistis; utique ad nos corrigendos, neque enim odio, quod absit a vobis: unde non irasci, sed gratias agere debeo, quod nec verecundius nec liberius agere potuistis, ut episcopo non quasi conviciose obiceretis, quod sentiebatis, sed ex obliquo intellegendum relinqueretis.
9. Yet we are not angry at you for so compelling us to swear, as you are angry at the people of Hippo. For you believe, as men of men, things that, even if they are not in us, yet are not such as cannot be in us. These things in you are to be healed, not accused; and our fame is to be cleared by you, if our conscience is cleared before the Lord. Who perhaps will grant—as, before this temptation befell, I and my brother Alypius conferred—that it may become most well known, not only to you, our most dear fellow members, but even to our very bitterest enemies, that we are stained by no desire of money in ecclesiastical affairs. Until which be done, if the Lord grant that it be done, behold, meanwhile we now do what we are compelled to do, lest we defer the medicine of your heart to however long a delay of time. God is witness that all that procuration of ecclesiastical affairs, whose dominion we are believed to love, I tolerate, not love, on account of the servitude which I owe to the love of the brethren and the fear of God; so that, if I could without harm to my office, I would desire to be without them. Nor that I feel otherwise about my brother Alypius, God himself is witness. Yet, the people thinking otherwise about him too—and, what is graver, the people of Hippo—he has been precipitated into so great injuries against him: and you, holy ones of God and full of the bowels of mercy, by believing such things of us, in the name of the same people, who in no way pertain to the cause of such covetousness, wished to touch and admonish us; surely to correct us, for not out of hatred, which be far from you: whence I ought not to be angry, but to give thanks, that you could act neither more modestly nor more freely, so as not to object to a bishop, as it were reproachfully, what you felt, but to leave it obliquely to be understood.
Ep100-155.910. Nec molestum sit vobis, ut vos velut gravatos arbitremini, quia iurandum putavi. Neque enim gravabat Apostolus, aut eos parum diligebat quibus dicebat: Non in sermone adulationis fuimus apud vos, sicut scitis; nec in occasione cupiditatis, Deus testis est. Rei quippe apertae ipsos testes adhibuit; rei autem occultae quem, nisi Deum? Si ergo ille merito est veritus ne humana ignorantia de illo aliquid tale sentiret, cuius labor omnibus in promptu erat, quod nisi summa necessitate a populis quibus gratiam Christi dispensabat, in usus suos aliquid non sumebat, caetera vero suo victui necessaria suis manibus transigebat: quanto magis nobis laborandum est ut credatur, qui et merito sanctitatis et virtute animi longe impares sumus, nec aliquid ad sustentacula huius vitae operari nostris manibus possumus; et si possemus, tantis occupationibus, quas tunc illos non credo fuisse perpessos, nequaquam sineremur? Non ergo ulterius in hac causa populo christiano, quae Ecclesia est Dei, obiciatur pecuniae turpissimus appetitus. Tolerabilius enim nobis obicitur, in quos huius mali quamvis falsa, tamen verisimilis suspicio cadere potuit, quam illis, quos ab hoc appetitu et suspicione constat esse alienos.
10. Nor let it be troublesome to you, that you should think yourselves, as it were, burdened, because I thought there must be swearing. For the Apostle did not burden, nor love too little, those to whom he said, We were not among you in flattering speech, as you know; nor in an occasion of covetousness, God is witness (1 Thess 2:5). For of an open matter he adduced themselves as witnesses; but of a hidden matter, whom but God? If, then, he rightly feared lest human ignorance think anything of the sort about him, whose labor was in plain view to all, that he took nothing into his own uses from the peoples to whom he dispensed the grace of Christ except in the greatest necessity, but the rest necessary for his living he accomplished by his own hands: how much more must we labor to be believed, who are far unequal both in merit of holiness and in strength of mind, and can work nothing with our hands for the supports of this life; and if we could, with so great occupations, which I do not believe they then endured, we would in no way be permitted? Let not, then, in this cause, the most shameful appetite for money be objected further to the Christian people, which is the Church of God. For it is more tolerably objected to us, upon whom the suspicion of this evil—though false, yet verisimilar—could fall, than to those who, it is agreed, are foreign to this appetite and suspicion.
Ep100-155.1011. Denegare autem iurationem qualibet fide praeditas mentes, quanto magis fide christiana, non dico aliquid contrarium confirmare, sed omnino dubitare fas non est. De qua re quid sentiam, satis, ut arbitror, in epistola quam ad fratrem meum scripsi, plenissime aperui. Scripsit mihi Sanctitas tua: "Si aut ego aut Hipponenses hoc censent, ut iureiurando violenter extorto satisfiat". Tu enim ipsa quid censes? placetne tibi, ut etiam certa morte imminente, quod tunc inaniter metuebatur, nomen Domini Dei sui in fallaciam christianus assumat, Deum suum testem falsitati christianus adhibeat? Qui profecto si praeter iurationem ad falsum testimonium morte imminente cogeretur, maculare vitam suam magis timere debuit quam finire. Hostiles inter se acies et armatae, certe apertissima mortis intentatione confligunt; et tamen cum invicem iurant, laudamus fidem servantes, fallentes autem merito detestamur. Ut autem iurarent, quid utraeque ab alterutris, nisi occidi vel capi timuerunt? Ac per hoc vel mortis vel captivitatis metu extortae iurationi nisi pareatur, nisi fides quae ibi data est custodiatur, sacrilegii, periurii crimine detinentur, etiam tales homines qui magis metuunt peierare, quam hominem occidere: et nos utrum implenda sit extorta iuratio servorum Dei, munere sanctitatis praeeminentium, monachorum ad perfectionem mandatorum Christi rerum etiam suarum distributione currentium, quasi disceptaturi ponimus quaestionem!
11. But to deny an oath—for minds endowed with any faith, how much more with the Christian faith—is not right; I do not say to affirm anything contrary, but altogether to doubt. About which matter what I think I have sufficiently, I judge, laid open most fully in the letter which I wrote to my brother. Your Holiness wrote to me: "If either I or the people of Hippo hold this, that satisfaction is to be made for an oath violently extorted." But what do you yourself hold? Does it please you that, even with certain death imminent—which then was feared in vain—a Christian should take the name of the Lord his God for a deception, that a Christian should adduce his God as witness to a falsehood? Who surely, if, apart from an oath, he were compelled to false witness with death imminent, ought rather to fear to stain his life than to end it. Hostile battle-lines, armed against each other, surely fight with the most open threat of death; and yet, when they swear to each other, we praise those who keep faith, but deservedly detest those who deceive. But in order to swear, what did each fear from the other but to be killed or captured? And through this, unless an oath extorted by fear of death or captivity is obeyed, unless the faith there given is kept, they are held by the crime of sacrilege, of perjury, even such men as fear more to forswear than to kill a man: and do we set up, as though about to dispute, the question whether an extorted oath of servants of God—preeminent in the gift of holiness, monks running by the distribution even of their own goods to the perfection of the commandments of Christ—is to be fulfilled!
Ep100-155.1112. Nam quid exsilii, vel deportationis, aut relegationis nomine, promissa illa praesentia praegravatur, obsecro te? Puto quod presbyterium non est exsilium. Hoc ergo noster eligeret, quam illud exsilium? Absit a nobis, ut sic sanctus Dei et nobis carissimus defendatur: absit, inquam, ut dicatur maluisse exsilium quam presbyterium, aut maluisse periurium quam exsilium. Haec dicerem, si vere a nobis, aut a populo iuratio ei fuisset extorta promittendae praesentiae; nunc vero non extorta est dum negaretur, sed dum offerretur accepta. Et hoc ea spe, sicut supra diximus, quia per illam praesentiam creditum est, eum etiam ad clericatum suscipiendum posse desiderantibus consentire. Postremo quodlibet de nobis vel de Hipponensibus sentiatur, longe alia est eorum causa qui coegerint iurare, quam eorum qui, non dico coegerint, sed suaserint peierare. Ipse etiam de quo agitur, considerare non renuat, utrum sit peius, sub quolibet timore iusiurandum, an remoto ipso timore periurium.
12. For why, I beseech you, is that promised presence weighed down by the name of exile, or deportation, or relegation? I think that the priesthood is not exile. Would our friend, then, choose this rather than that exile? Far be it from us that a holy one of God, and most dear to us, be so defended: far be it, I say, that he be said to have preferred exile to the priesthood, or to have preferred perjury to exile. These things I would say, if truly by us, or by the people, an oath of promising his presence had been extorted from him; but now it was not extorted while it was being denied, but accepted while it was being offered. And this in the hope, as we said above, that through that presence it was believed he could even consent to take up the clergy for those desiring it. Finally, whatever be thought of us or of the people of Hippo, far other is the cause of those who compelled him to swear than of those who—I do not say compelled, but—persuaded him to forswear. Let even he himself, of whom we treat, not refuse to consider whether it is worse, an oath under any fear, or, that fear being removed, perjury.
Ep100-155.1213. Deo gratias, quia non aliter Hipponenses promissum circa se impleri sentiunt, quam ut adsit voluntate habitandi, et eat quo necesse fuerit cum dispositione redeundi. Nam si verba iurationis attenderent et exigerent, tam nullo modo servus Dei recedere, quam ullo modo debuit peierare. Sed quia crimen eorum esset, non dico talem virum, sed quemlibet hominem sic tenere; nec ipsi aliam exspectationem se habuisse probaverunt, qui audientes quod rediturus abscesserit gratulati sunt, nec aliud illis verax iuratio debet, quam id quod ab illa exspectaverunt. Quid est autem quod dicitur, eum iuratione ore suo expressa, exceptionem fecisse necessitatis? Quasi non ore suo hoc rursum iusserit auferri. Certe ad populum quando ipse locutus est, tunc etiam interponeret: quod si fecisset, non utique responderetur, Deo gratias; sed ad illam rediretur reclamationem quae facta fuerat, quando sic a diacono recitatum est. Et numquid ad rem pertinet, sive interposita sit ad recedendum necessitatis excusatio, sive non sit? Nihil ab illo aliud exspectatum est, quam id quod supra diximus. Exspectationem autem eorum quibus iuratur, quisquis deceperit, non potest esse non periurus.
13. Thanks be to God, that the people of Hippo do not feel the promise about him to be fulfilled otherwise than that he be present with the will of dwelling, and go where it shall be necessary with the disposition of returning. For if they attended to and exacted the words of the oath, the servant of God ought in no way to depart, just as in no way ought he to have forsworn. But because it would be their crime so to hold—I do not say such a man, but any man—and they themselves proved that they had no other expectation, who, hearing that he had departed about to return, were glad, neither does a truthful oath owe them anything other than that which they expected of it. But what is it that is said, that he, by an oath expressed by his own mouth, made an exception of necessity? As though he did not again, by his own mouth, order this to be removed. Surely, when he himself spoke to the people, then too he would interpose it: which if he had done, the answer would surely not be "Thanks be to God," but it would return to that outcry which had been made, when it was so recited by the deacon. And does it pertain to the matter at all, whether an excuse of necessity for departing be interposed, or not? Nothing else was expected of him than that which we said above. But whoever deceives the expectation of those to whom it is sworn cannot but be a perjurer.
Ep100-155.1314. Fiat ergo quod promissum est, et infirmorum corda sanentur, ne tanto exemplo quibus hoc placuerit, ad imitandum periurium aedificentur; quibus autem displicet, iustissime dicant, nulli nostrum credendum esse, non solum promittenti aliquid, sed etiam iuranti. Hinc enim potius cavendae sunt linguae inimicorum, de quibus tamquam iaculis ad interficiendos infirmos maior utitur ille inimicus. Sed absit ut de tali anima speremus aliud quam quod Dei timor inspirat, et tanta, quae in illa est, excellentia sanctitatis hortatur. Ego autem, quem dicis etiam prohibere debuisse, fateor non potui sic sapere, ut tanto vel tumultu vel offensione magis everti vellem ecclesiam cui servio, quam id quod a tali viro nobis offerebatur, accipere.
14. Let what was promised, then, be done, and let the hearts of the weak be healed, lest, by so great an example, those to whom this pleases be built up to imitating perjury; but those to whom it displeases may most justly say that none of us is to be believed, not only when promising something, but even when swearing. For hence rather are the tongues of enemies to be guarded against, which, like darts, that greater enemy uses to kill the weak. But far be it that we should hope of such a soul anything other than what the fear of God inspires, and what so great an excellence of holiness as is in it exhorts. But I, whom you say ought even to have forbidden it, confess that I could not be so wise as to wish, by so great either tumult or offense, the church which I serve rather to be overturned than to accept that which was offered to us by such a man.
Ep100-155.14EPISTOLA 127
DOMINIS EXIMIIS MERITOQUE HONORABILIBUS AC DESIDERABILIBUS FILIIS, ARMENTARIO ET PAULINAE, AUGUSTINUS, IN DOMINO SALUTEM.
DOMINIS EXIMIIS MERITOQUE HONORABILIBUS AC DESIDERABILIBUS FILIIS, ARMENTARIO ET PAULINAE, AUGUSTINUS, IN DOMINO SALUTEM.
LETTER 127
To the most excellent lords, deservedly honorable and longed-for sons, Armentarius and Paulina, Augustine sends greetings in the Lord.
Ep100-155.14To the most excellent lords, deservedly honorable and longed-for sons, Armentarius and Paulina, Augustine sends greetings in the Lord.
1. Vir egregius, filius meus Ruferius, affinis vester, retulit mihi quid Domino voveritis: qua eius narratione exhilaratus, et ibidem metuens ne aliud suadeat ille tentator qui bonis talibus antiquitus invidet, exhortandam paucis credidi Caritatem tuam, domine eximie meritoque honorabilis et desiderabilis fili, ut cogites quod in divinis eloquiis legitur: Ne tardes converti ad Dominum, neque differas de die in diem; atque arripias curesque reddendum quod ei te vovisse nosti, qui et debita exigit et promissa persolvit. Nam et hoc scriptum est: Vovete, et reddite Domino Deo vestro: quamquam etsi non vovisses, quid aliud tibi suadendum fuit, aut quid melius ab homine fieri potest, quam ut ei se restituat a quo institutus est; praesertim quia caritatis erga nos Dei tantum apparuit atque eluxit indicium, ut Filium suum unigenitum mitteret, qui pro nobis moreretur ? Restat ergo ut fiat quod Apostolus ait, propterea mortuum esse Christum, ut qui vivunt non sibi iam vivant, sed ei qui pro ipsis mortuus est et resurrexit. Nisi forte adhuc mundus amandus est, tanta rerum labe contritus, ut etiam speciem seductionis amiserit. Nam quantum illi laudandi atque praedicandi, qui dignati non sunt etiam cum mundo florente florere; tantum increpandi et accusandi sunt, quos perire cum pereunte delectat.
1. The distinguished man, my son Ruferius, your kinsman, reported to me what you have vowed to the Lord: by which narrative of his made glad, and at the same time fearing lest that tempter, who from of old envies such good things, persuade something else, I thought your Love should be exhorted in a few words, most excellent lord, deservedly honorable and longed-for son, that you consider what is read in the divine words: Do not delay to be converted to the Lord, and do not put it off from day to day (Sir 5:8 (7)); and that you seize and take care to render what you know you have vowed to him who both exacts debts and pays his promises. For this too is written: Vow, and render to the Lord your God (Ps 76:11 (75:12)): although, even if you had not vowed, what else was to be persuaded to you, or what better can be done by a man, than that he restore himself to him by whom he was established; especially since so great a sign of God's love toward us has appeared and shone forth, that he sent his only-begotten Son to die for us? It remains, then, that what the Apostle says be done, that Christ died for this reason, that those who live should no longer live to themselves, but to him who died for them and rose again (2 Cor 5:15). Unless perhaps the world is still to be loved, worn down by so great a ruin of things that it has lost even the appearance of seduction. For as much as those are to be praised and proclaimed who did not deign to flourish even while the world flourished, so much are those to be rebuked and accused whom it delights to perish with what perishes.
Ep100-155.12. Labores et pericula et exitia huius transitoriae vitae, si pro eadem vita quandoque finienda subeuntur, ut mors eius non omnino auferatur, sed paululum differatur; quanto magis pro aeterna subeunda sunt, ubi mortem nec natura sollicite cavet, nec ignavia turpiter timet, nec sapientia fortiter sustinet! nulli quippe erit quae non erit. Habeat igitur te vita aeterna in dilectoribus suis. Nonne cernis, haec vita miserabilis et egena quam vehementes habeat, quantumque sibi obliget amatores suos? qui tamen periculo eius saepe turbati, citius eam finiunt, eo ipso quo finire formidant, et mortem dum declinant, accelerant, veluti si quisquam fluvio rapiendus irruat, latronem bestiamve fugiendo. Iactant in mare tempestate saeviente aliquando et alimenta; et ut vivant, proiciunt unde vivunt, ne cito finiatur quod vel in labore vivitur. Quantis laboribus agitur, ut longiore tempore laboretur! et mors cum impendere coeperit, ideo cavetur, ut diutius timeatur. Nam inter tot casus fragilitatis humanae, quam multae mortes timentur, quarum certe una cum venerit, restat caeteras non timeri! et tamen fugitur una ut omnes timeantur. Quibus excruciantur doloribus, qui curantur a medicis et secantur! numquid ut non moriantur? Sed ut aliquanto serius moriantur. Multi cruciatus suscipiuntur certi, ut pauci dies adficiantur incerti: et nonnumquam ipsis doloribus victi continuo moriuntur, quos mortis timore suscipiunt; et cum omnino non eligant vitam finire ne doleant, sed dolere ne finiant, accidit eis ut doleant et finiant: non solum quia et sanati utique vitam finiunt post dolores, quae tantis poenis comparata nec sempiterna esse potest, quia mortalis est, nec diuturna, quia tota brevis est, nec de ipso brevi spatio sui secura, quia semper incerta est; verum etiam quod aliquando eam dolore finierunt, quam ne finirent, dolere voluerunt.
2. The labors and dangers and ruins of this transitory life, if they are undergone for the sake of that same life, to be at some time ended, so that its death may not be altogether taken away, but a little deferred; how much more are they to be undergone for the sake of the eternal life, where death neither nature solicitously guards against, nor cowardice basely fears, nor wisdom bravely endures! For it will be to no one, who will not be. Let eternal life, then, have you among its lovers. Do you not see how vehement lovers this wretched and needy life has, and how greatly it obliges its lovers to itself? Who yet, often disturbed by its danger, end it the sooner by the very thing by which they dread to end it, and hasten death while they avoid it, as if anyone destined to be snatched by a river should rush in, fleeing a robber or a beast. They cast even their food into the sea sometimes, when the storm rages; and that they may live, they throw away that whereby they live, lest soon end what is lived even in labor. With how great labors is it carried on, that one may labor a longer time! And death, when it has begun to impend, is guarded against for this reason, that it may be the longer feared. For amid so many mischances of human frailty, how many deaths are feared—of which surely, when one has come, it remains that the rest are not feared! And yet one is fled, that all may be feared. With what griefs are those tortured who are cared for and cut by physicians! Surely not that they may not die? But that they may die somewhat later. Many certain torments are undergone, that a few uncertain days may be added: and sometimes, conquered by the very griefs which they undergo through fear of death, they die at once; and when they choose in no way to end life lest they suffer pain, but to suffer pain lest they end it, it happens to them that they both suffer pain and end it: not only because even those healed surely end life after their griefs—a life which, bought with such penalties, can neither be everlasting, because it is mortal, nor long-lasting, because it is wholly brief, nor secure of even its own brief space, because it is always uncertain; but also because sometimes they have ended in grief that which, lest they end it, they wished to suffer grief.
Ep100-155.23. Habet etiam hoc magnum malum, ac vehementer exsecrandum et horrendum nimius amor vitae istius, quod multi dum volunt paulo diutius vivere, graviter offendunt Deum, apud quem est fons vitae; atque ita, dum ab eis frustra qui necessario futurus est vitae finis metuitur, illinc prohibentur ubi sine fine vivitur. Huc accedit quia vita misera etiamsi posset esse perpetua, nullo modo beatae vitae etiam brevissimae comparanda est: et tamen isti amando miserrimam atque brevissimam, perdunt beatissimam ac sempiternam, cum in hac ipsa, quam male diligunt, hoc velint quod in altera perdunt; quia utique in ista nec miseriam diligunt, nam beati esse volunt, nec brevitatem, nam eam finiri nolunt; tantum quia vita est, sic amatur, ut saepe propter eam, licet miseram et brevem, beata et sempiterna amittatur.
3. The excessive love of this life has also this great evil, and vehemently to be execrated and dreaded, that many, while they wish to live a little longer, grievously offend God, with whom is the fount of life; and so, while the end of life, which must necessarily come, is feared by them in vain, they are thence prohibited from where one lives without end. To this is added that a wretched life, even if it could be perpetual, is in no way to be compared with a blessed life, even the briefest: and yet these, by loving the most wretched and briefest, lose the most blessed and everlasting, since in this very life, which they ill love, they wish that which in the other they lose; because surely in this they love neither the wretchedness, for they wish to be blessed, nor the brevity, for they do not wish it ended; only because it is life, it is so loved that often, on account of it, though wretched and brief, the blessed and everlasting is lost.
Ep100-155.34. His consideratis, quid magnum vita aeterna iubet amatoribus suis, cum se iubet sic amari quemadmodum haec amatur a suis? an vero dignum est vel ferendum, cum contemnuntur omnia quae amantur in mundo, ut vita post paululum finienda, saltem ipsum paululum teneatur in mundo; et non contemnitur mundus, ut obtineatur vita quae sine fine apud illum est, per quem factus est mundus? Modo cum ipsa Roma, domicilium clarissimi imperii, barbarico vastaretur incursu, quam multi huius vitae temporalis amatores, ut eam vel infeliciter producendam nudamque redimerent, dederunt omnia quae illi non solum oblectandae et ornandae, verum etiam sustentandae tuendaeque servabant! Solent certe amatores illis quas amant, ut eas habeant, multa conferre: isti amatam suam non haberent, nisi amando inopem reddidissent; nec ei multa conferrent, sed cuncta potius auferrent, ne sibi eam hostis auferret. Nec eorum reprehendo consilium: quis enim nesciat perituram fuisse ipsam, si non ea perissent quae recondita fuerant propter ipsam? quamvis et quidam perdiderint prius illa, mox ipsam; quidam vero licet parati cuncta perdere propter ipsam, prius perdiderint ipsam. Sed hinc admonendi sumus quales aeternae vitae dilectores esse debeamus, ut propter eam contemnamus cuncta superflua, cum pro hac transitoria vita contempta sint quae illi fuerant necessaria.
4. These things considered, what great thing does eternal life command its lovers, when it commands itself to be so loved as this is loved by its own? Or is it worthy, or to be borne, that, when all things that are loved in the world are despised, the life soon to be ended should at least retain that little span itself in the world; and the world should not be despised, that the life which is without end with him through whom the world was made should be obtained? Just now, when Rome herself, the home of the most illustrious empire, was laid waste by the barbarian incursion, how many lovers of this temporal life, that they might ransom it—even to be prolonged unhappily and bare—gave all that they had been keeping not only to delight and adorn it, but even to sustain and protect it! Lovers surely are wont to confer many things on those they love, that they may have them: these would not have had their beloved unless, by loving her, they had rendered her destitute; nor did they confer many things on her, but rather took all away, lest the enemy take her from them. Nor do I reprehend their counsel: for who would not know that she herself would have perished if those things which had been stored up for her sake had not perished? Although some lost those things first, then soon herself; but some, though prepared to lose all for her sake, lost her first. But from this we are to be admonished what lovers of eternal life we ought to be, so that for its sake we should despise all superfluous things, when, for this transitory life, things that had been necessary to it were despised.
Ep100-155.45. Neque enim amatam nostram, sicut illi suam, ut teneamus, exspoliamus; sed illi aeternae adipiscendae istam temporalem velut famulam expeditiorem servire facimus, si eam nec ornamentorum vanorum vinculis alligemus, nec curarum noxiarum sarcinis oneremus, audiamusque Dominum, qui nobis illam vitam summo ardore desiderandam fidelissime pollicetur, velut in totius mundi concione clamantem: Venite ad me omnes qui laboratis et onerati estis, et ego vos reficiam. Tollite iugum meum super vos, et discite a me quia mitis sum et humilis corde; et invenietis requiem animabus vestris. Iugum enim meum lene, et onus meum leve est. Haec disciplina piae humilitatis, ventosam et turbidam cupiditatem, avidam rerum extra nostram potestatem constitutarum, pellit ex animo, et quodammodo exspirat. Ibi enim labor, ubi multa quaeruntur et diliguntur, quibus adipiscendis atque retinendis voluntas non satis est, quia consequentem non habet facultatem. Iusta vero vita, cum volumus, adest, quia eam ipsam plene velle, iustitia est; nec plus aliquid perficienda iustitia, quam perfectam voluntatem requirit. Vide si labor est, ubi velle satis est. Unde divinitus dictum est: Pax in terra hominibus bonae voluntatis. Ubi pax, ibi requies; ubi requies, ibi finis appetendi, et nulla causa laborandi. Sed haec voluntas ut plena sit, oportet ut sana sit: erit autem sana, si medicum non refugiat, cuius solius gratia sanari potest a morbo desideriorum noxiorum. Ipse est ergo medicus qui clamat: Venite ad me omnes qui laboratis, iugum suum lene, et onus leve dicens; quia diffusa per Spiritum sanctum caritate in cordibus nostris, profecto amabitur quod iubebitur, et non erit asperum nec onerosum, si sub hoc uno iugo, quanto minus tumida, tanto magis libera cervice serviatur. Et haec est una sarcina, qua eius baiulus non premitur, sed levatur. Divitiae si diliguntur, ibi serventur ubi perire non possunt. Honor si diligitur, illic habeatur ubi nemo indignus honoratur. Salus si diligitur, ibi adipiscenda desideretur ubi adeptae nihil timetur. Vita si diligitur, ibi acquiratur ubi nulla morte finitur.
5. For we do not despoil our beloved, as those did theirs, in order to keep her; but we make this temporal life serve, as a readier handmaid, for acquiring that eternal one, if we neither bind it with the chains of vain ornaments nor burden it with the loads of harmful cares, and hear the Lord, who most faithfully promises us that life to be desired with the highest ardor, as it were crying out in the assembly of the whole world: Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is gentle, and my burden is light (Matt 11:28-30). This discipline of devout humility drives out of the mind, and in a manner breathes out, the windy and turbid desire greedy for things set outside our power. For there is labor where many things are sought and loved, for the acquiring and retaining of which the will is not enough, because it does not have the attending faculty. But the just life is present when we will it, because to will it fully is itself justice; nor does justice, to be perfected, require anything more than a perfect will. See whether there is labor where to will is enough. Whence it was divinely said, Peace on earth to men of good will (Luke 2:14). Where peace, there rest; where rest, there the end of longing, and no cause of laboring. But for this will to be full, it must be sound: but it will be sound if it does not flee the physician, by whose grace alone it can be healed of the disease of harmful desires. He, then, is the physician who cries, Come to me, all you who labor, calling his yoke gentle and his burden light; because, love being poured out through the Holy Spirit in our hearts, surely what is commanded will be loved, and it will be neither harsh nor burdensome, if under this one yoke one serves with a neck the less swollen the more free. And this is the one load by which its bearer is not pressed down, but lifted up. If riches are loved, let them be kept where they cannot perish. If honor is loved, let it be had where no one unworthy is honored. If health is loved, let it be desired to be obtained where, once obtained, nothing is feared. If life is loved, let it be acquired where it is ended by no death.
Ep100-155.56. Reddite igitur quod vovistis, quia vos ipsi estis, et ei vos redditis a quo estis; reddite, obsecro. Neque enim quod redditis, reddendo minuetur, sed potius servabitur et augebitur: benignus enim exactor est, non egenus; et qui non crescat ex redditis, sed in se crescere faciat redditores. Huic ergo quod non redditur, perditur: quod autem redditur, reddenti additur; imo vero in eo cui redditur, ipse reddens servatur. Idipsum quippe erit redditum et redditor, quia idipsum erat debitum et debitor. Deo namque seipsum debet homo, eique reddendus est ut beatus sit, a quo accepit ut sit. Hoc significat quod in Evangelio Dominus ait: Reddite Caesari quae Caesaris sunt, et Deo quae Dei sunt. Hoc enim dixit, cum sibi demonstrato nummo, et quaesito cuius haberet imaginem, responsum esset, Caesaris; ut hinc intellegerent, quod Deus exigeret ab homine imaginem suam in homine ipso, sicut Caesar suam exigebat in nummo. Quanto magis ergo reddenda est cum promittitur, cui etiam non promissa debetur!
6. Render, then, what you have vowed, because you yourselves are it, and to him you render yourselves from whom you are; render, I beseech. For neither will what you render be diminished by rendering, but rather kept and increased: for he is a kindly exactor, not a needy one; and one who does not grow from what is rendered, but makes those who render grow in him. To him, then, what is not rendered is lost: but what is rendered is added to the renderer; nay rather, in him to whom it is rendered, the very renderer is kept. For the rendered and the renderer will be the same thing, because the debt and the debtor were the same. For man owes himself to God, and is to be rendered to him, that he may be blessed, from whom he received that he might be. This signifies what the Lord says in the Gospel: Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's (Matt 22:21). For he said this when, a coin being shown him, and it being asked whose image it had, the answer was, "Caesar's"; that hence they might understand that God exacts from man his own image in man himself, just as Caesar exacted his own in the coin. How much more, then, is it to be rendered when it is promised, to him to whom even unpromised it is owed!
Ep100-155.67. Quapropter, carissime, possem quidem pro mea quantulacumque facultatula, sancti propositi quod Deo vovisse vos comperi, uberius laudare fructum, ac demonstrare quid distet inter christianos dilectores mundi huius, et contemptores, quamvis fideles utrique dicantur. Eodem utrique lavacro sacri fontis abluti sunt, eisdem imbuti consecratique mysteriis, utrique eiusdem Evangelii non auditores tantum, verum etiam praedicatores; nec utrique tamen regni Dei lucisque participes, et vitae aeternae, quae sola est beata, cohaeredes. Dominus enim Iesus non ab eis qui non audiunt, sed eos inter se auditores verborum suorum, latissimo limite, non tenui distinctione discrevit: Qui audit, inquit, verba mea haec, et facit ea, similabo eum viro prudenti qui aedificavit domum suam supra petram: descendit pluvia, venerunt flumina, flaverunt venti, et impegerunt in domum illam, et non cecidit; fundata enim erat supra petram. Qui autem audit verba mea haec, et non facit ea, similabo eum viro stulto qui aedificavit domum suam super arenam: descendit pluvia, venerunt flumina, flaverunt venti, et impegerunt in domum illam, et cecidit, et facta est ruina eius magna. Audire ergo illa verba, aedificare est; in hoc utrique pares sunt: in faciendo autem, et non faciendo quod audiunt, tantum dispares, quantum aedificium petrae soliditate fundatum dispar est ei quod sine ullo fundamento facili arenae mobilitate subvertitur. Nec ideo quisquis omnino non audit, tutius sibi aliquid comparat: nihil enim aedificans, sine ullo tecto multo facilius obruendus, rapiendus, et dispergendus imbribus, fluviis ventisque donatur.
7. Wherefore, dearest one, I could indeed, according to my own little faculty, praise more richly the fruit of the holy purpose which I have learned you have vowed to God, and show what difference there is between Christian lovers of this world and despisers, although both are called faithful. Both have been washed by the same laver of the sacred font, imbued and consecrated by the same mysteries, both not only hearers but even preachers of the same Gospel; nor yet are both partakers of the kingdom and the light of God, and coheirs of eternal life, which alone is blessed. For the Lord Jesus distinguished, not from those who do not hear, but among themselves, the hearers of his words, by a most broad boundary, not a thin distinction: He who hears, he says, these my words and does them, I will liken him to a prudent man who built his house upon the rock: the rain came down, the floods came, the winds blew, and they beat upon that house, and it did not fall; for it was founded upon the rock. But he who hears these my words and does not do them, I will liken him to a foolish man who built his house upon the sand: the rain came down, the floods came, the winds blew, and they beat upon that house, and it fell, and great was its ruin (Matt 7:24-27). To hear those words, then, is to build; in this both are equal: but in doing and in not doing what they hear, they are as unequal as a building founded on the solidity of rock is unequal to one which, without any foundation, is overturned by the easy mobility of the sand. Nor does whoever does not hear at all acquire for himself anything safer: for, building nothing, without any roof, much more easily to be overwhelmed, snatched away, and scattered, he is given over to the rains, floods, and winds.
Ep100-155.78. Possem etiam pro modulo meo eosdem ipsos pertinentes ad dexteram regnumque coelorum in suis gradibus meritisque distinguere, atque ostendere quo differat vita coniugalis filios procreantium patrum matrumque familias, verumtamen religiosorum ac piorum, ab ea vita quam vos Deo vovistis, si nunc ad eam vovendam exhortandus esses; sed quia iam vovisti, iam te obstrinxisti, aliud tibi facere non licet. Priusquam esses voti reus, liberum fuit quo esses inferior; quamvis non sit gratulanda libertas qua fit ut non debeatur quod cum fuero redditur. Nunc vero quia tenetur apud Deum sponsio tua, non te ad magnam iustitiam invito, sed a magna iniquitate deterreo. Non enim talis eris, si non feceris quod vovisti, qualis mansisses, si nihil tale vovisses. Minor enim tunc esses, non peior: modo autem tanto, quod absit, miserior, si fidem Deo fregeris, quanto beatior, si persolveris. Nec ideo te vovisse poeniteat, imo gaude iam tibi non licere quod cum tuo detrimento licuisset. Aggredere itaque intrepidus, et dicta imple factis; ipse adiuvabit, qui vota tua expetit. Felix est necessitas quae in meliora compellit.
8. I could also, according to my small measure, distinguish those same ones pertaining to the right hand and the kingdom of heaven in their grades and merits, and show how the conjugal life of fathers and mothers of families who beget children—yet religious and devout ones—differs from that life which you have vowed to God, if you were now to be exhorted to vow it; but because you have already vowed, you have already bound yourself, it is not lawful for you to do otherwise. Before you were guilty of a vow, it was free in what you should be lower; although that liberty is not to be congratulated by which it comes about that what is rendered, when I shall have been, is not owed. But now, because your promise is held with God, I do not invite you to a great justice, but deter you from a great iniquity. For you will not be such, if you do not do what you vowed, as you would have remained if you had vowed nothing of the sort. For then you would be lesser, not worse: but now, by so much, which God forbid, the more wretched if you break faith with God, by as much the more blessed if you pay it. Nor on this account let it repent you to have vowed; nay rather rejoice that it is now not lawful for you to do what, to your own detriment, would have been lawful. Set about it, therefore, intrepid, and fulfill your words by deeds; he himself will help, who demands your vows. Happy is the necessity which compels to better things.
Ep100-155.89. Una sola esse causa posset, qua te id quod vovisti, non solum non hortaremur, verum etiam prohiberemus implere, si forte tua coniux hoc tecum suscipere animi seu carnis infirmitate recusaret. Nam et vovenda talia non sunt a coniugatis, nisi ex consensu et voluntate communi: et si praepropere factum fuerit, magis est corrigenda temeritas quam persolvenda promissio. Neque enim Deus exigit, si quis ex alieno aliquid voverit, sed potius usurpare vetat alienum. Divina quippe de hac re per Apostolum est prolata sententia: Uxor non habet potestatem corporis sui, sed vir; similiter et vir non habet potestatem corporis sui, sed mulier: sexum nomine corporis nuncupavit. Sed cum illam tam paratam esse audiam Deo dicare continentiam, ut eo solo impediatur, si tibi debitum reddere coniugali iure compellitur; ambo Deo reddite quod ambo vovistis, ut illi persolvatur quod ab alterutro non exigitis. Si continentia virtus est, sicuti est, cur ad eam sit promptior sexus infirmior, cum virtus a viro potius cognominata videatur, sicut similitudo vocabuli resonat? Noli ergo vir abhorrere a virtute quam mulier est parata suscipere. Sit vester consensus oblatio ad supernum altare Creatoris, et victa concupiscentia, tanto fortius quanto sanctius vinculum caritatis. Gaudeamus de vobis in abundanti gratia Christi, domini eximii meritoque honorabiles et desiderabiles filii.
9. There could be one sole cause by which we should not only not exhort you, but even forbid you, to fulfill what you vowed, if perhaps your wife should refuse, by weakness of mind or flesh, to undertake this with you. For such things are not to be vowed by married persons except by common consent and will: and if it has been done too hastily, the rashness is rather to be corrected than the promise paid. For God does not exact if anyone has vowed something out of another's, but rather forbids to usurp what is another's. For the divine sentence about this matter has been brought forth through the Apostle: The wife does not have power over her own body, but the husband; likewise also the husband does not have power over his own body, but the wife (1 Cor 7:4): he named the sex by the name of the body. But since I hear that she is so ready to dedicate continence to God that she is hindered only by this, if you are compelled to render her the debt by conjugal right; both of you render to God what both have vowed, that there may be paid to him what you do not exact of each other. If continence is a virtue—as it is—why should the weaker sex be readier for it, when virtue (virtus) seems to be named rather from man (vir), as the likeness of the word resounds? Do not, then, as a man (vir), shrink from the virtue (virtus) which a woman is ready to undertake. Let your consent be an oblation to the supreme altar of the Creator, and, concupiscence being conquered, let the bond of love be the stronger the holier it is. Let us rejoice over you in the abundant grace of Christ, most excellent lords, deservedly honorable and longed-for sons.
Ep100-155.9EPISTOLA 128
HONORABILI AC DILECTISSIMO FILIO, VIRO CLARISSIMO ET SPECTABILI TRIBUNO ET NOTARIO, MARCELLINO, AURELIUS, SILVANUS, ET UNIVERSI EPISCOPI CATHOLICI.
HONORABILI AC DILECTISSIMO FILIO, VIRO CLARISSIMO ET SPECTABILI TRIBUNO ET NOTARIO, MARCELLINO, AURELIUS, SILVANUS, ET UNIVERSI EPISCOPI CATHOLICI.
LETTER 128
To the honorable and most beloved son, the most illustrious and respectable man, the tribune and notary Marcellinus, Aurelius, Silvanus, and all the Catholic bishops.
Ep100-155.9To the honorable and most beloved son, the most illustrious and respectable man, the tribune and notary Marcellinus, Aurelius, Silvanus, and all the Catholic bishops.
1. Edicto Spectabilitatis tuae, quo nostrae collationis tranquillitati quietique servandae, et veritati manifestandae muniendaeque consultum est, in omnibus nos consentire, sicut admonere dignatus es, per has litteras intimamus; hoc est, de loco et tempore ipsius collationis, et de numero eorum quos praesentes esse oportebit. Consentimus etiam ut hi quibus conferendi delegamus officium, subscribant prosecutionibus suis: inque illo scripto, quo eis hoc munus imponimus, ratumque nos habituros quod egerint pollicemur, subscriptiones omnium nostrum non solum habeas factas, verum etiam cum fiunt ipse perspicias; admonituri quoque, Domino adiuvante, populum christianum, ut a collationis loco, quietis et tranquillitatis gratia, suum abstineat omnino conventum, et ea quae aguntur, non cum aguntur, audire festinet, sed conscripta ut cognoscat, exspectet, sicut ea te prolaturum omnibus promisisti.
1. By this letter we intimate that we consent in all things—as you deigned to admonish—to the edict of your Respectability, by which provision was made for preserving the tranquility and quiet of our conference, and for manifesting and fortifying the truth: that is, about the place and time of the conference itself, and about the number of those who must be present. We consent too that those to whom we delegate the office of conferring subscribe to their proceedings; and in that writing by which we impose this duty on them, and promise that we will hold ratified what they do, you may have the subscriptions of all of us not only made, but even, when they are made, perceived by yourself; we being also about to admonish, with the Lord helping, the Christian people, that, for the sake of quiet and tranquility, they altogether abstain their own assembly from the place of the conference, and not hasten to hear the things that are done while they are done, but wait to learn them written down, as you have promised to bring them forth to all.
Ep100-155.12. Illo etiam, veritate confisi, nos vinculo conditionis obstringimus, ut si nobis ii cum quibus agimus demonstrare potuerint, cum secundum Dei promissa populi christiani usquequaque crescendo iam magnam partem orbis implerent, et in caeteram dilatarentur implendam, subito Ecclesiam Christi, nescio quorum, quos isti accusant, peccatorum periisse contagio, et in sola remansisse parte Donati; si hoc, ut dictum est, demonstrare potuerint, nullos apud eos honores episcopalis muneris requiremus, sed eorum sequemur, pro sola aeterna salute, consilium, quibus tanti gratiam beneficii pro cognita veritate debebimus. Si autem nos potius valuerimus ostendere Ecclesiam Christi, omnium non solum Africanarum, verum etiam transmarinarum provinciarum, multarumque gentium spatia feracissima populorum copia iam tenentem, et, sicut scriptum est, toto mundo fructificantem atque crescentem, nullorum hominum sibi commixtorum peccatis perire potuisse: si denique ipsorum, quos tunc accusare voluerunt, potius quam convincere valuerunt, quaestionem demonstraverimus esse finitam, quamvis non in eis Ecclesiae causa consistat; et Caecilianum innocentem, illos autem violentos et calumniosos esse iudicatos ab eo imperatore, ad cuius examen criminationes suas ultro accusando miserunt: postremo si quidquid de peccatis quorumlibet hominum dixerint, vel humanis documentis, vel divinis probaverimus, aut eorum innocentiam falsis criminibus appetitam, aut Christi Ecclesiam, cuius communioni cohaeremus, nullis eorum delictis esse destructam; sic eius nobiscum teneant unitatem, ut non solum viam salutis inveniant, sed nec honorem episcopatus amittant. Neque enim in eis divinae Sacramenta veritatis, sed commenta humani detestamur erroris: quibus sublatis fraternum pectus amplectimur, Christiana nobis caritate coniunctum, quod nunc dolemus dissensione diabolica separatum.
2. By this bond too, trusting in the truth, we bind ourselves under this condition: that if those with whom we deal can demonstrate to us that, when, according to God's promises, the Christian peoples, growing everywhere, were already filling a great part of the world, and were being spread into the rest to be filled, the Church of Christ suddenly perished by the contagion of the sins of I know not whom, whom these men accuse, and remained in the party of Donatus alone—if this, as has been said, they can demonstrate, we will seek among them no honors of the episcopal office, but will follow, for our eternal salvation alone, the counsel of those to whom we shall owe the grace of so great a benefit for the truth known. But if we rather are able to show that the Church of Christ—now holding the most fertile spaces of all the provinces, not only African but also overseas, and of many nations, with an abundance of peoples, and, as it is written, bearing fruit and growing in the whole world—could not perish by the sins of any men mixed in with it; if, finally, we shall have shown that the question of those very men whom they then wished rather to accuse than were able to convict has been ended (although the cause of the Church does not rest in them); and that Caecilian was judged innocent, but they violent and calumnious, by that emperor to whose examination they sent their accusations, accusing of their own accord: finally, if whatever they say about the sins of any men, we shall have proved, either by human documents or by divine ones, either that their innocence was assailed by false crimes, or that the Church of Christ, to whose communion we cleave, was destroyed by none of their offenses; then let them hold its unity with us in such a way that they not only find the way of salvation, but do not even lose the honor of the episcopate. For in them we do not detest the Sacraments of divine truth, but the inventions of human error: which being taken away, we embrace a brotherly breast, joined to us by Christian love, which we now grieve to be separated by a diabolical dissension.
Ep100-155.23. Poterit quippe unusquisque nostrum, honoris sibi socio copulato, vicissim sedere eminentius, sicut peregrino episcopo iuxta considente collega. Hoc cum alternis basilicis utrinque conceditur, uterque ab alterutro honore mutuo praevenitur; quia ubi praeceptio caritatis dilataverit corda, possessio pacis non fit angusta, ut uno eorum defuncto, deinceps iam singulis singuli pristino more succedant: nec novum aliquid fiet; nam hoc ab ipsius separationis exordio, in eis qui damnato nefariae discissionis errore unitatis dulcedinem vel sero sapuerunt, catholica dilectio custodivit. Aut si forte christiani populi singulis delectantur episcopis, et duorum consortium, inusitata rerum facie tolerare non possunt, utrique de medio secedamus, et Ecclesiis in singulis damnata schismatis causa, in unitate pacifica constitutis, ab his qui singuli in Ecclesiis singulis invenientur, unitate facta per loca necessaria singuli constituantur episcopi. Quid enim dubitemus Redemptori nostro sacrificium istius humilitatis offerre? an vero ille de coelis in membra humana descendit, ut membra eius essemus; et nos, ne ipsa eius membra crudeli divisione lanientur, de cathedris descendere formidamus? Propter nos nihil sufficientius, quam christiani fideles et oboedientes sumus: hoc ergo semper simus. Episcopi autem propter christianos populos ordinamur: quod ergo christianis populis ad christianam pacem prodest, hoc de nostro episcopatu faciamus. Si servi utiles sumus, cur Domini aeternis lucris pro nostris temporalibus sublimitatibus invidemus? Episcopalis dignitas fructuosior nobis erit, si gregem Christi magis deposita collegerit, quam retenta disperserit. Nam qua fronte in futuro saeculo promissum a Christo sperabimus honorem, si christianam in hoc saeculo noster honor impedit unitatem?
3. For each of us will be able, an associate in honor being coupled to him, to sit in turn more eminently, as a colleague sits beside a visiting bishop. When this is granted on both sides in alternate basilicas, each is forestalled by the other in mutual honor; because where the precept of love has widened the hearts, the possession of peace does not become narrow, so that, one of them being dead, thereafter individuals may succeed individuals in the former manner: nor will anything new be done; for this, from the very beginning of the separation, Catholic love has kept in those who, condemning the error of wicked schism, tasted, even late, the sweetness of unity. Or if perhaps the Christian peoples are delighted with individual bishops, and cannot bear the partnership of two, by an unusual face of things, let both of us withdraw from the midst, and, the cause of schism being condemned in the individual churches, and they being established in peaceful unity, let individual bishops be established through the necessary places by those who shall be found, individuals in individual churches, unity being made. For why should we hesitate to offer our Redeemer the sacrifice of this humility? Or did he descend from heaven into human members, that we might be his members; and do we dread to descend from our chairs, lest his very members be torn by cruel division? For ourselves nothing is more sufficient than that we are faithful and obedient Christians: this, then, let us always be. But we are ordained bishops for the sake of the Christian peoples: what, then, profits the Christian peoples for Christian peace, let us do this with our episcopate. If we are useful servants, why do we envy the eternal gains of the Lord for our own temporal sublimities? The episcopal dignity will be more fruitful to us if, laid down, it gathers the flock of Christ rather than, retained, scatters it. For with what countenance shall we hope in the age to come for the honor promised by Christ, if our honor in this age hinders Christian unity?
Ep100-155.34. Haec propterea Praestantiae tuae scribenda curavimus, ut et per te innotescant omnibus. Postulamus ut in adiutorio Domini Dei nostri, quo admonente ista promittimus, et quo adiuvante nos implere posse confidimus, etiam ante collationem, si fieri potest, corda hominum vel infirma, vel dura, pia caritas aut sanet, aut edomet; ac sic iam pacificis mentibus non resistamus manifestissimae veritati, et disputationem nostram vel praecedamus concordia, vel sequamur. Neque enim desperare debemus, si recolunt beatos esse pacificos, quoniam ipsi filii Dei vocabuntur, multo dignius et facilius eos velle ut pars Donati universo orbi christiano reconcilietur, quam universus orbis christianus a parte Donati rebaptizetur: cum praesertim de Maximiani sacrilego et damnato schismate venientes, quos etiam terrenarum potestatum iussionibus insectando emendare curarunt, tanta dilectione quaesierint ut nec baptismum ab eis datum rescindere auderent, et quosdam eorum damnatos, sine ulla honoris eorum diminutione susciperent, quosdam vero in illius discissionis societate impollutos fuisse censerent. Quorum inter se concordiae non invidemus; sed eos certe oportet advertere quam pie tanto studio ramum a se fractum radix catholica inquirit, si ramus ipse similiter a se parvum fragmen incisum sic colligere laboravit. (Et alia manu): Optamus te, fili, in Domino bene valere. Aurelius episcopus Ecclesiae catholicae Carthaginensis, huic epistolae subscripsi. (Item alia manu): Silvanus senex Ecclesiae Summensis subscripsi.
4. These things we have taken care to write to your Eminence for this reason, that through you they may become known to all. We request that, in the help of the Lord our God, by whose admonition we promise these things, and by whose help we trust that we can fulfill them, even before the conference, if it can be, devout love may either heal or tame the hearts of men, whether weak or hard; and so, with now peaceable minds, may we not resist the most manifest truth, and either precede our disputation with concord, or follow it. For we ought not to despair, if they recall that blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God (Matt 5:9), that they would, much more worthily and easily, wish that the party of Donatus be reconciled to the whole Christian world, than that the whole Christian world be rebaptized by the party of Donatus: especially since, with men coming from the sacrilegious and condemned schism of Maximian—whom they took care to correct even by persecuting them with the commands of earthly powers—they sought with so great love that they neither dared to rescind the baptism given by them, and received certain of them, condemned, without any diminution of their honor, but judged certain ones to have been unpolluted in the fellowship of that division. Of whose concord among themselves we are not envious; but they surely ought to notice how devoutly, with so great zeal, the Catholic root seeks the branch broken from itself, if the branch itself similarly labored so to gather the small fragment cut from itself. (And in another hand): We wish you, son, well in the Lord. I, Aurelius, bishop of the Catholic church of Carthage, have subscribed to this letter. (Likewise in another hand): I, old Silvanus of the church of Summa, have subscribed.
Ep100-155.4EPISTOLA 129
HONORABILI AC DILECTISSIMO FILIO V. C. ET SPECTABILI TRIBUNO ET NOTARIO MARCELLINO, AURELIUS, SILVANUS, ET UNIVERSI EPISCOPI CATHOLICI.
HONORABILI AC DILECTISSIMO FILIO V. C. ET SPECTABILI TRIBUNO ET NOTARIO MARCELLINO, AURELIUS, SILVANUS, ET UNIVERSI EPISCOPI CATHOLICI.
LETTER 129
To the honorable and most beloved son, the most illustrious and respectable man, the tribune and notary Marcellinus, Aurelius, Silvanus, and all the Catholic bishops.
Ep100-155.4To the honorable and most beloved son, the most illustrious and respectable man, the tribune and notary Marcellinus, Aurelius, Silvanus, and all the Catholic bishops.
1. Multum nos sollicitos reddidit Notoria, vel litterae fratrum nostrorum, quos cupimus ad catholicam pacem a perniciosa dissensione converti, quod edicto Nobilitatis tuae, quo ipsius disputationis nostrae tranquillitati quietique providisti, consentire noluerunt; ne forte etiamsi non omnes, aliqui tamen eorum per multitudinis tumultum seu strepitum, collationem, quae pacifica et pacata esse debet, impediant. Atque utinam ipsos non pertentet ista cogitatio, et nos potius fallat ista suspicio! et ideo si velint omnes esse praesentes, ut cum eis visum fuerit, congregatis illuc etiam nobis, simul inde egrediamur concordes atque pacati, et schismatica divisione correcta, fraterno unitatis Christi vinculo obstricti, mirantibus et gaudentibus omnibus bonis, dolente autem solo diabolo et similibus eius, pariter in Ecclesiam ad gratiarum actionem, laudesque Deo reddendas ardentissima et lucidissima caritate pergamus.
1. The official notification, or the letter, of our brothers—whom we desire to be converted to Catholic peace from a pernicious dissension—has made us much solicitous, because they were unwilling to consent to the edict of your Nobility, by which you provided for the tranquility and quiet of our very disputation; lest perhaps, even if not all, yet some of them, through the tumult or din of the multitude, hinder the conference, which ought to be peaceful and peaceable. And would that this thought may not tempt them, and that this suspicion rather deceive us! And therefore, if they all wish to be present, that, when it shall seem good to them, we too being gathered there with them, we may at once go out thence concordant and peaceable, and, the schismatic division being corrected, bound by the brotherly bond of Christ's unity, with all good men marveling and rejoicing, but the devil alone and those like him grieving, let us together proceed into the Church to give thanks and render praises to God with the most ardent and most lucid love.
Ep100-155.12. Quid enim magnum est, si oculus pacatus attendat, et cogitatio christiana non deserat considerare et videre, remotis humanis criminationibus seu veris seu falsis, in eis Litteris Ecclesiam esse quaerendam, ubi Christus Redemptor eius innotuit? Nam sicut non audimus contra Christum eos qui dicunt corpus eius de sepulcro furatum a discipulis; sic non debemus audire contra eius Ecclesiam eos qui dicunt non eam esse nisi in solis Afris et Afrorum paucissimis sociis: Apostolus quippe dicit quoniam veraces christiani membra sunt Christi; sicut ergo non credimus furto cuiusquam periisse carnem Christi mortuam de sepulcro, sic credere non debemus peccato cuiusquam viva eius membra periisse de mundo. Non est itaque difficile, quoniam caput est Christus, et corpus Ecclesia, simul in Evangelio commendatum videre, et caput contra calumnias Iudaeorum, et corpus contra criminationes haereticorum. Nam quod legitur: Oportebat Christum pati, et resurgere a mortuis tertio die, contra eos est qui dicunt mortuum de sepulcro esse sublatum; quod autem sequitur, et praedicari in nomine eius poenitentiam, et remissionem peccatorum, per omnes gentes, incipientibus ab Ierusalem, contra eos est qui dicunt non esse Ecclesiam in orbe terrarum: ut uno brevi capitulo paucisque verbis, et inimicus capitis, et inimicus corporis repellatur, et, si fideliter attenderit, corrigatur.
2. For what great thing is it, if a peaceable eye attend, and Christian thought not desert to consider and see, that—human accusations, whether true or false, being removed—the Church is to be sought in those writings where Christ its Redeemer became known? For just as we do not hear against Christ those who say that his body was stolen from the sepulcher by the disciples, so we ought not to hear against his Church those who say that it is nowhere but among the Africans alone, and the very fewest associates of the Africans: for the Apostle says that truthful Christians are members of Christ; just as, then, we do not believe that the dead flesh of Christ perished from the sepulcher by anyone's theft, so we ought not to believe that his living members perished from the world by anyone's sin. It is not, therefore, difficult—since Christ is the head, and the Church the body—to see commended together in the Gospel both the head against the calumnies of the Jews, and the body against the accusations of the heretics. For what is read, It behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead on the third day, is against those who say that the dead one was taken from the sepulcher; but what follows, and that repentance and remission of sins be preached in his name through all nations, beginning from Jerusalem (Luke 24:46-47), is against those who say that the Church is not in the whole world: so that by one brief chapter and a few words, both the enemy of the head and the enemy of the body may be repelled, and, if he attend faithfully, corrected.
Ep100-155.23. Nam tenere istas inimicitias fratres nostros tanto magis dolemus, quanto magis eos constat easdem Scripturas nobiscum tenere, quibus haec apertissima testimonia continentur. Iudaei quippe qui negant resurrexisse Christum, saltem non accipiunt Evangelium: isti autem fratres nostri utriusque Testamenti auctoritate devincti sunt; et tamen criminari nos volunt de Evangelio tradito, et nolunt ei credere recitato. Sed nunc fortasse huius collationis cura suscepta diligentius perscrutati sunt Scripturas sacras; et quia in eis innumerabilia testimonia repererunt, quibus promissa est Ecclesia futura in omnibus gentibus, et toto orbe terrarum, sicut eam reddi et praesentari coepisse in Evangelio et Epistolis apostolicis, et in Actibus Apostolorum videmus, ubi et ipsa loca, et civitates, et provinciae leguntur, per quas crevit, incipiens ab Ierusalem, ut inde se etiam in Africam non migrando, sed crescendo diffunderet; non autem invenerunt aliquod testimonium divinorum eloquiorum, ubi dictum est eam perituram de caeteris partibus mundi, et in sola Africa Donati parte mansuram; et viderunt quam sit absurdum, pro illa, quae fuerat peritura, tot testimonia divina recitari; pro ea vero, quae, sicut putant, fuerat Domino placitura, nullum eius testimonium reperiri: haec forte cogitantes, ad finiendas vanas, et perniciosas, et saluti aeternae contrarias inimicitias, ad locum collationis nostrae omnes convenire voluerunt, non ut tumultus novus oriatur, sed ut vetusta discordia finiatur.
3. For that our brothers hold these enmities we grieve the more, the more it is agreed that they hold the same Scriptures with us, in which these most open testimonies are contained. For the Jews, who deny that Christ rose, at least do not receive the Gospel: but these our brothers are bound by the authority of both Testaments; and yet they wish to accuse us about the Gospel handed over, and refuse to believe it when recited. But now perhaps, the care of this conference being undertaken, they have searched the sacred Scriptures more diligently; and because in them they have found innumerable testimonies by which the Church was promised to be in all nations, and in the whole world—as we see it began to be rendered and presented in the Gospel and the apostolic Letters, and in the Acts of the Apostles, where the very places, and cities, and provinces are read through which it grew, beginning from Jerusalem, so as to spread thence even into Africa, not by migrating but by growing; but have not found any testimony of the divine words where it is said that it would perish from the other parts of the world, and remain in Africa alone, in the party of Donatus; and have seen how absurd it is that, for that which was to perish, so many divine testimonies should be recited, but for that which, as they suppose, was to be pleasing to the Lord, no testimony of it should be found: thinking of these things perhaps, to end vain and pernicious enmities, contrary to eternal salvation, they all wished to come together to the place of our conference, not that a new tumult may arise, but that the old discord may be ended.
Ep100-155.34. Nam et illud quo in nos solent graviter irritari, quod reges terrae, quos tanto ante praedictum est Christo domino servituros, leges contra haereticos et schismaticos pro catholica pace constituunt, credimus quod aliquando cogitaverint non esse culpandum: quia et antiqui reges non solum gentis Hebraicae, sed etiam alienigenae, ne quisquam contra Deum Israel, hoc est verum Deum, non tantum faceret, sed vel diceret aliquid, omnes regni sui populos praeceptis minacissimis terruerunt; et maiores istorum ipsam Caeciliani causam, unde nata est ista dissensio, ad Constantinum imperatorem per Anulinum proconsulem accusando miserunt; quod utique non ob aliud videntur fecisse, nisi ut imperator Constantinus contra eos qui superati essent, eis qui superassent, aliquid regali auctoritate decerneret; totamque ipsam causam potuerunt (et forte fecerunt ipsius collationis necessitate), archivis publicis perscrutatis, invenire olim esse finitam, post ecclesiastica iudicia, quibus absolutus est Caecilianus, illo etiam imperatore iudicante, ad cuius examen rem totam et primo miserunt, et postea perduxerunt. Ibi potuerunt etiam causam Felicis Aptungensis ordinatoris Caeciliani, quem malorum omnium fontem in concilio suo dixerant, cognoscente Aeliano proconsule ex praecepto eiusdem imperatoris, invenire purgatam.
4. For that too, by which they are wont to be gravely irritated against us, that the kings of the earth—who, it was so long before foretold, would serve Christ the Lord—establish laws against heretics and schismatics for Catholic peace, we believe that they have at some time considered is not to be blamed: because the ancient kings too, not only of the Hebrew nation but even of foreigners, terrified all the peoples of their kingdoms with most threatening precepts, lest anyone should not only do, but even say anything against the God of Israel, that is, the true God; and the forefathers of these men sent the very cause of Caecilian, whence this dissension was born, to the emperor Constantine, accusing through the proconsul Anulinus; which they seem to have done for no other reason than that the emperor Constantine should decree something by royal authority against those who should be overcome, on behalf of those who should overcome; and they could have found that whole cause (and perhaps did, by the necessity of the conference itself), the public archives being searched, to have been ended long ago, after the ecclesiastical judgments by which Caecilian was acquitted, that emperor too judging, to whose examination they both first sent the whole matter and afterward brought it. There too they could have found the cause of Felix of Aptunga, the ordainer of Caecilian—whom they had called in their council the fount of all evils—cleared, Aelianus the proconsul examining it by the precept of that same emperor.
Ep100-155.45. Quamquam et hoc si attenderunt, et, quod facile fuerat, adverterunt, in Scripturis sanctis Ecclesiam Christi permixtis zizaniis, et palea, et piscibus malis futuram esse promissam usque ad tempus messis, ventilationis, et littoris, utique cogitare potuerunt, etiamsi malam causam Caecilianus et coepiscopi eius habuissent, nihil eos praeiudicare potuisse orbi christiano, quem Deus paucis credentibus tanto ante promisit, et nunc multis videntibus reddidit. Nisi forte plus contra Ecclesiam valuit homo peccans, quam pro Ecclesia Deus iurans, et iniquitas quod amisit, quam veritas quod promisit. Haec sentire quam sit stultum et impium iam fortasse viderunt: cogitaverunt quoque damnatos a se Maximianistas Primiani damnatores per potestates terrenas etiam de basilicis curasse pellendos, et ibi certius exemplo suo recentiore didicerunt non esse peccatum, si tale aliquid Ecclesia contra rebelles suos ab huiusmodi potestatibus postulat: et quod aliquos ex damnatis postea receperunt, quos cum damnarent, aliis etiam plurimis in eadem societate schismatis constitutis dilationem dederunt, quos in Maximiani sacrilegi surculi communione impollutos mansisse dixerunt, et Baptismum vel a damnatis, vel a sociis eorum, quamvis foris in schismate datum, rescindere atque iterare non ausi sunt; satis utique iudicarunt ea quae contra nos dicebant, exemplo suo esse damnata: et credendum est quod iam intellegant quam sit indignum, quam intolerabile, ut cum sedeant in cathedris episcopalibus cum istis, et cum ipso simul Primiano damnatores eius et damnati in causa eius, ut sit pax in parte Donati, de Caeciliano infametur orbis christianus, ne in pace vivat unitas Christi.
5. Although, even if they attended to this—and, what was easy, noticed it—that in the holy Scriptures the Church of Christ was promised to be, with tares, and chaff, and bad fish mixed in, until the time of harvest, of winnowing, and of the shore: surely they could have considered that, even if Caecilian and his fellow bishops had had a bad cause, they could have prejudiced nothing against the Christian world, which God so long before promised to a few believers, and now, with many seeing, has rendered. Unless perhaps a sinning man availed more against the Church than God swearing for the Church, and iniquity, what it lost, than truth, what it promised. How foolish and impious it is to hold these things they have now perhaps seen: they have considered too that the Maximianists, condemned by them—the condemners of Primian—they took care to have driven even from the basilicas through earthly powers, and there, by their more recent example, learned more certainly that it is not a sin if the Church demands something of the sort against its rebels from powers of this kind: and that they afterward received some of the condemned—to whom, while condemning them, they gave a delay, along with very many others set in the same fellowship of schism—whom they said remained unpolluted in the communion of the sacrilegious shoot of Maximian, and the Baptism either by the condemned or by their associates, though given outside in schism, they did not dare to rescind and repeat; they surely judged well enough that those things which they said against us were condemned by their own example: and it is to be believed that they now understand how unworthy, how intolerable it is that, while they sit in episcopal chairs with these men, and with Primian himself together his condemners and the condemned in his cause, in order that there may be peace in the party of Donatus, the Christian world is defamed about Caecilian, lest the unity of Christ live in peace.
Ep100-155.56. Haec omnia fortasse cogitantes, et Dei timore permoti, omnes collationis loco adesse voluerunt, non tumultus dispositione, sed pacis. Quod enim propterea se universos adesse dixerunt, ut eorum numerus appareat, quoniam eos paucos esse adversarii saepe sui mentiti sunt; hoc si aliquando a nostris dictum est, de his locis dici verissime potuit ubi nostrorum coepiscoporum et clericorum atque laicorum longe maior est numerus, et maxime in proconsulari provincia: quamquam, excepta Numidia consulari, etiam in caeteris provinciis Africanis nostrorum numero facillime superentur; aut certe, in comparatione omnium gentium, per quas catholica communio dilatatur, eos esse paucissimos rectissime dicimus. Sed nunc si numerum suum innotescere voluissent, nonne ordinatius atque tranquillius innotesceret per eorum subscriptiones, quas ut mandato suo te cernente subiungant, edicto admonuisti? Quid sibi ergo vult quod collationis loco omnes adesse desiderant? Si enim pacem non cogitant, quid non perturbabunt locuturi, aut quid illic facient tacituri? Nam etiamsi clamor non sit, solus susurrus ipse multorum, satis magnum strepitum faciet, quo impediatur illa collatio.
6. Thinking perhaps of all these things, and moved by the fear of God, they all wished to be present at the place of the conference, not by a disposition of tumult, but of peace. For as to the fact that they said they were all present for this reason, that their number might appear—since their adversaries have often lied that they are few: this, if it was ever said by our people, could most truly be said of those places where the number of our fellow bishops and clerics and laymen is far greater, and especially in the proconsular province: although, except for consular Numidia, even in the other African provinces they are most easily surpassed by the number of our people; or at any rate, in comparison with all the nations through which Catholic communion is spread, we most rightly say that they are very few. But now, if they had wished their number to become known, would it not become known more orderly and tranquilly through their subscriptions, which, by their mandate, with you perceiving it, you admonished by edict that they should append? What, then, does it mean that they desire all to be present at the place of the conference? For if they do not think of peace, what will they not disturb if they are going to speak, or what will they do there if they are going to be silent? For even if there be no clamor, the mere whisper itself of many will make a great enough din, by which that conference may be hindered.
Ep100-155.67. Quid est autem quod in Notoria sua ponendum putarunt, ideo se iuste flagitasse ut omnes adessent, quia omnes conventi sunt ut venirent? quasi possent eligi pauci qui adesse deberent, nisi ab omnibus qui venissent, ut eorum electioni te praesente subscriberent, ac sic in paucis omnes essent, cum ab omnibus pauci electi essent. Aut ergo tumultus ab eis cogitatur, aut pax; quorum illud optamus, illud cavemus: et ideo ne forte, quod absit, hoc praeparetur potius quod cavemus quam quod optamus, consentimus adesse omnes illos, ut tamen a nobis tantus adsit numerus, quantus tuae Spectabilitati sufficere visus est; ut tumultuosum per turbas si quid emerserit, nonnisi eis recte imputetur, in quorum parte praesens fuerit ad rem, quae a paucis agenda est, omnino superflua multitudo. Si autem quod votis omnibus cupimus, quod ardenter appetimus, quod suppliciter a Domino deprecamur, causa unitatis faciendae illa erit necessaria multitudo, cum voluerint, omnes aderimus, et ad tantum bonum, illo adiuvante qui hoc donat, alacriter convolabimus, dicentes. Fratres nostri estis, non iam eis qui nos detestantur, sed qui odio finito amplectuntur, ut nomen Domini honorificetur, et appareat illis in iucunditate iam nobiscum experientibus, quam bonum sit et iucundum fratres habitantes in unum. (Et alia manu): Optamus te, fili, in Deo bene valere. (Item alia manu): Aurelius episcopus Ecclesiae catholicae Carthaginensis, subscripsi. (Item): Silvanus primae sedis provinciae Numidiae, subscripsi.
7. But what is it that they thought should be set down in their notification, that they justly demanded that all be present because all were summoned to come? As though a few could be chosen who ought to be present, except by all who had come, that they should subscribe, with you present, to their choice, and so all be in the few, when the few were chosen by all. Either, then, tumult is thought of by them, or peace; of which we desire the latter, we guard against the former: and therefore, lest perhaps, which God forbid, that be prepared rather which we guard against than what we desire, we consent that all those be present, provided, however, that there be present from us so great a number as has seemed sufficient to your Respectability; so that, if anything tumultuous through the crowds shall emerge, it be rightly imputed only to those in whose party there shall be present, for a matter to be done by a few, an altogether superfluous multitude. But if—what we desire with all our wishes, what we ardently seek, what we suppliantly entreat of the Lord—the cause of making unity shall require that multitude, when they wish, we shall all be present, and to so great a good, with him helping who gives this, we shall eagerly fly together, saying: You are our brothers—now not to those who detest us, but who, hatred being ended, embrace us, that the name of the Lord may be honored, and appear to them in gladness, now experiencing with us how good and pleasant it is for brothers to dwell as one (Ps 133:1 (132:1)). (And in another hand): We wish you, son, well in God. (Likewise in another hand): I, Aurelius, bishop of the Catholic church of Carthage, have subscribed. (Likewise): I, Silvanus of the first seat of the province of Numidia, have subscribed.
Ep100-155.7EPISTOLA 130
AUGUSTINUS EPISCOPUS SERVUS CHRISTI SERVORUMQUE CHRISTI, RELIGIOSAE FAMULAE DEI PROBAE, IN DOMINO DOMINORUM SALUTEM.
AUGUSTINUS EPISCOPUS SERVUS CHRISTI SERVORUMQUE CHRISTI, RELIGIOSAE FAMULAE DEI PROBAE, IN DOMINO DOMINORUM SALUTEM.
LETTER 130
Augustine, bishop, servant of Christ and of the servants of Christ, to the religious handmaid of God Proba, greetings in the Lord of lords.
Ep100-155.7Augustine, bishop, servant of Christ and of the servants of Christ, to the religious handmaid of God Proba, greetings in the Lord of lords.
1. 1. Et petisse te et promisisse me recolens, ut de orando Deo ad te aliquid scriberem, ubi tribuente ipso quem oramus, tempus facultasque concessa est, oportuit ut debitum meum iam iamque persolverem, et pio studio tuo in Christi caritate servirem. Quam me autem laetificaverit ipsa petitio tua, in qua cognovi quantam rei tantae curam geris, verbis explicare non possum. Quod enim maius oportuit esse negotium viduitatis tuae, quam persistere in oratione nocte ac die, secundum Apostoli admonitionem? ille quippe ait: Quae autem vere vidua est et desolata speravit in Domino, et persistit in oratione nocte ac die. Unde mirum videri potest, cum sis secundum hoc saeculum nobilis, dives, tantaeque familiae mater, et in eo licet vidua, non tamen desolata, quomodo occupaverit cor tuum praecipueque sibi vindicaverit orandi cura; nisi quia prudenter intellegis quod in hoc mundo et in hac vita nulla anima possit esse secura.
1. 1. Recalling both that you asked and that I promised that I would write you something about praying to God, now that—by the grant of him whom we pray—time and opportunity have been granted, it was fitting that I should now at last pay my debt, and serve your devout zeal in the love of Christ. But how your very petition gladdened me—in which I learned how great a care you bear for so great a matter—I cannot unfold in words. For what greater business ought there to be of your widowhood than to persist in prayer night and day, according to the admonition of the Apostle? For he says, But she who is truly a widow and desolate has hoped in the Lord, and persists in prayer night and day (1 Tim 5:5). Whence it may seem a wonder, since you are, according to this world, noble, rich, and the mother of so great a family, and in it, though a widow, yet not desolate, how the care of praying has occupied your heart and especially claimed it for itself; unless because you prudently understand that in this world and in this life no soul can be secure.
Ep100-155.1.11. 2. Proinde qui tibi eam cogitationem dedit, profecto facit quod Discipulis suis, non pro seipsis, sed pro humano genere contristatis, et desperantibus quemquam posse salvari, posteaquam ab illo audierunt facilius esse camelum intrare per foramen acus, quam divitem in regnum coelorum; mirifica et misericordissima pollicitatione respondit: Deo esse facile quod hominibus impossibile est. Cui ergo facile est ut etiam dives intret in regnum coelorum, inspiravit tibi piam sollicitudinem, de qua me consulendum putasti quonam modo esset tibi orandum. Ille namque cum etiam hic adhuc esset in carne, Zachaeum divitem in regnum coelorum misit, et resurrectione atque ascensione glorificatus, multos postea divites impartito Spiritu sancto fecit huius saeculi contemptores, et finita divitiarum cupiditate ditiores. Quomodo enim tu sic studeres orare Deum, nisi sperares in eo? quomodo autem sperares in eo, si sperares in incerto divitiarum, et contemneres praeceptum saluberrimum, quo Apostolus ait: Praecipe divitibus huius mundi non superbe sapere, neque sperare in incerto divitiarum, sed in Deo vivo qui praestat nobis omnia abundanter ad fruendum; ut divites sint in operibus bonis, facile tribuant, communicent, thesaurizent sibi fundamentum bonum in futurum, ut apprehendant veram vitam ?
1. 2. Accordingly, he who gave you that thought surely does what he did for his Disciples, saddened not for themselves but for the human race, and despairing that anyone could be saved, after they heard from him that it is easier for a camel to enter through the eye of a needle than for a rich man into the kingdom of heaven; he answered with a marvelous and most merciful promise: that to God is easy what to men is impossible. To him, then, to whom it is easy that even a rich man enter the kingdom of heaven, he inspired in you the devout solicitude about which you thought I should be consulted, in what way you ought to pray. For he, when he was still here in the flesh, sent the rich Zacchaeus into the kingdom of heaven, and, glorified by resurrection and ascension, afterward made many rich men, the Holy Spirit being imparted, despisers of this world, and richer by the ending of the desire of riches. For how would you so be zealous to pray to God, unless you hoped in him? But how would you hope in him, if you hoped in the uncertainty of riches, and despised that most wholesome precept by which the Apostle says, Command the rich of this world not to be proudly wise, nor to hope in the uncertainty of riches, but in the living God, who furnishes us all things abundantly to enjoy; that they be rich in good works, give easily, share, lay up for themselves a good foundation for the future, that they may lay hold of the true life (1 Tim 6:17-19)?
Ep100-155.1.22. 3. Debes itaque prae amore huius verae vitae, etiam desolatam te putare in hoc saeculo, in quantalibet eius felicitate verseris. Nam sicut est illa vera vita, in cuius comparatione utique ista quae multum amatur, quamlibet iucunda atque producta sit, nec vita dicenda est: sic est etiam solatium verum, quod per prophetam Dominus promittit dicens: Dabo illi solatium verum, pacem super pacem; sine quo solatio quaecumque sunt terrena solatia, magis in eis desolatio, quam consolatio reperitur. Divitiae quippe atque fastigia dignitatum, caeteraque huiusmodi quibus felices se esse putant mortales verae illius felicitatis expertes, quid afferunt consolationis, cum sit eis non indigere quam eminere praestantius; quae plus excruciant adepta timore amissionis, quam concupita adeptionis ardore? Talibus bonis non fiunt homines boni, sed aliunde boni facti, bene utendo faciunt ut ista sint bona. Non sunt ergo in iis vera solatia, sed ibi potius ubi vera vita. Nam inde necesse est ut fiat homo beatus, unde fit bonus.
2. 3. You ought, therefore, for the love of this true life, to think yourself desolate even in this world, in however great a happiness of it you are engaged. For just as there is that true life, in comparison with which surely this life, which is much loved, however pleasant and prolonged it be, is not even to be called life: so there is also a true solace, which the Lord through the prophet promises, saying, I will give him true solace, peace upon peace (See Isa 57:18-19); without which solace, whatever earthly solaces there are, in them is found rather desolation than consolation. For riches and the summits of dignities, and other such things by which mortals devoid of that true happiness think themselves happy, what consolation do they bring, when it is more excellent not to be in need of them than to be eminent in them; things which torture more, once obtained, by the fear of losing them than, once desired, by the ardor of obtaining them? By such goods men are not made good, but, made good from elsewhere, by using them well they bring it about that these are goods. There are not, then, true solaces in them, but rather there where the true life is. For thence it is necessary that a man become blessed, whence he becomes good.
Ep100-155.2.32. 4. Homines autem boni videntur etiam in hac vita praestare non parva solatia. Nam si paupertas angit, si luctus moestificat, si dolor corporis inquietat, si contristat exsilium, si ulla calamitas alia vexat, adsint boni homines qui non solum gaudere cum gaudentibus, verum etiam flere cum flentibus norunt, et salubriter alloqui et colloqui sciunt; plurimum illa aspera leniuntur, relevantur gravia, superantur adversa. Sed ille hoc in eis et per eos agit, qui spiritu suo bonos fecit. E contra, si divitiae circumfluant, nulla orbitas accidat, adsit sanitas carnis, incolumi habitetur in patria, et cohabitent mali homines, in quibus nemo sit cui fides habeatur, a quo non dolus, fraus, irae, discordiae, insidiae timeantur, atque sustineantur; nonne illa omnia fiunt amara et dura, nec aliquid laetum vel dulce est in eis? Ita in quibuslibet rebus humanis nihil est homini amicum sine homine amico. Sed quotusquisque talis invenitur, de cuius animo et moribus sit in hac vita certa securitas? Nam sicut sibi quisque nemo alter alteri notus est; et tamen nec sibi quisque ita notus est, ut sit de sua crastina conversatione securus. Proinde quamvis ex fructibus suis multi cognoscantur, et alii quidem bene vivendo proximos laetificent, alii male vivendo contristent; tamen propter humanorum animorum ignota et incerta, rectissime Apostolus admonet ut non ante tempus quidquam iudicemus, donec veniat Dominus, et illuminet abscondita tenebrarum, et manifestet cogitationes cordis, et tunc laus erit unicuique a Deo.
2. 4. But good men seem to afford no small solaces even in this life. For if poverty pinches, if mourning saddens, if pain of body disquiets, if exile grieves, if any other calamity vexes, let good men be present who know not only to rejoice with the rejoicing, but even to weep with the weeping, and know how to address and converse wholesomely; very much those hard things are softened, the heavy relieved, the adverse overcome. But he does this in them and through them, who by his Spirit made them good. On the contrary, if riches flow around, no bereavement befall, health of the flesh be present, one dwell unharmed in one's fatherland, and bad men dwell together with one—in whom there is no one to whom faith can be given, from whom deceit, fraud, angers, discords, ambushes are not feared and endured—do not all those things become bitter and hard, nor is there anything glad or sweet in them? Thus in any human affairs nothing is friendly to a man without a friendly man. But how rarely is such a one found, of whose mind and character there is in this life sure security? For just as no one is known to another as he is to himself; and yet not even is anyone so known to himself as to be secure about his own conduct tomorrow. Accordingly, although many are known from their fruits, and some by living well gladden their neighbors, others by living badly sadden them; yet, on account of the unknown and uncertain things of human minds, the Apostle most rightly admonishes that we judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, and illuminate the hidden things of darkness, and manifest the thoughts of the heart, and then there will be praise to each one from God (1 Cor 4:5).
Ep100-155.2.42. 5. In iis igitur vitae huius tenebris, in quibus peregrinamur a Domino, quamdiu per fidem ambulamus, non per speciem, desolatam debet se christiana anima reputare, ne desistat orare: et Scripturarum divinarum sanctarumque sermoni discat tamquam lucernae in obscuro loco positae fidei oculum intendere, donec dies lucescat, et lucifer oriatur in cordibus nostris. Huius enim lucernae quidam fons ineffabilis lumen illud est, quod sic lucet in tenebris, ut non comprehendatur a tenebris, cui videndo, fide corda mundanda sunt: Beati enim mundo corde; quoniam ipsi Deum videbunt; et: Scimus quoniam cum apparuerit, similes ei erimus, quoniam videbimus eum sicuti est. Tunc erit vera vita post mortem, verumque solatium post desolationem: illa vita eximet animam nostram de morte, et illud solatium oculos nostros a lacrymis; et quoniam ibi iam non erit ulla tentatio, ideo sequitur in eodem psalmo: Pedes meos a lapsu. Porro si nulla tentatio, iam nulla oratio: non enim ibi adhuc erit promissi boni exspectatio, sed redditi contemplatio; unde: Placebo, inquit: Domino in regione vivorum, ubi tunc erimus, non in deserto mortuorum, ubi nunc sumus. Mortui enim estis, ait Apostolus, et vita vestra abscondita est cum Christo in Deo: cum autem Christus apparuerit vita vestra, tunc et vos apparebitis cum ipso in gloria. Haec est enim vera vita, quam iubentur bonis operibus apprehendere divites: et ibi est verum solatium; quo solatio nunc vidua desolata, etiam quae filios et nepotes habet, et domum suam pie tractat, agens cum omnibus suis ut ponant in Deo spem suam, dicit tamen in oratione: Sitivit tibi anima mea: quam multipliciter tibi et caro mea, in terra deserta, et sine via, et sine aqua; quod est ista moribunda vita, quibuslibet mortalibus solatiis frequentetur, quibuslibet itinerantibus comitetur, quantalibet rerum copia cumuletur. Nosti quippe ista omnia quam incerta sint: et in illius promissae felicitatis comparatione quid essent, etiamsi incerta non essent?
2. 5. In these darknesses of this life, then, in which we journey away from the Lord, as long as we walk by faith, not by sight (2 Cor 5:7), the Christian soul ought to reckon itself desolate, lest it cease to pray: and let it learn to fix the eye of faith on the word of the divine and holy Scriptures as on a lamp set in a dark place, until the day dawn and the daystar arise in our hearts. For of this lamp a certain ineffable fount is that light which so shines in the darkness that it is not comprehended by the darkness, for seeing which hearts are to be cleansed by faith: For blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God (Matt 5:8); and, We know that, when he appears, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is (1 John 3:2). Then will be the true life after death, and the true solace after desolation: that life will rescue our soul from death, and that solace our eyes from tears; and since there will then be no temptation, therefore it follows in the same psalm, my feet from falling (Ps 116:8 (114:8)). Moreover, if there is no temptation, then there is no prayer: for there will then no longer be the expectation of the promised good, but the contemplation of the rendered good; whence, I will please the Lord, he says, in the land of the living (Ps 116:9 (114:9)), where we shall then be, not in the desert of the dead, where we now are. For you have died, says the Apostle, and your life is hidden with Christ in God: but when Christ, your life, shall appear, then you too will appear with him in glory (Col 3:3-4). For this is the true life, which the rich are commanded by good works to lay hold of: and there is the true solace; with which solace now the desolate widow—even she who has sons and grandsons and devoutly governs her house, dealing with all her own that they place their hope in God—yet says in prayer, My soul has thirsted for you; how manifoldly my flesh too for you, in a land deserted, and without way, and without water (Ps 63:1 (62:2)); which is this dying life, frequented by whatever mortal solaces, accompanied by whatever fellow travelers, heaped up with whatever abundance of things. For you know well how uncertain all these are: and in comparison with that promised happiness, what would they be, even if they were not uncertain?
Ep100-155.2.52. 6. Haec dixi, quoniam sermonem meum vidua dives et nobilis, et tantae familiae mater, de oratione quaesisti, ut etiam tecum in hac vita permanentibus et obsequentibus tuis, te sentias desolatam, nondum utique apprehensa illa vita, ubi est verum certumque solatium, ubi implebitur quod in prophetia dictum est: Satiati sumus mane misericordia tua; et exsultavimus et iucundati sumus in omnibus diebus nostris. Iucundati sumus pro diebus quibus nos humiliasti, annis quibus vidimus mala.
2. 6. I have said these things because you, a rich and noble widow, and the mother of so great a family, asked my discourse about prayer, so that even with your own remaining and attending you in this life, you may feel yourself desolate, not yet having laid hold of that life where is the true and sure solace, where will be fulfilled what was said in prophecy: We have been satisfied in the morning with your mercy; and we have exulted and been gladdened in all our days. We have been gladdened for the days in which you humbled us, the years in which we saw evils (Ps 90:14-15 (89:14-15)).
Ep100-155.2.63. 7. Antequam ergo ista consolatio veniat, quantacumque temporalium bonorum felicitate circumfluas, ut persistas in orationibus die ac nocte, desolatam te esse memineris. Non enim Apostolus qualicumque viduae hoc munus tribuit: Sed quae vere, inquit, vidua est et desolata, speravit in Domino, et persistit in orationibus die ac nocte. Quod vero sequitur, vigilantissime cave: Quae autem in deliciis agit, vivens mortua est: agit enim homo in iis quae diligit, quae pro magno appetit, quibus beatum se esse credit. Quapropter quod Scriptura dixit de divitiis: Divitiae si affluant, ne apponatis cor, hoc etiam de deliciis tibi dico: Deliciae si affluant, ne apponas cor. Non ideo te magnipendas, quod non desunt, quod affatim suppetunt, quod velut ex fonte largissimo terrenae felicitatis fluunt. Omnino haec in te despice atque contemne, nec in iis quidquam requiras praeter integram corporis valetudinem. Haec enim contemnenda non est propter necessarios usus vitae, antequam mortale hoc induatur immortalitate; hoc est vera et perfecta et perpetua sanitate, quae non terrena deficiens infirmitate, corruptibili voluptate reficitur, sed coelesti firmitate persistens, aeterna incorruptione vegetatur. Nam et ipse Apostolus: Carnis, inquit, providentiam ne feceritis in concupiscentiis; quia gerimus curam carnis, sed ad necessitatem salutis. Nemo enim umquam carnem suam odio habuit, sicut itidem ipse dicit. Hinc est enim quod et Timotheum, nimium, sicut apparet, corporis castigatorem admonet ut modico vino utatur, propter stomachum et frequentes suas infirmitates.
3. 7. Before, then, that consolation comes, in however great a happiness of temporal goods you flow around, remember that, in order to persist in prayers day and night, you are desolate. For the Apostle did not grant this office to just any widow: But she who is truly a widow, he says, and desolate, has hoped in the Lord, and persists in prayers day and night (1 Tim 5:5). But what follows, beware most vigilantly: But she who lives in pleasures is dead while living (1 Tim 5:6): for a man lives in those things which he loves, which he seeks as a great thing, by which he believes himself blessed. Wherefore what Scripture said about riches, If riches abound, do not set your heart (Ps 62:10 (61:11)), this too I say to you about pleasures: if pleasures abound, do not set your heart. Do not therefore esteem yourself greatly because they are not lacking, because they supply abundantly, because, as from a most lavish fount of earthly happiness, they flow. Altogether despise and condemn these in yourself, nor seek anything in them except the entire health of the body. For this is not to be despised, on account of the necessary uses of life, before this mortal puts on immortality—that is, true and perfect and perpetual health, which is not, failing by earthly weakness, refreshed by corruptible pleasure, but, persisting in heavenly firmness, is enlivened by eternal incorruption. For the Apostle himself too says, Do not make provision for the flesh in its concupiscences (Rom 13:14); because we bear the care of the flesh, but for the necessity of health. For no one ever hated his own flesh (Eph 5:29), as likewise he himself says. Hence it is that he admonishes Timothy too—too much, as it appears, a chastiser of the body—to use a little wine, on account of his stomach and his frequent infirmities.
Ep100-155.3.73. 8. Has ergo delicias, in quibus vidua si agit, hoc est, si delectatione cordis haeret atque habitat, vivens mortua est, multi sancti et sanctae omni modo caventes, ipsas velut matres deliciarum divitias dispergendo pauperibus abiecerunt, et tali modo in coelestibus thesauris tutius condiderunt. Quod si tu devincta aliquo pietatis officio non facis, tu scis quam de iis rationem reddas Deo. Nemo enim scit quid agatur in homine, nisi spiritus hominis qui in ipso est. Nos non debemus ante tempus quidquam iudicare, donec veniat Dominus, qui et illuminabit abscondita tenebrarum, et manifestabit cogitationes cordis, et tunc laus erit unicuique a Deo. Pertinet tamen ad vidualem curam tuam, deliciae si affluant, ne apponas cor, ne in eis putrescendo moriatur quod sursum esse debet ut vivat. Te in illorum numero deputato, de quibus scriptum est: Vivent corda eorum in saeculum saeculi.
3. 8. These pleasures, then—in which if a widow lives, that is, if by the delight of the heart she clings and dwells, she is dead while living—many holy men and women, guarding against in every way, have cast away by scattering to the poor riches, the very mothers, as it were, of pleasures, and in such a way have more safely stored them up in heavenly treasures. But if you, bound by some office of piety, do not do this, you know what account of them you render to God. For no one knows what is done in a man, except the spirit of the man which is in him. We ought not to judge anything before the time, until the Lord come, who will both illuminate the hidden things of darkness, and manifest the thoughts of the heart, and then there will be praise to each from God. Yet it pertains to your widowed care that, if pleasures abound, you not set your heart, lest by rotting in them there die what ought to be on high that it may live. Reckon yourself in the number of those of whom it is written, Their hearts will live forever and ever (Ps 22:26 (21:27)).
Ep100-155.3.84. 9. Audisti qualis ores, nunc audi et quid ores, unde me maxime consulendum putasti, quoniam te permovet quod ait Apostolus: Quid enim oremus, sicut oportet nescimus; et timuisti ne magis tibi obsit, non sicut oportet orare, quam non orare. Quod itaque dici breviter potest, ora beatam vitam: hanc enim habere omnes homines volunt; nam et qui pessime et perdite vivunt, nullo modo ita viverent, nisi eodem modo se esse vel posse fieri beatos putarent. Quid ergo aliud oportet te orare, nisi id quod cupiunt et mali et boni, sed ad quod perveniunt non nisi boni?
4. 9. You have heard what sort you should be in praying; now hear also what you should pray, about which you thought I should especially be consulted, since it moves you that the Apostle says, For what we should pray for as we ought, we do not know (Rom 8:26); and you feared lest it harm you more not to pray as you ought than not to pray. What, then, can be said briefly: pray for the blessed life; for this all men wish to have; for even those who live most basely and lostly would in no way so live, unless in the same way they thought themselves to be, or to be able to be made, blessed. What else, then, ought you to pray, except that which both bad and good desire, but to which none but the good attain?
Ep100-155.4.95. 10. Hic fortasse iam quaeras quid sit ipsa beata vita. In qua quaestione multorum philosophorum ingenia otiaque contrita sunt, qui tamen eam tanto minus invenire potuerunt, quanto minus eius fontem honoraverunt, eique gratias non egerunt. Prius itaque attende, utrum acquiescendum sit eis qui dicunt eum beatum esse qui secundum suam vivit voluntatem. Sed absit ut hoc verum esse credamus: quid si enim nequiter velit vivere? Nonne tanto miserior esse convincitur, quanto facilius mala eius voluntas impletur? Merito hanc sententiam etiam ipsi qui sine cultu Dei philosophati sunt, respuerunt. Nam quidam eorum vir eloquentissimus ait: Ecce autem alii non philosophi quidem, sed prompti tamen ad disputandum, omnes aiunt esse beatos qui vivunt ut ipsi velint. Falsum id quidem: velle enim quod non deceat, idem ipsum miserrimum; nec tam miserum est non adipisci quod velis, quam adipisci velle quod non oporteat. Quid tibi videtur? haec verba nonne ab ipsa veritate per quemlibet hominem dicta sunt? Possumus ergo hic dicere quod Apostolus ait de quodam propheta Cretensi, cum eius illi sententia placuisset: Testimonium hoc verum est.
5. 10. Here perhaps you would now ask what the blessed life itself is. On which question the talents and leisures of many philosophers have been worn down, who yet could find it the less the less they honored its fount, and gave it no thanks. Attend first, then, whether assent is to be given to those who say that he is blessed who lives according to his own will. But far be it that we should believe this to be true: for what if he should will to live wickedly? Is he not convicted of being the more wretched the more easily his bad will is fulfilled? Deservedly even those who philosophized without the worship of God rejected this opinion. For a certain most eloquent man among them says: "But behold, others, not philosophers indeed, yet ready to dispute, say that all are blessed who live as they themselves will. That indeed is false: for to will what is not fitting is itself most wretched; nor is it so wretched not to obtain what you will as to wish to obtain what you ought not." What seems to you? Were not these words said by truth itself through some man? We can, then, here say what the Apostle says about a certain Cretan prophet, when his opinion pleased him: This testimony is true (Titus 1:13).
Ep100-155.5.105. 11. Ille igitur beatus est, qui omnia quae vult habet, nec aliquid vult quod non decet. Quod si ita est, vide iam quae homines non indecenter velint. Alius vult coniugari, alius coniugio viduatus deinceps continenter eligit vivere, alius nullum concubitum nec in ipsis nuptiis experiri. Et si aliud hic alio melius reperitur, nullum tamen istorum possumus dicere indecenter aliquid velle: sic et optare filios, nuptiarum scilicet fructum, et eis qui suscepti fuerint vitam ac salutem, quo voto plerumque occupatur etiam continentia vidualis; nam etsi spreto coniugio iam non optant etiam filios procreare, optant tamen quos procreaverunt incolumes vivere. Ab hac omni cura immunis est virginalis integritas. Habent tamen omnes caros, et caras, quibus non indecenter optant etiam temporalem salutem. Sed cum istam salutem in seipsis et in eis quos diligunt adepti homines fuerint, num poterimus eos dicere iam beatos? Habent enim aliquid quod non dedecet velle; sed si alia non habent maiora atque meliora et utilitatis decorisque pleniora, adhuc a beata vita longe absunt.
5. 11. He, then, is blessed who has all that he wills, and wills nothing that is not fitting. But if this is so, see now what things men may not unfittingly will. One wishes to be married, another, widowed of marriage, thereafter chooses to live continently, another to experience no intercourse even in marriage itself. And if one of these is found better than another, yet none of these can we say wills anything unfittingly: so too, to wish for children—the fruit, that is, of marriage—and for those who shall be received life and health, with which wish even widowed continence is for the most part occupied; for even if, marriage being scorned, they no longer wish even to beget children, yet they wish those whom they have begotten to live unharmed. From all this care virginal integrity is immune. Yet all have dear ones, male and female, for whom they not unfittingly wish even temporal health. But when men have obtained this health in themselves and in those they love, can we say that they are now blessed? For they have something that it does not misbefit to will; but if they do not have other things, greater and better and fuller of usefulness and comeliness, they are still far from the blessed life.
Ep100-155.5.116. 12. Placetne igitur ut super salutem istam temporalem optent sibi ac suis honores et potestates? Sane, si ut per hoc consulant eis qui vivunt sub eis, non propter haec ipsa, sed propter aliud quod inde fit bonum, decet ea velle: si autem propter inanem fastum elationis pompamque superfluam vel etiam noxiam vanitatis, non decet. Quocirca si optant sibi ac suis etiam sufficientiam rerum necessariarum, de qua sic Apostolus loquitur: Est autem quaestus magnus pietas cum sufficientia. Nihil enim intulimus in hunc mundum, sed nec auferre hinc aliquid possumus: victum et tegumentum habentes, his contenti simus. Nam qui volunt divites fieri, incidunt in tentationem et laqueum et desideria multa stulta et noxia, quae mergunt homines in interitum et perditionem. Radix enim omnium malorum est avaritia; quam quidam appetentes a fide erraverunt, et inseruerunt se doloribus multis: hanc ergo sufficientiam non indecenter vult, quisquis vult, nec amplius vult; alioquin non ipsam vult, et ideo nec decenter vult. Hanc optabat et pro hac orabat qui dicebat: Divitias et paupertatem ne dederis mihi; constitue autem mihi quae necessaria sunt sufficienter, ut ne satiatus mendax efficiar, et dicam, Quis me videt? aut pauper factus furer, et periurem nomen Dei mei. Vides certe et istam sufficientiam non appeti propter seipsam, sed propter salutem corporis, et congruentem habitum personae hominis, quo habitu non sit inconveniens eis cum quibus honeste officioseque vivendum est.
6. 12. Does it please you, then, that over and above this temporal health they should wish for themselves and their own honors and powers? Surely, if it be so that through this they may take thought for those who live under them—not on account of these things themselves, but on account of some other good that comes of it—it befits to will them: but if on account of the empty pomp of elation, and the superfluous, or even harmful, display of vanity, it does not befit. Wherefore, if they wish for themselves and their own even a sufficiency of necessary things, of which the Apostle thus speaks: But godliness with sufficiency is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, nor can we take anything out of it: having food and covering, let us be content with these. For those who wish to become rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires, which sink men into ruin and perdition. For the root of all evils is avarice; which some, coveting, have erred from the faith, and have entangled themselves in many sorrows (1 Tim 6:6-10): this sufficiency, then, whoever wishes it not unfittingly wills, nor wishes more; otherwise he does not will it itself, and therefore does not will even fittingly. This he wished, and for this he prayed, who said, Give me neither riches nor poverty; but appoint for me sufficiently the things that are necessary, lest, being sated, I become a liar, and say, Who sees me? or, being made poor, I steal, and forswear the name of my God (Prov 30:8-9). You certainly see that this sufficiency too is not sought for its own sake, but for the health of the body, and for a fitting habit of a man's person, by which habit he may not be unfitting to those with whom he must live honorably and dutifully.
Ep100-155.6.126. 13. In his itaque omnibus incolumitas hominis et amicitia propter seipsa appetuntur; sufficientia vero rerum necessariarum non propter seipsam, sed propter duo superiora quaeri solet, cum decenter quaeritur. Incolumitas porro in ipsa vita, ac salute, atque integritate animi et corporis constituta est. Itemque amicitia non angustis finibus terminanda est: omnes enim quibus amor et dilectio debetur, amplectitur, quamvis in alios propensius, in alios suspensius inclinetur; pervenit autem usque ad inimicos, pro quibus etiam orare praecipimur. Ita nemo est in genere humano cui non dilectio, etsi non pro mutua caritate, pro ipsa tamen communis naturae societate debeatur.
[*]Sed ii nos multum iusteque delectant, a quibus vicissim sancte casteque diligimur. Ista cum habentur, ut teneantur, cum autem non habentur, ut habeantur, orandum est.
[*]Sed ii nos multum iusteque delectant, a quibus vicissim sancte casteque diligimur. Ista cum habentur, ut teneantur, cum autem non habentur, ut habeantur, orandum est.
6. 13. In all these things, then, the safety and friendship of a man are sought for their own sake; but the sufficiency of necessary things is wont to be sought not for its own sake, but for the two former, when it is fittingly sought. Safety, moreover, is established in life itself, and health, and the integrity of mind and body. Likewise friendship is not to be bounded by narrow limits: for it embraces all to whom love and affection are owed, although it inclines more readily toward some, more hesitantly toward others; but it reaches even to enemies, for whom too we are commanded to pray. Thus there is no one in the human race to whom love is not owed, even if not for mutual charity, yet for the fellowship of a common nature.
But those greatly and justly delight us by whom we are in turn holily and chastely loved. These, when they are had, we must pray that they be kept; but when they are not had, we must pray that they be had.
Ep100-155.6.13But those greatly and justly delight us by whom we are in turn holily and chastely loved. These, when they are had, we must pray that they be kept; but when they are not had, we must pray that they be had.
7. 14. Hoccine totum, et haec sunt omnia quibus beatae summa vitae colligitur? an aliquid aliud veritas docet quod his omnibus praeferatur? Nam et illa sufficientia, et ipsa incolumitas, vel propria vel amicorum, quamdiu temporalis est, pro aeternae vitae adeptione abicienda est: quamquam fortasse corpus, animus vero nullo modo sanus existimandus est, qui non temporalibus aeterna praeponit; neque enim in tempore utiliter vivitur, nisi ad comparandum meritum quo in aeternitate vivatur. Ad illam ergo unam vitam, qua cum Deo et de Deo vivitur, caetera quae utiliter et decenter optantur, sine dubio referenda sunt. In eo quippe nosmetipsos diligimus, si Deum diligimus: et ex alio praecepto proximos nostros sicut nosmetipsos ita vere diligimus, si eos ad Dei similem dilectionem, quantum in nobis est, perducamus. Deum igitur diligimus propter seipsum, et nos ac proximos propter ipsum: nec cum ita vivimus, iam nos in ipsa beata vita constitutos existimemus, quasi nihil sit amplius quod oremus. Quomodo enim iam beate vivimus, cum illud adhuc desit, propter quod unum bene vivimus?
7. 14. Is this the whole, and are these all the things by which the sum of the blessed life is gathered? Or does truth teach something else which is to be preferred to all these? For both that sufficiency, and safety itself, whether one's own or one's friends', so long as it is temporal, is to be cast away for the obtaining of eternal life: although perhaps the body, but the mind in no way is to be esteemed sound, which does not prefer eternal things to temporal; for one does not live usefully in time, except to acquire merit by which one may live in eternity. To that one life, then, by which one lives with God and from God, the other things which are usefully and fittingly wished are without doubt to be referred. For in this we love ourselves, if we love God: and by the other precept we so truly love our neighbors as ourselves, if we lead them, as far as is in us, to a like love of God. Let us love God, then, for his own sake, and ourselves and our neighbors for his sake: nor, when we so live, let us esteem ourselves already established in the blessed life itself, as though there were nothing more for which to pray. For how do we already live blessedly, when that still is lacking for whose sake alone we live well?
Ep100-155.7.148. 15. Utquid ergo per multa dispergimur, et quaerimus quid oremus, timentes ne forte sicut non oportet oremus, ac non potius cum Psalmo dicimus: Unam petii a Domino, hanc requiram; ut habitem in domo Domini omnes dies vitae meae; ut contempler delectationem Dei, et visitem templum eius ? Ibi namque omnes dies non veniendo et transeundo fiunt omnes, nec initium alterius est finis alterius; omnes sine fine simul sunt, ubi nec ipsa vita habet finem, cuius illi dies sunt. Propter hanc adipiscendam vitam beatam ipsa vera Vita beata nos orare docuit, non in multiloquio, tamquam eo fiat ut exaudiamur quo loquaciores sumus, cum eum oremus qui novit, sicut ipse Dominus ait, quid nobis necessarium sit, priusquam petamus ab eo. Unde mirum videri potest, quamvis multiloquium prohibuerit, cur nos sic orare adhortatus sit, qui novit quid nobis necessarium sit, priusquam petamus ab eo, ut diceret: Oportet semper orare, et non deficere; viduae cuiusdam proposito exemplo, quae de suo adversario cupiens vindicari, iudicem iniquum saepe interpellando flexit ad audiendum, non iustitia vel misericordia permotum, sed taedio superatum: ut hinc admoneremur, quam certius nos exaudiat misericors et iustus Dominus Deus sine intermissione orantes, quando illa nec ab iniquo et impio iudice potuit assidua interpellatione contemni; et quam libens atque placatus bona desideria impleat eorum, a quibus aliena peccata novit ignosci, si quo cupiebat illa pervenit quae voluit vindicari. Ille quoque cui amicus de via venerat, nec quod ei apponeret habebat, ab amico sibi tres panes cupiens commodari, quibus fortasse ipsa Trinitas unius substantiae figurata est, iam cum suis servis dormientem petitor instantissimus et molestissimus excitavit, ut daret ei quantos volebat, magis et ipse vitando taedium quam benevolentiam cogitando: ut hinc intellegeremus, si dare cogitur qui cum dormiat, a petente excitatur invitus, quanto det benignius qui nec dormire novit, et dormientes nos excitat ut petamus.
8. 15. Why, then, are we dispersed through many things, and seek what we should pray, fearing lest perhaps we pray as we ought not, and do not rather say with the Psalm, One thing I have asked of the Lord, this will I seek; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life; that I may contemplate the delight of the Lord, and visit his temple (Ps 27:4 (26:4))? For there all days are made all, not by coming and passing, nor is the beginning of one the end of another; all are together without end, where neither does that life itself have an end, of which they are the days. For obtaining this blessed life, the true blessed Life itself taught us to pray, not in much speaking, as though we are heard for being more talkative, when we pray him who knows, as the Lord himself says, what is necessary for us before we ask of him. Whence it may seem a wonder—although he forbade much speaking—why he so exhorted us to pray, who knows what is necessary for us before we ask of him, as to say, It is necessary always to pray, and not to fail (Luke 18:1); setting forth the example of a certain widow who, desiring to be avenged of her adversary, by often importuning an unjust judge bent him to hearing, moved not by justice or mercy, but overcome by weariness: that hence we might be admonished how much more certainly the merciful and just Lord God hears those praying without intermission, when she could not be despised even by an unjust and impious judge by her assiduous importuning; and how willingly and appeased he fulfills the good desires of those by whom he knows the sins of others are forgiven, if she who wished to be avenged came to what she wished. He too, to whom a friend had come from a journey, and who had nothing to set before him, desiring three loaves to be lent him by a friend—by which perhaps the very Trinity of one substance is figured—roused by most insistent and most troublesome petitioning the friend now sleeping with his servants, that he might give him as many as he wished, rather avoiding weariness himself than thinking of benevolence: that hence we might understand that, if one who is compelled to give while he sleeps is roused unwilling by one petitioning, how much more benignly does he give who knows not how to sleep, and rouses us sleeping that we may ask.
Ep100-155.8.158. 16. Hinc est et illud: Petite et accipietis; quaerite et invenietis; pulsate et aperietur vobis. Omnis enim qui petit accipit, et quaerens invenit, et pulsanti aperietur. Aut quis est ex vobis homo, a quo filius suus panem petit, numquid lapidem porrigit ei? aut si piscem petit, numquid serpentem porrigit illi? aut si ovum petit, numquid porrigit ei scorpium? Si ergo vos, cum sitis mali, nostis bona data dare filiis vestris, quanto magis Pater vester coelestis dabit bona petentibus se? Cum ergo secundum tria illa quae commendat Apostolus, fides significetur in pisce, vel propter aquam Baptismi, vel quod in huius saeculi fluctibus integra est; cui contrarius est ille serpens, qui ut non crederetur Deo, venenosa fraude persuasit: spes in ovo, quia vita pulli nondum est, sed futura est, nec iam videtur, sed adhuc speratur; spes enim quae videtur, non est spes; cui contrarius est scorpius, quoniam qui sperat aeternam vitam, quae retro sunt obliviscitur, et in anteriora se extendit; cui noxium est retro respicere; scorpius autem ex ea parte cavendus est, quam venenatam et aculeatam retrorsum habet: caritas in pane; maior enim horum caritas, et in cibis utique vincit caetera panis utilitas; cui contrarius est lapis, quoniam dura corda respuunt caritatem: sive aliud aliquid congruentius ista significent, tamen qui novit bona data dare filiis suis, petere nos et quaerere et pulsare compellit.
8. 16. Hence is also that: Ask, and you will receive; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one seeking finds, and to the one knocking it will be opened. Or what man is there among you, from whom his son asks bread—will he hand him a stone? or if he asks a fish, will he hand him a serpent? or if he asks an egg, will he hand him a scorpion? If, then, you, since you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good things to those who ask him? (Matt 7:7-11; Luke 11:9-13) Since, then, according to those three things which the Apostle commends, faith is signified in the fish—either on account of the water of Baptism, or because in the floods of this world it is whole; to which that serpent is contrary, who, by venomous fraud, persuaded that God should not be believed: hope in the egg, because the life of the chick is not yet, but is to be, and is not yet seen, but is still hoped for; for hope that is seen is not hope (Rom 8:24); to which the scorpion is contrary, since he who hopes for eternal life forgets the things that are behind, and stretches himself to the things before; to whom it is harmful to look back; but the scorpion is to be guarded against on that part which, venomous and stinging, it has behind: love in the bread; for the greater of these is love (1 Cor 13:13), and among foods surely the usefulness of bread surpasses the rest; to which the stone is contrary, since hard hearts reject love—whether these things signify something else more fitting, yet he who knows how to give good gifts to his children compels us to ask and to seek and to knock.
Ep100-155.8.168. 17. Quod quare faciat, qui novit quid nobis necessarium sit, priusquam petamus ab eo, movere animum potest, nisi intellegamus quod Dominus et Deus noster non voluntatem nostram sibi velit innotescere, quam non potest ignorare; sed exerceri in orationibus desiderium nostrum, quo possimus capere quod praeparat dare. Illud enim valde magnum est, sed nos ad capiendum parvi et angusti sumus. Ideo nobis dicitur: Dilatamini; ne sitis iugum ducentes cum infidelibus. Tanto quippe illud quod valde magnum est, quod nec oculus vidit, quia non est color; nec auris audivit, quia non est sonus; nec in cor hominis ascendit, quia cor hominis illuc debet ascendere, sumemus capacius, quanto id et fidelius credimus, et speramus firmius, et desideramus ardentius.
8. 17. Why he does this, who knows what is necessary for us before we ask of him, can move the mind, unless we understand that the Lord our God wishes, not that our will become known to him—which he cannot be ignorant of—but that our desire be exercised in prayers, by which we may be able to grasp what he prepares to give. For that is very great, but we are small and narrow for grasping it. Therefore it is said to us, Be enlarged; do not be drawing the yoke with unbelievers (2 Cor 6:13-14). For that which is very great—which the eye has not seen, because it is not a color; nor the ear heard, because it is not a sound; nor has it ascended into the heart of man (1 Cor 2:9), because the heart of man ought to ascend thither—we shall receive the more capaciously the more faithfully we believe it, and the more firmly we hope, and the more ardently we desire it.
Ep100-155.8.179. 18. In ipsa ergo fide et spe et caritate continuato desiderio semper oramus. Sed ideo per certa intervalla horarum et temporum etiam verbis rogamus Deum, ut illis rerum signis nos ipsos admoneamus, quantumque in hoc desiderio profecerimus nobis ipsis innotescamus, et ad hoc augendum nos ipsos acrius excitemus. Dignior enim sequetur effectus, quem ferventior praecedit affectus. Ac per hoc et quod ait Apostolus: Sine intermissione orate, quid est aliud quam, Beatam vitam, quae nulla nisi aeterna est, ab eo qui eam solus dare potest, sine intermissione desiderate? Semper ergo hanc a Domino Deo desideremus, et oremus semper. Sed ideo ab aliis curis atque negotiis, quibus ipsum desiderium quodammodo tepescit, certis horis ad negotium orandi mentem revocamus, verbis orationis nos ipsos admonentes in id quod desideramus, intendere, ne quod tepescere coeperat, omnino frigescat, et penitus exstinguatur, nisi crebrius inflammetur. Unde et illud quod idem apostolus ait: Postulationes vestrae innotescant apud Deum, non sic accipiendum est, tamquam Deo innotescant, qui eas et antequam essent utique noverat, sed nobis innotescant apud Deum per tolerantiam, non apud homines per iactantiam. Aut forte etiam innotescant Angelis qui sunt apud Deum, ut quodammodo eas offerant Deo, et de his consulant, et quod eo iubente implendum esse cognoverint, sicut oportere ibi cognoverint, hoc nobis vel evidenter vel latenter apportent: dixit enim angelus homini: Et nunc quando orabas tu et Sara, ego obtuli orationem vestram in conspectu claritatis Dei.
9. 18. In faith, then, and hope and love, by continued desire, we always pray. But for this reason, at fixed intervals of hours and times, we also ask God with words, so that by those signs of things we may admonish ourselves, and make known to ourselves how much we have progressed in this desire, and rouse ourselves more sharply to increase it. For a worthier effect will follow which a more fervent affection precedes. And through this, what the Apostle says, Pray without intermission (1 Thess 5:17), what else is it than, "Without intermission desire the blessed life, which is none but the eternal, from him who alone can give it"? Let us, then, always desire this from the Lord God, and pray always. But for this reason, from other cares and businesses, by which that very desire in a manner grows lukewarm, at certain hours we recall the mind to the business of praying, by the words of prayer admonishing ourselves to attend to that which we desire, lest what had begun to grow lukewarm cool altogether and be utterly extinguished, unless it be more frequently inflamed. Whence also that which the same apostle says, Let your requests become known before God (Phil 4:6), is not to be taken as though they become known to God, who knew them surely even before they existed, but as becoming known to ourselves before God by endurance, not before men by boasting. Or perhaps they even become known to the Angels who are before God, that in a manner they may offer them to God, and consult about them, and what they shall have learned, at his command, ought to be fulfilled—as they shall there have learned it ought to be—they may bring to us, whether evidently or hiddenly: for an angel said to a man, And now, when you and Sarah prayed, I offered your prayer in the sight of the brightness of God (Tob 12:12).
Ep100-155.9.1810. 19. Quae cum ita sint, etiam cum diu orare vacat, id est cum alia bonarum et necessariarum actionum non impediuntur officia, quamvis et in eis, ut dixi, desiderio illo semper orandum sit, non est improbum nec inutile. Neque enim, ut nonnulli putant, hoc est orare in multiloquio, si diutius oretur. Aliud est sermo multus, aliud diuturnus affectus. Nam et de ipso Domino scriptum est quod pernoctaverit in orando, et quod prolixius oraverit: ubi quid aliud quam nobis praebebat exemplum, in tempore precator opportunus, cum Patre exauditor aeternus?
10. 19. Since these things are so, even when there is leisure to pray long—that is, when the offices of other good and necessary actions are not hindered—although in these too, as I said, one must always pray by that desire, it is neither blameworthy nor useless. For it is not, as some suppose, to pray in much speaking, if one prays longer. Much speech is one thing, long-lasting affection another. For of the Lord himself too it is written that he passed the night in praying, and that he prayed more at length: where what else but an example was he affording us, in time an opportune supplicant, with the Father an eternal hearer?
Ep100-155.10.1910. 20. Dicuntur fratres in Aegypto crebras quidem habere orationes, sed eas tamen brevissimas, et raptim quodammodo iaculatas, ne illa vigilanter erecta, quae oranti plurimum necessaria est, per productiores moras evanescat atque hebetetur intentio. Ac per hoc etiam ipsi satis ostendunt, hanc intentionem, sicut non est obtundenda, si perdurare non potest, ita si perduraverit, non cito esse rumpendam. Absit enim ab oratione multa locutio, sed non desit multa precatio, si fervens perseverat intentio. Nam multum loqui, est in orando rem necessariam superfluis agere verbis. Multum autem precari, est ad eum quem precamur, diuturna et pia cordis excitatione pulsare. Nam plerumque hoc negotium plus gemitibus quam sermonibus agitur, plus fletu quam affatu. Ponit autem lacrymas nostras in conspectu suo, et gemitus noster non est absconditus ab eo qui omnia per Verbum condidit, et humana verba non quaerit.
10. 20. The brothers in Egypt are said to have frequent prayers, but yet most brief, and in a manner hurled rapidly, lest that intention, vigilantly erect, which is most necessary for one praying, should, through more prolonged delays, vanish and grow dull. And by this they themselves too show well enough that this intention, just as it is not to be blunted if it cannot endure, so, if it shall have endured, is not to be quickly broken off. For far be much speaking from prayer, but let not much praying be lacking, if a fervent intention persevere. For to speak much is to do a necessary thing in praying with superfluous words. But to pray much is to knock at him whom we pray with a long-lasting and devout rousing of the heart. For this business is for the most part carried on more by groans than by speeches, more by weeping than by speaking. But he sets our tears in his sight, and our groan is not hidden from him who made all things through the Word, and does not seek human words.
Ep100-155.10.2011. 21. Nobis ergo verba necessaria sunt, quibus commoneamur et inspiciamus quid petamus, non quibus Dominum seu docendum seu flectendum esse credamus. Cum ergo dicimus: Sanctificetur nomen tuum, nos ipsos admonemus desiderare ut nomen eius quod semper sanctum est, etiam apud homines sanctum habeatur, hoc est non contemnatur; quod non Deo, sed hominibus prodest. Et in eo quod dicimus: Adveniat regnum tuum, quod seu velimus, seu nolimus, utique veniet, desiderium nostrum ad illud regnum excitamus, ut nobis veniat, atque nos in eo regnare mereamur. Cum dicimus: Fiat voluntas tua sicut in coelo et in terra, nobis ab illo precamur ipsam obedientiam, ut sic a nobis fiat voluntas eius, quemadmodum fit in coelestibus ab Angelis eius. Cum dicimus: Panem nostrum quotidianum da nobis hodie; per id quod dicitur hodie, significatur hoc tempore, ubi vel illam sufficientiam petimus, a parte quae excellit, id est nomine panis totam significantes; vel Sacramentum fidelium, quod in hoc tempore necessarium est, non tamen ad huius temporis, sed ad illam aeternam felicitatem assequendam. Cum dicimus: Dimitte nobis debita nostra, sicut nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris, nos admonemus et quid petamus, et quid faciamus, ut accipere mereamur. Cum dicimus: Ne nos inferas in tentationem, nos admonemus hoc petere, ne deserti eius adiutorio alicui tentationi vel consentiamus decepti, vel cedamus afflicti. Cum dicimus: Libera nos a malo, nos admonemus cogitare, nondum nos esse in eo bono ubi nullum patiemur malum. Et hoc quidem ultimum quod in dominica oratione positum est, tam late patet, ut homo christianus in qualibet tribulatione constitutus in hoc gemitus edat, in hoc lacrymas fundat, hinc exordiatur, in hoc immoretur, ad hoc terminet orationem. His enim verbis res ipsas memoriae nostrae commendari oportebat.
11. 21. To us, then, words are necessary, by which we may be reminded and look at what we ask, not by which we believe the Lord is to be either taught or bent. When, then, we say, Hallowed be your name, we admonish ourselves to desire that his name—which is always holy—be held holy also among men, that is, not despised; which profits not God, but men. And in that we say, Your kingdom come, which—whether we will or will not—will surely come, we rouse our desire to that kingdom, that it may come to us, and that we may deserve to reign in it. When we say, Your will be done as in heaven so on earth, we pray of him for ourselves that very obedience, that his will may so be done by us as it is done in the heavenly ones by his Angels. When we say, Give us this day our daily bread, by that which is said "this day" is signified "in this time," where we ask either that sufficiency—by the part which excels, that is, signifying the whole by the name of bread—or the Sacrament of the faithful, which is necessary in this time, yet not for attaining the happiness of this time, but that eternal one. When we say, Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors, we admonish ourselves both what we ask, and what we do, that we may deserve to receive. When we say, Lead us not into temptation, we admonish ourselves to ask this, lest, deserted by his help, we either consent to some temptation, deceived, or yield to it, afflicted. When we say, Deliver us from evil, we admonish ourselves to consider that we are not yet in that good where we shall suffer no evil. And this last indeed, which is set in the Lord's prayer, extends so widely that a Christian man, set in any tribulation, in it utters his groans, in it pours forth his tears, from it begins, in it lingers, at it ends his prayer (Matt 6:9-13). For by these words it behooved that the things themselves be commended to our memory.
Ep100-155.11.2112. 22. Nam quaelibet alia verba dicamus, quae affectus orantis vel praecedendo format ut clareat, vel consequendo attendit ut crescat; nihil aliud dicimus quam quod in ista dominica oratione positum est, si recte et congruenter oramus. Quisquis autem id dicit quod ad istam evangelicam precem pertinere non possit, etiamsi non illicite orat, carnaliter orat: quod nescio quemadmodum non dicatur illicite, quandoquidem spiritu renatos nonnisi spiritaliter decet orare. Qui enim dicit, verbi gratia: Clarificare in omnibus gentibus, sicut clarificatus es in nobis: et: Prophetae tui fideles inveniantur; quid aliud dicit quam: Sanctificetur nomen tuum? Qui dicit: Deus virtutum, converte nos, et ostende faciem tuam, et salvi erimus; quid aliud dicit quam: Veniat regnum tuum? Qui dicit: Itinera mea dirige secundum verbum tuum, et ne dominetur mei omnis iniquitas; quid aliud dicit quam: Fiat voluntas tua sicut in coelo et in terra? Qui dicit: Paupertatem et divitias ne dederis mihi; quid aliud dicit quam: Panem nostrum quotidianum da nobis hodie? Qui dicit: Memento, Domine, David, et omnis mansuetudinis eius: aut: Domine, si feci istud, si est iniquitas in manibus meis, si reddidi retribuentibus mihi mala; quid aliud dicit quam: Dimitte nobis debita nostra, sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris? Qui dicit: Aufer a me concupiscentias ventris, et desiderium concubitus ne apprehendat me; quid aliud dicit quam: Ne nos inferas in tentationem? Qui dicit: Erue me ab inimicis meis, Deus, et ab insurgentibus super me libera me; quid aliud dicit quam: Libera nos a malo? Et si per omnia precationum sanctarum verba discurras, quantum existimo, nihil invenies quod in ista dominica non contineatur et concludatur oratione. Unde liberum est aliis atque aliis verbis, eadem tamen in orando dicere; sed non debet esse liberum alia dicere.
12. 22. For whatever other words we say—which the affection of one praying either forms by going before, that it may shine, or attends by following, that it may grow—we say nothing else than what is set in that Lord's prayer, if we pray rightly and fittingly. But whoever says that which cannot pertain to that evangelical prayer, even if he does not pray unlawfully, prays carnally: which I do not know how it is not said to be unlawful, since it befits those reborn in the spirit to pray only spiritually. For he who says, for example, Be glorified in all nations, as you have been glorified in us (See Sir 36:4); and, Let your prophets be found faithful (Sir 36:18 (21))—what else does he say than, "Hallowed be your name"? He who says, God of powers, turn us, and show your face, and we will be saved (Ps 80:7 (79:8))—what else does he say than, "Your kingdom come"? He who says, Direct my ways according to your word, and let no iniquity have dominion over me (Ps 119:133 (118:133))—what else does he say than, "Your will be done as in heaven so on earth"? He who says, Give me neither poverty nor riches (Prov 30:8)—what else does he say than, "Give us this day our daily bread"? He who says, Remember, O Lord, David, and all his meekness (Ps 132:1 (131:1)); or, O Lord, if I have done this, if there is iniquity in my hands, if I have repaid those who recompensed me with evils (Ps 7:3-4 (7:4-5))—what else does he say than, "Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors"? He who says, Take from me the concupiscences of the belly, and let not the desire of lust seize me (Sir 23:6)—what else does he say than, "Lead us not into temptation"? He who says, Rescue me from my enemies, O God, and free me from those who rise up over me (Ps 59:1 (58:2))—what else does he say than, "Deliver us from evil"? And if you run through all the words of the holy prayers, you will, I think, find nothing that is not contained and enclosed in that Lord's prayer. Whence it is free to say the same things, in praying, by other and other words; but it ought not to be free to say other things.
Ep100-155.12.2212. 23. Haec et pro nobis, et pro nostris, et pro alienis, atque pro ipsis inimicis sine fluctu dubitationis oranda sunt: quamvis alius pro isto, alius pro illo, sicut se habent propinquitates vel longinquitates necessitudinum, in corde orantis oriatur aut excellat affectus. Qui autem dicit in oratione, verbi gratia, Domine, multiplica divitias meas; aut, Da mihi tantas quantas illi vel illi dedisti; aut, Honores meos auge, fac me in hoc saeculo praepotentem atque clarentem, vel si quid huiusmodi est; et haec dicit, eorum habens concupiscentiam, non id attendens, ut ex his secundum Deum prosit hominibus: puto eum non invenire in oratione dominica quo possit haec vota coaptare. Quamobrem pudeat saltem petere quae non pudet cupere; aut si et hoc pudet, sed cupiditas vincit, quanto melius hoc petitur, ut etiam ab isto cupiditatis malo liberet, cui dicimus: Libera nos a malo!
12. 23. These things both for ourselves, and for our own, and for strangers, and even for our very enemies, are to be prayed without the wavering of doubt: although in the heart of one praying there may arise or stand out an affection, one for this person, one for that, as the nearnesses or farnesses of relationships are. But whoever says in prayer, for example, "Lord, multiply my riches"; or, "Give me as much as you gave to this man or that"; or, "Increase my honors, make me preeminent and illustrious in this world," or anything of the sort; and says these things, having a concupiscence of them, not attending to this, that from them he may profit men according to God: I think he does not find in the Lord's prayer how he can fit these vows. Wherefore let him at least be ashamed to ask what he is not ashamed to covet; or, if he is ashamed of this too, but covetousness conquers, how much better is it asked that he be freed even from this evil of covetousness, to whom we say, "Deliver us from evil"!
Ep100-155.12.2313. 24. Habes, quantum arbitror, non solum qualis ores, verum etiam quid ores; non me docente, sed illo qui omnes nos docere dignatus est. Beata vita quaerenda est, haec a Domino Deo petenda est. Quid sit beatum esse, a multis multa sunt disputata; sed nos ad multos et ad multa utquid imus? Breviter in Scriptura Dei veraciterque dictum est: Beatus populus cuius est Dominus Deus ipsius. In ipso populo ut simus, atque ad eum contemplandum et cum eo sine fine vivendum pervenire possimus, finis praecepti est caritas de corde puro, et conscientia bona, et fide non ficta. In eisdem tribus, pro conscientia bona spes posita est. Fides ergo et spes et caritas ad Deum perducunt orantem, hoc est credentem, sperantem, desiderantem, et quae petat a Domino in dominica oratione considerantem. Ieiunia et ab aliis voluptatibus sine salutis neglectu carnalis concupiscentiae refrenatio, maximeque eleemosynae multum adiuvant orationem, ut possimus dicere: In die tribulationis meae Deum exquisivi, manibus meis, nocte coram eo; et non sum deceptus. Quomodo enim Deus incorporalis et impalpabilis manibus exquiritur, nisi operibus exquiratur?
13. 24. You have, I think, not only what sort you should pray, but even what you should pray; not by my teaching, but by his who deigned to teach us all. The blessed life is to be sought, it is to be asked of the Lord God. What it is to be blessed has been disputed by many in many ways; but why do we go to the many and to many things? Briefly and truly it has been said in the Scripture of God: Blessed is the people whose God is the Lord himself (Ps 144:15 (143:15)). That we may be in that people, and may be able to come to contemplating him and living with him without end, the end of the precept is love from a pure heart, and a good conscience, and unfeigned faith (1 Tim 1:5). In those same three, for a good conscience hope is set. Faith, then, and hope and love lead to God the one praying—that is, the one believing, hoping, desiring, and considering what he should ask of the Lord in the Lord's prayer. Fastings, and refraining from other pleasures of carnal concupiscence (without neglect of health), and most of all almsgiving, greatly help prayer, that we may be able to say, In the day of my tribulation I sought out God, with my hands, in the night, before him; and I was not deceived (Ps 77:2 (76:3)). For how is God, incorporeal and impalpable, sought out with hands, unless he be sought out by works?
Ep100-155.13.2414. 25. Adhuc est fortasse quod quaeras, cur Apostolus dixerit: Quid enim oremus sicut oportet, nescimus: neque enim ullo modo credendum est vel ipsum, vel quibus ista dicebat, dominicam nescisse orationem. Cur ergo putamus hoc eum dixisse quod nec temere potuit nec mendaciter dicere, nisi quia molestiae tribulationesque temporales plerumque prosunt, vel ad sanandum tumorem superbiae, vel ad probandam exercendamve patientiam, cui probatae et exercitatae clarior merces uberiorque servatur, vel ad quaecumque flagellanda et abolenda peccata; tamen nos nescientes quid ista prosint, ab omni tribulatione optamus liberari? Ab hac ignorantia nec seipsum Apostolus ostendit alienum, nisi forte quid oraret, sicut oportet, sciebat, quando in revelationum magnitudine ne extolleretur datus est illi stimulus carnis, angelus satanae, qui eum colaphizaret; propter quod ter Dominum rogavit ut eum auferret ab eo, utique, sicut oportet, nesciens quid oraret. Denique Dei responsum cur non fieret quod vir tantus orabat, et quare fieri non expediret, audivit: Sufficit tibi gratia mea; nam virtus in infirmitate perficitur.
14. 25. There is still perhaps something you would ask: why the Apostle said, For what we should pray for as we ought, we do not know (Rom 8:26): for it is in no way to be believed that either he, or those to whom he said these things, did not know the Lord's prayer. Why, then, do we think he said this—which he could neither rashly nor mendaciously say—except because temporal troubles and tribulations for the most part profit, either to heal the swelling of pride, or to prove and exercise patience, for which, once proved and exercised, a brighter and richer reward is reserved, or to scourge and abolish any sins; yet we, not knowing what these things profit, wish to be freed from all tribulation? From this ignorance the Apostle showed that not even he himself was foreign, unless perhaps he knew what to pray as he ought, when, in the magnitude of revelations, lest he be exalted, there was given him a thorn of the flesh, an angel of Satan, to buffet him; on account of which he thrice asked the Lord to take it from him, surely not knowing what he prayed as he ought. Finally he heard God's answer, why what so great a man prayed for was not done, and why it was not expedient that it be done: My grace is sufficient for you; for power is perfected in weakness (2 Cor 12:9).
Ep100-155.14.2514. 26. In his ergo tribulationibus quae possunt et prodesse et nocere, quid oremus, sicut oportet, nescimus: et tamen quia dura, quia molesta, quia contra sensum nostrae infirmitatis sunt, universali humana voluntate, ut a nobis haec auferantur, oramus. Sed hoc devotionis debemus Domino Deo nostro, ut si ea non abstulerit, non ideo nos ab eo neglegi existimemus, sed potius pia patientia malorum, bona speremus ampliora: sic enim virtus in infirmitate perficitur. Nonnullis quippe impatientibus Dominus Deus quod petebant concessit iratus, sicut contra Apostolo negavit propitius. Nam legimus Israelitae quid et quomodo rogaverint et acceperint; sed expleta concupiscentia, impatientia est graviter castigata. Dedit et regem petentibus secundum cor eorum, sicut scriptum est, non secundum cor suum. Dedit etiam quod diabolus postulavit, ut probandus eius famulus tentaretur. Exaudivit rogantes et immundos spiritus, ut in multos sues legio daemonum mitteretur. Haec scripta sunt, ne forte se quisque magnipendat, si fuerit exauditus, cum aliquid impatienter petit, quod non impetrare plus prosit; aut se abiciat, et de divina erga se miseratione desperet, si non exaudiatur, cum forte aliquid petit, quo accipiendo affligatur atrocius, vel a prosperitate corruptus penitus evertatur. In talibus ergo quid oremus, sicut oportet, nescimus. Unde si aliquid contra quam oramus acciderit, patienter ferendo, et in omnibus gratias agendo, hoc potius oportuisse quod Dei, non quod nostra voluntas habuit, minime dubitare debemus. Nam et huiusmodi exemplum praebuit nobis ille mediator, qui cum dixisset: Pater, si fieri potest, transeat a me calix iste, humanam in se voluntatem ex hominis susceptione transformans, continuo subiecit: Verum non quod ego volo, sed quod tu vis, Pater. Unde non immerito per unius obedientiam iusti constituuntur multi.
14. 26. In these tribulations, then, which can both profit and harm, what we should pray as we ought, we do not know: and yet, because they are hard, because troublesome, because against the sense of our weakness, by the universal human will we pray that these be taken from us. But we owe this devotion to the Lord our God, that if he does not take them away, we do not on that account esteem ourselves neglected by him, but rather, by devout patience of evils, hope for greater goods: for thus power is perfected in weakness. For to certain impatient ones the Lord God granted in anger what they asked, just as he denied to the Apostle, propitious, what he sought. For we read what and how the Israelites asked and received; but, the concupiscence being fulfilled, the impatience was gravely chastised. He gave a king too to those asking, according to their heart, as it is written, not according to his own. He gave even what the devil demanded, that his servant, to be proved, might be tempted. He heard even the unclean spirits asking, that a legion of demons might be sent into many swine. These things are written, lest perhaps anyone esteem himself greatly if he be heard, when he asks something impatiently, which not to obtain would profit more; or cast himself down, and despair of the divine mercy toward himself, if he be not heard, when perhaps he asks something by receiving which he would be more atrociously afflicted, or, corrupted by prosperity, utterly overthrown. In such things, then, what we should pray as we ought, we do not know. Whence, if something contrary to what we pray befalls us, by bearing it patiently, and in all things giving thanks, we ought least of all to doubt that this rather behooved, which God's will, not ours, held. For an example of this kind too that Mediator afforded us, who, when he had said, Father, if it can be, let this cup pass from me, transforming in himself the human will from the assumption of man, at once subjoined, Yet not what I will, but what you will, Father (Matt 26:39). Whence not without merit, through the obedience of one, many are made just (Rom 5:19).
Ep100-155.14.2614. 27. Quisquis autem illam unam petit a Domino, et hanc requirit, certus ac securus petit, nec timet ne forte obsit cum acceperit, sine qua nihil prodest quidquid aliud orando, sicut oportet, acceperit. Ipsa est enim una vera et sola beata vita, ut contemplemur Domini delectationem in aeternum, immortales atque incorruptibiles corpore et spiritu. Propter hanc unam caetera requiruntur, et non indecenter petuntur. Istam quisquis habuerit, omnia quae vult habebit, nec aliquid ibi velle habere poterit quod non decebit. Ibi quippe est fons vitae, quem sitire nunc oportet in oratione, quamdiu in spe vivimus, et quod speramus nondum videmus, in protectione alarum eius, ante quem est omne desiderium nostrum, ut inebriemur ab ubertate domus eius, et torrente voluptatis eius potemur; quoniam apud eum est fons vitae, et in lumine eius videbimus lumen, quando satiabitur in bonis desiderium nostrum, et nihil erit ultra quod gemendo quaeramus, sed quod gaudendo teneamus. Verumtamen quia ipsa est pax quae praecellit omnem intellectum, etiam ipsam in oratione poscendo, quid oremus, sicut oportet, nescimus. Quod enim sicuti est cogitare non possumus, utique nescimus; sed quidquid cogitanti occurrerit, abicimus, respuimus, improbamus, non hoc esse quod quaerimus novimus, quamvis illud nondum quale sit noverimus.
14. 27. But whoever asks that one thing of the Lord, and seeks it, asks sure and secure, nor fears lest perhaps it harm him when he has received it, without which whatever else he shall have received in praying, as he ought, profits nothing. For that itself is the one true and sole blessed life: that we contemplate the delight of the Lord forever, immortal and incorruptible in body and spirit. For the sake of this one thing the rest are sought, and not unfittingly asked. Whoever shall have it will have all that he wills, nor will he be able to wish to have anything there which it will not befit. For there is the fount of life, which it now behooves us to thirst for in prayer, as long as we live in hope, and what we hope for we do not yet see, under the protection of his wings, before whom is all our desire, that we may be inebriated by the abundance of his house, and given drink of the torrent of his pleasure; since with him is the fount of life, and in his light we shall see light, when our desire shall be satisfied in good things, and there will be nothing further that we seek by groaning, but which we hold by rejoicing. Nevertheless, because it is the peace which surpasses all understanding, even in asking it in prayer, what we should pray as we ought, we do not know. For what we cannot think of as it is, surely we do not know; but whatever occurs to us thinking, we cast away, spit out, disapprove; we know that this is not what we seek, although we do not yet know of what sort that is.
Ep100-155.14.2715. 28. Est ergo in nobis quaedam, ut ita dicam, docta ignorantia, sed docta spiritu Dei qui adiuvat infirmitatem nostram. Nam cum dixisset Apostolus: Si autem quod non videmus speramus, per patientiam exspectamus; ibi subiecit: Similiter et Spiritus adiuvat infirmitatem nostram: quid enim oremus, sicut oportet, nescimus; sed ipse Spiritus interpellat pro nobis gemitibus inenarrabilibus. Qui autem scrutatur corda, scit quid Spiritus sapiat, quia secundum Deum interpellat pro sanctis. Quod non sic est intellegendum, ut existimemus sanctum Spiritum Dei, qui in Trinitate incommutabilis Deus est, et cum Patre et Filio unus Deus, tamquam aliquem qui non sit quod Deus est, interpellare pro sanctis: dictum quippe est: Interpellat pro sanctis, quia interpellare sanctos facit; sicut dictum est: Tentat vos Dominus Deus vester, ut sciat si diligatis eum, hoc est ut scire vos faciat. Interpellare itaque sanctos facit gemitibus inenarrabilibus, inspirans eis desiderium etiam adhuc incognitae tantae rei quam per patientiam exspectamus. Quomodo enim narratur, quando desideratur, quod ignoratur? nam utique si omnimodo ignoraretur, non desideraretur; et rursus, si videretur, non desideraretur, nec gemitibus quaereretur.
15. 28. There is, then, in us a certain, so to say, learned ignorance, but learned by the Spirit of God who helps our weakness. For when the Apostle had said, But if we hope for what we do not see, by patience we wait, there he subjoined, Likewise the Spirit too helps our weakness: for what we should pray as we ought, we do not know; but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with unutterable groans. But he who searches the hearts knows what the Spirit relishes, because according to God he intercedes for the saints (Rom 8:25-27). Which is not so to be understood that we should esteem the Holy Spirit of God—who in the Trinity is the unchangeable God, and with the Father and the Son one God—to intercede for the saints as one who is not what God is: for it was said, "he intercedes for the saints," because he makes the saints intercede; just as it is said, The Lord your God tempts you, that he may know whether you love him (See Deut 13:3)—that is, that he may make you know. And so he makes the saints intercede with unutterable groans, inspiring in them the desire of so great a thing still unknown, which we await by patience. For how is that narrated, when it is desired, which is unknown? For surely if it were utterly unknown, it would not be desired; and again, if it were seen, it would not be desired, nor sought with groans.
Ep100-155.15.2816. 29. Haec omnia considerans, et si quid aliud de hac re tibi Dominus insinuaverit, quod vel mihi non occurrit, vel dici a me longum fuit, concerta in oratione vincere hoc saeculum; ora in spe, ora fideliter et amanter, ora instanter atque patienter, ora sicut vidua Christi. Quamvis enim ad omnia membra eius, hoc est ad omnes qui in eum credunt, et eius corpori sociantur, sicut docuit, orare pertineat, specialiter tamen diligentior cura orationum in Scripturis eius viduis invenitur iniuncta. Nam duae fuerunt Annae honorabiliter nominatae, una coniugata quae sanctum Samuelem peperit, alia vidua quae Sanctum sanctorum, cum adhuc infans esset, agnovit. Oravit et coniugata in dolore animi et afflictione cordis, quia filios non habebat: tunc ipsum Samuelem impetravit, et acceptum Deo reddidit, quia cum posceret, vovit. Sed oratio eius quomodo ad orationem illam dominicam pertineat, non facile reperitur, nisi quia in eo quod ibi positum est: Libera nos a malo, non parvum malum videbatur, et nuptam esse, et fructu carere nuptiarum, cum sola excuset nuptias procreandorum causa filiorum. De illa vero Anna vidua vide quid scriptum sit: Quia non discedebat de templo, ieiuniis et obsecrationibus serviens nocte ac die. Nec aliunde Apostolus, quod et supra commemoravi: Quae autem vere vidua est, inquit, et desolata, speravit in Domino, et persistit in orationibus nocte ac die: et Dominus cum semper ad orandum, et non deficiendum nos hortaretur, viduam commemoravit, quae licet iniquum et impium iudicem, ac Dei et hominum contemptorem, ad audiendam causam suam assidue interpellando convertit. Quam ergo prae caeteris viduae debent vacare orationibus, satis hinc intellegi potest, quod omnibus ad suscipiendum orandi studium de viduis propositum est exhortationis exemplum.
16. 29. Considering all these things, and whatever else about this matter the Lord may have intimated to you—which has either not occurred to me, or would have been long for me to say—strive in prayer to conquer this world; pray in hope, pray faithfully and lovingly, pray instantly and patiently, pray as a widow of Christ. For although praying pertains to all his members—that is, to all who believe in him and are associated to his body, as he taught—yet specially a more diligent care of prayers is found enjoined upon widows in his Scriptures. For there were two Annas honorably named: one married, who bore the holy Samuel; the other a widow, who recognized the Holy of holies when he was still an infant. The married one too prayed in grief of mind and affliction of heart, because she did not have children: then she obtained that very Samuel, and rendered him, once received, to God, because, when she asked, she vowed. But how her prayer pertains to that Lord's prayer is not easily found, except that in that which is set there, "Deliver us from evil," it seemed no small evil both to be wedded and to lack the fruit of marriage, since the procreation of children alone excuses marriage. But of that widow Anna see what is written: That she did not depart from the temple, serving with fastings and supplications night and day (Luke 2:37). And from no other source the Apostle, which I recalled above too: But she who is truly a widow, he says, and desolate, has hoped in the Lord, and persists in prayers night and day (1 Tim 5:5): and the Lord, when he exhorted us always to pray, and not to fail, recalled a widow, who, though an unjust and impious judge, and a despiser of God and men, she turned to hearing her cause by assiduous importuning. How much, then, beyond the rest, widows ought to be at leisure for prayers, can be sufficiently understood from this, that to all, for undertaking the zeal of praying, an example of exhortation is set forth from widows.
Ep100-155.16.2916. 30. Quid autem in hoc operis genere in viduis electum est, nisi destitutio et desolatio? Quapropter si se omnis anima intellegat in hoc saeculo destitutam atque desolatam, quamdiu peregrinatur a Domino, profecto quamdam viduitatem suam Deo defensori assidua et impensissima precatione commendat. Ora ergo ut vidua Christi, nondum habens eius conspectum, cuius precaris auxilium. Et licet sis ditissima, sicut pauper ora: nondum enim veras futuri saeculi divitias habes, ubi nulla damna formides. Licet habeas filios et nepotes, numerosamque familiam, quod et supra dictum est, sicut desolata ora: incerta sunt enim omnia temporalia, etiam usque in finem vitae huius in nostram consolationem mansura. Tu autem si ea quae sursum sunt quaeris et sapis, aeterna et certa desideras, quae quamdiu nondum habes, etiam salvis omnibus atque obsequentibus tuis, tamquam desolatam deputare te debes. Et si tu, profecto etiam tuo exemplo religiosissima nurus tua, et aliae sanctae viduae virginesque sub vestra cura securius constitutae: quanto enim magis domum vestram pie tractatis, tanto impensius orationibus instare debetis, rerum praesentium non occupatae negotiis, nisi quae flagitat causa pietatis.
16. 30. But what in this kind of work was chosen in widows, except destitution and desolation? Wherefore, if every soul understands itself to be in this world destitute and desolate, as long as it journeys away from the Lord, it surely commends a certain widowhood of its own to God its defender by assiduous and most lavish prayer. Pray, then, as a widow of Christ, not yet having the sight of him whose help you entreat. And though you be most rich, pray as a poor woman: for you do not yet have the true riches of the age to come, where you may dread no losses. Though you have sons and grandsons, and a numerous family—which was said above too—pray as one desolate: for all temporal things are uncertain, even those that are to remain to the end of this life for our consolation. But you, if you seek and relish the things that are above, you desire eternal and certain things, which, as long as you do not yet have them, even with all your own safe and attending you, you ought to reckon yourself as desolate. And if you, surely also by your example your most religious daughter-in-law, and other holy widows and virgins established more securely under your care: for the more devoutly you govern your house, the more lavishly you ought to be intent on prayers, not occupied with the businesses of present things, except those that the cause of piety demands.
Ep100-155.16.3016. 31. Sane memineritis et pro nobis non neglegenter orare. Nolumus enim sic nobis honorem, quem periculosum gerimus, deferatis, ut adiutorium, quod necessarium novimus, auferatis. A familia Christi oratum est pro Petro, oratum est pro Paulo; et vos in eius familia esse gaudemus, et incomparabiliter plus quam Petrus et Paulus orationum fraternarum auxiliis indigemus. Orate certatim concordi sanctoque certamine: non enim adversus alterutrum certatis, sed adversus diabolum, sanctis omnibus inimicum. In ieiuniis et vigiliis, et omni castigatione corporis quamplurimum adiuvatur oratio. Faciat quaeque vestrum quod poterit: quod altera minus potest, in ea quae potest facit, si in altera diligit quod ideo quia non potest ipsa non facit; proinde quae minus valet, non impediat plus valentem, et quae plus valet, non urgeat minus valentem. Conscientiam quippe vestram Deo debetis; nemini autem vestrum aliquid debeatis, nisi ut invicem diligatis. Exaudiat te Dominus, qui potens est facere supra quam petimus aut intellegimus.
16. 31. Surely remember to pray for us too, not negligently. For we do not wish you so to defer to us the honor which we bear in danger, that you take away the help which we know is necessary. By the family of Christ it was prayed for Peter, it was prayed for Paul; and we rejoice that you are in his family, and we incomparably more than Peter and Paul need the helps of brotherly prayers. Pray in rivalry, by a concordant and holy contest: for you do not contend against one another, but against the devil, the enemy of all the saints. In fastings and vigils, and all chastisement of the body, prayer is very much helped. Let each of you do what she can: what one is less able to do, she does in the one who can, if in the other she loves what, because she herself cannot, she does not do; accordingly, let her who is less able not hinder the one more able, and let her who is more able not press the one less able. For you owe your conscience to God; but owe nothing to any of you, except to love one another. May the Lord hear you, who is able to do above what we ask or understand.
Ep100-155.16.31EPISTOLA 131
DOMINAE INSIGNI ET MERITO ILLUSTRI, ET PRAESTANTISSIMAE FILIAE PROBAE, AUGUSTINUS, IN DOMINO SALUTEM.
DOMINAE INSIGNI ET MERITO ILLUSTRI, ET PRAESTANTISSIMAE FILIAE PROBAE, AUGUSTINUS, IN DOMINO SALUTEM.
LETTER 131
To the distinguished lady, and deservedly illustrious, and most excellent daughter Proba, Augustine sends greetings in the Lord.
Ep100-155.16.31To the distinguished lady, and deservedly illustrious, and most excellent daughter Proba, Augustine sends greetings in the Lord.
1. Est quidem ita, ut dicis, quod in corpore corruptibili anima constituta, terrena quadam contagione constringitur, et tali onere quodammodo depressa curvatur, ut in imo multa, quam in summo unum, facilius concupiscat et cogitet. Nam hoc etiam sancta Scriptura ita dicit: Corpus enim quod corrumpitur aggravat animam, et deprimit terrena inhabitatio sensum multa cogitantem. Sed ideo venit Salvator noster, qui mulierem illam in Evangelio per decem et octo annos curvam, quae fortasse hoc significabat, verbo salutis erexit, ut anima christiana non frustra audiat: Sursum cor; nec frustra respondeat, se habere ad Dominum. Quod intuens recte facis, mala huius mundi tolerabilia ducere spe futuri. Sic enim usu quodam bono convertuntur in bonum, dum non augent nostram concupiscentiam, sed exercent patientiam; de qua re Apostolus ait: Scimus quoniam diligentibus Deum omnia cooperatur in bonum. Omnia, inquit: non solum ergo illa quae appetuntur ut suavia, verum etiam illa quae ut molesta vitantur; quando alia sic sumimus ne capiamur, alia sic ferimus ne frangamur, et secundum praecepta divina in omnibus gratias agimus ei, de quo dicimus: Benedicam Dominum in omni tempore; semper laus eius in ore meo; et: Bonum est mihi quod humiliasti me, ut discam iustificationes tuas. Neque enim revera, si fallacis prosperitatis semper hic tranquillitas arrideret, anima humana portum illum verae certaeque securitatis appeteret, domina insignis et merito illustris, et praestantissima filia. Reddens itaque debitum Praestantiae tuae salutationis obsequium, agensque gratias quod salutis nostrae religiosissimam curam geris, posco tibi a Domino futurae vitae praemia, praesentisque solaria; omniumque vestrum, in quorum cordibus per fidem habitat Christus, me dilectioni orationique commendo. Et alia manu: Deus verus et verax veraciter consoletur cor tuum, et protegat salutem tuam, domina insignis et merito illustris, ac praestantissima filia.
1. It is indeed so, as you say, that the soul, set in a corruptible body, is constrained by a certain earthly contagion, and in a manner bowed, pressed down by such a load, that it more easily covets and thinks of many things in the depths than the one thing in the heights. For holy Scripture too says this thus: For the body that is corrupted weighs down the soul, and the earthly habitation presses down the sense thinking of many things (Wis 9:15). But for this reason our Savior came, who, by the word of salvation, raised up that woman in the Gospel, bent for eighteen years—who perhaps signified this—so that the Christian soul might not in vain hear, "Hearts on high," nor in vain answer that it has them to the Lord. Considering which, you do rightly to count the bearable evils of this world tolerable by the hope of the future. For thus, by a certain good use, they are turned to good, while they do not increase our concupiscence, but exercise our patience; about which the Apostle says, We know that for those who love God all things work together unto good (Rom 8:28). "All things," he says: not only, then, those which are sought as sweet, but even those which are avoided as troublesome; when we so take the one that we be not captured, so bear the other that we be not broken, and, according to the divine precepts, in all things give thanks to him, of whom we say, I will bless the Lord at all times; always his praise is in my mouth (Ps 34:1 (33:2)); and, It is good for me that you have humbled me, that I may learn your justifications (Ps 119:71 (118:71)). For in truth, if the tranquility of a deceptive prosperity were always to smile here, the human soul would not seek that harbor of true and certain security, distinguished lady, and deservedly illustrious, and most excellent daughter. Rendering, then, to your Eminence the due office of greeting, and giving thanks that you bear a most religious care for our salvation, I ask for you from the Lord the rewards of the future life, and the solaces of the present; and to the love and prayer of all of you, in whose hearts Christ dwells through faith, I commend myself. And in another hand: May the true and truthful God truly console your heart, and protect your safety, distinguished lady, and deservedly illustrious, and most excellent daughter.
Ep100-155.1EPISTOLA 132
DOMINO ILLUSTRI ET MERITO PRAESTANTISSIMO FILIO VOLUSIANO, AUGUSTINUS EPISCOPUS.
DOMINO ILLUSTRI ET MERITO PRAESTANTISSIMO FILIO VOLUSIANO, AUGUSTINUS EPISCOPUS.
LETTER 132
To the illustrious lord, and deservedly most excellent son Volusianus, Augustine the bishop.
Ep100-155.1To the illustrious lord, and deservedly most excellent son Volusianus, Augustine the bishop.
1. De salute tua, quam et in hoc saeculo, et in Christo esse cupio, sanctae matris tuae votis sum fortasse etiam ipse non impar. Unde meritis tuis reddens salutationis obsequium, hortor, ut valeo, ut Litterarum vere certeque sanctarum studio te curam non pigeat impendere. Sincera enim et solida res est, nec fucatis eloquiis ambit ad animum, nec ullo linguae tectorio inane aliquid ac pendulum crepitat. Multum movet, non verborum, sed rerum avidum; et multum terret, factura securum. Praecipue Apostolorum linguas exhortor ut legas; ex his enim ad cognoscendos Prophetas excitaberis, quorum testimoniis utuntur Apostoli. Si quid autem, vel cum legis, vel cum cogitas, tibi oritur quaestionis, in quo dissolvendo videar necessarius, scribe ut rescribam Magis enim hoc forte Domino ad iuvante potero, quam praesens talia loqui tecum; non solum propter occupationes varias et meas et tuas (quoniam non cum mihi vacat, occurrit ut et tibi vacet), verum etiam propter eorum irruentem praesentiam, qui plerumque non sunt apti tali negotio, magisque linguae certaminibus, quam scientiae luminibus delectantur: quod autem scriptum habetur, semper vacat ad legendum, cum vacat legenti; nec onerosum fit praesens, quod cum voles sumitur, cum voles ponitur.
1. About your salvation, which I desire to be both in this world and in Christ, I am perhaps not myself unequal to the wishes of your holy mother. Whence, rendering to your merits the office of greeting, I exhort, as I am able, that it not irk you to spend care on the zeal of truly and certainly holy writings. For it is a sincere and solid thing, nor does it solicit the mind with painted eloquence, nor, with any plastering of the tongue, does it rattle something empty and hanging. It moves much one avid, not of words, but of things; and it terrifies much, about to make secure. I especially exhort you to read the tongues of the Apostles; for from these you will be roused to know the Prophets, whose testimonies the Apostles use. But if any question arises for you, whether when you read or when you think, in solving which I may seem necessary, write that I may write back. For this perhaps, with the Lord helping, I shall be more able to do, than, present, to speak such things with you; not only on account of the various occupations both mine and yours (since it does not happen that, when I have leisure, you too have leisure), but even on account of the intruding presence of those who for the most part are not fit for such business, and are delighted more by contests of the tongue than by the lights of knowledge: but what is held in writing is always at leisure for reading, when the reader has leisure; nor does it become burdensome, present, which is taken up when you will, laid down when you will.
Ep100-155.1EPISTOLA 133
DOMINO EXIMIO ET MERITO INSIGNI, ATQUE CARISSIMO FILIO MARCELLINO, AUGUSTINUS, IN DOMINO SALUTEM.
DOMINO EXIMIO ET MERITO INSIGNI, ATQUE CARISSIMO FILIO MARCELLINO, AUGUSTINUS, IN DOMINO SALUTEM.
LETTER 133
To the most excellent lord, and deservedly distinguished, and most dear son Marcellinus, Augustine sends greetings in the Lord.
Ep100-155.1To the most excellent lord, and deservedly distinguished, and most dear son Marcellinus, Augustine sends greetings in the Lord.
1. Circumcelliones illos et clericos partis Donati, quos de Hipponensi ad iudicium pro factis eorum publicae disciplinae cura deduxerat, a tua Nobilitate comperi auditos, et plurimos eorum de homicidio quod in Restitutum, catholicum presbyterum commiserunt, et de caede Innocentii, alterius catholici presbyteri, atque de oculo eius effosso, et de digito praeciso fuisse confessos. Unde mihi sollicitudo maxima incussa est, ne forte Sublimitas tua censeat eos tanta legum severitate plectendos, ut qualia fecerunt, talia patiantur. Ideoque his litteris obtestor fidem tuam quam habes in Christo, per ipsius Domini Christi misericordiam, ut hoc nec facias, nec fieri omnino permittas. Quamvis enim ab eorum interitu dissimulare possemus, qui non accusantibus nostris, sed illorum Notoria ad quos tuendae publicae pacis vigilantia pertinebat, praesentati videantur examini; nolumus tamen passiones servorum Dei, quasi vice talionis, paribus suppliciis vindicari. Non quo scelestis hominibus licentiam facinorum prohibeamus auferri; sed hoc magis sufficere volumus ut vivi et nulla corporis parte truncati, vel ab inquietudine insana ad sanitatis otium legum coercitione dirigantur, vel a malignis operibus alicui utili operi deputentur. Vocatur quidem et ista damnatio; sed quis non intellegat magis beneficium quam supplicium nuncupandum, ubi nec saeviendi relaxetur audacia, nec poenitendi subtrahatur medicina?
1. Those Circumcellions and clerics of the party of Donatus, whom the care of public discipline had brought from Hippo to judgment for their deeds, I have learned were heard by your Nobility, and that very many of them confessed concerning the homicide which they committed against Restitutus, a Catholic priest, and concerning the beating of Innocentius, another Catholic priest, and his eye gouged out, and his finger cut off. Whence the greatest solicitude has been struck into me, lest perhaps your Sublimity should judge that they ought to be punished by so great a severity of the laws that they suffer such things as they did. And therefore by this letter I adjure your faith which you have in Christ, by the mercy of the Lord Christ himself, that you neither do this nor at all permit it to be done. For although we could dissemble about their destruction, who seem to have been presented to the examination not by our accusers, but by the official notification of those to whom the vigilance of guarding the public peace pertained; yet we do not wish the sufferings of the servants of God to be avenged, as if by way of retaliation, by like punishments. Not that we forbid the license of crimes to be taken away from criminal men; but we wish rather this to suffice, that, alive and maimed in no part of the body, they be either directed, by the coercion of the laws, from insane unquiet to the leisure of soundness, or, from malignant works, assigned to some useful work. This too is indeed called a condemnation; but who would not understand that it is to be named a benefit rather than a punishment, where neither is the audacity of raging relaxed, nor the medicine of repenting withdrawn?
Ep100-155.12. Imple, christiane iudex, pii patris officium; sic succense iniquitati, ut consulere humanitati memineris: nec in peccatorum atrocitatibus exerceas ulciscendi libidinem; sed peccatorum vulneribus curandi adhibeas voluntatem. Noli perdere paternam diligentiam, quam in ipsa inquisitione servasti, quando tantorum scelerum confessionem, non extendente equuleo, non sulcantibus ungulis, non urentibus flammis, sed virgarum verberibus eruisti. Qui modus coercitionis a magistris artium liberalium, et ab ipsis parentibus, et saepe etiam in iudiciis solet ab episcopis adhiberi. Noli ergo atrocius vindicare, quod lenius invenisti. Inquirendi quam puniendi necessitas maior est: ad hoc enim et mitissimi homines facinus occultatum diligenter atque instanter examinant, ut inveniant quibus parcant. Unde plerumque necesse est, exerceatur acrius inquisitio, ut manifestato scelere sit ubi appareat mansuetudo. Omnia quippe bona opera amant in luce constitui; non propter humanam gloriam, sed ut videant, ait Dominus, bona opera vestra, et glorificent Patrem vestrum qui in coelis est. Et ideo non suffecit Apostolo monere ut mansuetudinem servaremus, sed ut eam etiam notam omnibus faceremus: Mansuetudo, inquit, vestra nota sit omnibus hominibus; et alio loco: Mansuetudinem ostentantes ad omnes homines. Unde nec illa sancti David, quando inimico sibi in manus tradito clementer pepercit, praeclarissima lenitas emineret, nisi potestas pariter appareret. Non te ergo exasperet vindicandi potestas, cui lenitatem non excussit examinandi necessitas. Noli facinore invento quaerere percussorem, in quo inveniendo noluisti adhibere tortorem.
2. Fulfill, O Christian judge, the office of a devout father; so be inflamed against iniquity that you remember to take counsel for humanity: and do not, at the atrocities of sinners, exercise the lust of avenging; but to the wounds of sinners apply the will of healing. Do not lose the paternal diligence which you preserved in the very inquiry, when you drew out the confession of such great crimes, not by stretching them on the rack, not by furrowing claws, not by burning flames, but by the beating of rods. Which manner of coercion is wont to be applied by masters of the liberal arts, and by parents themselves, and often even in the courts by bishops. Do not, then, avenge more atrociously what you found out more leniently. The necessity of inquiring is greater than that of punishing: for to this end even the gentlest men diligently and instantly examine a hidden crime, that they may find those whom to spare. Whence for the most part it is necessary that inquiry be exercised more sharply, that, the crime being manifested, there may be where mercy may appear. For all good works love to be set in the light; not for the sake of human glory, but, as the Lord says, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven (Matt 5:16). And therefore it did not suffice the Apostle to admonish that we keep meekness, but that we even make it known to all: Let your meekness, he says, be known to all men (Phil 4:5); and in another place, showing meekness to all men (Titus 3:2). Whence neither would that most illustrious gentleness of holy David—when, his enemy being handed into his hands, he clemently spared him—stand out, unless his power equally appeared. Let not, then, the power of avenging exasperate you, from whom the necessity of examining did not shake out gentleness. Do not, the crime found, seek the striker, in finding whom you were unwilling to apply the torturer.
Ep100-155.23. Postremo pro Ecclesiae utilitate missus es. Hoc Ecclesiae catholicae, aut, ut modum dispensationis meae non supergredi videar, hoc Ecclesiae ad Hipponensium Regiorum dioecesim pertinenti prodesse, hoc expedire contestor. Si non audis amicum petentem, audi episcopum consulentem. Quamvis quoniam christiano loquor, maxime in tali causa, non arroganter dixerim, audire te episcopum convenit iubentem, domine eximie et merito insignis, atque carissime fili. Unde scio quidem causas ecclesiasticas Excellentiae tuae potissimum iniunctas, sed quia credo istam curam ad virum clarissimum atque spectabilem proconsulem pertinere, ad eum quoque litteras dedi; quas rego ut ipse illi tradere et allegare, si opus est, non graveris: atque ambos obsecro, ne importunam arbitremini, vel intercessionem, vel suggestionem, vel sollicitudinem nostram; et passiones catholicorum servorum Dei, quae infirmis ad aedificationem spiritalem utiles esse debent, haud reciproca inimicorum, a quibus passi sunt, poena decoloretis, sed potius refracta iudiciaria severitate, et vestram fidem, quia filii estis Ecclesiae, et ipsius matris mansuetudinem commendare minime neglegatis. Deus omnipotens Praestantiam tuam bonis omnibus augeat, domine eximie et merito insignis, atque carissime fili.
3. Finally, you have been sent for the benefit of the Church. This I attest profits the Catholic Church—or, that I may seem not to overstep the measure of my dispensation, this profits the Church pertaining to the diocese of Hippo-Regius—this is expedient. If you do not hear a friend asking, hear a bishop counseling. Although, since I speak to a Christian, especially in such a cause, I would not arrogantly say that it befits you to hear a bishop commanding, most excellent lord, and deservedly distinguished, and most dear son. Whence I indeed know that ecclesiastical causes are especially enjoined upon your Excellency, but because I believe this care pertains to the most illustrious and respectable proconsul, I have given a letter to him too; which I ask that you not find it burdensome to hand to him yourself and to allege, if there is need: and I beseech you both not to judge our intercession, or suggestion, or solicitude importunate; and not to discolor the sufferings of the Catholic servants of God—which ought to be useful to the weak for spiritual edification—by the reciprocal punishment of the enemies from whom they suffered, but rather, judicial severity being broken, do not at all neglect to commend both your faith, because you are sons of the Church, and the meekness of that same mother. May the omnipotent God increase your Eminence with all good things, most excellent lord, and deservedly distinguished, and most dear son.
Ep100-155.3EPISTOLA 134
DOMINO INSIGNI ET MERITO SUBLIMI, AC PRAESTANTISSIMO FILIO APRINGIO, AUGUSTINUS.
DOMINO INSIGNI ET MERITO SUBLIMI, AC PRAESTANTISSIMO FILIO APRINGIO, AUGUSTINUS.
LETTER 134
To the distinguished lord, and deservedly exalted, and most excellent son Apringius, Augustine.
Ep100-155.3To the distinguished lord, and deservedly exalted, and most excellent son Apringius, Augustine.
1. Non dubito in hac potestate quam tibi Deus homini in homines dedit, cogitare te divinum iudicium, ubi et iudices stabunt rationem de suo iudicio reddituri. Christiana quippe fide te imbutum scio; unde mihi ad Excellentiam tuam maior fiducia tribuitur, non solum petendi, verum etiam monendi propter illum Dominum, in cuius familia nobiscum coelesti iure censeris, in quo spem vitae aeternae pariter habemus, et quem pro vobis in sacrosanctis mysteriis invocamus. Proinde, domine insignis et merito sublimis, ac praestantissime fili, primum quaeso ut non tibi videar importunus irruere actibus tuis, ea sollicitudine quam me praecipue gerere oportet pro Ecclesia mihi credita, cuius utilitatibus servio, cui non tam praeesse quam prodesse desidero: deinde obsecro ut quod moneo vel rogo, non dedigneris accipere, non cuncteris acquiescere.
1. I do not doubt that in this power which God, a man, has given you over men, you think of the divine judgment, where even judges will stand to render an account of their judgment. For I know you are imbued with the Christian faith; whence greater confidence is granted me toward your Excellency, not only of asking, but even of admonishing, on account of that Lord in whose family you are reckoned with us by heavenly right, in whom we have alike the hope of eternal life, and whom we invoke for you in the sacrosanct mysteries. Accordingly, distinguished lord, and deservedly exalted, and most excellent son, first I ask that I not seem to you importunately to rush upon your acts, with that solicitude which it especially behooves me to bear for the Church entrusted to me, whose benefits I serve, over which I desire not so much to preside as to profit: then I beseech that what I admonish or ask, you not disdain to receive, not hesitate to assent to.
Ep100-155.12. Circumcelliones quosdam et clericos donatistas, cura eorum qui disciplinae publicae inserviunt, praemissa Notoria, ad iudicia legesque perduxit. Hi cum audirentur a viro clarissimo et spectabili tribuno et notario fratre tuo, filio meo Marcellino, non tormentis ungularum atque flammarum, sed virgarum coerciti, horrenda facinora in fratres et compresbyteros meos a se perpetrata confessi sunt; quod scilicet unum eorum exceptum insidiis trucidaverunt, alterum e domo raptum, oculo effosso digitoque amputato truncaverunt. Haec cum comperissem illos fuisse confessos, ideoque minime dubitarem sub iura tuae securis esse venturos, has ad tuam Nobilitatem litteras acceleravi, quibus deprecor, et per misericordiam Christi obsecro, sic de tua maiore atque certiore felicitate gaudeamus, ut eis paria non retribuantur; quamquam lapidis ictibus digitum praecidere oculumque convellere leges puniendo non possint, quod isti saeviendo potuerunt. Unde securus sum de iis qui hoc se fecisse confessi sunt, quod hanc vicissitudinem non reportabunt; sed ne vel ipsi, vel illi quorum homicidium patefactum est, per tuae potestatis sententiam multentur, hoc timeo, hoc ne fiat et christianus iudicem rogo, et christianum episcopus moneo.
2. Certain Circumcellions and Donatist clerics, the care of those who serve public discipline having sent ahead an official notification, brought to the courts and laws. These, when they were heard by the most illustrious and respectable man, the tribune and notary, your brother, my son Marcellinus, coerced not by the torments of claws and flames, but of rods, confessed horrible crimes perpetrated by them against my brothers and fellow priests: namely that they slaughtered one of them, caught by ambush; the other, snatched from his house, they maimed, his eye gouged out and his finger amputated. When I had learned that they had confessed these things, and therefore least of all doubted that they would come under the jurisdiction of your axe, I hastened this letter to your Nobility, by which I entreat, and through the mercy of Christ beseech, that we may so rejoice over your greater and more certain happiness, that like things not be repaid them; although the laws cannot, in punishing, cut off a finger and tear out an eye with blows of a stone, which these men, in raging, could. Whence I am secure about those who confessed they did this, that they will not bring back this requital; but lest either they themselves, or those whose homicide was disclosed, be punished by the sentence of your power, this I fear, this lest it be done both a Christian asks of a judge, and a bishop admonishes a Christian.
Ep100-155.23. De vobis quidem dixisse Apostolum legimus quod non sine causa gladium geratis, et ministri Dei sitis, vindices in eos qui male agunt; sed alia causa est provinciae, alia est Ecclesiae: illius terribiliter gerenda est administratio; huius clementer commendanda est mansuetudo. Si apud iudicem non christianum mihi sermo esset, aliter agerem: nec tamen etiam sic Ecclesiae causam desererem, et quantum admittere dignaretur, instarem ne passiones servorum Dei catholicorum, quae prodesse debent ad exempla patientiae, inimicorum suorum sanguine foedarentur; et si nollet acquiescere, inimico animo eum resistere suspicarer. Nunc vero quando apud te res agitur, alia mihi ratio est, alia consultatio. Rectorem te quidem praecelsae potestatis videmus, sed etiam filium christianae pietatis agnoscimus. Subdatur sublimitas tua, subdatur fides tua; causam tecum tracto communem, sed tu in ea potes quod ego non possum: confer nobiscum consilium, et porrige auxilium.
3. Of you indeed we read the Apostle said that you bear the sword not without cause, and are ministers of God, avengers against those who do evil (See Rom 13:4); but one cause is that of the province, another that of the Church: the administration of the former is to be borne terribly; the meekness of the latter is to be commended clemently. If my speech were with a non-Christian judge, I would act otherwise: yet not even so would I desert the cause of the Church, and, as much as he deigned to admit, I would insist that the sufferings of the Catholic servants of God—which ought to profit as examples of patience—not be befouled by the blood of their enemies; and if he were unwilling to assent, I would suspect that he resisted with a hostile mind. But now, when the matter is dealt with before you, my reasoning is one thing, my consultation another. We see you indeed a ruler of most lofty power, but we recognize you also a son of Christian piety. Let your sublimity be subjected, let your faith be subjected; I treat with you a common cause, but you can in it what I cannot: confer counsel with us, and stretch out help.
Ep100-155.34. Diligenter actum est ut inimici Ecclesiae, qui solent vaniloquio seductionis sollicitare animos imperitos tamquam de persecutione gloriantes quam se perpeti iactant, horrenda facinora sua in catholicos clericos perpetrata faterentur et suis verbis implicarentur. Legenda sunt Gesta ad sanandas animas, quas pestifera suasione venenaverunt: numquid placet tibi ut ad finem Gestorum, si cruentum istorum supplicium continebit, legendo pervenire timeamus, ubi ponimus et ipsam conscientiam, ne malum pro malo, qui passi sunt, reddidisse videantur? Si ergo nihil aliud constitueretur frenandae malitiae perditorum, extrema fortasse necessitas ut tales occiderentur urgeret; quamquam quod ad nos attinet, si nihil mitius eis fieri posset, mallemus eos liberos relaxari, quam passiones fratrum nostrorum fuso eorum sanguine vindicari: nunc vero cum aliquid fieri possit, quo et mitis commendetur Ecclesia, et immitium cohibeatur audacia; cur non flectas in partem providentiorem, lenioremque sententiam, quod licet iudicibus facere etiam non in causis Ecclesiae? Time ergo nobiscum iudicium Dei Patris, et commenda mansuetudinem matris: cum enim tu facis, Ecclesia facit, propter quam facis, et cuius filius facis. Contende bonitate cum malis: illi scelere immani membra de corpore vivo avulserunt; tu opere misericordi effice ut illa quae nefandis operibus exercebant, alicui utili operi integra eorum membra deserviant. Illi non pepercerunt correctionem sibi praedicantibus Dei servis; tu parce comprehensis, parce ductis, parce convictis. Illi impio ferro fuderunt sanguinem Christianum: tu ab eorum sanguine etiam iuridicum gladium cohibe propter Christum. Illi ministro Ecclesiae occiso extorserunt spatium vivendi: tu inimicis Ecclesiae viventibus relaxa spatium poenitendi. Talem te oportet esse in causa Ecclesiae iudicem christianum, petentibus, monentibus, intercedentibus nobis. Solent homines quando cum inimicis eorum convictis lenius agitur, a mitiore sententia provocare: sed inimicos nostros ita diligimus, ut nisi de tua christiana obedientia praesumamus, a tua severa sententia provocemus. Deus omnipotens Excellentiam tuam auctiorem felicioremque conservet, domine insignis et merito sublimis, ac praestantissime fili.
4. It was diligently brought about that the enemies of the Church—who are wont, by the empty talk of seduction, to solicit the minds of the unskilled, as it were glorying in the persecution which they boast they suffer—should confess the horrible crimes perpetrated by them against Catholic clerics, and be entangled in their own words. The records are to be read for healing the souls which they have poisoned by pestiferous persuasion: does it please you that we fear, in reading, to come to the end of the records, if it shall contain a bloody punishment of these men, where we set our very conscience too, lest those who suffered should seem to have repaid evil for evil? If, then, nothing else could be established for bridling the malice of the lost, the extreme necessity perhaps would urge that such men be killed; although, as far as pertains to us, if nothing milder could be done to them, we would prefer them to be released free than that the sufferings of our brothers be avenged by the shedding of their blood: but now, when something can be done by which both the Church may be commended as gentle, and the audacity of the savage be restrained; why do you not bend to a more provident and more lenient sentence what it is lawful for judges to do even in causes not of the Church? Fear, then, with us the judgment of God the Father, and commend the meekness of the mother: for when you do it, the Church does it, for whose sake you do it, and whose son you do it. Contend in goodness with the bad: they, by a monstrous crime, tore off members from a living body; you, by a merciful work, bring it about that those members, which they exercised in wicked works, may, whole, serve some useful work. They did not spare the servants of God preaching correction to them; you, spare those seized, spare those led off, spare those convicted. They, with impious iron, shed Christian blood: you, restrain from their blood even the legal sword, for the sake of Christ. They, a minister of the Church being killed, wrenched from him the span of living: you, to the living enemies of the Church relax a span of repenting. Such ought you to be in the cause of the Church, a Christian judge, we asking, admonishing, interceding. Men are wont, when it is dealt more leniently with their convicted enemies, to appeal from the milder sentence: but we so love our enemies that, unless we presumed on your Christian obedience, we would appeal from your severe sentence. May the omnipotent God preserve your Excellency more enlarged and more happy, distinguished lord, and deservedly exalted, and most excellent son.
Ep100-155.4EPISTOLA 135
DOMINO VERE SANCTO, AC MERITO VENERABILI PATRI AUGUSTINO EPISCOPO, VOLUSIANUS.
DOMINO VERE SANCTO, AC MERITO VENERABILI PATRI AUGUSTINO EPISCOPO, VOLUSIANUS.
LETTER 135
To the truly holy lord, and deservedly venerable father, bishop Augustine, Volusianus.
Ep100-155.4To the truly holy lord, and deservedly venerable father, bishop Augustine, Volusianus.
1. Petis me, vir probitatis iustitiaeque documentum, ut aliqua ex ambiguis lectionis perite discenda perconter. Amplector gratiam muneris imperati, meque libens in disciplinas tuas offero, veteris sententiae auctoritatem secutus, quae nullam ad perdiscendum abundare credit aetatem. Neque immerito sapiens, prudentiae studia nullis terminis, neque fine conclusit, quando primordiis suis remota virtus numquam adeo reseratur adeuntibus, ut omnis protinus ad agnitionem patescat. Domine vere sancte, ac merito venerabilis pater, est operae pretium cognoscere habitam inter nos proxime confabulationem. Quibusdam amicorum conventibus aderamus, frequentes proferebantur illic pro ingeniis studisque sententiae. Erat tamen sermo rhetorica partitio: apud agnoscentem loquor; nam etiam ista paulo ante docuisti. Adstruebatur quid esset inventionis acrimonia, quantus disponendi labor, quae translationis gratia, quae iconismatum pulchritudo, et pro ingenio naturaque materiae apposita etiam dicendi facultas. Alii rursus poeticam elevabant faventes. Ne hanc quidem eloquentiae partem tacitam aut inhonoram relinquis, ut convenienter poeta dixerit: Inter victrices hederam tibi serpere lauros.
Dicebatur ergo quantus oeconomiae esset ornatus, quae metaphorarum venustas, quanta in comparatione sublimitas; iam leves enodesque versus, atque, ut ita dixerim, caesurarum modulata variatio. Tunc ad familiarem tuam philosophiam sermo deflectit, quam ipse Aristotelico more tamquam Isocraticam fovere consueveras. Quaerebamus et quid egerit praeceptor ex Lyceo; quid Academiae multiplex et continuata cunctatio; quid ille disputator ex Porticu; quid Physicorum peritia; quid Epicureorum voluptas; quid inter omnes infinita disputandi libido, tuncque magis ignorata veritas, postquam praesumptum est quod possit agnosci.
Dicebatur ergo quantus oeconomiae esset ornatus, quae metaphorarum venustas, quanta in comparatione sublimitas; iam leves enodesque versus, atque, ut ita dixerim, caesurarum modulata variatio. Tunc ad familiarem tuam philosophiam sermo deflectit, quam ipse Aristotelico more tamquam Isocraticam fovere consueveras. Quaerebamus et quid egerit praeceptor ex Lyceo; quid Academiae multiplex et continuata cunctatio; quid ille disputator ex Porticu; quid Physicorum peritia; quid Epicureorum voluptas; quid inter omnes infinita disputandi libido, tuncque magis ignorata veritas, postquam praesumptum est quod possit agnosci.
1. You ask me, O proof of probity and justice, to inquire about some things to be skillfully learned from the ambiguities of reading. I embrace the favor of the task commanded, and gladly offer myself to your disciplines, following the authority of an old saying which believes that no age has an excess for thorough learning. And not without merit did the wise man enclose the studies of prudence by no limits or end, since virtue, far removed from its beginnings, is never so unlocked to those approaching that all of it forthwith lies open to recognition. Truly holy lord, and deservedly venerable father, it is worth the trouble to know a conversation held among us recently. We were present at certain gatherings of friends; frequent opinions were brought forth there according to talents and zeals. The discourse, however, was a rhetorical partition: I speak before one who recognizes it; for you taught these things too a little while ago. It was being established what the keenness of invention is, how great the labor of arrangement, what the grace of metaphor, what the beauty of imagery, and—according to the talent and nature of the matter—the apt faculty of speaking too. Others again, favoring, were exalting poetry. Not even this part of eloquence do you leave untouched or unhonored, so that the poet might fittingly have said: Among the victorious laurels for you the ivy creeps. It was being said, then, how great the adornment of economy is, what the comeliness of metaphors, how great the sublimity in comparison; now the smooth and unknotted verses, and, so to say, the modulated variation of caesuras. Then the discourse bent to your familiar philosophy, which you yourself were wont to foster, in the Aristotelian manner, as it were the Isocratic. We were asking too what the preceptor from the Lyceum did; what the manifold and continual hesitation of the Academy; what that disputer from the Porch; what the expertise of the Physicists; what the pleasure of the Epicureans; what, among all, the infinite lust of disputing, and then truth all the more unknown, after it was presumed that it could be recognized.
Ep100-155.12. Dum in his confabulatio nostra remoratur, unus e multis: Et quis, inquit, est sapientia ad perfectum Christianitatis imbutus, qui ambigua in quibus haereo possit aperire, dubiosque assensus meos vera vel verisimili credulitate firmare? Stupemus tacentes. Tunc in haec sponte prorumpit: Miror utrum mundi Dominus et rector intemeratae feminae corpus impleverit, pertulerit decem mensium longa illa fastidia mater, et tamen virgo enixa sit solemnitate pariendi, et post haec virginitas intacta permanserit. His et alia subnectit: Intra corpusculum vagientis infantiae latet, cui par vix putatur universitas; patitur puerilitatis annos, adolescit, iuventute solidatur; tam diu a sedibus suis abest ille regnator, atque ad unum corpusculum totius mundi cura transfertur; deinde in somnos resolvitur, cibo alitur, omnes mortalium sentit affectus; nec ullis competentibus signis tantae maiestatis indicia clarescunt, quoniam larvalis illa purgatio, debilium curae, reddita vita defunctis, haec, si et alios cogites, Deo parva sunt. Intervenimus ulterius inquirenti, solutoque conventu, ad potioris peritiae merita distulimus, ne dum incautive secreta temerantur, in culpam deflecteret error innocuus. Accepisti, vir totius gloriae capax, imperitiae confessionem; quid a partibus vestris desideretur agnoscis. Interest famae tuae, ut quaesita noverimus. Utcumque absque detrimento cultus divini in aliis sacerdotibus toleratur inscitia; at cum ad antistitem Augustinum venitur, legi deest quidquid contigerit ignorari. Incolumem Venerationem tuam divinitas summa tueatur, domine vere sancte, ac merito venerabilis pater.
2. While our conversation lingered on these things, one of the many said: "And who, imbued with wisdom to the perfection of Christianity, can open the ambiguities in which I stick, and confirm my doubtful assents by a true or verisimilar credulity?" We were astonished, keeping silent. Then he of his own accord broke out into these words: "I wonder whether the Lord and ruler of the world filled the body of an unviolated woman, whether the mother bore those long disgusts of ten months, and yet a virgin gave birth with the solemnity of bearing, and after this her virginity remained intact." To these he subjoins other things: "He lies hidden within the little body of a wailing infancy, to whom the universe is scarcely thought equal; he suffers the years of boyhood, grows up, is made solid by youth; so long is that ruler absent from his seats, and the care of the whole world is transferred to one little body; then he is dissolved into sleeps, fed with food, feels all the affections of mortals; nor do any fitting signs make clear the indications of so great a majesty, since that spectral purification, the cures of the weak, life restored to the dead—these, if you consider others too, are small things for God." We intervened upon him inquiring further, and the gathering being broken up, we deferred it to the merits of better expertise, lest, while secrets are incautiously violated, an innocent error should bend into fault. You have received, O man capable of all glory, the confession of unskillfulness; you recognize what is desired from your party. It is in the interest of your fame that we should know what is sought. Somehow, without detriment to divine worship, ignorance is tolerated in other priests; but when one comes to bishop Augustine, whatever happens to be unknown is a defect in the law. May the supreme divinity guard your Veneration safe, truly holy lord, and deservedly venerable father.
Ep100-155.2EPISTOLA 136
DOMINO NIMIUMQUE VENERABILI, ET OMNIBUS MIHI OFFICIIS UNICE PERCOLENDO PATRI AUGUSTINO, MARCELLINUS.
DOMINO NIMIUMQUE VENERABILI, ET OMNIBUS MIHI OFFICIIS UNICE PERCOLENDO PATRI AUGUSTINO, MARCELLINUS.
LETTER 136
To the exceedingly venerable lord, and to be uniquely cultivated by me with all offices, father Augustine, Marcellinus.
Ep100-155.2To the exceedingly venerable lord, and to be uniquely cultivated by me with all offices, father Augustine, Marcellinus.
1. Vir illustris Volusianus Beatitudinis tuae mihi litteras legit, imo me quidem cogente pluribus legit, quae scilicet omnia quae a te dicuntur, cum vere miranda sint, usquequaque miratus sum. Sermonis enim divini gratia humiliter tumens, facile ut placeret emeruit. Hinc enim plurimum placuit, quod hominis gressus aliquanto titubantes boni propositi exhortatione statuere et firmare contendis. Est enim nobis cum eodem quotidiana pro viribus nostris, et pro ingenii paupertate disputatio. Sanctae siquidem matris eius precatione compulsus, cura mihi est eum frequentius salutandi gratia convenire, licet vicem in hac parte reddere etiam ipse dignetur. Accepta autem Venerabilitatis tuae epistola, homo qui a veri Dei stabilitate, multorum quorum in hac urbe copia est persuasione revocatur, ita motus est, ut si, quantum ipse confirmat, litterarum prolixitatem minime formidasset omne Beatitudini tuae quod habere potest insinuasset ambiguum. Sed tamen satis, sicut etiam ipse probare dignaberis, culto accuratoque sermone, et Romanae eloquentiae nitore perspicuo, aliqua sibi exsolvi impendio postulavit. Quae quidem quaestio usquequaque detrita est, et eorum super hac parte satis nota calliditas, qui dispensationem dominicae incarnationis infamant. Sed tamen etiam ego in hac parte, quia plurimis quidquid rescripseris profuturum esse confido, precator accesserim, ut ad ea vigilantius respondere digneris, in quibus nihil amplius Dominum, quam alii homines facere potuerunt, gessisse mentiuntur. Apollonium siquidem suum nobis et Apuleium, aliosque magicae artis homines in medium proferunt, quorum maiora contendunt extitisse miracula.
1. The illustrious man Volusianus read me the letter of your Beatitude—nay, indeed, at my compelling, read several—at which all the things said by you, since they are truly to be marveled at, I marveled at on every side. For the grace of divine discourse, humbly swelling, easily earned to please. For from this it pleased very much, that you strive to set and firm up the somewhat tottering steps of a man by the exhortation of a good purpose. For we have with him a daily disputation, according to our powers and the poverty of our talent. For, compelled by the prayer of his holy mother, I have a care to meet him more frequently for the sake of greeting him, although he himself too deigns to render the like in this part. But the letter of your Venerableness having been received, the man—who is called back from the stability of the true God by the persuasion of many, of whom there is an abundance in this city—was so moved that, if (as he himself affirms) he had not at all dreaded the length of a letter, he would have intimated to your Beatitude every ambiguity he can have. But yet, as you yourself too will deign to approve, he asked, with cultivated and careful discourse, and with the lucid splendor of Roman eloquence, that some things be resolved for him at length. Which question indeed has been worn down on every side, and the cleverness of those who defame the dispensation of the Lord's incarnation is well enough known on this part. But yet I too in this part—because I trust that whatever you write back will profit very many—would gladly approach as an entreater, that you deign to answer more vigilantly those things in which they lie, saying that the Lord did nothing more than other men could do. For they bring forward to us their own Apollonius and Apuleius, and other men of the magic art, whose miracles they contend were greater.
Ep100-155.12. Ipse autem vir illustris superius memoratus, multa esse dixit praesentibus aliquantis, quae huic possent iungi non immerito quaestioni, si, ut ante dixi, non ab eius partibus epistolaris considerata brevitas fuisset. Quae tamen licet scribere noluerit, tacere non est passus. Dicebat enim quod etsi sibi hodie incarnationis dominicae ratio redderetur, reddi vix ad liquidum possit cur hic Deus, qui et Veteris Testamenti Deus esse firmatur, spretis veteribus sacrificiis delectatus est novis. Nihil enim corrigi posse asserebat nisi quod antefactum non recte probaretur; vel quod semel recte factum sit, immutari ullatenus non debuisse. Recte enim facta dicebat mutari nisi iniuste non posse; maxime quia ista varietas inconstantiae Deum possit arguere. Tum deinde quod eius praedicatio atque doctrina, reipublicae moribus nulla ex parte conveniat; utpote, sicut a multis dicitur, cuius hoc constet praeceptum, ut nulli malum pro malo reddere debeamus, et percutienti aliam praebere maxillam, et pallium dare persistenti tunicam tollere, et cum eo qui nos angariare voluerit, ire debere spatio itineris duplicato: quae omnia reipublicae moribus asserit esse contraria. Nam quis tolli sibi ab hoste aliquid patiatur, vel Romanae provinciae depraedatori non mala velit belli iure reponere? Et caetera quae dici ad reliqua posse, intellegit Venerabilitas tua. Haec ergo omnia ipsi posse adiungi aestimat quaestioni, in tantum ut per christianos principes, christianam religionem maxima ex parte servantes, tanta (etiamsi ipse de hac parte taceat) reipublicae mala evenisse manifestum sit.
2. But that same illustrious man mentioned above said, with several present, that there were many things which could be joined not without merit to this question, if, as I said before, epistolary brevity had not been considered by his party. Which things, however, though he was unwilling to write, he did not suffer to be kept silent. For he said that, even if today an account of the Lord's incarnation were rendered him, it could scarcely be rendered to clarity why this God, who is also affirmed to be the God of the Old Testament, despising the old sacrifices, was delighted with new ones. For he asserted that nothing could be corrected except what, having been done before, were proved not right; or that what was once rightly done ought in no way to be changed. For he said that things rightly done could not be changed except unjustly; especially because this variety could accuse God of inconstancy. Then, next, that his preaching and teaching agree in no part with the customs of the republic; inasmuch as—as is said by many—it is his precept that we ought to repay evil to no one for evil, and to offer the other cheek to one striking, and to give a cloak to one persisting to take away a tunic, and to go a doubled space of the journey with one who shall wish to compel us: all which he asserts are contrary to the customs of the republic. For who would suffer something to be taken from him by an enemy, or would not wish to repay evils, by the law of war, to a plunderer of a Roman province? And the rest which can be said to the remaining points, your Venerableness understands. All these things, then, he esteems can be joined to that question, so much so that, through Christian princes keeping the Christian religion in the greatest part, it is manifest (even if he himself keeps silent about this part) that such great evils have befallen the republic.
Ep100-155.23. Unde, sicut Beatitudo tua mecum dignatur agnoscere, ad haec omnia (quoniam multorum manibus sine dubio tradetur Sanctitatis tuae desiderata responsio) plenus debet et elucubratus solutionis splendor ostendi; maxime quia cum ista gererentur, eximius Hipponensis regionis possessor et dominus praesens aderat, qui et Sanctitatem tuam sub ironiae adulatione laudaret, et sibi, cum de his quaereret, minime satisfactum esse contenderet. Ego vero ad haec omnia promissionis non immemor sed exactor libros confici deprecor, Ecclesiae, hoc maxime tempore, incredibiliter profuturos.
3. Whence, as your Beatitude deigns to recognize with me, to all these things (since the desired response of your Holiness will without doubt be handed to the hands of many) a full and elaborated splendor of solution ought to be shown; especially because, when these things were going on, the excellent possessor and lord of the region of Hippo was present, who both praised your Holiness under the flattery of irony, and contended that, when he asked about these things, he was least of all satisfied. But I, not unmindful of the promise but an exactor of it, entreat that books be composed to all these things, books that will incredibly profit the Church, especially at this time.
Ep100-155.3EPISTOLA 137
DOMINO ILLUSTRI ET MERITO INSIGNI, ET PRAESTANTISSIMO FILIO VOLUSIANO, AUGUSTINUS, IN DOMINO SALUTEM.
DOMINO ILLUSTRI ET MERITO INSIGNI, ET PRAESTANTISSIMO FILIO VOLUSIANO, AUGUSTINUS, IN DOMINO SALUTEM.
LETTER 137
To the illustrious lord, and deservedly distinguished, and most excellent son Volusianus, Augustine sends greetings in the Lord.
Ep100-155.3To the illustrious lord, and deservedly distinguished, and most excellent son Volusianus, Augustine sends greetings in the Lord.
1. 1. Legi litteras tuas, in quibus vidi magni cuiusdam dialogi specimen, laudabili brevitate comprehensum. Respondere igitur debui, nec pro dilatione aliquid excusationis opponere. Accidit enim opportune, ut ab alienis negotiis mihi aliquantulum vacaret. Quibus autem dictandis hoc otium statueram impendere, paululum distuli, nequaquam iustum esse arbitratus quem ad quaerendum exhortatus ipse fueram, differre quaerentem. Quis autem nostrum, qui Christi, ut possumus, gratiam ministramus, cum tua verba legerit, ita te velit doctrina instrui christiana, ut tibi tantum sufficiat ad salutem, non huius vitae, quam vaporis esse simillimam, tantillum apparentis, et illico vanescentis atque pereuntis, sermo divinus admonere curavit, sed illam salutem propter quam adipiscendam et in aeternum obtinendam christiani sumus? Parum est ergo nobis sic te instrui, ut tibi sit liberando satis. Ingenium quippe et eloquium tuum tam excellens tamque luculentum prodesse debet etiam caeteris, contra quorum tarditatem seu perversitatem, convenientissime defendenda est tantae gratiae dispensatio, quam superbae animulae nihili pendunt, quae nimis affectant plurimum posse, et ad sua vitia sananda vel etiam refrenanda nihil possunt.
1. 1. I have read your letter, in which I saw the specimen of a certain great dialogue, comprehended with praiseworthy brevity. I ought, then, to answer, and not to oppose any excuse for delay. For it happened opportunely that I had a little leisure from other businesses. But the things to whose dictation I had decided to spend this leisure I put off for a little, judging it in no way just to defer one inquiring whom I myself had exhorted to inquire. But which of us, who minister, as we can, the grace of Christ, when he reads your words, would wish you to be so instructed in Christian doctrine that it should suffice you for the salvation only of this life—which the divine word took care to admonish is most like a vapor, appearing for a little and at once vanishing and perishing—but not that salvation for whose obtaining and possessing forever we are Christians? It is too little for us, then, so to instruct you that it suffice you to be set free. For your talent and eloquence, so excellent and so brilliant, ought to profit others too, against whose slowness or perversity the dispensation of so great grace is most fittingly to be defended—the grace which proud little souls esteem at nothing, who too much affect to be able to do very much, and to heal or even rein in their own vices can do nothing.
Ep100-155.1.11. 2. Quaeris igitur: "Utrum mundi Dominus et rector intemeratae feminae corpus impleverit; pertulerit decem mensium longa illa fastidia mater, et tamen virgo enixa sit solemnitate pariendi, et post haec virginitas inviolata permanserit. Utrum intra corpusculum vagientis infantiae latuerit, cui par vix putatur universitas; passus fuerit puerilitatis annos, adoleverit, iuventute solidatus sit; tam diu a sedibus suis abfuerit regnator ille, atque in unum corpusculum, totius mundi cura translata sit; deinde in somnos resolutus sit; cibo alitus, omnes mortalium senserit affectus; neque ullis competentibus signis claruerint tantae maiestatis indicia; quoniam larvalis illa purgatio, debilium curae, reddita vita defunctis, haec, si et alios cogitemus, Deo parva sunt". Hanc scribis in quodam conventu amicorum ab uno ex multis qui aderant, illatam esse quaestionem; vos autem intervenisse ulterius inquirenti, solutumque conventum, ad potioris peritiae merita distulisse, ne dum incautius secreta temerantur, in culpam deflecteret error innocuus.
1. 2. You ask, then: "Whether the Lord and ruler of the world filled the body of an unviolated woman; whether the mother bore those long disgusts of ten months, and yet a virgin gave birth with the solemnity of bearing, and after this her virginity remained inviolate. Whether he lay hidden within the little body of a wailing infancy, to whom the universe is scarcely thought equal; suffered the years of boyhood, grew up, was made solid by youth; so long that ruler was absent from his seats, and to one little body the care of the whole world was transferred; then was dissolved into sleeps; fed with food, felt all the affections of mortals; nor did any fitting signs make clear the indications of so great a majesty; since that spectral purification, the cures of the weak, life restored to the dead—these, if we consider others too, are small things for God." You write that this question was brought forward, at a certain gathering of friends, by one of the many who were present; but that you intervened upon him inquiring further, and, the gathering being broken up, deferred it to the merits of better expertise, lest, while secrets are incautiously violated, an innocent error should bend into fault.
Ep100-155.1.21. 3. Deinde ad me litterarum tuarum dirigis intentionem, et post hanc imperitiae confessionem, admones ut a partibus nostris quid desideretur agnoscam. Adiungis etiam famae meae interesse ut quaesita noveritis, quod utcumque absque detrimento divini cultus in aliis sacerdotibus toleratur inscitia, at cum ad me antistitem venitur, legi deesse quidquid contigerit ignorari. Primum igitur hanc de me opinionem facile praesumptam, quaeso deponas, eumque animum quamvis erga me benevolentissimum, solvas atque exuas; ac de me mihi magis quam ulli alteri credas, si mihi dilectionis vicem rependis. Tanta est enim christianarum profunditas Litterarum, ut in eis quotidie proficerem, si eas solas ab ineunte pueritia usque ad decrepitam senectutem maximo otio, summo studio, meliore ingenio conarer addiscere: non quod ad ea quae necessaria sunt saluti, tanta in eis perveniatur difficultate; sed cum quisque ibi fidem tenuerit, sine qua pie recteque non vivitur, tam multa, tamque multiplicibus mysteriorum umbraculis opacata intellegenda proficientibus restant, tantaque non solum in verbis quibus ista dicta sunt, verum etiam in rebus quae intellegendae sunt, latet altitudo sapientiae, ut annosissimis, acutissimis, flagrantissimis cupiditate discendi hoc contingat, quod eadem Scriptura quodam loco habet: Cum consummaverit homo, tunc incipit.
1. 3. Then you direct to me the intention of your letter, and after this confession of unskillfulness, you admonish me to recognize what is desired from your party. You add too that it is in the interest of my fame that you should know what is sought, because somehow, without detriment to divine worship, ignorance is tolerated in other priests, but when one comes to me, the bishop, whatever happens to be unknown is a defect in the law. First, then, I ask that you lay down this opinion of me, so easily presumed, and that you loose and put off that mind, however most benevolent toward me; and that you believe me about myself rather than anyone else, if you repay me the like of love. For so great is the profundity of the Christian writings that I would daily profit in them, if I tried to learn them alone, from the beginning of boyhood to decrepit old age, with the greatest leisure, the highest zeal, a better talent: not that one arrives at the things necessary to salvation in them with so great difficulty; but when one has held there the faith without which one does not live devoutly and rightly, so many things, and overshadowed by so many manifold little shades of mysteries, remain to be understood by those progressing, and so great a height of wisdom lies hidden, not only in the words by which these things are said, but even in the things which are to be understood, that to the most aged, the most acute, the most ardent with desire of learning, this befalls which the same Scripture has in a certain place: When a man has finished, then he begins (Sir 18:6 (7)).
Ep100-155.1.32. 4. Sed quid hinc plura? Veniendum potius est ad rem quam requiris. Ubi primum te scire volo, non hoc habere christianam doctrinam, quod ita sit Deus infusus carni, qua ex virgine nasceretur, ut curam gubernandae universitatis vel deseruerit vel amiserit, vel ad illud corpusculum quasi contractam materiam collectamque transtulerit. Hominum iste sensus est, nihil nisi corpora valentium cogitare; sive ista crassiora, sicut sunt humor atque humus, sive subtiliora, sicut aeris et lucis; sed tamen corpora, quorum nullum potest esse ubique totum, quoniam per innumerabiles partes aliud alibi habeat necesse est, et quantumcumque sit corpus seu quantulumcumque corpusculum, loci occupet spatium, eumdemque locum sic impleat, ut in nulla eius parte sit totum. Ac per hoc densari ac rarescere, contrahi et dilatari, in minutias deteri et grandescere in molem, non nisi corporum est. Longe aliud est animae natura quam corporis: quanto magis Dei, qui creator est et animae et corporis? Non sic Deus dicitur implere mundum, velut aqua, velut aer, velut ipsa lux, ut minore sui parte minorem mundi impleat partem, et maiore maiorem. Novit ubique totus esse, et nullo contineri loco; novit venire non recedendo ubi erat; novit abire non deserendo quo venerat.
2. 4. But why more of this? We must rather come to the matter which you ask. Where first I wish you to know that Christian doctrine does not hold this, that God was so infused into the flesh in which he was born of the virgin that he either deserted or lost the care of governing the universe, or transferred it to that little body as to a contracted and gathered matter. This is the sense of men able to think nothing but bodies; whether these grosser, like moisture and earth, or subtler, like those of air and light; but yet bodies, of which none can be everywhere whole, since through innumerable parts it must have one part in one place, another in another; and however great a body, or however little a little body, occupies a space of place, and so fills that place that in no part of it is it whole. And through this, to be condensed and to grow rare, to be contracted and dilated, to be worn into minute particles and to grow into a mass, belongs to none but bodies. Far other is the nature of the soul than of the body: how much more of God, who is the creator both of the soul and of the body? God is not said to fill the world as water, as air, as the light itself, so that with a lesser part of himself he fills a lesser part of the world, and with a greater a greater. He knows how to be everywhere whole, and to be contained by no place; he knows how to come without withdrawing from where he was; he knows how to depart without deserting whither he had come.
Ep100-155.2.42. 5. Miratur hoc mens humana, et quia non capit, fortasse nec credit: seipsam primitus mirata miretur, seipsam paululum, si potest, attollat a corpore, et ab eis rebus quas solet sentire per corpus; et videat ipsa quid sit quae utitur corpore. Sed forte non potest: magni quippe est ingenii, ut ait quidam, sevocare mentem a sensibus, et cogitationem a consuetudine abducere. Ipsos ergo corporis sensus aliquanto insuetius, et vigilantius perscrutetur. Sunt certe quinque partiti corporis sensus, qui nec sine corpore, nec sine anima esse possunt: quia neque sentire est nisi viventis, quod ab anima est corpori; neque sine corporeis instrumentis, et quasi vasis atque organis videmus, audimus, caeterisque tribus utimur sensibus. Intendat haec anima rationalis, et sensus corporis non sensibus corporis, sed ipsa mente atque ratione consideret. Certe sentire homo non potest, nisi vivat; vivit autem in carne, antequam morte utrumque dirimatur. Quomodo igitur anima quae sunt extra carnem suam sentit, quae nonnisi in carne sua vivit? Annon ab eius carne longissime absunt sidera in coelo? annon id coelo videt solem? An sentire non est videre, cum sit in quinque sensibus caeteris excellentior visus? An et in coelo vivit, quia et in coelo sentit, et sensus esse non potest ubi vita non est? An sentit, et ubi non vivit; quia cum in sua tantum carne vivat, sentit etiam in his locis, quae praeter eius carnem continent ea quae tangit aspectu? Videsne quam hoc sit latebrosum in sensu tam conspicuo, qui visus dicitur? Attende et auditum. Nam et ipse se foras quodammodo diffundit a carne. Unde enim dicimus, Foris sonat, nisi ibi sentiamus ubi sonat? Ergo et illic extra carnem nostram vivimus. An sentire possumus et ubi non vivimus, cum sensus sine vita esse non possit?
2. 5. The human mind marvels at this, and because it does not grasp it, perhaps does not even believe it: let it first marvel at itself, let it raise itself a little, if it can, from the body, and from those things which it is wont to feel through the body; and let it see what it itself is, which uses the body. But perhaps it cannot: for it is of great talent, as someone says, to call the mind away from the senses, and to lead thought away from habit. Let it, then, search the very senses of the body somewhat more unwontedly and vigilantly. There are certainly five distinct senses of the body, which can be neither without the body nor without the soul: because neither is feeling except of one living, which is to the body from the soul; nor without corporeal instruments, and, as it were, vessels and organs, do we see, hear, and use the other three senses. Let this rational soul attend, and consider the senses of the body, not by the senses of the body, but by the mind and reason itself. Surely a man cannot feel unless he lives; but he lives in the flesh, before death sunders both. How, then, does the soul feel the things which are outside its flesh, which lives only in its flesh? Are not the stars in the sky most far from its flesh? Does it not see the sun there in the sky? Or is not to feel to see, since sight is more excellent than the other five senses? Or does it live in the sky too, because it feels in the sky too, and there cannot be sense where there is not life? Or does it feel even where it does not live, because, although it lives only in its own flesh, it feels also in those places which, beyond its flesh, contain the things it touches with sight? Do you see how hidden this is in a sense so conspicuous, which is called sight? Attend also to hearing. For this too in a manner diffuses itself outward from the flesh. For whence do we say, "It sounds outside," unless we feel there where it sounds? Therefore there too, outside our flesh, we live. Or can we feel even where we do not live, since sense cannot be without life?
Ep100-155.2.52. 6. Caeteri tres sensus apud seipsos sentiunt, quamvis de olfactu utcumque possit dubitari. De gustu autem atque tactu nulla controversia est, quod ea quae gustamus et tangimus, non alibi quam in carne nostra sentimus. Proinde isti tres sensus ab hac consideratione semoveantur. Visus auditusque afferunt mirabilem quaestionem; aut quomodo anima sentiat ubi non vivit, aut quomodo vivat ubi non est. Neque enim nisi in carne sua est; sentit autem etiam praeter carnem suam. Ibi quippe sentit ubi videt; quia et videre sentire est: ibi sentit ubi audit; quia et audire, sentire est. Aut ergo et ibi vivit, ac per hoc etiam et ibi est; aut sentit et ubi non vivit; aut vivit et ubi non est. Haec omnia mira sunt; nihil horum affirmari sine quadam velut absurditate potest: et de sensu loquimur morticino. Quid igitur est ipsa anima, praeter corporis sensum, id est in mente qua ista considerat? Neque enim sensu corporis, de ipsis sensibus corporis iudicat Et putamus nobis de omnipotentia Dei incredibile dici aliquid, cum dicitur Verbum Dei, per quod omnia facta sunt, sic assumpsisse corpus ex virgine, et sensibus apparuisse mortalibus, ut immortalitatem suam non corruperit, ut aeternitatem non mutaverit, ut potestatem non minuerit, ut administrationem mundi non deseruerit, ut a sinu Patris, id est a secreto, quo cum illo et in illo est, non recesserit!
2. 6. The other three senses feel within themselves, although about smell one may somewhat doubt. But about taste and touch there is no controversy, that the things we taste and touch we feel nowhere but in our flesh. Accordingly let these three senses be set aside from this consideration. Sight and hearing bring a marvelous question: either how the soul feels where it does not live, or how it lives where it is not. For it is only in its own flesh; but it feels also beyond its own flesh. For there it feels where it sees; because to see is to feel: there it feels where it hears; because to hear too is to feel. Either, then, it lives there too, and through this is there too; or it feels even where it does not live; or it lives even where it is not. All these things are marvelous; none of these can be affirmed without a certain, as it were, absurdity: and we speak of a deathbound sense. What, then, is the soul itself, beyond the sense of the body—that is, in the mind by which it considers these things? For it does not, by the sense of the body, judge about the senses of the body themselves. And do we think something incredible is said to us about the omnipotence of God, when it is said that the Word of God, through whom all things were made, so took a body from the virgin, and appeared to mortal senses, that it did not corrupt its immortality, did not change its eternity, did not diminish its power, did not desert the administration of the world, did not withdraw from the bosom of the Father—that is, from the secret in which it is with him and in him!
Ep100-155.2.62. 7. Verbum Dei sic intellege, per quod facta sunt omnia, non ut eius transire aliquid cogites, et ex futuro praeteritum fieri. Manet sicuti est, et ubique totum est. Venit autem cum manifestatur, et cum occultatur abscedit. Adest tamen sive occultum sive manifestum, sicut lux adest oculis et videntis, et caeci: sed videnti adest praesens, caeco vero absens. Adest et vox audientibus auribus, adest etiam surdis: sed illis patet, istas latet. Quid autem mirabilius quam id quod accidit in vocibus nostris verbisque sonantibus, in re scilicet raptim transitoria? Cum enim loquimur, ne secundae quidem syllabae locus est, nisi prima sonare destiterit; et tamen si unus adsit auditor, totum audit quod dicimus; et si duo adsint, tantumdem ambo audiunt quod et singulis totum est; et si audiat multitudo silens, non inter se particulatim comminuunt sonos tamquam cibos, sed omne quod sonat et omnibus totum est, et singulis totum. Itane iam non illud est potius incredibile, si verbum hominis transiens quod exhibet auribus, Verbum Dei permanens non exhiberet rebus, ut quemadmodum hoc simul auditur a singulis etiam totum, ita illud simul ubique sit totum?
2. 7. Understand the Word of God, through whom all things were made, so as not to think that anything of it passes, and from future becomes past. It abides as it is, and is everywhere whole. But it comes when it is manifested, and when it is hidden it withdraws. Yet it is present, whether hidden or manifest, as the light is present to the eyes both of one seeing and of one blind: but to the seeing it is present, to the blind absent. The voice too is present to hearing ears, present even to deaf ones: but to the former it lies open, from the latter it lies hidden. But what is more marvelous than that which happens in our voices and sounding words, in a thing, namely, rapidly transitory? For when we speak, there is no place even for the second syllable unless the first has ceased to sound; and yet, if one hearer be present, he hears the whole of what we say; and if two be present, both hear the same, and what is whole to the individuals; and if a silent multitude hear, they do not break the sounds among themselves piecemeal, like foods, but all that sounds is both whole to all, and whole to the individuals. Is it not, then, rather that incredible, if the passing word of a man, which it exhibits to the ears, the abiding Word of God should not exhibit to things, so that, just as this is heard at once whole even by individuals, so that should be at once everywhere whole?
Ep100-155.2.72. 8. Non itaque metuendum est corpusculum infantiae, ne in illo tantas Deus angustias passus esse videatur. Neque enim mole, sed virtute magnus est Deus; qui providentia sua meliorem sensum formiculis et apiculis dedit quam asinis et camelis; qui ex grano minutissimo seminis tantam ficulneae arboris magnitudinem creat, cum ex multo maioribus seminibus longe minora multa nascantur; qui pupillam tam parvam ditavit acie, qua per oculos emicante, in ictu temporis coelum prope dimidium lustraretur; qui ex puncto et quasi centro cerebri, sensus omnes quinaria distributione diffundit; qui corde, membro tam exiguo, vitalem motum per corporis cuncta dispensat: his atque huiusmodi rebus insinuans magna de minimis, qui non est parvus in parvis. Ipsa enim magnitudo virtutis eius, quae nullas in angusto sentit angustias, uterum virginalem non adventitio, sed indigena puerperio fecundavit: ipsa sibi animam rationalem, et per eamdem etiam corpus humanum, totumque omnino hominem in melius mutandum, nullo modo in deterius mutata coaptavit; nomen humanitatis ab eo dignanter assumens, divinitatis ei largiter tribuens. Ipsa virtus per inviolatae matris virginea viscera, membra infantis eduxit, quae postea per clausa ostia membra iuvenis introduxit. Hic si ratio quaeritur, non erit mirabile: si exemplum poscitur, non erit singulare. Demus Deum aliquid posse, quod nos fateamur investigare non posse. In talibus rebus tota ratio facti est potentia facientis.
2. 8. And so the little body of infancy is not to be feared, lest in it God seem to have suffered so great straits. For God is great not by mass, but by power; who by his providence gave a better sense to little ants and little bees than to asses and camels; who from the most minute grain of seed creates so great a magnitude of a fig tree, when from much larger seeds many far smaller things are born; who enriched the pupil, so small, with a keenness which, flashing out through the eyes, in an instant of time surveys nearly half the sky; who from a point and, as it were, the center of the brain diffuses all the senses by a fivefold distribution; who by the heart, a member so small, dispenses vital motion through all parts of the body: by these and such things insinuating great things from the least, who is not little in little things. For the very magnitude of his power, which feels no straits in a narrow space, made fruitful the virginal womb not by an adventitious but by an indigenous childbearing: it fitted to itself the rational soul, and through it the human body too, and altogether the whole man, to be changed for the better, in no way being changed for the worse; deigningly taking from him the name of humanity, lavishly granting him divinity. That very power, through the virginal vitals of the inviolate mother, brought forth the members of the infant, which afterward, through closed doors, it brought in as the members of the young man. Here, if a reason is sought, it will not be marvelous: if an example is demanded, it will not be singular. Let us grant that God can do something which we confess we cannot investigate. In such matters the whole reason of the deed is the power of the doer.
Ep100-155.2.83. 9. Iam illud, quod in somnos solvitur, et cibo alitur, et omnes humanos sentit affectus, hominem persuadet hominibus, quem non consumpsit utique, sed assumpsit. Ecce sic factum est; et tamen quidam haeretici, perverse mirando laudandoque eius virtutem, naturam humanam in eo prorsus agnoscere noluerunt, ubi est omnis gratiae commendatio, qua salvos facit credentes in se, profundos thesauros sapientiae et scientiae continens, et fide mentes imbuens, quas ad aeternam contemplationem veritatis incommutabilis provehat. Quid si Omnipotens hominem ubicumque formatum non ex materno utero crearet, sed repentinum inferret aspectibus? quid si nullas ex parvulo in iuventam mutaret aetates, nullos cibos, nullos caperet somnos? Nonne opinionem confirmaret erroris, nec hominem verum suscepisse ullo modo crederetur; et dum omnia mirabiliter facit, auferret quod misericorditer fecit? Nunc vero ita inter Deum et homines mediator apparuit, ut in unitate personae copulans utramque naturam, et solita sublimaret insolitis, et insolita solitis temperaret.
3. 9. Now that—which is dissolved into sleeps, and is fed with food, and feels all human affections—persuades men of the man whom he did not consume, but assumed. Behold, it was so done; and yet certain heretics, by perversely marveling at and praising his power, were utterly unwilling to recognize in him the human nature, where is all the commendation of grace by which he makes safe those believing in him, containing the deep treasures of wisdom and knowledge, and imbuing minds with faith, which he may advance to the eternal contemplation of unchangeable truth. What if the Omnipotent should create a man, formed anywhere, not from a maternal womb, but should bring him suddenly before the sight? What if he should change no ages from a little child into youth, take no foods, no sleeps? Would he not confirm the opinion of error, nor be believed in any way to have taken a true man; and, while he does all things marvelously, take away what he did mercifully? But now he so appeared as the mediator between God and men that, coupling both natures in the unity of person, he both sublimed the wonted with the unwonted, and tempered the unwonted with the wonted.
Ep100-155.3.93. 10. Quid autem non mirum facit Deus in omnibus creaturae motibus, nisi consuetudine quotidiana viluissent! Denique quam multa usitata calcantur, quae considerata stupentur! sicut ipsa vis seminum, quos numeros habet, et quam vivaces, quam efficaces, quam latenter potentes, quam in parvo magna molientes, quis adeat animo, quis promat eloquio? Ille igitur sibi hominem sine semine operatus est, qui in rerum natura sine seminibus operatur et semina. Ille in suo corpore numeros temporum mensurasque servavit aetatum, qui sine ulla sui mutabilitate mutando contexit ordinem saeculorum. Hoc enim crevit in tempore, quod coepit ex tempore. Verbum autem in principio, per quod facta sunt tempora, tempus elegit quo susciperet carnem, non tempori cessit ut verteretur in carnem. Homo quippe Deo accessit, non Deus a se recessit.
3. 10. But what does God do that is not marvelous in all the movements of creation, unless they had grown cheap by daily habit! Finally, how many usual things are trodden underfoot, which, considered, are astonishing! Like the very force of seeds—what numbers they have, and how vivacious, how efficacious, how hiddenly powerful, how, in a small thing, accomplishing great things—who can approach it in mind, who bring it forth in speech? He, then, made for himself a man without seed, who in the nature of things works even seeds without seeds. He, in his own body, kept the numbers of times and the measures of ages, who, without any changeableness of himself, by changing, wove the order of the ages. For this grew in time, which began from time. But the Word in the beginning, through which times were made, chose a time in which to take up flesh, did not yield to time so as to be turned into flesh. For man approached God, God did not withdraw from himself.
Ep100-155.3.103. 11. Sic autem quidam reddi sibi rationem flagitant, quomodo Deus homini permixtus sit, ut una fieret persona Christi, cum hoc semel fieri oportuerit; quasi rationem ipsi reddant de re quae quotidie fit, quomodo misceatur anima corpori, ut una persona fiat hominis. Nam sicut in unitate personae anima unitur corpori, ut homo sit; ita in unitate personae Deus unitur homini, ut Christus sit. In illa ergo persona mixtura est animae et corporis; in hac persona mixtura est Dei et hominis: si tamen recedat auditor a consuetudine corporum, qua solent duo liquores ita commisceri, ut neuter servet integritatem suam; quamquam et in ipsis corporibus aeri lux incorrupta misceatur. Ergo persona hominis, mixtura est animae et corporis: persona autem Christi, mixtura est Dei et hominis. Cum enim Verbum Dei permixtum est animae habenti corpus, simul et animam suscepit et corpus. Illud quotidie fit ad procreandos homines: hoc semel factum est ad liberandos homines. Verumtamen duarum rerum incorporearum commixtio facilius credi debuit, quam unius incorporeae, et alterius corporeae. Nam si anima in sua natura non fallatur, incorpoream se esse comprehendit: multo magis incorporeum est Verbum Dei, ac per hoc Verbi Dei et animae credibilior debuit esse permixtio, quam animae et corporis. Sed hoc in nobis ipsis experimur: illud in Christo credere iubemur. Si autem utrumque nobis pariter inexpertum credendum praeciperetur, quid horum citius crederemus? Quomodo non fateremur duo incorporea, quam unum corporeum alterumque incorporeum facilius potuisse misceri? si tamen non indigne ad ista mixtionis vel mixturae nomen admittitur, propter consuetudinem corporalium rerum, longe aliter se habentium aliterque notarum.
3. 11. But certain men demand that a reason be rendered them how God was mingled with man so that one person of Christ came to be, when this had to be done once; as though they themselves rendered a reason about the thing which happens daily, how the soul is mixed with the body so that one person of a man comes to be. For just as in the unity of person the soul is united to the body, that there may be a man, so in the unity of person God is united to man, that there may be Christ. In that person, then, is a mixture of soul and body; in this person is a mixture of God and man: if only the hearer withdraw from the habit of bodies, by which two liquids are wont to be so mixed that neither keeps its integrity; although even in bodies themselves uncorrupted light is mixed with air. The person of a man, then, is a mixture of soul and body: but the person of Christ is a mixture of God and man. For when the Word of God was mixed with a soul having a body, it took up at once both soul and body. The former happens daily for the procreation of men: the latter happened once for the liberation of men. Nevertheless, the commixture of two incorporeal things ought to have been believed more easily than that of one incorporeal and the other corporeal. For if the soul is not deceived in its own nature, it comprehends that it is incorporeal: much more is the Word of God incorporeal, and through this the commixture of the Word of God and the soul ought to have been more credible than that of soul and body. But this we experience in ourselves: that we are commanded to believe in Christ. But if both were prescribed to us to be believed, alike untried by us, which of these would we more readily believe? How would we not confess that two incorporeal things could more easily be mixed than one corporeal and the other incorporeal? If only the name of mixture or commixture is not unworthily admitted to these things, on account of the habit of corporeal things, which are far otherwise and otherwise known.
Ep100-155.3.113. 12. Verbum igitur Dei, idemque Dei Filius, Patri coaeternus, eademque Virtus et Sapientia Dei, a superno fine creaturae rationalis usque ad infimum finem creaturae corporalis attingens fortiter, et disponens omnia suaviter, praesens et latens, nusquam conclusa, nusquam discissa, nusquam tumida, sed sine mole ubique tota, longe alio modo quodam, quam eo quo creaturis caeteris adest, suscepit hominem, seque et illo fecit unum Iesum Christum, mediatorem Dei et hominum, aequalem Patri secundum divinitatem, minorem autem Patre secundum carnem, hoc est secundum hominem; incommutabiliter immortalem secundum aequalem Patri divinitatem, eumdemque mutabilem atque mortalem secundum cognatam nobis infirmitatem. In quo Christo, eo tempore quod opportunissimum ipse noverat, et ante saecula disposuerat, venit hominibus magisterium et adiutorium, ad capessendam sempiternam salutem. Magisterium quidem ut ea quae hic ante dicta sunt utiliter vera, non solum a Prophetis sanctis, qui omnia vera dixerunt, verum etiam a philosophis atque ipsis poetis, et cuiuscemodi auctoribus litterarum (quos multa vera falsis miscuisse quis ambigat?), illius etiam in carne praesentata confirmaret auctoritas, propter eos qui illa non possent in ipsa intima veritate cernere atque discernere: quae Veritas et antequam hominem assumeret, ipse aderat omnibus, qui eius participes esse potuerunt. Maxime vero suae incarnationis exemplo id salubriter persuasit, ut quoniam homines plerique divinitatis avidi, per potestates coelestes quas deos putarent, ritusque varios illicitorum, non sacrorum, sed sacrilegiorum, ambiendum sibi arbitrarentur ad Deum, magis superbe quam pie, qua in re pro Angelis sanctis eis se daemones superbiae cognatione supponunt, scirent homines tam proximum esse Deum pietati hominum, ad quem velut longe positum per interpositas potestates ambiebant, ut hominem suscipere dignaretur, et cum illo uniri quodam modo ut ei sic coaptaretur homo totus, quemadmodum animae corpus; excepta concretione mutabili, in quam non convertitur Deus, et quam videmus quod habeat et corpus et animus. Adiutorium autem, quod sine gratia fidei quae ab illo est, nemo potest vincere concupiscentias vitiosas; et si qua earum residua non vicerit, veniali remissione purgari. Quod ergo ad magisterium eius attinet, quis nunc extremus idiota, vel quae abiecta muliercula non credit animae immortalitatem vitamque post mortem futuram? Quod apud Graecos olim primus Pherecydes Assyrius cum disputasset, Pythagoram Samium illius disputationis novitate permotum ex athleta in philosophum vertit. Nunc ergo quod Maro ait, et omnes videmus; Amomum Assyrium vulgo nascitur: quod autem ad adiutorium gratiae pertinet, quae in Christo est, ipse est omnino, Quo duce si qua manent sceleris vestigia nostri,
Irrita perpetua solvent formidine terras.
Irrita perpetua solvent formidine terras.
3. 12. The Word of God, therefore, and the same Son of God, coeternal with the Father, and the same Power and Wisdom of God, reaching strongly from the highest bound of rational creation to the lowest bound of corporeal creation, and disposing all things sweetly, present and hidden, nowhere enclosed, nowhere torn, nowhere swollen, but without mass everywhere whole, in a way far other than that by which he is present to the other creatures, took up a man, and made himself and him one Jesus Christ, the mediator of God and men, equal to the Father according to divinity, but less than the Father according to the flesh, that is, according to man; unchangeably immortal according to the divinity equal to the Father, and the same changeable and mortal according to the weakness akin to us. In which Christ, at the time which he himself knew most opportune, and had disposed before the ages, there came to men teaching and help, for grasping everlasting salvation. Teaching indeed, so that those things which were said here before to be usefully true—not only by the holy Prophets, who said all things true, but even by the philosophers and the poets themselves, and authors of letters of whatever kind (who, who doubts mixed many true things with false?)—his authority too, presented in the flesh, might confirm, on account of those who could not discern and distinguish those things in inmost truth itself: which Truth, even before he took up man, was himself present to all who could be partakers of it. But most of all by the example of his incarnation he wholesomely persuaded this: that since very many men, greedy of divinity, thought they must seek their way to God through the heavenly powers which they supposed to be gods, and through various rites of unlawful things—not sacred, but sacrilegious—more proudly than devoutly (in which matter, in place of the holy Angels, the demons by kinship of pride subordinate themselves to them), men might know that God is so near to the piety of men—to whom, as though set far off, they sought their way through interposed powers—that he deigned to take up man, and to be united with him in a certain way, so that the whole man might be so fitted to him as the body to the soul; except the changeable concretion into which God is not turned, and which we see that both the body and the mind have. But help, because without the grace of faith which is from him no one can conquer vicious concupiscences; and if anyone has not conquered any remaining of them, that they be purified by venial remission. As far, then, as pertains to his teaching, who now, the lowest illiterate, or what abject little woman, does not believe the immortality of the soul and the future life after death? Which, among the Greeks of old, when Pherecydes the Assyrian first disputed, he turned Pythagoras of Samos, moved by the novelty of that disputation, from an athlete into a philosopher. Now, then, what Maro says, we all see: the Assyrian amomum is born commonly. But as far as pertains to the help of grace, which is in Christ, he himself is altogether the one of whom it is said: Under whose leadership, if any traces of our crime remain, made void, they will free the lands from perpetual dread.
Ep100-155.3.124. 13. Sed nulla, inquiunt, competentibus signis claruerunt tantae maiestatis indicia: quia larvalis illa purgatio, debilium curae, reddita vita defunctis, si et alii considerentur, Deo parva sunt. Fatemur quidem et nos talia quaedam fecisse Prophetas. Nam in his signis quid excellentius quam mortuos resurrexisse? Fecit hoc Elias, fecit hoc Elisaeus. Nam de magorum miraculis, utrum etiam mortuos suscitaverint, illi viderint qui et Apuleium se contra magicarum artium crimina copiosissime defendentem, conantur non accusando, sed laudando convincere. Nos legimus, magos Aegyptiorum, artium istarum peritissimos, a Moyse famulo Dei fuisse superatos, cum illi quaedam mira nefandis artibus agerent, ille Deo simpliciter invocato, machinamenta eorum cuncta subverteret. Sed et ipse Moyses, et caeteri Prophetae veracissimi Dominum Christum prophetaverunt, et gloriam magnam ei dederunt; hunc non tamquam parem sibi, nec in eadem miraculorum potentia superiorem, sed plane Dominum Deum omnium, et hominem propter homines factum, venturum praenuntiaverunt. Qui propterea et ipse talia facere voluit, ne esset absurdum, quae per illos fecerat si ipse non faceret. Sed tamen et aliquid proprium facere debuit: nasci de virgine, a mortuis resurgere, in coelum ascendere. Hoc Deo qui parum putat, quid plus exspectet ignoro.
4. 13. "But," they say, "no indications of so great majesty shone forth by fitting signs: because that spectral purification, the cures of the weak, life restored to the dead, if others too are considered, are small things for God." We too indeed confess that the Prophets did certain such things. For among these signs, what is more excellent than that the dead rose again? Elijah did this, Elisha did this. For about the miracles of the magicians—whether they too raised the dead—let those see who try to convict Apuleius, defending himself most copiously against the charges of magic arts, not by accusing but by praising him. We read that the magicians of the Egyptians, most expert in those arts, were overcome by Moses, the servant of God, when they did certain marvels by wicked arts, and he, God being simply invoked, overturned all their machinations. But Moses himself too, and the other most truthful Prophets, prophesied the Lord Christ, and gave him great glory; they foretold that he would come, not as equal to themselves, nor as superior in the same power of miracles, but plainly the Lord God of all, and made man for the sake of men. Who therefore willed himself too to do such things, lest it be absurd that he should not do what he had done through them. But yet he ought also to do something proper: to be born of a virgin, to rise from the dead, to ascend into heaven. He who thinks this too little for God, what more he expects I do not know.
Ep100-155.4.134. 14. Arbitror enim talia flagitari, qualia gerens hominem, facere debuit. Nam in principio erat Verbum, et Verbum erat apud Deum, et Deus erat Verbum, et omnia per ipsum facta sunt. Num homine assumpto, alium mundum facere debuit, ut eum esse crederemus, per quem factus est mundus? Sed nec maior mundus, nec isti aequalis in hoc mundo fieri posset. Si autem minorem faceret infra istum, similiter hoc quoque parum putaretur. Quia ergo non oportebat ut novum faceret mundum, nova fecit in mundo. Homo enim de virgine procreatus, et a mortuis in aeternam vitam resuscitatus, et super coelos exaltatus, potentius fortasse opus est quam mundus. Hic forte respondent, se factum hoc esse non credere. Quid ergo fiat hominibus, qui minima contemnunt, maiora non credunt? Reddita vita defunctis, ideo creditur, quia fecerunt alii, et parum est Deo: caro propria de virgine creata, et a morte in aeternam vitam super coelos levata, ideo non creditur, quia nemo fecit, et competit Deo. Ac per hoc quae sibi quisque facilia, non factu, sed captu, putat, aequo animo accipit; supra ea veluti ficta pro falsis ducit: noli eis esse similis, obsecro te.
4. 14. For I judge that such things are demanded as, bearing a man, he ought to do. For in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and all things were made through him (John 1:1, 3). Should he, man being assumed, make another world, that we might believe him to be the one through whom the world was made? But neither a greater world, nor one equal to this, could be made in this world. But if he made a lesser one below this, this too likewise would be thought too little. Because, then, it did not behoove that he make a new world, he made new things in the world. For a man procreated of a virgin, and raised from the dead into eternal life, and exalted above the heavens, is perhaps a more powerful work than the world. Here perhaps they answer that they do not believe this was done. What, then, shall be done with men who despise the least things, do not believe the greater? Life restored to the dead is believed because others did it, and it is small for God: flesh of his own created from a virgin, and lifted from death into eternal life above the heavens, is therefore not believed, because no one did it, and it befits God. And through this, what each one thinks easy for himself—not in deed, but in grasp—he receives with an even mind; the things above these, as though feigned, he reckons for false: do not be like them, I beseech you.
Ep100-155.4.144. 15. Disputantur haec latius, et omnes quaestionum necessariarum sinus perscrutati discussique panduntur: sed intellectui fides aditum aperit, infidelitas claudit. Quem non moveat ad credendum tantus ab initio ipse rerum gestarum ordo, et ipsa connexio temporum, praeteritis fidem de praesentibus faciens, priora posterioribus et recentioribus antiqua confirmans? Eligitur unus ex gente Chaldaeorum, pietate fidelissima praeditus, cui promissa divina post tantam saeculorum seriem novissimis temporibus complenda prodantur, atque in eius semine omnes gentes habiturae benedictionem praenuntiantur. Hic unum Deum verum colens universitatis creatorem, gignit filium senex, de coniuge quam spe pariendi penitus destitutam sterilitas aetasque iam fecerat. Propagatur ex illo numerosissimus populus, multiplicatus in Aegypto, quo illam stirpem ex orientalibus partibus, promissis effectisque crebrescens dispositio divina transmiserat. Educitur ex Aegypti servitute gens valida, horrendis signis atque miraculis; pulsisque impiis gentibus, in terram promissionis perducta et constituta, regno etiam sublimatur. Deinde praevalescente peccato, sacrilegis ausibus Deum verum, qui eis tanta beneficia contulerat, saepissime offendens, variisque flagellata cladibus, et prosperitatibus consolata, usque ad Christi incarnationem declarationemque perducitur. Quem Christum, Dei Verbum, Dei Filium, Deum in carne venturum, moriturum, resurrecturum, in coelum ascensurum, praepollentissimo suo nomine, in omnibus gentibus dicatos sibi populos habiturum; inque illo remissionem peccatorum, salutemque aeternam futuram esse credentibus, omnia gentis illius promissa, omnes prophetiae, sacerdotia, sacrificia, templum, et cuncta omnino sacramenta sonuerunt.
4. 15. These things are disputed more at length, and all the recesses of the necessary questions, searched out and discussed, are laid open: but faith opens the approach to understanding, unbelief closes it. Whom would not the very order of events from the beginning move to believe, and the very connection of times, making faith about present things from past ones, confirming earlier things by later and more recent ones, and ancient things by recent? One man is chosen from the nation of the Chaldeans, endowed with a most faithful piety, to whom the divine promises—to be fulfilled, after so great a series of ages, in the last times—are revealed, and in whose seed all nations are foretold to be about to have blessing. He, worshiping the one true God, the creator of the universe, an old man begets a son from a wife whom barrenness and age had already made utterly destitute of the hope of bearing. From him is propagated a most numerous people, multiplied in Egypt, whither the divine arrangement, growing by promises and fulfillments, had transferred that stock from the eastern parts. A strong nation is led out from the servitude of Egypt by dreadful signs and miracles; and, the impious nations being driven out, it is brought into and established in the land of promise, and is even exalted by a kingdom. Then, sin prevailing, very often offending by sacrilegious attempts the true God who had conferred so great benefits on it, and scourged by various disasters and consoled by prosperities, it is brought up to the incarnation and manifestation of Christ. Which Christ—the Word of God, the Son of God, God about to come in the flesh, to die, to rise, to ascend into heaven, by his most preeminent name about to have among all nations peoples dedicated to him; and in him remission of sins, and eternal salvation about to be for believers—all the promises of that nation, all the prophecies, the priesthoods, the sacrifices, the temple, and altogether all the sacraments, sounded forth.
Ep100-155.4.154. 16. Venit et Christus; complentur in eius ortu, vita, dictis, factis, passionibus, morte, resurrectione, ascensione, omnia praeconia Prophetarum. Mittit Spiritum sanctum, implet fideles una in domo congregatos, et hoc ipsum promissum orando atque desiderando exspectantes. Impleti autem Spiritu sancto, loquuntur repente linguis omnium gentium, arguunt fidenter errores, praedicant saluberrimam veritatem, exhortantur ad poenitentiam praeteritae culpabilis vitae, indulgentiam de divina gratia pollicentur. Praedicationem pietatis veraeque religionis signa congruentia et miracula consequuntur. Excitatur adversus eos saeva infidelitas; tolerant praedicta, sperant promissa, docent praecepta. Numero exigui per mundum disseminantur, populos facilitate mirabili convertunt, inter inimicos augentur, persecutionibus crescunt, per afflictionum angustias usque in terrarum extrema dilatantur. Ex imperitissimis, ex abiectissimis, ex paucissimis illuminantur, nobilitantur, multiplicantur praeclarissima ingenia, cultissima eloquia; mirabilesque peritias acutorum, facundorum atque doctorum subiugant Christo, et ad praedicandum viam pietatis salutisque convertunt. Alternis adversitatibus et prosperitatibus rerum, patientiam et temperantiam vigilanter exercent: mundo declinante in extrema, fessisque rebus aetatem ultimam protestante, multo fidentius, quia et hoc praedictum est, aeternam civitatis coelestis felicitatem exspectant. Atque inter haec omnia, contra Ecclesiam Christi impiarum gentium infidelitas fremit: evincit illa patiendo, et inconcussam fidem inter obsistentium saevitiam profitendo. Revelatae veritatis, quae diu promissis mysticis velabatur, sacrificio succedente, illa sacrificia quibus hoc figurabatur, templi ipsius eversione tolluntur. Reproba per infidelitatem gens ipsa Iudaeorum a sedibus exstirpata, per mundum usquequaque dispergitur, ut ubique portet Codices sanctos, ac sic prophetiae testimonium, qua Christus et Ecclesia praenuntiata est, ne ad tempus a nobis fictum existimaretur, ab ipsis adversariis proferatur; ubi etiam ipsos praedictum est non fuisse credituros. Templa et simulacra daemonum, ritusque sacrilegi paulatim atque alternatim secundum praedicta prophetica subvertuntur. Haereses adversus nomen Christi, sub velamento tamen nominis Christi, ad exercendam doctrinam sanctae religionis, sicut praenuntiatae sunt, pullulant. Haec omnia sicut leguntur praedicta, ita cernuntur impleta, atque ex his iam tot et tantis quae restant, exspectantur implenda. Quae tandem mens avida aeternitatis, vitaeque praesentis brevitate permota, contra huius divinae auctoritatis lumen culmenque contendat?
4. 16. Christ too has come; in his birth, life, words, deeds, sufferings, death, resurrection, ascension, all the proclamations of the Prophets are fulfilled. He sends the Holy Spirit, fills the faithful gathered together in one house, and awaiting this very promise by praying and desiring. Filled with the Holy Spirit, they suddenly speak the tongues of all nations, confidently refute errors, preach the most wholesome truth, exhort to repentance of a past culpable life, promise indulgence from divine grace. Congruous signs and miracles follow the preaching of piety and true religion. Savage unbelief is roused against them; they endure the things foretold, hope the things promised, teach the things commanded. Few in number, they are scattered through the world, convert peoples with marvelous ease, are increased among enemies, grow by persecutions, are spread through the straits of afflictions even to the ends of the lands. From the most unskilled, the most abject, the very fewest, are enlightened, ennobled, multiplied the most illustrious talents, the most cultivated eloquences; and they subjugate to Christ the marvelous skills of the acute, the eloquent, and the learned, and turn them to preaching the way of piety and salvation. By alternating adversities and prosperities of affairs, they vigilantly exercise patience and temperance: the world declining to its extremes, and protesting by its wearied state its last age, they all the more confidently—because this too was foretold—await the eternal happiness of the heavenly city. And amid all these things, against the Church of Christ the unbelief of the impious nations rages: she overcomes by suffering, and by professing an unshaken faith amid the savagery of those resisting. The sacrifice of the revealed truth—which was long veiled by mystical promises—succeeding, those sacrifices by which this was figured are taken away, the very temple being overthrown. The Jewish nation itself, reprobate through unbelief, is rooted out from its seats, scattered everywhere through the world, so that everywhere it may carry the holy Codices, and so the testimony of the prophecy by which Christ and the Church were foretold may be brought forth by the very adversaries—lest it be esteemed feigned by us for the time—where it was even foretold that they would not believe. The temples and images of the demons, and the sacrilegious rites, are little by little and alternately overthrown according to the prophetic predictions. Heresies against the name of Christ—yet under the veil of the name of Christ—for exercising the teaching of holy religion, as they were foretold, sprout up. All these things, as they are read foretold, so they are seen fulfilled, and from these now so many and so great, the things that remain are awaited to be fulfilled. What mind, greedy of eternity and moved by the brevity of the present life, would in the end contend against the light and summit of this divine authority?
Ep100-155.4.165. 17. Quae disputationes, quae litterae quorumlibet philosophorum, quae leges quarumlibet civitatum, duobus praeceptis, ex quibus Christus dicit totam Legem Prophetasque pendere, ullo modo sint comparandae: Diliges Dominum Deum tuum ex toto corde tuo, et ex tota anima tua, et ex tota mente tua; et, diliges proximum tuum tamquam teipsum ? Hic physica, quoniam omnes omnium naturarum causae in Deo creatore sunt. Hic ethica, quoniam vita bona et honesta non aliunde formatur, quam cum ea quae diligenda sunt, quemadmodum diligenda sunt, diliguntur, hoc est Deus et proximus. Hic logica, quoniam veritas lumenque animae rationalis, nonnisi Deus est. Hic etiam laudabilis reipublicae salus: neque enim conditur et custoditur optime civitas, nisi fundamento et vinculo fidei, firmaeque concordiae, cum bonum commune diligitur, quod summum ac verissimum Deus est, atque in illo invicem sincerissime se diligunt homines, cum propter illum se diligunt, cui, quo animo diligant, occultare non possunt.
5. 17. What disputations, what writings of any philosophers, what laws of any cities, are in any way to be compared with the two precepts on which Christ says the whole Law and the Prophets depend: You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart, and with your whole soul, and with your whole mind; and, You shall love your neighbor as yourself (Matt 22:37-40)? Here is physics, since all the causes of all natures are in God the creator. Here is ethics, since a good and honorable life is formed from no other source than when the things that are to be loved are loved in the way they are to be loved—that is, God and neighbor. Here is logic, since the truth and light of the rational soul is none but God. Here too is the praiseworthy welfare of the republic: for a city is not best founded and guarded except by the foundation and bond of faith, and firm concord, when the common good is loved, which is highest and most truly God, and in him men love one another most sincerely, when they love themselves for his sake, from whom, with what mind they love, they cannot hide.
Ep100-155.5.175. 18. Modus autem ipse dicendi, quo sancta Scriptura contexitur, quam omnibus accessibilis, quamvis paucissimis penetrabilis! Ea quae aperta continet, quasi amicus familiaris, sine fuco ad cor loquitur indoctorum atque doctorum: ea vero quae in mysteriis occultat, nec ipsa eloquio superbo erigit, quo non audeat accedere meus tardiuscula et inerudita, quasi pauper ad divitem; sed invitat omnes humili sermone, quos non solum manifesta pascat, sed etiam secreta exerceat veritate, hoc in promptis quod in reconditis habens. Sed ne aperta fastidirentur, eadem rursus operta desiderantur, desiderata quodam modo renovantur, renovata suaviter intimantur. His salubriter et prava corriguntur, et parva nutriuntur, et magna oblectantur ingenia. Ille huic doctrinae inimicus est animus, qui vel errando eam nescit esse saluberrimam, vel odit aegrotando medicinam.
5. 18. But the very manner of speaking by which holy Scripture is woven—how accessible to all, though penetrable by the very fewest! What it contains openly, like a familiar friend, it speaks without disguise to the heart both of the unlearned and the learned: but what it hides in mysteries, it does not lift up even by a proud eloquence, so that a mind somewhat slow and untaught should not dare to approach it, as a poor man a rich; but it invites all with humble discourse, whom it may not only feed with the manifest, but also exercise with the secret truth, having in the ready what it has in the hidden. But lest the open things grow cheap, those same things, again hidden, are desired, and, desired, are in a manner renewed, and, renewed, are sweetly intimated. By these things both depraved talents are wholesomely corrected, and small ones nourished, and great ones delighted. That mind is an enemy to this teaching which either, by erring, does not know it to be most wholesome, or, by being sick, hates the medicine.
Ep100-155.5.185. 19. Vides quam prolixam epistolam fecerim. Si quid ergo te movet, atque inter nos pertractari tanti habes, non tibi faciat angustias usitatarum epistolarum velut custodiendus modus; quia et optime nosti quam grandes eas veteres habuerint, cum aliquid agerent quod explicare breviter non valerent. Et si auctorum ad alias litteras pertinentium mos esset alius, nostrorum nobis in hac re dignius imitanda praeberetur auctoritas. Inspice itaque modum Epistolarum apostolicarum, vel eorum etiam qui illa divina eloquia tractaverunt; et non pigeat te vel multa quaerendo proponere, si multa te permovent, vel aliquando diutius versare quod quaeris, ut quantum fieri per tales quales sumus potest, non remaneat dubitationis nubilum quod obstet lumini veritatis.
5. 19. You see how long a letter I have made. If, then, anything moves you, and you hold it worth so much that it be handled between us, let not the measure of usual letters, as though to be kept, make straits for you; because you know very well how great the ancients had them, when they were doing something which they could not unfold briefly. And if the custom of authors pertaining to other writings were otherwise, the authority of our own would be set before us in this matter more worthily to be imitated. Look, then, at the measure of the apostolic Letters, or even of those who treated those divine words; and let it not irk you either to set forth many things by inquiring, if many things move you, or sometimes to turn over longer what you inquire, so that, as far as can be done through such as we are, there remain no cloud of doubt to stand in the way of the light of truth.
Ep100-155.5.195. 20. Scio enim Excellentiam tuam, quorumdam perpeti obstinatissimas contradictiones, qui propterea putant, vel putari volunt christianam doctrinam utilitati non convenire reipublicae, quia nolunt stare rempublicam firmitate virtutum, sed impunitate vitiorum. Non autem sicut regi homini, vel cuilibet principi civitatis, ita etiam Deo quidquid a multis peccatur inultum est. Misericordia vero eius et gratia praedicata hominibus per hominem Christum, impartita autem per Deum Deique filium eumdem ipsum Christum, non deserit eos qui ex eius fide vivunt, eumque pie colunt, sive mala huius vitae patienter fortiterque experiantur, sive bonis eius misericorditer ac temperanter utantur; aeternum pro utroque praemium recepturi in civitate superna atque divina, ubi iam non sit moleste toleranda calamitas, nec laboriose frenanda cupiditas, sed sola sine ulla difficultate, et cum perfecta libertate retinenda Dei et proximi caritas. Incolumem felicioremque te misericordissima Dei omnipotentia tueatur, domine illustris et merito insignis, ac praestantissime fili. Sanctam et in Christo dignissime honorandam matrem, cuius pro te Deus preces exaudiat, pro meritis vestris officiosissime saluto. Sanctus frater et coepiscopus meus Possidius Praestantiam vestram multum salutat.
5. 20. For I know that your Excellency endures the most obstinate contradictions of certain men, who for this reason think, or wish it to be thought, that Christian doctrine does not agree with the benefit of the republic, because they do not wish the republic to stand by the firmness of virtues, but by the impunity of vices. But it is not to God, as to a king who is a man, or to any prince of a city, that whatever is sinned by many goes unpunished. But his mercy and grace, preached to men through the man Christ, but imparted through God and the Son of God, the same Christ himself, does not desert those who live from faith in him, and devoutly worship him, whether they experience the evils of this life patiently and bravely, or use his goods mercifully and temperately; being about to receive for each an eternal reward in the supernal and divine city, where now no calamity is to be troublesomely tolerated, nor desire laboriously to be reined in, but the love of God and neighbor alone is to be retained, without any difficulty, and with perfect liberty. May the most merciful omnipotence of God guard you safe and more happy, illustrious lord, and deservedly distinguished, and most excellent son. Your holy mother, most worthy to be honored in Christ, whose prayers for you may God hear, I greet most dutifully according to your merits. My holy brother and fellow bishop Possidius greatly greets your Eminence.
Ep100-155.5.20EPISTOLA 138
DOMINO EXIMIO ET MERITO INSIGNI, CARISSIMO AC DESIDERANTISSIMO FILIO MARCELLINO, AUGUSTINUS, IN DOMINO SALUTEM.
DOMINO EXIMIO ET MERITO INSIGNI, CARISSIMO AC DESIDERANTISSIMO FILIO MARCELLINO, AUGUSTINUS, IN DOMINO SALUTEM.
LETTER 138
To the most excellent lord, and deservedly distinguished, most dear and most longed-for son Marcellinus, Augustine sends greetings in the Lord.
Ep100-155.5.20To the most excellent lord, and deservedly distinguished, most dear and most longed-for son Marcellinus, Augustine sends greetings in the Lord.
1. 1. Illustri viro et eloquentissimo, nobisque dilectissimo Volusiano, non amplius quam ad illud quod inquirendum putavit, respondendum fuit: ad ea vero quae mihi pertractanda atque solvenda in epistola tua ipse misisti, sive ab illo, sive etiam ab aliis vel suggerantur vel ingerantur, ad te potius pro viribus nostris pertractata et soluta mitti debuerunt; non sic quemadmodum de his agendum est librorum negotio, sed quemadmodum potest epistolari sat esse colloquio, ut si tibi visum fuerit, qui eorum motus quotidianis disputationibus experiris, et illis legantur hae litterae. At si auriculis eorum minus pietate fidei praecultis, sermo iste non sufficit, prius inter nos quod eis putas sufficere peragatur, tum demum ad illos quod peractum fuerit perferatur. Multa enim sunt, a quibus sensus eorum si adhuc abhorret et resilit, vel uberiore vel subtiliore ratione, vel certe auctoritate cui resistere indignum putent, persuaderi aliquando forsitan possint.
1. 1. To the illustrious and most eloquent man, and most beloved by us, Volusianus, no more had to be answered than to that which he thought should be inquired: but to those things which you yourself sent to be handled and solved by me in your letter—whether they be suggested or pressed by him, or even by others—they ought rather to be sent to you, handled and solved according to our powers; not in the manner in which these things must be dealt with by the business of books, but in the manner in which it can suffice for epistolary colloquy, so that, if it shall seem good to you—who experience their stirrings in daily disputations—this letter may be read to them too. But if for their little ears, less cultivated by the piety of faith, this discourse does not suffice, let first that be carried out between us which you think suffices for them, then at last let what has been carried out be conveyed to them. For there are many things from which, if their sense still shrinks back and recoils, they can perhaps sometimes be persuaded, either by a richer or a subtler reasoning, or at any rate by an authority which they think it unworthy to resist.
Ep100-155.1.11. 2. Ergo in epistola tua posuisti, moveri quosdam, "cur hic Deus, qui et veteris Testamenti Deus esse firmatur, spretis veteribus sacrificiis, delectatus est novis. Nihil enim corrigi posse asserunt, nisi quod ante non recte factum probaretur; vel quod semel recte factum sit, nullatenus immutari debuisse. Recte enim facta dicunt mutari nisi iniuste non posse". Haec verba ex litteris tuis in has meas transtuli. Quibus si respondere copiose velim, tempus me citius quam exempla defecerint, quibus rerum ipsa natura et opera humana, certa ratione, pro temporum opportunitate mutentur, nec tamen eadem ratio sit mutabilis qua ista mutantur. Unde pauca commemorem, ut ex his excitata quodammodo iam per plura similia vigil currat intentio. Nonne hiemi aestas, addito sensim calore, succedit? nonne diurnis tempora nocturna vertuntur? Quoties nostrae variantur aetates! adolescentiae pueritia non reditura cedit; iuventus adolescentiae non mansura succedit; finiens iuventutem senectus morte finitur. Haec omnia mutantur, nec mutatur divinae providentiae ratio, qua fit ut ista mutentur. Non autem, opinor, cum agricola aestate aliud iusserit, quam iusserat hieme, ratio mutatur agriculturae. Et cum mane surgit qui nocte quiescebat, vitae consilium non mutavit. Aliud magister adolescenti quam puero solebat, imposuit. Doctrina igitur constans, mutato praecepto non mutata mutavit instructionem.
1. 2. In your letter, then, you set down that certain men are moved "why this God, who is also affirmed to be the God of the Old Testament, despising the old sacrifices, was delighted with new ones. For they assert that nothing can be corrected except what before was proved not rightly done; or that what was once rightly done ought in no way to be changed. For they say that things rightly done cannot be changed except unjustly." These words I have transferred from your letter into this mine. To which, if I should wish to answer copiously, time would fail me sooner than examples by which the very nature of things and human works, by a fixed reason, are changed according to the opportunity of times, nor yet is the same reason changeable by which these things are changed. Whence let me recall a few, so that from these, attention, in a manner roused, may now run vigilant through many like ones. Does not summer succeed to winter, heat being gradually added? Are not nocturnal times turned to diurnal? How often are our ages varied! Boyhood yields, not to return, to adolescence; youth, not to abide, succeeds to adolescence; old age, ending youth, is ended by death. All these things are changed, nor is the reason of divine providence changed, by which it comes about that these things are changed. But, I think, when the farmer commands something else in summer than he had commanded in winter, the reason of agriculture is not changed. And when he who rested by night rises in the morning, he has not changed the counsel of his life. The master imposed on the adolescent something else than he was wont upon the boy. The teaching, then, constant, the precept being changed, changed not its instruction, unchanged.
Ep100-155.1.21. 3. Nam magnus ille nostrorum temporum medicus Vindicianus, consultus a quodam, dolori eius adhiberi iussit quod in tempore congruere videbatur; adhibitum sanitas consecuta est. Deinde post annos aliquot eadem rursus corporis causa commota, hoc idem ille putavit adhibendum; adhibitum vertit in peius. Miratus recurrit ad medicum, indicat factum: at ille ut erat acerrimus, ita respondit: Ideo male acceptus es, quia ego non iussi; ut omnes qui audissent, parumque hominem nossent non eum arte medicinali fidere, sed nescio qua illicita potentia putarent. Unde cum esset a quibusdam postea stupentibus interrogatus, aperuit quod non intellexerant, videlicet illi aetati iam non hoc se fuisse iussurum. Tantum igitur valet ratione atque artibus non mutatis, quid secundum eas sit pro temporum varietate mutandum.
1. 3. For that great physician of our times, Vindicianus, consulted by a certain man, ordered to be applied to his pain what seemed to suit at the time; it being applied, health followed. Then, after some years, the same affliction of the body being again stirred, he thought this same thing should be applied; it being applied, it turned to the worse. Marveling, he runs back to the physician, indicates what was done: but he, being most keen, answered thus: "Therefore you were ill-affected, because I did not order it"; so that all who heard, and knew the man too little, supposed that he trusted not in the medical art, but in I know not what unlawful power. Whence, when he was afterward asked by certain men astonished, he disclosed what they had not understood, namely that to that age he would now not have ordered this. So much, then, does it avail, the reasoning and arts not being changed, what according to them is to be changed for the variety of times.
Ep100-155.1.31. 4. Non itaque verum est quod dicitur, semel recte factum, nullatenus esse mutandum. Mutata quippe temporis causa, quod recte ante factum fuerat, ita mutari vera ratio plerumque flagitat, ut cum ipsi dicant, recte non fieri si mutetur, contra veritas clamet, recte non fieri nisi mutetur; quia utrumque tunc erit rectum, si erit pro temporum varietate diversum. Quod enim in diversitate personarum uno tempore accidere potest, ut huic liceat aliquid impune facere, non liceat illi; non quod dissimilis res sit, sed quod is qui facit: ita ab una eademque persona diversis temporibus, tunc oportet aliquid fieri, tunc non oportet; non quod sui dissimilis sit qui facit, sed quando facit.
1. 4. It is not, then, true what is said, that what was once rightly done is in no way to be changed. For the cause of the time being changed, true reason for the most part demands that what had before been rightly done be so changed that, when they themselves say it is not rightly done if it be changed, on the contrary truth cries out that it is not rightly done unless it be changed; because both will then be right, if it will be diverse according to the variety of times. For what can happen in a diversity of persons at one time—that it be lawful for this man to do something with impunity, not lawful for that, not because the thing is dissimilar, but because he who does it is—so, by one and the same person at diverse times, it behooves something to be done then, not to be done then; not because he who does it is dissimilar to himself, but the time when he does it.
Ep100-155.1.41. 5. Haec quaestio quam late pateat, profecto videt quisquis pulchri aptique distantiam sparsam quodammodo in universitate rerum valet, neque neglegit intueri. Pulchrum enim per seipsum consideratur atque laudatur, cui turpe ac deforme contrarium est. Aptum vero, cui ex adverso est ineptum, quasi religatum pendet aliunde, nec ex semetipso, sed ex eo cui connectitur, iudicatur: nimirum etiam decens atque indecens, vel hoc idem est, vel perinde habetur. Age nunc, ea quae diximus, refer ad illud unde agitur. Aptum fuit primis temporibus sacrificium quod praeceperat Deus, nunc vero non ita est. Aliud enim praecepit quod huic tempori aptum esset, qui multo magis quam homo novit quid cuique tempori accommodate adhibeatur; quid quando impertiat, addat, auferat, detrahat, augeat, minuatve, immutabilis mutabilium, sicut creator, ita moderator, donec universi saeculi pulchritudo, cuius particulae sunt quae suis quibusque temporibus apta sunt, velut magnum carmen cuiusdam ineffabilis modulatoris excurrat, atque inde transeant in aeternam contemplationem speciei qui Deum rite colunt, etiam cum tempus est fidei.
1. 5. How widely this question extends, surely whoever can—and does not neglect to gaze upon—the distance between the beautiful and the fitting, scattered in a manner throughout the universe of things, sees. For the beautiful is considered and praised through itself, to which the base and deformed is contrary. But the fitting, to which the unfitting is opposite, hangs, as it were bound, from something else, and is judged not from itself, but from that to which it is connected: surely the becoming and the unbecoming too is either this same thing, or is held the same. Come now, refer the things we have said to that of which we treat. The sacrifice which God had commanded was fitting in the first times, but now it is not so. For he commanded another which would be fitting to this time, who knows far more than man what is suitably applied to each time; what he should impart, add, take away, withdraw, increase, or diminish at any time, the unchangeable orderer of changeable things, as creator, so moderator, until the beauty of the whole age—of which those things that are fitting to their several times are the little parts—run out like a great poem of a certain ineffable composer, and thence those who duly worship God may pass into the eternal contemplation of his form, even when it is the time of faith.
Ep100-155.1.51. 6. Falluntur autem qui existimant haec Deum iubere causa suae utilitatis vel voluptatis: et merito moventur cur Deus ista mutaverit, quasi delectatione mutabili aliud sibi iubens offerri illo prius tempore, aliud isto. Non autem ita est. Nihil Deus iubet quod sibi prosit, sed illi cui iubet. Ideo verus est Dominus, qui servo non indiget, et quo servus indiget. In ea quippe Scriptura quae vetus dicitur Testamentum, et eo tempore quo adhuc illa offerebantur sacrificia quae hoc tempore non offeruntur, dictum est: Dixi Domino, Deus meus es tu, quoniam bonorum meorum non eges. Nec illorum ergo sacrificiorum egebat Deus, nec cuiusquam eget umquam, sed rerum divinitus impartitarum, vel imbuendo virtutibus animo, vel aeternae saluti adipiscendae, quaedam signa sunt, quorum celebratione atque functione, non Deo, sed nobis utilia pietatis officia exercentur.
1. 6. But they are deceived who think that God commands these things for the cause of his own benefit or pleasure: and they are deservedly moved why God changed these things, as though, by a changeable delight, commanding one thing to be offered to himself at that earlier time, another at this. But it is not so. God commands nothing that profits himself, but the one to whom he commands. Therefore he is the true Lord, who has no need of a servant, and whom the servant needs. For in that Scripture which is called the Old Testament, and at that time when those sacrifices were still being offered which at this time are not offered, it was said: I said to the Lord, You are my God, for you have no need of my goods (Ps 16:2 (15:2)). God, then, had no need of those sacrifices, nor does he ever need anything of anyone, but they are certain signs of things divinely imparted, either for imbuing the mind with virtues, or for attaining eternal salvation, by whose celebration and performance the offices of piety, useful not to God but to us, are exercised.
Ep100-155.1.61. 7. Nimis autem longum est, convenienter disputare de varietate signorum, quae cum ad res divinas pertinent, Sacramenta appellantur. Sicut autem non ideo mutabilis homo, quia mane aliud, aliud vespere; illud hoc mense, illud alio; non hoc isto anno quod illo: ita non ideo mutabilis Deus, quia universi saeculi priore volumine aliud, aliud posteriore sibi iussit offerri, quo convenienter significationes ad doctrinam religionis saluberrimam pertinentes, per mutabilia tempora sine ulla sui mutatione disponeret. Nam ut noverint, quos haec movent, iam hoc fuisse in ratione divina, nec cum ista nova constituerentur, subito priora displicuisse velut mutabili voluntate, sed hoc iam fixum et statutum fuisse in ipsa sapientia Dei, cui de maioribus etiam rerum mutationibus eadem Scriptura dicit; Mutabis ea, et mutabuntur: tu autem idem ipse es; insinuandum est eis, mutationem istam sacramentorum Testamenti veteris et novi etiam praedictam fuisse propheticis vocibus. Ita enim videbunt, si poterunt, id quod in tempore novum est, non esse novum apud eum qui condidit tempora, et sine tempore habet omnia quae suis quibusque temporibus pro eorum varietate distribuit. Nam et in illo psalmo, unde commemoravi aliquid, quo demonstrarem non egere Deum sacrificiis nostris, cui dicitur: Dixi Domino, Deus meus es tu, quoniam bonorum meorum non eges; paulo post legitur ex persona Christi: Non congregabo conventicula eorum de sanguinibus, hoc est pecorum victimis, quibus prius congregabantur conventicula Iudaeorum: et alibi dicit: Non accipiam de manu tua vitulos, neque de gregibus tuis hircos: et alius propheta: Ecce, inquit, dies venient, dicit Dominus, et confirmabo super domum Iacob testamentum novum, non sicut testamentum quod disposui patribus eorum, cum eduxi eos de terra Aegypti. Et alia multa sunt de hac re testimonia, quibus hoc Deum facturum esse praedictum est, quae commemorare nunc longum est.
1. 7. But it is too long to dispute fittingly about the variety of signs, which, when they pertain to divine things, are called Sacraments. But just as a man is not therefore changeable because one thing in the morning, another in the evening; this in this month, that in another; not this in this year which in that: so God is not therefore changeable because in the earlier volume of the whole age he commanded one thing to be offered to himself, in the later another, by which he might fittingly dispose, through changeable times without any change of himself, the significations pertaining to the most wholesome teaching of religion. For that those whom these things move may know that this was already in the divine reason, and that, when these new things were established, the earlier did not suddenly displease as by a changeable will, but that this was already fixed and settled in the very wisdom of God—to whom about the greater changes of things too the same Scripture says, You will change them, and they will be changed: but you are the same self (Ps 102:26-27 (101:27-28))—it must be intimated to them that this change of the sacraments of the Old Testament and the New was even foretold by prophetic voices. For thus they will see, if they can, that which in time is new is not new with him who founded the times, and without time has all things which he distributes to their several times according to their variety. For in that psalm too, from which I recalled something, by which I might show that God has no need of our sacrifices, to whom it is said, I said to the Lord, You are my God, for you have no need of my goods (Ps 16:2 (15:2)), a little after is read, from the person of Christ: I will not gather their assemblies from bloods (Ps 16:4 (15:4)), that is, from victims of cattle, by which earlier the assemblies of the Jews were gathered: and elsewhere he says, I will not take calves from your hand, nor he-goats from your flocks (Ps 50:9 (49:9)): and another prophet says, Behold, the days will come, says the Lord, and I will confirm over the house of Jacob a new testament, not like the testament which I disposed for their fathers, when I led them out of the land of Egypt (Jer 31:31-32). And there are many other testimonies about this matter, by which it was foretold that God would do this, which it is now long to recall.
Ep100-155.1.71. 8. Hic iam si satis constitit, quod recte alio tempore constitutum est, idem recte alio tempore posse mutari, mutantis opere, non dispositione mutata, quam dispositionem intellegibilis ratio continet, ubi sine tempore simul sunt quae in temporibus simul fieri non possunt, quia tempora non simul currunt; quispiam fortassis exspectet causas a nobis ipsius mutationis accipere, quod ipse nosti quam prolixi sit negotii. Verumtamen breviter dici potest, quod homini acuto fortasse suffecerit, aliis sacramentis praenuntiari Christum cum venturus esset, aliis cum venisset annuntiari oportuisse; sicut modo nos idipsum loquentes, diversitas rerum compulit etiam verba mutare. Siquidem aliud est praenuntiari, aliud annuntiari; aliud cum venturus esset, aliud cum venisset.
1. 8. Here, if it has now been sufficiently established that what was rightly established at one time can rightly be changed at another time—by the work of the one changing, not by a changed disposition, which disposition the intelligible reason contains, where, without time, those things are together which in times cannot be done together, because times do not run together—someone perhaps will await to receive from us the causes of the change itself, which you yourself know how prolix a business it is. Nevertheless it can be said briefly, what perhaps would suffice for an acute man, that Christ had to be foretold by some sacraments when he was about to come, and announced by others when he had come; just as now, we ourselves speaking this very thing, the diversity of matters compelled us even to change the words. For it is one thing to be foretold, another to be announced; one thing when he was about to come, another when he had come.
Ep100-155.1.82. 9. Nunc deinde videamus quale sit illud quod in epistola tua sequitur. Adiecisti enim eos dicere "quod Christi praedicatio atque doctrina reipublicae moribus nulla ex parte conveniat, cuius hoc constet esse praeceptum, ut nulli malum pro malo reddere debeamus, et percutienti aliam praebere maxillam, et pallium dare ei qui tunicam auferre perstiterit, et cum eo qui nos angariare voluerit, ire debere spatio itineris duplicato". Quae omnia reipublicae moribus asseruntur esse contraria: "Nam quis, inquiunt, tolli sibi ab hoste aliquid patiatur, vel Romanae provinciae depraedatoribus non mala velit belli iure reponere?" Haec atque huiusmodi verba obtrectantium, sive non obtrectando, sed quaerendo talia loquentium, operosius fortasse refellerem, nisi hae disceptationes haberentur cum viris liberaliter institutis. Unde quid opus est ut diutius laboremus, ac non ipsos potius percontemur quomodo poterant gubernare atque augere rempublicam, quam ex parva et inopi magnam opulentamque fecerunt, qui accepta iniuria ignoscere quam persequi malebant ? quomodo Caesari administratori utique reipublicae, mores eius extollens Cicero dicebat, quod nihil oblivisci soleret nisi iniurias ? Dicebat enim hoc tam magnus laudator, aut tam magnus adulator: sed si laudator, talem Caesarem noverat; si autem adulator, talem esse debere ostendebat principem civitatis, qualem illum fallaciter praedicabat. Quid est autem non reddere malum pro malo, nisi abhorrere ab ulciscendi libidine? quod est accepta iniuria ignoscere malle quam persequi, et nihil nisi iniurias oblivisci.
2. 9. Now next let us see what sort of thing it is that follows in your letter. For you added that they say "that the preaching and teaching of Christ in no part agrees with the customs of the republic, since it is agreed to be his precept that we ought to repay evil to no one for evil, and to offer the other cheek to one striking, and to give a cloak to him who persists to take away a tunic, and to go a doubled space of the journey with one who shall wish to compel us." All which are asserted to be contrary to the customs of the republic: "For who," they say, "would suffer something to be taken from him by an enemy, or would not wish to repay evils, by the law of war, to plunderers of a Roman province?" These and such words of detractors—or of those who speak such things not by detracting, but by inquiring—I would perhaps more laboriously refute, unless these debates were held with men liberally instructed. Whence what need is there that we labor longer, and not rather question them how they could govern and increase the republic—which they made from small and needy great and opulent—who, an injury received, preferred to forgive rather than to pursue? How did Cicero, extolling the character of Caesar, an administrator surely of the republic, say that he was wont to forget nothing except injuries? For so great a praiser, or so great a flatterer, said this: but if a praiser, he knew Caesar to be such; but if a flatterer, he showed that a prince of the city ought to be such as he fallaciously proclaimed him. But what is it not to repay evil for evil, except to shrink from the lust of avenging? Which is, an injury received, to prefer to forgive rather than to pursue, and to forget nothing except injuries.
Ep100-155.2.92. 10. Haec cum in eorum leguntur auctoribus, exclamatur et plauditur; describi atque praedicari mores videntur, quibus dignum esset exsurgere civitatem quae tot gentibus imperaret, quod accepta iniuria ignoscere quam persequi malebant. Cum vero legitur praecipiente auctoritate divina, non reddendum malum pro malo; cum haec tam salubris admonitio congregationibus populorum, tamquam publicis utriusque sexus atque omnium aetatum et dignitatum scholis, de superiore loco personat, accusatur religio tamquam inimica reipublicae! Quae si, ut dignum est, audiretur, longe melius Romulo, Numa, Bruto, caeterisque illis Romanae gentis praeclaris viris, constitueret, consecraret, firmaret, augeretque rempublicam. Quid enim est respublica, nisi res populi? Res ergo communis, res utique civitatis. Quid est autem civitas, nisi multitudo hominum in quoddam vinculum redacta concordiae? Apud eos enim ita legitur: Ita brevi multitudo dispersa atque vaga, concordia civitas facta erat. Quae porro praecepta concordiae in suis templis umquam illi legenda censuerunt? Quandoquidem miseri quaerere cogebantur, quonam modo sine offensione cuiusquam eorum discordes inter se deos suos colere possent: quos si imitari discordando vellent, rupto concordiae vinculo civitas laberetur; quod postea paulatim decoloratis corruptisque moribus agi coepit per bella civilia.
2. 10. When these things are read in their authors, there is an outcry and applause; the characters seem to be described and proclaimed of which it would be worthy that a city should arise to command so many nations—because, an injury received, they preferred to forgive rather than to pursue. But when it is read, the divine authority commanding, that evil is not to be repaid for evil; when this so wholesome admonition sounds from a higher place to the congregations of peoples, as in public schools of both sexes and all ages and dignities, religion is accused as an enemy of the republic! Which, if it were heard as is worthy, would far better than Romulus, Numa, Brutus, and the rest of those illustrious men of the Roman nation, found, consecrate, firm up, and increase the republic. For what is a republic, except the affair of a people? An affair, then, common, the affair surely of a city. But what is a city, except a multitude of men reduced into a certain bond of concord? For among them it is thus read: "Thus in a short time the dispersed and wandering multitude, by concord, had become a city." But what precepts of concord did they ever judge should be read in their temples? Since the wretches were compelled to seek how, without offense of any of them, they could worship their gods, discordant among themselves: whom, if they should wish to imitate by discord, the bond of concord being broken, the city would fall; which afterward, little by little, the characters being discolored and corrupted, began to be done through civil wars.
Ep100-155.2.102. 11. Quanta vero praecepta concordiae non humanis disputationibus exquisita, sed divina auctoritate conscripta in Christi ecclesiis lectitentur, quis vel ab illa religione alienus, ita surdus est ut ignoret? Ad hoc enim et illa pertinent, quae malunt exagitare quam discere, alteram percutienti praebendam esse maxillam, volenti auferre tunicam dandum etiam pallium, cum angariante duplicandam viam. Hoc quippe fit ut vincatur bono malus, imo in homine malo vincatur bono malum, et homo liberetur a malo, non exteriore et alieno, sed intimo ac suo, quo gravius et perniciosius quam cuiusvis hostis extrinsecus immanitate vastatur. Qui ergo vincit bono malum, patienter amittit temporalia commoda, ut doceat quam pro fide atque iustitia contemnenda sint, quae ille nimis amando fit malus; ac sic iniuriosus ab eo ipso cui fecit iniuriam, discat qualia sint propter quae fecit iniuriam, atque in concordiam, qua nihil est utilius civitati, poenitens acquiratur, victus non saevientis viribus, sed benevolentia patientis. Tunc enim recte fit, cum videtur ei profuturum esse propter quem fit, ad operandam in eo correctionem atque concordiam. Hoc certe animo faciendum est, etiamsi alius exitus consequatur, nec corrigi velit atque pacari, propter quem corrigendum atque pacandum, velut curandum et sanandum, adhibita est ista medicina.
2. 11. But how great precepts of concord—not sought out by human disputations, but written by divine authority—are habitually read in the churches of Christ, who, even foreign to that religion, is so deaf as not to know? For to this pertain even those things which they prefer to harass rather than to learn: that the other cheek is to be offered to one striking, that to one wishing to take away a tunic a cloak too is to be given, that with one compelling the journey is to be doubled. For this is done that the bad man be overcome by good—nay, that in the bad man evil be overcome by good, and the man be freed from the evil, not exterior and foreign, but inmost and his own, by which he is more gravely and more perniciously laid waste than by the savagery of any enemy from without. He, then, who overcomes evil by good, patiently loses temporal advantages, that he may teach how, for faith and justice, those things are to be despised by loving which too much he becomes bad; and so the injurious man may learn, from him to whom he did injury, of what sort the things are for which he did injury, and, repenting, may be won over into concord, than which nothing is more useful to a city—conquered not by the forces of one raging, but by the benevolence of one enduring. For it is then rightly done, when it seems it will profit the one for whose sake it is done, for working in him correction and concord. This surely must be done with this mind, even if another outcome follow, and he be unwilling to be corrected and pacified, for whose correction and pacification—as for curing and healing—this medicine was applied.
Ep100-155.2.112. 12. Alioquin si verba attenderimus, eorumque proprietati serviendum putaverimus, non est praebenda maxilla dextera, si sinistra fuerit percussa. Quoniam: Si quis te, inquit, percusserit in maxillam dexteram, praebe illi et sinistram: magis autem sinistra percutitur, quod ad dexteram ferientis facilior ictus est. Sed sic intellegi solet, ac si dictum esset: Si quis in te meliora fuerit persecutus, et inferiora ei praebe, ne vindictae potius quam patientiae studens contemnas aeterna pro temporalibus, cum potius temporalia pro aeternis contemnenda sint, tamquam sinistra pro dextris. Haec semper fuit sanctorum martyrum intentio: vindicta enim ultima iuste poscitur, quando nullus iam restat correctionis locus, extremo scilicet summoque iudicio. Nunc vero cavendum est, ne vindicandi cupiditate amittatur, ut nihil aliud dicam, ipsa patientia, quae pluris est habenda quam omne quod potest etiam invito inimicus auferre. Namque alius evangelista in eadem sententia nullam fecit dexterae mentionem, sed tantum maxillam et alteram nominavit, ut aliquanto distinctius intellegeretur in alio, ipse autem simpliciter eamdem patientiam commendaret. Paratus itaque debet esse homo iustus et pius, patienter eorum malitiam sustinere, quos fieri bonos quaerit, ut numerus potius crescat bonorum, non ut pari malitia se quoque numero addat malorum.
2. 12. Otherwise, if we attend to the words, and think we must serve their literal sense, the right cheek is not to be offered if the left has been struck. For If anyone, he says, strikes you on the right cheek, offer him the left too (Matt 5:39): but rather the left is struck, because the blow on the right is easier for the striker. But it is wont to be understood thus, as if it were said: If anyone has assailed your better things, offer him your lower too, lest, studying vengeance rather than patience, you despise eternal things for temporal, when rather temporal things are to be despised for eternal, as the left for the right. This was always the intention of the holy martyrs: for the final vengeance is justly demanded when no place of correction now remains, namely at the last and highest judgment. But now it is to be guarded against, lest by the desire of avenging there be lost—to say nothing else—patience itself, which is to be held of more worth than all that an enemy can take away even from one unwilling. For another evangelist, in the same saying, made no mention of the right, but named only the cheek and the other, so that it might be understood somewhat more distinctly in the one, while he himself simply commended the same patience. The just and devout man ought, therefore, to be prepared patiently to endure the malice of those whom he seeks to make good, so that the number of the good may rather grow, not that, by an equal malice, he add himself too to the number of the bad.
Ep100-155.2.122. 13. Denique ista praecepta magis ad praeparationem cordis quae intus est, pertinere, quam ad opus quod in aperto fit; ut teneatur in secreto animi patientia cum benevolentia, in manifesto autem id fiat quod eis videtur prodesse posse, quibus bene velle debemus, hinc liquido ostenditur, quod ipse Dominus Iesus exemplum singulare patientiae, cum percuteretur in faciem respondit: Si male dixi, exprobra de malo; si autem bene, quid me caedis? Nequaquam igitur praeceptum suum, si verba intueamur, implevit. Neque enim praebuit percutienti alteram partem, sed potius prohibuit, ne qui fecerat iniuriam, augeret; et tamen paratus venerat non solum in faciem percuti, verum etiam pro his quoque a quibus haec patiebatur crucifixus occidi, pro quibus ait in cruce pendens: Pater, ignosce illis, quia nesciunt quid faciunt. Nec Paulus apostolus praeceptum Domini et magistri sui videtur implesse, ubi etiam ipse percussus in faciem, dixit principi sacerdotum: Percutiet te Deus, paries dealbate. Sedes iudicans me secundum Legem, et contra Legem iubes me percuti! Et cum a circumstantibus diceretur: Iniuriam facis principi sacerdotum, irridenter eos admonere voluit quid dixerit, ut qui saperent, intellegerent iam destruendum esse adventu Christi parietem dealbatum, hoc est, hypocrisim sacerdotii Iudaeorum: ait quippe: Nescivi, fratres, quia princeps est; scriptum est enim, Principi populi tui non maledices; cum procul dubio, qui in eodem populo creverat, atque ibi Lege fuerat eruditus, illum principem sacerdotum nescire non posset, nec eos quibus ita notus erat, ullo modo falleret quod nesciret.
2. 13. Finally, that these precepts pertain rather to the preparation of the heart which is within, than to the work which is done openly—so that patience with benevolence be held in the secret of the mind, but in the manifest that be done which seems it can profit those to whom we ought to wish well—is clearly shown from this, that the Lord Jesus himself, a singular example of patience, when he was struck in the face, answered: If I have spoken evil, reproach me concerning the evil; but if well, why do you strike me? (John 18:23) In no way, then, did he fulfill his own precept, if we look at the words. For he did not offer the other part to the striker, but rather forbade lest he who had done injury increase it; and yet he had come prepared not only to be struck in the face, but even to be crucified and killed for those very ones from whom he suffered these things, for whom, hanging on the cross, he says: Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do (Luke 23:34). Nor does the apostle Paul seem to have fulfilled the precept of his Lord and master, where he too, struck in the face, said to the prince of the priests: God will strike you, you whitewashed wall. You sit judging me according to the Law, and against the Law you order me to be struck! And when it was said by those standing by, You do injury to the prince of the priests, he wished mockingly to admonish them what he had said, so that those who were wise might understand that the whitewashed wall was now to be destroyed by the coming of Christ—that is, the hypocrisy of the priesthood of the Jews: for he says, I did not know, brethren, that he is the prince; for it is written, You shall not curse the prince of your people (Acts 23:3-5); when without doubt he who had grown up among that same people, and had there been instructed in the Law, could not be ignorant of that prince of the priests, nor in any way could it deceive those to whom he was so known that he was ignorant.
Ep100-155.2.132. 14. Sunt ergo ista praecepta patientiae semper in cordis praeparatione retinenda, ipsaque benevolentia, ne reddatur malum pro malo, semper in voluntate complenda est. Agenda sunt autem multa, etiam cum invitis benigna quadam asperitate plectendis, quorum potius utilitati consulendum est quam voluntati; quod in principe civitatis luculentissime illorum litterae laudaverunt. Nam in corripiendo filio quamlibet aspere, numquam profecto amor paternus amittitur. Fit tamen quod nolit et doleat, qui etiam invitus videtur dolore sanandus. Ac per hoc si terrena ista respublica praecepta christiana custodiat, et ipsa bella sine benevolentia non gerentur, ut ad pietatis iustitiaeque pacatam societatem victis facilius consulatur. Nam cui licentia iniquitatis eripitur, utiliter vincitur; quoniam nihil est infelicius felicitate peccantium, qua poenalis nutritur impunitas, et mala voluntas velut hostis interior roboratur. Sed perversa et aversa corda mortalium, felices res humanas putant, cum tectorum splendor attenditur, et labes non attenditur animorum; cum theatrorum moles exstruuntur, et effodiuntur fundamenta virtutum; cum gloriosa est effusionis insania, et opera misericordiae deridentur; cum ex his quae divitibus abundant, luxuriantur histriones, et necessaria vix habent pauperes; cum Deus, qui doctrinae suae publicis vocibus contra hoc malum publicum clamat, ab impiis populis blasphematur, et dii tales requiruntur, in quorum honorem ea ipsa theatrica, corporum et animorum dedecora celebrentur. Haec si Deus pollere permittat, tunc indignatur gravius; haec si impunita dimittat, tunc punit infestius. Cum vero evertit subsidium vitiorum, et copiosas libidines inopes reddit, misericorditer adversatur. Misericorditer enim, si fieri posset, etiam bella gererentur a bonis, ut licentiosis cupiditatibus domitis haec vitia perderentur, quae iusto imperio vel exstirpari vel premi debuerunt.
2. 14. These precepts of patience, then, are always to be retained in the preparation of the heart, and benevolence itself, that evil not be repaid for evil, is always to be fulfilled in the will. But many things are to be done, even by chastising the unwilling with a certain kindly harshness, whose benefit rather than will is to be taken thought for; which in a prince of the city their writings most brilliantly praised. For in correcting a son, however harshly, surely the paternal love is never lost. Yet what he would not, and grieves at, is done, who, even unwilling, seems to be healed by grief. And through this, if that earthly republic keeps the Christian precepts, even its very wars will not be waged without benevolence, so that the conquered may be more easily taken thought for, toward the pacified fellowship of piety and justice. For he from whom the license of iniquity is wrested is usefully conquered; since nothing is more unhappy than the happiness of sinners, by which a penal impunity is nourished, and the bad will, like an interior enemy, is strengthened. But the perverse and averted hearts of mortals think human affairs happy when the splendor of roofs is attended to, and the ruin of souls is not attended to; when the masses of theaters are built up, and the foundations of virtues are dug out; when the madness of squandering is glorious, and the works of mercy are derided; when from those things which abound to the rich, the actors luxuriate, and the poor scarcely have necessities; when God, who by the public voices of his teaching cries out against this public evil, is blasphemed by impious peoples, and such gods are sought, in whose honor those very theatrical things, the disgraces of bodies and souls, are celebrated. If God permits these things to prevail, then he is more gravely indignant; if he dismisses these things unpunished, then he punishes more hostilely. But when he overturns the support of vices, and renders the copious lusts needy, he opposes mercifully. For mercifully, if it could be, even wars would be waged by the good, so that, the licentious desires being tamed, these vices might be destroyed, which a just empire ought either to root out or to repress.
Ep100-155.2.142. 15. Nam si christiana disciplina omnia bella culparet, hoc potius militibus consilium salutis petentibus in Evangelio diceretur, ut abicerent arma, seque omnino militiae subtraherent. Dictum est autem eis: Neminem concusseritis, nulli calumniam feceritis; sufficiat vobis stipendium vestrum. Quibus proprium stipendium sufficere debere praecepit, militare utique non prohibuit. Proinde qui doctrinam Christi adversam dicunt esse reipublicae, dent exercitum talem quales doctrina Christi esse milites iussit; dent tales provinciales, tales maritos, tales coniuges, tales parentes, tales filios, tales dominos, tales servos, tales reges, tales iudices, tales denique debitorum ipsius fisci redditores et exactores, quales esse praecepit doctrina christiana, et audeant eam dicere adversam esse reipublicae; imo vero non dubitent eam confiteri magnam, si obtemperetur, salutem esse reipublicae.
2. 15. For if Christian discipline blamed all wars, this counsel of salvation would rather be given in the Gospel to the soldiers asking for it, that they cast away their arms and withdraw themselves altogether from soldiering. But it was said to them: Do violence to no one, accuse no one falsely; let your wages suffice for you (Luke 3:14). Whom he commanded that their own wages should suffice, he surely did not forbid to soldier. Accordingly, those who say that the teaching of Christ is adverse to the republic, let them give such an army as the teaching of Christ ordered the soldiers to be; let them give such provincials, such husbands, such wives, such parents, such sons, such masters, such servants, such kings, such judges, such, finally, payers and exactors of the debts of the very treasury, as Christian teaching commanded them to be, and let them dare to say that it is adverse to the republic; nay rather, let them not hesitate to confess it to be, if it be obeyed, the great welfare of the republic.
Ep100-155.2.153. 16. Utquid autem ad illud respondeam quod dicunt, per quosdam imperatores christianos multa mala imperio accidisse Romano? Haec generalis conquestio calumniosa est. Nam si apertius certe de praeteritis imperatoribus aliqua commemorarent, possem similia vel fortasse etiam graviora de imperatoribus non christianis et ego commemorare, ut intellegerent, vel hominum haec esse vitia, non doctrinae; vel non imperatorum, sed aliorum sine quibus imperatores agere nihil possunt. Ex quo enim tempore pessum ire coeperit Romana respublica, satis liquet; litterae loquuntur ipsorum: longe antequam Christi nomen eluxisset in terris, dictum est: O urbem venalem, et mature perituram, si emptorem invenerit! In libro etiam belli Catilinae, ante adventum utique Christi, idem nobilissimus historicus eorum non tacet quando primum insueverit exercitus populi Romani amare, potare, signa, tabulas pictas, vasa caelata mirari, ea privatim et publice rapere, delubra spoliare, sacra profanaque omnia polluere. Quando ergo nec hominibus, nec ipsis etiam quos Deos putabant, morum corruptorum et perditorum avaritia rapacitasque parcebat, tunc coepit perire laudabile illud decus salusque reipublicae. Quos deinde vitia pessima successus habuerint, et quanto humanarum rerum malo illa iniquitas prosperata sit, nunc longum est dicere. Audiant Satyricum suum, garriendo vera dicentem:
Paupertas Romana perit.
Quid ergo exspectas ut ego exaggerem, quanta mala importaverit successu prospero iniquitas sublevata; quandoquidem et ipsi, qui aliquanto prudentius attenderunt, plus dolendum viderunt paupertatem, quam opulentiam periisse Romanam? In illa enim morum integritas servabatur; per hanc autem non muros urbis, sed mentes ipsius civitatis dira nequitia omni hoste peior irrupit.
Paupertas Romana perit.
Quid ergo exspectas ut ego exaggerem, quanta mala importaverit successu prospero iniquitas sublevata; quandoquidem et ipsi, qui aliquanto prudentius attenderunt, plus dolendum viderunt paupertatem, quam opulentiam periisse Romanam? In illa enim morum integritas servabatur; per hanc autem non muros urbis, sed mentes ipsius civitatis dira nequitia omni hoste peior irrupit.
3. 16. But why should I answer that which they say, that through certain Christian emperors many evils befell the Roman empire? This general complaint is calumnious. For if they would recall, more openly at least, some things about past emperors, I too could recall similar, or perhaps even graver, things about non-Christian emperors, so that they might understand that either these are the vices of men, not of doctrine; or not of emperors, but of others without whom emperors can do nothing. From what time the Roman republic began to go to ruin is clear enough; their own writings speak it: long before the name of Christ shone forth in the lands, it was said, O city for sale, and soon to perish, if it finds a buyer! In the book too of the Catilinarian war, surely before the coming of Christ, the same most noble historian of theirs does not keep silent when the army of the Roman people first grew accustomed to make love, to drink, to admire statues, painted tablets, embossed vessels, to seize them privately and publicly, to spoil shrines, to pollute all things sacred and profane. When, then, neither men, nor even those whom they thought gods, were spared by the avarice and rapacity of corrupted and lost characters, then began to perish that praiseworthy honor and welfare of the republic. What successes the worst vices then had, and with how great an evil of human affairs that iniquity was made to prosper, it is now long to say. Let them hear their own Satirist, telling true things by chattering: Roman poverty perishes. Why, then, do you await that I should exaggerate how great evils that iniquity, raised up by prosperous success, brought in; since even they themselves who attended somewhat more prudently saw that it was more to be grieved that Roman poverty, than opulence, had perished? For in the former the integrity of character was kept; but through the latter, not the walls of the city, but the very minds of the city, a dire wickedness, worse than every enemy, burst in upon.
Ep100-155.3.163. 17. Gratias Domino Deo nostro, qui contra ista mala misit nobis adiutorium singulare. Quo enim non tolleret, quem non involveret, in quod profundum non demergeret fluvius iste horrendae nequitiae generis humani, nisi crux Christi in tanta velut mole auctoritatis eminentius firmiusque figeretur; cuius apprehenso robore, stabiles essemus, ne male suadentium, vel in mala impellentium, tam vasto mundi huius gurgite abrepti sorberemur? In ista enim colluvie morum pessimorum et veteris perditae disciplinae, maxime venire ac subvenire debuit coelestis auctoritas, quae voluntariam paupertatem, quae continentiam, benevolentiam, iustitiam, atque concordiam, veramque pietatem persuaderet, caeterasque vitae luminosas validasque virtutes; non tantum propter istam vitam honestissime gerendam, nec tantum propter civitatis terrenae concordissimam societatem; verum etiam propter adipiscendam sempiternam salutem, et sempiterni cuiusdam populi coelestem divinamque rempublicam, cui nos cives adsciscit fides, spes, caritas: ut quamdiu inde peregrinamur, feramus eos si corrigere non valemus, qui vitiis impunitis volunt stare rempublicam, quam primi Romani constituerunt auxeruntque virtutibus, etsi non habentes veram pietatem erga Deum verum, quae illos etiam in aeternam civitatem posset salubri religione perducere; custodientes tamen quamdam sui generis probitatem, quae posset terrenae civitati constituendae, augendae, conservandaeque sufficere. Deus enim sic ostendit in opulentissimo et praeclaro imperio Romanorum, quantum valerent civiles etiam sine vera religione virtutes, ut intellegeretur hac addita fieri homines cives alterius civitatis, cuius rex veritas, cuius lex caritas, cuius modus aeternitas.
3. 17. Thanks to the Lord our God, who against these evils sent us a singular help. For whom would not that river of the dreadful wickedness of the human race carry off, whom not enwrap, into what depth not plunge, unless the cross of Christ, in so great as it were a mass of authority, were more eminently and more firmly fixed; by grasping whose strength we might be stable, lest, snatched away in so vast a whirlpool of this world by those who persuade evil, or impel into evils, we be swallowed up? For in that filth of the worst characters and the old lost discipline, most of all the heavenly authority ought to come and succor, which would persuade voluntary poverty, continence, benevolence, justice, and concord, and true piety, and the other luminous and strong virtues of life; not only for conducting this life most honorably, nor only for the most concordant fellowship of the earthly city; but even for attaining everlasting salvation, and the heavenly and divine republic of a certain everlasting people, into which faith, hope, love enroll us as citizens: so that, as long as we journey thence, we may bear—if we cannot correct them—those who wish the republic to stand by unpunished vices, the republic which the first Romans founded and increased by virtues, even though not having true piety toward the true God (which could lead them too, by a wholesome religion, into the eternal city); yet keeping a certain probity of their own kind, which could suffice for founding, increasing, and conserving an earthly city. For God thus showed, in the most opulent and illustrious empire of the Romans, how much civil virtues could avail even without true religion, so that it might be understood that, this being added, men are made citizens of another city, whose king is truth, whose law is love, whose measure is eternity.
Ep100-155.3.174. 18. Quis autem vel risu dignum non putet, quod Apollonium et Apuleium, caeterosque magicarum artium peritissimos conferre Christo, vel etiam praeferre conantur? Quamquam tolerabilius ferendum sit, quando istos ei potius comparant quam deos suos: multo enim melior, quod fatendum est, Apollonius fuit, quam tot stuprorum auctor et perpetrator, quem Iovem nominant. Ista, inquiunt, fabulosa sunt. Adhuc ergo laudent reipublicae luxuriosam, licentiosam, planeque sacrilegam felicitatem, quae ista deorum probra confinxit, quae non solum in fabulis audienda posuit, verum etiam in theatris spectanda proposuit; ubi crimina plura essent quam numina, quae ipsi dii sibi exhiberi habebant libenter, qui in suos cultores vindicare debuerunt, quod ea saltem viderent patienter. Sed non ipsi, inquiunt, sunt, qui talium fabularum mendacio celebrantur. Qui ergo sunt isti, qui talium turpitudinum celebratione placantur? Horum daemonum perversitatem atque fallaciam, per quos et magicae artes humanas mentes decipiunt, quia prodidit christiana doctrina, quia mundo universo patefecit, quia Angelos sanctos ab eorum malignitate distinxit, quia cavendos potius, et quemadmodum caverentur admonuit, reipublicae dicitur inimica! quasi non si omnino per istos esset temporalis obtinenda felicitas, quaelibet potius fuerat infelicitas eligenda. Sed neque hinc Deus voluit dubitari, qui primum populum unum verum Deum colentem, deos autem falsissimos contemnentem, quamdiu oportuit Vetus Testamentum, ubi velamentum Testamenti Novi est, obumbrari, tanta rerum terrenarum felicitate honestavit, ut quivis intellegat nec ipsam esse in daemonum potestate, sed in illius unius, cui Angeli serviunt, quem daemones contremiscunt.
4. 18. But who would not think it even worthy of laughter, that they try to compare Apollonius and Apuleius, and the other men most expert in magic arts, with Christ, or even to prefer them? Although it is to be borne more tolerably when they compare these men with him rather than their own gods: for, what must be confessed, Apollonius was much better than the author and perpetrator of so many defilements whom they name Jove. "These things," they say, "are fabulous." Let them then still praise the luxurious, licentious, and plainly sacrilegious happiness of the republic, which fashioned these reproaches of the gods, which set them not only to be heard in fables, but even proposed them to be watched in theaters; where the crimes were more than the divinities, which the gods themselves were content to have exhibited to them, who ought to have avenged upon their worshipers that they even watched them patiently. "But it is not they themselves," they say, "who are celebrated by the lie of such fables." Who, then, are these, who are appeased by the celebration of such basenesses? Because Christian doctrine has disclosed the perversity and deceit of these demons—through whom even the magic arts deceive human minds—because it has laid it open to the whole world, because it has distinguished the holy Angels from their malignity, because it has admonished that they are rather to be guarded against, and in what way to be guarded against, it is said to be an enemy of the republic! As though, if temporal happiness were altogether to be obtained through these, any unhappiness rather were not to be chosen. But neither here did God wish there to be doubt, who honored the first people—worshiping the one true God, but despising the most false gods—with so great a happiness of earthly things, as long as it behooved the Old Testament, where there is the veil of the New, to be overshadowed, that anyone might understand that even it is not in the power of demons, but in that of the one to whom the Angels are subject, before whom the demons tremble.
Ep100-155.4.184. 19. Apuleius enim, ut de illo potissimum loquamur, qui nobis Afris Afer est notior, non dico ad regnum, sed ne ad aliquam quidem iudiciariam reipublicae potestatem cum omnibus suis magicis artibus potuit pervenire, honesto patriae suae loco natus, et liberaliter educatus, magnaque praeditus eloquentia. An forte ista, ut philosophus, voluntate contempsit, qui sacerdos provinciae, pro magno fuit ut munera ederet, venatoresque vestiret, et pro statua sibi apud Oeenses locanda, ex qua civitate habebat uxorem, adversus contradictionem quorumdam civium litigaret? quod posteros ne lateret, eiusdem litis orationem scriptam memoriae commendavit. Quod ergo ad istam terrenam pertinet felicitatem, fuit magus ille quod potuit. Unde apparet eum nihil amplius fuisse, non quia noluit, sed quia non potuit. Quamquam et adversus quosdam, qui ei magicarum artium crimen intenderant, eloquentissime se defendit. Unde miror laudatores eius, qui eum nescio quae fecisse miracula illis artibus praedicant, contra eius defensionem testes esse conari. Sed viderint utrum verum ipsi perhibeant testimonium, et ille falsam defensionem. Illud si sapiunt, attendant, qui magicas artes non utique nisi pro felicitate terrena vel damnabili curiositate conquirunt, vel ab eis innocentes, periculosa tamen eas admiratione collaudant, et videant David nostrum sine ullis talibus artibus, ex pastore ovium pervenisse ad regiam dignitatem; cuius et peccata et merita fidelis Scriptura non tacuit, ut sciremus et quibus modis non offenderetur Deus, et quibus modis placaretur offensus.
4. 19. For Apuleius—to speak especially of him, who, an African, is better known to us Africans—could not, with all his magic arts, attain, I do not say to a kingdom, but not even to any judiciary power of the republic, though born in an honorable place of his country, and liberally educated, and endowed with great eloquence. Or did he perhaps, as a philosopher, contemn these things by will, who, a priest of the province, held it a great thing to put on games and clothe huntsmen, and, over a statue to be set up for him among the people of Oea—from which city he had a wife—litigated against the contradiction of certain citizens? Which, lest it lie hidden from posterity, he committed to memory the written oration of that lawsuit. As far, then, as pertains to this earthly happiness, that magician was what he could be. Whence it appears that he was nothing more, not because he was unwilling, but because he could not. Although even against certain men, who had brought against him the charge of magic arts, he defended himself most eloquently. Whence I marvel that his praisers, who proclaim that he did I know not what miracles by those arts, try to be witnesses against his defense. But let them see whether they themselves bear true testimony, and he made a false defense. Let those, if they are wise, attend to this, who seek out magic arts surely only for earthly happiness or damnable curiosity, or, innocent of them, yet with a dangerous admiration praise them, and let them see our David, without any such arts, from a shepherd of sheep attain to royal dignity; whose both sins and merits the faithful Scripture did not keep silent, that we might know both by what ways God is not offended, and by what ways, offended, he is appeased.
Ep100-155.4.194. 20. Quantum autem attinet ad miracula, quae humanis sensibus stupenda monstrantur, multum errant qui Prophetis sanctis, miraculorum magnorum nobilitate praestantibus, magos comparant; quanto magis si eos comparent Christo, quem Prophetae illi, quibus magi quilibet nullo modo sunt comparandi, praenuntiaverunt esse venturum, et secundum carnem, quam sumpsit ex Virgine, et secundum divinitatem, qua numquam separatur a Patre! Video me fecisse prolixissimam epistolam, nec tamen de Christo dixisse omnia quae vel eis qui vel... ingenio divina non valent assequi, vel eis quos, licet acute moveantur, contentiosum tamen studium et praeoccupatio diuturni erroris ab intellegendo impedit, possint utcumque sufficere. Verumtamen cognosce quid eos contra moveat, atque rescribe, ut vel epistolis vel libris, si adiuverit Deus, ad omnia respondere curemus. Sis in Domino felix, gratia et misericordia eius, domine eximie et merito insignis, carissime ac desiderantissime fili.
4. 20. But as far as pertains to miracles, which are shown to human senses as things to be astonished at, they greatly err who compare magicians with the holy Prophets, eminent in the renown of great miracles; how much more if they compare them with Christ, whom those Prophets—with whom any magicians are in no way to be compared—foretold would come, both according to the flesh which he took from the Virgin, and according to the divinity by which he is never separated from the Father! I see that I have made a most prolix letter, nor yet have said about Christ all the things that could somehow suffice either for those who cannot attain divine things by talent, or for those whom, though they are acutely moved, a contentious zeal and a preoccupation of long-lasting error hinders from understanding. Nevertheless learn what moves them against it, and write back, so that, whether by letters or by books, if God shall help, we may take care to answer all things. Be happy in the Lord, by his grace and mercy, most excellent lord, and deservedly distinguished, most dear and most longed-for son.
Ep100-155.4.20EPISTOLA 139
DOMINO MERITO INSIGNI, MULTUMQUE CARISSIMO AC DESIDERANTISSIMO FILIO MARCELLINO, AUGUSTINUS, IN DOMINO SALUTEM.
DOMINO MERITO INSIGNI, MULTUMQUE CARISSIMO AC DESIDERANTISSIMO FILIO MARCELLINO, AUGUSTINUS, IN DOMINO SALUTEM.
LETTER 139
To the deservedly distinguished lord, and much most dear and most longed-for son Marcellinus, Augustine sends greetings in the Lord.
Ep100-155.4.20To the deservedly distinguished lord, and much most dear and most longed-for son Marcellinus, Augustine sends greetings in the Lord.
1. Gesta quae promisit Praestantia tua, vehementer exspecto, et in ecclesia Hipponensi iamiamque cupio recitari, ac, si fieri potuerit, etiam per omnes ecclesias in dioecesi constitutas; ut audiant homines, pleneque agnoscant confessores iniquitatis, non Dei timore extorquente poenitentiam, sed iudiciaria diligentia crudelissimorum pectorum aperiente duritiam; sive illorum qui de homicidio et de excaecato ac debilitato presbyteri corpore confessi; sive illorum qui se illa scire potuisse, quamvis sibi dicerent displicere, negare non ausi sunt, refugientes catholicam pacem, velut ne criminibus polluantur alienis, et in illo schismatis sacrilegio inter sceleratorum tam immanium tantam multitudinem perdurantes; sive etiam illorum qui se inde non recessuros, etiam demonstrata sibi catholica veritate et Donatistarum perversitate, dixerunt. Non est leve quod Deus agi voluit per operam tuam. Utinam tales eorum causas crebras sic audias, et facinora eorum atque insana pertinacia sic saepe prodatur, eademque publicata Gesta in omnium notitiam perferantur! Quod autem scripsit Eximietas tua, dubitare te utrum in Theoprepia debeas eadem Gesta iubere proponi; fiat, si potest illuc frequens confluere multitudo: alioquin alius locus celebrior providendus est; non tamen ullo modo praetermittendum.
1. The records which your Eminence promised I vehemently await, and I desire that they be recited in the church of Hippo at once, and, if it can be done, even through all the churches established in the diocese; so that men may hear, and fully recognize the confessors of iniquity—not the fear of God extorting repentance, but judicial diligence opening the hardness of most cruel hearts; whether of those who confessed about the homicide and about the blinded and maimed body of the priest; or of those who did not dare to deny that they could have known these things, although they said these displeased them, fleeing Catholic peace, as though lest they be polluted by the crimes of others, and persevering in that sacrilege of schism among so great a multitude of such monstrous criminals; or even of those who said that they would not withdraw from there, even when Catholic truth and the perversity of the Donatists had been shown them. It is no light thing that God willed to be done through your work. Would that you may so hear their causes frequently, and that their crimes and insane pertinacity may be so often disclosed, and that the same published records be brought to the knowledge of all! But as for what your Eminence wrote, that you doubt whether you ought to order the same records to be posted in the Theoprepia: let it be done, if a frequent multitude can flow together there: otherwise, another more frequented place is to be provided; yet it is in no way to be passed over.
Ep100-155.12. Poena sane illorum, quamvis de tantis sceleribus confessorum, rogo te ut praeter supplicium mortis sit, et propter conscientiam nostram, et propter catholicam mansuetudinem commendandam. Ipse enim fructus ad nos pervenit confessionis illorum, quia invenit Ecclesia catholica ubi suam erga atrocissimos inimicos servet atque exhibeat lenitatem. In tanta quippe crudelitate, quaecumque praeter sanguinem vindicta processerit, magna lenitas apparebit. Quod etsi modo quibusdam nostris, illa atrocitate commotis, videtur indignum, et quasi dissolutionis et neglegentiae simile; transactis tamen motibus animorum, qui recentioribus factis solent turbulentius excitari, egregie luculenta bonitas apparebit, et ob hoc magis eadem Gesta legere atque ostendere delectabit, domine merito insignis, multumque carissime ac desiderantissime fili. Ibi est sanctus frater et coepiscopus meus Bonifacius, et per diaconum Peregrinum qui cum illo perrexit, commonitorium direxi; quod sic habe tamquam praesentiam meam. Et quod vobis in commune pro Ecclesiae utilitate placuerit, hoc adiuvante Domino fiat, qui potens est misericorditer opitulari in tantis malis. Modo Macrobius episcopus eorum, stipatus cuneis perditorum utriusque sexus, hac atque illac circumit, aperuitque sibi basilicas, quas possessorum quantuluscumque timor clauserat. Praesente autem procuratore viri clarissimi Celeris Spondeo, quem tuae dilectioni commendavi multumque commendo, utcumque eorum frangebatur audacia: nunc vero posteaquam Carthaginem profectus est, etiam in fundis ipsius basilicas aperuit, populos congregat. Cum ipso etiam est ille Donatus diaconus rebaptizatus, cum fuerit colonus ecclesiae, qui versatus est in illa caede praecipuus. Qui tales non cum eo sunt, quando et ille cum ipso est? Si Proconsul vel simul ambo in illos estis sententiam prolaturi, et forte ille persistit velle gladio vindicare, quamquam sit christianus, et quantum advertere potuimus, non sit ad haec cruciamenta proclivis; tamen si necesse fuerit, etiam Gestis iubete allegari epistolas meas, quas de hac re singulas vobis mittendas putavi. Soleo enim audire in potestate esse iudicis mollire sententiam, et mitius vindicare quam iubeant leges. Si autem nec litteris meis ad hoc consenserit, hoc saltem praestet ut in custodiam recipiantur, atque hoc de clementia Imperatorum impetrare curabimus, ne passiones servorum Dei, quae debent esse in Ecclesia gloriosae, inimicorum sanguine dehonestentur. Scio enim in causa clericorum Anaunensium, qui occisi a Gentilibus, nunc martyres honorantur, Imperatorem rogatum facile concessisse ne illi qui eos occiderant et capti iam tenebantur, poena simili punirentur.
2. The penalty indeed of those—although confessors of such great crimes—I ask you that it be apart from the punishment of death, both for the sake of our conscience, and for commending Catholic meekness. For the very fruit of their confession comes to us, because the Catholic Church has found where it may keep and exhibit its gentleness toward most atrocious enemies. For in so great a cruelty, whatever vengeance shall proceed apart from blood will appear great gentleness. Which, even if now to certain of our people, moved by that atrocity, seems unworthy, and as it were like to dissolution and negligence; yet, the stirrings of minds being over—which are wont to be more turbulently roused by more recent deeds—a notably brilliant goodness will appear, and on this account it will the more delight to read and show the same records, deservedly distinguished lord, and much most dear and most longed-for son. There is my holy brother and fellow bishop Boniface, and through the deacon Peregrinus, who set out with him, I have sent a memorandum; which hold as my presence. And what shall please you in common for the benefit of the Church, let this be done with the Lord helping, who is able mercifully to aid in so great evils. Just now Macrobius, their bishop, surrounded by bands of lost men of both sexes, goes about here and there, and has opened to himself the basilicas which the timidity—however slight—of the possessors had closed. But with the steward of the most illustrious Celer, Spondeus—whom I have commended to your love and much commend—being present, their audacity was in some way broken: but now, after he set out for Carthage, he has opened the basilicas even on his estates, gathers the peoples. With him too is that rebaptized deacon Donatus, when he was a tenant of the church, who was especially involved in that slaughter. What sort are not with him, when he too is with him? If the Proconsul, or both of you together, are about to bring forth a sentence against them, and perhaps he persists in wishing to avenge with the sword—although he is a Christian, and, as far as we could notice, is not prone to these torments; yet, if it be necessary, order even my letters to be alleged in the records, which I have thought should be sent to you, one each, about this matter. For I am wont to hear that it is in the power of the judge to soften a sentence, and to avenge more mildly than the laws command. But if he will not assent to this even by my letters, let him at least grant this, that they be received into custody, and we will take care to obtain this from the clemency of the Emperors, lest the sufferings of the servants of God—which ought to be glorious in the Church—be dishonored by the blood of enemies. For I know that, in the cause of the clerics of Anaunia, who, slain by the Gentiles, are now honored as martyrs, the Emperor, being asked, easily granted that those who had slain them, and were already held captive, should not be punished by a like penalty.
Ep100-155.23. Libros de Baptismo parvulorum, cum iam codicem ipsum Praestantiae tuae misissem, cur abs te rursus acceperim, oblitus sum: nisi forte cum inspicerem, mendosos eos reperi, et emendare volui, quod mirabiliter impeditus, adhuc usque non feci. Epistolam quoque ad te scribendam et his adiungendam, quam cum ibi essem iam dictare coeperam, paulo addito sic esse imperfectam scias. Si autem rationem omnium dierum et lucubrationum aliis necessitatibus impensarum tibi possem reddere, graviter contristatus mirareris quanta me distendant, quae differri omnino non possunt, nec agere illa permittant in quae me, petendo et admonendo, urges volentem, et ineffabiliter (quia non possum) dolentem. Cum enim ab eorum hominum necessitatibus aliquantulum vaco, qui me sic angariant, ut eos nullo modo liceat evitare, nec contemnere oporteat; non desunt quae dictanda praepono, sic in articulis temporum constituta, ut dilationem non ferant. Sicut mihi fuit breviatio Gestorum collationis nostrae satis operosa, cum viderem neminem se velle tanto aggeri litterarum legendo committere: sicut mihi fuit etiam epistola ad ipsos laicos donatistas, de hac eadem collatione nostra, quam modo aliquot lucubrationibus terminavi: sicut epistolae duae non breves; una ad Dilectionem tuam, altera ad virum illustrem Volusianum, quas vos accepisse iam credo: sicut nunc in manibus habeo librum ad Honoratum nostrum de quaestionibus quibusdam quinque, quas mihi proposuit, et per litteras intimavit; cui non continuo respondere vides quam minime oporteat. Caritas enim quae tamquam nutrix fovet filios suos, non ordine amandi, sed ordine subveniendi, infirmiores fortioribus anteponit, quos tales vult esse, quales iam illi sunt, quos non contemnendo, sed de his confidendo interim praeterit. Tales ergo mihi necessitates dictandi aliquid, quod me ab eis dictationibus impediat quibus magis inardesco, deesse non possunt, cum paululum spatii vix datur inter acervos occupationum, quibus nos alienae vel cupiditates vel necessitates angariatos trahunt: et quid faciam prorsus nescio.
3. The books On the Baptism of Little Ones—when I had already sent the very codex to your Eminence—why I received them again from you, I have forgotten: unless perhaps, when I inspected them, I found them faulty, and wished to emend them, which, marvelously hindered, I have not yet done. The letter too, to be written to you and joined to these, which, when I was there, I had already begun to dictate, know to be thus, with a little added, unfinished. But if I could render you an account of all the days and lucubrations spent on other necessities, you would, gravely saddened, marvel how greatly the things which can in no way be deferred, and do not permit me to do those things into which you, by asking and admonishing, urge me, willing, and ineffably (because I cannot) grieving. For when I have a little leisure from the necessities of those men who so compel me that it is in no way lawful to avoid them, nor ought they to be despised, there are not lacking things which I set before what is to be dictated, so set in the joints of times that they bear no delay. As for me there was the abbreviation of the records of our conference, laborious enough, when I saw that no one wished to commit himself to so great a mound of writing by reading: as for me there was also the letter to the Donatist laymen themselves, about this same conference of ours, which I have just finished in some lucubrations: as the two letters, not brief; one to your Love, the other to the illustrious man Volusianus, which I believe you have already received: as now I have in hand the book to our Honoratus about certain five questions, which he set forth to me, and intimated by letter; to whom you see how little it behooves not to answer at once. For love, which like a nurse fosters her sons, not by the order of loving but by the order of succoring, sets the weaker before the stronger, whom she wishes to be such as those already are, whom, not by despising but by being confident about them, she meanwhile passes by. Such necessities, then, of dictating something which hinders me from those dictations for which I more burn, cannot be lacking to me, when a little space is scarcely given between the heaps of occupations, by which the desires or necessities of others drag us, compelled: and what I should do I altogether know not.
Ep100-155.34. Audisti unde mecum Dominum depreceris: sed etiam quod tam instanter et tam crebro me admones, nolo cesses, non nihil agens. Commendo etiam ego Excellentiae tuae Ecclesiam in Numidia constitutam, propter cuius necessitates sanctus frater et coepiscopus meus Delphinus a fratribus et coepiscopis meis, ibi collaborantibus et compericlitantibus, missus est. Nec de hac re plura scribo, cum ipsum praesentem sis auditurus. Caetera in Commonitoriis invenies quae ad presbyterum misi, sive modo, sive per diaconum Peregrinum, ne mihi ea toties iterare necesse sit. Semper in Christo cor tuum vigeat, domine merito insignis, multumque carissime ac desiderantissime fili. Filium nostrum Ruffinum Cirtensem principalem commendo Eximietati tuae.
4. You have heard whence you should entreat the Lord with me: but also, that you so insistently and so frequently admonish me, I do not wish you to cease, doing not nothing. I too commend to your Excellency the Church established in Numidia, for whose necessities my holy brother and fellow bishop Delphinus was sent by my brothers and fellow bishops, laboring and sharing the danger there. Nor do I write more about this matter, since you will hear him in person. The rest you will find in the memoranda which I sent to the priest, whether now or through the deacon Peregrinus, lest it be necessary for me to repeat them so often. May your heart always be vigorous in Christ, deservedly distinguished lord, and much most dear and most longed-for son. I commend to your Eminence our son Ruffinus, a principal man of Cirta.
Ep100-155.4EPISTOLA 140
DE GRATIA NOVI TESTAMENTI LIBER
DE GRATIA NOVI TESTAMENTI LIBER
LETTER 140
The book On the Grace of the New Testament
Ep100-155.4The book On the Grace of the New Testament
1. 1. Quinque mihi proposuisti pertractandas quaestiones atque solvendas, dilectissime mi frater Honorate, hinc inde raptas, sicut te vel legentem movere, vel cogitanti tibi in mentem venire potuerunt, et in conspectum meum fusas quodam modo. Quarum solutionem si velim disserendo ordinare, non ut carptim, sicut propositae sunt, de singulis disseram, sed uno quodam tenore sermonis eas inter se connectam atque contexam, difficile opus videtur; et tamen puto facilius eas solvi, si hoc fecero. Invicem quippe adiuvabunt, si altera pendebit ex altera, donec omnes veniant in seriem disputationis, non singillatim separatis locis, quasi unaquaeque in sua privata intentione habitet, sed unum aliquid intuentes, et unum collaborantes sociali ratione, et individua veritate.
1. 1. You set forth to me, my most beloved brother Honoratus, five questions to be handled and solved, snatched from here and there, as either reading could move you, or could come into your mind as you thought, and poured out, as it were, into my sight. Of which, if I should wish, by discoursing, to order the solution—not so as to discourse about each piecemeal, as they were set forth, but to connect and weave them among themselves by one single tenor of discourse—it seems a difficult work; and yet I think they are more easily solved if I do this. For they will help one another in turn, if one will hang from another, until all come into the series of disputation, not separately in private places, as though each one dwelt in its own private intention, but gazing at some one thing, and laboring together at one thing by a social reason, and by an undivided truth.
Ep100-155.1.11. 2. Voluisti ergo et scripto commonuisti exponi atque aperiri tibi, quid sibi velit vox illa Domini: Deus meus, Deus meus, ut quid me dereliquisti? et quid sit quod Apostolus ait: Ut in caritate radicati et fundati, praevaleatis comprehendere cum omnibus sanctis quae sit latitudo, longitudo, altitudo et profundum: et quae sint virgines quinque stultae, quaeve sapientes: et quae sint tenebrae exteriores: et quomodo intellegendum sit: Verbum caro factum est. Hae sunt certe quinque tam breviter a me commemoratae, quam abs te propositae quaestiones. Proinde si placet, addamus et sextam, et illud potissimum requiramus, quae sit gratia Novi Testamenti. Hanc omnes illae intueantur, et in hanc, ut opportune quaeque potuerit, opus suum conferat nobis; non eo scilicet ordine, quo eas ut tu proposuisti, et ego recolui, sed unaquaeque cum fuerit necessaria, velut vocata respondeat, et officium sui operis impleat. Ergo ita nascatur exordium.
1. 2. You wished, then, and admonished by writing, that it be expounded and opened to you what that voice of the Lord means: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? (Matt 27:46; Ps 22:1 (21:2)) and what it is that the Apostle says: That, rooted and founded in love, you may prevail to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth, length, height, and depth (Eph 3:17-18): and which are the five foolish virgins, or which the wise: and what are the exterior darknesses: and how is to be understood, The Word was made flesh (John 1:14). These are certainly the five questions, recalled by me as briefly as they were set forth by you. Accordingly, if it please, let us add a sixth too, and let us especially inquire this: what is the grace of the New Testament. Let all those gaze at this, and to this, as each shall opportunely be able, let it confer its work for us; not, namely, in that order in which you set them forth and I recalled them, but let each, when it shall be necessary, as if called, answer, and fulfill the office of its work. So, then, let the exordium be born.
Ep100-155.1.22. 3. Est quaedam vita hominis carnalibus sensibus implicata, gaudiis carnalibus dedita, carnalem fugitans offensionem, voluptatemque consectans. Huius vitae felicitas temporalis est: ab hac vita incipere necessitatis est, in ea persistere voluntatis. In hac quippe ex utero matris infans funditur, huius offensiones quantum potest refugit, huius appetit voluptates; nihil amplius valet. Sed posteaquam venerit in aetatem qua in eo rationis usus evigilet, poterit adiuta divinitus voluntate eligere alteram vitam, cuius in mente gaudium est, cuius interna atque aeterna felicitas. Inest quippe homini anima rationalis, sed interest eiusdem rationis usum quonam potius voluntate convertat; utrum ad bona exterioris et inferioris, an ad bona interioris superiorisque naturae; id est, utrum ut fruatur corpore et tempore, an ut fruatur divinitate atque aeternitate. In quadam quippe medietate posita est, infra se habens corporalem creaturam, supra se autem sui et corporis Creatorem.
2. 3. There is a certain life of man entangled in carnal senses, given over to carnal joys, fleeing carnal offense, and pursuing pleasure. The happiness of this life is temporal: to begin from this life is of necessity, to persist in it is of will. For in this life the infant is poured forth from the mother's womb, flees, as much as it can, the offenses of this life, seeks its pleasures; it can do nothing more. But after it has come into the age in which the use of reason awakes in it, it will be able, the will being divinely aided, to choose another life, whose joy is in the mind, whose happiness is inner and eternal. For there is in man a rational soul, but it matters whither, by what will, he turns the use of that same reason; whether to the goods of the exterior and lower, or to the goods of the interior and higher nature; that is, whether to enjoy the body and time, or to enjoy divinity and eternity. For it is set in a certain middle, having below itself the corporeal creature, but above itself the Creator both of itself and of the body.
Ep100-155.2.32. 4. Potest igitur anima rationalis etiam temporali et corporali felicitate bene uti, si non se dederit creaturae, Creatore neglecto, sed eam potius felicitatem fecerit servire Creatori, qui et ipsam suae bonitatis abundantissima largitate donavit. Sicut enim bona sunt omnia quae creavit Deus, ab ipsa rationali creatura usque ad infimum corpus: ita bene agit in his anima rationalis, si ordinem servet, et distinguendo, eligendo, pendendo subdat minora maioribus, corporalia spiritalibus, inferiora superioribus, temporalia sempiternis; ne superiorum neglectu et appetitu inferiorum (quoniam hinc fit ipsa deterior) et se et corpus suum mittat in peius, sed potius ordinata caritate se et corpus suum convertat in melius. Cum enim sint omnes substantiae naturaliter bonae, ordo in eis laudatus honoratur, perversitas culpata damnatur. Nec efficit anima perverse utens creaturis, ut ordinationem effugiat Creatoris; quoniam si illa male utitur bonis, ille bene utitur etiam malis: ac per hoc illa perverse bonis utendo fit mala, ille ordinate etiam malis utendo permanet bonus. Qui enim iniuste se ordinat in peccatis, iuste ordinatur in poenis.
2. 4. The rational soul can, therefore, use even temporal and corporeal happiness well, if it does not give itself to the creature, the Creator being neglected, but rather makes that happiness serve the Creator, who bestowed it too by the most abundant largess of his goodness. For just as all the things which God created are good, from the rational creature itself to the lowest body: so the rational soul acts well in these things, if it keeps order, and, by distinguishing, choosing, and weighing, subjects the lesser to the greater, the corporeal to the spiritual, the lower to the higher, the temporal to the everlasting; lest, by neglect of the higher and appetite of the lower (since hence it becomes itself worse), it send both itself and its body into the worse, but rather, by ordered love, turn both itself and its body into the better. For since all substances are naturally good, order, praised in them, is honored, perversity, blamed, is condemned. Nor does the soul, by perversely using the creatures, bring it about that it escape the ordination of the Creator; since if it uses goods badly, he uses even bad things well: and through this, it, by perversely using goods, becomes bad, while he, by orderly using even bad things, remains good. For he who unjustly orders himself in sins is justly ordered in punishments.
Ep100-155.2.42. 5. Volens itaque Deus ostendere etiam terrenam temporalemque felicitatem suum donum esse, nec aliunde nisi ab ipso sperari oportere, prioribus saeculi temporibus dispensandum iudicavit Testamentum Vetus, quod pertineret ad hominem veterem, a quo ista vita necesse est incipiat. Sed illae felicitates patrum, Dei beneficio concessae praedicantur, quamvis ad istam vitam transitoriam pertinentes. Illa quippe terrena munera in manifesto promittebantur et tribuebantur; in occulto autem illis omnibus rebus Novum Testamentum figurate praenuntiabatur, et capiebatur intellegentia paucorum, quos eadem gratia prophetico munere dignos fecerat. Dispensabant ergo illi sancti pro congruentia temporis Testamentum Vetus, pertinebant vero ad Testamentum Novum. Nam et quando temporalem felicitatem agebant, aeternam veram et praeferendam intellegebant; et istam ministrabant in mysterio, ut illam consequerentur in praemio. Et si quando patiebantur adversa, ad hoc patiebantur, ut evidentissimo divino adiutorio liberati, glorificarent Deum, omnium bonorum largitorem, non solum sempiternorum quae pie sperabant, verum etiam temporalium quae prophetice gubernabant.
2. 5. God, then, wishing to show that even earthly and temporal happiness is his gift, and ought to be hoped from no other source than from him, judged that in the earlier times of the age the Old Testament should be dispensed, which would pertain to the old man, from whom this life must begin. But those happinesses of the fathers are proclaimed as granted by the benefit of God, although pertaining to this transitory life. For those earthly gifts were promised and bestowed in the manifest; but in the hidden, by all those things the New Testament was figuratively foretold, and was grasped by the understanding of a few, whom the same grace had made worthy by a prophetic gift. Those holy ones, then, dispensed, according to the suitability of the time, the Old Testament, but pertained to the New Testament. For even when they carried on temporal happiness, they understood the eternal, true and to be preferred; and they ministered this in mystery, that they might attain that in reward. And if at any time they suffered adverse things, they suffered them for this, that, freed by the most evident divine help, they might glorify God, the bestower of all goods, not only of the everlasting which they devoutly hoped, but even of the temporal which they prophetically governed.
Ep100-155.2.53. 6. Cum autem venit plenitudo temporis, ut gratia quae occultabatur in Veteri Testamento, iam revelaretur in Novo, misit Deus Filium suum, factum ex muliere; quo nomine, proprietate hebraicae linguae, omnis femina nuncupatur, sive viro intacta, sive iam mixta. Quem autem Filium miserit, fierique ex muliere voluerit, quantus ille Deus sit qui hanc humilitatem pro salute fidelium suscipere dignatus fuerit, ut agnoscas, nunc attende Evangelium: In principio erat Verbum, et Verbum erat apud Deum, et Deus erat Verbum: hoc erat in principio apud Deum. Omnia per ipsum facta sunt, et sine ipso factum est nihil. Quod factum est in ipso vita erat, et vita erat lux hominum, et lux in tenebris lucet, et tenebrae eam non comprehenderunt. Hic ergo Deus, Verbum Dei per quod facta sunt omnia, Filius Dei est, incommutabiliter manens, ubique praesens, nullo clausus loco, nec partiliter per cuncta diffusus, tamquam minorem partem habeat in minori loco, et in maiori maiorem, sed ubique totus, atque ita non absens etiam mentibus impiorum, quamvis eum non videant, sicut nec ista lux videtur oculis praesentata caecorum. Lucet ergo et in tenebris talibus, quales Apostolus significat ubi dicit: Fuistis aliquando tenebrae, nunc autem lux in Domino: sed eam tales tenebrae non comprehenderunt.
3. 6. But when the fullness of time came, that the grace which was hidden in the Old Testament might now be revealed in the New, God sent his Son, made of a woman; by which name, by the property of the Hebrew tongue, every female is named, whether untouched by a man, or already joined. But which Son he sent, and willed to be made of a woman, how great a God he is who deigned to undertake this humility for the salvation of the faithful, that you may recognize, now attend to the Gospel: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God: this was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was made nothing. What was made in him was life, and the life was the light of men, and the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it (John 1:1-5). This God, then, the Word of God through whom all things were made, is the Son of God, abiding unchangeably, present everywhere, enclosed by no place, nor partly diffused through all things, as though he had a lesser part in a lesser place, and a greater in a greater, but everywhere whole, and so not absent even from the minds of the impious, although they do not see him, just as neither is this light seen by the eyes presented to the blind. He shines, then, even in such darkness as the Apostle signifies where he says, You were once darkness, but now light in the Lord (Eph 5:8): but such darkness did not comprehend it.
Ep100-155.3.63. 7. Suscepit itaque hominem quem videre homines poterant, ut sanati per fidem, postea viderent quod tunc videre non poterant. Sed ne homo Christus eo ipso quo visibiliter apparebat, non crederetur et Deus, tantumque illi tribueretur quantum homini excellentissimae gratiae atque sapientiae, ideo fuit homo missus a Deo, cui nomen erat Ioannes. Hic venit in testimonium, ut testimonium perhiberet de lumine, ut omnes crederent per illum. Non erat ille lumen, sed ut testimonium perhiberet de lumine. Tantus enim homo debuit perhibere testimonium de illo qui non tantum homo, verum etiam Deus erat, ut de illo diceretur quod in natis mulierum nemo exsurgeret maior Ioanne Baptista: sic enim ille cui maior Ioannes testimonium perhibebat, intellegeretur hoc esse maior, quo non tantum homo, sed etiam Deus erat. Lumen ergo et Ioannes, sed tale lumen quali testimonium perhibet ipse Dominus, dicens. Ille erat lucerna ardens et lucens; quod et discipulis suis dixit: Vos estis lumen mundi: atque ut ostenderet quale lumen, secutus adiunxit. Nemo accendit lucernam, et ponit eam sub modio, sed super candelabrum, ut luceat omnibus qui in domo sunt: sic luceat lumen vestrum coram hominibus. Istae similitudines datae sunt, ut quantum possumus intellegamus, vel si hoc nondum possumus, sine ulla dubitatione credamus animam rationalem non esse naturam Dei; illa quippe incommutabilis est: sed tamen eam posse participando illuminari; lucernae quippe accendi indigent, et exstingui possunt. Ideo quod dicitur de Ioanne: Non erat ille lumen, ad illud respicit lumen quod non participando illuminatur, sed eius participatione illuminantur quae ab illo illuminantur.
3. 7. He took up, then, a man whom men could see, that, healed by faith, they might afterward see what they then could not see. But lest the man Christ, by the very thing in which he visibly appeared, be not believed also God, and only so much be attributed to him as to a man of most excellent grace and wisdom, therefore there was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came in testimony, to bear testimony of the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but that he might bear testimony of the light (John 1:6-8). For so great a man ought to bear testimony about him who was not only a man, but even God, that of him it was said that among those born of women none arose greater than John the Baptist (Matt 11:11): for thus he to whom the greater John bore testimony was understood to be greater by this, that he was not only a man, but even God. A light, then, was John too, but such a light as the Lord himself bears testimony to, saying, He was a burning and shining lamp (John 5:35); which he said also to his disciples: You are the light of the world: and to show what sort of light, he went on and added, No one lights a lamp and sets it under a bushel, but upon a candlestick, that it may shine for all who are in the house: so let your light shine before men (Matt 5:14-16). These likenesses are given, that we may understand, as far as we can, or, if we cannot yet, may believe without any doubt, that the rational soul is not the nature of God; for that is unchangeable: but that it can be illuminated by participation; for lamps need to be kindled, and can be extinguished. Therefore that which is said of John, "He was not the light," looks to that light which is illuminated not by participating, but by whose participation those things which are illuminated by it are illuminated.
Ep100-155.3.73. 8. Denique sequitur: Erat lumen verum: et tamquam quaereremus quomodo discerneretur lumen verum a lumine illuminato, id est Christus a Ioanne: Erat, inquit, lumen verum, quod illuminat omnem hominem venientem in hunc mundum. Si omnem hominem, ergo et Ioannem. Atque ut magis ostendat huius divinitatem longe praestantiore distantia: In hoc mundo, inquit, erat, et mundus per eum factus est, et mundus eum non cognovit. Non mundus, qui per eum factus est, eum non cognovit: neque enim habet vim cognoscendi eum, nisi rationalis creatura; quamvis etiam mundus iste visibilis per eum factus sit, hoc est coelum et terra: sed mundum non cognoscentem increpando, significavit infideles constitutos in mundo.
3. 8. Finally it follows: He was the true light: and as though we should ask how the true light is distinguished from the illuminated light—that is, Christ from John—He was, he says, the true light, which illuminates every man coming into this world (John 1:9). If every man, then John too. And to show the more, by a far more excellent distance, the divinity of this one: He was in this world, he says, and the world was made through him, and the world did not know him (John 1:10). Not the world which was made through him did not know him: for it does not have the power of knowing him, except the rational creature; although even this visible world was made through him, that is, heaven and earth: but by rebuking the world not knowing, he signified the unbelievers set in the world.
Ep100-155.3.83. 9. Deinde adiungit: In sua propria venit, et sui eum non receperunt: sive quia et ipsi infideles, in quantum homines sunt, eius sunt per quem creati sunt: sive suos proprie Iudaeos intellegi voluit, ex quibus naturam carnis assumpsit; nec tamen omnes eum non receperunt. Sequitur enim et dicit: Quotquot autem receperunt eum, dedit eis potestatem filios Dei fieri, credentibus in nomine eius, qui non ex sanguinibus, neque ex voluntate carnis, neque ex voluntate viri, sed ex Deo nati sunt. Haec est gratia Novi Testamenti, quod in Vetere latuit, nec tamen figuris obumbrantibus prophetari pronuntiarique cessavit, ut intellegat anima Deum suum, et gratia eius renascatur illi. Haec quippe nativitas spiritalis est, ideo non ex sanguinibus, non ex voluntate viri, neque ex voluntate carnis, sed ex Deo.
3. 9. Then he adds: He came into his own, and his own did not receive him (John 1:11): either because the unbelievers themselves too, insofar as they are men, are his through whom they were created; or he wished his own to be understood properly the Jews, from whom he took up the nature of the flesh; nor yet did all not receive him. For it follows and says: But as many as received him, he gave them power to become sons of God, to those believing in his name, who were born not of bloods, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God (John 1:12-13). This is the grace of the New Testament, which lay hidden in the Old, nor yet ceased to be prophesied and proclaimed by overshadowing figures, that the soul may understand its God, and by his grace be reborn to him. For this nativity is spiritual, therefore not of bloods, not of the will of man, nor of the will of the flesh, but of God.
Ep100-155.3.94. 10. Haec etiam adoptio vocatur. Eramus enim aliquid antequam essemus filii Dei, et accepimus beneficium, ut fieremus quod non eramus; sicut qui adoptatur, antequam adoptaretur nondum erat filius eius a quo adoptatur, iam tamen erat qui adoptaretur. Et ab hac generatione gratiae discernitur ille Filius, qui cum esset Filius Dei, venit ut fieret filius hominis, donaretque nobis qui eramus filii hominum, filios Dei fieri. Factus est quippe ille quod non erat, sed tamen aliquid aliud erat; et hoc ipsum aliquid Verbum Dei erat, per quod facta sunt omnia, et lumen verum quod illuminat omnem hominem venientem in hunc mundum, et Deus apud Deum. Nos quoque per eius gratiam facti sumus quod non eramus, id est filii Dei: sed tamen aliquid eramus, et hoc ipsum aliquid multo inferius, hoc est filii hominum. Descendit ergo ille ut nos ascenderemus, et manens in natura sua factus est particeps naturae nostrae, ut nos manentes in natura nostra efficeremur participes naturae ipsius. Non tamen sic: nam illum naturae nostrae participatio non fecit deteriorem; nos autem facit naturae illius participatio meliores.
4. 10. This too is called adoption. For we were something before we were sons of God, and we received the benefit that we might become what we were not; just as one who is adopted, before he was adopted, was not yet the son of him by whom he is adopted, yet was already one who might be adopted. And from this generation of grace is distinguished that Son who, when he was the Son of God, came to become the son of man, and to grant to us, who were sons of men, to become sons of God. For he became what he was not, but yet was something else; and this very something was the Word of God, through which all things were made, and the true light which illuminates every man coming into this world, and God with God. We too, by his grace, were made what we were not, that is, sons of God: but yet we were something, and this very something far lower, that is, sons of men. He descended, then, that we might ascend, and, abiding in his nature, was made a partaker of our nature, that we, abiding in our nature, might be made partakers of his nature. Yet not so: for the participation of our nature did not make him worse; but the participation of his nature makes us better.
Ep100-155.4.104. 11. Misit itaque Deus Filium suum factum ex muliere, factum sub Lege. Nam Legis sacramenta percepit, ut eos qui sub lege erant, redimeret, id est quos Lex reos tenebat occidente littera, dum praeceptum non impleretur, antequam vivificaret spiritus; quia caritas Dei quae praeceptum implet, diffunditur in cordibus nostris per Spiritum sanctum qui datus est nobis. Proinde cum dixisset: Ut eos qui sub Lege erant redimeret, continuo subiunxit: Ut adoptionem filiorum reciperemus; ut videlicet huius gratiam beneficii discerneret ab illa Filii natura, qui missus est Filius, non per adoptionem factus, sed semper genitus Filius, ut participata natura filiorum hominum, ad participandam etiam suam naturam adoptaret filios hominum. Quapropter etiam cum dixisset: Dedit eis potestatem filios Dei fieri, modumque adiunxisset, ne carnalis intellegeretur nativitas, quod scilicet eis id praestiterit, qui credunt in nomine eius, et per gratiam renascuntur spiritalem, non ex sanguinibus, neque ex voluntate viri, neque ex voluntate carnis, sed ex Deo; mox commendavit quasi huius vicissitudinis sacramentum. Tamquam enim mirati tantum bonum non auderemus optare, statim subiunxit: Et Verbum caro factum est, et habitavit in nobis (quod unum est ex quinque illis, quae tibi exponi voluisti); tamquam diceret: O homines! nolite desperare vos fieri posse filios Dei; quia et ipse Filius Dei, hoc est, Verbum Dei, caro factum est, et habitavit in nobis. Reddite vicem; efficimini spiritus, et habitate in illo qui caro factus est, et habitavit in vobis. Neque enim iam desperandum est participatione Verbi fieri posse homines filios Dei, quando Filius Dei participatione carnis factus est filius hominis.
4. 11. God, therefore, sent his Son, made of a woman, made under the Law. For he received the sacraments of the Law, that he might redeem those who were under the Law (Gal 4:4-5)—that is, those whom the Law held guilty by the killing letter, while the precept was not fulfilled, before the spirit gave life; because the love of God, which fulfills the precept, is poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. Accordingly, when he had said, That he might redeem those who were under the Law, he at once subjoined, That we might receive the adoption of sons (Gal 4:5); that, namely, he might distinguish the grace of this benefit from that nature of the Son, who was sent as Son, not made by adoption, but always begotten Son, so that, the nature of the sons of men being shared, he might adopt the sons of men to share his own nature too. Wherefore, even when he had said, He gave them power to become sons of God, and had added the manner, lest a carnal nativity be understood—namely that he granted this to those who believe in his name, and through grace are reborn spiritually, not of bloods, nor of the will of man, nor of the will of the flesh, but of God—he soon commended, as it were, the sacrament of this exchange. For as though, marveling at so great a good, we would not dare to wish it, he at once subjoined: And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (John 1:14) (which is one of those five things which you wished to be expounded to you); as though he said: O men! do not despair that you can be made sons of God; because the Son of God himself, that is, the Word of God, was made flesh, and dwelt among us. Render the exchange; be made spirit, and dwell in him who was made flesh, and dwelt in you. For it is no longer to be despaired that men can be made sons of God by participation of the Word, when the Son of God was made son of man by participation of the flesh.
Ep100-155.4.114. 12. Nos itaque mutabiles in melius commutati, participes efficimur Verbi: Verbum autem incommutabile nihil in deterius commutatum, particeps carnis effectum est rationali anima mediante. Neque enim homo Christus, ut Apollinaristae haeretici putaverunt, aut non habuit animam, aut non habuit rationalem; sed more suo Scriptura, ut Christi humilitatem magis ostenderet, ne carnis nomen quasi indignum aliquid refugisse videretur, carnem pro homine posuit: neque enim quia scriptum est: Videbit omnis caro salutare Dei, animae ibi non sunt intellegendae. Nihil proinde aliud dictum est: Verbum caro factum est, quam si diceretur: Filius Dei filius hominis factus est. Qui cum in forma Dei esset, sicut dicit Apostolus, non rapinam arbitratus est esse aequalis Deo; neque enim usurpationis erat, ut rapina diceretur, sed naturae inerat, ut esset aequalis: semetipsum tamen exinanivit, non formam Dei amittens, sed formam servi suscipiens; humiliavit semetipsum, factus obediens usque ad mortem, mortem autem crucis. Vides quemadmodum eumdem hominem, quem Deum, commendat, ut persona una sit; ne, non Trinitas, sed quaternitas inducatur. Sicut enim non augetur numerus personarum, cum accedit caro animae, ut sit unus homo; sic non augetur numerus personarum, cum accedit homo Verbo, ut sit unus Christus. Legitur itaque: Verbum caro factum est, ut intellegamus huius personae singularitatem, non ut suspicemur in carnem mutatam divinitatem.
4. 12. We, then, changeable, being changed for the better, are made partakers of the Word: but the Word, unchangeable, in nothing changed for the worse, was made a partaker of the flesh, the rational soul mediating. For the man Christ neither, as the Apollinarist heretics supposed, had no soul, nor had a non-rational one; but Scripture, after its own manner—to show the more Christ's humility, lest it seem to have shrunk from the name of the flesh as from something unworthy—set "flesh" for "man": for not, because it is written, All flesh will see the salvation of God (Luke 3:6; Isa 40:5), are souls there not to be understood. Accordingly, nothing else was said by "The Word was made flesh" than if it were said, "The Son of God was made son of man." Who, when he was in the form of God, as the Apostle says, did not think it robbery to be equal to God; for it was not of usurpation, that it should be called robbery, but it was inherent in his nature that he should be equal: yet he emptied himself—not losing the form of God, but taking the form of a servant; he humbled himself, made obedient unto death, even the death of the cross (Phil 2:6-8). You see how he commends the same one a man, whom God, so that there may be one person; lest, not a Trinity, but a quaternity be introduced. For just as the number of persons is not increased when the flesh is joined to the soul, that there may be one man; so the number of persons is not increased when the man is joined to the Word, that there may be one Christ. And so it is read, "The Word was made flesh," that we may understand the singularity of this person, not that we suspect the divinity changed into flesh.
Ep100-155.4.125. 13. Itaque Christus homo, ut per eum revelaretur Novi gratia Testamenti, quae non ad temporalem, sed ad aeternam vitam pertinet, non utique terrena felicitate commendandus fuit. Inde subiectio, inde passio, inde flagella, sputa, contumeliae, crux, vulnera, et tamquam superato subiectoque mors ipsa, ut fideles eius discerent quale pietatis praemium ab illo cuius filii facti essent, petere atque sperare deberent; ne ad hoc pro magno serviretur Deo, ut terrenam felicitatem adipisci quaererent qui servirent ipsi, abicientes et conculcantes fidem suam, aestimando eam mercede vilissima: unde beneficentissima providentia omnipotens Deus terrenam felicitatem concessit et impiis, ne pro magno quaereretur a bonis. Hinc ille psalmus septuagesimus et secundus inducit hominem poenitentem, quod aliquando corde non recto, Deo pro hac mercede servierit, qua cum pollere atque excellere impios videret, turbatus coeperat cogitare quod Deus humana non curet. Et cum ab ista cogitatione eum sanctorum ad Deum pertinentium revocaret auctoritas, suscepit atque intendit agnoscere tam grande secretum, quod ei laboranti non patefactum est, donec intraret sanctuarium Dei, et intellegeret in novissima; hoc est, donec accepto Spiritu sancto disceret desiderare potiora, et prospiceret quae poena futura sit impiis, etiam qui fenea quadam felicitate temporaliter floruissent. Hunc psalmum septuagesimum secundum, nocte qua illucescebat solemnitas beatissimi Cypriani per ministerium nostrum expositum, lege et diligenter adverte.
5. 13. And so Christ, a man, that through him the grace of the New Testament might be revealed—which pertains not to temporal but to eternal life—surely was not to be commended by earthly happiness. Hence the subjection, hence the suffering, hence the scourgings, spittings, insults, the cross, the wounds, and, as though overcome and subjected, death itself, that his faithful might learn what reward of piety they ought to ask and hope from him whose sons they had been made; lest for this God should be served as a great thing, that those serving him should seek to attain earthly happiness, casting away and trampling their faith, esteeming it at the cheapest price: whence, by a most beneficent providence, the omnipotent God granted earthly happiness even to the impious, lest it be sought as a great thing by the good. Hence that seventy-third psalm introduces a man repenting that at some time, with a heart not right, he had served God for this reward, by which, when he saw the impious prevail and excel, disturbed, he had begun to think that God does not care for human affairs. And when the authority of the saints pertaining to God recalled him from that thought, he undertook and gave his mind to recognize so great a secret, which was not laid open to him laboring, until he entered the sanctuary of God, and understood concerning the last things; that is, until, the Holy Spirit being received, he learned to desire better things, and foresaw what punishment is to be for the impious, even those who had temporally flourished with a certain straw-like happiness. This seventy-third psalm—expounded by our ministry on the night on which the solemnity of most blessed Cyprian dawned—read and diligently attend to.
Ep100-155.5.135. 14. Proinde homo Christus idemque Deus Christus, cuius misericordissima humanitate, atque in cuius forma servili discere deberemus quid in hac vita contemnendum, et quid in alia sperandum esset, in ipsa passione, in qua sibi eius inimici magni victoresque videbantur, suscepit vocem infirmitatis nostrae, qua simul crucifigebatur vetus homo noster, ut evacuaretur corpus peccati, et dixit: Deus meus, Deus meus, ut quid me dereliquisti? Et hoc unum de quinque propositis tuis. Sic incipit psalmus vicesimus primus, qui de passione ipsius, et revelatione gratiae quam fidelibus faciendis liberandisque attulit, in prophetia tanto ante cantatus est.
5. 14. Accordingly, Christ the man and the same Christ God—by whose most merciful humanity, and in whose servile form, we ought to learn what in this life is to be despised, and what in the other is to be hoped—in the very passion, in which his enemies seemed to themselves great and victors, took up the voice of our weakness, by which our old man was at the same time crucified, that the body of sin might be made void, and said, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? (Matt 27:46; Ps 22:1 (21:2)) And this is one of your five proposed. So begins the twenty-second psalm, which, about his passion, and the revelation of the grace which he brought for making and freeing the faithful, was sung in prophecy so long before.
Ep100-155.5.146. 15. Proinde eumdem psalmum, cuius prophetiam Dominus ad se pertinere demonstrans, eius primum versum exclamavit, cum penderet in ligno, commemorando exponendoque percurram, ut ex hoc intellegas quemadmodum gratia Testamenti Novi nec eo tempore tacebatur, quando in Vetere velabatur. Dicitur enim ex persona Christi, quod ad formam servi attinet, in qua portabatur nostra infirmitas. Dixit enim et de illo Isaias: Ille infirmitates nostras portat, et pro nobis in doloribus est. Ex huius igitur infirmitatis voce, de qua Paulus in eo quod petebat non exauditus, et ideo quodam modo derelictus, audit tamen a Domino: Sufficit tibi gratia mea; nam virtus in infirmitate perficitur: ex voce ergo huius infirmitatis nostrae, quam in se transfiguravit caput nostrum, dicitur in hoc psalmo: Deus meus, Deus meus, respice in me; quare me dereliquisti? In eo quippe derelinquitur deprecans, in quo non exauditur. Hanc in se vocem transfiguravit Iesus, vocem scilicet corporis sui, hoc est Ecclesiae suae a vetere homine in novum reformandae; vocem scilicet infirmitatis suae humanae, cui deneganda fuerant bona Veteris Testamenti, ut bona Novi Testamenti optare atque sperare iam disceret.
6. 15. Accordingly, that same psalm—whose prophecy the Lord, showing it to pertain to himself, cried out its first verse when he hung on the wood—I will run through by recalling and expounding it, that from this you may understand how the grace of the New Testament was not kept silent even at that time when it was veiled in the Old. For it is said from the person of Christ, as far as pertains to the form of a servant, in which our weakness was borne. For Isaiah too said of him, He bears our weaknesses, and is in sorrows for us (Isa 53:4). From the voice, then, of this weakness—about which Paul, in that which he sought, was not heard, and therefore in a manner forsaken, yet hears from the Lord, My grace is sufficient for you; for power is perfected in weakness (2 Cor 12:9)—from the voice, then, of this our weakness, which our head transfigured into himself, it is said in this psalm, My God, my God, look upon me; why have you forsaken me? (Ps 22:1 (21:2)) For he is forsaken in his praying, in whom he is not heard. This voice Jesus transfigured into himself, namely the voice of his body, that is, of his Church, to be reformed from the old man into the new; namely the voice of his human weakness, to which the goods of the Old Testament had to be denied, that it might now learn to wish for and hope the goods of the New Testament.
Ep100-155.6.156. 16. In illis autem Veteris Testamenti bonis, ad veterem hominem pertinentibus, praecipue concupiscitur vitae huius productio temporalis, ut aliquanto diutius teneatur, quia semper non potest. Ideo diem mortis omnes quidem affuturum sciunt, et eum tamen omnes aut pene omnes differre conantur, etiam qui post mortem se beatius credunt esse victuros: tantam habet vim carnis et animae dulce consortium. Nemo enim umquam carnem suam odio habuit: et propterea non vult anima vel ad tempus ab eius etiam infirmitate discedere, quamvis eam se in fine sine infirmitate in aeternum recepturam esse confidat. Proinde mente serviens legi Dei, carne autem trahens desideria peccati, quibus obedire vetat Apostolus, mentis quidem ratione concupiscit homo pius dissolvi, et esse cum Christo; sed id sensu carnis recusat et refugit, et si fieri possit, non vult exspoliari, sed supervestiri, ut absorbeatur quod mortale est a vita, id est, ut ab infirmitate ad immortalitatem etiam ipsum corpus sine morte media transferatur.
6. 16. But among those goods of the Old Testament, pertaining to the old man, there is especially coveted the temporal prolongation of this life, that it be held somewhat longer, because it cannot be held always. Therefore all indeed know that the day of death will come, and yet all, or nearly all, try to defer it, even those who believe that they will live more blessedly after death: so great force has the sweet fellowship of flesh and soul. For no one ever hated his own flesh: and therefore the soul is unwilling even for a time to depart from even its weakness, although it is confident that it will, at the end, receive it back forever without weakness. Accordingly, serving the law of God with the mind, but with the flesh drawing the desires of sin, which the Apostle forbids to obey, the devout man indeed by the reason of the mind covets to be dissolved and to be with Christ; but by the sense of the flesh refuses and flees this, and, if it could be, does not wish to be unclothed, but clothed upon, that what is mortal may be absorbed by life—that is, that even the body itself be transferred from weakness to immortality without death intervening.
Ep100-155.6.166. 17. Sed haec verba, quibus humanus dies et vitae huius prolixitas concupiscitur, verba sunt delictorum, et longe sunt ab ea salute cuius nondum rem, sed iam spem gerimus; de qua scriptum est: Quia spe salvi facti sumus: spes autem quae videtur non est spes. Ideoque et in isto psalmo cum dixisset: Deus meus, Deus meus, respice in me; quare me dereliquisti? continuo subiungit: Longe a salute mea verba delictorum meorum; id est, haec verba delictorum meorum sunt, et longe ab illa salute mea sunt, quam mihi non Veteris, sed Novi Testamenti gratia pollicetur. Quamquam etiam sic distingui potest: Deus meus, Deus meus, respice in me; quare me dereliquisti longe a salute mea? tamquam diceret, Relinquendo me, hoc est, non me exaudiendo, longe factus es a salute mea, praesenti scilicet salute huius vitae: ut alius sensus sit, verba delictorum meorum, id est, ista quae dixi, verba sunt delictorum meorum, quia verba sunt carnalium desideriorum.
6. 17. But these words, by which the human day and the prolongation of this life are coveted, are the words of offenses, and are far from that salvation of which we do not yet bear the thing, but already the hope; of which it is written, For by hope we have been saved: but hope that is seen is not hope (Rom 8:24). And therefore in this psalm too, when he had said, My God, my God, look upon me; why have you forsaken me? he at once subjoins, Far from my salvation are the words of my offenses (Ps 22:1 (21:2)); that is, these are the words of my offenses, and they are far from that salvation of mine which not the grace of the Old, but of the New Testament promises me. Although it can also be distinguished thus: My God, my God, look upon me; why have you forsaken me, far from my salvation? as though he said, By forsaking me—that is, by not hearing me—you have been made far from my salvation, namely the present salvation of this life: so that another sense may be, "the words of my offenses," that is, these things which I have said are the words of my offenses, because they are the words of carnal desires.
Ep100-155.6.176. 18. Haec ex persona sui corporis Christus dicit, quod est Ecclesia. Haec ex persona dicit infirmitatis carnis peccati, quam transfiguravit in eam quam sumpsit ex Virgine, similitudinem carnis peccati. Haec Sponsus ex persona sponsae loquitur, quia univit eam sibi quodam modo. Et apud Isaiam, ubi dicit: Sicut sponso alligavit mihi mitram, et sicut sponsam ornavit me ornamento: alligavit mihi, et ornavit me, tamquam unius vox est, et tamen sponsum et sponsam Christum intellegimus et Ecclesiam. Sed, erunt duo in carne una; sacramentum magnum, dicit Apostolus, in Christo et in Ecclesia: igitur non iam duo, sed una caro. Si ergo caro una, profecto competenter etiam vox una. Quid hic quaeris, humana infirmitas, vocem Verbi per quod facta sunt omnia? Audi potius vocem carnis quae facta est inter omnia; quoniam Verbum caro factum est, et habitavit in nobis. Audi potius medicinae vocem, qua sanaris ut videas Deum, quem tibi videndum distulit; hominem autem videndum attulit, occidendum obtulit, imitandum contulit, credendum transtulit, ut ista fide ad videndum Deum mentis oculus sanaretur. Quid ergo dedignamur audire vocem corporis ex ore capitis? Ecclesia in illo patiebatur, quando pro Ecclesia patiebatur: sicut etiam in Ecclesia patiebatur ipse, quando pro illo Ecclesia patiebatur. Nam sicut audivimus Ecclesiae vocem in Christo patientis: Deus, Deus meus, respice, etc., sic etiam audivimus Christi vocem in Ecclesia patientis: Saule, Saule, quid me persequeris.
6. 18. These things Christ says from the person of his body, which is the Church. These he says from the person of the weakness of the flesh of sin, which he transfigured into that likeness of the flesh of sin which he took up from the Virgin. These the Bridegroom speaks from the person of the bride, because he has in a manner united her to himself. And in Isaiah, where he says, As a bridegroom he has bound a miter on me, and as a bride he has adorned me with an ornament (Isa 61:10): "he has bound on me, and adorned me," is, as it were, the voice of one, and yet we understand both the bridegroom and the bride, Christ and the Church. But, they will be two in one flesh; a great sacrament, says the Apostle, in Christ and in the Church (Eph 5:31-32): therefore now not two, but one flesh. If, then, the flesh is one, surely fittingly the voice too is one. Why do you seek here, O human weakness, the voice of the Word through whom all things were made? Hear rather the voice of the flesh which was made among all things; since the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us. Hear rather the voice of the medicine, by which you are healed so as to see God, whom he deferred to be seen by you; but a man he presented to be seen, offered to be killed, conferred to be imitated, transferred to be believed, that by this faith the eye of the mind might be healed for seeing God. Why, then, do we disdain to hear the voice of the body from the mouth of the head? The Church suffered in him, when he suffered for the Church: just as he too suffered in the Church, when the Church suffered for him. For just as we have heard the voice of the Church suffering in Christ, God, my God, look, and so on, so too we have heard the voice of Christ suffering in the Church, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? (Acts 9:4)
Ep100-155.6.187. 19. Cum itaque non exaudimur ad temporalia bona retinenda vel adipiscenda, quando pro his deprecamur Deum, in eo quod nos non exaudit, derelinquit nos: sed ad potiora, quae vult ut intellegamus, et praeferamus, et concupiscamus, non nos derelinquit. Unde sequitur Psalmus, et dicit: Clamavi ad te per diem, nec exaudies; et nocte: etiam hic subauditur, nec exaudies. Sed vide quid adiungit: et non ad insipientiam mihi. Hoc ergo dicit: Non me quidem exaudies clamantem per diem, id est in rebus prosperis, ut eas non amittam; et nocte, id est in rebus adversis, ut prospera quae amissa sunt, redeant: verum hoc mihi non ad insipientiam facies; sed potius ut sapiam quid iam per Novi Testamenti gratiam a te exspectare, quid desiderare, quid poscere debeam. Clamo quippe ego ut mihi bona temporalia non auferantur: Tu autem in sancto habitas, laus Israel. Nolo ut derelinquas concupiscentiam meam, qua carnalem felicitatem requiro. Verum haec est in sordibus vetustatis, tu autem quaeris munditiam novitatis; non exaudiendo istam cupiditatem relinquis, quia caritatem in qua habites, requiris: caritas autem Dei diffunditur in cordibus nostris, sed per Spiritum sanctum qui datus est nobis. Ideo in sancto habitas, laus Israel; laus videntium te, quia non in se laudantur, sed in te. Quid enim habent quod non acceperunt ? ut qui gloriatur, in Domino glorietur.
7. 19. And so, when we are not heard for retaining or obtaining temporal goods, when for these we entreat God, in that he does not hear us, he forsakes us: but for the better things, which he wishes us to understand, and prefer, and desire, he does not forsake us. Whence the Psalm follows and says, I cried to you by day, and you will not hear; and by night: here too is understood, "and you will not hear." But see what he adds: and not unto unwisdom for me (Ps 22:2 (21:3)). He says this, then: "You will indeed not hear me crying by day"—that is, in prosperous things, that I not lose them; "and by night"—that is, in adverse things, that the prosperous things which were lost may return: but this you will do for me not unto unwisdom; but rather that I may be wise what I ought now, through the grace of the New Testament, to await from you, what to desire, what to ask. For I cry that temporal goods be not taken from me: But you dwell in the holy place, the praise of Israel (Ps 22:3 (21:4)). I do not wish you to forsake my concupiscence, by which I seek carnal happiness. But this is in the squalor of the old; you seek the cleanness of the new; by not hearing this desire you forsake it, because you seek the love in which you may dwell: but the love of God is poured out in our hearts, yet through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. Therefore you dwell in the holy place, the praise of Israel; the praise of those who see you, because they are praised not in themselves, but in you. For what do they have that they have not received (1 Cor 4:7)? so that he who glories, let him glory in the Lord (1 Cor 1:31).
Ep100-155.7.197. 20. Haec est gratia Novi Testamenti: nam in Veteri Testamento, quando commendabas nonnisi a te peti sperarique debere etiam ipsam terrenam temporalemque felicitatem: In te speraverunt patres nostri; speraverunt, et eruisti eos. Ad te clamaverunt, et salvi facti sunt; in te speraverunt, et non sunt confusi. Illos quippe patres inter inimicos suos viventes, et divitiis implesti, et ab hostibus eruisti, gloriosasque victorias reportare fecisti, et de diversis eos mortibus liberasti. Pro alio subiecisti, ne feriretur, arietem. Alium de putredine sanum, et ei dupla quae amiserat reddidisti. Alium inter leones esurientes illaesum integrumque servasti. Aliorum inter flammas deambulantium grata voce laudatus es. Tale aliquid in Christo exspectabant fieri Iudaei, unde probarent si vere Filius Dei esset. Ex eorum persona et in libro Sapientiae dicitur: Morte turpissima condemnemus illum: erit enim respectus in sermonibus ipsius. Si enim verus Dei Filius est, suscipiet eum et liberabit eum de manibus contrariorum. Haec, inquit, cogitaverunt et erraverunt: excaecavit enim eos malitia eorum. Attendentes quippe tempus Veteris Testamenti, et illam patrum etiam temporalem felicitatem, in qua illis exhibenda demonstravit Deus etiam talia dona sua esse, non viderunt iam esse tempus quo revelaretur in Christo bona aeterna proprie Deum praestare iustis, qui bona temporalia praestat et impiis.
7. 20. This is the grace of the New Testament: for in the Old Testament, when you commended that even earthly and temporal happiness itself ought to be sought and hoped from none but you: In you our fathers hoped; they hoped, and you rescued them. To you they cried, and they were saved; in you they hoped, and were not put to confusion (Ps 22:4-5 (21:5-6)). For those fathers, living among their enemies, you both filled with riches, and rescued from foes, and made to bring back glorious victories, and freed from various deaths. For one you substituted a ram, that he not be struck. Another you restored sound from rottenness, and rendered him double what he had lost. Another, among hungry lions, you kept unharmed and whole. By others, walking among flames, you were praised with a pleasing voice. Something of the sort the Jews expected to happen in Christ, whence they might prove whether he were truly the Son of God. From their person it is said even in the book of Wisdom: Let us condemn him with a most shameful death: for there will be regard in his words. For if he is the true Son of God, he will take him up and free him from the hands of his adversaries (Wis 2:20, 18). These things, it says, they thought, and erred: for their malice blinded them (Wis 2:21). For attending to the time of the Old Testament, and that even temporal happiness of the fathers, in which God showed that such gifts too of his were to be shown them, they did not see that it was now the time in which it should be revealed in Christ that God grants eternal goods properly to the just, who grants temporal goods even to the impious.
Ep100-155.7.208. 21. Denique cum dixisset: In te speraverunt patres nostri; speraverunt, et eruisti eos. Ad te clamaverunt, et salvi facti sunt; in te speraverunt, et non sunt confusi; vide quid adiunxerit: Ego autem sum vermis et non homo. Quod videtur quidem ad commendandam humilitatem simpliciter dictum, ut se in oculis persequentium, abiectissimum quiddam et contemptissimum demonstraret: sed non est contemnenda altitudo secreti profunditasque mysterii, praesertim in eis verbis, quae tanto Salvatori in praedicatione prophetiae coaptantur. Dictus est hinc sensus elegantissimus a prioribus, ideo se hoc nomine Christum praenuntiari voluisse, quia vermis de carne sine concubitu nascitur, sicut ille natus est de virgine. Sed in libro suo Iob, cum de creaturis coelestibus loqueretur quod in Dei conspectu etiam vix ipsae mundae sint: Quanto magis, inquit, homo putredo et filius hominis vermis! Putredinem pro mortalitate posuit, quae iam velut conceptam gerit moriendi necessitatem, in quam peccando contrusus est homo; et filium hominis vermem natum de putredine quasi putrem, hoc est de mortalitate mortalem. Ac per hoc in his verbis Psalmi, alium sensum nos quaerere admonuit, illo quidem salvo neque reprobato: ut non solum scrutemur quod ait: Ego autem sum vermis, sed etiam illud quod addidit, et non homo; secundum illud quod de libro Iob commemoravi, tamquam diceret, Ego autem sum filius hominis, et non homo: non quod homo non sit Christus, de quo dicit Apostolus: Unus est mediator Dei et hominum, homo Christus Iesus; omnis enim filius hominis, homo est; sed ad quemdam respicit sensus iste, qui sic homo fuerit, ut non esset filius hominis, id est Adam. Forte ergo sic est dictum: Ego autem sum vermis, et non homo, id est, ego autem sum filius hominis, et non homo: tamquam diceretur: Ego autem sum Christus, in quo omnes vivificantur; non Adam, in quo omnes moriuntur.
8. 21. Finally, when he had said, In you our fathers hoped; they hoped, and you rescued them. To you they cried, and they were saved; in you they hoped, and were not put to confusion, see what he added: But I am a worm and not a man (Ps 22:6 (21:7)). This seems indeed to be said simply for commending humility, that he might show himself, in the eyes of his persecutors, something most abject and most contemned: but the height of the secret and the profundity of the mystery is not to be despised, especially in those words which are fitted to so great a Savior in the proclamation of prophecy. From this a most elegant sense was stated by earlier writers: that he willed himself, Christ, to be foretold by this name, because a worm is born of flesh without intercourse, just as he was born of a virgin. But in his book Job, when he was speaking of heavenly creatures, that in God's sight scarcely even they themselves are clean: How much more, he says, is man rottenness, and the son of man a worm! (Job 25:6) He set "rottenness" for mortality, which now bears, as it were conceived, the necessity of dying, into which man, by sinning, was thrust down; and "the son of man" a worm born of rottenness, as rotten—that is, mortal from mortality. And through this, in these words of the Psalm, he admonished us to seek another sense, that one indeed being safe and not rejected: so that we should search not only what he says, "But I am a worm," but also that which he added, "and not a man"; according to that which I recalled from the book of Job, as though he said, "But I am the son of man, and not a man": not that Christ is not a man, of whom the Apostle says, There is one mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus (1 Tim 2:5); for every son of man is a man; but this sense looks to a certain one who was so a man that he was not a son of man—that is, Adam. Perhaps, then, it is so said: "But I am a worm, and not a man," that is, "But I am the son of man, and not a man": as though it were said, "But I am Christ, in whom all are made alive; not Adam, in whom all die."
Ep100-155.8.218. 22. Ac per hoc, homines, discite per gratiam Novi Testamenti iam vitam concupiscere sempiternam. Quid pro magno ita vos vultis a Domino de morte liberari, sicut liberati sunt patres vestri, quando commendabat Deus etiam terrenae felicitatis praeter se non esse alium largitorem? Illa felicitas ad veterem hominem pertinet, quae vetustas ab Adam coepit: Ego autem sum vermis, et non homo; Christus, non Adam. A veteri veteres fuistis, a novo novi estote: ab Adam homines, a Christo filii hominum. Non enim sine causa familiarissime Dominus in Evangelio se filium hominis dicit magis quam hominem: nec sine causa in alio psalmo: Homines, inquit, et iumenta salvos facies, Domine; sicut multiplicata est misericordia tua, Deus. Abs te quippe etiam ista salus hominibus iumentisque communis. Sed habent aliam homines novi propriam quamdam et a iumentorum consortio separatam, quae ad Novum pertinet Testamentum: habent omnino; nam de illa ibidem sequitur et dicit: Filii autem hominum sub tegmine alarum tuarum sperabunt. Inebriabuntur ab ubertate domus tuae, et torrente voluptatis tuae potabis eos. Quoniam apud te est fons vitae, et in lumine tuo videbimus lumen; posterius dixit: Filii autem hominum, tamquam distinguens ab hominibus filios hominum. In illa quippe felicitate eius salutis quae communis est hominibus et iumentis, eo nomine illos appellare voluit, quo demonstrarentur ad illum primum hominem pertinere, quo vetustas coepit et mors, qui sic fuit homo, ut non esset filius hominis. Istis autem posterioribus, qui sperant aliam felicitatem, et fontis vitae ineffabilem voluptatem, et sempiterni luminis lumen, hoc nomen imposuit, quo se familiarius appellari voluit Dominus eorum in quos talis gratia revelata est, eoque filios hominum potius quam homines appellavit.
8. 22. And through this, O men, learn, through the grace of the New Testament, now to covet everlasting life. Why do you wish, as a great thing, to be so freed by the Lord from death as your fathers were freed, when God commended that of earthly happiness too there is no other bestower than himself? That happiness pertains to the old man, which oldness began from Adam: But I am a worm, and not a man; Christ, not Adam. From the old you were old; from the new be new: from Adam men, from Christ sons of men. For not without cause does the Lord in the Gospel most familiarly call himself son of man rather than man: nor without cause in another psalm: Men and beasts you will save, O Lord; as your mercy is multiplied, O God (Ps 36:6-7 (35:7-8)). For from you too is this salvation common to men and beasts. But new men have another, a certain proper salvation, separated from the fellowship of beasts, which pertains to the New Testament: they have it altogether; for of it there it follows and says, But the sons of men will hope under the cover of your wings. They will be inebriated by the abundance of your house, and you will give them to drink of the torrent of your pleasure. For with you is the fount of life, and in your light we will see light (Ps 36:7-9 (35:8-10)); he said afterward, "But the sons of men," as if distinguishing the sons of men from men. For in that happiness of the salvation which is common to men and beasts, he wished to call them by that name by which they might be shown to pertain to that first man, by whom oldness and death began, who was so a man that he was not a son of man. But on these latter, who hope for another happiness, and the ineffable pleasure of the fount of life, and the light of the everlasting light, he imposed this name, by which the Lord wished himself to be more familiarly called by those into whom such grace was revealed, and therefore called them sons of men rather than men.
Ep100-155.8.228. 23. Non autem existimes quasi locutionis regulam figi perpetua lege servandam, ut ubicumque legeris homines, aut filios hominum, secundum hanc distinctionem semper intellegas: sed ut se habuerit circumstantia lectionis, unde sensus, si patet, hauritur; si latet, eruitur. Sicut in hoc loco psalmi huius, quem non moveat distinctionis intentio? cum ille qui dixerat: In te speraverunt patres nostri, et eruisti eos. Ad te clamaverunt, et salvi facti sunt; in te speraverunt, et non sunt confusi, subiungit: Ego autem: non enim ait sic, Et ego; sed: Ego autem. Quid ergo iste qui se ita distinguit? Ego autem sum vermis, inquit, et non homo; tamquam illis quos exaudisti, et eruisti, eam commendares felicitatem quae ad Vetus pertinens Testamentum, homini veteri tribuenda esset, qui coepit ab Adam: Ego autem sum vermis; hoc est filius hominis, non homo, sicut ille homo qui non fuit filius hominis.
8. 23. But do not think that, as it were, a rule of speech is fixed, to be kept by a perpetual law, so that wherever you read "men" or "sons of men," you always understand according to this distinction: but as the context of the reading is, whence the sense, if it lies open, is drawn; if it lies hidden, is dug out. As in this place of this psalm, whom would not the intention of the distinction move? When he who had said, In you our fathers hoped, and you rescued them. To you they cried, and they were saved; in you they hoped, and were not put to confusion, subjoins: "But I": for he does not say so, "And I," but "But I." What, then, is this one who so distinguishes himself? But I am a worm, he says, and not a man; as though to those whom you heard and rescued you commended that happiness which, pertaining to the Old Testament, was to be assigned to the old man, who began from Adam: "But I am a worm"—that is, son of man, not a man, like that man who was not a son of man.
Ep100-155.8.239. 24. Ac per hoc et quod sequitur: Opprobrium hominum, et abiectio plebis. Omnes qui conspiciebant me, subsannabant me, et locuti sunt labiis, et moverunt caput. Speravit in Deum, eruat eum, salvum faciat eum, quoniam vult eum. Hoc in labiis, non in corde dixerunt, insultando quod non fieret, non credendo quod futurum esset. Factum est autem et hoc, sed sicut fieri oportebat in filio hominis, in quo spes aeternae vitae fuerat revelanda ad Novum pertinens Testamentum, non sicut illi exspectabant; et quia fieri non videbant, tamquam superato insultabant, pertinentes ad Testamentum Vetus et hominem in quo omnes moriuntur, non ad filium hominis in quo omnes vivificabuntur. Mortem quippe intulit homo sibi filioque hominis: vitam vero attulit homini moriens et resurgens Filius hominis, opprobrium hominum et abiectio plebis usque ad mortem. Hoc enim voluit pati in conspectu inimicorum, quo eum tamquam derelictum putarent, ut gratia commendaretur Novi Testamenti, qua disceremus aliam quaerere felicitatem, quae nunc est in fide, postea vero erit in specie. Quamdiu enim sumus in corpore, ait Apostolus, peregrinamur a Domino; per fidem enim ambulamus, non per speciem: et ideo nunc in spe, tunc in re.
9. 24. And through this, that too which follows: The reproach of men, and the outcast of the people. All who saw me mocked me, and spoke with their lips, and shook their head. He hoped in God, let him rescue him, let him save him, since he wants him (Ps 22:6-8 (21:7-9)). This they said with their lips, not in their heart, insulting that it was not done, not believing that it would be. But this too was done, yet as it behooved to be done in the son of man, in whom the hope of eternal life was to be revealed, pertaining to the New Testament, not as those expected; and because they did not see it done, they insulted him as though overcome, pertaining to the Old Testament and to the man in whom all die, not to the son of man in whom all will be made alive. For man brought death upon himself and upon the son of man: but life the Son of man brought to man, by dying and rising, the reproach of men and the outcast of the people unto death. For he willed to suffer this in the sight of his enemies, by which they might think him as it were forsaken, that the grace of the New Testament might be commended, by which we might learn to seek another happiness, which now is in faith, but afterward will be in sight. For as long as we are in the body, says the Apostle, we journey away from the Lord; for we walk by faith, not by sight (2 Cor 5:6-7): and therefore now in hope, then in the reality.
Ep100-155.9.249. 25. Denique resurrectionem suam, quam non sicut nostram in longum differri oportebat, ut in exemplo carnis eius disceremus quid in nostra sperare deberemus, noluit alienis demonstrare, sed suis: alienis dico, non natura, sed vitio, quod semper est contra naturam. Mortuus est ergo in conspectu hominum, resurrexit autem in conspectu filiorum hominum; quia mors ad hominem pertinebat, resurrectio ad filium hominis: sicut enim in Adam omnes moriuntur, sic et in Christo omnes vivificabuntur. Ut igitur exemplo suae carnis exhortaretur fideles suos temporalem pro aeterna felicitatem contemnere, usque ad mortem pertulit persequentes atque saevientes, et quasi victo et oppresso superbe illudentes. Quod autem carnem suam resuscitavit, et discipulorum conspectibus et contactibus reddidit, eisque videntibus ascendit in coelum, ipsos aedificavit, et quid exspectare, quid praedicare deberent, evidentissima veritate demonstravit. Illos autem a quibus tanta mala usque ad mortem pertulerat, quasi de illo superato et exstincto gloriantes, in ea opinione dereliquit, ut quisquis eorum salute aeterna salvus fieri vellet, hoc de illius mortui resurrectione crederet, quod ii qui viderunt, signis contestantibus praedicaverunt, et pro ea praedicatione similia perpeti non dubitaverunt.
9. 25. Finally his resurrection—which, not like ours, ought not to be deferred long, that in the example of his flesh we might learn what we ought to hope in our own—he willed to demonstrate not to strangers, but to his own: strangers, I say, not by nature, but by vice, which is always against nature. He died, then, in the sight of men, but rose in the sight of sons of men; because death pertained to man, the resurrection to the son of man: for just as in Adam all die, so too in Christ all will be made alive. That, therefore, by the example of his own flesh he might exhort his faithful to despise temporal for eternal happiness, he endured unto death those persecuting and raging, and proudly mocking him as though conquered and overwhelmed. But that he raised up his own flesh, and rendered it to the sight and touch of the disciples, and ascended into heaven with them seeing, he built them up, and showed by most evident truth what they ought to expect, what to preach. But those from whom he had endured so great evils unto death, glorying as though over him overcome and extinguished, he left in that opinion, so that whoever of them wished to be saved with eternal salvation might believe this about the resurrection of him who was dead, which those who saw it, with signs attesting, preached, and for that preaching did not hesitate to endure like things.
Ep100-155.9.2510. 26. Quapropter etiam Iacobus unus ex Apostolis eius, in Epistola sua, cum hortaretur fideles qui post passionem et resurrectionem Christi adhuc in ista vita tenebantur, dispensationem Veteris Testamenti Novique distinguens: Sustinentiam, inquit: Iob audistis, et finem Domini vidistis: ne ideo patienter sustinerent temporalia mala, ut sibi hoc restitueretur quod recepisse legimus. Nam et ab illo vulnere atque putredine salvus factus est, et ei cuncta quae amiserat, duplicia sunt restituta: ubi etiam commendata est resurrectionis fides. Nam filii non dupli, sed totidem redditi, etiam illos quos amiserat resurrecturos significarunt; ut sic ipsi quoque illis prioribus iuncti, a restitutione dupli non invenirentur alieni. Ut ergo non talem remunerationem speraremus, quando mala temporalia pateremur, non ait: Sustinentiam et finem Iob audistis; sed ait: Sustinentiam Iob audistis, et finem Domini vidistis: tamquam diceret, Mala temporalia sicut Iob sustinete; sed pro hac sustinentia non temporalia bona sperate, quae illi aucta redierunt, sed aeterna potius, quae in Domino praecesserunt. Iob ergo de illis patribus erat, qui exclamaverunt, et salvi facti sunt. Cum enim dicit: Ego autem, satis insinuat qua salute illos salvos esse factos velit intellegi; in qua ipse utique derelictus est: non quod illi a salute aeterna fuerint alieni; sed in occulto tunc erat quod in Christo fuerat revelandum. In Veteri quippe Testamento velamen est quod tunc auferetur, cum ad Christum quisque inde transierit: quo crucifixo velamen etiam templi scissum est, ut significaretur quod Apostolus de velamine Veteris Testamenti dixit, quoniam in Christo evacuatur.
10. 26. Wherefore James too, one of his Apostles, in his Letter, when he exhorted the faithful who, after the passion and resurrection of Christ, were still held in this life, distinguishing the dispensation of the Old Testament and the New: You have heard, he says, of the endurance of Job, and you have seen the end of the Lord (Jas 5:11): lest for this they should patiently endure temporal evils, that this be restored to them which we read he received. For both he was made well from that wound and rottenness, and all the things he had lost were restored to him double: where also the faith of the resurrection was commended. For the sons, restored not double, but the same in number, signified that those too whom he had lost would rise; so that thus they themselves too, joined to those former, might not be found foreign to the restoration of the double. That, therefore, we might not hope such a remuneration when we should suffer temporal evils, he did not say, "You have heard of the endurance and the end of Job"; but he says, "You have heard of the endurance of Job, and you have seen the end of the Lord": as though he said, "Endure temporal evils like Job; but for this endurance hope not for temporal goods, which to him returned increased, but rather for eternal ones, which in the Lord went before." Job, then, was of those fathers who cried out and were saved. For when he says, "But I," he sufficiently intimates by what salvation he wishes them to be understood to have been saved; in which he himself surely was forsaken: not that they were foreign to eternal salvation; but in the hidden then was that which in Christ was to be revealed. For in the Old Testament there is a veil which will then be taken away, when anyone passes thence to Christ: at whose crucifixion the veil of the temple too was rent, that there might be signified what the Apostle said of the veil of the Old Testament, that in Christ it is made void.
Ep100-155.10.2610. 27. Nam et in illis patribus quamvis rarissima, tamen fuerunt, et usque ad mortem exempla patientiae, a sanguine Abel usque ad sanguinem Zacariae; quorum sanguinem dicit Dominus Iesus et ab eis exigendum qui in patrum suorum, a quibus illi occisi sunt, iniquitate persisterent: et in Novo Testamento nec defuit, nec deest bonorum fidelium multitudo, qui etiam ista temporali felicitate praepolleant, et in ea largitoris Dei bonitatem misericordiamque experiantur, tenentes tamen quod dispensator Novi Testamenti divitibus huius saeculi Apostolus praecepit, non superbe sapere, neque sperare in incerto divitiarum, sed in Deo vivo qui praestat nobis omnia abundanter ad fruendum; ut bene faciant, divites sint in operibus bonis, facile tribuant, communicent, thesaurizent sibi fundamentum bonum in futurum, ut apprehendant veram vitam: qualis in Christi non tantum spiritu, verum etiam carne manifestata est, cum resurrexit a mortuis, non qualem Iudaei in illo peremerunt, quando eum de manibus eorum Deus non eruit, eumque dereliquisse visus est exclamantem: Deus meus, Deus meus; utquid me dereliquisti? ut eo modo in se transfiguraret martyres suos, qui etsi mori nollent, quod etiam Petro dixit: Alter te cinget, et feret quo tu non vis; significans qua morte clarificaturus erat Deum, et ob hoc a Deo suo derelicti viderentur ad tempus, cum eis praestare nollet quod vellent, illam vocem cordis emitterent, illumque adhiberent pietatis affectum, quem passione impendente ore proprio Dominus expressit, eos in se identidem transfigurans: Verum non quod ego volo, sed quod tu vis, Pater.
10. 27. For even in those fathers there were—though most rare—examples of patience even unto death, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah; whose blood the Lord Jesus says is to be exacted even from those who should persist in the iniquity of their fathers, by whom those men were killed: and in the New Testament there neither was lacking, nor is lacking, a multitude of good faithful, who are even preeminent in this temporal happiness too, and in it experience the goodness and mercy of the bestowing God, holding nevertheless that which the Apostle, dispenser of the New Testament, commanded the rich of this world: not to be proudly wise, nor to hope in the uncertainty of riches, but in the living God who furnishes us all things abundantly to enjoy; that they do well, be rich in good works, give easily, share, lay up for themselves a good foundation for the future, that they may lay hold of the true life: such as was manifested in Christ not only in spirit, but even in flesh, when he rose from the dead—not such as the Jews destroyed in him, when God did not rescue him from their hands, and he seemed to have forsaken him crying out, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? that in that way he might transfigure into himself his martyrs, who, even if they were unwilling to die—which he said also to Peter, Another will gird you, and carry you where you do not wish (John 21:18), signifying by what death he was to glorify God—and on this account would seem to be forsaken by their God for a time, when he was unwilling to grant them what they wished, might utter that voice of the heart, and apply that affection of piety which, the passion impending, the Lord expressed by his own mouth, transfiguring them again and again into himself: Yet not what I will, but what you will, Father (Matt 26:39).
Ep100-155.10.2711. 28. In quo enim primitus, nisi in ipso capite nostro apparere debuit, propter quam vitam christiani sumus? Propterea non ait: Deus meus, Deus meus, dereliquisti me; sed causam commonuit requirendam, cum addidit, utquid dereliquisti me? id est, quare, propter quid, quam ob causam? Profecto enim erat aliqua causa, eaque non parva, ut Noe liberaret de diluvio, Loth de coelesti incendio, Isaac de imminenti gladio, Ioseph de calumnia mulieris et custodia carceris, Moysen ab Aegyptiis, Raab ab excidio civitatis, Susannam a testibus falsis, Danielem a leonibus, tres viros ab ignibus, aliosque patres qui exclamaverunt, et salvi facti sunt; et Christum de manibus Iudaeorum non liberaret, eumque in potestate saevientium usque ad mortis exitum derelinqueret Utquid hoc? propter quid hoc, nisi propter illud quod paulo post in eodem psalmo dicit, non ad insipientiam mihi; hoc est, corpori meo, Ecclesiae meae, minimis meis? Nam et in Evangelio: Quando uni ex minimis meis fecistis, inquit, mihi fecistis. Sic itaque dictum est, et non ad insipientiam mihi, quomodo dictum est, mihi fecistis, et sic dictum est, quare me dereliquisti, quomodo dictum est: Qui vos recipit, me recipit; et qui vos spernit, et me spernit. Non ergo ad insipientiam nobis, sed ut sapiamus: non propter istam vitam, in qua nos Deus aliquando usque ad mortem persequentium manibus derelinquit, sed propter illam sempiternam nos debere esse christianos; quia hoc in illo praecessisse intuemur, ex cuius nomine sic vocamur.
11. 28. For in whom first ought it to appear, except in our very head, on account of which life we are Christians? Therefore he did not say, "My God, my God, you have forsaken me"; but he reminded that a cause is to be sought, when he added, why have you forsaken me?—that is, why, for what, for what cause? For surely there was some cause, and that not a small one, that he should free Noah from the flood, Lot from the heavenly fire, Isaac from the imminent sword, Joseph from the calumny of the woman and the custody of the prison, Moses from the Egyptians, Rahab from the destruction of the city, Susanna from false witnesses, Daniel from the lions, the three men from the fires, and the other fathers who cried out and were saved; and should not free Christ from the hands of the Jews, and should forsake him in the power of those raging unto the end of death. Why this? For what was this, except for that which a little after in the same psalm he says, not unto unwisdom for me—that is, for my body, my Church, my least ones? For in the Gospel too: When you did it to one of the least of mine, he says, you did it to me (Matt 25:40). So, then, it was said, "not unto unwisdom for me," in the way it was said, "you did it to me," and so it was said, "why have you forsaken me," in the way it was said, He who receives you receives me; and he who spurns you spurns me too (Luke 10:16). Not, then, unto unwisdom for us, but that we may be wise: not on account of this life, in which God sometimes forsakes us into the hands of persecutors unto death, but on account of that everlasting one, we ought to be Christians; because we see this to have gone before in him, from whose name we are so called.
Ep100-155.11.2811. 29. Ecce ita factum est: tamen tam multi non ob aliud volunt esse christiani, nisi ut huius vitae felicitate perfruantur; ideoque illa deficiente deficiunt. Quid, si non in ipso nostro capite tam insigne constitueretur exemplum, quo disceremus pro coelestibus terrena contemnere, non respicientes quae videntur, sed quae non videntur? quae enim videntur, temporalia sunt; quae autem non videntur, aeterna. Quos in se vocibus illis transfigurare dignatus est. Nam quantum ad ipsum attinet, quomodo vellet liberari ab illa hora, qui propterea venerat in illam horam ? aut quomodo sic loquebatur, quasi quod nollet ei accideret, cum potestatem habuerit ponendi animam suam, et iterum sumendi eam, nec eam quisquam tolleret ab illo, sed eam ipse poneret et resumeret, sicut in Evangelio dicit ? Sed procul dubio nos in illis vocibus eramus, et caput pro suo corpore loquebatur, non disiuncta significatione vocis, ubi connexio non disiungitur unitatis.
11. 29. Behold, it was so done: yet so many wish to be Christians for no other reason than to enjoy the happiness of this life; and therefore, when it fails, they fail. What, if so notable an example were not established in our very head, by which we might learn to despise earthly things for heavenly, looking not at the things that are seen, but at the things that are not seen? For the things that are seen are temporal; but the things that are not seen are eternal. Whom he deigned to transfigure into himself in those voices. For as far as pertains to himself, how would he wish to be freed from that hour, who had for this reason come into that hour? Or how would he so speak, as though what he would not happened to him, when he had power to lay down his soul, and again to take it up, nor would anyone take it from him, but he himself would lay it down and take it up again, as he says in the Gospel? But without doubt we were in those voices, and the head spoke for its body, with no disjoined signification of the voice, where the connection of unity is not disjoined.
Ep100-155.11.2912. 30. Denique in Psalmo sequitur, et orans adverte quid dicat: Quoniam, inquit, extraxisti me de ventre, spes mea ab uberibus matris meae. In te iactatus sum ex utero; de ventre matris meae Deus meus es tu; tamquam diceret, De alia re, et ab alia aliam rem me traiecisti, ut tu sis mihi bonum pro terrenis bonis mortalitatis huius, quam in matris ventre sortitus sum, cuius ubera suxi. Haec enim vetustas est, de qua me tu extraxisti; et illa carnalis nativitatis bona sunt, a quibus tu spes mea es: inde enim ad te conversus sum. Et ex utero, id est, qui ex his in utero inchoavi, in te iactatus sum; ad te scilicet transiens, totum me tibi committens. Ideoque de ventre matris meae, id est de bonis carnis quam sumpsi in ventre matris meae: Deus meus es tu, ut de his tu sis bonum meum: ea locutione dictum est, ac si diceretur, verbi gratia, De terra coelum habito, hoc est, hinc illo emigravi; et ista nostra in illum transfiguratio est, qui per gratiam Testamenti Novi mutamus vitam, transeuntes de vetere ad novam. Nam ille hanc rem sacramento suae passionis resurrectionisque significans, carnem mutavit de mortalitate ad immortalitatem: vitam vero non mutavit de vetustate in novitatem, qui numquam fuit in impietate, unde transiret ad pietatem.
12. 30. Finally in the Psalm it follows, and, praying, notice what he says: For you have drawn me out of the belly, my hope from the breasts of my mother. Upon you I was cast from the womb; from the belly of my mother you are my God (Ps 22:9-10 (21:10-11)); as though he said, From another thing, and from one thing to another you have carried me over, that you may be a good to me in place of the earthly goods of this mortality, which I obtained in my mother's belly, whose breasts I sucked. For this is the oldness from which you have drawn me out; and those are the goods of carnal nativity, from which you are my hope: for thence I was turned to you. And from the womb—that is, I who from these things began in the womb—was cast upon you; passing over, namely, to you, committing myself wholly to you. And therefore from the belly of my mother—that is, from the goods of the flesh which I took up in my mother's belly—you are my God, that of these you may be my good: it was said by that locution, as if it were said, for example, "From the earth I dwell in heaven," that is, hence I emigrated thither; and this is our transfiguration into him, by which, through the grace of the New Testament, we change our life, passing from the old to the new. For he, signifying this thing by the sacrament of his passion and resurrection, changed his flesh from mortality to immortality: but his life he did not change from oldness to newness, who was never in impiety, whence he might pass to piety.
Ep100-155.12.3012. 31. Quamquam non defuerunt qui hoc quod dictum est: De ventre matris meae Deus meus es tu, ideo ad ipsum caput nostrum pertinere sentirent, quoniam Pater in tantum est Deus eius, in quantum homo est in forma servi, non in quantum illi aequalis in forma Dei est; ideo De ventre matris meae Deus meus es tu, ac si diceret, Ex eo quod homo factus sum, Deus meus es tu. Sed quid est: Tu extraxisti me de ventre, si ad ipsum Iesum de Virgine procreatum refertur? quasi alios Deus non extrahat, in cuius providentia est omnis ordo nascendi: an inde significare voluit partum Virginis servata virginitatis integritate mirabili, cum ait: Tu extraxisti me de ventre matris meae; ut quod illic mirabiliter factum est, cum Deus fecisse dicitur, nemini incredibile videatur? Quid ergo est et illud: Spes mea ab uberibus matris meae? Quomodo et hoc ad ipsum caput Ecclesiae referri potest, quasi spes eius quae in Deo est, a matris uberibus ei coeperit, non et ante in ipso utero? Neque enim spes alia intellegenda est, nisi qua futurum erat ut Deus eum exaltaret a mortuis: totum hoc quippe, secundum id quod homo factus est, dicitur. An forte quia ubera feminarum ab ipso conceptu in ubertatem promoveri prohibentur, sic intellegi voluit, ab uberibus; tamquam diceret, Ex quo carnem sumpsi, cui carni fuerat speranda immortalitas: ut non ante spes ei esset, cum in forma Dei esset, in qua nihil in melius mutandum esset; sed ab uberibus matris, id est ab ipsa susceptione carnis, quae concipiebatur in spe, cuius spei res futura erat, cum ad immortalitatem de morte transiret?
12. 31. Although there have not been lacking those who held that what is said, "From the belly of my mother you are my God," therefore pertains to our very head, since the Father is his God insofar as he is a man in the form of a servant, not insofar as he is equal to him in the form of God; therefore "From the belly of my mother you are my God," as if he said, "From the fact that I was made a man, you are my God." But what is "You have drawn me out of the belly," if it is referred to Jesus himself, procreated of the Virgin? As though God did not draw out others, in whose providence is all the order of being born: or did he thereby wish to signify the childbirth of the Virgin, the integrity of her virginity being marvelously kept, when he says, "You have drawn me out of the belly of my mother"; so that what was there done marvelously, when God is said to have done it, may seem to no one incredible? What, then, is that too: "My hope from the breasts of my mother"? How can this too be referred to the very head of the Church, as though his hope, which is in God, began for him from the breasts of his mother, and not earlier in the very womb? For no other hope is to be understood than that by which it was to be that God would exalt him from the dead: for all this is said according to that by which he was made a man. Or perhaps because the breasts of women are hindered from being promoted into abundance from the very conception, he wished it to be understood thus, "from the breasts"; as though he said, "From the time I took up flesh, for which flesh immortality was to be hoped": so that he had not hope before, when he was in the form of God, in which nothing was to be changed for the better; but from the breasts of his mother—that is, from the very assumption of flesh, which was conceived in hope, of which hope the reality was to be future, when he should pass from death to immortality?
Ep100-155.12.3112. 32. Sed quod dictum est: In te iactatus sum ex utero, quomodo coaptari capiti possit, ignoro: quasi in utero cum esset, non in Deo fuerit, in quo vivimus, movemur, et sumus; aut illius infantis anima rationalis, ex quo caro processit ex utero, Deum sperare coeperit. Nisi forte credendum est, iam nato animam rationalem accessisse, quae intra viscera matris adhuc ei defuisset: et quoniam eadem anima, quae carni iam natae addita est, Deo inhaerebat, ideo secundum eamdem carnem dictum esse existimandum est: In te iactatus sum ex utero; tamquam diceret, Eam sortitus sum animam ex utero, quae tibi cohaereret. Sed quis audeat in hanc se temere praecipitare sententiam, cum ratio de adventu vel exortu animae in tanto naturae profundo sic lateat, ut satius sit eam semper quaerere quamdiu in hac vita sumus, quam aliquando invenisse praesumere? Ex illa vero in seipsum transfiguratione nostra quemadmodum possent haec accipi, dictum est. Si quid autem dici potuit convenientius, vel potuerit, nullius praeiudicamus ingenio, doctrinae nullius invidemus.
12. 32. But that which was said, "Upon you I was cast from the womb," how it can be fitted to the head, I do not know: as though, when he was in the womb, he were not in God, in whom we live, move, and are; or as though the rational soul of that infant, from whom the flesh proceeded from the womb, began to hope in God. Unless perhaps it is to be believed that the rational soul, which within the vitals of the mother had still been lacking to him, came to him already born: and since the same soul, which was added to the flesh now born, cleaved to God, therefore it is to be esteemed said according to that same flesh, "Upon you I was cast from the womb"; as though he said, "I obtained from the womb that soul which cleaved to you." But who would dare rashly to cast himself into this opinion, when the reasoning about the coming or arising of the soul, in so great a deep of nature, lies so hidden that it is better always to seek it, as long as we are in this life, than at some time to presume to have found it? But from that transfiguration of ours into himself, how these things could be taken, it has been said. But if anything could be said more fittingly, or shall be able to be, we prejudge no one's talent, we envy no one's teaching.
Ep100-155.12.3213. 33. Iam illud quod sequitur: Ne discedas a me, quoniam tribulatio proxima est, vide ut illuminet quemadmodum dictum sit: Quare me dereliquisti. Quomodo enim dereliquit, cui dicitur: Ne discedas a me, nisi quia dereliquit vitae veteris temporalem felicitatem? Rogatur autem ne discedat et deserat spem vitae aeternae. Sed quid est, quoniam tribulatio proxima est? quasi ei passio adhuc immineret, cum in ipsa media passione ista dicere intellegatur, quae de illo in hoc psalmo prophetata sunt. Hic enim dicturus est etiam, quae in Evangelio apertissime scripta sunt: Diviserunt sibi vestimenta mea, et super vestem meam miserunt sortem; quod factum est cum iam penderet in ligno. Quid est ergo, tribulatio proxima est, in qua media loquebatur? Sed nimirum illud vult intellegi, quia cum caro in doloribus est et in poenis, profecto anima tunc habet magnum agonem patientiae, in quo ne deficiat, laborandum et orandum est. Nihil est autem animae sua carne propinquius: ideo mundi huius quilibet magnus perfectusque contemptor, cum alibi patitur, nihil patitur. Potest enim adhibere vigilem rationem, cum amittit bona quae extrinsecus sunt, et ab animo sapientis, qui ex cupiditate non haeret, sine dubio longe sunt; et non curare quod patitur, quia nec patitur. Cum vero amittit praecipua corporis bona, id est corporis vitam ac salutem, iam tribulatio proxima est animi bonis, quibus ipse intus tamquam corporis dominus est: quid faciet qualibet ratione, ut non doleat cum corpus vulneratur aut uritur, cui tanto implicatur consortio, ut pati possit, non dolere non possit?
13. 33. Now that which follows: Do not depart from me, for tribulation is near (Ps 22:11 (21:12)), see how it illuminates the way in which it was said, "Why have you forsaken me." For how did he forsake one to whom it is said, "Do not depart from me," except that he forsook the temporal happiness of the old life? But he is asked not to depart and desert the hope of eternal life. But what is "for tribulation is near"? As though the passion were still impending over him, when in the very midst of the passion he is understood to say these things which were prophesied about him in this psalm. For here he is about to say even those things which in the Gospel are most plainly written: They divided my garments among themselves, and over my clothing they cast lots (Ps 22:18 (21:19)); which was done when he already hung on the wood. What is it, then, "tribulation is near," in the midst of which he was speaking? But doubtless he wishes this to be understood, that when the flesh is in pains and in punishments, surely the soul then has a great struggle of patience, in which, lest it fail, it must labor and pray. But nothing is nearer to the soul than its own flesh: therefore any great and perfect despiser of this world, when he suffers elsewhere, suffers nothing. For he can apply a vigilant reason when he loses goods which are outside, and which are without doubt far from the mind of the wise man, who does not cleave to them by desire; and not care for what he suffers, because he does not even suffer. But when he loses the chief goods of the body—that is, the life and health of the body—now tribulation is near to the goods of the mind, of which the soul is within as it were the lord of the body: what will he do, by any reason, that he not grieve when the body is wounded or burned, to which he is bound by so great a fellowship that he can suffer, cannot but grieve?
Ep100-155.13.3313. 34. Ideo et diabolus hunc nocendi ordinem tenens, illius magni viri quem postulaverat tentandum, prius externa bona accepit in potestatem: quibus ablatis et perditis, cum illum inconcussum videret; dixerat enim: Dominus dedit, Dominus abstulit; sicut Domino placuit, ita factum est: sit nomen Domini benedictum; etiam carnem cruciandam vulnere postulavit, tali cum eo confligens certamine, ut bona proxima invaderet, hoc est corporis bona; quibus ille perditis si forte succumberet, atque ad impietatem cor inclinaret, etiam bona animi deperirent, quibus perdendis iam in corpore saeviens vicinius tentator instabat. Denique ille vir in tanta tentatione, ubi erat animi bonis proxima tribulatio, quamvis multa prophetice loquatur, longe tamen loquitur aliter quam cum illa externa bona deperissent, in quibus filios non amiserat, sed praemiserat.
13. 34. Therefore the devil too, holding this order of harming, first received into his power the external goods of that great man whom he had asked to tempt: and when these were taken away and lost, and he saw him unshaken—for he had said, The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away; as it has pleased the Lord, so it is done: blessed be the name of the Lord (Job 1:21)—he asked that his flesh too be tortured with a wound, fighting with him in such a contest that he might invade the nearer goods, that is, the goods of the body; which being lost, if perhaps he should succumb, and incline his heart to impiety, the goods of the mind too would perish, for whose perishing the tempter, now raging in the body, stood more near at hand. Finally that man, in so great a temptation, where tribulation was near to the goods of the mind, although he speaks many things prophetically, yet speaks far otherwise than when those external goods had perished, in which he had not lost his sons, but sent them ahead.
Ep100-155.13.3413. 35. Clamat ergo martyris anima transfigurata in Christum, cum iam in carne tribulari coeperit, et dicit Deo, a quo derelicta est in terrena felicitate, sed quae cum illo est in spe vitae aeternae: Ne discedas a me, quoniam tribulatio proxima est: non est in agro meo, non in auro, non in pecore, non in tectis atque parietibus, non in meorum orbitatibus; sed in carne mea est, cui copulor, cui connector, cuius sensum non habere non possum; unde me de proximo urget, ut a patientiae virtute deficiam. Ne discedas a me; quoniam non est qui adiuvet: neque amicus, neque propinquus, neque humana laus, neque praeteritae recordatio voluptatis, neque aliquid eorum quo terrenae felicitatis ruina fulcitur, neque ipsa quae in animo est meo humana virtus; quia si tu deseris, quae hominis virtus?
13. 35. The soul of the martyr, then, transfigured into Christ, cries out, when it has now begun to be in tribulation in the flesh, and says to God, by whom it was forsaken in earthly happiness, but who is with it in the hope of eternal life: Do not depart from me, for tribulation is near: it is not in my field, not in gold, not in cattle, not in roofs and walls, not in the bereavements of my own; but it is in my flesh, to which I am coupled, to which I am connected, of which I cannot not have the sense; whence it presses me from near, that I fail from the virtue of patience. Do not depart from me; for there is none to help (Ps 22:11 (21:12)): neither friend, nor kinsman, nor human praise, nor the memory of past pleasure, nor anything of those things by which the ruin of earthly happiness is propped up, nor that very human virtue which is in my mind; because if you desert, what is the virtue of man?
Ep100-155.13.3514. 35. Quid est enim homo, nisi quod memor es eius?
14. 35. For what is man, except that you are mindful of him (See Ps 8:4 (8:5))?
Ep100-155.14.3514. 36. Circumdederunt me vituli multi: hoc est minores in plebe. Tauri pingues obsederunt me: hoc est superbi ac divites, principes plebis. Aperuerunt in me os suum: clamantes: Crucifige, crucifige!. Quasi leo rapiens et rugiens: rapuerunt enim comprehensum adducentes ad praesidem, et rugierunt petendo eius mortem. Sicut aqua effusus sum: tamquam ut in me lapsi caderent persecutores mei. Dispersa sunt omnia ossa mea: quid sunt ossa, nisi corporis firmamenta? Corpus autem Christi, Ecclesia: firmamenta autem Ecclesiae qui, nisi Apostoli, qui etiam columnae alibi nuncupantur ? Hi utique dispersi sunt, cum ad passionem ipse duceretur, vel cum esset passus et mortuus. Factum est ergo cor meum tamquam cera liquescens in medio ventris mei. Hoc sane quemadmodum capiti nostro, ipsius corporis salvatori coaptetur, invenire difficile est. Neque enim nisi magno pavore contingit, ut cor velut cera liquescat humanum: quod unde in illo fieri posset, qui potestatem habebat ponendi et recipiendi animam suam? Sed profecto aut infirmorum suorum in se transtulit causam; sive illorum qui metu mortis pavescunt, sicut ipse Petrus ex egregio praesumptore tam creber negator effectus; sive illorum qui tristitia salubri contabescunt, sicut idem ipse Petrus cum amare flevit. Nam et tristitia quasi solvit cor: unde dicitur etiam graece quod appellata sit [Greek] Aut certe profundum sacramentum nos intellegere voluit, ut cordis sui nomine significaret Scripturas suas, ubi eius utique latebat consilium, quod tunc apertum est, cum ea quae de illo prophetata fuerunt, passus implevit. Solutae sunt ergo Scripturae eius in iis quae perfecta sunt adventu eius, nativitate, passione, resurrectione, glorificatione Quis enim iam ea non intellegit in Prophetis, quando usque ad intellectum etiam carnalis multitudinis pervenerunt? quam fortasse significavit medio ventris sui, ut in eius corpore quod est Ecclesia, quasi ventris locum habeat carnalis et infirmior multitudo. Aut si ventris nomen magis interioribus competit, ad eos potius qui perfectiores sunt, Scripturarum intellectum pertinere monstratum est, cum cor eius, id est Scripturae eius quae continent consilium eius, in medio eorum, hoc est in cogitatione eorum, tamquam cera dissolvitur, hoc est, fervore spiritus aperitur, disputatur, exponitur.
14. 36. Many calves have surrounded me: that is, the lesser ones among the people. Fat bulls have beset me (Ps 22:12 (21:13)): that is, the proud and the rich, the leaders of the people. They opened their mouth against me (Ps 22:13 (21:14)): crying, "Crucify, crucify!" Like a lion seizing and roaring: for they seized him, caught, leading him to the governor, and roared by demanding his death. I was poured out like water (Ps 22:14 (21:15)): as though my persecutors, slipping upon me, should fall. All my bones were scattered: what are the bones, except the firmaments of the body? But the body of Christ is the Church: and the firmaments of the Church—who, except the Apostles, who elsewhere are also called columns? These surely were scattered when he himself was led to the passion, or when he had suffered and died. My heart became like melting wax in the midst of my belly. How indeed this is fitted to our head, the Savior of the very body, is difficult to find. For it does not happen, except by great terror, that a human heart melts like wax: whence could this be in him who had power to lay down and take up his soul? But surely either he transferred into himself the cause of his weak ones; whether of those who tremble with fear of death, like Peter himself, made from an excellent presumer so frequent a denier; or of those who pine away with wholesome sadness, like that same Peter when he wept bitterly. For sadness too, as it were, loosens the heart: whence it is even called in Greek kardia. Or surely he wished us to understand a deep sacrament, so that by the name of his heart he might signify his Scriptures, where surely his counsel lay hidden, which was then opened when, by suffering, he fulfilled the things which had been prophesied about him. His Scriptures, then, were loosened in those things which were accomplished by his coming, nativity, passion, resurrection, glorification. For who does not now understand them in the Prophets, when they have come even to the understanding of the carnal multitude? Which perhaps he signified by "the midst of his belly," so that in his body, which is the Church, the carnal and weaker multitude has, as it were, the place of the belly. Or if the name of belly suits rather the inner ones, the understanding of the Scriptures was shown to pertain rather to those who are more perfect, when his heart—that is, his Scriptures, which contain his counsel—is dissolved like wax in the midst of them, that is, in their thought; that is, it is opened by the fervor of the spirit, disputed, expounded.
Ep100-155.14.3615. 37. Exaruit velut testa virtus mea. Testa igne firmata est: sic et virtus corporis Christi non sicut fenum igne consumitur, sed sicut testa passione velut igne firmatur. Vasa enim figuli probat fornax, sicut alio loco Scriptura dicit, et homines iustos tentatio tribulationis. Et lingua mea adhaesit faucibus meis. Potest quidem silentium eius significatum videri, quod et alius propheta commendat, cum dicit: Sicut agnus coram tondente fuit sine voce. Sed si linguam eius, eos in eius corpore, quod est Ecclesia, intellegamus, per quos suum loquitur Evangelium; tunc eius faucibus adhaerent, cum a praeceptis eius non recedunt.
15. 37. My strength has dried up like a potsherd (Ps 22:15 (21:16)). A potsherd is made firm by fire: so too the strength of the body of Christ is not, like hay, consumed by fire, but, like a potsherd, made firm by the passion as by fire. For the furnace proves the vessels of the potter (See Sir 27:5), as Scripture says in another place, and the tribulation of trouble proves just men. And my tongue cleaved to my jaws. This indeed can seem to signify his silence, which another prophet too commends, when he says, Like a lamb before its shearer he was without voice (Isa 53:7). But if by his tongue we understand those in his body, which is the Church, through whom he speaks his Gospel, then they cleave to his jaws when they do not withdraw from his precepts.
Ep100-155.15.3715. 38. Quod vero sequitur: Et in pulverem mortis deduxisti me, quomodo capiti coaptabitur; quandoquidem corpus eius, quod tertia die resurrexit, non est utique in pulverem dissolutum? nec aliter exposuerunt Apostoli quod in alio psalmo positum est: Neque dabis sanctum tuum videre corruptionem, nisi quia eius caro non est corrupta, quae tam celeriter resurrexit. Unde item in alio psalmo dicit: Quae utilitas in sanguine meo, dum descendo in corruptionem? Numquid confitebitur tibi pulvis, aut annuntiabit veritatem tuam? hoc scilicet dicens, quod si eo modo, quo et caeteri, mortuus dimitteretur in pulverem, et caro eius resurrectioni ultimae servaretur, nulla esset utilitas in sanguine eius; quia nihil prodesset mors eius, nec annuntiaretur veritas Dei, quae illum continuo resurrecturum esse praedixerat. Quid sibi vult ergo quod hoc loco ait: Et in pulverem mortis deduxisti me? Nisi corpus eius accipiamus Ecclesiam, in qua illi qui pro eius nomine passi sunt, vel patiuntur, non ita ut ipse cito resurgunt, sed in mortis pulverem deducuntur, tum resurrecturi, cum illud tempus venerit de quo in Evangelio dicit: Veniet hora quando omnes qui in monumentis sunt, audient vocem eius, et procedent. Aut certe tropice pulverem mortis ipsos Iudaeos intellegi voluit, in quorum manus deductus est: scriptum est enim: Non sic impii, non sic; sed tamquam pulvis quem proicit ventus a facie terrae.
15. 38. But that which follows: And you have led me down into the dust of death (Ps 22:15 (21:16)), how will it be fitted to the head; since his body, which rose on the third day, was surely not dissolved into dust? Nor did the Apostles otherwise expound what is set in another psalm: Nor will you give your holy one to see corruption (Ps 16:10 (15:10)), except that his flesh, which rose so quickly, was not corrupted. Whence likewise in another psalm he says, What profit is there in my blood, while I go down into corruption? Will the dust confess to you, or announce your truth? (Ps 30:9 (29:10)) saying this, namely, that if in the way the rest do, he were dismissed dead into dust, and his flesh were kept for the last resurrection, there would be no profit in his blood; because his death would profit nothing, nor would the truth of God be announced, which had foretold that he would at once rise. What, then, does he mean by what he says in this place: "And you have led me down into the dust of death"? Unless we take his body to be the Church, in which those who suffered, or suffer, for his name, do not rise so quickly as he himself, but are led down into the dust of death, then to rise when that time shall come of which he says in the Gospel: The hour will come when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice, and will come forth (John 5:28-29). Or surely tropically he wished the Jews themselves to be understood as the dust of death, into whose hands he was led down: for it is written, Not so the impious, not so; but like the dust which the wind drives from the face of the earth (Ps 1:4).
Ep100-155.15.3816. 39. Denique sequitur: Quoniam circumdederunt me canes multi; concilium malignantium obsedit me: tamquam ipsos dixerit pulverem mortis in quem deductus est, quos dixit canes multos et concilium malignantium; canes eos videlicet appellans, qui plerumque contra innocentes latrant, cum quibus non habent consuetudinem. Iam vero in iis quae subiungit, tamquam Evangelium recitatur. Crucifixio quippe eius exprimitur in eo quod dicit: Foderunt manus meas et pedes meos, dinumeraverunt omnia ossa mea. Ipsi vero consideraverunt et conspexerunt me. Fossae sunt enim clavis manus et pedes eius, et cum extenderetur in ligno, quodammodo numerata sunt ossa eius. Consideratus est autem atque conspectus quid illi futurum esset, et utrum veniret Elias et liberaret eum.
16. 39. Finally it follows: For many dogs have surrounded me; the council of the malignant has beset me (Ps 22:16 (21:17)): as though he called those the dust of death into which he was led down, whom he called many dogs and the council of the malignant; calling them dogs, namely, who for the most part bark against the innocent, with whom they have no acquaintance. Now in those things which he subjoins, it is, as it were, the Gospel that is recited. For his crucifixion is expressed in that which he says: They pierced my hands and my feet, they numbered all my bones. But they themselves considered and looked upon me (Ps 22:16-17 (21:17-18)). For his hands and feet were pierced with nails, and when he was stretched on the wood, his bones were in a manner numbered. But it was considered and looked upon what was to befall him, and whether Elijah would come and free him.
Ep100-155.16.3916. 40. Iam illud quod sequitur, nullius expositionis indiget: Diviserunt sibi vestimenta mea, et super vestem meam miserunt sortem. Verba deinde quae subtexuntur, orantis sunt, tam ex persona capitis, id est hominis mediatoris, quam ex persona corporis, quod est Ecclesia, quam dicit etiam unicam suam. Tu autem, Domine, inquit, ne longe facias auxilium tuum: hoc ad eius carnem pertinet, cuius resurrectio non in longum est missa, ut aliorum. In defensionem meam aspice: ne quid noceant inimici, qui sibi videntur aliquid potuisse carnem perimendo mortalem. Non autem nocent, si defendente gratia Dei, non eis ad malum anima superata consentiat: sic enim et alibi prophetatum est: Terra tradita est in manus impii; hoc est caro terrena.
16. 40. Now that which follows needs no exposition: They divided my garments among themselves, and over my clothing they cast lots (Ps 22:18 (21:19)). The words then which are woven in next are of one praying, both from the person of the head, that is, of the man the mediator, and from the person of the body, which is the Church, which he calls also his only one. But you, O Lord, he says, do not put your help far off (Ps 22:19 (21:20)): this pertains to his flesh, whose resurrection was not put off long, like that of others. Look to my defense: that the enemies do nothing to harm, who seem to themselves to have been able to do something by destroying mortal flesh. But they do not harm, if, by the grace of God defending, the soul, overcome, does not consent to them for evil: for so it was prophesied elsewhere too, The earth was handed over into the hands of the impious (Job 9:24); that is, the earthly flesh.
Ep100-155.16.4016. 41. Erue a framea animam meam. Framea gladius est; nec utique tali ferro Christus occisus est, sed cruce, nec latus eius gladio, sed lancea percusserunt. Translato ergo verbo, frameam linguam dixit persequentium, sicut in alio psalmo dicitur: Et lingua eorum gladius acutus. Unde, quia in eius carne lingua praevaluit malignorum, orat ut animae nihil noceat, cum dicit: Erue a framea animam meam: ut haec in prophetia oratio, si ad caput corporis referas, non videatur velut indigentis petitio, sed potius rei futurae figurata praedictio. Aut certe, quia corpus eius, hoc est Ecclesia, graves persecutiones fuerat perpessura, frameam dixit, qua maxime trucidati sunt martyres; unde vult eorum animas erui, ne timeant eos qui corpus occidunt, animam autem occidere non possunt, et consentiant ad illicita. Aut etiam in ipsorum passionibus inimicorum linguam frameam dicit, unde animam suam, hoc est animam corporis sui, animam sanctorum suorum vult erui.
16. 41. Rescue my soul from the sword (Ps 22:20 (21:21)). The "sword" is a blade; nor surely was Christ killed by such iron, but by the cross, nor did they strike his side with a sword, but with a lance. By a transferred word, then, he called the tongue of the persecutors a sword, as in another psalm it is said, And their tongue a sharp sword (Ps 57:4 (56:5)). Whence, because in his flesh the tongue of the malignant prevailed, he prays that it harm nothing to the soul, when he says, "Rescue my soul from the sword": so that this prayer in prophecy, if you refer it to the head of the body, may seem not, as it were, the petition of one in need, but rather a figured prediction of a thing to come. Or surely, because his body, that is, the Church, was to endure grave persecutions, he called it a sword, by which most of all the martyrs were slaughtered; whence he wishes their souls to be rescued, lest they fear those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul, and consent to unlawful things. Or even in the sufferings of these he calls the tongue of the enemies a sword, whence he wishes his soul—that is, the soul of his body, the soul of his saints—to be rescued.
Ep100-155.16.4116. 42. Quod autem sequitur: Et de manu canis unicam meam, nihil aptius quam unica Ecclesia mihi videtur intellegi. Canem vero appellavit mundum, non ratione sed consuetudine contra insolitam veritatem latrantem. Haec est enim canum natura, ut cum quibus habent consuetudinem, sive illi boni, sive mali sint, non ad eos latrent; insolitorum autem personis visis, etiam innocentibus, irritentur. Manu autem canis, potestatem mundi significavit. Cuius etiam regnum infestum futurum corpori suo, id est Ecclesiae suae, leonis nomine figuravit in eo quod adiunxit: Salvum me fac de ore leonis. Unde est scriptum: Nihil interest inter minas regis et iram leonis: quamquam et diabolum apostolus Petrus leoni comparet rugienti, et quaerenti circumeundo quem devoret. Superbosque huius mundi Christianis humilibus adversaturos ostendens, consequenter dicit: Et a cornibus unicornium humilitatem meam. Ideo quippe in unicornibus superbi intelleguntur, quia superbia odit consortium, et quantum in ipso est, solus cupit eminere omnis superbus.
16. 42. But that which follows, and my only one from the hand of the dog (Ps 22:20 (21:21)), nothing seems to me more aptly understood than the only Church. But he called the world a dog, barking against the unaccustomed truth not by reason but by habit. For this is the nature of dogs, that toward those with whom they have acquaintance—whether they be good or bad—they do not bark; but, at the sight of the persons of unaccustomed ones, even innocent ones, they are provoked. By "the hand of the dog" he signified the power of the world. Whose kingdom too, to be hostile to his body, that is, to his Church, he figured by the name of the lion, in that which he added: Save me from the mouth of the lion (Ps 22:21 (21:22)). Whence it is written, There is no difference between the threats of a king and the wrath of a lion (Prov 19:12; 20:2): although the apostle Peter too compares the devil to a lion roaring, and seeking, by going about, whom he may devour. And, showing that the proud of this world would be adversaries to the humble Christians, he consequently says: And my humility from the horns of the unicorns. For therefore in unicorns the proud are understood, because pride hates fellowship, and, as far as is in him, every proud man desires to be eminent alone.
Ep100-155.16.4217. 43. Iam nunc attende ubi sit fructus: vel quod derelictus est, ne exaudiretur pro terrena felicitate, non ad insipientiam, sed ut saperemus quid Novi gratia Testamenti desiderare debeamus; vel quod non est derelictus sed exauditus in eo quod ait: Ne discedas a me, qui dixerat: Quare me dereliquisti; quod utique contrarium est, nisi illud ad aliud, hoc ad aliud referatur. Attende et audi quantum sapis, hauri quantum capis, quantumque ipse rem tantam eloqui valeo, imo quantum tribuit ille qui nos exaudit, et in Christo, in quantum homo mediator est inter nos et Deum, et cum Christo, in quantum Deus est aequalis Deo, et potens est facere, ut ait Apostolus, supra quam petimus aut intellegimus: vide in hoc psalmo Testamenti Novi gratiam; vide illius derelictionis, tribulationis, deprecationis fructu quid agatur, quid insinuetur, quid commendetur, quid illustretur. Intuere quid legamus tanto ante prophetatum, quid iam cernamus impletum: Narrabo nomen tuum, inquit, fratribus meis; in medio Ecclesiae cantabo te. Fratres illi sunt, de quibus in Evangelio ait: Vade, et dic fratribus meis. Ecclesia illa est, quam modo dixit unicam suam; haec est unica Catholica, quae toto orbe copiosa diffunditur, quae usque ad ultimas gentes crescendo porrigitur: unde in Evangelio dicit: Et praedicabitur hoc Evangelium in universo orbe, in testimonium omnibus gentibus; et tunc veniet finis.
17. 43. Now attend to where the fruit is: either that he was forsaken, not to be heard for earthly happiness—not unto unwisdom, but that we might be wise what we ought to desire by the grace of the New Testament; or that he was not forsaken but heard in that which he says, "Do not depart from me," he who had said, "Why have you forsaken me"; which surely is contradictory, unless the one be referred to one thing, the other to another. Attend and hear as much as you are wise, draw as much as you grasp, and as much as I myself am able to express so great a thing—nay, as much as he grants who hears us, and in Christ, insofar as the man is mediator between us and God, and with Christ, insofar as he is God equal to God, and is able to do, as the Apostle says, above what we ask or understand: see in this psalm the grace of the New Testament; see by the fruit of that forsaking, tribulation, entreaty, what is done, what is intimated, what is commended, what is illustrated. Gaze at what we read prophesied so long before, what we now behold fulfilled: I will tell your name, he says, to my brethren; in the midst of the Church I will sing you (Ps 22:22 (21:23)). Those are the brethren of whom in the Gospel he says, Go, and say to my brethren (John 20:17). That is the Church which he just now called his only one; this is the only Catholic, which is copiously spread through the whole world, which by growing reaches to the farthest nations: whence in the Gospel he says, And this Gospel will be preached in the whole world, as a testimony to all nations; and then the end will come (Matt 24:14).
Ep100-155.17.4317. 44. Quod autem ait: Cantabo, hoc est illud canticum novum, de quo in alio psalmo dicitur: Cantate Domino canticum novum, cantate Domino omnis terra. Habes hic utraque; et quo cantico cantaturum se dixerit, et in cuius Ecclesiae medio: illud pertinet ad novum canticum, haec ad omnem terram. Ipse quippe cantat in nobis, cuius gratia cantamus, sicut dicit Apostolus: An vultis experimentum eius accipere, qui in me loquitur Christus? Medium vero Ecclesiae ad eminentiam scilicet referas, et ad ipsam manifestationem, quia omnia quanto clarius nota sunt, tanto magis in medio esse dicuntur; vel certe ad interiores Ecclesiae, quia interiora sunt media. Neque enim omnis qui labiis personat, cantat canticum novum, sed qui eo modo cantat ut Apostolus admonet, dicens: Cantantes et psallentes in cordibus vestris Domino. Intus enim est hoc gaudium, ubi vox laudis et canitur et auditur; qua voce laudatur qui gratis amandus est toto corde, tota anima, tota mente, amatoremque suum accendit in se gratia Spiritus sui sancti: quid enim aliud est canticum novum, quam laus Dei?
17. 44. But that which he says, "I will sing," is that new song, of which in another psalm it is said, Sing to the Lord a new song, sing to the Lord, all the earth (Ps 96:1 (95:1)). You have here both things: both by what song he said he would sing, and in the midst of what Church: the former pertains to the new song, the latter to all the earth. For he himself sings in us, by whose grace we sing, as the Apostle says, Or do you wish to receive proof of him who speaks in me, Christ? (2 Cor 13:3) But "the midst of the Church" you may refer to eminence, namely, and to the very manifestation, because all things, the more clearly they are known, the more they are said to be in the midst; or surely to the inner ones of the Church, because the inner things are the middle. For not everyone who sounds with his lips sings the new song, but he who sings in the way the Apostle admonishes, saying, Singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord (Eph 5:19). For within is this joy, where the voice of praise is both sung and heard; by which voice is praised he who is to be loved freely with the whole heart, the whole soul, the whole mind, and who kindles his lover toward himself by the grace of his Holy Spirit: for what else is the new song, than the praise of God?
Ep100-155.17.4418. 45. Denique sequitur, et hoc evidentius demonstrat. Cum enim dixisset: Narrabo nomen tuum fratribus meis, quia Deum nemo vidit umquam, sed unigenitus Filius qui est in sinu Patris, ipse enarravit; atque adiunxisset, in medio Ecclesiae cantabo te: quomodo cantavit, id est, quia in nobis cantavit, cum proficimus in nomine quod narravit fratribus suis; et quia laudem Dei cantavit in nobis, continuo manifestavit, dicens: Qui timetis Dominum, laudate eum. Quis autem veraciter laudat, nisi qui sinceriter amat? Tantumdem ergo est ac si diceret: Qui timetis Dominum, amate eum. Dixit enim homini, sicut scriptum est. Ecce pietas est sapientia. Porro pietas cultus Dei est, nec colitur ille nisi amando. Summa igitur et vera sapientia est in praecepto illo primo: Diliges Dominum Deum tuum ex toto corde tuo, et ex tota anima tua: ac per hoc sapientia est caritas Dei; nec diffunditur in cordibus nostris, nisi per Spiritum sanctum qui datus est nobis. Initium autem sapientiae timor Domini: et timor non est in caritate, sed perfecta caritas foras mittit timorem. Proinde praemissus timor in cor nostrum, pellit inde consuetudinem malorum operum, et servat caritati locum, qua tamquam domina veniente, ut illa insidat, abscedit.
18. 45. Finally it follows, and shows this more evidently. For when he had said, "I will tell your name to my brethren"—because no one has ever seen God, but the only-begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, he himself has declared him (John 1:18)—and had added, "in the midst of the Church I will sing you": how he sang, that is, because he sang in us, when we progress in the name which he told to his brethren; and because he sang the praise of God in us, he at once manifested, saying, You who fear the Lord, praise him (Ps 22:23 (21:24)). But who truly praises, except he who sincerely loves? It is, then, as much as if he said, "You who fear the Lord, love him." For he said to man, as it is written, Behold, piety is wisdom (Job 28:28). But piety is the worship of God, nor is he worshiped except by loving. The highest and true wisdom, then, is in that first precept: You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart, and with your whole soul: and through this, wisdom is the love of God; nor is it poured out in our hearts except through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. But the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord (Ps 111:10 (110:10); Prov 9:10): and fear is not in love, but perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4:18). Accordingly fear, sent ahead into our heart, drives thence the habit of evil works, and keeps a place for love, which, as the mistress coming so that she may settle there, it departs.
Ep100-155.18.4518. 46. Ergo qui timetis Dominum, laudate eum: ut Deum non serviliter sed libere colatis, eum amare discite quem timetis, et poteritis laudare quod amatis. Timentes enim Deum homines Veteris Testamenti, propter litteram terrentem et occidentem, nondum habentes Spiritum vivificantem, currebant cum sacrificiis ad templum; et quamvis in figuram futuri sanguinis quo redempti sumus, tamen nescientes quid per eas praefiguraretur, cruentas victimas immolabant. Nunc vero in gratia Novi Testamenti, qui timetis Dominum, laudate eum. Ipse quippe in alio psalmo, illa mutanda praenuntians quae tunc in umbra futuri offerebantur: Non accipiam, inquit, de manu tua vitulos, neque de gregibus tuis hircos. Et paulo post, ut ostenderet sacrificium Novi Testamenti, quando illa fuerant cessatura: Immola, inquit: Deo sacrificium laudis, et redde Altissimo vota tua. Et in fine eiusdem psalmi: Sacrificium, inquit, laudis glorificabit me; et illic via est, qua ostendam illi salutare meum. Salutare Dei Christus est, quem infantem Simeon senex cum agnovisset in spiritu, eumque sumpsisset in manus. Nunc dimittis, inquit: Domine, servum tuum, secundam verbum tuum in pace; quoniam viderunt oculi mei salutare tuum.
18. 46. Therefore, you who fear the Lord, praise him: that you may worship God not servilely but freely, learn to love him whom you fear, and you will be able to praise what you love. For the men of the Old Testament, fearing God on account of the letter that terrifies and kills, not yet having the Spirit that gives life, ran with sacrifices to the temple; and, although in figure of the future blood by which we are redeemed, yet, not knowing what was prefigured by them, they immolated bloody victims. But now, in the grace of the New Testament, you who fear the Lord, praise him. For he himself in another psalm, foretelling that those things were to be changed which were then offered in shadow of the future: I will not take, he says, calves from your hand, nor he-goats from your flocks (Ps 50:9 (49:9)). And a little after, to show the sacrifice of the New Testament, when those things were to cease: Immolate to God the sacrifice of praise, and render to the Most High your vows (Ps 50:14 (49:14)). And at the end of the same psalm: The sacrifice of praise will glorify me; and there is the way by which I will show him the salvation of God (Ps 50:23 (49:23)). The salvation of God is Christ, whom old Simeon, when he had recognized him in the spirit as an infant, and had taken him into his hands: Now you dismiss, he says, your servant, O Lord, according to your word, in peace; for my eyes have seen your salvation (Luke 2:29-30).
Ep100-155.18.4619. 47. Qui timetis ergo Dominum, laudate eum; universum semen Iacob, magnificate eum. Non vacat quod ei non sufficit dicere, semen Iacob, nisi adderet universum; ne in solis eis intellegeretur, qui ex Israelitis fuerant credituri. Semen enim Iacob ipsum est semen Abrahae; omnibus autem in Christum credentibus, non solis qui ex Israel fideles erant, Apostolus dicit: Ergo Abrahae semen estis, secundum promissionem haeredes. Ibi namque commemoravit praefigurationem Novi Testamenti, in eo quod scriptum est: In Isaac vocabitur tibi semen; non utique in Ismael, ancillae filio. In quibus duobus filiis Abrahae, servo, et libero, et duabus mulieribus, ancilla, et libera, scribens ad Galatas, duo Testamenta dicit in allegoria praefigurata. Unde dicit: Non qui filii carnis, ii sunt filii Dei; sed filii promissionis deputantur in semine. Promissionis enim verbum hoc est: Ad hoc tempus veniam, et erit Sarae filius.
19. 47. You who fear the Lord, then, praise him; all the seed of Jacob, magnify him (Ps 22:23 (21:24)). It is not idle that it does not suffice him to say "the seed of Jacob," unless he add "all"; lest it be understood only of those who were to believe from the Israelites. For the seed of Jacob is the very seed of Abraham; and to all who believe in Christ, not only to those who were faithful from Israel, the Apostle says: Therefore you are the seed of Abraham, heirs according to the promise (Gal 3:29). For there he recalled the prefiguration of the New Testament, in that which is written: In Isaac will your seed be called (Gen 21:12; Rom 9:7); not surely in Ishmael, the son of the handmaid. In which two sons of Abraham—the slave and the free, and the two women, the handmaid and the free—writing to the Galatians, he says the two Testaments were prefigured in allegory. Whence he says: Not those who are the sons of the flesh, these are the sons of God; but the sons of the promise are reckoned in the seed (Rom 9:8). For the word of the promise is this: At this time I will come, and Sarah will have a son (Rom 9:9; Gen 18:10).
Ep100-155.19.4719. 48. Multum est et nimis longum diligenter enucleare cur filii promissionis pertinentes ad Isaac, Novi Testamenti gratiae deputentur. Breviter tamen attingam, unde tanto fructuosius cogitabis, quanto magis pie cogitaveris. Non omnia Deus quae praedicit, promittit; praedicit enim etiam illa quae non ipse facit, quia est omnium praescius futurorum. Praedicit ergo et peccata hominum; quae potuit praescire, non facere. Promittit autem quae ipse facturus est; nec ea mala, sed bona. Quis enim promittit mala? Quamvis itaque mala inferat malis, non peccata, sed supplicia; minatur tamen ea potius quam promittit. Omnia largitur et praescit; sed peccata praedicit, supplicia minatur, beneficia pollicetur. Filii ergo promissionis, filii sunt beneficii. Haec est gratia, quae gratis datur, non meritis operantis, sed miseratione donantis. Hinc gratias agimus Domino Deo nostro, quod est magnum sacramentum in sacrificio Novi Testamenti, quod ubi, et quando, et quomodo offeratur, cum fueris baptizatus, invenies.
19. 48. It is much, and too long, to unfold diligently why the sons of the promise, pertaining to Isaac, are reckoned to the grace of the New Testament. Yet I will briefly touch it, whence you will think the more fruitfully the more devoutly you think. God does not promise all the things he foretells; for he foretells also those things which he himself does not do, because he is foreknowing of all future things. He foretells, then, even the sins of men; which he could foreknow, not do. But he promises the things which he himself is to do; and not evils, but goods. For who promises evils? Although, then, he brings evils upon the bad—not sins, but punishments—he yet threatens these rather than promises them. He bestows all things and foreknows; but he foretells sins, threatens punishments, promises benefits. The sons of the promise, then, are sons of a benefit. This is the grace which is given freely, not from the merits of the one working, but from the compassion of the one giving. Hence we give thanks to the Lord our God, which is a great sacrament in the sacrifice of the New Testament; which, where, and when, and how it is offered, when you have been baptized, you will find.
Ep100-155.19.4820. 49. Deinde sequitur et dicit: Timeat eum omne semen Israel. Qui Iacob ipse et Israel, unus homo erat, habens duo nomina, non in parvo sacramento: sed uno libro non possunt dici omnia, in quo iam multum progressi sumus, et nondum de aliis tribus quaestionibus aliquid diximus; hoc est de tenebris exterioribus; et latitudine et longitudine, altitudine et profundo; et de quinque et quinque virginibus. Quod ergo dixit supra, universum semen Iacob, hic consequenter ait, omne semen Israel. Sed quare superius, magnificate eum, et posterius, timeat eum? Magnificatio laudi congruit; de qua dixerat: Qui timetis Dominum, laudate eum: unde iam multa disserui. Ibi quippe amor vel caritas Dei, quae perfecta foras mittit timorem. Cur ergo iterum: Timeat eum omne Israel? Non enim accepistis, inquit Apostolus, spiritum servitutis iterum in timore. Sed idem apostolus oleastro inserto in olivam timorem praecipit, hoc est Gentibus additis radici Abraham, Isaac, Iacob, ut et ipsae fierent Israel, id est, pertinerent ad semen Abrahae.
20. 49. Then it follows and says: Let all the seed of Israel fear him (Ps 22:23 (21:24)). He who was himself Jacob and Israel was one man, having two names, not in a small sacrament: but in one book all things cannot be said, in which we have already progressed much, and have not yet said anything about the other three questions; that is, about the exterior darknesses; and the breadth and length, height and depth; and the five and five virgins. What, then, he said above, "all the seed of Jacob," here he consequently says, "all the seed of Israel." But why above, "magnify him," and afterward, "let him fear him"? Magnifying suits praise; of which he had said, "You who fear the Lord, praise him": on which I have already discoursed much. For there is the love or charity of God, which, perfected, casts out fear. Why, then, again, "Let all Israel fear him"? For you have not received, says the Apostle, the spirit of servitude again unto fear (Rom 8:15). But the same apostle, the wild olive being grafted into the olive, enjoins fear—that is, the Gentiles being added to the root of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, that they too might become Israel, that is, might pertain to the seed of Abraham.
Ep100-155.20.4920. 50. Quam insertionem oleastri, iam amputatis propter infidelitatis superbiam naturalibus ramis, etiam ipse Dominus in Evangelio praedixit, occasione illius Centurionis qui in eum ex Gentibus credidit. Tunc enim ait: Amen dico vobis, non inveni tantam fidem in Israel: et adiunxit: Ideo dico vobis quia multi ab oriente et occidente venient, et recumbent cum Abraham, Isaac et Iacob in regno coelorum: filii autem regni ibunt in tenebras exteriores; illic erit ploratio et stridor dentium: ita significans inseri oleastrum propter humilitatem; dixerat quippe ille Centurio: Non sum dignus ut sub tectum meum intres; sed tantum dic verbo, et sanabitur puer meus; confractionem autem ramorum naturalium propter superbiam, scilicet eorum qui ignorantes Dei iustitiam, et suam volentes constituere, iustitiae Dei non sunt subiecti. De iis quippe vana elatione tumentibus dictum est quod ibunt in tenebras exteriores, qui iactantes se de semine Abrahae, semen Abrahae fieri noluerunt, ut essent filii promissionis: quia fidem Novi Testamenti non receperunt, ubi Dei iustitia commendatur, suam constituere volentes; id est, tamquam de suis meritis et operibus praefidentes spreverunt esse filii promissionis, hoc est filii gratiae, filii misericordiae, ut qui gloriatur, in Domino glorietur, credens in eum qui iustificat impium, hoc est qui ex impio facit pium; ut deputetur fides eius ad iustitiam, et impleatur in eo, non quod postulabat eius meritum, sed quod a Domino promissum est beneficium.
20. 50. Which grafting of the wild olive—the natural branches being now cut off on account of the pride of unbelief—the Lord himself too foretold in the Gospel, on the occasion of that Centurion who believed in him from the Gentiles. For then he said: Amen I say to you, I have not found so great faith in Israel (Matt 8:10): and he added: Therefore I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will recline with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven: but the sons of the kingdom will go into the exterior darknesses; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matt 8:11-12): thus signifying that the wild olive is grafted on account of humility—for that Centurion had said, I am not worthy that you enter under my roof; but only say with a word, and my servant will be healed (Matt 8:8)—but the breaking of the natural branches on account of pride, namely of those who, being ignorant of the justice of God, and wishing to establish their own, have not been subject to the justice of God. For of these, swelling with vain elation, it was said that they will go into the exterior darknesses, who, boasting themselves of the seed of Abraham, were unwilling to become the seed of Abraham, so as to be sons of the promise: because they did not receive the faith of the New Testament, where the justice of God is commended, wishing to establish their own; that is, as though presuming on their own merits and works, they scorned to be sons of the promise, that is, sons of grace, sons of mercy, so that he who glories, let him glory in the Lord, believing in him who justifies the impious—that is, who from the impious makes the devout—that his faith may be reckoned to justice, and there may be fulfilled in him, not what his merit demanded, but what was promised by the Lord as a benefit.
Ep100-155.20.5020. 51. Cum iis igitur agens Apostolus, qui olivae per gratiam inserebantur: Dicis, inquit, fracti sunt rami, ut ego inserar. Bene; propter incredulitatem fracti sunt. Tu autem, fide sta; noli altum sapere, sed time. Dei est enim beneficium, non meritum tuum; quod et alibi dicit: Gratia salvi facti estis per fidem; et hoc non ex vobis, sed Dei donum est, non ex operibus, ne forte quis extollatur. Ipsius enim sumus figmentum, creati in Iesu Christo in operibus bonis, quae praeparavit Deus ut in illis ambulemus. In hoc itaque intellectu gratiae inest timor, de quo dicitur: Noli altum sapere, sed time. Timor autem iste alius est; non est ille servilis quem caritas foras mittit. Illo enim timetur ne incidatur in tormentum supplicii; isto autem, ne amittatur gratia beneficii.
20. 51. Dealing, then, with those who were grafted into the olive by grace, the Apostle says: You will say, the branches were broken, that I might be grafted in. Well; on account of unbelief they were broken. But you, stand by faith; do not be high-minded, but fear (Rom 11:19-20). For it is the benefit of God, not your merit; which elsewhere too he says: By grace you have been saved through faith; and this not from yourselves, but it is the gift of God; not from works, lest perhaps anyone be lifted up. For we are his workmanship, created in Jesus Christ in good works, which God prepared that we should walk in them (Eph 2:8-10). In this understanding of grace, then, there is fear, of which it is said, "Do not be high-minded, but fear." But this fear is another; it is not that servile one which love casts out. For by that one it is feared lest one fall into the torment of punishment; but by this, lest the grace of the benefit be lost.
Ep100-155.20.5121. 52. Quapropter quamvis fidelibus ad Novum Testamentum pertinentibus dicat Apostolus quod paulo ante commemoravi: Non enim accepistis spiritum servitutis iterum in timore; sed accepistis spiritum adoptionis filiorum, in quo clamamus, Abba, pater; id est ut fides in nobis sit, quae per dilectionem operatur, non tam timendo poenam quam amando iustitiam: tamen quia non fit anima iusta nisi participatione melioris qui iustificat impium (quid enim habet quod non accepit?), non debet sibi tribuendo quod Dei est, ita gloriari tamquam non acceperit. Ob hoc ei dictum est: Noli altum sapere, sed time. Et timor iste praecipitur iis etiam qui ex fide viventes, haeredes sunt Novi Testamenti, atque in libertatem vocati. Altum enim sapere, dictum est, superbire: quod alio loco, e contrario satis ostendit, ubi ait: Non alta sapientes, sed humilibus consentientes. Ex hoc quod ait, humilibus consentientes, utique aperuit nihil aliud se dixisse, alta sapientes, quam superbientes.
21. 52. Wherefore, although to the faithful pertaining to the New Testament the Apostle says what I recalled a little before, For you have not received the spirit of servitude again unto fear; but you have received the spirit of adoption of sons, in which we cry, Abba, Father (Rom 8:15)—that is, that there be in us faith which works through love, not so much by fearing punishment as by loving justice: yet, because a soul is not made just except by the participation of a better one who justifies the impious (for what does it have that it has not received?), it ought not, by attributing to itself what is God's, so to glory as though it had not received. On account of this it was said to it, "Do not be high-minded, but fear." And this fear is enjoined even on those who, living by faith, are heirs of the New Testament, and called into liberty. For "to be high-minded" was said for "to be proud": which in another place, on the contrary, he sufficiently shows, where he says, Not high-minded, but consenting to the humble (Rom 12:16). From this that he says, "consenting to the humble," he surely disclosed that he had said nothing else by "high-minded" than "proud."
Ep100-155.21.5221. 53. Timor ergo non est in caritate, quia perfecta caritas foras mittit timorem; sed illum servilem, illum quo cum se quisque ab opere malo abstinet, poena terretur, non iustitia delectatur; hunc caritas foras mittit, quam non delectat iniquitas, etiamsi proponatur impunitas: non illum quo timet anima ne amittat ipsam gratiam, qua in illa factum est ut eam non peccare delectet; quo timet ne Deus eam deserat, etiamsi nullis dolorum cruciatibus puniat. Hic timor castus est; non eum caritas eicit, sed adsciscit. De illo quippe scriptum est: Timor Domini castus, permanens in saeculum saeculi: nequaquam istum diceret permanentem, nisi sciret alium qui non permaneret. Et bene istum castum dixit; hoc enim non caret amor quo anima inhaeret Deo, quae dicit in alio psalmo: Perdidisti omnem qui fornicatur abs te; mihi autem adhaerere Deo bonum est. Nam et coniux quae adulterinum animum gerit, etiamsi timore viri non adulterium perpetrat, tamen quod deest operi, inest voluntati: casta vero aliter timet; nam et ipsa timet virum, sed caste. Denique timet illa ne vir infestus adveniat; ista, ne offensus abscedat: non amanti enim praesentia viri molesta est; amanti autem, absentia. Timore itaque casto, permanenti in saeculum saeculi, timeat Deum omne semen Israel. Timeant quem diligunt, non alta sapiendo, sed humilibus consentiendo; cum timore et tremore suam ipsorum salutem operentur. Deus est enim qui operatur in eis et velle, et operari, pro bona voluntate.
21. 53. Fear, then, is not in love, because perfect love casts out fear; but that servile fear, that by which one, when he abstains from an evil work, is terrified by punishment, not delighted by justice; this love casts out, love which iniquity does not delight, even if impunity be proposed: not that fear by which the soul fears lest it lose that very grace by which it was brought about in it that it delights not to sin; by which it fears lest God desert it, even if he punish it with no torments of pains. This fear is chaste; love does not cast it out, but adopts it. For of it it is written: The chaste fear of the Lord, enduring forever and ever (Ps 19:9 (18:10)): it would in no way call this enduring, unless it knew another which would not endure. And it well called it chaste; for this is not lacking to that love by which the soul cleaves to God, which says in another psalm, You have destroyed everyone who fornicates away from you; but for me to cleave to God is good (Ps 73:27-28 (72:27-28)). For even a wife who bears an adulterous mind, although by fear of her husband she does not perpetrate adultery, yet what is lacking to the deed is present in the will: but the chaste one fears otherwise; for she too fears her husband, but chastely. Finally, the former fears lest her husband come hostile; the latter, lest, offended, he depart: for to one not loving the presence of the husband is troublesome; but to one loving, his absence. By a chaste fear, then, enduring forever and ever, let all the seed of Israel fear God. Let them fear him whom they love, not by being high-minded, but by consenting to the humble; with fear and trembling let them work out their own salvation. For it is God who works in them both to will and to work, for good will (Phil 2:12-13).
Ep100-155.21.5322. 54. Haec est iustitia Dei, hoc est quod Deus donat homini, cum iustificat impium. Hanc Dei iustitiam ignorantes superbi Iudaei, et suam volentes constituere, iustitiae Dei non sunt subiecti; hac superbia deiciuntur, ut humilis inseratur oleaster. Et illi ibunt in tenebras exteriores, de quibus inter alia requisisti, venientibus ab oriente et occidente multis, qui recumbent cum Abraham, Isaac et Iacob in regno coelorum. Sunt enim modo in exteris tenebris, unde correctio desperanda non est; quam si contempserint, ibunt in tenebras exteriores, ubi correctionis locus non erit: quoniam Deus lux est, et tenebrae in eo non sunt ullae; sed lux cordis, non istorum qui in carne sunt oculorum; nec omnino talis, qualis huius lucis visibilis phantasia cogitatur; quamquam et ibi est videre, sed longe aliter, longe dissimiliter. Qualis enim lux est ipsa caritas, quis verbis explicet? quis earum rerum quae sensibus carnis adiacent, ullo demonstret exemplo? An forte lux non est caritas? Audi apostolum Ioannem: ipse quippe dixit quod modo commemoravi: Quoniam Deus lux est, et tenebrae non sunt in eo ullae; qui rursum dicit: Deus caritas est. Ac per hoc si Deus lux est, et Deus caritas est, profecto caritas lux ipsa est, quae diffunditur in cordibus nostris per Spiritum sanctum qui datus est nobis. Item dicit: Qui odit fratrem suum, in tenebris est usque adhuc. Istae sunt tenebrae, in quas diabolus et angeli eius multum superbiendo progressi sunt. Caritas enim non aemulatur, non inflatur. Ideo non aemulatur, quia non inflatur: ubi enim praecedit inflatio, continuo sequitur aemulatio; quoniam superbia mater est invidentiae.
22. 54. This is the justice of God, this is what God gives to man when he justifies the impious. The proud Jews, being ignorant of this justice of God, and wishing to establish their own, are not subject to the justice of God; by this pride they are cast down, that the humble wild olive may be grafted in. And they will go into the exterior darknesses, about which, among other things, you inquired, when many will come from the east and west, who will recline with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. For now they are in the outer darknesses, whence correction is not to be despaired of; which if they shall despise, they will go into the exterior darknesses, where there will be no place of correction: since God is light, and in him there are no darknesses (1 John 1:5); but a light of the heart, not of these eyes which are in the flesh; nor at all such as the phantasm of this visible light is thought; although there too is seeing, but far otherwise, far dissimilarly. For what sort of light love itself is, who could unfold in words? Who could demonstrate by any example of those things which lie adjacent to the senses of the flesh? Or is love perhaps not light? Hear the apostle John: for he himself said what I just recalled, that God is light, and there are no darknesses in him (1 John 1:5); who again says, God is love (1 John 4:8). And through this, if God is light, and God is love, surely love is that very light, which is poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. Likewise he says: He who hates his brother is in the darkness even until now (1 John 2:9). These are the darknesses into which the devil and his angels, by greatly being proud, advanced. For love is not envious, is not puffed up (1 Cor 13:4). Therefore it is not envious, because it is not puffed up: for where inflation goes before, envy at once follows; since pride is the mother of envy.
Ep100-155.22.5422. 55. Diabolus igitur et angeli eius a luce atque fervore caritatis aversi, et nimis in superbiam invidiamque progressi, velut glaciali duritia torpuerunt. Et ideo per figuram tamquam in aquilone ponuntur: unde cum generi humano diabolus incubaret, ventura gratia Salvatoris dicitur in Cantico canticorum: Exsurge, aquilo, et veni, auster, perfla hortum meum, et fluent aromata. Exsurge, qui irruisti, qui subditis incumbis, qui possessos premis: exsurge, ut a tuo pondere relevati erigantur, quorum animas premendo curvasti. Et veni, auster, inquit; spiritum invocans gratiae, flantem de meridie velut a parte fervida et luminosa, ut fluant aromata. Unde Apostolus dicit: Christi bonus odor sumus in omni loco. Hinc etiam dicitur in quodam psalmo: Converte, Domine, captivitatem nostram, sicut torrens in austro: captivitatem scilicet, qua sub diabolo tamquam sub aquilone tenebantur, ubi abundante iniquitate friguerant, et quodam modo congelaverant. Hinc enim et Evangelium dicit: Quoniam abundabit iniquitas, refrigescet caritas multorum. At vero flante austro, glacies resolvitur, et torrentes fluunt, id est peccatis remissis, populi ad Christum caritate concurrunt. Hinc et alibi scriptum est: Sicut glacies in sereno, ita solventur peccata tua.
22. 55. The devil, then, and his angels, averted from the light and fervor of love, and advanced too far into pride and envy, grew torpid, as it were, with an icy hardness. And therefore by a figure they are placed, as it were, in the north: whence, when the devil lay brooding over the human race, the grace of the Savior, about to come, is said in the Song of Songs: Rise up, north wind, and come, south wind, blow through my garden, and the spices will flow (Song 4:16). Rise up, you who rushed in, who lie heavy on the subjected, who oppress the possessed: rise up, that, relieved of your weight, those may be raised up whose souls, by pressing, you bowed down. And come, south wind, it says; invoking the spirit of grace, blowing from the south, as it were from the fervid and luminous part, that the spices may flow. Whence the Apostle says, We are the good odor of Christ in every place (2 Cor 2:14-15). Hence too it is said in a certain psalm: Turn, O Lord, our captivity, like a torrent in the south (Ps 126:4 (125:4)): the captivity, namely, by which they were held under the devil as under the north, where, iniquity abounding, they had grown cold, and in a manner frozen. For hence too the Gospel says: Because iniquity will abound, the love of many will grow cold (Matt 24:12). But when the south wind blows, the ice is loosed, and the torrents flow—that is, sins being remitted, the peoples run together to Christ by love. Hence elsewhere too it is written: Like ice in fair weather, so will your sins be loosed (See Sir 3:15).
Ep100-155.22.5523. 56. Proinde rationalis creatura, sive in angelico spiritu, sive in anima humana, ita facta est, ut sibi ipsa bonum quo beata fiat, esse non possit; sed mutabilitas eius si convertatur ad incommutabile bonum, fiat beata: unde si avertatur, misera est. Aversio eius vitium eius, et conversio eius virtus eius est. Natura ergo non est mala, quia creatura spiritus vitae rationalis, etiam privata bono cuius participatione beatificatur, id est, etiam vitiosa, melior est eo corpore quod summum est in corporibus, id est, hac luce quae sentitur oculis carnis, quia et ipsa est corpus: omni autem corpore quaelibet incorporea natura praestantior est: non mole, quia nonnisi corporum est moles, sed vi quadam qua supergreditur omnem phantasiam, quam volutat animus haustam de sensibus corporis. Sed quemadmodum in ipsis corporibus ea quae inferiora sunt, sicut terra et aqua et ipse aer, meliora fiunt participatione melioris, id est, cum luce illuminantur, et fervore vegetantur: sic incorporeae creaturae rationales ipsius Creatoris fiunt participatione meliores, cum ei cohaerent purissima et sanctissima caritate; qua omnimodo si caruerint, tenebrescunt, et obdurescunt quodammodo.
23. 56. Accordingly the rational creature—whether in the angelic spirit or in the human soul—was so made that it cannot be for itself the good by which it becomes blessed; but its changeableness, if it be turned to the unchangeable good, becomes blessed: whence, if it be turned away, it is wretched. Its turning away is its vice, and its turning toward is its virtue. The nature, then, is not evil, because the creature of the spirit of rational life, even deprived of the good by participation of which it is beatified—that is, even when vicious—is better than that body which is the highest among bodies, that is, than this light which is felt by the eyes of the flesh, because it too is a body: but any incorporeal nature whatever is more excellent than every body: not by mass, because mass is of none but bodies, but by a certain force by which it surpasses every phantasm which the mind turns over, drawn from the senses of the body. But just as in bodies themselves those things which are lower—like earth and water and the air itself—become better by participation of a better thing, that is, when they are illuminated by light, and enlivened by warmth: so incorporeal rational creatures become better by participation of the Creator himself, when they cleave to him by the purest and holiest love; from which, if they shall altogether be lacking, they grow dark, and in a manner grow hard.
Ep100-155.23.5623. 57. Proinde infideles homines tenebrae sunt; qui per fidem conversi ad Deum, quadam praemissa illuminatione lux fiunt. In qua proficiendo si ex fide ad speciem pervenerint, ut id quod credunt etiam conspicere, sicut tantum bonum potest conspici, mereantur, perfectam recipient imaginem Dei: talibus enim dicit Apostolus: Fuistis aliquando tenebrae; nunc autem lux in Domino. Porro diabolus et angeli eius, tenebrae sunt infidelibus hominibus exteriores: plus enim ab illa caritate aversi, et in suum fastum obstinationemque progressi sunt. Et quoniam extremo iudicio Christus dicturus est eis quos ad sinistram discernet: Ite in ignem aeternum, qui paratus est diabolo et angelis eius; his malignis spiritibus coniungendos, simulque damnandos, dicit ituros in tenebras exteriores, id est in societatem poenalem diaboli et angelorum eius. Huic poenae contrarium est quod bono servo dicitur: Intra in gaudium domini tui; ut quanto sunt istae tenebrae exteriores, tanto sit lumen illud interius. Non haec per locorum intervalla inani phantasmate cogitanda sunt: localia spatia non occupant nisi corporum moles. Non est hoc spiritus vitae, non est hoc anima rationalis, multo minus Deus omnium benignissimus conditor, et iustissimus ordinator. Voluntatibus et affectibus ista vel propinquare vel longe fieri, vel intrare vel exire dicuntur.
23. 57. Accordingly unbelieving men are darkness; who, turned to God by faith, become light, a certain illumination being sent ahead. In which, by progressing, if from faith they shall have come to sight, so as to deserve even to behold what they believe—as so great a good can be beheld—they will receive the perfect image of God: for to such the Apostle says, You were once darkness; but now light in the Lord (Eph 5:8). Moreover the devil and his angels are the exterior darkness to unbelieving men: for they have been more averted from that love, and advanced into their own arrogance and obstinacy. And since at the final judgment Christ is to say to those whom he shall separate on the left, Go into the eternal fire, which was prepared for the devil and his angels (Matt 25:41)—to be joined to these malign spirits, and to be condemned together—he says they will go into the exterior darknesses, that is, into the penal fellowship of the devil and his angels. To this punishment is contrary that which is said to the good servant, Enter into the joy of your lord (Matt 25:21); so that, as great as these darknesses are exterior, so great may that light be interior. These things are not to be thought of through intervals of places by an empty phantasm: local spaces are occupied only by the masses of bodies. This is not the spirit of life, this is not the rational soul, much less God, the most kindly founder of all and the most just orderer. By wills and affections these things are said either to draw near or to become far off, either to enter or to go out.
Ep100-155.23.5723. 58. Sed quia malo opere, id est tenebroso delectantur facientes, secutura est autem poena quae torqueat, ideo Dominus ubi dixit, tenebras exteriores, addidit etiam: Ibi erit fletus et stridor dentium: ne talibus delectationibus, qualibus hic iniqui perfruuntur, quando infidelitate atque iniustitia tenebrescunt, etiam in illo supplicio se usuros dementer existiment; quia enim volentes iniuste utuntur bonis, iuste nolentes cruciabuntur malis. Unde possunt etiam tenebrae exteriores intellegi poenae corporales; corpus quippe est animae exterius: ut sint animae mala, quibus a caritatis luce aversa mens in peccatis oblectatur, exterae tenebrae; corporis autem mala, quibus aeternis in finem torquebitur, exteriores tenebrae, quas solas timent qui servili adhuc timore detinentur. Nam si eis liceret in illis exteris quae sunt in peccatis, impune semper volvi et involvi, profecto numquam vellent accedere ad Deum, et illuminari, et inhaerere illi per caritatem, ubi est timor castus, permanens in saeculum saeculi: qui timor non cruciat, sed tenaciorem facit animam boni illius, quod si dimiserit, cadet.
23. 58. But because those who do an evil—that is, dark—work are delighted while doing it, but a punishment is to follow which will torture, therefore the Lord, where he said "exterior darknesses," added also: There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matt 25:30): lest they madly suppose that they will, in that punishment too, use such delights as the unjust here enjoy when, by unbelief and injustice, they grow dark; for because, willing, they unjustly use goods, justly, unwilling, they will be tortured by evils. Whence the exterior darknesses can also be understood as bodily punishments; for the body is exterior to the soul: so that the evils of the soul, by which the mind, averted from the light of love, takes delight in sins, are the outer darknesses; but the evils of the body, by which it will be tortured eternally in the end, are the exterior darknesses, which alone those fear who are still held by servile fear. For if it were permitted them to be rolled and enwrapped forever with impunity in those outer things which are in sins, surely they would never wish to draw near to God, and be illuminated, and cleave to him by love, where is the chaste fear, enduring forever and ever: which fear does not torture, but makes the soul more tenacious of that good, which, if it shall let go, it will fall.
Ep100-155.23.5824. 59. Timeat eum omne semen Israel. Et vide causam quam coniungit: Quoniam non sprevit, inquit, neque despexit precem pauperis. Pauperem, humilem dicit: hinc est: Noli altum sapere, sed time. Timeat ergo eum omne semen Israel, quoniam non despexit eius precem qui non altum sapuit, sed timuit. Potest et hoc capiti coaptari; quia ipse Salvator corporis propter nos pauper factus est, cum dives esset, ut eius paupertate ditaremur. Ex forma enim servi pauper factus est, ex qua et precem fudit: in ea quippe semetipsum humiliavit, factus obediens usque ad mortem. Vide ergo quid dicat: Quoniam non sprevit neque despexit precem pauperis, neque avertit faciem suam a me. Ubi est illud: Quare me dereliquisti, si nec faciem avertit ab eo? nisi quia et derelinquens non derelinquit, quando in bonis temporalibus non exaudit; et non ad insipientiam nobis, sed ut sapiamus quid auferat, et quid offerat nobis. Non, inquit, sprevit neque despexit precem pauperis, neque avertit faciem suam a me: et cum clamarem ad eum, exaudivit me. Fecit ergo quod paulo ante rogatus est, ubi eum deprecans dixit: Ne discedas a me. Si enim exaudivit, profecto fecit, non utique discessit. Non ergo dereliquit hoc modo, qui alio modo dereliquit, ut saperemus quomodo magis non ab eo derelinqui velle debemus.
24. 59. Let all the seed of Israel fear him. And see the cause which he joins: For he has not spurned, he says, nor despised the prayer of the poor man (Ps 22:24 (21:25)). By "poor man" he means the humble: hence is, "Do not be high-minded, but fear." Let all the seed of Israel, then, fear him, because he did not despise the prayer of him who was not high-minded, but feared. This too can be fitted to the head; because the Savior of the body himself was made poor for us, when he was rich, that by his poverty we might be enriched. For from the form of a servant he was made poor, from which too he poured out his prayer: for in it he humbled himself, made obedient unto death. See, then, what he says: For he has not spurned nor despised the prayer of the poor man, nor turned his face away from me. Where is that, "Why have you forsaken me," if he did not even turn his face away from him? Except that even by forsaking he does not forsake, when in temporal goods he does not hear; and not unto unwisdom for us, but that we may be wise what he takes away, and what he offers us. He has not, he says, spurned nor despised the prayer of the poor man, nor turned his face away from me: and when I cried to him, he heard me (Ps 22:24 (21:25)). He did, then, what a little before he was asked, where, entreating him, he said, "Do not depart from me." For if he heard, surely he did it, surely he did not depart. He did not, then, forsake in this way, who forsook in another way, that we might be wise in what way we ought rather to wish not to be forsaken by him.
Ep100-155.24.5924. 60. Apud te laus mea. Quid ergo nocent qui tamquam victo insultant, quod me in temporalibus dereliqueris? In Ecclesia magna confitebor tibi: non quanta ista Synagoga est, quae irridet mortem derelicti, sed in Ecclesia magna diffusa per omnes gentes, quae credit in resurrectionem non derelicti. Haec est unica illa quam petit de manu canis erui, de qua etiam paulo ante dixit: In medio Ecclesiae cantabo te. Et nunc quod ait, confitebor tibi, in eis utique qui confitebuntur, in quibus et loquitur. Confessio autem non tantum peccatorum est, sed et laudis Dei; sicut ipse in Evangelio: Confitebor tibi, inquit: Pater, Domine coeli et terrae, quia abscondisti haec a sapientibus et prudentibus, et revelasti ea parvulis. Ideo sequitur et dicit: Vota mea reddam coram timentibus eum. Edent pauperes, et saturabuntur; et laudabunt Dominum qui requirunt cum. Ipsi sunt parvuli de quibus dixit, et revelasti ea parvulis; timentes eum, et pauperes, id est humiles, qui non alta sapiunt, sed timent timore illo casto, non quo poena formidatur, sed quo gratia conservatur.
24. 60. With you is my praise (Ps 22:25 (21:26)). What harm, then, do those who insult as though over one conquered, because you have forsaken me in temporal things? In the great Church I will confess to you: not as great as this Synagogue is, which mocks the death of the forsaken one, but in the great Church spread through all nations, which believes in the resurrection of him who was not forsaken. This is that only one which he asks to be rescued from the hand of the dog, of which a little before too he said, "In the midst of the Church I will sing you." And now that he says, "I will confess to you," is surely in those who will confess, in whom he also speaks. But confession is not only of sins, but also of the praise of God; as he himself in the Gospel: I confess to you, he says, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent, and revealed them to little ones (Matt 11:25). Therefore it follows and says: I will render my vows before those who fear him. The poor will eat and be satisfied; and those who seek him will praise the Lord (Ps 22:25-26 (21:26-27)). These are the little ones of whom he said, "and revealed them to little ones"; fearing him, and poor—that is, humble—who are not high-minded, but fear with that chaste fear, not by which punishment is dreaded, but by which grace is conserved.
Ep100-155.24.6024. 61. Vota vero sua sacrificium vult intellegi corporis sui, quod est fidelium Sacramentum. Ideo cum dixisset: Vola mea reddam coram timentibus cum; continuo subiunxit: Edent pauperes, et saturabuntur. Ipsi enim saturabuntur pane qui de coelo descendit, qui ei cohaerentes, et eius pacem dilectionemque servantes imitantur eius humilitatem: ideo pauperes. In hac paupertate et saturitate praecipue Apostoli claruerunt. Et laudabunt Dominum, inquit, qui requirunt eum: intellegentes non meritorum suorum, sed illius esse gratiae quod saturati sunt. Requirunt enim eum, quia non sunt ex eis qui sua quaerunt, non quae Iesu Christi. Denique et si caro eorum qui eum laudant, patitur temporalem tribulationem vel mortem, vivent corda eorum in saeculum saeculi. Haec vita cordis non est in sensibus corporis; secreta est in luce quae intus est, non in tenebris quae foris sunt; in fine praecepti, non in initio peccati. Finis autem praecepti caritas est de corde puro, et conscientia bona, et fide non ficta: caritas quae non aemulatur, non inflatur, quia non altum sapit, sed timet; et ideo cohaeret timore casto, permanente in saeculum saeculi. Initium autem omnis peccati superbia, qua diabolus irrevocabiliter in exteriora progressus est, hominemque invidendo, et ei simile aliquid suadendo deiecit. Cui homini in quadam scriptura dicitur: Quid superbit terra et cinis? Quoniam in vita sua proiecit intima sua. In vita sua, dictum est, tamquam in propria sua, et quasi privata, qua delectatur omnis superbia.
24. 61. But by "my vows" he wishes to be understood the sacrifice of his body, which is the Sacrament of the faithful. Therefore, when he had said, "I will render my vows before those who fear him," he at once subjoined: "The poor will eat and be satisfied." For they will be satisfied with the bread which descended from heaven, who, cleaving to him, and keeping his peace and love, imitate his humility: therefore poor. In this poverty and satisfaction the Apostles especially shone. And those who seek him, he says, will praise the Lord: understanding that it is not of their own merits, but of his grace, that they are satisfied. For they seek him, because they are not of those who seek their own things, not the things of Jesus Christ. Finally, even if the flesh of those who praise him suffers temporal tribulation or death, their hearts will live forever and ever. This life of the heart is not in the senses of the body; it is secret, in the light which is within, not in the darkness which is without; in the end of the precept, not in the beginning of sin. But the end of the precept is love from a pure heart, and a good conscience, and unfeigned faith: love which is not envious, is not puffed up, because it is not high-minded, but fears; and therefore cleaves by chaste fear, enduring forever and ever. But the beginning of every sin is pride, by which the devil irrevocably advanced into the exterior things, and, by envying man and persuading him to something like it, cast him down. To which man it is said in a certain Scripture: Why is earth and ashes proud? For in his life he cast away his inmost parts (See Sir 10:9 (13)). "In his life" it was said, as in his own, and as it were private, in which all pride is delighted.
Ep100-155.24.6125. 62. Unde caritas in commune magis quam in privatum consulens, dicitur non quaerere quae sua sunt. Hac vivunt corda in saeculum saeculi, tamquam saturata pane coelesti: de qua saturator ipse dicit: Nisi manducaveritis carnem meam, et sanguinem meum biberitis, non habebitis vitam in vobis. Merito ergo istorum qui saturantur, vivent corda in saeculum saeculi. Vita enim Christus est, qui habitat in cordibus eorum, interim per fidem, post etiam per speciem. Vident enim nunc in aenigmate per speculum, tunc autem facie ad faciem. Unde ipsa caritas nunc in bonis operibus dilectionis exercetur, qua se ad subveniendum quaquaversum potest, porrigit; et haec latitudo est: nunc longanimitate adversa tolerat, et in eo quod veraciter tenuit, perseverat; et haec est longitudo: hoc autem totum propter adipiscendam vitam facit aeternam, quae illi promittitur in excelso; et haec altitudo est. Existit vero ex occulto ista caritas, ubi fundati et radicati quodam modo sumus; ubi causae voluntatis Dei non investigantur, cuius gratia sumus salvi facti, non ex operibus iustitiae quae fecimus nos, sed secundum eius misericordiam. Voluntarie quippe genuit nos verbo veritatis: et haec voluntas eius in abdito est. Cuius secreti profunditatem quodam modo expavescens Apostolus clamat: O altitudo divitiarum sapientiae et scientiae Dei! quam inscrutabilia sunt iudicia eius, et investigabiles viae eius! Quis enim cognovit sensum Domini? et hoc est profundum. Altitudo quippe commune nomen est excelso et profundo: sed cum in excelso dicitur, sublimitatis eminentia commendatur; cum autem in profundo, difficultas investigationis et cognitionis. Unde et illud Deo dicitur: Quam magnificata sunt opera tua, Domine! nimis profundae factae sunt cogitationes tuae. Et iterum: Iudicia tua velut abyssus multa. Hinc igitur est illud Apostoli, quod requirendum inter caetera posuisti: Huius rei gratia, inquit, flecto genua mea ad Patrem Domini nostri Iesu Christi, ex quo omnis paternitas in caelis et in terra nominatur; ut det vobis secundum divitias gloriae suae virtute corroborari per Spiritum eius, in interiori homine habitare Christum per fidem in cordibus vestris, ut in caritate radicati et fundati praevaleatis comprehendere cum omnibus sanctis, quae sit longitudo et latitudo, altitudo et profundum; scire etiam supereminentem scientiam caritatis Christi, ut impleamini in omnem plenitudinem Dei.
25. 62. Whence love, taking counsel for the common rather than for the private, is said not to seek the things that are its own. By this hearts live forever and ever, as it were satisfied with the heavenly bread: of which the satisfier himself says, Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you will not have life in you (John 6:53). Deservedly, then, the hearts of those who are satisfied will live forever and ever. For the life is Christ, who dwells in their hearts, meanwhile through faith, afterward also through sight. For now they see in a riddle through a glass, but then face to face. Whence love itself is now exercised in the good works of charity, by which it reaches out to succor wherever it can; and this is the breadth: now by long-suffering it tolerates adverse things, and perseveres in that which it has truly held; and this is the length: but all this it does for the sake of attaining eternal life, which is promised to it on high; and this is the height. But this love arises out of the hidden, where we are in a manner founded and rooted; where the causes of the will of God are not investigated, by whose grace we have been saved, not from the works of justice which we ourselves did, but according to his mercy. For voluntarily he begot us by the word of truth: and this his will is in the secret. Whose profundity of secret, in a manner dreading, the Apostle cries out: O depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! For who has known the mind of the Lord? (Rom 11:33-34) and this is the depth. For "height" is a name common to the lofty and the deep: but when it is said of the lofty, the eminence of sublimity is commended; but when of the deep, the difficulty of investigation and knowledge. Whence to God too it is said: How magnified are your works, O Lord! exceedingly deep are your thoughts (Ps 92:5 (91:6)). And again: Your judgments are like a great deep (Ps 36:6 (35:7)). Hence, then, is that of the Apostle, which you set among the rest to be inquired about: For this cause, he says, I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom all fatherhood in heaven and on earth is named; that he may grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with power through his Spirit, that Christ may dwell through faith in your hearts in the inner man, that, rooted and founded in love, you may prevail to comprehend with all the saints what is the length and breadth, the height and depth; to know also the surpassing knowledge of the love of Christ, that you may be filled unto all the fullness of God (Eph 3:14-19).
Ep100-155.25.6226. 63. Attende omnia diligenter. Huius rei, inquit, gratia flecto genua mea ad Patrem Domini nostri Iesu Christi, ex quo omnis paternitas in coelis et in terra nominatur. Quaeris cuius rei gratia: hoc supra dixerat: Propter quod peto non infirmari in tribulationibus meis pro vobis Hoc ergo eis optat, ut non infirmentur in tribulationibus Apostoli, quas pro illis sustinebat, et propter hoc genua flectebat ad Patrem. Proinde non infirmari unde illis sit, sequitur et dicit: Ut det vobis secundum divitias gloriae suae virtute corroborari ver spiritum eius. Hae sunt divitiae de quibus dicit: O altitudo divitiarum! Abditas enim habent causas, ubi nullis meritis praecedentibus, quid habemus, quod non accepimus? Deinde sequitur, et quid optet, adiungit: In interiori, inquit, homine habitare Christum per fidem in cordibus vestris. Haec est vita cordium, qua vivimus in saeculum saeculi, ab initio fidei usque ad finem speciei. Ut in caritate, inquit, radicati et fundati praevaleatis comprehendere cum omnibus sanctis. Ista est communio cuiusdam divinae coelestisque reipublicae; hinc saturantur pauperes, non sua quaerentes, sed quae Iesu Christi; id est, non commoda privata sectantes, sed in commune, ubi salus omnium est, consulentes: nam de ipso pane quo tales saturantur, quodam loco Apostolus dicit. Unus panis, unum corpus, multi sumus. Quid ergo comprehendere? Quae sit, inquit, latitudo, sicut iam dixi, in bonis operibus, quibus benevolentia porrigitur usque ad diligendos inimicos; et longitudo, ut longanimiter, pro hac latitudine, molestiae tolerentur; et altitudo, ut pro his aeternum quod in supernis est praemium, non vanum aliquid temporale speretur; et profundum, unde gratuita gratia Dei secundum secretum et abditum voluntatis eius existit. Ibi enim radicati, ibi sumus fundati: radicati, propter agriculturam; fundati, propter aedificationem: quae quoniam non est ab homine, dicit alio loco idem apostolus: Dei agricultura estis, Dei aedificatio estis. Hoc totum agitur cum in hac nostra peregrinatione fides per dilectionem operatur. In futuro autem saeculo perfecta et plena caritas sine ulla malorum tolerantia, non fide credit quod non videt, nec spe desiderat quod non tenet; sed in aeternum veritatis incommutabilem speciem contemptabitur, cuius sine fine quietum opus erit, laudare quod amat, et amare quod laudat. De hac consequenter dicit: Scire etiam supereminentem scientiam caritatis Christi, ut impleamini in omnem plenitudinem Dei.
26. 63. Attend to all things diligently. For this cause, he says, I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom all fatherhood in heaven and on earth is named. You ask, for what cause: this he had said above: On account of which I ask not to be weakened in my tribulations for you (Eph 3:13). This, then, he wishes for them, that the Apostle not be weakened in the tribulations which he was enduring for them, and on account of this he bowed his knees to the Father. Accordingly, whence not to be weakened might be for them, it follows and he says: That he may grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with power through his Spirit. These are the riches of which he says, "O depth of the riches!" For they have hidden causes, where, no merits going before, what do we have that we have not received? Then it follows, and he adds what he wishes: That Christ dwell, he says, through faith in your hearts in the inner man. This is the life of hearts, by which we live forever and ever, from the beginning of faith to the end of sight. That, he says, rooted and founded in love, you may prevail to comprehend with all the saints. This is the communion of a certain divine and heavenly republic; hence the poor are satisfied, not seeking their own things, but those of Jesus Christ; that is, not pursuing private advantages, but taking counsel in common, where is the welfare of all: for of the very bread by which such are satisfied, the Apostle says in a certain place, One bread, one body, we many are (1 Cor 10:17). What, then, is to comprehend? What is, he says, the breadth—as I have already said, in good works, by which benevolence reaches out even to the loving of enemies; and the length, that, with long-suffering, on account of this breadth, troubles be tolerated; and the height, that for these the eternal reward which is on high, not some empty temporal thing, be hoped; and the depth, whence the gratuitous grace of God arises according to the secret and hidden of his will. For there we are rooted, there we are founded: rooted, on account of agriculture; founded, on account of building: which, since it is not from man, the same apostle says in another place, You are God's agriculture, you are God's building (1 Cor 3:9). All this is done when, in this our pilgrimage, faith works through love. But in the age to come, perfect and full love, without any toleration of evils, neither by faith believes what it does not see, nor by hope desires what it does not hold; but eternally it will contemplate the unchangeable form of truth, whose work, quiet without end, will be to praise what it loves, and to love what it praises. Of this he consequently says: To know also the surpassing knowledge of the love of Christ, that you may be filled unto all the fullness of God.
Ep100-155.26.6326. 64. In hoc mysterio figura crucis ostenditur. Qui enim quia voluit mortuus est, quomodo voluit mortuus est. Non frustra igitur tale genus mortis elegit, nisi ut in eo quoque latitudinis huius, et longitudinis, et altitudinis, et profunditatis magister existeret. Nam latitudo est in eo ligno quod transversum desuper figitur: hoc ad bona opera pertinet, quia ibi extenduntur manus. Longitudo in eo quod ab ipso ligno usque ad terram conspicuum est: ibi enim quodammodo statur, id est, persistitur et perseveratur; quod longanimitati tribuitur. Altitudo est in ea ligni parte, quae ab illo quod transversum figitur, sursum versus relinquitur, hoc est ad caput crucifixi; quia bene sperantium superna exspectatio est. Iam vero illud ex ligno quod non apparet, quod fixum occultatur, unde totum illud exsurgit, profunditatem significat gratuitae gratiae: in quo multorum ingenia conteruntur id investigare conantia, ut ad extremum eis dicatur: O homo tu quis es qui respondeas Deo?
26. 64. In this mystery the figure of the cross is shown. For he who, because he willed it, died, in the way he willed died. Not in vain, then, did he choose such a kind of death, except that in it too he might be the master of this breadth, and length, and height, and depth. For the breadth is in that wood which is fixed crosswise above: this pertains to good works, because there the hands are stretched out. The length is in that which, from the very wood down to the ground, is visible: for there one in a manner stands—that is, persists and perseveres; which is attributed to long-suffering. The height is in that part of the wood which is left, from that which is fixed crosswise, upward, that is, toward the head of the crucified; because the expectation of those who hope well is the things above. But now that part of the wood which does not appear, which, fixed, is hidden, whence all that rises up, signifies the depth of gratuitous grace: in which the talents of many are worn down, trying to investigate it, so that at last it is said to them: O man, who are you who answer God? (Rom 9:20)
Ep100-155.26.6426. 65. Vivent ergo corda saturatorum pauperum in saeculum saeculi; hoc est humilium caritate flagrantium, non sua quaerentium, sed sanctorum societate gaudentium. Hoc primitus in Apostolis factum est. Sed laudando Deum, id est praedicando gratiam Dei (quoniam dictum est: Laudabunt Dominum qui requirunt eum ), quid populorum acquisierint, in eo quod sequitur, vide.
26. 65. The hearts of the satisfied poor, then, will live forever and ever; that is, of the humble, burning with love, not seeking their own things, but rejoicing in the fellowship of the saints. This first was done in the Apostles. But by praising God—that is, by preaching the grace of God (since it was said, "Those who seek him will praise the Lord")—what of the peoples they acquired, see in that which follows.
Ep100-155.26.6527. 66. Commemorabuntur, inquit, et convertentur ad Dominum universi fines terrae; et adorabunt in conspectu eius universae patriae gentium: quoniam Domini est regnum, et ipse dominabitur gentium. Ille irrisus, ille crucifixus, ille derelictus hoc regnum acquirit: et tradet in fine Deo et Patri; non ut ipse amittat, sed quod in fide seminavit, cum venit minor Patre, hoc perducat ad speciem in qua aequalis non recessit a Patre. Manducaverunt et adoraverunt omnes divites terrae: divites terrae, superbos intellegere debemus, si recte superius pauperes, humiles intellegebamus, de quibus in Evangelio dicit: Beati pauperes spiritu, quoniam ipsorum est regnum coelorum: ipsi enim sunt mites, lugentes, esurientes et sitientes iustitiam, misericordes, mundicordes, pacifici, et qui persecutionem patiuntur propter iustitiam, quibus praedicationibus singillatim beatitudinem adiunxit. Contra ergo divites terrae hoc loco superbi intellegendi sunt. Neque enim frustra ita distincti sunt, ut de pauperibus supra diceretur: Edent pauperes, et saturabuntur; hic vero: Manducaverunt et adoraverunt omnes divites terrae. Et ipsi quippe adducti sunt ad mensam Christi, et accipiunt de corpore et sanguine eius; sed adorant tantum, non etiam saturantur, quoniam non imitantur. Manducantes enim pauperem, dedignantur esse pauperes: quia Christus pro nobis passus est, relinquens nobis exemplum ut sequamur vestigia eius. Verumtamen quod humiliavit semetipsum, factus obediens usque ad mortem, mortem autem crucis, aspernantur divites, et similia perpeti respuunt, tumore, non magnitudine; infirmitate ergo, non sanitate. Sed quia Deus excitavit eum a mortuis, et donavit ei nomen quod est super omne nomen, ut in nomine Iesu flectatur omne genu, coelestium, terrestrium, et infernorum; fama celsitudinis eius et gloria nominis eius in Ecclesia usquequaque diffusa permoti, et ipsi veniunt ad mensam, manducant et adorant; non tamen saturantur, quia non esuriunt et sitiunt iustitiam: tales enim saturabuntur. Quamquam perfecta saturitas in illa vita aeterna erit, cum ex ista peregrinatione venerimus ex fide ad speciem, ab speculo ad faciem, ab aenigmate ad perspicuam veritatem; non tamen inconvenienter saturatus dicitur paupertate Christi, qui pro iustitia eius, hoc est pro participatione Verbi aeterni, quam inchoavit interim fide, omnia temporalia non solum temperanter contemnit bona, verum etiam patienter sustinet mala.
27. 66. All the ends of the earth, he says, will remember and be turned to the Lord; and all the families of the nations will worship in his sight: for the kingdom is the Lord's, and he will rule over the nations (Ps 22:27-28 (21:28-29)). He who was mocked, he who was crucified, he who was forsaken acquires this kingdom: and he will hand it over at the end to God and the Father; not that he himself loses it, but that what he sowed in faith, when he came lesser than the Father, this he leads to the sight in which, equal, he did not withdraw from the Father. All the rich of the earth have eaten and adored (Ps 22:29 (21:30)): by "the rich of the earth" we ought to understand the proud, if above we rightly understood the poor as the humble, of whom in the Gospel he says, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven (Matt 5:3): for they are the meek, the mourning, those who hunger and thirst for justice, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, and those who suffer persecution for justice, to which preachings he added blessedness one by one. Over against the poor, then, in this place the rich of the earth are to be understood as the proud. For not in vain are they so distinguished, that of the poor it was said above, "The poor will eat and be satisfied"; but here, "All the rich of the earth have eaten and adored." For these too were brought to the table of Christ, and receive of his body and blood; but they only adore, not also are satisfied, because they do not imitate. For, eating the poor one, they disdain to be poor: because Christ suffered for us, leaving us an example that we should follow his footsteps. Nevertheless that which he humbled himself, made obedient unto death, even the death of the cross, the rich spurn, and refuse to endure like things, by swelling, not by greatness; therefore by weakness, not by health. But because God raised him from the dead, and gave him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, on earth, and under the earth; moved by the fame of his loftiness and the glory of his name, spread everywhere in the Church, they too come to the table, eat and adore; yet are not satisfied, because they do not hunger and thirst for justice: for such will be satisfied. Although perfect satisfaction will be in that eternal life, when from this pilgrimage we shall have come from faith to sight, from the glass to the face, from the riddle to perspicuous truth; yet not unfittingly is he said to be satisfied with the poverty of Christ, who for his justice—that is, for the participation of the eternal Word, which he has begun meanwhile by faith—not only temperately despises all temporal goods, but even patiently endures evils.
Ep100-155.27.6627. 67. Tales fuerunt piscatores et publicani; quia abiecta huius mundi elegit, ut confunderet fortia: de his dictum est: Edent pauperes, et saturabuntur. Sed quia istam saturitatem non apud seipsos tenuerunt (quodammodo enim ructantes Dominum laudaverunt; id est, praedicaverunt quaerentes eum, hoc est non sua quaerentes, sed in eum caritate flagrantes), eorum praedicatione commotus est mundus, ut commemorentur et convertantur ad Dominum universi fines terrae, et adorent in conspectu eius universae patriae gentium; quoniam Domini est regnum, et ipse dominabitur gentium. Hac Ecclesiae dilatatione etiam superbi, id est divites terrae adducti sunt ut manducarent; et quamvis non saturati, tamen adorant. Hunc quippe ordinem prophetia Psalmi hoc loco tenuit, quem videmus impleri. Adiungit autem: In conspectu eius procident omnes qui descendunt in terram: id est, omnes bona amando terrena, non in coelum ascendunt. Non enim faciunt quod ait Apostolus: Si resurrexistis cum Christo, quae sursum sunt quaerite, ubi Christus est in dextera Dei sedens; quae sursum sunt sapite, non quae super terram: sed potius quanto sibi bonis terrenis feliciores videntur, tanto magis in terram descendunt, hoc est, in terrena deprimuntur. Et ideo in conspectu eius procident, id est, ubi ipse videt, non ubi homines vident qui eos excelsos sublimesque arbitrantur.
27. 67. Such were the fishermen and the publicans; because he chose the abject things of this world, that he might confound the strong: of these it was said, "The poor will eat and be satisfied." But because they did not hold this satisfaction within themselves (for, in a manner belching, they praised the Lord—that is, they preached, seeking him, that is, not seeking their own things, but burning toward him with love), by their preaching the world was moved, so that all the ends of the earth might remember and be turned to the Lord, and all the families of the nations might worship in his sight; for the kingdom is the Lord's, and he will rule over the nations. By this spreading of the Church even the proud—that is, the rich of the earth—were brought to eat; and although not satisfied, yet they adore. For the prophecy of the Psalm in this place held that order which we see fulfilled. But he adds: In his sight will fall down all who go down into the earth (Ps 22:29 (21:30)): that is, all who, by loving earthly goods, do not ascend into heaven. For they do not do what the Apostle says: If you have risen with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God; relish the things that are above, not the things that are on earth (Col 3:1-2): but rather, the happier they seem to themselves with earthly goods, the more they go down into the earth—that is, they are pressed down into earthly things. And therefore they fall down "in his sight," that is, where he sees, not where men see who esteem them lofty and sublime.
Ep100-155.27.6728. 68. Et anima, inquit, mea ipsi vivet: ipsi utique, non sibi, sicut superborum privato bono suo laetantium, et a communi omnium bono quod Deus est, inani elatione resilientium. Hoc utique devitemus, et communi potius vero omnium bono perfrui, quam privato nostro gaudere quaeramus; ut qui vivunt, iam non sibi vivant, sicut ait Apostolus, sed ei qui pro ipsis mortuus est et resurrexit. Pro hoc enim mediator effectus est, ut nos reconciliet Deo per humilitatem, a quo per impiam superbiam longe recesseramus. Neque enim tantum illud scriptum est, quod supra posui: Initium omnis peccati superbia; sed etiam hoc ibi legitur: Initium superbiae hominis, apostatare a Deo. Non ergo sibi vivat quisque, sed Christo; faciens non suam, sed ipsius voluntatem, et manens in eius caritate; sicut et ipse fecit voluntatem Patris, et manet in eius caritate. Haec quippe nos admonens, et exemplo suo exhortans, in Evangelio suo locutus est. Si autem ipse cum in forma Dei aequalis esset Patri, tamen per formam servi, quam propter nos accepit, non suam voluntatem, sed Patris se facere commendavit; quanto magis nos, propria privataque nostra voluntate contempta qua tenebrati sumus, ad illud commune lumen, ut illuminemur et vultus nostri non erubescant, debemus accedere, quod illuminat omnem hominem venientem in hunc mundum, ut anima nostra ipsi vivat! Hoc enim de nobis consequenter adiungit, cum dicit: Et semen meum serviet illi: quoniam qui seminat bonum semen, filius est hominis; bonum autem semen, hi sunt filii regni.
28. 68. And my soul, he says, will live for him (Ps 22:29 (21:30)): for him surely, not for itself, like the proud who rejoice in their private good of their own, and recoil by an empty elation from the common good of all, which is God. Let us surely avoid this, and seek rather to enjoy the common true good of all, than to rejoice in our own private one; so that those who live may now not live for themselves, as the Apostle says, but for him who died for them and rose again. For he was made mediator for this, that he might reconcile us to God by humility, from whom by impious pride we had departed far. For not only is that written which I set down above, "The beginning of every sin is pride"; but this too is read there: The beginning of man's pride is to apostatize from God (Sir 10:12-13 (14-15)). Let no one, then, live for himself, but for Christ; doing not his own, but his will, and abiding in his love; just as he himself too did the will of the Father, and abides in his love. For, admonishing us of these things, and exhorting by his example, he spoke in his Gospel. But if he himself, when in the form of God he was equal to the Father, yet through the form of a servant, which he took for our sake, commended that he did not his own will, but the Father's; how much more we, our own private will despised, by which we were darkened, ought to draw near to that common light, that we may be illuminated and our faces not blush, which illuminates every man coming into this world, so that our soul may live for him! For this he consequently adds about us, when he says: And my seed will serve him (Ps 22:30 (21:31)): since he who sows the good seed is the son of man; but the good seed are the sons of the kingdom (Matt 13:37-38).
Ep100-155.28.6829. 69. Haec porro omnia quae in psalmo isto dicta sunt, quia non ad praesens tempus, sed ad futurorum prophetiam pertinebant, sicut etiam ipsis rebus apparet; sic eum concludere voluit, ut ostenderet se non praesentia demonstrare, vel narrare praeterita, sed futura prophetare: Annuntiabitur, inquit: Domino generatio ventura, et annuntiabunt coeli iustitiam eius populo qui nascetur, quem fecit Dominus. Non ait: Annuntiabitur Dominus generationi venturae; sed: Annuntiabitur Domino generatio ventura: quod non sic accipiendum est, tamquam nescienti aliquid annuntietur ut sciat; sed sicut annuntiant Angeli, non solum nobis beneficia Dei, verum etiam illi preces nostras. Nam scriptum est, ubi angelus hominibus dicit: Ego obtuli memoriam orationis vestrae: non ut tunc Deus noverit quid velimus, vel quo indigeamus; Novit enim pater vester, ait Dominus, quid vobis necessarium sit priusquam petatis ab eo: sed quia necesse habet rationalis creatura obtemperans Deo, temporales causas ad aeternam veritatem referre, sive petendo quod erga se fiat, sive consulendo quid faciat; qui pius mentis affectus est, ut ipsa construatur, non ut Deus instruatur. Nam et haec quaedam contestatio rationalis creaturae est, quod non sibi ipsa sit bonum quo beata fiat, sed illud incommutabile cuius participatione etiam sapiens efficitur.
29. 69. Moreover all these things which were said in this psalm—because they pertained not to the present time, but to the prophecy of things to come, as appears even from the things themselves—he wished so to conclude, that he might show that he was not demonstrating present things, or narrating past ones, but prophesying future ones: The coming generation will be announced to the Lord, and the heavens will announce his justice to a people that will be born, whom the Lord has made (Ps 22:31 (21:32)). He did not say, "The Lord will be announced to the coming generation"; but, "The coming generation will be announced to the Lord": which is not to be taken as though something is announced to one ignorant that he may know; but as the Angels announce, not only to us the benefits of God, but even to him our prayers. For it is written, where an angel says to men, I offered the memorial of your prayer (See Tob 12:12): not that God then knew what we wished, or of what we have need; For your Father knows, says the Lord, what is necessary for you before you ask him (Matt 6:8): but because the rational creature, obeying God, has need to refer temporal causes to eternal truth, whether by asking what is done toward itself, or by consulting what it should do; which is a devout affection of the mind, that it itself be built up, not that God be instructed. For this too is a certain attestation of the rational creature, that it is not for itself the good by which it becomes blessed, but that unchangeable one by participation of which it is even made wise.
Ep100-155.29.6929. 70. Sive ita dictum est: Annuntiabitur Domino generatio ventura, ac si diceretur: Domino placebunt qui annuntiabunt non sibi; ut ita sit Domino annuntiare, sicut est Domino vivere: sic dictum est: Qui manducat, Domino manducat; et qui non manducat, Domino non manducat. Ad hoc quippe addidit: Et gratias agit Deo, ut ostenderetur quid esset: Domino facit, id est, in eius laudem facit. Tunc enim recte, tunc iuste, tunc pie fit, cum opus bonum in eius laudem fit cuius gratia donatur ut fiat. Ac per hoc etiamsi eo modo quispiam haec verba intellegere velit, ut eorum iste ordo sit: Annuntiabitur Domino generatio ventura, id est, ea generatio annuntiabitur quae Domino ventura est, ea generatio annuntiabitur quae Domino ventura est, generatio scilicet piorum atque sanctorum, quia impiorum et sceleratorum generatio non Domino, sed sibi ventura est: ab eadem significatione non receditur, qua intellegatur animae participatio in idipsum; id est, rationalem creaturam, cum sit mutabilis, non fieri beatam nisi a proprio suo mutabili ad incommutabile bonum, idemque commune quod Deus est, a quo superba impietate abstitit, humili pietate conversa subsistat. In quo affectu proficiens, quidquid boni facit, Domino facit, hoc est in eius laudem, cuius gratiam percepit ut faciat; unde est actio gratiarum, quae intimo fidelium mysterio celebratur.
29. 70. Or it was so said, "The coming generation will be announced to the Lord," as if it were said, "Those who will announce will please the Lord, not themselves"; so that to announce to the Lord is in the same way as to live to the Lord: thus it is said, He who eats, eats to the Lord; and he who does not eat, does not eat to the Lord (See Rom 14:6). For to this he added, And gives thanks to God, that it might be shown what "he does to the Lord" was—that is, he does it for his praise. For then rightly, then justly, then devoutly is it done, when a good work is done for the praise of him by whose grace it is granted that it be done. And through this, even if anyone should wish to understand these words in such a way that their order is, "The coming generation will be announced to the Lord"—that is, that generation will be announced which is to come to the Lord, namely the generation of the devout and holy, because the generation of the impious and criminal is to come not to the Lord, but to itself—from that same signification one does not withdraw, by which is understood the participation of the soul in the selfsame; that is, that the rational creature, since it is changeable, does not become blessed except, from its own changeable good, being turned by humble piety to the unchangeable good, the same common good which is God, from which by proud impiety it had departed, it should subsist. Progressing in which affection, whatever good it does, it does to the Lord—that is, for his praise, whose grace it received that it might do it; whence is the giving of thanks, which is celebrated in the inmost mystery of the faithful.
Ep100-155.29.7030. 71. Illud autem quod sequitur: Et annuntiabunt iustitiam eius populo qui nascetur, quem fecit Dominus, superioris sensus confirmatio est. Nam quod ibi dictum est: Annuntiabitur Domino generatio ventura: hoc est dictum hic, annuntiabunt iustitiam eius. Ipsa quippe generatio quae ventura prophetata est piorum atque sanctorum, iustitia Dei est, non ipsorum: ne sint ex illis qui ignorantes Dei iustitiam, et suam volentes constituere, iustitiae Dei non sunt subiecti. Illa namque iustitia Dei commendatur in eo quod dicitur, ignorantes Dei iustitiam, qua nos ex eius gratia iusti sumus: ut ipsa iustitia eius nos simus, cum iuste vivimus, credentes in eum qui iustificat impium; non illa qua ipse iustus est aeterna sua et incommutabili iustitia. Haec itaque iustitia, qua nos Dei munere iusti sumus, significatur in psalmo illo, ubi scriptum est: Iustitia tua sicut montes Dei. Montes quippe Dei, sancti eius sunt; de quibus alibi dicitur: Suscipiant montes pacem populo tuo. Et multa de his montibus scripta sunt figurata locutione, quae commemorare nunc longum est. Sed quia hoc ipsum quod Deus iustificat homines, nimis occulto iudicio facit (quoniam gratuita gratia facit; si autem gratia, non ex operibus, alioquin gratia iam non est gratia; ex hoc quippe incipiunt opera bona, ex quo iustificamur; non quia praecesserunt, iustificamur: et hoc est profundum, de quo superius iam multa diximus), continuo in eodem psalmo cum dixisset: Iustitia tua velut montes Dei, subiunxit: Iudicia tua velut abyssus multa. Inde venit ad salutem hominibus iumentisque communem, quia et ipsa ex misericordia Dei est, et dicit: Homines et iumenta salvos facies, Domine; sicut multiplicata est misericordia tua, Deus: ut hinc intellegamus etiam illam salutem sempiternam et immortalem de qua dicit Apostolus: Spe enim salvi facti sumus, similiter ut istam quae hominibus iumentisque communis est, gratis nos accipere, non ex operibus, ne forte quis extollatur; quia opera bona ex ipsius iustificatione operamur. Ipsius enim sumus figmentum, creati in Christo Iesu in operibus bonis, quae praeparavit Deus ut in illis ambulemus. Et illa salus ergo gratuita est, de qua in alio psalmo dicitur: Domini est salus, et super populum tuum benedictio tua.
30. 71. But that which follows, And they will announce his justice to a people that will be born, whom the Lord has made, is a confirmation of the earlier sense. For what was said there, "The coming generation will be announced to the Lord," is said here, "they will announce his justice." For that very generation which was prophesied to be coming, of the devout and holy, is the justice of God, not their own: lest they be of those who, being ignorant of the justice of God, and wishing to establish their own, are not subject to the justice of God. For that justice of God is commended in that it is said, "being ignorant of the justice of God," by which we are just from his grace: so that we ourselves are his very justice, when we live justly, believing in him who justifies the impious; not that by which he himself is just, by his eternal and unchangeable justice. This justice, then, by which we are just by the gift of God, is signified in that psalm where it is written: Your justice is like the mountains of God (Ps 36:6 (35:7)). For the mountains of God are his holy ones; of whom elsewhere it is said, Let the mountains receive peace for your people (Ps 72:3 (71:3)). And many things are written about these mountains in a figured locution, which it is now long to recall. But because this very thing—that God justifies men—he does by a too hidden judgment (since he does it by gratuitous grace; but if by grace, then not from works, otherwise grace is now not grace; for from this point good works begin, from which we are justified; not because they went before are we justified: and this is the depth, about which above we have already said much), at once in the same psalm, when he had said, "Your justice is like the mountains of God," he subjoined, "Your judgments are like a great deep." Thence he comes to the salvation common to men and beasts, because that too is from the mercy of God, and says, Men and beasts you will save, O Lord; as your mercy is multiplied, O God (Ps 36:6-7 (35:7-8)): so that hence we may understand that even that everlasting and immortal salvation, of which the Apostle says, For by hope we have been saved, like this which is common to men and beasts, we receive freely, not from works, lest perhaps anyone be lifted up; because we work good works from his very justification. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus in good works, which God prepared that we should walk in them. That salvation too, then, is gratuitous, of which in another psalm it is said: Salvation is the Lord's, and your blessing is over your people (Ps 3:8 (3:9)).
Ep100-155.30.7130. 72. Sicut ergo quod legitur: Domini est salus, non ea salus intellegitur qua Dominus salvus est; sed qua hi salvi sunt, quos ipse salvos facit: sic cum legitur Dei iustitia, in eo quod scriptum est: Ignorantes Dei iustitiam, et suam volentes constituere; non est illa intellegenda qua Deus iustus est, sed qua iusti sunt homines quos gratia sua iustificat. Inde enim salvi, unde iusti; quoniam quod ait: Non est opus sanis medicus, sed male habentibus, exposuit in consequentibus, dicens. Non veni vocare iustos, sed peccatores. Non igitur secundum opera iustitiae quae nos fecimus, sed secundum suam misericordiam salvos nos fecit per lavacrum regenerationis. In qua gratia spe salvi facti sumus. Unde in illo psalmo subiungitur: Filii autem hominum sub tegmine alarum tuarum sperabunt. Inebriabuntur ab ubertate domus tuae, et torrente voluptatis tuae potabis eos; quoniam apud te est fons vitae, et in lumine tuo videbimus lumen. Praetende misericordiam tuam scientibus te, et iustitiam tuam iis qui recto sunt corde. Huic igitur iustitiae Dei contraria superbia est, qua fiditur tamquam de operibus propriis; ideoque ibi sequitur: Non veniat mihi pes superbiae.
30. 72. As, then, what is read, "Salvation is the Lord's," is not understood as that salvation by which the Lord is saved, but by which those are saved whom he himself saves: so when the justice of God is read, in that which is written, "being ignorant of the justice of God, and wishing to establish their own," it is not to be understood as that by which God is just, but by which men are just whom he justifies by his grace. For thence they are saved, whence they are just; since that which he says, The physician is not needed by the healthy, but by those who are ill, he expounded in what follows, saying, I came not to call the just, but sinners (Matt 9:12-13). Not, therefore, according to the works of justice which we ourselves did, but according to his mercy he saved us through the washing of regeneration. In which grace by hope we have been saved. Whence in that psalm it is subjoined: But the sons of men will hope under the cover of your wings. They will be inebriated by the abundance of your house, and you will give them to drink of the torrent of your pleasure; for with you is the fount of life, and in your light we will see light. Hold out your mercy to those who know you, and your justice to those who are upright of heart (Ps 36:7-10 (35:8-11)). To this justice of God, then, pride is contrary, by which one trusts as though in his own works; and therefore there it follows: Let not the foot of pride come to me (Ps 36:11 (35:12)).
Ep100-155.30.7230. 73. Haec iustitia qua eius fideles iusti sunt, interim viventes ex fide, donec perfecta iustitia perducantur ad speciem, sicut salute perfecta etiam ad ipsius corporis immortalitatem, gratia est Novi Testamenti. Unde alio loco dicit Apostolus: Pro Christo legatione fungimur, tamquam Deo exhortante per nos; obsecramus pro Christo reconciliari Deo: ac inde subiungit: Eum qui non noverat peccatum, pro nobis peccatum fecit, id est, sacrificium pro peccatis; nam et ipsa in Lege peccata appellabantur, quae pro peccatis offerebantur. Ut nos simus iustitia Dei in ipso: id est, in eius corpore quod est Ecclesia, cui caput est, nos simus iustitia Dei; quam ignorantes illi, et suam volentes constituere, id est tamquam de suis operibus gloriantes, iustitiae Dei non sunt subiecti. Inde et in hoc psalmo cum dixisset: Annuntiabunt iustitiam eius, sequitur et adiungit: Populo qui nascetur, quem fecit Dominus. Quis est enim populus quem non fecit Dominus, secundum id quod homines sunt, qui etiam pecora creavit, a quo est omnis vita, omnisque facta et creata natura? Sed ita intellegendum est, quem fecit Dominus, ut non solum, quod homines sunt, verum etiam quod iusti sunt, ab illo facti intellegantur; secundum illud quod iam non semel commemoravi ab Apostolo dictum: Ipsius enim figmentum sumus, creati in Christo Iesu in operibus bonis, quae praeparavit Deus ut in illis ambulemus.
30. 73. This justice, by which his faithful are just, meanwhile living from faith, until by perfect justice they are brought to sight, just as by perfect salvation even to the immortality of the body itself, is the grace of the New Testament. Whence in another place the Apostle says: For Christ we act as ambassadors, as though God exhorting through us; we beseech you, for Christ, be reconciled to God (2 Cor 5:20): and thence he subjoins, Him who knew no sin he made sin for us—that is, a sacrifice for sins; for in the Law too those things were called sins which were offered for sins—that we might be the justice of God in him (2 Cor 5:21): that is, in his body which is the Church, of which he is the head, we may be the justice of God; which those, being ignorant of, and wishing to establish their own—that is, as though glorying in their own works—are not subject to the justice of God. Hence too in this psalm, when he had said, "They will announce his justice," it follows and he adds, "to a people that will be born, whom the Lord has made." For what people is there which the Lord has not made, according to that by which they are men, who created the beasts too, by whom is all life, and all nature made and created? But it is so to be understood, "whom the Lord has made," that they be understood made by him not only in that they are men, but even in that they are just; according to that which I have now more than once recalled as said by the Apostle: For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus in good works, which God prepared that we should walk in them (Eph 2:10).
Ep100-155.30.7331. 74. Animae igitur rationalis mutabilitas admonetur, quo noverit, nisi participatione incommutabilis boni, iustam, salvam, sapientem, beatam se esse non posse, nec sibi eam bonum esse posse propria voluntate, sed malum. Propria quippe voluntate avertitur a bono incommutabili, eaque aversione vitiatur: nec sanari per seipsam potest, sed gratuita misericordia sui Creatoris, quae in hac vita eam ex fide viventem in spe constituit salutis aeternae. Unde non altum sapiat, sed timeat; eoque timore casto inhaereat Deo, qui eam a propria immunditia qua inordinate bona inferiora dilexit, velut a quadam fornicatione spiritali mundavit: nec humanis laudibus extollatur, ne sit in virginibus stultis, aliena laude laetantibus (hoc enim de quaestionibus tuis restat extremum), et propter ipsam inanem laudem, non propter conscientiam suam, ubi illis testis est Deus, bona operantibus; sed sit in virginibus sapientibus, ubi dicat quod ait Apostolus: Nam gloria nostra haec est, testimonium conscientiae nostrae. Hoc enim est oleum ferre secum, non a vendentibus emere, hoc est ab adulantibus. Adulatores namque laudem suam tamquam oleum venditant stultis. De hoc oleo dicitur in Psalmo: Emendabit me iustus in misericordia, et arguet me; oleum autem peccatoris non impinguabit caput meum. Elegit a iusto misericorditer reprehendi, et quodammodo colaphizari, quam, ut ei caput in superbiam crescat peccatoris adulatione laudari.
31. 74. The changeableness, then, of the rational soul is admonished, that it may know that, except by the participation of the unchangeable good, it cannot be just, saved, wise, blessed, nor can that good be for it, by its own will, but evil. For by its own will it is turned away from the unchangeable good, and by that turning away it is vitiated: nor can it be healed through itself, but by the gratuitous mercy of its Creator, which in this life establishes it, living from faith, in the hope of eternal salvation. Whence let it not be high-minded, but fear; and by that chaste fear let it cleave to God, who cleansed it from its own uncleanness—by which it inordinately loved lower goods—as from a certain spiritual fornication: nor let it be lifted up by human praises, lest it be among the foolish virgins, rejoicing in another's praise (for this remains last of your questions), and working good things on account of that very empty praise, not on account of their own conscience, where God is their witness; but let it be among the wise virgins, where it may say what the Apostle says: For this is our glory, the testimony of our conscience (2 Cor 1:12). For this is to carry oil with oneself, not to buy it from sellers—that is, from flatterers. For flatterers sell their praise like oil to the foolish. Of this oil it is said in the Psalm: The just man will amend me in mercy, and reprove me; but let not the oil of the sinner anoint my head (Ps 141:5 (140:5)). He chose to be mercifully reprehended by the just, and in a manner buffeted, rather than to be praised, that his head might grow in pride, by the flattery of the sinner.
Ep100-155.31.7431. 75. Irridentium quippe responsio mihi videtur, cum eis a sapientibus virginibus dicitur. Ite potius ad vendentes, et emite vobis: sicut in quodam libro Sapientiae scriptum est, ubi contemptoribus dicit. Et ego perditioni vestrae superridebo. Illa autem responsione qua petentibus oleum dictum est: Ne forte non sufficiat nobis et vobis, non desperanter, sed humiliter dictum est. Quis enim sic praesumat de conscientia sua, ut certus sit eam sibi in iudicio Dei posse sufficere, nisi misericordes misericorditer iudicet? Iudicium enim sine misericordia illi qui non fecit misericordiam. Ipsae autem sunt lampades accensae, opera scilicet bona, de quibus Dominus dicit: Luceant bona opera vestra coram hominibus, et glorificent Patrem vestrum qui in coelis est. Hucusque pertendit intentio virginum sapientium, ut ideo velint videri ab hominibus opera sua bona, non quo ab eis laudentur ipsae, sed ut glorificetur Deus, a quo illis est quod bene operantur: ac per hoc interiori bono gaudent, quod est coram Deo, ubi eleemosyna in occulto, ut pater, qui videt in occulto, reddat. Et ideo non deficiunt lampades, quia interiori oleo vegetantur, id est intentione bonae conscientiae, qua coram Deo fit in eius gloriam quidquid coram hominibus in bonis operibus lucet. At vero stultarum virginum, hoc oleum non secum portantium deficiunt lampades; id est, non perseveranter bona opera lucent, cum laus humana fuerit subtracta, propter quam illa faciebant, hucusque intentionem suam perducentes ut viderentur ab hominibus, non ut glorificaretur Pater qui in coelis est. Quae intentio perennis est gloriae, qua novit anima Deo se debere quod iustificata est ad facienda bona opera, et ideo in illo, non in se, laudari amat. Unde alibi homo Dei cantat: In Domino laudabitur anima mea, ut qui gloriatur, in Domino glorietur.
31. 75. For it seems to me the answer of those mocking, when it is said to them by the wise virgins, Go rather to those who sell, and buy for yourselves (Matt 25:9): just as in a certain book of Wisdom it is written, where he says to the despisers, I too will laugh over your perdition (See Prov 1:26). But that answer by which it was said to those asking oil, Lest perhaps it not suffice for us and for you (Matt 25:9), was said not despairingly, but humbly. For who would so presume of his own conscience as to be certain that it could suffice for him in the judgment of God, unless the merciful judge mercifully? For judgment is without mercy to him who has not done mercy (Jas 2:13). But the lamps themselves, kindled, are the good works, namely, of which the Lord says: Let your good works shine before men, and let them glorify your Father who is in heaven (Matt 5:16). So far does the intention of the wise virgins reach, that they therefore wish their good works to be seen by men, not that they themselves be praised by them, but that God be glorified, from whom they have it that they work well: and through this they rejoice in the interior good, which is before God, where the alms is in secret, that the Father, who sees in secret, may repay. And therefore the lamps do not fail, because they are enlivened by interior oil—that is, by the intention of a good conscience, by which, before God, for his glory, is done whatever shines before men in good works. But the lamps of the foolish virgins, not carrying this oil with them, fail; that is, the good works do not perseveringly shine, when human praise has been withdrawn, for which they did them, leading their intention only so far as to be seen by men, not that the Father who is in heaven be glorified. Which intention is of everlasting glory, by which the soul knows that it owes to God that it has been justified for doing good works, and therefore loves to be praised in him, not in itself. Whence elsewhere the man of God sings: In the Lord my soul will be praised (Ps 34:2 (33:3)), so that he who glories may glory in the Lord.
Ep100-155.31.7532. 76. Sed quid est quod in eadem Evangelii lectione scriptum est, omnes sponso tardante dormisse ? Somnum istum si intellexerimus, quod velut tardante iudicio, ad quod faciendum venturus est Christus, abundante iniquitate caritas refrigescit, quomodo ibi ponemus virgines sapientes, cum potius in illis sint de quibus dicitur: Qui autem perseveraverit usque in finem, hic salvus erit ? Dictum est ergo: Dormierunt omnes; quia non tantum stulti, qui propter humanam laudem bona operantur coram hominibus, verum etiam sapientes, qui hoc propterea faciunt ut laudetur Deus, experiuntur istam mortem: ex utroque enim genere moriuntur. Et ista mors saepe in Scripturis dormitio dicitur, propter futuram resurrectionem velut evigilationem. Hinc Apostolus dicit: De dormientibus autem nolo vos ignorare, fratres; et alio loco: Ex quibus plures manent usque adhuc; quidam autem dormierunt: et alia innumerabilia in hoc testimonia aperte per Scripturas utriusque Testamenti reperiuntur. Unde et ille ait,
Consanguineus lethi sopor:
et si advertas, multa invenies etiam in saecularibus litteris, ubi mors somno comparatur. Significavit ergo Dominus futurum esse tempus, quo inter tribulationes et tentationes saeculi huius, iam iamque eius exspectaretur et speraretur adventus, tamquam propinquus atque imminens, ad quem se praeparent qui in eius esse familia videntur. Hoc est enim quod ait, exisse obviam sponso et sponsae. Sponso quidem, Filio Dei: sponsae autem, sive quia in eo corpore venturus est quod sumpsit ex Virgine; sive quia ipsa Ecclesia tunc clarior apparebit, ut ad universi corporis congregationem membra concurrant, quibus concurrentibus, eius magnitudo monstrabitur.
Consanguineus lethi sopor:
et si advertas, multa invenies etiam in saecularibus litteris, ubi mors somno comparatur. Significavit ergo Dominus futurum esse tempus, quo inter tribulationes et tentationes saeculi huius, iam iamque eius exspectaretur et speraretur adventus, tamquam propinquus atque imminens, ad quem se praeparent qui in eius esse familia videntur. Hoc est enim quod ait, exisse obviam sponso et sponsae. Sponso quidem, Filio Dei: sponsae autem, sive quia in eo corpore venturus est quod sumpsit ex Virgine; sive quia ipsa Ecclesia tunc clarior apparebit, ut ad universi corporis congregationem membra concurrant, quibus concurrentibus, eius magnitudo monstrabitur.
32. 76. But what is it that is written in the same Gospel reading, that all, the bridegroom delaying, slept? If we understand this sleep to be that, as it were the judgment delaying—for which to be done Christ is to come—iniquity abounding, love grows cold, how shall we place there the wise virgins, when they are rather among those of whom it is said, But he who perseveres unto the end, he will be saved (Matt 10:22)? It was said, then, "all slept"; because not only the foolish, who for the sake of human praise work good things before men, but even the wise, who do this in order that God may be praised, experience that death: for from both kinds they die. And this death is often in the Scriptures called sleeping, on account of the future resurrection as a kind of waking. Hence the Apostle says: But about those who sleep I do not wish you to be ignorant, brethren (1 Thess 4:13); and in another place: Of whom very many remain until now; but some have fallen asleep (1 Cor 15:6): and innumerable other testimonies on this are openly found through the Scriptures of both Testaments. Whence that one too says, Sleep, the kinsman of death: and if you notice, you will find many things even in secular writings, where death is compared to sleep. The Lord, then, signified that there would be a time, in which, amid the tribulations and temptations of this world, his coming would now be awaited and hoped, as it were near and imminent, for which those who seem to be in his family should prepare themselves. For this is what he says, that they went out to meet the bridegroom and the bride. The bridegroom, indeed, the Son of God: but the bride, either because he is to come in that body which he took from the Virgin; or because the Church herself will then appear more illustrious, so that to the assembly of the whole body the members may run together, by whose running together its greatness will be shown.
Ep100-155.32.7633. 77. Virgines propter continentiam nuncupavit. Decem vero, id est quinque et quinque, propter numerum quo censentur corporis sensus, in quibus habitat continentia, cum a voluptatibus turpibus et illicitis abstinetur. Lampades, sicut dictum est, bona sunt opera, maximeque ad misericordiam pertinentia; et ipsa quae etiam coram hominibus lucet laudabilis conversatio: sed magni interest, qua mentis intentione fiat; ideo dicit alias sapientes, stultas alias. Sed hinc eas discernit, quod stultae non sumpserunt oleum secum, sapientes autem acceperunt oleum in vasis suis, hoc est in cordibus suis, ubi fit ipsa participatio intimi ac superni boni. Unde in psalmo quodam, cum dictum esset: Sacrificate sacrificium iustitiae, et sperate in Domino; Multi, inquit, dicunt: Quis ostendit nobis bona? Deinde ut manifestaret cuius boni amore debeamus operari iustitiam, hoc est, sacrificare sacrificium iustitiae: Signatum est, inquit, in nobis lumen vultus tui, Domine: dedisti laetitiam in corde meo. Cuius boni aliquantum participati, et plenius perfectiusque participandi intentione, qui bene operatur, et laudabiliter etiam in conspectu hominum conversatur, habet oleum secum, quo bona opera eius etiam in conspectu hominum lucentia non exstinguuntur; quia non in eo caritas refrigescit abundante iniquitate, sed perseverat usque in finem. Hoc oleum stultae virgines non habent secum, quoniam sibi tribuendo si quid boni operis faciunt, necesse est inflentur superbia, et propter hoc vitium sic laude delectentur humana, ut eius gaudio, si quid boni agunt, fervere et lucere videantur.
33. 77. He called them virgins on account of continence. But ten—that is, five and five—on account of the number by which the senses of the body are reckoned, in which continence dwells, when one abstains from base and unlawful pleasures. The lamps, as was said, are the good works, and most of all those pertaining to mercy; and that praiseworthy conduct itself which shines even before men: but it matters greatly with what intention of mind it is done; therefore he says some are wise, others foolish. But he distinguishes them by this, that the foolish did not take oil with them, but the wise received oil in their vessels—that is, in their hearts, where the very participation of the inmost and supernal good takes place. Whence in a certain psalm, when it had been said, Sacrifice the sacrifice of justice, and hope in the Lord; Many, he says, say, Who shows us good things? Then, to manifest by the love of what good we ought to work justice—that is, to sacrifice the sacrifice of justice: The light of your countenance is signed upon us, O Lord: you have given gladness in my heart (Ps 4:5-7 (4:6-8)). By the intention of this good, somewhat participated, and to be more fully and perfectly participated, he who works well, and conducts himself praiseworthily even in the sight of men, has oil with him, by which his good works, shining even in the sight of men, are not extinguished; because in him love does not grow cold, iniquity abounding, but perseveres unto the end. This oil the foolish virgins do not have with them, since, attributing it to themselves if they do any good work, they must needs be puffed up with pride, and on account of this vice be so delighted by human praise that they seem to glow and shine by the joy of it, if they do any good.
Ep100-155.33.7734. 78. Tardante autem sponso, dormierunt omnes. Non enim tunc veniet cum speratur, sed media nocte cum valde obscurum, id est, occultum erit an veniat. Unde dicit, media nocte clamorem factum: Ecce sponsus venit, exite obviam ei. Nimirum clamor iste ipsa est tuba illa, quam commemorans Apostolus dicit: Canet enim tuba, et mortui resurgent incorrupti. Tubae nomine aliquod evidentissimum et praeclarissimum signum vult intellegi: quam vocem archangeli et tubam Dei alio loco dicit. Quae etiam vox ipsius Domini Iesu Christi in Evangelio dicitur, quam audient ii qui in monumentis sunt, et procedent. Surgunt ergo omnes virgines illae, et sapientes et stultae, et aptant lampades suas, id est, rationem praeparant reddere de operibus suis.
34. 78. But the bridegroom delaying, all slept. For he will not come then when he is hoped, but in the middle of the night, when it will be very dark—that is, hidden—whether he comes. Whence he says, in the middle of the night a cry was made: Behold, the bridegroom comes, go out to meet him (Matt 25:6). Surely this cry is that trumpet which the Apostle, recalling, says: For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will rise incorrupt (1 Cor 15:52). By the name of trumpet he wishes some most evident and most illustrious sign to be understood: which in another place he calls the voice of the archangel and the trumpet of God. Which voice is in the Gospel said to be that of the Lord Jesus Christ himself, which those who are in the tombs will hear, and will come forth. They rise, then, all those virgins, both the wise and the foolish, and trim their lamps—that is, they prepare to render an account of their works.
Ep100-155.34.7834. 79. Sed tunc, in illius clamoris evidentia et resurrectione mortuorum, quia nulla erit dubitatio iam instantis praesentisque iudicii, subtrahetur omne solatium laudis humanae. Neque enim vacabit de alio disceptare, vel de alio iudicare, aut gratificari atque suffragari alteri, quando unusquisque proprium onus portabit, et de suorum factorum reddenda ratione cogitabit: ac per hoc feretur animus quidem virginum stultarum consuetudine propria, sed non inventis laudibus humanis deficiet. Neque enim germanitus dixerunt: Apud te laus mea; vel: In Domino laudabitur anima mea; aut in Domino gloriatae sunt, cum ignorantes Dei iustitiam, suam iustitiam constituerent. Ac per hoc petunt a sapientibus oleum, hoc est aliquam consolationem; nec inveniunt nec accipiunt, illis respondentibus se nescire utrum vel sibi sufficiat ipsa conscientia, qua exspectant misericordiam sub illo iudice, qui cum in throno sederit, quis gloriabitur castum se habere cor, aut quis gloriabitur mundum se esse a peccato, nisi superexsultet misericordia iudicio ? quae super eos erit, qui misericordiae opera illa intentione fecerunt, ut eorum misereretur, a quo se sciebant accepisse quod habebant; nec gloriabantur quasi non acceperint, sed per seipsos habuerint quo placerent, sicut stulti qui et sibi placent tamquam de bono a se sibi parato, et ab adulantibus vel errantibus ita laudantur ac si ipsi sint aliquid. Qui autem putat se esse aliquid, cum nihil sit, sicut dicit Apostolus, seipsum seducit. Opus autem suum probet unusquisque; et tunc in seipso tantum gloriam habebit, et non in altero: hoc est portare oleum secum, non ex aliena laude dependere. Sed quam gloriam in se habebit, nisi eum cui dicitur: Gloria mea, et exaltans caput meum; ut quod saepe dicendum est, qui gloriatur, in Domino glorietur ?
34. 79. But then, in the evidence of that cry and the resurrection of the dead, because there will be no doubt of the now instant and present judgment, every solace of human praise will be withdrawn. For there will be no leisure to dispute about another, or to judge about another, or to gratify and favor another, when each one will bear his own load, and will think of the account to be rendered of his own deeds: and through this the mind of the foolish virgins will indeed be borne by its own habit, but, finding no human praises, will fail. For they did not genuinely say, "With you is my praise"; or, "In the Lord my soul will be praised"; nor did they glory in the Lord, since, being ignorant of the justice of God, they established their own justice. And through this they ask oil from the wise—that is, some consolation; and they neither find nor receive it, those answering that they do not know whether even their own conscience suffices for them, by which they await mercy under that judge who, when he shall sit on the throne, who will glory that he has a chaste heart, or who will glory that he is clean from sin (See Prov 20:8-9), unless mercy exult over judgment? which will be over those who did those works of mercy with this intention, that he might have mercy on them, from whom they knew they had received what they had; nor did they glory as though they had not received, but had through themselves what to please by, like the foolish, who both please themselves as though about a good prepared by themselves for themselves, and are praised by flatterers or by those in error as though they themselves were something. But he who thinks himself something, when he is nothing, as the Apostle says, deceives himself. But let each prove his own work; and then he will have glory in himself only, and not in another: this is to carry oil with oneself, not to depend on another's praise. But what glory will he have in himself, except him to whom it is said, My glory, and the one lifting up my head (Ps 3:3 (3:4)); so that—what must often be said—he who glories may glory in the Lord?
Ep100-155.34.7934. 80. Proinde sapientia quae in sapientibus virginibus habitat, secundum illud quod ante praedixit, cum ait contemptoribus, et sanam doctrinam accipere recusantibus: Et ego vestrae perditioni superridebo; dicit stultis virginibus: Ite potius ad vendentes, et emite vobis: tamquam diceret, Ubi sunt qui vos fallebant mendosissimis laudibus, quando et a vobis fallebamini, quia in vobis non in Domino gloriabamini? Quod autem dicit: Et dum eunt emere, venit sponsus; et quae paratae erant, intraverunt cum eo, hoc mihi videtur intellegendum, quod vitioso cordis affectu inhiabunt inani gloriae, quam vanae mentis elatione sectatae sunt. Et ipse appetitus significatus est in eo quod dictum est: Dum eunt emere, venit sponsus; et introierunt cum eo ad nuptias, quae paratae erant: hoc est, quae veram fidem veramque pietatem corde gestabant, qua possent contemperari numero societatique sanctorum, non in seipsis, sed in Domino gloriantium, ut intrarent cum eis in illud gaudium, de quo dicitur: Intra in gaudium Domini tui; ubi erit perfecta participatio incommutabilis boni, cuius modo velut arrha quaedam per fidem tenetur, ut secundum hanc gratiam vivamus, in quantum Deo, non nobis vivimus.
34. 80. Accordingly the wisdom which dwells in the wise virgins, according to that which it foretold above, when it says to the despisers and to those refusing to receive sound doctrine, "I too will laugh over your perdition," says to the foolish virgins, "Go rather to those who sell, and buy for yourselves": as though it said, "Where are those who deceived you with most lying praises, when you were both deceived by them, because in yourselves, not in the Lord, you gloried?" But that which it says, And while they go to buy, the bridegroom came; and those who were ready entered with him (Matt 25:10), seems to me to be understood thus: that by a vicious affection of the heart they will gape after the empty glory which they pursued by the elation of a vain mind. And that very appetite was signified in that which was said, "While they go to buy, the bridegroom came"; and they entered with him to the wedding, those who were ready: that is, those who bore in their heart true faith and true piety, by which they could be conformed to the number and fellowship of the saints, glorying not in themselves, but in the Lord, that they might enter with them into that joy, of which it is said, Enter into the joy of your lord (Matt 25:21); where there will be the perfect participation of the unchangeable good, of which now, as a certain pledge, is held through faith, that according to this grace we may live, insofar as we live to God, not to ourselves.
Ep100-155.34.8035. 81. Proinde quod sequitur: Novissime veniunt et reliquae virgines, dicentes: Domine, Domine, aperi nobis; non dictum est eas emisse oleum, et sic venisse, neque enim iam erat unde; sed misericordiam sero quaesisse, cum iam tempus iudicandi esset, et probos a reprobis separandi. Recte autem illis respondetur: Amen dico vobis, Nescio vos. Ille quippe hoc dicit, quem non latet aliquid: sed: Nescio vos, nihil aliud est quam, Nescitis me, quando de vobis potius eligitis confidere quam de me. Cum enim dicitur quod nos cognoscit Deus, cognitionem sui nobis praestat, ut per hoc intellegamus ne hoc quidem nobis esse tribuendum quod nos scimus Deum, sed eam quoque scientiam illius misericordiae tribuamus. Unde cum quodam loco Apostolus diceret: Nunc autem cognoscentes Deum, correxit et ait: Imo cogniti a Deo: quid aliud volens intellegi, nisi quod eos ipse fecerit cognitores suos? Nemo autem cognoscit Deum, nisi qui intellegit illum esse summum atque incommutabile bonum, cuius participatione fit bonus: quod in huius psalmi conclusione positum est: Annuntiabunt iustitiam eius populo qui nascetur, quem fecit Dominus. Inde est et illud quod in alio psalmo: Ipse fecit nos, et non ipsi nos. Hoc enim non ad eam naturam qua homines sumus, cuius naturae idem ipse creator est, qui coeli et terrae, siderum, omniumque animantium; sed ad illud potius referendum est quod Apostolus ait: Ipsius enim sumus figmentum creati in Iesu Christo in operibus bonis, quae praeparavit Deus ut in illis ambulemus.
35. 81. Accordingly that which follows, Last of all the rest of the virgins come too, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us (Matt 25:11): it was not said that they bought oil, and so came—for there was now no source whence—but that they sought mercy late, when it was now the time of judging, and of separating the upright from the reprobate. But rightly it is answered them: Amen I say to you, I do not know you (Matt 25:12). For he says this from whom nothing is hidden: but "I do not know you" is nothing else than "You do not know me," when you choose to trust rather in yourselves than in me. For when it is said that God knows us, he grants us the knowledge of himself, so that by this we may understand that not even this is to be attributed to us, that we know God, but that we attribute that knowledge too to his mercy. Whence, when in a certain place the Apostle said, But now, knowing God, he corrected himself and said, nay rather, known by God (Gal 4:9): wishing nothing else to be understood than that he himself made them his knowers? But no one knows God, except he who understands him to be the highest and unchangeable good, by participation of whom he becomes good: which is set in the conclusion of this psalm, "They will announce his justice to a people that will be born, whom the Lord has made." Hence is that too in another psalm: He himself made us, and not we ourselves (Ps 100:3 (99:3)). For this is to be referred, not to that nature by which we are men, of which nature the same is the creator who is of heaven and earth, of the stars, and of all living things; but rather to that which the Apostle says: For we are his workmanship, created in Jesus Christ in good works, which God prepared that we should walk in them (Eph 2:10).
Ep100-155.35.8136. 82. Arbitror tibi satis esse solutas tuas quinque quaestiones, dum in ista mea veluti sexta immorarer, quam mihi proposui de Gratia Novi Testamenti, propter quam Verbum caro factum est, id est, qui Filius Dei erat, homo factus est, naturam suscipiendo nostram, non amittendo suam: per quod et nobis recipientibus eum potestas daretur, ut qui eramus homines, filii Dei fieremus participatione incommutabilis boni in melius commutati, non ad temporalem felicitatem, sed ad vitae aeternae, quae sola beata est, adoptionem. Unde placuit etiam propheticum Psalmum percurrere, cuius primum versum in passione commemoravit, ostendens quomodo nos Deus derelinquat, et quo alio modo non recedat a nobis; ad bona aeterna nos colligens, temporalia vero aliquando utiliter tribuens, et aliquando utiliter subtrahens; ut eis non haerere discamus, ne contempta luce interiore, quae ad novam pertinet vitam (unde etiam psalmus iste ipse pro susceptione matutina, tamquam pro luce nova, nomen accepit), in exteris tenebris libenter habitemus, unde in exteriores mittuntur qui ex istis exteris non se ad interiora convertunt; ne diabolo et angelis eius sociati, extrema damnatione puniamur. Intellegentes igitur peregrinationem nostram in hac vita, mundo crucifigamur, extendentes manus in latitudinem bonorum operum, et longanimitate usque in finem perseverantes, atque habentes cor sursum, ubi Christus est in dextera Dei sedens, totumque hoc non nobis, sed illius misericordiae tribuentes, cuius profunda iudicia omnem scrutatorem fatigant. Haec est enim non inaniter fabulosa, sed utiliter verax latitudo, longitudo, altitudo, profundum, unde perveniamus etiam ad supereminentem scientiam caritatis Christi, et impleamur in omnem plenitudinem Dei.
36. 82. I judge that your five questions have been sufficiently solved for you, while I lingered on this as it were sixth of mine, which I set for myself, about the Grace of the New Testament, on account of which the Word was made flesh—that is, he who was the Son of God was made man, taking up our nature, not losing his own: through which, to us too receiving him, power might be given that we, who were men, might become sons of God, changed for the better by participation of the unchangeable good, not unto temporal happiness, but unto the adoption of eternal life, which alone is blessed. Whence it pleased me also to run through the prophetic Psalm, whose first verse he recalled in the passion, showing how God forsakes us, and in what other way he does not withdraw from us; gathering us to eternal goods, but sometimes usefully bestowing temporal ones, and sometimes usefully withdrawing them; so that we may learn not to cleave to them, lest, the interior light despised—which pertains to the new life (whence this very psalm received its name, "for the morning receiving," as it were for the new light)—we willingly dwell in the outer darknesses, whence into the exterior ones are sent those who from these outer things do not turn themselves to the interior; lest, joined to the devil and his angels, we be punished by the final condemnation. Understanding, then, our pilgrimage in this life, let us be crucified to the world, stretching out our hands into the breadth of good works, and by long-suffering persevering unto the end, and having our heart on high, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God, and attributing all this not to ourselves, but to his mercy, whose deep judgments weary every searcher. For this is the not idly fabulous, but usefully true, breadth, length, height, depth, whence we may come even to the surpassing knowledge of the love of Christ, and be filled unto all the fullness of God.
Ep100-155.36.8237. 83. Scio autem quam non supervacanea sollicitudine, per hanc occasionem quaestionum mihi abs te propositarum, Novi Testamenti gratiam tibi voluerim copiosius commendare. Habet enim adversarios, qui eius profunditate turbati, non Deo tribuere, sed potius sibi volunt arrogare quod boni sunt. Nec tales sunt, quos facile contemnas; sed continenter viventes, atque in bonis operibus laudabiles: nec falsum Christum sicut Manichaei aliique plurimi haeretici, sed eumdem verum aequalemque Patri et coaeternum, veraciterque hominem factum, et venisse credentes, et venturum exspectantes; sed tamen ignorantes Dei iustitiam, et suam constituere volentes. Neque enim frustra Dominus, cum et illas commemoraret quae secum intraverunt ad nuptias, et illas contra quas ianuas clausit, et quibus respondit: Nescio vos, utrasque virgines dixit, propter continentiam; et quinque propter concupiscentiam carnis edomitam, quinario praeditam sensu; ornatas utrasque lampadibus, propter bonorum operum bonaeque conversationis in conspectu hominum luculentissimam laudem; utrasque obviam sponso euntes, propter exspectationem qua Christi speratur adventus: sed tamen alias sapientes, alias stultas, quod sapientes oleum acceperunt in vasis suis, stultae autem hoc non ferebant secum; in tam multis pares, hoc solo eas dispares demonstrat, hoc solo diversa eis et contraria nomina imponit.
37. 83. But I know with how not superfluous a solicitude, on the occasion of these questions set forth to me by you, I wished to commend more copiously to you the grace of the New Testament. For it has adversaries, who, disturbed by its profundity, wish to attribute not to God, but rather to arrogate to themselves, that they are good. Nor are they such as you would easily despise; but living continently, and praiseworthy in good works: nor believing in a false Christ, like the Manichees and very many other heretics, but in the same true Christ, equal to the Father and coeternal, and truly made man, and that he has come, and awaiting that he will come; yet being ignorant of the justice of God, and wishing to establish their own. For not in vain did the Lord, when he both recalled those who entered with him to the wedding, and those against whom he closed the doors, and to whom he answered, "I do not know you," call both virgins, on account of continence; and five, on account of the concupiscence of the flesh subdued, endowed with the fivefold sense; both adorned with lamps, on account of the most brilliant praise of good works and good conduct in the sight of men; both going to meet the bridegroom, on account of the expectation by which the coming of Christ is hoped: but yet some wise, others foolish, because the wise received oil in their vessels, but the foolish did not carry this with them; in so many things equal, he shows them unequal in this alone, by this alone imposes on them diverse and contrary names.
Ep100-155.37.8337. 84. Quid enim tam coniunctum quam virgines et virgines, quinque et quinque lampadibus ornatae, obviam sponso euntes et istae et illae? Et quid tam contrarium quam sapientes, et stultae? videlicet quod istae oleum in vasis, hoc est, intellegentiam gratiae Dei portant in cordibus suis, scientes quod nemo possit esse continens nisi Deus det, et hoc ipsum sapientiae deputantes, scire cuius hoc donum sit: illae autem largitori omnium bonorum gratias non agentes, evanuerunt in cogitationibus suis, et obscuratum est insipiens cor earum, dicentes se esse sapientes, stultae factae sunt. De quibus sane nullo modo nunc desperandum est, antequam dormiamus: sed si ita dormierint, cum factus fuerit clamor ille, quo adesse iam nuntiabitur sponsus, et evigilantes, hoc est resurgentes remanserint foris; non quia virgines non sunt, sed quia nescientes unde habeant quod sunt, stultae virgines sunt, meritoque foris erunt, quia internae affectum gratiae non secum ferunt.
37. 84. For what is so conjoined as virgins and virgins, five and five adorned with lamps, going to meet the bridegroom, both these and those? And what is so contrary as wise and foolish? namely, that these carry oil in their vessels—that is, the understanding of the grace of God in their hearts, knowing that no one can be continent unless God gives it, and reckoning this very thing to wisdom, to know whose gift this is: but those, not giving thanks to the bestower of all goods, became futile in their thinking, and their senseless heart was darkened; saying they were wise, they became fools. About whom indeed we must in no way now despair, before we sleep: but if they shall so sleep that, when that cry shall be made by which the bridegroom is announced to be now present, they, waking—that is, rising—remain outside; not because they are not virgins, but because, not knowing whence they have what they are, they are foolish virgins, and deservedly will be outside, because they do not carry with them the affection of internal grace.
Ep100-155.37.8437. 85. Quando tales ergo repereris, non tibi persuadeant inanitatem vasorum suorum, sed tu eis potius plenitudinem. Unde ait Apostolus: Quisquis se putat aliquid scire, nondum scit quemadmodum oportet scire. Et mox ostendens quid dixerit: Quisquis autem, inquit, diligit Deum, hic cognitus est ab illo. Nec sic dicere voluit, Cognovit eum, sed dicendo, cognitus est ab illo, expressius voluit commendare, etiam hoc ab illo nobis esse ut eum diligamus. Caritas enim Dei diffunditur in cordibus nostris, non per nos ipsos, sed per Spiritum sanctum qui datus est nobis. Necesse est autem ut parum diligat Deum, qui non ab illo, sed a seipso bonum se arbitratur effectum: unde autem fieri potest ut talis non in seipso, sed in Domino glorietur? Qui enim gloriatur quod sit bonus, in illo debet gloriari, a quo factus est bonus: ac per hoc qui se a semetipso factum bonum arbitratur, consequens est ut in seipso, non in Domino glorietur. Omnis autem intentio gratiae Novi Testamenti, qua sursum cor habemus (quia omne datum optimum, et omne donum perfectum desursum est ), id agit, ne simus ingrati; atque in ipsa gratiarum actione nihil aliud agitur, nisi ut qui gloriatur, in Domino glorietur. Habes librum, etsi prolixum, tamen, quantum existimo, non superfluum. Sed ama etiam ecclesiasticas legere litteras, et non multa invenies, quae requiras ex me; sed legendo et ruminando, si etiam pure Dominum largitorem bonorum omnium depreceris, omnia quae cognitione digna sunt, aut certe plurima, ipso magis inspirante, quam hominum aliquo commonente perdisces. Quamquam eo ipso quo forinsecus bene admonentem iudicio non errante approbamus, quid aliud quam internum lumen, magistrum nos habere testamur?
37. 85. When, then, you shall find such, let them not persuade you of the emptiness of their vessels, but do you rather persuade them of fullness. Whence the Apostle says: Whoever thinks he knows something, does not yet know as he ought to know. And soon, showing what he meant: But whoever, he says, loves God, this one is known by him (1 Cor 8:2-3). Nor did he wish to say, "Knows him," but by saying, "is known by him," he wished more expressly to commend that even this is from him for us, that we love him. For the love of God is poured out in our hearts, not through ourselves, but through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. But it must needs be that he loves God too little, who esteems himself made good not by him, but by himself: but whence can it be that such a one glories not in himself, but in the Lord? For he who glories that he is good ought to glory in him by whom he was made good: and through this, he who esteems himself made good by himself, it follows that he glories in himself, not in the Lord. But the whole intention of the grace of the New Testament, by which we have our heart on high (because every best gift, and every perfect gift, is from above (Jas 1:17)), does this, that we be not ungrateful; and in the very giving of thanks nothing else is done than that he who glories may glory in the Lord. You have a book, prolix indeed, yet, as I judge, not superfluous. But love also to read ecclesiastical writings, and you will find not many things to require of me; but by reading and ruminating, if you also purely entreat the Lord, the bestower of all good things, all things that are worthy of knowledge, or at any rate very many, you will thoroughly learn, with him rather inspiring than with any man admonishing. Although, by the very fact that we approve, by a judgment not erring, one who admonishes well from without, what else do we attest than that we have the internal light as master?
Ep100-155.37.85EPISTOLA 141
SILVANUS SENEX, VALENTINUS, AURELIUS, INNOCENTIUS, MAXIMINUS, OPTATUS, AUGUSTINUS, DONATUS, ET CAETERI EPISCOPI DE CONCILIO ZERTENSI, AD DONATISTAS.
SILVANUS SENEX, VALENTINUS, AURELIUS, INNOCENTIUS, MAXIMINUS, OPTATUS, AUGUSTINUS, DONATUS, ET CAETERI EPISCOPI DE CONCILIO ZERTENSI, AD DONATISTAS.
LETTER 141
Silvanus the elder, Valentinus, Aurelius, Innocentius, Maximinus, Optatus, Augustine, Donatus, and the rest of the bishops of the Council of Zerta, to the Donatists.
Ep100-155.37.85Silvanus the elder, Valentinus, Aurelius, Innocentius, Maximinus, Optatus, Augustine, Donatus, and the rest of the bishops of the Council of Zerta, to the Donatists.
1. Cum in auribus nostris fama crebresceret, hoc vobis vestros episcopos dicere, Cognitorem praemio fuisse corruptum, ut contra eos sententia proferretur, vos autem ista facile credere, ac propterea multos vestrum adhuc nolle acquiescere veritati; placuit nobis, cogente Domini caritate, ex concilio nostro haec ad vos scripta dirigere, quibus primitus admoneremini illos vobis victos atque convictos haec mendacia iactare: qui etiam in suo Mandato, quod pro illa collatione fecerunt, et suis nominibus atque subscriptionibus firmaverunt, nos illic traditores et persecutores suos esse dicentes, in falsitate atque mendacio manifestissimo detecti atque convicti sunt; ita ut volentes gloriari de multitudine coepiscoporum suorum, inter aliquorum absentium nomina etiam mortui nomen insererent; et cum quaereretur ubi esset, subita perturbatione caecati, ipsi eum confiterentur in itinere defecisse. Et cum interrogarentur quomodo potuerit apud Carthaginem subscribere, qui in itinere iam defecerat, vehementius perturbati, alio mendacio se obligaverunt, respondentes eum a Carthagine redeuntem fuisse defunctum: de quo mendacio exire omnino minime potuerunt. Ecce quibus creditis vel de antiqua traditione, vel de Cognitoris corruptione, qui Mandatum suum, ubi nobis obiecerunt crimen traditionis, non potuerunt conscribere sine crimine falsitatis. Proinde quae maxime necessaria credidimus, his litteris tamquam breviario collecta inseruimus, ne forte ad magna Gestorum volumina vel pervenire non facile possitis, vel ea legere laboriosum putetis.
1. Since the report grew frequent in our ears that your bishops say to you that the examiner was corrupted by a bribe, so that the sentence was brought forth against them, and that you easily believe these things, and on this account many of you still refuse to assent to the truth; it pleased us, the love of the Lord compelling, to send these writings to you from our council, by which you might first be admonished that those men, conquered and convicted, fling these lies: who even in their own Mandate, which they made for that conference, and confirmed with their names and subscriptions, saying that we there are traitors and their persecutors, were detected and convicted in falsehood and most manifest lying; so that, wishing to glory in the multitude of their fellow bishops, among the names of some absent ones they inserted even the name of a dead man; and when it was asked where he was, blinded by sudden disturbance, they themselves confessed that he had died on the journey. And when they were asked how he could subscribe at Carthage, who had already died on the journey, more vehemently disturbed, they bound themselves by another lie, answering that he had died returning from Carthage: from which lie they could in no way escape. Behold those whom you believe either about the ancient treachery, or about the corruption of the examiner, who could not write their Mandate, where they objected to us the crime of treachery, without the crime of falsehood. Accordingly, the things we believed most necessary we have inserted in this letter, gathered as it were into a summary, lest perhaps you either cannot easily come to the great volumes of the records, or think it laborious to read them.
Ep100-155.12. Carthaginem venimus et nos et episcopi vestri, et quod prius nolebant et indignum esse dicebant, in unum convenimus. Electi sunt ex nobis et ex ipsis septem hinc, et septem inde, qui pro causa omnium loquerentur. Electi sunt alii septem hinc, et septem inde, cum quibus, ubi opus erat, consilium pertractarent. Electi sunt quatuor hinc, et quatuor inde, qui Gestis conscribendis custodes essent, ne infalsatum aliquid ab aliquo diceretur. Dati sunt etiam a nobis et ab ipsis notarii quatuor hinc, et quatuor inde, ut bini cum exceptoribus iudicis alternarent, ne aliquis nostrum se dixisse aliquid causaretur, quod non fuisset exceptum. Huic tantae diligentiae etiam illud est additum, ut et nos et ipsi, quemadmodum ipse iudex, verbis nostris subscriberemus, ne quisquam diceret in illis Gestis aliquid vel postea fuisse corruptum. Cum enim adhuc viventibus eis qui subscripserunt, innotuerint eadem Gesta omnibus locis, in quibus oportet ut innotescant; sic etiam ad posteros confirmata veritas perdurabit. Nolite ergo esse ingrati tantae misericordiae Dei, quae per istam diligentiam vobis ministrata est. Nulla excusatio iam remansit; nimium dura, nimium diabolica sunt hominum corda quae adhuc tantae manifestationi veritatis obsistunt.
2. We came to Carthage, both we and your bishops, and what before they were unwilling and said was unworthy, we came together into one. There were chosen from us and from them seven on this side, and seven on that, who should speak for the cause of all. There were chosen another seven on this side, and seven on that, with whom, where it was needful, they might deliberate counsel. There were chosen four on this side, and four on that, who should be guardians for the records to be written, lest anything falsified be said by anyone. There were given too by us and by them four notaries on this side, and four on that, that two with the recorders of the judge might alternate, lest any of us should claim he had said something which had not been recorded. To this so great diligence this too was added, that both we and they, just as the judge himself, should subscribe to our words, lest anyone say that in those records something was afterward corrupted. For since, while those who subscribed were still living, the same records became known in all places in which it behooves them to become known; so the truth, confirmed, will endure even to posterity. Do not, then, be ungrateful to so great a mercy of God, which through this diligence has been ministered to you. No excuse now remains; too hard, too diabolical are the hearts of men which still resist so great a manifestation of truth.
Ep100-155.23. Ecce episcopi partis vestrae, quos omnes elegerunt, ut pro omnibus loquerentur, conati sunt, quantum potuerunt, ut omnino ipsa causa non ageretur, propter quam tantus numerus episcoporum utriusque partis de universa Africa, et de tam longinquis locis Carthaginem venerat. Et cum omnis anima suspensa exspectaret in tanta collectione quid ageretur, illi vehementer instabant ut nihil ageretur. Quare hoc, nisi quia causam suam malam sciebant, et facillime se posse vinci, si ageretur, dubitare non poterant? Ipse ergo animus eorum, quo timebant ne causa ageretur, iam victos eos esse monstrabat. Si enim extorquerent quod volebant, ut iam collatio ipsa non fieret, nec disputationibus nostris veritas appareret: redeuntes a Carthagine, quid vobis erant responsuri? quid demonstraturi? Credo, prolaturi erant Gesta, et dicturi vobis: Nos instabamus ut causa non ageretur, illi instabant ut ageretur. Vos exspectatis videre quid egerimus: ecce legite ubi eos vicimus, ut nihil ageremus. Forte et vos responderetis, si cor haberetis: Nihil ergo acturi, utquid istis? vel potius qui nihil egistis, utquid redistis?
3. Behold, the bishops of your party, whom all chose to speak for all, tried, as much as they could, that the very cause should not be dealt with at all, on account of which so great a number of bishops of both parties had come to Carthage from all Africa, and from such far-off places. And when every soul, in suspense, awaited in so great a gathering what should be done, they vehemently insisted that nothing should be done. Why this, except because they knew their cause to be bad, and could not doubt that they could most easily be conquered, if it were dealt with? Their very mind, then, by which they feared lest the cause should be dealt with, showed them already conquered. For if they had extorted what they wished, that the conference itself should not now take place, nor the truth appear by our disputations: returning from Carthage, what would they answer you? What would they demonstrate? I believe they would bring forth the records, and say to you: We insisted that the cause should not be dealt with, they insisted that it should. You await to see what we did: behold, read where we conquered them, that we should do nothing. Perhaps you too would answer, if you had a heart: If you were going to do nothing, why to them? or rather, you who did nothing, why did you return?
Ep100-155.34. Denique posteaquam non potuerunt efficere quod conati sunt, id est ut causa non ageretur; ipsa actio demonstravit quid timuerint, quando in omnibus victi sunt. Confessi sunt enim, contra Ecclesiam catholicam, quae toto terrarum orbe diffunditur, nihil se habere quod dicerent; quia divinis sanctarum Scripturarum testimoniis oppressi sunt, quibus Ecclesia designatur incipiens ab Ierusalem crevisse per loca in quibus Apostoli praedicaverunt, et nomina eorumdem locorum in suis Epistolis et Actis conscripserunt, et inde diffundi per caeteras gentes. Contra istam Ecclesiam se non habere causam manifesta voce professi sunt, ubi est evidentissima in nomine Dei nostra victoria. Cum enim confirmant Ecclesiam, cui nos communicare, ipsos autem non communicare manifestum est, olim se victos esse testantur; et vobis, si sapiatis, apertissime indicant quid dimittere, et quid tenere debeatis, non ea falsitate qua vobis non cessant adhuc usque mentiri, sed illa veritate quam victi coacti sunt confiteri.
4. Finally, after they could not effect what they tried—that is, that the cause should not be dealt with—the very action showed what they had feared, when they were conquered in all things. For they confessed that against the Catholic Church, which is spread through the whole world, they had nothing to say; because they were overwhelmed by the divine testimonies of the holy Scriptures, by which the Church is designated as beginning from Jerusalem, having grown through the places in which the Apostles preached, and having written the names of those same places in their Letters and Acts, and as being spread thence through the rest of the nations. Against this Church they professed with a manifest voice that they had no cause, where is our most evident victory in the name of God. For when they confirm the Church—with which it is manifest that we communicate, but they do not communicate—they attest that they have long been conquered; and to you, if you are wise, they most plainly indicate what you ought to forsake, and what to hold, not by that falsehood by which they do not cease still even now to lie to you, but by that truth which, conquered, they were compelled to confess.
Ep100-155.45. Quisquis ergo ab hac catholica Ecclesia fuerit separatus, quantumlibet laudabiliter se vivere existimet, hoc solo scelere quod a Christi unitate disiunctus est, non habebit vitam; sed ira Dei manet super eum. Quisquis autem in hac Ecclesia bene vixerit, nihil ei praeiudicant aliena peccata; quia unusquisque in ea proprium onus portabit, sicut Apostolus dicit. Et quicumque in ea corpus Christi manducaverit indigne, iudicium sibi manducat et bibit: nam etiam hoc ipse Apostolus scripsit. Cum autem dicit, iudicium sibi manducat, satis ostendit, quia non alteri iudicium manducat, sed sibi. Hoc nos egimus, et ostendimus, et obtinuimus, quia communio malorum non maculat aliquem participatione Sacramentorum, sed consensione factorum. Nam si in factis malis non eis quisque consentiat; portat malus causam suam et personam suam, nec praeiudicat alteri quem in consensione mali operis socium non habet criminis.
5. Whoever, then, has been separated from this Catholic Church, however praiseworthily he may esteem himself to live, by this crime alone, that he is disjoined from the unity of Christ, will not have life; but the wrath of God remains over him. But whoever has lived well in this Church, the sins of others prejudice him in nothing; because each one in it will bear his own load, as the Apostle says. And whoever in it eats the body of Christ unworthily, eats and drinks judgment to himself: for this too the Apostle himself wrote. But when he says, "eats judgment to himself," he sufficiently shows that he eats judgment not to another, but to himself. This we maintained, and showed, and obtained, that the communion of the bad does not stain anyone by the participation of the Sacraments, but by the consent of deeds. For if in evil deeds anyone does not consent to them; the bad man bears his own cause and his own person, nor prejudices another whom he does not have as an associate of crime in the consent of an evil work.
Ep100-155.56. Hoc etiam ipsi voce apertissima coacti sunt confiteri; non tunc quando ista dicebamus, sed postea cum aliud ageretur. Nam cum ventum fuisset ad causam etiam Caeciliani, quam nos ab Ecclesiae causa distinguebamus, ut si forte malus esset inventus, ipsum anathematizaremus, non tamen propter ipsum Ecclesiam Christi relinqueremus, cui per malam suam causam praeiudicare non posset: cum ergo etiam ad ipsam Caeciliani causam ventum fuisset, et legissent illi concilium Carthaginense, ubi recitabant septuaginta plus minus episcoporum sententias contra Caecilianum absentem prolatas; respondimus eis, sic non obesse illud episcoporum concilium absenti Caeciliano, quemadmodum non obfuit plurium episcoporum partis Donati concilium absenti Primiano, quando eum in Maximiani causa plus minus centum episcopi damnaverant. Tunc illi, nominata causa Maximiani, unde sciunt se etiam quos damnaverant, in honore integro suscepisse, et baptismum in sacrilego Maximiani schismate datum se confirmasse, et non destruxisse; et in sua Bagaitana sententia, qua eos damnaverunt, quibusdam qui in ipso schismate fuerunt, dilationem dedisse, et dixisse quod eos non polluerint sacrilegi surculi Maximiani plantaria: ista ergo causa posteaquam eorum aures percussit, expavescentes et perturbati, et obliti unde superius contra nos contendebant, continuo dixerunt: Nec causa causae, nec persona personae praeiudicat: et confirmaverunt verbis suis quod nos antea de Ecclesia dicebamus, quia non solum Catholicae transmarinae, contra quam se confessi sunt non habere quod dicerent, verum etiam Catholicae Africanae, quae illi unitatis communione coniungitur, causa et persona Caeciliani, qualiscumque fuisset, praeiudicare non posset; si Maximianus qui cum caeteris sociis suis Primianum damnavit, si etiam Felicianus qui simul Primianum damnavit, et postea in causa Primiani a Donati parte damnatus est, non praeiudicat parti Donati, cui modo episcopus, sicut antea fuerat, receptus adiungitur; si etiam ipsis sociis suis Maximianus non praeiudicat, quibus isti dilationem dederunt, dicentes eos ab illo, cum quo fuerunt, non fuisse pollutos, quia nec causa causae praeiudicat, nec persona personae.
6. This too they themselves were compelled to confess with a most open voice; not then when we were saying these things, but afterward when another matter was being dealt with. For when it had come to the cause of Caecilian too, which we distinguished from the cause of the Church—so that, if perhaps he were found bad, we would anathematize him, yet not on his account forsake the Church of Christ, to which he could not by his bad cause prejudice: when, then, it had come even to that cause of Caecilian, and they had read the council of Carthage, where they recited the sentences of seventy or so bishops brought forth against the absent Caecilian; we answered them that that council of bishops did not harm the absent Caecilian, in the same way as the council of very many bishops of the party of Donatus did not harm the absent Primian, when, in the cause of Maximian, about a hundred bishops had condemned him. Then they, the cause of Maximian being named—whence they know that they received even those whom they had condemned with honor intact, and that they confirmed and did not destroy the baptism given in the sacrilegious schism of Maximian; and in their Bagai sentence, by which they condemned them, gave a delay to certain who had been in that schism, and said that the seedlings of the sacrilegious shoot of Maximian did not pollute them: this cause, then, after it struck their ears, terrified and disturbed, and having forgotten whence above they were contending against us, at once said: Neither does cause prejudice cause, nor person person: and they confirmed by their own words what we earlier said about the Church, that not only to the Catholic Church overseas, against which they confessed they had nothing to say, but even to the Catholic Church of Africa, which is joined to it by the communion of unity, the cause and person of Caecilian, whatever it had been, could not prejudice; if Maximian, who with the rest of his associates condemned Primian, if even Felician, who together condemned Primian, and was afterward condemned in the cause of Primian by the party of Donatus, does not prejudice the party of Donatus, to which now, received as a bishop, as he had been before, he is joined; if even to his own associates Maximian does not prejudice, to whom these men gave a delay, saying that they were not polluted by him with whom they were, because neither does cause prejudice cause, nor person person.
Ep100-155.67. Quid ergo quaeritis amplius? Multis quidem verbis superfluis Gesta oneraverunt; et quia non potuerunt efficere ut causa non ageretur, hoc fecerunt multum loquendo, ut quod actum est difficile legeretur. Sed debent vobis etiam ista eorum pauca verba sufficere, ne propter nescio quae, nescio quorum hominum crimina, oderitis unitatem catholicae Ecclesiae; quia, sicut ipsi dixerunt, relegerunt, subscripserunt: Nec causa causae praeiudicat, nec persona personae. Nam et in ipsa causa Caeciliani, quam licet ad Ecclesiae causam non pertinentem, tamen defendendam suscepimus, ut etiam ibi calumniae manifestarentur ipsorum, apertissime victi sunt, nihilque eorum quae in Caecilianum intendebant, probare potuerunt. Insuper etiam de criminibus traditionis nos episcopalia Gesta protulimus, unde recitavimus aliquos eorum episcoporum qui sententias in absentem dixerant Caecilianum, manifestissimos fuisse traditores. Contra ipsa Gesta illi, quia non habebant quod dicerent, falsa esse dixerunt; sed nullo modo probare potuerunt.
7. What more, then, do you seek? They indeed loaded the records with many superfluous words; and because they could not effect that the cause should not be dealt with, they did this by speaking much, that what was done might be read with difficulty. But these few words of theirs too ought to suffice you, lest, on account of I know not what crimes of I know not what men, you hate the unity of the Catholic Church; because, as they themselves said, reread, subscribed: Neither does cause prejudice cause, nor person person. For even in the very cause of Caecilian, which, though not pertaining to the cause of the Church, we yet undertook to defend, so that even there their calumnies might be manifested, they were most openly conquered, and could prove nothing of the things they intended against Caecilian. Moreover, about the crimes of treachery, we brought forth episcopal records, whence we recited that some of those bishops who had spoken sentences against the absent Caecilian were most manifestly traitors. Against those very records they, because they had nothing to say, said they were false; but in no way could they prove it.
Ep100-155.78. Insuper etiam confessi sunt, vel potius pro magna gloria professi sunt, Caecilianum apud Constantinum imperatorem a suis praecessoribus accusatum. Et addiderunt mendacium, quod illis accusantibus fuerit ab Imperatore damnatus. Ecce et hinc victi sunt, unde vobis solent nebulas erroris offundere, concitantes nobis invidiam, et in odium vestrum nos adducentes, quia Ecclesiae causam apud Imperatores agimus. Ecce maiores eorum de quorum nominibus gloriantur, Ecclesiae causam egerunt apud Imperatorem; persecuti sunt accusando Caecilianum apud Imperatorem, damnatum dixerunt. Iam non vos seducant vanissimis et mendacissimis verbis: redite ad cor vestrum, timete Dominum, cogitate veritatem, relinquite falsitatem. Quidquid enim iam passi fueritis imperialibus legibus, quod non pro iustitia, sed pro iniquitate patimini, non poteritis dicere ideo nos esse iniustos, quia sic vobiscum agi non debuit, ut Imperator vos ab ista iniquitate compesceret. Episcopi enim vestri confessi sunt maiores suos sic egisse cum Caeciliano, quomodo vobiscum agi non vultis. Et tamen quod Caecilianum apud Imperatorem persecuti fuerint, etiam ipsis confitentibus et profitentibus satis constitit: quod autem Caecilianus fuerit ab Imperatore damnatus, omnino non constitit; imo etiam constitit eum, accusantibus et persequentibus maioribus eorum, et bis numero prius ab episcopis, et ab ipso postea Imperatore fuisse purgatum. Hoc etiam ipsi confirmaverunt, talia postea, quasi pro causa sua, proferendo, ut magis contra ipsos esse invenirentur, et pro causa Caeciliani etiam illa quae protulerunt, recitarentur. Quoscumque ergo accusare voluerunt, nullis certis documentis probare potuerunt: quidquid autem nos et pro Ecclesiae causa, et pro Caeciliani causa diximus, et verbis suis et lectionibus a se prolatis etiam ipsi confirmaverunt.
8. Moreover they confessed—or rather, professed as a great glory—that Caecilian was accused before the emperor Constantine by their predecessors. And they added a lie, that, those men accusing, he was condemned by the Emperor. Behold, here too they were conquered, whence they are wont to spread mists of error over you, stirring up odium against us, and bringing us into your hatred, because we deal with the cause of the Church before the Emperors. Behold, their forefathers, of whose names they glory, dealt with the cause of the Church before the Emperor; they persecuted, by accusing Caecilian before the Emperor, and said he was condemned. Now let them not seduce you with most empty and most lying words: return to your heart, fear the Lord, think on the truth, forsake falsehood. For whatever you have now suffered by the imperial laws—which you suffer not for justice but for iniquity—you will not be able to say that we are therefore unjust, because it ought not to have been so dealt with you, that the Emperor should restrain you from this iniquity. For your bishops confessed that their forefathers so dealt with Caecilian as you do not wish to be dealt with. And yet that they persecuted Caecilian before the Emperor, even by their own confessing and professing, it was sufficiently established: but that Caecilian was condemned by the Emperor, it was in no way established; nay rather, it was even established that he, their forefathers accusing and persecuting, was twice in number first by the bishops, and afterward by the Emperor himself, cleared. This too they themselves confirmed, by afterward bringing forth such things, as it were for their cause, that they were rather found to be against themselves, and even those things which they brought forth were recited for the cause of Caecilian. Whomever, then, they wished to accuse, they could prove by no certain documents: but whatever we said, both for the cause of the Church and for the cause of Caecilian, they themselves too confirmed both by their own words and by the readings brought forth by them.
Ep100-155.89. Nam protulerunt primo codicem Optati, unde quasi probarent Caecilianum ab Imperatore damnatum: qui codex cum contra illos legeretur, et magis ostenderet Caecilianum fuisse purgatum, ab omnibus risi sunt. Sed quia ipse risus non potuit ab exceptoribus excipi, verbis suis apud Acta risos se esse testati sunt. Iterum recitaverunt et protulerunt libellum imperatori Constantino a suis maioribus datum, ubi questi sunt quod eos memoratus imperator graviter persequeretur; ac sic eodem libello manifestarunt se apud Imperatorem a Caeciliano fuisse superatos, falsumque esse quod dixerant, eum ab Imperatore damnatum. Tertio protulerunt litteras eiusdem Constantini ad vicarium Verinum datas, ubi eos graviter detestatur, et propterea dicit de exsilio relaxandos, et furori suo dimittendos, quia iam Deus coeperat in illos vindicare: ac sic etiam istis Imperatoris litteris confirmaverunt se falsum dixisse, quod Caecilianus ab Imperatore damnatus sit; cum potius Imperator ipsos a Caeciliano victos esse monstraverit, quando eos vehementer exsecratus, ideo iussit ut de exsilio dimitterentur, ut Deo iudice, sicut et iam coeperant, punirentur.
9. For they brought forth first the codex of Optatus, whence they might as it were prove Caecilian condemned by the Emperor: which codex, when it was read against them, and rather showed Caecilian to have been cleared, they were laughed at by all. But because the laughter itself could not be recorded by the recorders, they attested in their own words, in the records, that they were laughed at. Again they recited and brought forth the petition given to the emperor Constantine by their forefathers, where they complained that the said emperor gravely persecuted them; and so by that same petition they manifested that they had been overcome before the Emperor by Caecilian, and that it was false what they had said, that he was condemned by the Emperor. Thirdly they brought forth a letter of the same Constantine given to the vicar Verinus, where he gravely detests them, and on this account says they are to be released from exile and dismissed to their own fury, because God had already begun to avenge upon them: and so by these letters too of the Emperor they confirmed that they had said falsely that Caecilian was condemned by the Emperor; since rather the Emperor showed that they themselves were conquered by Caecilian, when, vehemently execrating them, he therefore ordered that they be dismissed from exile, that, with God as judge, as they had already begun, they might be punished.
Ep100-155.910. Postea Felicis Aptungensis ordinatoris Caeciliani causam in medium miserunt, dicentes eumdem Felicem fuisse traditorem, a quo Caecilianus fuerat ordinatus: et eiusdem Constantini imperatoris pro Caeciliano contra seipsos litteras protulerunt, ubi ad proconsulem scripsit, ut ad Comitatum suum mitteretur Ingentius. Iste autem Ingentius confessus fuerat in cognitione Aeliani proconsulis falsum se fecisse adversus Felicem Caeciliani ordinatorem. Dicebant ergo isti non sine causa voluisse Imperatorem ut ad se mitteretur Ingentius, nisi quia Caeciliani adhuc causa pendebat: et conabantur immittere suspicionem vanissimam, quod posteaquam Ingentius ad Comitatum directus est, tunc Imperator contra Caecilianum potuerit iudicare, et illud iudicium suum quod nos recitaveramus, ubi inter partes cognoverat, Caecilianumque purgaverat, sententia posteriore rescindere. Sed dicebatur eis ut hoc potius legerent; et nihil omnino proferebant. Illae autem litterae Imperatoris, quibus ad se mitti iussit Ingentium, quas contra seipsos pro Caeciliano recitaverunt, hoc continent, quod Aelianus proconsul in causa Felicis audientiam praebuerit competentem, eumdemque Felicem a crimine traditionis innocentem fuisse constiterit: sed Ingentium ad Comitatum suum propterea iubere transmitti, ut illis qui ibi erant, et diurnis diebus eum interpellare non desinebant, apparere et intimari posset, et frustra eos Caeciliano invidiam comparare, et adversus eum violenter insurgere voluisse.
10. Afterward they brought into the midst the cause of Felix of Aptunga, the ordainer of Caecilian, saying that the same Felix was a traitor, by whom Caecilian had been ordained: and they brought forth a letter of the same emperor Constantine, for Caecilian against themselves, where he wrote to the proconsul that Ingentius should be sent to his Court. But this Ingentius had confessed, in the examination of the proconsul Aelianus, that he had committed a forgery against Felix the ordainer of Caecilian. They said, then, that the Emperor had not without cause wished Ingentius to be sent to him, except because the cause of Caecilian was still pending: and they tried to insinuate a most empty suspicion, that after Ingentius was sent to the Court, then the Emperor could judge against Caecilian, and rescind that judgment of his which we had recited, where, having examined the parties, he had cleared Caecilian, by a later sentence. But it was said to them that they should rather read this; and they brought forth nothing at all. But those letters of the Emperor, by which he ordered Ingentius to be sent to him, which they recited against themselves for Caecilian, contain this: that the proconsul Aelianus had afforded a competent hearing in the cause of Felix, and that it had been established that the same Felix was innocent of the crime of treachery: but that he ordered Ingentius to be sent to his Court for this reason, that it might appear and be intimated to those who were there, and did not cease to importune him daily, that they had wished in vain to procure odium against Caecilian, and to rise up violently against him.
Ep100-155.1011. Quis eos crederet ista contra se recitasse pro nobis, nisi Dei omnipotentis nutu factum esset, ut non solum verba eorum Gestis tenerentur, sed etiam manus subscribentium legerentur? Nam et ordinem consulum et dierum, qui Gestis expressus est, si quis nunc diligenter advertat, inveniet primo Caecilianum episcopali iudicio fuisse purgatum. Deinde non multo post Felicis Aptungensis causa ab Aeliano proconsule examinata est, ubi eum constitit innocentem: in qua causa ad Comitatum mitti iussus est Ingentius. Et longe postea ipse Imperator causam inter partes cognovit atque finivit: in qua cognitione Caecilianum innocentem, illos autem calumniosissimos iudicavit. In quo ordine consulum et dierum satis ostenditur fallaciter eos et calumniose dixisse, quod Imperator misso ad Comitatum Ingentio, iudicium suum mutavit, et Caecilianum quem prius purgaverat, postea condemnavit. Non solum autem nihil de hac re legere potuerunt, et contra seipsos tanta legerunt; sed etiam per ordinem consulum evidentius convincuntur, post causam Felicis proconsulari iudicio terminatam, in qua iussum est ut ad Comitatum Ingentius mitteretur, nec parvo intervallo, sed longe postea memorati imperatoris iudicio inter partes habito, Caecilianum fuisse purgatum
11. Who would believe that they recited these things against themselves for us, unless it had been done by the will of omnipotent God, that not only their words should be held in the records, but even the hands of those subscribing should be read? For also the order of the consuls and days, which is expressed in the records, if anyone now diligently notices, will find that first Caecilian was cleared by episcopal judgment. Then, not long after, the cause of Felix of Aptunga was examined by the proconsul Aelianus, where it was established that he was innocent: in which cause Ingentius was ordered to be sent to the Court. And long afterward the Emperor himself examined and ended the cause between the parties: in which examination he judged Caecilian innocent, but them most calumnious. In which order of consuls and days it is sufficiently shown that they said fallaciously and calumniously that the Emperor, Ingentius being sent to the Court, changed his judgment, and afterward condemned Caecilian whom he had before cleared. But not only could they read nothing about this matter, and read so much against themselves; but even by the order of the consuls they are more evidently convicted that, after the cause of Felix was concluded by proconsular judgment—in which it was ordered that Ingentius be sent to the Court—and not at a small interval, but long afterward, the judgment of the said emperor being held between the parties, Caecilian was cleared.
Ep100-155.1112. Non ergo vobis dicant quia praemio corrupimus iudicem. Quid enim aliud solent victi homines dicere? Aut si aliquid dedimus iudici, ut contra illos pro nobis pronuntiaret; ipsis quid dedimus, ut contra se pro nobis tanta non solum dicerent, verum etiam recitarent? An forte volunt ut eis apud vos gratias agamus, quia cum dicant iudicem praemio a nobis esse corruptum, ipsi tam multa, quae pro nobis contra seipsos dixerunt et recitaverunt, gratis nobis omnia praestiterunt? Aut certe si propterea dicunt quod nos vicerint, quia melius egerunt causam Caeciliani quam nos, hoc plane credite illis. Nos enim duas lectiones pro illo sufficere putaveramus: illi autem quatuor protulerunt.
12. Let them not, then, tell you that we corrupted the judge by a bribe. For what else are conquered men wont to say? Or, if we gave anything to the judge, that he might pronounce against them for us; what did we give to them, that against themselves they should for us not only say but even recite so much? Or do they perhaps wish that we should give them thanks before you, because, while they say the judge was corrupted by us with a bribe, they themselves freely furnished us with so many things, which they said and recited for us against themselves? Or surely, if they say that they conquered us on this account, that they dealt with the cause of Caecilian better than we; this indeed believe them. For we thought two readings sufficient for him: but they brought forth four.
Ep100-155.1213. Sed quid pluribus litteras oneramus? Si vultis nobis credere, credite; et teneamus pariter unitatem, quam iubet et diligit Deus. Si autem nobis non vultis credere, Gesta ipsa legite, aut vobis ut legantur admittite, et an vera sint quae scripsimus vobis, ipsi probate. Si autem nihil horum facere vultis, et manifestissima veritate convictam partis Donati falsitatem adhuc sequi desideratis, mundi sumus a poena vestra, quando vos sero postea poenitebit. Si vero id quod vobis praestitit Deus non contempseritis; et post causam tam diligenter actam, et tam diligenter manifestatam, perversam consuetudinem relinquentes, paci Christi et unitati consenseritis, de vestra correctione gaudebimus: et Sacramenta Christi, quae in sacrilegio schismatis ad iudicium habetis, utilia et salubria vobis erunt cum in catholica pace habueritis caput Christum, ubi caritas cooperit multitudinem peccatorum. Haec ad vos scripsimus XVIII Kal. Iulias, piissimo Honorio Augusto IX Cos. ut quando possunt ad quosque vestrum istae litterae pervenirent.
13. But why do we load the letter with more? If you wish to believe us, believe; and let us alike hold the unity which God commands and loves. But if you do not wish to believe us, read the records themselves, or allow them to be read to you, and prove for yourselves whether the things we have written to you are true. But if you wish to do none of these things, and still desire to follow the falsehood of the party of Donatus, convicted by most manifest truth, we are clean from your penalty, when you will too late afterward repent. But if you shall not despise that which God has furnished you; and, after a cause so diligently dealt with, and so diligently manifested, forsaking your perverse custom, you shall consent to the peace and unity of Christ, we will rejoice over your correction: and the Sacraments of Christ, which in the sacrilege of schism you have unto judgment, will be useful and wholesome to you when in Catholic peace you shall have Christ as head, where love covers a multitude of sins. These things we have written to you on the fourteenth of June, in the ninth consulship of the most devout Honorius Augustus, that this letter might reach each of you when it could.
Ep100-155.13EPISTOLA 142
DOMINIS DILECTISSIMIS, FRATRIBUS PRESBYTERIS, SATURNINO ET EUFRATI, ET CLERICIS QUI VOBISCUM SUNT, AD UNITATEM CHRISTI PACEMQUE CONVERSIS, AUGUSTINUS EPISCOPUS, IN DOMINO SALUTEM.
DOMINIS DILECTISSIMIS, FRATRIBUS PRESBYTERIS, SATURNINO ET EUFRATI, ET CLERICIS QUI VOBISCUM SUNT, AD UNITATEM CHRISTI PACEMQUE CONVERSIS, AUGUSTINUS EPISCOPUS, IN DOMINO SALUTEM.
LETTER 142
To the most beloved lords, the brothers and priests Saturninus and Eufrates, and the clerics who are with you, converted to the unity and peace of Christ, Augustine the bishop sends greetings in the Lord.
Ep100-155.13To the most beloved lords, the brothers and priests Saturninus and Eufrates, and the clerics who are with you, converted to the unity and peace of Christ, Augustine the bishop sends greetings in the Lord.
1. Laetificavit nos vester adventus: sed non vos absentia nostra contristet. In illa enim Ecclesia sumus, quae propitio Deo, licet usquequaque porrecta et toto orbe diffusa sit, unum tamen corpus est magnum unius capitis magni, quod caput eius est ipse Salvator, sicut Apostolus dicit. De huius autem capitis glorificatione, quae post eius resurrectionem futura fuerat, tanto ante propheta praedixit: Exaltare super coelos, Deus; et quia illo super coelos exaltato, Ecclesia eius omnem terram copiosa fecunditate fuerat impletura, consequenter idem psalmus adiunxit: Et super omnem terram gloria tua. Proinde, dilectissimi, stabili mente et firmissimo corde, sub tam excelso capite, in tam glorioso corpore persistamus, in quo invicem membra sumus. Unde etsi remotissimis terris mea longinqua esset absentia, in illo simul essemus, a cuius corporis unitate recedere non debemus. Si enim nos una domus haberet, utique simul esse diceremur: quanto magis simul sumus, cum in uno corpore simul sumus! Quamquam etiam in una domo nos esse Veritas ipsa testatur, quoniam sancta Scriptura, quae corpus Christi esse dicit Ecclesiam, ipsa itidem dicit Ecclesiam eamdem esse domum Dei.
1. Your coming gladdened us: but let not our absence sadden you. For we are in that Church which, God being propitious, although it is everywhere extended and spread through the whole world, is yet one great body of one great head, which is its head, the Savior himself, as the Apostle says. But of the glorification of this head, which was to be after his resurrection, the prophet foretold so long before: Be exalted above the heavens, O God; and because, he being exalted above the heavens, his Church was to fill all the earth with copious fruitfulness, the same psalm consequently added: and over all the earth be your glory (Ps 57:5 (56:6)). Accordingly, most beloved, with a stable mind and a most firm heart, let us persist under so lofty a head, in so glorious a body, in which we are members of one another. Whence, even if my distant absence were in most remote lands, in him we would be together, from the unity of whose body we ought not to withdraw. For if one house held us, we would surely be said to be together: how much more are we together, when in one body we are together! Although even that we are in one house, the Truth itself attests, since holy Scripture, which says that the Church is the body of Christ, likewise says that the same Church is the house of God.
Ep100-155.12. Sed haec domus non orbis terrae uno angulo aedificatur, sed per omnem terram. Unde ille psalmus, in cuius titulo legitur: Quando domus aedificabatur post captivitatem, sic incipit: Cantate Domino canticum novum, cantate Domino, omnis terra. In vetustate quippe veteris hominis, orbem terrae diabolus captivaverat; post hanc captivitatem cum aedificatur domus, renovatio fidelium significatur in homine novo. Unde dicit Apostolus: Exuite vos veterem hominem, et induite eum qui secundum Deum creatus est: et quia hoc per omnem terram fit in unitate catholica; sicut in alio psalmo dictum est: Et super omnem terram gloria tua; sic in isto cum dictum esset: Cantate Domino canticum novum, ut demonstraretur quando domus aedificatur in isto cantico novo, continuo subiunctum est: Cantate Domino, omnis terra. Operarios autem, per quos ista tam magna domus aedificatur, idem psalmus exhortatur, cum consequenter dicit: Bene nuntiate de die ex die salutare eius; annuntiate in gentibus gloriam eius, in omnibus populis mirabilia eius: et paulo post dicit: Afferte Domino, patriae gentium, afferte Domino gloriam et honorem. Quae sit haec domus, id est Ecclesia catholica, alio loco dixi.
2. But this house is built not in one corner of the world, but through all the earth. Whence that psalm, in whose title is read, When the house was built after the captivity, so begins: Sing to the Lord a new song, sing to the Lord, all the earth (Ps 96 title and 1 (95:1)). For in the oldness of the old man, the devil had taken the world captive; after this captivity, when the house is built, the renewal of the faithful is signified in the new man. Whence the Apostle says: Put off the old man, and put on him who is created according to God (See Eph 4:22-24): and because this is done through all the earth in Catholic unity—as in another psalm it was said, "and over all the earth be your glory"—so in this one, when it had been said, "Sing to the Lord a new song," to show when the house is built in this new song, it was at once subjoined, "Sing to the Lord, all the earth." But the workers, through whom this so great house is built, the same psalm exhorts, when it consequently says: Announce well, day from day, his salvation; announce among the nations his glory, among all peoples his marvels (Ps 96:2-3 (95:2-3)): and a little after it says, Bring to the Lord, families of the nations, bring to the Lord glory and honor (Ps 96:7 (95:7)). What this house is—that is, the Catholic Church—I have said in another place.
Ep100-155.23. His atque huiusmodi testimoniis tantae huius domus, quae in tota Scriptura tam multa reperiuntur, ita cesserunt inimici eius, ut faterentur contra Ecclesiam transmarinam, quam tamen catholicam esse confessi sunt, se causam non habere. Huic nos communicamus ut coniungi mereamur membris Christi, et compaginem corporis eius fidelissimae caritatis amplectamur affectu. Quoniam in Ecclesiae huius unitate quicumque male vixerit, sibi iudicium manducat et bibit, sicut Apostolus dicit. Quicumque autem bene vivit, non ei praeiudicat aliena causa, et aliena persona. Sic etiam illi cum de causa Maximiani urgerentur, ore suo coacti sunt confiteri, quia "nec causa causae, nec persona personae praeiudicat". Solliciti tamen invicem sumus pro nobis, tamquam unius corporis membra; ut quicumque adiuvante Domino, ad horreum futurum pertinemus, interim in area simul paleam toleremus, ne propter illam futuro igni destinatam, nos aream dominicam deseramus.
3. To these and such testimonies of this so great house, which in the whole Scripture are found so many, its enemies so yielded that they confessed they had no cause against the Church overseas, which they yet confessed to be Catholic. With this Church we communicate, that we may deserve to be joined to the members of Christ, and may embrace the framework of his body with an affection of most faithful love. Since whoever in the unity of this Church has lived badly, eats and drinks judgment to himself, as the Apostle says. But whoever lives well, another's cause and another's person does not prejudice him. So even those men, when they were pressed about the cause of Maximian, were compelled by their own mouth to confess that "neither does cause prejudice cause, nor person person." Yet we are solicitous for one another, as members of one body; so that whoever of us, with the Lord helping, pertain to the future granary, may meanwhile in the threshing floor together tolerate the chaff, lest, on account of that destined for the future fire, we desert the Lord's threshing floor.
Ep100-155.34. Agite fideliter, et hilariter Ecclesiastica officia quae ad vos pertinent, pro gradibus vestris, et ministerium vestrum sinceriter adimplete propter illum Deum, sub quo conservi sumus, et cui rationem de nostris actibus reddituros nos esse cogitamus. Unde abundare debent in vobis misericordiae viscera, quia iudicium sine misericordia erit illi qui non fecerit misericordiam. Ac per hoc, et pro illis orate nobiscum qui adhuc contristantur, ut sanetur carnalis animi infirmitas, ex diuturna consuetudine collecta atque contracta. Nam quis non intellegat quam bonum sit et iucundum fratres habitare in unum, si sanas fauces ista iucunditas tangat, unde respuat amaritudinem divisionis meus quae diligit dulcedinem caritatis? Potens est autem et misericors Deus, quem pro illis oramus, ut quibuslibet occasionibus etiam ipsos attrahat ad salutem. Dominus vos in pace conservet.
4. Carry on faithfully and cheerfully the ecclesiastical offices which pertain to you, according to your grades, and fulfill your ministry sincerely on account of that God under whom we are fellow servants, and to whom we consider that we are to render an account of our acts. Whence the bowels of mercy ought to abound in you, because judgment will be without mercy to him who has not done mercy. And through this, pray with us also for those who are still saddened, that the weakness of the carnal mind, gathered and contracted from a long-lasting habit, may be healed. For who would not understand how good and pleasant it is for brothers to dwell as one, if this pleasantness touch sound throats, whence my mind, which loves the sweetness of love, spits out the bitterness of division? But God, whom we pray for them, is powerful and merciful, so that by whatever occasions he may draw even them to salvation. May the Lord keep you in peace.
Ep100-155.4EPISTOLA 143
DOMINO EXIMIO, ET MERITO INSIGNI, MULTUMQUE CARISSIMO FILIO MARCELLINO, AUGUSTINUS, IN DOMINO SALUTEM.
DOMINO EXIMIO, ET MERITO INSIGNI, MULTUMQUE CARISSIMO FILIO MARCELLINO, AUGUSTINUS, IN DOMINO SALUTEM.
LETTER 143
To the most excellent lord, and deservedly distinguished, and much most dear son Marcellinus, Augustine sends greetings in the Lord.
Ep100-155.4To the most excellent lord, and deservedly distinguished, and much most dear son Marcellinus, Augustine sends greetings in the Lord.
1. Epistolam tuam, quam per sanctum fratrem et coepiscopum meum Bonifacium accepi, quaesivi, cum rescriberem, nec inveni. Recolui tamen te in ea quaesisse quomodo invenerint magi Pharaonis, conversa in sanguinem tota aqua Aegypti, unde simile aliquid facerent. Quae duobus modis solvi quaestio solet: sive quod marina aqua potuerit offerri; sive, quod est credibilius, quia in ea regione, in qua erant filii Israel, istae plagae non fiebant. Hoc enim quibusdam Scripturae illius locis apertissime expressum admonet, etiam ubi non dictum est, quid intellegi debeat.
1. Your letter, which I received through my holy brother and fellow bishop Boniface, I sought, when I was writing back, and did not find. Yet I recalled that you asked in it how the magicians of Pharaoh found, all the water of Egypt being turned into blood, whence to do something similar. This question is wont to be solved in two ways: either because sea water could be offered; or, what is more credible, because in that region in which the children of Israel were, those plagues did not happen. For this is most plainly expressed in certain places of that Scripture, even where it is not said what ought to be understood.
Ep100-155.12. Illae autem litterae tuae, quas presbyter Urbanus attulit, habent quaestionem mihi propositam ex libris non divinis, sed meis, quos scripsi de Libero Arbitrio. In talibus autem quaestionibus non multum laboro: quia etsi defendi sententia mea liquida ratione non potest, mea est; non eius auctoris cuius sensum improbare fas non est, etiam cum, eo non intellecto, hoc inde sentitur quod improbandum est. Ego proinde fateor me ex eorum numero esse conari, qui proficiendo scribunt, et scribendo proficiunt. Unde si aliquid vel incautius, vel indoctius a me positum est, quod non solum ab aliis qui videre id possunt, merito reprehendatur, verum etiam a meipso, quia et ego saltem postea videre debeo, si proficio; nec mirandum est, nec dolendum: sed potius ignoscendum atque gratulandum; non quia erratum est, sed quia improbatum. Nam nimis perverse seipsum amat qui et alios vult errare, ut error suus lateat. Quanto enim melius et utilius, ut ubi ipse erravit, alii non errent, quorum admonitu errore careat! quod si noluerit, saltem comites erroris non habeat. Si enim mihi Deus quod volo praestiterit, ut omnium librorum meorum quaecumque mihi rectissime displicent, opere aliquo ad hoc ipsum instituto, colligam atque demonstrem; tunc videbunt homines quam non sim acceptor personae meae.
2. But that letter of yours which the priest Urbanus brought has a question set forth to me from books not divine, but mine, which I wrote On Free Will. But in such questions I do not labor much: because, even if my opinion cannot be defended by clear reasoning, it is mine; not that of the author whose sense it is not right to disapprove, even when, it not being understood, something is thence held which is to be disapproved. I, accordingly, confess that I try to be of the number of those who write by progressing, and progress by writing. Whence, if anything has been set down by me either too incautiously or too unlearnedly, which not only by others who can see it is deservedly reprehended, but even by myself, because I too ought at least afterward to see it, if I progress; it is neither to be wondered at nor grieved over: but rather to be pardoned and congratulated; not because there was error, but because it was disapproved. For he loves himself too perversely who wishes others too to err, that his error may lie hidden. For how much better and more useful, that where one has himself erred, others may not err, by whose admonition he may be rid of his error! Which if he is unwilling, let him at least not have companions of his error. For if God shall grant me what I wish, that I may collect and demonstrate, by some work instituted for this very purpose, whatever in all my books most rightly displeases me; then men will see how I am not a respecter of my own person.
Ep100-155.23. Vos autem qui me multum diligitis, si talem asseritis adversus eos quorum malitia, vel imperitia, vel intellegentia reprehendor, ut me nusquam scriptorum meorum errasse dicatis; frustra laboratis, non bonam causam suscepistis, facile in ea me ipso iudice superamini. Quoniam non mihi placet, cum a carissimis meis talis esse existimor, qualis non sum. Profecto enim non me, sed pro me alium sub meo nomine diligunt, si non quod sum, sed quod non sum diligunt. Nam in quantum me noverunt, vel de me verum credunt, ego ab eis diligor: in quantum autem mihi tribuunt quod in me non cognoscunt, alium talem qualem me putant, pro me diligunt. Romani maximus auctor Tullius eloquii: Nullum umquam verbum, inquit de quodam, quod revocare vellet, emisit. Quae quidem laus, quamvis praeclarissima videatur, tamen credibilior est de nimium fatuo, quam de sapiente perfecto. Nam et illi quos vulgo moriones vocant, quanto magis a sensu communi dissonant, magisque absurdi et insulsi sunt, tanto magis nullum verbum emittunt quod revocare velint; quia dicti mali, vel stulti, vel incommodi poenitere, utique cordatorum est. Sed si in bonam partem accipiatur, ut quempiam talem fuisse credamus, qui cum sapienter omnia loqueretur, nullum umquam verbum quod revocare vellet, emisit; hoc potius de hominibus Dei, qui Spiritu sancto acri locuti sunt, quam de illo quem sic Cicero laudat, saluberrima pietate credendum est. Ab hac ego excellentia tam longe absum, ut si nullum verbum quod revocare vellem protulero, fatuo sim quam sapienti similior. Illius quippe scripta summa sunt auctoritate dignissima, qui nullum verbum, non quod revocare vellet, sed quod revocare deberet, emisit. Hoc quisquis nondum est assecutus, secundas habeat partes modestiae, quia primas non potuit habere sapientiae: quia non valuit omnia non poenitenda diligenter dixisse, poeniteat quae cognoverit dicenda non fuisse.
3. But you who love me much, if you assert me to be such, against those by whose malice, or unskillfulness, or understanding I am reprehended, that you say I have nowhere erred in my writings; you labor in vain, you have undertaken a not good cause, you are easily overcome in it, with me myself as judge. Since it does not please me, when I am esteemed by my dearest ones to be such as I am not. For surely they love not me, but another for me under my name, if they love not what I am, but what I am not. For insofar as they know me, or believe true of me, I am loved by them: but insofar as they attribute to me what they do not recognize in me, they love another such as they think me, in place of me. Tullius, the greatest author of Roman eloquence, says of someone: "He never uttered any word which he would wish to recall." Which praise, although it seems most illustrious, is yet more credible of one too fatuous than of one perfectly wise. For even those whom the crowd calls fools, the more they dissent from common sense, and are more absurd and insipid, the more they utter no word which they would wish to recall; because to repent of a bad, or foolish, or inconvenient saying, is surely of the sensible. But if it be taken in a good part, that we believe someone to have been such that, while he spoke all things wisely, he never uttered any word which he would wish to recall; this is rather to be believed, with most wholesome piety, of the men of God, who spoke by the keen Holy Spirit, than of him whom Cicero so praises. From this excellence I am so far that, if I bring forth no word which I would wish to recall, I am more like a fool than a wise man. For his writings are most worthy of the highest authority who uttered no word, not which he would wish to recall, but which he ought to recall. Whoever has not yet attained this, let him have the second part, of modesty, because he could not have the first, of wisdom: because he was not able diligently to say all things not to be repented of, let him repent of those which he shall have recognized ought not to have been said.
Ep100-155.34. Cum ergo, non sicut quidam carissimi mei putant, nulla vel pauca, sed potius plura fortasse quam etiam maledici opinantur verba dixerim, quae mallem revocare, si possem; non mihi Tulliana illa blanditur sententia, qua dictum est: Nullum umquam verbum quod revocare vellet, emisit: sed angit me plane Horatiana sententia: Nescit vox missa reverti. Hinc est quod periculosissimarum quaestionum libros, de Genesi scilicet, et de Trinitate, diutius teneo quam vultis et fertis; ut si non potuerint nisi habere aliqua quae merito reprehendantur, saltem pauciora sint quam esse possent, si praecipiti festinatione inconsultius ederentur. Vos enim, ut vestrae indicant litterae (nam hoc mihi etiam sanctus frater et coepiscopus meus scripsit Florentius), ideo ut edantur urgetis, quo possint a me, dum in hac carne vivo, defendi, cum vel ab inimicis mordentibus, vel etiam ab amicis parum intellegentibus, fortasse in quibusdam coeperint accusari. Quod utique propterea dicitis, quia non putatis esse in eis aliquid, quod vera possit ratione culpari: alioquin non me ad eorum editionem, sed ad diligentiorem emendationem potius hortaremini. Ego autem iudices veros, et veritate severos magis intueor, inter quos et meipsum primitus constituere volo; ut ad illos ea tantum reprehendenda perveniant, quae a me, quamvis sedulo perscrutante, minime videri potuerunt.
4. Since, then—not, as certain of my dearest ones suppose, no words, or few, but rather perhaps more words than even the slanderous suppose—I have said which I would prefer to recall, if I could; that Tullian saying does not flatter me, by which it was said, "He never uttered any word which he would wish to recall": but the Horatian saying plainly distresses me: "A word once sent forth knows not how to return." Hence it is that I hold the books of most dangerous questions—namely, those On Genesis, and On the Trinity—longer than you wish and bear; so that, if they cannot but have some things which are deservedly reprehended, they may at least be fewer than they could be, if they were brought forth by headlong haste too inconsiderately. For you—as your letter indicates (for this my holy brother and fellow bishop Florentius too wrote to me)—therefore urge that they be brought forth, that they may be able, while I live in this flesh, to be defended by me, when perhaps in certain things they shall begin to be accused, either by biting enemies, or even by friends who understand too little. Which you surely say on this account, that you do not think there is anything in them which by true reasoning can be blamed: otherwise you would exhort me not to the publication of them, but rather to a more diligent emendation. But I look rather to true judges, severe by truth, among whom I wish first to set even myself; so that to them only those things may come to be reprehended which by me, however diligently searching, could in no way be seen.
Ep100-155.45. Quae cum ita sint, hoc tamen quod in tertio libro de Libero Arbitrio, cum de substantia rationali agerem, sic a me positum est ut dicerem: In corporibus autem inferioribus anima post peccatum ordinata regit corpus suum, non omni modo pro arbitrio, sed sicut leges universitatis sinunt: diligenter advertant qui putant me aliquid de anima humana velut certum statuisse atque fixisse, quod vel ex parentibus per propaginem veniat, vel in actibus vitae superioris atque coelestis peccaverit, ut corruptibili carne mereretur includi; et videant sic a me verba fuisse perpensa, ut retento eo quod certum habeo; post peccatum primi hominis natos esse atque nasci caeteros homines in carne peccati, cui sanandae venit in Domino similitudo carnis peccati, ita omnia sonarent, ut nulli praeiudicarent opinioni quatuor illarum, quas postea digessi atque distinxi, non confirmans aliquam, sed interim quod agebam sequestrata illarum discussione determinans, ut quaecumque illarum vera esset, Deus sine dubio laudaretur.
5. Since these things are so, yet this which in the third book On Free Will, when I was dealing with rational substance, was so set down by me that I said: But in the lower bodies the soul, after sin, ordered, rules its own body, not in every way at its choice, but as the laws of the universe permit: let those diligently notice who think that I established and fixed something about the human soul as certain—either that it comes from the parents by propagation, or that it sinned in the acts of a higher and heavenly life, so that it deserved to be enclosed in corruptible flesh; and let them see that the words were so weighed by me that, holding that which I hold for certain—that after the sin of the first man the rest of men were born and are born in the flesh of sin, for whose healing came, in the Lord, the likeness of the flesh of sin—all things should sound in such a way as to prejudice none of those four opinions which afterward I set out and distinguished, confirming none, but meanwhile, the discussion of them being set aside, determining what I was dealing with, so that, whichever of them were true, God without doubt should be praised.
Ep100-155.56. Sive enim ex illa una omnes animae propagentur, sive singillatim in singulis fiant, sive extra creatae mittantur, sive in corpora sponte mergantur; procul dubio creatura ista rationalis, id est humanae animae natura, in corporibus inferioribus, hoc est terrenis, post peccatum ordinata regit corpus suum, non omni modo pro arbitrio, interim quod constat peccatum primi hominis. Non enim dictum est, Post peccatum suum, aut, Posteaquam peccavit; sed dictum est: Post peccatum: ut quodlibet postea, si fieri posset, discussa ratio declararet, sive peccatum eius, sive peccatum parentis carnis eius, recte dictum intellegeretur quod dictum est: Post peccatum in inferioribus corporibus ordinata regit corpus suum, non omni modo pro arbitrio, quia et caro concupiscit adversus spiritum, et ingemiscimus gravati, et corpus quod corrumpitur, aggravat animam: et quis omnia enarret carnalis infirmitatis incommoda? quae utique non erunt, cum corruptibile hoc induerit incorruptionem, ut absorbeatur mortale a vita. Tunc itaque spiritale corpus reget omni modo pro arbitrio; nunc vero non omni modo, sed sicut leges universitatis sinunt, per quas constitutum est ut corpora orta occidant, et aucta senescant. Nam illius primi hominis anima, ante peccatum etiamsi nondum spiritale corpus, sed animale, tamen pro arbitrio regebat. Post peccatum autem, id est posteaquam peccatum in illa carne commissum esset, ex qua deinceps propagaretur caro peccati, anima rationalis sic est in inferioribus corporibus ordinata, ut non omni modo pro arbitrio regat corpus suum. Quod si nondum acquiescunt in parvulis, qui nulla adhuc peccata propria commiserunt, iam tamen esse carnem peccati, quia et huic sanandae, cum baptizantur, necessaria est medicina, similitudo illa carnis peccati; nec sic istis verbis nostris habent quod succenseant. Constat quippe, nisi fallor, eamdem carnem, etiamsi non vitio, sed natura infirma est, tamen post peccatum coepisse nasci: quia neque ita creatus est Adam, neque aliquem genuit ante peccatum.
6. For whether all souls are propagated from that one, or are made individually in individuals, or, created outside, are sent in, or of their own accord plunge into bodies; without doubt this rational creature—that is, the nature of the human soul—in the lower, that is, earthly bodies, after sin, ordered, rules its own body, not in every way at its choice, as long as the sin of the first man stands. For it was not said, "After his own sin," or, "After he sinned"; but it was said, "After sin": so that, whatever reason might afterward declare, if it could, whether his sin, or the sin of the parent of his flesh, that which was said might be understood rightly said, "After sin, ordered in the lower bodies, it rules its own body, not in every way at its choice," because both the flesh lusts against the spirit, and we groan being burdened, and the body which is corrupted weighs down the soul: and who could narrate all the discomforts of carnal weakness? which surely will not be, when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, that the mortal be absorbed by life. Then, accordingly, the spiritual body will rule in every way at its choice; but now not in every way, but as the laws of the universe permit, by which it has been established that bodies, having arisen, perish, and, having grown, grow old. For the soul of that first man, before sin, even though not yet a spiritual but an animal body, yet ruled it at its choice. But after sin—that is, after sin was committed in that flesh, from which thereafter the flesh of sin was to be propagated—the rational soul is so ordered in the lower bodies that it does not in every way rule its own body at its choice. But if they do not yet acquiesce, in little children, who have as yet committed no sins of their own, that there is already the flesh of sin, because for this too, to be healed, when they are baptized, that likeness of the flesh of sin is a necessary medicine; not even so have they reason to be angry at these words of ours. For it is agreed, unless I am mistaken, that the same flesh, even if it is weak not by vice but by nature, yet began to be born after sin: because neither was Adam so created, nor did he beget anyone before sin.
Ep100-155.67. Quaerant ergo alia quae recte reprehendant, non solum in aliis festinantius editis, verum etiam in his ipsis libris meis de Libero Arbitrio. Neque enim eos inventuros nego unde mihi beneficium conferant; quoniam si illi, quod iam in multorum manus exierunt, corrigi non possunt, ego certe quoniam vivo adhuc, possum. Haec autem verba tam caute a me posita, ut nulli de animae exortu quatuor illarum opinioni rationive praescriberem, hi tantum reprehendant, qui reprehendendam putant eamdem ipsam de re tam obscura cunctationem meam: contra quos me non defendo, quod recte faciam in hac quaestione cunctari, cum omnino non dubitem et immortalem esse animam, non ita ut Deus, qui solus habet immortalitatem, sed modo quodam sui generis; et eam esse creaturam, non substantiam Creatoris, et si quid aliud de natura eius certissimum teneo. Sed quia hoc me facere compellit de animae exortu caliginosissimae quaestionis obscuritas, manum potius porrigant confitenti, et quidquid illud est nosse cupienti; et doceant, si possunt, vel ostendant, si quid de hac re vel certa ratione didicerunt, vel apertissimo divino eloquio crediderunt. Si enim ratio contra divinarum Scripturarum auctoritatem redditur, quamlibet acuta sit, fallit veri similitudine; nam vera esse non potest. Rursus si manifestissimae certaeque rationi velut Scripturarum sanctarum obicitur auctoritas; non intellegit qui hoc facit, et non Scripturarum illarum sensum, ad quem penetrare non potuit, sed suum potius obicit veritati, nec quod in eis, sed quod in seipso velut pro eis invenit, opponit.
7. Let them seek, then, other things which they may rightly reprehend, not only in others brought forth too hastily, but even in these my very books On Free Will. For I do not deny that they will find whence they may confer a benefit on me; since, if those books—because they have already gone forth into the hands of many—cannot be corrected, I at least, since I still live, can. But these words, so cautiously set down by me that I prescribe nothing to any of the four opinions or reasonings about the origin of the soul, let those only reprehend who think that this very hesitation of mine about so obscure a matter is to be reprehended: against whom I do not defend myself, that I do rightly to hesitate in this question, since I altogether do not doubt both that the soul is immortal—not as God is, who alone has immortality, but in a certain manner of its own kind—and that it is a creature, not the substance of the Creator, and whatever else most certain I hold about its nature. But because the obscurity of the most foggy question about the origin of the soul compels me to do this, let them rather stretch out a hand to one confessing, and desiring to know whatever that is; and let them teach, if they can, or show, if they have learned anything about this matter either by certain reasoning or by the most plain divine word. For if reasoning is rendered against the authority of the divine Scriptures, however acute it be, it deceives by a likeness to the true; for it cannot be true. Again, if to a most manifest and certain reasoning the authority of the holy Scriptures is opposed, as it were, he who does this does not understand, and opposes to the truth not the sense of those Scriptures, to which he could not penetrate, but rather his own, nor objects what he finds in them, but what he finds in himself as it were for them.
Ep100-155.78. Exempli gratia: diligenter attende quod dicam. Scriptum est prope finem libri qui vocatur Ecclesiastes, cum de solutione hominis, quae fit per mortem istam qua dirimitur anima a corpore, Scriptura loqueretur: Et convertatur pulvis in terram, sicut fuit; et spiritus revertatur ad Deum qui dedit eum. Sententia huius auctoritatis procul dubio certa est, nec quemquam decipit falsitate: sed si quispiam voluerit eam sic interpretari, ut inde animarum propaginem, quod ex illa una quam Deus primo homini dedit, omnes caeterae veniant, conetur adstruere; videtur illi suffragari quod ibi de carne dictum est pulveris nomine (nam utique pulvis et spiritus nihil aliud hoc loco quam anima et caro intellegitur), ut eo modo affirmet animam reverti ad Deum, quod sit de traduce illius animae quam primo homini dedit Deus, quemadmodum convertitur caro in terram, cum sit etiam ipsa de traduce illius carnis quae in primo homine de terra facta est: ac sic contendat ex hoc quod de carne notissimum est, debere nos credere illud quod de anima occultum est. De traduce quippe carnis non ambigitur, sed de animae ambigitur. Utrumque autem ita positum est in hoc testimonio, velut singula singulis parili ratione reddantur: caro scilicet convertatur in terram, sicut fuit; inde enim sumpta est, quando factus est primus homo: et spiritus revertatur ad Deum, qui dedit eum quando insufflavit in faciem hominis quem finxerat, flatum vitae, et factus est homo in animam vivam, ut deinceps ex utraque re utriusque rei propago decurreret.
8. For example: attend diligently to what I shall say. It is written near the end of the book which is called Ecclesiastes, when Scripture was speaking of the dissolution of man, which happens through this death by which the soul is sundered from the body: And let the dust return into the earth, as it was; and let the spirit return to God who gave it (Eccl 12:7). The opinion of this authority is without doubt certain, nor does it deceive anyone by falsehood: but if anyone should wish so to interpret it as to try to establish thence the propagation of souls—that from that one which God gave to the first man, all the rest come—it seems to favor him that there it was said of the flesh by the name of dust (for surely dust and spirit are nothing else in this place than soul and flesh), so that in that way he may affirm that the soul returns to God because it is of the propagation of that soul which God gave to the first man, in the same way as the flesh is turned into earth, since it too is of the propagation of that flesh which in the first man was made from the earth: and so he may contend that, from what is most well known about the flesh, we ought to believe that which is hidden about the soul. For about the propagation of the flesh there is no doubt, but about the soul there is doubt. But both are so set in this testimony that the individual things seem to be rendered to the individual by a parallel reasoning: namely, that the flesh be turned into earth, as it was; for thence it was taken, when the first man was made: and that the spirit return to God, who gave it, when he breathed into the face of the man whom he had formed the breath of life, and the man was made into a living soul, so that thereafter from each thing the propagation of each thing should run on.
Ep100-155.89. Verumtamen si illud est verum, quod animas non ex illa una propagatas, sed alibi creatas singulis singulas Deus dat, etiam huic sententiae congruit quod dictum est: Spiritus revertatur ad Deum qui dedit eum. Solae ergo reliquae duae opiniones videntur excludi; quia si fierent in singulis hominibus animae propriae, cum creantur, non putatur dici debuisse: Spiritus revertatur ad Deum qui dedit eum, sed ad Deum qui fecit eum: Dedit enim veluti sic sonat, quasi iam extra fuerit quod dari posset. Deinde quod dictum est, revertatur ad Deum, urgent verbo et premunt, dicentes: Quomodo revertetur, ubi numquam antea fuerit? Potius enim dici debuisse asserunt, Et ad Deum vel pergat, vel vadat ad Deum, quam, Revertatur ad Deum, si numquam illic antea spiritus iste fuisse credendus est. Item quomodo animae sponte labantur in corpus, cum scriptum sit, dedit eum, non tam in promptu est explicare. Ac per hoc, ut dixi, duae istae opiniones sub verbis huius testimonii laborant: una, qua putantur singulae quaeque animae in singulis suis corporibus fieri; alia, qua putantur in corpora sponte demergi. Duabus autem illis, sive de traduce illius unius veniant, sive antea iam creatae et apud Deum constitutae, singulis corporibus dentur, sine labore verba ista coaptantur.
9. Nevertheless, if that is true, that God gives souls, not propagated from that one, but created elsewhere, individual ones to individuals, this opinion too agrees with what was said, "Let the spirit return to God who gave it." Only the remaining two opinions, then, seem to be excluded; because, if proper souls were made in individual men, when they are created, it is thought it ought not to have been said, "Let the spirit return to God who gave it," but "to God who made it": for "gave" sounds, as it were, as though that already existed outside which could be given. Then that which was said, "let it return to God," they urge with the word and press, saying: How will it return, where it never before was? For it ought rather, they assert, to have been said, "And let it go to God," or "let it proceed to God," than "Let it return to God," if it is to be believed that this spirit never before was there. Likewise, how souls glide of their own accord into the body, when it is written, "gave it," is not so easy to explain. And through this, as I said, those two opinions labor under the words of this testimony: one, by which the individual souls are thought to be made in their individual bodies; the other, by which they are thought to plunge of their own accord into bodies. But to those other two—whether they come from the propagation of that one, or, already created beforehand and established with God, are given to individual bodies—these words are fitted without labor.
Ep100-155.910. Et tamen si assertores eius sententiae qua creduntur animae in suis singulis corporibus fieri, affirment ita esse dictum de spiritu, qui pro anima positus est: Deus dedit eum, quemadmodum recte dicitur dedisse nobis oculos, vel aures, vel manus, vel quodlibet aliud; quae membra utique non extra iam fecerat, et alicubi reposita habebat, quae cum opus esset, daret, hoc est, adderet et adiungeret; sed illic ea fecit in corpore, cui dedisse illa dicitur: quid ei respondeatur non video; nisi forte alia vel testimonia proferantur, vel certa ratio unde ista opinio refellatur. Itemque illi qui putant animas in corpora sponte defluere, sic accipiunt dictum: Deus dedit eum, quomodo dictum est: Tradidit illos Deus in concupiscentiam cordis eorum. Proinde unum verbum relinquitur, quod dictum est, revertatur ad Deum, quo pacto accipi possit reverti, ubi ante non fuit, si animae in suis quaeque corporibus fiunt; quo solo verbo una illarum quatuor angustatur opinio. Sed neque propter hoc unum verbum temere existimo illam sententiam esse refutandam, ne forte possit ostendi aliquo genere locutionis, quo sancta Scriptura uti solet, hoc quoque recte dici potuisse, ut reverti intellegatur ad Deum spiritus creatus, tamquam ad auctorem a quo creatus est, non tamquam ad eum apud quem primitus fuit.
10. And yet, if the assertors of that opinion by which it is believed that souls are made in their individual bodies should affirm that it was so said of the spirit—which is set for the soul—"God gave it," in the way it is rightly said that he gave us eyes, or ears, or hands, or anything else; which members surely he had not already made outside, and held stored somewhere, that, when there was need, he might give them—that is, add and join them—but there made them in the body, to which he is said to have given them: what is to be answered to him I do not see; unless perhaps either other testimonies be brought forth, or a certain reasoning whence this opinion may be refuted. Likewise those who think that souls flow of their own accord into bodies take what was said, "God gave it," in the way it was said, God handed them over to the concupiscence of their heart (Rom 1:24). Accordingly one word is left, which was said, "let it return to God," in what way it can be taken that it returns where before it was not, if souls are made each in its own body; by which one word alone one of those four opinions is straitened. But not even on account of this one word do I rashly judge that opinion is to be refuted, lest perhaps it can be shown, by some kind of locution which holy Scripture is wont to use, that this too could have been rightly said, so that the created spirit may be understood to return to God, as to the author by whom it was created, not as to him with whom it primarily was.
Ep100-155.1011. Haec ideo scripsi, ut quisquis illarum quatuor de anima sententiarum aliquam voluerit adstruere atque defendere, talia proferat, vel de Scripturis in auctoritatem ecclesiasticam receptis, quae non possint aliter accipi; sicuti est, quod Deus hominem fecit: vel rationem tam certam, ut contradictio aut nulla existat, aut insaniae similis merito iudicetur; velut si quisquam dicat, nec veritatem cognoscere, nec falli quemquam posse nisi viventem. Neque enim ut videamus quam hoc sit verum, Scripturarum auctoritas necessaria est, ac non sensus ipse communis ita verum esse perspicua ratione proclamat, ut quisquis contradixerit, dementissimus habeatur. Hoc si in ista obscurissima quaestione quae de anima est, praestare aliquis potest, adiuvet imperitiam meam: quod si non potest, non culpet cunctationem meam.
11. These things I have written for this reason, that whoever shall wish to establish and defend any of those four opinions about the soul, let him bring forth such things, either from the Scriptures received into ecclesiastical authority, which cannot be taken otherwise—as is, that God made man—or a reasoning so certain that there exists either no contradiction, or one deservedly judged like to madness; as if anyone should say that neither can anyone know the truth, nor be deceived, except one living. For, that we may see how true this is, the authority of the Scriptures is not necessary; rather, common sense itself by perspicuous reasoning so proclaims it to be true that whoever contradicts it is held most demented. If anyone can furnish this in that most obscure question which is about the soul, let him help my unskillfulness: but if he cannot, let him not blame my hesitation.
Ep100-155.1112. De virginitate autem sanctae Mariae, si hoc quod scripsi non persuadet fieri potuisse, neganda sunt omnia quae mirabiliter in corporibus acciderunt. Quod si propterea non creditur, quia semel factum est, quaere ab amico quem hoc adhuc movet, utrum nihil inveniatur in litteris saecularibus quod et semel factum sit, et tamen creditum non fabulosa vanitate, sed, sicut existimant, historica fide; quaere, obsecro te. Si enim tale aliquid in illis litteris inveniri negaverit, admonendus est; si autem fassus fuerit, soluta quaestio est.
12. As for the virginity of holy Mary, if what I have written does not persuade anyone that it could have happened, then everything that has happened marvelously in bodies must be denied. But if it is not believed for the reason that it happened only once, ask the friend whom this still troubles whether nothing is to be found in secular literature that likewise happened only once and yet was believed, not with the vanity of fable but, as they suppose, with the trust due to history; ask him, I beg you. For if he denies that any such thing is to be found in those writings, he must be set straight; but if he admits it, the question is resolved.
Ep100-155.12EPISTOLA 144
DOMINIS HONORABILIBUS ET MERITO SUSCIPIENDIS, CARISSIMIS AC DESIDERATISSIMIS FRATRIBUS IN OMNI HONORUM GRADU, CIRTENSIBUS, AUGUSTINUS EPISCOPUS.
DOMINIS HONORABILIBUS ET MERITO SUSCIPIENDIS, CARISSIMIS AC DESIDERATISSIMIS FRATRIBUS IN OMNI HONORUM GRADU, CIRTENSIBUS, AUGUSTINUS EPISCOPUS.
LETTER 144
TO THE HONORABLE AND DESERVEDLY ESTEEMED, MY DEAREST AND MOST LONGED-FOR BROTHERS OF EVERY RANK OF HONOR, THE PEOPLE OF CIRTA, FROM AUGUSTINE, BISHOP.
Ep100-155.12TO THE HONORABLE AND DESERVEDLY ESTEEMED, MY DEAREST AND MOST LONGED-FOR BROTHERS OF EVERY RANK OF HONOR, THE PEOPLE OF CIRTA, FROM AUGUSTINE, BISHOP.
1. Si id quod in vestra civitate nos graviter contristabat, absumptum est, si duritia cordis humani, resistens manifestissimae et quodammodo publicae veritati, eiusdem veritatis vi evicta est, si sapit dulcedo pacis, unitatisque caritas non iam reverberat oculos saucios, sed sanos illustrat ac vegetat; non sunt haec opera nostra, sed Dei: non haec humanis operibus omnino tribuerem, nec si cum apud vos essemus, tanta conversio multitudinis nobis loquentibus et hortantibus proveniret. Hoc agit ille et efficit, qui per ministros suos rerum signis extrinsecus admonet, rebus autem ipsis per seipsum intrinsecus docet. Nec ideo pigrius moveri nos oportet ad visendos vos, quoniam quidquid in vobis laudabile est factum, non a nobis, sed ab illo factum est qui facit mirabilia solus. Multo enim alacrius debemus accurrere ad spectanda opera divina quam nostra; quia et nos, si quid boni sumus opus, illius, non hominum sumus: unde Apostolus dixit: Neque qui plantat est aliquid, neque qui rigat; sed qui incrementum dat Deus.
1. If what was grievously saddening us in your city has been done away with, if the hardness of the human heart that resisted a most manifest and, so to speak, public truth has been overcome by the force of that same truth, if the sweetness of peace is now relished and the love of unity no longer batters wounded eyes but enlightens and quickens sound ones, these are not our works but God's. I would not attribute these things to human works at all, not even if so great a conversion of the multitude had come about while we were present among you, speaking and exhorting. He brings this about and accomplishes it, who through his ministers admonishes outwardly by signs of things, but teaches inwardly by the things themselves through his own self. Nor for that reason should we be the more sluggish in coming to see you, since whatever praiseworthy thing has been done in you was done not by us but by him who alone does wondrous things. For we ought to hasten much more eagerly to behold the works of God than our own, since we too, if we are any good work, are his and not of men. Hence the Apostle said: Neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the growth (1 Cor 3:7).
Ep100-155.12. Xenocrates Polemonem, ut scribitis, et nos ex illis litteris recordamur, de fruge temperantiae disputando, non solum ebriosum, verum etiam tunc ebrium, ad mores alios repente convertit. Quamquam ergo ille, sicut prudenter et veraciter intellexistis, non Deo fuerit acquisitus, sed tantum a dominatu luxuriae liberatus, tamen ne idipsum quidem, quod melius in eo factum est, humano operi tribuerim, sed divino. Ipsius namque corporis, quod est infimum nostrum, si qua bona sunt, sicut forma et vires et salus, et si quid eiusmodi est, non sunt nisi ex Deo creatore ac perfectore naturae; quanto magis animi bona donare nullus alius potest! Quid enim superbius, vel ingratius cogitare potest humana vecordia, si putaverit cum carne pulchrum faciat Deus hominem, animo castum ab homine fieri? Hoc in libro christianae Sapientiae sic scriptum est: Cum scirem, inquit, quia nemo esse potest continens, nisi Deus det; et hoc ipsum erat sapientiae scire cuius esset hoc donum. Polemo ergo, si ex luxurioso continens factus ita sciret cuius esset hoc donum, ut eum abiectis superstitionibus Gentium pie coleret; non solum continens, sed etiam veraciter sapiens et salubriter religiosus existeret: quod ei non tantum ad praesentis vitae honestatem, verum et ad futurae immortalitatem valeret. Quanto minus igitur mihi arrogare debeo conversionem istam vestram, vel populi vestri, quam modo nobis nuntiastis, quae me nec loquente, nec saltem praesente, procul dubio divinitus facta est, in quibus veraciter facta est! Hoc itaque praecipue cognoscite, hoc pie humiliterque cogitate. Deo, fratres, Deo gratias agite; Deum timete, ne deficiatis; amate, ut proficiatis.
2. Xenocrates, as you write and as we too recall from those writings, by his discourse on the fruit of temperance suddenly converted Polemo to a different way of life—Polemo who was not only given to drink but was even drunk at the time. And yet, although he, as you have prudently and truly understood, was not won over to God but only freed from the dominion of self-indulgence, still I would not attribute even that, the better thing that was done in him, to human work, but to divine. For if there are any good things in the body itself, which is our lowest part—such as shape and strength and health, and anything of the kind—these come only from God, the creator and perfecter of nature; how much more, then, can no other than he bestow the goods of the mind! What can human folly think more proud, or more ungrateful, than to suppose that, while God makes a man beautiful along with his flesh, a man is made chaste in mind by himself? In the book of Christian Wisdom it is written thus: When I knew that no one can be continent unless God grant it; and this very thing was wisdom, to know whose gift it was (Wis 8:21). So if Polemo, having become continent from being self-indulgent, had thus known whose gift it was, so as to worship him devoutly with the superstitions of the gentiles cast aside, he would have come to be not only continent but truly wise and soundly religious—which would have availed him not only for the honorableness of the present life but also for the immortality of the life to come. How much less, then, ought I to claim for myself this conversion of yours, or of your people, of which you have just now informed us—a conversion that, neither with my speaking nor even with my being present, was without doubt brought about by God in those in whom it was truly brought about! This, therefore, you must above all recognize; this you must consider devoutly and humbly. To God, brothers, to God give thanks; fear God, lest you fall away; love him, that you may make progress.
Ep100-155.23. Si autem adhuc quosdam amor hominis occulte segregat, et timor hominis fallaciter congregat; observent qui tales sunt, quoniam Deum cui nuda est humana conscientia, nec testem fallunt, nec iudicem fugiunt. Si quid autem illos de quaestione ipsius unitatis, pro suae salutis sollicitudine permovet, hoc sibi quantum existimo iustissimum extorqueant, ut de catholica Ecclesia, id est toto orbe diffusa, potius id credant quod divinae Scripturae dicunt, non quod linguae humanae maledicunt. De ipsa vero dissensione quae inter homines orta est (qui qualeslibet fuerint, non utique praeiudicant promissis Dei, qui dixit ad Abraham: In semine tuo benedicentur omnes gentes; quod creditum est cum audiretur praedictum, et negatur cum videtur impletum), hoc tantum interim brevissimum, et, nisi fallor, invictissimum cogitent; aut actam esse istam causam in ecclesiastico transmarino iudicio, aut non esse actam. Si acta ibi non est, innocens est Christi societas per omnes transmarinas gentes, cuius societatis nos communione gaudemus, et ideo ab eis innocentibus utique sacrilega diremptione separantur: si vero acta est ibi ista causa, quis non intellegat, quis non sentiat, quis non videat, eos in ea victos, quorum inde communio separata est? Eligant ergo utrum malint credere, quod pronuntiaverunt ecclesiastici cognitores, an quod murmurant victi litigatores. Adversus istam complexionem dictu brevissimam, intellectu facillimam, attendite pro vestra prudentia diligenter, quam nihil sobrium responderi possit; et tamen malus Polemo magis ebrietate inveterati erroris evertitur. Date veniam prolixiori fortassis epistolae quam iucundiori; verumtamen, ut arbitror, utiliori quam blandiori, domini honorabiles et merito suscipiendi, carissimi ac desiderantissimi fratres. De adventu autem nostro ad vos, utrorumque desiderium Deus impleat. Quanto enim caritatis ardore accendamur ad visendos vos, verbis explicare non possumus; sed vos benigne credere minime dubitamus.
3. But if love of some man still secretly keeps certain people apart, and fear of some man deceptively brings them together, let those who are such observe that they neither deceive as a witness nor escape as a judge the God to whom the human conscience lies bare. And if anything about the very question of unity disturbs them out of concern for their own salvation, let them, as I judge, wring from themselves this most just demand: that concerning the catholic Church, that is, the Church spread throughout the whole world, they believe rather what the divine Scriptures say than what human tongues slander. But as for the dissension itself that has arisen among men—who, whatever sort of men they were, certainly do not prejudge the promises of God, who said to Abraham, In your seed shall all the nations be blessed (Gen 22:18), which was believed when it was heard foretold and is denied when it is seen fulfilled—let them for the present consider only this very brief and, unless I am mistaken, most unanswerable point: either this case was tried in the ecclesiastical court overseas, or it was not tried. If it was not tried there, the fellowship of Christ throughout all the peoples overseas is innocent, in whose communion we rejoice, and therefore from those innocent men they are cut off by a sacrilegious division; but if this case was indeed tried there, who does not understand, who does not perceive, who does not see that those whose communion is cut off from there were the ones defeated in it? Let them choose, then, which they would rather believe: what the ecclesiastical judges pronounced, or what the defeated litigants mutter. Against this combination of points, most brief to state and most easy to grasp, attend diligently, as befits your prudence, to how nothing sober can be answered to it; and yet our Polemo is overturned the more by the drunkenness of an inveterate error. Pardon a letter perhaps more long-winded than agreeable, but, as I think, more useful than charming, my honorable and deservedly esteemed lords, my dearest and most longed-for brothers. And as for our coming to you, may God fulfill the desire of us both. For we cannot put into words with what ardor of love we are kindled to see you; but we have no doubt at all that you kindly believe it.
Ep100-155.3EPISTOLA 145
DOMINO FRATRI SANCTO ET DESIDERABILI ANASTASIO, AUGUSTINUS, IN DOMINO SALUTEM.
DOMINO FRATRI SANCTO ET DESIDERABILI ANASTASIO, AUGUSTINUS, IN DOMINO SALUTEM.
LETTER 145
TO MY HOLY AND BELOVED BROTHER ANASTASIUS, FROM AUGUSTINE, GREETINGS IN THE LORD.
Ep100-155.3TO MY HOLY AND BELOVED BROTHER ANASTASIUS, FROM AUGUSTINE, GREETINGS IN THE LORD.
1. Salutandi Sinceritatem tuam fidissima occurrit occasio honorabilium servorum Dei, fratrum nostrorum Lupicini et Concordialis, per quos etiamsi non scriberem, posset Caritas tua omnia quae apud nos aguntur, addiscere. Scio enim quantum nos in Christo diligas, quia et tu scis quantum in illo vicissim diligaris a nobis: et ideo non dubitavi te contristari potuisse, si eos vidisses sine litteris meis, quos a nobis profectos, et tanta nobis familiaritate coniunctos ignorare non posses; simul etiam quia rescriptorum debitor fui. Nam ex quo sumpsi epistolam tuam, nisi nunc primum rescripsisse me nescio: tantis enim curis obstricti et distenti sumus, ut etiam hoc nesciam.
1. A most trustworthy occasion for greeting your Sincerity has presented itself in the persons of the honorable servants of God, our brothers Lupicinus and Concordialis, through whom, even if I were not writing, your Charity could learn all that is going on with us. For I know how much you love us in Christ, since you too know how much you are in turn loved by us in him; and therefore I did not doubt that you could be saddened if you saw them without a letter from me, since you could not but know that they set out from us and are joined to us by so great a familiarity—and also because I was a debtor of a reply. For from the time I received your letter, I do not know that I have written back until now for the first time; for we are so bound and stretched by such great cares that I do not even know this.
Ep100-155.12. Vobis autem quemadmodum sit et utrum vobis aliquam requiem, quantum in hac terra potest, Dominus praestiterit, valde nosse cupimus: quoniam si glorificatur unum membrum, congaudent omnia membra; atque ita plerumque contingit, ut dum aliquos fratres nostros in quantulacumque requie constitutos, in mediis nostris anxietatibus cogitamus, non parva ex parte recreemur, tamquam et nos in ipsis quietius tranquilliusque vivamus. Quamvis etiam cum molestiae in huius vitae fragilitate crebrescunt, aeternam requiem nos desiderare compellunt. Mundus quippe iste periculosior est blandus quam molestus, et magis cavendus cum se illicit diligi, quam cum admonet cogitque contemni. Nam cum omnia quae in illo sunt, concupiscentia sint carnis, et concupiscentia oculorum, et ambitio saeculi; saepe etiam iis qui talibus spiritalia, invisibilia, aeterna praeponunt, inserit se terrenae suavitatis affectus, et delectationibus suis nostra comitatur officia. Quanto enim sunt caritati futura meliora, tanto sunt infirmitati violentiora praesentia. Et utinam ii qui ea videre et gemere noverunt, vincere et evadere mereantur! quod sine Dei gratia nullo modo voluntas implet humana; quae nec libera dicenda est, quamdiu est vincentibus et vincientibus cupiditatibus subdita. A quo enim quis devictus est, huic et servus addictus est: et: Si vos Filius liberaverit, ait ipse Dei Filius, tunc vere liberi eritis.
2. But we greatly desire to know how things are with you, and whether the Lord has granted you any rest, as far as is possible on this earth; for if one member is glorified, all the members rejoice together (1 Cor 12:26). And so it often happens that, when in the midst of our anxieties we think of some of our brothers settled in even a little rest, we are refreshed in no small part, as though we too were living more quietly and tranquilly in them. Yet even when troubles multiply in the frailty of this life, they compel us to long for eternal rest. For this world is more dangerous when it caresses than when it troubles, and more to be guarded against when it entices us to love it than when it warns and compels us to despise it. For since all that is in it is the desire of the flesh, and the desire of the eyes, and the ambition of the world (1 Jn 2:16), often even into those who set spiritual, invisible, and eternal things above such things there creeps a craving for earthly sweetness, and our duties are accompanied by their own delights. For the better the things to come are to love, the more violent are the things present to weakness. And would that those who have learned to see and to groan over them might merit to conquer and escape them! And this the human will in no way fulfills without the grace of God; nor is the will to be called free as long as it is subject to conquering and binding desires. For by whatever a man is overcome, to this he is bound as a slave (2 Pet 2:19); and: If the Son sets you free, then you will be truly free (Jn 8:36), says the Son of God himself.
Ep100-155.23. Lex itaque docendo et iubendo quod sine gratia impleri non potest, homini demonstrat suam infirmitatem, ut quaerat demonstrata infirmitas Salvatorem, a quo sanata voluntas possit quod infirma non posset. Lex igitur adducit ad fidem, fides impetrat Spiritum largiorem, diffundit Spiritus caritatem, implet caritas legem. Ideo lex paedagogus vocatur, sub cuius minacissima severitate qui invocaverit nomen Domini salvus erit. Quomodo autem invocabunt in quem non crediderunt ? Proinde ne littera sine spiritu occidat, Spiritus vivificans credentibus et invocantibus datur; caritas vero Dei diffunditur in cordibus nostris per Spiritum sanctum qui datus est nobis, ut fiat quod idem apostolus dicit: Plenitudo legis caritas. Ita bona est lex illi qui ea legitime utitur: utitur autem legitime qui intellegens quare sit data, per eius comminationem confugit ad gratiam liberantem. Huic gratiae qua iustificatur impius, quisquis ingratus velut ad legem implendam de suis viribus fidit, ignorans Dei iustitiam, et suam volens constituere, iustitiae Dei non est subditus: ac per hoc fit ei lex non absolutionis adiutorium, sed vinculum criminis. Non quia lex malum est, sed quia peccatum, sicut scriptum est, per bonum talibus operatur mortem. Per mandatum enim gravius delinquit, qui per mandatum scit quam malum sit quod admittit.
3. The law, therefore, by teaching and commanding what cannot be fulfilled without grace, shows a man his own weakness, so that the weakness thus shown may seek the Savior, by whom the will, once healed, may be able to do what in its weakness it could not. The law, then, leads to faith; faith obtains the Spirit more abundantly; the Spirit pours out love; love fulfills the law. For this reason the law is called a pedagogue, under whose most threatening severity whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved (Rom 10:13). But how shall they call upon him in whom they have not believed? (Rom 10:14) Accordingly, lest the letter without the spirit should kill, the life-giving Spirit is given to those who believe and call upon him; and the love of God is poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us (Rom 5:5), so that what the same Apostle says may come about: Love is the fullness of the law (Rom 13:10). Thus the law is good for one who uses it lawfully; and he uses it lawfully who, understanding why it was given, takes refuge through its threat in liberating grace. Whoever is ungrateful to this grace, by which the ungodly is justified, and trusts as it were in his own powers to fulfill the law, being ignorant of the righteousness of God and wishing to establish his own, is not subject to the righteousness of God (See Rom 10:3); and through this the law becomes for him not a help to absolution but a bond of guilt. Not that the law is evil, but that sin, as it is written, works death (Rom 7:13) for such people through what is good. For through the commandment he sins more grievously who through the commandment knows how evil is what he commits.
Ep100-155.34. Inaniter autem putat victorem se esse peccati, qui poenae timore non peccat; quia etsi non impletur foris negotium malae cupiditatis, ipsa tamen mala cupiditas intus est hostis. Et quis coram Deo innocens invenitur, qui vult fieri quod vetatur, si subtrahas quod timetur? Ac per hoc in ipsa voluntate reus est, qui vult facere quod non licet fieri, sed ideo non facit, quia impune non potest fieri. Nam quantum in ipso est, mallet non esse iustitiam peccata prohibentem atque punientem. Et utique si mallet non esse iustitiam, quis dubitaverit quod eam, si posset, auferret? Ac per hoc quomodo iustus est, iustitiae talis inimicus, ut eam, si potestas detur, praecipientem auferat, ne comminantem vel iudicantem ferat? Inimicus ergo iustitiae est, qui poenae timore non peccat: amicus autem erit, si eius amore non peccet; tunc enim vere timebit peccare. Nam qui gehennas metuit, non peccare metuit, sed ardere. Ille autem peccare metuit, qui peccatum ipsum, sicut gehennas odit. Ipse est timor Domini castus, permanens in saeculum saeculi. Nam ille timor poenae, tormentum habet, et non est in caritate, eumque perfecta caritas foras mittit.
4. But in vain does he think himself the conqueror of sin who does not sin out of fear of punishment; for even if the business of evil desire is not carried out outwardly, that evil desire itself is within as an enemy. And who is found innocent before God who wills to do what is forbidden, if you take away what is feared? And through this he is guilty in the will itself who wills to do what is not lawful to do but does not do it because it cannot be done with impunity. For as far as it lies in him, he would prefer that there be no righteousness forbidding and punishing sins. And surely, if he would prefer that there be no righteousness, who would doubt that he would do away with it if he could? And through this, how is he righteous who is so much an enemy of righteousness that, were the power given him, he would do away with it as it commands, rather than endure it as it threatens or judges? An enemy of righteousness, therefore, is he who does not sin out of fear of punishment; but he will be its friend if out of love of it he does not sin, for then he will truly be afraid to sin. For he who dreads hell does not dread to sin but to burn. But he dreads to sin who hates sin itself as he hates hell. This is the chaste fear of the Lord, which endures forever and ever (Ps 19:9 (18:10)). For that fear of punishment has torment, and is not in love, and perfect love casts it out (1 Jn 4:18).
Ep100-155.45. Tantum porro quisque peccatum odit, quantum iustitiam diligit; quod non poterit lege terrente per litteram, sed Spiritu sanante per gratiam. Tunc fit quod Apostolus admonet: Humanum dico, propter infirmitatem carnis vestrae: sicut enim exhibuistis membra vestra deservire immunditiae et iniquitati ad iniquitatem; sic nunc exhibete membra vestra deservire iustitiae in sanctificationem. Quid enim est. Sicut illud, ita et hoc: nisi, Quemadmodum ad peccandum nullus vos cogebat timor, sed ipsius libido voluptasque peccati; sic ad iuste vivendum non vos supplicii metus urgeat, sed ducat delectatio caritasque iustitiae? Et haec quidem, quantum mihi videtur, nondum est perfecta, sed quodammodo adulta iustitia. Neque enim frustra praemitteret: Humanum dico, propter infirmitatem carnis vestrae, nisi quia plus aliquid dicendum fuit, si iam illi ferre potuissent. Plus quippe servitutis debetur iustitiae, quam peccato solent homines exhibere. Nam poena corporis etsi non a voluntate, tamen revocat ab opere peccati. Nec facile quisquam est qui palam committat, quo illicitam et immundam percipiat voluptatem, si cruciatus vindictae certum est continuo secuturos. Iustitia vero sic amanda est, ut ab eius operibus etiam poenae corporis nos cohibere non debeant, atque inter manus etiam crudelium inimicorum luceant opera nostra coram hominibus, ut quibus placere possunt, glorificent Patrem nostrum qui in coelis est.
5. Now everyone hates sin just so much as he loves righteousness; and this he will be able to do not by the law terrifying through the letter, but by the Spirit healing through grace. Then comes about what the Apostle urges: I speak in a human way, because of the weakness of your flesh; for as you presented your members to serve uncleanness and iniquity unto iniquity, so now present your members to serve righteousness unto sanctification (Rom 6:19). For what does as this, so that mean, except: just as no fear compelled you to sin, but the very lust and pleasure of sin, so let no dread of punishment drive you to live righteously, but let the delight and love of righteousness lead you? And this, as it seems to me, is not yet perfect righteousness, but in a manner full-grown righteousness. For not in vain would he premise I speak in a human way, because of the weakness of your flesh, unless because something more should have been said, had they been able now to bear it. For more service is owed to righteousness than men are wont to render to sin. For bodily punishment, even if not from the will, yet calls a man back from the work of sin. And there is hardly anyone who openly commits an act by which he would gain unlawful and unclean pleasure, if it is certain that the torments of vengeance will follow at once. But righteousness is to be loved in such a way that not even bodily punishments ought to restrain us from its works, and that even in the hands of cruel enemies our works may shine before men, so that those to whom they can be pleasing may glorify our Father who is in heaven (Matt 5:16).
Ep100-155.56. Hinc est quod ille fortissimus iustitiae dilector exclamat: Quis nos separabit a caritate Christi? tribulatio? an angustia? an persecutio? an fames? an nuditas? an periculum? an gladius? sicut scriptum est, Quoniam propter te mortificamur tota die; deputati sumus ut oves occisionis. Sed in his omnibus supervincimus per eum qui dilexit nos. Certus sum enim quia neque mors, neque vita, neque angelus, neque principatus, neque praesentia, neque futura, neque virtus, neque altitudo, neque profundum, neque creatura alia poterit nos separare a caritate Dei quae est in Christo Iesu Domino nostro. Vide quemadmodum non utcumque ait: Quis nos separabit a Christo; sed ostendens unde cohaereamus Christo: Quis nos, inquit, separabit a caritate Christi? Caritate igitur Christo, non poenae timore cohaeremus. Deinde, commemoratis eis quae videntur habere violentiam, nec tamen habent valentiam separandi, ita conclusit, ut eamdem diceret caritatem Dei quam dixerat Christi. Et quid est, a caritate Christi, nisi a caritate iustitiae? de illo quippe dictum est: Qui factus est nobis sapientia a Deo, et iustitia, et sanctificatio, et redemptio; ut, quemadmodum scriptum est, Qui gloriatur, in Domino glorietur. Sicut ergo ille est iniquissimus, quem nec poenae corporales deterrent ab immundis operibus sordidae voluptatis; ita ille iustissimus, qui nec poenarum corporalium terrore revocatur a sanctis operibus luminosissimae caritatis.
6. Hence it is that that most valiant lover of righteousness cries out: Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword? As it is written: For your sake we are put to death all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. But in all these things we more than conquer through him who loved us. For I am certain that neither death, nor life, nor angel, nor principality, nor things present, nor things to come, nor power, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom 8:35-39). See how he does not say merely, Who shall separate us from Christ; but, showing whereby we cleave to Christ, he says: Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? By love, therefore, do we cleave to Christ, not by fear of punishment. Then, having recounted those things that seem to have violence yet do not have the power of separating, he so concluded that he called the same the love of God which he had called the love of Christ. And what is the love of Christ, if not the love of righteousness? For of him it is said: who was made for us wisdom from God, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption (1 Cor 1:30), so that, as it is written, he who glories may glory in the Lord (1 Cor 1:31). As, then, that man is most wicked whom not even bodily punishments deter from the unclean works of foul pleasure, so that man is most righteous whom not even the terror of bodily punishments calls back from the holy works of most luminous love.
Ep100-155.67. Quae caritas Dei, quod perpetua cogitatione tenendum est, diffunditur in cordibus nostris per Spiritum sanctum qui datus est nobis, ut qui gloriatur, in Domino glorietur. Cum ergo nos huius caritatis qua lex verissime impletur, pauperes egentesque sentimus, non de inopia nostra divitias eius exigere, sed orando petere, quaerere, pulsare debemus; ut ille, apud quem est fons vitae, det nobis inebriari ab ubertate domus suae, et voluptatis suae potari torrente: quo inundati atque vegetati, non solum tristitia non absorbeamur, verum etiam gloriemur in tribulationibus, scientes quia tribulatio patientiam operatur, patientia probationem, probatio spem, spes vero non confundit; non quia per nos ipsos hoc possumus, sed quoniam caritas Dei diffusa est in cordibus nostris per Spiritum sanctum qui datus est nobis.
7. This love of God, as must be held with perpetual reflection, is poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us (Rom 5:5), so that he who glories may glory in the Lord (1 Cor 1:31). When, therefore, we feel ourselves poor and needy in this love by which the law is most truly fulfilled, we ought not to demand its riches out of our own want, but by praying to ask, to seek, to knock, so that he with whom is the fountain of life (Ps 36:9 (35:10)) may grant us to be inebriated by the abundance of his house, and to be given to drink of the torrent of his pleasure (Ps 36:8-9 (35:9-10)); so that, flooded and quickened by it, we may not only not be swallowed up by sorrow, but may even glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation works patience, and patience trial, and trial hope; and hope does not disappoint (Rom 5:3-5)—not because we can do this through ourselves, but because the love of God is poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us (Rom 5:5).
Ep100-155.78. Delectavit me ista saltem per litteras loqui tecum, quae cum praesente non potui: et hoc non propter te, qui non alta sapiens consentis humilibus; sed propter quosdam qui nimium arrogant humanae voluntati, quam lege data putant ad eam implendam sibi posse sufficere, nulla super doctrinam legis gratia sanctae inspirationis adiutam: per quorum disputationem infirmitati hominum miserae atque indigae suadetur, ut nec orare debeamus ne intremus in tentationem. Non quia hoc audent aperte dicere; sed eorum sententiam, velint, nolint, hoc utique sequitur. Nam utquid nobis dicitur: Vigilate et orate ne intretis in tentationem ? utquid etiam secundum hanc exhortationem, cum doceret orare, praecepit ut dicamus: Ne nos inferas in tentationem; si hoc non impletur ex adiutorio gratiae divinae, sed id totum est in arbitrio voluntatis humanae? Quid plura? Saluta fratres qui tecum sunt, et orate pro nobis, ut salvi simus secundum illam salutem de qua dicitur: Non est opus sanis medicus, sed male habentibus; non veni vocare iustos, sed peccatores. Orate ergo pro nobis, ut iusti simus; quod quidem homo non potest nisi norit et velit, et erit continuo qui plene voluerit: sed hoc ipsum in eo non erit, nisi gratia Spiritus sanetur, et adiuvetur ut possit.
8. It has been a delight to me to speak with you in this way at least through a letter, which I could not do when you were present—and this not for your sake, who, not being wise in lofty things, give your assent to the lowly (See Rom 12:16), but for the sake of certain people who arrogate too much to the human will, which they think can suffice of itself to fulfill the law once it has been given, with no grace of holy inspiration aiding it beyond the teaching of the law. By their argument it is urged upon the wretched and needy weakness of men that we ought not even to pray that we may not enter into temptation. Not that they dare to say this openly; but their position, whether they will it or not, certainly follows from this. For why is it said to us, Watch and pray that you do not enter into temptation (Matt 26:41)? Why too, in keeping with this exhortation, when he taught us to pray, did he command us to say, Do not bring us into temptation (Matt 6:13), if this is not fulfilled by the help of divine grace, but the whole of it lies in the choice of the human will? Why say more? Greet the brothers who are with you, and pray for us, that we may be saved according to that salvation of which it is said: The healthy have no need of a physician, but those who are ill; I came not to call the righteous, but sinners (Matt 9:12-13). Pray, therefore, for us, that we may be righteous—which indeed a man cannot be unless he knows and wills it, and there will at once be one who has fully willed it; but this very thing will not be in him unless he is healed by the grace of the Spirit and aided so that he may be able.
Ep100-155.8EPISTOLA 146
DOMINO DILECTISSIMO, ET DESIDERATISSIMO FRATRI PELAGIO, AUGUSTINUS, IN DOMINO SALUTEM.
DOMINO DILECTISSIMO, ET DESIDERATISSIMO FRATRI PELAGIO, AUGUSTINUS, IN DOMINO SALUTEM.
LETTER 146
TO MY MOST BELOVED AND MOST LONGED-FOR BROTHER PELAGIUS, FROM AUGUSTINE, GREETINGS IN THE LORD.
Ep100-155.8TO MY MOST BELOVED AND MOST LONGED-FOR BROTHER PELAGIUS, FROM AUGUSTINE, GREETINGS IN THE LORD.
1. Gratias ago plurimum quod me litteris tuis exhilarare dignatus es, et certum facere de salute vestra. Retribuat tibi Dominus bona, quibus semper sis bonus, et cum illo aeterno vivas in aeternum, domine dilectissime, et desideratissime frater. Ego autem etsi in me non agnosco praeconia de me tua, quae tuae Benignitatis epistola continet; benevolo tamen animo erga exiguitatem meam ingratus esse non possum: simul admonens ut potius ores pro me, quo talis a Domino fiam, qualem me iam esse arbitraris. Et alia manu: Memor nostri, incolumis Domino placeas, domine dilectissime, et desideratissime frater
1. I give you very great thanks that you deigned to gladden me with your letter and to assure me of your well-being. May the Lord repay you with goods by which you may always be good, and may you live forever with him who is eternal, my most beloved and most longed-for brother. As for me, although I do not recognize in myself the praises of me that the letter of your Kindness contains, still I cannot be ungrateful toward your goodwill toward my littleness; at the same time admonishing you rather to pray for me, that I may become from the Lord such as you already think me to be. And in another hand: Mindful of us, may you, safe and sound, be pleasing to the Lord, my most beloved and most longed-for brother.
Ep100-155.1EPISTOLA 147
DE VIDENDO DEO LIBER
AUGUSTINUS PAULINAE, SALUTEM.
DE VIDENDO DEO LIBER
AUGUSTINUS PAULINAE, SALUTEM.
LETTER 147
THE BOOK ON SEEING GOD
FROM AUGUSTINE TO PAULINA, GREETINGS.
Ep100-155.1THE BOOK ON SEEING GOD
FROM AUGUSTINE TO PAULINA, GREETINGS.
1. 1. Memor debiti quod ex tua petitione et mea promissione factum est, religiosa famula Dei Paulina, persolutionis quoque eius neglegens esse non debui. Cum enim petivisses ut de invisibili Deo, utrum per oculos corporeos possit videri, prolixe aliquid copioseque ad te scriberem, negare non potui, ne sanctum tuum studium offenderem; sed promissum distuli, sive propter alias occupationes meas, sive quod a me id flagitaretur, unde aliquanto diutius cogitari oportebat. Sed cum tanta res esset quae, cogitando non tam quid de ea sentiendum dicendumve esset, quam quonam modo persuadendum iis qui diversa sentirent, fieret difficilior; finem aliquando dilationi adhibendum putavi, sperans divinum adiutorium magis mihi scribenti quam differenti adfuturum. Quamobrem primum mihi videtur plus valere in hac inquisitione vivendi quam loquendi modum. Nam qui didicerunt a Domino Iesu Christo mites esse et humiles corde, plus cogitando et orando proficiunt, quam legendo et audiendo. Nec ideo tamen agere partes suas sermo cessaverit, sed cum plantator et rigator officium sui gesserit muneris, caetera illi qui dat incrementum, relinquit; ille quippe etiam ipsum plantatorem rigatoremque formavit.
1. 1. Mindful of the debt that arose from your request and my promise, Paulina, religious handmaid of God, I ought not to have been negligent also in paying it. For when you had asked me to write something to you at length and copiously about the invisible God, whether he can be seen through the eyes of the body, I could not refuse, lest I offend your holy zeal; but I put off what I had promised, whether on account of my other occupations, or because the thing demanded of me was such that it had to be pondered somewhat longer. But since it was so great a matter that, in pondering it, it became more difficult not so much in deciding what should be felt or said about it, as in how it should be made convincing to those who felt otherwise, I thought that an end must at last be put to the delay, hoping that divine help would be more present to me as I wrote than as I deferred. For this reason it seems to me that in this inquiry the manner of living counts for more than the manner of speaking. For those who have learned from the Lord Jesus Christ to be meek and humble of heart make more progress by thinking and praying than by reading and hearing. Nor for all that should speech cease to play its part, but when the planter and the waterer have performed the office of their service, they leave the rest to him who gives the growth; for it is he who has even formed the planter and the waterer.
Ep100-155.1.11. 2. Secundum interiorem igitur hominem percipe verba intellectus. Ipse enim renovatur de die in diem, etiam cum exterior iste corrumpitur, sive castigatione abstinentiae, sive aliqua morbida valetudine, sive quolibet casu, vel certe, quod necesse est etiam iis qui sano corpore diu vivunt, ipso aetatis accessu. Erige itaque spiritum mentis tuae, qui renovatur in agnitione Dei secundum imaginem eius qui creavit eum; ubi per fidem in te habitat Christus; ubi non est Iudaeus et Graecus, servus et liber, masculus et femina; ubi non morieris, cum solvi corpore coeperis, quia nec ibi marcuisti, cum sis annis gravis. Hoc interiore tuo erecta intende, et vide quae loquor. Nolo auctoritatem meam sequaris, ut ideo putes tibi aliquid necesse esse credere, quoniam a me dicitur: sed aut Scripturis canonicis credas, si quid nondum quam verum sit vides, aut interius demonstranti veritati, ut hoc plane videas.
1. 2. Take in, then, the words of understanding according to the inner man. For it is renewed from day to day, even while this outer man is corrupted, whether by the chastisement of abstinence, or by some sickly state of health, or by any other chance, or certainly—what is necessary even for those who live long with a sound body—by the very advance of age. Lift up, therefore, the spirit of your mind, which is renewed in the knowledge of God according to the image of him who created it, where Christ dwells in you through faith, where there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female (See Gal 3:28), where you will not die when you begin to be loosed from the body, since neither did you wither there, though you are heavy with years. Intent through this inner self of yours, raised up, attend and see what I say. I do not wish you to follow my authority, so as to think you must believe something merely because it is said by me; but either believe the canonical Scriptures, if you do not yet see how something is true, or believe the truth that demonstrates inwardly, so that you may plainly see this.
Ep100-155.1.21. 3. Exempli gratia dicam aliquid quo ad haec certius praestruaris, et inde potissimum unde nobis in hoc ipso opere propositus est disputandi labor. Credimus videri Deum, non quia videmus vel per oculos corporis sicut videmus hunc solem, vel mentis obtutu sicut se quisque interius videt viventem, videt volentem, videt quaerentem, videt scientem, videt nescientem. Tu itaque lectis ipsa his litteris, solem quidem te vidisse recolis per oculos corporis, potes etiam statim videre, si est id temporis, et eo loci es ubi ex ea parte coelum oculis tuis usque ad solem contuendum patet. Ad illa vero videnda quae mente conspici dixi, id est quod vivas, quod videre Deum velis, quod id requiras, quod te vivere et velle et quaerere scias, quomodo autem Deus videatur nescias; ad haec, inquam, omnia videnda non oculos corporis adhibes, nec intervallum loci per quod intendatur obtutus, ut ad ea cernenda perveniat, sentis aut quaeris: sic vides vitam tuam, voluntatem, inquisitionem, scientiam, ignorantiam, quia nec ipsa est contemnenda visio, videre quod nescias. Sic, inquam, vides haec omnia, ut in te videas, apud te habeas, ac sine ullis figurarum lineamentis colorumque nitoribus, tanto clarius et certius, quanto simplicius interiusque conspicias. Cum igitur nec corporis oculis, sicut corpora sive coelestia, sive terrestria, nec mentis aspectu, sicut ea sunt, quorum nonnulla commemoravi, quae apud temetipsam certissime intueris, nunc videamus Deum; cur credimus eum videri, nisi quia Scripturae accommodamus fidem, ubi legitur: Beati mundo corde; quoniam ipsi Deum videbunt; et si qua alia in hanc sententiam eadem divina auctoritate conscripta sunt, cui non credere nefas ducimus; credere autem pietatis esse minime dubitamus?
1. 3. By way of example I will say something by which you may be more surely prepared for these matters, and that from the very point on which in this very work the labor of arguing is set before us. We believe that God is seen, not because we see him either through the eyes of the body, as we see this sun, or through the gaze of the mind, as each one sees himself within—sees himself living, sees himself willing, sees himself seeking, sees himself knowing, sees himself not knowing. You, therefore, having read this very letter, recall that you have seen the sun through the eyes of the body, and you can even see it at once, if it is the time of day for it, and you are in a place where, on that side, the sky lies open to your eyes all the way to the contemplation of the sun. But for seeing those things which I said are perceived by the mind—that is, that you are alive, that you will to see God, that you seek this, that you know that you live and will and seek, but do not know how God is seen—for seeing all these things, I say, you neither apply the eyes of the body, nor do you feel or seek the interval of space through which the gaze must be directed to reach the things it is to perceive: thus you see your life, your will, your inquiry, your knowledge, your ignorance, since this too is no vision to be despised, to see what you do not know. Thus, I say, you see all these things in such a way that you see them within yourself, you have them present to you, and without any outlines of figures or brightness of colors, all the more clearly and certainly the more simply and inwardly you behold them. Since, then, we now see God neither with the eyes of the body, as we see bodies whether heavenly or earthly, nor with the gaze of the mind, as we see those things, some of which I have mentioned, which you most certainly behold within yourself, why do we believe that he is seen, except because we lend faith to the Scriptures, where it is read: Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God (Matt 5:8), and whatever other things are written to this same sense by the same divine authority, which we count it impious not to believe, but which we do not doubt at all that it is the mark of devotion to believe?
Ep100-155.1.31. 4. Hanc itaque distinctionem tene, ut si quid te admonuero, disserendo, quod ita videas oculis carnis, vel ullo alio sensu eius sentias, seu te sensisse recolas sicut sentiuntur colores, fragores, odores, sapores, fervores, et si quid aliud per corpus cernendo, audiendo, olfaciendo, gustando, tangendo sentiamus; aut ita videas mentis intuitu, ut vides vitam, voluntatem, cogitationem, memoriam, intellegentiam, scientiam, fidem tuam, et quidquid aliud mente conspicis, atque ita esse non tantum credendo, sed plane vivendo non dubitas; hoc me iudices ostendisse. Quod autem non sic ostendero, ut aut corporis, aut animi sensu visum perceptumque teneatur, et tamen dixero aliquid quod aut verum quidem, aut falsum esse necesse sit, sed nullo illorum duum genere videatur; restat ut tantummodo credatur vel non credatur. Sed si divinarum Scripturarum, earum scilicet quae canonicae in Ecclesia nominantur, perspicua firmatur auctoritate, sine ulla dubitatione credendum est. Aliis vero testibus vel testimoniis, quibus aliquid credendum esse suadetur, tibi credere vel non credere liceat, quantum ea momenti ad faciendum fidem vel habere vel non habere perpenderis.
1. 4. Hold, therefore, to this distinction: that if I point out something to you in my discussion that you see with the eyes of the flesh in such a way, or perceive by any other bodily sense, or recall that you have so perceived—as colors, crashing sounds, smells, tastes, degrees of heat are perceived, and whatever else we perceive through the body by seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching—or that you see it with the gaze of the mind in such a way as you see your life, will, thought, memory, understanding, knowledge, your faith, and whatever else you behold with the mind, and which you do not doubt to be so, not only by believing but plainly by living—then you may judge that I have shown it to you. But what I shall have shown in such a way that it is not held as seen and perceived by the sense either of the body or of the mind, and yet I shall have said something that must be either true or false but is seen by neither of those two kinds—then it remains only to be believed or not believed. But if it is established by the clear authority of the divine Scriptures, namely those which are named canonical in the Church, it must be believed without any doubt. As for other witnesses or testimonies by which we are urged to believe something, you may be permitted to believe them or not, in proportion as you have weighed how much or how little weight they have toward producing faith.
Ep100-155.1.41. 5. Si enim ea quae non vidimus, hoc est, in praesenti apparentia non sensimus vel mente vel corpore, neque de Scripturis sanctis vel legendo vel audiendo didicimus, nulla omnino credidissemus; unde sciremus esse civitates ubi numquam fuimus; vel a Romulo conditam Romam, vel, ut de propioribus loquar, Constantinopolim a Constantino?, unde postremo sciremus quinam parentes nos procreavissent, quibus patribus, avis, maioribus geniti essemus? Talium quippe cum plurima sciamus, non tamen ea vel ullo sensu praesentia, sicut solem, sicut nostri animi voluntatem, vel canonicorum eloquiorum auctoritate, sicut Adam fuisse primum hominem, aut Christum in carne natum passumque resurrexisse didicimus; sed aliis referentibus, de quorum testimonio in hoc dumtaxat rerum genere minime dubitandum esse putavimus. In quibus si alicubi fallimur, credendo vel ita esse quod non ita est, vel non ita esse quod ita est, nihil periculi esse iudicamus, si non sit contra illam fidem qua pietas informatur. Haec praelocutio mea nondum propositam discutit quaestionem, sed te atque alios qui ista lecturi sunt, praestruit quales seu meorum seu quorumlibet scriptorum iudices esse debeatis; ne vel scire vos opinemini quod nescitis, vel temere credatis quod neque corporis sensibus aut animi contuitu in eiusdem rei quae cognoscenda est, evidentia percepistis, neque canonicarum Scripturarum auctoritate, etiamsi non adfuit sensibus vel animi vel corporis vestri, tamen credendum esse didicistis.
1. 5. For if we believed nothing at all of those things which we have not seen—that is, which are not present to us in appearance, which we have not perceived either by mind or by body, nor learned from the holy Scriptures by reading or hearing—how should we know that there are cities where we have never been? Or that Rome was founded by Romulus, or, to speak of nearer things, Constantinople by Constantine? How, finally, should we know which parents begot us, of what fathers, grandfathers, ancestors we were born? For of such things we know very many, yet not as present to any sense, like the sun, or like the will of our own mind, nor by the authority of the canonical words, like the fact that Adam was the first man, or that Christ was born in the flesh, suffered, and rose again; but we learned them from others reporting them, of whose testimony in this kind of matter at least we have thought we ought not to doubt at all. And if in these we are somewhere deceived, by believing either that something is so which is not so, or that something is not so which is so, we judge there is no danger, provided it is not against that faith by which devotion is formed. This preface of mine does not yet discuss the question proposed, but prepares you and others who are going to read these things as to what sort of judges you ought to be of my writings or of anyone's; lest you either suppose you know what you do not know, or rashly believe what you have neither perceived by the senses of the body or of the mind in the evidence of the very thing to be known, nor learned that it must be believed on the authority of the canonical Scriptures, even if it was not present to the senses of your mind or body.
Ep100-155.1.51. 6. Iamne ergo venimus ad causam? an adhuc lecturus instruendus est? Nonnulli enim putant ipsum quod dicimus credere, cum res vera creditur, hoc solum esse mente contueri. Quod si ita est, fallitur ista nostra superior praelocutio, in qua distinximus aliud esse aliquid sentire per corpus, sicut in coelo solem, et in terra montem, arborem, corpusve quodlibet; et aliud mentis intuitu rem nihilominus evidentem, sicut nostra voluntas a nobismetipsis intus aspicitur cum aliquid volumus, vel cogitatio cum cogitamus, vel memoria dum recordamur, vel tale aliquid in animo sine corpore: aliud autem credere quod in corporis mentisve conspectu nec adest nec adfuisse recolitur; sicut sine parentibus creatum Adam, et natum ex Virgine passumque resurrexisse Christum. Haec enim etiam corporaliter facta sunt, et videri per corpus, si tunc adessemus, utique potuerunt: nunc autem non adsunt, sicut adest ista lux quae oculis cernitur, aut voluntas qua nunc aliquid volumus, quae mente conspicitur. Sed quia haec distinctio falsa non est, profecto illa praestructio minus habebat, quod inter credere, et aliquid praesens mente conspicere, ne omnino unum atque idem putaretur, parum clara fuerat elocutione discretum.
1. 6. Have we now, then, come to the matter? Or must the reader still be instructed? For some think that what we call believing, when a true thing is believed, is just this same thing as beholding it with the mind. But if that is so, this earlier preface of ours is mistaken, in which we distinguished that it is one thing to perceive something through the body, like the sun in the sky, and on earth a mountain, a tree, or any body whatever; and another thing to perceive by the gaze of the mind a thing no less evident, as our will is seen within us by ourselves when we will something, or our thought when we think, or our memory while we remember, or anything of the kind in the mind without a body; but yet another thing to believe what is neither present to the sight of body or mind nor recalled to have been present—as that Adam was created without parents, and that Christ was born of the Virgin, suffered, and rose again. For these things too were done bodily, and could certainly have been seen through the body if we had then been present; but now they are not present, as is present this light which is discerned by the eyes, or the will by which we now will something, which is beheld by the mind. But since this distinction is not false, surely that earlier construction was the less adequate, in that it had distinguished by a less clear expression between believing and beholding something present with the mind, lest they be thought wholly one and the same.
Ep100-155.1.62. 7. Quid ergo dicemus? Num satis est ut inter videre et credere hoc distare dicamus, quia praesentia videntur, creduntur absentia? Plane forsitan satis est, si praesentia illa hoc loco intellegamus dicta, quae praesto sunt sensibus sive animi sive corporis, unde etiam ducto vocabulo praesentia nominantur. Sic enim hanc lucem corporis sensu, sic et meam voluntatem plane video, quia praesto est animi sensibus, atque intus mihi praesens est. Si quis vero mihi indicet voluntatem suam, cuius os et vox mihi praesens est; tamen quia ipsa voluntas quam mihi indicat, latet sensum corporis et animi mei, credo, non video: aut si eum mentiri existimo, non credo, etsi forte, ut dicit, ita sit. Creduntur ergo illa quae absunt a sensibus nostris, si videtur idoneum quod eis testimonium perhibetur. Videntur autem quae praesto sunt, unde et praesentia nominantur vel animi vel corporis sensibus. Nam cum sint quinque corporis sensus, cernendi, audiendi, olfaciendi, gustandi, tangendi; visus quidem in eis praecipue oculis attributus est, verumtamen hoc verbo utimur et in caeteris. Non enim tantum dicimus, Vide quid luceat; sed etiam, Vide quid sonet, Vide quid oleat, Vide quid sapiat, Vide quid caleat. Nec quia dixi ea credi quae absunt a sensibus nostris, sic accipiatur ut inter illa deputentur quae aliquando vidimus, et nos vidisse retinemus certique sumus, quamvis tunc non praesto sint cum recoluntur a nobis. Neque enim inter credita, sed inter visa deputantur; et ideo nota sunt, non quia fidem habuimus aliis testibus, sed quia nos vidisse sine dubio recordamur et scimus.
2. 7. What, then, shall we say? Is it enough for us to say that between seeing and believing there is this difference, that present things are seen, absent things believed? Plainly it is perhaps enough, if we understand things called present in this place to be those which are at hand to the senses, whether of mind or of body, from which indeed the word "present" is derived. For thus I plainly see this light by the sense of the body, and so too my own will, because it is at hand to the senses of the mind and is present to me within. But if someone should disclose his will to me, whose mouth and voice are present to me—yet because the will itself which he discloses to me lies hidden from the sense of my body and mind, I believe, I do not see; or if I think he is lying, I do not believe, even if perhaps it is as he says. Those things, then, are believed which are absent from our senses, if what is testified concerning them seems suitable. But those things are seen which are at hand, whence they are also called "present" to the senses of mind or body. For although there are five senses of the body—seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching—sight is indeed assigned especially to the eyes, yet we use this word also for the rest. For we do not only say, See what is shining, but also, See what is sounding, See what smells, See what tastes, See what is hot. Nor, because I have said that those things are believed which are absent from our senses, let it be so taken as if they should be reckoned among those things which we once saw and which we retain and are certain we saw, although they are not at hand when they are recalled by us. For these are reckoned not among things believed but among things seen; and therefore they are known, not because we put faith in other witnesses, but because we without doubt remember and know that we saw them.
Ep100-155.2.73. 8. Constat igitur nostra scientia ex visis rebus et creditis: sed in iis quae vidimus vel videmus, nos ipsi testes sumus; in his autem quae credimus, aliis testibus movemur ad fidem, cum earum rerum quas nec vidisse nos recolimus, nec videmus, dantur signa vel in vocibus, vel in litteris, vel in quibusque documentis, quibus visis non visa credantur. Non autem immerito scire nos dicimus non solum ea quae vidimus aut videmus, verum et illa quae idoneis ad quamque rem commoti testimoniis vel testibus credimus. Porro si scire non incongruenter dicimur etiam illud quod certissimum credimus, hinc factum est ut etiam recte credita, etsi non adsint sensibus nostris, videre mente dicamur. Scientia quippe menti tribuitur; sive per corporis sensus, sive per ipsum animum aliquid perceptum cognitumque retineat: et fides ipsa mente utique videtur, quamvis hoc fide credatur quod non videtur. Unde et apostolus Petrus dicit: In quem modo non videntes creditis: et ipse Dominus: Beati qui non viderunt, et crediderunt.
3. 8. Our knowledge, then, consists of things seen and things believed; but in those which we have seen or do see, we ourselves are the witnesses; while in those which we believe, we are moved to faith by other witnesses, when of those things which we neither recall having seen nor do see, signs are given, whether in voices, or in letters, or in any documents, by which, when seen, things not seen may be believed. And not without reason do we say that we know not only those things which we have seen or do see, but also those which we believe, moved by suitable testimonies or witnesses for each matter. Further, if we are not incongruously said to know even that which we most certainly believe, hence it has come about that even things rightly believed, though not present to our senses, we are said to see with the mind. For knowledge is attributed to the mind, whether it retains something perceived and known through the senses of the body or through the mind itself; and faith itself is certainly seen by the mind, although what is not seen is believed by that faith. Hence the apostle Peter says: in whom now, not seeing, you believe (1 Pet 1:8); and the Lord himself: Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed (Jn 20:29).
Ep100-155.3.83. 9. Cum itaque dicitur homini, Crede Christum resurrexisse a mortuis; si credit, attende quid videat, attende quid credat, et utrumque discerne. Videt hominem cuius audit vocem; et ipsa vox in visis corporalibus deputatur, secundum ea quae supra diximus. Haec duo sunt, testis, et testimonium: quorum ad oculos unum, ad aures alterum pertinet. Sed hunc testem fortasse aliorum testimoniorum auctoritas confirmat, divinarum scilicet Scripturarum, vel quorumlibet aliorum, quibus est motus ad fidem. Scripturae ad visa pertinent corporis oculorum, si eas legit; vel aurium, si audivit. Videt autem animo quidquid figuris litterarum sonisve significari intellexit. Videt ipsam fidem suam, qua se credere sine cunctatione respondet. Videt cogitationem, qua cogitat quid ei possit prodesse quod credit. Videt voluntatem, qua accessit ad suscipiendam religionem. Videt etiam ipsius resurrectionis quamdam imaginem in animo suo factam, sine qua intellegi non potest quidquid factum corporaliter dicitur, sive credatur, sive non credatur.
3. 9. When, therefore, it is said to a man, Believe that Christ rose from the dead, if he believes, mark what he sees, mark what he believes, and distinguish the two. He sees a man whose voice he hears; and the voice itself is reckoned among bodily things seen, according to what we said above. These are two things: a witness, and a testimony; of which the one belongs to the eyes, the other to the ears. But this witness is perhaps confirmed by the authority of other testimonies, namely of the divine Scriptures, or of any others by which he is moved to faith. The Scriptures belong to the things seen by the eyes of the body, if he reads them, or by the ears, if he heard them. But he sees with the mind whatever he understands to be signified by the figures of letters or by sounds. He sees his own faith, by which he answers that he believes without hesitation. He sees the thought by which he considers what good it can do him that he believes. He sees the will by which he came to take up religion. He sees also a certain image of the resurrection itself formed in his mind, without which whatever is said to have been done bodily cannot be understood, whether it is believed or not believed.
Ep100-155.3.94. 9. Sed, ut puto, distinguis quomodo videat fidem suam qua credit, et quomodo videat illam resurrectionis imaginem in animo suo factam, quam, si hoc audit, videt etiam qui non credit.
4. 9. But, as I suppose, you distinguish how he sees his own faith by which he believes, and how he sees that image of the resurrection formed in his mind, which, if he hears of it, even one who does not believe sees.
Ep100-155.4.94. 10. Haec ergo omnia videt, partim corpore, partim mente. Voluntatem vero eius a quo audit ut credat, et ipsam Christi resurrectionem non videt, sed credit; et tamen eam videre dicitur quodam mentis obtutu, magis secundum testimoniorum fidem, quam rerum praesentia creditarum. Illa enim quae videt, adsunt sensibus vel animi vel corporis; quae autem credit, absunt a sensibus et animi et corporis. Quamvis voluntas eius a quo audit ut credat, non sit praeterita, sed maneat in loquente: quam in seipso idem ipse qui loquitur videt; ille vero qui audit, non eam videt sed credit. Resurrectio autem Christi praeterita est, quam nec illi viderunt homines qui tunc fuerunt. Nam qui viderunt viventem Christum quem viderant morientem, ipsam tamen resurrectionem cum fieret non viderunt, sed eam certissime crediderunt, videndo et tangendo vivum quem noverant mortuum. Nos totum credimus, et quod resurrexerit, et quod ab hominibus tunc visus et contrectatus sit, et quod nunc vivat in coelis, nec iam moriatur, et mors illi ultra non dominetur. Res autem ipsa nec corporis nostri sensibus adest, sicut adest hoc coelum et terra, nec nostrae mentis obtutibus, sicut adest fides ipsa qua hoc credimus.
4. 10. All these things, then, he sees, partly with the body, partly with the mind. But the will of the one from whom he hears that he should believe, and Christ's resurrection itself, he does not see but believes; and yet he is said to see it by a certain gaze of the mind, more according to the faith of the testimonies than the presence of the things believed. For those things which he sees are at hand to the senses of mind or body; but those which he believes are absent from the senses of both mind and body. Although the will of the one from whom he hears that he should believe is not past, but remains in the one speaking—which will the very one who speaks sees in himself, but the one who hears does not see it but believes it. Christ's resurrection, however, is past, which not even those men saw who lived then. For those who saw Christ alive, whom they had seen dying, yet did not see the resurrection itself as it was happening, but most certainly believed it, by seeing and touching alive the one whom they had known dead. We believe the whole: both that he rose, and that he was then seen and handled by men, and that he now lives in heaven and dies no more, and death no longer has dominion over him (See Rom 6:9). But the thing itself is present neither to the senses of our body, as this heaven and earth are present, nor to the gaze of our mind, as faith itself is present by which we believe this.
Ep100-155.4.104. 11. Sed iam satis, ut puto, ista mea praelocutione recognovisti quid sit videre vel mente vel corpore, et quid ab eis distet credere. Quod quidem fit mente, et videtur mente; quoniam menti nostrae fides nostra conspicua est. Sed tamen quod eadem fide creditur, abest et ab aspectu corporis nostri, sicut abest corpus in quo Christus resurrexit; et ab aspectu mentis alterius, sicut abest ab aspectu mentis meae fides tua, quamvis eam esse in te credam, cum eam non videam corpore, quod nec tu potes; nec mente, quod tu potes, sicut ego meam, quam tu non potes. Nemo enim scit quid agatur in homine, nisi spiritus hominis qui in ipso est, donec veniat Dominus, et illuminet abscondita tenebrarum, et manifestet cogitationes cordis, ut eas non solum quisque suas videat, sed et aliorum. Secundum hoc enim dixit Apostolus neminem scire quid agatur in homine, nisi spiritum hominis qui in ipso est secundum quod videmus in nobis: nam secundum id quod credimus nec videmus, et multos fideles esse novimus, et multis noti sumus.
4. 11. But by now, as I suppose, you have recognized through this preface of mine what it is to see either with the mind or with the body, and how believing differs from these. Believing indeed is done with the mind and is seen with the mind, since our faith is plain to our mind. But yet what is believed by that same faith is absent both from the sight of our body—as the body in which Christ rose is absent—and from the sight of another's mind—as your faith is absent from the sight of my mind, although I believe it to be in you, since I do not see it with the body, which not even you can do, nor with the mind, which you can do, as I see my own, which you cannot. For no one knows what goes on in a man except the spirit of the man which is in him (1 Cor 2:11), until the Lord comes and illumines the hidden things of darkness and makes manifest the thoughts of the heart (1 Cor 4:5), so that each may see them, not only his own, but also those of others. For it was according to this that the Apostle said that no one knows what goes on in a man except the spirit of the man which is in him—according to what we see in ourselves; for according to that which we believe and do not see, we know that many are faithful, and to many we are known.
Ep100-155.4.115. 12. Si ergo iam ista distincta sunt, veniamus ad causam. Scimus posse Deum videri, quoniam scriptum est: Beati mundo corde; quoniam ipsi Deum videbunt. An forte non debui dicere, Scimus; sed. Credimus: quoniam Deum nec corpore aliquando vidimus, sicut hanc lucem; nec mente, sicut ipsam in nobis, qua id credimus, fidem; sed tantum quia scriptum est in ea Scriptura cuius fideles sumus, quod verum sit minime dubitamus? Apostolus tamen Ioannes cum tale aliquid diceret: Scimus, inquit, quia cum apparuerit, similes ei erimus; quoniam videbimus eum sicuti est: ecce scire se dixit quod nondum factum fuerat, nec videndo, sed credendo cognoverat. Recte itaque diximus, Scimus Deum posse videri; quamvis eum non viderimus, sed divinae auctoritati quae sanctis Libris continetur, crediderimus.
5. 12. If, then, these things are now distinguished, let us come to the matter. We know that God can be seen, since it is written: Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God (Matt 5:8). Or ought I perhaps not to have said, We know, but, We believe—since we have never seen God either with the body, as we see this light, or with the mind, as we see the faith itself in us by which we believe this, but only because it is written in that Scripture of which we are faithful, and we do not doubt at all that it is true? Yet the apostle John, when he said something of this kind, says: We know that when he appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is (1 Jn 3:2). Behold, he said he knew what had not yet come to be, and which he had come to know not by seeing but by believing. Rightly, therefore, did we say, We know that God can be seen; although we have not seen him, but have believed the divine authority contained in the holy books.
Ep100-155.5.125. 13. Quid ergo est quod eadem dicit auctoritas: Deum nemo vidit umquam ? An fortasse respondetur quod illa testimonia de videndo Deo sunt, non de viso? Ipsi enim Deum videbunt, dictum est; non, Viderunt: et non, Vidimus; sed, videbimus eum sicuti est. Proinde his sententiis non est contrarium: Deum nemo vidit umquam. Videbunt enim quem non viderunt, qui mundo corde filii Dei esse voluerint. Quid est ergo: Vidi Deum facie ad faciem, et salva facta est anima mea ? An et hoc non est contrarium illi quod dictum est: Deum nemo vidit umquam? Et illud quod de Moyse scriptum est, quia loquebatur cum Deo facie ad faciem, sicut quis loquitur ad amicum suum; et illud quod propheta Isaias de seipso loquens ait: Vidi Dominum sabaoth sedentem in throno: et si qua alia solent similia testimonia ex eadem auctoritate proferri, quomodo non sunt contraria sententiae qua dictum est: Deum nemo vidit umquam? Quamquam et ipsum Evangelium potest putari sibi esse contrarium. Quomodo enim verum est, quod in eo dicitur: Qui me vidit, vidit et Patrem, si Deum nemo vidit umquam? quomodo verum est: Angeli eorum semper vident faciem Patris mei, si Deum nemo vidit umquam?
5. 13. What, then, is it that the same authority says: No one has ever seen God (Jn 1:18)? Or is it perhaps answered that those testimonies are about seeing God, not about him having been seen? For it is said, They shall see God; not, They have seen; and not, We have seen, but, We shall see him as he is (1 Jn 3:2). Accordingly, to these sayings the words No one has ever seen God are not contrary. For they shall see whom they have not seen, who being pure in heart shall have willed to be sons of God. What, then, is: I saw God face to face, and my soul was saved (Gen 32:30)? Is this too not contrary to what was said: No one has ever seen God? And that which is written of Moses, that he spoke with God face to face, as one speaks to his friend (Exod 33:11); and that which the prophet Isaiah, speaking of himself, says: I saw the Lord of hosts seated on a throne (Isa 6:1); and any other like testimonies that are wont to be brought forward from the same authority—how are they not contrary to the saying in which it is said: No one has ever seen God? And yet the Gospel itself can be thought to be contrary to itself. For how is it true, which is said in it: Whoever has seen me has seen the Father also (Jn 14:9), if no one has ever seen God? How is it true: Their angels always see the face of my Father (Matt 18:10), if no one has ever seen God?
Ep100-155.5.135. 14. Qua igitur regula intellegentiae ista veluti contraria et repugnantia, non esse contraria nec repugnare probabimus? Neque enim fieri ullo modo potest ut haec Scripturarum auctoritas aliqua ex parte mentiatur. Si dicimus in eo quod scriptum est: Deum nemo vidit umquam, homines tantummodo intellegendos, sicut etiam illud dictum est: Nemo scit quid agatur in homine, nisi spiritus hominis qui in ipso est; nemo utique, sed hominum: neque enim hoc de Deo accipi potest, cum de Christo scriptum sit non opus fuisse ut quisquam illi testimonium perhiberet de homine. quoniam ipse sciebat quid esset in homine. Nam hoc Apostolus planius explicans: Quem nemo, inquit, hominum vidit, nec videre potest. Si ergo ita dictum est: Deum nemo vidit umquam, ac si diceretur: Nemo hominum; hactenus illa quaestio soluta videbitur, ut non sit huic sententiae contrarium quod Dominus ait: Angeli eorum semper vident faciem Patris mei: ut scilicet Angelos Deum videre credamus, quem nemo vidit umquam, sed hominum. Quomodo ergo Deum vidit Abraham, Isaac, Iacob. Iob, Moyses, Michaeas, Isaias, et si qui alii sunt, de quibus veracissima Scriptura testatur quod Deum viderint, si Deum nemo umquam hominum vidit nec videre potest?
5. 14. By what rule of understanding, then, shall we prove that these as it were contrary and conflicting statements are not contrary and do not conflict? For it can in no way come about that this authority of the Scriptures should lie in any part. If we say that in what is written, No one has ever seen God, only men are to be understood—just as that other was also said, No one knows what goes on in a man except the spirit of the man which is in him (1 Cor 2:11): no one, certainly, but of men; for this cannot be taken of God, since it is written of Christ that there was no need for anyone to bear him witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man (Jn 2:25). For the Apostle, explaining this more plainly, says: whom no man has seen, nor can see (1 Tim 6:16). If, then, it was so said, No one has ever seen God, as if it were said, No man, thus far that question will seem to be resolved, so that what the Lord says is not contrary to this statement: Their angels always see the face of my Father—namely, so that we may believe that the angels see God, whom no one—but of men—has ever seen. How, then, did Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Job, Moses, Micaiah, Isaiah, and any others see God, of whom the most truthful Scripture testifies that they saw God, if no man has ever seen God nor can see him?
Ep100-155.5.145. 15. Quamquam nonnulli volentes etiam probare impios visuros Deum, a diabolo quoque ipso Deum visum putant; sic accipientes quod scriptum est in libro Iob, venisse cum Angelis et diabolum in conspectum Dei: ut iam et illud veniat in quaestionem, quomodo dictum sit: Beati mundo corde, quoniam ipsi Deum videbunt; et illud: Pacem sectamini cum omnibus et sanctificationem, sine qua nemo poterit videre Deum. Multum enim miror, si eo usque progrediuntur qui existimant impios visuros Deum, et a diabolo visum Deum, ut eos et mundo corde esse, et pacem et sanctificationem cum omnibus assectari asseverent.
5. 15. Although some, wishing to prove also that the ungodly will see God, think that God was seen even by the devil himself, so taking what is written in the book of Job, that the devil too came with the angels into the sight of God (See Job 1:6)—so that now this too comes into question: how was it said, Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God (Matt 5:8); and that other, Pursue peace with all, and sanctification, without which no one will be able to see God (Heb 12:14)? For I greatly wonder if those who think the ungodly will see God, and that God was seen by the devil, go so far as to assert that the latter are pure in heart, and pursue peace and sanctification with all.
Ep100-155.5.155. 16. Nam quod Dominus ait: Qui me vidit, vidit et Patrem, potest paulo attentius consideratum non videri esse contrarium ei quod dixit: Deum nemo vidit umquam. Neque enim dixit: Quia vidistis me, vidistis et Patrem; sed dicendo: Qui me vidit, vidit et Patrem, ostendere voluit unitatem substantiae Patris et Filii, ne in aliquo inter se putarentur esse dissimiles: ac per hoc quoniam vere dictum est: Qui me vidit, vidit et Patrem; profecto quoniam Deum nemo hominum vidit umquam, nec Patrem quisquam putandus est vidisse, nec Filium secundum quod Deus est et Filius, et cum Patre unus Deus. Nam secundum id quod homo est, utique in terra visus est, et cum hominibus conversatus est.
5. 16. For as to what the Lord says, Whoever has seen me has seen the Father also (Jn 14:9), this, considered a little more attentively, can seem not to be contrary to what he said: No one has ever seen God (Jn 1:18). For he did not say, Because you have seen me, you have seen the Father also; but by saying, Whoever has seen me has seen the Father also, he wished to show the unity of substance of the Father and the Son, lest they be thought to be in any way unlike each other. And through this, since it was truly said, Whoever has seen me has seen the Father also, surely, since no man has ever seen God, neither is anyone to be thought to have seen the Father, nor the Son according to that which is God and Son, and with the Father one God. For according to that which he is man, he was certainly seen on earth and lived among men.
Ep100-155.5.166. 17. Sed magna quaestio est, quomodo non sit contrarium quia tot antiqui viderunt Deum, si Deum nemo umquam vidit, quem nemo hominum vidit, nec videre potest? Vides quam difficilem mihi proposueris quaestionem, unde me aliquid prolixe copioseque scribere voluisti ex occasione brevis epistolae meae, quae tibi visa est diligentius et uberius explicanda. Visne ergo attendere quae apud alios interim comperi divinarum Scripturarum egregios tractatores, quid de visione Dei senserint, ne forte sufficiant desiderio tuo, quamvis ea forsitan noveris? Pauca ergo ista attende, si placet. Cum Evangelium exponens beatus Ambrosius, Mediolanensis episcopus, venisset ad eum locum ubi Angelus apparuit in templo Zacariae sacerdoti, ex hac occasione, vide quanta et qualia de Dei etiam visione disseruit.
6. 17. But it is a great question how it is not contrary that so many of the ancients saw God, if no one has ever seen God, whom no man has seen nor can see. You see how difficult a question you have set before me, from which you wished me to write something at length and copiously, on the occasion of a brief letter of mine, which seemed to you to need to be explained more carefully and fully. Are you willing, then, to attend to what I have meanwhile found among others, distinguished expounders of the divine Scriptures, as to what they thought about the vision of God, in case perhaps they may satisfy your desire, although you perhaps already know them? Attend, then, to these few things, if you please. When the blessed Ambrose, bishop of Milan, in expounding the Gospel, had come to that place where the angel appeared in the temple to the priest Zechariah, see, on this occasion, how many and what great things he discoursed even about the vision of God.
Ep100-155.6.176. 18. "Non immerito, inquit: Angelus videtur in templo; quia veri sacerdotis iam nuntiabatur adventus, et coeleste sacrificium parabatur, in quo Angeli ministrarent. Et bene apparuisse dicitur ei qui eum repente conspexit. Hoc specialiter, aut de Angelis, aut de Deo Scriptura divina tenere consuevit, ut quod non potest praevideri, apparere dicatur. Sic enim habes: Apparuit Deus Abrahae ad ilicem Mambre. Nam quia ante non praesentitur, sed repentino videtur aspectu, apparere memoratur. Non enim similiter sensibilia videntur, et is in cuius voluntate situm est videri, et cuius naturae est non videri, voluntatis videri. Nam si non vult, non videtur; si vult, videtur. Apparuit enim Deus Abrahae, quia voluit; aliis, quia noluit, non apparuit. Visum est etiam Stephano, cum lapidaretur a populo, aperiri coelum: visus est etiam Iesus stans ad dexteram Dei, et non visus est a populo. Vidit Isaias Deum sabaoth; sed alius videre non potuit, quia cui placuit apparuit. Et quid de hominibus loquimur, cum etiam de ipsis coelestibus Virtutibus et Potestatibus legerimus quia Deum nemo vidit umquam? et addit quod ultra coelestes est Potestates, Unigenitus Filius, qui est in sinu Patris, ipse narravit. Aut acquiescatur igitur necesse est, si Deum Patrem nemo vidit umquam, Filium visum esse in Veteri Testamento; et desinant haeretici ex Virgine ei principium dare, qui antequam nasceretur ex Virgine videbatur. Aut certe refelli non potest, vel Patrem, vel Filium, vel certe Spiritum sanctum, si tamen est Spiritus sancti visio, ea specie videri, quam voluntas elegerit, non natura formaverit; quoniam Spiritum quoque visum accepimus in columba. Et ideo Deum nemo vidit umquam, quia eam quae in Deo habitat, plenitudinem divinitatis nemo conspexit, nemo mente aut oculis comprehendit: Vidit enim, ad utrumque referendum est. Denique cum additur, Unigenitus Filius ipse narravit, mentium magis quam oculorum visio declaratur. Species enim videtur; virtus vero narratur: illa oculis, haec mente comprehenditur. Sed quid de Trinitate dicam? Seraphim quando voluit, apparuit: et vocem eius Isaias solus audivit. Apparuit angelus, et nunc praesto est, sed non videtur. Neque enim in potestate nostra est videre, sed in potestate illius apparere. Tamen etsi potestas non est videndi, est gratia promerendi ut videre possimus. Et ideo qui habuit gratiam, meruit copiam: nos copiam non meremur, quia Deum videndi gratiam non habemus. Et quid mirum si in praesenti saeculo, nisi quando vult, Dominus non videtur? In ipsa quoque resurrectione non facile est Deum videre, nisi iis qui corde sint mundo: et ideo beati mundo corde; ipsi enim Deum videbunt. Quantos beatos iam numeraverat, et tamen videndi his Deum non promiserat facultatem! Si ergo ii qui mundo sunt corde, Deum videbunt; utique alii non videbunt. Neque enim indigni Deum videbunt; neque is qui Deum videre noluerit, potest Deum videre. Nec in loco Deus videtur, sed mundo corde; nec corporalibus oculis Deus quaeritur, nec circumscribitur visu, nec tactu tenetur, nec auditur affatu, nec sentitur incessu. Et cum absens putatur, videtur; et cum praesens est, non videtur. Denique nec Apostoli omnes Christum videbant; et ideo ait: Tanto tempore vobiscum sum, et adhuc me non cognovistis? Qui enim cognovit quae sit latitudo, et longitudo, et altitudo, et profundum, et supereminentem scientiae caritatem Christi, vidit et Christum, vidit et Patrem. Nos enim iam secundum carnem non novimus Christum, sed secundum spiritum. Spiritus enim ante faciem nostram Christus Dominus qui nos in omnem plenitudinem Dei misericordia sua implere dignetur ut videri possit a nobis".
6. 18. "Not without reason," he says, "is an angel seen in the temple, since the coming of the true priest was now being announced, and the heavenly sacrifice was being prepared, in which the angels would minister. And he is well said to have appeared to one who suddenly caught sight of him. This in particular divine Scripture is wont to hold, whether of angels or of God: that what cannot be foreseen is said to appear. For thus you have it: God appeared to Abraham at the oak of Mamre (Gen 18:1). For because he is not perceived beforehand, but is seen by a sudden sight, he is recorded as appearing. For sensible things are not seen in the same way as he in whose will it lies to be seen, and whose nature it is not to be seen but to be seen by will. For if he wills not, he is not seen; if he wills, he is seen. For God appeared to Abraham because he willed it; to others he did not appear, because he willed not. He was also seen by Stephen, when he was being stoned by the people, the heaven being opened; Jesus too was seen standing at the right hand of God, and was not seen by the people. Isaiah saw the God of hosts, but another could not see, since he appeared to whom it pleased him. And why do we speak of men, when even of the heavenly Virtues and Powers themselves we have read that no one has ever seen God (Jn 1:18)? And he adds that he who is beyond the heavenly Powers, the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he himself has made him known (Jn 1:18). Either, then, it must of necessity be granted, if no one has ever seen God the Father, that the Son was seen in the Old Testament; and let the heretics cease to give a beginning, from the Virgin, to him who was seen before he was born of the Virgin. Or certainly it cannot be refuted that the Father, or the Son, or indeed the Holy Spirit—if there is, however, a vision of the Holy Spirit—is seen in that form which the will has chosen, not which nature has fashioned; since we have received that the Spirit too was seen in a dove. And therefore no one has ever seen God, because the fullness of divinity that dwells in God no one has beheld, no one has comprehended with mind or eyes. For he has seen is to be referred to both. Finally, when it is added, The only-begotten Son has himself made him known, a vision of minds rather than of eyes is declared. For a form is seen, but a power is made known: the one is comprehended by the eyes, the other by the mind. But what shall I say of the Trinity? The Seraphim appeared when he willed it; and Isaiah alone heard his voice. The angel appeared, and is now at hand, but is not seen. For it is not in our power to see, but in his power to appear. Yet, although there is not the power of seeing, there is the grace of meriting that we may be able to see. And therefore he who had the grace merited the means: we do not merit the means, because we do not have the grace of seeing God. And what wonder if in the present age the Lord is not seen except when he wills? In the resurrection itself, too, it is not easy to see God, except for those who are pure in heart; and therefore blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God (Matt 5:8). How many blessed he had already numbered, and yet to these he had not promised the power of seeing God! If, then, those who are pure in heart shall see God, surely others shall not see him. For neither shall the unworthy see God; nor can he who has not willed to see God see God. Nor is God seen in a place, but in a pure heart; nor is God sought with bodily eyes, nor circumscribed by sight, nor held by touch, nor heard by address, nor perceived by his coming. And when he is thought absent, he is seen; and when he is present, he is not seen. Finally, not even all the apostles saw Christ; and therefore he says: Have I been with you so long a time, and you still have not known me? (Jn 14:9) For he who has known what is the breadth, and length, and height, and depth, and the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge (Eph 3:18-19) has seen Christ also, has seen the Father also. For we now no longer know Christ according to the flesh, but according to the spirit (See 2 Cor 5:16). For Christ the Lord is a Spirit before our face (See Lam 4:20), who in his mercy may deign to fill us unto all the fullness of God, that he may be able to be seen by us."
Ep100-155.6.187. 19. Si haec verba intellegis, quid restat quod a me amplius requiratur, cum iam illa quae difficilis videbatur, soluta sit quaestio? Discretum est quippe quomodo dictum sit: Deum nemo vidit umquam, et quomodo Deum iusti antiqui viderint. Sed illud propterea dictum est, quoniam Deus natura invisibilis est. Illi autem ideo viderunt, quicumque Deum viderunt, quia cui voluerit, sicut voluerit, apparet ea specie quam voluntas elegerit, etiam latente natura. Nam si, quando patres Deum viderunt, ipsa illis natura eius apparuit, quamvis si noluisset utique non apparuisset: quomodo Deum nemo vidit umquam, cum eo volente ipsa eius a tot patribus natura conspecta sit? Quod si dicitur Filius a patribus visus, ut de Deo Patre accipiatur dictum, quod eum nemo umquam viderit; non quidem amisit occasionem Ambrosius, ut hinc quosdam haereticos redargueret, id est Photinianos, qui principium Filio Dei ex utero Virginis tribuunt, nec volunt credere quod et antea fuerit. Sed quia videbat alios, id est Arianos, perniciosius insidiantes, quorum procul dubio error adstruitur, si Patris natura invisibilis, Filii vero visibilis creditur; utriusque unam pariterque invisibilem asseruit esse naturam, adiungens etiam Spiritus sancti. Quod breviter quidem, sed admirabiliter intimavit, ubi secutus ait: "Aut certe refelli non potest, vel Patrem, vel Filium, vel certe Spiritum sanctum, si tamen est Spiritus sancti visio, ea specie videri, quam voluntas elegerit, non natura formaverit". Potuit dicere, Non natura monstraverit; sed maluit dicere: formaverit, ne ipsam speciem in qua Deus elegit apparere, de sua natura formare putaretur, et ex hoc utique convinceretur convertibilis esse mutabilisque substantiae: quod ipse Deus a fide piorum misericors et benignus averterit!
7. 19. If you understand these words, what remains that should be further required of me, since that question which seemed difficult is now resolved? For it has been distinguished how it was said, No one has ever seen God, and how the righteous men of old saw God. But the former was said because God is by nature invisible. The latter, however, saw—whoever saw God—because he appears to whom he wills, as he wills, in that form which the will has chosen, his nature still remaining hidden. For if, when the fathers saw God, his very nature appeared to them—although, had he not willed it, it certainly would not have appeared—how is it that no one has ever seen God, when, at his willing, his very nature was beheld by so many fathers? But if it is said that the Son was seen by the fathers, so that what is said—that no one has ever seen him—may be taken of God the Father, Ambrose did not indeed lose the occasion to refute thereby certain heretics, namely the Photinians, who attribute to the Son of God a beginning from the womb of the Virgin and will not believe that he existed beforehand. But because he saw others, namely the Arians, plotting more perniciously, whose error is without doubt buttressed if the Father's nature is believed to be invisible but the Son's visible, he asserted that the nature of both is one and alike invisible, adding also the Holy Spirit. This he intimated briefly indeed, but admirably, where he goes on to say: "Or certainly it cannot be refuted that the Father, or the Son, or indeed the Holy Spirit—if there is, however, a vision of the Holy Spirit—is seen in that form which the will has chosen, not which nature has fashioned." He could have said, Not which nature has shown; but he preferred to say, has fashioned, lest the very form in which God chose to appear should be thought to be fashioned out of his own nature, and from this it should certainly be concluded that he is of a convertible and changeable substance—which God himself, merciful and kind, may turn away from the faith of the devout!
Ep100-155.7.198. 20. Invisibilis est igitur natura Deus, non tantum Pater, sed et ipsa Trinitas, unus Deus. Et quia non tantum invisibilis, verum etiam incommutabilis; sic apparet quibus voluerit, in qua voluerit specie, ut apud eum integra maneat eius invisibilis incommutabilisque natura. Desiderium autem veraciter piorum, quo videre Deum cupiunt, et inhianter ardescunt, non, opinor, in eam speciem contuendam flagrat, qua ut vult apparet, quod ipse non est; sed in eam substantiam, qua ipse est quod est. Huius enim desiderii sui flammam sanctus Moyses, fidelis famulus eius ostendit, ubi ait Deo, cum quo ut amicus facie ad faciem loquebatur: Si inveni gratiam ante te, ostende mihi temetipsum. Quid ergo? ille non erat ipse? Si non esset ipse, non ei diceret, ostende mihi temetipsum; sed, Ostende mihi Deum: et tamen si eius naturam substantiamque conspiceret, multo minus diceret, ostende mihi temetipsum. Ipse ergo erat in ea specie qua apparere voluerat; non autem ipse apparebat in natura propria, quam Moyses videre cupiebat. Ea quippe promittitur sanctis in alia vita. Unde quod responsum est Moysi verum est, quia nemo potest faciem Dei videre, et vivere; id est, nemo potest eum in hac vita videre vivens sicuti est. Nam multi viderunt; sed quod voluntas elegit, non quod natura formavit. Et illud quod Ioannes ait, si recte intellegitur: Dilectissimi, nunc filii Dei sumus, et nondum apparuit quod erimus. Scimus quia cum apparuerit, similes ei erimus; quoniam videbimus eum sicuti est: non sicut eum homines viderunt, quando voluit, in specie qua voluit, non in natura, qua in semetipso, etiam cum videretur, latuit; sed sicuti est, quod ab eo petebatur, cum ei diceretur, ostende mihi temetipsum, ab eo qui cum illo facie ad faciem loquebatur.
8. 20. God, therefore, is by nature invisible, not only the Father, but the Trinity itself, one God. And because he is not only invisible but also unchangeable, he so appears to whom he wills, in whatever form he wills, that with him his invisible and unchangeable nature remains intact. But the desire of the truly devout, by which they long to see God and pantingly burn for it, is not, I think, aflame to behold that form in which he appears as he wills, which he himself is not, but rather that substance by which he is what he is. For holy Moses, his faithful servant, showed the flame of this desire of his where he said to God, with whom he spoke as a friend face to face: If I have found grace before you, show me yourself (Exod 33:13). What then? Was he not himself there? If it were not himself, Moses would not say to him, Show me yourself, but, Show me God. And yet, if he were beholding his nature and substance, much less would he say, Show me yourself. He himself, then, was in that form in which he had willed to appear; but he himself was not appearing in his own nature, which Moses longed to see. For that is promised to the saints in another life. Hence what was answered to Moses is true: that no one can see the face of God and live (See Exod 33:20); that is, no one living can see him in this life as he is. For many saw, but what the will chose, not what the nature fashioned. And that which John says, if it is rightly understood: Beloved, now we are sons of God, and it has not yet appeared what we shall be. We know that when he appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is (1 Jn 3:2)—not as men saw him when he willed, in the form in which he willed, not in the nature in which, in himself, even when he was seen, he lay hidden; but as he is, which was asked of him when it was said to him, Show me yourself, by the one who spoke with him face to face.
Ep100-155.8.208. 21. Non quia Dei plenitudinem quisquam, non solum oculis corporis, sed vel ipsa mente aliquando comprehendit.
8. 21. Not that anyone has ever comprehended the fullness of God, not only with the eyes of the body, but even with the mind itself.
Ep100-155.8.219. 21. Aliud est enim videre, aliud est totum videndo comprehendere. Quandoquidem id videtur, quod praesens utcumque sentitur: totum autem comprehenditur videndo, quod ita videtur ut nihil eius lateat videntem, aut cuius fines circumspici possunt; sicut te nihil latet praesentis voluntatis tuae, circumspicere autem potes fines annuli tui. Exempli gratia duo posui, quorum alterum ad mentis obtutum, alterum ad corporales oculos pertinet: visus enim, sicut ille ait, ad utrumque referendus est, id est et ad oculos et ad mentem.
9. 21. For it is one thing to see, and another to comprehend the whole by seeing. For that is seen which is in some way perceived as present; but the whole is comprehended by seeing which is seen in such a way that nothing of it lies hidden from the one seeing, or whose limits can be surveyed all around: as nothing of your present will lies hidden from you, but you can survey all around the limits of your ring. By way of example I have set two things, of which the one belongs to the gaze of the mind, the other to the bodily eyes; for sight, as he says, is to be referred to both, that is, both to the eyes and to the mind.
Ep100-155.9.219. 22. Porro si propterea Deum nemo vidit umquam, quia, sicut ait disputator cuius verba consideramus: "Plenitudinem divinitatis eius nemo conspexit, nemo mente aut oculis comprehendit; "vidit" enim, ad utrumque referendum est"; restat inquirere quomodo Angeli Deum videant, propter illud quod ex Evangelio commemoravi: Angeli eorum semper vident faciem Patris mei. Si enim et ipsis non sicuti est, sed latente sua natura, in specie qua voluerit apparet; magis magisque requirendum est quomodo eum nos videbimus sicuti est, et sicut Moyses desideravit, cum peteret ut Deus, qui in conspectu eius erat, ostenderet illi semetipsum. Hoc enim nobis summum praemium in resurrectione promittitur, quod erimus aequales Angelis Dei: ac per hoc si nec ipsi eum vident sicuti est, quomodo nos ita visuri sumus, cum eis aequales in resurrectione facti fuerimus? Sed vide quid consequenter dicat noster Ambrosius: "Denique, inquit, cum additur: Unigenitus Filius ipse narravit; mentium magis quam oculorum visio declaratur. Species enim videtur; virtus vero narratur: illa oculis, haec mente comprehenditur". Qui paulo ante dixerat visionem ad utrumque referendam, nunc eam non menti, sed oculis dedit: non, ut opinor, neglegenter sua verba respiciens; sed quia usitatius in loquendo solemus oculis attribuere visionem, sicut speciem corpori. Nam et hic mos loquendi crebrius usurpatur in rebus quae locis continentur, varianturque coloribus. Sed si nulla species esset mente contuenda, non diceretur ille speciosus forma prae filiis hominum. Neque enim hoc secundum carnem dictum est, et non secundum speciem spiritalem. Dicitur ergo et species pertinens ad mentis obtutum; sed quia usitatius in corporibus dicitur, vel in similitudinibus corporum, ideo dixit: "Species videtur; virtus vero narratur: illa oculis, haec mente comprehenditur". Proinde narrante Unigenito, qui est in sinu Patris, narratione ineffabili, creatura rationalis munda et sancta impletur visione Dei ineffabili, quam tunc consequemur cum aequales Angelis facti fuerimus. Quia sicut videntur ista visibilia, corporis sensibus nota, Deum nemo vidit umquam: quoniam si aliquando eo modo visus est, non, sicut ista, natura videtur, sed voluntate visus est; specie qua voluit apparens, latente natura atque in se incommutabiliter permanente. Eo autem modo quo videtur sicuti est, nunc fortasse videtur a quibusdam Angelis: a nobis autem tunc ita videbitur, cum eis facti fuerimus aequales.
9. 22. Further, if no one has ever seen God for the reason that, as the disputant whose words we are considering says, "no one has beheld the fullness of his divinity, no one has comprehended it with mind or eyes; for he has seen is to be referred to both"—it remains to inquire how the angels see God, on account of what I recalled from the Gospel: Their angels always see the face of my Father (Matt 18:10). For if even to them he appears not as he is, but with his nature hidden, in the form in which he has willed, all the more must it be asked how we shall see him as he is, and as Moses desired when he asked that God, who was in his sight, would show himself to him. For this is promised to us as the highest reward in the resurrection: that we shall be equal to the angels of God (See Luke 20:36); and through this, if not even they themselves see him as he is, how shall we so see him, when in the resurrection we have been made equal to them? But see what our Ambrose says consequently: "Finally," he says, "when it is added, The only-begotten Son has himself made him known, a vision of minds rather than of eyes is declared. For a form is seen, but a power is made known: the one is comprehended by the eyes, the other by the mind." He who a little before had said that vision is to be referred to both, now gives it not to the mind but to the eyes—not, I think, regarding his own words carelessly, but because more customarily in speaking we are wont to attribute vision to the eyes, as form to the body. For this manner of speaking too is more frequently employed in things that are contained by places and are varied by colors. But if there were no form to be beheld by the mind, that one would not be called beautiful in form beyond the sons of men (Ps 45:2 (44:3)). For this was not said according to the flesh and not according to the spiritual form. Form, then, is also spoken of as belonging to the gaze of the mind; but because it is more customarily spoken of in bodies, or in likenesses of bodies, therefore he said: "Form is seen, but power is made known: the one is comprehended by the eyes, the other by the mind." Accordingly, the Only-begotten who is in the bosom of the Father making him known by an ineffable making-known, the rational creature, pure and holy, is filled with an ineffable vision of God, which we shall then attain when we have been made equal to the angels. For just as these visible things, known by the senses of the body, are seen, no one has ever seen God; since if he has at any time been seen in that manner, he is not seen, like these things, by nature, but was seen by will, appearing in the form in which he willed, his nature lying hidden and remaining unchangeably in itself. But in the manner in which he is seen as he is, he is now perhaps seen by certain angels; by us, however, he will then be so seen, when we have been made equal to them.
Ep100-155.9.2210. 23. Deinde cum addidisset quia nec Potestates coelorum, sicut Seraphim, nisi cum volunt et quemadmodum volunt videntur, ut hinc etiam coniceretur quanta sit invisibilitas Trinitatis: "Tamen, inquit, etsi potestas non est videndi, est gratia promerendi ut videre possimus. Et ideo qui habuit gratiam, meruit copiam: nos copiam non meremur, quia Deum videndi gratiam non habemus". His itaque verbis quia non sua docet, sed Evangelium exponit, non hoc voluit intellegi quod quidam eorum videbunt Deum, quidam vero non videbunt, quibus credentibus dedit potestatem filios Dei fieri; cum ad eos omnes pertineat quod dictum est: Videbimus eum sicuti est: sed dicendo, "nos copiam non meremur, quia Deum videndi gratiam non habemus", de hoc saeculo se loqui significavit, ubi quibusdam Deus, licet non in sua natura, sed in qua voluit specie, dignatus est apparere, sicut Abrahae, sicut Isaiae, aliisque similibus; caeteris vero innumerabilibus, quamvis ad suum populum et haereditatem aeternam pertinentibus, nulla vel tali specie se demonstrat. In futuro autem saeculo, qui regnum accepturi sunt quod eis ab initio praeparatum est, omnes eum corde mundo videbunt; nec in illo regno nisi tales erunt.
10. 23. Then, when he had added that not even the Powers of the heavens, like the Seraphim, are seen except when they will and as they will, so that from this too might be inferred how great is the invisibility of the Trinity, "Yet," he says, "although there is not the power of seeing, there is the grace of meriting that we may be able to see. And therefore he who had the grace merited the means: we do not merit the means, because we do not have the grace of seeing God." By these words, then, since he is teaching not his own things but expounding the Gospel, he did not wish it to be understood that some of them will see God, but some will not see him—those to whom, believing, he gave the power to become sons of God—since to all of them belongs what was said: We shall see him as he is (1 Jn 3:2); but by saying, "we do not merit the means, because we do not have the grace of seeing God," he signified that he was speaking of this age, where to some God has deigned to appear, though not in his own nature, but in the form in which he willed—as to Abraham, as to Isaiah, and others like them; but to innumerable others, though belonging to his people and to the eternal inheritance, he shows himself by no such form at all. In the age to come, however, those who are to receive the kingdom prepared for them from the beginning will all see him with a pure heart; nor in that kingdom will there be any but such.
Ep100-155.10.2311. 24. Attende itaque quid adiungat, iam de illo saeculo dicere incipiens: "Et quid mirum, inquit, si in praesenti saeculo, nisi quando vult, Dominus non videtur? In ipsa quoque resurrectione non facile est Deum videre, nisi iis qui mundo sint corde: et ideo beati mundo corde; ipsi enim Deum videbunt. Quantos beatos iam numeraverat, et tamen his videndi Deum non promiserat facultatem! Si ergo ii qui mundo sunt corde, Deum videbunt; utique alii non videbunt. Neque enim indigni Deum videbunt; neque is qui Deum videre noluerit, potest Deum videre". Cernis quam circumspecte loquatur iam de iis qui in futuro saeculo videbunt Deum: neque enim omnes, sed qui digni sunt. Resurgent enim et digni et indigni regno illo ubi videbitur Deus: quoniam omnes qui in monumentis sunt, audient vocem eius et procedent; sed cum magna differentia: nam qui bene fecerunt, in resurrectionem vitae; qui vero male egerunt, in resurrectionem iudicii. Hic iudicium poenam aeternam significat: sicut etiam illud dictum est: Qui non credit, iam iudicatus est.
11. 24. Attend, then, to what he adds, now beginning to speak of that age: "And what wonder," he says, "if in the present age the Lord is not seen except when he wills? In the resurrection itself, too, it is not easy to see God, except for those who are pure in heart; and therefore blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God (Matt 5:8). How many blessed he had already numbered, and yet to these he had not promised the power of seeing God! If, then, those who are pure in heart shall see God, surely others shall not see him. For neither shall the unworthy see God; nor can he who has not willed to see God see God." You discern how circumspectly he now speaks of those who in the age to come shall see God: not all, namely, but those who are worthy. For both the worthy and the unworthy shall rise into that kingdom where God shall be seen; since all who are in the tombs shall hear his voice and shall come forth (Jn 5:28-29)—but with a great difference: for those who have done good, unto the resurrection of life; but those who have done evil, unto the resurrection of judgment (Jn 5:29). Here "judgment" signifies eternal punishment, as that too was said: He who does not believe is already judged (Jn 3:18).
Ep100-155.11.2411. 25. Quod ergo ait sanctus Ambrosius, "neque is qui Deum videre noluerit, potest Deum videre", quid aliud intellegi voluit, nisi quia is qui mundando cordi curam tantae rei dignam non vult impendere, non vult Deum videre? Vide proinde quid adiungat: "Nec in loco, inquit, Deus videtur, sed mundo corde". Quid evidentius, quid expressius dici potuit? Ab hac igitur visione diabolus et angeli eius, et omnes cum eis impii, sine ulla nebula dubitationis exclusi sunt; quoniam mundo corde non sunt: ac per hoc quod scriptum est in libro Iob, venisse Angelos in conspectum Dei, et venisse cum eis diabolum, non ideo diabolus Deum vidisse credendus est. Ipsi enim dicti sunt venisse in conspectum Dei, non Deus in conspectum eorum. Veniunt autem in conspectum nostrum quae videmus, non a quibus videmur. Venerunt ergo, sicut in multis codicibus legitur, ut assisterent coram Deo, non ut coram ipsis Deus. Nec est opus hoc loco immorari, ut pro viribus nostris conemur ostendere quomodo et hoc temporaliter fiat, cum in Dei conspectu sint omnia semper.
11. 25. As for what holy Ambrose says, "nor can he who has not willed to see God see God," what else did he wish to be understood, except that he who does not wish to spend on the cleansing of his heart the care worthy of so great a thing does not wish to see God? See, accordingly, what he adds: "Nor," he says, "is God seen in a place, but in a pure heart." What could be said more evidently, what more expressly? From this vision, therefore, the devil and his angels, and all the ungodly with them, are excluded without any cloud of doubt, since they are not pure in heart; and through this, what is written in the book of Job, that the angels came into the sight of God, and that the devil came with them (See Job 1:6), does not for that reason mean that the devil is to be believed to have seen God. For they are said to have come into the sight of God, not God into their sight. And those things come into our sight which we see, not those by which we are seen. They came, therefore, as is read in many manuscripts, to stand before God, not that God might stand before them. Nor is there need to linger over this place, that we may try, according to our powers, to show how this too comes about in time, since in the sight of God all things are always present.
Ep100-155.11.2511. 26. Nunc enim quaeritur quomodo videatur Deus; non ea specie qua et in isto saeculo quibusdam voluit apparere, quando non solum cum Abraham aliisque iustis, verum etiam cum Cain fratricida locutus est: sed quomodo videatur in illo regno, ubi eum videbunt filii eius sicuti est. Tunc quippe satiabitur in bonis desiderium eorum: quo desiderio flagrabat Moyses, cui loqui ad Deum facie ad faciem non sufficiebat, et dicebat: Ostende mihi temetipsum manifeste, ut videam te; tamquam diceret, quod in Psalmo ex eodem desiderio canitur: Satiabor cum manifestabitur gloria tua. Quo desiderio ardebat et Philippus, et sic satiari cupiebat, dicens: Ostende nobis Patrem, et sufficit nobis. De hac visione loquens eius etiam ipse amator et desiderator Ambrosius: "Non in loco, inquit: Deus videtur, sicut ad ilicem Mambre, sicut in monte Sina; sed mundo corde". Et sequitur, sciens quid desideret, et quid aestuet, et quid speret: "Nec corporalibus, inquit, oculis Deus quaeritur, quibus se ostendit Abrahae, Isaac, Iacob, et aliis in hoc saeculo; nec circumscribitur visu, propter illud quod dictum est: Posteriora mea videbis; nec tactu tenetur, sicut luctatus etiam est cum Iacob; nec auditur affatu, sicut non solum a tot sanctis, verum etiam a diabolo auditus est; nec sentitur incessu, sicut aliquando cum in paradiso deambularet ad vesperam".
11. 26. For now it is asked how God is seen—not in that form in which, in this age too, he willed to appear to certain people, when he spoke not only with Abraham and the other righteous, but even with Cain the fratricide—but how he is seen in that kingdom where his sons shall see him as he is. For then their desire shall be satisfied with good things (See Ps 103:5 (102:5)); with which desire Moses was aflame, for whom to speak to God face to face was not enough, and who said: Show me yourself manifestly, that I may see you (See Exod 33:13, 18); as though he said what is sung in the Psalm out of the same desire: I shall be satisfied when your glory shall be made manifest (Ps 17:15 (16:15)). With this desire Philip too burned, and so longed to be satisfied, saying: Show us the Father, and it is enough for us (Jn 14:8). Speaking of this vision, that lover and longer for it, Ambrose himself, says: "Not in a place," he says, "is God seen, as at the oak of Mamre, as on Mount Sinai, but in a pure heart." And he continues, knowing what he desires, and for what he is aflame, and for what he hopes: "Nor," he says, "is God sought with bodily eyes," with which he showed himself to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and others in this age; "nor is he circumscribed by sight," on account of what was said: You shall see my back parts (Exod 33:23); "nor is he held by touch," as he even wrestled with Jacob (See Gen 32:24); "nor heard by address," as he was heard not only by so many saints but even by the devil; "nor perceived by his coming," as once when he walked in paradise toward evening (See Gen 3:8).
Ep100-155.11.2611. 27. Vides quemadmodum vir sanctus enitatur nostras mentes ab omnibus carnis sensibus sevocare, ut aptas faciat ad videndum Deum. Et tamen quid agit talis extrinsecus plantator et rigator, nisi intrinsecus operetur qui dat incrementum Deus ? Quis enim sine adiutorio Spiritus Dei cogitare valeat esse aliquid, magisque esse quam omnia quae per corpus sentiuntur, quod nec in loco videatur, nec quaerendum sit oculis, nec audiatur affatu, nec tactu teneatur, nec sentiatur incessu, et videatur tamen, sed mundo corde? Neque enim de hac vita ille loquebatur, cum hoc diceret; quandoquidem ab hoc saeculo, in quo Deus apparuit, non sicuti est, sed in specie qua voluit, quibus voluit, satis discrevit saeculi futuri vitam, discretione apertissima, ubi ait: "Et quid mirum si in praesenti saeculo, nisi quando vult, Dominus non videtur? In ipsa quoque resurrectione non facile est Deum videre, nisi iis qui corde mundo sint: et ideo beati mundo corde; quoniam ipsi Deum videbunt." Hinc iam de illo saeculo dicere exorsus est, ubi Deum videbunt, non omnes qui resurgent, sed qui resurgent ad vitam aeternam: non indigni, de quibus dictum est: Tollatur impius, ne videat claritatem Domini; sed digni, de qualibus dixit ipse Dominus, cum praesens non videretur: Qui diligit me, mandata mea custodit; et: Qui diligit me, diligetur a Patre meo, et ego diligam eum, et ostendam meipsum illi: nec ii quibus dicetur: Ite in ignem aeternum, qui praeparatus est diabolo et angelis eius; sed ii quibus dicetur: Venite, benedicti Patris mei; percipite regnum quod vobis praeparatum est ab initio mundi. Illi quippe ibunt in ambustionem aeternam; iusti autem in vitam aeternam. Et quae est vita aeterna, nisi quod ipsa Vita alibi dicit: Haec est autem vita aeterna, ut cognoscant te unum Deum verum, et quem misisti Iesum Christum ? sed sic quomodo promisit ostensurum seipsum dilectoribus suis cum Patre unum Deum, non quomodo in hoc saeculo in corpore visus est a bonis et a malis.
11. 27. You see how the holy man strives to call our minds away from all the senses of the flesh, so as to make them fit for seeing God. And yet what does such a planter and waterer accomplish outwardly, unless God, who gives the growth, works inwardly? For who, without the help of the Spirit of God, could conceive that there is something, and something that more truly is than all that is perceived through the body, which is neither seen in a place, nor to be sought with the eyes, nor heard by address, nor held by touch, nor perceived by coming, and yet is seen—but with a pure heart? For he was not speaking of this life when he said this, since from this age, in which God appeared not as he is but in the form in which he willed, to whom he willed, he distinguished plainly enough the life of the age to come, by a most open distinction, where he says: "And what wonder if in the present age the Lord is not seen except when he wills? In the resurrection itself, too, it is not easy to see God, except for those who are pure in heart; and therefore blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God (Matt 5:8)." From here he has begun to speak of that age where they shall see God—not all who shall rise, but those who shall rise to eternal life: not the unworthy, of whom it is said, Let the ungodly man be taken away, lest he see the glory of the Lord (See Isa 26:10); but the worthy, of such as the Lord himself spoke, when, present, he was not seen: He who loves me keeps my commandments (See Jn 14:21); and: He who loves me shall be loved by my Father, and I will love him, and will show myself to him (Jn 14:21)—not those to whom it will be said, Go into the eternal fire, which has been prepared for the devil and his angels (Matt 25:41), but those to whom it will be said, Come, blessed of my Father; receive the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world (Matt 25:34). For the former shall go into eternal burning; but the righteous into eternal life (See Matt 25:46). And what is eternal life, except what Life itself says elsewhere: This is eternal life, that they may know you, the one true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent (Jn 17:3)? But in such a way as he promised that he would show himself to those who love him, with the Father one God—not in the way he was seen in the body in this age by the good and the evil.
Ep100-155.11.2711. 28. Et in iudicio enim futuro, quo sic venturus est quomodo visus est iens in coelum, hoc est in eadem forma filii hominis, eamdem formam videbunt, quibus dicturus est: Esurivi, et non dedistis mihi manducare; quia et Iudaei videbunt in quem pupugerunt; non illam Dei formam, in qua non rapinam arbitratus est esse aequalis Deo. In illa Dei forma tunc videbunt eum, qui videbunt eum sicuti est. Nec ideo videbunt, quia pauperes spiritu in hac vita fuerunt, quia mites, quia lugentes, quia esurientes et sitientes iustitiam, quia misericordes, quia pacifici, quia persecutionem passi propter iustitiam, quamvis et haec omnia iidem ipsi sint; sed quia mundo sunt corde. Ideo quippe inter illas beatitudines, cum omnia faciant qui cor mundum habent, non est tamen alicubi positum: Deum videbunt, nisi ubi dictum est: Beati mundo corde; quoniam mundo corde videbitur qui nec in loco videtur, nec oculis corporalibus quaeritur, nec circumscribitur visu, nec tactu tenetur, nec auditur affatu, nec sentitur incessu. Deum enim nemo vidit umquam, vel in hac vita, sicut ipse est, vel etiam in Angelorum vita, sicut visibilia ista quae corporali visione cernuntur; quia unigenitus Filius, qui est in sinu Patris, ipse narravit. Unde non ad oculorum corporalium, sed ad mentium visionem dictum est pertinere quod narrat.
11. 28. For in the future judgment too, in which he is to come in the same way he was seen going into heaven, that is, in the same form of the Son of man, those to whom he is to say, I was hungry, and you gave me nothing to eat (Matt 25:42), shall see that same form; since the Jews too shall see him whom they pierced (See Jn 19:37; Zech 12:10)—not that form of God in which he did not think it robbery to be equal to God (Phil 2:6). In that form of God they shall then see him, who shall see him as he is. Nor shall they see him because they were poor in spirit in this life, because meek, because mourning, because hungering and thirsting for righteousness, because merciful, because peacemakers, because suffering persecution for righteousness' sake—although these same ones are all these things too; but because they are pure in heart. For this reason indeed, among those beatitudes, although those who have a pure heart do all those things, yet they shall see God is placed nowhere except where it was said, Blessed are the pure in heart (Matt 5:8); since with a pure heart he shall be seen who is neither seen in a place, nor sought with bodily eyes, nor circumscribed by sight, nor held by touch, nor heard by address, nor perceived by his coming. For no one has ever seen God (Jn 1:18), either in this life as he himself is, or even in the life of the angels as these visible things are discerned by bodily vision; since the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, has himself made him known (Jn 1:18). Hence what he makes known was said to belong not to the vision of bodily eyes, but of minds.
Ep100-155.11.2812. 29. Sed rursus ne desiderium nostrum a corporis sensu ad alium corporis sensum migraret, hoc est ad aures ab oculis; ideo cum dixisset: "Nec corporalibus Deus oculis quaeritur, nec circumscribitur visu, nec tactu tenetur"; addidit etiam, "nec auditur affatu": ut, si possumus, unigenitum Filium, qui est in sinu Patris, sic intellegamus narrantem, quomodo et Verbum est, non sonus auribus instrepens, sed imago mentibus innotescens, ut illic interna et ineffabili luce clarescat quod dictum est: Qui me vidit, vidit et Patrem; quod hic Philippo dicebatur, quando videbat, et non videbat. Sequitur enim huius visionis eximius concupitor Ambrosius, dicens: "Et cum absens putatur, videtur; et cum praesens est, non videtur". Non dixit: Cum absens est; sed, "cum absens putatur": nusquam enim absens est qui coelum et terram implet; nec spatiis includitur parvis, magnisve diffunditur, sed ubique totus est, et nullo continetur loco. Hoc qui excedente mente intellegit, videt Deum, et cum absens putatur. Qui autem hoc non potest, oret et agat ut posse mereatur; nec ad hominem disputatorem pulset, ut quod non legit legat, sed ad Deum Salvatorem, ut quod non valet valeat. Unde autem dixerit, "et cum praesens est non videtur", consequenter aperuit, dicens: "Denique nec Apostoli omnes Christum videbant; et ideo ait: "Tanto tempore vobiscum sum, et adhuc me non cognovistis? " Ecce quomodo Deus praesens erat et non videbatur.
12. 29. But again, lest our desire should pass over from a bodily sense to another bodily sense, that is, from the eyes to the ears, therefore, when he had said, "Nor is God sought with bodily eyes, nor circumscribed by sight, nor held by touch," he added also, "nor heard by address": so that, if we can, we may understand the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, to make him known in the way he is also the Word—not a sound striking upon the ears, but an image becoming known to minds—so that there, by an inner and ineffable light, what was said may grow clear: Whoever has seen me has seen the Father also (Jn 14:9)—which was here said to Philip, when he saw and yet did not see. For the outstanding desirer of this vision, Ambrose, continues, saying: "And when he is thought absent, he is seen; and when he is present, he is not seen." He did not say, When he is absent, but, "when he is thought absent"; for he is nowhere absent who fills heaven and earth, nor is he enclosed in small spaces or diffused over great ones, but everywhere he is whole, and is contained by no place. He who understands this with a mind that surpasses itself sees God, even when he is thought absent. But he who cannot do this, let him pray and act that he may merit to be able; nor let him knock at a man, a disputant, that he may read what he has not read, but at God the Savior, that he may be able what he is not able. But as to why he said, "and when he is present, he is not seen," he opened it up consequently, saying: "Finally, not even all the apostles saw Christ; and therefore he says: Have I been with you so long a time, and you still have not known me? (Jn 14:9)" Behold how God was present and was not seen.
Ep100-155.12.2912. 30. Sed quare non ausus est dicere, Denique nec Apostoli Christum videbant, sed ait, "nec Apostoli omnes", tamquam aliqui tunc viderent ea visione in qua ipse et Pater unum sunt? An forte illud attendit quod cum Petrus dixisset: Tu es Christus Filius Dei vivi; responsum accepit: Beatus es Simon Bar Iona, quia non tibi revelavit caro et sanguis, sed Pater meus qui in coelis est ? quamvis illa revelatio utrum per fidem tantae rei creditae, an per visionem conspectae facta in eius mente fuerit, non mihi videatur elucere; cum et ipse Petrus tam parvulum se adhuc illi ostenderit, ut timeret ne amitteret morientem, quem Filium Dei vivi, hoc est vitae fontem fuerat paulo ante confessus.
12. 30. But why did he not dare to say, Finally, not even the apostles saw Christ, but said, "not even all the apostles," as though some of them then saw him with that vision in which he and the Father are one? Or did he perhaps attend to this, that when Peter had said, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God (Matt 16:16), he received the answer: Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona, because flesh and blood has not revealed it to you, but my Father who is in heaven (Matt 16:17)? Although whether that revelation came about in his mind through faith in so great a thing believed, or through a vision of it beheld, does not seem clear to me; since Peter himself showed himself still so very small toward him that he feared lest he lose him as he was dying, whom a little before he had confessed to be the Son of the living God, that is, the fountain of life.
Ep100-155.12.3013. 31. Deinde potest movere quomodo iam ipsa Dei substantia videri potuerit a quibusdam in hac vita positis, propter illud quod dictum est ad Moysen: Nemo potest faciem meam videre, et vivere: nisi quia potest humana mens divinitus rapi ex hac vita ad angelicam vitam, antequam per istam communem mortem carne solvatur. Sic enim raptus est qui audivit illic ineffabilia verba quae non licet homini loqui: ubi usque adeo facta est ab huius vitae sensibus quaedam intentionis aversio, ut sive in corpore, sive extra corpus fuerit, id est, utrum, sicut solet in assisterent vehementiori ecstasi, mens ab hac vita in illam vitam fuerit alienata, manente corporis vinculo, an omnino resolutio facta fuerit, qualis in plena morte contingit, nescire se diceret. Ita fit ut et illud verum sit, quod dictum est: Nemo potest faciem meam videre, et vivere; quia necesse est abstrahi ab hac vita mentem, quando in illius ineffabilitatem visionis assumitur; et non sit incredibile quibusdam sanctis nondum ita defunctis, ut sepelienda cadavera remanerent, etiam istam excellentiam revelationis fuisse concessam. Quod existimo cogitasse illum qui noluit dicere, Nec Apostoli Christum videbant; sed ait: "nec Apostoli omnes Christum videbant": credens quibusdam eorum divinitatis quoque ipsius visionem de qua loquebatur, etiam tunc potuisse donari; certe propter beatum Paulum, quia et ipse quamvis novissimus, utique apostolus erat, qui de sua illa ineffabili revelatione non tacuit.
13. 31. Then it can raise a difficulty how the very substance of God could be seen by certain people placed in this life, on account of what was said to Moses: No one can see my face and live (See Exod 33:20)—except that the human mind can be divinely caught up from this life to the angelic life before it is loosed from the flesh by this common death. For thus was he caught up who heard there ineffable words which it is not lawful for a man to utter (See 2 Cor 12:4); in whom there came about so great a turning away of attention from the senses of this life that, whether he was in the body or out of the body—that is, whether, as is wont to happen in a more vehement ecstasy, his mind was estranged from this life into that life while the bond of the body remained, or whether the loosing had altogether taken place, such as happens in full death—he said he did not know (See 2 Cor 12:2-3). Thus it comes about both that what was said is true: No one can see my face and live—since the mind must necessarily be drawn away from this life when it is taken up into the ineffability of that vision—and that it is not incredible that to certain saints, not yet so dead that their corpses remained to be buried, this excellence of revelation too was granted. This I think the one had in mind who did not wish to say, Not even the apostles saw Christ, but said: "not even all the apostles saw Christ"—believing that to some of them the vision even of that divinity itself, of which he was speaking, could even then be granted; certainly on account of the blessed Paul, since he too, although last, was certainly an apostle, who did not keep silent about that ineffable revelation of his.
Ep100-155.13.3113. 32. Quamquam et illi fidelissimo antiquo famulo Dei Moysi, mirum nisi in hac terra laboraturo, populumque illum adhuc recturo, concessum est quod petivit, ut claritatem Domini videret, qui dixerat: Si inveni gratiam ante te, ostende mihi temetipsum manifeste. Accepit enim in praesentia congruum responsum, quod faciem Dei videre non posset, quam nemo videret, et viveret; hoc modo significante Deo alterius potioris vitae illam esse visionem. Deinde in verbis Dei, futurae Christi Ecclesiae mysterium figuratum est. Gestavit quippe Moyses typum populi Iudaeorum, in Christum passum postea credituri; ideo dictum est illi: Cum transiero, posteriora mea videbis: et caetera quae ibi dicuntur, mirabili sacramento praenuntiant Ecclesiam post futuram, unde modo longum est disputare. Quod autem dicere institueram, desiderio eius etiam illud quod petierat, fuisse concessum, in libro Numerorum postea demonstratum est; ubi Dominus arguit contumaciam sororis ipsius, et dicit aliis Prophetis in visione se apparere et in somno, Moysi autem per speciem, non per aenigmata: ubi etiam addidit dicens: Et gloriam Domini vidit. Quid ergo est quod eum sic fecit exceptum, nisi forte quia illa contemplatione dignum etiam tunc habuit populi sui talem rectorem, et ministrum in tota domo sua fidelem, ut quemadmodum concupiverat, videret Deum sicuti est; quae contemplatio cunctis filiis in fine promittitur?
13. 32. And yet to that most faithful old servant of God, Moses—who, strange to say, was still to labor in this land and still to govern that people—was granted what he asked, that he might see the glory of the Lord, he who had said: If I have found grace before you, show me yourself manifestly (See Exod 33:13, 18). For he received for the present a fitting answer, that he could not see the face of God, which no one could see and live; God in this way signifying that this vision belongs to another, better life. Then in the words of God the mystery of the future Church of Christ was figured. For Moses bore the type of the Jewish people, who would afterward believe in Christ who suffered; therefore it was said to him: When I pass by, you shall see my back parts (Exod 33:23); and the other things said there foreshadow, by a marvelous sacrament, the Church that would come after, on which it would now be long to discourse. But what I had set out to say, that even what he had asked was granted to his desire, was afterward shown in the book of Numbers; where the Lord rebukes the obstinacy of his sister, and says that to other prophets he appears in a vision and in a dream, but to Moses through a form, not through riddles (See Num 12:6-8); where he also added, saying: And he saw the glory of the Lord (Num 12:8). What, then, is it that made him so excepted, unless perhaps because he held even then such a ruler of his people, and a servant faithful in his whole house, worthy of that contemplation, so that, as he had longed, he might see God as he is—the contemplation that is promised to all the sons at the end?
Ep100-155.13.3214. 33. Ista credo considerans vir ille sanctus cuius verba tractamus, "nec Apostoli, inquit, omnes Christum videbant", quoniam forte aliqui eorum etiam ipso tempore viderant, secundum ista quae dixi. Ut autem probaret quod dixit, quia non omnes videbant, continuo subiecit: "Et ideo ait: Tanto tempore vobiscum sum et adhuc me non cognovistis? " Deinde subiungens a qualibus Deus videatur illa contemplatione sicuti est: "Qui enim cognovit, inquit, quae sit latitudo, et longitudo, et altitudo, et profundum, et supereminentem scientiae caritatem Christi, vidit et Christum, vidit et Patrem".
14. 33. Considering these things, I believe, that holy man whose words we are treating said, "not even all the apostles saw Christ," because perhaps some of them had seen him even at that time, according to what I have said. But to prove what he said, that not all saw him, he immediately added: "And therefore he says: Have I been with you so long a time, and you still have not known me? (Jn 14:9)" Then, adding by what sort of people God is seen with that contemplation as he is: "For he," he says, "who has known what is the breadth, and length, and height, and depth, and the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, has seen Christ also, has seen the Father also."
Ep100-155.14.3314. 34. Ego haec verba apostoli Pauli sic intellegere soleo: in latitudine, bona opera caritatis; in longitudine, perseverantiam usque in finem; in altitudine, spem coelestium praemiorum; in profundo, inscrutabilia iudicia Dei, unde ista gratia in homines venit: et hunc intellectum coaptare etiam sacramento crucis; ut in latitudine accipiatur transversum lignum quo extenduntur manus, propter operum significationem; in longitudine, ab ipso usque in terram, ubi totum corpus crucifixum stare videtur, quod significat persistere, hoc est longanimiter permanere; in altitudine, ab ipso transverso ligno sursum versus quod ad caput eminet, propter exspectationem supernorum, ne illa bona opera atque in eis perseverantia, propter beneficia Dei terrena atque temporalia, facienda credantur, sed potius propter illud quod desuper sempiternum sperat fides, quae per dilectionem operatur; in profundo autem, pars illa ligni quae in terrae abdito defixa latet, sed inde consurgit omne illud quod eminet, sicut ex occulta Dei voluntate vocatur homo ad participationem tantae gratiae, alius sic, alius autem sic; supereminentem vero scientiae caritatem Christi, eam profecto ubi illa est pax quae praecellit omnem intellectum. Sed sive hoc in illis apostolicis verbis etiam ille senserit evangelicus disputator, sive aliud aliquid fortasse congruentius; vides tamen etiam hoc, ni fallor, a regula fidei non abhorrere.
14. 34. I am wont to understand these words of the apostle Paul thus: in the breadth, the good works of love; in the length, perseverance to the end; in the height, the hope of heavenly rewards; in the depth, the inscrutable judgments of God, from which this grace comes to men; and to fit this understanding also to the sacrament of the cross, so that in the breadth is taken the transverse beam by which the hands are stretched out, on account of the signification of works; in the length, from that beam down to the earth, where the whole crucified body is seen to stand, which signifies to persist, that is, to remain with long-suffering; in the height, from the transverse beam upward to what projects toward the head, on account of the expectation of things above—lest those good works and perseverance in them be thought to be done for the sake of God's earthly and temporal benefits, but rather for the sake of that everlasting thing which faith, which works through love, hopes for from above; in the depth, however, that part of the wood which lies hidden, fixed in the secret of the earth, but from which rises up all that projects above, just as from the hidden will of God a man is called to a share in so great a grace, one in this way, another in that. As for the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that surely is where that peace is which surpasses all understanding (See Phil 4:7). But whether that evangelical disputant also meant this in those apostolic words, or perhaps something else more fitting, you see nonetheless that this too, unless I am mistaken, does not depart from the rule of faith.
Ep100-155.14.3414. 35. Unde autem nunc agimus propter contuitum spiritalem, cum dixisset: "Qui cognovit quae sit latitudo, et longitudo, et altitudo, et profundum, et supereminentem scientiae caritatem Christi, vidit et Christum, vidit et Patrem"; ne alicui tardissimo de corporali visione dicere videretur: "Nos enim, inquit, iam secundum carnem non novimus Christum, sed secundum spiritum. Spiritus enim ante faciem nostram Christus Dominus ". Quod ait hoc loco, novimus, secundum fidem dixit, quae nunc est; non secundum contemplationem, quae tunc erit: quia et illud novimus quidquid fide non ficta, etiamsi nondum per speciem contuendo, iam tamen inconcusse credendo retinemus. Denique cum dixisset, iam non se secundum carnem Christum nosse, sicut Apostolus ait; et addidisset testimonium de propheta: Spiritus enim ante faciem nostram Christus Dominus, continuo subiecit: "Qui nos in omnem plenitudinem Dei misericordia sua implere dignetur, ut videri possit a nobis". Certe manifestum est quod illam notitiam, ubi dixerat, "novimus", ex fide posuit, ex qua modo iustus vivit; non ex contemplatione, qua Deum videbimus sicuti est. Hanc enim sibi et nobis consequenter optavit, futuramque significavit, dicendo: "Qui nos in omnem plenitudinem Dei misericordia sua implere dignetur, ut videri possit a nobis".
14. 35. But to the matter we are now treating, on account of the spiritual gaze: when he had said, "He who has known what is the breadth, and length, and height, and depth, and the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, has seen Christ also, has seen the Father also," lest to anyone most dull he seem to speak of bodily vision, he says: "For we now no longer know Christ according to the flesh, but according to the spirit. For Christ the Lord is a Spirit before our face." What he says in this place, we know, he said according to the faith which is now; not according to the contemplation which will then be: for we know also that thing, whatever we hold by faith unfeigned, even if not yet by beholding through a form, yet already by believing unshakenly. Finally, when he had said that he no longer knows Christ according to the flesh, as the Apostle says, and had added the testimony from the prophet, For Christ the Lord is a Spirit before our face, he immediately added: "who in his mercy may deign to fill us unto all the fullness of God, that he may be able to be seen by us." Certainly it is manifest that he set down that knowledge, where he had said "we know," from faith, by which the righteous man now lives; not from the contemplation by which we shall see God as he is. For he wished this consequently for himself and for us, and signified it to be future, by saying: "who in his mercy may deign to fill us unto all the fullness of God, that he may be able to be seen by us."
Ep100-155.14.3515. 36. Hanc plenitudinem Dei quidam in sermone Apostoli sic intellexerunt, ut putarent nos hoc futuros omnino quod Deus est. Haec enim verba, sicut recognoscis, Apostolus posuit ita loquens: Cognoscere etiam supereminentem scientiae caritatem Christi, ut impleamini in omnem plenitudinem Dei. Quapropter, inquiunt, si aliquid minus quam Deus habebimus, et in aliquo minores erimus, quomodo implebimur in omnem plenitudinem Dei? sed quoniam implebimur, profecto erimus aequales. Aversaris istum utique et detestaris humanae mentis errorem, scio, et recte facis. Sed quomodo intellegenda sit ista plenitudo, qua dictum est implendos nos esse in omnem plenitudinem Dei, postea. si Deus voluerit, pro viribus quas dederit, disseremus.
15. 36. This fullness of God certain people understood in the Apostle's words in such a way that they thought we would become altogether what God is. For these words, as you recognize, the Apostle set down, speaking thus: To know also the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled unto all the fullness of God (Eph 3:19). Therefore, they say, if we shall have anything less than God, and shall be in anything less than he, how shall we be filled unto all the fullness of God? But since we shall be filled, surely we shall be equal. You certainly turn away from and detest this error of the human mind, I know, and you do rightly. But how that fullness is to be understood, by which it was said that we are to be filled unto all the fullness of God, we shall afterward discuss, if God will, according to the powers he gives.
Ep100-155.15.3615. 37. Nunc autem quod mihi proposueras, et ad explicandum difficile videbatur, utrum explicatum sit, diligenter attende recolendo quae dicta sunt. Si enim quaeris utrum possit Deus videri; respondeo: potest. Si quaeris unde sciam; respondeo: quia in veracissima Scriptura legitur: Beati mundo corde; quoniam ipsi Deum videbunt; et caetera talia. Si quaeris quomodo dictus sit invisibilis, si videri potest; respondeo invisibilem esse natura, videri autem cum vult, sicut vult: plurimis enim visus est, non sicuti est, sed quali specie illi placuit apparere. Si quaeris quomodo eum vidit vel Cain sceleratus, quando de suo scelere ab illo interrogatus et iudicatus est; vel etiam ipse diabolus, quando venit cum Angelis, ut coram illo assisteret, si beati mundi cordes, quoniam ipsi Deum videbunt; respondeo non quidem esse consequens ut etiam videant Deum, qui voces ab eo factas aliquando audiunt; neque enim viderunt eum, qui audierunt quando dixit ad Filium: Et clarificavi, et clarificabo iterum: verumtamen non esse mirandum, si aliqui etiam non mundi corde vident Deum in specie quam voluntas eius fecerit, latente invisibili et apud se incommutabili manente natura. Si quaeris utrum etiam sicuti est possit aliquando videri; respondeo, filiis hoc esse promissum, de quibus dictum est: Scimus quia cum apparuerit, similes ei erimus; quoniam videbimus eum sicuti est. Si quaeris unde eum videbimus; respondeo: unde Angeli vident, quibus tunc erimus aequales. Sicut enim videntur ista quae visibilia nominantur, Deum nemo vidit umquam, nec videre potest, quoniam lucem habitat inaccessibilem, et est natura invisibilis sicut incorruptibilis: quae contextim posuit Apostolus dicens: Regi autem saeculorum invisibili, incorruptibili; quia sicut nunc incorruptibilis, nec postea corruptibilis, ita non solum nunc, sed etiam semper invisibilis. Nec in loco enim videtur, sed mundo corde: nec corporalibus oculis quaeritur, nec circumscribitur visu, nec tactu tenetur, nec auditur affatu, nec sentitur incessu. Unigenitus autem Filius, qui est in sinu Patris, deitatis naturam atque substantiam insonabiliter narrat, et ideo dignis idoneisque tanto conspectu oculis etiam invisibiliter monstrat. Ipsi enim sunt oculi, de quibus Apostolus dicit, illuminatos oculos cordis vestri. Et de quibus dicitur: Illumina oculos meos, ne umquam obdormiam in morte. Dominus enim spiritus est: unde qui adhaeret Domino unus spiritus est. Proinde qui potest Deum invisibiliter videre, ipse Deo potest incorporaliter adhaerere.
15. 37. But now attend diligently, by recalling what has been said, to whether what you had set before me, and which seemed difficult to explain, has been explained. For if you ask whether God can be seen, I answer: he can. If you ask how I know, I answer: because it is read in the most truthful Scripture, Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God (Matt 5:8), and other such things. If you ask how he was called invisible, if he can be seen, I answer that he is invisible by nature, but is seen when he wills, as he wills; for he was seen by very many, not as he is, but in whatever form it pleased him to appear. If you ask how even Cain the criminal saw him, when he was questioned and judged by him about his crime, or even the devil himself, when he came with the angels to stand before him, if the pure in heart shall see God, I answer that it does not indeed follow that those also see God who at some time hear voices made by him; for they did not see him who heard when he said to the Son, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again (Jn 12:28); nevertheless it is not to be wondered at if some even not pure in heart see God in a form which his will has made, his invisible and in itself unchangeable nature lying hidden. If you ask whether he can also at some time be seen as he is, I answer that this is promised to the sons, of whom it was said: We know that when he appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is (1 Jn 3:2). If you ask whence we shall see him, I answer: whence the angels see him, to whom we shall then be equal. For just as these things which are called visible are seen, no one has ever seen God (Jn 1:18), nor can see him, since he dwells in unapproachable light (1 Tim 6:16), and is by nature invisible as he is incorruptible—which the Apostle set down together, saying: to the King of the ages, invisible, incorruptible (1 Tim 1:17); for as he is incorruptible now and not afterward corruptible, so he is invisible not only now but also always. For neither is he seen in a place, but in a pure heart; nor sought with bodily eyes, nor circumscribed by sight, nor held by touch, nor heard by address, nor perceived by his coming. But the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, soundlessly makes known the nature and substance of the deity, and therefore shows it, even invisibly, to eyes worthy and fit for so great a sight. For these are the eyes of which the Apostle says, the eyes of your heart enlightened (Eph 1:18); and of which it is said: Enlighten my eyes, lest I ever fall asleep in death (Ps 13:3 (12:4)). For the Lord is a Spirit (2 Cor 3:17); whence he who cleaves to the Lord is one spirit (1 Cor 6:17). Accordingly, he who can see God invisibly, he himself can cleave to God incorporeally.
Ep100-155.15.3716. 38. Puto iam non esse in quaestione quam proposuisti, amplius quod requiras. Sed in hac tota nostra disputatione considera quid videris, quid credideris; quid adhuc nescias, sive quia non dixi, sive quia non intellexisti, sive quia non iudicasti esse credendum. Et ea quae vera esse vidisti, adhuc discerne unde videris: utrum recolendo illa te vidisse per corpus, sicut corpora coelestia vel terrestria; an vero numquam corporalibus ea attigeris visibus, sed sola mente intuens, vera et certa esse perspexeris, sicut voluntatem tuam, de qua ego tibi credere loquenti possum, eam vero, ut abs te videtur, videre ipse non possum. Et cum haec utraque discreveris, etiam id attende unde discernas. Quamvis enim alia corpore, alia mente videamus; horum tamen duorum generum ipsa discretio videtur mente, non corpore; et ea quae mente conspiciuntur, non indigent ullo corporis sensu, ut ea vera esse noverimus. Quae autem per corpus videntur, nisi mens adsit quae talia nuntiata suscipiat, nulla possunt scientia contineri; et quae nuntiata quasi suscipere perhibetur, foris ea relinquit. Sed eorum imagines, id est, incorporeas similitudines corporum, incorporaliter commendat memoriae; unde cum voluerit et potuerit, velut de custodia productas atque in conspectum cogitationis exhibitas iudicet. Et cum valet, etiam ista duo discernit, quid in specie corporali foris reliquerit, quid eius simile intus aspiciat; et illud absens, hoc praesens esse dignoscit: sicut me absente faciem mei corporis cogitas, et illa tibi est imago praesens, absens autem facies cuius imago est; et haec corpus, illa vero incorporea corporis similitudo est.
16. 38. I think there is now nothing further in the question you proposed for you to require. But in this whole discussion of ours, consider what you have seen, what you have believed; what you still do not know, whether because I have not said it, or because you have not understood it, or because you have not judged it to be believed. And as for those things which you have seen to be true, still distinguish whence you have seen them: whether by recalling that you saw them through the body, like heavenly or earthly bodies; or whether you have never touched them with bodily sights, but, beholding them by the mind alone, have perceived them to be true and certain, like your own will, about which I can believe you when you speak, but which I myself cannot see as it is seen by you. And when you have distinguished both these, attend also to whence you distinguish them. For although we see some things by the body, others by the mind, yet the very distinction of these two kinds is seen by the mind, not by the body; and the things which are beheld by the mind do not need any sense of the body in order that we may know them to be true. But the things which are seen through the body, unless the mind is present to take up such things reported, can be held by no knowledge; and what it is said as it were to take up when reported, it leaves outside. But it incorporeally commends their images, that is, the incorporeal likenesses of bodies, to the memory; whence, when it has willed and been able, it may judge them, as if brought forth from custody and presented to the gaze of thought. And when it is strong enough, it distinguishes even these two: what it has left outside in the bodily form, and what likeness of it it beholds within; and it discerns the former to be absent, the latter present: just as, in my absence, you think of the face of my body, and that image is present to you, but the face of which it is the image is absent; and the latter is a body, but the former an incorporeal likeness of a body.
Ep100-155.16.3816. 39. Iis ergo quae vides, diligenter fidenterque perspectis atque distinctis, attende quae credis in hoc ipso sermone toto, ex quo ad te loqui his litteris coepi; et in eis ipsis quibus non visis accommodas fidem, ipsa testium pondera discernendo perpende. Neque enim mihi sic credis quemadmodum Ambrosio, de cuius libris tanta illa testimonia posui. Aut si ambobus nobis aequa lance putas esse credendum, numquid ullo modo Evangelio nos comparabis, aut scripta nostra Scripturis canonicis coaequabis? Profecto si recte in diiudicando sapis, longe nos infra vides ab illa auctoritate distare. Et me quidem longius, sed utrique nostrum quantumlibet credas, utrumque illi excellentiae nequaquam comparas. Quocirca, id quod scriptum est: Deum nemo vidit umquam; et: Lucem habitat inaccessibilem; quem nemo hominum vidit, nec videre potest; et: Beati mundo corde, quoniam ipsi Deum videbunt; et quidquid aliud ex illis Libris sanctis commemoravi, firmius credis quam id quod dixit Ambrosius: "Nec in loco Deus videtur, nec corporalibus oculis quaeritur, nec circumscribitur visu, nec tactu tenetur, nec auditur affatu, nec sentitur incessu". Talem quippe esse vel intellexit vel credidit Deum, qui mundo corde conspicitur: hanc autem etiam meam sententiam esse confiteor.
16. 39. Having, then, diligently and confidently perceived and distinguished the things you see, attend to what you believe in this whole discourse, from the point at which I began to speak to you by this letter; and in those very things to which, unseen, you lend faith, weigh by distinguishing the very weights of the witnesses. For you do not believe me in the same way as Ambrose, from whose books I have set down those great testimonies. Or if you think both of us are to be believed with an equal balance, will you in any way compare us to the Gospel, or make our writings equal to the canonical Scriptures? Surely, if you are rightly wise in judging, you see that we stand far below that authority. And me indeed further below; but however much you believe either of us, you in no way compare either to that excellence. Wherefore, what is written: No one has ever seen God (Jn 1:18); and: He dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen, nor can see (1 Tim 6:16); and: Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God (Matt 5:8); and whatever else I have recalled from those holy books, you believe more firmly than what Ambrose said: "Nor is God seen in a place, nor sought with bodily eyes, nor circumscribed by sight, nor held by touch, nor heard by address, nor perceived by his coming." For such he either understood or believed God to be, who is beheld with a pure heart; and I confess that this is also my own view.
Ep100-155.16.3916. 40. Aliter ergo ista, aliter illa divina verba in fide recipis. De nobis enim tibi subest fortasse aliquis scrupulus, ne in his divinis eloquiis aliquid minus dilucide intellegamus, et non sicut dicta sunt, sed sicut suspicamur, exponantur a nobis. Forte enim dicis apud teipsam: Quid. si et mundo corde videtur Deus, et in loco tamen videtur? aut, Quid, si oculis etiam corporalibus Deum videbunt qui mundo sunt corde, cum corruptibile hoc induerit incorruptionem, quando erimus aequales Angelis Dei? Quantum ergo nobis credere debeas, vel non debeas, fortassis ignoras; et vel plus vel minus quam debes nobis credendo, ne fallaris attendis: divinis autem Scripturis, etiam nondum perspicue intellectis, credendum esse non dubitas. Sed hanc considerationem credendi vel non credendi, et difficultatem scientiae, et dubitationis aestus, et piam fidem quae divinis debetur affatibus, in tua mente, ita ut sunt, attendis et vides: nec de his omnino quod apud te ita sint, sive ut ego dixi, sive ut ipsa potius nosti, aliquid ambigis. Vides itaque fidem tuam, vides dubitationem tuam, vides studium tuum voluntatemque discendi; et cum auctoritate divina movearis ad credenda quae non vides, haec te tamen credere incunctanter vides: distribuis et discernis haec omnia.
16. 40. You receive in faith, then, those divine words in one way, these of ours in another. For about us there is perhaps some scruple in you, lest in these divine utterances we understand something less clearly, and they be expounded by us not as they were said, but as we surmise. For perhaps you say within yourself: What if God is both seen with a pure heart and yet seen in a place? Or, What if those who are pure in heart shall see God even with bodily eyes, when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, when we shall be equal to the angels of God? How much, then, you ought to believe us, or ought not, you perhaps do not know; and by believing us either more or less than you ought, you take heed lest you be deceived: but you do not doubt that the divine Scriptures, even when not yet clearly understood, are to be believed. But this consideration of believing or not believing, and the difficulty of knowledge, and the surges of doubt, and the devout faith owed to divine utterances—these you attend to and see in your mind, just as they are; nor do you at all hesitate about these, that they are so within you, whether as I have said, or rather as you yourself know them. You see, then, your faith, you see your doubt, you see your zeal and will to learn; and although you are moved by divine authority to believe what you do not see, you nonetheless see that you believe these things without hesitation: you distribute and distinguish all these.
Ep100-155.16.4017. 41. Num ergo iis oculis cordis tui, quibus haec omnia vera et certa esse contueris, tibique praesentia invisibiliter cernis atque discernis, ullo modo corporeos oculos comparabis? cum etiam de ipsis rebus visibilibus quae corporalium oculorum acie quodammodo radiantur, et de ipsis corporeis oculis eorumque acie, qualiscumque et quantacumque sit, quantum distet ab invisibilibus, non excellentioribus, quibus etiam non visis fidem debes, sed ab iis quae commemoravi, quae non credis absentia, sed praesentia mente contueris, non iisdem ipsis carnis oculis, sed illis interioribus iudices. Cum ergo interiores oculi iudices sivi oculorum exteriorum, isti autem illis quodam officio nuntiandi et ministerio famulentur, multaque illi videant quae isti non vident, nihil isti videant, unde non illi tamquam praesides iudicent; quis non illos istis incomparabili aestimatione praeponat?
17. 41. Will you, then, in any way compare bodily eyes to those eyes of your heart, by which you behold all these things to be true and certain, and by which you discern and distinguish things present to you invisibly? Since even concerning visible things themselves, which are as it were irradiated by the keenness of the bodily eyes, and concerning the bodily eyes themselves and their keenness, of whatever sort and however great it be, how far it stands distant from invisible things—not the more excellent ones, to which, even unseen, you owe faith, but from those I have recalled, which you do not believe as absent but behold as present by the mind—you would judge not by those same eyes of the flesh, but by those inner ones. Since, then, the inner eyes are the judges of the outer eyes, while the latter serve the former by a certain office of reporting and ministry, and the former see many things which the latter do not see, but the latter see nothing over which the former do not preside as judges, who would not place the former before the latter by an incomparable estimation?
Ep100-155.17.4117. 42. Quae cum ita sint, obsecro te, cum agitur in teipsa hoc tam grande negotium; cum ab exterioribus interiora distinguis, atque illa istis ineffabiliter anteponis; cumque istis foris relictis, in illis intrinsecus demoraris, et ea suis quibusdam incorporalibus finibus metiendo iudicas, in nulla te putas, an in aliqua luce versari? Ego enim existimo quod tanta tibi et talia, tam vera, tam clara, tam certa videri sine luce non possunt. Ipsam igitur lucem in qua cuncta illa perspicis, intuere; et vide utrum ad eam possit accedere ullus corporeorum radius oculorum: profecto non potest. Attende etiam; et utrum in ea videas ulla locorum spatia vel intervalla, responde. Nihil ibi tale, ut arbitror, invenis, si vigilanter abigis ab aspectu intimo quidquid imaginum corporalium exterioris hominis sensus invexit: sed forte difficile est. Irruit enim de consuetudine carnalis vitae, in ipsos quoque interiores oculos turba phantasmatum in similitudinibus corporum: cui resistere conatus, saltem auctoritate divina exclamavi, dolens in illa brevi epistola, et dixi: "Audiat caro carnalibus cogitationibus ebria, Spiritus est Deus". Neque enim cuiusquam magis quam etiam ipsam meam mentem ab huiusmodi vanitate, illa increpatione compescui. Facilius quippe inclinamur ad solita, et amicum est infirmitati humanae animae corporalem conversationem introrsus vel mittere vel admittere, non ubi sana consistat, sed ubi languida quodammodo aut incumbat aut iaceat.
17. 42. Since this is so, I beseech you: when this so great business is transacted within yourself; when you distinguish inner things from outer, and ineffably set the former before the latter; and when, leaving the latter outside, you linger inwardly among the former, and judge them by measuring them by certain incorporeal bounds of their own—do you think you are engaged in no light, or in some light? For I judge that things so great and such, so true, so clear, so certain, cannot be seen by you without light. Behold, then, that very light in which you perceive all those things, and see whether any ray of bodily eyes can approach it: surely it cannot. Attend also, and answer whether in it you see any spaces or intervals of places. You find nothing such there, I think, if you vigilantly drive away from your inmost gaze whatever images of bodies the senses of the outer man have brought in—but perhaps this is difficult. For from the habit of carnal life there rushes in, upon the inner eyes themselves, a throng of phantasms in the likenesses of bodies; striving to resist which, I cried out, at least by divine authority, grieving in that brief letter, and said: "Let the flesh, drunk with carnal thoughts, hear: God is a Spirit (Jn 4:24)." For I curbed no one's mind more than my very own from vanity of this kind by that rebuke. For we are more easily inclined to accustomed things, and it is friendly to the weakness of the human soul to send or admit bodily conversation within, not where it may stand sound, but where it may in a manner lean or lie languid.
Ep100-155.17.4217. 43. Proinde si non potes aciem mentis tuae a corporearum similitudinum quasi nubilo perspicue serenare, eas ipsas apud teipsam vigilanter attende: intuere coelum et terram cogitando, sicut oculis corporeis cernendo consuesti; easque imagines coeli et terrae quae ante oculos cogitationis productae sunt, vide similitudines corporum esse, non corpora. Sic ergo iudica contra teipsam pro teipsa, si non potes omnifariam corporalium qualitatum imaginarias formas ab acie tuae mentis abigere; et unde vinceris, inde convince. Neque enim est, ut opinor, quisquam etiam talibus imaginationibus ita deditus, ut credat sic esse in memoria sua, vel in ipso conspectu cogitationis suae, solem, lunam, stellas, amnes, maria, montes, colles, urbes, parietes denique domus suae, vel etiam cubiculi sui, et quidquid per oculos corporis tale cognovit et tenet, ut locorum spatiis atque intervallis sive stent, sive moveantur. Porro si ea quae in animo nostro sunt corporibus locisque simillima, non tamen locorum spatiis atque finibus continentur, nec intervallis localibus in nostra memoria reponuntur; quanto magis illa quae nullam gerunt similitudinem corporum, caritas, gaudium, longanimitas, pax, benignitas, bonitas, fides, mansuetudo, continentia, nulla locorum spatia tenent, nulla intercapedine separantur, aut aliqua oculi cordis, quo radios suos mittant et ea videant, intervalla conquirunt! Nonne omnia in uno sunt sine angustia, et suis terminis nota sunt, sine circuitu regionum? Aut dic in quo loco videas caritatem; quae tamen in tantum tibi cognita est, in quantum eam potes mentis acie contueri: quam non ideo magnam nosti, quia ingentem aliquam molem conspiciendo lustrasti; nec cum tibi intus loquitur, ut secundum eam vivas, ullis perstrepit sonis; nec ut eam cernas, corporalium lumen erigis oculorum; nec ut eam fortiter teneas, corporalium vires praeparas lacertorum; nec cum tibi venit in mentem, sentis eius incessum.
17. 43. Accordingly, if you cannot clearly clear the keenness of your mind, as it were, from the cloud of bodily likenesses, attend to those very likenesses vigilantly within yourself: behold heaven and earth by thinking of them, as you are accustomed to discern them with bodily eyes; and see that those images of heaven and earth, brought before the eyes of thought, are likenesses of bodies, not bodies. Judge, then, in this way against yourself for yourself, if you cannot in every way drive the imaginary forms of bodily qualities from the keenness of your mind; and from the very thing by which you are conquered, conquer. For there is no one, I think, even so given over to such imaginations as to believe that there are in his memory, or in the very gaze of his thought, the sun, moon, stars, rivers, seas, mountains, hills, cities, the very walls of his house, or even of his bedroom, and whatever such thing he has come to know and holds through the eyes of the body, in such a way that they either stand or move in spaces and intervals of places. Further, if the things in our mind which are most like bodies and places are nonetheless not contained by spaces and bounds of places, nor stored in our memory by local intervals, how much more do those things which bear no likeness of bodies—love, joy, long-suffering, peace, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, continence (See Gal 5:22-23)—hold no spaces of places, are separated by no gap, nor require any intervals of the eye of the heart through which to send its rays and see them! Are they not all in one without crowding, and known by their own bounds, without a circuit of regions? Or tell me in what place you see love; which, however, is known to you in just so far as you can behold it with the keenness of the mind: which you do not know to be great because you have surveyed by beholding some huge mass; nor, when it speaks to you within, that you may live according to it, does it resound with any sounds; nor, that you may discern it, do you raise the light of bodily eyes; nor, that you may hold it firmly, do you prepare the strength of bodily arms; nor, when it comes into your mind, do you perceive its coming.
Ep100-155.17.4317. 44. Ecce etiam caritas quantulacumque in nostra voluntate consistit, nobisque conspicua est, nec in loco videtur, nec corporalibus oculis quaeritur, nec circumscribitur visu, nec tactu tenetur, nec auditur affatu, nec sentitur incessu: quanto magis Deus ipse, cuius hoc pignus in nobis est! Nam si interior homo noster, quantulacumque imago eius, non de illo genita, sed ab illo creata, quamvis adhuc renovetur de die in diem, iam tamen in tali luce habitat, quo nullus oculorum corporalium sensus accedit; si ea quae in illa luce cordis oculis intuemur, et discernuntur inter se, et nullis locorum spatiis separantur: quanto magis Deus, qui lucem habitat inaccessibilem, corporis sensibus, quo nec ipsius nisi mundi potest esse cordis accessus! Cum igitur lucem istam omni corporali luci, non solum iudicio rationis, sed amoris quoque appetitu praeposuerimus; quanto id magis valebimus, tanto melius valebimus, donec sanentur omnes languores animae nostrae ab illo qui propitius fit omnibus iniquitatibus nostris. In hac enim vivaciore vita facti spiritales, poterimus omnia diiudicare; ipsi vero a nemine diiudicari. Animalis autem homo non percipit quae sunt spiritus Dei: stultitia enim est illi; et non potest scire, quoniam spiritaliter diiudicatur.
17. 44. Behold, even love, however small, resides in our will and is plain to us, yet is neither seen in a place, nor sought with bodily eyes, nor circumscribed by sight, nor held by touch, nor heard by address, nor perceived by its coming: how much more God himself, whose pledge this is in us! For if our inner man, however small an image of him—not begotten of him but created by him—although it is still renewed from day to day, yet already dwells in such a light as no sense of bodily eyes approaches; if the things which in that light we behold with the eyes of the heart are both distinguished among themselves and separated by no spaces of places: how much more God, who dwells in unapproachable light (1 Tim 6:16) to the senses of the body, to which there can be no approach except of a pure heart! Since, then, we have set this light before all bodily light, not only by the judgment of reason but also by the longing of love, the more we shall be able to do this, the better we shall be able, until all the languors of our soul are healed by him who is gracious to all our iniquities (See Ps 103:3 (102:3)). For in this more living life, having been made spiritual, we shall be able to judge all things, but ourselves to be judged by no one (See 1 Cor 2:15). But the animal man does not perceive the things that are of the Spirit of God, for it is folly to him; and he cannot know it, since it is spiritually judged (1 Cor 2:14).
Ep100-155.17.4418. 45. Quod si nondum possumus praeferre lucem iudicantem ei luci de qua iudicatur, praeferre vitam intellegentem vitae tantummodo sentienti, praeferre naturam non alibi hoc et alibi aliud, sed omnia quae habet in uno simul habentem, sicuti est nostra ipsa intellegentia, ei naturae quae ita partibus constat, ut minor sit dimidia quam tota, sicuti est omne corpus; superfluo de rebus tantis ac talibus disputamus. Si autem hoc iam possumus; aliquid melius quam intellectum nostrum Deum esse credamus ut pax eius quae praecellit omnem intellectum, custodiat corda nostra et intellegentias nostras in Christo Iesu. Ipsa pax quae praecellit omnem intellectum, non est utique minor nostro intellectu, ut cum iste sit oculis corporalibus invisibilis, illa putetur esse visibilis. An aliud pax Dei, aliud splendor Dei? cum idem ipse sit unigenitus Filius, cuius et illa caritas quae supereminet scientiae, cuius cognitione implebimur in omnem plenitudinem Dei, non est nostrae mentis luce inferior, quae illa illuminante tribuitur. Porro si ista inaccessibilis est oculis carnis; quanto magis illa, huic incomparabiliter supereminens! ac per hoc cum sit aliquid nostrum visibile, sicut hoc corpus, aliquid vero invisibile, sicut homo interior; et cum optimum nostrum, hoc est mens atque intellegentia, invisibile sit oculis corporis; quomodo id quod est melius optimo nostro, visibile erit inferiori nostro?
18. 45. But if we cannot yet prefer the judging light to the light about which judgment is made, prefer the understanding life to the life that merely senses, prefer the nature which has not this thing in one place and that in another, but has all that it has in one place at once—such as is our own understanding—to the nature which so consists of parts that the half is less than the whole, such as is every body: then we are arguing in vain about things so great and such. But if we can now do this, let us believe God to be something better than our understanding, so that his peace, which surpasses all understanding, may guard our hearts and our understandings in Christ Jesus (See Phil 4:7). That peace which surpasses all understanding is surely not less than our understanding, so that, while the latter is invisible to bodily eyes, the former should be thought visible. Or is the peace of God one thing and the splendor of God another? Since the same only-begotten Son, whose also is that love which surpasses knowledge, by the knowledge of which we shall be filled unto all the fullness of God, is not inferior to the light of our mind, which is granted by his illumining. Further, if this is unapproachable to the eyes of the flesh, how much more is that, which incomparably surpasses it! And through this, since there is something of ours that is visible, like this body, but something invisible, like the inner man; and since our best, that is, mind and understanding, is invisible to the eyes of the body, how shall that which is better than our best be visible to our inferior part?
Ep100-155.18.4519. 46. Arbitror te iam concedere, his omnibus consideratis, recte dictum esse quod Deus nec in loco videtur, sed mundo corde; nec corporalibus oculis quaeritur, nec circumscribitur visu, nec tactu tenetur, nec auditur affatu, nec sentitur incessu. Et si quid in iis minus intellegimus, vel aliter sapimus, id quoque nobis Deus revelabit, si in quod pervenimus, in eo ambulemus. Pervenimus autem ut credamus Deum non corpus esse, sed spiritum: pervenimus etiam ut credamus quod Deum nemo vidit umquam; et quod Deus lux est, et tenebrae in eo non sunt ullae; et quod apud Deum non est commutatio, nec momenti obumbratio; et quod lucem habitat inaccessibilem, quem nemo hominum vidit, nec videre potest; et quod Pater et Filius et Spiritus sanctus unus Deus est, sine ulla diversitate et separatione naturae; et quod mundi cordes eum videbunt; et quod similes ei erimus, quoniam videbimus eum sicuti est; et quod Deus caritas est, et qui manet in caritate in Deo manet, et Deus in illo manet; et quod pacem et sanctificationem sectari debemus, sine qua nemo poterit videre Deum; et quod corruptibile hoc et mortale corpus nostrum, in resurrectione commutabitur et induet incorruptionem atque immortalitatem; et quia seminatur corpus animale, resurget corpus spiritale, transfigurante Domino corpus humilitatis nostrae, ut conforme faciat corpori gloriae suae; et quod Deus fecit hominem ad imaginem et similitudinem suam; et quod spiritu mentis nostrae renovamur in agnitionem Dei, secundum imaginem eius qui creavit nos. In his atque huiusmodi Scripturarum sanctarum auctoritatibus per fidem ambulantes, qui dato vel divinitus adiuto intellectu spiritaliter profecerunt, et spiritalia spiritalibus comparare potuerunt, viderunt melius videri mente quam corpore; et ea videri mente quae non continerentur locis, nec inter se locorum intervallis separarentur, nec minora essent in parte quam in toto.
19. 46. I think you now grant, all these things considered, that it was rightly said that God is neither seen in a place, but with a pure heart; nor sought with bodily eyes, nor circumscribed by sight, nor held by touch, nor heard by address, nor perceived by his coming. And if in these things we understand something less, or are otherwise minded, this too God will reveal to us, if we walk in that to which we have come (See Phil 3:15-16). And we have come to believe that God is not a body but a spirit; we have come also to believe that no one has ever seen God (Jn 1:18); and that God is light, and in him there are no darknesses at all (1 Jn 1:5); and that with God there is no change, nor shadow of alteration (Jas 1:17); and that he dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen, nor can see (1 Tim 6:16); and that the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are one God, without any diversity and separation of nature; and that the pure in heart shall see him; and that we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is (1 Jn 3:2); and that God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him (1 Jn 4:16); and that we ought to pursue peace and sanctification, without which no one will be able to see God (Heb 12:14); and that this corruptible and mortal body of ours shall in the resurrection be changed and shall put on incorruption and immortality; and that it is sown an animal body, it shall rise a spiritual body (1 Cor 15:44), the Lord transfiguring the body of our lowliness, that he may make it conformed to the body of his glory (Phil 3:21); and that God made man to his own image and likeness (See Gen 1:26); and that we are renewed in the spirit of our mind unto the knowledge of God, according to the image of him who created us (See Eph 4:23; Col 3:10). Walking by faith in these and such authorities of the holy Scriptures, those who, by an understanding given or divinely aided, have advanced spiritually, and have been able to compare spiritual things with spiritual (1 Cor 2:13), have seen that it is better to see with the mind than with the body; and that those things are seen with the mind which are not contained by places, nor separated among themselves by intervals of places, nor less in a part than in the whole.
Ep100-155.19.4619. 47. Hinc est quod fiducialiter ille dicit, quod nec in loco Deus videtur, sed mundo corde: nec corporalibus oculis quaeritur, nec circumscribitur visu, nec tactu tenetur, nec auditur affatu, nec sentitur incessu. Unde quia et invisibilis in Scripturis sanctis eius substantia commendatur, et visus esse a plurimis per corpus et corporalibus locis in eisdem auctoritatibus invenitur, aut spiritu, quo corporales cernuntur imagines, per aliquam licet incorpoream, tamen similitudinem corporis, sicut in somnis vel in ecstasi; secrevit ille vir sanctus Dei naturam ab huiusmodi visionibus, easque dixit esse, quas Dei voluntas elegisset, non quas natura formasset. Facit enim Deus istas quibus, ut vult, cui vult, quando vult, appareat, sua latente atque in se incommutabiliter manente substantia. Si enim voluntas nostra apud se manens et latens sine ulla sui commutatione, per quas se utcumque ostendat exprimit voces; quanto facilius Deus omnipotens, sua latente atque incommutabiliter manente natura, in qua voluerit specie, potest, cui voluerit, apparere, qui ex nihilo creavit omnia, atque in se manens innovat omnia.
19. 47. Hence it is that he confidently says that God is neither seen in a place, but with a pure heart; nor sought with bodily eyes, nor circumscribed by sight, nor held by touch, nor heard by address, nor perceived by his coming. Whence, because both his substance is commended in the holy Scriptures as invisible, and he is found in those same authorities to have been seen by very many through the body and in bodily places, or in spirit, by which bodily images are discerned through some likeness of a body—incorporeal though it be—as in dreams or in ecstasy, that holy man set apart the nature of God from visions of this kind, and said that these were such as the will of God had chosen, not such as nature had fashioned. For God makes those by which, as he wills, to whom he wills, when he wills, he may appear, his own substance lying hidden and remaining unchangeably in itself. For if our will, abiding in itself and hidden without any change of itself, expresses through voices by which it somehow shows itself, how much more easily can God almighty, his own nature lying hidden and remaining unchangeable, appear in whatever form he has willed, to whomever he has willed—he who created all things out of nothing, and, abiding in himself, makes all things new!
Ep100-155.19.4720. 48. Ad eam vero visionem qua videbimus Deum sicuti est, mundanda corda commonuit. Quia enim corpora consuetudine loquendi visibilia nominantur, propterea Deus invisibilis dicitur, ne corpus esse credatur: non quia corda munda suae substantiae contemplatione fraudabit; cum haec magna et summa merces Deum colentibus et diligentibus promittatur, dicente ipso Domino, quando corporalibus oculis visibiliter apparebat, et invisibilem se contuendum mundis cordibus promittebat: Qui diligit me, diligetur a Patre meo; et ego diligam eum, et ostendam meipsum illi. Haec quippe natura eius aequaliter cum Patre invisibilis, sicut aequaliter incorruptibilis est: quae, sicut supra dictum est, continuatim Apostolus posuit; divinam substantiam, qua potuit hominibus praedicatione, commendans. Quam si oculi corporales in resurrectione mutata corporum qualitate conspicient, viderint qui hoc possunt adstruere: me plus movet illius sententia, qui nec in ipsa resurrectione hoc corporalibus oculis, sed mundis cordibus tribuit.
20. 48. But for that vision by which we shall see God as he is, he admonished that hearts must be cleansed. For because bodies, by the custom of speech, are called visible, therefore God is said to be invisible, lest he be believed to be a body: not because he will defraud pure hearts of the contemplation of his substance; since this great and highest reward is promised to those who worship and love God, the Lord himself saying, when he was appearing visibly to bodily eyes and promising that he, invisible, would be beheld by pure hearts: He who loves me shall be loved by my Father, and I will love him, and will show myself to him (Jn 14:21). For this nature of his is equally with the Father invisible, just as it is equally incorruptible: which, as was said above, the Apostle set down continuously, commending the divine substance as far as he could to men by preaching. Whether bodily eyes will behold it in the resurrection, the quality of bodies being changed, let those see who can establish this; the view of that one moves me more, who attributes this, not even in the resurrection itself, to bodily eyes, but to pure hearts.
Ep100-155.20.4821. 49. Et de spiritalis quidem corporis qualitate, quod resurrecturis promittitur, vel discere aliquid adhuc, vel quaerere non recuso: si tamen de hac re disputantes illis vitiis carere possimus, quae plerumque studiis humanis et concertationibus excitantur, dum supra quam scriptum est unus pro altero infletur adversus alterum: ne dum altercando quaerimus investigare quomodo possit videri Deus, ipsam pacem sanctificationemque perdamus, sine qua nemo poterit videre Deum; quod ipse avertat a cordibus nostris, ut ea suae contemplationi munda reddat atque custodiat. Illud tamen quia non dubito, non requiro, quod Dei natura numquam videatur in loco. Iam utrum possit huius corporis oculis videri aliquid quod in loco non videtur, ab eis qui hoc valent disserendo monstrare, cum pace dilectionis audire paratus sum, et quod me movet in commune conferre. Sunt enim quidam, qui Deum ipsum omnino corpus esse praesumunt, putantes quidquid corpus non est, nullam prorsus esse substantiam: istos omni modo aversandos censeo. Sunt autem alii, Deum quidem ipsum corpus non esse minime dubitantes; sed ideo eos qui ad vitam aeternam resurgent, etiam per corpus Deum visuros putant, quoniam talem sperant spiritalis corporis qualitatem, ut etiam ipsa quae caro fuerat, spiritus fiat. Quod si ita est, quantum distet a superiori opinione, et quam hoc sit tolerabilius, etiamsi verum non sit, puto facillime iudicari. Primo, quia multum interest utrum de Creatore an de creatura aliter aliquid sentiatur quam veritas habet. Deinde, quia conatus mentis utcumque ferendus est, volentis corpus convertere in spiritum, non in corpus Deum. Postremo, quia id quod ego in illa epistola mea dixi de istis nostrae carnis oculis, quia neque nunc possunt, neque tunc poterunt Deum videre, etiam sic verum est: non enim dictum est nisi de oculis corporalibus, quod tunc non erunt si corpus ipsum spiritus erit; ac per hoc corporei oculi numquam Deum videbunt, quia cum videbitur, spiritus eum, non corpus videbit.
21. 49. And concerning the quality of the spiritual body, which is promised to those who will rise, I do not refuse either to learn something still, or to inquire: provided that, in disputing about this matter, we can be free of those faults which are often stirred up by human zeal and contention, while one is puffed up, beyond what is written, for one against another (See 1 Cor 4:6); lest, while by wrangling we seek to investigate how God can be seen, we lose that very peace and sanctification, without which no one will be able to see God—which may he turn away from our hearts, that he may render them pure for his contemplation and guard them. Yet because I do not doubt it, I do not inquire: that the nature of God is never seen in a place. Now, whether anything that is not seen in a place can be seen by the eyes of this body, I am prepared, with the peace of love, to hear from those who are able to show it by disputation, and to contribute to the common store what moves me. For there are some who presume that God himself is altogether a body, thinking that whatever is not a body is no substance at all: these I judge are to be turned away from in every way. But there are others who do not doubt at all that God himself is not a body, but who think that those who shall rise to eternal life will see God even through the body, since they hope for such a quality of the spiritual body that even that which had been flesh becomes spirit. And if this is so, how far it stands from the former opinion, and how much more tolerable this is, even if it is not true, I think is most easily judged. First, because it makes a great difference whether one is otherwise minded than the truth holds concerning the Creator or concerning the creature. Then, because the effort of a mind is somehow to be borne which wishes to turn body into spirit, not God into body. Finally, because what I said in that letter of mine about these eyes of our flesh, that they can neither now see God nor will be able then, is true even so: for it was said only of bodily eyes, that there will then be none such if the body itself shall be spirit; and through this bodily eyes will never see God, since when he is seen, spirit, not body, will see him.
Ep100-155.21.4921. 50. Tota igitur quaestio iam remansit de corpore spiritali, quatenus induat incorruptionem et immortalitatem hoc corruptibile atque mortale, et quatenus ex animali in spiritale mutetur. Quae diligentius sollicitiusque tractanda est; maxime propter corpus ipsius Domini, qui transfigurat corpus humilitatis nostrae, conforme corpori gloriae suae, ut possit sibi subicere omnia. Cum enim et Deus Pater videat Filium, et Filius Patrem; procul dubio non sunt audiendi qui visionem nolunt tribuere nisi corporibus. Neque enim dici fas est quod Filium Pater non videat; aut, et ut ipse videat, corpore indutus est, si nonnisi ad corpus pertinet visus. Quid quod in ipso mundi exordio, antequam a Filio esset ulla forma servi suscepta, vidit Deus lucem quia bona est; et firmamentum, et mare, et aridam, et omne fenum, atque omne lignum, solem, lunam, stellas, reptilia animarum vivarum, volatilia coeli, animam vivam: postremo vidit Deus omnia quae fecit; et ecce bona valde ? Quod cum per quasque creaturas Scriptura toties repetisset, miror unde nata fuerit illa opinio qua putatum est tantum ad corpora pertinere visionem. Quae opinio de quocumque loquendi more orta sit, Scripturae tamen sanctae non sic loqui solent; quae nisi, non tantum corpori, verum etiam spiritui, magisque spiritui quam corpori tribuerent visionem, non Prophetas proprie Videntes appellavissent, qui non corpore sed spiritu etiam futura viderunt.
21. 50. The whole question, therefore, has now remained about the spiritual body: in what way this corruptible and mortal puts on incorruption and immortality, and in what way it is changed from animal into spiritual. This must be treated more carefully and anxiously, especially on account of the body of the Lord himself, who transfigures the body of our lowliness, conformed to the body of his glory, that he may be able to subject all things to himself (See Phil 3:21). For since both God the Father sees the Son, and the Son the Father, without doubt those are not to be heard who will not attribute vision except to bodies. For it is not lawful to say that the Father does not see the Son; or that, in order that he himself may see, he is clothed with a body, if sight belongs only to a body. What of the fact that at the very beginning of the world, before any form of a servant was taken up by the Son, God saw the light, that it was good (Gen 1:4); and the firmament, and the sea, and the dry land, and all the grass and every tree, the sun, moon, stars, the creeping things of living souls, the birds of heaven, the living soul; finally, God saw all that he had made, and behold, it was very good (Gen 1:31)? Since Scripture repeated this so often through each of the creatures, I wonder whence that opinion was born by which it was thought that vision belongs only to bodies. From whatever manner of speaking that opinion arose, the holy Scriptures are not wont to speak so; for unless they attributed vision not only to the body but also to the spirit, and more to the spirit than to the body, they would not have called the prophets properly "Seers," who saw even future things not by the body but by the spirit.
Ep100-155.21.5022. 51. Sed cogitandum est ne quid insolenter audeamus, si dixerimus corpus non solum mortalitatem et corruptibilitatem, verum etiam hoc ipsum quod corpus est per gloriam resurrectionis amittere, et spiritum fieri. Eo modo quippe, aut conduplicabitur substantia spiritus, si et corpus spiritus erit; aut si unus erit spiritus hominis, ita ut commutato et converso in spiritum corpore, neque geminatione neque incremento conduplicetur, nec omnino ullius accessu quantitatis augeatur; metuendum est ne nihil aliud dici videatur, quam corpora non illa mutatione immortalia mansura, sed nulla potius futura et omnino peritura. Quapropter donec diligenti inquisitione, si Dominus adiuverit, reperiatur quid secundum Scripturas de spiritali corpore quod in resurrectione promittitur, probabilius sentiendum sit, interim nobis sufficiat quod unigenitus Filius, idemque mediator Dei et hominum homo Christus Iesus ita videt Patrem, sicut videtur a Patre. Nos autem ad illam visionem Dei quae nobis in resurrectione promittitur, non ex hoc mundo istam concupiscentiam oculorum transferre conemur, sed mundandis cordibus pio studeamus affectu: nec corporalem faciem cogitemus, cum dicit Apostolus: Videmus nunc per speculum in aenigmate; tunc autem facie ad faciem; praesertim quia Apostolus expressius dixit: Nunc scio ex parte; tunc autem cognoscam sicut et cognitus sum. Si ergo tunc corporali Deum facie cognoscemus, corporali eius nunc facie cogniti sumus: Tunc enim cognoscam, inquit, sicut et cognitus sum. Unde quis eum non intellegat eo loco etiam nostram faciem illam significare voluisse, de qua dicit alio loco: Nos autem revelata facie gloriam Domini speculantes, in eamdem imaginem transformamur de gloria in gloriam, tamquam a Domini spiritu; de gloria scilicet fidei in gloriam contemplationis aeternae? Hoc quippe agit haec transformatio, qua interior homo renovatur de die in diem: de quo et apostolus Petrus, cum eum moneret ornari: Non quae aforis, inquit, ornentur capillorum incrispationibus, aut auro, aut margaritis, vel veste pretiosa; sed ille absconditus cordis homo, qui est ante Deum dives. In qua enim facie velamen habent Iudaei non transeundo ad Christum, quoniam cum transierit quisque ad Christum auferetur velamen, ea nos facie revelata in eamdem imaginem transformamur. Apertissime autem dicit: Velamen super corda eorum positum est. Ibi est igitur facies, qua revelata, nunc in fide, quamvis per speculum et in aenigmate contuemur; tunc autem facie ad faciem.
22. 51. But we must take care that we dare nothing presumptuously, if we should say that the body loses, through the glory of the resurrection, not only mortality and corruptibility, but even this very thing, that it is a body, and becomes spirit. For in that way either the substance of the spirit will be doubled, if the body too will be spirit; or, if there will be one spirit of the man, in such a way that, the body being changed and turned into spirit, it is doubled neither by twinning nor by increase, nor at all augmented by the accession of any quantity, it is to be feared lest nothing else seem to be said than that bodies will not remain immortal by that change, but rather will be no bodies at all and will utterly perish. Wherefore, until by diligent inquiry, if the Lord help, it be found what, according to the Scriptures, is more probably to be thought about the spiritual body which is promised in the resurrection, let it meanwhile suffice us that the only-begotten Son, who is also the mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus, sees the Father just as he is seen by the Father. But let us not try to transfer to that vision of God which is promised us in the resurrection this desire of the eyes from this world, but let us strive with devout affection at cleansing our hearts; nor let us think of a bodily face, when the Apostle says: We see now through a mirror in a riddle, but then face to face (1 Cor 13:12); especially since the Apostle said more expressly: Now I know in part, but then I shall know even as I am known (1 Cor 13:12). If, then, we shall then know God with a bodily face, we have now been known by his bodily face: for then I shall know, he says, even as I am known. Hence who would not understand that in that place he wished to signify also that face of ours of which he speaks in another place: But we all, with unveiled face beholding the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord (2 Cor 3:18)—namely from the glory of faith to the glory of eternal contemplation? For this is what this transformation accomplishes, by which the inner man is renewed from day to day; of whom also the apostle Peter, when he admonished that it be adorned, says: Let not that which is outward be adorned with the curling of the hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly clothing; but that hidden man of the heart, who is rich before God (See 1 Pet 3:3-4). For in that face in which the Jews have a veil, by not passing over to Christ—since, when anyone passes over to Christ, the veil shall be taken away (See 2 Cor 3:16)—with that face unveiled we are transformed into the same image. But he says most plainly: A veil is placed upon their hearts (See 2 Cor 3:15). There, then, is the face, which being unveiled, we now behold in faith, though through a mirror and in a riddle; but then face to face.
Ep100-155.22.5123. 52. Quae si approbas, tene mecum sancti viri Ambrosii sententiam, iam non eius auctoritate, sed ipsa veritate firmatam. Neque enim et mihi propterea placet, quia per illius os potissimum me Dominus ab errore liberavit, et per illius ministerium gratiam mihi baptismi salutaris indulsit, tamquam plantatori et rigatori meo nimium faveam; sed quia de hoc re et ipse hoc dixit, quod pie cogitanti et recte intellegenti loquitur etiam ille qui incrementum dat Deus. "In ipsa ergo resurrectione non facile est Deum videre, nisi iis qui corde sint mundo: et ideo beati mundo corde; ipsi enim Deum videbunt. Quantos beatos iam numeraverat, et tamen videndi iis Deum non promiserat facultatem! Si ergo ii qui mundo sunt corde, Deum videbunt, utique alii non videbunt. Neque enim indigni Deum videbunt; neque is qui Deum videre noluerit, potest eum videre. Nec in loco Deus videtur, sed mundo corde; nec corporalibus oculis Deus quaeritur, nec circumscribitur visu, nec tactu tenetur, nec auditur affatu, nec sentitur incessu. Et cum absens putatur, videtur; et cum praesens est, non videtur. Denique nec Apostoli omnes Christum videbant: et ideo ait: Tanto tempore vobiscum sum, et adhuc me non cognovistis? Qui enim cognovit quae sit latitudo, et longitudo, et altitudo, et profundum, et supereminentem scientiae caritatem Christi, vidit et Christum, vidit et Patrem. Nos enim iam secundum carnem non novimus Christum, sed secundum spiritum. Spiritus enim ante faciem nostram Christus Dominus, qui nos in omnem plenitudinem Dei misericordia sua implere dignetur, ut videri possit a nobis".
23. 52. If you approve these things, hold with me the view of the holy man Ambrose, now confirmed not by his authority but by truth itself. For it does not please me for the reason that the Lord freed me from error chiefly through his mouth, and through his ministry granted me the grace of saving baptism, as though I favored my planter and waterer overmuch; but because on this matter he too said this, which to one who thinks devoutly and understands rightly is spoken also by him who gives the growth, God. "In the resurrection itself, then, it is not easy to see God, except for those who are pure in heart; and therefore blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God (Matt 5:8). How many blessed he had already numbered, and yet to these he had not promised the power of seeing God! If, then, those who are pure in heart shall see God, surely others shall not see him. For neither shall the unworthy see God; nor can he who has not willed to see God see him. Nor is God seen in a place, but with a pure heart; nor is God sought with bodily eyes, nor circumscribed by sight, nor held by touch, nor heard by address, nor perceived by his coming. And when he is thought absent, he is seen; and when he is present, he is not seen. Finally, not even all the apostles saw Christ; and therefore he says: Have I been with you so long a time, and you still have not known me? (Jn 14:9) For he who has known what is the breadth, and length, and height, and depth, and the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, has seen Christ also, has seen the Father also. For we now no longer know Christ according to the flesh, but according to the spirit. For Christ the Lord is a Spirit before our face, who in his mercy may deign to fill us unto all the fullness of God, that he may be able to be seen by us."
Ep100-155.23.5223. 53. Haec verba sancti viri, quae non carnalia sed spiritalia sunt, in quantum intellegis, et vera esse, non quia ipse dixit, sed quia veritas sine strepitu clamat, agnoscis; in tantum intellegis unde adhaereas Domino, teque ipsam intrinsecus praeparas incorporalem locum mansionis eius ad audiendum silentium narrationis eius, et videndam invisibilem formam eius. Beati enim mundo corde; quoniam ipsi Deum videbunt. Non cum eis, sicut corpus, ex aliquo loci intervallo apparebit; sed cum venerit ad eos, et mansionem fecerit apud eos: quoniam sic implebuntur in omnem plenitudinem Dei, non cum fuerint et ipsi plenus Deus, sed cum perfecte fuerint pleni Deo. Si autem nonnisi corpora cogitamus, et nec illud saltem digne cogitare possumus, unde vel ipsa corpora cogitemus; non quaeramus quid adversum nos ipsos loquamur, sed ab hac potius carnali consuetudine orando, et in anteriora nos extendendo, corda mundemus. Ut enim non tantum quod beatus Ambrosius, verum etiam quod sanctus Hieronymus, dicam: "Non solum Patris divinitatem, sed nec Filii quidem, nec Spiritus sancti, quia una in Trinitate natura est, possunt oculi carnis aspicere, sed oculi mentis"; de quibus ipse Salvator ait: Beati mundo corde; quia ipsi Deum videbunt. Namque sicut alibi idem Hieronymus breviter ac veraciter definivit, res incorporalis corporalibus oculis non videtur ".
23. 53. These words of the holy man, which are not carnal but spiritual—in so far as you understand them, and recognize them to be true, not because he said them, but because truth cries out without noise—in so far you understand whence you may cleave to the Lord, and prepare yourself within as an incorporeal place of dwelling for him, to hear the silence of his making-known, and to see his invisible form. For blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God (Matt 5:8). He will not appear to them, like a body, from some interval of place; but he will come to them and make his dwelling with them (See Jn 14:23): for thus they will be filled unto all the fullness of God—not when they themselves shall have become full God, but when they shall have been perfectly filled with God. But if we think only of bodies, and cannot even worthily think of that whence we may think of the bodies themselves, let us not seek what to say against our very selves, but rather, by praying away from this carnal habit and stretching ourselves forth to the things that are before (See Phil 3:13), let us cleanse our hearts. For, to say not only what blessed Ambrose said, but also what holy Jerome said: "Not only the divinity of the Father, but not even that of the Son, nor of the Holy Spirit—since there is one nature in the Trinity—can the eyes of the flesh behold, but the eyes of the mind"; of which the Savior himself says: Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God (Matt 5:8). For, as the same Jerome elsewhere briefly and truly defined, an incorporeal thing is not seen by bodily eyes.
Ep100-155.23.5323. 54. Has sententias de re tanta virorum tantorum non ob hoc interponere volui, ut cuiusquam hominis sensum, tamquam Scripturae canonicae auctoritatem, sequendum arbitreris; sed ut illi qui aliter sapiunt, conentur mente videre quod verum est, et in simplicitate cordis quaerere Deum, ne tam doctos divinorum eloquiorum tractatores temere reprehendant. Nec te moveat quod a quibusdam minus considerate dicitur: Quid tunc videbunt oculi corporales, si Deum non videbunt? an forte caeci erunt, vel sine causa erunt? Neque enim attendunt qui haec loquuntur, quia si non erunt corpora, nec illi corporales profecto oculi erunt: si autem erunt corpora, erit quod videre possint oculi corporales. Sed haec iam satis dicta sint, quae ab initio huius opusculi mei diligenter lecta et relecta considerans, sine ulla fortasse dubitatione perspicies, ad videndum Deum per eius auxilium, cor mundum te debere praeparare. De corpore vero spiritali, si Dominus iuverit, opere alio experiemur quid disputare valeamus.
23. 54. These views of such great men on so great a matter I have wished to insert, not that you should judge the opinion of any man to be followed as though it were the authority of canonical Scripture, but that those who are otherwise minded may try to see with the mind what is true, and to seek God in simplicity of heart, lest they rashly censure such learned expounders of the divine utterances. Nor let it move you that it is said by some, with too little consideration: What, then, will bodily eyes see, if they shall not see God? Or will they perhaps be blind, or be without a cause? For those who say these things do not attend to this, that if there shall be no bodies, then surely there shall be no bodily eyes; but if there shall be bodies, there will be what bodily eyes can see. But let these things now be sufficiently said; which, if you consider them, diligently read and reread from the beginning of this little work of mine, you will perceive, perhaps without any doubt, that for seeing God, through his help, you ought to prepare a pure heart. But concerning the spiritual body, if the Lord help, we shall try in another work what we are able to discuss.
Ep100-155.23.54EPISTOLA 148
COMMONITORIUM SANCTO FRATRI FORTUNATIANO.
COMMONITORIUM SANCTO FRATRI FORTUNATIANO.
LETTER 148
A MEMORANDUM TO THE HOLY BROTHER FORTUNATIANUS.
Ep100-155.23.54A MEMORANDUM TO THE HOLY BROTHER FORTUNATIANUS.
1. 1. Sicut praesens rogavi, et nunc commoneo ut fratrem nostrum de quo collocuti sumus, videre et rogare digneris, ut ignoscat mihi si quid durius et asperius in se dictum accepit in ea epistola, quam me modo scripsisse non poenitet, quia dixi istius corporis oculos nec videre Deum, nec esse visuros. Causam quippe adiunxi cur hoc dixerim, ne scilicet Deus ipse corporeus esse credatur, et in loci spatio intervalloque visibilis; nihil enim videre aliter istius corporis oculus potest; et ne illud quod dictum est: Facie ad faciem, sic accipiatur, tamquam membris corporis terminatus sit Deus. Ideo me ergo dixisse illud non poenitet, ne de ipso Deo tam impie sentiamus, ut eum non ubique totum, sed per localia spatia divisibilem existimemus: talia quippe his oculis novimus.
1. 1. As I asked when present, so now too I admonish you that you would deign to see and ask our brother of whom we spoke together, that he would forgive me if he took anything said about him too harshly and roughly in that letter which I do not now regret having written, because I said that the eyes of this body neither see God nor will see him. For I added the reason why I said this—namely, lest God himself be believed to be bodily, and visible in the space and interval of a place; for the eye of this body can see nothing otherwise. And lest what was said, face to face, be so taken as though God were bounded by the members of a body. I do not therefore regret having said that, lest we be so impiously minded about God himself as to suppose him not everywhere whole, but divisible through local spaces: for such are the things we know by these eyes.
Ep100-155.1.11. 2. Caeterum nihil tale de Deo sentiens, sed eum incommutabilem et incorporalem spiritum ubique totum esse credens, si tantam quisquam mutationem huius corporis futuram putat, cum ex animali fuerit spiritale, ut etiam substantiam incorporalem, non locorum intervallis vel spatiis divisibilem, vel etiam membrorum lineamentis ac finibus terminatam, sed ubique totam, per tale corpus videre possimus; volo ut me doceat, si verum sapit: si autem in hoc falsum sentit, longe tolerabilius est corpori aliquid arrogare, quam Deo derogare. Et si vera est ista sententia, non erit contraria verbis meis, quae in illa epistola posui. Istius namque corporis oculos dixi non visuros Deum; hoc intuens, quod istius corporis oculi omnino non possunt cernere nisi corpora quae ab eis aliquo loci intervallo separata sunt: nam si nullum intervallum sit, nec ipsa corpora per eos videmus.
1. 2. But if anyone, holding no such thing about God, but believing him to be an unchangeable and incorporeal spirit, everywhere whole, thinks that so great a change of this body is to come, when from animal it shall be spiritual, that we shall be able to see, through such a body, even an incorporeal substance—one not divisible by intervals or spaces of places, nor bounded by the outlines and limits of members, but everywhere whole—I wish that he would teach me, if he is truly wise. But if in this he is mistaken, it is far more tolerable to arrogate something to the body than to derogate from God. And if that view is true, it will not be contrary to my words, which I set down in that letter. For I said that the eyes of this body would not see God, regarding this: that the eyes of this body can in no way discern anything but bodies which are separated from them by some interval of place; for if there is no interval, we do not see even the bodies themselves through them.
Ep100-155.1.21. 3. Porro autem si in tantam sui dissimilitudinem nostra corpora mutabuntur, ut oculos habeant, per quos videatur illa substantia quae non per locorum spatia vel diffunditur vel finitur, alibi habens aliam partem, alibi aliam, in minore loco minorem, in maiore maiorem, sed ubique incorporaliter tota est; longe aliud erunt haec corpora, et non erunt ipsa; nec sola detracta mortalitate atque corruptione et ponderis gravitate aliud erunt, sed in virtutem ipsius mentis quodammodo convertentur, si videre poterunt quomodo tunc menti, nunc autem nec ipsi menti videre concessum est. Si enim mutatis moribus dicimus hominem non esse qui fuit, si denique mutatis aetatibus ipsum corpus dicimus non esse quod fuit: quanto magis ipsum non erit, tanta conversione mutatum, ut non solum immortaliter vivat, verum etiam invisibilem videat? Quapropter si videbunt Deum, non istius corporis oculi videbunt; quia et in hoc non erit ipsum corpus usque in illam vim potentiamque mutatum: et non est contraria ista opinio illis verbis epistolae meae. Si autem hactenus non erit ipsum, quia nunc mortale, tunc immortale; nunc aggravans animam, tunc nullo pondere ad omnem motum erit facillimum: ad videnda vero ea quae locorum spatiis intervallisque cernuntur, si non aliud quam ipsum erit, substantiam incorporalem et ubique totam nullo modo videbit. Sive ergo hoc, sive illud verum sit, secundum utrumque verum est quod istius corporis oculi Deum non videbunt. Aut enim istius erunt, et non videbunt: aut non erunt istius, si videbunt; quoniam tanta commutatione longe alterius corporis erunt.
1. 3. Further, if our bodies shall be changed into such unlikeness to themselves that they shall have eyes through which may be seen that substance which is neither diffused nor bounded through spaces of places, having one part here and another there, in a smaller place smaller and in a larger larger, but is everywhere incorporeally whole, these bodies will be something far different, and will not be the same; nor will they be something other merely by having mortality and corruption and the heaviness of weight removed, but they will in a manner be turned into the very power of the mind, if they shall be able to see in the way it is then granted to the mind, but is now not granted even to the mind itself, to see. For if by changed habits we say a man is not the one who was, if, finally, by changed ages we say the body itself is not what it was, how much more will it itself not be, changed by so great a transformation that it not only lives immortally but even sees the invisible? Wherefore, if they shall see God, the eyes of this body shall not see him; because in this too the body itself will not be the same, changed unto that force and power: and that opinion is not contrary to those words of my letter. But if thus far it shall not be the same, because now mortal, then immortal; now weighing down the soul, then most easy for every movement under no weight: yet for seeing those things which are discerned by spaces and intervals of places, if it shall be nothing other than itself, it will in no way see an incorporeal substance, everywhere whole. Whether, then, this be true or that, by either it is true that the eyes of this body shall not see God. For either they shall be of this body, and shall not see; or they shall not be of this body, if they shall see; since by so great a change they shall be of a far different body.
Ep100-155.1.31. 4. Sed paratus sum, si quid de hac re melius novit hic frater, vel ab ipso, vel ab illo a quo didicit, discere. Quod si irridenter dicerem, etiam illud de Deo corporali membrisque per loca divisibili, dicerem paratum me esse discere: quod non dico, quia non irridenter loquor, et talem Deum non esse omnino non ambigo, et ne talis esse crederetur, illam epistolam scripsi. In qua dum essem in admonendo sollicitus, quam nominibus tacitis conscripsi, in corripiendo nimius atque improvidus fui, nec fraternam et episcopalem personam sicut frater et episcopus, quemadmodum fuerat dignum, cogitavi: hoc non defendo, sed reprehendo; hoc non excuso, sed accuso. Ignoscatur, peto; recordetur nostram dilectionem pristinam, et obliviscatur offensionem novam. Faciat certe quod me non fecisse succensuit; habeat lenitatem in danda venia, quam ego non habui in illa epistola conscribenda. Hoc per tuam caritatem rogo, quod praesens praesentem rogare volueram, si eius haberem copiam. Quod cum conatus essem, scribente ad eum viro venerabili, nobisque omnibus honore praeferendo, venire noluit, dolum forsitan in eum, sicut pleraque humana sunt, quantum existimo, suspicatus; a quo me longe abesse, tu illi fac fidem quantum potes, qui praesens facilius potes. Indica ei cum quanto et quam vero dolore de offensione animi eius tecum fuerim collocutus. Noverit quam non eum contemnam, et quantum in illo Deum timeam, et cogitem caput nostrum in cuius corpore fratres sumus. Ad locum in quo habitat, ideo mihi putavi non esse veniendum, ne spectaculum faceremus ridendum alienis, nostris dolendum, nobis pudendum. Per tuam sanctitatem et caritatem totum recte agi potest: ab illo quippe agitur, qui per fidem suam habitat in corde tuo; quem credo quod non spernit in te, cum agnoscit in se.
1. 4. But I am prepared, if this brother knows anything better about this matter, to learn it either from him or from the one from whom he learned it. And if I were speaking mockingly, I would say that even concerning a bodily God, divisible through places by members, I was prepared to learn—which I do not say, because I do not speak mockingly, and I do not doubt at all that God is not such, and it was lest he be believed to be such that I wrote that letter. In which, while I was anxious in admonishing—which I wrote with the names left unspoken—I was excessive and improvident in rebuking, and did not think of a fraternal and episcopal person as a brother and bishop, in the way that would have been fitting: this I do not defend but reprehend; this I do not excuse but accuse. Let it be forgiven, I ask; let him remember our former love, and forget the new offense. Let him surely do what he was vexed that I did not do; let him have leniency in granting pardon, which I did not have in writing that letter. This I ask through your charity, which I had wished, when present, to ask of him when present, if I had the opportunity. When I had tried this, with a venerable man, to be preferred in honor by us all, writing to him, he refused to come—suspecting in him, perhaps, as most human things are, some guile, I think; from which that I am far removed, do you make him believe as much as you can, who, being present, can do it more easily. Tell him with how great and how true a grief I spoke with you about the offense of his mind. Let him know how I do not despise him, and how much I fear God in him, and think of our head, in whose body we are brothers. To the place where he lives I thought I ought not to come, lest we should make a spectacle laughable to outsiders, grievous to our own, shameful to ourselves. Through your holiness and charity the whole thing can be done rightly; for it is done by him who through his faith dwells in your heart, whom I believe he does not spurn in you, since he recognizes him in himself.
Ep100-155.1.41. 5. Ego certe in hac causa quid melius facerem non inveni, quam ut veniam peterem a fratre, qui laesum se litterarum mearum asperitate conquestus est. Faciet et ipse, ut spero, quod sibi imperari novit ab eo qui per Apostolum loquens ait: Donantes vobismetipsis, si quis adversus aliquem habet querelam, sicut et Deus in Christo donavit vobis. Estote ergo imitatores Dei, sicut filii dilectissimi, et ambulate in caritate, sicut et Christus dilexit nos. In hac caritate ambulantes, si quid diligentius possumus, de spiritali corpore quod in resurrectione habebimus, concorditer inquiramus: quia et si quid aliter sapimus, hoc quoque nobis Deus revelabit, si in illo maneamus. Qui autem manet in caritate, in Deo manet, et Deus in illo manet: quia Deus caritas est; sive tamquam eius fons ineffabiliter existendo, sive illam nobis per Spiritum suum largiendo. Si ergo doceri potest quod caritas corporalibus oculis aliquando videbitur; poterit fortassis et Deus: si autem ista numquam poterit; multo minus ipse fons eius, vel si quid dici excellentius et convenientius de tanta re potest.
1. 5. I certainly, in this matter, have found nothing better to do than to ask pardon of the brother who complained that he was wounded by the harshness of my letter. He too will do, as I hope, what he knows is commanded him by him who, speaking through the Apostle, says: Forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another, as God also in Christ has forgiven you. Be therefore imitators of God, as most beloved children, and walk in love, as Christ also loved us (Eph 4:32-5:2). Walking in this love, let us, if we can, inquire more diligently and in harmony about the spiritual body which we shall have in the resurrection; for even if we are otherwise minded in anything, this too God will reveal to us, if we abide in him. But he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him; for God is love (1 Jn 4:16, 8)—whether by ineffably existing as its fountain, or by bestowing it on us through his Spirit. If, then, it can be taught that love will at some time be seen by bodily eyes, perhaps God too will be able to be; but if love can never be so, much less can its very fountain, or whatever can be said more excellently and fittingly about so great a matter.
Ep100-155.1.52. 6. Magni quidam viri et in Scripturis sanctis doctissimi, qui plurimum Ecclesiam et bona studia fidelium suis litteris adiuverunt, ubi eis occasio data est, dixerunt invisibilem Deum invisibiliter videri; hoc est per eam naturam quae in nobis quoque invisibilis est, munda scilicet mente vel corde. Beatus Ambrosius de Christo cum ageret, secundum id quod Verbum est: "Non enim corporalibus, inquit, sed spiritalibus oculis Iesus videtur". Et paulo post: "Non eum viderunt, inquit, Iudaei; obcaecatum enim erat insipiens cor eorum": hic ostendens unde videatur. Item cum de sancto Spiritu loqueretur, interposuit verba Domini dicentis: Rogabo Patrem, et alium Paracletum dabit vobis, qui vobiscum sit in aeternum; Spiritum veritatis, quem hic mundus non potest accipere, quia non videt eum, nec cognoscit eum. "Merito ergo se, inquit, in corpore demonstravit, quoniam in divinitatis substantia non videtur. Vidimus Spiritum, sed in specie corporali: videamus et Patrem; sed quia videre non possumus, audiamus. Et paulo post: Audiamus ergo inquit: Patrem; invisibilis enim Pater; sed et Filius invisibilis secundum divinitatem; Deum enim nemo vidit umquam: cum ergo Filius sit Deus, in eo utique quod Deus est Filius, non videtur".
2. 6. Certain great men, most learned in the holy Scriptures, who greatly aided the Church and the good zeal of the faithful by their writings, when occasion was given them, said that the invisible God is seen invisibly—that is, through that nature which is invisible in us also, namely a pure mind or heart. The blessed Ambrose, when he was treating of Christ according to that which he is the Word, says: "For Jesus is seen not with bodily, but with spiritual eyes." And a little after: "The Jews," he says, "did not see him; for their foolish heart was darkened"—here showing whence he is seen. Likewise, when he was speaking of the Holy Spirit, he interposed the words of the Lord, saying: I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Paraclete, that he may be with you forever; the Spirit of truth, whom this world cannot receive, because it does not see him, nor know him (Jn 14:16-17). "Rightly, then," he says, "did he show himself in a body, since in the substance of the divinity he is not seen. We have seen the Spirit, but in a bodily form: let us see the Father also; but because we cannot see him, let us hear him." And a little after: "Let us hear, then," he says, "the Father; for the Father is invisible. But the Son too is invisible according to the divinity; for no one has ever seen God (Jn 1:18): since, then, the Son is God, in that very thing in which the Son is God, he is not seen."
Ep100-155.2.62. 7. Sanctus autem Hieronymus ait: "Videre Deum sicuti est in natura sua, oculus hominis non potest: non solum homo, nec Angeli, nec Throni, nec Potestates, nec Dominationes, nec omne nomen quod nominatur; neque enim creatura potest aspicere Creatorem suum". His verbis vir doctissimus satis ostendit quid etiam de futuro saeculo senserit, quod ad hanc rem attinet. Quantumlibet enim oculi corporis nostri mutentur in melius, Angelorum oculis aequabuntur. Hic autem et ipsis, et universae omnino coelesti creaturae invisibilem naturam dixit esse Creatoris. Aut si et hinc fit quaestio, et infertur ulla dubitatio, utrum non simus futuri Angelis potiores; ipsius Domini est hinc aperta sententia, ubi ait de resurrecturis in regnum: Erunt aequales Angelis Dei. Unde idem ipse sanctus Hieronymus alibi sic dicit: Homo igitur Dei faciem videre non potest; Angeli autem etiam minimorum in Ecclesia semper vident faciem Dei. Et nunc in speculo videmus, in aenigmate; tunc autem facie ad faciem, quando de hominibus in Angelos profecerimus, et potuerimus cum Apostolo dicere: Nos autem omnes revelata facie gloriam Domini speculantes, in eamdem imaginem transformamur a gloria in gloriam, tamquam a Domini Spiritu; licet faciem Dei iuxta naturae suae proprietatem nulla videat creatura, et tunc mente cernatur, quando invisibilis creditur ".
2. 7. But holy Jerome says: "The eye of man cannot see God as he is in his nature: not only man, but neither the angels, nor the Thrones, nor the Powers, nor the Dominions, nor every name that is named; for a creature cannot behold its Creator." By these words the most learned man sufficiently shows what he thought even about the age to come, as far as pertains to this matter. For however much the eyes of our body are changed for the better, they will be made equal to the eyes of the angels. But here he said the nature of the Creator is invisible both to these and to the whole heavenly creation altogether. Or if from this too a question arises, and any doubt is brought in, whether we shall not be greater than the angels, there is on this the plain view of the Lord himself, where he says of those who shall rise into the kingdom: They shall be equal to the angels of God (See Luke 20:36). Whence the same holy Jerome elsewhere says thus: "Man, therefore, cannot see the face of God; but the angels even of the least in the Church always see the face of God. And now we see in a mirror, in a riddle; but then face to face, when we shall have advanced from men into angels, and shall be able to say with the Apostle: But we all, with unveiled face beholding the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord (2 Cor 3:18)—although no creature sees the face of God according to the property of his nature, and it is then discerned by the mind, when it is believed to be invisible."
Ep100-155.2.72. 8. In his verbis hominis Dei, multa consideranda sunt. Primum, quia secundum apertissimam Domini sententiam etiam ipse sentit tunc nos visuros faciem Dei, cum in Angelos profecerimus, id est, aequales Angelis facti fuerimus; quod erit utique in resurrectione mortuorum. Deinde apostolico testimonio satis aperuit non exterioris sed interioris hominis faciem intellegendam, cum videbimus facie ad faciem: de facie quippe cordis loquebatur Apostolus, cum diceret quod hinc commemoravit: Nos autem revelata facie gloriam Domini speculantes, in eamdem imaginem transformamur. Quod si quisquam dubitat, recenseat eumdem locum, et attendat unde Apostolus loquebatur; de velamine scilicet quod manet in lectione Veteris Testamenti, donec quisque transeat ad Christum, ut auferatur velamen. Ibi quippe dicit: Nos autem revelata facie gloriam Domini speculantes; quae facies in Iudaeis non erat revelata: de quibus dicit: Velamen super cor eorum positum est, ut ostendat cordis faciem nobis esse revelatam, velamine ablato. Postremo, ne quisquam ista minus intuens, minusque discernens, visibilem Deum vel Angelis vel hominibus, cum aequales Angelis facti fuerimus, sive nunc esse, sive futurum esse crederet, evidentissime quid sentiret expressit, dicens quod "faciem Dei iuxta naturae suae proprietatem nulla videat creatura, et tunc mente cernatur, quando invisibilis creditur". Unde sufficienter significavit, quando visus est ab hominibus per oculos corporis, tamquam ipse corporeus, non eum secundum naturae suae proprietatem fuisse visum, in qua tunc mente cernitur, quando invisibilis creditur. Quibus invisibilis, nisi aspectibus corporalibus etiam coelestibus, sicut supra de Angelis et Potestatibus et Dominationibus dixit? quanto magis terrestribus!
2. 8. In these words of the man of God many things are to be considered. First, that, according to the most plain view of the Lord, he too holds that we shall then see the face of God, when we shall have advanced into angels, that is, been made equal to the angels; which will surely be in the resurrection of the dead. Then, by apostolic testimony he sufficiently made clear that, when we shall see face to face, the face of the inner man, not of the outer, is to be understood; for the Apostle was speaking of the face of the heart, when he said what he here recalled: But we all, with unveiled face beholding the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image. And if anyone doubts this, let him review the same passage, and attend to what the Apostle was speaking of: namely, the veil that remains in the reading of the Old Testament, until each one passes over to Christ, that the veil may be taken away. For there he says: But we all, with unveiled face beholding the glory of the Lord; which face was not unveiled in the Jews, of whom he says: A veil is placed upon their heart (See 2 Cor 3:15), to show that the face of the heart is unveiled to us, the veil being taken away. Finally, lest anyone, regarding these things too little and distinguishing too little, should believe God to be visible either to angels or to men, when we shall have been made equal to the angels, whether now or in the future, he expressed most evidently what he thought, saying that "no creature sees the face of God according to the property of his nature, and it is then discerned by the mind, when it is believed to be invisible." Whence he signified sufficiently that, when he was seen by men through the eyes of the body, as though he himself were bodily, he was not seen according to the property of his nature, in which he is then discerned by the mind, when he is believed to be invisible. To whom invisible, except to bodily sights, even heavenly ones, as he said above of the angels and Powers and Dominions? How much more to earthly ones!
Ep100-155.2.82. 9. Unde alio loco evidentius dicit: "Non solum Patris divinitatem, sed nec Filii quidem et Spiritus sancti, quae una in Trinitate natura est, posse oculos carnis aspicere, sed oculos mentis: de quibus ipse Salvator ait: Beati mundo corde; quoniam ipsi Deum videbunt ". Quid hac manifestatione lucidius? Si enim tantummodo dixisset: Nec Patris, nec Filii, nec Spiritus sancti divinitatem posse oculos carnis aspicere, nec deinceps addidisset, "sed oculos mentis"; forte diceretur carnem iam non esse appellandum, cum corpus fuerit spiritale: addendo ergo, et dicendo, "sed oculos mentis", ab omni genere corporis alienavit huiusmodi visionem. Ne quis autem putaret eum tantum de praesenti tempore locutum, subiecit etiam Domini testimonium, volens ostendere quos dixerat oculos mentis; quo testimonio non praesentis sed futurae visionis promissio declaratur: Beati mundo corde; quoniam ipsi Deum videbunt.
2. 9. Whence in another place he says more evidently: "Not only the divinity of the Father, but not even that of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, which is one nature in the Trinity, can the eyes of the flesh behold, but the eyes of the mind: of which the Savior himself says: Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God (Matt 5:8)." What could be clearer than this manifestation? For if he had only said: Neither the divinity of the Father, nor of the Son, nor of the Holy Spirit can the eyes of the flesh behold, and had not afterward added, "but the eyes of the mind," perhaps it would be said that it ought no longer to be called flesh, since the body will be spiritual: by adding, then, and saying, "but the eyes of the mind," he set apart a vision of this kind from every kind of body. And lest anyone should think he spoke only of the present time, he added also the testimony of the Lord, wishing to show what eyes of the mind he meant; by which testimony the promise not of present but of future vision is declared: Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
Ep100-155.2.92. 10. Beatissimus quoque Athanasius, Alexandrinus episcopus, cum ageret adversus Arianos, qui tantummodo Deum Patrem invisibilem dicunt: Filium vero et Spiritum sanctum visibiles putant, aequalem Trinitatis invisibilitatem Scripturarum sanctarum testimoniis, et diligentia suae disputationis asseruit, instantissime suadens Deum non esse visum nisi assumptione creaturae: secundum Deitatis autem suae proprietatem omnino Deum esse invisibilem, id est Patrem, et Filium, et Spiritum sanctum, nisi quantum mente ac spiritu nosci potest. Gregorius etiam, sanctus episcopus Orientalis, apertissime dicit Deum natura invisibilem, quando patribus visus est, sicut Moysi, cum quo facie ad faciem loquebatur, alicuius conspicabilis materiae dispositione assumpta, salva sua invisibilitate videri potuisse. Hoc est quod etiam noster dicit Ambrosius, et Patrem et Filium et Spiritum sanctum ea specie videri quam voluntas elegerit, non natura formaverit: ut et illud verum sit, quod Deum nemo vidit umquam, quae vox ipsius Domini Christi est; et, Quem nemo hominum vidit, nec videre potest, quae vox Apostoli, imo eius per Apostolum Christi est; et illa non repudientur testimonia Scripturarum quibus Deus visus esse narratur, quia et invisibilis est per propriam Deitatis naturam, et cum vult videri potest per assumptam, sicut ei placuerit, creaturam.
2. 10. The most blessed Athanasius too, bishop of Alexandria, when he was contending against the Arians, who say only God the Father is invisible, but think the Son and the Holy Spirit visible, asserted the equal invisibility of the Trinity by the testimonies of the holy Scriptures and the diligence of his disputation, most insistently urging that God was not seen except by the assumption of a creature; but that, according to the property of his deity, God is altogether invisible—that is, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit—except in so far as he can be known by the mind and spirit. Gregory too, a holy bishop of the East, says most plainly that God, invisible by nature, when he was seen by the fathers, as by Moses, with whom he spoke face to face, could be seen, the arrangement of some visible matter being assumed, while his invisibility was preserved. This is what our Ambrose too says: that the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are seen in that form which the will has chosen, not which nature has fashioned: so that both that is true, that no one has ever seen God, which is the voice of the Lord Christ himself; and, whom no man has seen, nor can see, which is the voice of the Apostle, or rather of Christ through the Apostle; and those testimonies of the Scriptures by which God is told to have been seen are not rejected, since he is both invisible through the proper nature of his deity, and, when he wills, can be seen through an assumed creature, as it shall please him.
Ep100-155.2.103. 11. Porro si naturae ipsius est invisibilitas sicut incorruptibilitas, non mutabitur utique in futuro saeculo illa natura, ut de invisibili visibilis fiat; quia neque poterit de incorruptibili corruptibilis fieri: simul enim et incommutabilis est. Et utique naturam eius commendavit Apostolus, cum duo ista simul poneret, dicens: Regi autem saeculorum invisibili, incorruptibili, soli Deo honor et gloria in saecula saeculorum. Unde non audeo ego ita distinguere, ut dicam: Incorruptibili quidem in saecula saeculorum; invisibili autem non in saecula saeculorum, sed tantum in hoc saeculo. Verum quia nec ista testimonia falsa esse possunt: Beati mundo corde; quoniam ipsi Deum videbunt; et: Scimus quia cum apparuerit, similes ei erimus; quoniam videbimus eum sicuti est: negare non possumus filios Dei visuros Deum, sed sicut videntur invisibilia, sicut seipsum ostensurum promittebat qui hominibus apparebat in carne visibilis, quando dicebat: Et ego diligam eum, et ostendam meipsum illi, cum ante oculos hominum conspicuus loqueretur. Unde autem invisibilia videntur, nisi oculis cordis? de quibus paulo ante dixi quid Hieronymus senserit ad videndum Deum.
3. 11. Further, if invisibility belongs to his nature, as does incorruptibility, that nature surely will not be changed in the age to come so as to become visible from invisible; since neither will it be able to become corruptible from incorruptible: for it is at once also unchangeable. And the Apostle surely commended his nature when he set those two together, saying: To the King of the ages, invisible, incorruptible, to God alone be honor and glory unto the ages of ages (1 Tim 1:17). Whence I do not dare so to distinguish as to say: Incorruptible indeed unto the ages of ages, but invisible not unto the ages of ages, but only in this age. But because these testimonies too cannot be false—Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God (Matt 5:8); and: We know that when he appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is (1 Jn 3:2)—we cannot deny that the sons of God shall see God, but as invisible things are seen, as he who was appearing to men, visible in the flesh, promised that he would show himself, when he said: And I will love him, and will show myself to him (Jn 14:21), when he was speaking, conspicuous before the eyes of men. But whence are invisible things seen, except by the eyes of the heart? Of which I said a little before what Jerome thought as to seeing God.
Ep100-155.3.113. 12. Hinc est etiam quod memoratus Mediolanensis episcopus in ipsa resurrectione dixit non facile esse videre Deum, nisi iis qui mundo corde sint; et ideo scriptum esse: Beati mundo corde, quoniam ipsi Deum videbunt. "Quantos beatos, inquit, iam numeraverat, et tamen eis videndi Deum non promiserat facultatem!" Deinde adiungit et dicit: "Si ergo ii qui mundo sunt corde, Deum videbunt, utique alii non videbunt". Et ne alios illos acciperemus, de quibus dictum est: Beati pauperes, Beati mites, continuo subiunxit: "Neque enim indigni Deum videbunt". Indignos utique illos volens intellegi, qui licet resurgant, Deum videre non poterunt; quoniam ad damnationem resurgent, quia per fidem veram quae per dilectionem operatur, cor mundare noluerunt. Et ideo sequitur et dicit: "Neque is qui Deum videre noluerit, potest Deum videre". Deinde quia occurrebat etiam impios omnes velle videre Deum, statim ut ostenderet quare dixerit, "qui Deum videre noluerit", quia utique illo modo non vult Deum videre impius, quia cor mundare non vult, quo ille videri poterit, secutus adiunxit et ait: "Nec in loco Deus videtur, sed mundo corde; nec corporalibus oculis Deus quaeritur, nec circumscribitur visu, nec tactu tenetur, nec auditur affatu, nec sentitur incessu". Quibus verbis beatus Ambrosius voluit admonere quid debeant homines praeparare qui volunt Deum videre; hoc est, cor mundare per fidem quae per dilectionem operatur, dono Spiritus sancti, unde pignus accepimus, quo illam visionem desiderare noverimus.
3. 12. Hence it is also that the aforementioned bishop of Milan said that in the resurrection itself it is not easy to see God, except for those who are pure in heart; and that therefore it is written: Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God (Matt 5:8). "How many blessed," he says, "he had already numbered, and yet to them he had not promised the power of seeing God!" Then he adds and says: "If, then, those who are pure in heart shall see God, surely others shall not see him." And lest we should take those others to be those of whom it was said, Blessed are the poor, Blessed are the meek (See Matt 5:3-5), he immediately added: "For neither shall the unworthy see God." Wishing those certainly to be understood as unworthy who, although they rise, will not be able to see God, since they will rise unto damnation, because they were unwilling to cleanse the heart through true faith which works through love. And therefore it follows and he says: "Nor can he who has not willed to see God see God." Then, because it occurred to him that even all the ungodly wish to see God, at once, to show why he had said, "who has not willed to see God"—because surely in that way the ungodly does not will to see God, in that he does not will to cleanse the heart by which he can be seen—he went on and added and said: "Nor is God seen in a place, but with a pure heart; nor is God sought with bodily eyes, nor circumscribed by sight, nor held by touch, nor heard by address, nor perceived by his coming." By which words blessed Ambrose wished to admonish what men ought to prepare who wish to see God; that is, to cleanse the heart through faith which works through love, by the gift of the Holy Spirit, of which we received a pledge, by which we may know how to desire that vision.
Ep100-155.3.124. 13. Nam de membris Dei, quae assidue Scriptura commemorat, ne quisquam secundum carnis huius formam et figuram nos esse crederet similes Deo, propterea eadem Scriptura et alas habere Deum dixit, quas nos utique non habemus. Sicut ergo alas cum audimus, protectionem intellegimus: sic et cum audimus manus, operationem intellegere debemus; et cum audimus pedes, praesentationem; et cum audimus oculos, visionem qua cognoscit; et cum audimus faciem, notitiam qua innotescit; et si quid aliud eadem Scriptura tale commemorat, puto spiritaliter intellegendum. Neque hoc ego tantum, aut ego prior, sed omnes qui qualicumque spiritali intellegentia resistunt eis qui ob hoc Anthropomorphitae nominantur. Ex quorum litteris ne multa commemorando maiores moras faciam, hoc unum sancti Hieronymi interpono, ut noverit iste frater, non se de hac re mecum magis quam cum prioribus agere debere, si quid eum contra permovet.
4. 13. For concerning the members of God, which Scripture continually mentions, lest anyone should believe that we are like God according to the form and figure of this flesh, for that reason the same Scripture said that God has wings too, which we certainly do not have. As, then, when we hear "wings," we understand protection, so when we hear "hands," we ought to understand activity; and when we hear "feet," presence; and when we hear "eyes," the vision by which he knows; and when we hear "face," the knowledge by which he becomes known; and whatever else of the kind the same Scripture mentions, I think is to be understood spiritually. And not I alone, or I first, but all who, by whatever spiritual understanding, resist those who for this reason are named Anthropomorphites. Lest by mentioning many things from their writings I cause greater delays, I insert this one thing of holy Jerome, that this brother may know that he ought to deal in this matter not so much with me as with those before me, if anything moves him against it.
Ep100-155.4.134. 14. Cum ergo ille vir in Scripturis doctissimus, psalmum exponeret ubi dictum est: Intellegite ergo qui insipientes estis in populo, et stulti aliquando sapite. Qui plantavit aurem, non audiet? aut qui finxit oculum, non considerat? inter caetera: "Iste locus, inquit, adversus eos maxime facit, qui Anthropomorphitae sunt, qui dicunt Deum habere membra quae etiam nos habemus. Verbi causa, dicitur Deus habere oculos, quia oculi Domini respiciunt omnia; manus Domini facit omnia": Et audivit, inquit, Adam sonum pedum Domini deambulantis in paradiso: haec simpliciter audiunt, et humanas imbecillitates ad Dei magnificentiam referunt. Ego autem dico quod Deus totus oculus est, totus manus est, totus pes est. Totus oculus est, quia omnia videt. Totus manus est, quia omnia operatur. Totus pes est, quia ubique est. Ergo videte quid dicat. Qui plantavit aurem, non audiet? aut qui finxit oculos, non considerat? Et non dixit: Qui plantavit aurem, ergo ipse aurem non habet; non dixit: Ergo ipse oculos non habet: sed quid dixit? "Qui plantavit aurem, non audiet? qui finxit oculos, non considerat?" membra tulit, efficientias dedit ".
4. 14. When, then, that man, most learned in the Scriptures, was expounding the psalm where it is said, Understand, then, you who are foolish among the people; and be wise at last, you fools. He who planted the ear, shall he not hear? Or he who formed the eye, does he not consider? (Ps 94:8-9 (93:8-9)), among other things he says: "This passage tells especially against those who are Anthropomorphites, who say that God has the members which we too have. For example, God is said to have eyes, because the eyes of the Lord behold all things (See Prov 15:3); the hand of the Lord makes all things; and: Adam heard the sound of the feet of the Lord walking in paradise (See Gen 3:8): these things they hear simply, and refer human weaknesses to the magnificence of God. But I say that God is wholly eye, wholly hand, wholly foot. He is wholly eye, because he sees all things. He is wholly hand, because he works all things. He is wholly foot, because he is everywhere. See, then, what he says: He who planted the ear, shall he not hear? Or he who formed the eyes, does he not consider? And he did not say: He who planted the ear, therefore he himself has no ear; he did not say: Therefore he himself has no eyes; but what did he say? He who planted the ear, shall he not hear? He who formed the eyes, does he not consider? He took away the members, he gave the efficiencies."
Ep100-155.4.144. 15. Haec omnia de litteris eorum et Latinorum et Graecorum, qui priores nobis in catholica Ecclesia viventes divina eloquia tractaverunt, ideo commemoranda arbitratus sum, ut sciat iste frater, si quid aliter quam isti sentit, deposita dissensionis amaritudine, et fraternae caritatis suavitate servata atque in integrum restituta, diligenti et tranquilla consideratione quaerendum vel discendum vel docendum. Neque enim quorumlibet disputationes, quamvis catholicorum et laudatorum hominum, velut Scripturas canonicas habere debemus, ut nobis non liceat salva honorificentia quae illis debetur hominibus, aliquid in eorum scriptis improbare atque respuere, si forte invenerimus quod aliter senserint quam veritas habet, divino adiutorio vel ab aliis intellecta, vel a nobis. Talis ego sum in scriptis aliorum; tales volo esse intellectores meorum. Denique in iis omnibus quae de opusculis sanctorum atque doctorum commemoravi, Ambrosii, Hieronymi, Athanasii, Gregorii, et si qua aliorum talia legere potui quae commemorare longum putavi, Deum non esse corpus, nec formae humanae habere membra, nec eum esse per locorum spatia divisibilem, et esse natura incommutabiliter invisibilem, nec per eamdem naturam atque substantiam, sed assumpta visibili specie sicut voluit apparuisse iis quibus apparuit, quando per corporis oculos in Scripturis sanctis visus esse narratur, in adiutorio Domini inconcusse credo, et quantum ipse donat intellego.
4. 15. All these things from the writings of those, both Latins and Greeks, who, living before us in the catholic Church, treated the divine utterances, I have thought should be mentioned, that this brother may know that, if he is otherwise minded than these, with the bitterness of dissension laid aside, and the sweetness of fraternal charity preserved and restored to the full, the matter must be sought or learned or taught by diligent and tranquil consideration. For we ought not to hold the disputations of any people, however catholic and praised, as though they were the canonical Scriptures, so that it should not be lawful for us—saving the honor owed to those men—to disapprove and reject something in their writings, if perchance we find that they were otherwise minded than the truth holds, whether understood by others through divine help or by ourselves. Such am I in the writings of others; such I wish the readers of mine to be. Finally, in all those things which I have mentioned from the little works of the holy and learned, of Ambrose, Jerome, Athanasius, Gregory, and whatever such things of others I have been able to read which I thought it long to mention—that God is not a body, nor has the members of a human form, nor is divisible through spaces of places, and is by nature unchangeably invisible, and appeared not through that same nature and substance, but, a visible form being assumed, as he willed, to those to whom he appeared, when he is told in the holy Scriptures to have been seen through the eyes of the body—these, with the Lord's help, I unshakenly believe, and understand as much as he himself grants.
Ep100-155.4.155. 16. De spiritali autem corpore, quod in resurrectione habebimus, quantam capiat in melius commutationem: utrum in simplicitatem spiritus cedat, ut totus homo iam spiritus sit; an quod magis puto, sed nondum plena fiducia confirmo, ita futurum sit spiritale corpus, ut propter ineffabilem quamdam facilitatem spiritale dicatur, servet tamen substantiam corporalem, quae per seipsam vivere ac sentire non possit, sed per illum qui ea utitur spiritum; neque enim et nunc, quia corpus dicitur animale, eadem est animae natura quae corporis: et utrum si corporis, quamvis iam immortalis atque incorruptibilis, natura servabitur, adiuvet tunc aliquid spiritum ad videndum ipsa visibilia, id est corporalia, sicut nunc tale aliquid nisi per corpus videre non possumus; an vero etiam tunc sine organo corporis valeat spiritus noster nosse corporalia (neque enim et Deus talia per sensus corporis novit); et multa alia quae in hac quaestione movere possunt, fateor me nondum alicubi legisse, quod mihi sufficere existimarem sive ad discendum sive ad docendum.
5. 16. But concerning the spiritual body, which we shall have in the resurrection—how great a change for the better it admits: whether it passes into the simplicity of spirit, so that the whole man is now spirit; or, what I rather think, but do not yet confirm with full confidence, the spiritual body will be such that, on account of a certain ineffable ease, it is called spiritual, yet keeps a bodily substance, which cannot live and feel through itself, but through that spirit which uses it—for not even now, because the body is called animal, is the nature of the soul the same as that of the body; and whether, if the nature of the body, though now immortal and incorruptible, shall be kept, it then aids the spirit at all in seeing visible things themselves, that is, bodily things, just as now we cannot see anything of the kind except through the body; or whether even then our spirit can know bodily things without the organ of the body (for neither does God know such things through bodily senses); and many other things which can be raised in this question—I confess that I have not yet read anywhere what I would judge sufficient for me, whether for learning or for teaching.
Ep100-155.5.165. 17. Ac per hoc si non displicet huic fratri mea qualiscumque cautela, interim propter quod scriptum est: Quoniam videbimus eum sicuti est, quantum possumus, cor mundum ad illam visionem ipso adiuvante praeparemus. De corpore autem spiritali pacatius et diligentius inquiramus, ne forte aliquid certum ac liquidum, si nobis hoc utile esse novit, secundum Scripturas suas Deus dignetur demonstrare. Si enim hoc invenerit inquisitio diligentior, tantam corporis futuram mutationem, ut possit videre invisibilia; non, ut opinor, talis potentia corporis menti auferet visionem, ut exterior homo videre Deum tunc possit, non possit interior: quasi tantum foris sit Deus ad hominem, et intus non sit in homine, cum apertissime scriptum sit, ut sit Deus omnia in omnibus; aut ita sit intus ille qui sine ullis locorum spatiis ubique totus est, ut foris tantum videri ab exteriori homine possit, intus autem ab interiori non possit. Quae si absurdissime sentiuntur: magis enim sancti pleni erunt Deo; non inanes intrinsecus ab illo circumdabuntur extrinsecus; nec caesi intrinsecus eum quo pleni erunt, non videbunt, et tantum forinsecus oculati eum quo circumdabuntur, videbunt: restat ut interim de visione Dei secundum interiorem hominem certissimi simus. Si autem etiam corpus mira commutatione hoc valuerit, aliud accedet, non illud abscedet.
5. 17. And through this, if my caution, such as it is, does not displease this brother, let us meanwhile, on account of what is written, that we shall see him as he is (1 Jn 3:2), prepare, as much as we can, a pure heart for that vision, with his help. But concerning the spiritual body let us inquire more peaceably and diligently, in case perhaps God may deign, according to his Scriptures, to show something certain and clear, if he knows it to be useful to us. For if more diligent inquiry should find that so great a change of the body is to come that it can see invisible things, such a power of the body will not, I think, take away vision from the mind, so that the outer man could then see God and the inner could not: as though God were only outside man, and were not within in man, when it is written most plainly that God may be all in all (1 Cor 15:28); or as though he who without any spaces of places is everywhere whole were so within that he could be seen only outside by the outer man, but within could not be seen by the inner. Which, if it is most absurdly held—for the saints will rather be full of God; they will not, empty within, be surrounded by him without; nor, struck blind within, fail to see him with whom they will be full, and, only with eyes outside, see him by whom they will be surrounded—it remains that we be meanwhile most certain about the vision of God according to the inner man. But if the body too, by a marvelous change, shall be capable of this, something will be added, that will not be taken away.
Ep100-155.5.175. 18. Melius ergo illud affirmamus unde minime dubitamus, quod homo interior videbit Deum, qui modo solus potest videre caritatem, quae cum laudaretur dictum est: Deus caritas est: solus potest videre pacem et sanctificationem, sine qua nemo potest videre Deum. Neque enim caritatem, pacem, sanctificationem, et si qua sunt similia, videt modo ullus oculus carnis; quae tamen omnia iam videt, quantum potest, mentis oculus, tanto purius quanto purior: ut sine dubitatione Deum nos visuros esse credamus, sive inveniamus, sive non inveniamus quod de qualitate futuri corporis quaerimus; cum tamen corpus resurrecturum et immortale atque incorruptibile futurum non ambigamus, quoniam hinc sanctarum Scripturarum sententias apertissimas firmissimasque retinemus. Si autem iste frater quod de spiritali corpore adhuc requiro, iam sibi firmat esse certissimum, nisi placidus audiero docentem, ita ut ille quoque placidus me audiat inquirentem, habebit unde iure succenseat. Nunc tamen per Christum obsecro ut de illa asperitate litterarum mearum, qua eum non immerito offensum esse didici, veniam mihi ab illo impetres, et me rescriptis Domino adiuvante laetifices.
5. 18. We affirm, then, the better thing, of which we least doubt: that the inner man will see God, who now alone can see love, of which, when it was being praised, it was said: God is love (1 Jn 4:8); who alone can see peace and sanctification, without which no one can see God (Heb 12:14). For neither love, peace, sanctification, nor anything of the kind does any eye of the flesh now see; yet all these the eye of the mind already sees, as much as it can, the more purely the purer it is: so that without doubt we may believe that we shall see God, whether or not we find what we seek about the quality of the future body; while yet we do not doubt that the body will rise and will be immortal and incorruptible, since we hold from this most plain and most firm statements of the holy Scriptures. But if this brother already affirms for himself as most certain what I still inquire about the spiritual body, unless I shall hear him teaching peaceably, in such a way that he too hears me peaceably inquiring, he will have reason justly to be vexed. Now, however, I beseech you through Christ that you obtain pardon for me from him concerning that harshness of my letter, by which I have learned he was not undeservedly offended, and that you gladden me with a reply, the Lord helping.
Ep100-155.5.18EPISTOLA 149
BEATISSIMO ET VENERABILITER DESIDERABILI ET DESIDERABILITER VENERABILI, SANCTO SANCTEQUE CARISSIMO FRATRI ET COEPISCOPO, PAULINO, AUGUSTINUS, IN DOMINO SALUTEM.
BEATISSIMO ET VENERABILITER DESIDERABILI ET DESIDERABILITER VENERABILI, SANCTO SANCTEQUE CARISSIMO FRATRI ET COEPISCOPO, PAULINO, AUGUSTINUS, IN DOMINO SALUTEM.
LETTER 149
TO THE MOST BLESSED AND VENERABLY DESIRABLE AND DESIRABLY VENERABLE, MY HOLY AND HOLILY DEAREST BROTHER AND FELLOW BISHOP PAULINUS, FROM AUGUSTINE, GREETINGS IN THE LORD.
Ep100-155.5.18TO THE MOST BLESSED AND VENERABLY DESIRABLE AND DESIRABLY VENERABLE, MY HOLY AND HOLILY DEAREST BROTHER AND FELLOW BISHOP PAULINUS, FROM AUGUSTINE, GREETINGS IN THE LORD.
1. 1. Quod de perventione tam prospera fratris et compresbyteri nostri Quinti, et qui cum eo navigaverunt, cito nos Dominus exhilaravit, nuntiantibus litteris Sanctitatis tuae, gratias agens ei qui recreat afflictos, et humiles consolatur, sinceritati cordis tui, occasione filii et condiaconi nostri Ruffini quae proxima occurrit, nunc rescripta persolvo: de littore namque Hipponensi profectus est. Et approbo misericordiae consilium quod tibi Dominus inspiravit, mihique insinuare dignatus es. Ipse et hoc adiuvet, ipse prosperet, qui iam curam nostram ex magna parte lenivit, quia pervectus et commendatus est carissimus homo, non solum bonis operibus, sed etiam sanctis orationibus tuis.
1. 1. Since the Lord quickly gladdened us about the prosperous arrival of our brother and fellow presbyter Quintus, and of those who sailed with him, by the letter of your Holiness announcing it, I now, giving thanks to him who refreshes the afflicted and consoles the humble, pay back to the sincerity of your heart a reply, on the occasion of our son and fellow deacon Rufinus, which presents itself next; for he set out from the shore of Hippo. And I approve the counsel of mercy which the Lord inspired in you, and which you deigned to make known to me. May he himself aid this, may he himself prosper it, who has already in great part eased our care, since that most dear man has been brought across and commended, not only by your good works, but also by your holy prayers.
Ep100-155.1.11. 2. Litterae sane Venerationis tuae, ubi multa quaesisti, et quaerenda admonuisti, et quaerendo docuisti, ad me pervenerunt. Sed quas ipse continuo rescripsi per homines eorumdem sanctorum solatiorum nostrorum, sicut his tuis recentioribus comperi, non sunt redditae Venerationi tuae. In quibus quidem, quatenus ad interrogata responderim, recolere non valui; nec earum exemplum cum requisissem, ubi hoc possem recognoscere, inveni. Ad nonnulla tamen me respondisse certus omnino sum, et ideo non ad omnia, quia ut cito finirem, festinatio perlatoris urgebat. Simul etiam miseram, sicut iusseras, et illius epistolae exemplum, quam tuae Caritati apud Carthaginem de corporum resurrectione rescripseram, ubi de usu membrorum exorta erat quaestio. Nunc ergo et hoc misi, et alterum alterius, quia nec ipsam in manus tuas pervenisse conieci, eo quod iterum interrogasti quaedam quae iam me in ea respondisse lego et agnosco. Sed istam per quem direxerim nescio. Scripta quippe Caritatis tuae quibus eam reddidi, sicut etiam ipsa indicat, missa sunt mihi ab Hippone a nostris, cum essem apud sanctum fratrem et coepiscopum nostrum Bonifacium (nam eorum perlatorem non vidi), et continuo rescripta non distuli.
1. 2. The letter of your Veneration, indeed, in which you asked many things, and admonished what should be asked, and by asking taught, reached me. But those which I myself immediately wrote back, through the men of those same holy comforts of ours, were not delivered to your Veneration, as I have learned from these more recent letters of yours. In them I have not been able to recall how far I answered your questions; nor, when I had sought it, did I find a copy of them by which I could recognize this. Yet I am altogether certain that I answered some things, and therefore not all, because the haste of the carrier was pressing me to finish quickly. At the same time I had also sent, as you had bidden, a copy of that letter which I had written back to your Charity at Carthage about the resurrection of bodies, where a question had arisen about the use of the members. Now, therefore, I have both sent this, and the one along with the other, since I have surmised that neither did it reach your hands, because you again asked certain things which I read and recognize that I already answered in it. But by whom I sent it I do not know. For the writing of your Charity, to which I replied with it, as it itself also indicates, was sent to me from Hippo by our people, when I was with our holy brother and fellow bishop Boniface (for I did not see the carrier of them), and I did not delay an immediate reply.
Ep100-155.1.21. 3. Quia ergo tunc, sicut scripsi, non potueram inspicere codices graecos propter quaedam psalmi decimi sexti, inspexi postea quos inveni. Et unus habebat, quod et latini nostri: Domine, perdens de terra dispertire eos: alius sicut ipse posuisti: "A paucis de erra". Et illud quidem apertum habet sensum, "perdens de terra" quam eis dedisti, "dispertire eos" in gentibus: quod et factum eis est, cum gravi bello expugnati atque subversi sunt. Illud autem alterum quomodo accipiendum sit, non mihi occurrit; nisi quia in comparatione perditae multitudinis eorum, reliquiae salvae factae sunt, utique in paucis a quibus eos dispertiendos, hoc est dividendos atque separandos Scriptura praenuntiavit, dicens: Domine, a paucis, id est, a reliquiis quas ex illa gente salvas fecisti, de terra dispertire eos: ut terram intellegamus Ecclesiam haereditatemque fidelium atque sanctorum, quae dicitur et terra viventium, et quae etiam illo loco recte intellegi potest: Beati mites; quoniam ipsi haereditate possidebunt terram. Cum autem dictum esset: A paucis de terra divide eos, additum est, in vita eorum; ut in manifesto futurum intellegeretur, dum hic vivunt. Separantur enim multi ab Ecclesia, sed cum moriuntur, qui tamen cum vivunt, per Sacramentorum communionem unitatisque catholicae videntur Ecclesiae copulati. Isti ergo divisi sunt a paucis qui ex illis crediderunt, de terra quam sicut agrum suum excolit pater agricola: divisi autem in vita sua, id est hic in manifesto, sicut videmus. Sequitur autem: Et de absconditis tuis adimpletus est venter eorum; id est, praeter hoc quod in manifesto divisi sunt, etiam de absconditis tuis quae in occulto reddis conscientiae malorum, adimpletus est venter eorum: ventrem posuit pro internorum latentiumque secretis.
1. 3. Because, then, at that time, as I wrote, I had not been able to inspect the Greek manuscripts concerning certain matters of the sixteenth psalm, I afterward inspected those I found. And one had what our Latins also have: Lord, destroying them from the earth, divide them; another had it as you yourself put it: "From a few, from the earth." And the former indeed has a plain sense: "destroying" from the earth "which you gave them, divide them" among the nations: which was also done to them, when by a grievous war they were assailed and overthrown. But how that other is to be taken does not occur to me, except that, in comparison with the destroyed multitude of them, a remnant was made safe, namely in the few from whom Scripture foretold that they were to be divided—that is, separated and set apart—saying: Lord, from the few, that is, from the remnant which you made safe out of that nation, divide them from the earth: so that we may understand the earth to be the Church and the inheritance of the faithful and the saints, which is also called the land of the living, and which can also in that place be rightly understood: Blessed are the meek, for they shall possess the earth as their inheritance (Matt 5:5). But when it had been said, From the few, from the earth divide them, there was added, in their life; so that it might be understood that this would be in the open, while they live here. For many are separated from the Church, but when they die—who yet, while they live, seem joined to the Church through the communion of the sacraments and of catholic unity. These, then, are divided from the few who believed out of them, from the earth which the Father, the husbandman, cultivates as his own field; but divided in their life, that is, here in the open, as we see. And there follows: And their belly was filled from your hidden things; that is, besides this, that they were divided in the open, also from your hidden things, which you secretly render to the conscience of the evil, their belly was filled: he put "belly" for the secrets of inner and hidden things.
Ep100-155.1.31. 4. Quod vero sequitur: Saturati sunt porcina; iam quid mihi ex hoc videretur aperui. Sed quod alii codices habent, et verius habere perhibentur, quia diligentiora exemplaria, per accentus notam eiusdem verbi graeci ambiguitatem graeco scribendi more dissolvunt, obscurius est quidem, sed electiori sententiae videtur aptius convenire. Quia enim dixerat: Et de absconditis tuis adimpletus est venter eorum, quibus verbis occulta Dei iudicia significata sunt; occulte quippe sunt miseri, etiam qui gaudent in malis, quos tradidit Deus in concupiscentias cordis eorum: velut quaereretur unde possint cognosci qui in abscondito ira Dei adimpleti sunt, et responderetur quod in Evangelio dictum est: Ex fructibus eorum cognoscetis eos, continuo subiunctam est: Saturati sunt filiis, hoc est fructibus, quod evidentius dicitur, operibus suis. Unde alibi legitur: Ecce parturivit iniustitiam, concepit dolorem, et peperit iniquitatem: et alibi: Deinde concupiscentia, cum conceperit, parit peccatum. Mali ergo filii, mala opera, quibus cognoscuntur, et qui de absconditis Dei iudiciis internis cogitationum suarum tamquam in ventrem adimpleti sunt. Bona opera, boni filii sunt. Unde ad sponsam Ecclesiam dicitur: Dentes tui sicut grex detonsarum ascendens de lavacro, quae omnes geminos creant, et sterilis non est in illis. In quo gemino fetu geminum opus dilectionis agnoscitur, Domini Dei scilicet, et proximi: in quibus duobus praeceptis tota Lex pendet et Prophetae.
1. 4. But as for what follows, They were filled with swine's flesh, I have already disclosed what seemed to me from this. But what other manuscripts have, and are reported to have more truly, since they are more careful copies, resolving the ambiguity of the same Greek word by an accent-mark in the Greek manner of writing, is indeed more obscure, but seems to suit better the more select sense. For because he had said, And their belly was filled from your hidden things, by which words the hidden judgments of God are signified—for those are hidden wretches who even rejoice in evils, whom God handed over to the desires of their heart (See Rom 1:24)—as though it were asked whence they can be known who in secret are filled with the wrath of God, and the answer were given which was said in the Gospel, By their fruits you shall know them (Matt 7:16), there was immediately added: They were filled with sons, that is, with fruits, which is said more evidently, with their works. Whence elsewhere it is read: Behold, he was in travail with injustice, he conceived sorrow, and brought forth iniquity (Ps 7:14 (7:15)); and elsewhere: Then desire, when it has conceived, brings forth sin (Jas 1:15). Evil sons, then, are evil works, by which they are known, and who, from the hidden judgments of God, are filled as it were into the belly with the inner things of their thoughts. Good works are good sons. Whence to the bride, the Church, it is said: Your teeth are like a flock of shorn sheep coming up from the washing, all of which bear twins, and none is barren among them (Song 4:2). In which twin offspring is recognized the twofold work of love, namely of the Lord God and of the neighbor: on which two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets (Matt 22:40).
Ep100-155.1.41. 5. Iste autem sensus, quo ita exponitur quod scriptum est: Saturati sunt filiis, non mihi occurrerat, cum ante rescriberem; sed recensui brevissimam quamdam eiusdem psalmi expositionem, quam iam olim dictaveram, et hoc satis breviter a me positum reperi. Inspexi etiam codices graecos, utrum dativus casus esset, quod dictum est, filiis, an genitivus, quo illa lingua utitur pro ablativo, et inveni genitivum: quod si ad verbum interpretaretur, scriptum esset, Saturati sunt filiorum; sed recte interpres sententiam secutus est, et latino more dixit: Saturati sunt filiis. Quod vero sequitur: Et reliquerunt reliquias parvulis suis, existimo parvulos accipiendos manifestos carnis filios. Unde etiam secundum istam, non de porcina, sed de filiis expositionem, manet illa sententia qua dixerunt: Sanguis huius super nos et super filios nostros: ita enim reliquerunt operum suorum reliquias parvulis suis.
1. 5. But this sense, by which what is written, They were filled with sons, is thus expounded, had not occurred to me when I wrote back before; but I have reviewed a certain very brief exposition of the same psalm, which I had dictated long ago, and I found this set down by me briefly enough. I also inspected the Greek manuscripts, whether what was said, with sons, was the dative case, or the genitive, which that language uses for the ablative, and I found the genitive: which, if it were translated word for word, would be written, They were filled of sons; but the translator rightly followed the sense, and in the Latin manner said: They were filled with sons. But as for what follows, And they left their remnants to their little ones, I think that "little ones" are to be taken as the manifest sons of the flesh. Whence also, according to this exposition—not of swine's flesh, but of sons—there remains that saying by which they said: His blood be upon us and upon our sons (Matt 27:25): for thus they left the remnants of their works to their little ones.
Ep100-155.1.51. 6. In quinto decimo autem psalmo, quod scriptum est: Mirificavit, vel: Mirificet omnes voluntates suas inter illos, nihil prohibet intellegi, imo et convenientius videtur, non, inter illos, sed, in illis. Sic enim graeci codices habent: saepe autem quod habet illa lingua, in illis. nostri interpretantur, inter illos, ubi videtur sententiae convenire. Accipiamus ergo: Sanctis qui sunt in terra eius, mirificavit omnes voluntates suas in illis; quod plerique codices habent: et intellegamus, voluntates eius, munera gratiae, quae gratis data est, id est, quia voluit, non quia debebatur. Unde est: Scuto bonae voluntatis tuae coronasti nos; et: In voluntate tua deduxisti me; et: Voluntarie genuit nos verbo veritatis; et: Pluviam voluntariam segregans, Deus, haereditati tuae; et: Dividens propria unicuique prout vult; et alia innumerabilia. Proinde: Mirificavit omnes voluntates suas in illis, in quibus nisi in sanctis qui in terra sunt eius? Si enim terra, sicut supra ostendimus, potest accipi in bono, et ubi non additum est, eius; quanto magis ubi dicitur, terra eius! Miras ergo fecit omnes voluntates suas in illis: miras omnino fecit, quia eos ex desperatione mirabiliter liberavit.
1. 6. But in the fifteenth psalm, where it is written, He has made wonderful, or, May he make wonderful, all his wishes among them, nothing forbids us to understand—indeed it even seems more fitting—not "among them," but "in them." For thus the Greek manuscripts have it: and often what that language has, "in them," our translators render "among them," where it seems to suit the sense. Let us take it, then: To the saints who are in his land, he has made wonderful all his wishes in them; which most manuscripts have: and let us understand "his wishes" to be the gifts of grace, which was given freely, that is, because he willed it, not because it was owed. Whence is: With the shield of your good will you have crowned us (Ps 5:12 (5:13)); and: In your will you have led me (See Ps 73:24 (72:24)); and: Of his own will he begot us by the word of truth (Jas 1:18); and: Setting apart a voluntary rain, O God, for your inheritance (Ps 68:9 (67:10)); and: Dividing to each his own as he wills (1 Cor 12:11); and innumerable others. Accordingly, He has made wonderful all his wishes in them—in whom, except in the saints who are in his land? For if the earth, as we showed above, can be taken in a good sense even where "his" is not added, how much more where it says "his land"! He has made his wishes wonderful, then, in them: he has made them altogether wonderful, because he marvelously freed them from despair.
Ep100-155.1.61. 7. Ex hac admiratione exclamat Apostolus: O altitudo divitiarum sapientiae et scientiae Dei! supra quippe dixerat: Conclusit enim Deus omnes in infidelitate, ut omnium misereatur. Nam hoc etiam hic sequitur: Multiplicatae sunt infirmitates eorum; postea acceleraverunt. Infirmitates posuit pro peccatis, sicut ad Romanos Apostolus dicit: Si enim Christus, cum infirmi essemus adhuc iuxta tempus pro impiis mortuus est: hos dixit infirmos quos impios. Deinde paulo post eamdem sententiam repetens: Commendat, inquit, suam caritatem Deus in nobis, quoniam cum adhuc peccatores essemus, Christus pro nobis mortuus est: quos infirmos supra, eos hic peccatores appellavit. Item in consequentibus hoc idem aliis verbis versans: Si enim cum inimici essemus, inquit, reconciliati sumus Deo per mortem Filii eius. Ac per hoc in eo quod dictum est: Multiplicatae sunt infirmitates eorum, intelleguntur multiplicata peccata eorum. Lex enim subintravit, ut abundaret delictum: sed quoniam ubi abundavit delictum, superabundavit gratia, ideo postea acceleraverunt. Non enim venit ille vocare iustos, sed peccatores: quia non est opus sanis medicus, sed aegrotantibus; quorum scilicet multiplicatae sunt infirmitates, ut eis sanandis esset necessaria tantae gratiae medicina, et cui dimittuntur peccata multa, diligeret multum.
1. 7. Out of this wonder the Apostle exclaims: O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! (Rom 11:33) For he had said above: For God has shut up all in unbelief, that he may have mercy on all (Rom 11:32). For this too follows here: Their weaknesses were multiplied; afterward they hastened (Ps 16:4 (15:4)). He put "weaknesses" for sins, as the Apostle says to the Romans: For if Christ, while we were yet weak, in due time died for the ungodly (Rom 5:6): those he called weak whom he called ungodly. Then a little after, repeating the same sentiment: God commends his love toward us, he says, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us (Rom 5:8): those whom he called weak above, he here called sinners. Likewise in what follows, turning this same thought in other words: For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son (Rom 5:10). And through this, in what was said, Their weaknesses were multiplied, their sins multiplied are understood. For the law entered in, that the offense might abound; but since where the offense abounded, grace did more abound (Rom 5:20), therefore afterward they hastened. For he came not to call the righteous, but sinners (Matt 9:13): since the healthy have no need of a physician, but those who are ill (Matt 9:12); whose weaknesses, namely, were multiplied, so that for healing them the medicine of so great a grace was necessary, and he to whom many sins are forgiven might love much (See Luke 7:47).
Ep100-155.1.71. 8. Hoc cinis vaccae et aspersio sanguinis, et cruentarum multiplicatio victimarum significabat, non efficiebat. Ideo deinceps dicit: Non congregabo conventicula eorum de sanguinibus. id est illorum sacrificiorum quae immolabantur in figura sanguinis Christi. Nec memor ero nominum eorum per labia mea. Nomina quippe illorum erant in multiplicatione infirmitatum; fornicatores, idolis servientes, adulteri, molles, masculorum concubitores, fures, avari, raptores, ebriosi, maledici, et quicumque alii regnum Dei non possidebunt. Sed ubi abundante peccato, superabundavit gratia, postea acceleraverunt. Haec quidem fuerunt, sed abluti sunt, sed sanctificati sunt, sed iustificati sunt in nomine Domini Iesu Christi, et in Spiritu Dei nostri: ideo non memor erit nominum illorum per labia sua. Sane codices emendatiores et electioris auctoritatis, non habent, voluntates suas, sed, voluntates meas; quod tantumdem valet, quia ex persona Filii dicitur. Ipse quippe loquitur, quem verba illa evidenter ostendunt, quibus et Apostoli usi sunt: Non derelinques animam meam in inferno, nec dabis sanctum tuum videre corruptionem. Eadem sunt utique munera gratiae Patris et Filii et Spiritus sancti; et ideo rectissime et Filius eas potest dicere: voluntates suas.
1. 8. This the ashes of the heifer and the sprinkling of blood and the multiplication of bloody victims signified, but did not effect. Therefore he says next: I will not gather their assemblies from blood (Ps 16:4 (15:4))—that is, from those sacrifices which were offered as a figure of the blood of Christ. Nor will I remember their names through my lips (Ps 16:4 (15:4)). For their names were in the multiplication of weaknesses: fornicators, those serving idols, adulterers, the effeminate, men who lie with men, thieves, the greedy, robbers, drunkards, the abusive (See 1 Cor 6:9-10), and any others who shall not possess the kingdom of God (1 Cor 6:10). But where, sin abounding, grace did more abound, afterward they hastened. These things indeed they were, but they were washed, but they were sanctified, but they were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God (1 Cor 6:11): therefore he will not remember their names through his lips. To be sure, the more corrected manuscripts, and those of more select authority, do not have "his wishes," but "my wishes"; which means the same, since it is spoken from the person of the Son. For it is he who speaks, whom those words evidently show, which the Apostles too used: You will not leave my soul in hell, nor will you give your holy one to see corruption (Ps 16:10 (15:10); Acts 2:27). The gifts of grace of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are surely the same; and therefore most rightly can the Son too call them his wishes.
Ep100-155.1.81. 9. Quod vero in psalmo quinquagesimo octavo de Iudaeis intellegitur, dicente: Ne occideris eos, nequando obliviscantur Legis tuae, convenienter mihi videtur intellegi ita esse praenuntiatum: eamdem gentem etiam debellatam atque subversam, in populi victoris superstitiones non fuisse cessuram, sed in veteri Lege mansuram, ut apud eam esset testimonium Scripturarum toto orbe terrarum, unde Ecclesia fuerat evocanda. Nullo enim evidentiore documento ostenditur gentibus, quod saluberrime advertitur, non inopinatum et repentinum aliquid institutum spiritu praesumptionis humanae, ut Christi nomen in spe salutis aeternae tanta auctoritate praepolleat, sed olim fuisse prophetatum atque conscriptum. Nam ipsa prophetia quid aliud nisi a nostris putaretur esse conficta, si non de inimicorum codicibus probaretur? Ideo. Ne occideris eos; ne ipsius gentis nomen exstinxeris, nequando obliviscantur Legis tuae: quod utique fieret, si ritus et sacra Gentilium colere compulsi penitus, qualecumque nomen religionis suae minime retinerent. Quod in eorum figura etiam de Cain scriptum est, quod constituit in eo Dominus signum, ne quis occideret eum. Denique cum dixisset: Ne occideris eos, nequando obliviscantur Legis tuae; velut quaereretur quid de illis esset faciendum, ut in aliquos usus testimonii veritatis non occidantur, id est, non consumantur, neque obliviscantur Legis Dei; continuo subiunxit: Disperge illos in virtute tua. Si enim in uno loco essent terrarum, non adiuvarent testimonio praedicationem Evangelii, quae fructificat toto orbe terrarum. Ideo disperge illos in virtute tua, ut eius ipsius cuius fuerunt negatores, persecutores, interfectores, ubique sint testes per ipsam Legem, quam non obliviscuntur, in qua est ille prophetatus, quem non sequuntur. Neque enim eis aliquid prodest, quod eam non obliviscuntur: aliud est enim legem Dei habere in memoria, aliud in intellectu et effectu.
1. 9. But as for what is understood of the Jews in the fifty-eighth psalm, where it says, Slay them not, lest at any time they forget your law (Ps 59:11 (58:12)), it seems to me fittingly understood to have been foretold thus: that this same nation, even conquered and overthrown, would not pass over into the superstitions of the victorious people, but would remain in the old Law, so that among them there might be the testimony of the Scriptures throughout the whole world, from which the Church was to be called forth. For by no more evident document is it shown to the nations—what is most healthfully observed—that no unforeseen and sudden thing was instituted by a spirit of human presumption, so that the name of Christ should prevail with so great authority in the hope of eternal salvation, but that it was long ago prophesied and written down. For what else would that very prophecy be thought, but devised by our people, if it were not proved from the books of our enemies? Therefore: Slay them not; do not extinguish the name of that very nation, lest at any time they forget your law: which would surely happen if, compelled to worship the rites and sacred things of the gentiles thoroughly, they should retain not at all any name of their own religion. This too was written in their figure concerning Cain, that the Lord set a sign upon him, lest anyone should kill him (See Gen 4:15). Finally, when he had said, Slay them not, lest at any time they forget your law, as though it were asked what should be done with them, so that for some uses of the testimony of truth they should not be slain, that is, not consumed, nor forget the law of God, he immediately added: Scatter them by your power (Ps 59:11 (58:12)). For if they were in one place of the earth, they would not aid by their testimony the preaching of the Gospel, which bears fruit throughout the whole world. Therefore, scatter them by your power, so that of that very one of whom they were the deniers, persecutors, slayers, they may everywhere be witnesses through that very Law which they do not forget, in which he was prophesied whom they do not follow. For it profits them nothing that they do not forget it: for it is one thing to have the law of God in memory, and another in understanding and effect.
Ep100-155.1.91. 10. In sexagesimo autem septimo psalmo, quod quaeris quid sit: Verumtamen Deus conquassabit capita inimicorum suorum, verticem capilli perambulantium in delictis suis; non mihi videtur aliud dictum quam, Deus conquassabit capita inimicorum suorum nimium superbientium, nimium se extollentium in delictis suis. Per hyperbolen quippe significavit superbiam tantum se extollentem, et tanta elatione incedentem, quasi capilli verticem perambulando calcaret. Item in eodem psalmo quod scriptum est: Lingua canum tuorum ex inimicis ab ipso; non semper in malo accipiendi sunt canes. Alioquin non reprehenderentur apud prophetam canes muti nescientes latrare, et amantes dormitare: profecto enim laudabiles canes essent, si et latrare scirent, et vigilare amarent. Et certe illi trecenti in numero per crucis litteram sacratissimo non eligerentur ad victoriam faciendam, qui tamquam canes lamberent aquam, nisi aliquid magnum significarent. Vigilant enim et latrant boni canes, et pro domo et pro domino, et pro grege et pro pastore. Denique et hic in Ecclesiae laudibus, cum prophetia exereretur, lingua canum est commemorata, non dentes. Tuorum autem canum, dixit, ex inimicis, id est, ut qui erant inimici tui fierent canes tui, et latrarent pro te, qui saeviebant in te. Addidit autem, ab ipso, ut non a seipsis hoc factum intellegerent, sed ab ipso, id est misericordia eius et gratia.
1. 10. But in the sixty-seventh psalm, as for what you ask is the meaning of: But God will shatter the heads of his enemies, the crown of the hair of those who walk in their offenses (Ps 68:21 (67:22)), it seems to me nothing else is said than: God will shatter the heads of his enemies who are exceedingly proud, exceedingly exalting themselves in their offenses. For by hyperbole he signified pride exalting itself so greatly, and advancing with such great elation, as though by walking it trod upon the crown of the hair. Likewise in the same psalm, as for what is written: The tongue of your dogs, from the enemies, from him (See Ps 68:23 (67:24)), dogs are not always to be taken in a bad sense. Otherwise the prophet would not reproach dumb dogs, not knowing how to bark, and loving to slumber (See Isa 56:10): for surely they would be praiseworthy dogs, if they both knew how to bark and loved to keep watch. And certainly those three hundred in number, by the most sacred letter of the cross, would not have been chosen for winning the victory, who like dogs lapped the water (See Judg 7:5-7), unless they signified something great. For good dogs keep watch and bark, both for the house and for the master, both for the flock and for the shepherd. Finally, here too, in the praises of the Church, when the prophecy was being set forth, the tongue of dogs is mentioned, not the teeth. But "your dogs," he said, "from the enemies"—that is, that those who were your enemies might become your dogs, and might bark for you who were raging against you. And he added, "from him," that they might understand this to have been done not by themselves, but by him, that is, by his mercy and grace.
Ep100-155.1.102. 11. De prophetis quod ait Apostolus: Quosdam quidem dedit Deus in Ecclesia apostolos, quosdam autem prophetas, hoc intellego quod ipse scripsisti, prophetas eos dictos isto loco, ex quibus Agabus erat, non illos qui venturum in carne Dominum prophetaverunt. Evangelistas vero invenimus, quos apostolos fuisse non legimus; sicut fuerunt Lucas et Marcus. Pastores autem et doctores, quos maxime ut discernerem voluisti, eosdem puto esse, sicut et tibi visum est, ut non alios pastores, alios doctores intellegamus; sed ideo cum praedixisset pastores, subiunxisse doctores, ut intellegerent pastores ad officium suum pertinere doctrinam. Ideo enim non ait: Quosdam autem pastores, quosdam vero doctores; cum superiora ipso locutionis genere distingueret dicendo: Quosdam quidem apostolos, quosdam autem prophetas, quosdam vero evangelistas: sed hoc tamquam unum aliquid duobus nominibus amplexus est, quosdam autem pastores et doctores.
2. 11. As for what the Apostle says of the prophets, Some indeed God gave in the Church as apostles, but some as prophets (See Eph 4:11; 1 Cor 12:28), I understand this, which you yourself have written, that in this place are called prophets those of whom Agabus was one (See Acts 11:28; 21:10), not those who prophesied that the Lord would come in the flesh. But we find evangelists who, we do not read, were apostles, as were Luke and Mark. As for pastors and teachers, whom you especially wished me to distinguish, I think they are the same, as it also seemed to you, so that we understand not some to be pastors, others teachers; but that, having premised "pastors," he subjoined "teachers," so that pastors might understand that teaching belongs to their office. For therefore he did not say: Some indeed as pastors, but some as teachers; though he distinguished the earlier ones by that very manner of speech, saying: Some indeed as apostles, but some as prophets, but some as evangelists; but this he embraced as some one thing by two names, "but some as pastors and teachers."
Ep100-155.2.112. 12. Illa plane difficillime discernuntur, ubi ad Timotheum scribens ait: Obsecro itaque primum omnium fieri obsecrationes, orationes, interpellationes, gratiarum actiones. Secundum graecum enim eloquium discernenda sunt: nam nostri interpretes vix reperiuntur, qui ea diligenter et scienter transferre curaverint. Ecce enim sicut ea ipse posuisti: Obsecro fieri obsecrationes, non eodem verbo utrumque dixit Apostolus, qui utique graece illam scripsit epistolam; sed pro eo quod in latino est: Obsecro, ille graece dixit, [Greek]. Pro eo vero quod latinus vester habet, obsecrationes, ille posuit, [Greek]. Proinde alii codices in quibus et nostri sunt, non habent, obsecrationes, sed, deprecationes. Tria porro quae sequuntur, orationes, interpellationes, gratiarum actiones, plerique latini codices sic habent.
2. 12. Those things, plainly, are most difficult to distinguish, where, writing to Timothy, he says: I beseech, therefore, first of all, that supplications, prayers, intercessions, thanksgivings be made (1 Tim 2:1). For according to the Greek expression they must be distinguished; for scarcely are translators of ours found who have taken care to render them diligently and knowingly. For behold, as you yourself have set them down, I beseech that supplications be made—the Apostle did not say both by the same word, who surely wrote that letter in Greek; but for what in the Latin is "I beseech," he in Greek said [Greek]. But for what your Latin has, "supplications," he set down [Greek]. Accordingly, other manuscripts, among which are ours too, do not have "supplications," but "entreaties." Further, the three that follow, "prayers, intercessions, thanksgivings," most Latin manuscripts have thus.
Ep100-155.2.122. 13. Unde si velimus secundum latinae linguae proprietates ista discernere more loquendi, nostram vel qualemcumque sententiam fortasse tenebimus; sed mirum si sententiam graeci sermonis vel consuetudinis obtinebimus. Precationem, et deprecationem, multi nostri hoc idem putant, et hoc quotidiano usu iam omnino praevaluit. Qui autem distinctius latine locuti sunt, precationibus utebantur in optandis bonis, deprecationibus vero in devitandis malis. Precari enim dicebant esse precando bona optare; imprecari mala, quod vulgo iam dicitur, maledicere: deprecari autem, mala precando depellere. Sed usitatum iam loquendi modum potius sequamur; et sive precationes sive deprecationes invenerimus, quas Graeci [Greek] vocant, non putemus emendandum esse. Orationes vero, quas graecus habet [Greek], distinguere a precibus vel precationibus omnino difficile est. Quod vero quidam codices non habent, orationes, sed, adorationes, quia non dictum est in graeco [Greek], sed [Greek]: non arbitror scienter interpretatum; [Greek] enim orationes dici a Graecis notissimum est. Et utique aliud est orare, aliud adorare. Denique non isto verbo, sed alio legitur in graeco: Dominum Deum tuum adorabis; et: Adorabo ad templum sanctum tuum; et si qua similia.
2. 13. Whence, if we wish to distinguish these according to the properties of the Latin language by the manner of speaking, we will perhaps hold to our own view, such as it is; but it would be surprising if we should obtain the sense of the Greek language or usage. "Precation" and "deprecation" many of ours think the same, and this has now altogether prevailed in daily use. But those who spoke Latin more distinctly used "precations" in wishing for goods, but "deprecations" in averting evils. For they said that to "pray" (precari) is to wish for goods by praying; to "imprecate" (imprecari) evils, which is now commonly called to curse; but to "deprecate" (deprecari) is to drive off evils by praying. But let us rather follow the now customary manner of speaking; and whether we find "precations" or "deprecations," which the Greeks call [Greek], let us not think it should be emended. But "prayers," which the Greek has as [Greek], to distinguish from "prayers" or "precations" is altogether difficult. As for the fact that certain manuscripts do not have "prayers" but "adorations," because it was said in Greek not [Greek] but [Greek]: I do not think this was knowingly translated; for it is most well known that [Greek] are called "prayers" by the Greeks. And surely it is one thing to pray, another to adore. Finally, it is read in Greek not by this word, but by another: You shall adore the Lord your God (See Matt 4:10); and: I will adore toward your holy temple (See Ps 5:7 (5:8)); and any such things.
Ep100-155.2.132. 14. Pro interpellationibus autem quod nostri habent, secundum codices, credo, vestros, postulationes posuisti. Haec interim duo, id est quod alii postulationes, alii interpellationes interpretati sunt, unum verbum transferre voluerunt quod graecus habet, [Greek]. Et profecto advertis, et nosti aliud esse interpellare, aliud postulare. Non enim solemus dicere, Postulant interpellaturi, sed, Interpellant postulaturi: verumtamen ex vicinitate verbum usurpatum, cui propinquitas ipsa impetrat intellectum, non est velut censoria notatione culpandum. Nam et de ipso Domino Iesu Christo dictum est quod interpellat pro nobis: numquidnam interpellat, et non etiam postulat? Imo vero quia postulat, pro eo positum est, interpellat. Evidenter quippe alibi de eo dicitur: Et si quis peccaverit, advocatum habemus apud Patrem, Iesum Christum iustum, et ipse est exoratio pro peccatis nostris. Quamquam fortassis codices apud vos etiam in eo loco de Domino Iesu Christo non habent, interpellat pro nobis, sed, postulat pro nobis: in graeco enim, quo verbo hic positae sunt interpellationes, quas ipse posuisti postulationes, ipsum et illic verbum est, ubi scriptum est, interpellat pro nobis.
2. 14. But for "intercessions," which ours have, according, I believe, to your manuscripts, you set down "petitions." These two, then—that is, that some translated "petitions," others "intercessions"—wished to render one word which the Greek has, [Greek]. And surely you observe, and know, that it is one thing to intercede, another to petition. For we are not wont to say, They petition about to intercede, but, They intercede about to petition: yet a word borrowed from nearness, for which the very nearness obtains understanding, is not to be blamed as if by a censor's mark. For of the Lord Jesus Christ himself it was said that he intercedes for us (See Rom 8:34): does he merely intercede, and not also petition? Rather, because he petitions, "intercedes" was put in its place. For evidently elsewhere it is said of him: And if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and he is the propitiation for our sins (1 Jn 2:1-2). Although perhaps the manuscripts among you, in that place too about the Lord Jesus Christ, have not "intercedes for us," but "petitions for us"; for in the Greek, by whatever word "intercessions" are here set down, which you yourself put as "petitions," that same word is there too, where it is written, "intercedes for us."
Ep100-155.2.142. 15. Cum igitur et qui precatur oret, et qui orat precetur, et qui interpellat Deum, ad hoc interpellet ut oret et precetur; quid sibi vult quod ista ita posuit Apostolus, ut non sit eorum neglegenda distinctio? Excepto itaque nomine generali, et salva loquendi consuetudine, secundum quam sive dicas precationem, sive orationem, sive interpellationem, vel postulationem, una eademque res intellegitur; aliqua etiam singulorum istorum proprietas inquirenda est; sed ad eam liquido pervenire difficile est: multa quippe hinc dici possunt quae improbanda non sint.
2. 15. Since, then, both he who entreats prays, and he who prays entreats, and he who intercedes with God intercedes for this, that he may pray and entreat, what does it mean that the Apostle so set these down that their distinction is not to be neglected? Apart, therefore, from the general name, and saving the custom of speech, according to which, whether you say entreaty, or prayer, or intercession, or petition, one and the same thing is understood, some property also of each of these is to be sought; but to arrive at it clearly is difficult: for many things can be said here that are not to be disapproved.
Ep100-155.2.152. 16. Sed eligo in his verbis hoc intellegere, quod omnis vel pene omnis frequentat Ecclesia, ut precationes accipiamus dictas, quas facimus in celebratione Sacramentorum, antequam illud quod est in Domini mensa incipiat benedici: orationes, cum benedicitur et sanctificatur, et ad distribuendum comminuitur; quam totam petitionem fere omnis Ecclesia dominica oratione concludit. Ad quem intellectum etiam verbi graeci origo nos adiuvat. Nam eam quam dicunt [Greek], raro ita Scriptura ponit ut intellegatur oratio: sed plerumque et multo usitatius votum appellat [Greek], [Greek] vero, quod verbum ita positum est unde tractamus, semper orationem vocat. Unde hanc verbi originem, sicut superius dixi, nonnulli minus erudite intuentes, [Greek] non orationem, sed adorationem dicere voluerunt, quae potius [Greek] dicitur: sed quia oratio interdum vocatur [Greek], adoratio putata est [Greek]. Porro si usitatius, ut dixi, in Scripturis votum appellatur [Greek], excepto nomine generali orationis, ea proprie intellegenda est oratio, quam facimus ad votum, id est [Greek]. Voventur autem omnia quae offeruntur Deo, maxime sancti altaris oblatio; quo Sacramento praedicatur nostrum illud votum maximum, quo nos vovimus in Christo esse mansuros, utique in compage corporis Christi. Cuius rei sacramentum est, quod unus panis, unum corpus multi sumus. Ideo in huius sanctificationis praeparatione, existimo Apostolum iussisse proprie fieri [Greek], id est orationes, vel, ut nonnulli minus perite interpretati sunt, adorationes; hoc est enim ad votum, quod usitatius in Scripturis nuncupatur [Greek]. Interpellationes autem, sive, ut vestri codices habent, postulationes, fiunt cum populus benedicitur: tunc enim antistites, velut advocati, susceptos suos per manus impositionem misericordissimae offerunt potestati. Quibus peractis, et participato tanto Sacramento, gratiarum actio cuncta concludit, quam in his etiam verbis ultimam commendavit Apostolus.
2. 16. But I choose to understand in these words what all, or almost all, the Church practices: that we take "entreaties" to be said of what we make in the celebration of the sacraments, before that which is on the Lord's table begins to be blessed; "prayers," when it is blessed and sanctified, and broken up for distribution—which whole petition almost the entire Church concludes with the Lord's prayer. To this understanding the origin of the Greek word too aids us. For that which they call [Greek], Scripture rarely so sets down that "prayer" is understood; but generally, and much more customarily, it calls [Greek] a "vow"; but [Greek], which word is so set down in the passage we are treating, it always calls "prayer." Whence certain people, regarding this origin of the word, as I said above, less learnedly, wished to call [Greek] not "prayer" but "adoration," which is rather called [Greek]: but because prayer is sometimes called [Greek], [Greek] was thought to be adoration. Further, if more customarily, as I said, in the Scriptures [Greek] is called a "vow," then, apart from the general name of prayer, that is properly to be understood as prayer which we make at a vow, that is, [Greek]. But all things which are offered to God are vowed, especially the offering of the holy altar; by which sacrament is proclaimed that vow of ours, the greatest, by which we vow that we will abide in Christ, namely in the framework of the body of Christ. Of which thing it is the sacrament, that we who are many are one bread, one body (See 1 Cor 10:17). Therefore in the preparation of this sanctification I think the Apostle commanded that there properly be made [Greek], that is, prayers, or, as some have translated less skillfully, adorations; for this is at the vow, which more customarily in the Scriptures is named [Greek]. But intercessions, or, as your manuscripts have, petitions, are made when the people are blessed: for then the bishops, as advocates, offer those received under their care, through the imposition of hands, to the most merciful Power. When these are done, and so great a sacrament has been partaken of, thanksgiving concludes all, which last too the Apostle commended in these words.
Ep100-155.2.162. 17. Haec autem causa praecipua fuit ista dicendi, ut his breviter perstrictis atque significatis, non putaretur neglegendum esse quod sequitur, pro omnibus hominibus, pro regibus, et his qui in sublimitate sunt, ut quietam et tranquillam vitam agamus in omni pietate et caritate: ne quisquam, sicut se habet humanae cogitationis infirmitas, existimaret non esse ista facienda pro his a quibus persecutionem patiebatur Ecclesia, cum membra Christi ex omni essent hominum genere colligenda. Unde adiungit et dicit: Hoc enim bonum et acceptum est coram Salvatore nostro Deo, qui omnes homines vult salvos fieri, et in agnitionem veritatis venire. Et ne quisquam diceret posse esse salutis viam in bona conversatione et unius Dei omnipotentis cultu, sine participatione corporis et sanguinis Christi; Unus enim Deus, inquit, et unus mediator Dei et hominum homo Christus Iesus: ut illud quod dixerat, omnes homines vult salvos fieri, nullo alio modo intellegatur praestari, nisi per mediatorem, non Deum, quod semper Verbum erat, sed hominem Christum Iesum, cum Verbum caro factum est, et habitavit in nobis.
2. 17. But this was the chief reason for saying these things: that, when these had been briefly touched on and signified, it should not be thought that what follows is to be neglected: for all men, for kings and those who are in high place, that we may lead a quiet and tranquil life in all piety and love (1 Tim 2:1-2); lest anyone, as the weakness of human thought tends, should suppose that these things are not to be done for those by whom the Church was suffering persecution, since the members of Christ were to be gathered from every kind of men. Whence he adds and says: For this is good and acceptable before God our Savior, who wills all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Tim 2:3-4). And lest anyone should say that the way of salvation could be in a good manner of life and the worship of the one almighty God, without partaking of the body and blood of Christ: For there is one God, he says, and one mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus (1 Tim 2:5): so that what he had said, "wills all men to be saved," is understood to be granted in no other way than through the mediator, not God, which the Word always was, but the man Christ Jesus, when the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us (Jn 1:14).
Ep100-155.2.172. 18. Unde nec illud moveat te, quod de Iudaeis idem apostolus ait: Secundum Evangelium quidem inimici propter vos; secundum electionem autem dilecti propter patres. Altitudo quippe illa divitiarum sapientiae et scientiae Dei, et illa inscrutabilia iudicia eius, et investigabiles viae eius, hanc fidelibus cordibus magnam ingerunt admirationem, qui de illius sapientia pertendente a fine usque ad finem fortiter, et omnia suaviter disponente non dubitant, quid sit quod ei placet ut nascantur, crescant ac multiplicentur hi, quos etsi malos ipse non fecit, tamen malos futuros esse praescivit. Nimis enim consilium eius in abdito est, quo etiam malis bene utitur ad provectum bonorum, etiam in hoc mirificans omnipotentiam bonitatis suae: quia sicut illorum nequitiae est male uti bonis operibus eius, sic illius sapientiae est bene uti malis operibus eorum.
2. 18. Whence let not this move you either, that the same apostle says of the Jews: According to the Gospel, indeed, they are enemies for your sake; but according to election, they are beloved for the fathers' sake (Rom 11:28). For that depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God (Rom 11:33), and those inscrutable judgments of his, and his untraceable ways, work great wonder in faithful hearts, which do not doubt about his wisdom, reaching mightily from end to end and disposing all things sweetly (See Wis 8:1)—what it is that it pleases him that those should be born, grow, and multiply, whom, though he himself did not make them evil, yet he foreknew would be evil. For exceedingly hidden is his counsel, by which he uses even the evil well for the advancement of the good, magnifying even in this the omnipotence of his goodness: because, as it belongs to their wickedness to use his good works ill, so it belongs to his wisdom to use their evil works well.
Ep100-155.2.182. 19. Hanc igitur altitudinem sacramenti sic commendat Apostolus: Nolo vos ignorare, fratres, hoc sacramentum, ut non sitis vobis sapientes, quia caecitas ex parte in Israel facta est, donec plenitudo Gentium intraret, et sic omnis Israel salvus fieret. Ex parte, dixit, quia non omnes excaecati sunt: erant enim ex illis qui Christum cognoverunt. Plenitudo autem Gentium in his intrat, qui secundum propositum vocati sunt; et sic omnis Israel salvus fiet, quia et ex Iudaeis et ex Gentibus, qui secundum propositum vocati sunt, ipsi verus sunt Israel, de quo dicit idem Apostolus: Et super Israel Dei: illos autem dicit Israel secundum carnem; Videte, inquit: Israel secundum carnem. Deinde interponit testimonium prophetae: Veniet ex Sion, qui eripiat et avertat impietatem ab Iacob; et hoc illis a me testamentum, cum abstulero peccata eorum: non utique omnium Iudaeorum, sed electorum.
2. 19. This depth of the mystery, then, the Apostle thus commends: I do not wish you to be ignorant, brothers, of this mystery, that you may not be wise in your own eyes, that blindness in part has happened in Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles should enter in, and so all Israel should be saved (Rom 11:25-26). "In part," he said, because not all were blinded; for there were among them those who knew Christ. But the fullness of the Gentiles enters in among those who are called according to the purpose (See Rom 8:28); and so all Israel shall be saved, because both from Jews and from Gentiles, those who are called according to the purpose are themselves the true Israel, of whom the same Apostle says: And upon the Israel of God (Gal 6:16); but those he calls Israel according to the flesh: See Israel according to the flesh (See 1 Cor 10:18), he says. Then he interposes the testimony of the prophet: There shall come out of Zion one who shall deliver and turn away ungodliness from Jacob; and this is my covenant to them, when I shall take away their sins (Rom 11:26-27)—not, surely, of all Jews, but of the elect.
Ep100-155.2.192. 20. Hinc adiungit ea, quae inquirenda posuisti: Secundum Evangelium quidem inimici propter vos. Pretium quippe redemptionis nostrae sanguis est Christi, qui utique nonnisi ab inimicis potuit occidi. Hic est ille usus malorum in provectum bonorum. Quod vero adiungit, secundum electionem autem dilecti propter patres, hinc ostendit non illos inimicos, sed electos esse dilectos. Sed Scripturae mos est ita loqui de parte tamquam de toto: sicut Corinthios in primis Epistolae suae partibus, ita laudat tamquam omnes tales sint, cum essent laudabiles quidam eorum; et postea in nonnullis Epistolae ipsius locis, ita reprehendit tamquam omnes culpabiles essent, propter quosdam qui tales erant. Istam divinarum Scripturarum consuetudinem per omne corpus Litterarum eius creberrime sparsam, quisquis diligenter adverterit, multa dissolvit quae inter se videntur esse contraria. Inimicos ergo alios dicit, alios dilectos: sed quia in uno populo erant, velut eosdem ipsos dicere videtur. Quamquam et ex ipsis inimicis qui crucifixerunt Dominum, plerique conversi sunt, et apparuerunt electi. Tunc electi, quando conversi, quantum ad salutis initium: quantum vero ad Dei praescientiam, non tunc electi, sed ante constitutionem mundi, sicut idem dicit apostolus, quod elegerit nos ante mundi constitutionem. Duobus itaque modis, ipsi inimici qui dilecti: sive quia in uno populo utrique fuerant; sive quia ex inimicis saevientibus usque ad sanguinem Christi, quidam eorum dilecti facti erant secundum electionem quae latebat in praescientia Dei. Ad hoc enim addidit, propter patres; quia id quod patribus promissum est oportebat impleri, sicut circa finem Epistolae ad Romanos ait: Dico enim Christum ministrum fuisse circumcisionis propter veritatem Dei, ad confirmandas promissiones patrum. Gentes autem super misericordia glorificare Deum. Secundum istam misericordiam dictum est, inimici propter vos: quod et supra dixerat: Illorum delicto salus Gentibus.
2. 20. From this he adds those things you set down to be inquired into: According to the Gospel, indeed, they are enemies for your sake. For the price of our redemption is the blood of Christ, which surely could be shed only by enemies. This is that use of the evil for the advancement of the good. But as for what he adds, but according to election they are beloved for the fathers' sake, hence he shows that those enemies are not, but the elect are, the beloved. But it is the custom of Scripture so to speak of a part as of the whole: just as in the first parts of his Letter he praises the Corinthians as though all were such, when certain of them were praiseworthy; and afterward in some places of that same Letter he reproaches them as though all were blameworthy, on account of certain who were such. Whoever diligently observes this custom of the divine Scriptures, scattered most frequently throughout the whole body of his Letters, resolves many things which seem to be contrary among themselves. He calls some, then, enemies, others beloved; but because they were in one people, he seems to speak as it were of the same ones. Although even of those very enemies who crucified the Lord, very many were converted, and appeared elect. Then elect, when converted, as far as pertains to the beginning of salvation; but as far as pertains to the foreknowledge of God, not then elect, but before the foundation of the world, as the same apostle says, that he chose us before the foundation of the world (Eph 1:4). In two ways, then, are the very enemies those who are beloved: either because both were in one people; or because, out of enemies raging even to the blood of Christ, certain of them had been made beloved according to the election which lay hidden in the foreknowledge of God. For to this he added, "for the fathers' sake," because what was promised to the fathers had to be fulfilled, as toward the end of the Letter to the Romans he says: For I say that Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises of the fathers. But that the Gentiles should glorify God for his mercy (Rom 15:8-9). According to this mercy it was said, "they are enemies for your sake": which he had also said above: By their offense salvation has come to the Gentiles (Rom 11:11).
Ep100-155.2.202. 21. Cum autem dixisset, secundum electionem dilecti propter patres, addidit: Sine poenitentia enim sunt dona et vocatio Dei. Vides certe illos significari, qui pertinent ad numerum praedestinatorum. De quibus alio loco dicit: Scimus quia diligentibus Deum omnia cooperantur in bonum, his qui secundum propositum vocati sunt. Multi enim sunt vocati, pauci vero electi: qui vero electi, ipsi sunt secundum propositum vocati; in quibus Dei procul dubio praescientia falli non potest. Hos praescivit et praedestinavit conformes imaginis Filii sui, ut sit ipse primogenitus in multis fratribus. Quos autem praedestinavit, illos et vocavit. Haec vocatio est secundum propositum; haec est sine poenitentia. Quos autem vocavit, illos et iustificavit: quos autem iustificavit, illos et glorificavit. Si Deus pro nobis, quis contra nos?
2. 21. But when he had said, according to election they are beloved for the fathers' sake, he added: For the gifts and the calling of God are without repentance (Rom 11:29). You see certainly that those are signified who belong to the number of the predestined. Of whom in another place he says: We know that for those who love God all things work together unto good, for those who are called according to the purpose (Rom 8:28). For many are called, but few are chosen (Matt 22:14): but those who are chosen are themselves called according to the purpose; in whom, without doubt, the foreknowledge of God cannot be deceived. These he foreknew and predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he himself might be the firstborn among many brothers. But those whom he predestined, them he also called (Rom 8:29-30). This is the calling according to the purpose; this is the one without repentance. But those whom he called, them he also justified; but those whom he justified, them he also glorified. If God is for us, who is against us? (Rom 8:30-31)
Ep100-155.2.212. 22. Non sunt in ista vocatione, qui in fide quae per dilectionem operatur, etiamsi aliquantum ambulant, non perseverant usque in finem. Et utique potuerunt rapi, ne malitia mutaret intellectum eorum, si ad illam praedestinationem et vocationem, quae secundum propositum et sine poenitentia est, pertinerent. At ne quisquam praesumptor ita de occultis iudicet alienis, ut dicat, Ideo non rapti sunt ex hac vita, antequam essent fidei desertores, quia in eadem vita non fideliter ambulabant, et hoc in eorum cordibus noverat Dominus, quamvis hominibus aliter appareret: quid dicturus est de infantulis parvulis, qui plerique accepto in illa aetate christianae gratiae Sacramento, cum sine dubio pertinerent ad vitam aeternam regnumque coelorum, si continuo ex hac vita emigrarent, sinuntur crescere, et nonnulli etiam apostatae fiunt? Unde, nisi quia non pertinent ad illam praedestinationem, et secundum propositum ac sine poenitentia vocationem? Cur autem ad eam alii pertineant, alii non pertineant, occulta causa esse potest, iniusta esse non potest. Numquid enim iniquitas apud Deum? Absit. Nam et hoc ad illam pertinet altitudinem iudiciorum, quam mirans tamquam expavit Apostolus. Ideo quippe illa iudicia vocat, ne quisquam talia fieri putet, sive iniquitate sive temeritate facientis, sive casu et fortuito labentibus ullis partibus tam dispositorum sub tanta sapientia Dei saeculorum.
2. 22. Those are not in this calling who, in the faith which works through love, even if they walk in it for a while, do not persevere to the end. And surely they could have been caught up, lest wickedness should change their understanding (See Wis 4:11), if they belonged to that predestination and calling which is according to the purpose and without repentance. But lest any presumptuous person should so judge about the hidden things of others as to say, "They were therefore not caught up out of this life before they became deserters of the faith, because in that same life they did not walk faithfully, and the Lord knew this in their hearts, although to men it appeared otherwise"—what will he say about little infants, very many of whom, having received in that age the sacrament of Christian grace, while without doubt they would belong to eternal life and the kingdom of heaven if they departed at once from this life, are allowed to grow up, and some even become apostates? Whence is this, except that they do not belong to that predestination, and to the calling according to the purpose and without repentance? But why some belong to it and others do not, may have a hidden cause; it cannot be an unjust one. For is there injustice with God? By no means (Rom 9:14). For this too belongs to that depth of judgments, which, marveling, the Apostle as it were dreaded. For therefore he calls those judgments, lest anyone should think such things come about either by the injustice or rashness of the one acting, or by chance and the fortuitous slipping of any parts of the ages, so ordered under so great a wisdom of God.
Ep100-155.2.222. 23. In Epistola porro ad Colossenses quod scriptum est: Nemo vos seducat volens in humilitate, et caetera quae sequuntur, quousque tibi obscura esse dixisti, nec ego adhuc sine caligine intellego. Atque utinam praesens de me ista quaesisses: in eo quippe sensu, quem mihi in his verbis habere videor, adhibenda est quaedam pronuntiatio in vultu et modo vocis, qui exprimi litteris non potest, ut ex aliqua parte aperiatur; quod ideo fit obscurius, quia non recte, sicut existimo, pronuntiatur. Quod enim scriptum est: Ne tetigeritis, ne gustaveritis, ne attaminaveritis; tamquam praeceptum putatur Apostoli, nescio quid tangere, gustare, attaminare prohibentis. Contra est autem, si tamen in tanta obscuritate ista non fallor. Per irrisionem quippe verba posuit eorum, a quibus eos nolebat decipi atque seduci, qui discernentes cibos secundum culturam Angelorum, atque ita de hoc mundo decernentes, dicunt: Ne tetigeritis, ne gustaveritis, ne attaminaveritis; cum sint omnia munda mundis, et omnis creatura Dei bona sit: quod in alio loco ipse evidenter commendat.
2. 23. Further, in the Letter to the Colossians, as for what is written: Let no one seduce you, willing in humility (See Col 2:18), and the rest that follows, as far as you said it was obscure to you, neither do I yet understand it without a fog. And would that you had asked me these things when present: for in the sense which I seem to myself to have in these words, a certain delivery in the countenance and manner of voice must be applied, which cannot be expressed in letters, so that it may be opened up in some part; which is therefore made more obscure, because it is not rightly, as I think, pronounced. For what is written: Touch not, taste not, handle not (Col 2:21), is thought to be as it were a precept of the Apostle, forbidding I know not what to touch, taste, handle. But it is the contrary, if, however, in so great obscurity I am not deceived. For by way of mockery he set down the words of those by whom he did not wish them to be deceived and seduced, who, distinguishing foods according to the worship of angels, and thus making decrees about this world, say: Touch not, taste not, handle not; though all things are clean to the clean (Titus 1:15), and every creature of God is good (1 Tim 4:4): which in another place he himself evidently commends.
Ep100-155.2.232. 24. Totam ergo ipsius sententiae circumstantiam videamus: ita enim Apostoli intentione perspecta, sensum eius, quantum valemus, fortasse tenebimus. Quibus enim ista scribit, metuebat eos seduci umbris rerum, dulci nomine scientiae, et averti a luce veritatis quae est in Christo Iesu Domino nostro. Hanc autem sub nomine sapientiae vel scientiae curam vanarum superfluarumve observationum, et de superstitione gentilitatis, maximeque ab eis qui Philosophi sunt nuncupati, et a Iudaismo, cavendam esse cernebat, ubi erant umbrae futurorum removendae, quoniam lumen earum iam Christus advenerat. Cum ergo commemorasset et commendasset quantum certamen pro eis haberet, et pro his qui Laodiceae fuerant, et quicumque non viderant faciem eius in carne, ut cordibus consolarentur copulati in caritate, et in omnibus divitiis plenitudinis intellectus, ad cognoscendum mysterium Dei, quod est Christus, in quo sunt omnes thesauri sapientiae et scientiae absconditi; Hoc dico, inquit, ut nemo vos circumveniat in veri simili sermone: quia veritatis amore ducebantur, veri similitudinem illis timuit, ne deciperentur. Et ideo commendavit in Christo quod dulcissimum habebant thesaurum, scilicet sapientiae et scientiae, cuius nomine et promissione induci poterant in errorem.
2. 24. Let us see, then, the whole circumstance of his thought: for thus, the Apostle's intention being perceived, we shall perhaps hold his sense, as far as we are able. For those to whom he writes these things, he feared lest they be seduced by shadows of things, under the sweet name of knowledge, and turned away from the light of the truth which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. And he discerned that this care for vain and superfluous observances, under the name of wisdom or knowledge—both from the superstition of gentilism, and especially from those who are called philosophers, and from Judaism—must be guarded against, where the shadows of things to come were to be removed, since Christ, their light, had now come. When, therefore, he had mentioned and commended how great a struggle he had for them, and for those who were at Laodicea, and whoever had not seen his face in the flesh, that their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all the riches of the fullness of understanding, to the knowledge of the mystery of God, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Col 2:2-3): This I say, he says, that no one may circumvent you with a verisimilar speech (See Col 2:4): because they were led by love of truth, he feared for them the likeness of truth, lest they be deceived. And therefore he commended in Christ that sweetest treasure they had, namely of wisdom and knowledge, by the name and promise of which they could be led into error.
Ep100-155.2.242. 25. Nam etsi corpore, inquit, absens sum, spiritu vobiscum sum; gaudens, et videns vestram ordinationem, et id quod deest fidei vestrae in Christo. Ideo illis timebat, quoniam quid eis adhuc deesset, videbat. Sicut ergo accepistis, inquit: Iesum Christum Dominum nostrum, in ipso ambulate; radicati et superaedificati in ipso, et confirmati in fide, sicut et didicistis, abundantes in ea gratiarum actione. Vult eos fide nutriri, ut capaces fiant participandorum thesaurorum sapientiae et scientiae, qui sunt absconditi in Christo; ne antequam sint ad haec idonei, veri simili sermone capiantur, et a veritatis itinere devient. Deinde apertius, quid eis timeat ostendens: Videte, inquit, ne quis vos decipiat per philosophiam, et inanem seductionem, secundum traditionem hominum, secundum elementa mundi, et non secundum Christum: quia in ipso habitat omnis plenitudo divinitatis corporaliter. Ideo corporaliter dixit, quia illi umbratiliter seducebant; translato verbo usus, sicut etiam umbrae nomen in his rebus non est utique verbum proprium, sed quadam similitudinis ratione translatum. Et estis in illo, inquit, repleti, qui est caput omnis principatus et potestatis. Per principatus enim et potestates superstitio Gentilium vel Philosophi seducebant, praedicantes illam quam vocant theologiam per elementa huius mundi. Caput autem omnium Christum, principium omnium voluit intellegi, sicut ipse, cum ei dictum esset. Tu quis es? respondit: Principium, qui et loquor vobis. Omnia enim per ipsum facta sunt, et sine ipso factum est nihil. Mirabiliter autem vult eos esse horum velut mirabilium contemptores, cum eos ostendit corpus factos illius capitis, dicendo: Et estis in illo repleti, qui est caput omnis principatus et potestatis.
2. 25. For though I am absent in body, he says, I am with you in spirit, rejoicing and seeing your order, and that which is lacking to your faith in Christ (See Col 2:5). Therefore he feared for them, since he saw what was still lacking to them. As, then, you have received Jesus Christ our Lord, he says, walk in him; rooted and built up in him, and confirmed in faith, as you also have learned, abounding in it with thanksgiving (Col 2:6-7). He wishes them to be nourished by faith, so that they may become capable of partaking of the treasures of wisdom and knowledge which are hidden in Christ; lest, before they are fit for these, they be captured by a verisimilar speech, and stray from the path of truth. Then, showing more openly what he fears for them: See, he says, that no one deceive you through philosophy and empty seduction, according to the tradition of men, according to the elements of the world, and not according to Christ; for in him dwells all the fullness of divinity bodily (Col 2:8-9). He said "bodily" because they were seducing them in a shadowy way; using a transferred word, just as the name "shadow" too in these matters is surely not a proper word, but transferred by a certain reasoning of likeness. And you are filled in him, he says, who is the head of all principality and power (Col 2:10). For through principalities and powers the superstition of the gentiles, or the philosophers, seduced, proclaiming that which they call theology through the elements of this world. But he wished Christ, the head of all things, to be understood as the beginning of all things; just as he himself, when it had been said to him, Who are you? answered: The Beginning, who also speak to you (Jn 8:25). For all things were made through him, and without him was made nothing (Jn 1:3). But marvelously he wishes them to be despisers of these as it were marvels, when he shows them made the body of that head, by saying: And you are filled in him, who is the head of all principality and power.
Ep100-155.2.252. 26. Hinc iam ne umbris Iudaismi seducantur, adiungit: In quo etiam circumcisi estis, circumcisione non manufacta in exspoliatione corporis carnis; vel, sicut aliqui habent, in exspoliatione corporis peccatorum carnis, in circumcisione Christi; consepulti ei in Baptismo, in quo et consurrexistis per fidem operationis Dei, qui suscitavit illum a mortuis. Vide quemadmodum et hic corpus Christi eos ostendit, ut ista contemnant, cohaerentes tanto capiti suo, mediatori Dei et hominum Christo Iesu, et nullum falsum vel invalidum medium per quod Deo cohaereant, requirentes. Et vos, inquit, cum essetis mortui in delictis et praeputio carnis vestrae; praeputium vocavit quod significatur praeputio, hoc est delicta carnalia quibus exspoliandi sumus: vivificavit, inquit, cum illo, donans vobis omnia delicta, delens quod adversus nos erat chirographum in decretis, quod erat contrarium nobis; quia reos Lex faciebat, quae subintraverat ut abundaret delictum. Tollens, inquit, illud de medio et affigens illud cruci, exuens se carne, principatus et potestates exemplavit, fiducialiter triumphans eos in semetipso: non utique bonos, sed malos principatus et malas potestates, diabolicas scilicet et daemoniacas exemplavit; id est, exemplum de illis dedit, ut quemadmodum ipse se exuit carne, sic suos ostenderet exuendos carnalibus vitiis, per quae illi eis dominabantur.
2. 26. Hence now, lest they be seduced by the shadows of Judaism, he adds: In whom also you were circumcised with a circumcision not made by hand, in the despoiling of the body of the flesh; or, as some have it, in the despoiling of the body of the sins of the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ; buried with him in Baptism, in which also you rose again through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead (Col 2:11-12). See how here too he shows them to be the body of Christ, that they may despise these things, cleaving to so great a head of theirs, the mediator of God and men, Christ Jesus, and seeking no false or invalid middle through which to cleave to God. And you, he says, when you were dead in your offenses and the foreskin of your flesh—he called "foreskin" that which is signified by the foreskin, that is, the carnal offenses of which we are to be despoiled—he made alive with him, forgiving you all offenses, blotting out the handwriting that was against us in its decrees, which was contrary to us (Col 2:13-14); because the Law, which had entered in that the offense might abound (Rom 5:20), made men guilty. Taking it, he says, out of the way and fixing it to the cross, stripping himself of the flesh, he made an example of the principalities and powers, confidently triumphing over them in himself (See Col 2:14-15): not, surely, the good principalities, but the evil ones, and the evil powers, namely the diabolical and demonic, he made an example of; that is, he gave an example concerning them, so that, just as he stripped himself of the flesh, so he might show that his own are to be stripped of carnal vices, through which those powers had dominion over them.
Ep100-155.2.262. 27. Iam hic diligenter attende quemadmodum inferat propter quod cuncta ista commemoravimus. Nemo ergo vos, inquit, iudicet in cibo: tamquam propterea omnia illa dixerit, quia isti per huiusmodi observationes seducebantur a veritate, qua liberi fiebant; de qua dictum est in Evangelio: Et veritas liberavit vos, id est, liberos faciet. Nemo ergo vos, inquit, iudicet in cibo, aut in potu, aut in parte diei festi, aut neomeniae, aut sabbatorum; quod est umbra futurorum: hoc propter Iudaismum. Deinde sequitur propter superstitiones Gentilium: Corpus autem Christi, inquit, nemo vos convincat: turpe est, inquit, et nimis incongruum, et a generositate vestrae libertatis alienum, ut cum sitis corpus Christi, seducamini umbris, et convinci videamini veluti peccantes, si haec observare neglegitis. Corpus ergo Christi, nemo vos convincat volens in humilitate cordis. Hoc si per verbum graecum diceretur, etiam in latina consuetudine populari sonaret usitatius. Sic enim et vulgo dicitur qui divitem affectat, thelodives, et qui sapientem, thelosapiens, et caetera huiusmodi: ergo et hic thelohumilis, quod plenius dicitur thelon humilis, id est, volens humilis, affectans humilitatem; quod intellegitur, volens videri humilis, affectans humilitatem. Hoc enim talibus observationibus agitur, ut cor hominis velut religione humile reddatur. Addidit autem et culturam Angelorum, vel sicut vestri codices habent, religionem Angelorum, quae graece [Greek] dicitur; Angelos volens intellegi Principatus, quos elementorum mundi huius praepositos, in his observationibus colendos esse arbitrantur.
2. 27. Now here attend diligently how he infers that for the sake of which we have mentioned all these things. Let no one, then, he says, judge you in food (See Col 2:16): as though he said all those things for the reason that they were being seduced through observances of this kind from the truth, by which they were made free; of which it was said in the Gospel: And the truth has freed you (See Jn 8:32), that is, will make you free. Let no one, then, he says, judge you in food, or in drink, or in respect of a feast day, or of a new moon, or of sabbaths, which is a shadow of things to come (Col 2:16-17): this on account of Judaism. Then follows, on account of the superstitions of the gentiles: But the body of Christ—let no one convict you (See Col 2:17-18): it is shameful, he says, and exceedingly unfitting, and alien to the nobility of your freedom, that, since you are the body of Christ, you should be seduced by shadows, and seem to be convicted as it were of sinning, if you neglect to observe these things. The body of Christ, then—let no one convict you, willing in humility of heart. If this were said by the Greek word, it would sound more customary even in the common Latin usage. For thus it is even commonly said of one who affects to be rich, "thelo-rich," and of one who affects to be wise, "thelo-wise," and other such things: so here too "thelo-humble," which more fully is said "wishing humble" (thelon humilis), that is, willing to be humble, affecting humility; which is understood as wishing to seem humble, affecting humility. For by such observances this is done, that the heart of a man may be rendered humble as it were by religion. And he added also "the worship of angels," or, as your manuscripts have, "the religion of angels," which in Greek is called [Greek]; wishing the angels to be understood as the Principalities, whom they suppose to be set over the elements of this world, and to be worshipped in these observances.
Ep100-155.2.272. 28. Nemo ergo vos, inquit, convincat cum sitis corpus Christi, volens videri humilis corde in cultura Angelorum, quae non vidit inculcans: vel, sicut quidam codices habent, quae vidit inculcans. Aut enim sic dicere voluit, quae non vidit inculcans: quia homines ista suspicionibus et opinionibus agunt; non quod viderint ista esse facienda. Aut certe, quae vidit inculcans: id est magna existimans, quia vidit ea quibusdam locis observari alibi ab hominibus quorum auctoritati haberet fidem etiam ratione non reddita; et ideo sibi magnus videtur, quia ei contigit quorumdam sacrorum videre secreta. Sed plenior sensus est, quae non vidit inculcans, frustra inflatus mente carnis suae. Mirabiliter ibi eum dixit inflatum mente carnis suae, ubi thelohumilem supra dixerat: fit enim miris modis in anima hominis, ut de falsa humilitate magis infletur, quam si apertius superbiret. Et non tenens, inquit, caput, quod vult Christum intellegi, ex quo omne corpus compactum et connexum, subministratum et copulatum crescit in incrementum Dei. Si ergo mortui estis cum Christo ab elementis huius mundi: quid adhuc velut viventes de hoc mundo decernitis?
2. 28. Let no one, then, he says, convict you, since you are the body of Christ, willing to seem humble of heart in the worship of angels, treading on things he has not seen; or, as certain manuscripts have, treading on things he has seen. For either he wished to say thus, "treading on things he has not seen," because men do these things by suspicions and opinions, not because they have seen that these things are to be done. Or certainly, "treading on things he has seen," that is, esteeming them great, because he has seen them observed in certain places elsewhere by men to whose authority he gives credit even without a reason being rendered; and therefore he seems great to himself, because it has fallen to him to see the secrets of certain sacred rites. But the fuller sense is, "treading on things he has not seen, vainly puffed up by the mind of his flesh." Marvelously he there called him "puffed up by the mind of his flesh," where above he had called him "thelo-humble": for it comes about in marvelous ways in the soul of a man that he is more puffed up by false humility than if he were more openly proud. And not holding the head, he says—by which he wishes Christ to be understood—from which the whole body, joined and connected, supplied and knit together, grows unto the increase of God (See Col 2:18-19). If, then, you have died with Christ to the elements of this world, why do you still, as though living, make decrees about this world? (See Col 2:20)
Ep100-155.2.282. 29. His dictis inserit verba eorum qui decernunt de hoc mundo per has observationes quasi rationabiles, affectata vanitate humilitatis inflati: Ne tetigeritis, ne gustaveritis, ne attaminaveritis. Recolamus quod dictum est superius, ut hoc intellegamus. Non vult enim eos in his observationibus iudicari, ubi dicitur: Ne tetigeritis, ne gustaveritis, ne attaminaveritis: quae sunt omnia, inquit, in corruptionem per abusionem. Omnia haec, inquit, magis ad corruptionem valent, cum superstitiose ab eis abstinetur, ut eis homo abutatur, id est, non eis utatur secundum praecepta et doctrinas hominum. Hoc planum est; sed quod sequitur multum requiris: Quae sunt quidem rationem habentia sapientiae in observatione, et humilitate cordis, et vexatione corporis; vel, sicut alii interpretati sunt, ad non parcendum corpori, non in honore aliquo ad saturitatem carnis. Cur, inquis, haec dicit rationem habere sapientiae, quae ita reprehendit?
2. 29. Having said these things, he inserts the words of those who make decrees about this world through these observances as though reasonable, puffed up by an affected vanity of humility: Touch not, taste not, handle not (Col 2:21). Let us recall what was said above, that we may understand this. For he does not wish them to be judged in those observances where it is said: Touch not, taste not, handle not; which are all, he says, unto corruption by the using (See Col 2:22). All these things, he says, rather avail unto corruption, when they are superstitiously abstained from, so that a man "abuses" them, that is, does not use them according to the precepts and teachings of men (Col 2:22). This is plain; but what follows you greatly inquire about: which things indeed have a reason of wisdom in the observance, and in humility of heart, and in the affliction of the body; or, as others have translated, not sparing the body, not in any honor unto the satisfying of the flesh (See Col 2:23). Why, you say, does he say these things have a reason of wisdom, which he so reproaches?
Ep100-155.2.292. 30. Dicam, quod et ipse in Scripturis potes advertere, saepe sapientiam positam etiam in sedibus mundi huius, quam dicit expressius sapientiam huius mundi. Nec moveat quod hic non addidit, Mundi. Non enim et alio loco, cum ait: Ubi sapiens? ubi scriba? addidit, Huius mundi; ut diceret, Ubi sapiens huius mundi: et tamen hoc intellegitur. Sic et ista ratio sapientiae. Nihil enim ab eis dicitur in huiusmodi superstitiosis observationibus, ubi non mundi huius elementorum naturarumque rerum, ratio quaedam sapientiae reddi videatur. Nam et cum dicit: Cavete ne quis vos decipiat per philosophiam; non ait: Huius mundi: et quid est philosophia latine, nisi studium sapientiae? Sunt ergo, inquit, ista rationem quidem habentia sapientiae, id est, de quibus aliqua ratio reddatur secundum elementa mundi huius, et principatus ac potestates. In observatione et humilitate cordis: id enim agunt ista, ut superstitionis vitio cor humilietur. Ad non parcendum corpori: dum fraudatur istis escis quibus compellitur abstinere. Non in honore aliquo ad saturitatem carnis: non quod honoratius illo magis quam illo cibo caro saturetur, cum ad eius necessitatem non pertineat nisi quolibet valetudini apto alimento refici atque fulciri.
2. 30. I will say what you too can observe in the Scriptures, that often wisdom is set even in the seats of this world, which he calls more expressly the wisdom of this world. Nor let it move you that here he did not add "of the world." For neither in another place, when he says, Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? (1 Cor 1:20), did he add "of this world," so as to say, Where is the wise man of this world: and yet this is understood. So too this "reason of wisdom." For nothing is said by them in superstitious observances of this kind where some reason of wisdom of the elements and natures of the things of this world does not seem to be rendered. For when he says, Beware lest anyone deceive you through philosophy (See Col 2:8), he does not say "of this world"; and what is "philosophy" in Latin, but the study of wisdom? They are, then, he says, things "having indeed a reason of wisdom," that is, concerning which some reason is rendered according to the elements of this world, and the principalities and powers. "In observance and humility of heart": for these things effect this, that by the fault of superstition the heart is humbled. "Not sparing the body": while it is cheated of these foods which it is compelled to abstain from. "Not in any honor unto the satisfying of the flesh": not that the flesh is more honorably satisfied with this food than with that, since it does not pertain to its need except to be refreshed and sustained by any food suited to health.
Ep100-155.2.303. 31. De Evangelio inquisitio tua solet multos movere, quomodo Dominus post resurrectionem, cum in eodem corpore surrexerit, a quibusdam qui eum noverant, utriusque sexus hominibus, et agnitus non sit, et agnitus sit. Ubi primum quaeri solet utrum in eius corpore, an potius in illorum oculis aliquid factum sit quo non posset agnosci. Cum enim legitur: Tenebantur oculi eorum ne agnoscerent eum; impedimentum quoddam agnoscendi videtur in luminibus factum esse cernentium: cum vero aperte alibi dicitur: Apparuit eis in alia effigie, utique in ipso corpore cuius alia erat effigies, aliquid factum fuisse, quo impedimento tenerentur, id est, moram agnoscendi paterentur oculi illorum. Sed ego miror, cum duo sint in corpore quibus cuiusque species agnoscatur, lineamenta et color, cur ante resurrectionem, quod in monte ita transfiguratus est ut fieret et vultus eius splendidissimus sicut sol, neminem movet eum usque ad tantam excellentiam fulgoris et lucis colorem sui corporis mutare potuisse; et post resurrectionem movet aliquatenus lineamenta mutata esse, ut non posset agnosci, et rursum eadem potentiae facultate, sicut tunc pristinum colorem, sic et post resurrectionem pristina lineamenta revocasse. Nam et illi tres discipuli, ante quorum oculos in monte transfiguratus est, non eum agnoscerent, si ad eos talis aliunde venisset: sed quia cum illo erant, ipsum esse certissime retinebant. At enim corpus ipsum erat, in quo resurrexit. Quid hoc ad rem? Nam illud utique ipsum corpus erat in quo in monte transfiguratus est; et ipsum erat iuvenis in quo natus est: et tamen si quis eum repente iuvenem vidisset, qui nonnisi infantulum nosset, non utique agnosceret. An vero ad lineamenta mutanda non potest celeriter Dei potestas, quod potest per annorum moras hominis aetas?
3. 31. From the Gospel your inquiry is wont to move many: how the Lord after the resurrection, since he rose in the same body, both was not recognized and was recognized by certain people who knew him, of both sexes. Here it is first wont to be asked whether something was done in his body, or rather in their eyes, by which he could not be recognized. For when it is read, Their eyes were held that they should not recognize him (Luke 24:16), some impediment to recognizing seems to have been made in the eyes of those seeing; but when it is openly said elsewhere, He appeared to them in another form (See Mark 16:12), surely in that body, of which there was another form, something was done by which they were held by an impediment, that is, the eyes of those people suffered a delay in recognizing. But I wonder: since there are two things in a body by which the appearance of each is recognized, lineaments and color, why does it move no one that before the resurrection, that on the mountain he was so transfigured that even his face became most splendid like the sun (See Matt 17:2), he could change the color of his body even unto so great an excellence of brightness and light; and after the resurrection it moves some that the lineaments were changed, so that he could not be recognized, and again, by the same faculty of power, just as then he recalled the former color, so after the resurrection he recalled the former lineaments. For those three disciples too, before whose eyes he was transfigured on the mountain, would not have recognized him, if such a one had come to them from elsewhere: but because they were with him, they most certainly held that it was he. But the body itself was that in which he rose. What is this to the matter? For that was surely the same body in which he was transfigured on the mountain; and it was the same as the young man's in which he was born: and yet, if anyone had suddenly seen him as a young man who had known him only as a little infant, he would surely not recognize him. Or can the power of God not quickly change lineaments, which a man's age can do through the delays of years?
Ep100-155.3.313. 32. Quod autem Mariae dixit: Noli me tangere, nondum enim ascendi ad Patrem, nihil aliud me intellexisse noveris, quam tu. Ita enim significare voluit tactum spiritalem, id est, accessum fidei se requirere, qua creditur eum excelsum esse cum Patre. Et quod ab illis duobus in fractione panis est agnitus, Sacramentum esse quod nos in agnitionem suam congregat, nullus debet ambigere.
3. 32. But as for what he said to Mary, Touch me not, for I have not yet ascended to the Father (Jn 20:17), you may know that I have understood nothing else than you. For he wished thus to signify that he requires a spiritual touch, that is, the approach of faith, by which he is believed to be exalted with the Father. And that he was recognized by those two in the breaking of bread (See Luke 24:30-31, 35), that it is the sacrament which gathers us unto recognition of him, no one ought to doubt.
Ep100-155.3.323. 33. De verbis Simeonis, ubi ait Virgini matri Domini: Et tuam ipsius animam pertransibit framea, in alia epistola cuius exemplum etiam modo misi, dixi quid mihi videatur; quod etiam tibi inter caetera visum est. Et quod adiunxit: Ut denudentur multorum cordium cogitationes, hoc intellegendum puto, quia per Domini passionem, et insidiae Iudaeorum, et discipulorum infirmitas patuit. Tribulationem igitur, gladii nomine significatam esse, credibile est, quo materna anima vulnerata est doloris affectu. Ipse fuit gladius in ore persecutorum, de quibus in Psalmo dicitur: Et gladius in ore eorum. Ipsi enim erant filii hominum, quorum dentes arma et sagittae, et lingua eorum gladius acutus. Nam et ferrum quod pertransiit animam Ioseph, pro dura tribulatione positum mihi videtur: aperte quippe dicitur: Ferrum pertransiit animam eius, donec veniret verbum eius; id est, tamdiu fuit in dura tribulatione, donec fieret quod praedixit. Hinc enim magnus est habitus, et ab illa tribulatione liberatus. Sed ne humanae sapientiae tribueretur, quod venit verbum eius, id est, factum est quod praedixit, more suo Scriptura sancta Deo inde dat gloriam, et continuo subiungit: Eloquium Domini ignivit eum.
3. 33. Concerning the words of Simeon, where he says to the Virgin mother of the Lord, And a sword shall pierce through your own soul (Luke 2:35), in another letter, a copy of which I have also now sent, I said what seems to me; which also seemed so to you among other things. And as for what he added, That the thoughts of many hearts may be laid bare (Luke 2:35), this I think is to be understood thus: that through the Lord's passion both the snares of the Jews and the weakness of the disciples lay open. It is credible, then, that by the name of "sword" tribulation was signified, by which the mother's soul was wounded with the feeling of grief. He himself was the sword in the mouth of the persecutors, of whom in the Psalm it is said: And a sword is in their mouth (See Ps 59:7 (58:8)). For they were the sons of men, whose teeth are weapons and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword (See Ps 57:4 (56:5)). For the iron too which pierced the soul of Joseph seems to me to be set for hard tribulation: for it is openly said: Iron pierced his soul, until his word came (See Ps 105:18-19 (104:18-19)); that is, he was for so long in hard tribulation, until what he foretold came to pass. For hence he was held great, and freed from that tribulation. But lest it be attributed to human wisdom that his word came, that is, that what he foretold came to pass, holy Scripture, after its manner, gives glory to God for it, and immediately subjoins: The word of the Lord set him aflame (See Ps 105:19 (104:19)).
Ep100-155.3.333. 34. Ut potui non defui interrogationibus tuis adiutus orationibus tuis, et ipsis quas misisti, disputationibus tuis. Cum enim interrogando disputas, et quaeris acriter et doces humiliter. Utile est autem ut de obscuritatibus divinarum Scripturarum, quas exercitationis nostrae causa Deus esse voluit, multae inveniantur sententiae, cum aliud alii videtur, quae tamen omnes sanae fidei doctrinaeque concordent. Dabis sane veniam stilo meo multum festinanti, ut iam in navi constituto occurrerem perlatori Filium autem nostrum Paulinum, in Christi caritate dulcissimum, in hac potius epistola resaluto, et paucis ut festinus exhortor, ut misericordiae Domini qui sciens dare auxilium de tribulatione, eum turbulentissima tempestate misit in portum, quo tu pelago tranquilliore permeasti, ipsi marinae tranquillitati minime credens, et qui eius rudimentis excipiendis atque nutriendis te dedit, gratias agas quantas potest, et omnia eius ossa dicant: Domine, quis similis tibi? Non enim uberiore fructu legit vel audit me docentem ac disserentem, vel quibuslibet exhortationibus accendentem, quam inspicit te viventem. Resalutant sanctam et sincerissimam Benignitatem tuam conservi mei qui mecum sunt. Condiaconus autem noster Peregrinus, ex quo a me profectus est cum sancto fratre nostro Urbano, quando episcopatus sarcinam subire perrexit, nondum remeavit Hipponem: salvos eos tamen in nomine Christi, et litteris eorum et fama nuntiante cognoscimus. Compresbyterum Paulinum, et omnes qui tua praesentia in Domino perfruuntur, germano salutamus affectu.
3. 34. As I could, I have not failed your questions, aided by your prayers, and by your very disputations which you sent. For when by questioning you dispute, you both seek keenly and teach humbly. And it is useful that concerning the obscurities of the divine Scriptures, which God willed to be for the sake of our exercise, many views be found, when one thing seems so to one and another to another, which yet all agree with sound faith and teaching. You will surely pardon my pen, which is much in haste, that I might meet the carrier when already set on board ship. But our son Paulinus, most sweet in the love of Christ, I rather greet again in this letter, and exhort in a few words, as one in haste, that he give thanks, as much as he can, to the mercy of the Lord, who, knowing how to give help out of tribulation, sent him in a most turbulent storm into the harbor, through which you passed by a more tranquil sea, trusting that marine tranquillity not at all, and who gave you to receive and nourish his beginnings; and that all his bones may say: Lord, who is like you? (See Ps 35:10 (34:10)) For with no richer fruit does he read or hear me teaching and discoursing, or kindling with whatever exhortations, than he beholds you living. My fellow servants who are with me greet again your holy and most sincere Kindness. But our fellow deacon Peregrinus, since he set out from me with our holy brother Urbanus, when he went to take up the burden of the episcopate, has not yet returned to Hippo: yet we learn that they are safe in the name of Christ, both their letters and report announcing it. Our fellow presbyter Paulinus, and all who enjoy your presence in the Lord, we greet with brotherly affection.
Ep100-155.3.34EPISTOLA 150
DOMINARUM HONORE DIGNISSIMIS, MERITO ILLUSTRIBUS ET PRAESTANTISSIMIS FILIABUS PROBAE ET IULIANAE, AUGUSTINUS, IN DOMINO SALUTEM
DOMINARUM HONORE DIGNISSIMIS, MERITO ILLUSTRIBUS ET PRAESTANTISSIMIS FILIABUS PROBAE ET IULIANAE, AUGUSTINUS, IN DOMINO SALUTEM
LETTER 150
TO THE MOST WORTHY OF HONOR AMONG LADIES, THE DESERVEDLY ILLUSTRIOUS AND MOST EXCELLENT DAUGHTERS PROBA AND JULIANA, FROM AUGUSTINE, GREETINGS IN THE LORD.
Ep100-155.3.34TO THE MOST WORTHY OF HONOR AMONG LADIES, THE DESERVEDLY ILLUSTRIOUS AND MOST EXCELLENT DAUGHTERS PROBA AND JULIANA, FROM AUGUSTINE, GREETINGS IN THE LORD.
1. Implestis gaudio cor nostrum, tanto iucundius quanto carius, tanto gratius quanto citius. Vestrae namque stirpis sanctimoniam virginalem, quoniam quacumque innotuistis, ac per hoc ubique, fama celeberrima praedicat, velocissimum volatum eius fideliore atque certiore litterarum nuntio praevenistis, et prius nos fecistis exsultare de cognito tam excellenti bono, quam dubitare de audito. Quis verbis explicet, quis digno praeconio prosequatur, quantum incomparabiliter gloriosius atque fructuosius habeat ex vestro sanguine feminas virgines Christus, quam viros consules mundus? nam volumina temporum, si magnum atque praeclarum est nominis dignitate signare; quanto est maius atque praeclarius cordis et corporis integritate transcendere! Magis itaque gaudeat puella nobilis genere, nobilior sanctitate, quod sit per divinum consortium praecipuam in coelis consecutura sublimitatem, quam si esset per humanum connubium prolem propagatura sublimem. Generosius quippe elegit Aniciana posteritas tam illustrem familiam beare nuptias nesciendo, quam multiplicare pariendo, et in carne iam imitari vitam Angelorum, quam ex carne adhuc numerum augere mortalium. Haec est uberior fecundiorque felicitas, non ventre gravescere, sed mente grandescere; non lactescere pectore, sed corde candescere; non visceribus terram, sed coelum orationibus parturire. Dominarum honore dignissimae filiae, perfruamini in illa quod defuit vobis; perseveret usque in finem, adhaerens coniugio quod non habet finem. Imitentur eam multae famulae dominam, ignobiles nobilem, fragiliter excelsae excelsius humilem; virgines quae sibi optant Aniciorum claritatem, eligant sanctitatem. Illud enim quantalibet cupiditate quando assequentur? hoc autem si plene cupierint, mox habebunt. Protegat vos incolumes et feliciores dextera Altissimi, dominae honore dignissimae et praestantissimae filiae. Pignora Sanctitatis vestrae, praecipue ipsam sanctitate praecipuam, debito vestris meritis officio, dilectione Domini salutamus. Velationis apophoretum gratissime accepimus.
1. You have filled our heart with joy, the more pleasant the dearer, the more welcome the swifter. For the virginal sanctity of your stock, since wherever you have become known—and through this, everywhere—a most renowned report proclaims, you have outrun its swiftest flight with the more faithful and more certain messenger of a letter, and have made us exult over so excellent a good made known, before we could doubt over a thing only heard. Who could unfold in words, who could attend with worthy proclamation, how incomparably more gloriously and more fruitfully Christ has from your blood women who are virgins, than the world has men who are consuls? For if it is a great and illustrious thing to mark the volumes of the ages with the dignity of one's name, how much greater and more illustrious it is to transcend them by the integrity of heart and body! Let a girl, then, noble by birth, more noble by sanctity, rejoice more that through divine partnership she is about to attain a special sublimity in heaven, than if through human marriage she were about to propagate sublime offspring. For more nobly has the Anician posterity chosen to bless so illustrious a family by not knowing marriage, than to multiply it by bearing, and already in the flesh to imitate the life of the angels, than from the flesh still to augment the number of mortals. This is the richer and more fruitful happiness: not to grow heavy with the womb, but to grow great with the mind; not to flow with milk in the breast, but to glow white in the heart; not to bring forth earth from the entrails, but heaven by prayers. Daughters most worthy of honor among ladies, enjoy fully in her what was lacking to you; may she persevere to the end, cleaving to the marriage that has no end. Let many handmaids imitate her, their lady; the lowborn, the noble; the frailly exalted, the more loftily humble; let virgins who wish for themselves the renown of the Anicii choose sanctity. For that, with however great desire, when will they attain it? But this, if they have fully desired it, they will soon have. May the right hand of the Most High protect you safe and happier, daughters most worthy of honor among ladies and most excellent. The pledges of your Holiness, especially her who is herself preeminent in sanctity, we greet with the office due to your merits, in the love of the Lord. We have most gratefully received the gift sent on the occasion of the veiling.
Ep100-155.1EPISTOLA 151
DOMINO MERITO ILLUSTRI, E DEBITO A ME HONORE DIGNISSIMO FILIO CAECILIANO, AUGUSTINUS, IN DOMINO SALUTEM
DOMINO MERITO ILLUSTRI, E DEBITO A ME HONORE DIGNISSIMO FILIO CAECILIANO, AUGUSTINUS, IN DOMINO SALUTEM
LETTER 151
TO MY LORD, DESERVEDLY ILLUSTRIOUS AND, BY THE HONOR DUE FROM ME, MOST WORTHY SON CAECILIANUS, FROM AUGUSTINE, GREETINGS IN THE LORD.
Ep100-155.1TO MY LORD, DESERVEDLY ILLUSTRIOUS AND, BY THE HONOR DUE FROM ME, MOST WORTHY SON CAECILIANUS, FROM AUGUSTINE, GREETINGS IN THE LORD.
1. Querela de me apud te litteris tuis indita tanto est mihi gratior, quanto plenior caritatis. Si ergo quod tacui purgare coner, quid conabor aliud quam ostendere te non habuisse causam quam mihi succensere deberes? Sed cum id in te magis diligam, quod de mea reticentia es dignatus offendi, quam inter tuas curas nihil momenti habere credideram; causam meam deseram, si me purgare contendero. Si enim indignari non debuisti, quia non ad te scripserim; nihil me pendis, qui loquarne an taceam indifferenter feras. Porro quia me tacuisse moleste tulisti, indignatio ista, indignatio non est. Non itaque tam doleo me non praebuisse, quam gaudeo te nostrum desiderasse sermonem. Nam veterem amicum, et quod abs te taceri, sed a nobis oportet agnosci, talem ac tantum virum in peregrinis positum, curisque publicis laborantem, quod nullo fuerim consolatus alloquio hinc argui meruisse, honori mihi est, non moerori. Ignosce igitur agenti gratias quod me indignum non putasti cui succenseres tacenti. Nunc enim inter tot et tanta negotia, non tua, sed publica, id est omnium, non solum onerosas non esse, verum etiam gratas esse posse litteras meas credidi benevolentiae tuae, qua excellentiam vincis.
1. The complaint about me put into your letter is the more welcome to me, the fuller it is of love. If, then, I should try to clear myself of what I kept silent about, what else shall I try than to show that you had no cause for which you ought to be vexed at me? But since I love this in you more—that you deigned to be offended at my silence, which I had believed had no weight at all among your cares—I will desert my own cause, if I contend to clear myself. For if you ought not to have been indignant that I did not write to you, you set no value on me, who bear it indifferently whether I speak or am silent. Further, because you took it ill that I was silent, that indignation is not indignation. I do not, then, so much grieve that I did not offer it, as I rejoice that you longed for our conversation. For that I, an old friend—and what should be kept silent by you, but acknowledged by us—deserved to be charged with having consoled with no address such and so great a man, placed among foreigners and laboring under public cares, is to me an honor, not a sorrow. Forgive, then, one who gives thanks that you did not think me unworthy to be vexed at when silent. For now, among so many and so great affairs—not yours, but public, that is, of all—I have believed that my letters can be not only not burdensome but even welcome to your benevolence, by which you surpass your eminence.
Ep100-155.12. Cum enim accepissem mihi a fratribus epistolam missam sancti et praecipuis meritis venerandi papae Innocentii, quam per tuam Praestantiam ad me datam certis declaratur indiciis; ideo nullam tuam paginam simul advectam esse putaveram quod scribendi et rescribendi cura nolueris, gravioribus rebus occupatus, obstringi. Nam utique consentaneum videbatur ut qui mihi sancti viri scripta dignatus es mittere, ea sumerem adiuncta cum tuis. Hinc ergo statueram non esse oneri litteras meas animo tuo, nisi esset necesse commendandi alicuius gratia, cui hoc negare non possem intercessionis officio; quae solet nostra esse omnibus concedendi consuetudo, et quaedam, etiam importuna, non tamen improbanda, professio. Itaque feci: nam amicum meum commendavi benignitati tuae; a quo etiam sua rescripta iam sumpsi, agente gratias, quas et ipse ago.
2. For when I had received a letter sent to me by the brothers from the holy and, for his outstanding merits, venerable pope Innocent, which by sure signs is declared to have been given to me through your Excellency, I had for this reason supposed that no page of yours was conveyed along with it, because you had not wished, occupied with weightier matters, to be bound by the care of writing and replying. For surely it seemed fitting that I, to whom you deigned to send the writings of a holy man, should receive them joined with yours. Hence, then, I had concluded that my letters were no burden to your mind, unless it were necessary for the sake of commending someone, to whom I could not deny this by the office of intercession; which is wont to be our custom of granting to all, and a certain profession, even importunate, yet not to be disapproved. And so I did: for I commended a friend of mine to your kindness, from whom I have now received his reply too, giving thanks, which I myself also give.
Ep100-155.23. Si quid autem de te mali existimarem, praesertim in ea causa quam etiam non expressam, tamen mihi tua epistola redolebat; absit ut ad te tale aliquid scriberem, ubi ullum vel mihi vel cuiquam beneficium postularem. Aut enim conticescerem, observans tempus ubi te possem habere praesentem; aut si litteris agendum putarem, illud potius agerem, et sic agerem, ut dolorem meum ferre vix posses. Nam ideo post illius impiam crudelemque perfidiam (cui etiam per tuam nobiscum participatam sollicitudinem frustra vehementer institimus, ne illo cor nostrum dolore percelleret, suam vero conscientiam tanto scelere trucidaret), continuo sum a Carthagine profectus, occultato abscessu meo, ne tot ac tanti qui eius intra ecclesiam gladium formidabant, violentis fletibus et gemitibus me tenerent, putantes meam sibi aliquid posse prodesse praesentiam, ut quem satis digne pro eius anima obiurgare non possem, pro illorum corporibus etiam rogare compellerer. Quam tamen eorum corporalem salutem satis parietes ecclesiae muniebant. Ego autem duris coarctabar angustiis, quod neque ille me pateretur, qualem oporteret; et insuper facere cogerer quod non deceret. Dolebam etiam graviter vicem venerabilis coepiscopi mei tantae rectoris Ecclesiae, ad cuius pertinere dicebatur officium, post hominis tam nefariam fallaciam adhuc se praebere humilem, quo caeteris parceretur. Fateor; cum tantum malum nullo pectoris robore potuissem tolerare, discessi.
3. But if I thought any evil of you, especially in that cause which, though not expressed, your letter nevertheless suggested to me, far be it that I should write any such thing to you where I asked any benefit either for myself or for anyone. For either I would keep silent, watching for a time when I could have you present; or, if I thought it must be dealt with by letter, I would rather do that, and so do it that you could scarcely bear my grief. For therefore, after that man's impious and cruel treachery—against which, even through the solicitude you shared with us, we vehemently but in vain pressed, lest he strike our heart with that grief and butcher his own conscience with so great a crime—I at once set out from Carthage, my departure concealed, lest so many and so great men, who dreaded his sword within the church, should hold me back with violent weepings and groanings, thinking that my presence could profit them something, so that he whom I could not worthily enough reproach for his soul I should be compelled even to entreat for their bodies. Yet the walls of the church sufficiently protected that bodily safety of theirs. But I was constrained by hard straits, because neither would he endure me as he ought, and moreover I would be compelled to do what would not be fitting. I grieved also gravely for the lot of my venerable fellow bishop, the ruler of so great a Church, to whose office it was said to pertain, after the man's so nefarious deceit, still to show himself humble, that the rest might be spared. I confess: since I could bear so great an evil with no strength of breast, I departed.
Ep100-155.34. Haec esset et nunc silentii mei causa apud te, quae fuit tunc discessionis meae, si te apud illum egisse crederem, ut tam nefarias ulcisceretur iniurias. Credunt ista qui nesciunt quomodo, et quoties, et quae nobis dixeris, cum anxia cura perageremus ut quanto tibi familiarius inhaerebat, quanto ad eum crebrius ventitabas, quanto saepius cum solo colloquebaris, tanto magis curaret existimationem tuam; ne his qui tui dicebantur inimici talem exitum daret, ut nihil cum illo aliud egisse putareris. Quod quidem nec ego credo, nec fratres mei qui te in loquelis audierunt, et auditu atque omni nutu viderunt signa benigni pectoris tui. Sed, obsecro te, ignosce credentibus: homines enim sunt, et in animis hominum tantae latebrae sunt, et tanti recessus, ut omnes suspiciosi cum merito culpentur, etiam laudari arbitrentur se debere, quod cauti sint. Causae stabant; ab uno eorum quos teneri ille repente praeceperat, gravissimam te passum fuisse iniuriam noveramus. Frater quoque eius, in quo Ecclesiam maxime persecutus est, nescio quid duriter quasi praeferens tibi respondisse dicebatur. Putabantur tibi ambo esse suspecti. Postulati cum abiissent, te illic remanente, et cum illo secretius, ut ferebatur, loquente, subito iussi sunt detineri. Amicitiam vestram non recentem, sed veterem, homines loquebantur. Famam confirmabat tanta coniunctio, et tam assidua solius cum solo sermocinatio. Potestas illius magna tunc erat. Calumniae facilitas radiabat. Non erat grande negotium procurari aliquem, qui diceret quod salute promissa dicendum ille mandasset. Omnia in tempore isto suffragabantur, ut etiam uno teste, tamquam invidioso et credibili crimine, sine iubentis discrimine quilibet de medio tolleretur.
4. This would be even now the cause of my silence toward you, as it was then of my departure, if I believed that you had acted with him so as to avenge such nefarious injuries. Those believe this who do not know how, and how often, and what things you said to us, when with anxious care we were urging that, the more familiarly you clung to him, the more frequently you came to him, the more often you conversed with him alone, the more he should care for your reputation; lest to those who were called your enemies he should give such an end as would make you be thought to have done nothing else with him. Which indeed neither I believe, nor my brothers who heard you in conversation, and by hearing and by every nod saw the signs of your kindly breast. But, I beseech you, forgive those who believe it: for they are men, and in the minds of men there are such hiding-places, and such recesses, that all the suspicious, when deservedly blamed, even think they ought to be praised, because they are cautious. The causes stood: we knew that from one of those whom he suddenly ordered to be seized you had suffered a most grievous injury. His brother too, in whom he most persecuted the Church, was said to have answered you somewhat harshly, as it were setting himself before you. Both were thought to be suspected by you. When, having been summoned, they had departed, you remaining there, and speaking with him more secretly, as was reported, suddenly they were ordered to be detained. Men spoke of your friendship not as recent, but as old. So great a conjunction confirmed the report, and so assiduous a conversation of one alone with one alone. His power was then great. The ease of calumny shone out. It was no great matter to procure someone to say what, salvation being promised, that man had charged should be said. All things at that time conspired so that, even by one witness, as by an odious and credible charge, anyone whatever might be taken out of the way without risk to him who ordered it.
Ep100-155.45. Nos interea, quoniam rumor erat quod ecclesiastica manus posset eos eripere, falsis promissionibus ludebamur; ut illo non solum quasi volente, sed etiam instante, pro eis ad Comitatum episcopus mitteretur, ea pollicitatione interposita episcopalibus auribus, quod donec aliquid pro eis illic ageretur, nullum causae illorum excitaretur examen. Postremo, pridie quam ferirentur, venit ad nos Praestantia tua; spem dedisti, qualem numquam antea dederas, quod eos tibi posset concedere profecturo, cum illi graviter prudenterque dixisses, totum quod tecum tam assidue familiarius secretiusque loqueretur, non te honorare potius quam gravare, atque ad id valere, quod communicato et pertractato inter vos mortis eorum consilio, nemo dubitaret quid post haec omnia sequeretur. Quae cum te dixisse nobis indicares, inter narrandum namque tendens in eum locum ubi celebrantur sacramenta fidelium, stupentibus nobis ita iurasti te ista dixisse, ut non solum tunc, verum etiam nunc post tam horrendum inopinatum exitum, cum tuos omnes nutus recolo, nimis mihi impudens videar, si de te aliquid mali credam. Quibus tuis verbis sic eum permotum fuisse dicebas, quod velut familiare viaticum tibi eorum donaturus esset salutem.
5. We meanwhile, since there was a rumor that the ecclesiastical hand could snatch them away, were mocked with false promises; so that, he not only as it were willing but even pressing, a bishop was sent for them to the imperial court, this promise being interposed to episcopal ears, that until something should be done for them there, no examination of their cause would be stirred up. Finally, the day before they were struck down, your Excellency came to us; you gave hope, such as you had never before given, that he could grant them to you who were about to set out, since you had said to him gravely and prudently that the whole of what he so assiduously, familiarly, and secretly conversed with you about did not honor you so much as burden you, and amounted to this: that, the counsel of their death being shared and discussed between you, no one would doubt what would follow after all this. When you indicated to us that you had said these things—for in narrating, reaching toward that place where the sacraments of the faithful are celebrated, while we were astonished, you so swore that you had said these things—that not only then, but even now, after so horrendous an unforeseen end, when I recall all your nods, I seem to myself too shameless if I believe any evil of you. By which words of yours you said he was so moved that, as a familiar provision for your journey, he was going to grant you their safety.
Ep100-155.56. Unde testor Dilectioni tuae, postero die, quo illius parturitionis nefarius fetus est ortus, cum esset nobis repente nuntiatum illos e carcere ad eum iudicem ductos, quamquam perturbati fuerimus, tamen ego considerans et quae nobis pridie dixeras, et qui esset post illum exorturus dies, quoniam beati Cypriani erat pridiana solemnitas, existimavi quod etiam elegerit diem, quo et tibi postulata concederet, et universam Christi Ecclesiam repente laetificans, ad locum tanti martyris ascendere voluerit, parcendi benignitate quam occidendi potestate sublimior; cum ecce nobis nuntius irruit, quo prius percussos esse nossemus, quam quomodo audirentur quaerere valeremus. Provisus enim erat et proximus locus, non suppliciis hominum deputatus, sed ornamento potius civitatis, ubi merito creditur propterea quosdam ante aliquot dies iussisse mactari, ne in istis invidiosa novitas esset: quos consilium fuit sic posse subripi Ecclesiae, si non solum subito feriri iuberentur, verum etiam in loco proximo ferirentur. Satis itaque indicavit ei matri se inferre non timuisse cruciatum, cuius timuit interventum: Ecclesiae scilicet sanctae, inter cuius fideles in eius gremio baptizatos et ipsum utique noveramus. Post hunc igitur tanti moliminis exitum, cum tam diligenter nobiscum actum esset, ut etiam per te, etsi nesciente te, pene securi et pene certi de salute illorum pridie fieremus; quis non talium, qualis hominum multitudo est, indubitatum haberet, etiam a te nobis verba data, illis animam ablatam? Ideo, sicut dixi, vir bone, etiamsi nos hoc non credimus, ignosce credentibus.
6. Whence I testify to your Affection that, on the next day, on which the nefarious offspring of that travail was born, when it was suddenly announced to us that they had been led from prison to that judge, although we were perturbed, yet I, considering both what you had said to us the day before, and what day was about to dawn after that—since it was the day before the solemnity of blessed Cyprian—supposed that he had even chosen the day on which he would both grant your petitions, and, suddenly gladdening the whole Church of Christ, would wish to ascend to the place of so great a martyr, more sublime by the kindness of sparing than by the power of slaying; when behold, a messenger rushed upon us, by which we knew that they had been struck down sooner than we could even seek how they were being heard. For a place was provided, and a near one, not assigned to the punishments of men, but rather as an ornament of the city, where it is rightly believed that for this reason he had ordered certain men to be slaughtered some days before, lest in these there should be an odious novelty: men whom it was his plan could thus be stolen from the Church, if they were ordered not only to be struck down suddenly, but even to be struck down in a near place. And so he sufficiently showed that he did not fear to inflict torment on that mother whose intervention he feared: namely the holy Church, among whose faithful, baptized in her bosom, we surely knew him too. After this end, then, of so great an undertaking, when it had been dealt with us so diligently that even through you, though without your knowing it, we were made the day before almost secure and almost certain of their safety—who of such men, as the multitude of men is, would not hold it undoubted that, even by you, words were given to us, and their life taken from them? Therefore, as I said, good man, even though we do not believe this, forgive those who believe it.
Ep100-155.67. Absit autem a corde, et qualicumque vita mea, ut apud te pro aliquo intercederem, vel a te cuiquam beneficium postularem, si te crederem tanti huius mali, et tam consceleratae crudelitatis auctorem. Sed plane fateor, si etiam posthac in ea familiaritate estis in qua antea fuistis, pace tua sit liber dolor; multum nos quod nolebamus compellitis credere. Est autem consentaneum ut neque hoc credam, qui de te illa non credo. Amicus tuus inopinato successu repentinae potestatis non magis persecutus est illorum vitam, quam tuam famam. Nec ista loquens, odia tua in illum, mei animi ac professionis oblitus, inflammo; sed ad fideliorem provoco dilectionem. Qui enim sic agit cum malis, ut eos malitiae poeniteat, novit etiam indignatione consulere: nam sicut mali obsunt assentando, ita boni adversando prosunt. Suam quippe animam eodem ferro, quo alios insolentissime occidit, gravius altiusque percussit: quod post hanc vitam, si non eam poenitendo correxerit, et patientia Dei bene usus fuerit, invenire ac sentire cogetur. Saepe autem vita praesens etiam bonorum, Dei iudicio malis eripienda permissa est, ne talia perpeti putaretur malum. Mori quippe in carne quid potest obesse morituris? aut quid agunt qui mori timent, nisi ut paulo posterius moriantur? Quidquid obest morientibus, ex vita, non ex morte contingit; in qua si tales animas habuerint, qualibus christiana gratia subvenitur, non sane mors eorum vitae bonae occasus fuit, sed melioris occasio.
7. But far be it from my heart, and from my life, such as it is, that I should intercede with you for anyone, or ask any benefit from you, if I believed you the author of so great an evil, and of so wicked a cruelty. But plainly I confess: if even hereafter you are in that familiarity in which you were before, with your leave let my grief be free; you compel us much to believe what we did not wish. But it is consistent that I should not believe this either, who do not believe those things of you. Your friend, by the unforeseen success of sudden power, persecuted no more their life than your reputation. Nor, in saying these things, do I, forgetful of my own mind and profession, inflame your hatreds against him; but I summon you to a more faithful love. For he who so deals with the evil that they repent of their wickedness knows how to take counsel even by indignation: for as the evil harm by flattering, so the good profit by opposing. For he struck his own soul, with the same iron with which he most insolently slew others, more grievously and more deeply: which, after this life, if he does not correct it by repenting, and has not used well the patience of God, he will be compelled to find and feel. But often the present life even of the good has, by the judgment of God, been permitted to be snatched away by the evil, lest to suffer such things should be thought an evil. For what can it harm those about to die, to die in the flesh? Or what do those who fear to die accomplish, except that they die a little later? Whatever harms the dying comes from life, not from death; in which, if they have had such souls as those to which Christian grace comes to aid, surely their death was not the setting of a good life, but the occasion of a better.
Ep100-155.78. Et maioris quidem mores apparebant huic saeculo amiciores esse quam Christo: quamquam et ipse iuvenilem prius saecularemque vitam uxore ducta, non parva ex parte correxerat. Non tamen fortasse misericors Deus fratris eum esse in morte comitem nisi miserans voluit. Ille vero alius religiose vivit, et multum corde vitaque christiana. Haec eum fama praecessit, ut in causa Ecclesiae sic veniret: haec consecuta est cum venisset. Quae illi vero probitas in moribus, in amicitia fides, in doctrina studium, in religione sinceritas, in coniugio pudicitia, in iudicio continentia; erga inimicos patientia, erga amicos affabilitas, erga sanctos humilitas, erga omnes caritas; in beneficiis praestandis facilitas, in petendis pudor, in recte factis amor, in peccatis dolor! Quantum decus honestatis, qui splendor gratiae, quae cura pietatis; quae in subveniendo misericordia, in ignoscendo benevolentia, in orando fiducia! Quod salubriter sciebat, qua modestia loquebatur! quod inutiliter nesciebat, qua diligentia scrutabatur! Quantus in eo contemptus rerum praesentium! quanta spes et desiderium bonorum aeternorum! Ne relictis omnibus saecularibus actionibus susciperet cingulum militiae christianae, vinculum praepediebat uxorium, quo iam innodatus coeperat concupiscere meliora, quando iam non licebat illa, quamvis inferiora, disrumpere.
8. And the manners of the elder indeed appeared more friendly to this world than to Christ: although he too had, in no small part, corrected his earlier youthful and worldly life by taking a wife. Yet perhaps the merciful God did not will him to be his brother's companion in death except in pity. But that other lives religiously, and much in Christian heart and life. This report preceded him, so that he came in the cause of the Church; this followed when he had come. What uprightness in him in his manners, what faith in friendship, what zeal in learning, what sincerity in religion, what chastity in marriage, what continence in judgment; toward enemies patience, toward friends affability, toward the holy humility, toward all love; in bestowing benefits readiness, in asking them modesty, in things rightly done love, in sins grief! What grace of honesty, what splendor of favor, what care of piety; what mercy in aiding, what benevolence in forgiving, what confidence in praying! What he knew with profit, with what modesty he spoke! What he was ignorant of without profit, with what diligence he searched out! How great in him was the contempt of present things! How great the hope and desire of eternal goods! That he might not, all worldly actions left behind, take up the belt of the Christian warfare, the marriage bond hindered him, by which, already entangled, he had begun to desire better things, when it was no longer lawful to break those, though inferior, things.
Ep100-155.89. Quodam die frater eius, cum iam pariter in custodia tenerentur, ait illi: Si ego haec pro meritis patior peccatorum meorum; tu, cuius vitam novimus, tam attente ferventerque christianam, quibus malis meritis ad ista perductus es? At ille: Parvumne, inquit, mihi existimas conferri divinitus beneficium, si tamen hoc testimonium tuum de vita mea verum est, ut hoc quod patior, etiamsi usque ad effusionem sanguinis patiar, ibi peccata mea puniantur, nec mihi ad futurum iudicium reserventur. Hic forte aliquis credat eum fuisse sibi conscium aliquorum occultorum impudicitiae peccatorum. Dicam ergo quid me Dominus Deus, ad magnam meam consolationem, ex eius ore audire, et plane scire voluerit. Cum de hoc ipso, ut sunt humana, sollicitus, solus cum solo agerem, iam in eadem custodia constituto, ne quid esset unde maiore et insigniore poenitentia Deum sibi placare deberet; ille ut erat verecundiae singularis, cum ipsam, licet falsam meam suspicionem erubesceret, sed admonitionem gratissime acciperet, modeste graviterque subridens, et utraque manu meam dexteram apprehendens: Testor, inquit: Sacramenta quae per hanc afferuntur manum, me nullum esse expertum concubitum praeter uxorem, nec ante, nec postea.
9. One day his brother, when they were now held together in custody, said to him: If I suffer these things for the deserts of my sins, you, whose life we know to be so attentively and ardently Christian, by what evil deserts have you been brought to this? But he: Do you, he said, esteem it a small benefit conferred on me by God—if, however, this testimony of yours about my life is true—that what I suffer, even if I suffer it unto the shedding of blood, my sins may there be punished, and not be reserved for me unto the judgment to come? Here perhaps someone may believe that he was conscious to himself of certain hidden sins of unchastity. I will tell, then, what the Lord God willed me, to my great consolation, to hear from his mouth, and plainly to know. When, as human things are, anxious about this very thing, I was dealing alone with him alone, now placed in that same custody, lest there be anything for which he ought to please God by a greater and more notable repentance, he—as he was of singular modesty, since, although he blushed at my suspicion, false though it was, yet most gratefully received the admonition—modestly and gravely smiling, and grasping my right hand with both his hands, said: I testify, by the sacraments which are brought through this hand, that I have known no intercourse except with my wife, neither before nor after.
Ep100-155.910. Quid ergo huic in morte accidit mali, ac non potius plurimum boni, cum haec habens dona ad Christum, sine quo inaniter habentur, ex hac vita migravit? Quae apud te non commemorarem, si crederem te laudibus eius offendi. Cum autem hoc non credo, nec illud profecto, quod te, non dico instante, sed saltem volente aut optante posset occidi. Proinde iudicas nobiscum tanto sincerius, quanto innocentius, quod ille cum anima sua, quam cum istius corpore crudelius egerit; quando contemptis nobis, contemptis promissionibus suis, contemptis tot ac tantis petitionibus et admonitionibus tuis, contempta denique Ecclesia Christi (et in ea quo, nisi Christo?), ad finem suae machinationis huius morte pervenit. An vero illius honos, istius vel carceri comparandus est, cum ille fureret sublimatus, iste gauderet inclusus? Horrendis et poenalibus tenebris, omnes non tantum carceres, sed etiam inferos vincit scelerati hominis conscientia. Tibi etiam quid nocuit, cuius etsi famam graviter laesit, tamen innocentiam non peremit? Quamvis fama quoque ipsa salva sit, et apud eos qui te melius noverunt quam nos, et apud nos ipsos, qui curas nobiscum tuas, ne tam immane perpetraretur scelus, tanto expressas inspiciebamus affectu, ut tui cordis invisibilia pene oculis cerneremus. Sibi igitur ille nocuit, quidquid nocuit; suam transfixit animam, suam vitam, suam conscientiam; suam denique ipsam famam, quam bonam solent etiam pessimi concupiscere, caeca illa crudelitate vastavit. Tanto enim est odiosior omnibus bonis, quanto magis impiis placere conatus est, vel placuisse laetatus.
10. What evil, then, befell this man in death, and not rather very much good, since, having these gifts unto Christ—without whom they are had in vain—he departed from this life? These things I would not mention to you, if I believed that you were offended by his praises. But since I do not believe this, neither do I believe, surely, that he could be slain with you—I do not say pressing, but at least willing or wishing it. Accordingly, you judge with us, the more sincerely the more innocently, that he dealt more cruelly with his own soul than with that man's body; when, despising us, despising his own promises, despising your so many and so great petitions and admonitions, despising finally the Church of Christ (and in it whom, but Christ?), he arrived by this death at the end of his machination. Or is that man's honor to be compared even to this man's prison, when the one raged exalted, the other rejoiced shut up? With horrible and penal darkness the conscience of a wicked man surpasses not only all prisons, but even the lower world. And what did it harm you, whose reputation, though it grievously wounded, yet did not destroy your innocence? Although your reputation itself too is safe, both with those who knew you better than we, and with us ourselves, who beheld your cares with us, lest so monstrous a crime should be perpetrated, expressed with such great affection that we almost discerned with our eyes the invisible things of your heart. He harmed himself, then, in whatever he harmed; he transfixed his own soul, his own life, his own conscience; finally his very own reputation, which, good, even the worst are wont to desire, he laid waste with that blind cruelty. For he is so much the more hateful to all the good, the more he tried to please the impious, or rejoiced to have pleased them.
Ep100-155.1011. Ubi autem magis potuit apparere non eum habuisse necessitatem quam se habere confinxit, ut eius obtentu tamquam bonus faceret tantum malum, quam quod nec illi placuit de cuius praecepto se ausus est excusare? Referat Praestantiae tuae sanctus diaconus Quintianus; ipse enim fuerat episcopo quem pro illis miseramus adiunctus, quemadmodum nec indulgentia illis danda visa est, ne vel sic aliquo crimine notarentur; sed tantum commonitorium quo eos ab omni molestia liberos dimittere iuberetur. Gratuita igitur crudelitate, nulla necessitate (quamvis et aliae causae, quas suspicamur, nec opus est committere litteris, forsitan fuerint), atrociter contristavit Ecclesiam. Ad cuius Ecclesiae gremium frater eius, metuens perire, confugerat, ut eum vivum tanti sceleris consiliarium reperiret: cuius Ecclesiae etiam ipse, cum patronum offendisset, petivit asylum, nec ei potuit denegari. Hunc si diligis, detestare; si non vis ut in aeternum puniatur, exhorre. Sic existimationi tuae, sic est vitae illius consulendum: nam qui in eo diligit quod odit Deus, non solum odit ipsum, sed etiam seipsum.
11. But where could it better appear that he did not have the necessity which he feigned himself to have—so that under its pretext, as a good man, he might do so great an evil—than that not even he was pleased, by whose command he dared to excuse himself? Let the holy deacon Quintianus report to your Excellency; for he himself had been joined to the bishop whom we had sent for them, how neither did pardon seem to be granted to them, lest even so they should be marked with some charge; but only a memorandum by which he was to be ordered to dismiss them free from all trouble. By a gratuitous cruelty, then, by no necessity (although there may perhaps have been other causes, which we suspect, and which there is no need to commit to a letter), he savagely afflicted the Church with grief. To the bosom of which Church his brother, fearing to perish, had fled, that he might find him alive, the counselor of so great a crime: of which Church he himself too, when he had offended his patron, sought the asylum, nor could it be denied him. If you love this man, detest him; if you do not wish him to be punished eternally, shudder at him. Thus your reputation, thus his life, must be taken counsel for: for he who loves in him what God hates not only hates him, but also himself.
Ep100-155.1112. Quae cum ita sint, nec de tua benignitate credo quod tanti sceleris auctor vel particeps fueris, neque quod malitiosa crudelitate fefelleris: quod absit a vita et moribus tuis! Nec amicitias vestras tales volo, quibus et ille in suum interitum glorietur de malo, et confirmetur humana suspicio; sed tales potius, quibus ad poenitentiam disponatur, et talem ac tantam poenitentiam, qualem quantamque postulant tam horrenda vulnera medicinam: tanto quippe amicior eris, quanto sceleribus eius inimicior. Curiosum est Praestantiae tuae nosse rescriptis, ubi eo die fueris quo illud admissum est; quomodo acceperis, quid postea egeris, aut cum eum videris quid ei dixeris, quid ab illo audieris. Ego enim ex quo inde postridie repente discessi, nihil quod hanc rem attinet, de te audire potui.
12. Since this is so, I neither believe of your kindness that you were the author or sharer of so great a crime, nor that you deceived by malicious cruelty: which be far from your life and manners! Nor do I wish your friendships to be such that by them he too should glory in evil unto his own destruction, and human suspicion be confirmed; but rather such that by them he may be disposed to repentance—and such and so great a repentance as so horrendous wounds require for their medicine: for you will be the more his friend, the more you are the enemy of his crimes. It would be of interest to your Excellency to make known by reply where you were on that day on which that was committed; how you received it, what you did afterward, or, when you saw him, what you said to him, what you heard from him. For I, from the time I suddenly departed thence the next day, have been able to hear nothing about you that pertains to this matter.
Ep100-155.1213. Quod vero in epistola tua legi, iam te cogi credere, ne a me videreris, et Carthagini me negatum, tu potius cogis his verbis ut absentiae meae causas non taceam. Quarum est una, quoniam laborem quem in illa urbe perpeti necesse est, et quem si exponere velim, aliud tantum loquendum est, iam sustinere non possum, quod infirmitati meae propriae, quae nota est omnibus qui familiarius me noverunt, accessit etiam senectus, quae generis humani est communis infirmitas. Altera causa est, quod statui, si Dominus velit, quantum mihi ex illis occupationibus, quas Ecclesiae, cui proprio munere servio, necessitas flagitat, datur temporis, id totum impendere labori studiorum ad ecclesiasticas scientias pertinentium; ubi me arbitror, si Dei misericordiae placet, etiam posteris aliquid profuturum.
13. But as for what I read in your letter, that you are now compelled to believe that you were as it were avoided by me, and that I was refused you at Carthage, you rather compel me by these words not to keep silent about the causes of my absence. Of which one is, that the labor which it is necessary to endure in that city—and which, if I wished to set forth, as much again would have to be said—I can now no longer sustain, since to my own weakness, which is known to all who know me more familiarly, there has been added also old age, which is the common weakness of the human race. The other cause is, that I have resolved, if the Lord will, to spend all the time given me from those occupations which the necessity of the Church, which I serve by my proper office, demands, upon the labor of studies pertaining to ecclesiastical sciences; in which I judge that, if it please the mercy of God, I shall profit even posterity in something.
Ep100-155.1314. Unum est autem, si verum quaeris audire, quod in te molestissime fero, quod cum sis et huius iam aetatis, et huius vitae ac probitatis, adhuc vis esse catechumenus; quasi fideles non possint, quanto sint fideliores atque meliores, tanto fidelius ac melius administrare rempublicam. Quid autem boni agitis in his tantis curis et laboribus vestris, nisi ut bene sit hominibus? Si enim hoc non agitis, vel dormire satius est noctesque diesque, quam vigilare in laboribus publicis, nulli utilitati hominum profuturis. Nec sane dubito Excellentiam tuam.
14. But there is one thing, if you wish to hear the truth, which I bear most grievously in you: that, although you are now both of this age, and of this life and uprightness, you still wish to be a catechumen; as though the faithful could not, the more faithful and better they are, the more faithfully and better administer the commonwealth. For what good do you accomplish in these so great cares and labors of yours, except that it may be well with men? For if you do not accomplish this, it would be better to sleep nights and days, than to keep watch in public labors that will profit no advantage of men. Nor indeed do I doubt your Excellency.
Ep100-155.14EPISTOLA 152
DOMINO MERITO VENERABILI, ET UNICE COLENDO PATRI AUGUSTINO, MACEDONIUS
DOMINO MERITO VENERABILI, ET UNICE COLENDO PATRI AUGUSTINO, MACEDONIUS
LETTER 152
TO MY LORD, DESERVEDLY VENERABLE AND UNIQUELY TO BE REVERED FATHER AUGUSTINE, FROM MACEDONIUS.
Ep100-155.14TO MY LORD, DESERVEDLY VENERABLE AND UNIQUELY TO BE REVERED FATHER AUGUSTINE, FROM MACEDONIUS.
1. Optatas admodum Sanctitatis tuae litteras accepi per Bonifacium venerandae legis antistitem; quem eo magis receptum dilexi quod a me desiderata pertulerat, sermonem Sanctitatis tuae et incolumitatem, domine merito venerabilis, et unice colende pater. Itaque sine mora quod petebat obtinuit. Verum quoniam existit occasio, hoc ipsum quantulumcumque est quod admonitus indulsi, nolo sine mercede remanere. Cupio enim accipere eam quae mihi commodet sine pendentis incommodo, imo quae mihi commodet cum gloria dependentis.
1. I received the much-desired letter of your Holiness through Boniface, a bishop of the venerable law; whom I loved the more for being received, because he had brought what I desired, the discourse of your Holiness and your well-being, my deservedly venerable and uniquely to be reverered father. And so without delay he obtained what he asked. But since the occasion presents itself, I do not wish this very thing, however small it is, which, being admonished, I granted, to remain without reward. For I desire to receive that reward which profits me without disadvantage to the one paying, indeed which profits me with glory to the one paying.
Ep100-155.12. Officium sacerdotii vestri esse dicitis intervenire pro reis, et nisi obtineatis, offendi, quasi quod erat officii vestri minime reportetis. Hic ego vehementer ambigo utrum istud ex religione descendat. Nam si a Domino peccata adeo prohibentur, ut ne poenitendi quidem copia post primam tribuatur; quemadmodum nos possumus ex religione contendere ut nobis qualecumque illud crimen fuerit, dimittatur? quod utique, cum impunitum volumus, probamus. Et si constat non minus auctorem quam probatorem teneri in omnibus quae peccantur, certum est nos culpae societate vinciri, quoties eum impunitum esse cupimus, qui culpae tenetur obnoxius. Tum praeterea accedit hoc quod gravius est. Nam omnia peccata videntur veniabiliora, cum is qui reus est correctionem promittit: verum nunc, ut mores nostri sunt, et sceleris poenam cupiunt homines sibi relaxari, et id propter quod scelus admissum est, possidere. Pro his quoque interveniendum putat sacerdotium vestrum, de quibus adeo futuri nulla spes est, ut etiam in praesenti eadem criminis ratio perseveret. Nam qui tam pervicaciter tenet propter quae crimen admisit, ostendit se, ubi licentia fuerit, similia peccaturum.
2. You say that it is the office of your priesthood to intervene for the accused, and, unless you obtain it, to be offended, as though you brought back nothing of what was your office. Here I vehemently doubt whether this descends from religion. For if sins are so forbidden by the Lord that not even the opportunity of repenting is granted after the first; how can we contend from religion that whatever that crime may have been should be remitted to us? Which surely, when we wish it unpunished, we approve. And if it is agreed that the author no less than the approver is held guilty in all things that are sinned, it is certain that we are bound by fellowship in the fault, as often as we desire him to be unpunished who is held liable to the fault. Then, besides, there is added this, which is more grievous. For all sins seem more pardonable when he who is accused promises correction: but now, as our manners are, men both desire the punishment of their crime to be relaxed for them, and to possess that on account of which the crime was committed. For these too your priesthood thinks it should intervene, concerning whom there is so little hope of the future that even in the present the same reasoning of the crime persists. For he who so obstinately holds onto the things for which he committed the crime shows himself, where there is license, about to sin in like manner.
Ep100-155.23. Ob haec igitur consulo prudentiam tuam, et me hoc ambiguo quo laboro, absolvi desidero: nec ob aliam causam consultum te putes. Caeterum hoc mihi propositum est, ut intercessoribus, praesertim talis meriti qualis tu es, etiam gratiam agam. Pleraque enim quae sponte facere videri nolo, ne remissio severitatis alios armet in crimina, opto bonis intercessoribus relaxare, ut quod libens concedo, salva severitate iudicii, alterius merito videatur indultum. De scriptis Sanctitatis tuae aliqua mihi promiseras, et non accepi; quaeso ut vel nunc mittas, et ad hanc meam epistolam respondeas, ut quia Sanctitatem tuam interim videre non datur, saltem sermonibus tuis pascar. Incolumem Sanctitatem tuam divinitas aeterna tueatur aevo largissimo, domine merito venerabilis, et vere colende pater.
3. For these reasons, then, I consult your prudence, and I desire to be freed from this doubt under which I labor; nor think that you are consulted for any other cause. For the rest, this is my purpose: that I should even give thanks to intercessors, especially of such merit as you are. For very many things which I do not wish to seem to do of my own accord—lest a relaxation of severity should arm others for crimes—I wish to relax to good intercessors, so that what I willingly grant, the severity of judgment being saved, may seem to be granted by the merit of another. You had promised me some of the writings of your Holiness, and I have not received them; I ask that you send them even now, and reply to this letter of mine, so that, since it is not given me meanwhile to see your Holiness, I may at least be fed by your discourses. May the eternal Divinity keep your Holiness safe for a most ample age, my deservedly venerable and truly to be reverered father.
Ep100-155.3EPISTOLA 153
AUGUSTINUS EPISCOPUS, FAMULUS CHRISTI FAMILIAEQUE EIUS, DILECTO FILIO MACEDONIO, IN DOMINO SALUTEM.
AUGUSTINUS EPISCOPUS, FAMULUS CHRISTI FAMILIAEQUE EIUS, DILECTO FILIO MACEDONIO, IN DOMINO SALUTEM.
LETTER 153
AUGUSTINE, BISHOP, SERVANT OF CHRIST AND OF HIS FAMILY, TO HIS BELOVED SON MACEDONIUS, GREETINGS IN THE LORD.
Ep100-155.3AUGUSTINE, BISHOP, SERVANT OF CHRIST AND OF HIS FAMILY, TO HIS BELOVED SON MACEDONIUS, GREETINGS IN THE LORD.
1. 1. Negotiosissimum in republica virum, et non suis, sed aliorum utilitatibus attentissimum, qualem te esse et tibi gratulamur et rebus humanis, nec deserere debemus alloquio, nec occupare prooemio. Accipe itaque quod per me, vel nosse voluisti, vel utrum ipse nossem experiri. Quod si parvum aut superfluum iudicares, nullo modo inter tam magnas tamque necessarias curas tuas curandum esse censeres. Quaeris a me cur officii sacerdotii nostri esse dicamus intervenire pro reis, et nisi obtineamus, offendi quasi quod erat officii nostri minime reportemus. Ubi vehementer te dicis ambigere utrum istud ex religione descendat. Deinde adiungis qua ratione ita movearis: Nam si a Domino peccata, inquis, adeo prohibentur, ut nec poenitendi quidem copia post primam tribuatur; quemadmodum nos possumus ex religione contendere ut qualecumque illud crimen fuerit, dimittatur? Adhuc gravius urges, et dicis, nos probare quod volumus impunitum; et si constat non minus auctorem quam probatorem teneri in omnibus quae peccantur, certum esse nos culpae societate vinciri, quoties eum impunitum esse volumus, qui culpae tenetur obnoxius.
1. 1. A man most busy in the commonwealth, and most attentive not to his own advantages but to those of others—such as we congratulate both you and human affairs that you are—we ought neither to abandon without an address, nor to occupy with a preface. Receive, then, what through me you either wished to know, or to test whether I myself knew. Which, if you judged it small or superfluous, you would in no way think it should be cared for among your so great and so necessary cares. You ask me why we say that it is the office of our priesthood to intervene for the accused, and, unless we obtain it, to be offended, as though we brought back nothing of what was our office. Whereupon you say you vehemently doubt whether this descends from religion. Then you add by what reasoning you are so moved: For if sins, you say, are so forbidden by the Lord that not even the opportunity of repenting is granted after the first; how can we contend from religion that, whatever that crime may have been, it should be remitted? You urge still more grievously, and say that we approve what we wish to be unpunished; and if it is agreed that the author no less than the approver is held guilty in all things that are sinned, that it is certain we are bound by fellowship in the fault, as often as we wish him to be unpunished who is held liable to the fault.
Ep100-155.1.11. 2. His verbis quem non terreas tuae lenitatis et humanitatis ignarum? Unde nos qui te novimus, et haec quaerendi gratia, non decernendi, scripsisse minime dubitamus, aliis verbis tuis ad ista citius respondemus. Tamquam enim nos haesitare in hac quaestione nolueris, aut praevidisti quid dicturi essemus, aut admonuisti quid dicere deberemus; et aisti: Tum praeterea accedit hoc quod gravius est. Nam omnia peccata videntur veniabiliora, cum is qui reus est correctionem promittit. Antequam ergo discutiam quid sit illud gravius quod in epistola tua sequitur, hoc interim quod dedisti accipiam, eoque utar ad molem hanc amovendam, qua nostrae intercessiones posse reprimi videbantur. Ideo quippe, quantum facultas datur, pro peccatis omnibus intercedimus, quia omnia peccata videntur veniabiliora, cum is qui reus est correctionem promittit. Haec tua est, haec et nostra sententia.
1. 2. Whom would you not terrify by these words, were he ignorant of your gentleness and humanity? Whence we who know you, and do not doubt at all that you wrote these things for the sake of asking, not of deciding, answer them the more quickly by other words of yours. For as though you were unwilling that we should hesitate in this question, either you foresaw what we were going to say, or you admonished what we ought to say; and you said: Then, besides, there is added this, which is more grievous. For all sins seem more pardonable when he who is accused promises correction. Before, then, I discuss what that more grievous thing is which follows in your letter, let me meanwhile take this which you have granted, and use it to remove this mass by which our intercessions seemed able to be suppressed. For we therefore intercede, as far as opportunity is given, for all sins, because "all sins seem more pardonable when he who is accused promises correction." This is your view, and this is ours too.
Ep100-155.1.21. 3. Nullo modo ergo culpas quas corrigi volumus, approbamus, nec quod perperam committitur, ideo volumus impunitum esse, quia placet; sed hominem miserantes, facinus autem seu flagitium detestantes, quanto magis nobis displicet vitium, tanto minus volumus inemendatum interire vitiosum. Facile enim est atque proclive malos odisse, quia mali sunt: rarum autem et pium eosdem ipsos diligere, quia homines sunt; ut in uno simul et culpam improbes, et naturam approbes, ac propterea culpam iustius oderis, quod ea foedatur natura quam diligis. Non est igitur iniquitatis, sed potius humanitatis societate devinctus, qui propterea est criminis persecutor, ut sit hominis liberator. Morum porro corrigendorum nullus alius quam in hac vita locus est; nam post hanc, quisque id habebit quod in hac sibimet conquisierit. Ideo compellimur humani generis caritate intervenire pro reis, ne istam vitam sic finiant per supplicium, ut ea finita non possint finire supplicium.
1. 3. In no way, then, do we approve the faults which we wish to be corrected, nor do we wish what is wrongly committed to be unpunished because it pleases us; but pitying the man, while detesting the deed or the disgrace, the more the vice displeases us, the less we wish the vicious man to perish unamended. For it is easy and downhill to hate the evil because they are evil; but rare and devout to love those same ones because they are men; so that in one and the same you both disapprove the fault and approve the nature, and therefore hate the fault the more justly, because by it the nature you love is defiled. He, then, is bound not by fellowship of iniquity, but rather of humanity, who is for this reason a persecutor of the crime, that he may be the liberator of the man. Further, there is no other place for correcting morals than in this life; for after this, each will have that which he has gained for himself in this. Therefore we are compelled by love of the human race to intervene for the accused, lest they so end this life through punishment that, this life being ended, they cannot end their punishment.
Ep100-155.1.32. 4. Noli ergo dubitare hoc officium nostrum ex religione descendere, cum Deus apud quem nulla est iniquitas, cuius summa potestas est, qui non tantum qualis quisque sit videt, verum etiam qualis futurus sit praevidet, qui solus potest in iudicando non labi, quia in cognoscendo non potest falli, facit tamen, sicut Evangelium loquitur, solem suum oriri super bonos et malos, et pluit super iustos et iniustos. Cuius mirabilis bonitatis ut simus imitatores, Dominus Christus exhortans: Diligite, inquit, inimicos vestros; benefacite eis qui vos oderunt; et orate pro eis qui vos persequuntur: ut sitis filii Patris vestri qui in coelis est, qui facit solem suum oriri super bonos et malos, et pluit super iustos et iniustos. Hac indulgentia et lenitate divina multos abuti ad perniciem suam quis nesciat? Quos arguens Apostolus et graviter increpans dicit: Existimas autem, o homo omnis qui iudicas eos qui talia agunt, et facis ea, quoniam tu effugies iudicium Dei? An divitias benignitatis eius, et patientiae, et longanimitatis contemnis? ignoras quoniam benignitas Dei ad poenitentiam te adducit? Secundum autem duritiam tuam et cor impoenitens thesaurizas tibi iram in die irae et revelationis iusti iudicii Dei, qui reddet unicuique secundum opera eius. Numquid quoniam isti in sua nequitia perseverant, ideo Deus in sua patientia non perseverat; per pauca in hoc saeculo puniens, ne divina providentia non esse credatur, et multa servans ultimo examini, ut futurum iudicium commendetur?
2. 4. Do not doubt, then, that this office of ours descends from religion, since God, with whom there is no iniquity, whose power is supreme, who not only sees what sort each is, but even foresees what sort he is going to be, who alone can not stumble in judging, because he cannot be deceived in knowing, yet, as the Gospel says, makes his sun rise upon the good and the evil, and rains upon the just and the unjust (Matt 5:45). That we may be imitators of this marvelous goodness, the Lord Christ, exhorting, says: Love your enemies; do good to those who hate you; and pray for those who persecute you: that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven, who makes his sun rise upon the good and the evil, and rains upon the just and the unjust (Matt 5:44-45). Who does not know that many abuse this divine indulgence and gentleness unto their own ruin? Reproaching and gravely rebuking whom, the Apostle says: But do you suppose, O man, every one who judges those who do such things and does them, that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you despise the riches of his kindness, and patience, and long-suffering? Do you not know that the kindness of God leads you to repentance? But according to your hardness and impenitent heart you store up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and of the revelation of the just judgment of God, who will render to each according to his works (Rom 2:3-6). Is it that, because these persist in their wickedness, God therefore does not persist in his patience—punishing a few things in this age, lest divine providence be believed not to exist, and reserving many for the final examination, that the judgment to come may be commended?
Ep100-155.2.42. 5. Non, ut opinor, magister ille coelestis impietatem nos diligere praecipit, cum praecipit ut nostros diligamus inimicos, benefaciamus eis qui nos oderunt, oremus pro eis qui nos persequuntur; cum procul dubio, si pie Deum colimus, inimicos atque odiis adversum nos acerrimis incitatos ac persecutores, nisi impios habere non possimus. Num igitur diligendi sunt impii? num impiis benefaciendum est? num pro impiis etiam orandum est? Ita plane. Qui enim hoc praecipit, Deus est; nec tamen nos hoc pacto societati adiungit impiorum, quibus et ipse parcendo, et vitam salutemque largiendo, non utique sociatur. Consilium quippe eius, quantum homini pio nosse donatum est, exponit Apostolus dicens: Ignoras quia patientia Dei ad poenitentiam te adducit? Ad hanc volumus adduci pro quibus intervenimus; non eorum peccatis vel parcimus, vel favemus.
2. 5. That heavenly master, I think, does not command us to love impiety, when he commands that we love our enemies, do good to those who hate us, pray for those who persecute us; since without doubt, if we worship God devoutly, we cannot have enemies, and those incited against us with the keenest hatreds, and persecutors, except the impious. Are the impious, then, to be loved? Is good to be done to the impious? Is one even to pray for the impious? Yes, plainly. For he who commands this is God; nor yet does he thereby join us to the fellowship of the impious, with whom he himself, by sparing them and bestowing life and salvation, is surely not joined. For his counsel, as far as it is granted a devout man to know, the Apostle sets forth, saying: Do you not know that the patience of God leads you to repentance? (See Rom 2:4) To this we wish those for whom we intervene to be led; we neither spare nor favor their sins.
Ep100-155.2.53. 6. Nam quosdam quorum crimina manifesta sunt, a vestra severitate liberatos, a societate tamen removemus altaris, ut poenitendo placare possint quem peccando contempserant, seque ipsos puniendo. Nam nihil aliud agit quem veraciter poenitet, nisi ut id quod mali fecerit, impunitum esse non sinat: eo quippe modo sibi non parcenti ille parcit, cuius altum iustumque iudicium nullus contemptor evadit. Quod si iniquis et scelestis ille parcendo, eisque vitam salutemque largiendo, etiam plerisque eorum quos novit non acturos poenitentiam, tamen exhibet patientiam; quanto magis nos in eos qui correctionem promittunt, et utrum faciant quod promittunt incerti sumus, misericordes esse debemus, ut rigorem vestrum pro eis intercedendo flectamus, pro quibus et Dominum, quem nihil de moribus eorum etiam futuris latet, non tamen impudenter, quia hoc ipse praecepit, oramus!
3. 6. For certain ones whose crimes are manifest, though freed from your severity, we nonetheless remove from the fellowship of the altar, that by repenting they may be able to appease him whom by sinning they had despised, by punishing their very selves. For he who truly repents does nothing else than not allow what he did evilly to be unpunished: for in this way he who does not spare himself is spared by him whose deep and just judgment no despiser escapes. But if he, by sparing the unjust and wicked, and bestowing on them life and salvation, shows patience even to very many of them whom he knows will not perform repentance, how much more ought we to be merciful toward those who promise correction, and of whom we are uncertain whether they will do what they promise, so that by interceding we may bend your rigor for those for whom we also pray to the Lord—from whom nothing of their morals, even future ones, lies hidden—yet not shamelessly, because he himself commanded this!
Ep100-155.3.63. 7. In tantum autem hominum aliquando iniquitas progreditur, ut etiam post actam poenitentiam, post altaris reconciliationem, vel similia vel graviora committant: et tamen Deus facit etiam super tales oriri solem suum; nec minus tribuit quam ante tribuebat largissima munera vitae ac salutis. Et quamvis eis in Ecclesia locus ille poenitentiae non concedatur; Deus tamen super eos suae patientiae non obliviscitur. Ex quorum numero si quis nobis dicat, Aut date mihi eumdem iterum poenitendi locum, aut desperatum me permittite, ut faciam quidquid libuerit, quantum meis opibus adiuvor, et humanis legibus non prohibeor, in scortis, omnique luxuria, damnabili quidem apud Dominum, sed apud homines plerosque etiam laudabili: aut si me ab hac nequitia revocatis, dicite utrum mihi aliquid prosit ad vitam futuram, si in ista vita illecebrosissimae voluptatis blandimenta contempsero, si libidinum incitamenta frenavero, si ad castigandum corpus meum multa mihi etiam licita et concessa subtraxero, si me poenitendo vehementius quam prius excruciavero, si miserabilius ingemuero; si flevero uberius, si vixero melius, si pauperes sustentavero largius, si caritate, quae operit multitudinem peccatorum, flagravero ardentius; quis nostrum ita desipit, ut huic homini dicat, Nihil tibi ista proderunt in posterum; vade, saltem vitae huius suavitate perfruere? Avertat Deus tam immanem sacrilegamque dementiam! Quamvis ergo caute salubriterque provisum sit ut locus illius humillimae poenitentiae semel in Ecclesia concedatur, ne medicina vilis minus utilis esset aegrotis, quae tanto magis salubris est, quanto minus contemptibilis fuerit; quis tamen audeat dicere Deo: Quare huic homini, qui post primam poenitentiam rursus se laqueis iniquitatis obstringit, adhuc iterum parcis? Quis audeat dicere erga istos non agi quod Apostolus ait: Ignoras quia patientia Dei ad poenitentiam te adducit? aut istis exceptis esse definitum quod scriptum est: Beati omnes qui confidunt in eum ? aut ad istos non pertinere quod dicitur: Viriliter agite, et confortetur cor vestrum, omnes qui speratis in Dominum ?
3. 7. But sometimes the iniquity of men goes so far that even after repentance has been done, after reconciliation at the altar, they commit either like or graver things: and yet God makes his sun rise even upon such, nor bestows less than before he bestowed the most ample gifts of life and salvation. And although that place of repentance is not granted them in the Church, yet God does not forget his patience toward them. If anyone of their number should say to us, Either grant me again that same place of repenting, or permit me, despaired of, to do whatever pleases me, as far as I am aided by my means and not forbidden by human laws, in harlotries and every self-indulgence—damnable indeed before the Lord, but even praiseworthy before very many men; or if you call me back from this wickedness, tell me whether it profits me anything for the life to come, if in this life I despise the enticements of most alluring pleasure, if I bridle the incitements of lusts, if for chastising my body I withdraw from myself many even lawful and permitted things, if by repenting I torment myself more vehemently than before, if I groan more miserably, if I weep more abundantly, if I live better, if I support the poor more generously, if I burn more ardently with love, which covers a multitude of sins (See 1 Pet 4:8)—who of us is so foolish as to say to this man, These things will profit you nothing hereafter; go, at least enjoy the sweetness of this life? May God avert so monstrous and sacrilegious a madness! Although, then, it has been cautiously and healthfully provided that the place of that most humble repentance be granted once in the Church, lest a cheap medicine should be less useful to the sick, which is the more healthful the less contemptible it has been—yet who would dare to say to God: Why do you still again spare this man, who after the first repentance again binds himself in the snares of iniquity? Who would dare to say that toward these there is not done what the Apostle says: Do you not know that the patience of God leads you to repentance? Or that these are excepted from what is written: Blessed are all who trust in him (Ps 2:12)? Or that to these does not pertain what is said: Act manfully, and let your heart be strengthened, all you who hope in the Lord (Ps 31:24 (30:25))?
Ep100-155.3.73. 8. Cum igitur super peccatores tanta sit patientia, tanta misericordia Dei, ut in hac temporali vita moribus emendatis, non damnentur in aeternum; qui nullius quae sibi praebeatur exspectat misericordiam, quoniam nemo est illo beatior, nemo potentior, nemo iustior: quales non esse oportet homines erga homines, qui hanc vitam nostram quantacumque laude cumulemus, eam sine peccato esse non dicimus? quod si dixerimus, nos ipsos, sicut scriptum est, decipimus, et veritas in nobis non est. Proinde licet accusatoris alia persona sit, alia defensoris, alia intercessoris, alia iudicis, de quorum propriis officiis nimis longum est, et non necessarium hoc sermone disserere; sic tamen etiam ipsos criminum ultores, atque in hoc officio non ira propria concitatos, sed legum ministros, nec suarum, sed alienarum examinatarum iniuriarum vindices, quales iudices esse debent, terruit censura divina, ut cogitarent sibi propter sua peccata Dei misericordiam necessariam, nec putarent ad culpam sui officii pertinere, si quid erga eos misericorditer agerent, quorum vitae necisque haberent legitimam potestatem.
3. 8. Since, then, there is so great patience, so great mercy of God toward sinners, that in this temporal life, their morals being amended, they are not damned eternally—he who awaits the mercy of no one shown to him, since no one is more blessed than he, no one more powerful, no one more just—what sort ought men not to be toward men, we who, however much we heap up this life of ours with praise, do not say it is without sin? And if we say it, we deceive ourselves, as it is written, and the truth is not in us (See 1 Jn 1:8). Accordingly, although the person of the accuser is one, of the defender another, of the intercessor another, of the judge another—of whose proper offices it is too long, and not necessary, to discourse in this discourse—yet the divine censure has so terrified even those very avengers of crimes, who in this office are stirred not by their own anger but are ministers of the laws, and avengers not of their own but of others' examined injuries—what sort of judges they ought to be—that they should reflect that for their own sins the mercy of God is necessary to them, and should not think it pertains to the fault of their office, if they should act mercifully toward those over whose life and death they have lawful power.
Ep100-155.3.84. 9. Nam cum ad Dominum Christum Iudaei adduxissent mulierem in adulterio comprehensam, eumque tentantes dicerent quod iussa esset Lege lapidari, ac deinde quaererent quid de illa ipse praeciperet; respondit eis: Qui sine peccato est vestrum, prior in eam lapidem iaciat. Ita nec Legem improbavit, quae huiusmodi reas iussit occidi; et illos terrendo ad misericordiam revocavit, quorum iudicio haec posset occidi. Puto quod hac sententia Domini audita, si praesens fuit etiam maritus ipse qui violatam sui tori fidem vindicari postulabat, exterritus animum ad voluntatem parcendi ab ulciscendi cupiditate deflexit. Nam quomodo non est admonitus accusator ne suas persequeretur iniurias, quando ipsi iudices ita sunt a vindicando prohibiti, qui in adultera punienda, non privato dolori compellebantur servire, sed Legi? Unde Ioseph, cui virgo Maria, Domini mater, fuerat desponsata, cum eam comperisset esse praegnantem, cui se noverat non esse commixtum, et ob hoc nihil aliud quam adulteram credidisset, puniri tamen eam noluit; nec approbator flagitii fuit Nam haec voluntas eius etiam iustitiae deputatur: ita quippe de illo scriptum est: Et cum esset homo iustus, et nollet eam divulgare, statuit eam occulte dimittere. Haec eo cogitante, apparuit illi angelus qui doceret esse numinis, quod ille putaverat criminis.
4. 9. For when the Jews had brought to the Lord Christ a woman caught in adultery, and, tempting him, said that she had been ordered by the Law to be stoned, and then asked what he himself commanded about her, he answered them: Let him of you who is without sin first cast a stone at her (Jn 8:7). Thus he both did not disapprove the Law, which ordered such accused women to be slain, and by terrifying recalled to mercy those by whose judgment she could be slain. I think that, when this sentence of the Lord was heard, if the husband himself too was present, who demanded that the violated faith of his bed be avenged, terrified, he turned his mind from the desire of avenging to the will of sparing. For how was the accuser not admonished not to pursue his own injuries, when the very judges were so forbidden to avenge, who in punishing the adulteress were compelled to serve not private grief but the Law? Whence Joseph, to whom the virgin Mary, the mother of the Lord, had been betrothed, when he had found her to be pregnant—with whom he knew he had not been joined, and for this had believed her nothing other than an adulteress—yet did not wish her to be punished; nor was he an approver of the disgrace. For this will of his is even reckoned as righteousness: for thus it is written of him: And since he was a just man, and was unwilling to expose her, he resolved to dismiss her secretly (Matt 1:19). While he was thinking these things, an angel appeared to him to teach that it was of God's power what he had thought to be a crime.
Ep100-155.4.94. 10. Si ergo cogitata infirmitate communi, et accusatorius dolor, et iudicatorius rigor frangitur; quod tandem censes pro reis esse debere, vel defensoris vel intercessoris officium? quandoquidem et vos viri boni qui nunc iudices estis, et in foro aliquando versati causas hominum suscepistis, scitis quam libentius defendere quam accusare soleretis. Et tamen defensor ab intercessore plurimum distat: nam ille diluendis vel obtegendis criminibus operam maxime impendit; intercessor autem etiam cum de culpa constat, pro poena removenda vel temperanda curam gerit. Hoc sunt apud Deum pro peccatoribus iusti; hoc pro se ipsi peccantes invicem ut faciant admonentur: nam scriptum est: Confitemini invicem peccata vestra, et orate pro vobis. Has sibi partes humanitatis, ubi potest, omnis homo apud hominem vindicat. Nam quod ipse quisque domi suae puniret admissum, in alterius domo vult impunitum. Sive enim adhibeatur apud amicum, sive ille cuiquam in quem potestas ulciscendi est se praesente succenseat, sive irascenti fortuito superveniat; non iustissimus, sed inhumanissimus iudicatur, si non interveniat. Scio ego te ipsum cum aliis amicis tuis in ecclesia Carthaginensi intercessisse pro clerico, cui merito succensebat episcopus; et utique nullum ibi discrimen sanguinis sub incruenta disciplina timebatur: nec cum id, quod etiam vobis displicebat, inultum esse velletis, tamquam delicti approbatores vos iudicabamus, sed tamquam humanissimos intercessores audiebamus. Si ergo vobis fas est ecclesiasticam correptionem intercedendo mitigare; quomodo episcopus vestro gladio non debet intercedere, cum illa exeratur ut in quem exeritur bene vivat, iste ne vivat!
4. 10. If, then, by reflecting on the common weakness both the accuser's grief and the judge's rigor are broken, what, in the end, do you judge ought to be the office, for the accused, of the defender or of the intercessor? Since you too, good men who are now judges, and once, employed in the forum, took up the causes of men, know how much more gladly you were wont to defend than to accuse. And yet the defender differs greatly from the intercessor: for the one expends his effort chiefly on dissolving or covering crimes; but the intercessor, even when the fault is established, takes care for removing or tempering the punishment. This the righteous are before God for sinners; this they are admonished to do for one another, themselves sinning: for it is written: Confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another (See Jas 5:16). These parts of humanity, where he can, every man claims for himself with a man. For what each would punish, committed in his own house, he wishes unpunished in another's house. For whether he is brought in before a friend, or that one, in whose power vengeance lies, is vexed at someone in his presence, or he chances upon one who is angry, he is judged not most just, but most inhuman, if he does not intervene. I myself know that you, with other friends of yours, in the church of Carthage interceded for a cleric at whom the bishop was deservedly vexed; and surely no peril of blood under that unbloody discipline was feared there: nor, when you wished that what displeased even you should not be unavenged, did we judge you as approvers of the offense, but heard you as most humane intercessors. If, then, it is lawful for you to mitigate ecclesiastical correction by interceding, how should a bishop not intercede with your sword, since that one is drawn that he against whom it is drawn may live well, but this one that he may not live!
Ep100-155.4.104. 11. Postremo ipse Dominus apud homines intercessit, ne lapidaretur adultera, et eo modo nobis intercessionis commendavit officium; nisi quia ille terrendo fecit, quod nos petendo. Ille enim Dominus, nos servi sumus: verumtamen ille sic terruit, ut omnes timere debeamus. Quis enim est nostrum sine peccato? Quod cum illis dixisset a quibus ei offerebatur punienda peccatrix, ut qui sciret se esse sine peccato, prior in illam lapidem mitteret; cecidit saevitia, tremente conscientia: tunc enim ex illa iam congregatione dilapsi, solam misericordi miseram reliquerunt. Cedat huic sententiae pietas Christianorum, cui cessit impietas Iudaeorum: cedat humilitas obsequentium, cui cessit superbia persequentium: cedat confessio fidelis, cui cessit simulatio tentatoris. Malis parce, vir bone: quanto melior, tanto esto mitior; quanto fis celsior potestate, tanto humilior fiere pietate.
4. 11. Finally, the Lord himself interceded with men, that the adulteress might not be stoned, and in that way commended to us the office of intercession; except that he did by terrifying what we do by asking. For he is the Lord, we are servants: nevertheless he so terrified that we all ought to fear. For who of us is without sin? When he had said this to those by whom the sinful woman was offered to him to be punished, that whoever knew himself to be without sin should first cast a stone at her, their savagery fell, their conscience trembling: for then, having slipped away from that assembly, they left the wretched woman alone with the merciful one. Let the piety of Christians yield to this sentence, to which the impiety of the Jews yielded: let the humility of the obedient yield to it, to which the pride of the persecutors yielded: let the confession of the faithful yield to it, to which the dissimulation of the tempter yielded. Spare the evil, good man: the better you are, the gentler be; the higher you rise in power, the humbler become in piety.
Ep100-155.4.115. 12. Ego quidem intuens, mores tuos, appellavi te virum bonum; sed tu intuens verba Christi, dic tibi ipsi: Nemo bonus, nisi unus Deus. Quod cum verum sit (hoc enim Veritas dixit), nec ego tamen illud existimari debeo fallaci assentatione dixisse, et dominicis verbis quasi contrarius exstitisse, ut cum ille dicat: Nemo bonus, nisi unus Deus, ego te appellaverim virum bonum: non enim et ipse Dominus contraria sibi locutus est, ubi ait: Bonus homo de bono thesauro cordis sui profert bona. Deus ergo singulariter bonus est, et hoc amittere non potest; nullius enim boni participatione bonus est, quoniam bonum quo bonus est, ipse sibi est: homo autem cum bonus est, ab illo bonus est; quod a seipso esse non potest. Illius enim spiritu boni fiunt, quicumque boni fiunt; cuius capax creata est nostra natura per propriam voluntatem. Pertinet ergo ad nos, ut boni simus, accipere et habere quod dat qui de suo bonus est: quo quisque neglecto, de suo malus est. Proinde in quantum homo recte agit, id est, scienter et amanter et pie bonum operatur, in tantum bonus est: in quantum autem peccat, id est, a veritate et caritate et pietate deviat, in tantum malus est. Quis autem est in hac vita sine aliquo peccato? Sed eum dicimus bonum, cuius praevalent bona; eumque optimum, qui peccat minimum.
5. 12. I indeed, regarding your morals, have called you a good man; but you, regarding the words of Christ, say to yourself: No one is good but God alone (Mark 10:18). Since this is true (for Truth said it), yet neither ought I to be thought to have said that by deceitful flattery, and to have stood as it were contrary to the Lord's words, so that, while he says, "No one is good but God alone," I have called you a good man: for the Lord himself too did not speak contrary to himself, where he says: A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things (See Luke 6:45). God, then, is singularly good, and this he cannot lose; for he is good by the participation of no good, since the good by which he is good is himself to himself: but a man, when he is good, is good from him; which he cannot be of himself. For by his Spirit they are made good, whoever are made good; of whom our nature was created capable through its own will. It pertains, then, to us, that we be good, to receive and have what he gives who is good of his own; which being neglected, each is evil of his own. Accordingly, in so far as a man acts rightly, that is, knowingly and lovingly and devoutly works good, in so far is he good; but in so far as he sins, that is, deviates from truth and love and piety, in so far is he evil. But who in this life is without any sin? But we call him good whose good things prevail; and him best who sins least.
Ep100-155.5.125. 13. Idcirco ipse Dominus, quos dicit bonos propter participationem gratiae divinae, eosdem etiam malos dicit propter vitia infirmitatis humanae; donec totum quo constamus, ab omni vitiositate sanatum, transeat in eam vitam, ubi nihil omnino peccabitur. Nam utique bonos docebat orare, non malos, quibus praecepit ut dicerent: Pater noster, qui es in coelis. Ex hoc enim boni quo filii Dei, non natura geniti, sed gratia facti, tamquam hi quibus recipientibus eum, dedit potestatem filios Dei fieri. Quae generatio spiritalis, more Scripturarum, etiam adoptio nominatur, ut distinguatur ab illa generatione Dei de Deo, coaeterni de aeterno, unde scriptum est: Generationem eius quis enarrabit? Cum ergo bonos esse demonstraverit, quos voluit Deo veraciter dicere: Pater noster, qui es in coelis; praecepit tamen ut in eadem oratione inter caetera dicerent: Dimitte nobis debita nostra, sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris. Quae debita esse peccata, quamvis manifestum sit, postea tamen manifestius declaravit dicens: Si enim dimiseritis peccata hominibus, dimittet vobis et Pater vester peccata vestra. Hanc orationem baptizati orant, nec est prorsus praeteritorum aliquid peccatorum, quod non baptizatis in sancta Ecclesia dimittatur. Sed postea vivendo in hac fragilitate mortali, nisi contraherent quod dimittendum esset, non veraciter dicerent: Dimitte nobis debita nostra. Boni ergo, in quantum filii Dei sunt; in quantum autem peccant (quod sua non mendaci confessione testantur), utique mali sunt.
5. 13. Therefore the Lord himself calls those whom he calls good on account of the participation of divine grace, the same also evil on account of the vices of human weakness; until the whole of which we consist, healed of all viciousness, passes into that life where nothing at all will be sinned. For surely he was teaching the good to pray, not the evil, when he commanded them to say: Our Father, who are in heaven (Matt 6:9). For from this they are good, by which they are sons of God, not begotten by nature but made by grace, as those to whom, receiving him, he gave the power to become sons of God (See Jn 1:12). Which spiritual generation, in the manner of the Scriptures, is also called adoption, that it may be distinguished from that generation of God from God, of the coeternal from the eternal, whence it is written: His generation who shall declare? (Isa 53:8) Since, then, he has shown those to be good whom he willed truly to say to God, "Our Father, who are in heaven," he yet commanded that in that same prayer, among other things, they say: Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors (Matt 6:12). That these debts are sins, although it is manifest, he yet afterward declared more manifestly, saying: For if you forgive men their sins, your Father also will forgive you your sins (See Matt 6:14). This prayer the baptized pray, nor is there at all any of past sins which is not forgiven to those baptized in the holy Church. But afterward, living in this mortal frailty, unless they contracted what was to be forgiven, they would not truly say: Forgive us our debts. They are good, then, in so far as they are sons of God; but in so far as they sin (which they testify by their unfeigned confession), they are surely evil.
Ep100-155.5.135. 14. Nisi forte quis dicat, alia bonorum, alia malorum esse peccata; quod non usquequaque improbabiliter dicitur. Verumtamen Dominus Iesus sine ulla ambiguitate malos appellavit eosdem ipsos quorum patrem dicebat Deum. Nam in eodem sermone, ubi illam docet orationem, alio loco exhortans ad precandum Deum, ait: Petite, et accipietis; quaerite, et invenietis; pulsate, et aperietur vobis. Omnis enim qui petit, accipit; et qui quaerit, invenit; et pulsanti aperietur: et paulo post: Si ergo vos, inquit, cum sitis mali, nostis bona data dare filiis vestris; quanto magis Pater vester, qui in coelis est, dabit bona petentibus se? Num igitur Deus pater malorum est? Absit. Quomodo ergo dicitur, pater vester coelestis, quibus dicitur, cum sitis mali: nisi quia utrumque Veritas monstrat, quid simus Dei bono, quid humano vitio; hoc commendans, illud emendans? Merito ait Seneca (qui temporibus Apostolorum fuit, cuius etiam quaedam ad Paulum apostolum leguntur epistolae): Omnes odi qui malos odit. Et tamen ideo diligendi sunt mali, ut non sint mali; quemadmodum, non ut permaneant, sed ut sanentur, diliguntur aegroti.
5. 14. Unless perhaps someone should say that the sins of the good are one thing, those of the evil another; which is not said altogether improbably. Nevertheless the Lord Jesus, without any ambiguity, called those same ones evil whose Father he said was God. For in the same sermon where he teaches that prayer, in another place, exhorting to pray to God, he says: Ask, and you will receive; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; and he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks it will be opened (See Matt 7:7-8): and a little after: If, then, you, since you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father, who is in heaven, give good things to those who ask him? (Matt 7:11) Is God, then, the father of the evil? By no means. How, then, is he called "your heavenly Father" to those to whom it is said, "since you are evil," except because Truth shows both—what we are by the good of God, what by human vice; commending the one, amending the other? Rightly does Seneca say (who lived in the times of the Apostles, certain of whose letters to the apostle Paul are even read): "I hate all who hate the evil." And yet the evil are therefore to be loved, that they may not be evil; just as the sick are loved, not that they may remain, but that they may be healed.
Ep100-155.5.145. 15. Quidquid autem post eam quae fit in Baptismo, abolitionem peccatorum, in hac vita manendo peccamus, etiamsi non tale sit quod a divinis removeri compellat altaribus, non dolore sterili, sed misericordiae sacrificiis expiatur. Quod ergo agimus ut faciatis intercedentibus nobis, Deo nos noveritis offerre pro vobis. Indigetis enim misericordia quam praebetis; et videte quis dixerit: Dimittite et dimittetur vobis, date et dabitur vobis. Quamquam etiamsi ita viveremus, ut non esset quare diceremus: Dimitte nobis debita nostra; quanto a nequitia purior animus esset, tanto clementia plenior esse deberet, ut si non compungeremur sententia Domini dicentis: Qui vestrum est sine peccato, prior in illam lapidem iaciat, ipsius qui hoc dixit sectaremur exemplum, qui cum esset utique sine peccato, ait mulieri quam perterriti illi reliquerant: Nec ego te damnabo; vade, iam deinceps noli peccare. Potuit enim metuere flagitiosa mulier ne illis discedentibus, qui sua peccata cogitaverant ut peccato parcerent alieno, illam iustissime iam ipse damnaret qui erat sine peccato. At ille non conscientia pavidus, sed plenus clementia, cum illa respondisset a nemine se fuisse damnatam: Nec ego te, inquit, damnabo: tamquam diceret, Si malitia tibi parcere potuit, quid metuis innocentiam? Et ne delictorum non donator, sed approbator videretur; Vade, ait, iam deinceps noli peccare; ut se homini pepercisse, non hominis culpam sibi placuisse monstraret. Iam vides igitur de religione descendere, nec nos societate criminum obstringi, quod intercedimus plerumque etiam pro sceleratis, etsi non scelerati, tamen pro peccatoribus peccatores, et quod veraciter potius quam iniuriose dictum accipias, puto quod apud peccatores.
5. 15. But whatever we sin, by remaining in this life, after that abolition of sins which is made in Baptism, even if it is not such as to compel removal from the divine altars, is expiated not by barren grief but by sacrifices of mercy. What, then, we do for you, when at our intercession you act, know that we offer to God for you. For you need the mercy which you afford; and see who has said: Forgive, and it will be forgiven you; give, and it will be given you (Luke 6:37-38). Although even if we so lived that there were no reason to say, Forgive us our debts, the purer the soul were from wickedness, the fuller of clemency it ought to be, so that, if we were not pricked by the sentence of the Lord saying, Let him of you who is without sin first cast a stone at her, we should follow the example of him who said this, who, since he was certainly without sin, said to the woman whom those terrified men had left: Neither will I condemn you; go, and from now on do not sin (Jn 8:11). For the disgraceful woman could fear lest, those departing who had reflected on their own sins so as to spare another's sin, he himself, who was without sin, might now most justly condemn her. But he, not fearful in conscience, but full of clemency, when she had answered that she had been condemned by no one, said: Neither will I condemn you: as though he said, If wickedness could spare you, why do you fear innocence? And lest he should seem not a granter, but an approver, of offenses, Go, he says, and from now on do not sin; that he might show that he had spared the man, not that the man's fault had pleased him. Now you see, then, that it descends from religion, and that we are not bound by fellowship of crimes, in that we intercede very often even for the wicked—though not wicked ourselves, yet sinners for sinners; and, as you may take it said truly rather than injuriously, I think, among sinners.
Ep100-155.5.156. 16. Nec ideo sane frustra instituta sunt potestas regis, ius gladii cognitoris, ungulae carnificis, arma militis, disciplina dominantis, severitas etiam boni patris. Habent ista omnia modos suos, causas, rationes, utilitates. Haec cum timentur, et coercentur mali, et quietius inter malos vivunt boni: non quia boni pronuntiandi sunt qui talia metuendo non peccant, non enim bonus est quispiam timore poenae, sed amore iustitiae; verumtamen non inutiliter etiam metu legum humana coercetur audacia, ut et tuta sit inter improbos innocentia, et in ipsis improbis dum formidato supplicio frenatur facultas, invocato Deo sanetur voluntas. Sed huic ordinationi rerum humanarum contrariae non sunt intercessiones episcoporum; imo vero nec causa, nec locus intercedendi ullus esset, si ista non essent. Tanto enim sunt intercedentium et parcentium beneficia gratiora, quanto peccantium iustiora supplicia. Nec ob aliud, quantum sapio, in Veteri Testamento, antiquorum temporibus Prophetarum severior Legis vindicta fervebat, nisi ut ostenderetur recte iniquis poenas constitutas: ut quod eis parcere Novi Testamenti indulgentia commonemur, aut remedium sit salutis, quo peccatis parcatur et nostris; aut commendatio mansuetudinis, ut per eos qui parcunt, veritas praedicata non tantum timeatur, verum etiam diligatur.
6. 16. Nor indeed have the power of the king, the right of the sword of the magistrate, the hooks of the torturer, the arms of the soldier, the discipline of the ruler, even the severity of a good father, been instituted in vain. All these things have their measures, causes, reasons, uses. When these are feared, both the evil are coerced, and the good live more quietly among the evil: not because those are to be pronounced good who do not sin by fearing such things, for no one is good by fear of punishment, but by love of righteousness; nevertheless human boldness is not uselessly coerced even by fear of laws, so that both innocence may be safe among the wicked, and in the wicked themselves, while the faculty is bridled by dreaded punishment, the will, God being called upon, may be healed. But to this ordering of human affairs the intercessions of bishops are not contrary; rather, indeed, there would be neither cause nor place for interceding, if these things were not. For the benefits of those interceding and sparing are the more welcome, the more just the punishments of those sinning. Nor for any other reason, as far as I understand, did the sterner vengeance of the Law burn hot in the Old Testament, in the times of the ancient prophets, except that it might be shown that penalties were rightly appointed for the unjust: so that the fact that we are admonished by the indulgence of the New Testament to spare them may be either a remedy of salvation, by which our sins too are spared; or a commendation of gentleness, so that through those who spare, the truth proclaimed may not only be feared but also loved.
Ep100-155.6.166. 17. Plurimum autem interest quo animo quisque parcat. Sicut enim est aliquando misericordia puniens, ita et crudelitas parcens. Nam, ut exempli gratia manifestum aliquid ponam, quis non crudelem verius dixerit eum qui puero pepercerit volenti obstinatissime de serpentibus ludere? quis autem non misericordem qui talia prohibens, contemptorem verborum etiam verberibus emendaverit? et ideo non usque ad mortem protendenda est disciplina, ut sit cui prodesse possit. Quamquam etiam cum homo ab homine occiditur, multum distet utrum fiat nocendi cupiditate, vel iniuste aliquid auferendi, sicut fit ab inimico, sicut a latrone; an ulciscendi vel obediendi ordine, sicut a iudice, sicut a carnifice; an evadendi vel subveniendi necessitate, sicut interimitur latro a viatore, hostis a milite. Et aliquando qui causa mortis fuit, potius in culpa est, quam ille qui occidit; velut si quisquam decipiat fideiussorem suum, atque ille pro isto supplicium legitimum luat. Nec tamen omnis qui causa alienae mortis est, reus est. Quid si enim quisquam stuprum petat, seseque, si non impetraverit, interimat? quid si filius timens patris pia verbera, praecipitio pereat? quid si alius homine liberato, vel ne alius liberetur, sibi ipse mortem inferat? Num propter istas alienarum mortium causas, aut sceleri consentiendum est, aut vindicta peccati, quae non fit nocendi, sed corrigendi studio, etiam paterna tollenda, aut opera misericordiae cohibenda sunt? Haec cum accidunt, debemus eis humanum dolorem; non propter illa, ne accidant, recte factorum reprimimus voluntatem.
6. 17. But it makes the greatest difference with what intention each one spares. For as there is sometimes a mercy that punishes, so there is also a cruelty that spares. For, to set down something manifest by way of example, who would not more truly call him cruel who spared a boy wishing most obstinately to play with serpents? But who would not call him merciful who, forbidding such things, amended the despiser of his words even with blows? And therefore discipline is not to be extended even to death, that there may be someone whom it can profit. Although even when a man is killed by a man, it makes much difference whether it is done from the desire of harming, or of unjustly taking something away, as is done by an enemy, as by a robber; or in the order of avenging or obeying, as by a judge, as by an executioner; or by the necessity of escaping or aiding, as a robber is slain by a traveler, an enemy by a soldier. And sometimes he who was the cause of death is rather in fault than he who killed; as if someone should deceive his surety, and that one should pay the lawful penalty for him. Nor yet is everyone who is the cause of another's death guilty. For what if someone should seek a defilement, and, if he did not obtain it, should kill himself? What if a son, fearing the devout blows of his father, should perish by a fall? What if another, a man being freed, or lest another be freed, should bring death upon himself? Are we, on account of these causes of others' deaths, either to consent to crime, or to abolish even paternal vengeance of sin—which is done not from the zeal of harming but of correcting—or to restrain works of mercy? When these things happen, we owe them human grief; we do not on account of them, lest they happen, repress the will of right deeds.
Ep100-155.6.176. 18. Sic etiam cum intercedimus pro peccatore damnando, sequuntur aliquando quae nolumus; sive in ipso qui nostra intercessione liberatur, ut vel immanius impunita grassetur audacia, subdita cupiditati, ingrata lenitati, atque unus morti ereptus plurimos necet; vel ipso per beneficium nostrum in melius commutato, moribusque correcto, alius male vivendo pereat, sibique huius impunitate proposita, talia vel graviora committat. Non, ut opinor, haec mala imputanda sunt nobis, cum intercedimus vobis: sed potius illa bona quae, cum id facimus, intuemur et volumus; id est commendatio mansuetudinis ad conciliandam dilectionem verbo veritatis, et ut qui liberantur a temporali morte, sic vivant, ne in aeternam, unde numquam liberentur, incurrant.
6. 18. So too, when we intercede for a sinner who is to be condemned, sometimes things follow that we do not wish; either in the very one who is freed by our intercession, so that, unpunished, boldness ranges more monstrously, subject to desire, ungrateful to gentleness, and one snatched from death slays very many; or, that one being changed for the better by our benefit and corrected in morals, another perishes by living evilly, and, the impunity of this one being set before him, commits like or graver things. These evils, I think, are not to be imputed to us, when we intercede with you: but rather those good things which, when we do this, we regard and will; that is, the commendation of gentleness for winning love by the word of truth, and that those who are freed from temporal death may so live as not to incur eternal death, from which they would never be freed.
Ep100-155.6.186. 19. Prodest ergo et severitas vestra, cuius ministerio quies adiuvatur et nostra; prodest et intercessio nostra, cuius ministerio severitas temperatur et vestra. Non vobis displiceat quod rogamini a bonis; quia nec bonis displicet quod timemini a malis. Nam hominum iniquitatem etiam apostolus Paulus non tantum de iudicio futuro, verum etiam de praesentibus vestris securibus terruit, asserens et ipsas ad dispensationem divinae providentiae pertinere. Omnis, inquit, anima potestatibus sublimioribus subdita sit: non est enim potestas, nisi a Deo; quae autem sunt, a Deo ordinatae sunt. Quapropter qui resistit potestati, Dei ordinationi resistit; qui autem resistunt, ipsi sibi iudicium acquirunt: principes enim non sunt timori boni operis, sed mali. Vis autem non timere potestatem? Bonum fac, et habebis laudem ex illa: Dei enim minister est tibi in bonum. Quod si malum feceris, time; non enim frustra gladium portat: Dei enim minister est, vindex in iram ei qui male agit. Ideoque necessitate subditi estote, non solum propter iram, sed et propter conscientiam. Ideo enim et tributa praestatis: ministri enim Dei sunt, in hoc ipsum perseverantes. Reddite omnibus debita: cui tributum, tributum; cui vectigal, vectigal; cui timorem, timorem; cui honorem, honorem. Nemini quidquam debeatis, nisi ut invicem diligatis. Haec verba Apostoli, utilitatem vestrae severitatis ostendunt. Proinde sicut dilectionem iussi sunt terrentibus debere qui timent, ita dilectionem iussi sunt timentibus debere, qui terrent. Nihil nocendi cupiditate fiat, sed omnia consulendi caritate; et nihil fieret immaniter, nihil inhumaniter. Ita formidabitur ultio cognitoris, ut nec intercessoris religio contemnatur; quia et plectendo et ignoscendo hoc solum bene agitur, ut vita hominum corrigatur. Quod si tanta est perversitas et impietas, ut ei corrigendae nec disciplina possit prodesse, nec venia; a bonis tamen intentione atque conscientia quam Deus cernit, sive severitate, sive lenitate, nonnisi officium dilectionis impletur.
6. 19. Your severity profits, then, by whose ministry our peace too is aided; our intercession profits too, by whose ministry your severity too is tempered. Let it not displease you that you are asked by the good; since neither does it displease the good that you are feared by the evil. For the apostle Paul too terrified the iniquity of men, not only with the judgment to come, but even with your present axes, asserting that these too pertain to the dispensation of divine providence. Let every soul, he says, be subject to the higher powers: for there is no power but from God; and those that are, are ordained by God. Wherefore he who resists the power resists the ordinance of God; and those who resist acquire judgment for themselves: for princes are not a terror to the good work, but to the evil. Do you wish not to fear the power? Do good, and you will have praise from it: for it is God's minister to you for good. But if you do evil, fear; for it bears not the sword in vain: for it is God's minister, an avenger unto wrath to him who does evil. Therefore be subject of necessity, not only because of wrath, but also because of conscience. For this reason you pay tribute too: for they are God's ministers, persevering in this very thing. Render to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute, custom to whom custom, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor. Owe no one anything, except to love one another (Rom 13:1-8). These words of the Apostle show the usefulness of your severity. Accordingly, as those who fear are commanded to owe love to those who terrify, so those who terrify are commanded to owe love to those who fear. Let nothing be done from the desire of harming, but all things from the love of taking counsel; and nothing would be done monstrously, nothing inhumanly. Thus the vengeance of the magistrate will be dreaded, in such a way that the religion of the intercessor too is not despised; because both by punishing and by pardoning this alone is done well, that the life of men may be corrected. But if there is such perversity and impiety that neither discipline nor pardon can profit to correct it, yet by the good, in the intention and conscience which God discerns, whether by severity or by gentleness, nothing but the office of love is fulfilled.
Ep100-155.6.196. 20. Quod autem in epistola tua sequitur, ubi dicis: Verum nunc, ut mores nostri sunt, et sceleris poenam cupiunt sibi homines relaxari, et id propter quod scelus admissum est possidere; pessimum hominum genus commemoras, cui poenitendi medicina omnino non prodest. Si enim res aliena, propter quam peccatum est, cum reddi possit, non redditur, non agitur poenitentia, sed fingitur: si autem veraciter agitur, non remittetur peccatum, nisi restituatur ablatum; sed, ut dixi, cum restitui potest. Plerumque enim qui aufert, amittit; sive alios patiendo malos, sive ipse male vivendo, nec aliud habet unde restituat. Huic certe non possumus dicere, Redde quod abstulisti, nisi cum eum habere credimus et negare. Ubi quidem si aliquos sustinet a repetente cruciatus, dum existimatur habere quod reddat, nulla est iniquitas; quia etsi non est unde luat ablatam pecuniam, merito tamen dum eam per molestias corporales redhibere compellitur, peccati quo male ablata est, poenas luit. Sed inhumanum non est etiam pro talibus intercedere, tamquam pro reis criminum; non ad hoc ut minime restituantur aliena, sed ne frustra homo in hominem saeviat, ille praesertim qui iam remisit culpam, sed quaerit pecuniam, et si fraudari metuit, non expetit vindicari. Denique in talibus causis, si persuadere potuerimus eos pro quibus intervenimus, non habere quod poscitur, continuo nobis eorum molestiae relaxantur. Aliquando autem misericordes et in ipso dubio nolunt homini pro incerta pecunia certa inferre supplicia. Ad hanc misericordiam vos etiam nos provocare et exhortari decet: melius enim, etiamsi habet, amittis, quam si non habet, aut excrucias, aut occidis. Sed pro istis magis apud eos qui repetunt, quam apud eos qui iudicant, intercedere convenit; ne ipse videatur auferre, qui cum habeat potestatem, non cogit reddere: quamvis in cogendo ita debeat adhibere integritatem, ut ne amittat humanitatem.
6. 20. But as for what follows in your letter, where you say: But now, as our morals are, men both desire the punishment of their crime to be relaxed for them, and to possess that on account of which the crime was committed—you mention the worst kind of men, to whom the medicine of repenting is of no profit at all. For if another's property, on account of which the sin was committed, when it can be returned, is not returned, repentance is not done, but feigned: but if it is truly done, the sin will not be remitted unless what was taken is restored; but, as I said, when it can be restored. For very often he who takes loses it, either by suffering other evil men, or by living evilly himself, and has nothing else from which to restore. To this man, certainly, we cannot say, Return what you took, except when we believe that he has it and denies it. Where indeed, if he endures some torments from the one demanding, while he is supposed to have what he may return, there is no injustice; because even if there is nothing from which to pay the money taken, yet deservedly, while he is compelled to render it through bodily troubles, he pays the penalties of the sin by which it was evilly taken. But it is not inhuman to intercede even for such, as for the accused of crimes; not to this end that another's property not be restored, but that a man may not rage in vain against a man—especially that one who has already remitted the fault, but seeks the money, and, if he fears to be cheated, does not seek to be avenged. Finally, in such cases, if we can persuade them that those for whom we intervene do not have what is demanded, their troubles are at once relaxed for us. But sometimes the merciful, even in that very doubt, are unwilling to inflict certain punishments on a man for uncertain money. To this mercy it is fitting that we too provoke and exhort you: for it is better, even if he has it, to lose it, than, if he does not have it, either to torment or to kill him. But for these it is fitting to intercede rather with those who demand than with those who judge; lest he himself seem to take away who, though he has the power, does not compel restitution: although in compelling he ought so to employ integrity that he not lose humanity.
Ep100-155.6.206. 21. Illud vero fidentissime dixerim, eum qui pro homine ad hoc intervenit ne male ablata restituat, et qui ad se confugientem, quantum honeste potest, ad restituendum non compellit, socium esse fraudis et criminis. Nam misericordius opem nostram talibus subtrahimus, quam impendimus: non enim opem fert qui ad peccandum adiuvat, ac non potius subvertit atque opprimit. Sed numquid ideo nos aut exigere, aut ad exigendum tradere, vel possumus vel debemus? Agimus quantum episcopalis facultas datur, et humanum quidem nonnumquam, sed maxime ac semper divinum iudicium comminantes. Nolentes autem reddere, quos novimus et male abstulisse et unde reddant habere, arguimus, increpamus, et detestamur; quosdam clam, quosdam palam, sicut diversitas personarum diversam videtur posse recipere medicinam, nec in aliorum perniciem ad maiorem insaniam concitari. Aliquando etiam, si res magis curanda non impedit, sancti altaris communione privamus.
6. 21. But this I would say most confidently, that he who intervenes for a man to this end, that he may not restore what was evilly taken, and who does not compel one fleeing to him, as far as he honorably can, to restore, is a partner of the fraud and the crime. For we more mercifully withdraw our help from such than we expend it: for he does not bring help who aids to sinning, and does not rather subvert and oppress. But are we therefore able or bound either to exact, or to hand over for exacting? We act as far as the episcopal faculty is given, threatening sometimes indeed human, but most of all and always divine, judgment. But those unwilling to restore, whom we know both to have taken evilly and to have whence to restore, we reprove, rebuke, and detest; some secretly, some openly, as the diversity of persons seems able to receive a diverse medicine, and so as not to be stirred to greater madness unto the ruin of others. Sometimes too, if a matter more to be cared for does not hinder, we deprive them of the communion of the holy altar.
Ep100-155.6.216. 22. Verum saepe accidit ut nos fallant, vel negando se abstulisse, vel affirmando se unde restituant non habere: saepe etiam et vos fallimini, putando vel nos non agere ut reddant, vel ipsos habere unde reddant; et omnes aut pene omnes homines amamus nostras suspiciones vel vocare vel existimare cognitiones, quando credibilibus rerum signis movemur, cum credibilia nonnulla sint falsa, sicut incredibilia nonnulla sint vera. Ideo quosdam commemorans, qui et sceleris poenam sibi cupiunt relaxari, et id propter quod scelus admissum est possidere, addidisti et aisti: Pro his quoque interveniendum putat sacerdotium vestrum. Fieri enim potest ut tu scias quod ego nescio, et propterea putem pro aliquo interveniendum, quod me fallere potuit, cum te non potuerit, ut ego eum non credam possidere quod tu possidere nosti. Ita fit ut cum de reo sententia non una sit nostra, neutri tamen nostrum placeat quod res non redditur aliena. De homine, ut homines, diversa sentimus; sed in ipsa iustitia simul sumus. Eodem modo etiam fieri potest ut quod scio aliquem non habere, hoc eum tu habere non certissime teneas, sed credibiliter suspiceris; et ob hoc tibi videar intervenire pro eo qui et sceleris poenam sibi cupiat relaxari, et id propter quod scelus admissum est possidere. Ad summam igitur neque apud te, neque apud tales, si qui reperiuntur qualem te esse gaudemus, neque apud ipsos qui magno studio aliena ac nihil profutura, multumque etiam periculosa ac perniciosa petunt, neque apud cor meum cui testis est Deus, ausim dicere, sentire, decernere, interveniendum esse pro aliquo, ut quod scelere abstulit, sceleris impunitate possideat: sed ut remissa iniuria, quod iniuriose abstulit reddat; si tamen habet quod abstulit, vel aliud unde illud restituat.
6. 22. But it often happens that they deceive us, either by denying that they took, or by affirming that they have nothing from which to restore: often too you too are deceived, supposing either that we do not act so that they restore, or that they have whence to restore; and all, or almost all, men love to call or esteem our suspicions knowledge, when we are moved by credible signs of things, since some credible things are false, just as some incredible things are true. Therefore, mentioning certain ones who both desire the punishment of their crime to be relaxed for them, and to possess that on account of which the crime was committed, you added and said: For these too your priesthood thinks it must intervene. For it can happen that you know what I do not know, and therefore I think it must be intervened for someone who could deceive me, though he could not deceive you, so that I do not believe him to possess what you know he possesses. Thus it comes about that, although our view about the accused is not one, yet it pleases neither of us that another's property is not returned. About the man, as men, we are of diverse views; but in righteousness itself we are together. In the same way too it can happen that what I know someone does not have, you hold him to have, not most certainly, but credibly suspect; and on this account I seem to you to intervene for one who both desires the punishment of his crime to be relaxed for him, and to possess that on account of which the crime was committed. In sum, then, neither with you, nor with such men, if any are found such as we rejoice you to be, nor with those very ones who with great zeal seek others' goods that will profit nothing, and are moreover much perilous and ruinous, nor with my own heart, to which God is witness, would I dare to say, to feel, to decide, that it must be intervened for anyone so that he may possess by the impunity of crime what he took by crime: but that, the injury being remitted, he may restore what he injuriously took; if, however, he has what he took, or something else from which to restore it.
Ep100-155.6.226. 23. Non sane quidquid ab invito sumitur, iniuriose aufertur. Nam plerique nec medico volunt reddere honorem suum, nec operario mercedem; nec tamen haec qui ab invito accipiunt, per iniuriam accipiunt, quae potius per iniuriam non darentur. Sed non ideo debet iudex vendere iustum iudicium, aut testis verum testimonium, quia vendit advocatus iustum patrocinium et iurisperitus verum consilium: illi enim inter utramque partem ad examen adhibentur; isti ex una parte consistunt. Cum autem iudicia et testimonia, quae nec iusta et vera vendenda sunt, iniqua et falsa venduntur, multo sceleratius utique pecunia sumitur, quia scelerate etiam quamvis a volentibus datur. Ille tamen solet tamquam male sibi ablatam pecuniam repetere, qui iustum iudicium emit, quoniam venale esse non debuit: qui vero pro iniquo iudicio dedit, vellet quidem repetere, nisi timeret vel puderet emisse.
6. 23. Not indeed is whatever is taken from an unwilling person taken injuriously. For very many are unwilling to render the physician his fee, or the laborer his wage; nor yet do those who receive these from an unwilling person receive them through injury—things which would rather not be given through injury. But the judge ought not therefore to sell a just judgment, or the witness a true testimony, because the advocate sells just patronage and the jurist true counsel: for those are employed between both parties for the examination; these stand on one side. But when judgments and testimonies, which, even when just and true, are not to be sold, are sold unjust and false, money is surely taken much more wickedly, because it is wickedly given even by the willing. Yet he is wont to demand back the money as evilly taken from him who buys a just judgment, since it ought not to have been venal; but he who gave it for an unjust judgment would indeed wish to demand it back, were he not afraid or ashamed to have bought it.
Ep100-155.6.236. 24. Sunt aliae personae inferioris loci, quae ab utraque parte non insolenter accipiunt, sicut officialis, et a quo admovetur, et cui admovetur officium: ab his extorta per immoderatam improbitatem, repeti solent; data per tolerabilem consuetudinem, non solent: magisque reprehendimus, qui talia inusitate repetiverunt, quam qui ea de more sumpserunt; quoniam multae necessariae personae rebus humanis, vel invitantur huiusmodi commodis, vel tenentur. Isti si viam vitae mutaverint, aut excellentioris conscenderint sanctitatis gradum, facilius ea quae hoc modo acquisierunt, tamquam sua pauperibus largiuntur, quam eis a quibus accepta sunt, tamquam aliena restituunt. Qui vero contra ius societatis humanae, furtis, rapinis, calumniis, oppressionibus, invasionibus abstulerit, reddenda potius quam donanda censemus: Zachaei publicani evangelico exemplo, qui cum hospitio Dominum suscepisset, in vitam sanctam repente mutatus: Dimidium, inquit, rerum mearum do pauperibus, et si cui aliquid abstuli, quadruplum reddo.
6. 24. There are other persons of lower rank, who not unusually receive from both parties, like the officer, both from him who applies and to whom the office is applied: things extorted from these by immoderate wickedness are wont to be demanded back; things given by tolerable custom are not wont to be; and we reproach more those who have demanded back such things in an unusual way than those who took them by custom; since many persons necessary to human affairs are either invited by gains of this kind, or held by them. These, if they have changed the way of life, or ascended to a more excellent degree of sanctity, more easily bestow on the poor, as their own, the things they acquired in this way, than restore them, as another's, to those from whom they received them. But he who, against the right of human society, by thefts, robberies, calumnies, oppressions, invasions, has taken away, we judge them to be returned rather than given away: by the evangelical example of Zacchaeus the publican, who, when he had received the Lord into his lodging, suddenly changed unto a holy life, said: Half of my goods I give to the poor, and if I have taken anything from anyone, I restore it fourfold (Luke 19:8).
Ep100-155.6.246. 25. Verumtamen si iustitia sincerius consulatur, iustius dicitur advocato, Redde quod accepisti, quando contra veritatem stetisti, iniquitati adfuisti, iudicem fefellisti, iustam causam oppressisti, de falsitate vicisti (quod vides multos honestissimos et disertissimos viros, non solum impune, verum etiam gloriose videri sibi committere); quam cuiquam in quolibet officio militanti, Redde quod accepisti, quando iubente iudice cuicumque causae necessarium hominem tenuisti, ne resisteret vinxisti, ne fugeret inclusisti, postremo aut permanente lite exhibuisti, aut finita dimisisti. Sed illud cur advocato non dicatur in promptu est, quia scilicet ita non vult homo repetere quod patrono, ut male vinceret, dedit; sicut non vult reddere quod ab adversario, cum male vicisset, accepit. Quis tandem advocatus, aut ex advocato ita vir optimus facile reperitur, qui suscepto suo dicat: Recipe quod mihi, cum tibi male adessem, dedisti; et redde adversario tuo quod, me agente, inique abstulisti? Et tamen quem prioris non rectae vitae rectissime poenitet, etiam hoc facere debet, ut si ille qui inique litigavit, non vult admonitus corrigere iniquitatem, eius tamen iniquitatis nolit iste habere mercedem: nisi forte restituendum est alienum, quod per furtum clanculo aufertur, et restituendum non est quod in ipso foro ubi peccata puniuntur, decepto iudice, et circumventis legibus obtinetur! Quid dicam de usuris, quas etiam ipsae leges et iudices reddi iubent? An crudelior est qui subtrahit aliquid vel eripit diviti, quam qui trucidat pauperem fenore? Haec atque huiusmodi male utique possidentur, et vellem restituerentur; sed non est quo iudice repetantur.
6. 25. Nevertheless, if righteousness is more sincerely consulted, it is more justly said to an advocate, Return what you received, when you stood against the truth, were present to iniquity, deceived the judge, oppressed a just cause, prevailed by falsehood (which you see many most honorable and most eloquent men think they commit not only with impunity but even gloriously), than to anyone serving in any office, Return what you received, when, the judge ordering it, you held a man necessary to any cause, bound him lest he resist, shut him up lest he flee, finally either produced him while the suit lasted, or dismissed him when it was ended. But why it is not said to the advocate is at hand: namely, because a man is so unwilling to demand back what he gave to his patron in order to win wrongly, as he is unwilling to return what he received from his adversary when he had won wrongly. What advocate, in the end, or what man, from being an advocate, becomes so excellent that he is easily found, who would say to his client: Take back what you gave me, when I was supporting you wrongly; and return to your adversary what, by my action, you injuriously took away? And yet he who most rightly repents of his former not-right life ought to do even this: that if he who litigated unjustly will not, when admonished, correct the injustice, yet he himself should be unwilling to have the wage of that injustice—unless perhaps another's property which is secretly taken away by theft is to be restored, and that is not to be restored which, in the very forum where sins are punished, is obtained by deceiving the judge and circumventing the laws! What shall I say of usuries, which even the laws and judges themselves order to be returned? Or is he crueler who withdraws or snatches something from a rich man, than he who butchers a poor man by interest? These and such things are surely possessed evilly, and I would wish them to be restored; but there is no judge before whom they may be demanded back.
Ep100-155.6.256. 26. Iam ero si prudenter intueamur quod scriptum est: Fidelis hominis totus mundus divitiarum est, infidelis autem nec obolus; nonne omnes qui sibi videntur gaudere licite conquisitis, eisque uti nesciunt, aliena possidere convincimus? Hoc enim certe alienum non est, quod iure possidetur; hoc autem iure quod iuste. et hoc iuste quod bene. Omne igitur quod male possidetur, alienum est; male autem possidet, qui male utitur. Cernis ergo quam multi debeant reddere aliena, si vel pauci quibus reddantur, reperiantur: qui tamen ubi sunt, tanto magis ista contemnunt, quanto ea iustius possidere potuerunt. Iustitiam quippe, et nemo male habet, et qui non dilexerit non habet. Pecunia vero, et a malis male habetur, et a bonis tanto melius habetur, quanto minus amatur. Sed inter haec toleratur iniquitas male habentium, et quaedam inter eos iura constituuntur, quae appellantur civilia; non quod hinc fiat ut bene utentes sint, sed ut male utentes minus molesti sint: donec fideles et pii, quorum iure sunt omnia, qui vel ex illis fiunt, vel inter illos tantisper viventes malis eorum non obstringuntur, sed exercentur, perveniant ad illam civitatem, ubi haereditas aeternitas est; ubi non habet nisi iustus locum, nonnisi sapiens principatum, ubi possidebunt quicumque ibi erunt, vere sua. Sed tamen etiam hic non intercedimus ut secundum mores legesque terrenas non restituantur aliena: quamvis placabiles vos velimus malis, non ut placeant vel permaneant mali, sed quia ex illis fiunt quicumque fiunt boni, et sacrificio misericordiae placatur Deus, quem nisi propitium haberent mali, nulli essent boni. Diu est quod occupationibus tuis loquendo videor onerosus, cum tibi homini acuto et docto cito solvi potuerit quod quaerebas. Iamdudum autem finire deberem, si te tantum scirem fuisse lecturum quod flagitasti ut rescriberem. Felix in Christo vivas, fili carissime.
6. 26. Now, then, if we prudently regard what is written: The whole world of riches belongs to the faithful man, but to the unfaithful not even a penny (See Prov 17:6 (LXX)), do we not convict all who seem to themselves to rejoice in things lawfully acquired, and know not how to use them, of possessing another's? For surely that is not another's which is possessed by right; and that by right which justly; and that justly which well. Everything, then, that is possessed evilly is another's; but he possesses evilly who uses evilly. You see, then, how many ought to restore another's property, if even a few could be found to whom it might be restored: who, however, where they are, despise these things the more, the more justly they could have possessed them. For righteousness, no one has evilly, and he who does not love it does not have it. But money is both had evilly by the evil, and had so much the better by the good, the less it is loved. But among these things the iniquity of those who have evilly is tolerated, and certain rights are established among them, which are called civil; not that hence it comes about that they are good users, but that the evil users may be less troublesome: until the faithful and devout, to whom all things belong by right, who either are made from among them, or, living for a while among them, are not bound by their evils but exercised by them, arrive at that city where the inheritance is eternity; where none but the just has place, none but the wise has rule, where whoever shall be there shall possess things truly their own. But yet even here we do not intercede that another's property not be restored according to earthly morals and laws: although we wish you placable toward the evil, not that the evil may please or remain, but because from among them are made whoever are made good, and by the sacrifice of mercy God is appeased, whom unless the evil had propitious, none would be good. It is now long that I seem, by speaking, burdensome to your occupations, since to you, an acute and learned man, what you sought could quickly have been resolved. But I ought long ago to have finished, if I knew that you only were going to read what you demanded that I write back. Live happy in Christ, dearest son.
Ep100-155.6.26EPISTOLA 154
DOMINO MERITO VENERABILI ET VERE SUSPICIENDO PATRI AUGUSTINO EPISCOPO, MACEDONIUS.
DOMINO MERITO VENERABILI ET VERE SUSPICIENDO PATRI AUGUSTINO EPISCOPO, MACEDONIUS.
LETTER 154
TO MY LORD, DESERVEDLY VENERABLE AND TRULY TO BE LOOKED UP TO, FATHER BISHOP AUGUSTINE, FROM MACEDONIUS.
Ep100-155.6.26TO MY LORD, DESERVEDLY VENERABLE AND TRULY TO BE LOOKED UP TO, FATHER BISHOP AUGUSTINE, FROM MACEDONIUS.
1. Miro modo afficior sapientia tua, et in illis quae edidisti, et in his quae interveniens pro sceleratis mittere non gravaris. Nam et illa tantum habent acuminis, scientiae, sanctitatis, ut nihil supra sit: et haec tantum verecundiae, ut nisi faciam quod mandas, culpam penes me remanere, non in negotio esse diiudicem, domine merito venerabilis, et vere suspiciende pater. Non enim instas (quod plerique homines istius loci faciunt) ut quodcumque sollicitus volueris, extorqueas; sed quod tibi a iudice tot curis obstricto petibile visum fuerit, admones subserviente verecundia, quae maxima difficilium inter bonos efficacia est. Proinde statim commendatis effectum desiderii tribui: nam sperandi viam ante patefeceram.
1. I am affected in a marvelous way by your wisdom, both in those things which you have published, and in these which, interceding for the wicked, you do not find it burdensome to send. For the former have so much acumen, knowledge, sanctity, that there is nothing above it; and these have so much modesty that, unless I do what you bid, I judge the fault remains with me, not in the matter, my deservedly venerable and truly to be looked up to father. For you do not press (as very many men of this rank do) to extort whatever, solicitous, you wish; but what seemed to you askable from a judge bound by so many cares, you admonish with a serving modesty, which is the greatest efficacy in difficult matters among the good. Accordingly, I at once granted the effect of his desire to those commended: for I had already opened beforehand the way of hoping.
Ep100-155.12. Explicui tuos libros; neque enim tam languidi aut inertes erant, ut me aliud quam se curare paterentur: iniecerunt manum, ereptumque aliis sollicitudinum causis, suis vinculis illigarunt (ita enim mihi Deus propitius sit), ut ego anceps sim quid in illis magis mirer, sacerdotii perfectionem, philosophiae dogmata, historiae plenam notitiam, an facundiae iucunditatem, quae ita imperitos etiam illicere potest, ut donec explicent non desistant, et cum explicaverint, adhuc requirant. Convicti namque sunt impudenter pertinaces, iam inde a bonis quae memorant saeculis, pro naturae rerum obscuritate contigisse peiora, falsosque omnes illitis quadam dulcedine felicitatibus suis, per quas non ad beatitudinem, sed ad praerupta sunt ducti: haec vero nostra praecepta, et simplicis verique Dei mysteria, praeter vitam perpetuam quam purissimis virtutibus pollicentur, etiam haec saecularia et necessario qui nati sumus eventura mitigare. Et usus es validissimo exemplo recentis calamitatis, quo licet firmissime causam muniveris, tamen si utrumvis licuisset, id tibi nolueram suffragari. Sed quando orta inde fuerat convincendorum stultitiae querela, necesse fuit inde argumenta veritatis accersere.
2. I have unrolled your books; for they were not so listless or inert as to allow me to care for anything other than themselves: they laid a hand on me, and, snatching me from other causes of solicitude, bound me with their chains (so may God be gracious to me) in such a way that I am undecided what in them I more admire—the perfection of the priesthood, the dogmas of philosophy, the full knowledge of history, or the pleasantness of eloquence, which can so entice even the unskilled that they do not desist until they have unrolled them, and when they have unrolled them, still ask for more. For the shamelessly obstinate are convicted of error: that, already from the good ages which they recall onward, worse times have befallen by the obscurity of the nature of things, and that all are deceived by their felicities daubed with a certain sweetness, through which they have been led not to blessedness but to precipices. But these our precepts, and the mysteries of the simple and true God, besides the perpetual life which they promise to the purest virtues, mitigate even these worldly things, which must of necessity befall us who are born. And you used a most powerful example of a recent calamity, by which, although you have most firmly fortified your case, yet, if either had been permitted, I would have wished it not to support you. But since a complaint had arisen from those whose folly was to be convicted, it was necessary thence to fetch the arguments of truth.
Ep100-155.23. Haec interim occupatus aliis curis, quae etsi vanae sunt, cum rerum exitum cogitamus, tamen quasi necessariae pro nascendi conditione, rescripsi Si otium fuerit et superstes vita, etiam de Italia rescribam, ut tantae doctrinae opus debitis, etsi non satisfacientibus, remuneretur officiis. Incolumem laetamque Sanctitatem tuam Deus omnipotens aevo largissimo tueatur, domine merito desiderabilis, et vere suspiciende pater.
3. These things, meanwhile, occupied with other cares—which, even if they are vain, when we consider the outcome of things, yet are as it were necessary by the condition of being born—I have written back. If there shall be leisure and surviving life, I will write back also concerning Italy, that the work of so great learning may be requited by due, even if not satisfying, services. May almighty God keep your Holiness safe and glad for a most ample age, my deservedly desirable and truly to be looked up to father.
Ep100-155.3EPISTOLA 155
AUGUSTINUS EPISCOPUS, FAMULUS CHRISTI FAMILIAEQUE EIUS, DILECTO FILIO MACEDONIO, IN DOMINO SALUTEM.
AUGUSTINUS EPISCOPUS, FAMULUS CHRISTI FAMILIAEQUE EIUS, DILECTO FILIO MACEDONIO, IN DOMINO SALUTEM.
LETTER 155
AUGUSTINE, BISHOP, SERVANT OF CHRIST AND OF HIS FAMILY, TO HIS BELOVED SON MACEDONIUS, GREETINGS IN THE LORD.
Ep100-155.3AUGUSTINE, BISHOP, SERVANT OF CHRIST AND OF HIS FAMILY, TO HIS BELOVED SON MACEDONIUS, GREETINGS IN THE LORD.
1. 1. Quamvis sapientiam quam mihi tribuis, in me non agnoscam, tantae tamen erga me benevolentiae tuae tamque sincerae gratias ago debeoque plurimas; et meorum studiorum labores tali ac tanto viro placuisse delector: multo vero amplius, quod animum tuum caritate aeternitatis et veritatis, atque ipsius caritatis affectum divinae illi coelestique reipublicae, cuius regnator est Christus, et in qua sola semper beateque vivendum est, si recte hic pieque vivatur, agnosco inhiantem, video propinquantem, eiusque potiundae amplector ardentem. Inde quippe manat etiam vera amicitia, non pensanda temporalibus commodis, sed gratuito amore putanda. Nemo enim potest veraciter amicus esse hominis, nisi fuerit ipsius primitus veritatis: quod si gratis non fiat, nullo fieri pacto potest.
1. 1. Although I do not recognize in myself the wisdom you attribute to me, yet for your so great and so sincere benevolence toward me I give, and owe, very great thanks; and I am delighted that the labors of my studies have pleased so great a man: but much more, that I recognize your mind panting after the love of eternity and truth, and the affection of that very love after that divine and heavenly commonwealth, of which Christ is the ruler, and in which alone one must live always and blessedly, if here one lives rightly and devoutly; I see it drawing near, and I embrace it burning to possess that commonwealth. For from there flows even true friendship, not to be weighed by temporal advantages, but to be valued by gratuitous love. For no one can be truly a friend of a man unless he is first a friend of truth itself: which, if it is not done freely, can be done by no means.
Ep100-155.1.11. 2. De qua re etiam philosophi multa dixerunt; sed apud eos vera pietas, id est verax veri Dei cultus, unde omnia recte vivendi duci oportet officia, non invenitur: non ob aliud, quantum intellego, nisi quia beatam vitam ipsi sibi quodammodo fabricare voluerunt, potiusque patrandam quam impetrandam putaverunt; cum eius dator non sit nisi Deus. Neque enim facit beatum hominem, nisi qui fecit hominem. Nam qui tanta creaturae suae bona bonis malisque largitur, ut sint, ut homines sint, ut vigentes sensibus, valentes viribus, affluentes opibus sint; seipsum bonis dabit ut beati sint, quia eius etiam hoc munus est ut boni sint. Illi vero qui in hac aerumnosa vita, in his moribundis membris, sub hac sarcina corruptibilis carnis, auctores suae beatae vitae et quasi conditores esse voluerunt, velut propriis eam virtutibus appetentes, iamque retinentes, non ab illo fonte virtutum petentes atque sperantes, Deum superbiae suae resistentem sentire minime potuerunt. Unde in errorem absurdissimum lapsi sunt; ut cum asseverant etiam in Phalaridis tauro beatum esse sapientem, cogantur fateri vitam beatam aliquando esse fugiendam. Exaggeratis enim malis corporis cedunt, atque in eorum molestiis gravissimis abscedendum ex hac vita esse decernunt. Ubi nolo dicere quantum sit nefas seipsum hominem occidere insontem, cum omnino non debeat vel nocentem; unde in primo libro trium illorum, quos benignissime et studiosissime perlegisti, multa iam diximus. Sed certe consideretur, nec superbe sed sobrie iudicetur quomodo vita beata sit, qua non sapiens retenta fruitur, sed illatis sibi manibus carere compellitur.
1. 2. Concerning this matter the philosophers too have said many things; but among them true piety, that is, the true worship of the true God, from which all the duties of living rightly ought to be drawn, is not found: for no other reason, as far as I understand, except that they wished in a certain way to fashion the blessed life for themselves, and thought it rather to be achieved than to be obtained; whereas the giver of it is none but God. For he does not make a man blessed except he who made man. For he who bestows on the good and evil so great goods of his creature—that they exist, that they are men, that they are vigorous in senses, strong in powers, abounding in resources—will give himself to the good, that they may be blessed, since it is also his gift that they be good. But those who, in this toilsome life, in these dying members, under this burden of corruptible flesh, wished to be the authors and as it were founders of their own blessed life, seeking it as if by their own virtues, and already retaining it, not seeking and hoping it from that fountain of virtues, could in no way feel God resisting their pride. Whence they fell into a most absurd error, so that, while they assert that the wise man is blessed even in the bull of Phalaris, they are compelled to confess that the blessed life is sometimes to be fled. For, exaggerating the evils of the body, they yield, and in their gravest troubles decide that one must depart from this life. Here I will not say how great a wickedness it is for a man to kill himself, innocent, when he ought by no means to kill even a guilty man; whence in the first book of those three which you most kindly and most studiously read through, we have already said many things. But surely let it be considered, and judged not proudly but soberly, how that is a blessed life which the wise man does not retain and enjoy, but is compelled to be without by laying hands on himself.
Ep100-155.1.21. 3. Est apud Ciceronem, in extrema, ut scis, parte quinti Tusculanarum libri locus, propter quod dico animadvertendus. Cum enim de caecitate corporis ageret, atque affirmaret etiam caecum beatum esse posse sapientem, multa dixit quae per aures percipiendo gauderet. Itemque si surdus esset, ea quibus oblectaretur ad oculos transtulit. Si autem utroque sensu orbaretur, et caecus surdusque fieret, non est ausus hinc ferre sententiam, eumque beatum dicere. Sed addidit etiam dolores gravissimos corporis, qui eum si non interemerint, ipse se interimat, et ad portum non sentiendi hac liberatus virtute perveniat. Cedit igitur sapiens immanissimis cladibus atque succumbit, in tantum ut eis cogatur et in seipsum homicidium perpetrare. Cui iam parcat ut illis careat malis, qui sibi ipse non parcit? Certe semper beatus est, certe beatam vitam in sua potestate constitutam, nulla vi potest ullius calamitatis amittere. Ecce in caecitate et surditate et atrocissimis cruciatibus corporis, aut amisit beatam vitam; aut si et in istis afflictionibus adhuc beata est, fit per huiuscemodi doctissimorum hominum disputationes, ut sit aliquando beata vita quam sapiens ferre non possit; vel, quod est absurdus, quam sapiens ferre non debeat, eamque fugiat, abrumpat, abiciat, seseque ab ea ferro etiam, seu veneno, vel alia voluntaria morte subducat; ut in portu non sentiendi vel nullus omnino sit, quod Epicurei, et si qui alii simili stultitia, putaverunt; vel ideo beatus, quoniam fuerit ab illa beata vita, tamquam ab aliqua peste liberatus. O nimium superba iactantia! Si beata vita est in cruciatibus corporis, cur non in ea manet sapiens ut fruatur? si autem misera est, quid, obsecro te, nisi typhus impedit ne fateatur, ne oret Deum, ne iusto et misericordi supplicet, qui potens est et vitae huius mala vel avertere vel mitigare, vel ad ea toleranda fortitudine armare, vel ab eis omni modo liberare, et post haec vere beatam vitam dare, quo nullum malum admittatur, et ubi summum bonum numquam amittatur?
1. 3. There is in Cicero, as you know, in the last part of the fifth book of the Tusculans, a passage to be noted on account of what I am saying. For when he was treating of the blindness of the body, and affirming that the wise man can be blessed even when blind, he said many things which he would rejoice to perceive by the ears. And likewise, if he were deaf, he transferred to the eyes the things in which he would take delight. But if he were deprived of both senses, and became blind and deaf, he did not dare to pass sentence here and call him blessed. But he added also the gravest pains of the body, which, if they do not destroy him, he will destroy himself, and, freed by this "virtue," arrive at the harbor of not feeling. The wise man, then, yields to the most monstrous disasters and succumbs, so far that he is compelled by them even to perpetrate homicide upon himself. Whom now shall he spare, that he may be without those evils, who does not spare himself? Surely he is always blessed; surely the blessed life, set in his own power, he can lose by no force of any calamity. Behold, in blindness and deafness and the most atrocious torments of the body, he either lost the blessed life; or, if even in these afflictions it is still blessed, it comes about, through the disputations of such most learned men, that there is sometimes a blessed life which the wise man cannot bear; or, what is more absurd, which the wise man ought not to bear, and which he flees, breaks off, casts away, and withdraws himself from even by the sword, or by poison, or by some other voluntary death; so that in the harbor of not feeling there is either nothing at all, which the Epicureans, and any others of like folly, supposed; or he is therefore blessed because he has been freed from that blessed life as from some plague. O too proud boasting! If the blessed life is in the torments of the body, why does the wise man not remain in it to enjoy it? But if it is wretched, what, I beseech you, but pride hinders him from confessing it, from praying to God, from supplicating the just and merciful one, who is able both to avert or mitigate the evils of this life, or to arm with fortitude for bearing them, or to free from them in every way, and after these to give the truly blessed life, where no evil is admitted, and where the supreme good is never lost?
Ep100-155.1.31. 4. Hoc piorum praemium est, cuius adipiscendi spe vitam istam temporalem atque mortalem, non tam delectabiliter quam tolerabiliter ducimus, et mala eius tunc bono consilio et divino munere fortiter ferimus, cum bonorum aeternorum fideli Dei promissione et fideli nostra exspectatione gaudemus. Ad hoc nos exhortatus apostolus Paulus ait: Spe gaudentes, in tribulatione patientes: ostendit enim quare in tribulatione patientes, praemittendo, spe gaudentes. Ad hanc spem exhortor per Iesum Christum Dominum nostrum. Hoc enim Deus ipse magister, latente maiestate divinitatis, et carnis infirmitate apparente, non solum sermonis oraculo docuit, verum etiam suae passionis et resurrectionis exemplo roboravit. In altera enim qualia tolerare, in altera qualia debeamus sperare monstravit. Cuius et illi gratiam mererentur, nisi elati inflatique superbia, inaniter conarentur istam vitam beatam ipsi sibi facere, quod solus Deus veraciter cultoribus suis, post hanc vitam se largiturum esse promisit. Sanior quippe est eiusdem Ciceronis illa sententia, ubi ait: Nam haec vita quidem mors est, quam lamentari possem, si liberet. Quomodo ergo si recte lamentatur, beata comprobatur; ac non potius quoniam recte lamentatur, misera esse convincitur? Quare assuesce, obsecro te, vir bone, beatus esse interim spe, ut sis etiam re, cum pietati perseverantissimae retribuetur merces felicitatis aeternae.
1. 4. This is the reward of the devout, in the hope of attaining which we lead this temporal and mortal life not so much delightfully as tolerably, and then bear its evils bravely, by good counsel and divine gift, when we rejoice in the faithful promise of God of eternal goods and in our own faithful expectation. Exhorting us to this, the apostle Paul says: Rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation (Rom 12:12): for he shows why we are patient in tribulation, by premising, "rejoicing in hope." To this hope I exhort you through Jesus Christ our Lord. For this God himself, the master—the majesty of his divinity lying hidden, and the weakness of his flesh appearing—not only taught by the oracle of his word, but also strengthened by the example of his passion and resurrection. For in the one he showed what sort of things we should bear, in the other what sort we should hope for. Whose grace those men too would merit, were they not, lifted up and puffed up with pride, vainly trying to make this blessed life for themselves, which God alone has truly promised to bestow on his worshippers after this life. For sounder is that view of the same Cicero, where he says: For this life indeed is death, which I could lament, if it pleased me. How, then, if it is rightly lamented, is it proved blessed; and not rather, since it is rightly lamented, convicted of being wretched? Wherefore accustom yourself, I beseech you, good man, to be blessed meanwhile in hope, that you may be so also in fact, when to most persevering piety shall be requited the reward of eternal felicity.
Ep100-155.1.42. 5. Si prolixa epistola onerosus sum, tute hoc intristi tibi, qui me sapientem appellasti. Hinc enim ausus sum haec ad te loqui, ut tibi sapientiam, non qualis mihi sit, ostentarem, sed qualis esse debeat ostenderem. Haec est autem in praesenti saeculo verus veri Dei cultus, ut sit eius in futuro saeculo certus atque integer fructus. Hic constantissima pietas, ibi sempiterna felicitas. Ex ista sapientia, quae una vera est, si quid habeo, a Deo sumpsi, non a me praesumpsi; atque ab illo in me perfici fideliter spero, a quo inchoatum esse humiliter gaudeo; nec in eo quod adhuc non donavit incredulus, nec in eo quod iam donavit ingratus. Non enim meo vel ingenio vel merito, sed eius dono sum, si quid laudabiliter sum. Nam quaedam acutissima et excellentissima ingenia tanto in maiores errores ierunt, quanto praefidentius tamquam suis viribus cucurrerunt, nec suppliciter ac veraciter Deum, ut sibi viam ostenderet, petiverunt. Merita vero quorumlibet hominum quae sunt; quandoquidem ille, qui non cum mercede debita, sed cum gratuita gratia venit, omnes peccatores solus a peccatis liber atque liberator invenit?
2. 5. If by a long letter I am burdensome, you yourself brewed this for yourself, who called me wise. For from this I dared to speak these things to you, that I might display to you wisdom—not such as I have, but show such as it ought to be. But this, in the present age, is the true worship of the true God, that in the age to come there may be of it a sure and entire fruit. Here most constant piety, there everlasting felicity. Of this wisdom, which alone is true, if I have anything, I took it from God, I did not presume it of myself; and I faithfully hope it to be perfected in me by him, by whom I humbly rejoice it to have been begun; neither, in that which he has not yet granted, unbelieving, nor, in that which he has already granted, ungrateful. For not by my own talent or merit, but by his gift am I, if I am anything praiseworthy. For certain most acute and most excellent talents went into the greater errors, the more presumptuously they ran as if by their own powers, and did not suppliantly and truly ask God to show them the way. But what are the merits of any men whatever, since he who came, not with due wage, but with gratuitous grace, alone, free from sins and the liberator from sins, found all sinners?
Ep100-155.2.52. 6. Si ergo nos virtus vera delectat, ei dicamus, quod in eius sacris Litteris legimus: Diligam te, Domine, virtus mea: et si vere beati esse volumus (quod nolle non possumus), id quod in eisdem Litteris didicimus, fido corde teneamus: Beatus vir cuius est nomen Domini spes eius, et non respexit in vanitates et insanias mendaces. Quanta est autem vanitas, quanta insania, quantumque mendacium, hominem mortalem, aerumnosam vitam mutabili et spiritu et carne ducentem, tot peccatis oneratum, tot tentationibus subditum, tot corruptionibus obnoxium, poenisque iustissimis destinatum, in seipso fidere ut beatus sit, quando ne illud quidem, quod habet in naturae suae dignitate praecipuum, id est mentem atque rationem, potest vindicare ab erroribus, nisi Deus adsit lux mentium! abiciamus itaque, obsecro te, falsorum philosophorum vanitates et insanias mendaces: quia nec virtus nobis erit, nisi adsit ipse quo iuvemur; nec beatitudo, nisi adsit ipse quo fruamur, et totum mutabile atque corruptibile nostrum, quod per seipsum imbecillum et quaedam materies miseriarum est, dono immortalitatis atque incorruptionis absorbeat.
2. 6. If, then, true virtue delights us, let us say to him what we read in his sacred Scriptures: I will love you, O Lord, my virtue (Ps 18:1 (17:2)): and if we wish to be truly blessed (which we cannot not wish), let us hold with faithful heart what we have learned in those same Scriptures: Blessed is the man whose hope is the name of the Lord, and who has not regarded vanities and lying follies (Ps 40:4 (39:5)). But how great a vanity, how great a madness, and how great a lie it is, for a mortal man, leading a toilsome life with changeable spirit and flesh, laden with so many sins, subject to so many temptations, liable to so many corruptions, and destined to most just punishments, to trust in himself that he may be blessed—when not even that which he has as the chief thing in the dignity of his nature, that is, mind and reason, can he vindicate from errors, unless God, the light of minds, be present! Let us cast away, then, I beseech you, the vanities and lying follies of the false philosophers: because neither will there be virtue for us, unless he himself be present by whom we are aided; nor blessedness, unless he himself be present whom we may enjoy, and may absorb all our changeable and corruptible nature—which through itself is feeble and a certain material of miseries—by the gift of immortality and incorruption.
Ep100-155.2.62. 7. Quoniam vero te reipublicae scimus amatorem, non aliunde esse beatum hominem, aliunde civitatem, vide quam sit in illis sacris Litteris clarum. Nam quidam in eis sancto Spiritu plenus haec loquitur orans: Exime me de manu filiorum alienorum, quorum os locutum est vanitatem, et dextera eorum dextera iniquitatis. Quorum filii velut novellae constabilitae in iuventute sua. Filiae eorum compositae, et ornatae sicut similitudo templi. Cellaria eorum plena, eructantia ex hoc in hoc. Oves eorum fecundae, multiplicantes in exitibus suis; boves eorum crassae. Non est ruina maceriae, neque transitus, neque clamor in plateis eorum. Beatum dixerunt populum cui haec sunt: beatus populus cuius Dominus Deus ipsius.
2. 7. But since we know you to be a lover of the commonwealth, see how clear it is in those sacred Scriptures that a man is not blessed from one source, a city from another. For a certain one in them, full of the Holy Spirit, speaks these things, praying: Deliver me from the hand of the sons of strangers, whose mouth has spoken vanity, and their right hand is the right hand of iniquity. Whose sons are like new plants established in their youth. Their daughters arrayed and adorned like the likeness of a temple. Their storehouses full, overflowing from this into this. Their sheep fruitful, multiplying in their goings forth; their oxen fat. There is no breach of wall, nor passage, nor outcry in their streets. They have called the people blessed that has these things: blessed is the people whose God is the Lord himself (Ps 144:11-15 (143:11-15)).
Ep100-155.2.72. 8. Vides exaggeratione terrenae felicitatis beatum populum non dici, nisi a filiis alienis, id est non pertinentibus ad regenerationem qua efficimur filii Dei: a quorum manu iste se eximi precatur, ne ab eis in hanc opinionem atque in peccata impia pertrahatur Loquendo quippe vanitatem, beatum dixerunt populum cui haec sunt quae supra commemoravit, quibus ea felicitas constat quam solam dilectores huius mundi inquirunt. Et ideo dextera eorum, dextera iniquitatis, quia haec praeposuerunt quae fuerant postponenda, sicut sinistrae praeponitur dextera. Si enim habentur, non in eis beata vita ponenda est: subdita esse debent non praedita; sequentia, non ducentia. Huic autem qui sic orabat, et a filiis alienis qui beatum dixerunt populum cui haec sunt, eximi discernique cupiebat, tamquam diceremus, Ipse quid sentis? quem beatum populum dicis? non ait: Beatus populus, cuius est virtus animi eius. Quod si dixisset, discrevisset quidem etiam istum populum ab illo qui beatam vitam in ista visibili et corporali felicitate constituit; sed nondum transcendisset omnes vanitates et insanias mendaces: Maledictus enim omnis, sicut alibi eaedem Litterae docent, qui spem suam ponit in homine; ergo nec in seipso quisquam debet, quia et ipse homo est. Proinde ut transiret omnium vanitatum et insaniarum mendacium limites, atque ibi beatam vitam poneret, ubi vere est: Beatus, inquit, populus, cuius Dominus Deus ipsius.
2. 8. You see that, by the exaggeration of earthly felicity, the people is not called blessed except by the sons of strangers, that is, those not pertaining to the regeneration by which we are made sons of God: from whose hand this man prays to be delivered, lest by them he be dragged into this opinion and into impious sins. For by speaking vanity, they called the people blessed that has those things which he mentioned above, in which consists that felicity which the lovers of this world alone seek. And therefore their right hand is the right hand of iniquity, because they set before what should have been set after, just as the right hand is set before the left. For if they are had, the blessed life is not to be placed in them: they ought to be subject, not preeminent; following, not leading. But to this man who prayed thus, and desired to be delivered and distinguished from the sons of strangers who called the people blessed that has these things, as though we should say, You yourself, what do you think? what people do you call blessed?—he did not say: Blessed is the people whose is the virtue of its mind. For if he had said this, he would indeed have distinguished this people too from that which places the blessed life in this visible and bodily felicity; but he would not yet have transcended all vanities and lying follies: for cursed, as the same Scriptures teach elsewhere, is everyone who places his hope in man (See Jer 17:5); therefore neither ought anyone to do so in himself, because he too is a man. Accordingly, that he might pass beyond the bounds of the lie of all vanities and follies, and there place the blessed life where it truly is, Blessed, he said, is the people whose God is the Lord himself (Ps 144:15 (143:15)).
Ep100-155.2.83. 9. Cernis igitur unde petendum sit quod omnes docti indoctique desiderant, et multi errando ac superbiendo, unde petatur et ubi accipiatur ignorant. Utrique autem in quodam divino psalmo simul reprehenduntur, et qui confidunt in virtute sua, et qui in abundantia divitiarum suarum gloriantur; id est, et philosophi huius saeculi, et abhorrentes vel a tali philosophia, beatumque dicentes populum cui suppetit terrena opulentia. Ac per hoc a Domino Deo nostro a quo facti sumus, et virtutem petamus qua huius vitae mala superemus, et beatam vitam qua post istam vitam in eius aeternitate perfruamur, ut et in virtute et in praemio virtutis, sicut Apostolus dicit, qui gloriatur, in Domino glorietur. Hoc nobis velimus, hoc civitati cuius cives sumus: non enim aliunde beata civitas, aliunde homo; cum aliud civitas non sit, quam concors hominum multitudo.
3. 9. You discern, then, whence must be sought what all, learned and unlearned, desire, and which many, by erring and being proud, are ignorant whence it is sought and where it is received. But both are reproached together in a certain divine psalm, both those who trust in their own virtue, and those who glory in the abundance of their riches (See Ps 49:6 (48:7)); that is, both the philosophers of this age, and those who abhor such philosophy and call the people blessed to whom earthly opulence is at hand. And through this, from the Lord our God, by whom we were made, let us seek both the virtue by which we may overcome the evils of this life, and the blessed life by which, after this life, we may fully enjoy in his eternity; so that both in virtue and in the reward of virtue, as the Apostle says, he who glories may glory in the Lord (1 Cor 1:31). This let us wish for ourselves, this for the city of which we are citizens: for a city is not blessed from one source, a man from another; since a city is nothing other than a harmonious multitude of men.
Ep100-155.3.93. 10. Itaque si omnis prudentia tua, qua consulere conaris rebus humanis; si omnis fortitudo, qua nullius iniquitate adversante terreris; si omnis temperantia, qua in tanta labe nequissimae consuetudinis hominum te a corruptionibus abstines; si omnis iustitia, qua recte iudicando sua cuique distribuis, id laborat, id nititur, ut hi quibus vis ut bene sit, salvi sint corpore, et ab omni cuiusquam improbitate tuti atque pacati, habeant filios sicut novellas constabilitas, filias ornatas sicut similitudinem templi, cellaria plena eructantia ex hoc in hoc, fecundas oves, crassas boves, nec maceriae ruina deformet praedium, nec litigantium clamor personet in plateis eorum; ita non erunt verae virtutes tuae, sicut nec istorum beatitudo. Hic enim ad verum dicendum illa mea verecundia, quam in tua epistola benigno sermone laudasti, me impedire non debet. Si quaelibet, inquam, administratio tua, illis quas commemoravi instructa virtutibus, hoc intentionis fine determinatur, ut homines secundum carnem nullas iniquas molestias patiantur; nec ad te existimas pertinere, quo istam quietem, quam praestare niteris, referant, id est (ut verbis non ambiam) quomodo Deum verum, ubi est quietae vitae omnis fructus, colant, nihil tibi prodest ad vitam vere beatam tantus labor.
3. 10. And so, if all your prudence, by which you try to take counsel for human affairs; if all your fortitude, by which you are terrified by the iniquity of no adversary; if all your temperance, by which, amid so great a ruin of the most wicked custom of men, you abstain from corruptions; if all your justice, by which, judging rightly, you distribute to each his own—labors and strives for this, that those for whom you wish it to be well may be safe in body, and, secure and at peace from all wickedness of anyone, may have sons like new plants established, daughters adorned like the likeness of a temple, storehouses full overflowing from this into this, fruitful sheep, fat oxen, and that no breach of wall deform the estate, nor the outcry of litigants resound in their streets—then your virtues will not be true, just as neither is the blessedness of those people. For here, to say the truth, that modesty of mine which in your letter you praised with kindly speech ought not to hinder me. If, I say, any administration of yours, equipped with the virtues I have mentioned, is determined by this end of intention, that men according to the flesh may suffer no unjust troubles; and you do not think it pertains to you to what they refer this quiet which you strive to afford—that is (not to be roundabout in words) how they may worship the true God, where is all the fruit of a quiet life—so great a labor profits you nothing for the truly blessed life.
Ep100-155.3.103. 11. Inverecundius hoc dicere videor, et oblitus quodammodo consuetudinem intercessionum mearum. Sed si nihil est verecundia, nisi quidam displicendi metus, ego in hac causa metuendo non vereor. Metuo enim ne primum Deo, deinde ipsi amicitiae quam mecum inire dignatus es, iure displiceam, si minus liber in admonendo fuero, quod me admonere saluberrime existimo. Sim certe verecundior, cum tibi pro aliis intercedo: cum vero pro teipso, tanto liberior quanto amicior; quia tanto amicior quanto fidelior: quamquam haec ipsa non dicerem, nisi verecundius agerem. Quae si "maxima est, ut ipse scripsisti, difficilium inter bonos efficacia"; adiuvet me pro te apud te, ut in illo te fruar, qui mihi hanc ad te ianuam fiduciamque praestitit: praesertim quia id quod suggero, iam facile arbitror esse animo tuo tot divinis muneribus adminiculato et instructo.
3. 11. I seem to say this rather immodestly, and as it were forgetful of the custom of my intercessions. But if modesty is nothing other than a certain fear of displeasing, in this cause, by fearing, I am not modest. For I fear lest, first to God, then to that very friendship which you deigned to enter with me, I justly displease, if I should be less free in admonishing what I judge most healthful to admonish you. Let me be more modest when I intercede with you for others; but when for yourself, the freer the more friendly; because the more friendly the more faithful: although these very things I would not say, were I not acting more modestly. Which, if it is "the greatest efficacy in difficult matters among the good," as you yourself wrote, let it aid me, for you with you, that I may enjoy you in him who afforded me this door and confidence toward you: especially since what I suggest I judge to be now easy for your mind, supported and equipped by so many divine gifts.
Ep100-155.3.113. 12. Si enim virtutes quas accepisti, a quo acceperis sentiens, eique gratias agens, eas ad ipsius cultum etiam in tuis istis saecularibus honoribus conferas, tuaeque potestati subditos homines ad eum colendum exemplo tuae religiosae vitae, et ipso studio consulendi, seu fovendo seu terrendo erigas et adducas, nihilque aliud in eo quod per te securius vivunt, velis, nisi ut hinc illum promereantur, apud quem beate vivent; et verae illae virtutes erunt, et illius opitulatione, cuius largitate donatae sunt, ita crescent et perficientur, ut te ad vitam vere beatam, quae non nisi aeterna est, sine ulla dubitatione perducant: ubi iam nec prudenter discernantur a bonis mala, quae non erunt; nec fortiter tolerentur adversa, quia non ibi erit nisi quod amemus, non etiam quod toleremus; nec temperanter libido frenetur, ubi nulla eius incitamenta sentiemus; nec iuste subveniatur ope indigentibus, ubi inopem atque indigum non habebimus. Una ibi virtus erit, et idipsum erit virtus praemiumque virtutis, quod dicit in sanctis eloquiis homo qui hoc amat: Mihi autem adhaerere Deo bonum est. Haec ibi erit plena et sempiterna sapientia, eademque veraciter vita iam beata: perventio quippe est ad aeternum ac summum bonum, cui adhaerere in aeternum est finis nostri boni. Dicatur haec et prudentia, quia prospectissime adhaerebit bono quod non amittatur; et fortitudo, quia firmissime adhaerebit bono unde non avellatur; et temperantia, quia castissime adhaerebit bono ubi non corrumpatur; et iustitia, quia rectissime adhaerebit bono cui merito subiciatur.
3. 12. For if the virtues which you have received—perceiving from whom you received them, and giving thanks to him—you confer upon his worship even in these worldly honors of yours, and rouse and lead the men subject to your power to worship him by the example of your religious life, and by the very zeal of taking counsel, whether by fostering or by terrifying, and wish nothing else in this, that through you they live more securely, than that hence they may merit him with whom they will live blessedly: then those virtues will both be true, and, by the aid of him by whose bounty they were granted, will so grow and be perfected that they will lead you, without any doubt, to the truly blessed life, which is none but eternal: where now neither are evils prudently distinguished from goods, which will not be; nor are adversities bravely borne, because there will be nothing but what we love, not also what we bear; nor is lust temperately bridled, where we shall feel no incitements of it; nor is help justly given to the needy, where we shall have no one poor and needy. There will be one virtue there, and the same will be virtue and the reward of virtue, which the man who loves this says in the sacred utterances: But for me it is good to cleave to God (Ps 73:28 (72:28)). This there will be the full and everlasting wisdom, and the same truly the life now blessed: for it is the arrival at the eternal and supreme good, to cleave to which forever is the end of our good. Let this be called also prudence, because most foresightedly it will cleave to the good which is not lost; and fortitude, because most firmly it will cleave to the good from which it is not torn away; and temperance, because most chastely it will cleave to the good where it is not corrupted; and justice, because most rightly it will cleave to the good to which it is deservedly subject.
Ep100-155.3.124. 13. Quamquam et in hac vita virtus non est, nisi diligere quod diligendum est: id eligere, prudentia est: nullis inde averti molestiis, fortitudo est; nullis illecebris, temperantia est: nulla superbia, iustitia est. Quid autem eligamus quod praecipue diligamus, nisi quo nihil melius invenimus? Hoc Deus est, cui si diligendo aliquid vel praeponimus, vel aequamus, nos ipsos diligere nescimus. Tanto enim nobis melius est, quanto magis in illum imus, quo nihil melius est. Imus autem non ambulando, sed amando. Quem tanto habebimus praesentiorem, quanto eumdem amorem quo in eum tendimus, potuerimus habere puriorem: nec enim locis corporalibus vel extenditur, vel includitur. Ad eum ergo qui ubique praesens est et ubique totus, non pedibus ire licet, sed moribus. Mores autem nostri, non ex eo quod quisque novit, sed ex eo quod diligit, diiudicari solent: nec faciunt bonos vel malos mores, nisi boni vel mali amores. Pravitate ergo nostra, a rectitudine Dei longe sumus: unde rectum amando corrigimur, ut recto recti adhaerere possimus.
4. 13. Although even in this life virtue is nothing other than to love what ought to be loved: to choose this is prudence; to be turned away from it by no troubles is fortitude; by no enticements, temperance; by no pride, justice. But what should we choose to love above all, except that than which we find nothing better? This is God, to whom if, by loving, we either prefer or equal anything, we know not how to love ourselves. For it is so much the better for us, the more we go to him than whom nothing is better. But we go not by walking, but by loving. Whom we shall have the more present, the purer we are able to have that same love by which we tend toward him: for he is neither extended nor enclosed by bodily places. To him, then, who is everywhere present and everywhere whole, it is permitted to go, not by feet, but by morals. But our morals are wont to be judged, not from what each one knows, but from what he loves: nor do good or evil morals make us, except good or evil loves. By our crookedness, then, we are far from the rightness of God: whence, by loving the right, we are corrected, that by the right we may be able to cleave to the right.
Ep100-155.4.134. 14. Ad illum ergo quanta opera possumus, etiam illi ut perveniant agamus, quos tamquam nosmetipsos diligimus, si nosmetipsos diligere, illum diligendo iam novimus. Christus namque, id est Veritas, dicit in his duobus praeceptis totam legem Prophetasque pendere, ut diligamus Deum ex toto corde, ex tota anima, ex tota mente, et diligamus proximos tamquam nosmetipsos. Proximus sane hoc loco, non sanguinis propinquitate, sed rationis societate pensandus est, in qua socii sunt omnes homines. Nam si pecuniae ratio socios facit, quanto magis ratio naturae, non negotiandi, sed nascendi lege communis! Hinc et ille comicus (sicut luculentis ingeniis non defit resplendentia veritatis), cum ab uno sene alteri seni dictum componeret:
Homo sum, humani nil a me alienum puto.
Cui sententiae ferunt etiam theatra tota, plena stultis indoctisque, applausisse. Ita quippe omnium affectum naturaliter attigit societas humanorum animorum, ut nullus ibi hominum nisi cuiuslibet hominis proximum se esse sentiret.
Homo sum, humani nil a me alienum puto.
Cui sententiae ferunt etiam theatra tota, plena stultis indoctisque, applausisse. Ita quippe omnium affectum naturaliter attigit societas humanorum animorum, ut nullus ibi hominum nisi cuiuslibet hominis proximum se esse sentiret.
4. 14. To him, then, with as great effort as we can, let us also act that they may arrive whom we love as ourselves, if we now know how to love ourselves by loving him. For Christ, that is, the Truth, says that on these two precepts the whole Law and the Prophets hang: that we love God with the whole heart, with the whole soul, with the whole mind, and love our neighbors as ourselves (See Matt 22:37-40). The neighbor here, indeed, is to be weighed not by the nearness of blood, but by the fellowship of reason, in which all men are partners. For if the reasoning of money makes partners, how much more the reasoning of nature, common by the law not of trading but of being born! Hence that comic poet too (for, as to brilliant talents the splendor of truth is not lacking), when he composed the saying spoken by one old man to another:
I am a man; I count nothing human alien to me.
To which sentence they relate that even whole theaters, full of the foolish and unlearned, applauded. For so naturally does the fellowship of human minds touch the feeling of all, that no man there but felt himself the neighbor of any man whatever.
Ep100-155.4.14I am a man; I count nothing human alien to me.
To which sentence they relate that even whole theaters, full of the foolish and unlearned, applauded. For so naturally does the fellowship of human minds touch the feeling of all, that no man there but felt himself the neighbor of any man whatever.
4. 15. Cum ergo illa dilectione quam divina lex imperat, debeat homo diligere Deum, et seipsum, et proximum; non tamen ex hoc tria praecepta data sunt, nec dictum est, In his tribus, sed: In his duobus praeceptis tota Lex pendet et Prophetae, id est in dilectione Dei ex toto corde, ex tota anima, et ex tota mente, et proximi tamquam sui ipsius: videlicet ut intellegeretur nullam esse aliam dilectionem qua quisque diligit seipsum, nisi quod diligit Deum. Qui enim aliter se diligit, potius se odisse dicendus est: fit quippe iniquus, privaturque luce iustitiae, cum a potiore ac praestantiore bono aversus, atque inde vel ad seipsum conversus, ad inferiora et egena utique convertitur; fitque in ipso quod veracissime scriptum est: Qui autem amat iniquitatem, odit animam suam. Quia igitur nemo, nisi Deum diligendo, diligit seipsum; non opus erat ut dato de Dei dilectione praecepto, etiam seipsum homo diligere iuberetur, cum in eo diligat seipsum, quod diligit Deum. Debet ergo et proximum diligere tamquam seipsum, ut quem potuerit hominem vel beneficentiae consolatione, vel informatione doctrinae, vel disciplinae coercitione adducat ad colendum Deum; sciens in his duobus praeceptis totam Legem Prophetasque pendere.
4. 15. Since, then, with that love which the divine law commands, a man ought to love God, and himself, and his neighbor; yet not on this account were three precepts given, nor was it said, On these three, but: On these two precepts hang the whole Law and the Prophets (See Matt 22:40), that is, on the love of God with the whole heart, with the whole soul, and with the whole mind, and of the neighbor as oneself: namely, that it might be understood that there is no other love by which each one loves himself, except that he loves God. For he who loves himself otherwise is rather to be said to hate himself: for he becomes unjust, and is deprived of the light of righteousness, when, turned away from the higher and more excellent good, and thence turned either to himself, he is surely turned to lower and needy things; and there comes to be in him what is most truly written: But he who loves iniquity hates his own soul (Ps 11:5 (10:6)). Since, then, no one loves himself except by loving God, there was no need that, the precept being given about the love of God, a man should also be commanded to love himself, since in that he loves himself, in which he loves God. He ought, then, to love his neighbor also as himself, so that whatever man he can, he may lead, whether by the consolation of beneficence, or by the information of teaching, or by the coercion of discipline, to worship God; knowing that on these two precepts hang the whole Law and the Prophets.
Ep100-155.4.154. 16. Hoc qui sobria discretione eligit, prudens est: qui nulla hinc afflictione avertitur, fortis est; qui nulla alia delectatione, temperans est; qui nulla elatione, iustus est. His virtutibus divinitus impertitis, per gratiam mediatoris Dei cum Patre, et nobiscum hominis Iesu Christi, per quem post inimicitias iniquitatis reconciliamur Deo in Spiritu caritatis: his, inquam, virtutibus divinitus impertitis, et bona vita nunc agitur, et postea praemium eius, quae nisi aeterna esse non potest, beata vita persolvitur. Hic enim sunt eaedem virtutes in actu, ibi in effectu; hic in opere, ibi in mercede; hic in officio, ibi in fine. Itaque omnes boni et sancti, etiam in tormentis quibuslibet divino fulti adiutorio, spe illius finis beati vocantur, quo fine beati erunt: nam si in eisdem tormentis et atrocissimis doloribus semper essent, cum quibuslibet virtutibus eos esse miseros nulla sana ratio dubitaret.
4. 16. He who chooses this with sober discernment is prudent; he who is turned away from it by no affliction is brave; he who by no other delight, is temperate; he who by no elation, is just. By these virtues divinely imparted—through the grace of the mediator of God with the Father, and of the man Jesus Christ with us, through whom, after the enmities of iniquity, we are reconciled to God in the Spirit of love—by these virtues, I say, divinely imparted, both a good life is now led, and afterward its reward, which can be none but eternal, the blessed life, is paid in full. For here these same virtues are in act, there in effect; here in work, there in wage; here in office, there in the end. And so all the good and holy, even in any torments whatever, supported by divine help, are called by the hope of that blessed end, by which end they will be blessed: for if they were always in those same torments and most atrocious pains, no sound reason would doubt that, with whatever virtues, they were wretched.
Ep100-155.4.164. 17. Pietas igitur, id est verus veri Dei cultus ad omnia prodest; et quae molestias huius vitae avertat aut leniat, et quae ad illam vitam salutemque perducat, ubi nec aliquid iam mali patiamur, et bona summo sempiternoque perfruamur. Ad hanc te perfectius assequendam et perseverantissime retinendam exhortor ut meipsum: cuius nisi iam particeps esses, tuosque istos honores temporales ei servire oportere iudicares, non Donatistis haereticis, ad eos in unitatem Christi pacemque redigendos, per edictum diceres: "Pro vobis hoc agitur; pro vobis sacerdotes incorruptae fidei, pro vobis Imperator Augustus, pro vobis nos quoque eius iudices laboramus"; et alia multa quae in eodem edicto ita posuisti, ut te appareat in terreni iudicis cingulo, non parva ex parte coelestem rempublicam cogitare. Quare si de veris virtutibus et vere beata vita volui diutius loqui tecum, quaeso ne onerosus deputer tuis occupationibus: imo vero me non esse confido, quando tu adeo magnum animum et mirabiliter laudandum geris, ut nec illas curas deseras, et his libentius ac familiarius occuperis.
4. 17. Piety, then, that is, the true worship of the true God, profits unto all things; both that which averts or eases the troubles of this life, and that which leads to that life and salvation where we shall now suffer nothing of evil, and shall fully enjoy goods supreme and everlasting. To attain this more perfectly and retain it most perseveringly I exhort you as myself: of which, were you not already a partaker, and did you not judge that these temporal honors of yours ought to serve it, you would not say to the Donatist heretics, in order to reduce them to the unity and peace of Christ, by an edict: "For your sake this is done; for your sake priests of uncorrupted faith, for your sake the Emperor Augustus, for your sake we too, his judges, labor"; and many other things which you so set down in that same edict, that it appears that you, in the belt of an earthly judge, in no small part have the heavenly commonwealth in mind. Wherefore, if I have wished to speak with you at greater length about true virtues and the truly blessed life, I ask not to be reckoned burdensome to your occupations: rather indeed I trust that I am not, since you bear so great a mind, and one wonderfully to be praised, that you neither desert those cares, and are the more gladly and familiarly occupied with these.
Ep100-155.4.17